Iris looked at the scar at her wrist as she lightly caressed in remembrance.

"This ape that made you so angry...Fifer? How did you know him?" the man asked.

Iris brought her eyes up to look at the man then brought them to look to the side as she huffed deeply.

"Fifer was a follower of Pope...he held into me as...Pope killed Moon right in front of me..." she said emotionlessly as a lone tear fell down her check.

Ape village, 3 years ago

Iris's face and hair was damp with sweat, the wolf's blood that splattered on her skin had been washed off but she still had it on her clothes which meant she would have to get some new ones.

She held her her head in her hand with her knee up against her check as she looked at the ground replaying today's events in her head in a state of shock. She heard a grunt for her attention causing her to look up to see Blue Eyes looking at her with worry and to Tinker the Oba who she had talked to earlier that day who was now putting on some sort of moss on the wound she got from the wolf right after she finished cleaning it while the other Obas tended to the wounded in the village. She remembered the Prince helped rush her over to the healing hut while Maurice led the childern away to a safe place, She winced at little in pain from the tending to her arm from the female making Tinker sign in apologies, she could also see the young male had been staring at her now visable scars with horror and questions and she had a good geuss it was mostly for the ones on her neck and her collarbone, she even caught the female looking at them a few times.

"Is it true?" he asked.

"It what true?..." she asked quietly.

"That Pope hurt you?..." he signed to her grimly.

This made Tinker stop what she was doing and look at the Prince in shock and then back to the young woman to see if she confirms it. Iris looked taken back for a second but then closed her eyes and sighed deeply, she had no doubt that Luca had told him and and highly likely his father which meant that he was going to confront her about as soon as her found her and she was going to dread it. She ran her hand through her hair which was starting to sticking to her face with her free hand and then reopened her eyes to look at her nephew.

"What do you know about him?..." she asked him queitly.

Tinker started to feel tense as she wrapped animal skin arround the moss on her arm, Blue looked at the female ape and then back to the young woman he was very young when the incident with Pope happen so he didn't know that much only from the stories heard.

"Only that he was a traitor who was cruel and killed apes and wanted to over throw father" he signed plainly.

" That isn't the whole story...he was much much worse then Koba..." she told him plainly.

Blue Eyes started to tense up at this so did Tinker.

"Pope thought your father was weak and didn't deserve to be you ruler and this was long before the humans discovered the apes in the woods...he was very brutal and very evil...even to his own kind... He pushed them none stop and punished failure horriblely...there were these primative apes...apes that hadn't gain intelligence like your parents and the adults here...he didn't considered them apes...so..he wanted to enslave them" she said as she brought her hand to touch the scar on her neck and then brought her hand to her stomach.

Blue could feel his hands tighten at this information.

"He despised humans and tried to enslave few of them as well...I was one of the few he captured...one of his followers Cora knew what he was doing was wrong tried to go and warn your father but not before trying to help me escape...but she was caught...Pope totured her by placing her in freezing cold water then letting a polar bear tare her apart" she said depressingly.

Tinker and Blue Eyes looked at her in horror at this information, the male brought his hand up to touch his scars from his own bear encounter, remembering the pain and fear he felt and think about what Pope did the female ape, the apes he enslaved, and what he planned to do his father, the very same ape who fought for their freedom, it made him boil in rage inside.

"Did he give you those..." he struggled to sign as he gestured to the scars on her neck and collarbone making her reach up and touch her neck.

She shook her head.

"This was done by one of his followers...what h-he" she tried not to choke up" What Pope did to me was much worse then what he did.." she said.

Blue Eyes didn't know how that could be possible as he continued to look at her scars, he had more questions but didn't want his aunt to relive trauma not after everything she had been through today, his eyes then followed to the fresh wound on her arm.

Iris followed his gaze then looked back at him with soft eyes. She reached out her free hand to gentle being his face back to look at her.

" I'm alright" she signed trying to reassure him.

He looked at her at grimly and with shame.

"If...the...human..didn't..come... ... You would..have died...I couldn't...do anything..." he struggled to say.

She frowned at his comment.

"You where very brave Blue...sometimes it's our greatest strength...you fought hard" she told him seriously.

He brought his gaze back to her arm making him close his eyes tightly and then open them to look back at her.

"But in the end I couldn't do anything, just like I couldn't do anything for Ash" he signed to her in frustration.

Iris raised her eyebrow in confusion at this while Tinker flinched at the name he mentioned and then walking over to the other side of the hut making the young woman noticed this causing her to look between the male and female, a uncomfortable tension started to fill the hut.

"Blue who's-

She didn't get to finish because Cornelia came bursting into the hut looking frantic and once she saw her son she rushed over to him and hugged him tightly which he happily returned.

"I was...so scared..." she said put her face into his fur.

Cornelia then pulled away to touch her forehead with his making him huff in content, she then pulled away from her son to turned to face Iris to give her a greatful smile and then hugged her tightly but careful no to touch her injured arm bewildering the young woman but hugged her back weakly she was even more caught off graud when the queen brought her forehead to rest against hers. The female ape then pulled away to give her a warm greatful smile.

"Thank you..." she said her.

She nodded emotionlessly in response, knowing Maurice obviously told her what happened.

The queen's gaze trailed to her injured arm causing her to look at her in worry.

"It's not that bad..." Iris tried to reassure her.

The Queen didn't look convinced as she turned to look at the Oba for confirmation.

"She just can't put to much strain on it" Tinker signed to the queen.

Iris watched The Queen and the Oba sign with each other and a few times to the prince. She started to feel uncomfortable for being in the hut for so long so she got up and started to head for the exit.

"Iris...where are...you going?"Cornelia asked her.

Iris stopped for second but didn't turn around to face, she could feel all eyes on her.

"I need air" she said curtly as she went out of the hut faintly hearing their protests.

She walked around the village seeing all the damage the wolves caused, injured apes where being tended to by Obas, the dead where being carried away by their grieving family members and friends, the dead wolves where being dragged to a different location, and both ape and wolves blood coated the rocky floor.

She could hear crying and could smell the strong scent of blood as she walked over to a fire pit and sat down on while she held her head in sorrow.

She then felt a hand on her shoulder and her reflexes acted making her spin around to punch who ever it was but only to be caught by a smiling Bonobo with speckle eyes, her eyes widen in disbelief.

"I see you...haven't changed Iris" he said

She smiled brightly at him.

"Zane!" She said as she hugged him right away which he gadly returned as he hooted joyfully.

She then pulled away so he could sit down next to her on the log.

"It's been a long...time" he said.

"5 years...How have you been?" she asked weakly.

"Good...I'm married now...with a daughter..." he said with a proud smile.

This surprised her but made her smile.

"Congratulations" she said.

"I would like...you to meet them..." he told her as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Before she could respond they heard a loud huff causing both of them to turn to see Luca looking at Iris very irritatedly and she knew he had a very good reason to be it, she then turned her head back to Zane.

"I'll meet you by the waterfall later" She told him quietly.

Zane looked between her and the leader of The Gorilla Guard, having a very good idea of what was going to happen. He nodded and got up from the log and walked past the gorilla while keeping his gaze submissive in respect. Luca watched him leave and then turned his gaze back to the young woman, she could tell he had questions about Zane and her as he walked over to her. Iris then brought herself to her knee and brought her hand out submissively and brought her eyes to the ground which bemused him completely as he looked at her hand.

"I'm sorry...for all the trouble I've caused you..." she said softly.

He was surprised to see this out of the very stubborn woman, he then huffed deeply and swiped his leathery hand across hers, the burn mark scar on her arm caught his attention as she pulled herself up to look at him.

"That scar where did you get it? " he signed as he pointed to it.

Iris looked at him confused then bought her arm up to look at what he was talking about, when she saw it she realized what he was talking about and brought her head back to look at Luca.

"You know the fire that happened in the woods 9 years ago, I was right in middle of it, I got this from a tree..." she said plainly as her mind began to trail off.

The Gorilla looked at her in complete shock at this information.

"Could you-

But he never got to finish what he was about to sign a new commer had appeared, it was his king with the same grey ape from before which Iris now regonized as Rocket. She could see Caesar's hands tremble and his eyes filled with a mixture of rage and hurt, right now he scared her.

He he made his way over to her ignoring Luca.

"Show me..." he said with a very deadly serious tone.

Iris knew while he did seem concerned about her arm she knew it was not what he meant at all.

"Caesar I don't think-

"SHOW ME!.." he yelled losing his patience while also making her flinch.

She then slowly pulled up shirt to reveal her stomach as she looked at him emotionlessly and there he and the other apes around her saw the atrocious words that were craved savagely on her pale flesh,Caesar and Rocket looked in horror while Luca winced remembering it .

"Does this satisfy you?" she asked him bluntly as she tried to keep her keep her voice from breaking.

He eyes filled with hurt as turned his head away and shutting them tightly unable to stand the sight anymore, making her pull down her shirt.

"Malcolm...told me about...your condition..." he said as he turned back his head to look her.

This made her eyes widen in shock.

"Iris what-

"Where's Malcolm?" she cut off him curtly as she sped right past him.

"Iris!" he hallowed as he followed after after her.

Iris raced through the village, determined to find the man she was angry with that moment and finally didnear the entrance, she walkedup calmly to him but he could tell she was anything but that.

Iris looked at Malcolm standing in front of her he looked at her with solemn eyes, it was deathly quiet you could hear the restling of the wind moving against the brances from the morning cold air and hear the waterfall close to village very clearly, the rising tension surrounding the young woman at that moment was so thick you could cut it with a knife as she clenched her hands tightly to her sides as she trembled in anger while her eyes held dismay.

"You told him...Why?...Why would you do that Malcolm?!" she yelled at him.

"Iris he had a right to know...do you know how worried he was about you or the others for that matter" Malcolm told her seriously as he gestured to the apes around them while never taking his eyes off the younger woman.

Iris took a quick glance at the king with out turning her head but quickly looked back at the man standing in front of her.

"You had another attack Iris, you said where getting better but by pushing others away and trying to isolate yourself you're only getting worse...do you plan on living your life alone?..." He asked her sadly.

The apes around them looked at them as they argued, the tension made them afaird to interrupt, Iris glared at him as she crossed her arms.

"Have you really given up on your kind on your-

"I tried Malcolm..." she said quietly.

He looked at her confused by this.

"I tried to get them to listen to reason, to stop the rioting and to stop the hate...but some individuals are not capable of change...Koba...Pope...and Alpha Omega are proof of that... my body is proof of it" she struggled to say as she closed her eyes.

The mention at the deceased apes struck a nerve for the apes around them more so with Caesar due them both brutalizing or killing members of his family making him wince remembering learning about the death of his honory nephew Ash by the ape he considered a brother and from seeing the horrific brand left on his sister by one of his very own apes he was so blind in the past, even though he knew not all humans where bad he use to think humans where the only ones that where capable of torture and to kill innocents and because of that he never once thought one of his own would commit such heinous acts until Koba attempted to murder him and when Pope killed a ape...it broke his heart and he felt that feeling again when he saw the horrible brand on his sister's stomach.

"Both humans and apes blame each other and won't let go of the hate and they pass down that hate to their childern...unless we stop the spread of hate nothing's going to change...unless we care nothing will get better..." she said softly while looking at him with sad glossy eyes.

The apes around them began to look at the young woman in a new light if they hadn't already from what she did earlier that day, she closed her as she struggled to speak more.

"I not really surprised others chose the path of hate though...it's a way to forget your pain for just a brief moment...not just apes but humans have been through the same pain...we're not that much different..." she said queitly as she reopened her eyes at this.

She could feel Caesar staring at her back solemnly but she never once turn around to look at him.

"I tired Malcolm...I'm just so tired...I've given up on there every going to be change...because in the end both species are going to end up destroying each other..." she told him hoarsly before she sped off past him but not before taking one last glace at the king.

So yea this chapter revealed some of Iris's dark secrets who knows what will happen know, this chapter was really hard for me to write I almost drove myself crazy cause I was running out of Ideas lol XD well I hope you like it ^^