The five gears all stared at the woman with shocked expressions drawn across their faces. They hadn't expected her to answer the question, let alone give them an answer that baffled and shocked them. Dani regretted telling them the truth the second it had escaped her mouth, she wished she could have come up with a believable lie. But now the damage was done, and she would have to endure to suspicions of the soldiers that surrounded her. She wished she had found a weapon in her room, she felt utterly vulnerable.

Hoffman broke the silence by demanding, "Why in the hell were they looking for you?"

She stared at her fingernails when she said, "Because I am one of the few people who managed to escape their torture games and lived to tell the tale." She looked up at the men and realized they weren't buying it.

"And because...I killed one of their superiors," she said, her face displaying a cold expression as she revisited the dark memories.

"What do you mean, their superiors?" Dom questioned the young woman.

"His name was Repto, and he was a high priest of the Kantus. Well respected by the other locust, and extremely viscous. He led many of the missions involved in taking humans as prisoner," Dani said, unable to stop her voice from sounding shaky.

"So you're saying you, a tiny girl, killed a high ranking locust who is, as you say, extremely viscous, and now the locust are seeking revenge against you?" Baird said, "Well her story seems solid, looks like we're finished here."

"Come on Baird, cut the lady some slack," Cole said to the blonde gear.

"Baird's right," Marcus growled, receiving shocked looks from Dom and Cole, "Just because you claim to have killed a superior locust doesn't explain why they were searching for you. When we flooded the hollow it left them struggling for their life, I highly doubt they'd continue to search for a escaped prisoner when they have so many other priorities."

She remained quiet for a minute before saying, "The locust picked up my transmission, I saw them searching Cadvius for the source while hid in the rubble of a destroyed building. It didn't take long for them to find me, my knee was bleeding and they can smell fresh blood from a mile away. One of them roughly pulled me out from the rubble and threw me to the ground. There were three of them. One of them recognized me within seconds. He must have been there during the time when I escaped. They spoke amongst each other in their native tongue, giving me the chance to throw ash at their face, blinding them. I got up and ran as fast as I could, away from the city. They chased me for a while before they gave up and left to get reinforcements. That's when you arrived. My plan was to take the food as quickly as possible and then leave, but they returned with reinforcements so fast, I still can't believe it."

The five men listened intently as Dani spoke of her dreadful experience with the locust. The frightened woman no longer appeared before them as she was replaced with a wise warrior who spoke of horror and pain. Her hands shook slightly as she revived the memories she had planned to keep hidden for the rest of her life. When she finished her story, the room was filled with complete silence.

Baird looked at Dani with apologetic eyes and asked, "Why didn't the three locust in Cadivus kill you?"

"I guess they believed that I wasn't worthy of death yet. They probably wanted to finish torturing me as their last act of revenge for Repto," she said in a low voice.

The silence that followed was uncomfortable for everyone in the room. The gears had no idea how to feel about Dani's confession, they were unsure whether they were able to even trust her. After all she was a thieving stranded who was emotionally disturbed. Meanwhile Dani was still overcome by the fact that she had told these complete strangers personal information about herself. Normally she would keep her personal life as private as possible as a way to distance herself from others. She had failed herself and now she had to leave this place as soon as she got the chance.

"Well, I guess we'll leave it at that for now," Hoffman said, breaking the silence, "Remember, 1600 hours tomorrow, not a minute later."

I'm sorry it's such a short chapter :(I think next chapter will make up for it :)