Shun

My brain couldn't keep up with everything that was going on. On one side, there was Alice, who had been drugged and was now back in Nero's grip. On the other, Brunswick had just taken a bullet for Dan. My mind was screaming for me to run in both directions, but I couldn't.

Instead, my feet remained glued to the floor as I watched. Nero shook his head. "And I had a clear shot too," he said. Brunswick was laying on the ground, holding onto his side and grimacing in pain. Dan was trying to help our injured friend when Kat grabbed him from behind.

I watched as he elbowed her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to stumble back. He shouted at me, "Don't just stand there! Help them!" He pointed to Alice and the others and I felt myself snapped out of my trance.

Even though I was fully aware of what was going on now, I couldn't come up with a plan. If I went right for Nero, I wouldn't get very far. He still held the pistol in his hand, and I could have sworn I saw him load another round into the chamber.

Behind him, Cameron made sure the hand restraints on Alice were secured. I had to get them out of there. I had to get Alice and the other three out of the City and far away from Nero and his Officials. But what about Dan and the injured Brunswick? What would I do with them?

I didn't want to leave them behind to fend for themselves against uneven numbers. What do I do? What do I do? My head began to hurt the more I kept trying to come up with a plan. The temple where I had been struck with the end of Nero's rifle also began to hurt.

A laugh boomed throughout the room, causing my head to throb with each chuckle. I looked up and saw Nero smiling at me. "What's the matter, Outcast? Confused?" Beside me, Dan was shouting again. "Shun! Do something! Now!"

The brunette was still occupied with helping Brunswick, but several Officials had gathered around the two, cutting them off from me and keeping them there by pointing their gun barrels at them. I was on my own, but there seemed like nothing I could do.

If I went for Nero, Cameron would shoot me down from behind his leader. And I wasn't about to run. I'd sooner die than take a coward's way out. There had to be something I could do that wouldn't endanger us anymore than we already were. My eyes found Alice.

She was just as scared as the rest of us, maybe even more because of the predicament she was in. She noticed I was looking at her, and her eyes pleaded for help. I can't.

I felt even more helpless than I did back at the mountain. My legs felt weak, and I thought I may have been on the verge of collapsing, but I held my ground. Nero was waiting for me to make my move, so I didn't keep him waiting any longer. If actions were pointless right now, maybe words would have a better effect.

I remembered back in the interrogation room when I found out he was an Outcast, how the realization had strung him and sent him over an irrational edge. Maybe I could produce that kind of effect again. "Why are you doing this? Why do you want to harm these people that have done nothing to you?" I asked.

He looked surprised when I spoke. Odds were he was expecting me to charge at him or try and grab one of the Official's guns. "I'm doing it because it is the right thing to do. It was foretold at the creation of the City that people would have to die for the greater good. And that's what they're doing," he said in a professional tone.

I motioned to Brunswick and Dan. "How can killing them make a difference for the greater good? One of them looked up to you and the Officials for most of his life, and the other, the one you shot. He would have never done anything to cause any trouble towards the City. His home had everything that he and his people could have needed. So killing them for the greater good can't be why you're doing this. Tell me why, Nero."

He growled and gave me a death glare. Nero said harshly, "I gave you my reason." Outside, I was able to hear rumbling out in the distance. It was thunder, and I was certain that it would begin to rain in no time. What a fitting atmosphere. Something told me to turn around, so I did.

Dan was looking at me through two Officials and mouthed to me, "What the hell are you doing?" Next to him, I was able to see Brunswick was no longer writhing in pain, but laying unconscious. As far as I could tell, he had stopped bleeding. I mouthed back to Dan, "Trust me."

The brunette stared at me for a moment then nodded. What other choice did he have? I was sure he didn't like his life, along with five other lives, hanging in the balance and in the hands of an Outcast, but I was the only one who wasn't tied up or injured at the moment.

I turned back to Nero and said, "Then how come I don't believe the reason you gave me? What you told me was Xavier's views on this, wasn't it?" I could see Nero's anger growing more and more with each word I said. I smiled on the inside and thought, Just as I hoped.

"Xavier wasn't a fit leader for this job! He was too focused on mistreating his Officials rather than taking care of the real problem!" I shouted back at him, "Then what was the real problem!" Nero stared angrily at me and remained silent. His eyes then moved around to look at his Officials that were waiting for his response to my outburst.

He said sternly to them, "Take them out of here. Lock em up if you feel like it. But leave me and him alone." The Officials looked at one another, and I could see they were questioning their leader's choice to be left unguarded. "Go!" he shouted. They didn't hesitate to leave this time.

The Officials dispersed, taking Alice and the others with them. She and Dan, the only two who were still conscious, were fighting against them. But the Officials who were carrying them didn't even seem like they were fazed by the kicking and shouting.

The only ones left in the room now, were Nero and I. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Something about being in a room with Nero, and Nero only, made me uneasy. "You want to know my reason?" he asked coldly. I found my eyes scanning the office for anything I could use to defend myself if it came down to it.

"Enlighten me," I told him and was surprised that my voice wasn't shaky. I at least thought it would have wavered a little. Nero made his way behind a desk that had once belonged to Xavier before his untimely death. "It's to get back at all the years of what they've done to us," he told me. I raised an eyebrow.

"To us?" I asked. Nero slammed a hand down on the desk, causing the contents on top of it to shake and fall over. "Us. The Outcasts. I stood by all these years, waiting for the time to set the gears in motion. When we found out that you had snuck into the City and stole, I used that to my advantage and convinced Xavier that it was time to start the cleansing. From there, I waited for my chance to strike against Xavier and take over. I just hate it took this long and I wasn't leading while there were still people cowering in the City."

I stared at Nero, unable to find anything to say. The only words that formed in my mind, were that of Clay's. They've gone mad. I found myself asking, "But why does that have anything to do with the Outcasts?" Nero's eyes flashed with a wild anger that could only belong to a madman.

He walked around the desk and said, "Because I was Cast out and looked down upon for so many years, watching from outside of the fence and hearing the words that people said about us. Seeing how they viewed us a lesser people than them. I couldn't stand it." He was now pacing back and forth in front of me.

I wondered if he even remembered if I was there. "Before I was thrown out in those Wastelands, I had learned about the cleansing. But according to Xavier, that was many years away. I didn't start thinking about it until I became an Outcast and loving the idea of how fitting it would be for those people to suffer just as I had for so many years out in that unforgiving place while they had it easy."

Nero had moved back to the desk and stared intensely at the floor in front of him. "So, that was when I began plotting my way back in. It wasn't easy. I had to change my whole life; name, appearance, and background so I could match the person's place I took." He had lost me now.

I asked, "Person's place you took?" Nero looked at me and said, "Yes. I snuck into the City and killed a person that I could easily impersonate without being uncovered. As you can see, I've gone this many years without being seen as who I really am, and I'm planning on keeping it that way for many more. But from there on out, I worked my way into the Officials and laid in wait for the perfect opportunity. In other words, you."

The idea that I was the cause of people losing their lives and having everything they knew torn away from them was a horrible idea. But I wasn't the direct cause. I was nothing more than a catalyst in a plan that I had no knowledge about.

Nero smiled and said, "When that happened, I got my wish and watched as people, who had once looked down at me, cower in fear of me. Just as your friends will do shortly." My hands clenched into a fist. I said sternly, "I'm not going to let you hurt them anymore."

Nero laughed and told me, "And how are you going to stop me from hurting them?" I didn't answer and looked away from him. I had no way of stopping him from doing anything to them. He was probably going to kill me, or force me to watch him kill Alice and the others.

Nero rubbed his chin and asked me, "Do you think the way that people from the City treated us Outcasts was justified?" I looked at him with a pure confusion on my face. I told him, "W-well no. It wasn't justified, but that doesn't mean that they should have been brutally killed and had their lives ruined."

Nero got right in my face and hissed at me, "Why shouldn't they have been killed? They treated us like a plague by keeping us out of the City so we wouldn't infect their perfect lives." Nero stepped away from me, and I was thankful. I didn't like having that psycho that close to me.

He linked his hands together behind his back, making him looking like a teacher. He told me, "I don't want to kill you." I laughed on the inside. That didn't seem to be the case back at the lake. And the desert. Or recently. He continued to speak.

"You and I are the same. We are both Outcasts, shut out from the possibilities that life could have given us if we had just drawn a different card of fate. Don't you think it is about time that we get our payback for all the hardships our kind has gone through, and finally get a taste of the good life?"

He extended his hand out to me, as if offering me some kind of forbidden fruit. I stared at it for the longest time, then looked up at him. Nero's eyes showed glints of all kinds of bad intentions. My eyes went back to his hand, and I took it and gave it one good shake. "Yes, it is about time we get our fair share of payback," I told him and smiled. Nero smiled back at me and said, "Excellent."

chapter title based off the song The Good Life by Three Days Grace. this story has to end at some point. o.e but i keep thinking of plot twists. this will possibly be the longest story i ever write. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~