Ahh! sorry guys! I posted this chapter and then remembered I didn't write the write chapter name on the title page. haha. Anyways, enjoy!

All rights to Kiera Cass, the writer of the Selection Trilogy.

Chapter Sixteen

[Zeena's POV (rebel)]

Lily, Andrea, and I got back to base thirty minutes after our commander ordered us to look for the books. Although Commander Bellamont had given us an important task, we could not carry it out. Guards flanked every doorway, waiting for any intruder to even try to get in, the palace also installed security cameras at every corner, so they would know who we were. The mission was a failure... except for one thing. Lieutenant Armstrong had retrieved one of the Selected. Celeste Newsome of Clermont had arrived, and we were going to show her a good time while she was staying here.

(Celeste's POV)

After severely injuring me with a knife and branding me repeatedly on my arms and legs, they locked me in a cage. Not a prison cell, not a room, A CAGE. It was made for a large dog and was covered in mud. I knew as soon as I was inside of it, that I would probably never come back out. The mud would cause infections to spread all over my body because of the cuts and tears in my skin. The scars from the branding were still not fully healed and when I sat down on the floor of the cage, I hissed in pure agony. My eye-sight was already receding. I was losing too much blood and suffering from too much pain. I knew that my body would not be able to withstand these conditions much longer, and I prepared myself to die.

(Maxon's POV)

As I was watching America on the hospital bed, I started to formulate a plan.

The rebels were bound to come back. Every time they retreated they left that horrendous message on the walls: 'We're coming'. The palace was safe, safer than anywhere else in Illea during an attack, so long as everyone made their way to a safe room. We had protected all of the girls from harm as best we could until Celeste got captured and America got hurt. I knew that we had to send out a message to their families so that they would stay informed, but it didn't feel right to write it out. I couldn't write a note to Celeste's parents saying she had been captured and that her death was inevitable unless we found her soon. I couldn't tell America's family that she was in a coma over the phone. No, I had to have them here, in person.

That settled it. I would have all of the Elite's family here at the palace. No one else here, or their loved ones out there was going to get hurt or die on my watch.

I started making phone calls.

(Zeena's POV)

I watched Celeste as she pathetically tried to claw the dirt and mud away from her skin. She was dying, and everyone here knew it- even Celeste herself knew. At first it wasn't our intention to kill her. We wanted information. We wanted to know where the books were hidden. Gregory Illea's personal diaries were our only hope of getting rid of the caste system for good. I didn't know why... that intelligence was only for commanding officers, but I knew that they were important enough to die for.

That reason was enough for us to try to torture the information out of Celeste. She didn't know anything. She kept saying it over and over. 'I don't know, PLEASE, I don't know!'

Her cries of agony only fueled Commander Bellamont to beat her harder, make the cuts deeper, even brand her. After a while, I couldn't handle standing there and watching an innocent person die. I did not know how anyone could do that and not feel an ounce of remorse. Commander Bellamont sure didn't, and I will never forget the look in my superiors eyes as she beat Celeste into unconsciousness- pleasure.

I wanted to make things more intense because I started to get bored with my own writing. *snickers* Well, I hope you weren't bored with this chapter... if you were, I'm sorry. Anyways, please fill out the form if you want to be in the other story, and remember to review, PM, follow, and favorite. :)

-Property of Illea