He was planning on turning against the North Korean army. The thought of it haunted Avi's mind as she lay on her back in the bed and stared at the ceiling.

He had just put his entire life in her hands...and he trusted her with it. She couldn't find herself sleeping with that thought.

Avi got up from the bed and made her way out, taking the path she had only taken once to the next building and looking at the night sky. It lighted up as if there were fireworks...but she knew that they were explosions and gunshots instead.

The place was chaos, and she found herself worrying if her aunt was alright.

With a sigh, she opened the door in order not to wake anyone and stepped inside, her gaze instantly falling on the man still tied to the pole.

She didn't need to make sure if he was asleep, she knew he wasn't.

He spoke first. "Why are you working for them?" Avi shook her head in the dark, noting that he couldn't see her. "I'm not...I'm a prisoner too."

"You don't live down here...do you? You wouldn't be like this if you did."

She continued to walk forward. "No, I don't. I live in Central Florida. It's better up there than down here." She could hear his heavy breathing. "How is it better?"

"We didn't put up a fight...they took over, we let them."

"You didn't care to have your freedom taken?"

"Not more than we cared for our lives...what's your name?"

He didn't respond for a while. "Moise." She cracked a soft smile. "Avi, nice to meet you."

"Avi what?"

"Avigayil Louise."

"Is your aunt Jackie?"

She froze in her movements. "Is she okay?" The man chuckled dryly. "She's fine...she's in Haiti. Your cousin Liv however."

Her hands tightened to fists before she could control it. "What about Liv?"

"She's dead."

...

The army had found one of the makeshift bases where the rebels met. JinHai had led a raid of it and taken over, executing all the men and arresting the women.

The rebellion had taken a turn for the worse after that.

Avi hadn't seen him for three days, and when he walked into the room, she stared at the wall with a blank expression.

"What are you thinking about?"

She didn't answer him, not even when his hands grasped her hips and his lips brushed against the back of her ear. "Avi...answer me."

"Did Il-Sung tell you the names of the rebels killed when he found their identities?"

He nodded, pressing a kiss at his newfound favorite spot. She frowned. "Were one of the names Lizabeth Dufont?" JinHai thought for a moment. "I think so...yes, why?" She breathed out, the anger building inside her shielded by a veil of calm and an unbelieving and sickening smile. "They killed my cousin."

His grip on her tightened, and she would have winced at the pain.

He turned her around to face him, and when she finally looked up to his eyes....

The first tear escaped. "They killed my cousin...was it Il Sung?"

"Ani...I heard that name when we first came here. It was under General Zhang."

"They killed my cousin JinHai."

A hand went and grasped her cheek. "And they killed my sister."

And that's when she cried.

..

She woke up to an explosion...the both of them did.

With a start she jumped out of bed, ignoring the slight pain at her side as she rushed towards the door ahead of him and opened it. JinHai looked over her shoulder.

"They're bombing the place."

When he didn't respond she turned around to stare at him. "You knew they were going to do this...you ordered it didn't you?" Still no response. She turned again and faced the destructive scene.

Jets flew overhead, dropping what looked like pellets down through the sky in lines until they reached the ground and shook it from the impact.

Avi swallowed, then inhaled slowly. "All's fair in war...isn't it? I can't even be mad at you for this."

She didn't even hear screaming, and she wondered if they even had a chance to...the dozens, maybe hundreds of people who opened their eyes and looked up at the sky to see black, metallic rain.

Did they even have a chance to scream?

"Are you angry?" She huffed slightly, watching the horizon as cloud after cloud of smoke rose into the air and the soil seemed to vibrate beneath her. "Do I even have a right to? You're a general, this is war...do what you need to do."

JinHai grabbed her arm before she could head back inside. "Don't grow callous." She stared at him blankly, he only continued. "Your cousin died, you got shot...that's nothing compared to what I, or even Il-Sung have been through...don't grow callous because of just that. Don't let just that tame you."

Avi chuckled, nearly breaking into a laugh as the impact of a closer bomb dropped nearly threw the two of them to the ground. "You think I'm being callous? What do you want me to do JinHai, run out with banners to where the jets are bombing and protest? Scream and kick at you for this to end? The minute you and the other soldiers stepped foot onto this soil, there was never going to be an end to any of this. I just happened to realize that now."

He gripped her tighter, she only sighed. "I've never been caught in a war before. The only ones I'd heard of were the ones being fought overseas: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria...they were all just news headlines to me. And yet in the past nearly two months I'd find my house taken over, my neighborhood bombed, my freedoms taken, my cousin dead, a man tortured nearly to death, and myself getting my first scar by a bullet...not to mention all of this. I'd seen Julian whipped like a slave, riffles pointed at my parents, guns pointed at my head, four dead bodies to welcome me back home, and a Haitian who had every right to believe that I had betrayed this country when I walked in there with you. People have questioned my motives left and right, your brother kept me locked up for a week with a bleeding dent near my rib, I almost had the car I was in explode...and you? You've just confused the hell out of me this entire time." She licked her chapped lips at an attempt to stop the cracking. "So please, excuse me for not being as strong as you are, or even as battle-hard as you or Il-Sung, no matter how much crap you two went through. I'm trying real hard okay?"

And then she pulled away and walked inside.

...

"Three hundred dead, two-thirds of that amount wounded. Rebel leaders have turned themselves in, and since the soldiers have been stationed once again around the city, no act of revolting has occurred. Chukahamnida General [Congratilations]."

JinHai stared at the reporting soldier as he gave a salute before walking out.

Chukahamnida...well, he didn't exactly feel congratulatory at that moment.

He took of his glasses and fiddled with them in his hand as Il-Sung breathed out and looked around. "I believe that General Zhang will be congratulating you as well when you return to Poinciana." JinHai didn't respond. "If you're looking for some comfort or for me to tell you that you did good...wrong person to look at." He glanced up as Il-Sung moved to the front of the desk and took a seat. "It's war..."

"War? Sure, it is. But it wasn't one that I needed to be a part of. I didn't need to become a general, I didn't need to volunteer in the operation to take this place over. I could've just stayed in North Korea and lived with my family like a normal hostage. But no...and now three hundred people are dead all because I want revenge."

Il-Sung chuckled. "You're acting as if you signed up for this JinHai. Well just to jog your memory, you didn't sign up for this and neither did I. Three hundred people died because they were on the losing side of a war. Whether or not you were the general, it would have happened...and maybe even worse. I'm not going to say it's not your fault. Go, sulk and pout all you want, pour it all out to your girlfriend-."

"Shut up Il-Sung."

Il-Sung shrugged. "Hey, I'm being honest. Do whatever you need to do, then suck it up and go back to Poinciana. Trust me chingu-ya [my friend], if you think that this is the worst thing that you'll have to do, you're not ready for what will happen next. Consider this your welcome ceremony to war, not the strategical aspects done behind closed doors...but the real, upfront type of crap that foot soldiers have to deal with."

And then Il-Sung got up, stared at his friend for a moment, and walked away.

...

There was a loud gunshot that echoed in her ears, she walked into the building just in time to see one of the soldiers with his gun still aimed at Moise's head, blood and brain splattered unto the pole behind him.

Avi collapsed to the ground, feet giving way as she fell.

JinHai didn't catch her; he didn't stop her when she began crawling over to the body. He didn't say a word when she took Moise's face in her hands and lifted it to stare at him.

The bullet had gone right through the middle of his forehead.

Weak, stupid, numb...that's what she felt, numb. Too numb to scream, to numb to even really cry, letting the tears slip out silently without her shoulders shaking in sobs of her stomach clenching with sounds. She simply held the face in her hands, wiping traces of blood away with her thumb as she did.

"Who told you to shoot him?"

Min JinHai sounded too calm as he asked the question, calm enough to hide the worst venom and send shivers down the spines of everyone in that room.

Everyone alive. "The rebellion ended general, I was sure that he wouldn't be needed anymore...sir."

Avi continued to wipe the blood from his face. "Who...told you to shoot him?"

"No one sir."

...

JinHai walked slowly up to the soldier. "Ireumi mweoya? [What's your name?]"

"Hong Dae...sir."

The soldier seemed to be on the verge of cowering. "Do you want to be a general Hong-Dae ah?"

"Excuse me sir?"

He reached forward and took the gun out of Hong-Dae's hand, inspecting it carefully. "I asked if you want to be a general."

"Ani...sir."

The next few moments consisted of JinHai pointing the gun at Hong-Dae's temple. "Then why are you practicing for the role?" Hong-Dae's hands were trembling as a bead of sweat came down his forehead. "I'm not practicing sir." JinHai raised a brow. "Oh, you're not? Let me let you in on something Hong-Dae. You see, when I wanted to be a general, I'd spend days making decisions on my own and going against authority to show them that I could lead on my own. They liked it, and I became a general. That's what you do when you want to become a general Hong-Dae, you call the shots all on your own."

"Chwesonghamnida sir. [I apologize, sir.]"

JinHai smiled, a sick smile...but a smile nonetheless. "You'd make a good general Hong-Dae. So how about this, either I shoot you right here and now for defying me while I'm in charge around here, or you come with me and continue practicing to become a general. What will it be?"

"The second one...sir."

JinHai removed the gun from his temple, pointing it to his foot instead and firing. "Wrong answer."

Hong-Dae harshly bit his bottom lip and groaned to keep from crying out, JinHai squatted down to look at him better. "Next time you shoot to kill, make sure that there's no one above you that'll shoot you too. Because here and now, I'm above you, and I will kill you the next time you kill someone without my permission...arasseo [Understand?]?" JinHai patted the man's shoulder before turning to look at Avi.

She still held Moise's face in her hands.