I leaned my head back on the cold wall and looked at Noah who was wringing his hands awkwardly.

"I'm sorry that you got dragged into this," He said.

I gave a dry chuckle. "I chose to do this myself."

"I always wondered what would happen if I had tried to stay in touch with Alex and Sara. When I got picked up by the rebellion, I thought I was doing some good that I could change things for them."

I don't remember asking for his life story.

I gave him a blank, unconcerned stare. "You say that as though you were trying to protect them. In the end, they joined the rebellion on their own."

Why did I answer him?

He gave me a small smile that complemented his blue eyes. I felt my breath catch in my throat.

"Hey, Mark? If you were me and you joined the rebellion, but you had a chance to stay with your sister, would you take it?"

I thought about the question for a moment, but didn't reply. If it was the old me, I would've said the rebellion in a heartbeat. I would've used any chance to get away from her, but now? I'd rather stay with her. Not excessively, but I wanted to be with her. I didn't want to lose her again.

"Hey, Mark?"

"What?"

"What's your world like? Do you guys have similar rules like us?"

I shook my head. "No. You can be whoever you want and the government can't exactly stop you, but that doesn't mean you can escape the judgement of others."

"That sounds like an amazing world."

Amazing?

He crawled next to me and wrapped his wings around the both of us.

"What are you doing?"

He looked up at me. "I thought you were cold."

He stared at me for a bit as a brighter smile broke out on his face, his mouth opening to say something, unfortunately, it quickly faded away upon seeing Alistair Zhao's father.

"Where's Lila?"

He didn't answer me and simply barked out, "Get up."

Noah glanced at me, his eyes wide in nervousness and fear as we followed Mr. Zhao.

I didn't bother asking him any other questions knowing he wouldn't answer me.

We arrived at a huge courtroom where Lila and the others were kneeling. The room was white with tiled ceilings. A table made of dark wood shaped in a half circle. Sitting behind it where five members as Mr. Zhao took the sixth seat. They seemed to be a council of some sort.

Noah and I kneeled next to everyone else.

Lara's mask had been torn off and Alex's mouth was agape in pure shock. I studied her face realizing that her features were quite similar to Alex's. Even Noah was rapidly blinking in shock. Sara simply kept shaking her head and muttering under her breath. I assumed Lara was most likely a relative of Alex's.

"You are all here for acts of treason against the government," The councilmember sitting on the far right said. "Do you have anything to say? Keep in mind that what you say won't make a difference."

Lara raised her chin defiantly. "This world needs to change.

"Silence!"

Multiple councilmembers screamed in outrage but Lara continued on.

"None of us can keep living like this. Speaking against the government is a crime. Having wings that don't fit into the hierarchy is a crime. Being anything but what's seen as natural is a crime. Has it ever occured to you that by doing all this, nobody is living, including you? To others, it may seem as though you're all living your best life sitting at the top, but you're slowly dying inside. You do everything to keep up the best image. You pretend like you're amazing when you feel just like the rest of us. You're suffering just as much as us! So, why do you let these rules stand? Why not change them?"

"How dare you?! Your kind have performed multiple raids-"

"Raids?" It was Alex speaking up this time. "We're all simply trying to make our voices heard. I've been forced to put dye on my wings and to hide who I am. Because of you all, I thought I lost one of my closest friends. I thought he was gone forever. Then I found that he was working with the rebellion to change things for the better."

"Oh, shut up! You're all just trying to justify your actions."

I noticed that out of all the councilmembers Alistair's father was the only one that never said a single word during the entire thing.

"They have the right to justify their actions," Lila pointed out boldly. "Be honest. Some of you have family that you may have had to arrest. Don't you feel some sort of regret? I made the same mistake to somebody close to me. Fortunately, I was able to fix it, but I know that not all of you have that same privilege. Don't let other people feel that same regret of feeling like they could've done something."

This silenced the councilmembers. Most of them looked away with what seemed to be guilt.

"Whatever," One of them spat with venom. "They still need to die. We'll keep the two wingless and get information from them about that other world."

I felt the fear rise in my chest. Surprisingly, I didn't regret joining this group of people. I had learned a lot from it. If I was going to go, I would leave with no regret.

'Author's Note'

Dang, things are getting a bit intense aren't they?

One more chapter and our journey will be at it's end.  

I love you all, I want you to be loved, and I hope you are loved! 💕

-DiTrix