”Take him to General Iza's office," Rexton said. He turned away after giving Cassius a calculating look, something that crossed between interest and repulsion. That was the look that made Cassius feel like there was something more to this meeting than checking up on their case. Ever since Rexton came to visit, Cassius has blown everything he'd worked for out of the water. He wasted resources and time for an escape attempt he knew wouldn't work.

It was a force moving his hand when it was only him. Every choice he made seemed to sink him deeper in trouble and it had started when Rexton had shown up. He got in trouble with Iza from time to time. He was a hot headed person and his personality never meshed well with figures of authority.

Hm. He wonder why that was.

That aside, on his failed mission, he'd undergone something he knew no one should find out. He had no reason to believe that was what Rexton was sniffing out, but if it was, he was going to hit a brick wall. There was a big difference between risking your life for freedom and risking your life because you weren't smart enough. He wasn't going to say shit, not after this anyway. Maybe that's what he's trying to do. Sending Cassius to Iza after what he's done, would probably scare the shit out of any Mekiah. That wasn't him though. He'd gone through Iza countless times when he was younger. As the years went by, his beatings affected him less and less. An hour of relentless torture by the General would only make him wince once and that was it.

It would be nothing.

That's what he told himself anyway.

They yanked him off the ground. One gave him a swift swat on his back to get him moving. He let them guide him in the opposite direction, past the doors, and away from his goal. There was no reason to look behind him or to show how much he wanted to be outside those doors not going further into his prison. It was a sign of weakness that he would never let them see, no matter how much they tried to beat it out of him.

The more he thought about these past few weeks, the more uneasy he got about Rexton's stay. It seemed logical to say all the troubles started when he arrived, but maybe that wasn't the case. That night when he encountered the demon had set in motion something he couldn't begin to unravel. The Third Eye was hiding secrets and the Veil seemed even more unsafe after the attack. For the first time, he wished he had the option to tell Capital about what had happened. It gone without saying that if he told them they would lock him away and run tests over him. They were already suspicious about how he survived the attack in the first place which even himself couldn't answer. But if they knew he also survived a demon bite...

It was an after thought now. He needed to think about his next move, what he could do now that he's landed himself in a heat of trouble. Rexton wasn't like Iza, he wouldn't think Cassius wasn't a threat and it was worse now that he showed what he could really do. As long as he kept low, maybe he could rebuild the trust he had with Iza. It wasn't much and Iza wasn't anything close to being a friend, but what else could he do? He had nothing to fall back on. No plan B or shit like that. He'd been waiting for the perfect time to make a run for it and he'd jumped the gun when Rexton mentioned the word "transfer". That had been his biggest fear and now it was probably coming true.

They didn't take him to his home, his peaceful cell. No, they wouldn't do that, they wouldn't give him the one thing that kept him calm most days. He knew where he was going and he wouldn't fight it. He was done screwing things up. There was going to be the perfect moment to take his revenge, to take what he should have been granted when he was born. But right now, he had to go along with them, pretend they had a hand over him when he knew they couldn't do a damn thing to break him down.

The cell they were dragging him to was familiar. He'd visited it many times when he was younger and too rash to think about what he was doing. Maybe it was his old ways coming back to him, maybe it was bad luck. He would be fine, no matter what happened, no matter where his mind would take him once he was in that room. He had the Third Eye, unlike other Mekiah had to escape. Though he was caged here physically, he could fly to whatever land he could dream of. He should be happy with that. That wasn't him though. Dreaming, being happy with what he had, was nothing like him. He would fight until his last breath if it meant he wouldn't die as some weak boy who was beaten down by a government corrupted by its own biases.

The pain in his leg and from the blow to his face faded to the background when they arrived before the cell. It was a full metal door, bolted shut with three locks. Some would call it paranoid. Cassius just saw fear.

They didn't understand anything. The Exteru were weak beings and the Remu weren't any better. They worshipped the Exteru like they were gods, but they were nothing. Just hypocrites waiting for their appraisal. From their sickening breeding HIVES to their extermination of free Mekiah, they showed their true colors every time they beat down a defenseless being. Even the Remu were nothing to them. Those glossy eyed Remu were scared of what the Mekiah could do that they were blind to the things the Exteru were doing right in their faces.

It was okay though. He would show them. He would show them how wrong they were.