Killure blinked up at Remi through his long, dark lashes and furrowed his dark brows. The sun shone brightly on his dark skin, giving it a golden hue. He gently grabbed her waist and set her on the ground between his legs.

Remi immediately averted her gaze and, like a dried out fruit, shrivelled. She brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on the top of her knees. She knew he would be disgusted with her after what she'd shown him, but it still hurt. Her heart squeezed painfully inside her chest, threatening to stiffen into glass and shatter, sending glass through her arteries and destroying her body.

Remi had hid her dark secret for so long. Those two kids, innocent and young, were tortured for days and had to go through the terror and pain of starving to death and being robbed of their lives so early on... because of her. She hated—no, loathed—herself for it.

When her father came into her room for the first time in months, little Remi had been elated. She'd run over to her daddy and wrapped her tiny arms around his leg, jutting out her bottom lip and whimpering about her broken dolls. They didn't work anymore. They needed fixed.

This was the catalyst that set into motion Remi's release into the real world. It took Remi a few years to realize the enormity of the horrific thing she'd done, but when she did, the impact hit her like a freight train.

She'd tried to kill herself, overwhelmed with the horror and guilt of what she'd done. Sure, her dad brought the kids back to life afterwards and erased their memories of the incident before sending them back to their parents in perfect health. However, it still didn't take away from what she had done—at least not in her mind. Of course she was revived, and kept in isolation for months until they were sure she'd never attempt such a thing again. It was in that solitary room that Remi made up her mind to forget about what she'd done and become a better person from that point onward.

Pushing the memory to the back of her mind became easier and easier as the years went on, until Remi was able to forget about it nearly entirely and pretend it never happened. Pretend that there were no children whom she'd tortured then murdered, and a servant she'd abused her power on. Sometimes they still plagued Remi in nightmares, staring at her with wide, terrified eyes while smiling and sipping from their tea in their frilly doll clothes. After a nightmare like this, she'd wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, her heart pounding hard against her chest and adrenaline pumping through her veins. Adrenaline wasn't the only thing pumped through her veins after a nightmare like this, though—self loathing also ran rampant through her body. She was so disgusted with herself and her hypocrisy. How could she go around on her moral high horse, as Killure always so eloquently put it, when she was guilty of something so horrific?

And yet, she couldn't just throw away her morals. She loved the feeling of helping other people, and the joy that lighted up their faces afterwards. There was nothing like it.

"They locked you in your room as a child?" Killure's deep, silky voice startled her out of her thoughts. There was a subtle anger beneath his calm voice.

Remi snapped her eyes back up to meet his. She blinked away the tears that had welled up in her eyes as she'd been thinking, threatening to spill over. "I—" she started, then paused for a few moments to clear her throat and continue. "Yes. My uncle was always trying experiments on us, adding new variables to certain controlled situations. I was an experimental group, isolated from the rest of the world. It was lonely. I remember feeling so sad all the time. Blue was also caged, but visited frequently by Bliss, who could roam around the house and yard to her little heart's content. I got to come out though, after... after what happened."

He eyed her carefully with those dreamy ocean blue eyes of his. "Your own uncle did that to you, hmm? I'd be surprised, but I already know what family is capable of doing to their blood. Why did they let you out of your room after that? I doubt your uncle showed compassion or your father grew a backbone—that's a more recent and probably temporary development."

Remi hugged her knees even tighter to her chest. She glanced back down to the ground, eyeing it with renewed interest. "You met my other uncle at the meeting with the Council of Shimmering Men, remember? Uncle Shaam?"

Killure wrinkled his nose in distaste.

Remi continued, pretending not to notice. "Uncle Shaam had a huge falling out with Uncle Fahrem—over me, Bliss, and Blue and the experiments Uncle Fahrem was conducting on us. Aside from the obvious, there were others going on, but I don't remember. Maybe I blocked them out. I have a good guess, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, Uncle Shaam hasn't come by the house since. I used to go over to his a lot until Uncle Fahrem found out. He was really aggravated and in a terrible mood because of something that happened prior."

"And what was your uncle's response, doll?"

"He turned off the pain receptor cells in my body so that I couldn't feel pain, and then cut off all four of my limbs to terrify me. It worked. My father had to keep creating more blood in my body so I wouldn't bleed to death, and sobbed the entire time, begging my uncle to stop. He did, eventually. I didn't utter a single word for weeks afterwards—I was so traumatized." Remi bit her lip. She looked back up at Killure, trying to read his expression but failing. Did he hate her?

Of course he did. What kind of question was that?

"I can tell what you're thinking," Killure scowled, rolling his eyes in clear annoyance. He crossed his arms. "I don't know why you think I'd ever hate you. It's not like I'm in any place to condemn you with my body count," he shrugged nonchalantly, as if it was no big deal.

"How can you say that?" Remi cried out, bunching her fists at her sides. "I let two kids starve to death! That's torture, Killure! Now you know I'm a hypocrite."

Wasn't he angry? Wasn't he upset with her for not being who he thought she was?

One dark brow shot up in disbelief. His lips parted for a moment, as if he didn't know what to say.

Fancy that, Killure not having something to say for once.

He reached out and grabbed one of her hands, encompassing it with his own large, clawed one. "I don't have some sort of idealized illusion of you, Remi. You do know that, don't you? You're innately good, but that doesn't mean you can't make a mistake." He quickly removed his hand from hers and looked away, as if suddenly embarrassed.

Suddenly, it hit Remi. "You... you just used my name. You said it once before, too, when my grandpa arrived. You never used to."

A wicked grin played on Killure's lips. "Perhaps I'm finally starting to trust you, doll."

She eyed him carefully. That was pretty big of him to say, considering what she knew he'd gone through in the past. She hardly knew anything about his past, but what she did know made her heart hurt. It was terrible. "You don't trust many people, do you?" she queried, widening her eyes.

He narrowed his. "No. I don't."

A long pause passed, where neither of them said anything, each lost in their own thoughts. It could have been minutes or hours—Remi wasn't paying attention.

Finally, Killure broke the silence. "I've only ever trusted two people."

"Ever?"

"Ever. You, and my little brother."

Remi was startled by his words. Killure had a little brother? Why hadn't he mentioned anything about it to her before?

"You're little—"

A sharp look cut off her words. He clearly didn't want to talk about it.

After a few moments, his eyes softened. He pulled her closer to him, and stared at her somewhat uncertainty for an instant before quickly averting his eyes.

He shoved a hand into his pocket and fished around for something. Then his hand stopped moving, and he hesitated for a few long moments. Remi's curiosity peaked.

Finally, Killure pulled his clenched hand out of his pocket and sat up, grabbing Remi's open-palmed hand and placing something inside of it.

He stood up and backed away, like he was unsure of what to expect from her. Curious, Remi glanced down at her hand, only to find something that surprised her.

A seed.

Her eyes snapped back up to Killure, who looked like he thought he was risking everything by asking this of her.

Remi immediately understood.

She stood up as well, without bothering to wipe the dust from her clothes. Taking confident strides, she descended the slight slope of the cliff in only a few minutes.

Killure stalked behind her, hands shoved in his pockets as he effortlessly glides down the hill in her wake.

Finally, Remi made it to the base of the cliff. She stood on dark earth now, where tiny shoots of grass had begun to form. She almost felt bad stepping on them, but crouched down none-the-less.

Killure loitered around behind her.

Remi tossed a glance back at him. "Come on. You're going to want to see this."

Hesitantly, he approached, standing at her side and watching her like a hawk.

Remi moved the seed back and forth between her fingers thoughtfully.

And then it happened. The seed began to grow, ever so slightly, until a three inch long shoot had grown. Satisfied, Remi dug a small hole in the dirt and carefully placed the tiny plant's roots into the ground, allowing the stem to breach the surface and absorb the sunlight.

She'd never done this before. She hadn't even known her energy worked on plants. It made sense, though. She could multiply the presence of things—plants were no different. In fact, they were much simpler, and therefore far easier.

Remi reaches down and lightly rubbed the stem between her fingers. She closed her eyes in concentration, and focused.

A few moments later, the tiny plant began to rapidly grow, sprouting into something much larger over a period of just a few seconds.

Once she was done, Remi stepped back to admire her work. The tree was tall and looming, casting shade across her face as it blocked the light of the sun. Rich green leaves sprouted from its thick branches.

Remi spun around to face Killure. "What do you think?"

He was looking back and forth between her and the new tree amidst the ashy wasteland in awe. For the briefest of moments, Remi thought she saw hope flash in his eyes. It was gone as quickly as it'd appeared, making Remi wonder if it had even been there in the first place.

"What now, doll?" he breathed out, crossing his arms.

Remi walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He stiffened for the briefest of seconds before uncrossing his arms and lightly touching her waist. "My grandpa is planning something big—catastrophically big. You heard what he said from outside, didn't you?"

Killure nodded. Perks of being an Icix. His long, reptilian tail flicked impatiently behind him.

"If he was telling the truth, and there really is a continent in the sky that is full of people to which he intends to bring an army, there will be war. Blood, carnage, and destruction. Many lives will be lost. I can't let that happen."

The corner of the Icix's mouth twitched upward. "Thought you might say something like that, doll."

"We find my little brother first. Kareem is out there somewhere, alive, but that doesn't mean he's safe. He's a Designer, and if word gets out that he's not safely at the mansion, people will become rabid in their search for him. He's innocent and doesn't deserve any of this. I need to make sure he's safe. After that, we're going to the Dome."

Killure did a double take, his hands tightening their grip on her waist. "The Dome? Are you out of your mind, doll?! Even if you have one of those fancy tokens to get in, you don't know what you'll be walking into. What we'll be walking into."

Remi only heard what she wanted to hear. "Was that a we I heard? I was hoping you'd say that."

He released a frustrated groan, pulling her in her tight. Tilting her chin up with one clawed finger, Killure bent down and pressed his lips against hers roughly. She tangled her hands in his smooth, silky black hair and kissed him back.

Pulling away breathlessly, Killure murmured, "Sounds fun. When do we leave?"

Remi tossed him a playful grin. A twinkle played in her eyes.

As long as there was time, there was hope. And Remi knew that with hope, anything was possible.

———

A/N: thank you guys all so much for sticking through this crazy adventure with me!! It's been a wild ride. There are a few plots holes and a lot of editing mistakes, but eventually I'll get around to fixing them.

I can't believe we are at over 100,000 views!! That's absolutely incredible. You guys are the best. Your support means the world to me, and I appreciate it more than you know. Thank you for always being there for me and sticking with Indomitable til the end.

However, there will be a sequel...

...eventually!!

I have to plan it out a lot more thoroughly. Right now I only have general ideas and big plot points. There's a lot still missing that i need to work through before I can start posting it.

So yeah, not sure how long it'll be before that happens, but it will happen!!

Again; thank you guys so much. You mean the world to me. Thank you for standing by me through this journey