Torture was a tool, usually used by the deepest and darkest shadows in society. No matter where they came from, everybody considered it a sort of public secret. That's because those affairs were a necessary evil formed to keep countries from crumbling from outside or from within. But it was never a spectacle.

In the end there should always be a divide between the light and the dark. Because no matter how pure a white cloth can be, once it's made contact with dirt it would never go back to the way it was before. And the longer it went on, the more the stains would acc.u.mulate, seeping into the fibers ensuring they would never be separated.

Here they weren't just making contact between the dark and the light, they were literally letting it flood out.

"Who authorized this!?" Ode was the first to snap after watching his people being corrupted.

The whole team were similarly agitated by the scene, their feral eyes scanned through the shocked crowd, searching for the person responsible.

"I did!" A voice boomed from the shadows of the stage. The first thing to reveal itself was an armored leg, once the metal coated piece entered the sunlight, the glimmer it gave off was almost too blinding. The effect didn't get any better after the whole person stepped through as the whole armor may as well have been a discoball.

"Travis!" Ode screamed. "What the #l are you doing!? Who gave you the right to treat the war prisoners in such a way?"

"h.e.l.lo dear teacher, I think you should calm down it's not good for your body." The man in s.h.i.+ning armor chided, feigning concern as his words were laced with mockery.

"Don't tell me to calm down! Stop all of this, this instant or I'll..."

"You'll what!?" Travis's sudden outburst silenced him. "I think you're a little hung up over the old days teacher, you are no longer captain of the guards, I am. So you have no jurisdiction here to order anyone around anymore."

"Is that what this is about!? proving yourself?" Ode looked incredulously at his former underling. "That's the lives of people you're playing with."

"Hahahaha! Don't be so self centered teacher, not everything's about you." He chided. "If you haven't noticed, this is war! And these guys here..." He took a spear from one of his men and stabbed into one of the prisoner's shoulders, twisting it a round once it stopped at bone. "Is a prisoner of war, one of the guys who attacked us!"

"Your suggestion was fine when they were still weaker than us and too timid to face us head on, but it's clear now that all we've been doing is giving them time to get stronger and right now they're knocking on our door." He pointed at the burn marks on the walls. "This is to tell them that if they want a fight, then they've got a fight. And we won't be holding back."

"Uooooh!"

"Travis! Travis! Travis!.."

The crowd cheered at the end of those words. Ode could only stand there, troubled by the reaction of the crowd to starting a war, believing that his peaceful people were being led astray. Little did he know, that the hearts of the people were easily swayed towards bloodshed, especially after the world wronged them by tearing them away from their original homes. They'd been ready to embrace their anger for quite some time and now the other side gave them a reason.

Under their cloaks the team clenched their fists hard. None moreso than Jacob who's blood began to stain the pavement as the victim's did.

They could only watch in silence as the people they grew up with, the people they thought they knew their whole lives, the people who the people who's honor they would gladly defend with their own blood, distort into sh.e.l.ls of human beings that held crooked creatures of hate and malice.

For awhile, they could rea.s.sure themselves, that even though it wasn't whole it was home. That even though they were thrown in the middle of nowhere, next to hostiles it was still home.They we're home as long as they supported each other and made it feel like home.

Not anymore.