Justice

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"Wait here," the soldier said and threw Victoria and Kathryn on the cold ground. They had finally entered the Capitol, just like they wanted to, but it had been for an entirely different reason. The uprising had failed again and the number of casualties was immense. Victoria lifted her bloodstained head, only to see the barrel of a gun pointing at her. Its metal glinted brightly into her eyes, like a light at the end of a tunnel. Five gruesome soldiers had surrounded them, weapons loaded. "This is not how it ends," Victoria said. She was about to engage when suddenly a small side door opened. The soldier who had left them before came through it and had brought two people with him. They were two boys, about the same age, and one looked like he had seen a ghost while the other burned with wrath. The soldier had grabbed the enraged boy's short curly black hair with one hand, pulling his head backward, while holding a gun to his head with the other. He struggled, while his brother stayed calm and stared fixedly at the marble ground, wide-eyed. "Scum," the soldier said and pushed the two boys forward. "Throw them in the cells. Orders from president Kane."

The captives were taken to the cells, where they would await their fates. Victoria could hear the jingling keys of the guard while she was dragged down the hall; she felt incredibly woozy due to her blood loss and could hardly keep her eyes open. All of a sudden, the sound of a shrieking metal cell door could be heard, and the insurgents were all thrown in the bleak empty cage. "Wait," the reticent boy suddenly asked. "There's only four of us? Where are the other insurgents?" "Why don't you take a peek outside?" the guard replied and smirked. There was a small open window in the back of the cell, and the two boys had to stand on their toes to see the answer to the question. They gasped and screamed when they saw their fellow insurgents, murdered. The guard had to close the cell door with a bang swiftly, to avoid being strangled by the enraged boy. The boy's arm went straight through the space between the bars of the door but was just too short to reach the guard's throat, although he had to lean back to avoid the boy's robust hand. The guard smirked once more. "You're the only survivors," he said. "And mark my words, there will be no more insurgents in Washington D.C after tonight."

Victoria plopped down on the hard ground after the guard had disappeared, followed by Kathryn. She stared at the tiles which filled the cold cell and wondered about what would be next. "Who are you?" she then asked after noticing the disapproving frown she got from the outraged boy. "I'm Jack," he responded, "and this is my brother Nathan." "Were you part of the rebellion?" Kathryn asked curiously. Although she had expected more, Kathryn only got a soft nod as an answer. "What did you do that eventually resulted in you being locked up in here?" Nathan looked at his brother, who appeared to be giving no answer. "The time ships," Nathan said. "We tried to steal them." Victoria and Kathryn's mouth's dropped after he spoke, astonished by his response. "How did you..." Victoria said, not able to finish her sentence. "What happened?" Kathryn asked immediately. "We were so close," Jack suddenly said to everyone's surprise. "But then Kane's men showed up and things didn't go the way we had planned they would." He looked at Nathan, who continued. "The time ship was within Jack's grasp. I, however, still had to catch up with him and the guards got to me. Jack he..." "I didn't have a choice," Jack continued. "They held a gun to his head, what else was I suppose to do?" "You could have escaped," Victoria said, standing up. "You could change everything!" Why didn't you?" "You're asking me to choose between saving history or my brother," Jack responded. But I guess that you don't know anything about that. You don't have any family." Victoria looked surprised. "Yeah, I know who you are," Jack continued. "You're Victoria Harvey and you are Kathryn Jones. The faces of the rebellion," he said with repulsion. "You don't know anything about us," Kathryn responded fiercely. "Oh, I think I do," Jack replied. "I know that you were supposed to save us. But you failed. Again." "Stop it, Jack," Nathan said calmly. "Don't act like we didn't fail too." "I wouldn't exactly call it failing, Nathan," his brother replied. " "Your face back there said something else though," Victoria added. "You realize right," Kathryn said, looking at Jack, "that if your brother would have died, you could have reversed it, together with history, by traveling back in time? None of it would have happened." Jack didn't respond. "I know.." he then said. "I just... didn't think." Before Kathryn could reply, the guard appeared once more. The smirk was still on his foul face. "Percival Kane is waiting for you," he said and opened the cell door. "If you try to escape I'll shoot you on the spot. Understood?" The prisoners nodded, feeling defeated. After Jack and Nathan were handcuffed, they followed the guard through the corridors of the Capitol, not knowing what to expect. When they had eventually arrived at the place where they apparently had to be, the rebels stood face to face with a giant door. It opened when the guard knocked on it, causing an enormous room to be revealed. Victoria's mouth dropped when she saw it, for the room was filled with shouting people, all sitting in row seats located on both sides of the chamber. And in the middle of it all, on a small platform, stood the president Percival Kane. His hands rested on the tribune he was standing in front of like he was ready to make his speech. The guard then pushed his prisoners forward with great force, leading them to the tribune. Once they had reached the platform the guard left them, leaving the rebels alone and vulnerable. However, they still didn't feel like giving up. Victoria stared in the eyes of the president, showing she wasn't afraid of what would happen. Kane then raised his hand and all went silent. "Today," he said with a loud voice, "Our Capitol had been under attack. Again." He locked eyes with the people standing in front of him and slightly leaned over his tribune in doing so. "Will you never learn that we're living in a time where we must work together?" he said. "Work together?" Kathryn responded fiercely. "You all have been doing the very opposite this entire time! Where were you when the apocalypse took place?" The president looked at her with aversion and replied with a frown. "You were hiding behind your wealth while we were in desperate need of your help!" Nathan continued. "And instead of helping," Jack said, "you turned your back on us. And guess what, you still are! All because of the fact that you didn't want to lose your precious money in a time where it was of the greatest importance." "We warned you Percival," Victoria added. "We warned you about the consequences climate change would have, but you didn't listen. And now, when we have the ability to turn it all back, you won't undo the horrific events you have allowed to happen in the past." Kane looked the most annoyed at Victoria, for she had a very good point. "Do you really think that we didn't try?" he responded enraged. "We did it countless times. Time, however, does not allow for itself to change." "You know that there still is a possibility to save the world," Victoria yelled. "You know it! But you respond by just embracing the fact that it is going to be hard, and you give up. There is still a possibility of a better future, but you won't believe it, and because you won't believe it, you won't do what is necessary to make it a reality. You resigned yourselves to it for one reason: because that future doesn't ask anything of you this day. You gave up. We didn't. We won't! There is still hope." "There is no more hope," Kane said. "The fight is over." Victoria gave a sniff of contempt in response. "No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it," she said with her head held high. Her opponent looked at her with great contempt once more, and he seemed to have had enough of it. "You will be punished for your crimes," he said, ignoring their previous conversation. Percival locked eyes with the guard who nodded. "You are hereby sentenced to banishment to 144 million years back in the past," he said and struck the gavel against the sound block in front of him, which caused its sounding qualities to be enhanced. The sound of that gavel would haunt Victoria forever. A deafening sound of the audience could immediately be heard; they were applauding. "144 million years?" Jack shouted. "You're sending us to the Jurassic Period?" "The Cretaceous Period to be precise," Kane replied calmly. "You're basically sentencing us to our deaths!" Jack responded, struggling while the guards dragged them out of court. "Kane, no!" Victoria shouted. "History can still be changed!" Both Kathryn and Nate went silent from the moment they heard their penalty and did not struggle when the guards dragged them away. Tears ran down their faces. Victoria, however, also struggled in the arms of the guard, trying to escape. But it did not help. After they were dragged out, the doors shut and the sound of the shouting people faded.

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