AN: Hello. Due to lots of exams it took a while for me to upload this but I hope I can be faster next time. Read and review, guys.

Chapter Two: The King

Caine Soren sat on his old bed in his old room in the old, battered building that was once Coates Academy.

The bed sheets were now a dull grey, the walls splattered with mysterious red droplets, a damp smell suffocating him as the seconds went by. The window was smashed but no fresh air seemed to come in, to clear his clogged, cluttered mind.

He remembered his glorious days, strolling through the campus with Drake on one side and Diana on the other. He'd felt so proud and comfortable.

He thought nothing could ever change that.

How wrong he had been.

Because he was now a failure of a king in a failure of a town. A town where kids, trapped and lost, fought each other because they knew no better.

And what had he done?

He'd taken advantage of it all. He'd let the greed and power and ambition get to him until Drake snapped and left him, until Diana lost it and left too.

He was a father. A father to a baby whose fate was already bleak.

Strangely, the thought didn't affect his thinking much. Or perhaps it hadn't sunk in yet.

"I'm a father," Caine said out loud, as if it would make a difference. "I have a child. I have a daughter. Gaia."

Where was Gaia now? Where was Diana now?

He didn't know.

And to be quite honest, Caine didn't care. Not anymore. Actually, he'd never really cared. All he'd been interested in was being a king, a ruler.

He knew Diana was clever enough to take care of herself and her - his - their baby.

He was partially startled by his own cruelty. He said he loved her. He knew he did. He loved Diana, and he'd gotten her pregnant and then what had he done?

He had run away like the foolish coward he was.

Caine sighed and lay down on his bed. The old Caine would've worried about getting his clothes dirty. But that was the old Caine.

Caine remembered the look on his mother's face - horror, fear, worry, all aimed at him. He'd smashed Penny's skull. He had a reason to. But of course Connie Temple couldn't understand that.

Why did she give him up? He didn't understand. Wasn't he as important as Sam? Wasn't he as special? Was he really that bad?

Before he knew it, a tear slid down his cheek. Caine ignored it. And ignored the next.

He missed Diana. He missed Drake, even. He missed the old days where everything was chaotic but chaotic because he'd made it that way. Now it was unruly and messed up due to unknown forces.

Forces he couldn't control.

And as much as it hurt and burned him inside, he knew he was fighting for something he wouldn't win.

AN: Good? Bad? Ugly? Review anyway, or Drakey's gonna whip you to pieces. Heh.