Rebellion

I Don't Forgive You

I Don't Forgive You

He stood in the window of his new house. He didn't want to live in the Capitol building where Dave and Bono were working things out. He still couldn't believe it. He was so angry. He had been about to get his final revenge on the man who had killed his parents and his brother and now he was being postponed but Mike knew Dave wouldn't kill him.

"Mike....."

"I need to talk to Dave," he said finally.

"I get it," Ryan said quietly, "But you have to admit, Jeremy was under the influence too."

"Did that stop people from being convicted before? Drugs deserve punishment."

"But he was forced....."

"Ryan, you do understand what this man did to me don't you? That's why I can't let it go."

"Mike.....I know you want him dead. I would want him punished too. But, he has kids. Kids, Mike. You wouldn't be getting your revenge, you'd be killing a father. If you really think about it, that's no better than him."

"I don't think Dave will let me torture him. Besides, the whole world is calling for him to die."

"Dave said he's free this afternoon," Ryan said before heading out the door. Mike headed after him. They walked up the broken streets together. Most of the guys had headed out to different states to help clean up and start organizing building teams. Benjamin and his team had headed to the West Coast. They were a big group so they were covering big ground. Brad and Joe had stayed in a different house and were helping around D.C. Larry had stayed as well and was working in the Capitol with Bono. Ryan had stayed with him. They headed up the road to the Capitol building and then inside. They headed to the office and saw Dave and Bono talking. When Mike walked in, Dave looked up. He looked so different. He wasn't dirty and bleeding. There were still scars across his face from where Chester had scratched him. His light hair was done up nicely and he kept a thin beard on his face. His eyes weren't as dark. This was good for him.

"Mike," Dave said with a small smile, "Bono can you leave me and Mr. Shinoda alone for a few minutes."

"No problem," Bono said as he flashed Mike a smile. Dave was right. The Irishman would make a good leader. The door shut behind him and then Dave was sighing and stretching.

"You look good," Mike commented as he sat down. Dave smiled again.

"I am. It's been good. Now, what can I help you with, Mike?"

"You already know what I want," Mike said quietly. Dave nodded his head and leaned forward on the desk and pushed something forward.

"Ben and his group sent this back."

Mike looked at the picture. It was the same one that he'd seen in the basement of their safe house. Chester and his two boys. He clenched his teeth. Why hadn't he recognized them? Why hadn't he sent them into the line of fire? Why hadn't he gotten rid of them somehow so Chester would've been killed on the day of the executions? Dave moved the picture back because Mike was pretty sure he would've ripped it in half if he didn't. He looked up at Dave.

"I hate to see him happy. He doesn't deserve it. He doesn't deserve a single bit of it," Mike growled. Dave sighed but leaned forward.

"Mike, I want you to talk to him."

"What?" Mike snapped, "You know I'll kill him if I'm within one hundred feet of that scum."

"I know, but I want you to talk to him."

"How is that going to help this in any way? I want him dead, Dave."

"You remember Jeremy right?"

"The blonde guy? Yea."

"He's become our Capitol therapist. Both Chester and Austin are getting counseled. He's talking to them privately at Chester's request but he's been reporting back to me."

"Why is he doing this?"

"Because he had the same thing happen to him. He was under that drug as well. He's been able to deal with it and he's hoping he can help the others that survived that were under the drug live with it too."

"Well Chester doesn't deserve to be able to deal with it."

"Jeremy said it would be good if he talked to you."

"I still don't understand why."

"He didn't elaborate. But Mike, maybe you should try."

"Fine. But you better get ready to kill me. As soon as I see him, I'm going to wring his neck."

"Mike, if you would calm down, maybe it'd be easier to do this."

"I hate him Dave!"

"I want you to talk to him this once. If things go badly with him, we'll consider things. Mike, he's not going to get out of this with nothing attached. He's already agreed to any punishment we decide to give him....."

"Then death is the perfect way to go."

"We're still discussing that," Dave said pointedly, "Now, I want you to stop by Jeremy's room. He'll take you to Chester and maybe explain things."

Mike scoffed but got up and left. How could Dave let him go? How could he just forgive everything he did? The man killed his wife. Maybe that was why Dave was giving leadership to Bono instead of him. Bono hadn't been affected by the war. No one was killed that he loved except that one friend, Adam. He knocked on the door that had a label on it with Jeremy's name on it. The blonde answered and grinned at him.

"Mike! I'm glad you decided to come by."

"Just tell me what this is about."

"Well, I'm not actually sure. I was talking to Mr. Bennington in our last session together and he wouldn't say much. The only thing I could really get out of him was your name."

"What?"

"Yea that's what I was confused about. I'd like you to talk to him and see if maybe you could find out why he was saying your name."

"And how am I going to be prevented from killing him?" Mike asked. Jeremy laughed softly.

"Mike, I just want you two to talk. You don't have to sit anywhere near each other. You won't kill him. Because you know Dave will kill you. You'd be breaking his trust and no matter how badly you want revenge, you won't destroy that man's trust. He's kept you under his wing for a long time and you look up to him."

Mike stared at the man in front of him. The guy was actually pretty smart. He didn't want to betray Dave's trust because the guy was dealing with enough right now and he didn't need to deal with Mike killing people in the Capitol.

"Fine. Where is he?"

"I'll bring you to him."

They walked slowly through the halls and then they were approaching a door. He saw there was an ID scanner on the door. Jeremy scanned a card and then opened the door slowly.

"Where are his kids?" Mike asked softly.

"I told them that their dad needed some space and he had a visitor coming for a private chat. Now let me talk to him for a minute."

Mike nodded and stood at the door. He watched the therapist walk into another door. He didn't fail to notice the metal bars over the windows and the obvious lack of anything sharp or heavy to bust out with. He smirked slightly. They still didn't trust Chester. And why should they? And then Jeremy was coming back and in tow, he had the man that made Mike's fire ignite. It took all his willpower not to jump the man right there.

"I'll leave you two for a bit. Mike, remember what I said."

Mike nodded his head slightly but didn't take his eyes off of Chester who was sitting on the edge of the couch. Jeremy left and Mike took a step towards the man on the couch.

"I didn't think you'd actually come."

The words were quiet. They had no force behind them like they usually did.

"Yea well I don't want to be anywhere near you," Mike snapped. Chester looked up at him and Mike felt any hope he had of Chester not being under the drug vanished when he saw the dark brown eyes replacing the emerald ones.

"You shouldn't want to be anywhere near me. I know I can never make up for what I did to your family," Chester whispered.

"No you can't. Every instant you're alive kills me. You deserve to die," Mike managed. Finally being able to yell at Chester like this made him feel good. He wanted this man to know that everything he'd done would never be forgiven. "I hate you. I don't care that you were under some stupid drug. I hate you and I can't believe that Dave is stupid enough to spare your pathetic life. If things had gone my way, I would've killed you in that torture room. You remember that don't you?"

Chester nodded but didn't say a word. Mike stalked forward and grabbed the man's collar. He pulled him to his feet.

"I meant every word. I'm glad I did everything I did to you. Maybe Dave won't kill you, maybe he'll allow me to get my hands back on you instead. Wouldn't you like that?"

"Can you please let me go?" Chester asked quietly. Mike dropped the man to the floor and had to restrain himself from kicking him.

"Why did you want to talk to me?" Mike asked angrily, "Why the hell would you want me anywhere near you?"

"I wanted to know......if....if you remembered anything you did during elementary school."

"Why the fuck would you want to know that?" Mike asked, "God you're crazy. You're a total psycho."

"You went to Dayton in California," Chester said softly. Mike glared at him.

​"Nice government intel there."

"I remember going to Dayton," Chester said finally and Mike stared at him in shock. There was no way they had gone to the same school. Mike would've remembered him. Wouldn't he have? "I remember playing with my friends on the playground in the summer and there were these two boys playing there too. We....We weren't really nice kids so we hung the older one up by his collar and beat him up."

"Run! Run from the bad guys!" the older boy mocked and the two other kids started laughing. The older kid grinned evilly and punched him in the stomach.

"Try escaping now!"

More laughter as Mike struggled to get off the pole.

"Nice one Chaz! Look at him squirm!"

The older boys laughed and stood in front of him. They were cruel to taunt him like this.

"Hey Chester, why don't you give him a taste of what the real bad guys would do to him?"

"Yea, yea I think I will. Are you ready to run?" he grinned again as he unhooked Mike from the pole and shoved him, "You have ten seconds before we chase you. GO!"

Mike sprinted from the playground, grabbing Jason on the way.

"We have to run. You need to get over the fence Jay, and run home okay?"

"We're coming!"

"Go!" Mike said as he boosted his brother up onto the fence. He watched as his brother climbed quickly over and landed on the other side. He turned to see the older boys skipping towards him and laughing.

"Don't let the bad guys get ya!"

He started climbing up the fence and he was about to get to the top when they grabbed his legs. He cried out and kicked at them. They were going to beat him up and he was afraid. They pulled him back down to their side. The boy in the front grinned at him.

"Awwww, don't be afraid. We won't hurt you. Not that much anyway."

Mike whimpered and pressed back against the fence. These boys had to be in in junior high already. Why were they here? Mike struggled as the boy grabbed his arms and pulled him up. He did the only thing he could think of. He punched the kid in the face. Blood spurted from the boy's nose and he staggered backwards, holding his face and letting go of Mike. Mike clambered up the fence and jumped to the other side. He grabbed Jason's hand and they ran.

"I'll kill you! You and your little friend too! I'll kill you, you fuck boy!"

Mike was on Chester in an instant, "You're a sick bastard you know that? That drug didn't change you at all. You've always been that way."

"M-Mike.....I-I.....I admit I made bad choices when I was younger but...."

But Mike didn't want to hear it. He slammed Chester hard against the floor and wrapped his hands around his neck. He'd kill the bastard. He didn't care what Dave thought. Chester struggled desperately under him while he tried to pry Mike's fingers from his throat.

"I hate you!" Mike screamed as he pressed down harder on the man's throat. Chester's struggling started to weaken and his eyes widened slightly. His hands didn't grip his fingers as hard. And then people were in the room and he was being pulled off of Chester. Chester was laying still on the ground, eyes shut. His chest rose and fell slowly. He hadn't killed him. He saw that Bono was the one who had grabbed him and Jeremy was leaning down next to Chester. He was led out of the room and taken to a different room. He sighed as he sat down on the couch in the room. He was left alone until Brad and Joe came in.

"Hey Mike," Brad said softly.

"What do you guys want?"

"Dave told us that you went to talk to Chester. How is he?"

"Pathetic," Mike growled.

"Dave was talking about possible punishments for him. The death sentence was one of them."

"Good."

"No one that he asked voted for it," Joe said and Mike stared at him in shock.

"What!?"

"He asked around the entire Capitol building. No one said they would give him the death penalty."

"Why not? He's murdered hundreds of people."

"Mike, if we killed Chester for doing those things, we'd have to kill Austin and we'd have to kill Jeremy," Brad said.

"What were the other ideas?"

"Jail time," Joe said as he thought, "Rigorous civil services was another. And...."

"And what?" Mike asked.

Brad sighed softly, "There was mention of giving him back to you with strict orders that you weren't allowed to kill him."

Mike stared at them. Dave had considered that? He trusted him enough to listen to him? He felt bad that he'd attempted to kill Chester now. If Dave had trusted him enough to follow his orders to have Chester to himself to punish, that meant he'd betrayed that trust when he'd tried to kill the man today. He sighed as he put his head in his arms.

"I think you should head home," Joe said.

"Oh, and a message from Jeremy," Brad said as they got up to leave, "He'd like it if you came back tomorrow for another session with Chester."

Mike watched the two leave and shook his head in disbelief. He was going to come back tomorrow to talk to his family's murderer. He walked out of the room and down the hall. He saw Dave coming out of Chester's room and he turned his back and left the building. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now.