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“No, I think you’ve lost touch with reality!” Kennedy chuckles, her feet dragging along the ground as she’s forced through the main hallway of the republic’s capitol, shielding her face almost immediately with the expectation of the Californian sun bleeding into the building through the now-parting doors. “Does this little runt ever shut up?” an NDF soldier in heavy armour questions aloud, passing the question to the man whom he walks alongside with a casual reflection.
“She’s Morris’ little sister. Do you really think she’d make this easy on you?” the second guard replies, ignoring the younger sibling’s comments as the teenager pulls her face away from her inner arm, surprised to not find her eyelids shaded red at the intense illumination of daylight. Without a word, Kennedy takes her eyes toward the sky that she’s guided toward, the ropes fashioned around her wrist making it impossible to wriggle away without a challenge. “The sky is... green?” Kennedy whispers aloud, looking on in awe at the ill colour that the heavens present to her, unsure of what to make of it other than the storm it threatens to cast over the republic. “When did the-?” the teenager asks, only to discover that the men carrying her onward have come to the same stop that she has, a man near the front of the group having already wrapped her restrained around a wooden stake at the centre point of the capitol’s foremost set of stairs. “Good luck, kid” one of the soldiers behind the republic’s prisoner calls out, taking amusement in the predicament that befalls the young enemy of the state, “let’s hope your sister is as selfless as she is selfish.” Without offering another word, the soldiers who’d escorted Kennedy out to the front steps of the capitol now leave her where she was left, her binds tied to the stake out in the open without any obstruction overhead to protect her from the elements that pose an obvious threat. “Sorry, little one” a second man calls out, his uniform dawning the insignia of the Angelino Republic, whereas his contemporaries’ had emblazoned the American flag. Visibly apologetic, the man who’d once sworn to the service of Kennedy’s sister retreats with those that he’s meant to serve alongside, taking disgust in the action they partake within where his colleagues take distinct pleasure. “The little bitch couldn’t aim for shit” Julia groans, sliding her arms into the sleeves of a jacket as she stares through the window of her hospital room. With the left side of her throat heavily bandaged, the chancellor eyes the republic’s downtown with visibly malicious intent, very little of note to offer through her words. “Send one of your men to fetch Blake and have him post a team around the capitol’s perimeter” Julia carries on, moving past the circumstance that had left her as a patient in her own hospital in favour of what their next plan of attack is, “once word gets back to Jaime about us leaving her sister to die outside the capitol, she’ll do whatever she can to get there.” “Actually, Blake will no longer be serving as the head of your security detail” Wade interjects, his proclamation being one that earns the chancellor’s full attention, her body turning along with her head as her eyes take to the NDF’s leader. “He, nor those in his ranks, have shown enough competence to be trusted with carrying out duties on behalf of the city or the NDF any further” the man carries on, “for that reason, I’ve chosen to relieve them of their responsibilities.” “You fired my security detail?” Julia quips back, asking a question that the NDF’s leader has already answered. “I’ve ordered a group of NDF soldiers to serve as your protection from this moment forward. These men have at least proven they are capable of getting the job done when asked” Wade replies, taking no concern over the displeased expression the chancellor returns to him, “from this moment forward, Blake’s services are no longer beholden to this city.” “You can’t just fire my security deta-” Julia retorts, her obvious dissatisfaction interrupted by the voice of the soul that stands across from her, his interjection proving which of the two holds the greater power over the other. “Ms. Avallone, I can do whatever I please. As the figurehead of the New Democratic Front- and your ticket to Honolulu- I am beholden to no one” Wade declares, his position made unmistakably clear, “if I wish to relieve people of their duties, I do not need permission.” Though her lips sit slightly apart from each other, the chancellor’s open mouth does not present the man across from her with a retort, but instead complete silence. Instead, Julia presses her teeth together and turns away without a reply, staring back toward the republic she wields the power of whilst continuing to appear incapable of removing her eyes from the sickly glow in the sky. “How long will it be until the storm?” the chancellor wonders aloud, switching the topic at hand before her pride can present her with the opportunity to show her superior any disrespect or retaliation. “The first lightning strike came in the early hours of the morning. The storm’s coming in from the southeast, so calculations suggest it’ll take slightly longer than usual” Wade answers, watching his subordinate adjust her jacket accordingly, “it should strike no earlier than sundown.” With a glance at the watch on her wrist, Julia takes note of the smallest hand sitting at the top-most side of the device, the longest hand barely an inch ahead. “If it’s just turned noon, that should give us eight hours or so before we need to send out an ‘immediate shelter’ warning” the chancellor declares, sliding her jacket’s sleeve back to its original position before pulling her long strands of hair out from the coat’s collar, “let’s get this done with.” = Dire is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards = Staring at the ceiling as the back of his head rests firmly within his pillow, a distraught Blake resides with a blank expression on his face, unable to show more emotion than the loss that comes with having no future of certainty to speak of. “Blake!” his wife calls out from further in their home, the pause that she holds allowing the man an opportunity to reply that he doesn’t take, her voice instead just prompting him to close his eyes and try to ignore it. “Honey, I need you in here!” the woman calls out once more just seconds later, her voice immediately followed by the repetitive sound of barking not too far off. Again being left with no reply, Blake’s wife carries on with her silence for an even longer period of time, her footsteps drawing closer to the bedroom where her husband still resides, though she does not enter and instead chooses to remain beyond its door. “Honey, I need you now!” the woman calls out yet again, though her voice sounds much further off than beyond the barrier to their bedroom door, her persistence beginning to annoy the disposed-of security detail, though her distance from the room appears much more odd than it should. “Can’t you leave me alone, please?” Blake calmly asks aloud, his voice barely able to make it past the bedroom door, where he opens his eyes and believes his wife to be. For a few additional seconds, the man is met with silence as only the barking of his dog fills the air. “Honey, will you get the-” Blake adds on, beginning to speak with the same, calm tone he had initially began speaking in, only for his wife’s voice to call out from further within the home once more, thoroughly confusing the unemployed and scarred individual. “Honey, please come out here!” the woman proclaims once more, her distance further prompting Blake’s eyes to widen for a moment, only for him to immediately reach for the nightstand. Returning his tuque, sunglasses and gaiter to his head, the man- still in his sleepwear- finally climbs out of bed and makes for the room’s exit, peering around the corner and down the hallway beyond without seeing the woman he’d married. “Honey!?” Blake shouts, stepping through the door and immediately making for the larger side of the home, stepping through the darkness of a hallway whose every door remains as closed as his own had. Assuming nothing, the unemployed member of Julia’s inner circle continues about his day whilst concealing his identity from the children he anticipates are amidst the process of getting ready for school. Drawing closer to the barking, Blake rounds the final corner toward his living room before finding the back of a woman’s head standing in the centre of the communal space, staring down at the man’s wife and children, whose hands are restrained to each other’s. “Wha-!?” the unassuming father blurts out, watching the woman’s familiar face turn back to look at him as the shift in her body reveals the gun she holds at the family, though a strike to the head prevents him from finishing the thought. Hitting the floor hard, Blake’s landing sends a crashing thud throughout the home, disturbing various knick-knacks that line the walls, shaking pinned-up picture frames and triggering the caged-up dog in the corner of the room to begin barking out of anger. “Please, don’t hurt him!” the man’s wife calls out, watching the woman who’d taken aim at her with the pistol glance back and strengthen her aimed position. “We’ve got no reason to hurt any of you- so long as you do what we say” a voice all-too familiar to Blake’s ears replies, though he fails to pick up on it at first as he struggles to gather his bearings. Without another word, the figure responsible for the surprise assault on the facially-disfigured father grabs him by the neck and leads him up to his knees, the tip of a knife guided up to the skin of the man’s chin from her hand. “My glasses! Fix my glasses!” Blake shouts aloud, still yet to collect himself, but adamant that his facial wear be adjusted accordingly. Saying nothing, the person whose hand wraps around the space between his neck and left shoulder keeps her steady grasp on the blade, slowly releasing the man’s flesh from her opposite palm before following suit with his request, gradually correcting the way in which the glasses sit upon her hostage’s face and fixing the tuque that sits atop his head. “He doesn’t want his kids to see him like... the way he is” Alex remarks, her figure made out more clearly by the man who dawns his best disguise to mask the horrid reality he’s been left to live with, standing just a few feet away from his wife with a weapon directed toward her. “I get it...” the woman doubles down, looking into the glasses that shield the burns the man’s eyes, his only feature slightly-untouched by the flames that had scarred him, “...I do get it.” “What do you want?” Blake calmly asks, staring into Alex’s eyes before feeling the palm of the figure holding him at knife-point return itself to his inner neck and shoulder. “You know what I want” the familiar voice replies, this time speaking to a man much more capable of recognising the voice that answers his question, watching her figure slowly step around him and drop to a knee, making her eyes level with his own, “and by the sound of it, I’ve only got a few hours to get it done.” For the first time since his injury, Blake stares forward at the woman who sits upon one knee before him, looking into the eyes of the soul he’d betrayed that very same night. “My sister’s tied to a post just outside the front doors of the capitol. There’s a crowd growing at the bottom of the front steps, and there’s not one little bit of space that the NDF isn’t occupying” Jaime explains, painting the picture that the security detail is seemingly unaware of, “I don’t have time to waste.” “He was fired last night” the man’s wife remarks, her proclamation one that fails to resonate with either the mother who holds her hostage or the daughter who holds her husband captive. “Fired or not, he knows all the in’s and out’s of that building. And I know for a fact that he knows who to call to figure out which spots they don’t have covered” Jaime replies, still holding her blade against the man’s flesh without plans of retreating without something of value to take for herself. “Even if you got past them, you’d have no shot at getting your sister free without them catching you” Blake rebukes, challenging the woman’s conclusion, but finding no relent in her presentation. “I have it on good authority that at least a sizeable chunk of the NDF will already have their hands full by the time I get up there” Jaime responds, carefully switching the hand she wields the knife with whilst exchanging her hold on the man with the now-free one. “What I need out of you is a way to slip through them so- by the time they have other matters to attend to- I’m already inside enemy lines” the deposed chancellor concludes, having already bested her once-ally, and now setting her sights upon fulfilling her retribution, “whatever you do after that doesn’t matter to me. As long as I can get past them before they have the chance to act, you can take your family and head for the hills.” “You expect me to believe you’ll let me go?” Blake retorts, calling his former superior’s bluff whilst shaking his head, momentarily glancing back toward his family with every opportunity he has to, “you want after Wade and Julia- but I’m just as much of the reason why they got into power as they are. If you want the two of them dead- that means you also want me dead.” Keeping silent and to herself, Jaime stares into the centre of the man’s sunglasses before letting go of his body, letting her hand fall toward her lap for a moment before suddenly lifting it to rip the covers over his eyes away from his face. “Stop! No!” Blake cries out, pulling back before feeling her hand press against his neck, pulling him back up to the blade and looking him in the eyes as he begs. “The fact that you can’t envision showing your face to your own children is more than enough punishment to last a lifetime in my eyes” Jaime rebukes, taking her hand away from the man’s shoulder for a second time and slipping her finger into the top of his gaiter, holding it there for a moment. “I’m walking into the belly of the beast today, and I’m willing to sacrifice knocking three birds out with one stone in return for a leg up” the survivor remarks, “give me that and I’ll consider us even.” “If you really want to protect your kids from seeing you as you are, you’ll take her up on her offer” Alex quips from off to the side, keeping the rest of the man’s family at bay with the firm hold of her weapon, speaking to the man from the heart, “she’ll take off whatever face covers you’ve got left, slit your throat, let your family watch you die and take her chances at getting into the capitol without your help if you don’t.” With his lip quivering out of fear, Blake pulls his eyes away from the Morris family’s matriarch and steadies them upon Julia’s predecessor, the unwavering line of sight she holds upon him making it clear that Alex’s conclusion is accurate. | “Even if we’re getting closer to the handoff every day, I’d still appreciate it if you allowed me to run this city undisturbed for whatever time I have left with it” Julia remarks, remaining seated at her chancellor’s desk as her colleague occupies the visitor’s half. “Ms. Avallone, you’ve played pretend-leader for almost a year at this point. I think you’ve had your fun” Wade explains, calmly seated with one leg crossed atop the other. “Who says I’m having fun with this job?” Julia questions sincerely, leaning back in her seat as the world around the republic’s capitol building grows increasingly green. “Do you think I like spending every day having to step around eggshells just to make sure whatever call I make doesn’t go against the best interest of the NDF?” the chancellor carries on, challenging her acquaintance’s line of thought, “do you think having my every call second-guessed is appealing?” “I don’t think you care about what is- or is not- appealing so long as it lands you in that beach house you’ve been working toward ever since taking office” Wade responds, a smile carried over his face. “A beach house that I’m no longer entitled to if you end up dead” Julia corrects, letting one arm sit atop her lap whilst her dominant one rests along the side of her chair, “and ever since I got a whiff of Jaime, you’ve been doing everything in your power to get that way.” “It’s easy to consider yourself untouchable when you’re surrounded by the best that the world’s greatest military power ever has to offer” Wade reassures, the smile only further establishing itself along his face. “It’s unfortunate that such a power’s leadership ultimately landed us where we are now” Julia cuts back, ignoring the sound of hassle that her ears barely capture in the distance of the capitol, “I’m sure the people in charge back then thought they were untouchable too, right?” “What’s done is done. The world that we live in now- one ripe for the NDF to retake and subject to the occasional acid rain storm every now and then- is all we’re left with and can work for” Wade retorts, ending the woman’s line of thought before it can unravel too far, “and in a few week’s time, the New Democratic Front will begin that process by officially reclaiming Los Angeles- reunited- as its own.” “Then let’s hope our plan today goes off without a hitch” Julia replies, watching the NDF’s leader grow more comfortable in the give that his chair provides. “Hitch or no hitch- I don’t see a reason why anything about this should sit too heavily on my conscience” Wade rebukes, shrugging in his seat whilst he speaks, quickly fixing his tie as he sinks further into the chair, “I’ll give Ms. Morris credit for where she left this city, but she’s hardly the boogeyman you-” “Excuse me, sir?” a man in a suit calls out from the office’s doorway, earning the refocused attention of the NDF leader upon his request. “Yes, Patrick?” Wade replies, forced to sit upright just slightly in order to look toward his own security’s high-ranking detail. “There’s an issue at the steps of the capitol that I think you might want to see” Patrick answers, leaving the quip at that for those in his presence to make of. | “Get out of here you dirty twats!” a man in a windbreaker exclaims, spitting similar vigour to what most of his Angelino peers do, their words directed at the large group that share the space of public gathering with them. “May glory befall the Republic, may she stand in spite of those who did her wrong!” Carly cries out, standing at the forefront of her peacekeeper brothers and sisters at the bottom-most step of the republic’s capitol, their collective voices ringing through the air in unison. “May glory befall the Republic, may those she loves never stop singing her song!” she continues to cry out, leading those behind her in chanting the anthem that had remained a tightly-kept secret, one for only the ears of those that remained perceptive enough to hear them. Being made privy to this disruption, Julia and Wade join the suited soldiers in stepping out to the steps of the once-city hall, their presence immediately being noticed by the teenager tied to the wooden stake. “May glory befall the Republic, may justice befall those who smother her name!” the peacekeepers continue to exclaim, crying out with the spirit of the republic’s true underground revolution. “Do you see Jaime anywhere in there?” Julia questions, standing to the right of the NDF’s leader with a few feet of space to spare between them, a quiet shake of Wade’s head making the answer clear. “May glory befall the Republic, may those she loves forever love her the same!” Carly continues to cry out, her words caught by Kennedy’s ear and bringing a smile to her face, aware that those she’d chosen to stand beside have done much the same- just as their anthem would’ve wanted. “Do you see any of the others in there then?” Julia questions aloud, again receiving no response of valuable use, the united voices of those she’d once guided into a rebellion now defeating those of the Angelino’s. With a pause, the peacekeepers pull apart along the frontlines and make room for those within their ranks to step forward, revealing themselves to the figures that be. “Fuck yeah” Kennedy murmurs, watching on with a smile from her imprisoned place as three familiar souls step into the public’s eye for the first time in nearly a year. “Boss!?” one of the NDF’s leaders proclaims, looking back at their commander whilst patiently awaiting his orders. Slightly displeased to find those he does, Wade quietly stares at the rebellion group’s front line before taking his eyes back to the subordinate who’d looked for his approval, nodding in the man’s direction and granting his men permission to descend the capitol’s steps, their collective intent being to arrest the fugitives familiar to Kennedy. “Live or die, fight with pride- she stands tall!” Chevy, Kayla, and Alex call out, joining Carly and the peacekeepers in putting up a front that the NDF, nor the republic’s forces, truly know the intention of, “heart beating- no retreat in the face of war!” Looking toward each other, members of the republic’s own military take notice of their former commander in the crowd, quietly wondering amongst each other whether or not their allegiances reside where they’re meant to. “Put your hands where we can see them!” the highest-ranking member of the NDF’s on-duty fleet calls out, aiming his rifle at the Morris’ matriarch, the married couple she’s befriended, and the opposition group’s newest leader with the intent of seeing them stand down. Unwavering in their positions, Carly, Chevy, Kayla, and Alex continue to cry the tune of the republic as their oppressors approach, “glory, glory to the Republic...” On command, the peacekeepers fall silent at the conclusion of the anthem’s penultimate line, joining the members of the republic that oppose them in staring toward the top steps of the capitol in shock and awe, some unable to believe who they’re seeing whilst others cheer in the long-awaited sight. “...Or may she fall defiant forevermore” Jaime concludes, loud enough for only the republic’s figureheads to overhear as the occupies the space between them, both sets of eyes taking toward her with surprise and disbelief. “Guar-!” Julia exclaims with widened eyes, unable to finish her thought before her predecessor adjusts her stance and punches her in the mouth, only to follow it up by quickly ducking a sneak attack from the NDF’s leader and dragging her blade against his sternum. “Ahh!” Wade grunts in pain, clutching at his stomach before falling over, staring toward the desired sight of his former subordinate’s face beyond the backdrop of the ill-coloured sky. With her knife in tow, Jaime stands over her staggered enemies with flared nostrils and an odd composure, her presence only now taken notice of by the two force’s various militants. With their weapons aimed, the NDF’s soldiers attempt to ascend the stairs once more before finding their efforts interrupted by an unexpected turn of events. Grasping her blade even firmer, Jaime stares at the republic’s fleet of militants and quickly takes the collar of Wade’s shirt into her grasp, pulling his head closer toward her knife as a way of convincing them to stand down, only for shock to come over her own face as the men she once manned the helm of carry past her. “Put your weapons down!” one of the men at the frontline of the republic’s soldiers calls out, descending the few steps at the top of the capitol as they take aim at the NDF’s forces, surprising the New Democratic Front, the peacekeepers, and the remaining citizens in betraying the current regime. “What are you doing!?” Julia screams out, pushing herself off the ground whilst holding her jaw, running after the men her command is supposed to be followed by before leaping back, watching the nearest member of the republic’s militia turn their gun against her. Standing by with Wade still in her reach, Jaime stares toward the opposing forces with widened eyes, unsure of whether or not the sight that’s unfolding before her is real. “What’s going on!?” Alex calls out, struggling to process the sight of the Angelino Republic’s military holding that of the NDF’s back, preventing the superior forces from interfering with her daughter’s mission. Ushering not a single word in response, Chevy and Kayla take each other’s hands and ascend the first few steps of the capitol, drawing closer to the first wave of NDF guards, who refuse to open fire against their republic-serving colleagues despite the danger to their leader. Relinquishing her grasp on Wade’s collar, Jaime stands upright just a few feet away from where her sister is restrained, realising that the republic’s leader may have changed nearly one year prior, but their loyalty to her never had. “Men and women of the Angelino Republic... Protect Chancellor Morris at all costs!’ Chevy howls from one of the bottom-most steps of the city hall, his voice reaching the ears of the deposed chancellor, the woman’s sister, and those who’d ousted her. “Yes, sir!” the same soldier who’d turned his weapon against Julia shouts back, his place amongst the frontline taken over by one of his peers, his motivation now dedicated to keeping the faux-chancellor in place. “What’s happening?” Jaime questions aloud, struggling to fully comprehend that the men whose services the once-doctor had stolen from her have now been returned. “They’re turning against Julia!” Kennedy screams out, watching her sister’s face turn back toward her as the answer is called out. “You bastards! I’m your leader!” Julia wails out, berating the men whose actions are supposed to be dictated by her for their betrayal, the efforts she takes in scolding them doing little to change the fact that she’s now been rendered powerless over the republic, its people, and its military. “Goddamnit” Wade hisses, speaking through his teeth as he quickly scoots away from the knife-wielding survivor whose leadership he’d disowned once she’d been ousted, reclaiming her full attention as he attempts to create separation between them. For a few seconds, Jaime pulls her eyes away from the NDF’s wounded commander and looks back toward the republic’s front line, their devotion to her made resoundingly clear as they answer her call to action. “Cut my sister free” Jaime orders the man who’d held Julia at gunpoint, his eyes taking toward her before joining his head in nodding, retreating from the ex-chancellor’s attention and hurrying toward Kennedy’s aid, quickly slicing at her restraints and sparing her from harm. “And here I thought it was just your security detail and closest confidants that were incompetent” Wade grunts, staring at an irate Julia as her eyes meet his own, “it turns out... I backed the wrong horse.” “You’re not much better looking yourself, asshole” Jaime quips, regaining the injured founder’s line of sight as she slowly closes the distance between them, his retreating crawl the only thing that keeps him from facing the consequences he’s due for. “You were the one that convinced yourself that you were untouchable” Julia angrily bites back, speaking with a striking amount of composure as she grimaces at the man. “I was under the belief that you were the true chancellor of this city, you wretched bitch!” Wade shouts back, a vein protruding from his forehead as he climbs to a knee, struggling to stand upright once more. “Say no further... That was the only mistake you needed to make” Jaime responds, speaking with the newfound reassurance that her blind sides are covered and her command is as intact as it ever was, each word uttered with the utmost confidence, “this republic has only one, true chancellor.” Unanimous in their subscription to such a declaration, the Angelino Republic remains at Jaime’s guard, unrelenting in their act as a blockade between the NDF as its leader, leaving the man at the mercy of their true commander. “Perhaps you’re right... Perhaps I underestimated the power you wield over this place” Wade responds, finally making it back to his feet, though partially hunched forward as his hands press against the gash on his abdomen. Slipping her hands away from the rope that had restrained her at the wrists, Kennedy watches on with the soldiers of both forces at the conversation had amongst the capitol’s top step, the leader of the world’s new direction face-to-face with its prodigal daughter. “One thing- however- that I’m certain I haven’t underestimated is your intellect” Wade continues, watching the returned chancellor’s slow march toward him pause momentarily, “specifically... your common sense.” Holding his hand out as a precaution, Wade keeps the space between himself and the chancellor as long as he can, pausing his retreat just as she halts her progression. “He’s all talk, Jaime” Kennedy remarks, seething at the NDF’s leader and the gutless display of self-preservation he presents, “do the world a favour and finish what you started.” “Sentencing me to death would do nothing but sentence everyone else here- yourself, your sister, your family, everyone- to death as well” Wade quickly responds, briefly looking toward the younger Morris sibling before turning his sights back toward her elder sister. “Without me, there is no future for this city. The second I die is the point of no return for your republic, Jaime” the man carries on, explaining himself fluently, “if I can’t have this place, nobody can.” Taking four steps forward with an increased grasp of the knife, Jaime’s progression is halted once more by a voice she’d not anticipated being worth anything to her. “He’s telling the truth, Jaime!” Julia calls out, her balled fists hanging by each of her sides as the scenario plays out, watching the woman’s eyes fall upon her, “if Wade dies, the rest of the NDF is supposed to fall back and retreat for Pearl Harbor.” “Bullshit!” Kennedy shouts back, only for her rebellious remark to be discouraged by the same man who’d once held her older sister beneath his thumb. “It’s not bullshit. The NDF’s orders are to retreat for Pearl Harbor, report the city as a lost cause, and authorise a missile strike that would render it inhospitable for anyone- both ourselves or people like you- to live in” Wade hurriedly reassures, wincing in pain whilst keeping himself standing upright, “without me... this place goes away.” “Jaime, he’s not lying!” Julia cries out, doubling down on the man’s claims beyond what Kennedy can muster. “If you kill him, everyone here dies!” she carries on, remaining stood in the same place the gun had been drawn toward her, the event officially marking the end of her reign over the republic, “maybe you don’t care about that. Maybe you didn’t expect to make it out of this alive, but I highly doubt you’d be willing to kill Chevy and Kayla, or your mom, or your sister for this.” “She wouldn’t, which is why she hasn’t killed me yet!” Wade shouts back, dissuading his former business partner from speaking any further than she already has, preferring to take over the mantle himself. Trying to catch his breath as he drops to a knee for a moment, the man extends his hand toward Jaime as a gesture to not capitalise on his weakness, pleading with her to afford him the chance to explain himself. “I’m not going to pretend like I’d be willing to leave you with this city, because I’m not. However, what I would be willing to leave you with is a choice” Wade continues, pausing for a moment as Jaime’s chin lifts, suggesting the woman is willing to at least hear his offer out. “I respect you, Ms. Morris. I’m very displeased to see how easily Ms. Avallone had manipulated you, but that displeasure is nothing compared to how impressive the loyalty of your subordinates is” the man proceeds, his hand gesturing toward the armed forces that stand at her every demand, “for every second that I live, I will forever be kicking myself for underestimating just what kind of impact you’ve left this city- and its people- with.” “Yeah, you fucked up” Kennedy quips from aside, quickly being met with the founder’s agreement. “I certainly did. I underestimated your people, Jaime. I underestimated your replacement’s true pull with this city, and I underestimated you” Wade rejoinders, gingerly lifting himself back off of a knee whilst Julia scoffs at how easily his tune had changed, “but, I’d like you to allow me the opportunity to make this right.” “How the fuck do you think you can accomplish that?” Jaime inquires, shaking her head with an incredible doubt over her adversary’s claims. “First of all, I can guarantee your loved ones safety. I think assuring you that your family, and the married couple that you’re close with, and anyone else you may have fondness for will be safe is a good place to start” Wade replies, viewing the conversation as one worthy of believing there will be a preferable outcome to. “And while I can’t stand for the continuation of your- Angelino Republic- any longer, I can stand for allowing you to remain in power whilst the NDF ventures further inland” Wade proceeds, unable to see the scowl emerge over Julia’s face a few paces behind himself, “I’m not going to be able to stay in Los Angeles forever. Eventually, I’m gonna need to leave someone to look after it while we move on with reclaiming the lower forty-eight, and who better for that to be than you, Ms. Morris?” Pressing her lips together, Jaime stares into the man’s frantic eyes and takes notice of the softening to the gel he’d styled his hair with, allowing for strands to slip out of their previously-fixed positions and hang in front of his eyes. “You’ve already proven your leadership qualities to me, and now- you’ve proven to be the kind of person an army of men and women would stop at nothing less than to die for!” the wounded founder declares, a smile coming over his face. “I may not value the republic in the way that you do, but I certainly value what it’s become thanks to you! Through it, you have become a leader that the people of the old world could’ve only ever dreamed to fall under the leadership of” Wade begins to conclude, feeling as though his point has been made as resoundingly as it’s ever going to be, winding down to the final stretch, “believing someone like that could simply be pushed out of power was a mistake.” “Of course it was” Jaime calmly replies, watching the man across from her vehemently nod in agreement with the claim. “Yes, yes! Of course it was!” Wade laughs with amusement, believing himself and the woman who’d given him the wound he struggles to keep from continuing to spill blood to finally be back upon the same page, “I’ll admit that it was nothing less than a terrible, terrible mistake! So please, Ms. Morris... Let me correct that mistake.” Keeping to herself, Kennedy stands by as her focus turns away from the hunched-over man a few yards away and takes back toward her older sister, unsure of what outcome is to unfold. Worried that she already knows what call is about to be made, Julia reserves her suspicions and holds her breath for seconds on end, feeling the weight of the tension that arises with every tick of the clock that goes without a reply. Hanging her head for a moment, Jaime stares at the ground before looking back to the knife, her grasp on the weapon releasing just slightly for the first time since launching her attack. Thinking to herself, the chancellor stares out toward the crowd of peacekeepers who she’d earned the trust of through promising for a better future, only to set her sights on the few figures that stand at the forefront of them, considering the comfort that comes in assuring their safety. Pulling her eyes away from the populous that endures the threat of the storm their green heavens threaten to rain down whenever it pleases in order to bear witness to the outcome of this showdown, Jaime takes her eyes back to the blade that sits in her palm. Parting her lips, the chancellor stares at the ground and lets her knife-wielding hand slowly return to her side, appearing to relinquish her intentions of using it to finish her mission. “Everyone knows how this is supposed to end” she mutters, afforded the silence by the three figures that stand before her, within earshot of her words as they’re now impossible to ignore. “It’s the only thing that gets me to sleep, it’s the only thing that keep me going, it’s the only thing I’ve been thinking about for so, so long” Jaime doubles down, speaking toward the ground whilst those within her company listen on, one pleased to do so whilst the others have no choice. “And now that I’m here, it doesn’t even feel like the thing that lulled me to sleep, but- instead- the dream that waited for me once my eyes actually stayed shut” she continues, the remark confusing the three that stand before her, unsure of where her remarks are leading. “Maybe I just devoted so much of myself to it that it no longer even feels real” Jaime proclaims, unsure of which is more likely, “but regardless, I know how this is supposed to end.” Straightening his stance upright, Wade remains clutching at his wound as the chancellor’s slow approach resumes once more, though her hand wields the knife in a much less threatening manner. “It may not always seem like it, but I’m pretty sure everyone else does too” Jaime continues to declare, a smile beginning to sprout upon her face, “they might not admit it, but they all know the same exact thing that’s coming from all of this.” “You’re not a stupid woman, Ms. Morris” Wade responds, assuring the woman that her intellect is more powerful than the drive that carries her onward, “you’re not selfish, either. You know what the right call is, and the right call is what’ll offer everyone here the best outcome.” “The best outcome doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right call, Wade” Jaime retaliates, shaking her head as she pauses her forward steps, the man’s feet no longer retreating. “In wanting revenge against you and Julia, I’m also admitting that there’s only one way out for me” the woman continues, no longer receiving pushback from the NDF’s founder, “and with all of this dreaming that I’ve been doing, it really feels like the right call is the one that brings me back to reality.” “Jaime-” Julia calls out, taking notice of the slight shift in her predecessor’s voice, though her call out of the woman’s name fails to prevent her from carrying on. “The Republic was a dream- a great dream- but one that- no matter what- doesn’t survive this” Jaime progresses, taking another step toward Wade, who lifts his chin and awaits the woman’s arrival toward him, “and even if it’s the last thing I do- with or without your help, Wade- I’ll make sure my loved ones make it out of this.” “You’re making a mistake, Ms. Morris” Wade responds, assuring the woman that the conclusion he believes she’s coming around to is the one she’ll regret for the limited time she has left. “No, the mistake that I made was the one that got me pushed out of power, Wade” Jaime corrects, shaking her head with an increasing smile, “that was the last mistake I will ever make.” “Jaime, all of this goes up in smoke if you follow through with this!” Julia warns, drawing the same conclusion as her superior and the woman who holds the fate of the circumstance within her hand. “The republic is already doomed, Julia. A pipedream is still a dream, and saving what’s already been sentenced to death is just that kind of pipedream” Jaime retorts, “and maybe it’s too late for my dream to have a happy ending, but I know it’s not too late to do this...” Firming her grasp on the knife, Jaime closes the distance between herself and the NDF’s leader, who grimaces in preparation and presses his eyes shut, watching the woman’s arm swing back and ready itself to propel forward. “It’s not too late to wake up!” the chancellor declares, lunging forward and piercing Wade’s sternum with the tip of the blade, every last inch of the knife plunging into the man’s flesh before quickly being ripped out, bringing the man to his knees. Having done as she’d set out to do, Jaime recalls one of their earliest conversations and the irony that’d befallen the vow she’d made to him before departing from their dinner table. Leaning down with the blood-soaked blade in her hand, the chancellor listens to the man’s grunts as the blood oozes from the wound she’d made, getting close to his ear and speaking in a whisper the declaration she’d promised to show him out of this life with. “Even if it’s upon its final hours, it will die just as it lived like I told you it would...” Jaime hisses, watching the man struggle for air as his face takes toward her, looking the woman in the eyes as his final moments are spent bearing witness to her declaration, “...as my republic.” Trying to capture a final breath, Wade’s airways fill up before he can utter a response, sending his eyes toward the ground that his body soon collapses the rest of the way toward, his death marking the impending end of the great republic as it stood. With her knife in hand, Jaime stands back toward her feet as smiles come over the face of the republic’s frontline, the sound of cheers shared between both the nation’s law-abiding civilians and its rule-bending peacekeepers. Pulling in a deep breath without awareness over what is still to come, Chevy, Kayla, Alex and Carly join in the festivities with a nod of reassurance once their friend- the chancellor- looks toward them. Smiling all the same, Kennedy watches her sister’s face take toward her for a moment before their collective attention sets upon the one figurehead that remains, Julia’s sight taking toward the younger sibling at first before settling on Jaime, whose dream has yet to be fully awakened from. == Dire ==
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“I think it’d be better if we were to just focus on what we do know” Wade responds, standing in the open with his arms crossed as his political colleague paces from one side of the corridor to the next. “What we know is that Jaime’s teenage sister is in our custody and locked in a room I’m sure she knows every way out of right now” Julia replies, assuring the man that what they’re privy to is more than understood, “what we know is that, if Kennedy’s here, then Jaime and the others are too.”
“Then there are an assortment of questions we have that we’re left without answers to” Wade counters, offering a second line of thought for the chancellor to feast upon, “such as where they are, who they’re working with, how they got back inside, and more importantly- what do they want.” “We already know what they want, Wade” Julia bites back, scoffing at the question whilst carrying on with her repetitive stroll, “they want us dead and this place back under their control.” Shaking his head in refusal, the NDF leader dismisses anything close to such a conclusion as beyond reasonable. “If that is the goal, then their efforts are already useless” the man rebukes, unfurling his arms and letting his hands fall into the pockets at his side. “Count your lucky stars all you want, but that won’t stop what I know is the case” Julia replies, stopping at the centrepoint of her walk, looking toward the man that stands opposite her. “Jaime’s got supporters rooted deep into this administration. They’re quiet about it to stay on my good side, but that loyalty is there” the chancellor doubles down, reassuring the fact that they don’t face a non-threatening foe, “if she finds a way to oust me, she’ll be taking her men to you.” “Ms. Avallone, she stands no chance at ousting the NDF from the republic. As I’ve stated, your administration may fare differently, but mine will not allow it to happen” Wade retorts, only to draw the interest of his collaborator, who lifts her eyebrows toward him. “And why is that, Wade? What makes you so confident in your men that no one stands a chance at ousting you?” the woman caves, begging the question she’d never thought to ask prior. “Because the lack of a chancellor in the city still leaves me in charge. Without me in charge, there will be no city to retake” Wade clarifies, watching the woman’s slightly-resumed pace come to a halt once more. “The NDF will not allow an enemy’s forces to push us off of the mainland. The mission statement here is final. If we can’t have it, no one can” the man doubles down, his motivations made clear, “if Jaime lucks her way into ousting me, the city would be dust in hours.” For a moment, the chancellor’s mind stops thinking of anything more than the claim made by her associate, assuming it to only indicate one thing above any other. “You’d bomb the city?” Julia whispers, her voice carrying further within the cramped walls of the tight and narrow dungeon, allowing it to reach the ears of the NDF’s leader rather comfortably. “Pearl Harbor has been an institution within the American military for nearly a century. If you think we hadn’t thought of putting even a few missiles on an island in the middle of the Pacific- that oversight isn’t our fault” Wade replies, taking a quick look through the two way mirror at the teenage girl that sits within, awaiting them, “if Jaime’s end goal is to just take our heads, that’s probably for the best... Because she’s in for a rude awakening if she thinks she can retake this city.” Parting her lips as this information settles in with her, Julia stares blankly at the NDF’s leader as he takes a pause, taking a few steps closer to her. “While we’re on the subject, I’d just like to make myself clear. If I were you, I would really hope Jaime gets the chance to kill you before she gets the chance to kill me” Wade remarks, looking he chancellor in the eyes, “because, in the event that your inaction gets me killed? Well, let’s just say there’s no beach house for you in Honolulu.” Swallowing her pride as the remark settles in with her, Julia continues to stare Wade in the eyes, aware of his proclamation as he turns away, setting his sights on the open space directly at the two-way mirror’s centre. “Go get whatever you can out of the girl” the figurehead of the NDF calls back, staring forward with his arms crossed once more, refusing to pay the chancellor even his line of sight whilst giving her the order. Trying her best to mask the aggravation that tries its hardest to present itself on her face, Julia steps into the stuffy interrogation room with open arms, quickly making it to the open end of the table without so much as a peep. Dragging the legs of the seat across the ground, the chancellor lets herself fall into the chair before staring at the silent teenage girl, who grimaces at the sight of the woman who’d ousted her sister from power. “Where’s Jaime?” the chancellor inquires, watching a smile immediately take in the corner of the young girl’s mouth as she leans back in her seat, aware of the game her opposition is attempting to play. “That’s not how this is going to work” Kennedy retorts, immediately refusing the woman a sufficient answer to much of her own satisfaction. “And how do you think this is going to work, you brat?” Julia questions aloud, seething in her seat whilst continuously trying to keep the younger adversary from noticing it, disliking the soul across from her on a personal standpoint, but not foolish enough to discredit her intelligence. “You keep looking for my sister because you want her dead, and you want her dead because she wants you dead” Kennedy replies, running through the cycle as if routine, “you ask about where she is because you know that she’s here- and she is- but you want the jump on her before she gets it on you.” “That’s exactly what’s happening here” Julia replies, reassuring the young woman of the accuracy in her statement, though her adversary needs no such reassurance. “Which means you know that I’m not going to tell you where she is. By the way, I find it funny to know that- even if I did tell you- she’d get away from you again” Kennedy carries on, feeding the chancellor words that only further irritate her, “and she’d keep getting away from you because this only ends when you die.” “So why bother turning yourself in? I don’t take you for a fool, so I’d warn that you’d be best off doing the same with me” Julia asks, aware that the younger woman’s motivations have pushed her to this approach, “you could’ve stayed hidden, but there was more use in being caught by me then sticking to the shadows. So why turn yourself in?” Though her answers had initially come off so quick that they almost appear pre-rehearsed, this question seemingly brings a pause over Kennedy, who stares with a straight face into the soul of the republic’s chancellor. For a few seconds, this silence persists as Julia waits on, aware that the young girl is thinking quietly to herself, and is intrigued by the retaliation that she assumes is amidst preparation. “Do you know what you were doing when the catalyst came in?” Kennedy suddenly wonders aloud, watching the brief squint come over the chancellor’s face before continuing. “I was in class yelling and calling this one kid- I don’t even remember his name- every name in the book you can think of” the girl carries forward, reflecting on the moment as if it were a fond memory, “he made some joke about me crying about getting yelled at by the principal. And I just lost it on him.” “What does this have to do with your sister?” Julia wonders aloud, only for her question to be disregarded by the younger girl as she carries on with her verbal look back at time. “Even though everything changed after that day, I kept thinking back to whether or not I should’ve yelled at the kid like that for a few months. I’m sure he died along with the others, and those might’ve been his final moments alive” Kennedy moves on, shaking head head in disappointment, “-being insulted by me.” Barely parting her lips with the intention of interrupting, Julia thinks better of her choice and opts to remain silent, hoping that her cooperation will earn much the same in response. “I felt bad about it. Everything I said was true from what I know, but I just felt bad that he- most likely- spent some of his final moments being embarrassed in front of his classmates” Kennedy confesses, a more sorrowful look carried on her face as she concludes, “and it was my fault.” “If you’re stalling, you might as well tell me now” Julia interjects, aware that the tactic is one she wouldn’t put past the teenager, though it’s one she doesn’t actually believe is unfolding. “I don’t think you feel bad about anything that you’ve done. I don’t know that there’s a part of you that can even comprehend feeling guilty for doing something horrible to someone” Kennedy proceeds, looking the chancellor in the eyes, “and that’s something I just don’t understand.” “You’re referring to my kicking your sister out of power, yeah- I get-” Julia immediately speaks aloud, only for the voiced refusal and shake of her adversary’s head to correct that assumption. “No, I’m referring to you killing your own brother” Kennedy responds, watching the chancellor fall silent as her lips press together again, not having expected that to be the conclusion her opposition was drawing toward. “The kid I yelled at was a dick, but I feel bad about speaking to him the way that I did- even after all these years” Kennedy carries onward, speaking though the pause that the chancellor provides her with, “but you... You killed your own damn brother for... For what?” Leaning back in her seat slightly, Julia uncouples her hands and lets them sit firmly upon the table’s surface, her eyes keeping glued to the ones worn by her prisoner as her thoughts try to adjust themselves. “He was having second thoughts and I did what I had to do” Julia soon answers, providing the most political answer she can conjure up in the moment, “besides, why would you care? You didn’t like him any more than me. Besides, he was fucking your mom, so I’d imagine you’d like him even less than me.” “You might’ve been two peas from the same pod, but there’s a very obvious difference between the two of you” Kennedy replies, the point she makes genuinely compelling the chancellor into remaining quiet, actively wanting to hear the captive girl out. “I’m not sure it would’ve changed much, but- even a year ago- I realised that Chris at least seemed like he cared. He seemed like he could at least be redeemable” the teenager continues, shaking her head as she looks her foe in the eyes. “You...” Kennedy concludes, pausing to inspect the woman’s distant visage before deepening the disappointed jostle of her head, “...you’re just a monster.” Though her irritation remains, the genuine anger she’d entered the room with no dissipates in favour of a deeply-contained sensation of respect- or rather a lack thereof- within the chancellor. Clearing her throat and looking away, the republic’s leader couples her hands and directs the conversation back toward where it belongs. “Why did you voluntarily turn yourself in?” Julia wonders aloud, getting back to business with the inquiry, “what do the others have to gain from it?” “Because now I’m your bait” Kennedy responds, answering the chancellor honestly with the assumption that the republic’s leader will wave it to lure her group into the open. “You know we’re after you and that we want you dead. The problem is, there’s not much of away for Jaime to get the jump on you, and there is definitely no way for you to get the jump on us” the teenager continues, finding very little reason to not spill the beans with the knowledge of what it’d lead to. “It doesn’t matter where this happens, but all of this can only end with you and Jaime approaching each other from the front...” Kennedy concludes, speaking the quiet part out loud, “...face to face.” “And you don’t see the concern with four people going up against the entire republic and the entire NDF?” Julia questions, watching Kennedy’s lips turn upward into a smile. “I suppose that depends on the circumstance-” the teenager replies, gradually leaning to the right in her seat whilst setting her eyes upon the mirror at the front of the room, “isn’t that right, Wade?” Taking her pupils to the corner of her eyes, Julia glances in the direction of the two-way mirror without a clue over how the man in the hallway is reacting. “My sister’s used these tunnels before and I’ve seen them for myself. I know you’re just as interested in finding Jaime as Julia is, and I know you’re out there” Kennedy calls out, leaving her chair and slowly approaching the front of the room, hand dragging the seat into the open. “This conversation doesn’t involve Wade, Kennedy” Julia interjects, only for the younger woman’s voice to suggest otherwise. “Of course it is. That’s the person who’s going to put all of this into motion just to set an example” Kennedy rebukes, coming to a stop at the front of the room and staring directly into the place which the NDF leader stands, “when the republic is thrown into chaos, it’ll be Wade that’ll make the calls. And it’ll be those calls that I’m counting on.” “What’re those calls?” Julia proceeds to question, leaving her seat before standing behind the chair she steps out of, aware that the question isn’t going to receive the answer it’s intended to earn. In silence, Kennedy narrows her eyes as her head slowly glides toward the direction of the chancellor, her lips parting to only to answer with a smirk. “The one’s he’ll make in response to this” the teenager replies, uttering not a word further before lifting her metal seat and hoisting it at the window with all of her might, immediately shattering it into hundreds of pieces. “What the fuck!?” Blake shouts from outside the corridor, ducking for cover as Wade hits the floor, having seen the attempted assault coming just in time to avoid the chair’s strike. Having thrown the seat with such force that she’d been taken to the ground, Kennedy climbs up to her knees and stumbles into the corner, holding her ribs as if the outburst had brought her pain. Angry, Julia marches across the room and reaches out for the collar of the teenager’s shirt, pulling the girl’s face toward her own with the tug of the fabric. Without a word, the chancellor stares into the eyes of Kennedy for only a second as the forces standing outside collect their bearings, not seeing an immediate need to take action in spite of the event’s violent nature. “What the hell do you-?” Julia immediately asks, staring into the girl’s face before taking notice of her responsive eyes and uncharacteristic smile, having assumed at first that the young woman was hurt, though such a conclusion now appears to have been premature. “I’ll let my sister finish the job, but I owe my friend at least this one thing” Kennedy calmly speaks, shoving the chancellor back before swiping at the woman’s throat with the other, using the shard of glass mirror she’d collected from the ground to slice at Julia’s jugular, prompting the woman to stumble back at the attack, “-that one was for Amelia.” Though some had begun to enter the interrogation room cautiously, the republic and NDF’s soldiers rush into the action the moment they watch the chancellor stumble back and grasp for her throat, trying to stop the blood that gushes from her wound. Without a care for the prisoner’s age or stature, multiple men tackle Kennedy to the ground and disarm her of the glass shard, wrapping handcuffs around the girl’s wrists whilst the republic’s leader bleeds out on the ground a short distance away. Though it had provoked trouble, Kennedy’s actions do little more than provoke a smile to spread across her face as Julia struggles to breathe, forcing whatever medics are on call to do their best at stopping the bleed. Having just climbed off the floor outside, Wade enters the room after everyone else does to find the result he’s now last to discover, looking at the chancellor curiously as she’s attended to by the medical professionals before staring at the prisoner to notice her pleased grin. = Dire is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards = “Why don’t we just run with the same plan!?” a man calls out, standing at the opposite side of a parking garage from the leader of his group, whose eyes take toward him once his voice is overheard. “Because Julia and Wade won’t just hold onto Kennedy without trying to use her as a way to lure me out to meet them” Jaime replies, standing off to the side of an exhausted Carly with hands tucked into her pockets and seated against the hood of a sedan, whose lamps shed light on the area. “Besides, going after Julia or Wade individually would leave the other with Kennedy” Carly adds on, lending further support to the change in approach they must now endure, “whoever that is would hold all the cards in their favour.” “Not to be a negative nancy or anything, but don’t they already hold all the cards?” a second voice calls out from the group of peacekeepers, all braving the unusually chilly night whilst forced to meet away from the tavern for their own protection, “they’ve got the little one. All they’d need to do is lure Jaime out with her, make her surrender, and that’s it.” “Which means I’d have to get the jump on them” Jaime interjects, still looking at the ground whilst she talks, “if I’m going to meet with them, I need to make sure I catch them by surprise, and I leave them no room to breathe.” “If you’re looking for that, you might as well just hire a hitman to take care of her” Alex scoffs, her voice only loud enough for her lone remaining daughter to hear clearly as it breaks within its whisper under the weight of knowing that her youngest offspring is in danger. “Wade almost never goes to the capitol and Julia doesn’t even make her addresses in public anymore” Carly responds, able to make out the words the mother speaks with despite her distance, “no chance of hitting both.” Sitting in the passenger’s seat of the vehicle the former chancellor leans against, Chevy holds a distant-eyed and angry Kayla, whose eyes refuse to leave the random place on the ground they’ve become fixed to. “It’ll only be a matter of time bef-” Jaime begins to remark, joining the peacekeepers, her married friends and her mother in ducking for cover as a jarring crash rings through the air out of nowhere, emanating like an explosion that prompts her to pause. “What the fuck was that!?” a voice shouts from within the group of peacekeepers on standby, looking toward the heavens in time to find a bolt of lightning zip through the sky, though the storm it indicates is just around the corner is anything but common. “Does anyone know if it’s dangerous to be in a parking garage when a rainstorm hits?” a second figure questions from within the core, ducking for cover against as Carly approaches one of the garage’s sides. “Why the fuck is it green!?” an even louder member of the peacekeepers calls out, begging the question as a second streak of lightning flashes through the sky, the colour it paints the clouds for the brief moment that it appears, however, being a dark and solid shade of green. “‘Cause it’s not a regular rainstorm...” Carly answers, her voice reaching the ears of all those who stand within her presence, “...it’s an acid rainstorm.” “Like the shit from when the catalyst hit!?” another peacekeeper calls out, just as worried and frantic as his peers appear to be. Quickly journeying up to Carly’s side, Jaime peers over the structure’s lip and stares into the sky, watching the grey clouds continue to roam their usual patterns without much in the way of disturbance, the sights allowing her to make a fairly-informed assumption. “No, no, no- the storm when the catalyst hit was made by the catalyst” Jaime responds, speaking loud enough for the rest of the group to overhear her, “we should still have a good amount of time before the rain actually starts falling.” “Yeah, this is more like when the waters in the ocean recede before a tsunami. The tsunami definitely will come, but the water receding is like a warning in advance” Chevy adds in, his wife standing from in his lap to join their friends at the garage’s side. “Should we get back home then?” another peacekeeper wonders aloud, calling out to the figures they look to for answers. “Not until we figure out a way to get my daughter back we’re not” Alex responds, a conclusion that her peers had already come to long ago. “It’s already safe to assume they’re going to use Kennedy as bait. The plan we should really be figuring out is how to get the jump on them so we’re not dead to rights when we come out of the woodworks” Jaime proclaims, returning to the vehicle she had seated herself upon the hood of. “Alright, then. What’s your plan?” Chevy queries, using the open passenger’s door to pull himself out of the vehicle, challenging his friend to follow through with her declaration and plot out a plan of attack. With a steady face, Jaime stares at the group of peacekeepers as she thinks to herself, considering the options at hand before questioning the approach she anticipates the republic’s figureheads to take. | “-and the chancellor is recovering well. The cut was not deep enough to cause any significant damage, and that is all we’re interested in saying at this time” Wade remarks, waving his hands to a group of journalists as they speak out in hopes of their additional questions being answered, only to receive the same dismissive gesture that prompts them to accept that inside information will not be disclosed to them. Turning away, Wade adjusts his neck tie and begins walking out of the hospital’s emergency room, venturing into the many corridors that line its halls with one of his particular interest. “Blake, I’d like you to do me a favour and get someone to make sure not a word leaks to the papers without my direct permission” the NDF leader requests, a displeased expression caked upon his bitter face as he pats the man on the shoulder. “Would you like me to return to the chancellor’s bedside after that, Mr. Cordova?” Blake questions, still wearing the tuque in spite of the lack of a need for it, his sunglasses still fashioned over his eyes despite being within the hospital’s interior. “No, after that, I want you to go home and spend time with your family” Wade replies, answering the man honestly whilst he continues to march, “I hate to have to tell you like this, but your services will no longer be required shortly enough.” “I’m sorry?” Blake questions back, stopping in his tracks before the question prompts the NDF figurehead to turn back, “you’re- you’re firing me?” Cold and with a lack of empathy, Wade tucks one hand into his pocket whilst gesturing toward the man’s figure with the other. “Well, if anybody fired you, it was Jaime when she decided to turn you into a human barbecue” the man says with a chuckle, taking humour in the misfortune of Julia’s closest thing to a right hand man. “In all honesty, though- I just don’t trust you” Wade confesses, doubling down on the way in which he views the head figure of the chancellor’s security detail. “Your crew allowed Clark to enter the dungeon with a blade, it allowed Margot to slip in antidepressants, it let Jaime and her family slip right through their fingers, and in all honesty- is undependable” the NDF’s spokesman proceeds, “why Julia trusted you- I have no idea. But you turned on Jaime, and I’m not risking you turning on me.” Though the man across from him cannot see past the gaiter, Blake stares at the republic’s inevitable commander with an agape mouth, unable to fully process what’s being told to him. “I’ve given my full devotion to this republic since the day I stepped up to chancellor Morris’ side! It’s left me permanently disfigured!” the distraught security detail proclaims, still finding it difficult to believe he’s being discarded as casually as he is, “there’s no one more dedicated to the republic than me!” “Alright, a couple of things there. First thing’s first, this is not a republic... It is a city. The city of Los Angeles to be more specific, so let’s not allow Jaime Morris’ deceased ambitions butcher the actual reality of what this place is” Wade corrects, firming up his dismissive posture toward the mutilated professional, “and number two, I don’t want anyone dedicated to this city- I want people dedicated to me. Los Angeles does not matter, it’s leader- that would be me- does.” With a look of awe written across his face, Blake watches Wade turn away and continue marching onward to the hospital room that yearns for his attention, seemingly stripped of every last shred of access he’d entered the day having. With little other choice, Blake inevitably takes himself to the driver’s seat of his town car and drives it back home, parking it in the paved over strip of asphalt just beside his well-manicured front lawn. Disheartened and without a clue over how to break the news to his wife and children, the deposed guard of the republic’s chancellor hangs his head and slowly strolls across the cobblestone path that sits between his vehicle and the entrance to his modest home. With the turn of his key and the pressing of his thumb against the door’s knob, Blake retires to his home for the final hours of the morning that are spent in absolute darkness, growing more accustomed to the sounds of thunder that ring throughout the republic in preparation for yet another disastrous storm. Quietly shutting the door behind himself, Blake’s hand swipes at the light switches just to the side of the house’s main foyer, turning out the lamps that line the building’s exterior, and plunging his yard and driveway into the final hours of darkness before dawn. Within the shadows, a figure steps out from behind the bushes that adorn the fence at the edge of the home’s front yard, staring down the residency with eyes of malicious intent as the means to an end. == Dire == Hanging her head whilst losing track of time, Margot listens to the sound of the room’s entrance opening, allowing the chancellor to join the woman’s company. “Sorry for making you wait so long” Julia remarks, listening to the woman, who’d been waiting hours for her arrival, scoff at the apology and take humour in it.
“No, you’re not” Margot answers with a faint and exhausted tone of voice, glancing up at the woman who slowly approaches her table, “you were there in the car ride with me. If you didn’t want to keep me waiting... you didn’t have to.” Entering the room empty-handed, the chancellor smirks at the woman’s reply for the truth that it contains, only able to find locks of hair covering the face of the peacekeeper’s leader. “I applaud you for your perception” Julia retorts, unable to see the face of the woman she speaks with, but able to make out the redirection of it with the motion of her long locks, “but I’m afraid even that won’t be of much use.” “What am I supposed to be looking at?” Wade inquires from beyond the two-way mirror, his arms crossed as he stands beside the chancellor’s security detail, unimpressed with the call that he’s been made present to answer. “Julia’s got a hunch that Jaime and the peacekeepers are in touch. I’m not sure why, but she said something about a talk they had a few nights ago” Blake answers, not understanding the full story, “we almost had them last night, so now Julia’s get impatient.” “I don’t know how long I’ve been down here, but you might as well just hurry up and get to the point” Margot replies, her speech sounding as if it were one glass of wine away from being slurred beyond the point of coherence. “I don’t know why I’m here or what you think that I did, but I know how this turned out last time one of us was dragged away” the oppositional group’s leader carries on, her voice soft and drawn out longer than it usually happens to be, “if you’re gonna kill me... do it.” “Unlike some other people who would be brought down here, I don’t actually have a reason to kill you-” Julia reassures, coupling her hands together atop the table they sit on opposite ends of, “-that is, unless you give me a reason to.” “As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t done anything to give you a reason to drag me down here in the first place” Margot corrects, pointing out the flaw in the chancellor’s logic with relatively little issue, “I wouldn’t say killing me is the first unprecedented action the republic’s taken.” “Unlike my predecessor, I have proven to be a woman capable of following through on my word” Julia responds, lowering her head toward the ground for a brief moment, only for her surprise to be caught in the returned quip. “Really? Last I checked, we were promised something better than your predecessor” Margot cuts back, regaining the chancellor’s centred sights, “but here we are almost no different than where we were back then. If there’s anything you’ve proven... It’s your incompetence.” Pulling below her bottom teeth, the chancellor’s lower lip recedes as she looks off toward the back of the room, able to make out the stars that reside within the night’s sky whilst running through her thoughts. “It’s funny that you mention that” Julia responds, setting aside her displeasure for the lack of respect shown in the attitude of the citizen she’s arrested without bulletproof cause, “I have a feeling that you and your group may have incentive to be- or rather not be- fat and happy.” “Oh gee, I wonder what would make you think that” Margot rebukes, still keeping her face held toward the ground as her posture appears less stable and becoming of a woman at the helm of her peers, “maybe it’s the spit that our fellow Angelinos hurl at us? Or maybe it’s the-” Wanting to continue speaking, the woman across from the republic’s leader pauses to engage within a coughing fit, unable to fight the urge to clear her increasingly-dry throat whilst the bemused chancellor watches on. “-or maybe it’s the curse words that we’re called? Maybe it’s the treatment we get that you seem to do so little to solve?” Margot follows through, finishing her thought defiantly as her political superior watches on, “maybe we have a few pretty good reasons to be less than happy, chancellor.” “Are you sick or something?” Julia wonders aloud, her curiosity having established itself upon the odd nature of the woman she interrogates, though it peaks upon the violent and guttural fights for air that the hacking seems to bring along. Not responding, Margot leaves the chancellor in the dark over whatever her condition may be, the refusal of an answer only prompting those that watch over the circumstance to fall further mystified. Climbing out of her chair, Julia slides the tips of her fingers across the table as she steps around it, watched on by her superiors beyond the mirror. Thinking little of her own safety, the chancellor’s actions find themselves motivated by the desire to seek an answer to the curious state of her subject. With a gentle push, the woman guides her person of interest back against the seat and pulls the loose strands of hair away from her pale face for the first time since entering the room. “Jesus!” Blake exclaims from outside, stepping back as Wade silently storms off toward the door, violently throwing it open as his lips part. “Medics... In here now!” the man barks out, waving his arm toward the crew that had stood in the event another peacekeeper interrogation had gone awry, and gesturing for them to tend to the woman who now sits against the back of her chair. “What the hell happened!?” Julia shouts aloud, turning away from the woman that sits beside her, not needing to see anything more than her deep blue lips and widened eyes to know that something was horribly wrong. “I’m not sure, it looks like an overdose!” the first woman to enter the room on behalf of the emergency crew responds, quickly pulling the woman off the seat and onto the floor to work on her. “Did none of you bastards check her for drugs!?” Wade shouts back, stepping through the room’s entrance and calling out to the security detail the chancellor had carried out the arrest alongside. “She was doing a town hall when we went in! She never left our sights!” Blake rebukes, defending himself as Julia leaves the room next, her fist punching at the air with anger as the sound of hurry and desperation ring out through the grizzly halls of the underground dungeon. = Dire is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards = To the patterned beep of the machines that she’s hooked up to, Margot lays in bed with her hands folded over her chest, eyes staring toward the one window left without the obstruction of a curtain. Having been stripped nude whilst unconscious, the leader of the peacekeepers meant to appear as a beacon of leadership toward those she’s tasked with manning the helm of finds herself rendered immobilised and bedridden, dressed in only a thin hospital gown without any dignity to spare. “Will all on-duty NDF and Angelino Republic servicemen and women please make for the fifth-level cafeteria at this time, please” a young female voice speaks through the building’s speaker system, repeating the message for a second time in the event some hadn’t heard it the first. Squinting, Margot waits for a moment before turning her head, allowing her face to take itself toward the open door to her room, where two men with guns look at each other with confusion. “Didn’t they tell us not to leave?” one of the men inquires, looking to the other for assurance without earning much for his efforts, paid only with a shake of the head and shrug of the shoulders from his colleague. “Why the fifth floor is my question” the equally-curious and answerless mercenary responds, pulling away from the room to answer the call that’s been offered to them without much else to go off of. “Dude, where are you going?” the serviceman who’d initially asked for clarification wonders aloud, budging from his post as he steps forward, trying to look for a reason not to break off as his partner does. “Dude, I don’t wanna get yelled at ‘cause I flaked out on- well- whoever it is” the second man replies, turning away from his colleague to continue his venture toward the fifth level. Without much of an excuse aside from his earlier commands, the still-present serviceman turns back to look at the bedridden leader of the peacekeepers, trying to argue against departing internally before thinking twice of it. “Alright, wait up!” he finally caves, stepping away from the room’s side to join the man in heading for higher ground, too convinced by the motivations uttered for anything other than cooperation to drive his actions. Though she finds the spoken request odd, Margot thinks little of the call to action that her captors have answered, relying on the hope that she holds for something to come out of it in her favour. After a few seconds of the room going back to its hush, Margot’s eyes take toward a nurse in a pair of maroon-coloured scrubs as the woman enters the room, ignoring the patient completely whilst venturing toward the opposite side of the room. Without a word, the medical professional cranks open the window as far as it can part before removing a tape roller from her pocket. “What are you doing?” Margot inquires, only for the question itself to fall on deaf ears. From the comfort of her thin mattress and sterile-smelling bed sheets, the peacekeeper’s leader watches the nurse rip off a small piece of transparent tape before using it as the arms to a cross she sticks to the window’s bottom. Making sure the longer strip is secured in place, the unnamed practitioner releases her grasp of the dispenser and leaves the room, allowing its wait to guide it downward. “Excuse me?” Margot asks again, watching the woman’s face refuse to even take itself toward her direction before stepping out of the room, returning to work as if she’d never even entered to begin with. At a loss for words, the leader of the opposition group attempts to push herself out of the bed before succumbing to the weakness that consumes her, preventing any movement other than the lightest jostle she may experience during sleep. For an additional few minutes, the only action Margot is left with proves to be waiting for the result of the escapade her caretaker had partaken in. Counting the seconds that lapse between each noise of the machines that surround her, the woman continues to listen closely for a change in the eerie silence that suddenly comes to an end without warning. Though distant and muffled, the sound of hollow ringing throughout the pipes that line the building’s tall exterior precede the snapping of the transparent adhesive, which is suddenly ripped from the window. Grunting as a result of lacking the power to propel herself away from the pillow her head dreams of returning to the comfort of, Margot sits up on her mattress and stirs for a moment, regaining her breath as the top of a head pokes up from the window’s bottom. | “Because I was told she was awake” Julia responds, answering the question presented by the man who accompanies her through the hospital’s entrance. “You’ve already arrested a woman without probable cause, and now you want to go back to interrogating her after she tried to take her own life?” Wade questions back, profoundly curious to the motivations of his immediate subordinate, “are you trying to rival some presidents in the fastest plummet of approval rating?” “Wade, we came this close to getting our hands on Jaime and taking care of that problem” Julia answers, holding her fingers a minimal length apart whilst they venture past the building’s front desk, “I smell blood in the water, and it leads to that woman’s hospital bed. I want answers.” “The woman tried to kill herself during an interrogation that she should’ve never been in, and your highest-ranking officials overlooked the need to check her for drugs” Wade repeats, doing little more than respeaking his prior declaration, “word of this getting out would tank your standing in the eyes of the public, and you want to double down on it?” “First of all, the republic doesn’t have laws in place that require me to have just cause to warrant an arrest. If I want something done... It gets done” Julia answers, making for the elevator’s just a short distance away, only for the sound of a voice to keep her from continuing to step onward. “Doctor Avallone!” a nurse exclaims, hurrying past the front desk to catch up with the chancellor and the man that accompanies her, a thin folder held in the air for attention to be drawn toward. “Can I help you?” Julia replies coldly, extending her hand to take the select few documents that are held out toward her. “Yes, these are the results of the tests you wanted us to run on Margot Merriweather last night” the enthusiastic nurse replies, watching the republic’s leader take her eyes toward the first sheet carried within. “She OD'd on fluoxetine?” Julia questions aloud as if in disbelief of the conclusion, scoffing at the conclusion as she looks up to the woman, “she nearly offed herself on an antidepressant?” Though the discovery is one that makes sense from a technical standpoint, the likelihood of the results indicating such appear less favourable than they first appear. “In a way, yes. The drug she used to- do as she did- was fluoxetine” the nurse answers, speaking to the same specification of interest that Julia’s eyes wander toward on the paper, “but the amount of fluoxetine that she overdosed on was just over a hundred milligrams. It’s definitely not safe, but it’s also really difficult to induce an overdose- if one were trying to take their own lives- with that much of the drug unless the patient’s system was completely unfamiliar with it.” “But she is familiar with it since she was last prescribed a refill of it a little less than a month ago” the chancellor responds, taking note of the prescription history listed on the paper. “And that means it wasn’t a high enough dose to get the job done” Wade concludes, finding the same line of thought that Julia had initially made herself privy to, “and that means she either didn’t realise it wasn’t a high enough dose, or she did know it wasn’t high enough.” Though his revelation is one that requires more depth to make sense of, Wade finds himself suddenly standing without the presence of the republic’s chancellor, turning around to find the woman heading for the now-open elevator just before she boards it. “Something doesn’t feel right about this” Julia speaks aloud, turning to face the lift’s entrance just as the NDF’s leader catches up to her, occupying the open space on her right side, “I’ll be damned if these fucks pull another fast one on me.” | “How is Jaime supposed to lure Wade in if Chevy and Kayla hold the chancellor here?” Margot questions, trying her best to grow comfortable as the thin mattress begins to take its toll on her body. “We’re not sure. Jaime says she has an ‘in’ with someone on her security detail and that we shouldn’t worry about it, but I’ve got no idea what she’s talking about” Carly responds, unsheathing a blade from within a leather pouch on her hip, “Chevy says I should trust her and I trust Chevy.” “At least your priorities are in order, I guess?” Margot replies, leaning to the side and allowing the younger woman to conceal the small knife within one of the flaps of her hospital gown. “I know having loyalties to people may not always be the popular- or even correct- choice to make at times, but some people are worth that sacrifice” Carly reassures, doubling down on her belief in the man she speaks of whilst returning the covers to her group’s leader, “Chevy and Kayla are worth it.” Pressing her lips together, Margot lets the younger woman adjust the blanket that covers her, providing little decency the rest of her ensemble fails to offer, whilst holding back the pessimism she’d more frequently react with. “Then I just hope- for your sake- that they’ll have your back the way that you have theirs” the bedridden leader remarks, sharing a hopeful stare with the woman at her bedside before the optimistic eyes that she wears begin to widen at the sound of trouble. “Get under the bed!” Margot hurriedly whispers, using whatever strength she has available to gesture the woman toward the ground. Though her body is weak and her energy has been nearly drained in its entirety, the woman’s ears latch onto the sound of a pair of footsteps carrying themselves toward their direction, allowing her to expend whatever power she can muster into ushering her successor into hiding. Though she fails to hear the same sounds that prompt the exhaustion-stricken leader into such quick action, Carly throws herself to the ground and slides beneath the hospital cot at the last possible second. “What’s your play here, Margot?” Julia rounds the corner and asks aloud, nearly making it to the woman’s bedside before Wade follows suit, entering the room and closing the door upon stepping through it. “Hopefully to get out of this bed and get back to my people?” the hospital’s patient replies with a feigned voice of exhaustion, though the bags that sit below her eyes lend the act credence. “Why put yourself in this bed to begin with?” Julia retorts, begging the question that sits most-firmly upon her conscience, only to watch the peacekeeper’s leader grin at the notion. “Do you think I’m an idiot, chancellor?” Margot questions back, the rebellious tone in her voice not sitting kindly with the woman who sits above her in the republic’s hierarchy. “When you try to fake an overdose with a licensed doctor? That sure doesn’t make you seem like the smartest cookie in the whole jar, does it?” Julia retorts, watching the self-assured expression in the bedridden leader’s face fall. “We know you did just enough to get yourself in this bed, but not enough to get yourself in the grave” Wade doubles down, stepping up to the chancellor’s side and calling the patient into question, “there was a reason for getting yourself here and we want to know now.” Grimacing, Margot remains quiet and stares toward the ceiling without a word to offer the pair, preferring to remain mute on the matters before the two figureheads standing before her prove that their patience is all-too short. Having bought into the web the chancellor had spun, Wade acknowledges the trail she’d been catching up to by unholstering his pistol, lifting it up to the group leader’s face and readying it to fire. “Are you working with Jaime Preston, yes or no?” Wade barks, his voice rising well beyond the point of civility as the peacekeeper’s leader shifts to the side, reacting with fear toward the weapon that takes aim at her. “Dude, put the damn gun down” Julia calmly demands, stepping back with widened eyes at the sudden change in her superior’s demeanour, not certain whether or not he’d actually follow through with the threat that he poses. “Failing to surround yourself with professionals that couldn’t prevent people like this from smuggling drugs into the capitol’s dungeon or allow people like Jaime to slip through their fingers is why I- from a professional standpoint- don’t believe you are in any position to tell me what to- or not to- do, Ms. Avallone” Wade rebukes, his eyes taking toward the chancellor with vehement refusal, “you have presented yourself as incapable of tying up loose threads, and examples must be made.” “I’m not working with Jaime Morris” Margot interjects, answering the question before any further silence could provoke him into taking her hush for a response. “Whether she is or isn’t, shooting her will only hurt us in the long run!” Carly quickly doubles down, not allowing the reply of her patient to settle within the minds of either herself or her superior, “if she is, then we might lose whatever leverage on Jaime that we have. If not, then we’re just pissing off people you need in line.” Though his eyes had retaken toward the bedridden patient, Wade’s face slowly turns back to the chancellor beside him, the angry reflection in his voice replaced with a composed and poised tranquillity. “Ms. Avallone, the fact that we don’t know whether they are or aren’t means they’re already not in line” the NDF spokesman retorts, a point made that Julia finds nearly impossible to refute. “You knew that dose of fluoxetine wouldn’t be fatal. There was a reason that you needed to be in this bed and I want to know what it is” Wade explains, stiffening his grasp on the firearm as he stares into the eyes of the weak leader, a gentle shake in his head carried through the pause in his proclamation, “I’m only going to give you one chance to give me an answer. If you aren’t careful with what your next few words are... They may just be your last.” Her fear alleviating with each second that the trigger isn’t pulled, Margot finds her mind freed for a moment as the chance to consider the options falls upon her. On one hand, the route of confessing to the entire plot would render her- and the people she’d sworn to serve- the same enemies that the republic already takes them to be. On the other hand, swearing secrecy would provide those that threaten to do away with her for good with a lack of insight in return for her life. “I guess that means you leave me with two options, wouldn’t it?” Margot inquires, squinting her brows as she looks away from the weapon’s barrel, her eyes taking toward the NDF foreman’s own. “On one hand, you’d shoot me and I’d die right here” the bedridden spokeswoman carries on, her voice reaching the ears of the younger woman that hides beneath her hospital cot, covering her mouth and keeping herself as quiet as a mouse whilst listening in. “On the other hand, you’d be leaving me with a fate worse than death itself. Regardless of what I tell you, there’d be no part of you that would be willing to believe me” Margot carries on, yet to present to her political adversaries the acceptance that she’s come to, “so, I guess you leave me having to take option number three.” Squeezing her eyelids together, Carly keeps herself to an unnoticeable hush, knowing what kind of scene unfolds above her and wanting to drown out as much of it as she can manage. With the curl of her lip, Margot looks back toward the firearm’s barrel for a brief few seconds before staring back up to Wade himself, her eyes never leaving this from this moment onward. “Fuck you” she whispers. | “Fuck!” Jaime shouts, slamming her fist against the flat’s kitchen table as she steps away, hands finding their way to her hips as the conversation continues behind her. “I left through the window before they had the chance to catch me” Carly confesses, staring aimlessly at the near-empty pitcher of beer that her palms press against the sides of, holding it just a few inches from her car keys in the centre of the tabletop whilst the sheltered fugitives carry on, “but yeah... Margot’s dead.” “Does that mean the plan is dead?” Kennedy wonders aloud, seated near the opposite end of the table from the one the flat’s owner occupies. “Well, we needed Julia in the hospital in order to snatch her up and put Wade between a rock and a hard place” Chevy replies, his elbows pressing into the coffee table as his hands couple together a few inches above it, “without Margot there to take a stab at Julia, there’s no putting the woman in the hospital without straight up trying to kill her.” “Then maybe we don’t need Julia in the hospital in order to get Wade to answer our call?” Kennedy retorts, trying to find a solution around the plan-killing circumstances that suddenly befall them. “The only reason Wade would’ve come when we called for him would’ve been because the republic would’ve been without a leader. Even with the NDF stationed in the republic- that would’ve been a longshot” Kayla rebukes, finding the same conclusion as her husband. “All roads lead to this plan being dead in the fuckin’ water” Chevy concedes, finishing his wife’s point with the depressing finale it had warranted. “Let’s not get too comfortable with the disappointment. Just because this plan isn’t good anymore, that doesn’t mean there’s no plan” Jaime interrupts, fearing where the group’s pity party may lead and wishing to avoid that path at all costs. “How else is it supposed to work?” Chevy inquires, turning in his seat to face the pacing woman off at the room’s side, her face holding toward the ground as she slowly turns back for the group. “She’s already suspicious of the peacekeepers. Luckily, we have the cover of being furious at the fact that they killed Margot to conceal this business we’re conducting- but it won’t be enough” Carly reassures, speaking with the tone of a woman who’d seen horrors beyond her guests’ comprehension. “If she’s suspicious that the peacekeepers are working with us, maybe we won’t need to separate Wade and Julia in order to get them both where we want then” Alex proceeds, carrying on with her daughter’s hopeful outlook, “for all we know, they might think we’re already squirming our way back into the republic. If we give them a reason to think there’s no doubting that, we might be able to use that to our advantage.” “How?” Jaime questions, crossing her arms and lifting her dominant hand toward her mouth, allowing her teeth to bite at the top knuckle on her thumb as she returns to the table. “Well, I could walk up to the capitol building and turn myself in for a start” Alex replies, immediately bringing an even louder silence over the flat than there already had been leading up to her suggestion, “she’d know we were already here and would find a way to use that to call you out.” “Not happening” Jaime immediately retorts, refusing the solution before her mother can even finish voicing it. “Those two just shot the last woman that walked into their custody willingly” Chevy adds on, wasting no time in voicing his agreement with the deposed chancellor, “what in the hell makes you think things would turn out any differently for you?” “I don’t think they would be any better or any worse for me. I’m just saying that they’d try to use me the same way I’m sure they would’ve tried to use Margot if she would’ve let them” Alex counters, confidently presenting herself up as bait for the government to bite on. “Like I said before... Not happening” Jaime doubles down, refusing her mother any further opportunity to present the plan by dismissing it outright. “You banked on the idea that cutting Julia off would provoke Wade into meeting with you as long as you orchestrated it” Alex furthers, not taking her offspring’s answer as final, “you’ve already made it clear that they want you more than any of us. If I walk up to them with open arms, they might just call you out directly and use me as a bargaining chip.” “As insane as that is, they clearly already realise something is going on with the peacekeepers. That didn’t stop them from killing Margot” Kayla rebukes, aware that the figurehead of the plot is as adamantly against the idea as anyone else, though furthering herself in the woman’s corner. “The difference between Margot and I is that they’d have a reason to believe Jaime would crawl out of the woodworks and come to them if they threatened me” Alex explains, “by the looks of it, the game our two sides are playing is already one of cat and mouse.” “Mom, I’m not taking the risk of letting them press a gun to your head with hopes of making me dance” Jaime clarifies, her arms unfurling to allow her palms to press against the kitchen table, “as adamant as I am that Julia and Wade need to be taken are of, I am not willing to let the four of you die in exchange for that.” “That’s why you’d figure out a plan between now and then to come to whatever meeting they’d arrange prepared” Alex counters, climbing out of her seat and stepping up to her daughter, not backing down from the proposition, “they’d be expecting you to have tricks up your sleeve just as they’d have their own. If nothing else, as long as you played your cards right, you’d be guaranteed to have a shot at taking them both.” “If the game is going to come down to a battle of mental gymnastics, I am not going to put your life, or Kennedy’s life, or Chevy and Kayla’s lives on the line just to give myself a target to hit” Jaime argues back, watching her mother’s eyelids press tightly together, aware that her way will not be had in this discussion. “I’m sorry, mom. If anyone’s going to turn themselves in to make something like that happen, it’ll be me” the group’s leader concludes, making herself well-understood. Hanging her head with disappointment, Alex remains quiet as the conversation settles, those that circle the room and hope for answers becoming more aware that there will be none to find this evening. “Everyone get a shower in, brush your teeth, and get to bed” Jaime demands, turning away from those that occupy the communal space whilst shedding her heavy moto jacket, “whatever ‘plan b’ any of us can come up with can wait until sunrise at least.” Without another word, the republic’s previous leader vanishes into the dark confines of an already small apartment building, one they’ve been promised is well-hidden from the powers that be occupying the capitol building as the republic’s foremost figureheads. Disheartened, Alex’s head follows the direction in which her daughter ventures, her mouth staying shut as she’s left to sit with her thoughts like everyone else. Though the night had already come upon the Angelino Republic by the time their conversation had concluded, the earliest hours of the morning now mark yet another day that the exiled leader fails to sleep fully through the night. Instead, Jaime lays on her back and stares at the smooth ceiling that sits above her eyes, its white paint casting the shadows of thin tree branches that flow with the gentle breeze that comes over the nation. Turning her head to the side, the sleep-deprived woman finds the faintest outline of a sleeping bag sitting along the floor at the room’s centre, the thin mattress set up upon a table just beside that being occupied by her sound-asleep sister. Rolling her eyes, Jaime gives into the fact that rest will not be had until at least the next sunset and climbs out of her own thin mattress, letting her feet carry past the empty bag in the middle of the room and into the adjacent kitchen. Wiping the crust from her eyes, the tired woman journeys up to the fridge and bathes the room in a deep, orange glow whilst reaching for a carton of apple juice. Groaning as she leans into the counter and retrieves a cup, Jaime casually returns the beverage to its place once she’d taken enough to satisfy her, affording her the chance to make for the table in the middle of the room. Satisfied with the relief that comes in taking a seat, Jaime stares toward the heavens and closes her eyes, aware that no amount of exhaustion will allow her to sleep soundly until her dreaded foes are stopped literally dead in their tracks. With only the lonely hum of a nearby central unit to keep her company, the woman gathers her own sense of peace before slowly lowering her chin, letting it descend back toward earth before her eyes lock onto the table, or rather what’s missing from it. Before she can take a sip from her glass, Jaime’s eyes widen beyond what her natural state of physical fatigue will allow, duped into firing on all cylinders by a sudden and daunting realisation. “Guys!” the woman shouts aloud, throwing herself out of the chair and back into the cramped bedroom, continuing to shout that one word as her hand fumbles along the wall in hopes of turning on the lights. “What!? What’s going on!?” Chevy calls out, the first to gain enough wherewithal to answer the call to action his group’s leader beckons for, the hurry in her voice bringing a frantic pace over the group that slowly stirs around her. “Mom’s gone!” Jaime cries out, kneeling to the ground and tossing over the comforter of the sleeping bag in the middle of the room, finding it absent just as she’d expected. “What are you talking about?” the woman’s familiar voice asks aloud, sitting up from the thin mattress across the room from her daughter’s, watching the woman turn to look back at her, “I’m right here.” With shock, Jaime indeed finds her mother sitting up in the bed that had occupied the other half of the sleeping area, finding Chevy and Kayla emerging from the same bed she’d expected to find them in whilst Carly rounds the corner from the next room over. “What’s going on!?” the flat’s primary tenant calls out, pressing her hand against her forehead as a headache comes over her, just as confused as the rest of the group is. With a makeshift peace symbol scrawled along the rear window in white out, a sedan strolls through the empty and quiet streets of the Angelino Republic in search of trouble, occupied in the driver’s seat by just one singular soul. “Code Orange, we have a single, uninvited vehicle approaching the front steps” a man mutters into the radio stationed atop his shoulder whilst joining his colleague in stepping forward, descending the tall stairs with rifles readied for action. Slowly and as if nothing were out of the ordinary with its presence, the civilian vehicle rolls to a stop at the base of the republic’s city hall whilst other armed mercenaries approach it with caution. For a few seconds the vehicle remains stationary and the driver refrains from stepping foot beyond the comforts of its interior, instead choosing to lift the volume of its radio to the maximum setting, filling the streets of what had once been Los Angeles with the music of The Notorious B.I.G. “Get out of the car!” one of the NDF-Republic soldiers calls out, demanding the immediate response of the figure behind the wheel to meet the commands set for them. Within seconds, the door to the vehicle is gently guided open by a set of hands that soon lift into the air, joining the outside world as the radio’s music only grows louder with her exit. “Someone get Julia” Kennedy orders, stepping out into the open without a care in the world, knowing what duty she’d come with the intention of fulfilling and wishing to get a good look at the woman who she requests the presence of, “I think she’s gonna want to see me.” == Dire == “Come on, come on! Let’s go!” Alex hisses from the bottom of the staircase, armed with the same automatic rifles that they’d escaped from Jasmine’s tavern with. “Go where!?” Chevy whispers back, leading the trio away from the home’s second story as the first to reach ground level, “the backyard is a jungle and the only way out that’s clear enough is blocked by those bastards outside!”
“I don’t know where we’re supposed to go, but all I know is that we can’t stay here!” Alex replies, watching her eldest daughter step past the married couple who’d awoken her and begin cautiously stepping toward the front door. “Alright, fine- I’ll reiterate” Chevy calmly retorts, stiffening his arm as he tightens the grasp he holds his pistol with, “how are we supposed to mobilise? We can’t go through the backyard and we can’t just walk out the front door.” So reluctant to move the curtain that she refuses to even touch it, Jaime peers past the delicate cloth still intact from the initial raid of the home they’d assumed the militia had carried out shortly after their departure from the republic. Though her view affords her a very narrow line of sight, the armed woman dressed less for a battle and more for a night out with friends catches the glimpse of her former security detail approaching the front door, his hand reaching for the locked knob. “The door’s locked, Blake” Jaime speaks out, purposefully lifting her voice to the point where the man can hear it- much to the dismay of those that reside within. Pausing his intentions to enter the home uninvited, the armour-wearing right hand of the new chancellor steps back from the entrance at the sound of the old one, his earlier commands not being ones he’d anticipated would be replied to. “Well, if it isn’t Jaime Morris” Blake calls back, speaking to the home’s heavy entrance in lieu of an actual face to speak with, “I knew you were all in there.” Though they wish to speak out against the woman’s actions, the four members of the group that remain are ushered to remain silent through the finger that Jaime holds against her lips. “The others left when they saw your headlights a ways down the road, Blake” the former chancellor speaks to her once-subordinate, her back pressing against the front door as she readies her grasp on the rifle, “as far as I’m concerned, we’re right back where we started... Just you and I.” Though remaining quiet as per her demands, Chevy steps forward and draws his pistol, aiming the barrel at the centre of the front door before his hand is swatted at by the woman. “After I bought the mansion out in the republic, I paid to have a bunker built under the garage. There’s a door at the back of the kitchen that’ll lead to it” Jaime explains, whispering to ensure the man beyond the home’s entrance hears nothing that’s said, “there’s a door that looks like a massive vault. Go there.” “And leave you here to deal with them!? Hell no!” Chevy hisses back, paying no mind to the words that Blake begins chatting outside, his lengthy speech only buying them additional time. “The only person those guys out there want dead is me” Jaime responds, taking her friend by the arm and shoving him back to the three members of the group she’s entrusted him with protecting, “if you don’t want to hide there, cut through the grass in the backyard and head for the next street over.” “We’re not leaving you!” Kennedy adds on, her sister’s dismissive head shake implying little choice is to be had in the matter. “If the four of you start marching through that grass out there and hop the fence now, I can stay here and buy you a few minutes. But you have to go now” Jaime responds, gesturing to the group- now smaller than it was when the day began- to begin making their escape without her, “I’ll try to catch up, but just keep moving north until you find somewhere safe!” “You stalling in there!?” Blake soon calls out, finding it unusual that his words would have caught the ear of the former chancellor, but her lips haven’t parted to keep him from continuing. “No, Blake... I’m just having a hard time taking you seriously” Jaime shouts back, stepping to the side of the door in the event anyone on her front step has a similar idea to the one Chevy had, “you’d sworn loyalty to me. You promised to give up your life to protect me for years and all for- for nothing.” “I did what was in the best interest of my family and myself” Blake rebukes, his head covered in a litany of accessories, a black baseball cap sitting atop his head and a camouflage gaiter covering everything below his eyes. “You betrayed me, Blake” Jaime refuses, watching her mother take a quick glance back as the final member of the departing group to enter the overgrown lawn, wanting to take a final mental snapshot of her daughter in the event that it’s the last she’ll have. “You can paint it up however you want, but the bottom line is this- you turned your back on me” Jaime responds, overhearing the guttural laugh that the man on the home’s other end reacts with. “As I have said, I did what was best for my family and for myself. And honestly, what’s best for us is what’s best for the republic as well” Blake retorts, defending his position to a woman who couldn’t care less for it, “do you really think you stood a chance of pushing the NDF out once they settled in?” “I pushed Django out to start the republic in the first place, damnit. I weathered forest fires and food shortages and keep the place in line” Jaime answers, bowing her head toward the ground as her voice increases in octaves, the woman who projects it not wanting a word to be left unheard, “it might not have always been sunny over the republic, but I kept that place standing. If I could do all of that, you better believe I could’ve pushed the NDF out... And I still can.” “For god’s sake, Jaime- your stubbornness is both your greatest asset and your greatest burden” Blake quips back, shaking his head with disappointment as he glances over his shoulder, nodding his head toward the men that stand at either side of the home before taking a mental note of the dozens of others he has at his disposal. “You’re surrounded on all sides by the strongest militaristic force on either side of the catalyst, and you still think you’re leaving this house alive” Blake chirps, speaking words that even he’s beginning to find laughable to utter. “Maybe you won’t believe this, but I genuinely don’t want to have to kill you. I’m convinced that you’ll leave me no choice, but I’d rather you did” the man continues to speak, “I don’t have any personal hatred for you. But what I do have are orders to follow.” Keeping to herself, Jaime huddles closer to the ground at the sound of shuffling near the back of the home, the calm air allowing for a silence to come over so long as she lets it. Directing the barrel of her weapon toward the open backdoors, the deposed chancellor prepares to squeeze the weapon’s trigger at the first sight of danger, one which reveals itself just as Blake begins to speak again. “Those orders-” the man declares, quickly ducking for cover at the sound of two consecutive gunshots ringing out just a short distance away, the trigger pulled only behind the cover of a door the two sides stand on opposite ends of. “I have multiple magazines and all the firepower you’d expect me to have, Blake” Jaime replies, watching a pair of armoured bodies collapse to the ground with bullet holes in their heads, “if Julia sent you here... I’m definitely leaving this house alive.” “You can’t kill all of us, Jaime” Blake responds, the swiftness of his voice making it sound as if he were adjusting his stance, a shift that the former chancellor makes out the intentions behind. “Don’t worry about yourself, Blake... I can’t kill you...” Jaime interjects, stepping away from the home’s entrance as the man on the other end pauses for a moment, waiting to hear the woman’s reasoning, “...you’re gonna come in handy later.” Considering the declaration as a threat, Blake musters an expression of disgust as he thrusts his foot forward, a firm boot paid into the centre of the front door that fails to cave in fully upon the first strike. “Damn!” the man exclaims as he steps back, winding himself up for a second attempt at success to great avail. “Get her!” the man shouts as the door flies open, nearly breaking from its hinges as he watches the chancellor’s body vanish into the sea of tall grass, prompting him to give chase to the escapee. Opening fire into the woman’s path, Blake hurries alongside the armoured detail that join him in the evening’s activities, rushing into the unmanicured lawn with hopes of finding his former superior’s body along the travels he embarks upon. Though she’d already opened the can of worms that come with engaging in a firefight, Jaime discards her initial thought to engage in a final stand with the guards, preferring to use the weapon as a tool to strike at the overgrowth with. Eventually finding her passageway blocked, the woman forces herself to leave the rifle behind in favour of quickly hoisting herself over the fence that marks the end of her yard. For a few minutes, the woman sprints through a dense layer of grass before spilling out and into a strip of flat land, the jungle-like environment suddenly becoming a steady, open and sand-covered asphalt street. “Jaime! Over here!” Alex calls out, reaching out for the woman that emerges from the unkempt field from the back of a marked sedan. “Is this an NDF car!?” Jaime exclaims, slowing herself down so as not to crash into Chevy’s arms as the man steps forward to catch her, guiding her head down as she slips into the vehicle’s backseat. “No, it’s a peacekeeper car” Carly corrects, her hand thrusting the gear shift into drive as her mentor lowers himself into the passenger’s seat, slamming the door shut as the car takes off for the road that remains ahead. “Hold your fire!” Blake exclaims, fighting through the cornstalk-tall grass in an effort of joining his fellow militants in standing along the roadway, barely able to make the outline of a vehicle that speeds into nowhere. “But we can hit them!” a man calls back, only for the wave of the security detail’s hand to double down on the declaration he’s made, refusing any further shot. = Dire is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards = With her elbow pressing into the surface of the tavern’s countertop, Jaime looks out at the crowd of disturbed patrons with a squint, not uttering a word as the conversation she partakes in goes quiet. “Stop looking at them, look at me” Margot proclaims, re-earning the attention of the woman that she sits across, snatching it from those that follow her lead with the simple command, “I want you to tell me again why I should trust what you’re telling me.” “Because I’m not spewing fallacies out of my ass like anyone else would. I’m digging my feet into the sand- I’m being realistic” Jaime answers, forcing herself to yet again accept the truth of what surrounds her, “there’s no road back into power for me. The only thing that I have to gain from this is to get back at Julia for crossing me and Wade for trying to take my republic.” “Which, of course, leaves us to clean up the mess that you leave behind” Margot responds, a remark that prompts Jaime to look away and nod, “without a chancellor, there is no republic for us to live in. Without Wade, there is NDF to keep us protected from any outside dangers. Without both of them, there is no home to go back to.” “You say that as if this is any home you actually want to live in” Jaime retorts, her eyes swiftly reclaiming their prior gaze upon the leader of the peacekeepers, watching the woman lean back in response. “I spent the whole car ride home asking Carly what could’ve changed your mind, and her response was the same damn thing, over and over and over again” the deposed leader continues, “the republic views you as social pariahs, and this time- you can’t just blame me anymore.” “You started the issue” Margot replies, only for the lifted finger her adversary raises to prompt a correction. “No... Julia started the issue. Julia paid Ryan to go after Jordan, and Ryan going after Jordan put the two of us on opposite sides of each other” Jaime responds, Chevy and Kayla sitting together to her right whilst Kennedy and her mother occupy seats to her left, “you wanted me gone, I wanted to get rid of you, and Julia orchestrated all of it.” “So this is all Julia’s fault now?” Margot questions, again finding a reply offered back with very little hesitation. “Of course not. I wrote the narrative that the public cashed like a check. That stain still follows you now, and it’s a stain that I placed upon you...” Jaime answers, providing the leader with a shrug of dismissal, “...but I never claimed that I wasn’t to blame. The only thing I claimed was that I’m no longer the only one.” “So what is your proposal?” Margot interrupts, the palms of her hands resting flat atop the counter as she stares into the face of the woman that sits across from her. “Help me take Julia and Wade down, it’s as simple as that” Jaime replies, not paying much thought to the ramifications that such a proposition presents until she watches Carly and the group’s leader pull their faces away and grimace. “I know implying the two most powerful figures in the republic’s government ought to be ousted from power doesn’t exactly provoke thoughts of success or even pleasant days, but there isn’t much of an alternative for the lot of you if you’re thinking the image of this group can change with the republic still standing” Jaime reassures, doubling down on her troubling declaration, “the people, the government, the chain of command- everything here- will hold you at ground-level forever.” “And this solution is being offered to us by the woman who put us there” Margot rebukes, finally speaking with something that the exiled chancellor doesn’t immediately reply to, only reacting with an eye roll and gentle pat of the wooden service table. “Oh, fucking hell. Do you want me to get an ‘I’m sorry’ tattoo just over my ass? How many times do you want me to apologise?” Jaime calls into question, “and don’t say that you don’t, because constantly bringing that up feels like your M.O.” “Tell me I don’t have a reason to find it odd that the person who put us at the bottom of the food chain wants to correct that ‘mistake’ without a catch!” Margot rebukes, her fiery energy at least compelling the rest of the peacekeepers to believe she’s speaking in good faith. “There is a catch, it’s just not a ‘you owe me’ sort of deal!” Jaime counters with equal enthusiasm, slapping the countertop once more, “I want Julia and Wade gone and I want to do it myself... That’s it.” “And what are we supposed to do after that? Go off and make our own settlement somewhere else?” Margot questions, the answer one that doesn’t please her, but one that the former chancellor feels required to offer. “Pretty much, yeah. That’s probably how this will go” Jaime responds, shrugging her shoulders as she gestures toward the rest of the crowd watching on from the back, “but then again, I have no fucking clue what you lot want. I don’t even know why you formed in the first place.” “We came together right around the time you knocked Django out of power. The only reason we stuck around was to make sure you didn’t turn into the same thing” Margot replies, the tone of the entire conversation shifting as Jaime’s voice lowers a couple of octaves. “Well, unfortunately for myself... I did” the woman responds, bringing a hush over the room as the quiet part is not only spoken aloud, but comes from the subject of the complaint itself. “I’m not an idiot. I’d be lying if I sat here and said that- as the days went on- I didn’t start feeling like I understood Django more than I did before” Jaime persists, carrying on with her claim as the room listens in, “I don’t agree with what he did. I don’t agree with what he wanted to do. But I’d be lying if I sat here and said it was impossible to see why he’d make the calls he did once I sat in his chair for myself.” Though her words are spoken to the peacekeeper’s leader, Jaime’s eyes take to the mass of humanity that sits in the various pockets of the room, joining together in little groups to watch on at the spectacle unfolding before them. Though they stand unified in the corner of the group’s leader, the sense of intrigue begins to surround them at the continued speech of the republic’s former shot-caller- their willingness to listen to her offer increases the longer Margot allows her presence. “Just like Django, I let power fall into hands other than my own. And now- because of that- the republic is just getting consistently closer to falling into the full grasp of the NDF” Jaime continues, her words beginning to touch upon the consciousness of the peacekeepers that remain present, “when that happens, you can bet your ass that this stigma surrounding the peacekeepers will never go away.” “From your expertise, why would we be better off without a home to crawl back to as opposed to toughing it out here and just bringing home whatever we can muster?” Margot questions, still finding herself unable to move past that final hindrance in the plan. “Because the alternative is the life you live now. The alternative is a life that’s so frustrating and miserable that you’d actually hear me out” Jaime concludes, a rather difficult point to argue against, “the alternative is Julia.” “Speak of the devil!” a voice calls out from the audience, catching the ears of those that occupy the bar’s countertop and earning their full focus. Just beyond the tavern’s front windows, a fleet of armoured vehicles roll to a slow and cautious stop at the building’s entrance. Though the need to act has fallen upon her, Jaime’s hands prove difficult to pull from the wooden countertop regardless of their need to do so. Instead, the deposed chancellor’s eyes take to the reflection that bounces off the bulky vehicle she had once been moved around within the comfort and safety of knowing very well who occupies the seat she once had. “Jaime, come on!” Alex grunts, grabbing her daughter’s wrist tightly and pulling it from the serving table, fighting against the woman’s reluctance as if her palm had been glued to it. Though the sun falls upon her Angelino Republic, Julia enters the tavern as if it had already dipped below the distance, the indulgence of an alcoholic beverage being the furthest thing from her mind. Though they play it cool and remain as present and aware as they would for any other town hall, the peacekeepers stare at their chancellor as if something of importance were being interrupted, though the only scene that awaits the entering leader is a patiently-waiting Margot. Clicking her tongue, Julia stares around the room for a brief moment to find nothing out of order, allowing her to slide the bands of her sunglasses away from over her ear. “Early town hall today?” the reigning chancellor queries, stepping further into the room and descending the short row of stairs that lead to the common’s area, another look across her surroundings preceding the follow-up, “I wouldn’t want to impose... Is there something I’m interrupting?” “I’m not sure you’d want me to answer that question” Margot responds, taking a snippy attitude to the woman invading the home turf of the group she beckons control of. Reacting with a widening grin, Julia takes humour in the reply that’s paid to her and glances back to the men that stand before her, pointing a finger toward the leader of the publicly-adversarial group. “You see this, Blake? This is a woman whose attitude reminds me of myself” the chancellor queries to the armed man behind her. Though limited through the mask and cap he adorns, Blake takes his pupils to the corners of his eyelids, trying to dismiss his superior’s claims as the playful quips he hopes them to be. “You know what else she makes me think of, Blake?” Julia continues to inquire, speaking words whose motivations are impossible to misinterpret as his eyes meet her once more. “She evokes the images of someone that I’d be able to trust to do things...” the chancellor carries on, quickly taking note of the recognition within her subordinate’s face, “...like go out and get jobs done when I ask for them to get done.” Irritated and disrespected on top of already having fallen victim to defeat when Jaime was within his reach, Blake’s eyes take toward a distant corner of the tavern out of shame as his superior moves on with the conversation. “Why are you here?” Margot asks, jumping directly to the point much to the pleasure of the woman who stands before her. “I just had a few questions to ask you about our conversation the other night” Julia responds, slowly guiding her own hands behind her back and coupling them together in the least threatening, and yet visibly imposing manner. “Oh. Are you referring to the one where you practically told us to fend for ourselves after docking our collective hours at the hospital?” Margot questions, beginning to feel the presence of the chancellor in the room shift the odd aura that falls throughout the tavern before continuing, “or are you referring to our rather fat and happy conversation a little later?” “I’m sure you’re very well aware that it’s the latter of the two, Ms. Merriweather” Julia replies, her grin continuing to take on a more malicious nature that can only be sensed and not seen, “your cooperation would be appreciated.” Grimacing, Margot shows the woman her teeth whilst panning out to the various souls that sit by and watch as spectators, not one of them knowing for certain where this sudden and unexpected visit is meant to lead. “As you can see, there’s a rather large crowd of people here already. As the woman in charge of this group, I can’t just leave them unattended” the woman responds, watching the chancellor’s head dip with disappointment at the answer, “I’m afraid now is not a good time.” Nodding her head and puckering her lips, Julia stares back at the group as they surround the floor’s centre, watching on like an audience awaiting the surprise twist that altercations like these so often present. “I’m afraid I said your cooperation would be appreciated and not that it was necessary” the chancellor reiterates, again proving that some things are said more clearly in the remarks that aren’t uttered as opposed to the ones that are. “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re saying that I am required to answer these questions, yeah?” Margot questions, realising what the republic’s leader is getting at and holding her hand out at Carly once the younger woman’s footsteps begin tapping along the floor. “I’m saying you can be led back to town hall willingly or you can be led back in a rather unpleasant and unbecoming manner” Julia corrects, essentially repeating the same thing that she’d gotten to seconds prior, “either way, you will be coming with us at this time.” “Margot, you don’t-” Carly interjects, disobeying the gesture her leader has presented her with before its repetition prompts her to pause. “Carly, I think it’d be better if you just stayed out of this, alright?” Margot turns around and interrupts, looking the younger woman in the eyes whilst using a voice much less concerned and angry than she otherwise should sport, “I’m afraid I don’t have much of a choice in this matter. So, I suppose that means you will have to take over from here, okay?” As if trying to plead with the woman subconsciously, Margot stares into Carly’s face with wide eyes and a smile, trying her best to conceal a nod before the touch of Julia’s hand finds its way to her shoulder. “Come on, let’s go” the chancellor orders, gesturing for the woman to turn back and join the united forces of the republic and the NDF in heading back to the capitol building. Nostrils flaring and blood rushing to her ears, Carly watches her superior turn away and make for the building’s exit, receiving a few rude and indecent glares from the armoured security detail her chancellor had arrived with as if all were as ordinary as ever. Without so much as a word, Margot dips into the backseat of Julia’s armoured vehicle and joins the government in heading for the capitol, flanked by the remaining vehicles that had joined them on their brief excursion. “Nothing’s fucking changed” a man mutters from within the crowd, still holding his voice low as if there were members of the government still hanging back, the grunts that unite the crowd in displeasure making it clear he’s not the only one who feels this way. “Y’all can come out now- they’re gone” a man calls back from off to the tavern’s side, waiting a few seconds before Jaime leads her family and closest friends out from cover, rejoining those she once deemed ‘the enemy’. Continuing to stand in the centre of the room with her eyes on the door her superior had just stepped through, Carly finds herself- even if only for a temporary span of time- as the leader of the peacekeepers. “Of course nothing’s changed” Jaime speaks aloud, her voice finally snapping the younger woman out of the statue-esque daze that had encompassed her, eyes taking back to the wanted survivors that she shelters, “and like I said... nothing will change.” “Not unless we agree that all of this needs to come to an end” Chevy reassures, stepping up to the side of the chancellor he’d never turned on the way others had whilst speaking, “Julia and Wade need to go. And if any of you are to live like actual people instead of blemishes to society... So does the republic.” “That’s part of your anthem, right? May glory befall the Angelino Republic... or may she fall defiant forevermore?” Kayla interjects, stepping past her husband and slightly further ahead of the republic’s last chancellor, “I think the time’s come to fall.” With her lips pressed together, Carly stares at the five survivors looking toward her for guidance before looking back to those she now stands at the helm of, their faces guided toward her and uncertain over what to feel. With the light shining upon her and time being now to make a call, the wake of the sight the peacekeeper’s new leader had just witnessed proves too great for her or those that follow her to ignore, and the time to plan an attack of their own becomes too present to dismiss. Looking back to her mentor and those that he stands by, Carly lets out a deep breath and stands firm in her place, parting her lips to raise the golden question that finds itself at the tip of the entire group’s tongues. “What’s the plan?” == Dire == |
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