S5, E5 | May She Fall Defiant Forevermore

“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 ==