S5, E7 | As the Sky Flashes a Sickly Green

“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 ==