Chapter 5: The War Begins

Major Jody Cortez sighed as he put down the transmitter. There was no going back now, not that it had ever been an option. The moment that... message had started it had already been too late. And now... now he was locked onto this track, for better or worse.

The takeover of their radio waves had taken Rome completely off-guard. Panic and chaos had reigned in his office as he and his staff tried to figure out what was happening. By the time they learned what was happening, the damage was done. Even if they had sent a runner, radio transmissions were being blocked, to the tower, he/she would never have arrived in time. All they could do was sit and listen as the truth was revealed... A terrible...terrible truth...

The after effects were to be expected. Protests began to break out around the city as people took to the streets. Calls for retribution, revenge, and open war echoed through Rome as the protests began to merge into a march. Even some of the police and soldiers joined the chant as the mass of people moved to the mayor's office. Now the mass of people were camped outside his office and would only be sated by one thing. And so Jody’s hand was forced.

Jody was no commander or strategist, but he had listened whenever Andron had talked of their readiness. He had listened all too well and he knew, just as the Commander did, they were woefully unprepared for a war. But a war they had, whether he wanted it or not. If he wouldn't give the people it, then someone else would. Which left him with only one choice, bring the outsiders here... But what happened after that...

"Melissa, go tell the people of the arrangement. Tell them...tell them that we are, officially, at war and will accept any and all volunteers," Jody said, giving voice to the path he had chosen. Melissa, his chief of staff, nodded before turning to leave his office. Jody waited till she was gone, and he alone, before opening one of his desk drawers. Inside was a bottle of moonshine he had been saving for such emergencies. He didn't bother fishing out the cup beside it and, instead, simply popped the top and took a swig. The burn was a welcome distraction from what he had done...what he was about to do...

A sudden ringing caused Jody to give a long sigh. He took another big swig before leaning back down to the drawer. He moved a few papers before pulling up a hidden latch. The latch raised the false bottom of the drawer and revealed the cell phone hidden inside. A cell phone no Resistance force could ever hope to make... He knew what he had to do...what HAD to be done and yet his hand trembled as he reached for the phone.

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The report hit Terence like a truck. All his fears, his doubts, his nightmares were coming true. A Society attack force coming right for the bridge and his unprepared people. If he wasn't so worried about his poor soldiers, he would have been beyond furious with Jody.

"Are...are you sure the report is accurate?" Terence forced himself to ask, trying to grasp at a faint bit of hope. The looks the Outs-... Phoenixes gave him said enough, but they all nodded just the same.

"Unfortunately, yes. The Shadow's Spectres have proven very capable at their roles as scouts. You need to warn your people immediately and we need to get behind your defenses ASAP so we can help hold them," Darius said, his glare hardening even further. Terence still felt partly in shock with how much had happened in so short a time, but forced it down as he nodded in understanding.

He took out his own radio and passed it to Victor. The Colonel looked at it in confusion for a second before he snapped out of his own surprise. He gave a grim nod before stepping away and contacting Dixie. With Victor taking care of warning Rome what was coming their way, Terence turned back to Darius and the rest to discuss what they needed to do.

"We need to get moving right away, the sooner we get behind Rome's guns, the better positioned we will be to help. William, get everyone on board as fast as you can. Malcolm, tell the Spectres to lay low as best they can, we'll do what we can to pull them out, but..." Darius trailed off, but Malcolm waved the unsaid words off.

"I know, nothing we can do for them at this point. Their good soldiers and used to working alone. They'll survive, even without our support, till we can get them over the river," Malcolm answered with a confident smile. Terence couldn't help but envy the confidence Malcolm had in his people. Though he, also, wondered how true that statement was.

Whatever the truth was, both Malcolm and William headed off in different directions to carry out their orders. Darius looked about to ask Terence something, but was interrupted by Victor.

"Commander, we have a problem. All the guns are loaded with needle rounds," Victor said, sending Terence's fear skyrocketing. Dear God!

"What?! I told Colonel Morris to make sure at least two had assault rounds ready at all times! What was he doing?!" Terence demanded in fury. All Victor could offer, though, was a frustrated shrug. GodDAMMIT, those needle rounds would be useless against a giantess in riot gear! Terence ran his hand through his stubby hair in frustration. He glanced up and noticed the raised eyebrow Darius had. Oh right…

"Our guns use two types of ammo, needle rounds that are full of whatever chemicals we happen to have and the real deal ammo. We try to be sparing with the real bullets as we can't make more of them unlike the needles so, usually, our guns are loaded with them. That said, some are SUPPOSED to have real rounds just in case of something like this, but..." Terence trailed off before throwing his hands up in frustration. That damn fool might just have doomed them all. And he was, usually, so good at staying on the ball too!

Darius nodded in understanding before tapping his chin.

"How long does it take to change the ammo?" he asked.

"Too long," Victor answered as Terence nodded in agreement. The Phoenixes commander frowned and looked down for a second. He then looked over at the catmonster and seemed to hit on something.

"Perhaps we could buy you the time needed. I am unsure if Pyrrha could defeat a giantess so well armored, but she should be able to delay her if nothing else. It would mean allowing her into Rome, however," Darius said as he turned back to Terence. Terence frowned at the notion of letting that huge beast into his city... but he saw little choice in the matter. He nodded in understanding and turned to Victor.

"Tell the Captain that we will be coming back on a catmonster and not to fire on one if it has a turret on its back," he ordered getting a hesitant nod from Victor. Terence knew Jody and a few others were going to have a fit, but better they be upset than dead. Besides, that catmonster could be a major boost to their combat-potential.

"Good, then we need to hurry so we can reach the bridge before the Society does," Darius said before motioning for Terence and his people to follow him. They headed straight for the catmonster at the entrance as William and Malcolm bellowed for others to do the same. Terence had to fight off his fear and natural instincts as they moved closer to the titanic creature. While catmonsters and fairies were rare sights for Romans, their reputations of brutality were still well known. Terence and his soldiers had seen more than a few outsiders, trapped on the wrong side of the river, be devoured alive by roaming ferals. Tamed or not, being this close to one was...harrowing.

Despite the fear washing through him, Terence pushed through and started the climb up to the platform the o- PHOENIXES had constructed onto the creature's back. Seeing their Commander keeping calm helped the rest of his people fight their fear as they followed after him. It was a long climb and Terence started to regret having his combat armor as they reached the halfway point. After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the top and Terence could both rest and feel safer. The beast would have a hard time reaching them on its own back.

The platform itself was rather impressive with padded floors, a number of buildings for various purposes, and even an impressively sized air-turret. The Phoenixes and Shadows already on the platform were securing various things and preparing the place to leave while workers checked over various things. Terence wondered how they managed to stay on the deathtrap till he noticed the odd belts they were all wearing and the hooks dug into the floor. Poole was going to have a fit when he saw this and be begging to take it apart, or at least take the creator’s brain apart.

As Terence pulled his eyes away from the platform, another man came jogging up to Darius. Terence might have just ignored him, but the odd armor he was wearing pulled his eyes to him. It almost looked like SWAT armor, though much of it was torn or missing. Now where had he gotten that from...

"Darius, what is going on?" the man asked, falling in beside the slightly shorter man.

"The Society is moving to attack Rome with a giantess armored in full riot gear. We need to get there before they do and help stop them," Darius said, not even turning to look at the new man. The man's eyes widened in shock and he looked about to ask a question, but didn't get it out as Darius forged ahead.

"We need Pyrrha ready to leave the moment everyone is aboard. We will make for the bridge and cross there, unless there is a better place to cross," Darius half-said half-asked as he turned to Terence. Terence wished he did have a better place for them to move this monster into Rome, but nothing they had could transport it. The bridge was their only option for getting it across, even if they did mean going right where the enemy was going...

"There isn't, I'm afraid," Terence answered getting an unsurprised nod from Darius. The armoured Phoenix looked to want to ask something else, but a glare from Darius seemed to get him to consider.

"Alright, I'll get her ready to leave. But I would like to at least be brought up to speed at some point," the man said as he started to move away.

"I promise you will be, Sanders, but time is something we lack right now," Darius answered to a wave from Sanders. Sanders moved to the catmonster's neck and began to quickly scale it with the help of its hair. Darius continued forward, though, till they reached a raised area that looked to be a command center of sorts. A table was welded to the ground and a rough, charcoal map was clamped down on it. Darius moved to the table and Terence followed him while his guards spread out. The map was rather impressive and even had some of the bridge's defenses marked on it. It didn't have them all, but it was enough to make Terence glad they were allied. Seemed those Spectres were good at their job.

"Would I be correct in assuming this bridge will be where the Society hits?" Darius asked as he leaned down over the map. Terence nodded and, after a short debate, took up some nearby charcoal to make some additions and corrections. Trying to hide more about their defenses would only hurt this alliance and deny Darius valuable information. And if the Phoenixes wanted Rome destroyed, all they had to do was sit back and do nothing, which they were not doing.

"Our southern, western, and most of the eastern border is all rivers with no bridges, we blew them all. The north east border doesn't have any rivers but it mostly open with parking lots and flattened land. Makes it a perfect no-man's land and we’ve armed it accordingly. If the Society tries to swing around to the north, the guns there will have plenty of time to load proper ammo," Terence said as he added so hidden defensive lines that covered the bridge. Darius nodded as he studied the map.

"So the bridge is the only way in or out," Darius said more as a statement than a question. Terence sighed and nodded in agreement. That no-man's land cut both ways and once the Society got up there...

"We have rigged the bridge to blow so if push comes to shove..." Terence let the words hang as Darius nodded. He had proven smart enough to figure out the implications. It would deny the Society entry, but deny them any major exits as well.

"Then we had best plan how we are going to hold it long enough for your guns to loa-" Darius started to say before a young man with a headset rushed toward them.

"Da-Darius, the Spectres, monst-" the young man started to blabber out, but stopped as Darius gave him a glare, "Mo-Monstergirls are heading straight for us!"

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"SANDERS! 3 o'cloak!" Gabby yelled as Sanders whirled his machine gun back around. Another fairy was diving down at them, a spell already forming in her hand to blast through their ranks. But Sanders was quicker and fired a hail of bullets up toward the fairy. A few hit their target, but not enough to do any lasting damage. Still, the barrage did its work and the fairy was forced to pull up and out of her dive.

Sanders had no time to enjoy the small victory as another fairy started to dive down toward them. He turned his gun onto this one and gave it the same welcome as the first, forcing it to back off as well. The recoil, though started to send Sanders over, but a steadying hand from Gabby keep him up. He nodded a thanks to her as she held onto Pyrrha's ear with one hand and tried to hold him with the other.

Behind both of them, the platform was a cacophony of bellowed orders, cries of alarm, and roars of gunfire. The moment they had left the bait shop, they had been set upon by monstergirls. Fairies dived bombed them with spells, catgirls tried to rip people from the platform or carve into Pyrrha, and no matter how many they managed to put down, more poured in. Sanders had lost count of how many fairies he had managed to send plummeting to the ground while at least seven catgirls littered their path, either dead or too injured to continue. But still they came and the air-turret on Pyrrha's back was already out of shots. Worse, five catgirls and at least seven fairies were descending on them, it was hard to keep a good count of the fluttering giants. The only good news was they didn't need to kill them all, just hold them off long enough fo-

"Sanders!" Pyrrha yelled out, shaking him out of his thoughts. Sanders glanced up and saw a fairy starting to try a strafing run on them. He grunted as he brought the machine gun to bare and fired a barrage of fire. But this fairy wasn't dissuaded and held up her hands to create some kind of barrier. The barrier didn't block all the bullets, but it did do enough to let her continue on. Shit! Sanders was about to try another burst when a sudden lance of light cut right into the fairy's wings. It cried in pain before spinning to the ground, smashing into the pavement and slowly skidding to a stop. Sanders let out a relieved sigh as he gave a silent thanks that Jacob had taken his father's weapon.

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Jacob cursed as the ready light of the cannon dimmed away to nothing. Shit, he was burning through these packs way too fast, but what choice did he have? Tossing the spent pack away, Jacob slammed one of the few charged packs in and the laser hummed back to life. With it ready to fire again, Jacob nodded to  the people close to him. Unlike most of the others, he hadn't anchored himself to the platform. Instead, he stayed unhooked to better move where he was needed. Because of that, he required help moving around unless he wanted to spend most of his time face down on the floor. The nod was the signal he was ready to move and the people around him began to help him make his way to the right side of the platform.  As he made his way to the oval, Jacob couldn't help but marvel at the sight, and curse at the spots that were now vacant...

The oval was, almost, full of Phoenix troops. Each one was firing rockets as fast as their squad leader could get them resupplied and an almost constant stream of explosives were flying from the platform. Behind them, Phoenix and Shadow soldiers lined the edges of the oval, either firing away with whatever weapon they could get or reloading the rockets as they came back. Even some of the Romans, easy to spot in their armor, were helping to reload while others sprayed away with their powerful rifles. Those things had been a Godsend as they were more than strong enough to do serious damage to a fairy's wings, as more than few found out the hard way. They, sadly, were less effective on the much larger catmonsters, but it did force the fairies to have to make quick attack runs on them rather than hovering over and barraging them with magic. Which gave Sanders the chance to force them to break off or face diving straight into his barrage of fire.

A sudden cry of alarm shook Jacob out of his thoughts as a catmonster, suddenly, began to rush the platform. The soldiers readied the rockets to fire a barrage, but a blast of wind from a fairy's spell forced them to hunker down or risk being blown off.

Jacob swore as the fairy who had hit them blasted past them. Blood was already pouring out of it and it only got a few feet away before it crashed down into ground thanks to the hail of fire from Sanders. The fairy had paid the price for her attack, but the damage... With the oval troops forced down, the catmonster rushed in and raised its claw to swipe them all off. SHIT!

"GET DOWN!" Jacob yelled out as he lifted the cannon up as high as he could. He did his best to aim the laser, despite the awkward grip, and fired it at the beast’s claw.

To Jacob's relieve, the beam hit its mark and pierced right through the catmonster's claw, causing a small, smoking hole to appear. The catmonster yelled out in pain and its swipe turned into a flinch of pain. Seeing their chance, the troops on the oval leap to their feet and raised their rocket launchers.

"FIRE!" Gerald yelled as a volley of rockets slammed into the catmonster, blowing a huge chunk out of its face and neck. It stumbled forward a few more steps before crashing to the ground, creating an obstacle that the other catmonsters tailing them had to veer around.

"Nice shot, Jacob! Keep pouring it on, boys and girls!" Gerald bellowed out, giving Jacob a thumbs up. Jacob nodded and gained a rare feeling of pride in himself. Samantha was right, he was worthy of this weapon and this was how he would prove it to everyone else! He'd been just as reliable as his dad, no MORE!

With a surge of fresh energy, Jacob turned to head back to the left side of the platform where another catmonster was moving in on them. As he was being helped along the way, a loud voice cut through the noise.

"We are approaching the bridge! All troops, empty everything you have, we need to drive them back!" Darius yelled out, cutting through the noise thanks to Ollie’s radio acting as a megaphone. A cheer went up from the news, but was soon drowned out as the platform was filled with even more gunfire.

The officers at each section of the oval ordered the reloading to stop as everyone grabbed a weapon and emptied its magazine. A mass of bullets, rockets, and whatever else the troops could find was sent out and Jacob added his own laser fire to the mix.

The sudden barrage forced the monsters to back off. At the sametime, Pyrrha took off into a full on sprint as she turned, half skidded, around to start across the bridge. They had almost made it.

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Across the bridge, the rifles-turned-turrets began to shift and turn. Workers grunted and strained as they moved the platforms the guns rested on, swinging them around to their new targets. Spotters strapped themselves into their harnesses positioned behind the iron sights of the guns. Using flags and hand signs, they directed the the gun crew where to aim while hovering their foot over the fire-light. On the other side of the light, the gunners themselves made final checks on the guns, making sure they were loaded properly and ready to fire. The officers in charge of each gun watched all of this and sent the ready signal back to the bridge HQ.

In the HQ, Colonel Morris watched as the statuses of each of the guns changed to ready. He still thought these orders were madness...but he was not going to disobey them. They Mayor himself had signed of on them, after all.  

"Send to all guns. Fire at will," Morris ordered and his radio operators relayed the message. Up above, the officers received their orders. A moment later, with a deafening roar, the guns of Rome opened fire.

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Sanders had to grab hold as Pyrrha accelerated across the bridge. He wanted to swing his gun back to fire some more, but the thing was simply too big to use one-handed. All he could do now was hold on and pray.

Up ahead loomed the gates of Rome. Looking at the defender's wet dream, he could see why the Society had never forced the issue. The first part of the bridge was littered with debris, rubble, and general junk that would make for uneven footing for a giantess. Past that were two cars, staggered backwards, that looked to have been converted into fortresses. Neither looked to have full-sized guns in them, but both still had plenty of smaller, Roman-made weapons that would be more than enough to blast apart monstergirls. And beyond both of them was the REAL firepower of the bridge.

Flanking each side of the bridge was a building, both three stories in height and in each window was the clear profile of a fully-sized gun. And not handguns like the Phoenixes had, rifles. Full-sized, and fully operational, assault rifles.

Sanders had only a second to marvel before those rifles began to flash and the sound of gunfire on another scale blasted into him. Barely a millisecond later, all hell broke out behind Pyrrha.

A sudden barrage of needles began to fly out toward the monstergirls still chasing them. More than a few hit their mark and the monstergirls hit by the needles quickly stumbled to a stop. They began to thrash and convulse as the concoctions the Romans had made assaulted their systems. Pyrrha slowed her run to a walk as the barrage forced the few surviving monstergirls to flee lest they join their comrades. In less than a second, the vast majority of their pursuers were either dead or dying. The small handful of survivors turned back and fled as fast as they could go. Jesus...

"Is... is it over?" Pyrrha asked as she tried to look back, but couldn't without tipping them off. Sanders smiled as he watched the guns fall silent and flopped to Pyrrha's head in exhaustion and relieve.

"Yeah...yeah it's over Pyrrha. We're safe," he said as Gabby plopped down to join him, looking just as tired.

"About damn time, too. Even I got limits when it comes to this," Gabby said as she rubbed her arms. Sanders chuckled as he let himself fall onto his back. It wasn't long before cheers and laughter began to echo up from the platform and Pyrrha gave a soft giggle before moving forward again. They had made it...they had, actually, managed to make it.

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Samantha let out a relieved giggle as she leaned into the back of Jessica's head. The battle was, finally, over and the survivors were cheering, high-fiving, and celebrating their victory. Even better, more than a few were clapping Jacob on the back, shaking his hand, and treating him like one of them, rather than an outcast. Samantha giggled again seeing how happily confused he was by all the attention. He was so cute when he tried to act heroic...

Sadly, movement on the other side of the bridge pulled Samantha's eyes from her lover. Three massive jeeps came racing around the street before screeching to a halt in front of the bridge. The cheering and celebrating came to a sudden end as the doors of the jeeps were flung open. A wave of fear washed over the platform as eleven fully equipped giantesses exited the cars. But none of them drew near as much attention or horror as the twelfth...

Stepping out of the lead jeep was a giantess covered head to toe in padded flak armor. Not one inch of her was unprotected and she even had a large plastic riot shield on her right arm. Samantha felt her blood run cold as the armored giantess began to walk toward the bridge, completely unafraid of the firepower awaiting her. And as the massive guns of Rome opened up again, it was obvious why.

The guns were still firing the needles from before and the heavy armor the giantess was wearing easily broke the needles before they reached her actual body. The beast didn't even have to raise her shield as she strode through the fire like it was nothing but rain. If those full-sized guns didn't work...

"Commander! We have a problem!" one of the Romans, a sergeant or colonel of some kind, yelled. The Roman leader rushed back to the HQ area of the platform to hear what was going on. Not a second later, Sanders came running through Jessica's hair to Samantha.

"Hey, can you keep Pyrrha moving while I hear what is going on?" Sanders asked, already starting to climb down before getting an answer. Samantha didn't want to leave, curious herself to hear what they were going to do, but nodded all the same. Sanders thanked her before sliding down to the platform.

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This was bad... It was just as they had feared, the needle ammo was no match for the giantess' riot armor. All they were really doing is slowing her down, though it was hard to tell if the needles or the uneven ground was doing more. Either way, it would take some time for the giantess to make her way over the bridge, but she WOULD make it across. And if those full-sized guns were useless than anything smaller would be as well.

William frowned as he made his way to the command area. The Romans were supposed to have the bridge wired to blow, but it was still standing despite the clear threat marching across it. He could only think of two reasons for that and he prayed vehemently that it was the lesser of the two evils.

"-an its not responding, try it again!" Terence yelled into the radio as William moved into the area. Oh no... Not a second later, Sanders dropped down from Pyrrha's hair and moved to join them.

"I'm sorry, sir, we've all tried but the C4 isn't detonating! I have people checking the wires now, but that’s not the worst of it. The pulleys we use to move the real ammo are all damag- wait..." the woman on the other side said before going silent.

"Sir...our workers just confirmed that the...the wires have been cut. Sabotaged..." the woman said, fear and shock taking equal parts of her tone. William wished he could say he was as well, but it would have been a lie. Both he and Darius had feared this would happen, doubly so after how quickly the Society had reacted to Rome learning the truth. That kind of reaction speed only came from someone telling them what happened... And that someone, or someones, had made sure this attack would be unstoppable.

Terence's face lost a good deal of color as he looked back at the approaching doom to his city. He shook his head before turning back to the radio.

"How long to fix them?" he demanded as Darius gave a short shake of his head. William, also, already knew the answer.

"Too long, sir. All the... all the spare wiring and pulleys are missing," the woman answered. William sighed as the answer he expected arrived. The traitor, or traitors more than likely, was through and skilled, a fact that had doomed them. The same realization hit Terence as he lowered the transmitter. With the explosives out and the gun’s ammo unable to reach their destinations...

"How...how could they..." he said to no one in particular as he closed his eyes in frustration. William wished he could have helped the man, but he saw no way out of this. Malcolm scratched the back of his neck, looking just as at a lost as William. Only two people seemed immune to the despair, Darius and Sanders.

"How long do you need?" Sanders, suddenly, asked. The entire group, save Darius who had already been looking at him, turned to face Sanders. His face hardened into a grim look as he stared at Terence.

"How long?" he repeated. Terence looked taken aback by the question, but still managed to answer.

"Twenty minutes...maybe more," he said, his face and tone showing no hint of any hope. Despite that, though, Sanders simply nodded.

"You'll get it. Darius, get everyone off Pyrrha as quick as you can. Once their off we'll get you those twenty minutes," Sanders said before turning back to Pyrrha's hair. William stared after him, fighting himself not to let his jaw drop. The others looked just as shocked by the declaration. The silence was heavy till a short laugh cut into it. William turned to see Darius giving a soft chuckle.

"As one would expect from a hero. Thankfully, we do not have to rely solely on his and Pyrrha's heroism. There IS, in fact, replacement wiring," Darius said causing everyone's even William's eyes to widen.

"What?! WHERE?!" Terence demanded, his spirit suddenly lifted at the prospect of saving his people.

"Underneath us. There is some wiring on Pyrrha that was part of some... nonessential components. Jimmy and his workers can get them removed and ready to be reused by the time we evacuate everyone from Pyrrha. We can, then, use that wire to trigger the explosives," Darius said, with a faintest hint of a smile. The entire group's mood was lifted as a real chance of saving Rome appeared before them. And yet...Why did Darius wait to mention this after Sanders left? And what were these nonessential components? William tried to hide his fear to prevent the others from

"YES! Victor, get our people helping the Phoenixes off, NOW!" Terence said as both of the Romans rushed off.

"Shit, guess I better go help before they start throwing people off Pyrrha. We'll still win this yet!" Malcolm said as he took off after the two. Darius grabbed the radio and switched it to megaphone mode before sending out the new orders. The platform erupted into activity as Pyrrha laid down to make it easier to get off her. Yet through it all, William stayed where he was, staring at Darius. He was trying to hide something, specifically from Sanders... wh-... Oh dear God...

"Darius... you didn't..." William said, just loud enough for Darius to hear over the noise. Darius had been yelling a few orders, but stopped at William's words. He turned to William and gave him an all too familiar stare.

"Are you going to tell him?" he asked. That was it...THAT was what he was concerned about?! William's blood began to boil, but he keep his anger down, not wanting to cause a scene.

"Would that I could, but this situation forces me to remain silent... for now," William said, knowing the last part was pointless. It wouldn't matter, later... Darius wouldn't need Sanders nearly as much then. And he would have an entire city's worth of people to guilt Sanders into obeying... Bloody hell...

"Good. Then do your job, second, help the others get our people off Pyrrha," Darius said before turning back. William wanted so badly to refuse...but to do that was to doom others to death. He really had done it... he had rigged Pyrrha to explode...

Ever since learning the truth, William had held some fool hope that Darius might have changed. That seeing just what kind of monster the Society was would get him to realize the error of his ways. This...this shattered that illusion. He had wanted to avoid this, wanted to spare her this...responsibility, but there was no choice now. William cast a quick glance up at Samantha before giving a silent plea of forgiveness.