I’ve got you—I’ll RP once school/midterms are over. 

TOP

We sombrely put on our military uniforms, then the dark capes that follow. Sprocket, Alex, and I then proceed down the hall and to the convention room where the meeting will take place. 

I take a deep breath before I push open the large doors. 

“Showtime.”

I can already see that Catastrophe the Royally Annoying Blonde has made himself comfortable on one end of the long table, so I go to the other end and sit, Sprocket on my right and Alex on my left. 

“General-I mean Quee-“ he begins. 

“Cut it with the mocking,” Sprocket interrupts. “It’s taking every muscle in my body not to kill you right now.”

“Ditto,” Alex growls. 

“Oh Sprocket dear,” he says with a quiet scowl. “And Alexander. Patience.”

“Catastrophe,” I say sternly. His smirk quickly melts away. “Enough.”

I lightly touch Sprocket’s leg, which I noticed was fidgeting and tapping. It stops. 

“We’ve come here to discuss important business matters that will stay business and nothing else. No fighting. I think even...those,” I have to force myself not to say tyrants. “like you know how to be diplomatic.”

He snorts. “Yes. And what exactly is your proposition? It wasn’t stated in the party invitation.”

“We’re working to stop the fighting,” I reply. “No more bloodshed. We need to reach a compromise.”

He whispers for a couple of moments with his Captains before they all sit up straight again. 

A female captain speaks. “What is in it for our side?”

“You don’t lose your supporters,” Sprocket replies. 

“Throw the Shield and Crown into there too,” he says.  

“You idiot!” Alex exclaims, jumping up. “That’s what we’re trying to prevent, fool! We don’t want you violently ruling us all!”

“Sit down!” I below. Alex whimpers quietly but shoots a death glare at Catastrophe. Catastrophe chortles. 

“Catastrophe,” I glare at him. “That’s not happening. Those artefacts are within our reach, yes, but they will simply become artefacts. We are draining them of their power as I speak. They will only be collectors’ items in the new museum that Kyngdom’s Court of Royals wants to establish.”

“You can’t do that,” Catastrophe says desperately. “That’s not possible.”

“I would like to schedule another meeting soon,” I reply, ignoring the plea in his voice. “But at the moment, we have more important matters to attend to.”

I stand, Sprocket and Alex standing with me. We walk out the door, and I can feel Catastrophe’s scowl on the back of my neck as we close the doors. 

When we reach a more secure place, Sprocket turns to me. 

“Was what you said in there a bluff?” 

“Of course,” I reply. “As a spy, you learn to lie, and lie well. We don’t have the Shield, and I posses a still powerful Crown.”

I see Lycaella walking up to me and I greet her with a half smile. I’m so tired. This is all catching up to me. 

“Would you reach out and schedule another meeting with Catastrophe please?” I ask her. 

“Of course,” she replies. “How did it go?”

Sprocket looks at me. I clear my throat. 

“It could have gone better.”

"It could have gone better."

I snort, not bothering to hide it. 

"That's a definite understatement."

Mina glares at me. I can tell that she wants me to be optimistic for the other Resistance members, but I ignore it. They should have an idea of how the Resistance is dealing with its problems. Even if it isn't good.

"There could have definitely been some things that went better, but we shouldn't give up hope," Mina says, looking pointedly at me. I just shrug as if to say that I can't help it.

"I say we all go get some sleep," Alex says. "If we are going to talk to that scumbag again, we might as well be well-rested." 

Mina nods and leaves to go to her room. 

The palace at Mer was well furnished, and each Resistance leader was given a comfortable room with plently of room. It was nothing like the old headquarters, but not in a bad way. 

I head off to my room, dodging palace servants and butlers. The palace continued to function even when it was being used as a base for a resistance group. It was something to be admired.

As I near my room I see Kristjan standing outside, whittling a piece of wood. He looks up as I approach, and I can see concern on his face.

"How did it go?"

I sigh and walk past him into the room. He follows behind, setting his whittling on one of the side tables. I glance at it as he does. It's a crude sword, half-finished and rough looking. 

"Not good," I say, sitting down on the bed and bending over to take my boots off. "Catastrophe is a turd, and he is really difficult to talk to. I looked into all of the thoughts of his generals when we came in, and it disgusted me. They all were looking at us and thinking of us as small, snot-nosed brats who hadn't grown into our big-kid panties yet. It was patronizing, and it took all of my self-control not to stab each and every one of them."

Kritsjan nods, not saying anything. I had told him about my new vampire-ness and my powers after the battle, but I think he was still trying to get used to it. I didn't blame him.

"Other than the generals and their insulting thoughts, how did it go?"

"The Resistance can't do this, Kristjan. They just can't. We have no idea what we're doing even if we pretend like we are, and every single one of us is about to drop. I don't want to be pessimistic, but it can be really hard when we can't plan past the next week."

Kristjan walks up to me and puts his hands on my shoulders. I look up into his face and notice how tired he looks.

"Don't give up, Sprocket. The Resistance needs you, and even though you don't seem to have a plan, it will all work out. And besides, you know just as well as I do that not having a plan just makes it more interesting."

I smile, thinking back to all of the times on the street when we probably should have had a plan but didn't. It usually resulted in scars and bruises, but it always seemed to work out.

"I think I just need to take a nap."

"I completely agree. You need the rest."

Kristjan takes his hands off of my shoulders and walks towards the door as I take my boots off. He leaves, closing the door softly behind him.

"Have sweet dreams."

I hardly hear him as I fall back onto the pillows and let sleep envelope me. 

We walk into the council room again. The sun shines through the high windows, but it only reaches half of the room. Catastrophe and his band of roaches are in shadow, which probably was better for all of us. If I saw their faces too closely I might kill them, and I could tell that Mina and Alex felt the same.

Catastrophe greets us with a nod and we sit down. Mina seems different, but I can't put my finger on it. When I breifly brushed her conciousness before we came in it seemed to be humming, like some sort of power was trapped inside of her and was trying to get out. I had resolved to talk to her about it later, but the thought keep coming up in my mind.

"Hello again, Resistance," Catastrophe says, looking each of us over. "I hope you all had a restfull night."

"Likewise," Alex growls. I can tell that he meant to say something different, but he kept himself under control. 

Catastrophe smiles, his eyes glinting even when in shadow.

"Now, it is time to talk politics. General Mina, you told us of your attempt to take all of the power out of the relics and reduce them to simple artifacts. As you might know, I have been performing an ongoing search for these artifacts, and it would pain me greatly if this power extraction was succesful."

I see Mina stiffen, and I look more closely at her. She is glowing slightly, so lightly it was hardly noticeable. I doubt Catastrophe noticed, as we were all in full sun and any other light source would be hard to spot. Again I wonder what is going on, but before I have time to think about it more Catastrophe begins to speak.

"I do, however, have the forces neccresary to kill every single one of you. You know I do, but are operating on some faint hope that you will be able to overthrow me. I have been playing with you up to now, and I hope that you see the folly in attacking me further. I am hesitatnt to destroy you, though, because you contain the information to find the artifacts. So, you see, we are in a quandary."

The room falls silent, Catastrophe's last words lingering in the air.

"Well," I say, breaking the silence. "I guess we could-"

"One of the artifacts has already been drained," Mina says, and I can tell that she is telling the truth. Catastrophe can tell too, and he stiffens. 

"Impossible-"

"The other artifact is in the process of being destroyed. It should be completely drained by tomorrrow." This was a lie, but I don't think Catastrophe noticed.

"So you see," Mina continues, smiling slightly. "The quandary has been solved. You no longer have access to unimaginable power, and we are now capable of defeating your army because of this loss."

Catastrophe's face has gone white, and I smile inwardly at his discomfort. Take that Blondie.

"I think it is time for you to consider your options," I say. "Perhaps you could abdicate and join the new Kyngdom Democracy."