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"Okay," Alex said, plopping himself on a chair behind one of the long consoles, "why did we have to move the meeting here?"

"Don't touch anything," Albert to Aaron, who was eying the lit buttons. "Arnold, what are the four of you doing here?"

"I figured this was better than asking you to join us." Arnold looked at the wall of screens with various scenes from the city.

"Okay, but why do you want me involved?"

"I'd like to know that too," Aaron said, smirking as he flicked a switch.

Arnold looked at his brothers. Albert slapping Aaron's hand away from the controls, Aiden looking at the controls without touching them and Alex watching Arnold speculatively.

"Aaron, sit down and stop pestering your brother."

Aaron smirked again, "Yes, dad." His face fell as Arnold involuntarily made a fist. "Fuck, sorry. I didn't..." he sat.

Arnold forced a few deep breaths and his hand open. "I know." He didn't expect to ever be comfortable being referred to like that, even if as the one in charge of the family for the time being, he felt like some of his brothers were more kids than adults.

"Okay, as to why we're here, Albert, it's because what I have in mind will involve you and your broadcasting people."

Albert looked at the others who shrugged.

"All he said," Alex said, "was that we'd spread some truths."

"You do realize my job is more about monitoring and preventing studios from broadcasting what we don't want them to than putting anything out there, right? I don't exactly have a production team." Albert indicated the large room. "I mean I'm glad you guys made sure I had a studio, but it isn't like I've needed it."

"Get ready to make use of it," Arnold said, rubbing his hands, "because I'm thinking we start doing some hard-hitting investigative reporting."

"You mean investigative journalism," Albert corrected.

"Whatever. The point is Damian's using the net to spread lies about what we're like. The thing he isn't considering is what his form of worship and power gathering looks like."

"I don't follow," Albert said. "He does what his god asks of him, just like we do."

Alex let out a surprised chuckle. "But what does that look like to people who don't know our gods are real?"

"That he's gory? Sick? A killer?" Albert offered.

Alex smiled. "You're going for the Satanism angle, aren't you?"

Arnold nodded.

"I thought you wanted to go for truth," Albert said. "Satanism isn't real, it's just some bullshit stuff the church made up to justify hunting down people they didn't like."

"I think that showing to the public that high ranking priests involved in sacrificing people, in bloodletting and other rituals based in blood will be true enough to qualify."

"Oh!" Aiden exclaimed, "fuck yeah. Al, we can put together the same kind of clips Damian just released. We have a bunch of names from that bunker raid. We can have actors dressed like priest perform sacrifice, tack on the names and come up with a tag line like 'Satan in priestly clothing'."

Albert nodded, "I know a few actors who's game for it. We own a special effect studio, so the blood and body's easy to--"

"That isn't what I mean," Arnold said. "I'm talking using the information we have and filming one them actually performing their rituals. We don't make stuff up, we show them as they are. Truth versus lies."

"I see a few problems," Alex said and continued. "The big one is that the one major player we got out of that raid is dead, everyone else is a small fish. I don't think we can get much of an effect with pointing out some peon is into blood magic. Even if they do it in priest garb, it'll be too easy for Damian to cut them off."

"So we track down someone higher up," Arnold said.

"It's going to take time," Alex replied. "Time during which Damian's slandering gains traction. I think we're better going with Aiden's idea, that lets us counter the slander from the start. And we know it's true, so it isn't like it's a problem."

"You're wrong," Albert said, saving Arnold from trying to explain why he didn't want to use lies. "If we start with lies, the instant one of then is debunked, all our truths come under scrutiny." Albert flicked a few switches, and the screens changed to the spots. Arnold watched his brother instead of the slanderous messages.

"Okay," Albert said, blanking the screen. "Are the names actual gays?"

"We're trying to find out," Aiden replied.

"They probably aren't. The core of what they are saying is 'gays can't be trusted'. Damian isn't trying to convince anyone with them. The words might sound like he wants your everyday person to start attacking us, but he doesn't care. This is a message to the borderline fanatics, those who in spite of decades of normalization still see gays as the devil's spawn. Oh Aiden, ask your people to see if any of the 'gays' in the spots are tigers. I suspect they won't find any. That would hit too close to home for our uncle. You can debunk as many as them as you want, but it's already too late. The people who aren't interested in causing us problems aren't going to pay attention, and those who want to believe they have the church's blessing to commit atrocities aren't going to care if they aren't true."

"So what you're saying is that we shouldn't bother doing anything to fight this?" Aaron spat.

"No. Arnold has the right idea. If we undermine the church those people believe in, if we expose them for the hypocrites they are, claiming we're the devil, while engaging in something that's clearly satanisms to their eyes, it'll shake their foundations, but it has to be true. That means catching them in the act, if it involves harming people, we involve the police, we make sure they are prosecuted and we fucking make sure our hand in that is not seen."

"He's going to know we're behind it," Arnold said.

"Of course, who else has both the guts and the resources to piss in his face, but he can't be able to prove it, or even hint at it. If we see tigers appear in those spots, we'll know we've hurt him."

"We're back to this taking a while," Alex said. "If we're too obvious with attacking his other compounds, he's going to lash out again, how much of that can the city take?"

"Then we don't go after them," Arnold said. He raised a hand to keep Alex from speaking. "We use the people who owe us. The other families have to have come across informations in defending themselves and hitting back. Starts by contacting Steel Link, of everyone out there Denton is the most willing to work with us, but after that, talk to every family who has sent members here for us to look after. Alex, do not use threats, but make them understand that they have to work with us on this."

"Convince old men that they have to do what I say without being able to threaten to throw their kids out, or withhold sex. This ought to be fun," Alex said.

"I can have reporters contact their peers across the country with anything you find," Albert said. "If it takes place away from here, it's going to be even tougher for Damian to point at us."

"I'll send words through the criminal groups for them to look into missing people in the country," Aaron said. "They have a better sense of who goes missing than the cops do when it's from the homeless communities."

Arnold looked at Aiden, who laughed. "Don't look at me. If we don't want Damian to point to us, there's little I can offer." He paused. "Although, I have signers all over the country, if the underground needs to send us messages with cops we don't control intercepting then, I can arrange for whoever I have in that area to receive them."

"And what are you going to do, Arnold?" Aaron asked.

"See who I have who can take over as lead investigator while Simon is in the hospital and continue trying to get more families to work with us."

"So you are going to break out a suit?" Aiden asks.

"I fucking hope not, I hate those things. Okay get to it, I know it's going to take time, but sooner is better." He left the room, Aaron and Alex in tow, but they went their separate ways at the elevator.

Arnold was almost at his office when his phone rang with Arthur's tone. "Arthur, what's wr--" he closed his mouth and took a breath. He couldn't believe that on the first call from his brother in a year he was back to thinking he needed his protection. "Hi Arthur, what can I do for you?" Arnold was amazed his brother hadn't cut the connection already.

"Arnold, I--" someone called Arthur's name loud enough Arnold hears it. Then he made out a code blue alarm, so Arthur was at a hospital. The rest was muffles by Arthur holding his phone against his chest "I'm on the fucking phone." Muzzled response. "We have twenty fucking surgeon in this hospital, why the fuck are you needing me to assist?" More muffled sounds. "Fine tell doctor Melrose to prepare and I'll be in her operating room in a few minutes."

Arthur breathed hard in the phone. "There are days I hate being an actual doctor. Things would be so fucking easier if all I had to do was fuck clients, but no, those two wanted me to actually run the hospitals system, which meant medical school, internship and now having to assist when every other fucking surgeon is busy."

Arnold wanted to point out Arthur had been one of the youngest man to become a full doctor at nineteen, but he didn't think what his brother needed was a pep-talk, so he stayed silent.

"I guess it's for the best," Arthur said. "I shouldn't take the coward's way out and do this over the phone."

"Arthur, you--"

"Shut up, Arnie. I'm trying to apologize here."

Arnold fought to focus on what Arthur said instead of the use of his nickname.

"The way you feel about me, it's... I don't, I want to say wrong, but I get now how I was raised wasn't great. I'm not comfortable about it, and you're not going to ingratiate yourself in my good graces if you-- I'm fucking coming! I'm the guy in charge here, remind her of that before she makes more demands! Fuck. Look, I've realized I've been treating you worse than the scrub nurses here and you don't deserve that, you're my brother and I should treat you as such. When this whole mess is over, I want us to sit down for dinner and discuss our brotherly relationship. Set boundaries and all that. Are you okay with that?"

"Of course Arthur, you know I've just wanted for us to--"

"I'm going to cut you off there before you something you regret. I can hear how overly excited you're getting. In any other situation I's say you're going to start thinking with your dick, but with me we both know that isn't the organ that's taking over right now. Anyway, I need to go, Melrose is a bitch, but I owe it to her patient not to kick her out until after she saved their life, and she needs my help for that."

"I get it, and thanks Arthur, I look forward to that dinner,"

"Arnie, try not to get killed, okay?" Arthur sounded like he wanted to say more, but a woman called his name. "I've got to go." He disconnected.

Arnold ran in his office and leaned against the closed door, his heart felt like it was about to burst. Arthur had called him Arnie, twice. He looked at his phone, there was hope for the two of them.

Now all he had to do was make sure he won this war, and didn't call Arthur all the time just to hear his voice.