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Arthur

When I said the "wonderful clutches of sleep", I was now lying to myself.

I couldn't even remember where I was or why I was here. All I knew was that I was in this dark place just surrounded by black. For some reason I couldn't feel the ground under me, as if it wasn't even there in the first place. It took me a few moments to realize that I was floating in the air, making me also realize that I wasn't standing anything since there wasn't anything to stand on.

"What the hell?" I gasped softly to myself, hearing my voice echo all around me like I was in the Grand Canyon.

There was nowhere to look from every angle. All that I could see was black, black, and, oh but of course, more black! I had no clue where I was, if I was even at a place. All I remembered was going to sleep and that was it, but was this a dream or had I just magically died? Okay, that second thought was actually silly, but I still had no idea where the heck I was.

No one was around me. At least, no one I could see. Maybe they were invisible and they weren't talking to me, or maybe I was losing my mind and now I was starting to go crazy. I ran my claws through my hand again, somehow thinking that my headache was the cause for this.

However, this wasn't the only surprise that I was in store for. Without noticing at first, the black around me began to shimmer and dissipate until I slowly began to descend towards what began to look like ground. Soon, all the black disappeared and I found myself in the back of a truck, surrounded by a dozen soldiers who looked at a boy lying on the floor of their vehicle.

"Oh my God," I gasped, placing my hand on my mouth.

That was me. If there was something I remembered, it was myself lying on the floor of the same truck that drove me away from Jupiter's property. Carlos knelt right next to me, helping me onto one of the seats on the side, wrapping a thin cover around me as I shuddered from the cold. I couldn't hear any voices but I could see what was going on, and it call started to come back to me as if an MMA fighter was punching it right out of me.

Things were still blurry and grew foggy as time went on. Everyone almost looked like they were made up smoke, sometimes dissipating entirely before reappearing at key moments from my memory. The scene went faster and faster, almost skipping through the downtime that was spent on the truck, soon just letting the scene disappear entirely before it all changed to another.

In only a few seconds I found myself walking, in spirit I guessed, right next to my young self while Carlos walked on the other side. Just going on a hunch, I tried to touch my young self on the shoulder, only finding that my hand passed right through his body. Okay, so I had to be dreaming or else I wouldn't be here.

For once, it wasn't raining, which was something I remembered when I had walked with Carlos years prior. It was still dark though but the stars and night sky was much brighter than it had been before. Remembering what I had been through...it had taken almost three days to get to the rendezvous point with the rest of the Revolution, taking the first day by truck, the second by plane, and the third by shop. What I couldn't remember was if I had talked or done anything those three days, besides eat and think. I might've talked a little during the trip but remembering all the words I said was impossible, so I was okay with the silence.

Well, it wasn't completely full of silence actually. Constant whispers continued to whirl around me and fill my ears, all of them soon blurring together into a jumbled mess that started to give me another headache. The voices sounded so vaguely familiar, almost like they were from people I knew but were also disembodied which made it difficult for me to be sure.

Once again, the scene shifted. I found myself looking at three different scenarios that all repeated themselves after a little bit of time. The first one I saw which was in front of me showed the younger version of me talking to General Ghost for the very first time just before Carlos took me to one of the rooms inside the battle-ship for rest. The second which was on my back right showed me and dozens of other recruits my age all training together in our largest battle-ship's training room, all of us just putting everything we had against one another. Some of us were running laps, some were doing more muscle training, and the rest were working on stamina and determination. The other scene that caught my eye was when I used to get to the mess hall first and usually eat alone, then Falk and Zoey came up to my table and started talking, sparking our close friendship for the very first time. We were all laughing and smiling, and I remembered it was the very first time in weeks that I had gotten over the grief of the death of my parents but I still remembered them and kept them close to my heart.

The scene in front of me had also changed. It was...well...me. The image showed my face from the side, slowly changing until it looked like the real me right now. The faces of me showed me when I was on different missions, many of them showing me in action while others showed me sitting with older versions of my Zoey and Falk that I knew today.

As I looked at each different scenario again, my head began to pound once more. Just looking at what I went through to get here had me nearly in tears, but I fought through the urge and wiped the forming tears away with my arm. When I looked again, all three images had disappeared but left a younger version of me looking straight at me.

He and I wore the same clothes but he looked so much younger and more innocent. I was easily two feet taller than him and his fur was still bright and vibrant for his young age. Mine right now grew slightly more duller but still kept it's orange color while the black glove-fur on my arms just seemed to lighten up to a darker brown. We looked into each other's eyes for the next few moments, no words exchanging from either one of us. He looked much happier than me, probably because he was young, while I returned the smile with a slight curve of my lip in return.

The younger me giggled softly before slowly disappearing into a cloud of orange and black. I gasped and reached out, finding myself too late to even stop him from leaving, for he was long gone now. However, a new presence hit my senses, making me sharply turn around just to see who was there.

My entire body froze. My younger fox self was replaced by two more foxes, one male and one female. They slowly grew until the male was taller than I while the female was a little under my height. They both looked much older than me and I noticed the clothes they wore were raggedy and worn out. Dirt and dust make their fur look duller and more grimy, in which I finally took notice of who they were.

"Mom? Dad?" I whispered hoarsely.

They looked at each other then looked at me with a smile. I had failed to notice that there was someone in the middle of them. It was my younger self wearing the same type of worn out, torn clothes that they wore. My dad had placed his hand on my head while my mom cupped my shoulder, both of them smiling weakly towards me while I stared in awe.

Moments passed before they nodded at me, even my younger self as well. The dark area around them changed slowly, shimmering until the picture had been paining flawlessly. They stood on the field that surrounded our old farm, right beside our home near the tall hill with the willow tree. Wind seemed to blow against them, making my mom's long hair flow in the wind like the clearest running water in a stream. The sun slowly set behind them, making the sight even more beautiful and perfect than I could ever imagine.

I took a step forward, to my mistake. Two gunshots broke through the silence and rattled my ears, forcing me to look around to where they had come from and who had fired them. After finding no one in the darkness behind me, I looked back only to find all three of them standing there, but I noticed something that made the entire picture look horrible.

Everything had taken a dark turn for the worst. The lovely scene that was once my farm was now a farm engulfed in a massive ball of fire that spread throughout the land and into the field. Our house was swallowed up in flames and I could see our livestock trapped inside the burning barn all shrieking, howling, mooing for help.

My parents still stayed exactly where they were, along with myself. As I looked closer at them, I shuddered and felt my heart skip a few beats. My father and mother each had a fatal bullet wound in their side, still standing exactly where they were while the blood continued to drip and stain their clothes, soon forming a small puddle on the ground. They looked as though someone had just beaten them up or something due to the cuts and bruises I could see along their faces and bodies. While our land burned, my parents slowly began to disappear along with the farm, along leaving my younger self and me along once more.

The younger me took a few steps forward and walked over to me while I was fixated in place. He got closer and closer but for some reason he also grew older and older until he looked exactly like me--the real me I am today. He wore the same clothes as I did and stopped right in front of me. I saw his lips move, as if he was trying to tell me something, but he sounded as silent as ever.

Moments later, he disappeared.

I wanted to rub my eyes or either pinch myself to wake myself from this horrible dream, but I couldn't because something was stopping me. When I tried to speak normally, I found that no words would come out of my mouth, telling me that I didn't have a voice in this place anymore.

The surprises didn't stop however, as if I expected them to. Behind me I could hear pounding laughter, laughter that made me want to shudder in fear since I knew the laughter so well. I quickly turned around to find myself only a few feet away from Jupiter, the same panther who laid waste to my parents. He looked as smug and evil as ever. The feline had his arms folded behind his back and stood as high and mighty as when I last saw him years ago.

I cursed his name, finding my voice had returned. "Damn you to hell, Jupiter."

The panther chuckled deeply, refusing to respond to my statement. He still had the scars I gave him as a token of my "appreciation" years back, but sadly those only made him look more menacing. I'll bet anything that no one gave him any looks behind his back now that he had those.

The darkness around him began to change exactly like the other scenarios I saw before. This time though, it was the same scene I saw previously with my home literally being burned to the ground. On the ground lying in front of Jupiter were my parents, completely dead. He spread his arms out wide and continued to bellow with laughter, forcing my anger to skyrocket to new levels. My head began to hurt again but this time I could only feel anger shoot throughout my entire body.

I shot forward as quick as I could and pounced on him, grabbing him by the throat as he flailed, cursing my name again and again and again as I laid as many punches I could against his face.

"Arthur...Arthur...Arthur..."

The sound of a new voice forced me to stop, for I soon found myself only punching the darkness of the ground under me. Jupiter, the scene, and my parents had disappeared and I was left alone yet again because of it.

"Arthur...Arthur...Arthur..."

_ _ I heard the voice again, this time louder yet still foggy and very distanced away from me. Before I could even react, this bright light in front of me blinded me and forced me to cover my eyes with my hands. The light soon began to illuminate the entire area around me with its white presence, soon wrapping around me like a warm and comforting embrace that I wished never went away. The touch of the light reminded me of my father and mother whenever they would hold me in their arms when I was hurt or sad and just comfort me when I was down.

The voice I heard a few times now began to grow in intensity, sounding like it was yelling out me now. I flailed my arms in every direction, trying to reach for it while I was blinded by the light. Eventually the light began to fade away and I was looking into the eyes of my friend, Falk.

He looked right into my eyes, holding onto my wrists as tightly as he could. This was actually a very odd position for the two of us to be in, and I couldn't help but blush slightly because of it. My heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour as he let go of my wrists and let me sit up on my bed. Sweat had formed at the base of my forehead and I could feel the muscles in my arms begin to spaz out while I tried to get my breathing under control.

Falk stood up and folded his arms across his chest, soon sitting down on my bed as I sat on the edge. I rubbed my face over and over again, running my hands through my head again and again in nervousness. I hunched over and rubbed the back of my neck, knowing this time it wasn't because I had a bad feeling or something along those lines.

He let out a stressed sigh. "You know, you're much stronger when you're sleeping. Did you know that?"

"What did I do?" I asked, looking at the metal floor.

He placed his hands on his knees and stood up. "Well...let's see. It's about midday and the general wants to see us and get the files you and I collected last night. Well, turns out you're not at the meeting so Ghost sends me to fetch you, only I find that you're still out cold. When I tried to wake you, you started to flail and you tried to punch me in the face. I called out your name dozens of times but you gave me a really good pop in the chin. Now you're up and the general wants to see us. Does that explain it all?"

I nodded and rubbed my eyes again. "Um, yeah, that sounds pretty accurate to me." I admitted solemnly, feeling much regret for trying to hurt him.

He saw how down I was and patted my shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it, man. I'll be fine. I mean, it's not like this is the first time you've tried to sock it to me in your sleep, am I right?"

A weak smile made its way onto my lips as I looked at him. "Yeah, and you thought I was just playing at first."

He shrugged and chuckled. "At least your nightmares keep me on my toes otherwise I'd have to find someone else to wake up in the morning."

"Alright, let's just get to the meeting," I stated, standing up. "I meet you there in a few...I kinda need to change first."

He nodded and headed for the door. "Alright, I'll inform the general you'll be a tad late. See ya in a bit, man." He waved goodbye, heading down the hall.

The door shut behind him, leaving me alone. It took me a few moments for me to collect my thoughts before I stood up and got dressed. Of course it had been another nightmare that had plagued me for the past few years. They were always so random and so un-frequent that made them a pain in the ass because I never knew when I was going to have one. On usual nights, I would just sleep soundly without much dreaming going on, but on nights that I usually dreamed I was afraid of having a nightmare. There were of course nights that I had dreams that didn't turn into nightmares that made me never want to sleep again, but nine times out of ten I usually found my dreams plagued by them.

Truthfully, none of them were about Jupiter or my parents' death or anything along those lines. They were usually silly nightmares about me falling off a cliff without a parachute or maybe a stone cold killer was chasing me with a knife and I found myself nine years old again. Those I could tolerate, but I couldn't remember the last time I had a Jupiter-family dream since it had been years ago. Why I was getting one right now was a complete mystery to me.

Was it because I looked at Shock's picture or was it because I saw Scar Face after all these years and it was starting to bug me again? Truth was, I hadn't seen Scar Face for the past six years and that picture just reminded me of my father because he looked exactly like him, but why it was giving me terrible nightmares now was a blur to me. I wanted to think that it was nothing and it was just a misconception but of course I knew better. I had learned to trust my better judgment and listen to my intuition. Something told me that things were starting to come full circle and this was going to end, very soon I might add. How it ended though, with our side winning or not, I couldn't say.

For the moment I had to push those thoughts aside and focus on the things that mattered right now, even though I knew my parents and the truth mattered. I had questions for Carlos when I found him, but I still had a job to do and I couldn't just sit around and skulk around for things to come my way. I was just going to wait until the moment came when I needed to talk to him.

I quickly dressed myself back into my skin-tight, flexible suit and strapped my communicator around my forearm then grabbed my bag and walked out. Since the entire tech around us had been updated, most of the soldiers in our fold were fitted with a state-of-the-art communicator and more powerful guns. Since I worked with special operations, I had to wear this suit on all missions that required me to be stealthy and break in without being noticed. Other missions that didn't require as much stealth, I usually had to go with a disguise which was where our new tech came in handy.

Since it was early in the morning, while I walked through the metal hallways, lines of soldiers passed by me in a long jog around the ship cabins. The leader of the platoon was at the lead while the newbies stayed behind him and tried their best to keep up with his pace. Cardio in the morning, strength in the afternoon, and both before the sun set. The training was difficult and they forced you to push yourself more and more each day but it wasn't impossible. You're tested throughout the training where you work with computers, explosives, firearms, stealth, special missions, and other things and they evaluate you on your performance until award's ceremony where they then put you in the best position where you work within your element with few times they throw you out of your element to keep you on your toes.

Each one of them, all of them recruits, knew exactly who I was. Special forces, like me, had to wear a black glove with a white wristband with four stars along the wrist, or a set of four stars along your left pactoral. It was either those two or you show them your communicator and tell them who you were manually, and they beat it into you regardless. Each one of them waved to me, panting like dogs--some actually were, so that made me laugh--before heading on with their run.

I passed more soldiers as I went through the halls of the ship, finding that people were now waking up. Upon further investigating my communicator, I found that it was only eight in the morning, telling me that I had only about five hours of sleep to love. Oh well, I suppose. It was better than nothing I suppose. Sleep was sleep, and I cherished every moment that I could take it.

Time passed by quickly but eventually I reached the upper deck of the ship, showing the guards who kept guard of the general's headquarters my ID before heading inside. The room ahead was very large and it overlooked the entire ocean and half of our fleet, the other half more than likely behind us keeping an eye out with the section they were placed at. A little over a dozen soldiers had to be here, all of them working on a set of digital computers either relaying information to our troops on the field or keeping track of our own position and the current news that was going on regardless. Lights illuminated the room but the crown jewel was the hexagon shaped communicator right in the center of the room, showing the entire planet and where our forces were most massed at. It housed all of the information our ship contained, along with some information from our fleet.

I was greeted by a couple of soldiers as I walked up to our communicator, finding that Zoey, Falk, and Damien were all waiting for me. The general saw me and nodded my way. I got the message and fiddled with my communicator, tapping away at some buttons which then relayed all the information that I had gotten from Chambers to the central hub we were all standing around.

"Thank you for joining us, Lieutenant Wing," he said, tapping away at the holographic keyboard to get things started.

"Sorry I'm late, sir," I responded, folding my arms across my chest.

He waved his hand to the side. "Think nothing of it. We were just getting started actually."

The general was greeted by another soldier who handed him a digitalized pad, which he started to quickly go to work on. After tapping away at a few buttons, red dots began to flash across certain points of the globe, the dots being labeled as OL while green dots flashed close by them with them being labeled RN. The dots were all connected by different lines that soon began to interlock with one another, showing that they were spread out over the entire globe.

"Now, with the intelligence you acquired from Chambers, we can finally isolate the key choices for the new Overlord election. As you all know, if we can thwart their plans during the election, they will be forced to meet once more and start from square one again, which will eventually give us more time."

The globe shimmered and split into six different people, each with a name, age, and species. They were all Task Masters by the looks of it, and I was soon confirmed when I remembered that only Task Masters could run for the position of Overlord. Four seemed to be male while the other two remained were female, which was odd considering that no female had ever run for the Overlord position before, not since the second election.

"These seem to be their key choices for the top six. First off, we have the twin brothers Michael and Fredrick Omen--dragons who run slave auctions globally. From what reports tell us, we know that they sell slaves to the highest bidder, sometimes making an easy million on a person, or even a half a million. Half of their profits go straight to the Overlord and his campaign. They're cold brutes and they aren't afraid to put someone in their place if they feel the need to, though they are known to try to not 'damage' precious cargo."

Their faces filled the monitor. The one on the left was named Fredrick, and he seemed to be the older brother of the duo. From what I could see, he was in his early thirties, had emerald green eyes, and had that exact same smug look on his face that I remembered from Jupiter. The one on the right was Michael, the youngest by only two years apparently. How he got swept up into this entire operation was just a mystery to me. He shared the same green eyes as his brother but his look wasn't exactly smug, to me it actually looked like he was fearing something but what I couldn't tell.

The general then switched over to one of the females. "This is Felicia Kymlin, a lioness that has a temper just as big as her ego. Not only does she craft some of the tallest buildings on the planet, but she uses purely slaves to build them and works them constantly to the bone, sometimes even to death. Her temper is something to be fearful of, and she also had friends in high places which makes her an even bigger threat."

Both Falk and I leaned closer as she flashed on the monitor. If she wasn't so mean and heartless, not to mention egocentric, I would actually think that she was kinda pretty. She had long straight hair that passed her shoulders and she looked like she had a light build, but the devilish look on her face told me all I needed to know.

The picture shifted as Damien switched to another female face. "Behold Adrianne Waltz. This women is not to be taken lightly. She's a hardened soldier who trained in the Overlord's army before splitting away to start her own career as a scientist who specializes in muscle conditioning and bio-mechanical research. Her work is the stuff of legends and she constantly works on slave patients for testing, many of which are killed with her experiments. Though sometimes they fail, many of succeeded and have made the Overlord's army, along with small armies of Task Masters, very powerful and strong, not to mention smart and quick."

From what I knew about Task Master scientists, they had the brains of a supercomputer, or something along those lines. I had heard of bio-mechanical research, which was basically synthetic material with metal parts placed inside to keep it might stronger and more resistant. You had to be crazy to go against people like that because they worked inside heavily guarded facilities with a private army to guard them and their work. If they got a hold of you...you might as well lie down and die because their experiments were fatal many times.

Falk stepped forward and let out a sigh of stress. "Don't tell me we have to track down and take these guys out. The last thing we need right now is having them on our ass for the rest of this war."

Damien shook his head and switched the image over to another. "We're not going after them...yet. I have a plan to take them out without things getting too...drastic that we have to waste hundreds of soldiers."

"What kind of plan is it?" Zoey asked, sounding very intrigued by the sound of it.

He shook his head. "I'll need to speak with the other generals before I can confirm it, but I'll need you lot to bear with me, okay?"

We all exchanged looks of concern. Falk shook his head at me but Zoey shot him the we-have-no-other-choice look which made him sigh and nod her way while they both looked at me. I shrugged but instead looked to the general and nodded, the other two following my lead.

He switched to the next person. "Alright, next we have Lucian Hare. Now, here's the kicker: he's probably the nicest Task Master you'll ever find out of the bunch."

We all looked at him, raising our eyebrows in confusion. Falk, Zoey, and I were about to fight against that statement but Damien gave us the look, making all three of us shut up and hear what he had to say.

A nice Task Master? Yeah, I call bull on that. From what I had been taught, and what I had grown up to know, Task Masters only cared about money, themselves, and power. Chambers was a man who controlled millions of dollars and hundreds of slaves, and he was a terrible man; Jupiter was a cruel and despicable tyrant who abused his power and his slaves to the fullest extent without a feeling of remorse for them. The Task Master's he just showed us were also terrible people, proving their dark side with the things their did, the side they supported, and the attitude they had against people not as great as they were. What had this guy named Lucian done? Even if he donated to charity or aided a slave in need, that didn't exactly make him a nice guy. It could just been an act for all we knew and he could just be another horrible man.

Zoey butted in before the general could speak. "Wait...I've heard of him actually. Isn't he top writer on the planet? I've heard that he's written number one top best sellers and was named Writer of the Year, along with dozens of awards to follow it."

Damien nodded. "You're correct. Without the people's notice, he's also an undercover Task Master with tons of power and a great influence on the common folk's mind. Intelligence suggests that he receives dozens of thousands of letters with people saying how much his work has made an impact on their lives. He also works in seclusion and no one knows exactly where he lives or works, besides the Task Master's close to him most likely."

I took a look at his face, which shocked me actually. The one difference that he had was that he didn't have that same smug look on his face that most others like him would have. He looked very calm and relaxed and, very odd in my opinion, very happy by the looks of it. He didn't have that furrow in his brow that others like him had. If he didn't have the title of Task Master then I might actually believe the general, yet I was still skeptical about him and what the general spoke of.

He tossed something over to me. I caught it and looked at the front cover. It was a book, a large one at that. " 'Kyris and the Dead: Book One: The Path of the Reaper'."

The general nodded. "It's his new book series. A hit amongst teenagers and smaller kids. Though it has some suggestive material in there, teens find it completely amazing and 'awesome'. It apparently centers around a species he calls 'humans' and a boy who dies and becomes a demon."

Falk rolled his eyes. "Talk about weird, but it sounds cool."

Two more books were tossed at me as I placed the previous one down on the counter. " 'Path to Nirvana' and 'Boys into Men'. I've heard of these two! These blew his fame up!"

Damien nodded. "Exactly, now you see where his influence came from. He has dozens of more books, all of which best sellers. He's been on many TV shows and a variety of talk shows."

Zoey came over and took a look at the books. "Jeez, talk about a creative mind."

"He's that and more, so be cautious about him as well, but we move on," the general stated, changing the picture from Lucian to another that made the fur on the back of my neck stand on end. "We have someone you know all too well, Arthur."

Of all the people that had to be running for the office of Overlord, it just had to be Jupiter. He looked as smug and devilish as ever, the scars across his eye just making him look ten times more menacing from what I remembered. Yep, I was starting to regret giving him those, but it was either that or get choked to death at a young age and join my parents.

"You're shitting me," I whispered to myself, unaware that the general overheard me.

He shook his head and sighed. "I'm afraid not, Arthur. He's really running for the spot and he's going to do whatever it takes to get there. So far, he's rallied up massive numbers of people to back him up and his campaign to the path of the Overlord. I can promise you this, he's lying about it all."

I rolled my eyes this time. "You don't have to tell me twice, you know."

"You might want to hear this first. It was his speech two weeks ago to the people during his campaign. If you need a barf bucket, please let me know."

Before I could even ask for one, he played a short clip during his speech. He seemed to be in front of the White House, which was now the house of the most powerful Task Master in America and it wasn't him though. The crowd was massive, being easily thousands of people in size with more to come as well. Camera crews from different TV shows were all at the front while paparazzi swarmed them from behind.

"...not worry, my brothers and sisters, for this war will soon be over and this pitiful excuse of a resistance, this 'Revolution', will soon be dealt with!" The crowd cheered loudly for him, throwing their arms in the air in support. "Calm, my brothers and sisters. This...Revolution is nothing I tell you! Nothing! They are just a people who only care about two things: power and authority! They force their own armies to toil and make slaves of themselves, just to make us fear them! Well, I tell you that I do not fear them! They are nothing compared to our united might! They will crumble! They will fall! They! Will! Suffer!"

_ _ At the end of his speech, he threw his arms into the air, which the crowd cheered even louder for. I could see signs inside the crowd with his name on them, with the title of 'New Overlord' right after it. They chanted his name again and again, growing in volume and intensity with each call.

However, not everyone seemed to be on board with his campaign. Our general zoomed in closer towards the back and sometimes in the middle of the crowds where the people were holding up protesting signs against him, slandering his name and his campaign. Eventually, the crowd broke up as explosions went off around the places where I could see the protesters. The crowd quickly started to break away, fleeing for their lives as a few more explosions went off close by, however Jupiter seemed only happy with what was going on, almost as if he was expecting it. Damien then turned the video off. "As you can see, he has hundreds of thousands of people already going along with his start up the hill to the position of Overlord. However, people who aren't even with the Revolution protest against him because they know the truth and they are not afraid to speak it because they are free and so are their families."

"Why haven't they joined the Revolution then?" Falk asked curiously.

"Because, that's how we've wanted them to be," Damien explained. "Since they aren't a part of our cause, they still aid us in ways we can't describe. They direct others towards us and help amass our numbers even more. Sometimes you can't have everyone join you directly, but you can get them you help you indirectly."

Zoey scratched her chin. "I see...a smart play. But what's our next move now? Now that we know who the top six are, how does that help us?"

Damien tapped his pad and changed the screen until it showed a large building. "The meeting to determine the top two will be in Moscow on the twentieth of September, and then the final election for the top spot will be midnight on January."

"New Year's Day," Falk whispered to himself. "Whoever gets the favor of the people is gonna set the standard for the entire year. Possibly for the rest of his or her rule."

General Ghost nodded. "Exactly, and we need to stop the election before it happens."

"But won't they know we're going to try and stop it?" I asked. "They already know of our work in the past, so I can only guess that they're going to take extra precautionary measures to entire we don't succeed."

"Don't worry about that for right now," Damien replied. "I'll need to speak to the other generals to ensure that our new plan is fully supported. For the moment, I have a new assignment for you and Zoey."

She and I looked at each other. I saw her let out a long sigh of stress while I rolled my eyes and joined her. Falk looked at the both of us and raised his eyebrow, looking at the general next. We were usually place don missions together, never one of us being apart from another. Being just a duo felt a little odd, especially since I worked in tandem with Falk more than I did with Zoey.

"What kind of mission is it exactly?" Zoey asked, leaning forward to listen to the general's reply.

Damien changed the screen until it came back to the hare. "You mission is to track down Lucian and learn about his whereabouts. Once you have figured that out, I'll need you both to go to his home and connect me to him using this." He tossed me a circular, baseball-sized cylinder. "One you have an audience with him, I'll need you to connect me with your communicator so he and I can discuss a possible truce together so he can join our side."