"Right," Ravi said, now that we were all back at 'base', "bringin' home your parents murder, perfectly normal. Why don't you two go out on your first date next?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Look, guys. I know what your thinking. I know that it was stupid that I brought him and-"

"Then why did you?" Mercy asked, a cold bite in her voice. "I may not remember a lot about that night, but I do know that that man tried to kill us. Not to mention he killed our parents."

"If it weren't for him, we'd both be buried six feet under besides Mom and Dad. I know you're against it, but look. Just let him tag along. I mean, we know he has the guts to kill someone and we know he's not working for the Seventh Sword anymore so-"

"How do you know that?" Levi asked.

"What, you think they told him to let me live so he could hunt me down years later? I wasn't even Shadow back then. There was no point."

The others were silent.

"Don't worry," Chris said, strolling in with Bryce and Theo close behind him. "Your friend there already threatened to cut off all my limbs in the most painful fashion and then leave me in Pacific Rose if she even thought I had an idea about betraying you." He was wearing new clothes now, a brown shirt and jean pants, which Ravi had given him. He wore old brand less sneakers that tied with white laces. His short beard from before was shaved smooth and his hair cut short.

"Fine," Mercy grumbled. She glared at me. "I trust you know what your doing."

I nodded my thanks before turning back to the others.

"I know he's not trust worthy but, murderer or not, we need all the help we can get."

"You know I'll agree with whatever you think," Theo said.

Bryce nodded his agreement.

"Levi?"

He gave me a sideways glance before turning back to Chris. "Fine, I'll trust you."

"Thank you."

"Now that we've got that out of the way," Rosy said, coming in with Clover and Mila at her sides, "why don't we get back to business. Shadow, or Lena now, you said you wanted my men, didn't you?"

"That's right. It hasn't been that long since we took you away from your base, so most of them should still be there, right?"

"Probably."

"Do you think they'd be willing to help us?"

"Well, that depends, what do you need them for?"

I looked at her, letting my expression grow serious. "We're going to overthrow the government."

She smiled at me. "When you put it that way, hell yeah."

"And all your men would be fine with it?" Clover asked. "They wouldn't, I don't know, report us or anything?"

"Most of them are criminals and the rest just flat out hate people. A chance like this? I guarantee each and every one of them will be all for it."

"That's just what we're hoping for."

"Then we need a way to get out there, first of all." I thought aloud. "Stealing horses won't be that hard. Thinking ahead, we'll have to get all those people in too."

"What do you suppose we should do about that?" Mila asked, her arms fully wrapped around a bow. "I mean, how many men do you have, a hundred? We can't just march them in and expect to get all the way to Pacific Rose."

We thought for a second before Bryce spoke up. "How about a riot?"

I looked at him. "I think that's the first smart thing I've ever heard you say, Sleeping Beauty." He scowled at me. "You're on the right track, but how about we go bigger. Instead of just starting a single riot, let's start four."

"One for each city?" Theo asked.

"Bingo. So, this is what I'm thinking. The far walls of each city, we start a fire. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean we have to burn people alive, but just light up an empty building. Not only will there be chaos everywhere, but guards will be rushing from all over to get to the fires. I mean, there hasn't been a fire around here in, what, twenty years? All this security makes it harder to deal with things like this, things that haven't happened so aren't expected to happen."

"They'll be away from the Kaiser."

"Mostly. And we'll be free to run people from anywhere, especially if they're going towards Pacific Rose. That'll be the one place that isn't burning."

Clover spoke up. "So, we set the city on fire, break a hundred or so people into the Paradise Center, where the Kaiser usually is, and then what?"

I smiled at her. "While the Kaiser's men are busy fending off renegades and rebels, Squadron Five can take the opportunity to sneak in and kill him. I can do that part. After that, we can tell the city about the Seventh Sword." I raised a finger to Rosy who was about to ask a question. "The people feel betrayed, they have no one to turn to. So, what do we do? We give them someone to follow. Clover, that's where you take over. We'll put you up as something like a figurehead, not to say you won't be important."

"What?" She cried. "What about you?"

"I can't do that. If word were to get out I was Shadow, no one would accept me. They already know you. You're Clover, who was willing to speak out against the government and take a stand for what the people needed. I'll be something like...you're soldier. As far as the people are concerned, I'm just your simple pawn that you use."

"I don't like that. You're more than that, you know. You're doing most of the work. Besides, if you're in charge, wouldn't Orchid be more willing to give in?"

"Hmm, you have a point there. Okay, how about this? You tell them who I am, my story, that I lived in Orchid. Then, you say we worked together in this, but you came to me. You're the genius who planned everything, I'm just the victim who decided to help."

"But I-"

"I know, you don't like it, but that doesn't matter. The three other districts don't want some criminal taking charge, they want a leader."

She scowled at me but agreed anyways.

"Good. Now then, we need some horses."

---

"I can't believe we did that," Bryce complained from his horse.

We were galloping through a barren desert outside the city, heading in the direction of Rosy's place. If our theory was right, most of them would still be there. Assuming that only twenty had left, that left us with about eighty-five. Ninety if we were lucky.

I turned back to Bryce and smiled at him. "We're planning on overthrowing a government and you feel bad about stealing some horses from a rich bastard? I mean, you're probably gonna have to kill people, you know that right?"

He looked away, focusing on the path ahead.

"Lena!" Theo called. I turned back to him. "How's your injury doing?"

My hand unconsciously slipped to my stomach. "Better. The medicine Ravi packed for me's strong."

He nodded, smiling.

"How much further is it?" Chris complained from the horse I made him share with Levi. You can probably guess that neither of them were happy about it, but I didn't trust him alone.

"A few more hours," Rosy answered from behind Mercy. "We're trying to get there in one straight shot right? We're not stopping to rest or anything?"

I turned back and smiled at her. "We'll rest when we're dead."

"That better be a joke!" Bryce yelled. "She's joking, right? We get to sleep when we get there, right?"

The name Sleeping Beauty was starting to seem more fitting.

The horse made a quick jump over a rock and I cringed, holding onto my throbbing stomach. I glanced back to make sure no one was watching before peeking at my hand. Sure enough, blood was dotting my calloused hand. We don't have time to stop. I'll rewrap myself when we get there.

---

We pulled up in front of the giant stone building, Rosy in front of us all.

"It's me!" She called, looking at the top of the door. "Open up." We waited a few minutes, but nothing happened. "I swear to god, if you don't open up right now, I'm gonna-"

On cue, the creaking wooden door pushed open, moving sand out of it's way. In the doorway, stood two men both with swords tied around their wastes. Their eyes skimmed over us, stopping momentarily to scowl at me, which I returned with a smile, and then gluing themselves to Rosy.

"Rosy!" One yelled, waving his hands in the air. "It's so good to have you back!"

I let Mercy lead us inside, Rosy clinging onto her back. I went in next, staying protectively close to the others.

A crowd gathered around the entrance, mostly men waving and cheering. Was it really that big of a deal? In the day or two that I've known Rosy, I learned that I would happily give her up to the government if she didn't plan on giving us soldiers.

Rosy dismounted from the horse she shared with Mercy, forcing the crowd to part enough for us to fit us all. I didn't like getting off the beast that could bitch kick the hell out of all these criminals if it needed to, but I followed Rosy's lead.

"Gather everyone in the common room," she called. "And I mean everyone. We have big news. And I want a survey of how many soldiers we have left. Don't get lazy and start estimating, I want numbers. And someone take these horses." She turned back to ask something before looking down at my shirt. "Scratch that. We'll be meeting in the common room in three hours. The rest, I want done now."

I looked down to see that I had a bloody splotch, big enough to match my hand, on my shirt.

"Shit!" Theo yelled, turning me to look. "Why didn't you tell me, Lena?"

"We needed to get here. Besides, it's not like it hurts or anything."

"Yeah," Rosy said, "that's because you're so drugged up that you can't feel it. Come on, I'll take you to the infirmary. Believe it or not, we actually have a doctor here."

She took my hand and dragged me off. Turning back, I saw the others sticking close behind. When we finally stopped, we were at a small gray building with a simple wooden door. Not bothering to knock, she slammed the door open and pulled me inside.

A startled man sat behind a desk, holding a fork in his mouth.

"R-rosy? It's good to see you're back. Who's this?"

"Doc, meet Lena. Lena, Doc. Treat her."

"Wait, what?"

I was pushed in his direction. Seeing my bloody stomach, he hurriedly sat me on a bed. He pulled curtains over, cutting the room in half.

"Can you take off your shirt?" My doctor asked.

I complied, slipping the bloody fabric over my head and then holding it over my breasts to cover myself.

"Lena?" Rosy's voice asked. "I'm gonna go grab you a new shirt. I'll be back in a few."

"Mercy," I said. "Go with her. I don't want her alone. Not yet anyways."

There was the sound of a door opening and closing.

"Hey Lena," Theo said, peeking around the curtain. His cheeks immediately lit up in a blush, but he slipped in anyways. Too late to back out now. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"

"We were busy."

I looked down at the doctor who was poking and probing at the injury. Sighing, he went over to his cabinet and grabbed something. Coming back, I could make out a vial of clear liquid, a cotton ball, and a roll of gauze. He went to work, pressing the antibacterial soaked cotton on my stomach and then wrapping it.

"Nothing bad," Doc said. "It's healing nicely. Just remember to change the gauze next time or you'll loose another shirt."

I nodded.

After waiting a few minutes, the door opened again. A shirt was thrown over the curtain which I quickly changed into.

"Alright," Rosy said. "You ready to get your small army."

"Why not?"