"Shut the hell up!" Rosy yelled over the crowd.

In groups they began quieting. Their attention turned to the stage where Rosy and the rest if us were standing. A few of them scowled or glared at me, expressions that I happily returned with a middle finger or a pointed tongue.

"As you can all tell, I'm back." The crowd went through a short phase of awkward applause. "Now, the smarter of you probably noticed the group that came with me. Yes, these are the same people who broke in and kidnapped me. Well, now they're asking for our help."

"What do we get out of it?" One shouted.

A few chorused with yeah's while the rest broke off into loud conversations.

Rosy looked back at me, motioning with her eyes for me to come up and speak. I shrugged, not moving. Instead I stood in an aggravating position with my arms crossed, giving her a judgmental look.

"Quiet down!" She yelled. The crowd slowly stopped talking. "I swear, you all have the attention spans of preschoolers. Shut up and let me finish talking. We've been asked to help overthrow the government." There were gasps and cheers or mixed emotions from the crowd. "Apparently, some shit's been going on behind the peoples backs. Yes, we were involved in some of the...not-so-deadly part of it. Someone else's gonna come up here and give you all the details."

She looked back at me, motioning with her hands that it was my turn to talk. I glared at her, but she gave me an innocent smile.

"You never told me I'd have to talk," I spat in quiet rage.

"Yeah, well, you're bringing them into Lament to take over a government. Go be encouraging."

I glared at her, but she continued to smile.

"Fine." I walked up to the front center of the stage, my arms still crossed and my expression a bit on the aggrevated side. I looked out over the crowd and was met with scowls. "For those of you who don't know me, I was the one who orchestrated the capture of your dear leader."

"Nice start," Bryce mumbled to me. "Great attention getter."

"Shut it, Sleeping Beauty, before my daggers put you into an eternal slumber." I turned back to the audience to find some of them snickering at my last comment, only the ones closest to me. "I'm also the one who broke her out of prison. More commonly, people call me Shadow, but you can all call me Lena."

There was an awestruck silence. Strange, figuring that I'm pretty sure I told at least one of them who I was when I broke in and out.

"You're quiet now, huh? Well, just because you know my name doesn't mean you know me. My family was the Koinzel family, a richer family from Pacific Rose. We were politicians. But see, my family spoke out against that god awful government. That didn't last long. An organization named the Seventh Sword broke into my house and killed my parents. They tried to kill me too.

"After years of living as Shadow in Orchid, I got caught. These guys over there, I worked with them and the government. But, while I was there, I wasn't only working. I was researching. Without knowing it, they'd brought me just where I wanted to be. I stole their info, their trainees, their prisoners, and then their horses. In that order, actually.

"Now, I'm here, asking for your help. I used to be a criminal, so I know what you want. You'll all be rewarded handsomely for your help. You'll also have the privilege of skinning those noble idiots asses. I'm not saying it won't be dangerous, but I'm not saying it won't be amazing either. I'd completely understand if you wanted to stay behind. Now then, who wants to help me kill the Kaiser?"

I waited a second, and the place erupted. Cheers came from all parts of the room. Hands were raised and clapping. I let out a breathy sigh of relief. Personally, I felt that I sounded awful and cluttered.

"Looks like you got yourself a small army, Little Fighter," Chris commented from behind me.

"Somehow," I commented.

"What now?" Clover asked.

"Well, how about more detailed plans?" I suggested. "After that we can give out instructions, make groups. Then we'll get going."

---

"I'm just saying that marching eighty something soldiers into Orchid all at once is going to look suspicious," Mila said, arms spread in exhasperation. "Don't you think?"

"I see your point, but what else can we do?" Rosy countered.

"Limit them to, maybe, five to ten at a time. If only a few of them come in every hour or so, what's wrong with it?"

"That'll take all day," Theo replied. Some of my street speech was starting to rub off on him, I'd noticed. "We don't have that kind of time."

"Why not?" Mercy asked. "Why can't it wait and extra day or two?"

"Because we need somewhere to keep them all," Levi stated. "I mean, I guess abandoned houses are okay to keep them in, but what happens if even one of the houses get discovered? We're all screwed. Everything goes down the drain."

They continued to bicker while I thought.

"Got something?" Chris asked, looking down to me. He gave me a knowing smirk.

I smiled back them spoke up. "How about this, then? We use all four entrances in all four districts instead. How many soldiers did you say we have, Rosy?"

"Eighty-six."

"Eighty-six soldiers, including us nine. That's ninety-five soldiers. Split that up to four gates. That's...three groups of twenty-four and one groups of twenty-three. We split those up into two groups each that come in, let's say two and a half hours apart from each other. While the first group is waiting in the city, they can wander around for a bit until the second comes in. Or, they could find an abandoned building to light on fire."

"How the hell did you do that math in your head?" Bryce asked, giving me a shocked look.

"I'm just smarter than you." I turned back to the others. "So they go find this abandoned building while the other group waits to come in. We'll have one of the people in the first group stay behind by the gate to tell the others where it is. After that, they can wander a bit in the general area of the building. That's when I come in. I'll light the first building. When the others see the smoke, they start lighting their building. Some one screams 'fire' and everyone starts moving in the direction of the Paradise Building. All of us meet up there and I'll pass out earbuds I grabbed from Ravi."

"I wish we could've brought those with us," Mila mumbled.

"Me too," Clover replied. "But that would've made getting past the guards at the gate more complicated."

"I don't know about you guys," I said, smiling, "but I think I just came up with a pretty genius plan, given the circumstances." I looked to Rosy. "Do you think you'll have enough weapons for each of the soldiers to grab some?"

"With some to spare."

"And food. Will we have enough for all of us to reach Lament?"

She gave me a lopsided smile, rubbing her head. "Well, about that. We're running pretty low on food, but we'll have a shipment in two days time that was supposed to last ninety-eight men two weeks."

"Then we have two days before we get moving. After that, a days journey each."

"What do you say we do in the time?" Clover asked me.

"You just had to ask," Mercy said, under her breath.

"Not resting," Bryce mumbled, "knowing you."

I smiled. "Calm down, Sleeping Beauty. You'll have the nights to sleep. Other than that, it'll be practice, practice, practice."

---

"I know you want to be ready," Theo said, now that Rosy had given me my own room to sleep in, "but you almost bled yourself into unconsciousness yesterday. Don't you wanna wait before we do anything?"

"You know," I said, "the way you talk is starting to sound more like me." I was always the one who shortened words; wanna, gonna, etcetera. Stuff like that. Apparently my lazy slur was contagious.

"Lena."

I sighed. "I know, Theo. But we need to do this sooner than later. If any of the soldier decide they don't like the plan and they wanna nark on us, that damn Kaiser'll have less time to react to it than he would now."

His hand pulled through his hair before he looked at me again.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I mean, you're talking to someone who took a bullet and started learning how to fight two days later. I bounce back."

I plopped my butt down on the small twin bed. When this was all over, I planned to get myself a king sized bed. Okay, maybe not just for me.

Theo sat down next to me, his eyes heavy with exhaustion and worry. "I'm just worried that something bad might happen when we break in."

"You know I can take care of myself. I have been for years."

"I know."

"Years and years of fending for myself. I earned my own money and bought my own food and water."

"I know."

I looked at him. "Besides, I'll have you if anything happens."

He smiled at me. "I can't argue that logic."

We laughed at ourselves for a second, forgetting the impending doom I was bringing on myself.

"Why don't we get some of that sleep I suggested. It's been a long day and you look awful."

"Gee, thanks. That's what everyone wants to hear a cute girl say."

I let out an oddly girly giggle before laying back and crawling under the covers.

The bed shifted as Theo stood up. He knelt down and gave me a quick peck on the head before turning to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked, giddiness in my voice.

"To bed?" He answered in a questioning way.

I scooted back in the bed, my hand catching on the thick covers and pulling them up in an inviting manner. Theo's cheeks lit up a bit before he turned completely to me.

"I figured you'd want to be serious while we were here. Until everything was over with."

"I do. But that doesn't mean I can't be close to you, does it. Now come here before I change my mind."

Giving me his signature world ending smile, he slid in the bed with me. I didn't have much of a choice but to keep myself snuggled into him on the small bed. Not that I was complaining.

Before he could pull me into his warm chest with big yet gentle arms, I adjusted to the he was laying on my left arm. His head was tucked into the nape of my neck, right below my cheek. My other arm reached over to awkwardly rest on his back in a strangely comfortable manner. My legs slid above and between his, carefully entwining both of us together.

In return, his bottom arm came under my stomach, avoiding my wound. His other arm rested on my side and stopped on my waist. Just when I thought we were perfectly adjusted, his hand slid under my shirt. Gentle fingers dancing carefully across my skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps along my warming back.

We stayed like that for a while before his fingers completely stopped and he was soundly sleeping, gripping me carefully to him like the word delicate could somehow describe me. I took in a whiff of his scent which I could probably track like a dog. My hands moved from his broad back to his hair.

For the first time, I felt a feeling I hadn't felt since before all of this.

I want to survive all of this.

I want to live.

But deep down, I knew that was a lost hope.