A/N - I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas! I checked my email and saw that a few people had added TFT to their story alerts, so thank you! I definitely squealed a bit over that. Also, thanks xSilentDawnx and Myrkin for the complimentary reviews. I never thought Nicky seemed all that evil either. I hope you like how the story progresses.

The usual disclaimer applies.

Chapter 10 - Trib Force

Over a lunch of ham and cheese subs from the shop down the street, Mitzi regaled Cat with a story about a kid she'd seen at work. Cat listened half-heartedly, sipping a mochachino, her eyes occasionally flitting back to the invitation that she had laid on the edge of the table.

"So this kid comes up to the front desk," Mitzi was saying, "and he can't be older than twelve. Twelve! I wanted to be like, 'Kid, what were you doing as a nine year old that you missed the Rapture?'"

"Probably selling drugs or something," said Cat absently. "So do you think New Babylon screens their guests?"

"What?"

"Do you think they'll have to question us before they let us in? I'm pretty sure I could pose as a dutiful GC citizen for two weeks, but I might be in trouble if they have someone standing at the door asking, 'Are you a Christian?'"

Mitzi had been in the process of reaching for a potato chip. Her hand froze inches from the bag. "You're not seriously thinking of going?"

"I'm seriously thinking of going," said Catalina.

"Why?"

There were many reasons why, and not all of them made sense. Catalina went with the most obvious one.

"You can't turn down a personal invitation from the ruler of the world," she said. "It would just look suspicious."

"Ben-Judah did," said Mitzi.

"And look what happened to him," said Catalina. Tsion Ben-Judah was a renowned spiritual teacher whose family had died under highly suspicious circumstances.

"But you said that was done without Carpathia's knowledge," said Mitzi with an ironic smile. Cat glared at her.

"It was done without his knowledge. What would be the point of promising protection to someone's family and then deliberately killing them?"

"Mm-hm," said Mitzi skeptically.

"No, really!" insisted Catalina. "It doesn't make sense politically! It's not like he's been in control long enough to get away with something like that. Look, he needed to establish some sort of credibility first, or how could he have gained enough of the world's trust to consolidate his power? It makes more sense that an opponent killed the Ben-Judahs and then blamed it on him."

Mitzi stared at her. "Geez, you sound like a conspiracy theorist," she said.

"More like an anti-conspiracy theorist," said Cat, grimacing. "No conspiracy theorist would miss an opportunity to pounce on the One World Government." She was familiar with most of the theories surrounding Nicolae's unprecedented rise to prominence. Even with the GC censoring the media, the rumors were hard to avoid. Most of them were (to Catalina's relief) more or less insane. Nicolae Carpathia had allied with extra-terrestrials to cause the Vanishings. Nicolae Carpathia was secretly hiding Jonathon Stonagal in a bunker under Antarctica. Nicolae Carpathia had bombed the East Coast and blamed it on the American rebels. Seriously, there were too many stories to keep track of them all. "I'm sticking by what I said," Catalina insisted. "Nicolae didn't do it."

"Mm-hm." Mitzi shook her head and took a bite of her sub.

"Anyway, you could ask him yourself," said Cat. "The invitation says Catalina Pavenic Plus One."

She looked at Mitzi expectantly.

"Oh no!" said Mitzi, a look of horror on her face. "No, no, no! I am not joining you on a road trip to Antichrist's personal party! Why would you expect me to do something crazy like that?"

"Because you're my friend, and I'm asking you nicely?"

"No."

"Because I know you'll do nothing else for two weeks but sit around the apartment watching True Blood."

"Hey!" said Mitzi indignantly. "The whole 'no buying and selling thing' applies to Netflix too! I have to take advantage of watching True Blood while I still can!"

"Ugh," Cat rolled her eyes. "Fine." She pulled out her phone and began to text.

Mitzi watched her skeptically. "What are you doing now?"

"Inviting Brian."

"He won't go. He's not crazy either."

"Can't hurt," said Cat. She hit send and waited. Seconds later, both of their phones buzzed.

Mitzi pulled out her phone. She frowned. "Brian texted me, but the text makes no sense. What does yours say?"

Cat read out loud. "He says, 'That's a great idea. Just like the Twlight saga.'"

Mitzi laughed. "Oh, that makes more sense. Mine says, 'Tell Cat what I think of the Twilight saga.' He thinks it's complete crap," she added, as if Cat hadn't gotten the implication.

"You're both awful!" groaned Cat, reluctantly shoving her cell back into her pocket. "Fine then! If you aren't coming with me, I'll just go by myself."

"You'll go alone?" Mitzi raised a green eyebrow. "Do you think that's smart? Don't you think this might be 'The Choice' you were telling me about."

Catalina, in her telling of the previous week's adventure, had mentioned the memory only in the vaguest sense. She had said that she remembered a psychic prophesying that she would have a choice to make, that her life would depend on it, and that the moment was coming up soon. She had left out altogether the identity of the psychic and the bit about 'aiding the Great One on his rise to power.' There were some things she still wasn't comfortable talking about.

"It's not the choice," said Catalina.

"How do you know?" said Mitzi, skeptical again.

"Because." Cat thought for a moment. "You know how, when it comes to God, you can sort of sense Him? You know He's there, but you don't know how you know He's there?"

Mitzi nodded.

"It's like that," said Catalina. "I don't know how I know. I just know. This isn't the choice."

"It will be dangerous." Mitzi bit her lip and tugged at her bangs. Cat could tell she was against the idea, but it wasn't her style to say so outright. Instead, she ventured a half-joke. "Only the Trib Force has made it into the Antichrist's lair and back alive!" she said, adopting an over-dramatic movie announcer voice.

Catalina laughed. Mitzi would have made a very poor movie announcer. "Well, maybe I'll call them up," she said, "and ask how they did it."

She was being facetious. You couldn't just call up the Tribulation Force, not anymore. The coalition had achieved a somewhat mythical status in the eyes of Christians around the world. They were a group of Believers who had dedicated themselves to opposing Antichrist at all costs. Every Christian knew their names, but very few knew their whereabouts.

The group was led by Rayford Steele, who had been Nicolae's personal pilot until it was discovered that he was using his position to spy on the Global Community Headquarters. Cat had met Rayford a few times through her work at Pan Con. Another claim to fame, as if she needed one. Rayford's son-in-law, Buck Williams, had been an international reporter. Like Rayford, he had initially worked for Nicolae, but he had given up that position in order to spread the truth about God and about the End Times.

Chloe Steele-Williams, Rayford's daughter and Buck's wife, had single-handedly formed a coop that would allow Christians to exchange goods with one another long after the mark of the beast made buying and selling within the global economy impossible. Catalina had donated a significant portion of her inheritance to the coop when she first converted. She had never met Mrs. Steele-Williams personally, but she still kept in touch with a few coop members who weren't dead or in hiding. You never knew when you would need to make a quick get-away, and it was good to have a network for when that day came.

The most important member of the Trib Force, though, was Tsion Ben-Judah, the scholar whose spiritual blog had brought millions to God. He had studied the Book of Revelations in detail and could predict more or less specifically which disaster would strike next. His interpretation was not perfect—for example, he had predicted that the horseman would not be visible, and, Catalina remembered with a shudder, they had been very visible—but in most cases his predictions were spot on. Ben-Judah was the foremost spiritual authority on earth. The GC would give anything to get their hands on him. Or on any Trib Force member, for that matter.

Rumor had it that they still had spies somewhere in the GC headquarters, but Catalina did not trust rumors. She knew that she was probably going to be the only Christian in New Babylon. She knew there would be dangers. But, she told herself, this was something she had to do.

"It's only ten days," Cat said coolly. "I'll be safe for ten days."

"If you say so," said Mitzi. "It's between you and God."

Cat bit her lip. She wasn't so sure God would approve of this little jaunt. But it would seem suspicious if she didn't go. And the fact was, she had not seen Nicolae since she had found out what he was. She had seen his face on every news station, heard his name praised on every street and criticized in every church meeting. But somehow the truth of his assurgency had never seemed quite real to her. She wanted to see him in person, to see what he was for herself. She knew she only had three months before he was assassinated—Tsion Ben-Judah had been quite clear on that. The Gala would be the obvious opportunity, and likely the last.

"I'm going," said Catalina firmly. She took out her pen and checked 'Yes' on the gold-trimmed card.

"Oh, for goodness' sake, check off Plus One then!" Mitzi said, exasperated. "But if we get killed in New Babylon, the first thing I'm doing when we get to heaven is kicking your butt!"