Why did I let my gaurd down? I've been so busy trying to get used to all the increaseingly weird shit being thrown my way that I wasn't paying attention to Vlad's next move. If I'd been paying attention, I'd have been able to eliminate this threat before he got into power, but now it's going to be a lot harder and require brute force to get him out of power.

DALV had bought out the major powers of the Capitol. There was a president in the Capitol, but companies were what really ran the show. The current president was the CEO of the highest grossing company, and their power often held for years so long as they didn't piss off their client base.

The issue is that most people don't remember this little tidbit. Honestly, they tell you once when you're too young to be really paying much attention and that was it. You went with the flow of things after that. The only people who don't wonder why the presidental terms are so sporadic and not uniform are the few who manage to remember this after they first hear of it. If Vlad hadn't bragged about the power his company was poised to steal in our earlier fights, I wouldn't know about the company run politics either.

He's always had his hands in the running of Panem, but he had never worked to take control before and now I know why. Vlad wanted to get in control of both the resistence movement and the Capitol at the same time. This plan was only delayed by the negotiations he had to make before DALV could buy everyone else out. Now, he had control over both warring sides and he ultimately had the power to manipulate the end result into whatever he wanted if we didn't get this fixed soon.

For once, one of his frootloop plans actually got somewhere. If I thought we were screwed before, it was worse now. No one here has a company that could even join the ranks that made up the Capitol, much less take DALV's place on the throne, and not enough people would see the connection between DALV and Vlad for us to vote him out of power here. We were fighting against a power that knew he'd won and was now taunting us with the peace we'd be damn lucky to ever see again.

The last piece of the puzzle fell into place as I realized what Vlad would have needed to get himself into power both here and in the Capitol. God, I'm such an idiot. I've gone though this war several times, and yet I still missed this. Sure, the master plan changes ever so slightly from time to time, but I knew something like this was coming, I just couldn't figure out what it was before now.

I watched Danny and Dani beat themselves up for not seeing this sooner, Sam and Jazz beside each stuck between comforting them and kicking their asses, Fish and Fritz trying to figure a way out of this already, and Mr. and Mrs. Fenton trying to explain all of this to the very lost Asa and Ben. Good, no one was paying attention to me.

I snuck out before anyone had time to remember I was there after my initial remark and headed down to where Steve had been trapped. Honestly, I don't know how they managed to trap him, but none of his old tricks can get him out of the cell the Fentons had devised. They can't stop his jumping, but his physical form is stuck in the cell.

He didn't look up when I approached, something for which I was glad; I didn't know what I was planning on saying to him, but I knew I wanted to see him. Steve looked up after a few minutes.

"Did you finally figure it out?" He had a demented smile on his face, as if being physically in this world was enough to dive him insane.

"You're the one who set this up. Vlad didn't have to do anything." I was fumbling with my words. I knew what he'd done, but my words were failing me.

"All I did was waste a bit of the Capitol's combined money and it started crumbling on it's own." I looked at him oddly. I knew the Capitol was run by major companies, but his words didn't add up in my mind. "You're blind, Jon. The Capitol has been running off a combined pool of company money. No one company has been in power for years. You could have stopped this war years ago, but you don't pay attention. One educated complaint could have knocked the Capitol out of power as soon as it started to go under. Even once the major powers put their money together, you could have knocked them down.

"Did you know in technicality, the Capitol's ruling power can't be comprised of multiple companies? It's a little known law meant to be a fail safe to keep more than one batshit crazy from getting into power at once. The only problem is that most people don't know how things are run in the first place, much less about that little detail."

I watched that grin grow. "They started to run out of money and the tensions made it impossible to keep their dirty little secret completely under wraps. I think you can imagine how happy Vlad was to know DALV had more than enough power to take over." Only half of what he said made sense, making me honestly wonder if he really had lost his mind.

"Why the fuck would you want Vlad in power?" That was the only answer I really wanted. I didn't care about how it happened, all I cared about was why he'd do this.

"After all the shit I've seen you do from world to world as a goody little two shoes? To see the look on your face. First you lost Anne, and now you're about to lose the war. You lost, again and this isn't something little you can fix."

No matter what he had said, only one thing had stuck in my head. "You shouldn't know about Anne."

Steve shrugged. "I shouldn't, except for the bit where I killed her. It was rather fun, actually. She had quite a beautiful little scream when she felt my hands on her." No, he didn't. "I know what you're thinking, and I'll just put you mind at ease. I did."

I snapped. I knew losing control of my anger was dangerous, but I couldn't think straight enough to give a damn anymore. "You little bastard!" Even though it was supposed to be impossible for anyone but a halfa to get into Steve's cage, I found myself suddenly inside it, two hands wrapped around Steve's neck. I watched as Steve's expression suddenly turned to one of fear. My grip tightened around his neck as his breathing stopped. I knew I shouldn't be doing this, but I didn't care. I wanted him dead. I didn't care that it'd only kill him here, I wanted this bastard dead.

It wasn't until I'd felt the beat of his heart stop that Danny got to me and pulled me out of Steve cell. I laughed when I saw Steve fall to the ground, lifeless. He was dead. He touched Anne, and now he was dead.

O_O Note to self, don't piss off Jon...

Speaking of which, Jon's story, From One World to the Next, on Fiction press has a new chapter up! :D

s/3102684/4/From-One-World-to-the-Next

Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D

Invisible One