Autumn Leaves

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

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Chapter 12 (On the Brink of War)

Trina was called up to Jesse's mansion late in the afternoon and left without much hesitation after saying goodbye to Tori. Her father was still at work for the majority of the day and Holly hadn't come around, so she was happy not to have to deal with them, even though she wanted to hear what they had to say about Ross's death, if anything.

Her dad normally would have said something, but she understood his absence, considering he probably had to be there to give a statement since the current Police Chief was too sick to make an appearance for the news media in regards to their top judge being arrested. She was grateful to him for how hard he worked and thought he deserved to be the chief by now.

When she made it to Jesse's mansion, she saw many cars parked outside. Her heart began racing as she parked in the drive and exited the car. Was this the meet where she'd see all of the high ranking Knights? She simply couldn't wait! She wanted to know everyone and to finally feel like she was a part of something big.

Entering the house, she heard Jesse asking someone to not do any drugs in the main room, telling them if they wanted to do any sort of drugs, to do it in one of the sealed off rooms on the second floor. Of course, this person was one of the soldiers visiting, either that or one of the warriors. According to Tiffany and Vivian, none of the Captains or Lieutenants did any drugs. Jesse and the underboss were clean as well.

She knew a big official meeting like this, everyone would have to wear their rings, so she was looking forward to finally figuring out the ranks of those she already knew. Several warrior knights would be here, and probably a few soldiers. She knew that to each lieutenant, and there were three to a captain, there were two sects of five per lieutenant and three lieutenants per captain. This meant in total there were supposed to be 90 warriors! Soldiers were at least double or triple that number. Soldiers really made the bulk of members, but the prospective members were pretty close.

"Trina! Over here!" Jesse motioned for her and she hurried to his side. He was surrounded by a group of people, of which included Vivian, Tiffany and Roger. She saw him wearing his black ring for the first time on his ring finger. The gang members scattered throughout the house watched her eagerly. "The woman of the hour. Everyone's here for you."

"R-Really? Me?"

"Of course. We don't have meets like this every time there's a promotion." Her heart skipped like a record as she looked to the people surrounding her. She felt special, and she didn't know why. "You're actually getting a double promotion." Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"W-What? Why!"

"Well…" He chuckled and moved his glass of beer up to his lips. "One of the lieutenants has taken a liking to you and seen your work. Discussed it with her captain, and has decided to go ahead and pull you into one of her warrior sects." This meant she impressed someone enough to earn enough respect? Who? "Davis and I approved it, so here's your official ring…" He held up a deep forest green colored ring that seemed to shimmer in the light. She gasped in awe and took it with pride and a strange sense of honor. "Congratulations, Katrina. It's good to have you in the group. Also, now that you're a warrior, that means you can command any soldier…"

"Thank you Jesse, thank you."

"Oh don't thank me, thank the lieutenant you impressed." She watched him pat Tiffany on the back. Her eyes drifted to the girl's hand, and much to her shock, she saw a deep blue ring on her middle finger. Standing beside her, Vivian and Roger were both wearing red rings!

"Oh my god, you're kidding? You two are captains? Tiffany's a-" She looked up to Tiffany's eyes and the girl hugged her, laughing for joy. When they separated, she looked to Roger and Vivian, curious which one of them Tiffany was under, or if she was under a third captain. "So…who is your captain, Tiffany?"

"Right here," Vivian raised her hand and reached over, giving Trina a brisk hug. She was amazed and overjoyed, but also overcoming the shock of realization. "You did good last night, and Tiffany did tell me what you did with Beck…that impressed her. I was impressed with your moves when you were dealing with Andre, and I'm glad that you can stare down Beck of the Scrapperz without flinching."

"Well. It's easy when you've dealt with the guy for several years, you know."

"I suppose so." Vivian looked to Jesse for a minute. "Did Jesse explain to you the ranks? You understand: Black-boss, gold-underboss, red-captain, blue-lieutenant, green-warrior, and silver for soldiers?"

"Yeah. I mean there are other details that are a bit confusing to me, but I definitely understand." She looked around at the hands of the surrounding members. She saw a third red ring on a skinny looking man with a sandy brown comb over hairstyle and blue eyes. There were nine blue rings including Tiffany's, and several green rings nearby that probably belonged to Tiffany's sectors. "So, who are the other lieutenants? Do I answer to them?"

"You mainly answer to me," Tiffany replied, "Or Vivian. Roger and Andrew are the other captains, if they tell you something, you want to answer to them too." Roger waved and Tiffany pointed to the skinny man with the red ring. He flashed a smile and nodded at her. "If the other two lieutenants under Vivian-that's Jared and Travis-ask you to do something, you'll want to listen to them since they are higher up, but usually they won't ask anything."

"Oh. Who are they?" Tiffany pointed them out and they shook her hand. Jared was a couple inches taller than she was, had glasses and spiky blonde hair. He was average sized and had braces. He looked to be about twenty-five. Travis had a beige cowboy hat, a round face and a brown mullet. He wore a button up shirt with brown pants and cowboy boots. "Good to meet you guys."

"Same to you," Jared replied. Three other lieutenants greeted her with the same amount of respect. They introduced themselves as Andrew's lieutenants. Rachel, a buxom brunette with long wavy hair. Drake, and Jacob. Roger then introduced his own lieutenants. She was surprised to see the woman from the bar there with a blue ring. Yvonne was her name, and she was also one of the people that had been at the school on the first night. Raven was Roger's girlfriend, she had jet black hair and a cheerful expression. John was the silent guy on Roger's group.

"All right, you've met the most of them," Jesse walked over and put his hand to her shoulder. He pointed his other hand to a muscular man that was walking towards them. He was tall, dark and bald. He looked to be in his late twenties. "This is Davis. The Gold knight, my general and underboss."

"Hi," Davis gave her a smile and nodded to her. "Good to meet you, Katrina. I've heard interesting things about you."

"Thank you."

"Now are we all introduced?" Jesse asked. The others nodded and he crossed his arms. "Okay. Trina. The ranking system. Green listens to everyone above them, that's obvious, and you command the soldiers while working at the same level of respect with your sector of warriors. You listen primarily to Tiffany, more than the other two lieutenants. You don't have to worry about the other Lieutenants on any of the other captain's team. You worry primarily about Tiffany. Vivian is also your next step and chief commanding officer, what she says will generally hold more impact than Roger or Andrew. After that, Davis. Everyone listens to Davis or myself. Whatever we tell someone, they do, of course…there's some moral instinct, we're not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do if you have good reason for not doing it."

"That's right," Davis agreed with a frown, "We don't want to sink to the level of those Scrapperz. Jesse tells me you've met one already?"

"Beck," she nodded, "I've known Beck for a few years now. He…dates one of my sister's friends." Davis groaned and Trina shook her head. "I know. I don't like it, don't approve, and neither does Tori."

"You need to keep those damn Scrapperz away from your sister. What about his girlfriend? Is she good?"

"She's trying to get away from him. She's not affiliated with any gang and handles herself, but he's got her so tightly wound around his finger that she can't get away." She sat at the kitchen table and looked up to Jesse. "So, what did you find out with the leaders? I'm guessing that's the other part for this big meeting?"

"Yes. I do have that announcement, and I will need to explain something to you Trina." He made his way to the table while the other members of the gang gathered around to listen to him. "There are two different kind of wars. Okay? Turf war, and then there's a gang war."

"Okay?" So what was the difference? If she had to guess, he'd say the turf war was a shorter war. "Gang war is longer?"

"Yes. See a turf war is just fighting over territory and typically ends when the one leading the assault is either dead or concedes. In which case the defending or attacking turf is victorious. Usually these wars are restricted to a small location. The losing team acknowledges defeat and give up their territory-or the assault."

"And the gang wars?"

"Those can last anywhere from days to months. Sometimes there are allying gangs and sometimes it stays just between two. The gang war can go on until either one gang is completely wiped out or there is an agreement formed between the warring gangs. Sometimes no peace arrangement can be made, or a refused, and if all gangs go against one…the gang war will go on until that one is either completely wiped out or disbanded." Trina rubbed her wrist and stared down at her hand on the table. What was Jesse's point? Were they about to go to war? "I want you to understand that because we may very well be on the brink of a citywide struggle against the Scrapperz."

"Really?"

"Yes. We've stated that if they make any malicious attack on one of the other gangs, any grievance at all, we will proceed to strike. The ball is in their court now, and it's really their third in command that is the problem…"

"Beck." She breathed in slowly and closed her eyes. "I see."

"We don't want a war, but it may be a necessary means to an end. In other words, try to just leave him alone if you can. If he lashes out at you, or any Knight, then a war will break out. Period. There's no more tolerance left for the Scrapperz."

"I understand." She opened her eyes and smiled back at Jesse, nodding her head. "I won't antagonize him."

"Good. However, please do keep watch on him. Since he is your sister's friend, that means you can watch. Not to mention, we're counting your sister as important too. You feel he's a danger or threat to her, if he does anything to her, it will also start a war."

She understood this more than anything else, and it was a mission she could handle. Unfortunately it might mean having to stay at the Vega house sometimes, or purposely doing that whenever Beck was near, but she could. "You realize how difficult it would be for me not to retaliate if he were to do something to her?"

"Not asking you not to react. Obviously if he did, he would have already started the process and is therefore…fair game." Her lips curled into a broad smirk and she quickly accepted the standard. Beck was now going to be under heavy watch.

"Then I'll be watching him. What happens if a war starts? Obviously there's going to be a lot of stuff going on…I'd like to think we could get Jade out of here."

"We'll work on that," Tiffany replied, "If it comes to war we will try to keep the innocent out of harm's way. That includes Jade since she is not affiliated with the Scrapperz in any way other than the girlfriend of a gang member."

"Sounds great. I'm ready for whatever comes our way. At least, I can prepare." Prepare she would. She'd do anything and everything she could to be the best she could be.

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Thought I'd give you two since the chapters were kind of connected. So we know the Scrapperz are starting to cause trouble. If a citywide gang war erupts, it could be potentially catastrophic for everyone. But of course someone within the Scrapperz high ranks will probably do something very stupid. It's coming.