Kyoshiro--I would if I could find it! It's not on your profile, or at least I couldn't see it. What's it called?

Chapter 14

Sky tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the call to go through. Come on, he thought in irritation, pick up the phone already. He'd made his way to Angel Grove and made himself a pain in the ass at the local AAS recruitment drive until they'd agreed to put a call in to Bridge. Oh, they didn't say it was him, but they didn't have to. Finally someone seemed to have answered the phone because the unfortunate kid behind the desk was stuttering nervously and giving him jumpy looks, as if he was just waiting for the pin to drop.

"Ah," the kid said, "she wants to talk to you."

Sky felt his eyebrow drift up. 'She' huh? Syd or Z then. He took the phone and casually leant back against the nearest wall. "Hello Z," he said calmly.

"Sky," came the even response. "What are you doing?"

"Currently? Talking to you."

"Don't try to be funny, Sky. It doesn't suit you."

"Z, I'm hurt you think that."

"Whatever. What are you up to?"

"I want to talk Bridge, Z. Put him on."

"I don't think so. Anything you have to say to Bridge, you can say to me first."

He shrugged. "Fine. Tell him Peter Petrelli's coming for him, then, and bringing D'MAPA with him."

There was a long pause. "Why are you telling us this?" Z asked suspiciously. "You and Jack joined up with D'MAPA weeks ago."

"True," he agreed. "At the time it was the lesser of two evils, but things have changed over the past few days. Isaac's been painting again. It shows Peter winning and Bridge…" his voice trailed off. "Whatever's already happened, Bridge is still my friend, Z. I don't want that to happen to him, you understand that?"

"What about Jack?"

He snorted derisively. "Jack thinks the painting's the only way things'll work out. He's with Peter on this one."

There was another pause, only this time there was also the sound of hushed, heated voices away from the phone. "There's a statue dedicated to the rangers who defeated Astronema and Dark Spectre at the centre of town," Z said finally. "Be there in an hour."

"Not a problem. See you then."

"Matt," Peter shouted cheerfully. "Get everyone together. We're going to put an end to the AAS. No more obstacles."

Matt nodded and pulled out his phone, gathering D'MAPA for the final showdown.

"Nathan," Mohinder said softly, catching the congressman's attention easily. "Boom just called. Everything's in place."

The elder Petrelli brother nodded slowly and stood from his desk. "Time to go."

Sky leant against the statue, outwardly relaxed, waiting for Bridge and his coterie to arrive. God, he hoped this crazy idea would work.
Waiting for the fight to come to him, Jack was reluctantly discovering, was very different from taking the fight to the other side, as he'd done throughout his Ranger career. He'd gotten a message from Boom to say that the Fifth Column was in place, and that Nathan had arrived and was waiting. Sky was already waiting for Bridge and the others, and Jack himself was standing with Peter and his inner circle.

The other difference this time around was that Sky was gone and Jack was feeling the lack of someone on his team. Although all of D'MAPA was technically on the same side he knew of at least five different factions within the group and that wasn't even counting Nova or himself. The only thing holding this group together was Peter, and he was currently ruling by fear; save for a few die-hard followers, his people followed him because they were afraid not to, not because they wanted to. It was a weakness the Fifth Column were planning to take advantage of.

To keep himself from pacing…he couldn't help but feel that Peter was amused by his restlessness, even as he talked with Matt…he wondered idly how many people had betrayed someone since this whole thing had started. He wasn't worried about Peter overhearing; with Matt's help, the second generation of Boom's blockers projected innocuous thoughts rather than nothing. Peter had been doing something similar to Matt, projecting worry and fear instead of the megalomania that was now taking hold.

Firstly, he thought, Bridge and Peter betrayed us. Matt betrayed Nathan and now he's betraying Peter. Claire's gone through all of us, and who was that woman Matt told us about? Niki, yeah. She skipped out to join Bridge and Micah, and took DL with her…Sky and I are betraying Peter, technically.

Shaking his head firmly, he decided that if he got into the 'technicallys' he'd be here all night.

"There!" A call went up from the sentries and Peter gathered his inner circle with a look.

You could have been great, Peter, Jack thought with genuine regret. The younger Petrelli had his brother's drive to help without the arrogance that hampered Nathan's efforts.

Jack shook his head again, hardening his thoughts. Peter would have the chance to be great again. That was what they were here to ensure.

Peter's inner circle now consisted of Matt, Hiro and Ando, Isaac, though he was almost too weak to stand, and Jack himself. Sadly reduced from the beginning of the war, and due to be sharply undermined when the battle begun.

"Call Sky," Peter told Jack. "Warn him."

"He'll know. If I call him now I risk Bridge knowing. Anyway…" He glanced over his shoulder at the main body of Peter's men. "Whoever's trying to raise that storm is killing all the comms." The static in the air was rendering all the phones and communicators useless. Peter had ordered the storm raised anyway on the assumption that it would inconvenience D'MAPA more than them; Bridge had no telepaths among his group and the loss of communications would hurt him.

Peter crooked a finger, and Jack's morpher flew out of his pocket. Matt caught it instinctively, staring blankly at it before realising what it was and tossing it back to Jack. "Call him," Peter repeated.

"The interference…"

"Doesn't bother them." Peter wasn't smiling any more. "I know they'll work through it. Call him."

Mentally sighing, Jack opened the morpher. Idly he wondered what thoughts Peter was getting from the implant now. Obviously nothing too suspicious, or he'd have denounced him already. Jack had no desire to be on the wrong end of Hiro Nakamura's sword.

"Blue, y'there? It's Red."

"Blue and red?" Peter repeated quietly.

"Ranger colours," Jack said briefly. He didn't bother explaining that Sky had been both while he himself had only been Red. "Blue?"

He was about to close the morpher and try and brush Peter off when it crackled. "Yeah, Red."

"We have visual on Bridge."

"Yeah, so do I. You need to stop talking to me now."

"Blue…"

A pause, and Jack silently hoped Sky got it this time.

"Red, I need radio silence."

"Acknowledged," Jack agreed, flipping the morpher shut before Peter could protest. "He's ready."

Peter glared, but he couldn't take the time to do anything else; Bridge and his group had stopped on the other side of the square. Syd and Z fanned out, circling the statue to stand out of Sky's field of vision, watching for any surprises he had planned. Wunderkind spread out to bracket Bridge, staying behind him.

"Sky," Bridge said genially.

"Bridge." Sky looked past him. "Hey, Sam. Nova. And you're Micah, right?"

Micah didn't answer, watching Bridge for the tiny moves that would launch Wunderkind into battle. Sam, at least, looked uncomfortable; there was enough SPD left in him to want to acknowledge someone he still saw as a superior officer. But he didn't respond either. And Nova—who alone, out of everyone here, was still wearing her SPD uniform—only tipped her head, not acknowledging him apart from that.

"Z says you warned us about the attack," Bridge said conversationally.

Sky nodded, reaching into an inside pocket. Wunderkind tensed, and he very slowly withdrew a picture and offered it to Bridge.

Bridge took it and glanced at it curiously; the photo was obviously hastily taken and at an odd tilt, showing Bridge on his knees while obscuring the two figures holding him there.

"Peter doesn't let the pictures out of his sight," Sky said, anticipating the complaint. "That was the best I could do."

"And Jack?" Bridge asked, tucking the picture carefully into a pocket.

Sky hesitated. "Jack…"

"Is waiting over there with Peter to attack us," Bridge finished for him.

Sky didn't blink. "Yeah."

"I'm disappointed, Sky."

"Are you? I'm not." Sky stepped away from the statue to give himself some room. "Bridge, just…"

Bridge, anticipating him, took two steps back, out of his reach. "Don't do that, Sky. Wouldn't want you fighting a headache right now."

"Pick a side, Sky," Syd said suddenly. Sky jumped; the girls had been so silent he'd almost forgotten they were there. Despite everything he couldn't persuade himself they were really enemies; not Syd, who he'd trained with for so long, or Z, who'd spearheaded the We-Quit-If-He-Goes movement back at SPD.

"Choose someone to follow," Z added. He fought back a shudder; the girls were eerily monotone and if he hadn't been looking at them he wouldn't have know who was talking.

"I'm not on a side," he protested. "I just want to…"

"The Fifth Column are going to lose, you know," Bridge said mildly.

Sky carefully didn't look at Nova, or beyond her to where he knew Boom and Piggy were lurking. "Are they?"

"Boom's no leader. And Piggy'll run the second things turn bad. He always does."

"Piggy saved your life," Sky pointed out mildly. He'd managed to manoeuvre himself out of the circle and they'd regrouped, Syd and Z flanking Bridge, Wunderkind in front of them.

"Piggy put us in danger in the first place," Bridge retorted.

Sky nodded slowly. "And Peter?"

"Peter Petrelli couldn't herd geese, let alone lead men," Z said bitterly. "He's got them snowed, but they won't stay with him."

Tilting her head, and for just a moment looking exactly like she used to, Syd added, "Matt's left him already."

Across the square, Jack closed his eyes in a silent groan before spinning with everyone else to stare at Matt. Hiro and Ando had already flanked him; Hiro's sword was in hand, though he wasn't quite threatening anyone.

And Jack grinned mentally as he realised why. Of all the Meta Peter had drawn together, of everyone who followed him, only Matt and Claire talked to him on any kind of regular basis. Everyone else got their orders through Matt and they were struggling to understand what was going on now, more used to obeying Matt than Peter.

"Matt," Peter murmured, looking genuinely hurt.

"That's a lie, Peter. You know I would never go against you. Never hurt you. You know that."

Peter considered him for a long moment before nodding to Hiro, who sheathed his sword and stepped away. Jack grimaced, glancing back at Sky.

Things on that side of the square were deteriorating. Sky's shield was up, and two Zs were hammering on it. Behind that group, and unnoticed by anyone on that side, the Fifth Column were moving into position.

"Time to end this," Peter said abruptly, and D'MAPA poured around him and into the square, meeting Bridge's AAS fighters with a crash Jack felt more than heard.

This was it. Time for the final battle.