A/N: Just a heads up, this chapter contains a lot of political and economic content. For those who are more knowledgeable in those two fields which might be the reason why you are reading this fanfic, please give constructive criticisms only. Four hours of researching online and looking through my U.S Government notebook for this chapter only is not easy and I know there are some inaccuracies in this story, so think twice.

Enjoy.


As the bodyguard drives through the streets of Rhodes, he along with Kai and the two teenagers all notice one key detail as they look around the city, Rhodes and her citizens are ready for the war to come and upon closer inspection, they've been preparing for a long time.

Weapon stores have lines wrapping around the block, city engineers hard at work fixing the walls that encircle the city, city guards placing up defenses at each block as well as bringing up any necessary equipment up to a lookout tower at the highest point of the city, and so much more people preparing by stocking up on food and supplies in preparation for a potential shortage.

At last, they pull into the city hall parking lot and without saying a word they all get out of the car and start heading up the steps leading up to the city hall; When they finally reached the steps, they were greeted by the Governor of Rhodes who came out just in time.

"Kai, long time no see," the Governor of Rhodes said sarcastically.

Kai smiled, "Yeah, two hours can change a man," Both men had a wide smile on their face and soon enough the Governor guided the group in.

"Listen, Michael, thanks for volunteering your place in such short notice," Kai said in a grateful tone.

"Don't mention it, Kai, it's going to be crazy times ahead of us so I'm taking the liberty to make things less you know…crazy," Michael responded.

A tiny smile appeared on Kai's face after hearing this and continued following Michael to Rhodes City Council Chambers.

Upon entering the city council chambers, Michael directs Finn and Brooke to the upper-level seating and then guides Kai and his bodyguard to the front of the room where the other governors are seated. When the teenagers reached the upper level they got to see that the desks were set up in three rows of four facing the front of the room which was occupied by the chamber rostrum, but for the sake of the meeting that is about to start, a transportable lectern is being used.

With nothing to do until the start of the meeting, Finn looks around the room admiring the architecture, everything from the intricate design on the ceiling to the city seal engraved into the wall captures Finn's attention. As his visual tour of the room draws to a close, what seems to be fire as well as a short yellow object caught the corner of his eye; when he turns to see what the object was, he was caught by utter surprise that the fire was Liz and the short yellow object was Banana Man walking towards a set of empty desks in the back of the room.

Brooke nudged Finn and whispered into his ear, "Dude, why is Liz here?"

"Don't know; maybe something or someone convinced her to come back," Finn whispered back.

"Well that explains her, what about B.M?" Brooke asked, still whispering.

"I think we're to find out soon," Finn responded, pointing to Governor Michael who is now walking towards the lectern.

When Governor Michael reached the lectern he adjusted the microphone and cleared his throat, "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for arriving on such short notice and welcome to the City of Rhodes, I wish that we could have met in less trying times, but that will be for another day. So without further delay let's begin. Kai?" Upon hearing his name Kai got up and walked over to the lectern.

"Thank you, Governor Michael. Hello everyone and welcome to the first C.L.A Congress. Now, as most of you have heard, the City of Odenton renounced its membership in the C.L.A due to the disagreements on the current situation. I understand that most of you did not expect me to declare war out of nowhere and I would like to formally apologize to all governors for putting all of you in this predicament," Kai took a short pause continuing, "I know almost all of you did not expect a threat of war to occur out of occasion that was meant to be peaceful; an occasion that would have given birth to a new alliance. Unfortunately, due to laws and regulations, this made it impossible for an alliance to be classified as a recognized group. To them and especially to our enemies we are now classified as a rogue alliance-" A loud commotion filled the room.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT KAI!" The Governor of Florence yelled.

"Oh shut it, war with those two kingdoms was going to happen, Kai just sped up the process," The Governor of Telluride retorted.

"Exactly, war is going to happen eventually but right now we're not prepared, we don't have enough money or resources to feed an army let alone give them weapons and supplies to fight a war! What are you trying to do? Tank our economy and make us grow broke?!" The flames coming off the Governor of Fairhall greatly intensified.

"The Fire Kingdom will assist us!" One governor yelled.

"You mean that girl that overthrew her father?! What makes you think that she won't end like her father and force us to be her subjects?!" Another governor yelled.

"Amen," Brooke said to herself.

From an outsider's perspective, the constant bickering left much to be desired.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" A loud voice yelled from the back.

Everyone turned to see that the voice was coming from Liz whose eyes are red and her flames glowing brighter than normal. When everyone calmed done she took a deep breath and her eyes and flames went back to their normal state.

She walked up to where Kai was standing and stood right beside him.

"Let's take a vote, a three-fourths majority, a verbal resolution stating that we declare war on the two kingdoms with the mobilization of 10,000 troops, paramilitary and military as well as requesting each cities militia to assist the C.L.A military in training capturing or destroying key targets," Liz paused to ensure everyone is on the page and continues, "So, all those in favor of declaring war with the plans addressed earlier, raise your hands" Eight people raised their hands.

"Oh boy," Kai said to himself.

The bickering ensues and this time Liz did not bother to stop them.

"This is going to take forever," Brooke said out loud as she got up from her seat.

"Where are you going?" Finn asked.

"Out," Brooke responded heading over to the stairs, "Wanna come?" She asked as she turned around.

"Nah, I'm staying, this is pretty interesting," Finn said, getting comfortable in his seat.

"Suit yourself," Brooke responded as she started walking down the stairs.

With Brooke gone, Finn tries his best to listen in on the constant bickering and decides to listen in on the conversation that was closest to him.

"TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THIS! The more assistance we request from the Fire Kingdom, the more we will depend on them and the longer we will have to pay off our debts to them, it will destroy the purpose of the C.L.A!" Governor of Cyprus yelled.

"I guess he's right, asking for supplies from the Fire Kingdom will be expensive in the long run," Finn said to himself.

"Money is always going to be a problem! It's either we don't have money to fight or don't have money to pay them back on time, which one of those options do you think I'm happy to take?!" Governor of Aldcliffe yelled back.

"Broke either way," Finn said.

As Finn is listening to their conversation, Kai, Liz, and Michael try to think of ways to secure a three-fourths majority for the war.

"Okay, what about reducing the number of troops to 5,000 a month?" Kai asked.

"That's good," Liz said, "What else?" She asked desperately.

"Umm...oh...what about only focusing the defense budget of each city on the army for now and the cities that already have a navy or coast guard can keep using them at no expense of the whole C.L.A," Michael chirped in.

"Kai?" Liz asked in the same desperate tone.

"That's fine for me, but what about the other coastal cities?" Kai asked worryingly.

"We'll find out," She responds, "Anything else?"

"Soldiers pay and weapons manufacturing?" Michael asked.

"Glob is there a way to make sure we don't go broke?" Liz asked.

"Raising taxes, War bonds, Inflation, borrowing, devote at least eighty percent of all the cities budget to defense?" Kai responded.

"Even then the likelihood of us running out of money entirely is still a possibility," Michael added in.

"What other choice do we have?" Liz said putting her hand on top of her head in frustration.

"We do, it's that we run out of money now or later and I'm pretty sure someone already yelled at," Kai gestures to the crowd.

"Yeah," Liz responded with a sigh as she looked to the crowd, "Do you have something for me use to type this down and project this for everyone to see?" Liz asked.

"Sure thing," Michael walks to a desk and grabs a tablet resting on top of it and heads to Liz who starts typing away.

Finn is still engaged in the argument that is still going on between the Governor of Cyprus and Governor of Aldcliffe. It was only when he heard a loud banging noise did he stop listening to their question to find out where the noise is coming. When he found the origin of the noise he found Kai, Liz, and Michael standing around the lectern with the latter holding a gavel in his hand soon enough, everyone quieted down.

Liz is the one to break the silence, "All right we came up with some possible solutions to most of your questions and hopefully work our way from there," As if by cue, a projector screen starts to descend from the ceiling and the projector turns on to reveal the possible solutions.

Grumbling and complaining can still be heard by a few governors albeit slightly less than before.

"Some of them still don't seem too happy about everything-" Finn's thoughts were cut off by someone speaking loudly but not to the point of yelling.

"At least eighty percent of our budget should be devoted to defense?" The Governor of Fairhall was rather surprised.

"Raising taxes?" The Governor of Florence added in with the same tone.

"Yes and everything before that," Kai responded.

While the governors talk things out, Finn processes in the new information that was presented.

"They're to save the cities from a potential recession; Why can't they see that?" Finn starts to get frustrated with some of the governors and decides to join Brooke in the lobby to clear his head.

Once Finn reached the bottom of the stairs and when he wasn't able to find Brooke, he looked for a bench to sit on and upon finding one, he plopped right down and took a deep breath. Next, he removed his bear hat, placed it beside him, ran his fingers through his long blonde hair and soon rested his elbows on his knees and starts rubbing his temples with closed eyes.

"Preventing a recession, preventing a recession, how could that be done?" Finn continues to rub his temples while deep in thought. Out of nowhere, he feels a cold gentle hand running through his hair. At first, he was startled and was about to open his eyes. It was only until the coldness hit him that he decided to keep his eyes closed.

It was a simple task, but it did help him to relax a bit and not care about the ongoing debate that is happening behind the chamber doors.

"Was it bad?" A comforting voice asked.

Finn only nodded his head in approval.

"Now you get why I left at the start?" She asked again in a comforting tone.

He nodded his head again.

She giggled softly before continuing, "Scooch over," Finn complied and she sat down in the space that he provided for her.

A long silence ensues between the two teenagers, but it didn't bother either of them at all since Finn is still trying to wrap his head around things and Brooke trying to nap but couldn't since the bench made it pretty much impossible.

"I'm going to rest my head on your shoulder," Before Finn could process what she just said he felt a cool touch on his right shoulder.

"Tired?" Finn asked.

"Mhm," She hummed.

Finn gently lifted her head off his shoulder, rested his back on the backrest, and signaled her to return to her original position who in turn complied. Once Finn notices Brooke starting to doze off, he reverts his mind to thinking of possible solutions to the current situation happening behind the chamber doors.

"Don't worry about it Finn," Brooke said half-awake.

"Are you reading my mind?" Finn said jokingly.

She shook her head, "No, I know what it looks like when someone is trying to find a solution to a problem they can't solve and your face clearly shows it.

Finn's smile disappeared, "I guess you're right, it maybe has to do with the fact that I swore to protect Ooo no matter what. Pen or sword," Finn said as he rested his head on top of hers.

"I get it, but there are things that are not in your control and you just have to accept it," She said to reassure him.

"I guess you're right, these things out of my control," Finn repeated.

She snuggles comfortably to Finn's neck.

"Yeah, they are," She said softly, "Now sleep, those guys are going to forever," She ordered him.

"How long-" He was cut off by Brooke's fingers pressing against his lips and he promptly closed his eyes. It didn't take long for both teenagers to fall asleep.


Midnight

"How did we lose two votes?" Michael starting to grow extremely frustrated.

"At this point, I don't know anymore," Kai responded exhausted.

Liz shook her head in frustration, "Right now the kingdoms are already mobilizing their troop for war while we're here still trying to figure how to convince twelve of them that you already declared war and it's our job pull through with it," Liz said rather surprised at how dim-witted some of the governors are.

"They're almost fully mobilized, it's only a matter of time before they attack," Kai said out loud to himself.


Mountain Kingdom War Room

There was a large gray table made of polished stone, around it were military commanders from both the Mountain Kingdom and the Water Kingdom, on top of the table was a map of all C.L.A cities that was drawn a long time ago starting with the first city which is Jefferson and ever since then, if a new city arises, a map of where they are located is drawn out. While all the kingdoms have a map of where the cities are to ensure that they don't trample on their territory by accident.

However, the two kingdoms have used the maps for the complete opposite, trampling on each cities territory, messing with their shipping routes, and deliberately attacking anything military related that the cities own and operate. The only difference being that it was a war and what the two kingdoms are now doing is legal unlike before plus, the cities declared war first and in the two kingdoms' perspective, they acted accordingly by declaring war on the cities.

"I suggest that we force them to exhaust all their resources," A colonel said.

"So like a punishment strategy?" Another colonel asked.

"Exactly, push them to the point where they can't fight where their economy can't keep up," The first responded.

"How do you suppose we do that sir?" A lieutenant asked.

"By destroying factories and wiping them out in each engagement, we do that, we push them beyond their economic capability as well their psychological will to keep fighting," The General of the Mountain Kingdom Army responded.

The High Admiral of the Mountain Kingdom Navy shook his in agreement, "Her Highness's Navy along with the Water Kingdom forces will create a naval blockade between the mainland cities and Crosswinds Islands to cut off any supplies or reinforcements between them," The High Admiral of Navy added.

"How bad do you think resistance will be sir?" The same lieutenant asked.

"Not too bad at first, don't forget that they don't have an official army yet, only militia forces from each city, but after some time a standing army will grow big enough to contest us, which why we must destroy their factories and destroy their forces at each engagement to make that never happens," The General steadfast in his response.

"How long do you think this war will last?" The High Admiral asked.

"Six to nine months," The General predicted, "Earlier if they are incompetent," The General added.

"Which they aren't, some cities have some of the best military leaders that used to serve in kingdoms but left, like Admiral Serrano from Crosswinds Island who was originally from the Water Kingdom or retired General Oris Goodman from the Rock Kingdom," The High Admiral responded.

"Didn't General Goodman leave the military and Rock Kingdom entirely because of the guilt of not spending enough time with his wife before she died, sir?" One of the colonels asked.

"Correct, but that doesn't they mean can't convince him to lead a potential army," The High Admiral turned his head to the General before continuing, "and if they do, this war will go on much longer than you expected General," The High Admiral finished in a deep tone.

"You handle your problems and I'll handle mine," The General responded aggressively.

"Fine, but don't tell me I didn't warn you about Goodman if the enemy suddenly starts defeating you or your fellow generals in battles," With that in the General's mind, the High Admiral left the war room.

"I hate that guy," The General said out loud.

Everyone in the room pretends to not hear what he said and goes back to planning out their attacks.

"Which targets should we hit first General?" A lower ranking asked general asked.

The General looked at the maps carefully, placing his hand over potential targets and soon, he found his answer.

"Attack Anatolia and her weapons factories, Seize all of Jefferson's farmland to ensure they can't feed a potential army, and Rhodes to split the C.L.A into two to sever their communication with each other. I'm assigning a general to each objective, is this understood by everyone?" The General asked.

"YES SIR!" everyone in the room said in unison.

"Good, don't disappoint Your Royal Highness," The General said in a commanding tone.

They salute The General and leave the room.


Rhodes

"I got it!" Liz said ecstatically.

"What is it?" Kai asked desperately.

"The cities don't want a standing army since it is too costly to provide one right?" Liz asked with enthusiasm.

"How about we don't create an army for now. Instead, have the city militias worry about the kingdoms FOR NOW and have the city government take control of the economy as well as raise taxes to pay to for half of the war's cost-"

"Only half?" Michael blurted out.

"That's where the citizens, as well as the banks, come into play," Liz continued, "What they'll do is buy war bonds and what that will do is help the cities pay for the other half, how does that sound?" Liz was filled with renewed vigor.

"What about food and other resources? Normal citizens need to eat and get the things they need to survive to live, remember?" Kai raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Ration cards, each city will hand out ration cards to their citizens and if they don't like that then encourage them to make their fruits and vegetables in their backyard," Michael responded bluntly.

"What about the economy?" Kai asked, still worrying.

"It turns out that war helps the economy in many ways," Liz still surprised at the fact.

The two male governors thought about it for a quick moment and understood how the war could boost their economy, but along with that thought came another problem.

"What if they destroy the factories?" Michael asked concernedly.

"The militias have to make sure that doesn't happen at all," Kai said, figuring it out quickly.

"Are the cities still being instructed to devote eighty percent of the budget to defense?" Michael asked.

Liz shook her head, "No, this time they'll be asked to devote two-thirds of their budget, sixty-six percent," Liz clarifies.

"Anything else that we should?" Liz asked, ready to hopefully bring the last changes to the governors.

Both of them nodded their heads from side-to-side.

"All right, let's show them," Liz said as she gave the tablet to Michael who projects the updated solutions onto the screen.

Surprisingly, the gavel wasn't needed like the previous times, what instead happens is that all the governors looked up at the screen, sat down, and read to themselves.

Liz, Kai, and Michael are optimistic about the new plans. They gave their fellow governors more time to read by themselves and when they decided that enough time passed Michael volunteers to answer any questions as well as calling for a vote.

He took a few steps to the lectern, adjusted the microphone, and cleared his throat before speaking, "Any questions before we call for a vote?"

A few seconds of waiting before the hand of the Governor of Lormont went up.

"Yes?" Michael said, acknowledging the Governor.

"What will the factories manufacture exactly?" She brought up a good question.

Michael, not knowing the answer, turns to Kai who fortunately knew the answer.

"Since we'll be figuring how much funding we're working with pretty soon, the factories in Anatolia will continue to produce what they have been producing before, which is swords, rifles, and small arms, but after we figure out the budget we'll heading over operations to a few weapons manufacturers," Kai answered her question and back away from the lectern.

"Any other clarifications?" Michael asked again.

Another hand went up this time from the Governor of Florence.

Michael nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Do we have someone willing to keep track of weapons manufacturing, monitor troop deployment, and their supply line, as well as giving out new defense contracts?" The Florence Governor asked.

Another good question, "Do you have something in mind?" Michael asked, wanting to hear more.

"Well… since it's going to be a huge responsibility to keep track of manufacturing, troop deployment and supplies as well seeing which company can receive a contract. Maybe a secretary? A secretary of defense?" The Florence Governor suggested.

Michael thought the suggestion for a moment and then answered, "Sounds like a good idea, we'll keep that in mind," The Florence Governor nodded his head in approval.

"Any other questions?" Michael asked again.

This time, no one raised their hands.

"All right, we'll proceed to a vote, all in favor of going to war with the new plans please raise your hand," Michael starts counting.

Liz had her eyes closed and hand up high. It was a tense moment, to say the least, the fate of the C.L.A rested on twelve votes. After holding up her hand for a full minute she hears a quiet voice.

"It's unanimous, " Michael said quietly to himself.

"What was that?" Liz not catching his statement.

"It's a unanimous decision!" Kai yelled out.

"Oh thank Glob!" Liz is relieved, hours of work paid off, the C.L.A in her entirety will fight for their freedom to exist.

The room that is full of governors bickering and complaining turns into a room full loud applause and cheers. Even though it was strange to cheer for something so grim and dark like declaring war it was a step in the right direction that proves that the C.L.A is in it together.

A few minutes have gone by, all the governors start making phone calls presumably to inform their militias to mobilize quickly. After Kai finished calling the militias of his city he received a text message from an informant deep within the ranks of the Mountain Kingdom military.

It says the following, "MOUNTAIN KINGDOM ARMY WILL ATTACK THE FOLLOWING CITIES FIRST: ANATOLIA, JEFFERSON, RHODES," Kai felt a lump in his throat as he continued reading," MOUNTAIN KINGDOM NAVY AND WATER KINGDOM NAVY WILL CREATE A BLOCKADE BETWEEN CROSSWIND ISLAND AND THE MAINLAND CITIES. ATTACK BEINGS TOMORROW AT DAWN.


A/N: For those who are currently following this story, I would like to first start off by saying that I am sorry for bombarding you fifteen emails from me, this is due to the fact that each chapter has gone through some varying degrees of editing, some had very little changes, others not so much. Obviously, I still missed a lot of small grammar mistakes mainly because I'm not reading carefully. For those who've been waiting for this chapter, I really encourage you to read the bottom of chapter 11 due to some changes in the C.L.A Treaty other than that, just small grammar fixes here and there. For everyone else, I hope you are staying safe in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. Thank you.

Q&A From Last Hope and A New Ally

brandonleewolfe1: wow, Phoebe still cares about Finn.

Me: Mhm.

Gamelover41592: excellent work on this chapter and welcome back :)

Me: Thank you and I hope you like this chapter :)

Nos482reborn: quite an interesting read, can't wait to see where you go with this

Me: I hope it stays interesting for you!

OMAC001: Can't wait to see how the war develops!

Me: We're getting there!

The Book of Eli: Short chapter but it does push forward the story...

Me: Are 4,101 words good?

Ooobserver: Well, that's the mother of all awkwardness. At the very least they're not on their own in this fight, but it'll be as messy internally as it is externally.

Me: It sure was awkward. I tried to think ways of ways that they have a chance of winning and having a kingdom helping them out is the most realistic thing that came to mind. Things will get be much messer.

Alfa2K19: Absolutely love this so far. I know the pairing is Finn and Flame Princess but i really hope Finn and Brooke get together! Can't wait for the next chapter. :)

Me: Thank you! And you just have to wait to see what happens between those three and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)