There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought you were.

Hazart Inayat Khan

I watched in horror as Dollars and Yellow Scarves tore each other apart. With large eyes, my mouth dropped open. "Stop…"

Not loud enough.

"Stop."

Still not loud enough…

One Dollar slugged a man across the face; his blood splattered on the floor. Seeing the color of his blood changed something inside me- it made me change.

"STOP!"

I'd never screamed louder in all my life, and I certainly got the attention of everyone in the warehouse. All eyes were suddenly on me, jaws hanging open in shock and fists frozen mid-punch. I stood there shaking, with my hands rolled into tight, sweaty fists. "This ends now!" I gave my very first command in my life. By now Christian and Paul were standing far behind me where they could witness the scene, but I didn't notice. My full attention was on separating my Dollars from the innocent Yellow Scarves.

"Princess!" Switchblade gasped. "Where are you….?" Dread blinked at me in awe. "No more! No more fighting with the Yellow Scarves! All of that is done!" I couldn't believe the authority in my voice; I'd never spoken like this before to anyone. Everyone- including the detective and CEO- were utterly speechless and dumbfounded. They looked at each other before gazing back at me totally confused.

"W-why would you…..? They sent an informant after you, princess." "Yeah, these guys aren't our allies. Anyone who screws with our princess screws with all the Dollars." "Yeah," the remaining Dollars agreed to this sentiment. I was unwavering though. "They're not trying to hurt me! They're trying to save me!" I shouted, feeling my hands tremble more and more. "Huh?!" My Dollars blinked bewildered. Even a number of Yellow Scarves seemed confused; I guess not all of them were in on it. But, to my surprise, an older man who was previously sitting on a chair at the opposite end of the factory stood up. He started clapping his hands and all eyes shot back to him. Those in his way stepped out of it, clearing a path in between me and him. I didn't know his name exactly- Jacobson maybe- but I knew he was one of the senior Yellow Scarves and quite powerful. Not powerful like Daddy but still substantial. Our eyes met and he smiled my way.

"You figured it out then? Did Black tell you?" This older man spoke to me kindly. I blinked half-surprised, half-puzzled. He… He must be the one who hired Black in the first place. He's the one who wanted to save my life…. My hand rose up to my chest in a submissive gesture; force of habit around strong, older men. "Well, I'm glad to see you're alright, Miss Steele. Would have been a tragedy if anything happened to you, my dear," he chuckled softly to himself. This definitely confused the majority of his underlings.

"What are you talking about, boss?" "Yeah, that's Steele's girl; she's a Dollar." "I thought you wanted to wipe out the Dollars from the neighbourhood." "Why would you protect her? She's one of them." The Yellow Scarf boss was bombarded with beyond perplexed queries. My men were also entirely confused but they didn't move or say anything; they just stayed still in a state of shock. The boss merely shut his eyes in a calm manner.

"I don't owe anyone an explanation. But did you mean what you just said, Miss Steele? Are you really ending this centuries-old war with the Yellow Scarves?" All eyes were on me now. "Yes- yes, I am," I didn't even have to think about it. We have no business fighting with anyone who tried to save me from someone much, much worse. No, we're done; this is over, and I don't care what it will cost to the Dollars or me. No more blood will be split between our gangs; not while I'm here.

Some men gasped again, others scratched their heads. While all the Yellow Scarves looked dumbstruck, their boss reopened his eyes and nodded softly to himself. "Can she do that?" One Yellow Scarf asked him while pointing to me. "Princess?" Switchblade lowered his eyes onto me also. I gave my men a reassuring, confident expression along with a small smile; I wanted to say that "it would be alright". "And what will you offer the Yellow Scarves as tribute for ending the war?" The boss then asked me.

This made my men really mad; their glares shot back onto him viciously. "What tribute?!" "Nothing!" "You're lucky she's calling off the war!" "You should be paying us!" "All the south territory," I announced over everyone. Once again, silence and all stared returned to me. I locked eyes with the Yellow Scarves boss; mine firm, sincere, and honest. "Everything beyond the westside; it's yours." "Princess!" "How can you do that?! We have territory down there!" "Not anymore; it belongs to the Yellow Scarves now. We'll call that compensation and thank you… for trying to save me," my eyes softened a bit.

While my men proceeded to have a fit, the Yellow Scarves boss just nodded; nodded and smiled. "We'll take it. Thank you, Miss Steele. I must admit, you surprised me. And here I thought your husband would take over the Dollars, but who knows? You might be a good queen, after all." This made my eyes widen in awe and disgust simultaneously. A good queen… No one's ever referred to me like that before; it never even crossed my own mind that I might be a good head of a gang empire. It just seemed so against my nature, but still possible…. But then I remembered the sensation of wanting to escape, of longing to have nothing to do with gang life. To be a normal girl who lives a normal life….. The desire for freedom, for the ability to make choices for myself…. That came flooding back to me in that moment too. Even if I would make a good queen one day, that doesn't mean I want to rule. It was in that moment, after realizing that I could actually succeed at the job, I finally and truly grasped…..

I was born to be queen, and I would give anything not to rule.

My men had an array of mixed feelings. Some were salty about the loss of territory; some were super proud of me and my first display of real power; and some didn't know what to think. The same was true for the Yellow Scarves, who also shared with the mixed feelings. Despite winning in this scenario and actually gaining in the end, a few were still angry- quite angry. And it all revolved around that age-old issue; the one thing I could never really escape from no matter how hard I tried.

"Like hell I'm taking orders from a woman. That's not your territory to give, you bitch!" A Yellow Scarf yelled this, not bothering to hide the venom in his tone. No, it wasn't enough that they won; it wasn't enough that they finally got the longed territory they coveted. It was given to them by a woman; the war was declared over by a woman. That trumped and tainted all sense of victory or celebration. The underworld is a misogynist place, one which would struggle deeply to accept me even if I wanted to be queen.

"I'll kill you!" What none of us were expecting was for this creep to suddenly pull out a knife from his jacket; much like the one I got stabbed with eight years ago. While he charged from me at behind, everything all of a sudden went ballistic. "Anastasia!" Both Christian and Paul were sprinting at full speed towards us. I spun around to see the man with the knife in his hand, along with the other two. Paul and Christian? How long have they been here? When did they arrive?! But I didn't have long to ponder about that.

Within the blink of an eye, Christian practically body smashed into me. His arms wrapped around me as he turned us so to get in between me and the knife. Paul arrived seconds later, but not before the knife pierced something. Christian's eyes widened as his mouth shot open, though no sound came out. I didn't realize what happened right away, still clinging to him in shock. Paul meanwhile, tackled the freak down to the floor; he sat on top of him while beating him senseless. "You little…! If you ever even so much as look at Ana, I'll…!" A series of more punches.

While Christian didn't move or say anything for a long minute, my men came to peel us apart. "Princess!" "Princess, are you ok?!" Their attention was entirely on me. Switchblade moved me in such a way as to scan for injury. All the time, Christian stood there, simply staring at me. His face had a weird, almost confusingly pained expression on it. I knew something must have happened when he gave this little struggling cough. "Christian?" He looked at me…. Looking me straight in the eye, he suddenly fell to his knees. He didn't take his pained stare off me until he fell back on the ground unconscious.