Chapter 48

Sascha was sitting at the makeshift conference table in one for DarkRiver's safe houses at the border of their territory. Well, former safe house, since today it had a visitor that would render it useless. Her mother.

Lucas had insisted not to have the meeting in town, especially any Psy operated building, for obvious safety reasons. Wherever there were too many Psy was considered a war zone by the changelings. To Sascha's surprise Nikita had agreed and so had Anthony. Together with Max, Nikita's security chief, Faith and Vaughn as well as Hawke as representative from SnowDancer the small room was almost crowded. A fact that had to unsettle any Silent Psy. But not Sascha, she felt safe with the pack around her. In addition she knew there were more DarkRiver and SnowDancer soldiers placed in the woods around the house. But she could also sense a lot of tension in the room. The discussion they were about to have required more trust than any party was ready or willing to give. Yet it was crucial to settle their alliances for a war they were all drawn into and hopefully avoid the fate Faith had seen for the Psy.

"Something happened in the Net. Rumor is there was an open confrontation between at least three Councilors and Kaleb Krychek was involved." It was Lucas who started to speak, being the host to this extraordinary meeting.

Nikita answered on behalf of her and Antony, sounding strangely careful for once. "We can confirm that. Since it was neither of us it has to have been Ming, Shoshanna and/or Tatiana. Although nobody seems to know what exactly happened. There was a massive disturbance in the dataflow and some damage to the structure of the Net."

"Is that your usual way of carrying out a war?" Hawke asked his tone acerbic. They had agreed to have him as the only representative of SnowDancer, to get a feel of the whole situation first. But Sienna and Judd were waiting hidden outside in case their knowledge would be needed to up the pressure on the Councilors a little. Sascha kept updating them telepathically on everything that was said inside. "There are quite a lot of inexplicable things going on with the Psy at the moment…"

"And Kaleb Krychek seems to be involved in all of them," His fellow alpha added. Both of them were not in the mood for polite conversation ever since they'd heard of Faith's prediction.

"Yes, that is concerning. I didn't expect him to make himself a target to the other Silence supporting Councilors," Nikita admitted. Which was a severe understatement. Ever since the ball incident she'd been trying to find out what Kaleb was up to. But her considerable efforts had proven fruitless. "However, the consequence is that an open confrontation is inevitable now."

"As to your question whether this is our usual mode of war…" Anthony completed her answer, "The Psy didn't have a war in recent history. We don't know how this might develop." Eyes skating towards his daughter as they had several times before, he added: "But I think you have some information for us too." And it wouldn't be good news. He had never seen Faith look so worn out. On the contrary she'd been bursting with health ever since she left the Net to be with the changelings.

Faith had held back the news from any Psy outside the pack so far, because she knew they could cause panic even among the most Silent. But now she told them what she'd seen, her voice so brittle it seemed it might fail any moment.

Of course it was Nikita, who reacted the most composed to the imminent extinction of her species. "That is not very specific. Can you try and trigger the vision again to give us a more concrete idea of the cause of the destruction?"

"What do you think she's been doing ever since she saw it?" Vaughn's retort was a snarl. "That's the reason she can barely walk."

Faith put a hand on his arm. He relaxed a fraction. "That is all I have at the moment." Her voice held more power than her worn out looks gave her credit for. She didn't have to remind them, they'd have nothing without her. And when she talked on, it filled Vaughn with pride that she could still sound like one of the damn Psy. She made it impossible for them to see her as weak. "I will inform all present parties if that changes. But right now we should focus more on the situation at hand."

"Yes, what about Krychek? He has put himself against Silence quite publicly. Added to the confrontation he was involved in that suggests he isn't allied with any of the other Councilors. You used to have an alliance with him, didn't you Nikita?" Lucas did nothing to hide the provocation in his tone. He wanted to bug the crap out of the cold bitch who was his mate's mother. And he bet it rubbed her the wrong way that he knew quite some of her dirty secrets.

"A fleeting one, not enough to keep him from stonewalling me now." The admission surprised everyone in the room. It wasn't like Nikita to admit such a weakness. "At this point we must assume he has an agenda he won't share with us."

Hawke wasn't about to buy a bit of this bullshit. "So you're saying you know basically nothing and expect us to believe that?"

"He wants the Net. He always did." Nikita ignored the open provocation, but gave them at least something. "He is probably preparing to take over the moment the chaos of the war is big enough for him to seize power. And his actions were perfect catalysts for that kind of chaos."

"Is that just a theory? Or do you have more?" Hawke asked still pissed but satisfied he'd gotten something out of her.

Nikita nodded at Max, who joined the conversation at her hint. "We have detected movements in some remote facilities owned by Krychek. Some of his corporations are fronts for military units. It seems he's mobilizing his armed forces."

"That would fit with the theory," Lucas mused.

Anthony had kept relatively quite so far, but now he seemed to want to avoid the topic. "But there isn't any indication that he might move on our sectors in or out of the Net. Although he should be monitored, he doesn't seem to be a direct threat to any of our interests at the moment."

They wouldn't wait until he became one, Hawke thought, but it was obvious, that was all they'd get for now. So they'd let it go. They had enough other problems to discuss. "Alright. So what about the Psy immigration into your sector and with that our territory?" Changelings controlled the city but the Councilors held reign over the Psy population. "More Psy in the area means more trouble for us."

"We won't deny any Silence refugees sanctuary." A hard and very clear statement from Anthony.

"Is that what they are?" Lucas asked, doubting any word out of a Psy Councilors mouth.

"The other Councilors – excluding Kaleb – have all tightened the regimes of the rehabilitation centers. There are now so many individuals tagged at risk, it's influencing the economy in their sectors," Nikita explained.

With a sting to her heart Sascha realized she hadn't even brushed the refugee topic in her explanation. For her mother everything was about business. But not for her. "So you will shut down the Centers?"

"We agreed the other Councilor's attempt to stabilize Silence through rehabilitation is ineffective. So we will stop reconditioning at-risk cases unless there are violent tendencies in the subjects." The decision had been made some time ago and immigration in their sector had increased after the information had spread inside the Net. That was how they were so certain it was about Silence.

Faith spoke next, her voice still weak but even harder. She too didn't accept the explanation easily. "But the stability of Silence is not the only stability issue in the Net. How will that affect or be affected by the increase in population density?"

"So far the Net is most stable in the part of the world we control." Antony answered his daughter with less restraint in his voice than usual. "As Nikita said: Stabilizing Silence through rehabilitation is ineffective. Even more: allowing Silence to falter to a certain degree seems to increase stability and lower the rates of violent outbursts." That got him a sharp look from Nikita. But if Faith already knew about the state of the Net, all the changelings probably knew about the increasing violence problem. So the information would rather calm them, than create a vulnerability for him and Nikita.

"So you don't expect major hostile action on our ground soon?" Their explanations seemed solid so far, but Hawke had to be sure they didn't try to hide something. And he hoped at that point they were interested enough in an alliance not to lie to his face directly.

"We should prepare for the possibility, but right now it seems the first skirmishes will be carried out inside the Net or within the territories of other Councilors," was Antony's clear answer. Nikita nodded in agreement.

"What they gave us about Krychek… it's not barely enough. We need more intel on that," Hawke spat out the moment the Psy congregation was gone. The two alphas, Sascha, Faith and Vaughn had been joined by Judd and Sienna immediately.

"My mother is wary of him. She is truly unsure about his goals," Sascha mused. "And she wasn't lying about his interests either. When I worked with her, she never even considered him a threat to her business interests. That's why they had an alliance. Kaleb only ever wanted real power inside the Net."

"Ok, then we'll keep an eye on him and decide on an action when it becomes necessary." Lucas was satisfied by that explanation for now. Kaleb might be a wild card and they'd collect more data about him but they didn't have to rack their brains about him right now, though Hawke seemed to disagree on that matter. But right now Lucas was more interested in what his sentinel had to tell. "You talked to Anthony alone earlier, Vaughn. Anything new from the rebellion?"

"There was a quite big hit on Pure Psy, but nothing that concerns us directly. They were planning to take over the rehab centers but the Ghost forwarded all the names necessary to stop their operation in the Centers under Nikita's and Anthony's care."

"The rebellion still relies on that rogue?" Lucas wanted to know. He had learned, the infamous Ghost was quite a number in the rebellion but he couldn't understand how they put up with an ally so volatile and unpredictable.

Hawke had just drawn a breath to give his opinion on the topic, when Faith suddenly exclaimed: "Wait!" Then she paused for a few tensed seconds. Her subconsciousness had made a connection that lingered just out of her reach. There was this uneasy feeling about another bit of information she hadn't told so far. But she had to, if they were to get to the root of this. "The cataclysmic events in the Net might be connected to something else I once saw." It hadn't been a vision but a conversation with the NetMind. But that was irrelevant right now. "There is a crack in the shields of the Psy Net that has been there for longer than you might expect. That fissure is caused by a single individual who will probably cause the Net to shatter. – I am certain that individual is the Ghost."

The last words dropped into a silence so thick you could have cut it.

Hawke and Judd exchanged a look that was so heavy with meaning it escaped no one in the room.

"It's time," was all Judd said.

"Hell, yes it is!" Hawke answered and four pairs of eyes turned towards them in silent expectation.

Only Sienna knew what was about to come. Even dangerous as the knowledge was, her mate hadn't kept the true identity of the Ghost from her.

"It may be Kaleb Krychek is more important in this than we thought until now." The others stayed absolutely quiet while Hawke revealed the Ghost's identity and explained why they'd kept it to themselves so far. He also related everything else they had discovered. There was no reason to keep anything else from their allies once the information about the rebel's identity was out. And maybe it would soothe Luc's reaction to being kept in the dark by his blood ally.

It probably did. Lucas took a deep breath before finally speaking. "Seriously Hawke you got to that in the nick of time. You held on to that information one second longer and I would have beaten the crap out of you the moment I found out. Actually I might still decide to do it after we deal with this mess."

So Luc was pissed about being kept in the dark. But he'd only threatened to beat up Hawke, not to break the alliance. Their bond was stronger than that, Hawke realized relieved. So instead of saying he'd like to see the cat try, as he usually would, he nodded at the other alpha stating: "Anytime you want to get it out of your system."

"And don't expect me to let you out on that one," Lucas answered before getting back to the more important topic at hand. "So what the hell is going on here? Krychek used to be a bad guy, didn't he? A big one. The only reason we haven't been worrying our asses off about him is that he is obviously not interested in any of our territory. And now you're working with him?"

"No one's saying he isn't a bad guy anymore." Judd's calm, measured voice. "And I'm the one who has worked with him on occasion for a long time, even before I knew his identity myself. He has been useful for the rebellion."

"But if he wants the Net he is just using the rebellion," Faith said sharply. "I have to warn my father." After all Anthony was leading the rebellion inside the Net and working with the rogue as well.

"We can't be sure about that," Judd countered. "He is acting erratic. That doesn't necessary mean he is about to betray the rebellion." Or was he deluding himself into trusting a man he saw as a mirror of the dark future he had once believed to be his own? Had he gotten too emotional to see the truth? "We don't know what happens to the rebellion, if we tell them now."

"I agree," Sascha said gently, understanding Faith's urge to warn the ones in the Net she still had a connection to. "This information is far too dangerous to be given to anyone inside the Net. If we risk it, it might very well set in motion the events that lead to the cataclysm you saw, Faith."

"But we have to do something. He might be the key to this." Faith didn't hide her desperation anymore.

"I'll try to get in contact with him. It is hard to get a hold of him lately, but maybe I'll find out something more. I also have other contacts in the Net, I can try," Judd suggested. He'd been wanting to contact Aden about Alja Dardo and why she was with Krychek anyway. And he had a feeling the Arrow was part of the 'key' as well.

"I'll get Dorian to dig up all he can find about him," Lucas added.

Sienna knew that wouldn't be enough. If things really looked so grave in the Net, they needed an emergency plan for the Psy. After all she knew a lot about destruction. "And we should have a meeting with all the Psy outside the Net – or at least Walker and Ashaya." Including Amara, Ashaya's sociopathic twin, probably wasn't such a good idea. "Together we can work out a solution how we can influence the course of events from outside the Net."

"We could also consider involving Katya and Dev." Faiths voice still held little hope. "Maybe the Forgotten can help stabilize some smaller nets, when the Net collapses."

They decided on the strategy and got to putting it into action at once. But no one had missed what Faith had said: when the Net collapses, not if.