Okay guys, So I know I'm not updating as often as I used to. Well guys, life has gotten in the way. I'm quitting the gun shop, I've been working two jobs, helping out on the farm, running a small side hustle, and sacrificing a social life in order to make more money. And I was burning the candle at both ends for so long that eventually I had to take a break.

I went to confession for the first time in a long time on Thursday. And it felt so amazing to get it all off my chest. I know some of you may not believe in God, but at that moment I felt Gods Grace.

The last time I went to confession was during CCD when I was required to, so it had been about 15 years since I had gone. And going as an adult knowing you're a broken person is far different from going as a kid because its required to be confirmed into the church.

Jem's POV

"Man, this is not how I imagined my life would be." Jem said as he got back from another day of work on the council.

"Well, what were you expecting?" Winter asked as she was changed out of her uniform into some casual clothes.

She had been assigned to his security detail, it was actually nice. They both left and came back at the same time, so they could chat on the way home and genuinally enjoy each others company. Not a lot of couples had that opportunity, and it was highly unlikely you saw coworkers start a relationship. And then it was a 50/50 chance. So right now, Jem and Winter had a healthy amount of time together each and every day. It just made things that much easier. Even if Winter would occasionally have to deal with Jem's rants about how politicians suck. And then she would have to remind him that he was a politician now.

"Well to be fair, I never expected to make it past 25. Not because I was depressed, but because I genuinely thought I would end up dying before then." Jem said as he looked up at the ceiling.

It was true, he joined the army in 2017 and the way people were talking about the current leadership in charge, you would think the entire world was heading towards another world war. So he was expecting to die with glory on a battlefield. But the reality was actually boring and peaceful. He never left the states and ended up being stuck doing training rotations for his entire enlistment to the point he was just ready to get out. It wasn't until after he got out that he realized that the only thing he knew how to do was to be a soldier.

Jem didn't want to admit it, but when he was on Terminal Leave, he hated being out of the army and he considered going back in almost immediately. But he knew it wouldn't be the same. Leadership was changing and he had been screwed over too many times to ever go back in. And then he felt lost. He never expected to make it past 25, and yet there he was fresh out of the army and not sure what to do with the rest of his life. Not because he was suicidal, but because he had never made plans past a certain age.

It was a hard thing for a man to lose his purpose as well of a sense of direction in life. And he had seen it eat up all of his buddies at some point. Some couldn't handle it and went back in. Some couldn't handle it, and unfortunately were no longer with them. It wasn't something Jem wanted to think about. But when he looked at the black memorial band on his wrist, he could remember how losing your purpose and hope in life could lead you to do insane things. (1)

Not everyone was lucky enough for a big tiddy anime girl to fall from the sky and lead them on a wacky adventure which ended up giving them a new purpose in life.

"If I didn't know you, I would be really concerned by that." She said as she sat on the couch next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

To be fair, her concern would be warranted. Jem knew there were times he was certainly thinking about doing something insane he couldn't come back from. But those thoughts always ended up losing to his hope of a better life.

"I'm surprised Nala is already asleep." Jem said changing the subject.

"There was a field trip at her school today, they went exploring some of the natural cave formations around Mantle. With a huntsman and military escort of course." She said as Jem raised an eyebrow.

"I can understand the school hiring Huntsmen, but the military?"

"Well, when you have the child of one of the councilmen at your school, you don't tend to forgo security."

Jem thought it wasn't so different from his own world. Politicians kids got special protection while the rest were told 'Welcome to the thunderdome!'

Melania

Melania was going over her current intel. She knew that Jem's daughter had added security during school trips. But during the regular school day, they were back to standard security. They only were worried about threats directly approaching the school, but they didn't have overwatch for anything outside of a 500 meter radius. So Melania was able to get an observation point from a building where she got a clear view of the school without being spotted.

She couldn't do anything from this point, but right now she needed information. What were the routines? What were the guard shifts? She had noticed that unlike someplaces were the guards left at the same time as the teachers and faculty. They would work in shifts. They did this mostly to insure nobody tried to plant bombs in the school, or to do a security sweep of the school to make sure no rogue Grimm made its way into the city limits and was hiding out in the school. It sounded like overkill, but it had happened in the past, and the schools had campaigned for added security since then.

The routines were the same, you had the day shift do their standard shift towards the end of the school day. Then there would be a changing of the guard til midnight. When the final shift came in. During those hours between midnight and just before the kids start to arrive, they would conduct patrols through the school to make sure everything was good.

But there was one thing she had noticed.

The guards had become complacent. They were lazy, half of the time they weren't bothering checking isolated areas because it had been so many years since anything bad had happened to the school that they chose to just do a quick patrol and then go and BS at the entrances to the schools for the rest of the night.

But when they were doing their patrols, she noticed there was entrance they left unguarded. All the major school entrances were assigned at least two men for a security detail. But there was a separate door on the roof for a maintenance man to go and check out the Schnee Tower arrays.

She made a mark from where she could run a zipline from a building across the street from the school onto the roof where she could enter the school.

She timed the latest shift, there was about a six minute window where they would be too distracted briefing the new shift on anything that happened during the day. As long as she got in and did what she needed to do before those six minutes were up. She could get away scot free.

She looked at a bag she had with her.

She thought back to her Uncle who was a provo. She had done this once before in Vale, but here it was going to take some more planning. (2)

She walked over to inspect all of her stuff.

But there was one thing she had been careful about this whole time. The force of the bombs were strong, but not nearly as strong as the ones she planted in Vale. They could still kill, but these were mostly going to maim for one reason.

She had designed them so something on them would survive the blast.

She smirked as she saw the multiple emblems of the happy huntresses she had attached to the bombs.

She had made sure they were forged out of a more durable material so they would survive the blast.

This would definitely make sure that the police were chasing after the wrong people.

1. Unfortunately I Have had a friend who did take his own life when he got into the civilian world, we don't know why, but if its anything like the sense of not having a purpose when I got out. It can be really damaging. I'll admit I struggled a lot with thoughts of suicide when I got out because I felt like I had lost a purpose and that because I hadn't done as much as I could have that it didn't mean anything. Guys if you're having thoughts like that, call a buddy, especially for my fellow Vets out there.

2. Now I know this is the second time I've mentioned the Provo IRA in this story. Let me be clear, the only IRA I really support is the original when Michael Collins led a Guerilla war against the British. Every other iteration of the IRA seems to be Socialist and Marxist as hell, which goes against the principles of Freedom that I value. And the car bombs against innocent people was insane and should be condemned.

I do wish Ireland was a completely united country, but I don't see that happening.

With that being said, I'll admit one thing about the Provos, the music about them is catchy.