Our Flag Still Flies – War of Rebellion –

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Part Ten: Borderline for Bad

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The executives would be heading this project of a new emphasis on "control." Rachele didn't wait as she and Victor had two others of their own group sneak a peek at the unveiling of the country that had once been their home. Only in retrospect, however. The Demon's Head leader was still on the offense – should he be provoked, and rumors of a new secretary and addition to the council as a single word for word, was to start with a Robin and end with a sold little lord at the foot of another.

He was in both military garb and looking dapper despite all of the call backs and gasps as the seventeen-year-old entered into the war room with the General. "Hello, men! Glad to have your attention." It was all an act, an act to have a seat and by giving up some select secrets, he could create that S.O.S as a plus while the General beamed at his soon to be victory.

"Tha – That's the boy?? Wilson! You kept him from the court as well??"

"He's turned against them, and now works for me." Said the future head of any future wars in Bluddbechia and Gotehelm (Typo.) "His secrets will be revealed right now. And if anyone is wise enoguh, they'll close the doors." The man motioned to his two Ravagers. Rosa and Grant made sure the room was dark enough for a projector and a table. One where Robin sat at the helm this time. Fingers interwoven as his mask stayed on blood – born and tight right where all could witness his performance. "Lord Wayne is done, and if so, I propose we make amends right now." Richard flicked his wrist as the room got even darker. "Right now, we need to know who is against us. Who wants me kicked off your little committee. I'm sure it's strange to see me so flippant by nature, but I have very good reason to be present. Wayne was a keeper of the peace like the Knights, yet he didn't do so on his own. Not. Without a storehouse full of the most alchemaic tech you could imagine…First off!"

Richard pointed to the silhouette of Sergent Copperfield. "The firm you ran with your family's blessing was the one of many that my dead father took to heart. He used it to feed the needy, and for that…you could stay or swear loyalty to our new meister."

"Your attitude doesn't make any sense! Just because –

"Copperfield?" Richard tutted as he put out his lip, disappointedly. "My father isn't in charge; you have to listen to his eldest. I'm maintaining those assests to hand over to my new, mentor as it were." The boy motioned to General Wilson who prided that he had such a title at all. Even for a very convincing actor as young as Grayson. "Now, that is for the financial avenue to address. What of the war equipment my father locked away?"

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"I know why you're baiting me against your clientele." Richard fussed back at the manor of the general's with a chess piece in hand, the other waiting to take a sip of some kindly offered pekoe. "If my father's secrets are all I'm even good for, then why keep me around any longer than you have to?" He moved his next piece, only to for that to be taken by the general. Like everything else, there was no talking to a man with armor on almost all hours of the day. He'd seen him without it, if so the General had promised not to touch the teen as he'd now stated in their clause. "Korina is here, and you want to help your team, don't you?" The general teased the statement as the lesson began. "While Cobb and I decide how long this new leaf shall last, you'll be entrusted with becoming the parading socialite that only answers to me." The man moved a new piece as Richard leaned onto his elbow, trapped in the reality that checkmate was all he had to avoid. "Must I avoid your knights? Mine are still messy and scattered across the globe." The boy frowned as the chuckle the general gave him, soothed not a single nerve. "Saying goodbye to your queen is a trial." He took her, a part of Richard hinting through this mockery that he would not be beaten with threats and a very long cord wrapped round his bound wrists. "SO, I then should…. celebrate my status and when I am what you expect of me, your promises will mean something?"

"I'd like for nothing less than to reward my soldiers for their hardest efforts. Checkmate, boy." The general grinned as the last of their game was had. "You'll learn that some talk should be left for the war room."

The teen looked at his piece, going to collect his horribly scarred king. The general reached for that same arm, grasping it with a squeeze while dragging the kid to his ear a moment. "Or, the bed room. Which in the future, you may have to dig deep to find what it is I ask."

"I won't give away my body, not to you. Not even to my allies." If one could call anyone friend or foe. He was sure, that and Korina was waiting in the dark for a light to shine. He could not keep her there forever. 'Never I, yet you have those to suspect require….a coaxing with your prowess." Was, was the general calling –

"I beg pardon, sir? I am a lord's son, even now!"

"Well, under me…you are just a tool."

Dark circles spotted up under the boy's eyes.

"And, you'd do best to remember why I was able to buy you from the Court. What they could do to you and I If your mouth gets to talk for too long in that council hall. You're a turncoat, whether or not you think so. And by the next weeks' time, you'll tell the world that you now work for me. As an informant of the future ruler of –

"H- how long?" The teen stammered. "I won't tell a soul, your secret." He swallowed. "Honest…..the gods would –

"Your gods won't even care. As long as I keep you living, they'll go on existing." Smirked the devil in his armor of a corrupted official. "Even after the myth of your knights has been wiped out by my heroisms. In how Wayne destroyed your democracy. In how I made it, better."

"Wherever father is, he won't let that happen. You know full well….so, when will I go then? When will Cobb come for me?"

The general rose and walked away, the words coming swift as he thought very little of the answer. "Only if you decide to share what isn't yours to hold, little noble son. Only then, will Cobb's men come to claim their Gray – son."

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Lady Talia's case had grown far worse. In this case scenario, Ra's knew of only one cure, the drain of essence from any man that could withstand it. Even his once ally, the Dark Knight himself. He was cut loose barely, his chest marked with strange symbols as Tim and Damian watched from the high lift upstairs at the man, right over the balcony to their own rooms. Bruce never looked back, knowing his son was here, his child with Talia being nothing like them all. He had promise, and Tim would be sure of it, he hoped. "Does that man have a strange curse on him as well?" Damian asked his brother, who looked on and deducted what that man was to any of them. "He was once of noble standing; he is built however like a warrior…. Lord Ra's would never give up someone like that to Lady Talia."

"Mother is very sick." Damian told his brother. "She does not even know it, and yet I am asked to sooth her with my presence. Maybe this man is very close…. I wonder. I know that she drinks the life of the men she touches. It is her curse from the pact of the Demon Head's sacred god. A relic from the time of my ancestors."

"If you read of curses and magic that does ill so often, you'll never become a strong warrior like your family." Snickered Tim as he moved away quickly, Dami pouting as he searched over the side, right before the older noble was led to the Lady's bedroom chambers. "He must be close, and I wish to know why…" The boy decided to break curfew to find out. Yes, he'd see. He'd see why his mother had called a man who fit the description of that lord that had gone missing.

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Roy sat at his desk as he wondered why this world felt so very wrong to him. He had some opium lying around, he could numb his mind a while as the visions turned to smoke. So, he opened his snuff box and did not stall. The drip was delicious (roy's drug habit) as he let her face fade. Jade….he did love her. Oh, gods! He stammered and screamed as acid filled his lungs. Then, it softened as he was draped over his desk to rest. When the morn came, the staff for cleanup shouted and ran to him. Her fingers prodded his pulse as more of the staff came to drag the man off to bed. "He's intoxicated, e' is! Who left the young master Is' death slip?? Any of you???"

Trouble found him the next morning as Roy awoke to his advisors sqwaking as caged animals at his bedside. "The standing head of this state cannot overdose his body with the drugs that aid the ill and sickly! You are in the worst seat, young lord. If you cannot do as the General bids, another will be placed to replace your title and you'll be sent to an asylum for such –

"I will be fine! As long as I've forgotten –

"That will not do." A face of what looked to be a male of discipline and vigor had the lord of this land quake. "You….no, no….that is –

"I am, and you're abusing what rites are left. I gave up the field to watch and wait, but you have shown no progress."

"you……how can you still be alive???"

The blonde elder was not one to trim his goatee, nor was he one to wear less green and call himself fortunate. "I've lived to see you through this, and to be sure…" He turned to the staff as they were reluctant to leave the men. Once only the rest had gone, did Oliver take down his mask if a governor and do the right thing. "You had no right to sell us short, Royland."

"You had no real right to falsify your demise beside the other knights." Roy didn't notice, but he was crying; like the boy that Oliver had raised at a young age to become something so shallow.

"I was away to save us, and so I have. You can find peace in all of it. I know. And now that I'm also a traitor like you." The smile the old warrior gave made the tears fall harder. "We can save Styr and stop what plans the court has to hold us all hostage. Will you, aide in the defeat of our common enemy? Your ruse is too good, yet the drugging has to stop."

"It was, difficult." Roy gathered his fears as Oliver imagined how many women over the years he had taken to his chambers. "She is with child, news spreads quickly in the underground."

"That it does." Smiled a half laughing Roy, his pain falling away as the moltings of an insect. He was, about to transform. "I will be here, but only just. The General thinks I was broken by my captors. That I swear fealty to only his rule, but a live for the Knights and the people." He said in a soft whisper. "Always, so you too must not fret. Not fear what death may see us as. For we, are strong, swift."

"And now, what must I do?" Roy asked as the green suited male did his heart good to know, to bare witness. "Well, for starters…. you could learn to forget their faces for a while and we could train your mind in other ways. So that when the moment arises, you can avenge Styr. We must though…" Oliver rubbed his chin. "Bruce is far away, in mortal danger. I've heard that two of his children are in the slums. The other is being kept secret, so we must locate the butler. Find what he knows."

"Pennyworth is alive??"

"He was the one to hide most of the children, only the youngest but he knows who would have attacked the Wayne household and how they are connected to the man's disappearance and the general's rise to power."

"Dear gods, it is a conspiracy! None of this was not preordained. It was all fabricated with careful wit and precision."

"By the Court, I believe." Oliver nodded. "Keep your mind aware and sharp, son. The worst is yet to follow. Right now, the general is working on 'Project Starfire' to win his war."

"A new war…. which?" Roy stuttered. "His collective efforts in Gothemiln were successful. What else could he be willing to take?"

"Not what, but where and whom." Oliver said with a serious thought in the back of his mind. "Lord Ra's has called to arms his armies and his curses to cull these events…. the general after all was the one who helped to subdue Bruce in his own work space. Right after the family had been taken. He was not there to save them…so we must. Save as many as we can, for as long as it may be that this war will rage!"

Roy was mystified by Oliver's patriotism. He then had to ask with lips dried by his salty expression. "The rebellion, lives then?"

Oliver grinned and tipped his hat, the answer being quite positive as Roy couldn't help but feel the same.

"For Styr, and then the world."

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Days as the lords had promised, there was a grand bit of noise in the city, for the people. Yet, the dirtied souls kept moving. They didn't care who the next king would be to Gothemiln.

Jason was lost in the alley with his stolen goods in tow. The dark streets made his hands itch to rob more pockets for a cab to his adoptive father Jay's hut. His own eager eyes not on being flayed as some livestock if the man came home reeking of ale and piss stains all up and down his legs. Had this point not been concluded by the boy getting them some grub, or had Harleen not left to go her own route with a circus troupe into the sun, Jason would have believed it. Had he chosen to. There was a procession going on. He could tell now as horses and monster – machines powered by heat, gas and steam. The ones up top the horses were decorated in the armor of the common enemy of Bluddbechia. Jay had told the boy of the stories of all men falling off of their horses. That in a world ruled by sin, war was its commander and chief, for there was no king to tell it a what for. However, there was one face as Jason gripped his skull hard, scrunching his face and eyes…. a boy, blue eyes and a long tail that he….

He screamed and ran to the wall to pause. To vomit if he had to as the world swayed, had he never seen where he was going as two soldiers stood by and got wind of what he had taken. Jason panicked and left the food, running into the carriage with the one he'd not needed to find.

However, he had to.

"Stop the coach!!"

The words that came had the kid dazed and afraid to look up, dark hair and blue eyes like…. like….

"You…. you are –

Jason scrambled as Richard called out. He was with Rosa and Grant today to show his grand contribution to the new lord to be's city. He was a traitor and at that rite, he recognized the green orbs staring back at him. Almost instantly.

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