“Ah. You are finally here. You can free me now,” Rajesh said, his voice echoed off the stone walls of the jail cell.

“Once I hear your side, maybe,” he hedged. “I’ve already heard from Montgomery and Jeff.”

“Then you must know that I was forced to attack the wayward pack for our survival. It was the…”

Blake raised his hand to forestall his protest of innocence.

So he did leave her.

“Hold up. Tell me everything that happened from the beginning. I want to make sure we’re on the same page. I need to make sure Montgomery didn’t leave anything out.”

Rajesh took a deep breath and said, “Very well.”

For the next ten minutes, the prisoner detailed roughly the same events as Montgomery. Rajesh’s account not only contained far more details of the terrain and scenario, but included his thoughts and conclusions as well. It was not until the end that their tales differed.

“... and as I said earlier, a group of goblins had fled towards the top of the canyon. If I had not gone after them, they would have rained down spells upon us until we were dead.”

If that’s true, he saved them all. He’s a hero.

Blake glanced over to his mother to gauge her reaction. She shrugged and remained silent. He turned back to Rajesh for clarification. “Okay, let’s go back to when you first arrived in the scenario. You disagreed with the others on the plan. You wanted to defend the goblins behind the fortification, and not ambush them inside the canyon, correct?”

“Yes. It was too dangerous. I told them the canyon was too wide to contain every goblin within it, and I was proved correct.” He then added confidently. “If I had been in charge, Dahteste would still be alive.”

“Maybe,” Blake cautiously disagreed. “Or, you would all be stuck on the goblin’s planet because too many of your charges died. We will never know.”

Rajesh remained silent, but the corners of his mouth turned down slightly.

“Why didn’t you help Dahteste, and then bring her with you once you were done?” his mother asked.

“There was no time, and I judged that she was easily capable of defeating her two opponents.”

“Which turned out to be wrong,” Blake replied.

“True. I am not sure why she failed. She was a capable fighter, and had overcome worse odds before.”

“Montgomery said she was stunned by a spell,” Donna informed him.

“I see.”

Blake asked a few followup questions, but learned nothing new. Eventually, they ran out of queries, and were forced to pass judgement.

“Give us a minute to discuss,” he told Rajesh.

Blake turned to his mother, activated Adjustable Dampen Sound, and enlarged the aether spell until it barely encompassed the two of them.

“So, what do you think we should do?” he asked her.

As faction leader, the final decision was his. However, he valued her input, and hoped she would have a better solution than he.

Donna glanced over to Rajesh and hesitated to respond.

“Don’t worry,” Blake assured her. “He can’t hear us. I have an active spell that prevents it.”

“Amazing,” she whispered. She shook her head and looked him in the eyes. “I don’t believe either side was in the wrong.”

“Neither do I,” he agreed. “While he did disobey Jeff’s orders when he left her, it was to take on a greater threat. He wasn’t running away like a coward.” He took a deep breath. “Honestly, I’m surprised he was so bold. He’s not one to stick his neck out in battle, the flanking force must have been pretty big. Now we need to figure out how to fix this, and how to satisfy the mob outside.”

She nodded in agreement.

Blake continued, “What do you think we should do, and how do we get them to accept it? If I go out there and say no one was to blame for her death, I don’t think they’ll like it.”

“You are right about that, Kuruk was in my office ranting for almost thirty minutes before I had to kick him out,” she agreed. After a moment of thought, she asked, “What if we take away his nano as punishment? We’re going to need a ton of nano for the faction hall upgrade, so this will kill two birds with one stone.”

Blake shook his head. “If we do that, then he’ll fall behind. We might as well just keep him in this jail cell for the next five weeks. In the long run, it’ll hurt the faction more than it’ll hurt him.”

“Maybe give him some community service?”

Blake snorted. “We tried that for Oliver, remember? Brent was still pissed. Hell, even I thought he got off easy. Over half of our faction is still ready to beat him down. We can’t just brush this away.”

“Well, short of kicking him out of the faction, I’m not sure what we can do then.”

“What if we say we’re kicking him out, but instead ship him off to the Payson expansion? He could find new teammates, fight the Arachne, and get stronger without anyone here knowing.”

“Won’t they be able to see him on the faction roster?”

Blake shook his head. “No. Only you, me, and Jessica can see that.”

“I don’t know if I like lying like that. The truth always comes out eventually, and people are going to be even more pissed that you lied to them when it does. I assume that you intend to have faction-wide communications with the Payson branch.”

“Of course, and I don’t like it either. But, the truth is, after Invasion day, we need people like Rajesh more than we need them. We are going to have thousands of people in the faction. Any one of them can fill a non-combat job around here, but maybe only five percent will choose to fight.”

She took a deep breath and said, “I still don’t think it’s right, but it is your decision. I hope you don’t come to regret it.”

He dropped his channeled spell and turned to Rajesh. “We believe you, but we have to be shown to punish you, or Dahteste’s family and friends won’t accept it.”

“I understand,” he stated calmly. “What will the punishment be?”

“We are going to tell them we are kicking you out, but in reality, you can stay at the Payson expansion. At least until Invasion day,” he added.

Rajesh let out a sigh of relief. “I was afraid I would be imprisoned until Invasion day. That is not necessary. I will gladly leave the faction on my own.”

“There’s no need for that. Payson has a bunkhouse now. You can stay there, recruit a new team, and lead them through the Arachne portal.”

“No, thank you.”

“But…” Blake stammered. “Why do you want to leave?”

“I do not believe you are fit to lead a faction,” he answered simply.

Blake stood in disbelief for ten seconds.

“What? I’m the best person to lead it. I know the future, and I know what’s at stake.”

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“Then why are you continuously making weak decisions?”

“Weak? Like what?”

Rajesh lifted his hand and raised a single finger. “One, you consider the feelings of those beneath you too much. A strong leader gives orders, and those beneath him obey. For instance, why go through this farce with a supposed exile?”

“Because if I didn’t seem to punish someone, they wouldn’t accept it.”

“You can force them to accept it,” Rajesh countered. “None of them can stop you.”

“My son will NOT be a dictator.”

Rajesh turned to his mother. “No, he will not. Which is why he will fail.” He then raised a second finger and addressed Blake. “Two, you are too trusting.”

Blake scoffed. “How?”

“The local sheriff’s office has a large reward for news of your whereabouts. Not only did you give me the location of your town, despite not knowing me, you invited a large group of Natives in as well. Any one of which can collect the reward and ruin your plans.”

“First of all, I DO know you. I’ve known you for eight years. You would never turn me in for money. Especially when you know it’ll be useless after Invasion day.”

“If you know me, then you know I have family in India. I could have turned you in and then used the reward to bring them to America.”

Oh, shit. I didn’t think about that.

“We already paid for their plane tickets,” Donna said, annoyed.

Rajesh nodded. “Which I am very thankful for. But my point still stands. When he gave me this place’s address, I had no way to bring my family to America, nor return home to India.”

“Then why didn’t you turn me in?” Blake snarled.

“Because I needed your knowledge. I needed to know how the Collective works, as well as the location of local portals.”

“So, you planned to leave from the beginning?”

“Yes. As I said, you are too trusting. That belief in other’s good intentions almost led to your discovery.” He pointed to the wall, towards the entrance of the basement. “That man’s presence here is proof of that.”

“I already knew Jerome was an asshole, so I had him followed from the beginning.”

“Screw you!” Jerome shouted from down the hall. “And I’m innocent! I was never gonna rat you out!”

Blake ignored the native and addressed Rajesh. “I also didn’t tell them about our town, Kuruk did, and he gave them a fake address first to see if they could be trusted. He vouched for them.”

“But you told others.”

“People I trusted.”

“Exactly,” Rajesh agreed. “How long did you know Kuruk before you invited him to the faction? A day? An hour? Who vouched for HIM? Why did you place so much trust in someone you did not know?”

“I had to trust someone!” Blake argued. “Otherwise, this place would’ve never been built!”

“Perhaps it should not have been. At least, not until Invasion day. If you had not spread your nano among faction members and the town’s construction, how strong would you be right now? Level three? Four? What could you accomplish if you were that strong?”

“Just because you don’t give a shit about other people, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t!” he growled.

Rajesh smirked and raised another finger. “And, that leads me to number three. You are too emotional to lead.”

Blake threw his hands into the air. “Seriously? Just because I’m not a robot like you doesn’t mean I’m too emotional.”

“Really? When you demolished that officer’s head with your first, was that not done out of anger?”

Blake glanced at his mother and saw how uncomfortable she was with the question. “Sure, I was angry, but that was because he shot me in the back. Do you really think I should have left him alive after he shot what he thought was an unarmed kid in the back?”

“Of course not, but it was unwise to execute him so graphically while leaving so much evidence behind. If you were not so angry, you would have realized you could have tossed all three policemen in the Ursa portal rather than just two. Then, there would be no evidence of their deaths scattered across the ground.”

Blake tried to think of a counter to Rajesh’s argument, but could not. “Okay, you got me there. But, that’s just one example. Are you saying you’ve never made any mistakes, because I know for a fact you have.”

“I assume you are referring to this other person named Rajesh that you knew.”

“Nope, I’m talking about you, right now. You are sitting in a jail cell, at my mercy, purposefully pissing off someone you claim makes emotional decisions. Not exactly a great move, is it?”

“I am pointing out your flaws in the hope that you might address them before they ruin you. As you say, humanity’s future is on the line, and I do hope you succeed. I am also not concerned about any retaliation from you.”

“Oh really? Why not?”

“Because your mother is here, and you care too much about her good opinion.”

“Are you saying you don’t care what your family thinks about you? Why bother flying them here, then?”

“I will do whatever is required to keep them safe. Even sacrifice their goodwill.”

“So, what? You’ll throw them in a jail cell for the rest of their lives?” Blake spat.

“If required, yes,” Rajesh said simply.

What an asshole!

“That’s enough,” Donna said, forcefully. “You have made your point, and I think it’s time for you to leave.”

“I agree.”

Rajesh nodded in acceptance and stepped back from the door silently as she unlocked the cell. As he exited, Blake had to fight down the urge to punch his face.

Is he right? Am I too emotional?

Blake could not remember being this angry in years - not since his family died. As he followed his mother and old friend up the stone stairs, he considered why he was in his current state.

Is it hormones from this younger body? Do they actually make that much of a difference?

He was not sure if he should blame all of his reaction on a chemical imbalance. After all, Rajesh infuriated everyone he spent time with. However, the Indian was correct about how he handled the corrupt cop. He should have never punched the man to death, no matter how satisfying it had been.

Before he knew it, they had exited the front doors, and it was time to address the crowd. When the doors opened, and Blake exited with his prisoner in tow, the mob grew quiet as they waited on his decision.

Blake cleared his throat and spoke loudly, “I have heard from everyone involved and reached a decision. Dahteste and her team were in an extremely chaotic and dangerous situation. Rajesh technically disobeyed orders. However, if he had not, everyone would have died, not just Dahteste.”

Immediately, the crowd began to murmur at the news, and he held up a hand to forestall any complaints. “That does not mean Rajesh will go unpunished. Effective immediately, he is to be kicked from our faction, and will not be allowed to stay within its walls.”

Blake navigated his interface until he reached the faction roster, and then kicked his old friend from the Terran Alliance. He turned to Rajesh and said, “I’ll escort you to your car.”

Before he could walk away, Kuruk blurted, “That’s it?”

Blake paused and addressed the distressed man. “Your sister received justice.”

“Bullshit!” he yelled and then pointed to Rajesh. “He’s your friend. If you’re kicking him out of the faction, that means he must have done something truly terrible to deserve it!”

“Kuruk,” his mother admonished. “That’s enough.”

“No, mother. We all knew he was going to take it easy on his friend. He can’t possibly expect us to believe Rajesh saved the day, but somehow deserves to get booted out. He’s obviously lying to protect him.”

I can’t freaking believe this!

Blake stepped between Rajesh and the incensed man.

“Rajesh DID save their lives, and he DID disobey orders to do so. But, you’re right, I wasn’t going to kick him out for doing that. He’s leaving because he doesn’t agree with my leadership style. He thinks I’m being too soft on everyone, and he’s not wrong.”

Kuruk’s jaw dropped in surprise at the claim, and Blake did not give him or anyone else time to respond.

“This is the first time I’ve seen any of you here after dark, and I’ve never seen any of you over the weekend. In five weeks, FIVE WEEKS, the apocalypse is coming, and yet you’re treating this like a normal job. Dahteste and the other combat teams have risked their lives on a daily basis so they can grow strong enough to protect you. Yet, you can’t find it in yourselves to work more than forty hours a week?”

While Kuruk looked incensed at his words, the others shuffled about, embarrassed. They refused to meet his eyes as their heads hung low.

“Don’t you dare use her death like that!” Kuruk screamed.

“Kuruk!” his mother yelled, tears in her eyes. “Why do you diminish your sister’s sacrifice? She was named after our ancestor, and has always strived to live up to her name.” The grieving mother turned away from her son to address Blake. “I would like to join you if you will accept me. You are right that we have not treated this correctly, and it shames me.”

“Mother? What are you doing?”

“What I should have done months ago.”

“I would love to have you join us,” Blake replied and shook her hand. He transferred a mega-nano over to her and said, “I just inducted you into the Collective. In a few minutes, you’ll get an interface and I can invite you to the faction. When you’re done grieving, you can talk with my mother about how you can help. I also think it would be good to hold a memorial for her, unless that interferes with your beliefs?”

“It does not,” she replied. “We will bury her tonight, and celebrate her sacrifice afterward.”

Kuruk looked like he wanted to argue, but did not dare. Instead, he nodded and said, “Yes, mother.”

Hopefully they take this seriously from now on.