It’d been a couple hours since the whole ‘taking down the biggest gang leader in this sector’ debacle. Things had calmed down, and the change in management was on the whole going pretty well. Joy wasn’t in love with the idea of being in charge of a whole gang of miscreants, but someone had to, and it might as well be her. Who could do it better, after all, than a former noble who had been trained to do just that?

Well, not this specifically, but close enough. The lessons would transfer over, she was sure of it.

Now, to deal with the stickiest problem. This gang seemed to not deal well with authority, and didn’t want to listen to rules. Like a poorly trained dog, it would have to be… disciplined.

Another issue was, simply, that she didn’t really care to be in the minutia of leading a gang, and would rather let someone else do it. The problem was that Omar, the most competent person the gang had to offer by a mile, most likely hated her guts. How was she supposed to know that they were brothers? The resemblance? They looked nothing like each other!

But, she digressed, it was simply one more problem to solve.

Then Omar entered the room.

“We need to talk.” he spoke, not lacking conviction.

“What about?” Joy didn’t like his tone but decided to hear him out.

“You’re Powered, aren’t you? That’s why my eyes wanted to slide off of you. A cloaking unit couldn’t do that.” He said, keeping his eye on her face as if trying to catch her in a lie.

“You caught me, what of it?” Joy responded, not bothering to hide it. It’s not like it was illegal to have a power when you were Scorned. Just rare. Incredibly rare.

Surprised by her easy admission, he continued, “Then… why are you down… wait. You evolved down here, didn’t you? They wouldn’t let someone with a useful Power rot away down here, and they would just execute you if you had committed a heinous enough crime...” He finished, mostly talking to himself by the end.

“Wow, aren’t you sharp.” Joy said lazily, enjoying the free entertainment. He had no idea how close he was to death he was.

“Then, why is she down here still? Dislike of authority? No, with those features it’s clear she must be a noble… then why…” He mumbled to himself as if lost in his own world.

Joy just watched, fingering her knife, waiting.

“It must be what her Power evolved into… but what could make her not go to the surfa- Oh. Oh no.”

“It seems like you figured it out, can you guess what the prize is?” Joy spoke in an even tone, spinning her knife in her hand.

“I won’t tell a soul, if you trust me on this, you will have my undying loyalty. I swear on the Eye.” He said, cringing at the Geas, and feeling its bindings chain themselves around his soul.

“Oh fuck, you really value your life that much? Well, that solves one issue. Wait, can't forget the most important part, for my first order, you must never speak of your knowledge or suspicions about my Power, unless given direct and total permission by me.”

“Of course, ma’am.” Omar said dimly, his eyes barely holding any light.

“And you can come out of drone mode.”

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“Wha- Oh, fuck. I can’t believe I did that. Alex always did say I needed to stop talking to myself.”

“Well, we’re in this together now Omar, so you might as well know that if anyone ever figures out my power, we’re both super fucking dead. It’s a huge deal, more than usual.” Joy laid out the situation for him.

“Fuck.”

“An appropriate response, for sure.”

“What now?” Omar asked.

“Tutoring.”

“What?” Omar asked again, bewildered.

“I hope you pick up lessons faster than that, or else we’re going to be here a long time and trust me, you do not want to waste my time.” Joy said, half-jokingly, half an actual threat.

“On what, ma’am?”

“Running a gang, and more so, running a country, of course! You’re smart, that’s obvious, but it’s clear that you don’t have enough knowledge to work off of. First, we need to make an example, there are many ways to do that, my personal favorite is-”

- - - - -

A few hours later, a slightly pale-looking Omar and Joy came out of her room. Joy walked to the center of the base and yelled, “Attention, there’s about to be a demonstration, so get your asses over here.”

Still hyped up by the previous demonstration, the unwashed masses rushed over to see more bloodshed.

“Now, I don’t know you murderous bastards, but I do know your type. Right now you’re thinking that I’m a bloodthirsty motherfucker like the rest of you. You would be wrong to think that. Now you're thinking, ‘I hope this chick doesn’t make any more annoying rules like Omar.’ Unfortunately for you, I am, and you can’t do shit about it. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

The crowd erupted in complaints, and one particular gangster said, “What, do you think you're hot shit just cause you beat the last boss? If we ganged up, we could kick your ass! Right guys! We don’t have to take this!” He turned around to rile up the crowd more effectively.

With his back turned towards Joy, he continued trying to hype up the crowd, and she let it happen.

All of a sudden, the crowd froze, but the oblivious gangster kept up his spiel, fully engrossed in his own hype. After a few moments of silence, he finally looked behind him, and his face paled so quickly that he nearly passed out from the sudden lack of blood.

Behind him was the corpse of Devon. While Omar was receiving his lessons, Joy sent out a team to recover his body. A macabre facsimile of a human took the place of what was once a man, a rictus of pain still etched on what remained of his face.

“I’ll admit, doing this wasn’t my proudest moment, but a man can only insult your dignity so many times, correct? How rude of me, I was distracted looking at my work, what were you saying?” Joy said in the sweetest voice imaginable as if she had made nothing more than a minor faux pas.

“U - uh n- nothing! Nothing at all! Not important!” The leader stammered out quickly.

“Really? I wouldn’t want you to hide your grievances. Does anyone else know what he said? He seems too shy to share suddenly. Anyone? I encourage you to share!” Joy said brightly.

“Uh, he said that, uh, you, uh, we coul- they could win a- against you if we- they ganged up.” A random brigand said, trying to save his skin.

“Oh, really? Mmhm, I doubt that, but I welcome you to try! In fact, why don’t you give it a go right now! I’m sure you won’t die too painfully!”

Seeing where this was going, he tried to make a break for the gate of the warehouse.

“Someone grab him, we haven’t given him a fair shot yet.” Joy said, her voice turning a shade colder.

Quickly, he was brought before her, looking down at the floor in fear.

“Now, don’t look so afraid. You did this to yourself, after all! Why don’t you stand up and give your rebellion a go! You’ll do great!” Joy said encouragingly

“I’m sorry, okay! I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just afraid of change! Alex led us for so long, ya know? I was just scared, please spare me!” he pleaded.

“Omar, how long did Alex lead this gang?” she asked sweetly.

“Roughly a month and a half.” Omar said, deadpan.

“Wow! You get attached quick! Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you apart, it would be cruel, you know? Don’t you agree?” Joy spoke, her voice sounding like the epitome of compassion.

“N- No! I’ve moved on! I’m loyal to you now!”

“Hmm, well I guess I can buy that, but do you Omar?”

“Not for a second,” Omar said, his voice numb.

“Really? Well, you are my advisor, you make the final call.”

“Execute him, he clearly has no loyalty.” Silence followed the icy declaration.

No one expected Omar of all people to be the ruthless one, everyone could see that Joy’s ‘kindness’ was an act, so they expected her to be the one who gave the order. Everyone thought Omar was too soft because of his merciful treatment of their ‘customers’, but they were clearly seeing a different side of him here.

“Well, if you insist. You are the one that knows them best!”

“WAI-” The leader's voice was cut off by Joy grabbing him by the throat. With a quick squeeze and a snap, he was gone. The warehouse was silent. Joy hid the bile that rose in her throat masterfully.

“Today, we mourn the loss of…” she, very conspicuously, leaned over to Omar and whispered, “What’s his name?”

“Wei”

“Today we mourn the loss of Wei, a great man I’m sure, how about a quick moment of silence for him?”

The silence of the warehouse continued unbroken.

“Great, now move on. Oh, wait! I almost forgot, a bonus to the people who captured Wei, and a bonus to the one that ratted him out. Please don’t kill the rat, Wei wouldn’t have escaped punishment any Wei…” Joy waited for anyone to laugh, no one did.

“Oh, that was funny, and you know it.” Joy whispered to herself.

“Well, what are you guys waiting for? Go back to doing whatever you do. Make sure to check the board by the gate before you leave, the new rules are posted there.” Joy shouted to the crowd, bored with how quiet everyone was.

Once everyone left, Joy asked Omar, “How do you think that went?”

“Badly? They think you're an unstable psychopath now.” He said, confused.

Chuckling, Joy said, “They may be right about that before too long, fortunately, I’m not one yet.” Omar gave her a concerned glance that she ignored before continuing, “I will admit, murder doesn’t bother as much as I thought it would, but it still makes me feel pretty gross. I digress, why do you think I gave them that impression?” She quizzed him.

“To scare them into submission?”

“Partly, but no. You’ll just have to see how the next few weeks play out. Hopefully, you’ll understand before it becomes too obvious.” Joy said cryptically.