Before The End

Bothers

Everyone's back in the meeting room, listening as Kenji explains. There's a detailed map of sector 241 up on the screen, he actually came up with an efficient plan to deal with this problem.
Kenji is a lot smarter than everyone makes him out to be. He's marked the biggest areas where we've seen riots and damages and linked them to 3 nearby old holdings that conveniently are under the name of one of the rebel men we identified.

"So we're gonna dispatch some soldiers to each holding and hopefully one will have who and what we're looking for." Kenji states, crossing his arms.

"Wait guys," Winston starts, "what are we going to do with the kids when we find them?"

Adam shrugs, "lock them up?"

"Wait, can we do that?" Alia adds. Everyone looks to Warner and Castle. Castle studies the map on the screen intently while Warner seems to not care about all of this.

Nouria answers their questions,
"To establish a proper government means we must have proper rules and consequences."

"Yeah but they're just kids. How would the rest of the sector react to that?" Lily frowns, her eyes on Castle again.
It appears to me that Castle is the one they head to for moral dilemmas.

I state my own opinion out loud,
"We interrogate them then send them off."

Everyones eyes are on me, except I'm communicating with Warner.
He tilts his head slightly, telling me he understands what I'm saying. That I don't trust any of this and believe there's more to it.

"Send them off with nothing but a slap on the wrist?" He raises an eyebrow at me.

"We'll keep tabs on them, convince them to help us
navigate the other civilians in the sector who don't like us. Help us control the protests and community."

Warner nods, looks back to everyone else.

"That seems like the best option." Kenji smiles widely at me, which I return.
"Your plan is decent Kishimoto." Warner announces.

Kenji puts his hand on his heart, "What a compliment. I'm truly honored."

Warner sighs, strides off without another word.

Everyone's filing out of the room, we're all heading off with a team of soldiers for extra assistance as the chief commander only spared a few for this particular mission. I've tuned out all of their conversations out as I sit here thinking in my chair.
Until I hear Kenji say my name.

"Naz."
He takes my hand in his as I stand. Kenji gestures to the doorway with his head,
"You wanna go as well?"

"You're going on the mission?"

"Yeah." Kenji's grin doesn't waver, you'd think I was asking him if he was going to attend a party.
"Come with me. It'll be fun."

I should say no. There's a million tasks I must do, being the new Supreme Commander of Asia isn't a walk in the park. And being here instead of there makes it harder.
Except I'd much rather invade a warehouse with Kenji.

"Alright."
—————————
We're the last ones to arrive at the armory. Lily, Ian, Brendan and Winston are all gearing up. Some other unrecognisable Sanctuary faces are here too.
Kenji goes up to a gun rack,
"Aren't you going to get armed?"

I lean on the wall beside the weapons,
"I'm already armed."

Kenji frowns so I pull out one of my favourite knives and one pistol I keep in my back pocket. He makes an approving hum. I don't actually require guns, I prefer hand to hand combat anyways.
It makes winning a fight much more enjoyable.

Castle approaches us and hands me a building plan,
"You two are going to the third holding. I didn't think we needed to assign more people with you."
He smiles and walks off.

I examine the outline of the structure, determine which exits we need to seal off. Even if we don't run into a member of this group, there may still be some other valuable information or resources we could use.

"Just the two of us going?" Kenji beams at me, puts on a bulletproof vest.
"Kind of like our first date."

I blink at him, taken aback. We are dating but we've never been on an actual date. I'm not quite sure if your first date is even a personal milestone. I've never been on one either way.
"We're going to raid a warehouse." I bite my lip.

Kenji makes a 'hmm' sound, tilts his head at me then nods.
"Fair enough."
He grabs some bullets to load his rifle,
"After the world fixes itself up, I'll take you on a proper date then. A lot of them."

He stalks over to Brendan for something while I stand and try not to smile. A warm feeling blooms all over me, as I watch Kenji laugh at whatever's being said. His grin is wide and dark eyes shining.
My lips do curve up while watching him.
I like this feeling.
———————————
It worked out. We managed to temporarily 'capture' a dozen rebels, and bring down their operations.
They caused most of the disturbances in the sector, so this is actually a really good start to maintaining order.

More and more people understand that we're not going anywhere, that we're actually trying to make a proper change in the world.
I'm watching the live recording of Brendan questioning someone.
Nikolai Petrov. The eldest, aged twenty two, and one of the main men in this group. The one in the video.
Basically harmless, yet there's still something about him that uneases me.

Still, I cannot grasp what exactly it is.
It would drive me crazy if I already weren't.
This stupid paranoia is clawing at me though, causing a mess in my head.

"Soo we're still here?" Kenji shows up, sits on the desk in front of me. He's wearing a new grey sweater, messy black hair all over his forehead.

"Do you have a problem with that?" I cross my arms and lean back in my chair.

"Um yes you've been here for like the whole day."
He nudges my knee and raises an eyebrow.

I sigh, stare back at the screen. There is something there, something very obvious that I'm missing.
"We've spoken to all of them. It's just a group of kids, nothing sinister." Kenji says softly.

He's right, there's nothing. We've been at this for hours, found all of their plans. Mostly including property damage, nothing too terrible.
It's just my mind playing with me.

Convincing me that I should be worried, anxious at the happiest of times. Just my thoughts, creating a huge pile of 'what if's' to torment me.
My brain refuses to allow me to relax, some sort of a coping mechanism, I believe.
There was no such thing as 'relaxation' while I was growing up.
Every waking moment was a risk to survive.

I look back at Kenji.
Notice the weariness in his eyes, half covered by the gentle grin on his face. It's been a long day for everyone. And he's been with me in the interrogation room since we came back.

"Okay."
I grab onto his arm as we move to the door.
My suspicions can wait another day