The Ten reconvened in the War Room five days later.

"This is clearly a direct attack from the Electi, this shall not stand!" Greys pounded his fist against the table. The treasurer began to stand up next to me, but I grabbed the inner part of his elbow, exchanging two quick looks between us that expressed messages of dread and defeat. General Smith cleared his throat from across the room.

"We know that the leader of the assault was Black Ice. This agent is the Electi's secret weapon against us, Black Ice used to be a citizen of ours, but ran out of town after a riot took out all of his family,"

"His?" Ingrid was now standing up, eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"We can only assume the gender, as all the information we have comes from the prisoners' tales and the remains of the personnel index roster that was collected on Agent Red's most recent mission. The Black Ice is known as folklore amongst the common people, but De Boer's description checks out with how the entity is described," Smith gestured towards me with a small nod. Most of the eyes in the room landed on me, heat started to rise up from my chest to be loudly displayed on my face. "How can we defeat a fairy tale? The legend is only a few years old, ten at the most. Narrows down the age to a younger agent. I'm guessing male because our spies have informed us that they train the females and males differently. We all saw male training back there,"

"What if their legend was trained as a male to throw us off? We already know that all of our spies on the inside were found and disposed of." A strong silence fell across the room. All of them were dead? How many more lives was this war going to take? Most of our spies were young, thirteen being the youngest. Younger criminals get lesser sentences, according to Electi rule. Are the children only dead because they didn't come from Electi mothers? My head started to spin with spiraling thoughts of how this could have been prevented. With a sudden crash coming from next to the presenter's stage, I snapped back to the conversation at hand.

"We have to be offensive! Too many have died while we sat back playing it safe, safe isn't safe anymore!" Greys had shoved all of the cups near him off of the table, along with the laws and battle maps. General Smith ran over to Greys and started yelling in his face.

"Playing it safe is the only reason we still have agents like De Boer that saved your pompous ass!"

"You're fired!"

"Good luck finding someone to help you win, then. Without me, you're screwed!" The treasurer next to me stood up.

"We don't have the funds to continue with this war! We're fucking broke!" The yelling ceased.

"What do you mean we're broke?" Ingrid was standing up again, her concern seemed to infect the room.

"Since the fifth, we have been running on emergency funds. Monarch Greys didn't want me to tell anyone. Treating the injured after the assault used the last of our money. The public is starving and has been for months, Greys also had me pull money from the other outlets to help cover our asses. It's all gone to shit, there is nothing left."

"Dammit, Claudius!" Andrew Greys, Claudius's brother, walked over from the right side of the table and shoved a threatening finger in his brother's face. "You let your own pride get in the way, and now your people are on the streets dying! The basis of our country was formed as a safe haven, to provide and protect for the people, not to push everything into a war that we have no business even fighting in! All of this would have been avoided if you had just honored their traditions and bowed. It was a fucking bow. But no! You're too damn selfish to put your own pride aside and bow for another country's leader!" Claudius's face turned an even darker shade of red.

"I will not be denied my right as King to refuse to succumb to another country's attempts to control me,"

"You have no right as King now, I consulted with mother. She demands that you step down,"

"That old hag can't see three feet in front of her!"

"Yet she has a better perspective of this that you do!" Andrew turned to me. "Posy De Boer, thank you for protecting your former King, but I do wish, now, that you had let him be shot," I stood there frozen, afraid of how to react. I did not even dare to blink. Being thrown into a war between two members of the royal family was not something that was ever going to be on my to-do list. Thankfully, the spotlight was whisked away from me when Ingrid slammed her hands down on the table.

"Both of you have ten years on me, but I act more grown-up than either of you! If father was here, you both would be thrown in the cells! Yes, Claudius, Mother said that you are to step down, but she did not say that Andrew was to take your place. Alexander and I were to lead the country through this time, as peacekeepers. Both of you have proven to make things too bloody. I don't think that anyone here will forget the 14th Night." Andrew looked down to the floor, clenching his jaw so hard, it's a wonder that his teeth didn't crack. The 14th Night was an accident when both twins were in rule. Andrew Greys made an announcement in the dead of night that the population was growing too fast, so for two weeks everyone would be fighting each other for survival. The rest of the family had quickly tried to diffuse the situation, for thirteen days they tried. Nobody had made a move, all crime in the city had halted. On the fourteenth night, a terrorist group ran through the streets of our main city and gassed half of the houses in town; the houses that weren't gassed were burned to the ground. Half of the city's population died of asphyxiation. Andrew had to step down immediately, it was found out that he had made the speech high. Claudius became the sole ruler after that. Now, we were in the ruins of Claudius's thirst for warfare and adoration.

"Smith isn't anyone of true power, what will the public think of that? He wants war just as much as I do!" Claudius scowled.

"No, I want this war to be over, and I want to make amends with the Electi. They helped us out in the past, after your brother killed half of the people in this city." Smith retorted, Andrew, Claudius, and Smith all swarmed around each other, waiting for one to start the physical brawl. Ingrid stepped in between the three men and pointed for them all to sit down.

"Agent Red, come up here please." I stood up and made my way to Ingrid, trying not to shake from the fear coursing through my veins. With each step I took, the memories came rushing back harder and faster. I hadn't been outside of the compound, except for missions, since the 14th night. I was taken to become a soldier in the middle of the night. On all of my records it says that I died that night, Ingrid told me the truth a few years ago, but what if she was going to make it official now? "Red here has been on the outside and here on the inside. You've been to the parades when we once joined hands with the Electi and cheered for more years for peace to come, correct?" Distant memories from when I was a child, innocent and ignorant.

"Yes, I remember,"

"So you know that it's only been in the time of these two men in charge that things have changed, yes?"

"Yes,"

"Then I think that you see what action needs to be taken," I understood and expressed it with a curt nod. Ingrid didn't want me dead, she wanted her brothers dead. "Good. Red and Blue will escort the twins to the cellar beneath the fountain. The twins will be put on display at midnight, a peace offering for the Electi," An uproar erupted in the War Room, people shouted and screamed as Hunter and I each grabbed a twin and started dragging them to the cellar. The trip was long, but once we were able to get away from all of the major hallways, the men stopped protesting. No one was here to help them now. Hunter handed me Andrew as he went to open the cellar door. I could see the fear in the twins' eyes.

"Miss De Boer, I heard that you like that nurse, right? If you help us escape, I can make sure that she'll be waiting for you in your room. Both of you are smart, you can make a run for it and leave the city," Andrew pushed my kill button, I held my breath as the confusion of the statement rolled over me. Claudius took this as an opportunity and stuck a stolen pencil in my gunshot wound in my left shoulder. Reacting to my cry of pain, Hunter came running back to help. Andrew had wiggled out of my grasp as Claudius dug the pencil in deeper. I grit my teeth and headbutted him as hard as I could. He went limp and collapsed to the floor. Hunter had tackled Andrew and shoved him into the cell. I had also fallen to the floor, the world was spinning too fast for me to stand upright. Hunter had dragged the other twin and threw him into the cell, knocking Andrew back down in the process. I was trying to stand up when Hunter finished locking up the cell and rushed over to me. I could hear Andrew yelling as the robots started to remove their clothing and hose them down.

"Red, can you hear me?" I nodded and Hunter started rolling up the sleeve on my left arm. The stitched up and healing wound had started spraying blood again, with broken pencil lead stuck deep in it. He squinted, trying to keep the squirts from getting into his eyes. "Shit, I'm not a fucking medic. They didn't cover this one during training." I gasped when he tried to put pressure on it. "Oh shit, fuck, I'm sorry! Please don't be mad, I'm so fucking sorry!" I tried shaking my head to tell him that it's ok, that I needed pressure on the wound, how much I miss my brother when I passed out.