The cloaked figure swept into the room, causing the man who sat at the worn, scratched table to look up. "Well, how did it go? Did they get away safely?" the man asked.

"Yes, they got away cleanly. They also managed to free the men that were being kept in the basement. It all went as planned," the cloaked figure answered in a computer-distorted voice.

"Take off that damn voice distorter. You know I don't like you using it when it isn't necessary."

The young man threw back the hood of the cloak, grinned, and reached up to remove the distorter from where it was nestled around his throat. "Relax, Dad," he replied after he had removed the voice distorter.

"I will only relax when the Rebels have finally won this war, not before. This is a dangerous game we all play," his father told him. He rose carefully, his hand gripping a plain wooden cane that he was leaning heavily on.

"Rory, you're back! So, how did it go? Come on, tell me everything!"

Rory turned to his sister when she danced into the room. "It went perfectly."

She sighed. "I wish I could have gone too. It's not fair."

Their father chuckled. "It isn't time for that part of our plan yet. You'll have your turn, Ronni. Tonight your brother did his part. Micah is no fool and neither is Blake. I'm certain they'll figure out what it was I wanted them to see when I sent Rory there to help them."

Rory frowned. "Are you certain this is a good idea?"

"We have no choice, son. President Firis has forced my hand by going after Micah the way he has. We cannot let Micah perish, he's much too important. The future of the people runs through his veins. If we put my name out there for Firis and Berkin to focus on then hopefully we can take the attention from Micah and little Michael," their father explained.

Rory nodded and withdrew the sword he carried from the scabbard at his waist and placed it on the table where his father had been sitting when he'd entered. "Then you had better finish working on the duplicate sword for Ronni or your plan won't work. There's no way in hell that you can be in two places at once if we have only one sword, is there?"

He grinned, released a small chuckle, and moved back to the worktable to sit back down. "No, there certainly isn't." It had been an easy matter to get a hold of a similar sword, it wasn't as easy a matter to gild the grip so it matched his but he was getting close to duplicating it so they could carry out his plan.

"We'll leave you to your work," Rory said before he ushered his sister from the room.

The two teens left him and he sat at the table staring down at the sword. He could hear Rory babbling about his adventure. After all these years his plans were coming to fruition. He'd remained in the shadows hiding from the world but now he was being forced to come forward and step out of the darkness. Well, at the very least his name was out of the shadows. It was time to put an end to the corruption that ruled their world.

It was time to put an end to Firis. An end to Berkin. "It's time to burn it all down," he murmured and got back to work on the duplicate sword.