"Is this really our next move?"
"You got a problem with it?" Momo asked, not quite pulling her accusatory tone completely away.
"I mean, we're just here to receive a shipment right?" One of the rebels scratched his head, "And why are these civilians with us?"
"This isn't a combat operation but a civil operation." Momo explained, "We're here to improve the relationship between us and the people of Mulapin. On both sides."
"Do we really need to cozy up to those suits at Muldingirmus though?" Another soldier asked.
"Once Sirius gets ousted, these aristocrats will also be a part of the city as well. They are your fellow citizens. You should treat them as such."
"Yeah...I guess..."
"Hey boss Momo, what's that paper you're reading?"
"Nothing." Momo said as she quickly stuffed away the cheat sheet Roko had given her to explain the reasons for this operations, "Ah, quiet now. They're coming."
The gate from the Muldingirmus side opened as a few people walked out of the city, a carriage of covered goods rattling down alongside them.
"Hey..." One of the Muldingirmus citizens approached them cautiously, "You're here."
"You're William right?" Momo said, "I'm glad to see so many people came out for this event."
"Enough of that." William scowled, "We have your goods. Now let us see our family!"
"Relax." Momo smiled, "We aren't holding them hostage. They're right here. Come on out then!"
A pair of rebels walked out from the shadow of the walls of Mulapin, a large collection of people, young and old following them out into the moonlit night. Both sides cried out in joy and relief and ran to meet each other, breaking off into smaller groups to catch up with each other.
"Aw, this is nice." One rebel remarked as he watched, "But uhhh...what do we do?"
"Confirm the contents of the cart." Momo replied, "Once we're done, we'll escort the Mulapin side citizens back to their homes."
"Did we really have to do all this just to get some supplies?" Another rebel asked, "I thought we were already well stocked already."
"Like I said, this was a civil mission to help rehabilitate our rebellion's image. The supplies are just an excuse. The real reason was to get those of Muldingirmus separated from their family to reunite with their family on the Mulapin side, if only briefly."
"Okay but what if the Mulapin citizens move to Muldingirmus with their richer family?"
"That is perfectly fine." Momo nodded, "We won't stop them but if you'll notice, no one in the Mulapin side brought along any sort of luggage. I don't think any of them plan on moving."
"Why?" One rebel sighed, "If I had family on that side, it'd be hard for me to not move in with them."
"Why indeed?" Momo smiled as she watched over the reunited families.
"Uncle William!" One small child ran over and hugged his leg.
"Ah, Caroline. You've grown up so big!" William said with a giant smile on his face, "Nana's been raising you well hasn't she?"
"I'm glad to see you doing well, William." An old woman smiled as she watched them, "I'm sorry about the rest of the family, they..."
"It's fine, I get it." William nodded, "Our two sides are...essentially at war..."
"Mmm. But I promise you none of them hold it against you."
"Thank you." William nodded, "But...why don't you come with me? It's safer in the Muldingirmus side. You can come with me right now, I have room for you, I can provide for you two and you don't have to worry about official documents, I can find someone to make up official looking records to say you've always lived here. You can come live me! You don't have to live with empty stomachs in rotting houses anymore!"
"Thank you William..." the old lady nodded, "But it's fine. We're fine with where we are now. We've always been a hard working family and we're working hard to be where we are. We know that you're doing the same thing and that's why we don't hate you. One day we'll be proud to say to others about how far you've gotten but that day will have to come when Sirius leaves this city."
"Look, I'm not the biggest fan of Sirius and what he's done either." William nodded, "But living under him has been prosperous for those of us who can make it here."
"But you well know the cost don't you?" The old lady said seriously, "It's us. All of us. Those that never fit into his perfect idea of a world. If that is the cost, then we cannot in good conscious live in that light."
"That doesn't mean you have to live like this! We can do something! I can do something! Just come with me and-"
"No William." The old lady shook her head, "I have the rest of your family to return to. They need to be taken care of too. They'd never come over and neither will I. We're proud of where we are, even if it's not much. You don't have to come with us but maybe you can come visit us once in a while? Without all the bells and whistles, you know. Mary misses you too. Do you remember her? You two were childhood friends."
William looked down, unable to give a favorable response.
"Umm...excuse us!"
A pair of man and woman, one rich and one poor ran up to Momo as she watched the meetings progress.
"We want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to see each other again." They bowed politely, "We've been wanting to see each other again. But I...I want to know, is it truly safe here? Will Sirius really not see us here?"
"Sirius sees everything in this city." Momo replied calmly, "But just for tonight, there should be no reason for him to be looking here. After all, we set out some pretty tempting bait."
In between the closest gates from both sides of the city, outside of Mulapin's left walls was where this "trade" deal went on. In the same position on the right side of Mulapin was a decoy squad. A small group left with nothing to do other than obfuscate which side the meeting was going on. A simple and boring task for those involved, even as they knew the details of their mission. Among this group was Roko who was standing there with nothing to do like the rest of them.
"Hey boss." One of the rebels walked up to him, "Any word on the left side?"
"Not yet." Roko replied, "They'll only contact us when it's done. Until then, just pretend like you're still waiting on the shipment."
"I didn't know decoy work was this easy...and boring." Another rebel yawned.
"That's assuming we don't get attacked."
"I feel like if they were going to attack they'd have done it already."
"We'd be lucky if they don't attack." Roko crossed his arms, "But I get the feeling that it won't be quiet for much longer."
"What do you mean?"
And on cue, a shadow leaped over the wall from the Muldingirmus side and landed on the ground not far from them. When they saw the shadow stand up in the moonlight, the rebels quickly drew their weapons in a panic.
"KAJOU?! What is she doing here?!"
The real Planetary Star looked around at the small group of rebels until her eyes settled on Roko.
"You must be the leader then." She said.
"I'm Roko. Nice to meet you. Though we have technically met before, just not interacted."
"I...would not have remembered."
"I figured you wouldn't." Roko shrugged, "But that doesn't matter anymore. You're here to kill me aren't you?"
"..." Kajou frowned, her hand hovering close to her sword though she didn't seem like she wanted to attack right now.
"Sirius ordered you to come here and kill me but you're not quite sure if you want to." Roko continued, "Are you disappointed I'm not what you expected?"
"How did you know I was going to be here?" Kajou frowned, "Did you know Sirius' actions in advance?"
"If I knew something like that, I'd have taken him down already." Roko scoffed, "No, it's just amazingly obvious if you think about it. The setting of this mission was to provide a way for split families on both sides of the walls to reconnect outside the city in exchange for a cart of supplies. Something that Sirius would have no interest in stopping. It's such a minor operation that we could've done it without a decoy if we wanted to. However, hearing that the new leader himself was serving as part of the decoy squad? That's an amazingly tempting chance to cut this nuisance off at the head. So he would order one of Planetary Stars to attack me. Honestly I was hoping for anyone else but you'll do just fine. I wanted a chance to talk with you anyway."
"Talk?! With her?!" The rebels cried, "We're going to get slaughtered!"
"Calm down." Roko replied, "If she was going to attack she would have done so already."
"...If you're planning on trying to recruit me, it won't work." Kajou replied.
"And why's that?"
"I have my reasons." Kajou said firmly.
"That's fine. I wasn't here to try and recruit you anyway."
"Then why set all this up?"
"I want to know more about you, Sirius and Muldingirmus."
"Those are all information that I'm not going to give you." Kajou replied.
"Then what are YOU doing here?" Roko asked, "Why are you not killing me?"
"...Why indeed?"
"No need to act mysterious. We're here already. Unless you yourself don't know why?"
"...Why have you chosen to lead the rebellion?"
"Are you asking that or is Sirius?"
"I'm asking that."
"Hm. I wish I could say I'm here for a great and wonderful purpose but I'm here because of the same reason you're with Sirius. Because I was hired."
"Hired? By whom?"
"Who else? The former Earthbound leader. Though that's a bit misleading. She's still an active leader, I just do most of the work nowadays."
"Do you really think you can beat Sirius?"
"Whenever or not I think I can does not matter. I'm here to do something and I will see it done with every cell in my body. Something you must be familiar with."
"Stop trying to compare yourself with me."
"I'm not. I'm just making observations."
"...Do you truly not believe in your own rebellion's cause?"
"Do you truly believe Sirius is doing the right thing in his treatment of the people of Mulapin?"
"That doesn't matter."
"Of course it wouldn't. You're a foreigner. You have no ties to this land, no duties to her people. Of course you wouldn't care about oppression. If you did, you wouldn't have joined Sirius' side."
"...Are you trying to guilt trip me?"
"No." Roko smirked, "I'm just just stating the obvious."
"..."
"But to answer your question, I do believe in the rebellion's cause. I believe it in that I believe that any rebellion made to oppose an unjust dictatorship should succeed. I have no personal reason to draw my blade but is it still not more than yours? What do you have? People you are attached to? A paycheck? Do we not have more reason to succeed? Do you really think you can win with what little reason you have?"
"Do you think reason is all that's needed to win a war?"
"Goodness no. But it's what makes us immortal. Tell me. Do you have what it takes to kill an idea?"
"..."
"What am I saying, of course you do. You could walk into our base right now and slaughter every man, woman and child there. Cut the idea off at it's roots. Why have you not done that? Why has Sirius not ordered you to do that?"
"Senseless slaughter is something that we do not condone."
"Come now, can you truly call it senseless? We are directly opposing you. Slaughtering us is only efficient. The only reason you wouldn't is because you don't care about us. Well, I know YOU don't care about us and it's obvious that Sirius doesn't care about us. But Sirius still wants us here to be oppressed. That is how he gets his joy, from kicking us down. What about you? What are you thinking whenever you appear before us? Do you also feel joy?"
"...What are you trying to do?"
"I'm just asking questions I already know the answer to."
"You know nothing about me." Kajou scowled.
"I know more than you think I do." Roko smirked back.
"..." Kajou's hand which has been hovering over her sword finally gripped the handle.
The rebels all brought up their weapons in response but Kajou still didn't draw. She stood there, eyes glaring directly at Roko who was standing there calmly. She could attack. She could win. But something inside her held her back. It was that confidence. A spider does not invite people into their web. Yet here he stands behind a clear trap, asking her to trip it.
"Do you really think you'll still walk away from here alive?" Kajou asked.
"I wouldn't have come here if I didn't think I could see the next day." Roko replied, "That doesn't just apply to me either. That applies to every soldier I have here. You won't kill anyone today, Kajou."
"So you just came here to ask questions you already knew the answer to?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Roko sighed and frowned, "I came here to give you the chance to surprise me. Tell me I'm wrong about something. Anything. But you've said nothing. Congratulations. Seems like everything will go according to my plan. Honestly, you've disappointed me."
Kajou's eyes flared and she drew her sword, charging straight at Roko. Roko in response snapped his fingers. And a giant spear of ice flew across the air and nearly stabbed into Kajou, the Planetary Star stopping right in time for it to fall short.
"A ranged attack? But from where?"
Kajou's eyes darted around, trying to find who attacked her but the drawing of Roko's sword redirected her attention.
"I know everything that's going to happen tonight." Roko replied, "...Except for whenever or not we'll beat you today. Tell me. Do you think we'll let you live after we beat you? If not today then the day after?"
Kajou scowled and charged again, this time the soldiers formed up in front of Roko to protect him. She slashed her sword against their shields and armor, throwing them off with ease...but unable to harm them through their protections. She dislodged them but they simply charged right back in to attack her at awkward angles. They were still unable to even touch her but they were holding her back. With these ice spells flying in at pinpoint timings to force her away from opportune attacks, she was making no progress towards Roko who was just standing there. The minimal effort she had become accustomed to using when dealing with these rebels were no longer effective. But all that meant was that she had to put in a little more effort.
With her next swing, Kajou picked up a rebel with her sword and threw him at another, throwing them both off their feet. Opening up much more room, Kajou slashed away at the remaining rebels who, while better armored, still lacked the skill to actually be able to attack her in return. Kajou was just too fast, easily dodging their slow slashes and counterattacking in the same movement. The only thing left were those ice attacks that still fired off at the worst timings to hamper her momentum. But it wasn't long before Kajou figured it out.
"At the bell tower huh?" Kajou frowned as she looked across several kilometers to the worn bell tower that sat in the middle of the Mulapin side. She couldn't see who was up there but she knew that was the attacks were coming from. So she drew her sword back and jabbed at the tower, sending a blindingly fast attack across the vast distance.
"Shoot!" Helena yelped, breaking away from her attacks to try and react to the counterattack. She was much too late though and would have gotten hit if not for Roland stepping in and deflecting the attack for her with his sword.
"She can attack from this distance?!" Roland scowled, "What kind of attack even was that?!"
With the sniper dealt with for a few seconds, Kajou returned to the rebels who had surrounded her in the time it took to deal with it. They tried a coordinated assault, jabbing at her from all angles but Kajou simply jumped up, landing on top of their joined swords. But Roko had finally made his move, jumping up to attack the elevated Kajou with a downward swing. Kajou brought her sword up to block Roko but her footing wasn't able to support both them or the weight of their attacks, the rebels quickly having to withdraw her swords as the two plummeted back down the short distance to the ground. The endeavor had forced Kajou to land on her knees, bracing against Roko's attack with her entire body in order to account for her lost footing. Roko had landed on his feet, sword pressed down against hers, holding her down with just the added force his more favorable position had over hers. Kajou's mind was racing to figure out her next move when a phone ringing cut into the air.
Roko stood up, releasing Kajou as he took out his phone to answer the call.
"The deal's over? Got it. We'll head back." Roko ended the call and returned his phone to his pocket, "Alright guys, we're retreating."
"But...boss..."
"Did you think we actually had her? Don't be silly. She's still hiding most of her strength."
At Roko's orders, the rebels pulled their swords away from the back of Kajou's head. Sheathing their swords as they returned to Roko's side.
"Let this be a lesson for you and pass it onto Sirius while we're at it." Roko said as he turned around, "A game can't be played while both players are keeping their cards close to their chests. Consider this me showing a bit of my hand. Our next move may not be so compromising."
And with that, the rebels left the Planetary Star alone on the outskirts of the city.