#what will hurt more john forgetting himself or him forgetting arthur tune in at five to discuss

[mr-tll]

the bad ending

[dragoncat223]

Chapter One: Snow

A/N: so this is the thing I wa talking about yesterday, go ahead and read if you want!! I was kind of just blowing off steam, and this happened. Hope you like it.

When you looked at Snow, you would not think he was a spy. He was tall and well-muscled, and moved with the grace of a trained fighter. So, one may assume his occupation to a guard for royalty, a swordsman, or a mercenary, maybe. In another life possibly, but in this one, the teen was currently hidden in the shadows. He watched. He waited.

“Did you hear the Lake Base was raided last week?” one guard said.

“Oh yeah, I heard everyone drowned. They threw people into the lake with their hands and feet tied to stones, right? Bloodthirsty savages,” the other replied, shaking his head. Snow rolled his eyes and moved on, but it wasn’t their fault. They only repeated what they thought was true. Traveling from shadow to shadow, the boy caught snippets of conversation.

“Oh please, John is totally cheating on Aubrey with Kevin. I saw them making out in the hall by the dorms last week!”

“The captain said the shipment would come in two night’s time.”

“That one always jams. Here, let me.”

Finally he found what he was looking for. Snow slipped from a rafter to the top of a large bookshelf, making himself comfortable in the small space. There were only two men in the room. Between them was a large table, covered in maps. One man was young looking, in his late twenties perhaps? His dark, slicked back hair shown in the dim light. The other was in his late fifties, maybe early sixties. His hair was covered in an olive green hat, but you could still see his grey stubble. To Snow they’d be known as Steve and Bob, respectfully.

“We’ve checked here,” his boney fingers pointed to a spot on the worn out map, “and here, but found nothing,” Steve was saying. “Commander, we’ve scoured the area in a fifty mile radius. Either they are moving around or we have to widen our search area.”

Or they’re just smarter than you, Snow thought.

“Let’s not forget the those of which we are dealing with, Captain. They must be using some kind of magic to hide from us. No matter though, Princess Diane’s machine will be coming in two weeks time. Until then, we’ll keep searching on foot. Thank you, Captain Granite. You are dismissed,” Bob instructed.

Snow climbed back up to the rafters and made his way to the window he came through. His chose a long path tonight, risky and dangerous, but it let him hear more snippets of conversation.

“I hear it has spikes.”

“Laura told me she liked this!”

“Fuck! Okay, that hurt!”

“That tree looks weird. Has that tree always been there?”

Most of it wasn’t important, but still interesting to listen to. He liked to make up stories around what he heard. But that was for later.

These people thought they’d thought of everything, and yet missed one window. Well… several windows; and a spy, but we can keep that as our secret for now.

Exiting through the window, Snow dropped to the ground in front of a woman in full uniform, a gun strapped to her hip. “You get what you needed?” She asked.

Snow nodded. “Anyone suspect you?”

The woman smiled. “I’m up for a promotion.”

“Good. Now, I heard something about a device that Princess Diane made. You have anything on that?”

“There are only rumors, but I’ve heard something about it being able to suppress lay lines.” Snow grimaced and gave a curt nod.

“Thank you, Cam. Devin sent a letter with me.” Snow pulled the folded paper out of a pocket and handed to the dark skinned woman. “I know it wasn’t my place but some color caught my eye and I saw the picture Ein drew. It’s very cute.”

Cam smiled sadly at him. “Thank you Snow. Keep my boys safe, yeah?”

“Yes, ma’am. See you next week.” Cam nodded, pocketed the letter and walked back into the base. Snow slipped back into the darkness and made his way to the meeting spot. The others should be there already. The teen rounded a corner to see that yes, luckily his team was all there. Well everyone except… “Where’s Dahlia?”

“Told you,” some one hissed, and he swore he saw money change hands. “Sir, Dahlia took a small detour while scouting. She-“

“Is right here!” A voice said gleefully. A blessedly familiar voice. Snow spun around to see his sister standing there with a long, rolled up piece of paper in her hands.

“Gods damn, Dahlia, what the hell is that?”

“Oh you know,” the girl said, crossing one leg over the other and rolling her eyes to the side playfully. “Just the blueprints to the base.”

Snow sighed. “Just because you got that does not mean you are off the hook. I’m telling Blossom when we get back,” he turned to the rest of the group, “Let’s move out.”

They began walk back to the glider. Dahlia crossed her arms and muttered something about it being unfair. Snow rolled his eyes. She’d been fighting as long as he had, but gods did she act like a child sometimes. Though I guess you can’t really blame her; she was only fifteen after all.

The group found their glider and climbed onto the smooth surface. Snow a small amount of ice grow in his hand and shaped it into a key. There was a small hole in the vehicle and the ice mage inserted his new key and twisted. The engine purred to life as walls and windows formed around them. Seats fizzled into existence and the group sat. Snow discarded his creation to the hot ground below, where it would melt out of existence in a few minutes. A control panel formed last and Snow inputted the sequence that would take them home.

The glider began moving and Snow took his seat. They all faced in, towards each other. There were only five of them, six including Dahlia, though she was not a permanent fixture there. There was Zach, Robin, Rose, Calvin and Snow himself. “Report. There’s talk that Princess Diane has a new machine that suppress magic. We need more info on that. What did you find?”

“I was in the tech section this week, sir,” Rose began. “We got lucky and they were on a video call with princess herself.”

Snow leaned forwards in interest. Little was known about the girl. Just that she was young, brilliant, and the leading scientist in Powerless’ side.

“She looked about fifteen or sixteen, brown hair, blue eyes. I’m willing to bet she’s short, though it was hard to tell-“

“Rose.”

“Right. They were talking about the machine. She said that it would only be able to affect a one hundred mile radius. Currently it’s only a prototype, so only one exists. The princess is going to field test it and fine tune it here.” The woman paused, suddenly nervous.

Zach gestured for her to continue. “She will be here in two week’s time sir.”

“Blossom will be interested to hear that, thank you. Robin, go.”

“Section 7 is being transferring back to the capital. They’ll be gone within a week. I suspect they are sending troops home because they are beginning to become doubtful that we are even here.”

Snow nodded. The 7th section was the last and smallest of those that were located on the base.

“Good job. Zach, you were in the mess hall this evening. What did you find?”

Zach smiled mischievously as the rest of the squad leaned in. Was this really necessary? No. Was it entertaining? Hell yes. “Well sir, in section 3a Hudson cheated on Ben two weeks ago right? Well there’s this new guy who just transferred to the base, Arthur, who seems to have caught Ben’s attention. In section 4c Melissa and Mary broke up last week and now Melissa is dating Mary’s brother, Sam.”

He rambled on about the gossip he’d picked up for the next five minutes. Really, the shadow mage did his best work in the cafeteria. Seemed to enjoy it too. A little too much maybe, but Snow wouldn’t worry about that. For now he would listen and laugh with the others.

After a while, the vehicle slowed to a stop and the walls disappeared around them. The group stood and the chairs faded away. To any onlookers, it would look like they’d stopped in some abandoned spot on the arid plain. Snow nodded to Dahlia, who lit up. She always loved this part. The short haired girl leapt from the smooth surface of the glider to the hard dry ground below with excitement. “Stand back,” she instructed, not facing her comrades, ever the dramatic, “It’s about to get hot.”

She took a deep breath, and Snow knew she closed her eyes in concentration. She’d be fine, but on rare occasions, his sister didn’t have the best control over her power. Finally she threw her arm up, into the air in a long arc, palm outstretched. Brilliant flames followed the path of her hand, giving a moment of light to an otherwise dim evening. Snow allowed himself a small smile of pride. With the display of Dahlia’s power, the air shimmered, but not just with the heat of the flame. They had entered the shield that hid their camp from anyone without a mage with them.

They’d been here years, longer than Snow had been alive. Both his sisters and he himself had been born there. The rebel group had found these ancient ruins and made it their own. Buildings made from old, crumbling sandstone, repaired with new blocks and steel beams. Some prefered to keep the new products out of their homes and repaired holes with enchanted cloth, making them waterproof and unable to burn. Their camp was large, hundreds living here. Some were fighters, some just seeking shelter with their families.

There was a crowd to greet them. A little boy ran up to him, and jumped at him. Snow picked him up and let the child wrap his small legs around his waist and arms around his neck. “Snow! Snow! Did you see my momma? Did you give her my drawing? Did she like it?”

“Yes Ein, I saw your momma. I gave her your drawing and she loved it and says she misses you very, very much,” Snow responded, with a chuckle.

“Good to see you back safe Lieutenant,” said the boy’s father, stepping up to take the boy off his hands.

“Captain.”

“How is she?”

“Up for a promotion.” The subtext in the news was not subtle. She’s safe. Don’t worry.

“I have to go report report to the general. See you in the morning.” The man nodded and carried the little boy off. Dahlia was off talking to her own group of friends, all talking over one another.

Snow imagined them asking things like, “Where you scared?” Or “Did you see the armory?”. Dahlia had a wide smile on her face as she talked just as fast. It was times like this, that he hated to pull his sister back home. But it had to be done.

“Dahlia!” Snow called. His sister snapped to attention and turned toward him. He jerked his head in the direction of their house and she nodded.

“Coming!” The fire mage took a moment to say goodbye to her friends and rushed to catch up with her brother.

They left the crowd behind in favor of weaving through the maze of crumbling, half repaired buildings.

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