Ending The Virtue Alliance

The sound of chattering voices barely reached Leva’s ears as she crouched atop the domed amphitheater, waiting for her signal. Beside her, her brother, Leo, muttered a complaint about the weather, studying one of his knives. Ignoring him, Leva glanced over her shoulder, seeing if Stella, their mission leader, had given the signal from the dilapidated office building yet. She hasn’t. Leva grumbled under her breath; the cold was getting to her too. They both knew their targets: Leo would take down Brandon Helix and Leva herself would take down Bridget Dalton, the minds behind the Virtue Alliance, the heroes against the gangs. This was their only shot to kill them, and would be for a long while. They couldn’t mess this up. Leva glanced towards the building where Stella’s stationed, impatient. Still no signal. “It’s too cold for this,” Leo muttered, Leva can’t do much more than agree with him. She gripped her own rifle tighter in a vain attempt to dispel the chill. Stella’s voice crackled in their earpieces: “Lets get on with this. I don’t want to be here longer than necessary.”

Perched on the amphitheater’s rafters, Leva scanned the crowds below, looking for their targets. Her brother was on the far side across from her, doing the same. There was a ladder to Leva’s right. Their targets were far enough apart that they would not have to fire simultaneously and risk messing up. They just had to time it right. Leva took her rifle from her back, watching Leo do the same. She aimed. “Now or never,” she murmured, her finger sliding over the trigger. Leva didn’t hesitate to fire, the kickback almost knocking her off the rafter. Her brother fired shortly after. “Fuck yeah!” Stella shouted through the earpiece. Leva smiled, slinging her rifle over her shoulder. They’d done it. Taken out both heads of the VA in one go. She glanced down to the pandemonium below, prepared to head back to headquarters, when she realized that they’d messed up. Devastatingly so, in fact.

Neither target was dead. How, she didn’t know, but it meant that they were screwed in every sense of the word. “What the hell is going on down there, Leva?” Stella’s voice crackled through her earpiece again. Hissing curses, Leva switched the earpiece off entirely. Listening to Stella panic would not increase their chances of getting out of here alive. She eyed the ladder she’d spotted earlier and hoped that there was one on Leo’s side. If not, she’d have to leave him behind.

It was just as chaotic in the amphitheater as it had looked from above. Leva switched on her earpiece as she ran, searching for Leo amongst the crowd of media and officials.“-ucking hell, Virakari’s here, the bastard,” Leo’s voice crackled in her ear. “He is? Why the hell is he here?” Leva asked, dodging a terrified reporter. “You think I know?” Leva hissed a swear under her breath. “He’s not supposed to be here–Stella, can we ditch him?” A beat of silence from Stella.

“Why the hell shouldn’t we?”

“I don’t know, maybe because he’s semi-important?”

“Just leave him. Kieran’ll understand, Leva, don’t worry.”

Kieran didn’t understand much and Virakari was, unfortunately, important to their cause, so Leva doubted he’d be all unicorns and rainbows about this, but did it matter? Lance Virakari had caused enough trouble in Ruin and Poison to last a lifetime. Long time coming, Leva thought, catching sight of Leo as he caught up to her. “We’re leaving Virakari here?” he asked, eyebrow raised despite the chaos around them. “Yes. His ass can get arrested for this, because I’m sure as hell not,” Leva grumbled, keeping her jog even. Leo struggled to keep up, not that Leva necessarily cares to slow down for him.

It doesn’t take her too long to reach Virakari. “What the hell are you doing here,” Leva practically growled, voice blunt. “Oh, you know, I’m just out for a little…stroll, of sorts,” Lance said cheerfully, tearing the pin out of yet another grenade and tossing it over his shoulder. Leva rolled her eyes and she could feel Leo sigh in exasperation. “Hope you don’t mind cutting it short,” she replies, before roundhouse kicking him square across the face. Virakari didn’t have time to react. He fell like a sack of bricks. Leva stormed past his limp body. “Leave him,” she calls behind her, but Leo’s already walking in step with her, no intentions of helping Lance. A few minutes of jogging pass before her brother asks, “Are we just walking out the front door or something-?” Leva shrugged. “Depends. I don’t know. Do you want to?” A beat of silence passes between them, broken by the chaos of the amphitheater. “If we can, that’s easiest. I don’t particularly feel like breaking a window,” he said, switching the shoulder his rifle was slung over. The amphitheater was still in chaos; absolutely no one paid attention to them even with their noticeable rifles. They walked in silence until they found a side door. “Kieran will be pissed, you know,” Leo said, “after all, we didn’t kill them like we were supposed to.” Leva pauses, door halfway open. “Virakari fucked it up,” she replies, letting her brother go first, “he won’t be too mad, that’s not our fault.” Even as she spoke, following after her brother, Leva couldn’t help but feel unsure. Kieran would be pissed, either at them or at Lance. Either way, Leva figured there’d be yelling, possibly a demotion. She knew her brother knew the same, so she didn’t bother to tell him. Higher chance of them getting off easy that way.

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The Ruin and Poison headquarters was a long ways from the amphitheater. Leva’s hair was slick with sweat by the time they got back. Leo was practically shaking with nerves, terrified of Kieran’s reaction to their failure. Leva couldn’t blame him. Stella was waiting for them in the lobby, arms crossed, visibly disappointed. “Did you leave him?” she asked. Leva and Leo nodded. “Leva knocked him out,” Leo cut in, “so he didn’t make a huge mess. Nothing compared to last time.” Stella grimaced. “It’s still bad,” she murmured, leading them to Kieran’s office. “Virakari fucked up one of our biggest, most important, longest-planned missions. He has valuable intel that we can’t afford to lose, least of all to the VA, but he ruins every big mission he’s not supposed to be on.” Leva didn’t respond, too nervous about Kieran’s upcoming reaction to the news, and she realized her brother was just as scared. Stella was hopefully just as worried as she opened the door to Kieran’s office.

Leva forced all the fear she felt from her face as she filed in after Stella. Beside her, Leo was practically vibrating from fear. Only Stella managed to maintain her composure, which made Leva jealous. But she ignored it, keeping her eyes glued to the ground, knowing Kieran wouldn’t be happy about how badly they’d botched the mission. “So,” Kieran begins, voice flat and level and grating and so many other things that made Leva nervous, “Virakari is no longer with us?” Stella nodded. “Yes, sir. He’s been captured by the Virtue Alliance.” A beat of silence. Leva wrung her hands, Leo fidgeted beside her. “I…probably should be more pissed about that,” Kieran began, “and yet it’s only encouraging me to go through with a plan I’ve wanted to execute for a while.” Leva blinked. She’d expected yelling, at the very least, not whatever this was. “We need spies,” Kieran continued, his gaze flicking between the three of them. “And Leva, Leo, you’ll be perfect. Close enough to the ages of the VA to not raise questions, loyal enough to me that I know you’ll report everything.” Leva nodded. “Yes, sir,” she murmured, Leo’s response only a beat behind her. “Good. It’s settled, then. You’ll go get your fake papers tomorrow. Now get the fuck out of my office, I have work to do.”

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