Aiden and Roman ducked into the Outpost, sticking to the upper floor of the building in case any CO's came looking for them. They didn't have a lot of time, and both of them knew it. After a while of silence, they finally sat down in two worn metal chairs they found in the corner of what used to be an office. Once they were settled, Aiden cleared his throat and began his explanation.

"So, you need my help," Roman guessed before Aiden started speaking. "I knew you would."

"You know a lot of things I don't," Aiden glanced at him pointedly, reminded of his and Roman's first meeting. He found the nostalgia rather odd, despite the circumstances. "I'm asking for your alliance. You don't owe me anything at this point. I'm more reliant on the fact that we're fighting for the same cause here. You and I both know that the people are never going to win this war without the help of myself and those in the Program who are still fighting for them. We need to work together to overthrow Xylem."

The young rebel snorted, folding his arms across his chest. "So, you're calling for... what? A cease-fire?" He shook his head, unimpressed. "You think my people will agree to that? It's not possible. This ends with Xylem's head on a stake and when the Program becomes completely reformed. Only then will the people be willing to trust a Programmer."

"Since when did you become the leader of the rebel cause?" Aiden inquired. "When I first met you, you said you were a member of a rebel group. Now, you've got a whole city of them at your beck and call. How'd you make the leap?"

Suddenly, the noise of footsteps stumbling up the staircase to their floor caused Aiden and Roman to instantly withdraw their weapons. To their relief, they found Virgil and another one of Roman's rebels at the door, Virgil's wrists bound and his mouth gagged with a very unhappy look on his face.

"Thanks, Caspar," Roman nodded. The rebel grunted in response before pushing Virgil towards them and turning back towards the stairs.

Virgil walked over to them, seething. Aiden instantly began undoing his friend's binds, while Roman returned to his seat.

"Sorry about that, Colonel," Roman waved to Virgil. "I remembered that you weren't particularly fond of our history last time we met, and none of us were sure how cooperative you'd be. This was my solution. It was also a way of protecting you. This way, if any CO's had intercepted you, you'd appear to be a prisoner of war, and they'd be obligated to keep you alive."

Virgil tore the rag from his mouth the instant Aiden had freed him from his secure ties. He began walking menacingly towards Roman before Aiden held him back in warning.

"You little-"

"Rat? Tyrant? Street scum?" Roman offered sarcastically. "I've heard it all before, believe me. I'm guessing you liked my introduction from earlier?"

"We need his help, Virgil," Aiden reminded him carefully. "Play nice, and maybe one day you can have at each other in the training centre."

"That day better come soon," Virgil growled, reluctantly taking a seat in one of the remaining metal chairs. He stared at Roman sharply, his attention unwavering.

"If you agree to help us," Aiden began, "then I'm in need of a favor. I need you to gather as much intel on Xylem as you can. He must have a file somewhere, in one of the cities. It won't be anywhere near the Units; which means it must be somewhere in Creatan."

Roman paused, a sudden thought crossing his mind. "A few months ago, there was a breach in the Tuclea City database. They moved all the files to Askus City Laboratories, which, coincidentally was broken into and destroyed only a few days later," he recalled. "All of the intelligence on the Program's chemical weaponry was found either missing or destroyed, along with the information from Tuclea City. My men were planning an infiltration ourselves, until we found out what had happened. Unusually, all of the scientists inside made it out. That's when we found them and recruited them."

"That, uhh, might have been us." Virgil cleared his throat.

"We lost one of our own that night," Aiden mumbled, remembering that terrible night. "It was my fault."

"That's bullshit, brother, and you know it. You did all you could. Xylem was the one who set us up," Virgil replied angrily.

"Well, the scientists we found said that the majority of the intel was stolen by a band of Programmers, who most likely believed that the Laboratories had been overtaken by rebels. No one knows the location of the information. Unless..." Roman glanced at Aiden thoughtfully.

"I kept the data disc we retrieved from the raid. Xylem's been going crazy looking for it. I've kept it hidden ever since," Aiden confessed. "You don't think Xylem's files are on that disc, do you?"

"Xylem can't erase his past. Once something goes digital, it's digital forever. However, he can hide it under a false name and pretend like it never existed. Do you really think that was the only place that the Laboratory records were stored in? You really believe that Xylem doesn't have preliminary access to that?" Roman shrugged. "Why else do you think Xylem wants that disc?"

"More importantly, where the fuck did you hide it?" Virgil stared at Aiden in bewilderment.

"I'm not telling you that," Aiden answered flatly. "You're liable otherwise."

"And what if you get killed?" Virgil rolled his eyes. "Then what?"

"We can figure that out later." Aiden looked at Roman, whose eyes were deep in thought. Finally, the rebel spoke, his voice level and steady.

"Open the file. Leak them to the Programmers. Rally them. My band of rebels will fight with you, if you can prove to them that you are loyal to us," Roman said simply.

"Your band of rebels?" Virgil furrowed his eyebrows. "Like, you're the actual leader of these people?"

"Phantom is not only an illegal arms cartel," Roman smiled slightly. "In the beginning, we were. But we became so much more than that." The young rebel's eyes grew serious for a second. "Then we became divided. Some of us were no longer advocates for the shipment of guns. We never knew who we were delivering to. We wanted to know the truth, but our leaders wouldn't give us anything other than a name."

"Leaders?" Aiden remembered their first mission with Zariah, and how she'd reacted upon hearing a particular name. He also remembered the four targets they'd been ordered to take out; four rebel leaders from across the country, all large figureheads in the Phantom cartel. "Hywel, Elias, Oakes and Deon. Those were the leaders," Aiden recalled absently.

"They died in a Programmer attack. It was for the best, really. They were representatives of them." Roman spat the last word like it was a vile creature.

"Yeah, um, we may have been responsible for that one too," Virgil admitted.

"Who is them?" Aiden asked. "And when you say divided, what is that supposed to mean?"

"We dealt guns because we feared for our own safety. The Program wasn't doing its job, and the unrest was unsettling, to say the least. There were people who even attacked the Programmers who'd come to give us our monthly supplies - if you could call it that," Roman remarked bitterly.

"What were in the crates the cities received from the Program?" Aiden asked, fearing the answer. Had the Program failed to keep its promises of goods to the people as well?

"Rats, stale food, low quality tools and resources. Not enough to stock a city, that's for sure. The wealthy got most of it. The poor were forced to scavenge." Roman's face hardened when speaking his last sentence. He brushed it off, resuming his previous topic of conversation. "Anyways, Phantom split because some of us wanted to liberate the Program, and some of us wanted to destroy it completely. The ones that wanted complete reform were the ones who served Eskium, the people we were selling the guns to."

The name caught Aiden off guard, and he found himself completely freezing as soon as the words had left Roman's mouth. He remembered Zariah's story of how Fifth Unit fell to an unimaginably strong army of rebels who called themselves Eskium, and had proceeded to kill every last soldier in their wake. These were the people Roman had once been a part of?

"When the soldiers of Eskium attacked Fifth Unit, that's when a lot of us got scared. The radicals claimed to have more soldiers waiting overseas, who called themselves Other Worlders. They said they could take the Program the second Xylem's troops were caught off guard, and they weren't afraid to kill every last person who stood in their way, including any civilians who refused to back down. Those who still wanted the Program around, including myself, fled to different cities. We regrouped, and remained true to Phantom. At first, we had two exceptional leaders. A man and a woman, named Micah and Rhiannon. Their son had been sent off to the Observers to be Tested for admittance into the Program when he was ten, leaving them by themselves. They had nothing left to lose at this point," Roman explained.

"What happened to them?" Virgil inquired, his tone surprisingly soft for being so outspoken at Roman only minutes earlier.

"They were captured by local CO's and promptly charged for treason," Roman answered quietly. "They practically raised me when my twin brother was taken by the Observers at the same time as their son. Once the CO's had them, they were taken to Xylem. Before they were taken, they left Phantom to me. No one knew what had become of them. We went months without hearing from them, and the day we did, we saw them on the broadcast."

A hush rippled across the three of them as the facts sank in. Aiden could hear his heart hammering in his chest.

He killed them.

"I don't blame you for what happened," Roman said hesitantly, looking at Aiden. "I don't. While the people have focused on what you did they're forgetting that you had to do it. You couldn't die, because you had to be here, and they... well, they already died the day they lost their son. They didn't talk much about him. The most they told me was that he was going to be a different soldier than the rest of the ones in the Program. They were confident that he'd pass his Test and do some real good in this world. And... I think they were right."

"What the hell are you on about?" Virgil narrowed his eyes.

"The son. He had dark hair that his mother could never keep neat, and gray eyes like his father's. He was brilliant beyond his years and the Observers wanted him like no other recruit in the history of the Program. Right before they died, I saw this look of peace exchanged between both of them, like their lives had been fulfilled. All they ever wanted was to see their son one last time, and they got their wish. I honestly think that they were comforted by the fact that it was you, Aiden."

Aiden felt a million emotions raging inside of him, and he felt his lungs burning from lack of oxygen. Once he realized that he'd been forgetting to breathe, Aiden inhaled, sharp pain flooding through him, and not from anything physical. The last time he'd seen his parents was the day he killed them unknowingly.

"I recognized them," Aiden whispered, his voice failing him. "I recognized them, and I killed them. The people who raised me."

"You didn't know, brother. How could you? Xylem's taken everything from us. From all of us," Virgil added, nodding to Roman, who dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Besides, there was no way that Xylem was going to let you walk away. You'd be dead, and you're the only person alive who can stop him. Well, maybe besides Zariah."

"I trust you because I trust Micah and Rhiannon," Roman agreed. "They saw greatness in you, and so do the rest of us. If you can do your part, I'll do mine. My current objective is to keep Eskium at bay. They need to be stopped before a lot of innocent people are killed. There's another side to this war we're in."

Virgil spoke for Aiden, and Aiden was grateful for his friend's presence. He needed Virgil now more than ever before, and just when his words were beginning to fail him, Virgil was there, having his back like always.

"We'll open the files. Aiden's pretty good at breaking into radio towers, and believe me, we've got plenty of computers," Virgil promised. "I doubt Xylem's got a clean past. And when we find the dirt, we'll cover him in it."

"A lot of the Programmers are good people," Aiden put in weakly. "At least in Second Unit they are. They will fight for the people once they realize what the Program really is. They're already starting to."

"That's good." Roman looked between Virgil and Aiden, his dark eyes confident in their arrangements. "Do it soon. We don't have a lot of time to waste anymore. Eskium... they're stronger than they seem. Their leader is even crazier than Xylem. Their history with Creatan, it goes way back. With them, it's not about freedom anymore. It's about revenge."

Suddenly, Aiden, Virgil and Roman saw a glint of flashing silver in the distance. It was Caspar, the rebel who'd escorted Virgil, warning them of approaching CO's.

"Well, that's our cue to clear out of here," Roman said grimly. "Both of you better get going, and fast. I'd say it was nice seeing you again, but the effort that it took to even get here is appalling. I'll be seeing you again once Xylem is in custody for his crimes."

"Definitely," Aiden attempted a smile, but it felt too forced. Roman seemed to pick up on this and rested his hand on Aiden's shoulder.

"We will seek vengeance for them, and everyone else we've lost along the way," he swore. "Stay strong for them."

Aiden nodded to him appreciatively before Virgil urged him to follow. Together, he and Virgil left Roman and bounded down the staircase to the street. While they fled, Aiden could have sworn he heard someone pull a pin and throw it into the room they'd just been in.

"Oh, that motherfucker," Virgil hissed, also recognizing the sound. "Twice in one day? Even if he's on our side now, I still don't like him."

The grenade detonated, sending Virgil and Aiden sprawling down the staircase. They landed with a thud on one of the staircase landings, and Aiden cocked his gun in the direction of the explosion before firing off a few shots at nothing in particular. Virgil joined in, and they continued to race towards the street, where there would surely be a group of CO's awaiting them. Might as well give them a show, Aiden decided.

Aiden and Virgil kicked open the door at the bottom level of the Outpost to find a troop of CO's blocking their path, guns raised. Aiden pretended to look relieved, while Virgil let out a deep sigh. Once the CO's managed to figure out who they were, they lowered their weapons, murmuring amongst themselves.

One of the CO's grabbed his radio while two other CO's guided Virgil and Aiden to the closest military jeep. Before they knew it, Aiden and Virgil were speeding down the alleyway, headed back to the CO Post they'd visited. Once they arrived, they found the Chief waiting outside, his face purple with anger.

"Colonels," the Chief said in an unusually high-pitched voice. "If you would please follow CO Loren to your quarters." He gestured to a waiting female officer with reddish brown hair and a thin face.

"Where are Tiernan and Orson?" Aiden questioned. The Chief looked at him, scowling deeply.

"You won't be seeing them again for the remainder of your stay, which has been cut short. You'll be leaving tomorrow morning at oh-five-hundred hours. It was a pleasure having you in Oslua City," the Chief responded with insincere politeness.

Without another word, Aiden and Virgil followed the female CO, Officer Loren, back to their bunks, where Virgil promptly flopped onto his bed the second the CO had closed the door.

"I wonder what happened to Tiernan and Orson?" Virgil wondered aloud. "Fired probably. Or worse."

"Who knows? I kind of feel bad for them. No one saw the attack coming. The rebels only spared us because they wanted to kill us much more personally." Aiden sat on his bed, peering over at his friend. They both knew of their allegiances, but they also knew they had to put on an act for the cameras that watched their every move.

"They didn't quite get away with that, now did they?" Virgil smirked slightly. "We'll walk it off. Night, brother."

"Night," Aiden replied, climbing into his bed and throwing the covers overtop of him. He closed his eyes, willing himself to sleep peacefully. However, reality guaranteed him a much more restless slumber than what he was hoping for. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep were the faces of the two people he'd killed in the broadcast, who he could now put a definitive name to; his parents.

Micah and Rhiannon Lycroft.