Chapter 7- Alyssa

7.1

Isaac had required Georgie and Marshal to attend the wedding, which everyone involved seemed to be having second thoughts on.

Zachary has been trying to get Marshal to warm up to him since he moved in, something he believed was working until Marshal suddenly withdrew the day before the wedding.

It was after he had to go see Lyla again about Whitlock’s blood test, which left a number of options as to why he became uninterested in everything going on.

The night before the wedding, Chelsea had gotten the chance to speak with him alone. He had gotten the baby to sleep and usually wasn’t far behind him in terms of how late he stayed up since he claimed the baby had a tendency to wake up early.

“Marshal, I’ve got a question for you.” Chelsea knew to keep quiet for multiple reasons, the main one being Gillian had been tasked with keeping track of Marshal when Zachary couldn’t do it. “What were the results of his blood test?”

He shrugged but stayed silent for a moment. “You’re involved, you should probably know. The gene doesn’t have much of an effect on him because I carry a gene that counteracts it.”

“That can't be true. How can you explain what happened in the woods if he isn’t affected by it?”

“Lyla says that’s the most we’re going to get out of him when it comes to the gene. She said he’s extremely limited by the two genes, but he’s mostly a normal baby.” He seemed to tense up. “You can’t tell anybody, though. Nobody can tell your dad if nobody else knows and that’s what’s most important to me.”

“You’re right about that. Even I can’t say what he’d do if he found out.” Chelsea looked at her feet and cleared her throat, turning the door. “Well, that’s about all I had to ask so goodnight, I guess.”

“Wait.” Chelsea turned back, surprised that he wanted to continue to talk. “I’ve already got my own ideas on it, but I want to know what you think about tomorrow, it being your wedding day and all.”

She couldn’t help but feel as if he suddenly started studying her. “I’m nervous, naturally, but I think this is for the best.”

“The best for what? For the business or for your dad? I’ve got a strong suspicion that you don’t think it’s the best for you and you don’t think it’s the best for Zachary and I can agree with both of those statements.” He crosses his arms. “In fact, the only way this benefits you in that you stay here and gain a quarter of Onyx Organization. It doesn’t benefit Zachary at all because he loses the only thing that puts some respect to his name.”

The whole topic caught Chelsea by surprise, as she’d generally known Marshal to be rather passive when it came to something major like a wedding, especially if he had no business in it. “Why does it matter to you?”

Chelsea could tell the question didn’t sit well with Marshal but he was going to answer either way. “I love Elizabeth, more than anyone in my life and I adore Whitlock, I’m thankful every single day just to have him around, but I’m the relationship I have with those two, nobody wins. I’m constantly letting either them or the group down because I try to prioritize one over the other. She was weaponized because I tried to prioritize her over the group for just twenty minutes and as a result, she went missing.”

“What are you getting at?” Chelsea crossed her arms, her tone growing more defensive.

“Just like that.” Marshal quickly pointed out her stance and her tone. “You’re one of the most independent people I know and that’s where you and Elizabeth greatly differ. She’s just like Zachary, dependent on attention. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it about him just yet, but it’s like he falls into a depression if he doesn’t feel important to somebody. Elizabeth used to say she didn’t feel like she mattered that much, which was wrong for a lot of reasons, but she finally kicked herself into gear after Whitlock was born because he needed her, he was reliant on her and that’s exactly the feeling she loved. He’s the same way and you need to decide if you’re ready for that kind of life.”

She paused, genuinely thinking on what he was saying for a moment. “I don’t have a choice in this, you should know that better than anyone else.”

He watched her, certain that he’d gotten his point through. “It’s pretty scary, isn’t it? The thought of so many people depending on you when you’re only twenty-five. You’re still young enough to where you should be able to make mistakes, there’s no reason for you to be rushed into all this.”

“What will I say to my dad if I just drop out at the last minute?” Chelsea uncrossed her arms, her eyes going to the floor again. “He’d disown me for it.”

“He wouldn’t go that far. A mild stare of disappointment, but there’s nothing he can do to make you actually go through with it, unless you let him just like you’re letting him do right now.”

Chelsea crossed her arms once again, a look of frustration on her face. “What can I do to stop it?”

“Don’t even go.” He seemed to take a second to think. “Either that or go to the Voyagers. Pierre made it a requirement that somebody stay in the city for the first two weeks that I’m here and made sure that I knew who would be where. I can give you a location if that’s what you want.”

She shook her head. “Neither of those will work out, I need something better.”

Marshal caught on to what she was doing, looking over at the crib before sighing in defeat. "I can help you buy some time but I won't take the fall for it. There's too much on the line for me, but you're really not ready for this, anyone who looks at you can tell that. You have your own things to work out, so do it quickly."

Chelsea quickly bounced back, a bright smile on her face in a matter of seconds as she uncrossed her arms. “That’s great, but what can you do that I can’t?”

“Steal without remorse, shoot a clear shot, and probably jump a fence faster. We can both take a bullet, though, so that’s my new goal.”

“It sounds like you’re saying your new goal is to take two bullets.”

He nodded, clearly joking around with her. “I’m actually aiming for three.” He then uncrossed his arms, his smile fading. “You need to find a way to distract Gillian, though.”

“She’s not a problem because Zachary’s still awake, he’s reading right now.”

“That’s worse, Chelsea.” Marshal frowned. “You’ll have to distract him and shut his bedroom door for whatever you do, I need to get into his upstairs office.”

She nodded, turning away from the door to leave the room. “I’ve got an idea, but you’ll have to avoid Gillian once I go into the room since she’ll consider me a distraction.”

“I’ll already be upstairs when she registers a distraction, so that’s not a problem to me.”

Chelsea left the room, Marshal turning off the light and following behind her.

He put some distance between the two of them once she turned into Zachary’s room and started talking to him.

She shut the door behind her, immediately noticing Zachary seemed suspicious of her. “I just wanted to talk about what happened the other night.”

“Which night?” He was lounging on his bed with a file in hand, likely looking into the situation about her father, something he had started doing most every night.

“The night at the lounge.”

As soon as she said it, he took in a deep breath and shut the file. “We were both a little drunk, whether we want to admit it or not. It’s probably best we just forget it happened, right?”

She shook her head. “That’s not what I was going to say. There’s no way we’re going to be able to forget it just because of how it blew up in our faces. I was going to suggest that we work on being more real before tomorrow.”

Chelsea could tell he wanted to ask what tomorrow was before the realization suddenly hit him. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean that we should be more in sync in private as well as public. You’re not going to sign off your share of Onyx until you figure of who’s trying to get my father and we don’t know how long that’s going to take, so I think we should at least be able to rely on each other to, you know.”

She knew he understood what she meant, but he simply chuckled in response. “I thought I was bad at words, but look at you.”

---

Marshal Kennedy

While Chelsea was distracting Zachary, he snuck into the office and started looking through the certain files that Zachary kept his desk.

He had a feeling the one he was looking for would be in the desk because of how closely related the person was to Isaac and Chelsea.

There weren’t many files in the desk, which allowed Marshal to quickly find what he was looking for and hurry downstairs and out the door before Gillian noticed anything was going on.

He read over the file while he walked to try and figure out what he was going tell them when he got there, but he already knew a fair amount about this person from experience and what Elizabeth had told him.

He went to the rural part of the city, a piece of the city that some people considered history and that some considered an eyesore.

Most of the buildings had been demolished or were working on weathering themselves down after they’d been forgotten about by Onyx.

There was a small one bedroom house that had previously been owned by literal rats until the newest resident had gotten fired from his job.

Marshal went to the door and knocked, finding himself in the same position he’d been in just a week before.

A shorter man opened the door, a sudden look of unamusement as he met eyes with Marshal. “What are you doing back here?”

“I want to tell you everything I know about the real you.” He scoffed, going to shut the door before Marshal put his foot in the way. “I’m serious, I want to help you make things normal for yourself. You don’t belong in this place and I can prove everything to you if you just trust me for a moment.”

Luke stopped the door, opening it slightly. “What do you have?”

Marshal held up the file. “Every incident involving you that happened before and during your employment at the Onyx Organization.” He quickly moved on to keep Luke’s attention. “You may not remember working at Onyx, but there’s so much that you did.”


Luke sighed, opening the door to allow him in. They went into the living room, sitting across from each other with a coffee table separating them. “Whaddya got?

He set the file on the table, resting his hand on it. “First, tell me your last name. I already know it, but I want to see if you know it.”

“Lowell. My name is Luke Lowell, now are you gonna stop being a spaz or am I gonna have to kick you out again?”

Marshal opened the file to the first page, pointing out two specific lines. “That’s not true. Your name is Luke Hunt, your parents are Susanne and Owen Hunt. They both owned a quarter of Onyx, just like the Bennington family did. Your first question may be ‘where did Lowell come from’ and that’s an easy explanation and I’ll get to it, but I’ll need a moment. Your parents were extremely rich, probably richer than Isaac Hampton at the time, but they had been researching the organization for a long time. In fact, most of the information that the Voyagers have from before Elizabeth’s time were taken from their estate before a proper will could be found.”

He flipped the page to see two pictures, one of a man and one of a woman. “Are… is that them?”

He nodded, flipping the page again to show a few more pictures. One was of a couple and a boy, the three of them all having the same fake smile on their faces, all of them also having black hair and blue eyes. Marshal pointed at the picture. “Those are the Benningtons. Herald and Agnes were their names, Zachary is their son. You’ll want to remember them.”

He turned the page to show a picture of a full family, all four of them with bright, real smiles on their face, three of them having light brown hair, the woman having dark brown hair. She had light green eyes, just as both the children did while the man had brown eyes. “This is the Neil family, they’re also important to this.”

He flipped the page to show one last picture. A family of three, the only one of them with a smile on their face being the daughter. The father looked stern and rather uncomfortable in the moment, the mother seeming to be caught off guard before she could put a smile on her face. The father and daughter shared the most similarities, both of their hair being blonde and their eyes being blue. “That’s Isaac Hampton, his wife Karen, and their daughter Chelsea.”

He paused on the page, resting his hand on it. “There’s a connection between all three of those families, do you know what it is?”

Luke shrugged, looking at the picture over and over again. “No, I can’t say I do.”

“The Neil family was forced into hiding after they were caught going through private records. The man was David Neil and he was a friend of Isaac Hampton, a frequent donator to the Onyx Organization. He started investigating them after his wife was having some concerns about the nature of their daughter’s genetic manipulation.” He cleared his throat. “He found some of the records that your own father had found about eight years later and tried to confront him. For that, Isaac chose to kill his own friend and attempted to have the whole family eradicated before David’s wife took the kids and left that city. Their daughter is Elizabeth Neil, my own wife. She was responsible for stealing millions of confidential records, but she always manages to get away with it. Because of what she did, we’ve finally figured out what you really are.”

“How do the Benningtons fit into this?”

He stayed on the picture of Isaac Hampton and his family, pointing specifically at the daughter. “Her name is Chelsea and for a long time, you two were thick as thieves and responsible for each other’s bad decisions. She was your best friend and some might even say she was your first love, but that couldn’t be proven by the files.” He lingered on the picture for a moment before flipping back the the picture of the Bennington family. “Herald and Agnes owned a quarter of Onyx, Isaac owned a complete half, and your family also owned a quarter. They made the mistake of going into records that they had no business in and before anyone knew it, they were arrested and executed for fraud.”

“Executed for fraud?” Luke eyed him suspiciously. “That’s the worst reason for execution I’ve heard.”

“But it’s true. In files that not even Elizabeth can break, there’s proof that they were executed and Zachary’s disappearance was quickly overlooked because he had been located by his aunt Carmella. That’s untrue, he was never located and Carmella couldn’t confirm anything because she was breaking Onyx’s laws just by existing since she’s terminally ill and never officially reported it.” He stayed on the page, focusing solely on the son. “Zachary joined the Voyagers in an attempt to find safety because he knew exactly what happened to his parents and if you ask him, he’ll tell you the full story.”

“How exactly does this all relate to me?”

Marshal could tell that Luke was losing patience and he should probably hurry up if he was interested in getting everything out. “The same thing happened to your parents. They dug into files and while there’s no records to confirm Isaac was behind their deaths, it’s a common theory among the Voyagers. You were adopted by Ben Lowell, a man who claimed to be your father up until the day he died and then you were left alone.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you’re about to lose the only remnant left of who you are. Tomorrow evening, Chelsea is going to be married off to Zachary Bennington in an attempt for Isaac to get hold of full control of Onyx Organization.”

Luke quickly pushed the file towards Marshal, taking a stand from the couch. “Alright, it’s time for you to leave. I’m tired of you throwing conspiracies around.”

“Wait, just one more minute.” Marshal closed the file and grabbed it, standing from the couch. “There is proof of your attraction towards Chelsea. You made a real nasty pass at my wife about a month back and because of that, I demolished your legs and arms. They were capable of a lot more before you were fired for what happened between us. The reason you made that pass at my wife was because she and Chelsea share a gene that bonds them on every level except physically and you figured that Elizabeth was close enough to Chelsea because of that shared gene.” He then escorted himself to the door, his hand resting on the handle. “If you want to stop losing who you really are, you need to be at the Fort Pierre bridge by five o’clock tomorrow.”

---

Alyssa Kowalska

The Voyagers had finally reached their all-time low. They were close to giving up on faith as they found out Elizabeth was missing and Marshal departed from the group.

Leona and her people had been pulling away and attempting to reform their own identity separate from the Voyagers.

They knew they were currently in Pierre’s control, which seemed to throw more people off than help them as Pierre’s leadership style never really meshed with any of the other group members.

Milo had been helping by allowing Pierre to know what Marshal’s plan really was, telling Pierre he believed it would be best to put the plan to the side until Elizabeth was located.

That was another thing. Elizabeth’s disappearance had been taking a major toll on Milo and Leah. The two of them had started slacking on their responsibilities, which was more of a problem for Milo than it was for Leah.

Pierre eventually took notice of it and attempted to try and help them, saying it was for Kimber and Jude’s sake.

After that didn’t work, he turned to Alyssa for assistance. “I understand you’re very close with Milo and I want you to use that to our advantage. He’s distraught over what happened with Elizabeth and being separated from his nephew and he’s currently the least helpful person in the group. Something needs to change and I believe you can lead that change.”

“Are you insinuating I find a way to console him or lead the group? You’re not being entirely clear right now.”

He looked away from her, his eyes focusing on Kyle, who was seated across the courtyard. “It’s impossible to console people who’ve lost everything, but Leah and Milo still have things and are completely capable of being proactive once again. They have the children and each other, so I leave that decision up to you.” He paused, staring off into space. “I would be able to assist you in learning to lead, though, as I know you are quite eager to experience new things and achieve your best possible outcome. I can’t say the same for Milo.”

Almost as if he was talking to her all over again, Alyssa remembered the conversation they had one night at the creek with Milo before they had left for the rallies.

“What’s something you want in your future?”

“Do you want what the Voyagers want to hear or what I really want?”

“I want to know what you really want.”

“For me, what the Voyagers want to do with Onyx isn’t one of my first priorities. It is for the others, but I don’t mind the place we’re in now and I don’t want to risk what we have now when we’ve already lost so much. I guess what I want is whatever makes the group happy.”

[Attempt to convince Milo to lead the group]
[Find out Marshal’s plans and have Alyssa lead the group]

---

Unknown

One feeling she had gotten used to in her twenty-seven years of life was fear, sometimes fear that made her tremble.

She had gotten used to being afraid to the point of shaking, but it wasn’t something should would admit to her friends or family.

No, she had to be strong for them because they were weak.

She grew up being taught that she needed to be afraid of everything and everyone because all it took was one mistake to end her life.

If she had known what she knew now, she would have laughed in the face of anyone who told her that you’ve only got one life to live.

Over time, she had gotten better with her fears and learned to be more comfortable in her surroundings, but her current situation sparked something in her that she hadn’t seen in years.

Trembling.

She had no idea where she was at, as she’d never seen the place before but she knew the smell, it was familiar to her.

She couldn’t place where she knew it from, she just knew that it was a smell that was common around her.

There was always the joke among her family that her sense of smell was stronger than any of her other senses, which did hold a bit of truth to it.

She took a second to focus on the trembling, trying to calm herself down.

‘You’re only as scared as you allow yourself to be.’ She took a deep breath in and held it, closing her eyes. ‘You’re in complete control and there’s nothing wrong with you.’

She then let go of the breath she was holding, the trembling being noticeably lighter than it was before.

Voting is closed!

The voting is getting closed super early this time, but I can promise that the next voting phase will be open for at least six days. The reason for that is just because I've finally gotten to a chapter that I'm having a lot of fun writing and with my current health, I don't have much to do but write and I also don't want to take too long for the chapters from this point on. There's definitely no way that I'll be done with Act 1 by the end of the year, but I'm aiming to start Act 2 by June of next year.

The choices for this chapter are going to be more focused on actual survival, whether it be from a group or becoming a sole survivor, a number of characters can be put into danger. Choices from previous chapters that built up relationships between characters are going to be primary influences on just how well the groups function and overall, I'm super excited. There won't be many relationship choices left in this chapter after this part, but the ones that present themselves are likely going to be pretty important.

In the interest of giving away some plans, I can say that the final chapter of Act 1 is going to have no relationship choices and will be just like this chapter in the terms of characters being reliant on the choices and each other on survival. Funny enough, the final chapter is the one I'm most excited about for reasons I'll be happy to say once it gets closer.

---

7.2

Alyssa had been spending some time with Milo after she reached a decision, hoping he’d tell her Marshal’s plans but it was something he seemed to be extremely private about. He hadn't told much to Pierre, which left him in the dark as well.

She had also been helping him with Kimber and Jude as they had started to challenge him more and Alyssa knew he couldn’t take much of that in his current state.

He really only seemed happy when the night was silent and brightened by a full moon and the stars, something he’d always been fascinated by.

What happened to Elizabeth had sent him into shock and when Marshal revealed his plans to take Whitlock into the city, it sent him into a depression. Over the course of a week, he had lost his sister, his best friend, and his nephew. It hit him pretty hard and he wasn’t too good at hiding it, which is why Alyssa determined she would be better off leading the group herself.

Alyssa had made a plan to get Milo to talk about Marshal’s plans, constantly reminding herself that he looked to be more comfortable, open, and honest when they talked by the creek, away from the other Voyagers.

They had gotten away from the group for a few moments on a clear night with a full moon and Alyssa could see the joy light up in Milo’s eyes.

While it was a sight she loved to see, she knew she’d eventually have to cut it short if she wanted to find out Marshal’s plan. “Hey, I’ve got a few questions for you.”

His eyes focused more on the creek’s flowing water that carried the moon’s reflection, but Alyssa knew he would be listening to her. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Marshal told Pierre, Monty, and I that you knew his plans when he wanted to act. I think if we’re going to act at all, we all need to be enlightened on what he thought was the best plan.”

She watched him put his hands in his pockets, his smile remaining as he watched the water. “He wanted to act in May, but there was a major problem with that plan because Elizabeth had been withholding a few details from him since she knew he’d back out of his plans if he knew about them. He knew his plan was an iffy one from the start because of Chelsea potentially moving out of the states, he found a way to work through that. He had given everyone an extremely specific position, inside and outside headquarters. Elizabeth would have taken control of the system and manually overrode it, granting her complete control of Onyx’s systems. People like Samantha, Cyrus, and Filip would have been on a constant patrol of the inside and outside of the building to keep Elizabeth safe and interventions at a minimum. I think he mentioned you would be in the back alley in case someone got injured and needed immediate care. Cecilia would be at the top floor and keeping a lookout from there since she’s proven her eyesight is better than any of ours. Marshal and I were going to be the first ones in to make sure the building was clear of any guards.”

“What was his plan if Chelsea stuck around?”

He paused and shrugged. “I don’t think he expected her to stick around and he didn’t prepare for it since Elizabeth went missing a few days before Isaac announced she’d be staying and getting with Zachary.”

“I think Isaac announced that the same day Marshal left, right?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He looked up from the water, facing her. “Can I ask why you’re interested in his plan, though?”

“Marshal wanted you to take lead since you knew the plan, but I really don’t think it’s a good choice for you.” She frowned slightly. “You’ve got a lot going on with Kimber, Jude, and your mom, the last thing you need is to have a group of forty something people to look after.”

He nodded, seeming to agree with her. “I’m glad you stepped up to do it because I would have completely abandoned Marshal’s plan. I don’t think I could have found a way to make it work, but you’re a lot smarter than me and I fully believe that you could make it work without Elizabeth or Marshal.”

“Good, I’m going to need your help rebuilding relations with Leona and her group. That’s my top priority right now.”

“Maybe just tell her you’ll be taking over, that’d be a good start.” He took his hands out of his pockets. “She got along best with Marshal because he was upfront with her, something most people are afraid to even attempt. You value honesty on all topics, she values legitimate criticism and respects people who are bold enough to try and correct the way she acts or does specific things.”

Alyssa nodded along, taking a mental note of everything he said. “By legitimate criticism, you mean things that are in her control, right?”

“Exactly.” His eyes lit up again once he realized she completely understood what he was trying to say. “She can’t control how her people act, so if you criticize her for someone else’s behavior, she’ll just ridicule you for taking a jab at her group. Her people do act up and what Marshal did to counter it was constantly challenging her leadership by making snide comments and eventually outright telling her that she was losing control of her people. They straightened up a bit after that, but you can tell they’re slipping again.”

“With that, you just became my adviser. You brought the job on yourself, sorry but I don’t make the rules, Joseph did.”

He chuckled, moving to get closer to her. “The rules were in place a lot longer than Joseph was. In fact, I think the rules are older than Cyrus.”

“Ouch, making fun of his age when he isn’t even here. That’s a new low for you, Milo.”

“You’re right, Kyle’s older than Cyrus so I guess we can assume Cyrus still has six or seven years left in him.”

Alyssa shook her head, a small hint of a smile on her face. “He’s twelve years older than Cyrus, give him some credit.”

Milo seemed surprised by what she had said. “Kyle’s seventy?” She nodded. “That means he had Marshal when he was forty and he got married at what age?”

“Thirty-six. His wife was thirty herself when they got married.”

“Huh. It must be a Kennedy thing to do things later in life then.”

Alyssa crossed her arms, a smirk on her face. “You somehow managed to take a dig at your own sister with that comment, nice one.”

“No, the Neil thing is to take things and then never do them because it doesn’t fit to our schedule that’s filled with absolutely nothing.” He paused. “Whitlock’s in for one hell of a life with both of those influences.”

“Have you met Whitlock’s family? Just about everyone in it is probably pretty close to clinically insane. He was in for one hell of a life from the start.” It was a bit relieving to see that Milo still believed Elizabeth was alive. Alyssa could tell what he said was his genuine belief, rather than some desperate hope he was holding onto.

She only knew it because right now, he was comfortable and completely open to her. “Just about everyone?”

Alyssa nodded, a smirk fixed on her face. “Yeah, I can’t say anything about Marshal's side of the family, I don’t know them well enough.”

“That’s not fair, you know one of his grandparents from each side.”

“But I also know only know his uncle on his mother’s side and let me tell you, that man is a piece of work.”

He looked back at the water, going quiet for a minute with a look of contemplation on his face before looking to her again. “I’m going to be serious with you for a minute, do you remember the things I said at the bunker a few weeks ago?”

Her smirk disappeared, a sudden feeling of concern quickly overcoming her. “You said a lot of things, but I do remember a lot of them.”

“I mean what I said about being interested in you. Do you remember that?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

He sighed, clearly trying to find something to say about it. “When I said I was interested in you, it was the truth and it wasn’t influence by any medicines, I just kind of panicked because I’ve never been so close to death before, believe it or not. I’ve had plenty of time to think on it and I don’t want to have to be near death before saying anything else, so from now on I want to be completely honest with you about my feelings towards you.” He paused, stepping away from the creek. “I know you’re going to make the group better than we’ve been for the past week and I want to be able to support you and your ideas in any way that I can.”

“Milo, you’ve already kissed me, killed someone for me, and confessed your feelings. I don’t know if-” She paused once she noticed the sudden gleam in his eyes once again. “What is it?”

“Hear me out and this is going to sound incredibly awkward because I’ve never actually done this before and I’m completely winging it, but I think I want to be more than your adviser. If you can handle all the oddness and downright supernatural occasions that come with me and my family, I want to try going steady with you.” He looked to her, the same bright look in his eyes as he smiled at her. “What do you say?”

[Agree to date him]
[Turn him down]
[Take some time to think on it]

---

Chelsea Hampton

She woke up to find Marshal and the baby had gotten up early and were eating in the kitchen, something Marshal typically avoided when he could.

Gillian had gone upstairs to get Carmella up and ready for the day and Zachary was still in bed, which gave her some time to talk to Marshal. “How did your plan last night go?”

“They let me tell them everything I needed to, but then they kicked me out because I guess I sounded crazy.” He paused, his vision focused on the baby while he ate. “Thinking back on it, I definitely sounded crazy.”

Chelsea didn’t know Marshal well and even after he’d been with them for a few days, he was difficult to read. Something about his refusal to look at her while he spoke to her told her something was wrong with him. “Is something going on?”

He briefly looked over at her, then looked back at his son. “Not really, he just takes advantage of people looking away from him. Though, I am curious of something and it really is none of my business.”

“What are you curious of?”

“I’m curious as to how you went in there to distract him for a maximum of five minutes and then ended up sleeping with him after we had both come to the conclusion that you weren’t ready to commit to him.”

Chelsea hurried to the chair next to him, lowering her voice. “How did you know?”

“I went to talk to you when I got back and found your room empty and his door still shut, put two and two together but didn’t actually know you slept with him until just now.”

She could see a grin on his face and feel her own face going red. “That’s evil, I hope you know that.”

He nodded. “I’m well aware and I can say I learned from the best.”

Chelsea sighed, trying to think of how exactly the night before went. “You saw the story about what happened in the lounge, well my distraction was to talk to him about that and I told him that if we were going to be convincing, we’d have to be more in sync with each other and that led to a repeat of what happened at the lounge which I'm guessing is where it started to complicate your plan as things escalated from there and I do apologize for that.”

“I didn’t actually want to know.” He continued feeding the baby while keeping an eye out for Gillian or Zachary. “I’m going to give you one last chance to get out of this. At the wedding, you can give me a cue and I’ll intervene no matter what stage it reached. I can’t help you after it’s all said and done though, I’m sorry.”

---

Unknown

‘You’re only as scared as you allow yourself to be.’

The new task she had picked up was trying to figure out where exactly she was and how she could get out. People needed her and wherever she was, she wasn’t helping anyone by being there.

She knew there was a door at the far end of the room but she’d been hesitant on approaching it because she knew there was somebody else nearby. They’d been delivering food and water to her whenever she slept, but she had yet to catch a glimpse of them.

“You can get into their systems, can’t you do something with his body?” She heard a familiar man’s voice on the other side of the door, rather distant from her.

She crawled to the door, putting her ear on it just to listen for the voice again. She noticed from the space below the door that all the lights went off a few moments after she put her ear to the door.

This was her moment and she knew it.

Jumping to her feet, she quietly opened the door, peering out of it to see nothing but darkness. She waited a moment to see if there would be any reaction to her opening the door and took a step out once there was no response.

“How do you know your own equipment won’t be used against you?” She froze in place, hearing a different voice that she also knew well. She clenched her fists and took a deep breath, putting her fists to the wall since she was still unable to see.

She started slowly walking, her feet reminding her more of a shuffle than a walk. She stopped once again when she heard a woman’s soft voice. “You've been spending too much time with her, you're getting the attitude too.”

She stopped, taking another deep breath when she noticed the trembling had started again, attempting to calm herself down before she went on. “You really aren’t in your right mind or best shape, if I leave you then you’re going to get caught. I’m staying with you, whether I do get caught or not.”

She unclenched her fists, putting her palms to the walls and walking on, desperately trying to ignore the voices. “It’s not like it’s a life that can’t be replaced and improved upon.” The voice was a man’s voice that she had known longer than any of the other voices.

“Not only is my life in your hands, but this entire group is relying on you to succeed.” She stopped, her body feeling a wave of chills as she did.

‘Stop it, stop it, stop it. None of that is important right now.’

She took one more deep breath before she continued along the wall, a sudden silence overwhelming her.

The silence ended as soon as the lights flew back on, a sound that vaguely reminded her of fireworks going along with the lights as she looked around the ceiling that had spots of mold on it, the torn up furniture, then back at the grey brick wall.

She kept her fingertips on the wall as she walked along it, only stopping once her fingertips hit a brick in the wall that felt uneven compared to the others.

She paused to look over the brick. It looked like it could be pushed out of its current place, quite possibly hiding something behind it.

She slipped her fingertips between the top of the loose brick and the brick above it and started trying to pull it out of place. After a minute of pulling, she had gotten it halfway out, so she tried wiggling it out the rest of the way.

The brick slipped out of the wall quicker than she could catch it and crashed on the cement floor, a loud thunk as it did so. She looked up to see if anyone would react, to which there was no reaction.

She looked into the hole the brick had left and eventually slipped her hand into it, feeling around for something until her hand hit what felt like a switch and the sound of a machine greeted her.

She turned to face the sound, seeing part of the wall separate from the rest of the wall, prompting her to go investigate it.

She left the wall she had been on, going across the room to the now open section of the wall.

Looking into it, she only saw a wooden staircase that went farther down into the building but didn’t look to be all that reliable.

She put her hand to the wall once again, taking the first step down just to test how secure the staircase was.

After waiting to see if the step would hold up, she continued going down while keeping her hand on the wall.

Once she reached the middle of the staircase, the lights went off again, leaving her in the dark and making her freeze in place again for a minute before convincing herself to go on.

She could tell when she was approaching the bottom of the stairs based on how steep the steps were becoming and feeling when the wall was ending.

As she reached the end of the wall, she took one last step before she nearly fell down the remaining stairs.

She then stumbled to find the wall again, reaching out the grab for it before she lost complete track of where she was.

Taking a few steps, she put her hand out and suddenly felt a long sting of pain surging through her ring finger on her right hand.

As much as she wanted to react to it, she stopped to compose herself, attempting to feel the severity of the injury in the dark.

Running her left hand along her right hand, she could feel blood quickly covering both hands and that what she’d just obtained was far more than a minor cut, she just couldn’t feel how bad it truly was.

Feeling the blood made her panic enough, but having the lights shine back on as she heard someone heading down the stairs led to another panic in itself.

She turned to find a hiding spot, immediately seeing a computer set up that seemed familiar to her.

The confusion stunned her for a moment before she moved forward to go hide.

She figured that if the computer set up was similar to what she knew then the room just might be as well. Using that thought, she followed the wall to the corner of the room to a shut door that she believed to be a closet.

Opening it, someone fell out of the closet and onto her, causing a commotion that was sure to get her caught.

She sighed, accepting defeat early on and hoping that if she was cooperative enough, she’d at least be able to tend to whatever happened to her finger.

The thought reminded her to look at the injury while the lights were on, prompting her to raise her right hand, seeing that while she didn’t feel much, the finger had nearly been completely cut off.

She turned her head to look at the staircase, hearing the footsteps approaching the bottom steps that she had missed.

---

Marshal Kennedy

Isaac had gone out of his way to find out any possible way of Marshal causing trouble and tried to eliminate before the ceremony, only to turn around and find Marshal causing trouble in a different part of the building.

Chelsea eventually picked up on the fact that Marshal was using Whitlock to find places that he could cause trouble because as he explained it, with both his and Elizabeth’s combined knack for trouble, Whitlock was like a magnet for destruction. When Chelsea questioned how bad a six month old baby could be, he simply laughed and said that he was bad enough already.

He still hadn’t told her about what his original plan was, only that it wasn’t going to work now and he had a new idea to delay the ceremony, but he’d only do it if she gave him a cue.

Isaac had seated him in an extremely specific spot that he believed had the lowest chance of anything going wrong. He was sitting between Georgie and Carmella with Isaac in front of him and Anthony behind him, which was a smart move from Isaac because Georgie was about the same size as Marshal but already drunken when he arrived, which already made Marshal a little nervous about having his son anywhere near Georgie and would likely be focusing more on Whitlock than he would be on ways to distract or cause trouble.

Debbie was also there and had been talking to Zachary through most of the preparation, which seemed to be bothering him up until Marshal and Whitlock made their way to the area and as Zachary described it, four different light bulbs busted as soon as they got there.

Once Debbie left to get help with the light bulbs, Marshal started laughing, which caused Zachary to question him.

“I broke the light bulbs.” He showed Zachary that his pocket was filled with rubber bands that he’d also taken from the upstairs office.

“I know I should be mad that you stole from me but I really can’t be, it’s honestly impressive that you broke four in a row without me or her noticing and with a baby latching onto you.” He reached out to Whitlock, taking him for a moment. “I take it you’re the one destroying every single corner of the venue?”

Marshal nodded. “There’s rubber bands everywhere out there and most of it is him grabbing things he’s not supposed to while I’m trying to shoot a rubber band.”

“Why are you doing that?”

He paused, thinking on it. “I’m not sure. I was supposed to cause a distraction yesterday, I don’t know why I’m doing it today. I guess it’s just fun.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure giving Isaac any more reasons to hate you is a lot of fun.”

“I know you’re being sarcastic, but it is so much fun. Everything gets him worked up and he’s not going to cause a scene right now, we all know that.”

Zachary passed Whitlock back to Marshal before picking up the four rubber bands on the floor. “You should stop because if it’s a vicious game you want, Isaac doesn’t mind playing dirty and he’ll find a way to get you where it hurts to teach you a lesson about never doing again. I’m sure he already knows it’s you causing havoc and he’s probably already thinking of how to get back at you.”

---

Chelsea Hampton

There were very few points that she caught Marshal’s eyes through the ceremony, but she knew it was because of Georgie.

She could tell he seemed pretty uncomfortable with him since he was seated closer towards Carmella the entire time.

She had some time to give the situation a full thought before she gave Marshal the cue to do something she was completely unaware of.

Things with Zachary had been rapidly progressing, which she could tell was making him a bit uncertain about it. He was in it because he mentioned it would make more resources available to him so he could better find out who was after her father and had already told her that if they did go through with it that he’d resign so he could also get more time to work on that as well.

That would work because he mentioned he had no intention of immediately signing his piece of Onyx over and that he wanted to figure out who exactly he was looking for before he did.

Staying in the deal would probably benefit the Voyagers as a last resort but it would require her to go against her father, which is something that would ruin their relationship forever and she likely couldn’t bring herself to do.

It wasn’t even to mention that she came back to Onyx in order to find out the truth behind what actually happened with Luke. Marshal obviously knew, it’s likely that Zachary also knew, and Elizabeth was supposed to be the one to tell her, but she wanted to find out for herself what really happened.

She had to ask herself it that would be possible after marrying Zachary. A lot of things would have to change and she didn’t know if she was ready for it all.

Sure, she’d be better off with Zachary than she would with Georgie, but none of it felt right to her.

One thing she wasn’t certain of besides Marshal’s distraction, was how things would go afterwards. She didn’t know if she’d still be married off to someone or if she’d finally be left alone, she didn’t know what would happen with Elizabeth’s search, and for once she felt completely in the dark.

She did her best to keep on a straight face as she briefly glanced at Marshal, both of their attention on one another. If she was going to end this, she had to do it now.

[Send a cue]
[Don’t send a cue]

[Agree to date him]

Horrible chain reaction where everybody dies, here we come! Jokes aside, they are adorable and I cannot see any downsides at all. I approve of this option.

[Don’t send a cue]

Besides what Tales said and what I quite agree with, there is also the added option that we don't know what is going to happen to Chelsea then. She said it herself, she might get married off to someone else after all and it could definitely be worse than Zachary by far.

7.3

Chelsea turned away from Marshal, knowing that what he said about Zachary the night before may have had some truth to it, it couldn’t be the complete truth and knowing Marshal, there was a bit of a bias against Zachary when he said it.

She reassured herself that if her father trusted him enough to even consider the marriage then he really wasn’t as bad as most people believed him to be. She knew that much herself based on how much he fought with Isaac to allow his aunt to stay with him instead of being sent to quarantine once she reported her illness.

She knew he was interested in her, she knew that he cared about her just as he cared for what family he had left and she knew he wanted to help her protect her own family to the best of his ability. She looked over to her father to see he looked quite pleased that she was going through with it while Georgie looked pissed that Zachary was going through with it.

While she was thinking on it, the officiant had worked through most of his speech and addressed Chelsea, pulling her out of her thoughts. “I do.”

“Then by the power vested in me, and witnessed by family and friends, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” He then took a step back. “You may now kiss the bride.”

---

Chelsea had noticed that Whitlock spent most of the reception with her father, which seemed to confuse a number of people. Marshal stayed with Anthony, who was all over the venue with the other guests.

Naomi seemed particularly interested in talking to Chelsea, which was a first since they didn’t have much in common and hadn’t talked much before. “What are your plans now that you’re finally married?” She sounded excited, as if she had just watched her own sister get married.

“I don’t even think we have plans for the rest of the night, let alone the far future.”

“My mom asked me tons of questions when I got married. She figured we’d eventually move and she wanted to know where we thought we wanted to go, she wanted to know if we’d already talked and agreed on kids, she wanted to know so many things.” Naomi’s smile slightly faded. “She also made it a point to remind me that a lot of marriages end in divorce and if I’m not careful, mine could be one of those. She told me the plan her and my dad made when they first got married to keep their marriage together and recommended I make one with Anthony.” She looked over her shoulder at her husband, who was still entertaining anyone he laid eyes on, before looking back to Chelsea. “It’s a lot of work to make things work, but we’re doing it. Your dad likes to think ahead, do you guys already have a plan?”

Chelsea had known that a few select individuals in Onyx knew that Elizabeth’s plan mentioned annulment, Zachary being one of them. He hadn’t talked much about that part and often changed the topic whenever she brought it up, which told her that he was uncomfortable with the topic and would bring it up whenever he was ready. “No, I can’t say we do.”

“You guys are really just going with the flow, aren’t you?”

“The flow and whatever new task comes around.” Chelsea smiled, thinking of what she’d say next.

Before she could think of anything, someone put one of their hands gently on her right shoulder. “Naomi, could I steal Chelsea from you for a bit?’

Naomi nodded, getting up from her seat. “Of course, I should probably check in with Anthony either way and see if he needs me to do anything.”

As Naomi walked away, Zachary took his hand off of Chelsea’s shoulder and took the seat Naomi had just left. He had Whitlock, but they both looked to be pretty happy. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing big, I just wanted to bring something up with you and I wanted to do it before the reception ended and we had fifty people to talk to before we can talk ourselves.” He put the baby on his knee, allowing him to play with his keys. “I want to take you on a trip, something I’ve planned out all on my own without any specific orders from your dad. I was thinking we leave tonight and we’re back on Monday so we don’t miss much. The problem with that is they really want you around here, so I figured out a compromise.”

“I’m curious as to what compromise you’d be able to reach in that situation.” Chelsea noticed the baby was about to attempt to eat the keys and she took them from him, setting them on the table. She half expected him to freak out, instead he looked over at her with a smile before reaching out to her.

Zachary passed the baby to her and put the keys in his pocket to avoid him getting hold of them again. “It was more of a compromise with myself since nobody else knew about it, but I figured you and I could sneak out of here a bit early because there’s some things I need to start being honest with you about.” He noticed the look on her face, quickly going to correct himself. “None of it’s bad, just some stuff I would prefer not to tell the whole reception. As for that trip I was thinking about, that’s first in line for when we find Elizabeth.”

“Who’s going to look out for your aunt, Marshal, and Whitlock if we leave early?”

“Anthony is hellbent on having Marshal get acquainted with everyone here, even if he doesn’t want to. Whitlock has been with your dad most of the night and he told me to bring him back to him sometime tonight and my aunt is taking the time to get to know Lyla and Bradly since they’re pretty knowledgeable in biology.” She figured Marcella would be talking with them because they wanted to know more about her sickness, just as she did.

A thought quickly hit her once she looked down at the baby. “Then I agree with leaving early, just give me fifteen minutes with Whitlock, I haven’t seen much of him all day.”

He nodded and then got up, going to talk with some of the guests.

Chelsea stayed with the baby, who was pretty interested in her glasses now that Zachary’s keys were gone.

He eventually tired himself out of reaching for her glasses and not grabbing them, so he started playing with his own hands.

Each time she’d look down to him, he’d catch her and smile but continue doing his own thing.

She spent her time until Zachary came back trying to find out which parent he was more like. She had always believed it was Elizabeth until that day when Marshal proved himself to be pretty childish when he allowed himself to be.

The thought reminded her of something that she’d completely forgotten before the reception.

She waved Anthony down, bringing him and Marshal over to the table and then excused Anthony so she could talk with Marshal.

“Now that you’ve failed at getting tonight to stop, do you want to to explain why you’re so against it?”

“Not really, but I don’t actually think you’re giving me a choice.” He crossed his arms. “If I’m being completely honest, I’m still pissed off at him. He lied directly to an entire group about who he was for eleven years and still left without saying a thing to anyone. Of all the people that he could have told, he chose to tell Filip.”

“I thought telling Filip was a good idea too, though.” Chelsea thought on what he was saying for a moment. “Marshal, are you mad at him because he didn’t trust you with his identity?” He nodded, causing her to scoff. “From what he told me, he believes that you never liked him and have actually hated him since he joined the group. It sounds like the problem’s on your part, doesn’t it?”

As he was getting ready to respond, Georgie joined the two. He surprisingly seemed more drunk than he was during the service itself, which was unsettling to both Chelsea and Marshal. He seemed to focus on Whitlock before taking a swig of the drink in his hand. “I never particularly saw the point in children. What are they good for before they turn eighteen? Annoying you and wasting your money?”

“We figured that much when you abandoned all four of yours.” Marshal took Whitlock from Chelsea once he noticed the baby was starting to get upset when he was getting upset.

Georgie nodded, taking another drink. “It’s a good thing you don’t have any money to lose. If I’m remembering his mother correctly, you’ve got a lot of… personality to deal with.”

“I think you might be mistaken since everyone here knows you focus more on a woman’s body than her personality.”

“I pay attention to everything about a woman, something certain men should start doing.”

Marshal and Chelsea noticed Georgie briefly look towards Zachary, who caught the look and made his way over to the three. “Georgie, good evening. Is there a problem here?”

Chelsea looked to Marshal, seeing he was still clearly angry with Georgie, but he didn’t say anything about it, prompting her to say something herself. “Marshal and Georgie don’t really mesh together and I think Georgie has had a little too much to drink tonight.”

Zachary got a look on his face that told Chelsea exactly what he was thinking. ‘How am I supposed to fix that?’

He cleared his throat before putting a hand on Georgie’s back. “That’s fine, Marshal’s not the easier person to get along with and I’m sure whatever was said was justified in the moment.” Chelsea and Marshal could tell he didn’t mean what he was saying and was attempting to get Georgie away from them. “Hey Georgie, why don’t you and I go talk to Isaac about getting you on the first flight back home? Everything’s better in Australia, right?”

Georgie nodded, turning away from Chelsea and Marshal and stumbling towards Isaac with Zachary following behind him.

Marshal pulled Whitlock close, knowing he’d eventually have to get back to Anthony without the baby. “Have you ever wondered why the Voyagers do what they do? Having people like Georgie in charge. Your dad isn’t so bad, but Georgie nearly manipulated him into signing Onyx over to him and by default, Georgie would have had more power than Zachary. Georgie isn’t the type to care much about ongoing issues relating to certain groups. In fact, he’s the type to take advantage of those groups suffering. That’s what I can’t stand about him and what groups like the Voyagers are trying to stop.”

“And I’m guessing you think by overthrowing Onyx that you’re one step closer to exacting whatever you plan on Georgie?” He nodded. “You really just don’t like a lot of people, do you?”

“Think about who you’re talking about again and ask me that again.” He sighed and handed Whitlock back to Chelsea. “I should get back to Anthony, I’ll see you sometime.”

---

Yvette Williams

Once she opened her eyes, she saw a pair of brown eyes staring directly into hers. “Leona, I’m so sorry, I tried to help you, I did but he was smarter than me and he tricked me.” Gregory seemed to be really worked up, almost afraid.

She looked at the ceiling, noticing the peeling paint and the mold. “Forget about it. Where are we?”

“You’re at your new home!” A man’s voice cut in before Greg could respond. Leona sat up, seeing the man standing in the doorway. “You all know each other, I’m sure you’re all comfortable with each other; at least I hope so. You’ll all be here with each other until I get everyone I need.”

Leona slightly turned around, seeing Gregory directly behind her and Elizabeth sat on the wall behind them, her right hand wrapped in gauze. “What happened to your hand?”

She didn’t respond, but put her hands in her lap.

Leona looked back at the man. “Who all do you need?”

“Well, I’ll tell you and maybe you’ll see the correlation.” He grinned, pointing at Elizabeth. “She was the first one on my list and wasn’t too difficult to get, after her was your doctor, Alyssa. I obviously don’t have her, but I didn’t figure I’d get many opportunities at getting you.”

“Cut the extra shit, just say your list.” Leona sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she could feel a headache settling in.

“Fine. Elizabeth, Alyssa, Whitlock, Eris, Gregory, Cecilia, you, and one of Milo’s twins, whichever I could get first.” He paused. “Rest assured, your group wasn’t the only target. I also plan to get Chelsea Hampton.”

Gregory looked to be thinking over the names for a minute. “Are you sure Zachary Bennington isn’t on your list?’

The man crossed his arms with a smirk. “Smart kid, you’ve already figured out the connection, haven’t you?”

He nodded. “Elizabeth is married to Marshal and Whitlock is their son, he also trained me specifically before he gave up leading. Eris is Joseph’s wife and the main reason he didn’t do much while leading. Alyssa and Milo are a thing and he’s basically adopted the twins, he also killed Cecilia’s ex-fiance, he’s also the intended leader after Marshal went into the city.” Greg looked at Leona before shrugging. “I don’t understand Leona’s connection to all this, but Chelsea and Zachary are directly connected to Isaac Hampton.”

“Your thing is leaders, is that right?”

The man uncrossed his arms, putting his hands on his hips. “That’s correct. Yvette is only here to see where she failed as a leader, that should completely fill you in.”

“I’m interested in something, how do you intend on getting, say one of the twins. They know not to go out of the walls and you’re gravely mistaken if you think Milo’s just going to give one of them up. Same goes for Whitlock, that kid’s always attached to somebody.” One thing the Voyagers had taught Leona was to constantly challenge people she knew who couldn’t take it.

She could tell he was put off by her tone by the defensive tone he’d picked up. “I found a way to get two of you at once and you’re doubting me?”

Leona stood up, dusting herself off. “Gregory will always be the first person to give up, he’s completely spineless and that may just be because he’s a kid, but it doesn’t change the fact that capturing him isn’t all that impressive. After all, it’s something I did too.”

“What about her?” He motioned to Elizabeth, clearly getting upset. “She’s married to one of the most influential men in the state right now and you really consider that to be no big deal?”

Elizabeth took her hands out of her lap and got off of the floor. “You’re talking to the only person who managed to kill me twice, one time drowning me while I was with somebody else.” She sounded tired, but also upset at the same time. “That reminds me, you’re the same person who tried to attack Lecia, aren’t you? She wasn’t on your stupid fucking list, so what’s your deal with her?”

Leona could sense that the aggression Elizabeth was sending off was slightly intimidating the man as he seemed to try to get away from the doorway. “She had your son, or is that just a detail that doesn’t stick with you people?”

“That doesn’t match up with what Filip said.” She seemed fixated on the topic. “You weren’t paying any attention to my son, you were focused specifically on Lecia. They both said that and Filip even brought back proof that you had malicious intent that night.” She quickly switched to topic. “But sure, let’s think of something else. I want to know how stupid you must be to think you can just abduct ten people, seven of them being adults and most of those adults being trained in, you know, revolting because that’s what the group does. How do you expect to get all of those people and not be taken over at some point?”

“You physically can’t fight back because of what you did to your hand, Gregory is a child and obsessed with appealing to whoever’s in charge, Alyssa will be focused on whatever twin’s here, and Leona won’t fight back because she’s genuinely curious to see how things pan out. It’s pretty twisted, but who can blame her?”

As Elizabeth was preparing to respond, the man simply turned and shut the door on his way out, the room being filled with silence until the lock on the door clicked.

Leona watched the door for a moment, waiting for him to return. She then turned back to Gregory and Elizabeth, sighing. “I don’t suppose you know where we are either, do you?”

“No, I don’t.” Elizabeth snapped back, her tone sounding annoyed. “In fact, that’s the first time I’ve spoken to him. How did you two get captured?”

Gregory looked nervous, his vision focused on Elizabeth’s right hand. “What did you do to your hand?”

Elizabeth noticed Gregory ignored her question, immediately figuring he had something to do with it but thought better than to call him out on it. “This place is rigged with traps. The lights are on some weird function and he left the door unlocked at first, I guess as a test. I was trying to get out of here and the lights went out after I found a secret room and nearly sliced my finger off trying to find my way through the dark.”

Leona figured she was telling the truth, but still felt something was odd about her. “Is there something going on besides the obvious?”

She stayed silent, her anger seeming to disperse. “You’re going to have to find a way to get us out of here and soon would be appreciated. The only reason I haven’t done better myself is because I have to stay alive.”

“Why do you have to stay alive? Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just die and come back?” Gregory questioned, leading Leona to her answer.

“You’re pregnant again, aren’t you?” Leona caught her attention once she asked the question, immediately noticing Elizabeth cross her arms. “You haven’t fought back because you don’t want to get hurt or killed and you haven’t used the gene to your advantage because you don’t know how it’s going to affect your second kid since it won’t have the gene and there’s nothing to say that it’ll be safe if you die. Is that it?” Leona scoffed slightly. “I never thought I’d see the day that you’d be afraid of something that bad.” She paused again, thinking on how long Elizabeth had been gone. “You’re not too far along and you haven’t told Marshal, which either means he’s not the father or you think he’d react poorly.”

“A number of things. First, I haven’t been with anyone other than Marshal so the chances of him not being the father are about as equal as the chances of us getting along through all this. Second, I found out the day before I left for the city, I didn’t tell him because I knew he would have done everything in his power to keep me from going to the city then.” She uncrossed her arms. “In retrospect, I might have made it back home if I told Monty or Filip.” She shook her head. “New topic, I find that list we got to be a little unbelievable. Even if he was gunning for previous leaders, there’s people closer than some of the people that he gave. That’s not even to mention that Zachary isn’t that close to Isaac and it’s a crime to try and lay your hands on him. There’s way too much at risk for some of those people and I think he’s bluffing for a majority of them.”

“You’ve got a point there.” Leona crossed her arms, looking to the ground. “I don’t think Cecilia is a very good target either since she’s slowly becoming more comfortable with defending herself with whatever means possible. She nearly knocked me out the other night because I snuck up on her.”

“The twins aren’t that good of targets either since Milo’s really strict on them about staying in the walls.” Gregory joined the conversation, only saying what he knew to be true. “Whitlock isn’t a good target since he’s in the city with Marshal.”

Elizabeth turned to him, a look Leona couldn’t read on her face. “I’m sorry, where is he?”

“In the city. Marshal left about a week after your disappeared and he took Whitlock with him.”

She didn’t seem happy about it, instead she seemed pretty upset. “That’s great, we’re desperately in trouble then.”

“I wouldn’t say that, there’s still an entire group that can get us out of here.”

She shook her head. “No, the best we can do is wait for Leona’s people. Nobody in the group is willing to stand up to Pierre and Milo only did it when Marshal was around because he’s a bad influence on him, that’s not something he would do one his own. He knew Marshal would always take the fall if something went wrong, so he felt completely blameless and would do whatever just for the fun of it.”

Gregory seemed to finally take Elizabeth’s word into account, looking to Leona. “We can count on your people, right?”

“We don’t have a choice, but we’ve got a bigger problem.” While Elizabeth and Gregory had been going back and forth, Leona had been thinking on the man’s list. “He’s going to go into the walls. That would be the easiest way to get Kimber or Jude, same with Cecilia since she also doesn’t leave the walls. I have a feeling he also intended to go into the walls for Gregory and Whitlock but took the first opportunity that presented itself. To get into the walls, he’d have to find a way to get rid of Monty and Filip or Cyrus, depending on who’s guarding the gate at the time.”

“The only way to do this would be by killing them and that tells me we need to leave sooner than later.”

Leona and Gregory shared a look before Leona quickly snapped back at Elizabeth. “Do you know that you’re the most back and forth person I’ve ever met? We’re not doing anything because between the three of us, there’s only one completely capable person and that’s me. Gregory is twelve years old, you’re pregnant and have no use of your right hand, and I’m not stupid enough to risk two children and someone else’s wife.”

“We’ll touch on that back and forth thing later, but tell me this, do you really believe that the best course of action is to just sit here and wait? Francine is a certified mess without Greg around and the group is just going to get lower in morale if people continue to disappear without a trace.” Elizabeth briefly looked at Gregory before turning back to Leona. “That’s not to mentioned he’s already been trained. Yes, he’s a kid, but he’s not in the same situation as Morgan or Kimber or Jude, he knows how to defend himself and other people. That’s also not to mention what we did when I was pregnant with Whitlock and I was definitely farther along when we went to quarantine.”

“If he could defend himself then he wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“You’re in the same exact situation but you’re a grown woman, what’s your excuse?”

Gregory could tell that the two weren’t going to work well together and that with each passing moment, they stopped taking the depth of the situation into consideration.

He knew he had to break it up, but he had doubts as to how well it would work. The only thing Leona and Elizabeth had in common was their respect for following a majority decision.

He’d have to go against one of them and they were both known for taking stuff like that personally, but he couldn’t let them constantly be at each other because it wouldn’t take Leona long to snap.

”We should find a way out”
”We should wait for the group”

---

Chelsea Hampton

After Zachary had gotten Marshal and Georgie separated and Chelsea returned Whitlock to her father, the two snuck out of the venue and ended up going to the roof of headquarters once again.

He still looked pretty happy, which told her that what he felt for her was genuine. She didn’t understand why he brought her there, but she knew she’d always be along for the ride when it came to him. She already knew he wasn’t the type to make plans and making plans even stressed him out a bit, but he was slowly becoming better with that.

“The last time we were up here, I realized something about halfway through our conversation.”

“This should be interesting considering you’re either talking about your failed attempts at dating or when you agreed to have a child with a robot.” Chelsea noticed a smile cross his face.

“Alright, that was a good one but it’s not about what would have been my robot child, it’s about my failed attempts at dating.” Chelsea snapped, getting a chuckle out of him. “Bummer, I know but you’re the one to blame for talking me out of it.”

She nodded. “Fair enough, go on.”

He suddenly seemed to try and play it off, putting his hands in his pockets. “Actually, it’s something that can wait. There’s something that’s more important right now.”

There were a number of things she had to ask him, some details about work, some with absolutely no connection to anything she needed to know.

They started back into the building, going to his office on the fourth floor. “What is it you need to do?”

“Connect my work computer to the house computer.” He sighed. “Again.”

“Isn’t that something you can do on Monday?”

He shook his head. “I’m only coming in Monday to work on my resignation with Anthony and Isaac. That, and to get you here on time.”

“I could walk and be on time.” He shrugged, focusing on the computer until Chelsea pulled a chair next to him and sat down. “This could totally be a stupid question, but why do you have two middle names?”

“My parents couldn’t settle on one that they both liked and like the business professionals they were, they compromised by giving me two.” He smirked. “It’s not any fun, in case you’re wondering. The one perk to what I do would be that I don’t have to do my own government paperwork. I always end up having to do it because nobody knows how to work with two middle names.”

“How does it work?”

He slid a blank piece of paper over and took a pen from the desk, signing his name on the paper. “I don’t put my full name down unless I absolutely have to. When asked for my middle name, I initial both of them and if I’m called out on that, I just use Denver. I’ll occasionally use Jamison because it feels more professional than Denver, but I don’t personally like it that much.”

Chelsea nodded, looking at the signature. “I’ve been wanting to ask that for awhile and you’re the only person I know with two middle names.”

“It’s not something I’m going to do for my kids, it’s just confusing for everyone.” He looked between the computer and Chelsea before getting out of his seat. “Let’s go for a walk or something.”

“What about connecting your computers?” Chelsea got up, going around the desk.

He shrugged, going to the door and waiting for her. “That can wait until Monday. If I do it tonight, I’m just going to work the entire weekend and regret it next week when I have nothing to do while you’re at work.”

She gave a soft smile, heading out of the office and watching him lock the door.

They went downstairs before trying to decide what they’d end up doing for the night, agreeing on a short walk before they would go home.

They stuck pretty close together and stayed relatively quiet, just enjoying the sights until Zachary spoke up. “I just remembered, your dad is already making the most of this couple thing and booked us for an investors meeting Monday night.”

“An investors meeting?” Chelsea stopped walking, Zachary stopping right after her. “Like dinner with the main investors to convince them to fund us for another year?”

He nodded. “There’s also going to be some other organization leaders present, Georgie is unfortunately one of them. There’s good news for you though, Eddie Russo is going to be there.”

“And who else?”

“Your dad isn’t going because he wants to see how well we do on our own, but Edefelic Magabaz, Nikolai Volkov, and Georgie Kenny are going in representation of their organizations. Eddie Russo and I think the entire Dumont family is coming since I haven’t met them all but they’re working with Elias to prepare for these sort of events. Your dad suggested we bring Marshal to try and convince the investors that we’re better off in dealing with the Voyagers.”

Chelsea scoffed, crossing her arms. “Good luck getting Marshal to go for that. He’s not going to take Whitlock around Georgie again and he’s not going to leave him home alone either.”

“That’s why your dad offered to watch him for the night.” Zachary started walking again. “I don’t know, I’m starting to think that your dad actually likes having Whitlock around, not so much Marshal.”

She followed after him, not buying into his attempt at derailing the conversation. “Alright, let’s assume that Marshal is completely okay with my dad watching Whitlock and being out of sight, he’s not going to deal well with the investors because coming into the city was his choice and whether we want to believe it or not, he still has the upper hand.”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw that. He’s aware of it, he let me in on that much today.” Zachary paused for a moment. “It’s completely up to you if you want to bring him along. I think if we break it to him in the right way to where he sees that he’s benefiting from going as well, he’ll work with us.”

[Bring Marshal along]
[Keep Marshal out of it]

---

I did intend for there to be a Voyager POV but this part has already turned out to be longer than the usual and the next Voyager POV I have planned isn’t really a short one, so in the interest of getting the part out in time and keeping it at a somewhat bearable length, that’s being saved for the next part.

I can’t say much about it other than it’ll be a flashback from a certain Voyager that’ll answer some questions that have come from this part. Sorry about that!

”We should find a way out”

Aye, as always, Tales summarizes my own thoughts on the subject, this makes more sense to me.

[Keep Marshal out of it]

Honestly, I fear that Marshal is getting more reckless. Who knows what is going to happen during that dinner, but if he loses his cool, or anything unexpected happens, then he could be at risk. So, yeah, I would really prefer to keep him out of this for the time being.

Small note before this part! I’ve made a change to the uploading schedule for this week, basically there’s going to be a part out today, one tomorrow, and a third on Sunday since there’s certain POVs I want to get before hitting the midway of the chapter and also because this part has already beaten the length of every part to date. The votes for the part after this will be open until this Sunday and Sunday’s part will have a vote open until next Sunday!

---

7.4

Gregory had noticed a lot of the adults were becoming stricter on leaving the gates, even with each other.

Morgan and Kimber didn’t know anything about it, but Jude said that Milo had told him that there were bad people outside of the gates and that the group was being targeted by the bad people.

Gregory eventually confronted Pierre, demanding to know what was going on and saying that he and the other kids had every right to know since they lived at the motel too.

Pierre was the one adult who didn’t even try to sugarcoat what was happening. “There’s a man in the woods who tried to attack Lecia and is very likely responsible for Elizabeth’s disappearance. He’s known to hang around the creek, but that doesn’t mean you can go out at all.”

He also had noticed that Leona had been trying to leave the gates more often, but her people didn’t know anything about why she constantly wanted to leave.

She had made it out of the gates once without Monty and Filip noticing, which struck Gregory as something to be afraid of.

He wasn’t thinking about what he should do, rather than what he could do and had gotten Kyle to distract Filip and Monty while he took a gun from the guard’s post and slipped out of the gates himself.

When he made it to the creek, he found that Pierre had been truthful when he spoke about the man. He also learned that the this man’s threat level wasn’t something to be taken lightly as he was one of the few people who could challenge Leona to a fight and win.

One thing Marshal had always told him during training was that he shouldn’t draw a gun on somebody if he or another Voyager wasn’t being immediately threatened or if he couldn’t reasonably deduce what had happened to cause a situation to spiral to the point where a weapon was needed.

Leona was already knocked out by the time Gregory got there, but he knew her well enough to know that she was more capable than a lot of the Voyagers physically, so anyone who could take her down was a threat. He also knew that nobody in her group and no Voyager would try to hurt her since she was on their side.

The man turned to face Gregory, who immediately raised the gun towards him once he saw the man move.

‘First, you need to issue a warning and hear what they have to say.’ Gregory started going over his training. “If you get any closer to me or to her, I’ll shoot.”

The man raised his hands, but clearly wasn’t threatened by Greg. “I was trying to help her, she slipped into the creek and knocked herself out.”

‘Use everything around you to find any bluffs in what they’re saying and call them out if their story doesn’t match up.’ Gregory briefly looked at Leona, noticing that her clothes and hair were completely dry. The man sounded tired, as if he had just run for a really long time and nearby there was a stone that looked like it could do enough damage to somebody. “That’s not true, I think you took that stone,” He motioned towards the stone, noticing the man didn’t look at it, likely because he already knew it was there. “And then you knocked her out.”

“Why would I do that? I don’t even know this woman.” The man’s tone picked up to be confrontational, Gregory figured he was trying to intimidate him.

‘It’s alright to be scared, but you can’t show it. You have to be in control of the situation if you want it to play out in your favor.’ Gregory quickly eased his hands as he felt them becoming unsteady. “I bet you didn’t know Lecia either, you just picked her because she was the only one around. She’s with my group, so if you’re really here to help her then you can leave and she’ll get help.”

He lowered his hands, taking a brief step towards Leona. “Kid, she needs a doctor, she’s really hurt. I’m telling you what I saw and what I know.”

‘You can’t let yourself be stuck alone with someone who you know has the intention of harming you, you also can’t leave one of your people with someone like that either.’ Knowing that, he was stuck. He couldn’t leave Leona with the man. “We have our own doctor, she can deal with her.”

That’s when things started going downhill. ‘You can always call for help, but you shouldn’t turn your back to an active threat under any circumstances.’ Gregory turned to look back at the motel and call for help, then heard something running towards him before he turned back to the man, just in time to get hit by the same stone he had pointed out.

---

Chelsea Hampton

“I just think we need to leave Marshal out of it. He’s having a rough time getting along as it is and if we put him in a room with Georgie, without his son, and with a bunch of other elitists, I’m half certain he’ll snap on somebody.”

He seemed to agree with her. “I was only bringing it up because your dad told me to. Marshal’s not the type to sit down with a bunch of strangers and talk business for three hours, I actually don’t even think he can sit still for three hours. A lot of the Voyagers are like that, though.”

“You reformed pretty well and you’ve been with the Voyagers just a few years less than he has, how did you do it?”

He shrugged. “I had something to do here to keep me occupied, I’ve never had a free moment since I came here and I credit that to helping me reform.” He paused, something coming to him. “I think I know what he can do to help himself reform. I’ll have to talk to your dad about it after the dinner.”

---

The weekend had gone by completely uneventful and they surprisingly didn’t hear much from Marshal. They knew he was alright, but he had usually kept to himself and was only out of the room whenever he needed to feed Whitlock.

They had told him about the dinner and that he’d have to help out Carmella for the night, which he said he didn’t mind.

Her father had given Zachary the location and a time to be there, but he wanted to be early since he knew some of the investors were going to be there early.

Chelsea could tell he was nervous once they left the house. “You already know a lot of these people, right? I mean, I know you know Eddie, but what about everyone else?”

“I know most of the Dumont family but I can’t say that I’m familiar with them. Elias is gone for so long that I would go as far to say that I only know what he looks like. Sebastian is usually around for big events with Naomi since he’s the chairman of it all, but I don’t know Veronica or her husband at all. You met their parents when you first started, Meredith and Louis, they’re really hard to please so just don’t say anything to them that you wouldn’t say to my dad.” She paused, thinking over the people he’d said would be in attendance. “Eddie and Edefelic are pretty carefree, but I can already tell you that there’s going to be problems with Edefelic and Georgie.”

“What do you mean there’s going to be a problem with Georgie?” She looked over to see a smirk on his face. “Never would have seen that one coming.”

“Everyone’s got a problem with Georgie and he’s probably going to try to push you to your limits just because you’ve embarrassed him a lot this past month and he wants to embarrass you as well. Eddie usually calls him out pretty quick, so I wouldn’t be too worried.”

She looked over again to see he seemed a lot less stressed out about it just by knowing that Chelsea knew about these people. “Thank you for coming with me. I know it’s probably not the first thing you want to do since it’s all about business and business with Georgie, but I’m really glad you decided to come with me.”

After finding out that Marshal would be staying home, her father offered to inform the guests that just Zachary would be attending since he still didn’t trust Marshal to behave, but Chelsea quickly talked him out of it and convince him that Zachary would need her there to be successful since it was his first time doing something like this without Isaac. It wasn’t the truth, but she knew Zachary would appreciate having her there and that it was also a chance for Marshal to prove himself, so it worked out well for everyone.

They arrived at the restaurant early like Zachary wanted and waited in the car for a minute until they were both certain they were ready.

She briefly stopped him before he got out of the car, giving him a quick kiss. “You’re going to do great and even if you mess up, they’ll probably still invest again just because they love my dad and that might get you out of doing this all again next year.”

“That’s oddly reassuring but I don’t think I’m gonna throw this just because I don’t want to do it on a yearly basis for the rest on my life.” He put his hand on the handle, but didn't open the door just yet. “Instead, I think I’m gonna nail this just to rub in Georgie’s face.”

Chelsea rolled her eyes, getting out of the car with Zachary getting out just after her. “That’s an admirable goal, I’ll give you that.”

Once they went in, they found Anthony looking extremely nervous in the waiting area. He went straight to Zachary. “I’m so sorry we didn’t tell you this sooner, but nobody remembered to. There’s going to be a few more people than you’re expecting, specifically six more people. Eddie Russo is bringing his son, Sebastian and Irene Dumont are bringing their son, and this one is way too important for you to mess up; Han and Michelle Lee are also coming, they’re bringing their daughter, you cannot let them leave unsatisfied with anything.”

“That’s five, who’s the sixth?”

“Irene wasn’t supposed to be coming tonight, but she wanted to finally meet you so she decided to come along and bring the baby.” Anthony looked around. “Did Marshal not come with you guys?” Zachary shook his head. “Damn, we really could have used the baby. He’s not too much younger than Sebastian and Irene’s kid and I feel like Whitlock definitely would have won them over.”

“From what Isaac told me, Whitlock wouldn’t have come either way.”

Anthony shook his head. “Marshal would have found a way to bring him along. There’s no way he’d leave Whitlock with Isaac in a place he couldn’t see them, especially not half way across the city.”

Chelsea nodded, looking back at the doors to see that the investors had started arriving. As soon as Anthony went back to Naomi, Chelsea saw a brief moment where she could say something and Zachary would be the only one to hear it. “I don’t know anything about Han and Michelle, I’ve never met them. They don’t like coming to events like this, so it’s really strange that they’d show up to this one.”

The first couple in was a man with dark brown hair who wore a brown suit. He immediately went up to Zachary and shook his hand, his wife staying by his side. She wore a green dress the paired well with her green eyes and had left her black hair down, which gave away that she was a Dumont, but didn’t tell Zachary which one she was.

Just as Chelsea was getting ready to whisper who the couple was, Zachary narrowed it down based on the woman.”Mr. Volkov, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, I’ve heard so many things about you.”

The man simply nodded, muttering something under his breath that Chelsea barely heard. ‘Smart.’ “It is nice to meet you in person, Mr. Bennington.” He then put his hand behind his wife’s back. “This is my wife, Veronica Dumont.”

Zachary smiled at her. “I believe we met around this time last year as well.”

Veronica laughed, which seemed to unsettle Zachary. “I recall, but you’ve really been with Onyx a whole year now?”

“Nearly thirteen months now.” He seemed to switch the topic as quick as he could. “Nikolai, Chelsea, I’m not sure if you two are acquainted yet.”

Nikolai birefly shook her hand. “If you will excuse us, your next set of guests are coming in.”

The two went to the dining area, leaving Chelsea and Zachary in the waiting area. She looked to him, noticing he looked slightly off. “Are you okay?”

He nodded and then smiled. “Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

The next couple in had a young boy with them, which Zachary quickly figured out to be Sebastian and Irene Dumont’s son.

He went to shake Sebastian’s hand, taking in a few details about him. He was about as tall as Zachary was himself, his hair was darker and his eyes were green, another factor giving away that he was a Dumont. “Sebastian Dumont, I presume?”

“You’d be right.” Sebastian didn’t seem like Veronica, his smile seemed genuine and he did seem to be actually interested in the conversation. “I’m going to presume that you’re Zachary Bennington.”

Zachary chuckled, slightly nodding. “It’s nice to meet you.”

The woman with him was holding onto a boy that seemed to be a bit older than what Anthony was thinking. She had long, white hair with blue eyes that were focused on the ring on Chelsea’s finger. “Is that a Welhaven Diamond?”

“It is. Imported straight from Norway since I couldn’t take any time off to get it myself.”Zachary commented once he noticed Sebastian’s eyes had also gone to Chelsea’s ring.

The woman held up her left hand, showing off a bright smile and her own ring that had a diamond similar to Chelsea’s ring. “Irene Dumont, and may I say that you have an impeccable taste in diamonds.”

Zachary briefly looked at the boy in her arms. “How old is he?”

“Our Benjamin just turned two and it’s quite a task.” Irene laughed, putting her hand to hold her son. “Dinner out of the house is new to him, so I must apologize in advance if he causes any disruptions.”

“Kids will be kids, especially at that age.” Zachary looked over the boy to see that he had inherited his mother’s hair and eye color, which probably didn’t make the Dumont side of the family happy. “Besides, most people in attendance have been parents themselves at a time, they understand.”

Sebastian nodded, a kind smile on his face. “It’s been a full weekend of trying to decide if we really should bring him along or not but it’s better to start learning sooner rather than later.”

They went into the dining area after seeing that Nikolai and Veronica had already arrived. Chelsea was going to comment on how Zachary was doing so far before six people came in at once.

Zachary immediately knew who they all were just on how they presented themselves. His first priority was the family of three, all of them being slender in their build but their eyes just looking for something wrong as soon as they walked in the door. “Mr. Lee, Mrs. Lee. I’m Zachary Bennington, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He then briefly looked over to the other family. “It’s nice to see you again, Louis and Meredith.”

He saw Han nudge the girl in front of him, prompting her to introduce herself. “Hello sir, my name is June Lee. It’s very kind of you to invite us tonight and we look forward to learning about what you plan for your organization.”

Zachary nodded, allowing the two families to move on.

Chelsea had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be difficult to keep the Lee family pleased as it looked as if they were here to train their daughter. “The boy you didn’t get the name of is Elias, the Dumont family’s youngest.”

“So that’s all the Dumonts, we’re just waiting for Georgie, Edefelic, and Eddie.”

Georgie arrived and simply said hello, refusing to stick around with the two for small talk. Edefelic did the same thing, but Chelsea figured that was more because he hadn’t figured Zachary out yet and he didn’t want to test him.

Once Eddie and Brent got there, the four of them went to the dining area to see most of the investors and organization leaders mingling with each other since most of them already knew each other.

Zachary had a few things left to talk about with the restaurant staff before they could get started, so he split from Chelsea so he could handle what he needed to. Brent had gone to talk with Elias once he saw that he was also there, but Eddie stuck with Chelsea.

“Tonight’s probably gonna be rough on him.” Eddie commented, noticing Zachary already seemed a little stressed out. “Between the Lee family showing up, Georgie being here, and Irene’s baby, there’s tons of distractions to go around.”

“I’m not too worried about him. He’s already aware that most of these people are here to watch him fail purely because he’s not Isaac Hampton, but he’s not planning to give them the satisfaction of that much.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that. Your dad has been pulling some unpredicted cards lately and the investors are starting to expect more from Onyx, not only in your promises but also in dealing with the Voyagers.” Eddie paused. “A lot of these people don’t trust Zachary yet because it’s no secret that he was with the Voyagers for years before this, people are skeptical. They’re also skeptical about your relationship since he’s your superior and nobody knew a thing about the two of you until under a week before you two got married.”

“If it helps, he’s resigning after the conference in the Vatican next week.”

Eddie didn’t seem to care much about that part. “I personally don’t mind what he does, I think he’s doing fine for now. I’m just hoping he turns out to be his own person rather than someone like his parents.”

“Were they that bad?”

He shook his head. “They were just hard to get to know because they were just.. weird. They loved what they did but they hated certain aspects of it, events like this being something they didn’t like and always left for your parents.” He chuckled. “I remember how pissed off your mom got at her last event, his parents backed out at the last minute and your mom was already nine months along with you and had trouble getting around, but she made herself go to the event.”

“Why did they back out at the last minute?”

“They found out the Lee family was coming. There’s always been some tension between them and Herald. They’re cool with Zachary leading this event since they’re interested in seeing how he differs from his parents.”

Zachary finished talking with the staff, quickly spotting someone who didn’t belong and made his way to Chelsea and Eddie. “Chelsea, two questions. When did your dad get here and why is your dad here?”

Chelsea looked over the people in attendance, spotting her father talking with Naomi and Anthony. “I don’t know the answer to either of those questions, but he didn’t come in while you were talking to the staff.”

“He’s an investor as well, so he might be here as an investor.” Eddie commented, crossing his arms. “He was also probably here before anyone else to avoid being spotted until the last minute.”

Chelsea could tell the thought of having to appeal to her father stressed Zachary out even more, but he simply tried to shrug it off.

The staff laid out the meals they’d prepared and the investors went to the table, Zachary taking a moment to go around the table and make sure everyone was happy with what they’d gotten.

Once he had taken his own seat, the investors turned their attention to him, waiting for him to start the pitch.

“We all know how these meetings usually start, I tell you what we’re going to do and try to convince you to invest again, but I’m going to do something a little different.” He could tell the investors were interested based on the looks he was getting. “You’re our investors, sure, but you’re also our partners and that’s what’s most important. Since a partnership works both ways, I want to hear your ideas to solve our current problems and prevent new ones from forming so that together, we can make Onyx the best it’s ever been.”

Nikolai was the first to speak up. “It is an interesting idea you have, to get all of us involved, but what is your reasoning for it?”

“It gives you a reason to invest again because you know the organization is taking steps to fulfill your desires. You’re not just giving us your money and counting on us to make it worth anything.”

Chelsea looked to her father to see that he had no idea what Zachary was talking about and that they hadn’t previously talked about this, though he did seem intrigued by the idea.

Michelle cupped her hands, studying Zachary for a moment before she said anything. “I’ve always felt Onyx has had a management problem and that they take more than they can handle. From what’s developed recently, you’ve got enough staff but your management is getting careless.”

She then looked to Han, who nodded. “I agree. Michelle and I have discussed this in private and we believe that putting the former leader of your resistance with one of your organization’s owners is reckless behavior.”

Isaac knew the two were directing their comments at him since it was his decision to put Marshal with Zachary and he was going to defend the decision until Zachary stepped in. “I’d say otherwise. Marshal Kennedy is very careful with choosing his words to engineer a situation to his advantage and with the current situation we’re in, leaving him to do his own thing is the best we can do since he’s not hurting anybody. He understands what’s at risk for him and he’s currently cooperating with us, but it doesn’t hurt to have a higher figure of authority looking after him, it makes it easier to deal with him if he does steps out of line.”

“I’ve met Marshal Kennedy myself and harmless isn’t a word I’d use to describe him. That man’s a threat and just waiting for something to spark a reaction from him.” Georgie quickly snapped back at Zachary.

“There are factors that influence someone’s behavior and the very first time you met him, you got drunk right next to his infant son. He also had only been in the city for a week when you first met him.” He took a quick breath. “I’m not trying to validate him, I’m just saying that his behavior in the situation you’re referring to is the only thing we can expect from him.”

“That’s not to mention that he wasn’t even aggressive with you, he was just mouthy.” Isaac commented from his side of the table, sounding a bit irritated.

“By focusing on one man, how are you intending to take down the whole group?” Veronica chimed in before Georgie could keep arguing.

The investors then turned to Zachary, waiting for a response. “By using him the same way he’s using us. Marshal’s wife disappeared a few weeks ago and she’s got strong connections in Onyx, so he surrendered for our assistance in finding her. What he doesn’t know is that as soon as she’s found, they’ll both be chipped and their memories will be used to track down the rest of the group.”

Chelsea looked at her father, seeing something spark in his eyes. She could tell Zachary was making this up as he went along, but she had the awful feeling that he’d just given her father an idea.

Most of the investors seemed pleased with the answer with the exception of Edefelic, who had been known to be very kind to resistance members since his half-sister was the leader of the Vatican’s resistance. “So you have a plan on what to do for your resistance, but tell me something new. Zachary, what would you say is a legacy?”

Chelsea noticed Zachary looking around the room for a split second before he stopped at Benjamin. “A legacy is something you have to create yourself. It’s the basic foundation to secure a future for your people.” He then looked at Edefelic. “Don’t get me wrong, I believe that having someone to pass your legacy down to is important, but you need to have something before you can pass it on.”

“Your parents were known to be difficult to work with, how can you assure us that you’re not the same way?” Eddie decided to get his only question out of the way, knowing it would spur more questions from the others.

“Because I’m here while there’s a former Voyager in my home right now. I’ve been doing all I can to keep all of you updated with what’s happening inside Onyx for the past year and I’ve been as open as I can with all of you tonight.” Chelsea saw him look at Georgie briefly. “There are some of you that I may never personally agree with or get along with but this isn’t some dinner party, this is an investor’s dinner.”

Chelsea noticed a small nod of respect from Eddie, then looked to see that Han and Michelle seemed to be pretty impressed.

“You’ve got your Voyager problem figured out, but how do you intend to build relations with other organizations? Specifically the few you won’t get along with.” Louis spoke up from Chelsea’s side.

“The same way I’ve been dealing with other organization leaders for the past year; by only seeing them during formal events and treating them as the equals that they are, whether I believe that they’ve earned that treatment or not.”

Irene looked as if she were thinking on something before she spoke on it. “And what about building relations with your citizens? That’s crucial in the business world and I’m sure you’re already aware that some people are very unsure of you in specific based on your history with the Voyagers.”

“By getting rid of the group they’re afraid of. I can’t change everyone’s mind and I surely can’t appeal to everybody, but I can try in the best way I know how.” Chelsea noticed that he didn’t really know how to answer that question, so he decided he was just confuse the investors. He did that a lot and it worked once again, because they moved on without asking for clarification.

Eddie leaned back in his seat a bit before clearing his throat. “I don’t know about all you guys, but I’ve made my decision already.” After hearing the other investors agree, he delivered his verdict. “I’m investing again.”

“Isaac, we already figure you’re investing again.” Louis looked over the people in attendance, focusing on his children. “Naomi, Sebastian?”

Naomi held up a finger while she whispered back and forth with Anthony before nodding and putting her hand down. “We’re investing again.”

Louis then looked to his oldest son, waiting for a response. “I’m investing again.”

He then looked to Irene, who he knew was there as an investor herself but also as a representative for the Diamond Organization. “I’ll be investing again myself and will also speak with Diamond Organization investors about the opportunity available at Onyx.”

“Meredith and I will be investing once again.” Louis finished his side of the table, then looked over to the other organization representatives.

Georgie leaned forward in his seat and shared a glance with Zachary. “I’ll start investing. I may not like you in the slightest but you proved to me these past few weeks that you’ve got what it takes to stand up to people you probably shouldn’t, but you’re too damn headstrong to quit. Your citizens need that.”

Han and Michelle spoke with each other for a moment before consulting their daughter’s opinion on it. Once they all agreed, Han spoke for the three of them. “It has been an interesting experience, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t curious as to where Onyx goes from here. We’ll invest again, but we hope to see significant changes within the next year. If we don’t see those changes, we won’t return for another meeting and we won’t invest again.”

Edefelic looked unsure of his verdict and encouraged Nikolai and Veronica to go before him.

“We will invest again, but our conditions are the same as Han’s conditions.” Nikolai didn’t have much to say on it as he turned back to Edefelic for his verdict.

“I should be taking time to consider it, but why not? I’ll invest again.” Edefelic stood up, gathering his belongings. “Congratulations on the first meeting in four years that all investors choose to invest again.”

The investors saw themselves out, with just Isaac, Eddie, Louis, and Meredith sticking around to talk with Zachary and Chelsea.

Louis and Meredith were closest in proximity to him, so they went first along with Elias. “Han was right, that was quite the interesting experience and we look forward to seeing what you have to offer to Onyx. We do have a request for you, though.” They waited until the knew they had Zachary’s full attention before they went on. “You seem pretty set on handling your Voyager problem and you’ve mentioned that you’ve currently got one living with you.” Zachary nodded, allowing them to go on. “We want you to take Elias for his holiday break, to teach him how to deal with resistance groups and become a better leader. The school won’t teach the children how to deal with resistance movements and you’re closer to his age than Isaac and we feel he’d listen better to you.”

“Louis, Meredith, I don’t think I can do that. Marshal’s still not used to the city and he’s really antsy with new people around his son, I feel it’s going to cause more problems with his attempts at reform.”

“It’s your job as a leader to meet the needs of all of your people, not just one of them.” Isaac commented. “Meredith and Louis have spoken to me about this and told me they would decide based on your performance tonight.”

Zachary frowned slightly, quickly correcting himself before he said anything. “I suppose that’s right. You two are aware that Marshal was the most dangerous threat to life while he was part of the Voyagers and he’s still not fully reformed yet, right?”

“That’s the risk that comes with the job, he has to learn how to handle people like that if he wants to succeed.” Louis continued to push, seemingly like he’d already made up his mind.

“As long as you two are aware of the risks that are present in my house, I’m okay with that.” Chelsea knew why he really didn’t want to take Elias, the main reason being that it would stall his investigation into her father’s threat and delay his resignation, which was only going to lead to more stress on him.

“We’re well aware of who all resides in your home and the current threat level they possess. We expect him to go into work with you and learn what you do around headquarters and what you do work wise while you’re home.” Meredith turned to Elias. “Your sister is going to be making sure you behave and you’d better believe we’ll hear every single thing that goes on. Go get your stuff from the car while we work out the details.”

Elias took the order, Louis waiting for him to be out of the building before saying anything else. “The school has told us he’s been getting overly competitive in the wrong way, he’s started challenging his teachers, acting out and we’re worried he’s going to end up slipping somewhere and turning down the wrong path. Being around three very different people who’ve led three very different lives should help him understand that he needs to get his act together. We’re not worried about Marshal, he can say whatever he wants to him but he shouldn’t lay a hand on our son.”

Elias came back with two bags, prompting Meredith to end the conversation. “His holiday break is over in January, but we’ll take him to see the family on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Other than that, he’s all yours.”

The two said goodbye to their son, who didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in saying goodbye to them before they left.

Eddie had Brent go try to talk with him while he talked to Zachary away from the others, leaving Chelsea to talk with her dad. “You really surprised us by showing up, you know that?”

He nodded, his vision focused solely on Zachary. “He did pretty well.” He then turned to Chelsea. “Most of the guests were impressed with the determination he had. Edefelic was a bit upset since his plans don’t really line up with Edefelic’s beliefs but the Voyagers are back in hiding since Marshal gave up, they won’t be for much longer. I’m quite pleased with how this all went, especially considering he’s the same man who left his own wedding reception two hours early.”

“Why did nobody tell us that Georgie wasn’t an investor?”

“Because you have to pick your battles.” Her father put his hands in the pockets of his white suit. “We only found out the Lee family was coming after you two had already left for work and they’re significantly more difficult to please than Georgie, so we chose to tell Zachary to prioritize their satisfaction. His investment was a surprise, though.”

Zachary joined the two after finishing his talk with Eddie, who got Brent and left the restaurant. He didn’t seem mad when he left, just tired.

Isaac reaffirmed Zachary that he did a good job over the night and then left himself. Before he left, he had told them to be early to work the next day as he had a meeting for the both of them.

Once the restaurant was cleaned up, Chelsea and Elias put his bags in the car while Zachary dismissed the restaurant staff.

He met up with them at the car and they quickly started back home, knowing it would take at least half an hour to get back.

Halfway to the house, Zachary attempted to start up a conversation with Elias. “We heard stuff’s rough at school for you, do you want to talk about it?” He looked in the rear view mirror to see the cold glare he was getting in response. “I just think it might be easier for you to talk to people who aren’t your parents about it.”

Elias crossed his arms, something Chelsea knew he was doing as a defense mechanism. “You said it yourself, stuff’s rough.”

Zachary nodded, picking up on Elias’ subtle demand to drop the conversation. “You’ve got me there.”

Elias stayed quiet for a few minutes before Chelsea looked back to see he seemed nervous about something. “Is there something you want to say?”

He looked up at her and shook his head, going silent for another five minutes before he spoke again. “The Voyager at your house, he’s not too mean is he?”

Chelsea and Zachary shared a look before she answered. “Not unless you provoke him. He keeps to himself for the most part but he’s not subtle at letting you know when you’ve upset him, he gets passive-aggressive in the hopes that the conversation will end, then he gets direct and tries to end the conversation himself. His baby is more social than he is.”

“Just be careful how you act when the baby’s around or how you act towards the baby, those are the easiest ways to set him off.” Zachary paused, trying to think of something else he had meant to mention. “Gillian can help you around the house if you need it, but she’s around more to help with my aunt while I work.”

“How many people are in the house?”

“Six if you count Gillian, but she’s not really human so I guess five.” Zachary sounded unsure of his answer.

Elias went quiet until they reached the house, then he grabbed his stuff and waited by the front door. The lights were still on inside, which was unusual for a time close to one in the morning.

Zachary went in, seeing Marshal on the couch. He cleared his throat to announce that they’d gotten back. “Marshal, you alright?”

He slowly sat up, looking as if he had just woken up. “Yeah.” He took a moment to recognize Elias and fully register that he was there. “Did you bring home someone else’s kid?”

“That we did.” Zachary went upstairs, Elias following him up with his stuff.

Chelsea came in, shutting the door and locking it behind her. Marshal got off the couch and went to his room, briefly stopping in the doorway. “You’re going to run out of rooms in a week if you keep bringing people home at this rate.”

“Very funny, goodnight.” Chelsea smirked as he went in his room and shut the door.

She went around the living room, turning the lights out before heading upstairs. The lights were already off in the room Elias took, which told Chelsea that he was just as tired as everyone else.

She went into her own room to see that Zachary had already gotten ready for bed and was looking through a file while he waited for her. “In the time it took me to say goodnight to Marshal and turn the lights off, you’re already ready to go to bed and Elias has clocked out. That’s pretty impressive, I gotta say.”

“It’s only fair since I took plenty of time at the restaurant.”

Chelsea had gotten some sleep clothes and gone into the bathroom to change. “Speaking of the restaurant, what did you think of your first investor’s dinner?”

“It was an experience, that’s for certain. It felt good to secure all the investments but it just felt weird to me.”

“Like you were lying to the investors? Because I had a feeling that’s what you started doing halfway through the dinner.”

“Exactly. I didn’t believe a thing that I told any of them.” He paused. “I feel bad for lying, like really bad, but I know your dad is proud that we finally got Georgie to invest, the Lee family to attend an event, and secure each investor for another year.”

Once she had finished changing, she tossed her old clothes into the laundry basket and left the bathroom, going to her side of the bed. “Being honest isn’t really an option for you. If you had told them what you really believed about the Voyagers, they would have told my dad to chip you. It was pretty risky for you to defend Marshal, but the way you did it made them believe that Marshal really doesn’t have any choice in what he does or what goes on around him, which we both know isn’t the truth.”

He closed the file and set it on the nightstand, quickly checking his phone before laying down. “The whole thing bothered me, but we can probably save that topic for another day. We’ve got just enough time to make it an extended nap.”

Chelsea chuckled, turning off her lamp and taking off her glasses before climbing into bed. “Do you think things are going to work out with Elias?”

He quickly reached up and turned off the lamp on his side of the bed, something he normally forgot to do before falling asleep. “What do you mean?”

“Do you honestly think he’s going to open up to either of us?”

She felt him get closer, then felt him wrap an arm around her. “No, I don’t. I’ve got a strong feeling that Marshal will get something out of him. The last grade Marshal attended in school was the same grade Elias is in right now. Their situations are a bit different but Marshal’s not the type to just let somebody ignore him. He needs the validation, he just doesn’t understand how to go about getting it.”

“You did a really good job today. I know you heard the same thing from everyone at the restaurant, but they’re right. Even if you didn’t like what you had to do, you got your job done and put up with a lot of bad attitudes in one room. You made a lot of people happy tonight and I know that's what really matters the most to you.”

She heard him give off a soft laugh, which sounded pretty drained. That was the last she heard from him until she had gone to sleep herself.

[Accuse the man in the woods]

I actually kinda believe he sounds more likely. As Alyssa said, Onyx has no reason to sneak in... unless they expect us to come to this conclusion and snuck in on purpose, but if I start thinking in that direction, things would just get way too confusing.

[Leave him alone and ask about it later]

Here, I am kinda torn between this and talking right now. I might change my vote later, but I would like to see what the rest thinks on this.

Ahh, I wouldn't be too certain about Onyx not knowing their location since Onyx guards are responsible for Elizabeth's weaponization last chapter and one of them is still alive, even though she's still with the Voyagers.

As for the man's list, none of the people who were just taken were on his list, but he does have a high disdain for Filip, which could influence him attacking him since he knows Monty wouldn't really do anything about it. However, just to balance the odds, Elizabeth did mention that she was pretty certain his list was just off the top of his head and that he was bluffing so he could definitely still be responsible for it.

Voting is closed!

Alyssa will accuse the man in the woods and Elias's choice was a tie that I'm flipping a coin right this moment to break. Heads is talk about it later and tails is talk to him immediately.

Alright, it's tails. Elias will talk to Zachary immediately.

I'm going to try to have the part out tomorrow, because it's highly unlikely that I'll be finished with it today. I'm going to go ahead and give the alternate options.

Had Alyssa chosen to blame Onyx, she would have had to convince the group why she believed it was Onyx and they would be on the lookout for Onyx. I can't say whether it actually was the man in the woods or not, but I do believe that'll be answered in the next part.

Elias's choices would have influenced the timing of an upcoming talk with Isaac. If he didn't mention it to Zachary, he wouldn't find out what's bothering him and no action would have been taken to fix it. Had he waited until they went home, Zachary would have put off talking to Isaac and would have been really vague in telling Elias what was going on.

[Have Pierre send some people]

I would actually like to get Pee Air involved a bit more, maybe that could be a good idea.

[Question the staff]

Here, I believe Zachary should just do it himself right away instead of waiting for Chelsea or Isaac to do it.

Alyssa will likely already have people searching for them before Pierre's group arrives, it all depends on her ability to sway Leona's people to work with her. This is where the earlier choice of dating Milo comes into play because he understands Leona's people and is one of the people Alyssa needs to convince to search, so it's a high possibility that it'll work out in her favor because of the previous choice!

As for Zachary, it's an interesting situation. He's quite different from Isaac but I can say that he's struggling between becoming more like Isaac and sticking with the Voyager beliefs. His whole investigation requires him to be closer to people involved with Isaac and Isaac himself, which allows him to learn how to better fit in with his role at the expense of losing touch with the Voyagers. As I've told Liquid, a lot of his investigation choices might continue to sway him into Onyx but stalling or outright refusing the investigation isn't recommended.

_{Also, he and Isaac both have the power to order somebody dead, he's just less inclined to use it.}

[Prioritize Whitlock’s care]

[Prioritize Whitlock’s care]

Because Whitlock absolutely needs the care. He's a baby and he's not in a good spot right now, so there is absolutely no way I would not make his care the top priority.

Voting is closed!

Zachary is going to prioritize Whitlock’s care.

So this naturally isn’t going to sit well with Isaac, but it actually saves Chelsea and Whitlock from being attacked by the man from the woods since she would have done it herself if he would have continued to say no. Isaac would have blamed Zachary for it and pressure him to resign, which he would eventually do.

The chosen choice does open up to some consequences for Chelsea and Zachary but it helps Whitlock adjust a lot easier as well as helps Chelsea and Zachary learn what they can do from their end to help him.