#sidner

Blue grumbled as he sat at the bar, waiting for the others to arrive.  Vio had gotten a call the night before, interrupting them, and was told to prepare a meeting the next day.  Vio refused to give him a drink because he didn’t trust how he would act with the alcohol in his system.  He didn’t blame him for that one.

The door swung open and two figures walked in, the taller of the two speaking up, “Good to see you again, Blue.  Any idea what this is about?”

Blue shook his head at Scar.

Grey walked over to a table and sat down, “Didn’t we just talk the day before?  How can we already be in a position to update?”

“Because I have information.”  They turned as Roseby walked in, a wide smile on his face.  Sinder followed after with Hellios and moved to the booth he always sat in.  Roseby leaned against a railing and folded his arms, “Good to see everyone made it.”

Blue glowered at him, “What the hell is this about?  Can we just make this quick?”

Roseby’s smile fell and he returned a hard gaze to Blue, “Why don’t you calm down, this is more important than your bedroom time with your boyfriend.”

The room froze and Blue’s flames jumped in height, his face glowing electric blue, “What was that, bubblegum bitch?  I didn’t quite catch that.”

Roseby’s gaze darkened his flames flicked violently, “I mean, you can fuck out your anger later, so shut your goddamn mouth.”

Blue jumped up, but Scar stood between them arms outstretched, “Enough you two.  We need to work together, you can kill each other after this ordeal.”

Roseby relaxed against the railing and waited for Blue to do likewise.  He glared for a minute before returning to his seat, seething eyes never leaving Roseby.

Roseby clapped his hands together, “Alright, so this is everyone.  Let’s get started.”

A soft knock was heard from the door, and the group looked around at each other, not sure what that could be.  Roseby walked over and slowly opened the door, but quickly stepped to the side when he saw who it was.  Lilac and a second fire elemental, his flames a teal color.

Lilac glanced over the group with a sly smile before turning back to Roseby who was locking the door, “This ought to be interesting, I wonder how much I can get out of this.”

Roseby walked back over to where he had been standing, “And what does that mean?”  He raised a hand before a response could be made, “Actually, first what are you even doing here and how do you know?”

Lilac chuckled as he sat at the far end of the bar, his companion sitting beside him, “I heard the other day that someone never arrived at a more private and dark meeting.  One that was being held not to far from here.  I just had a feeling of what happened, speaking I gave up their information the other day.”

Roseby shrugged, “Yeah, not to hard to figure that out, the question is then, are you with us, or are you going to go down with your middle ground?”

Lilac’s expression darkened, “I’m afraid I have picked a side, if for no other reason than that it would be dangerous to try and play both when war is the likely result.”

Scar cleared his throat, causing the others to turn his way, “As nice as it is to hear you are with us, we need to know who he is.”  He pointed toward the new face beside Lilac.

The new face had a wide flirtatious grin on his face as he looked over at Scar, “I was starting to get worried that no one could see me.”  He leaned onto the counter and closed his eyes, “I’m Teal, and I just happened to catch Lilac after he talked to…”  He glanced at Roseby as if sizing him up, “Rosebud, over there, and I wanted in.”

Roseby twitched and glared at Teal, “It’s Roseby, not that difficult.”

Teal shrugged nonchalantly and smiled smugly, “Well, I was hoping to be ‘bud’dies, so it’s like a pet name.”

Roseby scowled, “If you get anywhere near me, I will make your death slow, understand.”

“Roseby, just tell us why we are wasting our time here!”  Blue was seething, and his volume filled the space and was met with silence.

Roseby raised an eyebrow at him before he shrugged and sighed, “Alright.  It’s simple really, I was able to talk to someone who could give us some information on our enemies movements.”

Scar scoffed at him and glared his way, “And by talk, you mean torture, don’t you?”

Roseby gave a sly smile, “Does it matter, I got the information.”

Grey glanced over the room, “Why not have them tell all of us?  Wouldn’t that be easier than conveying it now?”

Roseby laughed, he really did find the response hilarious, “Oh, god no.  She’s dust now, and you didn’t want to see her when I was working on her, trust me.”

Grey jumped back and the room felt tense afterwards, but Roseby’s bright outburst kept him from dwelling on it, “Anyway, it’s not like there was much, she didn’t have that much information.  I suspected that they wouldn’t just hand out details to anyone, but it was still something.”

Scar growled, “She still had friends and family, so could you be more respectful.”

Roseby raised an eyebrow at him, “What do you care, we both took a lot of lives for war before, why is this any different?”

Grey shrank into his chair and trembled lightly, Scar glared at Roseby, “We don’t need details, just tell us what they told you already.”

Roseby shrugged, “Fine, it’s not much, but they are gathering in lower Hotlands in two days.  There’s a pretty large group of them, 50-60 estimate.  No information on the one in charge of the attack except that they call them ‘the Savior’.”

Blue scoffed, “ ‘The Savior’?  What kind of name is that supposed to be?”

Teal laughed and waved a hand, “It’s still better than the king’s naming.”

Roseby cleared his throat to stop the chatter, “That’s not the point, the problem is that this meeting is meant to be the one that attacks the king himself, so this is the one we have to make.”

Lilac hummed to himself softly, “Now that is an important detail, even I hadn’t caught word of that.  So now we plan our strike?”

Roseby nodded.

Scar stood and moved a few chairs away from a large table, “Alright, so we’ll likely need to split into groups, if we all walk in together they’re going to notice and everything will fall apart.”

Grey moved over, though still stayed at least a few feet from anyone, “What teams should we run, we need them to be able to work together.”

Blue glared at a few of the people around, but Lilac spoke out, “Not just that, we need them to be a strong team.  If they can work together, but have the same strengths and weaknesses, then it won’t work.”

Roseby nodded, “Exactly.  I was thinking of Blue and Scar on a team, they know enough about each other to keep themselves safe.”  Scar nodded in agreement, Blue looked away, but he looked to have agreed.  Rose pointed toward Grey, “You and me will be on a team.  I know you don’t trust me, but with you being in less than satisfactory condition, you’re better off being with a healer.”  Grey hesitated for a moment before giving a quick nod.

Lilac cleared his throat, “And what of me and Teal?”

Roseby glanced at them, “I don’t know Teal at all, but I know you are good at gathering information.  I was hoping you could keep a distance on the higher ridges of the area and keep an eye on things.”

Lilac nodded, “Alright, then Teal you might as well stick with me.  Unless you’re going to cause a ruckus, we can’t have that.”

Teal gave a devil may care smile and folded his arms, “I can handle that.  Actually by the looks of this we should have an escape plan as well.  I can have a distraction ready to go in case anything gets too exciting.”

Roseby nodded.

Blue slammed his fist on the table and held a dark gaze toward Roseby, “And what about Vio, huh?”

Roseby raised an eyebrow at the outburst and sighed, “He will be with Sinder.  They will stay on the outskirts on standby.”

Blue stepped toward Roseby, “Why have them their?  What if something happens?”

Roseby kept his face neutral as he looked at him, “They will be fine.”

Blue grabbed his collar, the rest of the group jumped up fearing an all out brawl between the two was going to break out, but Roseby waved a hand, “Blue, calm down.  I won’t let anything happen to Vio or Sinder, alright.”

Blue snarled, “Coming from the person who already did something, that’s not too reassuring.”

Roseby sighed and folded his hands behind his back, looking Blue straight in the eye, “Then get it out of your system.  This isn’t going to work if you can’t focus on the mission.”

Blue’s fist connected with the side of Roseby’s face, who almost fell from the hit.  It was a lot harder then Roseby had expected, and he could tell he would feel that for a few days.  Blue raised his fist to strike again, but Vio grabbed his arm.

Blue snarled before his face softened when he realized who it was, “Let go of me.  He deserves this.”

Scar walked to stand between the two and shook his head, “That’s enough, Blue.  Just leave it for now.”

Blue ripped his arm out of Vio’s grasp and walked away.  Lilac cleared his throat and had a forced smile on his face, “I guess we should all go our separate ways until then.  Don’t want to draw any extra attention to ourselves.”

Roseby nodded as he lightly rubbed the side of his face before turning to where Sinder was, “Hey, Sinder.  You alright to take care of yourself.”

He froze for a moment, but after a pause nodded.  Roseby began to move toward the door, “Alright, then I’m leaving.  I’ll see you all later.”  He waved a hand over his shoulder as he left.

Roseby quickly walked a short distance and stopped to lean against a tree, scowling at himself.  Stupid Blue, just had to remind him of how badly this could end.  Roseby didn’t want anything bad to happen, but in war it was hard to control the flow of the fight.  He lightly punched the tree, not to hard, as he had healed his hand only the other day.

“You look worse than I thought you would be.”  Roseby turned and was surprised to see Grey standing there, expression unreadable.

Roseby turned away, placing a hand on his forehead, “What do you want?”

Grey chuckled softly, “You really don’t remember me do you?  I guess I don’t blame you, I would like to forget it myself.”

Roseby turned a bit confused, “What are you talking about?”

Grey looked at his hands and clutched his cane tightly, “After I got away from…...from the humans.  I was in pretty bad shape.  Eventually they sent someone to try and heal and talk to me.  It was you, but I guess it a was also a bad time for you.”

Roseby was shocked when it hit him, it was just after….. Didn’t matter, he did now Grey, and damn did he curse himself for forgetting, “Heh, I can’t believe I forgot someone like you.  You were really stubborn, huh?”

Grey smiled and looked away pained, “Yeah.  I want to ask though, why did you let Blue hit you.  I know, not just from the last time you two saw each other, but from your history, that he wouldn’t have hit you.”

Roseby leaned against the tree, “He’s right.  I deserve it, simple.”

Grey closed his eyes, “I don’t agree with your actions, past or present, for a second, Cotton Candy.”  Roseby scowled at him.  “But, you’re letting yourself be stuck in the past.  You are getting annoyed at Blue for having an attitude that could leave this mission in shambles and yet.”  He paused and waited for Roseby to look at him, “Your attitude will do the same.  You need to start fighting, as much as this world might be better without you, that’s just not in your character.”

Roseby looked at the ground, contemplating his words, “Thanks for that, but I’m fine.  I’ll be ready by the time we head to Hotlands, I can guarantee that.”

Grey shook his head and sighed as he turned away, “Fine.  But me and Scar know you, better than you might think.  Don’t over do it, either you’ll end up dead or a lot of other people will be.”  He walked away.