"I can't believe you actually did it." Tess was rubbing her forehead. Headaches had become non-existent since The System, but somehow these two idiots had managed to cause one anyway.

"What?" Weeble's posture radiated innocence. "I told you I was going to kidnap someone."

"I thought that was a metaphor!"

"Please, I barely know what that word means." He sat back in the chair at her kitchen table, limbs splayed with dramatic casualness.

"I can't believe you two actually kidnapped someone against their will and brought them here! We don't do that!"

Cass, at least, had the good judgment to look chagrined.

"If I have a say in the matter, I really don't want to be here." Ben raised his hand in the air.

"You don't have a say." Weeble said.

"He absolutely does!" Tess replied. She looked around the room at the rest of the Vanguard, but they were studiously silent. She turned to face Cass. "You need to bring him back. Now."

"Thank you!" Ben said.

Cass moved to stand but Weeble put a hand on his arm.

Ben groaned.

Tess's expression was dangerous. "Are you really defying me right now?"

"Teach him a lesson, Mother! Although, for the record, I agree with his methods."

"Shut up Fara."

"I'm not defying you, Tess, I'm helping you. He has what we need."

"But we don't take it by force! We don't conscript people into our community! Not only is that morally wrong on about a million levels, it means we also can't trust him! What if he decides to sabotage us?"

"Yeah," Ben said. "What if I did that?"

"Well, I'd have Slinky take his limbs piece-by-piece and then have Rock'Em knock the rest of him in the air so Bey could get in some target practice."

Ben gulped and slumped even further in his chair.

"We don't…" Tess was rubbing her temples now. "We don't do that, Weeble. I can't believe I'm even having this conversation. This is beyond the pale."

"Maybe, maybe, but extraordinary times and all that. Why don't you ask them what they think?" Weeble waved his hand at the crowd behind him.

Tess looked at each of them. "Well?"

They all looked determined to hide behind each other.

"I should go check on the walls," Leon said and began a quick retreat to the door. The others started to follow, excuses pouring out of them in a rush.

"STOP." Tess's voice rang with the finality of authority that would not be questioned, and everyone froze in place, none of them willing to look back. With a communal sigh of acceptance of their fates, they trudged back into the living room, turning to face the dining room table with obvious hesitation.

"What do you all think? Is this kind of thing acceptable? Is this who we are now - people who kidnap anyone that we think MIGHT be able to help us?"

"I vote yes!"

"For the love of god, shut up Fara!"

No one met her eyes, but none immediately agreed with her either. Slinky jumped to stand on the back of the recliner, balancing easily on the swaying chair. "Ben here is a good guy, he'll help us out! We just need to do a little convincin', that's all!" Her mask flashed images of knives, almost too quickly to see, before turning into an innocent, smiling face. Ben blanched.

"You don't count," Tess said. Slinky's mask shifted to images of her crying and she fell dramatically backwards into the chair.

"Leon, what do you think?"

The big man squirmed under her gaze but met her eyes. "If it helps the people, I say we give it a shot."

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Tess hadn't expected that reply. "Madison! You're the voice of reason here - speak some sense into these people!"

Madison stepped forward hesitantly and cleared her throat. "Well, I'm not saying it's right - human rights and all, but these are extraordinary circumstances."

"That's what I said!" Weeble cheered. He caught Tess's look and made a zipping motion over where his mouth was beneath the mask.

"At any rate," Madison continued, "I would be against it if he was going to be in danger, but he's not. Well, not more than any of us, really. We're not asking him to risk himself - only provide support. He'll be the safest one here, when you think about it. I don't foresee any instance where we'll be asking him to put himself in danger."

"He's in danger just by being here!" Tess's frustration exploded out of her. "We could be overrun, and if we are then we are risking his life against his will!"

Leon stepped forward, rare anger crossing his face. His tone was barely-controlled anger. "Tess, I would ask that you never speak those words outside of this group. I am on those walls every single day, giving our people hope, promising them they'll be okay. I know some may die - WILL die. They know it too, but I tell the lie every single day. I feel the stab in my heart each time, knowing that I am giving false hope to some of them. If we - if YOU are not even confident that we will survive this, then how will we promise them that?"

Shame flooded Tess and she bowed her head. "I apologize Leon, you're right. I shouldn't have said that." She cast her gaze across the rest of them, including Ben. "I DO think that we'll survive this - we have to! But I spend every day and night thinking of all the ways we won't. I dream about the ways we fall, and I wake up knowing I have to do everything I can to stop that. You're doing a good thing - people need that hope. I'm sorry that I put my burdens onto you."

Leon crossed the room to her, leaning down to wrap his huge arms around her in a hug. Tess tensed - no one except Zavier had hugged her in as long as she could remember. After a moment she relented, the much-needed support pushing the shame down. She also couldn't remember a time she hadn't felt alone and isolated.

The hug was short and Leon walked back into the attached living room in silence, the mood having shifted from borderline-violent to a tense peace.

"I know I say this out there, but this isn't a dictatorship. If you all agree that this is the right thing to do then I'll back it, but we need to discuss the specifics. I'm not going to have someone here that can't defend themselves without some sort of plan in place.

"Do I get a vote?"

"Of course you do, Ben," Tess said to the man.

"Then I vote that you bring me back!"

Tess raised her hand. "I also vote that we bring him back. Anyone else?"

Luna raised her hand, bringing a smile to Tess's face. They were the only ones.

Ben's face fell and his hand dropped to the table. "Well fuck me with a hot poker I guess. God bless fucking America."

Tess took a deep breath, then turned to Ben. "Okay, it's been decided - you're staying here. We'll work out the specifics and command structure later, but I want to make something crystal clear from the beginning: If you are here, you're HERE. You are part of this community now."

"I'm not though! I don't want to be, and I won't act like I do! I'm not going to sing Kumbaya and lock elbows and just do what you people want! You're kidnappers! You're evil! You're imprisoning me against my will! I'm not going to do what you ask! In fact, I'm going to work against you! Everything you ask me to do, I'm going to do the opposite! You can't force me to use my skills, and I'll make sure you never can!"

Tess's glowing arm slammed down onto the table and it split in two, everyone around it jumping backwards in alarm.

"Not a good day for tables," Weeble said.

"ENOUGH!" Tess's voice slammed everyone into silence. She stood and turned to face Ben. "I said you're here, and I meant it. I don't give two warnings. I acknowledge that the circumstances of how you got here were unjust and immoral, but that is no longer relevant."

"No longer relevant?" Ben spluttered.

"That's right. You're going to fight with us and do whatever you're asked to do. If you shirk your responsibilities once, refuse to do what you're asked once, go out there and complain about the situation to the people risking their lives for you EVEN ONCE, you'll be gone. Do you understand? We are fighting for our lives here and, whether you like it or not, now you are too. We don't have the time or room for people who aren't pulling their weight. If even a single damned person reports back that you are slacking off, refusing to work, or sowing discord in this community, then you will pay dearly for it. Do you understand?"

Ben's face was ashen, his mouth opening and closing silently.

"I ASKED IF YOU UNDERSTAND."

"Y-yes! I understand!"

"Good." Tess straightened and turned to walk away. "Leon, get him situated in one of the houses. Weeble, explain the plan and, when you're done, come back and explain it to me. We will group up in an hour to be ready for the next attack."

"Wait." Ben's voice was shaky, but he had regained his composure. "I understand, but I don't agree. You're scary, lady, sure - but I've seen bigger and badder in The Climb. You're not the first person to threaten me. I understand, but I don't agree. I'm still not doing it." He crossed his arms over his chest and set his jaw.

Tess paused, her back to him.

"Gotta say this for you, boy-o," Weeble said. "You ain't the smartest, but no one can say you don't have some cojones on you."

"Leon?" Tess's voice was too calm.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Throw him over the wall. Let him find his own way back home."

The big man dragged a spluttering, clawing, biting Ben out of the house, through the cul-de-sac, up the wood and earthen stairs to the wall and held him at the edge. The group followed.

Ben looked back over his shoulder at the two-story drop. "Come on, man! I can climb down myself! I'll break my legs if you throw me off of here!"

Tess stepped calmly out from behind Leon, the rest of the group filing silently behind her. Faces all along the wall were turned to them, a new type of tension filling the air with electricity. Tess's enhanced senses heard murmuring and questions. Perhaps Fara was right after all - some lessons needed to be reinforced.

"Here," Tess held out a small red pill.

"What is this?"

"It's a healing pill. Swallow it after you land." She pushed it into his hand and as soon as his fist closed around it Leon let go.

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