X2.7 – THE THRONE OF DESPAIR

X2.7.1 – The Slums of Moriah

"I was expecting more…" said Roa as he looked outside of the window and onto the slums.

"More chaos?" said Nirvana, walking up behind him.

"Yeah, it's completely quiet here. I guess I was hoping for a riot, like in Grayshroud. We did pretty well there. It's going to be a bit trickier if the population is not already activated," the boy continued.

"That's where you're wrong, flower boy," Nirvana explained. "We don't want to catch the Shadows' attention this time around. In the Basements of the Palace, you had the element of surprise on your side, and even a revolt did not worry the Old Order then. This time, however, their guard is up, and we're going to want to tippytoe as much as possible until we can get as close to the enemy as we can."

"I see." Roa then turned to her and said, "listen, Nirva," he paused, looked down for a moment and then stared at her in the eyes, "I'm sorry."

The pink-haired Jumper's eyes shot open wide, as if she wasn't expecting an apology from the boy.

"About what?" she said as she seemed a bit flustered.

"About fighting you for trying to—save my life," he said.

She placed her hand on his shoulder and eventually said, "you're a stubborn idiot. You've always been, and you will probably always be, to the detriment of my patience." She smiled. "That doesn't mean that nobody cares about you, or that you are alone."

Roa's face reddened. For the first time he felt some connection with Nirvana.

"Wait," he said, as she began walking away, "are you saying—do you actually—care about me?" Nirvana's face also reddened. "So, you're not just some—crime lord opportunist?"

Her face quickly shifted to a frown, and the angry look in her eyes met the boy's confused glance.

"Opportunist?" she said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I mean, you strike me as, I don't know—someone who's always looking to make a buck, to find the next—opportunity."

She looked up and away from him with a scoff, giving him her back.

"Opportunity…" she muttered to herself.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to—" he placed his hand on her shoulder, but she quickly brushed it off.

"I don't know how you manage to do it, but even your apologies somehow manage to piss me off," she said, storming out of the room.

Roa looked at his friends sitting on the couch nearby and sighed.

"That went smoothly," joked Rosso.

"Yeah, that went great," said the Sunflower sarcastically as he plopped himself on the couch, squeezing between them, and resting his head as he stared at the ceiling.

"Alright, listen up," shouted Nirvana as a group of thirty Jumpers chatted in the crowded attic of the shoe factory that they had set up their base in. She glanced around, realizing nobody was paying attention to her and slammed both her hands on the table, shattering it in pieces. "I said SHUT UP!" The whole room went quiet. Roa's eyebrows raised and a smirk escaped him. "If you think chaos and disorder is going to win us this battle, you're in for a rude awakening. The enemy is stronger, more organized, and much bigger than we are," she looked around, gazing into as many eyes as she could, and continued, "so, if you don't want to end up dead—or reset," she stared at the Sunflower for a moment, "then you better listen up."

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"I have a question," said Rosso, raising his hand.

She walked up to him, and pointed a Gunhand at his forehead. His eyes crossed as he stared at her index and middle fingers glowing with energy.

"Make sure it's a good one, because it will be your last," she said.

"I—I think I will try to ask it again, later," he said, slowly lowering his hand.

She walked back to the center of the room.

"What's the first rule of war?" she asked, not getting any response. "Know your enemy. Unfortunately for us, our enemy is crafty as hell and buried under a thick layer of secrecy. But," she looked around, "the Syndicate and I have been very busy since the end of the tournament, and have manage to get the ball started on understanding exactly who it is that we are fighting."

She snapped her fingers. One of Nirvana's girls entered the room and placed a projector, turning it on, adjusting it so that the image reflected on one of the worn walls of the room.

"These are the Slums of Moriah, Grand Market's largest and poorest cluster of houses, crime and suffering," she clicked through several pictures of shanties, garbage and people on the streets. "As you can all imagine, the one thing tying everyone in this place is poverty. Poverty being the very thing that is keeping the Second Gate in power."

"How can poverty keep him in power? Poor people don't have any money. How can he gain power from them?" said a random person in the room.

"The issue with those questions is that they are based on the premise that Lord Misery makes his money through businesses that cater to the poor." She walked up next to the one who asked, and said, "the poor are not Lord Misery's—customers. They are his resources."

"His resources?"

"That's right. You see, the poverty industry is an exploitative industry—an extractive system. It takes value from people, poor people, and gives it to others, rich, powerful ones, as it disvalues the producers of that value," she explained, pacing slowly back and forth in front of the group.

"I don't understand. How exactly are they doing this?"

She turned toward the next questioner, clicked several pictures on the projector and said, "simple. By monetizing suffering. Take for example the process of kickbacks."

"Kickbacks?"

"A private agency might give money or favors to state workers or case managers to get more orphans placed with their agency, since agencies often receive funding per child in their care. Or, government officials might award contracts for housing, counseling or transportation to certain providers for money. In more insidious cases, there may be pressure to delay or prevent family reunification to keep children in care, and funds flowing."

"That's—"

"Evil," interrupted the Sunflower. "It's evil."

"Correct," continued Nirvana. "Or as they might call it in Default-speak: profit maximization. Continuing on the topic of evil, take the example of for-profit care companies such as nursing homes or juvenile detention facilities. There's a practice in such organizations of sedating their patients."

"Sedating them? How does that make them money?"

"A great businessman knows that saving money is the same as making money, and they save lots of it by drugging these people into zombies so that they can lower their labor costs. Less active patients, less nurses and staff needed," Nirvana explained.

"How do these people sleep at night knowing that they make a living like this?" asked a woman in the back.

"Beats me. The Shadows are believed to be Human. However, one thing is certain about them. They lack—Humanity," she said, tapping her index finger on her chest. "Now, let's not forget for-profit prisons. In the Empire, the largest and most powerful nation in Default World, the private prison system alone accounts for 80 billion of their money. It's big business, considering some 2.3 million people were in prison since the last time us Free Folk were able to get some numbers out of there. And the numbers keep rising—by design. You see, private prison corporations lobby the politicians for stiffer sentences, so that even petty crimes can land someone behind bars. More prisoners mean bigger paychecks for the owners of the prisons, while, of course, public safety and rehabilitation are somewhere lower, much lower, in their list of priorities. Genius, isn't it?"

"It's disgusting," said someone.

"For-profit Human service corporations are a business empire that rakes in billions and billions, syphoning resources from the neediest, up and up the unholy pyramid of the Old Order, until it reaches the smooth and privileged hands of a few," Nirvana said.

"The Heavenly Nobles and the Gates?" asked Roa.

"Bingo. The largest benefactors of the unrighteous system," said Nirvana with a smirk. "So, to know and find out who the Second Gate is, who this—Lord Misery is, and where he hides, we must ask one question, and one question only." She looked around as the room went quiet. "Who benefits from this suffering?"

"Follow the money, and you will eventually reach the top of the pyramid," said the Sunflower, fire burning in his righteous eyes.

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