♛Shadows Lurk♛ Darkiplier x Reader

« ♡ » Chapter 25 - What Are Friends For?

The group had begun walking to the boardroom so James could meet the board members, Reef explaining to Trevor as they walked.

"The board... Well, they curate what the rebellion does. They have to sign off on what we do, otherwise, we can't do it. They're really powerful, Trevor. More powerful than James."

"Why do they want to see him?" Trevor asked.

"Well... You know when we were talking about how the General went to meet The King without the board's permission?" Reef answered uneasily.

"But... how did they find out?" Trevor asked confusedly.

"My best bet is Liam told them," Brandy said. "We... had to let him go eventually."

"What?" James turned to her with a worried look on his face.

"Oh, um... Liam threatened to tell the board about how you went to see the King, so we... uh..." Brandy started unsurely.

"We knocked him out and tied him up. Er, I knocked him out." Trevor admitted.

"Tying him up was my idea," Marcie added quietly.

"Yeah, but when you didn't come back we had no choice but to let Liam go. We thought that we'd have to organise a rescue mission for you," Reef detailed. "We're sorry that we let him tell the board..."

"Yeah, we're really sorry," Trevor said.

"No, no, it's alright. You did what you thought was best." James reassured them. "I'm the one who should be apologising for not telling you the full plan."

"In your defence, we'd never have let you go if we knew that you were going to exchange yourself for Flare." Reef said.

"Maybe... Maybe stopping me from leaving would have been the right thing to do..." James trailed off solemnly. Before long the group had arrived outside the boardroom.

"I'm afraid you're all going to have to stay here," James said, standing in front of the door.

"What? Why?" Trevor asked.

"The board only asked for my presence, none of yours. You could all get in big trouble if you barge in there without permission. Especially since this is all my fault," he explained.

"James, we can't let you face them by yourself!" Trevor exclaimed.

"Yeah, if anything, we had a hand in all of this too!" Reef added.

"Besides, we did tie up Liam for that little while..." Marcie reminded him.

James looked around the small group, sighing while he thought to himself.

"Come on, James. We're all in this one together." Brandy said.

"Well, I suppose I can't stop all of you..." James offered the group a small, appreciative smile. Deep down he was glad that he wasn't going in there alone.

Pushing open the door and holding it open, James waited for the group to make their way inside before walking in himself.

The room was rather large, but most of the space was taken up by a very tall judge bench. Atop it sat five people, all glaring down at who had entered the 'boardroom'. In front of the judge bench sat a single frail-looking chair made of thin metal.

"How dare you bring personnel into the boardroom without instruction!" the woman sitting at the centre of the bench began angrily. "What do you have to say for yourself in defence, General?" she spat.

"Ma'am, please don't blame James for this- we insisted on coming in with him," Brandy tried to explain.

"So, what? You need an entire support group to face us, General?" a man with mid-length black hair and a goatee spat.