Days of Darkness: Awakening

Chapter 19: The Tables Turn

As everyone prepared for the assault, Damien spent his time in deep meditation. He spent hours in his room focusing on the task at hand and what their success could mean. He knew in his heart that there was only one way to bring peace back to the city of Chicago and the rest of the planet. For that to happen, Dante had to die, and he both wanted and needed to be the one to bring him to death.

As he suited up, he thought about everything and everyone that was lost over the years in the struggle: his parents, his sister, and everyone else on the planet that lost someone due to Dante's arrival. It invigorated him. It strengthened him and gave him a new sense of purpose. The life that he created while living with The Pack also gave him a new reason to live. He found a new family and managed to fall in love in the process. All these things combined gave him all the reason he needed to fight and put his body and life on the line.

After meditating, Damien made his way to the auditorium where the entire Pack community had met. All the civilians in attendance sat murmuring among themselves trying to figure out what was going on. Why was everyone gathered together? No one knew the answer. Damien eventually made his way backstage and ran into Diamond.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be." The nervousness showed clearly on his face. It was a feeling that scared him far more than the fight that he knew was ahead.

"You'll go out with Cyris and when he's finished, you'll speak." Diamond rubbed him on his back comforting him and taking notice of his sheer nervousness. "Relax. You'll do fine. Get ready. We're about to start."

Diamond, then, stepped out onto the stage and started speaking.

"My fellow Pack members. We called this emergency meeting with all of you to keep you abreast of the situation at hand. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes that I'm sure you all have questions about. We're going to fill you all in now. To do that, I'll invite both Cyris and Damien to the stage."

Applause filled the air as Cyris and Damien stepped onto the stage. Damien stepped into the background as Cyris stood out in front of the podium.

As Cyris signaled for the crowd to be silent, he started to speak. "My brothers and sisters, I'm sure you're all wondering why we're gathered here today. I'll make it simple. We finally have a location of the person responsible for ruining our world - Dante. As he rests comfortably in a nearby downtown office atop the Willis Tower, our troops are ready to mobilize. It's time we take the fight to his doorstep. This is it, everyone. This is the moment that we've all been waiting for. We're facing the end of the war. Let's see it through."

Everyone gave thunderous applause as Cyris moved to the background and Damien stepped up. He stood there for a second as the applause got louder and more resonant. He spoke:

"Over the past two years, we've all suffered. We've lost loved ones. We have been forced to live underground and scratch and fend for whatever we can get. We've learned to not only survive but thrive. That's good. It means we're resilient. We're fighters, all of us. Quite frankly though, I'm tired. This isn't a way for anyone to live. You can't raise children in these times because they're so dangerous and full of peril. You know, when I was a kid, my safe place was my home. If I had a bad day at school, I knew that at the end of the day, I was going home. Now, our homes are lost to us. Everything that the world was before the Event is now gone. Gone but not forgotten. But I don't want it to just be a memory of times past. It needs to be the present again. That's what we're fighting for. We're fighting to build a future for the generations to come. So, we're going to kick down Dante's door and we're going to finally put his reign of terror to an end. There will be no more hiding. There will be no more running. True, some of us won't be coming back. But those sacrifices will not be made in vain. Remember... we're fighting for ourselves. We're fighting for our children. We're fighting for our right to live. We will succeed and we will carry on. But most of all... We'll be FREE!"