Assault (Red vs Blue)

10: Questionable Choices

10: Questionable Choices

Present Day: Downtown Armonia (The planet Chorus)

Kimball walked through downtown Armonia in silence. Surprisingly, it seemed as though everyone was doing what they were supposed to be. None of the soldiers from the Federal Army were exactly working with anyone from the New Republic. Then again, none of Kimball's soldiers were really making an effort to work with anyone from the Federal Army, either. She would've loved to have pretended the issue was only on the Feds' side. Blaming Doyle for things was what she wanted to do. But she knew it wasn't just the other general that was at fault. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Kimball knew she was just as much to blame as he was. Though she'd never say that to Doyle's face.

Things just didn't seem to be going right in any capacity. The soldiers couldn't work together, getting along with Doyle was proving to be impossible, and she couldn't seem to figure out what the next move would be. The Blues were going with a couple of the freelancers to whatever the mystery coordinates led to, but they wouldn't have any answers about what was there for a few days yet. Washington wanted to make a plan to infiltrate Crash Site Alpha, but that was a suicide mission in her opinion. All the other freelancers were trying to help keep things running, but they had more than enough on their plates. Kimball wanted to take some of the pressure off of them, but she didn't know how.

It was in that moment she realized just how much she'd relied on Felix to help her make decisions and keep things going. He'd talked her through tough decisions and took a lot of the weight off her shoulders. For years, he'd seemed like the savior sent to help her finally get the New Republic to come out on top. Then he turned out just to be a lying asshole. She'd become a puppet; he'd been the puppeteer pulling the strings. If she ever saw him again, she wanted to take his stupid combat knife and drive it through his throat.

"General Kimball? Are you all right?"

"What? Huh?"

Looking around, Kimball was quickly able to locate the owner of the voice. Agent North had approached her without her even noticing. He had his helmet tucked under his arm, just as she had hers. His expression was one of concern. His gray eyes were searching her face, almost as if he was trying to figure out what was bothering her just by looking at her.

"Something's bothering you," North observed. "You wanna tell me what it is?"

"It's nothing anyone can do anything about," Kimball told him. "I guess I just got lost inside my own head for a bit."

"I'll say. I saw at least six different people try to talk to you; you ignored them and just kept walking," he said.

"I did? Oh, no. They were probably trying to ask me about something important, too. And I just acted like I was ignoring them. That's fantastic. Once word gets around about that, it'll just give Doyle another thing to hold over my head," she muttered.

"And so the truth starts coming out. C'mon - I think we should go find somewhere to talk for a few minutes."

"Oh, um, okay. I think I might know a place we can go to talk privately."

Kimball started walking away, and she could tell North was right on her heels. The two of them continued walking until they reached the very edge of the city. Much like the small lake back at the New Republic's old headquarters, there was a small area at the edge of Armonia where Kimball liked to go when she needed to be completely alone. No one else knew where she was when she went to the hidden area; it was what made it so perfect. It wasn't very scenic by any means - it was just a small area encircled by trees with a view of the valley that sprawled below the edge of the city. There wasn't much to be seen down in the valley, either. The place was just secluded and quiet.