Endless War (Complete)

Chapter 16 "Introductions"

Sharon doesn't push Grim any further, she just motions further into their weapons room where there is a small group of people assembled. They all watch as we approach, I can't tell if they are happy to see me or annoyed like Grim. Who in this cavern can I even trust? I want to trust Sharon, however, I trusted Grim up until the bunker. I just have to face that I can only trust myself, everyone else has their own agenda. I have to make sure these people realize I am not a pawn in their game of chess, I will be taking the lead.

Everyone finds a chair and pulls them up into a circle, I see that Grim has pulled up two chairs and motions to the empty one between him and his mother. I walk through the circle and take the seat beside him, as Sharon begins to speak. "Phoenix, these are the other heads of family. We try to make all decisions jointly however, I have the last say. I suppose you could say that power has been passed down through my family as they were the ones who started this resistance. Now that last say will be yours."

"Why me? You have groomed Grim to take your place for years and now you are handing your rights to a stranger." I interject.

"Yeah, he was trained but you are who we have waited for. My family are descendants of the first person to resist the chip. Your mother was the second, and in over a thousand years you are only the third person to do that." Sharon explains.

Alright this is just odd, I was planning to take this on by force and they are just handing it over to me. So I resisted the chip, wait, did she say a thousand years? "No, you meant two hundred years, right?"

"I meant what I said this war has been going on for one thousand, nine-hundred and sixty-five years. So the desire to end it is overwhelming. So, I am guess the story now for the troops is to make them think it has been shorter than it has to give them hope that they are winning. I don't think that this battle will ever end some days. When Sebastian brought you in here I finally have hope again that we can make a difference." Sharon smiles as she places her hand on my shoulder.

"I will take it on as you wish, but I request that your son be my second. I would like time to discuss my ideas with him alone for now, then we will bring them before your council." I decide keeping him close to me will keep him from trying to screw with me.

Sharon nods her head, "I think that will be the best thing. I am glad that you seem to welcome my sons input. He has trained for this his whole life and he is a lot younger than I, so he will be better suited to assist you. I believe the two of you will make a great team. Why don't you go and show her a cot for the night, Sebastian, then the two of you will be able to talk about it tomorrow."

The members of the council nod their heads in unison and then dismiss themselves. Once again it is just me and Grim. I don't think I will ever be able to call him Sebastian, it just seems too fancy. Maybe I should just test it. "So, um, Sebasti..." I can't seem to get anything else out before he cuts me off.

"Only my mother calls me Sebastian, anyone else gets hit!" His deep blue eyes stair into mine, and for a moment it feels as if we could be old friends, joking around about family. However I am pretty sure it won't last.

"Ok then what does everyone else call you?" I mean Grim would be an interesting name for a serial killer but I don't see friends calling him that.

He rolls his eyes, "My friends tend to call me Bastian, but you can call me Grim." I hear the anger in his voice.

Wow, I never really realized how much this man seems to hate me until that moment. I truly wish I knew what I did to piss him off. Though, I suppose being born probably tops his list. His mother all but swore that he was going to lead this group. I just don't understand why this war is still ongoing after a thousand years.

"Well, Grim, it is time to talk to one another as if we are both human here. Do you realize that I am in fact human? This chip in my head makes me no less human that you are!" I sigh.

He chuckles darkly, "You could never be more wrong. You are no more human than a cyborg from science fiction books. You are the enemy and there is nothing you can say or do that will make me change my mind. I may have to plan with you on how this war is going to go but rest assured in the end we will be doing things my way. I know how this is going to go, you are going to try and prove to me that you know something, anything about warfare, then I am going to prove you wrong."

I close my eyes and clear my head so that tears do not begin to fall, he can't know that his attempts to hurt me are working. After all I am no more than a machine to him, I have no original thoughts as far as he is concerned. "Well, this is going to prove rather difficult then. You know I didn't have to choose you, I could have allowed your mother to come up with someone else for me to work with. Just so you know, I don't trust you, and the only reason I chose you is because I already know that I cannot trust you. I don't know the others yet, but I do know you."

Grim starts to say something and I cut him off.

"You are not going to plan anything, you are going to listen to me right now." I stop for a moment to make sure he is not going to interrupt me then continue. "We don't need to fight, we just need to know who to kill. We are going to need more soldiers and the easiest way to do that is to take them from the enemy."

Grim looks at me his brows furrowed, "That makes absolutely no since, but I am listening."