Wings - A Hamilton Fanfic - Lams, Mullette, and Jeffmads

Chapter Thirty Six

Alexander's P.O.V.

As I write the weekly report for Major General Washington, I wonder what John is doing now. Perhaps he's training or talking to his fellow soldiers. Hey, maybe he's talking to Washington! He is off in Base 1776 for some strange reason.

I finish up the paper and clock off duty. I expected life here to be more exciting, more planning battles and not...reporting battles. The Humans have been advancing on us more recently though, but I'm sure Washington has a plan for us to regain the upper hand. 

Washington in Base 1776 is strange, but what's also strange is that James and Thomas have invited me to dinner at James's temporary home in Newtide. You see, James travels back and forth between Base 1732 and Newtide, it's not that far of a journey, just a half an hours walk, 10-minute fly. Sadly, since I am Human, I have to walk. Jeez.

As I wander down the narrow winding path, I daydream for a bit about war and peace. A strange thing, war and peace. We all strive for peace, but like this path, the goal of world peace has many, so many goddamn bushes, or conflicts, in its way.

I grit my teeth and kick a bush that has grown on the path. My foot gets stuck and I end up falling backwards and elegantly falling on my bottom.

"This is why we need to regularly clear the path for those who don't fly," I mutter while picking myself up.

I keep on making my way down the path, and my mind goes back to daydreaming. There's really no point as to why Thomas and James have invited me to dinner. It's just to fill time, I suppose. To relax. It'll be a surprise if something were to happen.

*****

I hope this is the right house. I knock on the door, three sharp taps. I wonder if I should knock again, as the noise on the street is deafening. Does the noise ever stop? James opens the door with a smile on his face, as always.

"Hey, Alexander!" He greets me. "Come on in, Thomas hasn't arrived yet." I gasp.

"I'm earlier than Jefferson? Joy! Joy to the world!" I say dramatically. James chuckles. "So, why are we having dinner together?" I ask as we walk inside his house together. "It's not like the three of us are the bestest of friends." James shrugs.

"Well, why not? You and Thomas have been, 'rivals,' for far too long, and um, I've also been thinking about war a lot recently. War and peace," James says a bit nervously. I snap my head towards him. 

"I-I've also been discussing it with Charlotte, we've had some interesting conversations about it, but uhm...to cut to the chase, I just thought it would be better if we were all allies and friends in wartimes, y'know?" James says with a hint of a smile on his face. I break out into a grin. Who knew James was this wise?

"You know what, James? I've also been thinking about peace and war lately. In times like these, it's complicated. We all want peace, but our inner core goes back to its primal state to want to fight. It's quite fun to think about, isn't it?" I ask him, slapping his back. James lights up.

"Yeah! Very philosophical too," He says slowly, trying to get the pronunciation right.

We sit down at the table and have a very pleasant conversation. I sure as hell didn't know that James was this...I don't even know. Smart? It's kind of intimidating actually. I don't know how Thomas survives, I mean, James is much smarter than he is. I guess it makes for meaningful chats, but it's not like Thomas understands what philosophy is.

Suddenly, we hear another knock on the door. James breaks into a wide grin and runs towards it. "Thomas!" He squeals, opening the door and giving the man himself a hug.

"Hello, Thomas," I greet him, slighting waving my hand.

"Oh um, hey, Alexander," Thomas says. I can tell that before this meeting, James told Thomas to be chill with me. The look in Thomas's eyes says it all.

We all sit down at the table and after a slow start, we get into a conversation about our jobs. Pretty boring, but it was all I could think of.

"Wait, so James, what DO you do?" I ask curiously. I never got closure on what his actual job is.

"Oh, well, as you know, I travel back and forth between Base 1732 and Newtide," James starts. "I'm Queen Charlotte's advisor."

"WHAT?" I burst out. He's flipping Queen Charlotte's ADVISOR?

"But but!" James interrupts, a slight blush on his face. "As you know, the King and Queen of Winged kind don't actually run the country, it's Major General Washington most of the time. So I just help out...some of the time."

"Oh puhlease, James, stop being so modest," Thomas interrupts with a smile on his face. "We all know that you're the smartest in our small group."

"Oh well, I dunno," James gestures towards me. "All I really do is sit around until Charlotte needs me, and then I have to walk all the way to Base 1732 to carry her order out."

"Yeah, well all I do is write letters to Generals, telling to move their troops forwards back, and UGH!" I exclaim. "After a while, I just came up with a template for these letters and just slightly changed them every week. It's always the same, and you know what? Washington usually just tells me some really vague statement, and then I'm supposed to turn that into a full page of writing!" I start to rant. "And on top of that, I have to also train a troop of soldiers!"

"And you are a terrible teacher!" Thomas laughs. I let the comment slide, not as much so for the politeness of being in James's home, but also for the sake of my sanity.

As we discuss a bit more, we suddenly hear another knock on the door. James frowns.

"That's weird. I didn't invite anyone else." 

The room is silent.

Chills run up my back as I realise it.

The room is silent. Outside is silent.

"Something is terribly, terribly wrong," I say softly, so soft that it's almost a whisper.

"We have to-" Thomas starts.

The door is kicked open, the sound of it echoing through the room and in walks...

Charles Lee.

No no no no, he should be locked up in Base 1732! I stand up, as do Thomas and James.

"Well, well, well," He sneers, as two other Humans walk in behind him. "What do we have here."

How did this happen, I don't understand-

"Two assistants to VERY important people, and...someone else I guess," Charles grins an evil grin, but suddenly his eyes flash with recognition. "Wait for a second!" He spreads his arms out as if to hug us. "Hey, what a lovely reunion! You're the asses that got me caught!" Charles spits out with poison in his tone.

What happened, are the other bases okay? Is John okay?

I march up to Charles, and I realise too late that I don't have a weapon.

"What have you done!?" I hiss at him. Charles smiles. 

"Nothing. Now, what has your little boyfriend John has done, is the question you should be asking," Charles says, pushing me back with his index finger. My blood runs cold. John?

But before I could say another word, Charles raises his hand and curls it into a fist.

Then the world sharply turns black.

(1247 words)