Danev

Riu was pacing back and forth in the lobby that had used to be his "throne room." The throne had gone, but the same dim lighting had stayed. Riu just used it now to stockpile any weapons as it was the most secure area in the building being in the center of the courtyard. "So they're actually handing out free food." He repeated, still in partial disbelief.

"Yeah. We kept an eye on it like you said. A few people came 6 days ago, around midday. They probably had heard it from someone else and were just desperate for some food. They came out an hour later, definitely not disappointed. The number of people who come is just getting higher and higher. Word spreads."

Riu wasn't a trusting person. It had taken months to even get Riu thinking about meeting with the Fire Nation and it had worked. For a while at least. Then the incident with Lannit and shit just started falling apart. He had stopped pacing and was just leaning against an inner wall now, talking to himself too quietly for me to hear. I could just pick up small phrases like "Maybe if", "No, not that", "Could it."

"Riu" I interrupted him. When he got into this inner trance of thought, It could take him hours to leave it unless somebody snapped him out of it.

"Okay." He said. "Okay. Maybe we should keep an eye on it for some more time."

"Riu" I interrupted before he could finish. "We don't have more time. We're starving. You're starving. We're all dying. If we go and see what's what, what's the worst that could happen?"

"It could be trap. We could all get killed in one stroke. We trusted the Fire Nation and they killed our people. Our friends! These people could be no different."

"They're literally handing free food to people out on the streets. I think this is a different story as opposed to the Fire Nation."

"How do we know?"

"We don't, but there's only one way we can find out."

"Danev. I know you're loyal and I've come to appreciate it. I trust everybody here with my life, but I only trust myself and you with theirs. I need to think about this some more. Come see me tonight and we'll talk about this further. Until then, tell everybody else what you saw. Get their opinions."

"I will". I nodded. And left. After the Fire Nation incident, Riu had barely talked to me. It was my idea to strike a deal with the Fire Nation and 3 of our people had gotten killed over it. No. 4. There was that messenger. Fuck. Genji. I remembered him. We thought killing him would help us, but it didn't do shit. We thought that the Fire Nation would keep us safe and Genji had put that at risk, but it was the damn Fire Nation that fucked us. It was better now. He had come to trust me again. He tried having Aden as his advisor, but that lasted less than a day. Stupid cunt didn't know the difference between fighting and surviving. That's why he was kept at the front entrance of the Hive. He wasn't good for anything else.

Aden and Meeko still worried me. They were anything but trustworthy. I'm surprised they've stuck around this long. I expected them to join the Fire Nation, or hell, maybe even Miro's gang once shit started going South. Why were they still around?

Before I closed the doors behind me, I looked back at Riu one more time. He had slid down the wall to the floor, doing theoretical calculations in his head. He could be cold, but soft too. I worried about him, but, then of course, that's why I was here. To make sure nothing bad happened to him. And to make sure we all stayed alive.