Jericho's body shivered due to the cold and dry atmosphere in the dark room. The screen was the only source of light.
In front of the screen stood Cypher; the light cast behind him made his face dark and hard to make out.
The rod he used to open the sewer wall slapped onto the screen.
"What you see here is a map of the Omnibus, every quadrant with every major city marked."
'Well, duh, that's obvious'
"Our goal is to take the world from the government's cruel, cold grip and free the people from poverty, slavery, and pain."
Jericho's eyes widened. It was as he presumed, these guys were insane. They couldn't possibly defy the Central and live; destroying it was a crazy man's dream.
Before Cypher could continue, Jericho got up from the chair, knocking it to the ground.
"You're fucking crazy."
As Jericho made his way towards the door, Cypher grabbed his arm.
"Do you not also see it? How disgustingly flawed and corrupt this world is."
Jericho remained silent; he saw himself in Cypher, a version of himself that naively believed he could save people.
"I know you do, I know you tried to change it, and I know you still have the power to."
"What the hell do you know about me? You know what people say about me, you don't know me."
The enraged voice of a man who'd been through hell rang throughout the cave.
Jericho turned towards Cypher and pushed him away.
"It's people like you who keep thinking you can change the world that make it so bad. It starts for the betterment of others until it becomes a selfish matter. You'll either be consumed by power or knowledge. I'm just as bad as the man who's on the throne now. I'm not special, and neither are you."
"You're a hypocrite, you know that?"
Cypher inched closer to Jericho.
"You say I don't know you, yet you know nothing about me. You say that the ones at the top are consumed by power, yet you stand here still caring about the world, a world that abandoned you. You say you're not special, yet your heart is somehow intact after reaching the peak of the world. I don't even think you believe your own words."
The tension was felt within the air as it grew thick. Each breath was heavy.
He continued forward, preaching to Jericho.
"You, Jericho, are the only man who can fix this broken world. You're the only one who can liberate all who are in chains. I know enough to know that you still want to create a better world, and I know that I, Etsy, and the others can support you to take back the throne."
Silence filled the room.
Tears slowly filled Jericho's eyes until they began pouring out.
Cypher's expression didn't change throughout his entire speech; his face was always serious and dull. He walked over to Jericho and turned him to face him as the tears continued to flow from his eyes.
"These tears are what separate you from them, and these tears will be the disinfectant that cleans the world of evil."
The door flung open with Etsy darting through it.
"Ya' started without me! What the hell!"
She wore a large-sized white tee that only covered her torso down to her belly button. Her shorts were also black and seemed to be three sizes too small; the shorts had a hole in the back for her tail to poke out of.
"We just started. I've only explained to him what our goal is."
Etsy looked over at Jericho and noticed his snotty, red, tear-filled face.
"What's wrong with him?"
It seemed she was immune to reading the room.
Cypher ignored her question and went back to the screen, signalling for Jericho to sit down.
"Whatever"
Etsy found her place in a corner in the back after muttering to herself.
"Whatever, not like I care or anything."
Jericho picked the fallen chair up and sat in it, ready to listen to Cypher's plan.
A newfound motivation found Jericho after he hit rock bottom. He had tried to forget about everything and everyone-- especially Sol.
"We're going to build an army to oppose the Central. We will start by contacting the quadrant supplying the Central least, the East."
After examining the screen better, Jericho had noticed that the West was the only quadrant without any lines connecting to the Central; it actually had nothing but a title on it. All of the other Quadrants on the screen had capitals and major cities marked, so what made the West so different?
"Well, why not the West then, for some reason they aren't supplying anything to the Central at all."
The interjection silenced Cypher for a moment.
"No one knows anything about the West, other than the fact that no one enters and no one leaves."
His tone had changed; it was evident that a bit of fear lay within his voice.
Now that he thought about it, even when he was leading the Central, the West had never responded or answered to any of the treaties or peace offerings they'd send out to them.
The room grew silent.
"We're currently in Sinvensen, and we are leaving this city immediately."
Confused, Jericho rested his chin on his fist and listened attentively.
"This is the last city we will wage war with before taking over the central. Our numbers are too low to attempt any type of revolt now. But this is the final piece we'll need to overthrow The Central."
This man had screws loose, how could he be so confident in gaining control over some of the richest and most powerful capitals let alone overthrow the city of war.
"So how are we going to take control of the East? We have no army are you proposing a militia?"
The rod Cypher used to direct attention to certain points of the board averted from the board to Jericho.
"You."
'Me?!'
Jericho's jaw dropped to the floor as his eyes grew big and his brow raised.
"Whether you know it or not, the people still care for you. Not everyone believes that you committed those acts. Especially in the east, this is one of the main reasons they limit their trade with the Central, and also one of the reasons they're the weakest nation."
The air became stale, Etsy was still in the corner listening attentively.
"Jericho, you'll convince the people of the east to follow you, we'll grow the power of the east then take control of the North and use the North's economic power to fund our army. That's how we'll take over the South and also how we'll destroy the Central."
It all crashed onto Jericho, and his mind began to flood with memories of the past.
His breath grew shaky, each inhale felt like he was breathing in dense water. Special? People looked up to him, do people still care for him? After all he's done people still put their faith in him?
He was a screw up, a selfish prick who thought he was special enough to be the savior that he thought people needed; no one like that was fit to rule a world, especially not one as broken as this one.
Jericho flinched as he felt a warm familiar hand caress his shoulder.
As he looked up he was met with the gentle warm smile of Etsy, which eased him.
He'd only known Etsy for 2 days but he felt closer to her than he'd felt with most of the people he'd known for years.
Something about her warm touch pulled him out of his mind-- it gave him the courage to give this idea a shot.
He looked back to Cypher who was still standing in the same position by the screen, he was awaiting a response.
"So, are you in. We can't do this without you."
Jericho was visibly shaken, he was sweating.
He began to think of the men who betrayed him when he was so close to his goal; he wanted to see them again.
So Jericho would swallow his fears of failing again down his coarse throat and get up from his chair.
He slowly took one step after another towards Cypher until he reached him and put out his hand.
"Alright, I'll join you."
Cypher, still with a dull expressionless demeanor, took Jericho's hand with a firm grip.
"May our path be righteous, and our feet that of an anchor."
Jericho scratched his beard in confusion.
"Uh, okay."
Suddenly Etsy sprang up and leaped on Jericho.
"Haha! Let's go!"
She struck the air above her with her fist.
"To liberation and all that other stuff!"
All Jericho could do was smile at Etsy.
"To liberation and such!"
Jericho repeated after Etsy.
Cypher stood at the door.
"Come, we have much more to do."
Getting off of Jericho, Etsy made her way out of the door to the main room.
Jericho got up and followed after, before exiting Jericho took a final glance at the screen; there was something off about one of the markers, it was in a different color from the rest but appeared within all of the quadrants especially the North.
A cold hand gripped Jericho's shoulder.
"We must go now."
Pushing it to the back of his mind Jericho continued forward into the main room.
Cypher stood at the door pausing before leaving for seemingly no reason.
He looked back at the screen, closed the door, and left for the main room.
Cypher was a man of mysteries.