Holy Wars

[Gifted]

"Not long. I was intending on stepping up the pace of attacks even before this happened. For Victor's sake. Now they're gonna be pissed and whatever Raven says they work great as a team if you know how to coordinate them. Joan will probably step up as leader, or attempt to. Mercy and Francis are the only ones who might challenge her for it, and Mercy is usually not deployed with others anyway so I don't know how much she'd care."

[Raven]

"What were you thinking when you put that team together anyway? Seriously, young Joan, Vivian, and Francis?" Kenny asked.

[Gifted]

"Ok, first off I was thinking of getting people who could take on Xander, Ryan, Becky, Awhina, Lynn... these are some of the toughest people in the world, that's a pretty short list. Anyone who was overall a decent person and was strong enough to have a chance was an option."

[Raven]

"You put Vivian in the 'overall decent person' category?"

[Gifted]

"Ok no see, she's a special circumstance. You see, my Victor and my Vivian? Yeah, they aren't actually a set. Victor lost his sister in quarantine; Vivian is from beyond the wall. You've actually met this particular one before; remember during the war? Her brother died in the flood?"

[Raven]

Kenny's expression showed a trace of grief and surprise. "She's helping you?"

[Gifted]

"Yup!" I said brightly. "Apparently she got into town before the wall went up. Made a life here for a while, eventually got caught. They realized she was a natural and were going to release her when I got wind of her being down there. I have to admit, I was more than a little curious to see how she'd turn out, and I already had decided I'd be offering a place to Victor. So I suggested she join up. She agreed, and she's been a pretty big help."

[Raven]

"That's amazing. Good for her," Kenny said.

[Gifted]

"Yeah, she's trying hard to be a better person. I don't think it's quite clicked with her yet, though. She's going through the motions but I don't know if she's really understood it?"

[Raven]

"Do you think she will?" Kenny asked.

[Gifted]

"I'm hoping. She is definitely trying her hardest, so that's good."

Later that night, the very person I was talking about went to Erin's room and knocked on the door after they were supposed to have gone to bed. They were attacking early tomorrow, and Victor was already asleep, but Vivian had found that she was having a tough time with it.

[Raven]

I had gone to warn Xander that we should increase security, since we didn't know when people would attack and we should be prepared for them to be more prepared to seriously injure us.

Erin hesitated a moment before standing up and opening the door. "Oh. Hey, Vivian."

[Gifted]

"I'll warn the others." Xander said. "A security update will take days, but we can get started."

"Hey. I didn't... bother you, did I?"

[Raven]

"Just being prepared will help a lot, I think," I said. "Lynn will be able to tell more easily if they show up if they do have intent to harm."

"Uh, no," Erin said, softly. "Come in? What's this about?"

[Gifted]

"I hope so. I'll go warn everyone." Xander nodded and hurried off.

"Sorry. I was really confused today, and I was hoping you could help me figure it out. You seem like you'd be the least... well, judgemental, I guess."