The marching protesters occupied the main thoroughfare. Residents who happened to be passing through scrambled to the sides, terrified of being swept up in the crowd.
Not far away, a patrol of soldiers watched the procession with cold, contemptuous eyes—regarding the demonstrators the way one might regard livestock too stupid to know better. Thin smirks played on their lips.
Strangely, though the protests had been going on for months, the QZ government hadn't dispatched troops to disperse them. They simply... allowed it. Let them march and shout to their hearts' content.
To any outsider, this seemed almost unbelievable. But the protesters themselves remained oblivious—or rather, most people in the QZ hadn't yet noticed how wrong things felt.
They believed the government was buckling under public pressure. They saw the tolerance as a sign of imminent concession, a dawn of victory on the horizon. And so they shouted louder, bolder, more recklessly than ever.
"Do you think... if the Fireflies actually took over the QZ, things would be better here?"
Sarah's voice came quietly, almost reluctantly. Her expression had turned conflicted as she watched the parade of fervent faces pass by.
"Hm? What made you ask that?"
Standing at the curb, waiting for the crowd to pass, Bryan hadn't expected this from her. His eyes swept over her carefully. "What did they tell you?"
Sarah's mind was elsewhere, and Bryan's question caught her off-guard. Her mouth moved faster than her brain. "They said that as long as—"
She caught herself mid-sentence. The words died in her throat as realization dawned, and she looked up at Bryan, suddenly remembering exactly how sharp he was. Guilt was written all over her face.
"Relax. I'm not going to lecture you." Bryan shook his head with a faint chuckle, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "Go ahead. Tell me what they said."
Sarah glanced up cautiously, and seeing that he genuinely didn't seem angry, she steeled herself. After a quick look around to confirm no one was within earshot, she leaned in close and whispered:
"When I got my internship certification, one of the orderlies slipped me a note. It said they were with the Fireflies and wanted me to join. They said the entire upper leadership of the QZ government is corrupt, that they need to cut out the rot to restore order. Said if I was interested, I should go to—" She rattled off an address. "I didn't know what to think. Part of me thought they had a point. So I figured..."
"So you figured you'd test the waters with me before deciding."
Bryan finished the sentence she'd left hanging, matter-of-fact.
"Hehe."
Sarah offered an awkward smile, her eyes brimming with genuine curiosity as she looked to him for an answer.
Bryan sighed. He'd never been able to say no to this girl. After a moment's thought, he spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"The chaos in the QZ right now comes down to one thing: resources aren't being distributed fairly. The people at the top, the ones holding power, can seize as much as they want—supplies, authority over who lives and who dies."
"If they were actually investing in the QZ's development, it might be tolerable. But years of comfort and excess have rotted them from the inside. The workers at the bottom are earning less and less for the same labor. Push that imbalance far enough, and people with nothing left to lose will fight back. History is full of examples."
"As for your question—whether life would improve under the Fireflies—the answer is no. In the short term, conditions would actually get worse than they are under the current government. Whether the QZ could eventually recover depends entirely on the quality of the Fireflies' leadership. My advice? Stay out of it."
As he spoke, Bryan noticed the protest march had moved on to another street. He glanced at Sarah, still deep in thought, took her hand, and led her forward.
Privately, he was pessimistic. Even if the Fireflies' leaders proved capable, restoring the QZ to its former state would take time the people here might not have.
Sarah let herself be led, her mind churning. She wasn't the little girl she'd been five years ago. She could think for herself now.
At first, the promises on that note had been tempting—especially combined with her own frustration toward the government. But Bryan's words had pulled back a curtain on complexities she hadn't considered. After careful deliberation, she decided to stay neutral. The last thing she wanted was for her actions to put the people she cared about at risk.
Once she'd made up her mind, the weight lifted. The tangled knot of anxiety loosened, and a smile returned to her face.
"Feeling better?" Bryan asked, noticing the shift.
"Mm-hm. I'll listen to you. Let them do whatever they want—we stay out of it."
"Good. Smart choice."
As they approached the checkpoint leading to District F, Bryan's eyes caught the cluster of hand-drawn wanted posters pasted to the wall nearby—seven or eight in a row, with the top two portraits notably larger and more prominent than the rest.
The Fireflies had gone underground after the QZ government's crackdown, but the authorities had never stopped trying to root them out. With vast resources and intelligence networks at their disposal, the government had managed to dismantle several Firefly hideouts within the QZ, identifying key operatives and two of their leaders in the process.
They'd put out bounties and anonymous tip boxes. Anyone who provided actionable intelligence—verified as accurate—would receive a generous supply card reward.
Greed was a powerful motivator. The moment the bounties went live, every resident with even a scrap of information started filing reports. Anyone who'd had contact with the people on those posters was ratted out, rounded up, and squeezed for every bit of intelligence they had. It dealt the Fireflies a significant blow.
Now, there was virtually no visible Firefly activity within the QZ. They'd need months to recover before they'd dare show their faces again—this was the government's home turf, after all. They had no choice but to burrow deeper.
"This is my stop. Head back."
The District F Administration Center loomed ahead—right next to the checkpoint Bryan's group had first passed through years ago when entering the QZ. Even though he'd been through it countless times since, the memories still stirred something in him.
"When will you be back?"
Sarah caught his arm, her eyes betraying a flash of reluctance she couldn't quite hide.
Bryan stopped and turned to face her. "I won't know the specifics until I get the briefing. But it should be similar to previous missions—three, maybe four days at most."
His left hand reached out, fingers threading through her silken golden hair to rest against her cheek. His expression softened, and he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "When I get back, let's get everyone together."
"Mm."
Under his tender gaze, a faint blush crept across Sarah's cheeks. She lowered her head, suddenly shy—a stark contrast to the bold, fiery girl who'd jumped him at his door just minutes ago.
Bryan glanced to either side and, sure enough, spotted a healthy number of soldiers and passersby sneaking not-so-subtle looks in their direction.
He couldn't help but laugh. He reached out and ruffled her hair again. "Look at you—so brave when it's just us, then the second there's an audience, you fold."
Sarah's face flushed with embarrassment. She shot him a glare, but her voice came out soft. "Come back soon."
Before he could respond, she turned on her heel and hurried away without looking back, her figure growing smaller in the distance.
Bryan watched her go, an unconscious smile spreading across his face. Strange, he thought, how the little girl he'd once known had become this.
Unbidden, a very specific term from his previous life surfaced in his mind. He paused, then mentally cringed.
...Did I basically... raise her?
...
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