Session 5

Session 5 begins with Charlie waking up and following the usual schedule and they meet Ardalla in the square for 10am. Carmen and Natalie join them and the group are surprised to see so many squads in the square. Shortly after their arrival they see people begin to set up a small stage area and a few barricades around the square. In the mean time Cato Tatius appears with a microphone and begins to explain what is happening this morning. Cato explains that they are going to be having guest speaker joining them and begins to organise the squads on where to go.

The Ardalla squad is placed at the rear of the crowd and Cato tries to catch Charlie before the talk but the crowd floods in and separates the two. A large poster is unveiled and it shows a picture of a blonde man and a name, Remus Afra. the squad ponder to one another about who the man is with Carmen being sure she has seen his face before and Bianca agreeing. Charlie recognises the name but doesn't know from where and comes to the conclusion that it must be somebody their mother mentioned or that it would be somebody that they read about in a magazine.

When the crowd finally fills there is a silence before Afra takes the stage. Afra introduces himself and the crowd goes crazy. It is then that he reveals that he created the castras and that was how he made his fortune. Upon this revelation, Natalie falls into a state of near shock. The scene is nearly too much to Charlie with the roar of the crowd at his lies and glamour. When Afra begins to praise the gods for his fortune a man steps out of the section leaders building behind him. The man has slow and calm steps but he pulls a gun on Afra. This immediately sends shock waves throughout the area. Afra's private guards are told to stand down by him as the man begins to speak. Afra listens and the man tells, what Charlie knows to be the truth, the crowd about castras. The crowd seem to not believe the man as he talks about his own experience that lead to the death of his daughter.

He then shoots Afra on stage causing the crowd to erupt into chaos. It is then that the man is shot by Afra's personal guards. However the man was holding a dead mans switch in his hand. Then within seconds the entire front half of the square including the section leaders building bursts into flames as a loud explosion rattles the earth. surrounding buildings are split with debris falling. Charlie is frozen as they scan the scene people are scrambling to run, clambering over each other in order to try and seek escape. Charlie looks beside them to see Natalie on the floor in shock, Bianca is frozen in place, Carmen is murmuring words that Charlie cannot even begin to understand and Ardalla is just looking around frantically. Within the middle of the crowd Charlie sees a man in the midst of the chaos smirking before waving at them and disappearing.

A wielder flees the scene and as they run Charlie notices a dark mark forming on their neck. In the chaos, Charlie spots Cato who is on the floor shaking and sees the debris about to crush him. However, before the debris could crush him, Region commander Dominic Tatius saved him. Cato now stares up at his father who looks extremely disappointed in him. He then began shouting commands and everybody moves to complete them. Carmen picks Natalie up and Ardalla pulls Bianca into moving through the tasks.

After the situation was handled, Dominic pulled the troops together seeing that they have probably lost nearly 30 wielders and a large amount of civilians. He debriefs the squads and informs them that he will be wanting a testimony from each of them tomorrow. He then moves around to continue assessing damages and the squad splits up. Ardalla goes straight home, Carmen receives a phone call and then grabs Bianca as they both walk off in a different direction and Natalie leaves again. Charlie walks home and checks their phone to see several messages and calls from family members. They call their father and he is in tears of relief to hear their voice. After reassuring them of their health and a promise to stay over sooner than expected, Charlie hangs up and goes home. They respond to some messages from Blair and Edith and fall asleep. In the middle of the night, a phone call wakes Charlie from their slumber. It is an unknown number and Charlie answers to hear a familiar voice on the other end. It is the first time in a long time they have heard Alastair's voice and they cant help but smile at the sound of it. The conversation is short with him checking in on them before ending the call and telling them that it is a burner number.

The next morning Charlie gets ready and goes to the Region commanders building in S1. When they arrived they walked in and saw Natalie in the lobby. After a quick conversation they learned that Carmen and Bianca are gone and Ardalla is AWOL. Natalie goes home alone and Charlie moves into the office where they tolf their story to Dominic and Cato Tatius and Juno Nepos.

The burning guides them on what to share and what to keep to themself with the words "Only a fool doesn't know the strength of his tongue."

Dominic then has Cato apologise profusely and then dismisses Charlie and as they leave they hear Dominic scold Cato about the amount of war that could have been caused if a Chadwick was to die on Western soil.

It is then that they travel to the train station and make it to the south where their father picks them up. During the journey home they plan to meet up with Blair and having a catch up. They make it home and had some food before doing some talking and heading to bed for the night.