Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

quiet in the small room as Random and Ruby stared at each other.
    "Don't do this, Jack," said Ruby. "I'm telling you; don't do this."
    "I have to. I can't let things go on as they are. What's happened since the rebellion has made a mockery of everything I ever believed in and fought for. If I won't fight for what I believe in, why should anyone else? What's about to happen in the hall next door will be a wake-up call for all Humanity."
    "We're in the middle of a war!"
    "We always are, Ruby. That's what those in power have always used to justify keeping the lower orders in their place. No more."
    "If you go in there and denounce everyone in power, you do it on your own. Jack.
    I won't stand with you on this. You're jeopardizing everything we have! Our position, our wealth, our security…"
    "I thought you'd got tired of being rich…"
    "I'm not that tired, and I never will be! Rich may be boring sometimes, but it beats the hell out of the alternative. I've been poor, and I'll see you and everyone else dead and damned before I go back there again. If you burn your bridges with Parliament and the Families and the undergrounds, and call them all devils and bastards to their faces, who will be left for you to stand with? No one else is going to go along with this. You'll have to go on the run again, or face being arrested as a danger to the war effort. Is that what you want?"
    "Maybe," said Random. "I'll run, alone if I have to. I'm a lot harder to catch these days than I used to be, thanks to dear dead Owen. He would have understood what I'm going to do in there. Maybe what I'm about to do is partly in his name, in his memory." He looked steadily at Ruby. "If I had to run, would you come with me? It would be just like the old days; just us, against the Empire."
    "I hated the old days," said Ruby flatly. "Nothing could make me go back to them; not you or anybody else. Have you forgotten what life was like, back on Mistworld, before Owen found us? You were a broken old man, working as a janitor in a health spa. And I was working as a bouncer in a series of increasingly seedy bars, living in a single room, with no running water and no heating, eating day-old bread and meat from tins well past their sell-by date. That's the real reason I joined your rebel cause. I'd have joined any cause that offered me
    a way out of what my life had become."
    "And because Hazel asked you."
    "Hazel was my friend. She's dead. And so is Owen. He was our touchstone. He remade us into something finer, held us together and made us believe we were the forces of light. But now he's gone. I won't go back to being poor, Jack. Not even for you."
    "You were the one who criticized my deal with the Families. You said that was when you stopped believing in me. Won't you believe in me now?"
    "I don't see anything to believe in, Jack. This is madness. You're like a small child, who wants to overturn the gameboard, because he's losing."
    "I'm just being true to my nature again. I was so busy being Jack Random the politician that I forgot my true self; the professional rebel. It's my destiny to fight the System. Any System."
    "And what we've had together," said Ruby Journey softly. "That means nothing to you?"
    "I could not love thee half so much loved I not honor more. Some truths never change, Ruby."
    "Do what you have to do, Jack. And I'll do what I have to."
    They smiled slightly at each other, knowing that what was to come was inevitable. That some things could not be turned aside by such small joys as love or happiness. Jack opened the door to the great hall, and Ruby walked in past him, head held high, looking straight ahead. Jack shrugged, and smiled widely at the thought of the terrible thing he was about to do.

    The great hall had originally been intended for official receptions, formal
    dinners and the like. But Random had had all the furniture removed, to make more room for his guests. All that remained was a single raised dais, so that Random's audience could see him when he spoke. It was a pretty sizable audience.
    Random leaned against the closed and locked door, looking them over. Stephanie and David Wolfe stood together, perhaps a little more closely than brother and sister should. Stephanie was glaring about her almost triumphantly, as though her invitation to Random's gathering proved she was still a power to be reckoned with. Daniel seemed somewhat distracted, but then he always did, these days.
    Probably only came because his sister