As Niall read the letter that contained the deranged scratches of Rivier, a man who had clearly lost his senses, he could not help but be disgusted with the box that sat on the desk of his home office. Sure, it was simply hair... but really, it wasn't. It was hair that came off the head of a girl that Rivier had killed... his own daughter at that. And for what? For loving a man? Certainly, she did love Rue, at least that is what Niall could tell from the few letters he was able to skim through in that short period of time.

She loved him and was killed for it. And she would have been dead for years now, with the rest of her body buried deep within the ground somewhere far from here.

Probably somewhere she didn't even want to be.

The poor girl.

However, despite the intense emotion he felt at the sight of that box, he could not even pretend to be unmoved by Thea's proclamation that Tai was, in fact, a woman. Frankly, everyone in the room, the entire team, was stunned.

"Though I can't deny that it did in fact feel like she was the one calling the shots, it's hard to even imagine a woman leading them," Aaryan said.

Luana, who seemed to have been beaming at the revelation, began to frown. "Why, you think a woman can't lead the Crows?"

"It's not about what I think," Aaryan responded, frowning. "Let's not forget that the Crows are comprised of mostly young boys who strongly believe in the patriarchal culture of Aiveria despite fighting for Eloria."

"He's right about that, Luana," Milo said. "Some of these Crows are not much different from university fraternities. Remember the Danyo Crows?"

As Luana mumbled something about boys being stupid, making Kaya snort, Niall looked at Thea. She seemed to be falling in and out of deep thoughts since she had returned and Niall was more than a little curious as to what was playing out in her mind. "That's true, but I'm absolutely convinced. Even thinking back to my conversation with Rue... he told me that Tai was the person who he gave this box to... and remember what the woman said?" Thea looked at Aaryan. "She said that she had not touched the box since Rue gave it to her. Unless Rue misspoke, and Rue rarely ever does that, this should be proof enough that she is Tai."

Niall nodded, seeing the validity in that as Aaryan let out a breath.

"Plus, you're considering what you know of Orynan's Crows... the Revolutionary Crows," Thea continued. "These are the remnants of the Original Crows, remember? Rhys's Crows."

Milo nodded at this too. "That's a good point," he agreed. "Rhys is known to have allowed women into his ranks. He even had an elite force composed primarily of women. The Ravens."

Niall let out a breath. He had practically forgotten about the existence of the Ravens. "The Revolutionary Armed Volunteers of the Elorian Nation," Niall said. They were a small group of mostly women who were both extremely effective and extremely deadly. One of the main reasons for their success was because everyone underestimated them.

"Wasn't their leader very close with Rhys?" Milo asked.

"Sayira," Julian answered. "Yes, she was. But she died in that final battle where Rhys surrendered and her body was disposed of by the State. The Ravens are said to have completely disbanded after that."

Milo frowned. "So Tai is not Sayira."

Kaya was shaking her head. "Though it is possible that she may have originally been a part of the Ravens," she said. "Yes they disbanded but it's not hard to think that some stuck around."

Niall sighed. "Though I understand that the thought of Tai being a woman has certainly captured our attention, we must push that aside and continue to move forward," he said, returning the attention of his team back to him. "It is frustrating to think that whoever Tia is, they have managed to take the control we had of the situation away from us. They have attempted to outsmart us." He saw the frowns on his teams faces, and though he was extremely frustrated with the threats that were made and the organization's decision to want the upper hand, he knew that this could not be his focus right now. "But my belief is that the only way for us to get ahead of them again is to get Rue out. To use him as our bargaining chip."

"And in order to do that," Kaya continued for Niall, "is to get rid of Rivier and put Niall in charge."

"Win, win if you ask me," Luana said with a smile.

"But I also need to add," Thea started, making everyone look at her. "We can't do this quietly."

Milo was nodding, seeming to know where Thea was going with this.

"Tai said she would only contact us when they were ready," Thea continued. "If we keep this whole thing quiet then that may take longer than we would like."

"Agreed completely," Milo said. "The best course of action would be to keep their attention on us... or at least, on you General Killian. They need to see that we are moving and taking action. Which means everything regarding Rivier and Rue should be a spectacle of sorts."

Though Niall's frown deepened further, Kaya began to grin. "I like spectacles."

Niall ignored her, glancing over at Julian, who nodded, seeming to read his mind. "It won't be a challenge for me to handle that."

"My recommendation," Milo continued, "is that we have the publication of Rue's poems coincide with the breaking of the news of Rivier. Maybe..." he paused, the wheels in his head turning, "maybe the article we publish to break the news of Rivier's crimes should allude to the poems and when they will be released. And the article should clearly indicate that the poems are written by the man who loved the woman that Rivier killed... we can do this because of the letters Tai gave Thea. Those can be published too.."

Julian was writing notes down rather frantically as Milo spoke.

"Actually, for the best effect, we should have multiple articles," Milo continued, beginning to speak quickly as he often did when ideas began to flow through his mind. "Start off with one news publication and then have it branch out to as many others as we can over the upcoming week. It should reach all corners of the State quite quickly, I'd assume. And all of the articles should allude to Rue as the lover and poet, as well as the poems release date... maybe it should be a week from the day the first article is published? This would mean that the readers, who are already intrigued by the fact that Rivier is being accused of the murder of his own daughter, would have a reason to want to invest their time into reading the book of poems. They would want to know more about the man that Rivier despised so much that he would kill his daughter for loving him."

As Milo took a deep breath, Julian tried to catch up with his notes and Thea chewed on her lips, nodding. "This is brilliant," she said. "Because... all of the letters we have are letters that Miriella wrote to Rue. They are all her responses to Rue's letters... responses that show her love and her kindness and her intelligence. But they do not show Rue's voice at all. This fact will definitely make people want to read his poems. People would want to hear his voice... to know him. Elorian's because he is a fellow Elorian but Aiverian's as well, because one of their own was so deeply in love with him."

"And anyone who couldn't care less for any of that would at the very least be unable to contain their curiosity over a good story about murder," Kaya added.

"Good," Niall said, making everyone look at him. "This is all good and it seems the next steps are quite clear." He turned to Thea. "Thea, you will write the articles."

For some reason, Thea seemed surprised by this. "Me?"

"Of course," Niall said. "It has to be you. You have the strongest connection to Rue and your writings on him would, I'd imagine, invoke the most emotions from the readers. Besides, just like I said when we were exposing Rivier's attack on you and Rue... you have a background in journalism. And let's not forget my desire to put you at the head of communications for our team and our cause."

Though his words seem to bring forth a look of nervousness on her face, she did not argue or protest. "Okay. Understood."

"Good," Niall said once more. "Once your writeup is done, you will work closely with Julian, as you did previously. Milo can help you too. One thing to note is that we can't pretend this is some sort of rumor that was passing around through Achlis before landing in the ear of the press"

Julian nodded. "The higher ups will know quite quickly that this is linked to us," he looked at Thea. "Particularly to you."

Thea didn't hesitate. "That's fine. If it means getting Rue out then that's a risk I'm willing to take."

"Of course you're willing to take the risk," Aaryan started. "But I don't think you're aware of what that risk is-"

"I trust the team and the support I will get from you all more than I fear those higher ups. I stood before them once already and I'm not scared to do it again."

Aaryan rolled his eyes at Thea's response but Niall spoke before he could. "We will take care of her, Aaryan, you have nothing to fear."

Aaryan's response was simply to nod.

Niall looked back at Thea. "In addition to the risk, something else to keep in mind is that this won't get published as quickly as the attack did. This article will be accusing a high ranking official of murder and whether we have photographs of the hair and letters as proof or not, even our closest allies in the press will hesitate. I hate to have to say it as it will be difficult for me too, but we will need some level of patience."

The team responded with nods and 'yes sirs,' and Niall proceeded to take a breath. "I'll give you until the day after tomorrow, Thea," he said. "The draft of the article should be on my desk first thing that morning. If you need more time or anything at all for that matter, let me know as soon as possible."

Thea nodded, smiling. "Yes, Sir."







Thea knew that she couldn't just go back to work after that, despite the relative urgency in the need to write up that article. All she could really think of was seeing Rue.

When she arrived in his room, he was fast asleep, and though she hoped he would look like he was doing much better, he really didn't. Instead, he looked about the same, if not worse.

Thea didn't wake him.

Instead, she adjusted his covers a little, opened up the windows once again to let some air in before sitting next to him and flipped through the letters that Miriella had sent him years ago. The letters she wrote him were the only things that Niall let her take with her. For the purpose of keeping Rivier's cruel letter and Miriella's hair safe from people who may want to get rid of it, Niall had it safely locked away in his home, waiting for Julian to come and take photographs of it to be published in the newspaper.

Of course, that was fine.

She expected that Rue would not really want to have to see that again.

It was almost an hour after she had arrived that Rue woke up and though he looked surprised to see her, it brought Thea joy to realize that he looked happy to see her too. "You're back."

She smiled, pulling her chair closer to him. "Back from Ilia."

"And?"

"And you never told me Tai was a woman."

A small smile formed on Rue's face. "You figured it out."

"Of course I figured it out. That woman's aura just radiated... authority."

"Who is her stand in? Is it Anban?"

"I don't know his name... he's just a very handsome man."

"Smoker?"

Thea nodded.

"Anban. My predecessor. The new second in command."

Well, Thea supposed it was good to at least know his name now. "I met Kova too... he seemed... moral."

Rue chuckled deeply, though even that seemed to bring him some pain. "He's a good kid. I'm happy to hear he is alive."

"And maybe becoming a father," Thea said. "He was quite affectionate with a pregnant woman named Paruntha."

Rue looked at her with an expression of surprise. "Really?"

"Why do you seem so surprised? The two seemed rather in love."

The smile returned on his face. "Kova was obsessed with the girl but was too focused on dying for the cause to make a move... and she had so many self worth issues that she couldn't even fathom that a handsome boy like him was actually in love with her."

Thea looked surprised now too. "Well they certainly got past that."

"Good for them," Rue said, looking pleased. "They deserve each other. The both of them have been through a lot yet have so much love to give."

Thea chuckled at that, suddenly more curious about the people who Rue was once close to... people who were like his family... but then shook her head, reminding herself of what was important. "Why didn't you just tell me ahead of time that Tai is a woman?"

"Because it is part of my oath to her as my superior that I will not unnecessarily reveal her true identity... even to people I like. Kal has gotten this far because her true identity is kept a secret... I'm sure you can imagine what the male leaders of this State found out the truth?"

Thea nodded. It would give them a stronger desire to get rid of her. A woman in power? Certainly something they would not like.

"It is simply known among our division to never reference her gender and just because I've been in prison for all these years does not mean I stop respecting that," Rue said. "Besides, I knew you would figure it out. And knowing Tai, she knows you know as well."

Thea sighed. "Well, I appreciate your trust in me but I'm not going to pretend that going into that blind did pose some problems."

"And I am certainly both impressed and happy that you made it out alive."

Thea went to smack him but stopped herself, reminding herself that he was still wounded.

He smiled, her desire to hit him seeming to amuse him. However, after a moment his expression darkened a little. "Did you get what you needed?"

Thea's expression saddened though she still smiled. "Yeah. Niall has it and will make sure nothing happens to it."

Rue nodded.

"Tai also gave me these," Thea continued as she held up the many pages she had with her.

Now Rue raised a brow, seeming to quite quickly know what they were. "She kept these too?"

"Yeah, I skimmed a few of them and we think that they're all the proof we need that Miriella loved you..." her voice trailed off when she saw Rue flinch at the name. "Sorry," she said. "I'm being inconsiderate by bringing this up."

"No," Rue responded. "It's fine. This will just... always be hard for me."

Thea moved closer to him, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the side of his bed. "I haven't really read them in detail... I felt like maybe I should ask your permission first since they are quite personal. Are you okay with me reading them... and then subsequently writing about them in the article we're going to publish about Rivier?"

Rue's expression softened. "Yes, you can read those letters," he said. "If you want, we can even go through them together right now. You only have her letters after all, so I may be able to remember and tell you some of things I had said in mine to make more sense of what she wrote."

Thea's smile grew at the idea, "that would be wonderful!" However, as she reorganized the letters, grateful that Miriella had the wherewithal to write a date on each letter, she began to wonder if maybe Rue was being so friendly and open because though he wanted to go through the letters... he didn't want to do it alone. She wondered if maybe this would be so hard on him that he wanted Thea there to lighten the mood... to make it at least a little easier for him.

Whatever the case was, Thea was more than happy to help him in whatever way she could. Even if it meant that she was there with him for hours, and only officially started writing up the article well past midnight.







Thea did not sleep that night or the next but the first of the many articles she knew she would have to write was done and she was happy with it, especially since she was able to get so much help from both Milo and Julian.

When Niall read it on the morning she gave it to him, he seemed pleased with it too.

It was as good as an exposé could get... maybe even better because not only did it feature a well known politician as the murderer, but it was also a controversial love story. The wealthy daughter of an Aiverian politician falling for a Crow that grew up in a fishing town? That would certainly be considered scandalous.

But if there was one thing that the entire team was certain of was that this was the surefire way of getting rid of Rivier. With the heat and attention already on him, this would be the crack that would break the dam. His career would be over after this and if they were lucky and enough people were angry, he'd be charged with murder and thrown into prison as well.

And then... Niall would be the new Secretary of Defense.