When You See White Mice

[Reeves]

"Nice of you to acknowledge my royal background. You'll have to carry me after the wedding too." It wasn't in his nature to not fire back with an equally comedic or sarcastic response, and especially not with her. And under the circumstances it helped lighten the mood and take some of the edge off when turning around to face all the people that had gathered and looked up at the pair expectantly.

For a few seconds he remained silent, making sure his legs were steadied and holding onto his partner's hand for idle comfort while he prepared himself for the agonizing exertion that would be speaking loud enough to be heard by this substantially sized crowd. "I did kill Vincent Abrams. Or at least I tried to." It was quite the way to begin addressing a small horde's worth of people, but he'd already made his choice and fully committed to this. "When the Order first told me he'd been reckless enough to cooperate with some manner of foul alien, I didn't want to believe it. And in that instant, I knew those of us that truly cared for him wouldn't want to believe it either. And I knew that if I chose to do nothing then his increasingly reckless and incoherent behavior would put everyone on Nome at risk, and soon enough maybe even everyone else clamoring for the LFR's founding. I expect some of you will judge me quite harshly for this. I know I would, if I was down there instead of up here. And honestly, I wish I was down there. There's nothing I'd have liked more, anything else except having to make the choice I did. To safeguard the lives and future liberties of the millions I swore to share our dream with, even if it meant killing a friend. Or to put him first but at the cost of all those people who have only ever known the inside of a cage." There was a moment when saying all of that where his voice cracked and revealed a deep seated sense of vulnerability, along with clearly audible pain that was both rooted in the physical sense and otherwise. The crowd themselves weren't quite sure to think, frozen in silence and understandably shocked to know that none of this was exaggerated, and what they'd heard was true, besides the Commander's death of course.

"Now you know. You know what I did, why I did it and why those four people wanted to kill me for it. All that's left is for you to decide if you want to make the same choice they did. I'm just here to face the music, so go ahead and play whatever tune you feel you need to in response to what I've done. The personal hell of living with the fact that I killed that kid, when all I wanted to do was protect him, is worse than anything else that could possibly happen to me." And with that he was finished, the silence making way for muttering and then the sound of rapidly shuffling feet as groups of people seemed to stir as if gauging the situation for themselves.

Eventually an entourage of people marched up those very same stairs, some of them members of other groups that vehemently opposed him and his policies. If Belle were to react defensively at the sight of that, Morreti would gesture in her direction to just let whatever was going to happen - happen. The approach of the posse would ultimately stop within an arm's length of him, both saying and doing nothing for the next few seconds. If anyone had a knife to spare, they'd be able to cut the tension with it. But just as this seemed to be going south in the worst way possible, one person from that gang of mixed personalities stepped forward and simply embraced the Commander, soon followed by the rest of his number.

Everyone else held their silence out of respect, and for once silence was deafening.