(no subject)

[mandercommander]

This time, it wasn't jokes; it was comments about the leaks. There were rumors flying about a leak in the system, and the inabulity of either Achilles or Bonzo to squash it. Working with the bugs, Bonzo was able to piece together the gist of the rumors; they ended up confirming a few of his suspicions, prompting a call upstairs. "We might just have our answer."


Within half an hour, a half-dozen employees were rounded up, as well as a few of the Battle Schoolers on-site. Bonzo watched as they were brought in, and shook his head. The sight of Petra among them nearly made his blood boil, however, and he stormed over to her and punched her in the face.
"You traitor. I thought you were my friend, Petra...I thought that, and you go and do this to me!"
Another punch, and Petra staggered back, a confused look on his face. Bonzo stepped forward, throttling her as he shoved her into the wall.
"I ought to kill you right now, you traitor. I ought to."
In a momentary burst of anger, he suddenly threw Petra on the ground and looked at the guards.
"Take her to her cell. Keep her isolated, and don't bother doing anything to her. I'll see to her myself later."
With that, Petra was picked up and hauled off. Bonzo then turned to the others, shaking his head. This is not going to be fun.

Bonzo interrogated the employees first. He knew that they were there of their own accord, increasing his contempt for any of them spying. At least the Battle Schoolers hadn't chosen to be here and then betrayed his work. He spent a few weeks of spare time on them, working them over thoroughly, while trying to figure out what to do with Petra. In the meantime, he left her alone, and carefully supervised her to make sure that nobody else did anything to her. When he caught one of the people on his staff talking about possibly doing something to her, he simply found the man and made those things physically impossible for him to do. Then, he ordered the man taken to a cell of his own. Turning to the guards present, he glared.
"If I hear of anything else being planned for Ms. Arkanian like that, I will kill everyone involved slowly and painfully. Is that understood?"
The guards nodded in assent, and he shook his head.
"Don't expect to see him again anytime soon, if at all."

Bonzo returned to his office and looked out the window. Time to get this over with, before I have to execute those animals for more plotting. As he was staring out there, Achilles walked in.
"You've been hesitating about killing Arkanian."
"She was one of the best. It's a shame."
"You can't hesitate just because of that. A traitor is a traitor, Madrid."
"Agreed. All of the others were...lesser people, that's all. Not like us. She is more like us."
"Not enough, apparently. She doesn't share our vision."
"I know."
"In spite of your order down there, I have put an...override in. Since you've hesitated, you give me no choice but to require you to prove that I can truly trust you."
"Another public execution."
"Yes. If you can't, I can always find someone else."
Bonzo looked up at Achilles, his eyes darkening furiously. "You know that I'm not some dishonorable traitor. I'll take care of it."
"Good. I have reason to think that we may be attacked soon. The contents of some of the leaked information indicated an upcoming attack, and I wouldn't want her falling back into their hands. Would you?"
"Absolutely not."
"As I thought. Half an hour."

That half hour was the longest of Bonzo's life. In spite of all the personal betrayal he felt, he didn't want to kill Petra. He really didn't. But she had given him no choice, he decided, and so half an hour later, he was walking slowly across the courtyard, hand on his lightsaber, and looking at a defiant Petra Arkanian chained up just as the first guard he'd killed was. It was as he was preparing to draw his lightsaber that an explosion went off in the background, and the shooting began.

Bonzo looked around as debris went flying from a nearby bomb blast, and drew his lightsaber. He then took off to where he saw a helicopter landing, and attempted to intercept the soldiers getting off of it. He didn't know who would be on it, but he didn't care...the attack threatened to destroy everything he'd worked so hard on, and he wasn't going to let it go easily.

He got within a hundred feet of the helicopter when a bullet clipped him in the shoulder. Bonzo fell backwards, taking another grazing shot as he went down, and dropping his lightsaber in the process. He pulled himself up from the ground, and looked at his wound. Deciding that he could keep fighting, he grabbed for his lightsaber and ran towards one of the supply rooms in the building...