Wordcount: 944
Rating/Warnings: PG
Summary: Word War, Brian and Blue go out to rescue Nathan from yet another group of Lost Children (White’s?)

NOTE: This is a very rough draft with no editing at all (per National Novel Wiriting Month rules) and is presented for amusement value only. Think of it as a periscope into my writing process rather than a coherent story!

There will most likely be spelling and grammatical errors afoot as well as flat out bad writing, info dumps, plot holes, contradictions/retcons, uneven characterization and pacing. These snippits are also posted out of order, so please refer to the Outline to figure out where it’s supposed to fit.

~*~*~*~*~

And Suddenly

Sara takes Horn with some reluctance and the elf isn’t too happy about the situation either, but he settles onto her shoulder with at least a modicum of politeness. The carrying vest is too large for her, but they jury-rig it in place.

“I still think this is a bad idea,” Sara says as Blue shrugs into the uniform. “There are so many things that can go wrong.”

Horn trills in agreement, but they’ve been over this a hundred times and neither of them can see another way out of the problem.

Blue can’t talk to them anymore, not without Horn, so he’s saved from having to argue it out again.

Once he’s dressed to Brian’s satisfaction the two of them wave goodbye and head out into the city on their own.

They make it to the door in record time, but that’s partially because Blue knows the way and partially because he can feel the city reworking the ways for them. It’s odd to know that she’s there, changing the way the world works just to suit him, but it’s also comforting.

He’ll never be on the wrong side of a gate again.

They pause at the door and Brian runs down the plan one more time. It’s risky, and even more so since it’s Blue and Brian on the rescue team, but there’s no other way to do this that they know of.

When Blue asks the city opens the door for them and they walk into the controlled area acting as if they belonged there. And everyone else assumes that they do. It’s simply beyond their understanding that anyone except their group could get in, so even though they don’t recognize him, Blue and Brian are close enough to everyone else in appearance that they raise no eyebrows.

Blue keeps his connection with the city open, steering them to the area where Nathan is being held. They’re careful, but it’s a limited area and the city can only help so much.

They end up not being able to get to the building directly, but the city gives them an alternate route and they climb the side of the buildings, keeping low in the light and in the shadows. They are easy to spot, but no one is looking up and they managed to make it to the roof of the tower of building that server as the detention center.

They wait until the guards shift, there is no night so there’s no easy time to break in and the group is on a three shift cycle which means the guards are changed three times and never on post longer enough to get tired.

Which makes more sense than the two person shift but not enough to cause real problems with the time keeping. But not that many people even use time keeping, since it’s problematic this close to the city’s heart.

They rely on the city instead, to give the bell tones that signal the changes of the hours and Blue convinces her to shift things slightly, giving the bell tone too early within the one building and too late within the barracks.

So they guards leave, not worrying because the others are coming. One stays behind just to hand off the paperwork. They know there are no problems because there have never been problems which Blue and Brian use to their advantage.

The one lone guard is easy enough to subdue and they manage to knock him out instead of kill him. The city had been very adamant that no one was hurt, much less killed in this operation.
The only reason Blue had gotten her to agree to the plan was the fact that Nathan was likely to be executed, something she seems to violently object to.

Which was odd considering they’d killed people before but the city was still willing to let them live where they did. You ‘d think she would have chased them out, but she’s more defensive and reactive than proactive and they didn’t classify as a threat to her.

But Blue was her in some roundabout way an losing Nathan would hurt blue, so in turn it would hurt the city, and she wouldn’t let that happen.

They find Nathan in a cell by himself among other inmates who seem uninterested in their appearance.

Even the criminals are so used to the normal order of things they don’t ask when things go a bit odd. Which is telling, if the fact that things follow rules and never change even for the folks who are arrested for breaking the rules.

They open Nathan’s cell with help from the City and they go back to the guard room. They switch Nathan’s clothing with the guard, which is why they picked this shift because the guard was about the same size, and then they head out the door.

They make it back out of the compound without incident. Which is wrong in all sorts of ways, because it’s much too easy and much too simple and something should go wrong. My stories are always without conflict even when I give them conflict, darnit!

So the guard wakes up before they make it out of the compound, because they were so worried about hurting him that they gave him too small a dose. He sounds the alarm and the three of them are forced to hide, but the compound is small and they are going to get found eventually.

The other group is also trying to get the city to tell them where they are, which is doesn’t want to do, and that causes more alarm and confusion.