Makes Empire 88 Collapse

“Well,” I said. “I've got my concerns. I mean, with Kaiser and Hookwolf down, who is going to lead the Empire?”

“We are taking care of that now, girl,” he said. He gestured toward Rune, who began to approach us.

“Two groups in the Empire,” I said. “One following the purity of the Fuhrer's path, and the other just giving lip service to it. It's ironic that the leader of the other side has named herself Purity, when she is anything but pure in her dedication to the Empire. Do you think she will try to split the Empire? A nation divided among itself will surely fall, after all.”

He froze.

There it was.

Purity had been gone from the Empire for a while; she'd only returned during this recent conflict. As Kaiser's second in command, she'd have assumed control over the Empire, even though her heart was no longer in it's core principals. Kaiser was an opportunist, and he was clever. People like Hookwolf would have preferred to be much more aggressive, but what little information the Protectorate had about the internal politics of the Empire suggested that Kaiser kept a tight rein over him.

“I'm a realist,” I said. “I don't want to jump on a sinking ship. Now if the ship had a good captain, it would be different.”

“You are claiming that Kaiser is a poor leader?”

His fists tightened.

“Kaiser won the right to be leader,” I said. “What has Purity done? Run away? Shown disloyalty to people who should have been family? I'm worried about joining because how can you be loyal to a leader who will not be loyal to you?”

***

“It's done,” Stormtiger said. “Let's get them healed, and then we'll deal with the consequences... assuming you even want him healed.”

“What are you talking about?” the woman demanded.

“You didn't even want to be part of the Empire, and now you're in charge?” he asked incredulously. “Why should we follow someone who has no loyalty, someone who abandoned us in our time of need, and only came sneaking back like a whipped dog because her husband threatened to take her child. So if I were to take your child, would that mean that I was in charge of the Empire?”

I could hear an indrawn breath.

“You thought we didn't know?” he asked.

“Get down,” I said to Amy in a low voice. I grabbed her, and I pulled her down as I felt a blast of superheated air explode above me.

***

“What did you tell them?” she asked. “To get them to turn on each other?”

“They were only together really because of Kaiser,” I said. “I... didn't even have to do all that much; they were leaning toward war anyway, and I just nudged them a little. I didn't know about Purity's kid then, but now that I do, I'm pretty sure she really did want him dead because he was a threat to her child.”

“Her child with him,” she said.

***

“I'm trying to use my power less,” I said. I was silent for a long moment. “It's got... side effects.”

“They tell me you basically made the Empire implode,” he said. He was silent for a moment. “I think some people were a little scared by that.”

“I know they were,” I said. “I think Miss Militia was worried that I was going to... I don't know, create some kind of memetic virus, like in that DVD we saw recently.”

***

Knowledge-Talk