Sapphire's pov:

"What is he talking about, Saph?" Jessica had asked while turning to look at me when we had sat on the seats in the lounge area yesterday. I had just shook my head before turning to look down at the ground. "I heard him clearly! What hacking operation? I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff.." She had demanded me to tell her, but I just turned to look at the general who was clearly waiting for the answers too.

"Can we talk in private, please? I can explain everything you need to know.." I had asked, making him start to think about it a bit, before he had nodded and turned to my sister. "Jessica, you should head to Brimstone now. You two can talk later but I'm sure Carbine will call in any minute if you don't show up there soon.." General Stoker had said, making my sister sigh before nodding and getting up. "Please call me.. I want to hear everything and you to be honest with me.." She had said which made me now sigh too while remembering it. "Like it was that easy, sis.." I had thought after she had said that, and I was thinking that now too.

"Thank you General, see you later" Jessica had smiled at him before leaving, making him nod at her and sit on the seat where she had sat. There was no-one else there then, but to be honest, I wasn't sure if he had cared about if there had been someone to hear our conversation, even if it mostly included his private stuff.

"So now.. Would you prefer starting to explain what on Mars you wanted from my devices, or do I need to force that information out of you?" He had said while turning to look at me demandingly. "Here?" I had said while looking around the lounge area, but soon had noticed his tail swinging in front of my eyes, making me turn to look at him again. "No need to keep this discussion long.. I have some duties still left during this evening, even if you happen to have free time now.. But I can also take it away as fast as I gave it to you.. It's only up to you.. Like that if you really want to meet your sister behind the jail bars.." He had said when I turned to look at him again.

"Like you were any better to talk like that, General.. What I found was rather important and I see you haven't told anyone about it yet?" I had smirked at him, making him growl and keep his voice low. "Only the higher level generals know about that.. It's none of your business before we have decided to inform the lower ones about it.." He had said, making me chuckle and roll my eyes.

"I wasn't talking about that.. Or do the others really know about her? Who's that Spitfire anyway? Do you happen to have a secret wife somewhere well hidden and safe or.. You know it's not acceptable to favor your family during times like these.. Or actually that isn't new to you either after all! You favored Carbine instead of choosing me when it came to that advanced class, remember?" I had said which made him clearly froze in his place like I had hit straight to his weak point or something like that. But when I had been about to continue, he had literally growled at me and I saw almost as much hate in his eyes when he had looked at my brother after Harley had told him the truth about what he had done to the general's niece.

"Enough.. None of those things are your business at all!" He had growled while changing his position in the seat a bit. He had lifted his other leg over his other one while clearly still looking at me. "You know.. I think Carbine deserved what happened that night.. And you should have your part of it too.. I should have deserved a place in that group! I would be a general too right now, instead of her! But bullshit.. I ended up being a mechanic just because of you!" I had raised my voice a bit which had made him lean towards me and growl as a sign to keep my voice down.

"My part of it? I chose her because of her talents, not because she's my relative.. It was just clear that she was better than you and deserved the place on her own.. You have seen yourself that she's the first female general on Mars and especially that young age. I know you couldn't have ever done that, even if you were pretty good too in the normal group.." He had said, making me see red when I looked at him.

"Pretty good?! I was the best of my class and you know that!" I had practically shouted, making him just chuckle. "Second best.." He had said, making me growl and snort while turning to look away. "But what were you planning to do with my personal information, Sapphire? You know that hacking my devices doesn't help you at all to prevent going from jail after you helped your brother.. You didn't only help him with his plan, but you also managed to hide him from the whole military.. And I know exactly where!" He had said, making me turn to look at him right away with my eyes widened.

"You seriously thought I wasn't good at hacking too? Even if I got surprised about your talents for what comes to hacking.. It would be actually rather sad to lose you to jail instead of having your skills in our forces.." He had said, making me bite my lower lip. "It's up to you, Sapphire.. Your next move will tell us soon which way you are willing to go.." He had said while getting up from the seat. When I had seen him about to walk away, I had got up too.

"If you are not going to tell others about Mars' situation on water reverses.. I'll tell everyone about your personal information.. Think twice how that's going to keep your secret wife Spitfire safe!" I had growled, but it had only got him chuckle. He didn't scare me, that was clear, but he knew he needed to be careful with his actions and words when he faced me. "So you are willing to go to jail then? Blackmailing a general after helping a criminal, stealing your sister's identity more than once, and hacking superior's devices.. Umm.. How long do you want that list to go on?" He had said, making me growl while he just smirked and nodded at me.

"That's what I was thinking too.. Leave this nonsense and get back to work.. Your free time for today is over, there are some bikes that need to be fixed pronto!" He had said before leaving me standing there all alone. I had snorted loudly as a sign of frustration while kicking the ground. Gosh that general was annoying when he was always one step further than me! How on Mars I could get him cornered if that personal information I had found from him, hadn't got him scared either.. Or had it?

And even if I knew this probably got me further from Modo, I had to try anything I could. There was so much on the line now, including that the general hid too important information from the others. I hadn't found out if he was really the only one who knew about the water reserves and other things, or did the other higher rated generals knew about it too. Probably did but most of them were still at the army's side, while he was now the leader of the new resistance movement Freedom Fighters. Which also Modo had gone, which obviously made me follow right after, only if I just could..

There were so many things still undone before I could have resigned from the army. Including that I needed to stick up with my brother since we still had a plan together, especially when he had got temporarily out of jail to defend the planet. But also that I seriously wanted to fix things between me and my twin sister Jessica. "Gosh why does all of this hurt so much.. Oh you know exactly why.." I sighed to myself before taking another bite from my lunch I had prepared in the cafeteria area after the others were already eaten since I had worked so late yesterday and accidentally overslept at noon. And while eating I had started to think about what had happened yesterday. "Like blackmailing his mentor would give you better points in his eyes.." I heard my inner voice saying inside my head which made me sigh deeply and bury my face against my hands on the table next to my plate. If I never had been in very bad trouble, it was now.. And that was a lot to say!

Stoker's pov:

"I had hid all of my personal information so well, how did she find them after all?!" I thought to myself while walking along the underground corridor in the Freedom Fighters' new headquarters. "Even if she had miscalculated some of that information, she had still found out too much.." I sighed while rubbing my forehead while walking. I was currently heading to the lounge area to meet the group of new soldiers that had resigned from the army and had just joined the resistance movement.

"I can't just deny that she's dangerous, but also very talented. More now than back then many years ago. Gosh if I knew she was going to grow up in a bad way, I would have given her a chance and that would have probably saved her too.." I closed my eyes for a second when I stopped walking. "No Stoker.. You can't just save every single kid or youngster to make up for what you did to her.." I heard myself saying to myself inside my head. And just before I was about to think that more, I heard someone shouting in the lounge area which made me start to run there right away.

"What?! We are out of water?!" Vinnie gasped while looking at one soldier a bit younger than him that looked like he was part of the group that I was supposed to meet. "Where did you hear that, soldier?" Throttle said while way too many pairs of ears had heard that and started to gather around the soldier.

"What market meeting is happening here?" I raised my voice while shooing away a few of them to make some space to walk there. "Ask him.." The Soldier pointed at me, making Throttle turn to look at me with the others too right after him. "Is that true, Stoke? Have we run out of water?" He asked, making me sigh deeply. "You are playing a very dangerous game now, Sapphire.." I thought to myself while realizing that I had thought I got rid of one weight of my shoulders when I resigned from the army, but that certain female seems to be another new pain in my butt now too.

"Yes, that's true.. Whole Mars is now facing another great danger since the water reserves are close to the end" I explained, making all of them gasp. "The Whole planet?! Why haven't you told us earlier?!" Vinnie growled while Modo and Throttle tried to help a few soldiers to calm down. Some of the new guys seemed to have started to regret their decision to join us. "It was just about time to make that decision with other higher leveled generals.. You would have got to know about that soon" I explained, but it only made Vinnie just roll his eyes while he crossed his arms and looked very displeased.

"What else are you hiding from us?! That's not a thing the superiors can play hide and seek with the underlings, to tell or not! That's the basics everyone should know!" Vinnie practically shouted, making me sigh deeply before nodding at him. "You are right, Punk.." I started, making his eyes widen up while they all turned to look at me again. "I am? I mean of course I am!" He smirked while they all looked like they were waiting for me to start explaining.

"That was one of the many reasons I decided to leave the army.." I said while walking in the middle of them which made them form a circle around me, so all of them could hear and see me. "I know this isn't the thing our new Freedom Fighters want to hear at first, especially from their leader, but let's say I understand if you want to go back to the army again" I said, making them, mostly the new ones, turn to look at each other while whispering something.

"Some of you know me better than the others" I started while turning to look at the Biker Mice from which Throttle nodded at me while Vinnie turned to look away. Modo just looked at me silently before he turned to a few soldiers to growl them to be silent when I talked. I nodded at him formally as a way to thank him before I continued. "And by that I also mean that some of you know that I don't take unnecessary risks. I'll always protect my own and do whatever it takes to keep them safe! That's what I did with this information too.." I explained, making some of them look confused while they turned to look at the person next to them again.

"Some information is supposed to stay hidden before it's a good time to tell it to underlings. Only those who have ever been leaders, will understand it fully. Since most of you are still young and some of you even are that age you just got to the military forces. By not telling you everything at once isn't only going to protect you, it also keeps your fighting spirit flared up!" I continued, making Vinnie lift his hand up a bit while stepping forward.

"How exactly will that lift our fighting spirit up, Old Timer? If we don't know everything those Fish faces have done to us, how on Mars do you think we could or are even willing to defend our loved ones and ourselves, not forgetting our whole planet either!" He said, making me smirk at him. Since when has this young rebel got so smart and responsible?

"Make sure you all heard what this kid said here, did you hear me Fighters?!" I shouted while walking to Vinnie to lift my other arm on his shoulder while with my other fist I patted his head, making him chuckle and smirk at me. "This is why I founded the resistance movement! I knew you all would understand my point and follow me to take back what's ours while the army just obeys orders and rolls their thumbs under the government's watch!" I lifted my fist up in the air while howling loudly, making all of them follow my lead and shout and growl loudly as a sign of agreeing and following me as the Freedom Fighters.

"But Stoke, how bad is the situation actually? With water.." Throttle said, making all of them quiet again to listen to what I was about to answer him. They all must have thought the same thing, that was clear. "The Government has sold some water secretly for some of the richest Martians, while being clearly aware it won't last for everyone" I said, making most of them gasp while the trio just turned to look at each other to growl. Neither of them liked that kind of behavior. They didn't accept that those who had the power in their hands used it wrong and stepped over the weakest party. That's one of those many things I have to admit I have taught them well, even if their natures were already towards that kind of thinking, which just made my job even a bit easier. And nothing else was easy anymore when talking about those three.

"We all have seen the water decrease out there.. Nature is dying and Martian forests have mostly died already! We have more deserts now than forests, lakes and oceans, and before the attacks the situation was the exact opposite. Plants or anything else don't have enough water anymore to grow, but I'd never have imagined the situation was that bad.. And that the government got that low.." One of the soldiers said, making me nod at him. He was the same young male, who had told Vinnie about the situation of water reserves in the first place. But I wasn't blaming him at all, I was going to talk with him later, but I already knew that Sapphire had spread rumors about this, so that male wasn't the one who I should blame at all. Maybe to cause some chaos, maybe to get our forces to break, or maybe it was a sign for me to now play with her, but whatever it was, she doesn't play that game long.. Two can play that too!

"The Reserves were alright before the government started to sell the water to the most richest.. But this isn't only blaming the government! Plutarkians are the ones we all can blame for this! They started to steal our land which meant that it was just up to time for nature to start dying.." I said while looking at the Freedom Fighters one by one, to make sure they heard and understood me since they nodded at me when I was looking at them. "Like I said, we are going to take back what's ours! But to be honest, I don't think Mars doesn't have much time anymore, so ain't we all clear about that we are going to bring its nature back to its glory where it was before their attack, and even better!" I said while seeing them all realizing what I meant.

"Freedom Fighters. The Last battle is probably closer than we all can ever expect. Make sure you all are ready for it whenever it starts. I'll keep you all informed about anything I get to know" I announced, making them all look at me seriously before I lifted my fist up in the air and shouted to lift up their fighting spirit. They followed my lead once again before I told them they were free to go continue whatever they were doing before this.

Now the next things on my To Do -list were to find Sapphire again after meeting with the new Freedom Fighters that I told them to follow me to one of the meeting rooms, not forgetting many other things that I needed to do here and way too soon that I even had enough time. That list too was one of those bottomless lists that I had and the weight on my shoulders seemed to pile up again, like I hadn't ever left the army after all. But one thing was revealing about this. I was the leader now and I could tell them what to do, without needing to hear the decisions from the above before doing anything. Even if that exact thing was also its very own shadow part too. I was responsible for all of these soldiers, which was also very good thing but also a very bad.

"Dear, did I make the right decision after all? Am I leading us to victory or all of these innocent soldiers towards their doom?" I thought to myself while walking along the same corridor again I had walked to the lounge area. The New Fighters were following me, but I could hear them talking with each other about their personal lives which made me be quite sure none of them took any notice of me when I lifted my left hand to my left antenna.

I rubbed the bottom of it which I always made sure was hidden among my long brown hair. Because in the bottom of my left antenna was my very own silver wedding ring, since it was part of the Martian mice culture that the wedding couples placed the rings to their left antennas. That's how I had done it with my loved one, almost 15 years ago..