“You wouldn’t,” Suho said, trying to somehow pull out a bluff from Lay’s eyes. But there was none; the other man was perfectly serious, calm, and resolved. Why wouldn’t he be? This was the same man who killed innocent children in a bombing just because they were the children of an opposing politician, all to make a point. Who’s to say he wouldn’t do it to save one of his own, and to protect himself?

            “Try me,” Lay shot back, his voice and eyes stable as he looks up at the Moon King.

            “What makes you think that this would be beneficial to us?” Kris spoke up, stepping forward to glare down at Lay, who simply rolled his eyes.

            “Oh, come on. You came for me, right? But not just because I’m any old Earth citizen, oh no. I’m the root of so many of these problems, the ones that you want to fix, and I’m pretty sure more violence wouldn’t really solve those problems, now would they?” Lay replied with a smirk. “Besides, there’s no way you came alone. Just four to protect two of the most important people in this galaxy’s politics? Bull. . You brought extra forces, and there’s no doubt that you’d want to keep them by you, but not too close, or else you’d blow your cover too early. And where would be the safest place to keep politician’s soldiers?” Kris grit his teeth as Lay spoke, his glare intensifying, but said nothing. “I wonder…”

            “Alright then,” Chanyeol suddenly spoke this time. “Assuming that we have brought soldiers, and left them in the square, who’s to say they’re still there now?” Lay’s expression of confidence quickly turned to confusion, before he masked it into indifference.

            “It’ll take a lot more than some little mind ploys like that so throw me off,” he said, a slight haughtiness in his tone, but it was too late.

----------

            Lay was never admired for his fighting prowess, for his physical strength, for his intimidation. No, he wasn’t the overly-muscled, brawns-over-brains type of man, and he never had been. His figure was lean, with muscle distributed evenly across his body, with enough strength to defend himself, but surely not enough to take down an army single-handedly, despite the rumors.  He was far from midget stature, but he was no beast either; just at average height, and in all honestly, slightly scrawny, at least, at first sight. Even his attitude could appear somewhat demure to many who only gazed upon him. His shoulders shrug slightly, naturally, like so many people—he makes no moves to constantly correct his posture, he found it unnecessary—and he rarely directly participated in altercations and never made any sudden confrontations. No, the true power he had, the true energy that his followers craved and lived on, could only be found when he let free his mind and opened his mouth.

            He spoke with confidence, yet with a soft allure that calmed people. He did not shout his speeches brazenly like many did; he simply spoke, just as though he were talking to one person right in front of him. Because really, that was how it should be—him addressing each and every individual fairly. He was quick to think and respond, as well, and was rarely, if ever, caught completely off his guard. He knew what appealed to people, and what didn’t, and he knew how to remedy bad situations. And more than anything, he was stable, and everyone loved stable.

            Yet at that moment in time, as he found him and his team slowly being surrounded by multiple Royal Moon soldiers emerging from the very alleyways they had run through, Lay couldn’t ignore the surprise, the confusion, the fear that came upon him.

            They were barely scraping by with the four from before, and now that An Qi was practically down for the count, and Dong Huan was slowly nearing that point, having so many more come onto them was bound to end in disaster. Quickly, he glanced around, trying to get a good idea of exactly how many there were, as well as trying to scout for possible escape routes, if ever needed. Sure, he could simply turn and run behind him, but he’d be running straight into the protests that he was supposed to be leading—fleeing from an enemy with those who followed you with their lives watching would hardly be a good move on his part.

            That just left the alleyways, because he just knew that he wouldn’t be able to get past the Royals and their crew to escape into the streets behind them. But even then, there was little chance he’d be able to sneak past everyone here—whether it was because of his own incompetence, or because he refused to simply leave his teammates when they were practically at death’s doorstep, he wasn’t sure. Still, assuming he managed to get into one of the alleyways, he didn’t know how many soldiers were still there, lurking in the shady paths, just waiting for their chance to spring from the crevices and attack.

            “So much for ploys,” the tall one that He Guo had pinned down spoke again, this time a grin on his face, despite the position he was in.

            “What is it that you want?” Lay spat out as he watched soldiers begin to surround his comrades.

            “Your cooperation,” the Sun King replied curtly.

            “What makes you think I’ll go along with this?” He knew he was treading on thin ice here, but he had no escape plan yet and he was most definitely not going to mindlessly charge into a situation that could get him killed in less than a second. “Sure, you brought your little soldiers here. So what? My first point still stands.”

            “Those buildings could be empty,” the Moon King spoke up, stepping forward to stare straight into Lay’s eyes. There was a cool determination in his look that Lay couldn’t exactly understand.

            “They could not be,” Lay said simply, meeting the gaze with his own intensity.

            “They likely are.”

            “What makes you think that?”

            “What politicians would stay in this train-wreck of a city?”

            “Li Jingfei and her family stayed.”

            “She was also considered to be the ‘the last active member of the city council,’ according to you.” Lay cursed inwardly, but made sure to keep his composure on the exterior.

            “There are other politicians, besides the city council.”

            “They’d have to be pretty low-rank ones, if that’s the case.”

            “If they were, their lives wouldn’t matter to you?”

            “If they were, they wouldn’t be living in the city’s main square.” He was pretty good, for a pompous Royal.

            “What about other political guests? You may not be the only ones dropping by.”

            “We are; that was confirmed to us when we arrived.”

            “You trust your