[CONTENTID1]CHAPTER SEVEN - THE BRINK[/CONTENTID1]
[CONTENTID2]

A/N: REEEAAAALLLYYYYYY long chapter (almost 6k) so next one won't be out for a while. I've got too much school work and stuff to do D:

Weeks passed and the closer my birthday came, the more I dreaded that day because it also meant my wedding day would soon be upon me. If you'd asked me at nine years old when, how and who I would've been getting married to, I would've answered this: not until I was at least thirty, with a good job, loyal friends and my parents lived comfortably. And the man I married would've been a gentle soul with a dazzling smile, a good heart and a sharp mind. I know, I was a weird child. But never would I have imagined that my life would turn out like this: human trafficked, and orphaned at fourteen, failed pregnancy at seventeen and getting married at eighteen. It was a life I wouldn't dream to be bestowed upon anyone. 

Still, I endured it. I had to. I was doing well in gathering information for Jackson, Henry and BamBam. Shortly after the proposal, I'd found out (through eavesdropping, of course) that the "electronics" I'd overheard Master Wu and some man discuss on the phone actually referred to highly technologically advanced artificial intelligence. The Chinese and Japanese government had come together again, after the failure that was the cyborgs, and achieved their goal of perfecting a newer, better weapon. Robots that were not remotely human but possessed human-like qualities such as logic, survival instinct and creativity. Although they were not self-aware (after all, a computer is only as good as its programmer) they did have a thought process simulator. They supposedly had the ability to be humorous, to learn form their mistakes (though their primary aim was to not make any) and to follow orders given by their superiors no matter what. That was the scary part.

"I never liked sci-fi movies," BamBam grumbles as he rubs his tired face. We're sitting in Henry's apartment (he refuses to live with his father) and going over page after page of paperwork. It's all the information we've gathered over the months, it's our ticket to freedom. And for me, revenge. "Who in their right mind would make robots? Seriously, robots? They'll regret it when they take over the world."

"Doubt there'll be a world left to take over," I scoff, throwing another file onto the desk. Henry looks up from his folded arms and yawns, taking the file into his hands. He and Jackson have gotten very little sleep lately, they're both under pressure from their fathers to marry soon. Now, marriage is the safest and most efficient way of ensuring your survival. Marrying into a powerful family used to signify monetary bonds but now, they're a means of combining the powers of two families in order to ensure that the other will take them in if, say, their home is bombed or their city is invaded. 

"Don't be so cynical," BamBam sighs, throwing an arm over my shoulders. I raise a brow at him and he quickly removes it, smiling sheepishly. He then claps his hands and sits back down on the sofa. "I think we need this."

"What?" I ask.

"Complete destruction. I think the robots should be released, the child soldiers should trot the globe and the virus should hit major cities," he replies and I furrow my brows at him. "I watched a movie once. When I was nine. It was my mother's favourite even though it was in English." I speak a little English now, Henry and Jackson are both fluent and they've been teaching both me and BamBam. "I can't remember the plot exactly but it was something about an alien planet coming to take humans out because we were destroying our planet."

"What does that have to do with The War?" I snort, looking away. BamBam often comes out with pointless drivel. 

"A lot. See, one scene takes place with a scientist and an alien having a conversation. The scientist is begging the alien to help the humans survive the purge but the alien tells him that the problem is not technology, it is humans. We lack the will to change. The scientist asks him how the alien's people became what they are now. The alien tells him that their sun was dying so they had to evolve to survive." Although I have no idea where he is going with this, I continue to listen to him. I turn my face so that I can look at him as he speaks. "You know what the scientist says next?"

"What does he say?" Henry asks and I glance at him, realising that he, too, is curious as to what the punchline to BamBam's train of thought is.

BamBam answers, "'You say that we're on the brink of destruction and you're right. But it's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evole.' That's what he says. And I think it applies to the situation we're in right now. Our world is crumbling and dying, society is quickly spiralling out of control. No, it's far surpassed that point. I think we need everything to just kick off, we need the world to just drive itself into oblivion before we can start building it up again." 

I'm silent. Henry is, too. BamBam's words are replaying in my head like a movie. On one hand, I want to agree with him because it's true that it's only when humans are pushed to the point of annihilation that we start thinking differently. Take what happened to the French government in 1960 postwar France. Their ridiculously low population drove their government to go to extreme measures in order to repopulate their economy. They issued out endless sums of money to people for doing the most fundamental, biological thing: reproducing. But that's what the risk of extinction forced them to do. 

On the other hand, I want to disagree with him because the threat of annihilation might not prompt our race to evolve but, instead, to devolve. On the verge of starvation, even the kindest man might kill his neighbour for food. Humans are wired to follow our survival instinct but that instinct might not go further than ourselves. In the heat of the moment, a person will murder their opponent if it means that they get to see the sunrise another day. They will not care about others but only themselves. How can we expect the world to go back to the way it was when, even then, countries fought one another for things as stupid as land, religion and pride? How can we expect to rise above this hell that we've created for ourselves if we cannot see past our selfishness, if we cannot see the bigger picture? 

At the end of the day, people will group against one another to the point of death, if only to prove a point. We claim that we're the smartest species, the most logical race but we cannot even gather enough intellect to see that violence will never lead to anything other than violence. Even I am a hypocrite; I plan on using violence to take out those that hurt me and the people I love. I know that once I take a life for the first time, I'll never be the same person. And I'm okay with that. 

Jackson strolls in but stops in the centre of the room, his eyes studying us. "Jesus, who died?" I blink a few times before fixing my eyes on him. His hair's gotten longer and stumble is beginning to grow into a five o'clock shadow. I stand up and walk over to him, taking his hand and leading him to a chair. "What are you doing?" I retrieve a blade and shaving cream from the bathroom and stand beside him. 

"I'm going to shave you. I hate scruffy men," I answer simply. I shake the can of cream and squirt some into my hand, applying it over the bottom half of his face. His eyes are pinned on mine but I try not to look into them, focusing on the task at hand. "Henry, tell him what we know about the virus." 

"Ah, yes," Henry yawns, stretching his long arms and smacking his lips together. "The virus so far can only be transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. But the French are receiving aid from the British in synthesising the viral DNA to make it so that it can become an airborne disease also." 

"How did you find this out?" Jackson asks as I carefully draw the blade down his face. 

"He didn't," I answer. "I did. I managed to print off transcriptions of several phone calls between Master Wu and scientists, generals and other people of high power." He raises his hand and I high five him. "However, the information is only as valid as they believe it to be. We have no way of knowing if it's all true or if it's just their assumptions. The French have still not made a move against anyone with that virus." 

"The Africans are steadily unleashing their devil children onto the rest of the world," Henry voices and I glance at him. "We can't get much information on them. Sure, the soldiers we see or hear of are skilled but it's the ones we don't hear of that I'm worried about." 

"What do you mean?" BamBam and I ask at the same time. We look at each other and smile. 

"There are rumours of them having some spies or whatever it is they call them now. Some soldiers who are smarter or faster or stronger than the others are apparently trained longer and better," he replies, searching the files on his desk for whatever he is looking for. "They're sent by the Africans either for themselves or for their allies to take out specific targets. That's all we know, that's all anyone knows about them."

"So, basically, they're trained assassins?" I ask and he nods. "Jesus."

"What the ? What is this, a James Bond film?" Jackson groans. I finish shaving him and grab a cloth, wiping his face clean of the cream. I slap on some of Henry's aftershave and he hisses but does not flinch. "Gomawo." 

"Neh," I reply, bowing. I turn and walk over to Henry's desk, sitting myself atop it as I read through file he fished out. "So, now that we have this information, what do we do with it?" 

"Isn't that the golden question," Henry grunts, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. "We're stronger, we're faster, we're smarter...we're wiser. We're better armed both physically and metaphorically but we still have no plan to move forward." 

"Why don't we sell the information for tickets out of here?" BamBam suggests. 

"And go where? We'd probably be recaptured and sold off to someone worse," Henry responds. 

"Not if we prove ourselves to be valuable assets," he states, grinning. I raise a brow at him and Jackson nods at him to continue. BamBam sits up and leans in, his arms draped over his knees. "Right, so, as Henry said, we're super awesome, right?" I snort and nod. "Right, why don't we sell some - not all - of the information we have for tickets out of here and to some place we know they'll need geniuses like us."

"Like where?" I question and he smirks. 

"France." 

"Aish, this kid!" Jackson grunts, turning away from us. "He wants to get us killed." 

"No, no, listen. It's a good plan," BamBam insists, standing up. "We contact the French and tell them we have information on everything that the Chinese and the Japanese have on them. They get us out, we show them what we've got and bam! We're in. We infiltrate. Alternatively, we could turn to the Africans." 

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea but...what makes you think they won't just kill us once we tell them what we know?" Henry asks. 

"Because we have Hyerim," he states and we all give him confused looks. "We tell them that she's engaged to an important general, they offer to train us more and give us what we want in return for her, I don't know, spying on Wú Yì Fán or something."

"We're not using Hyerim," Jackson declares.

"It's that or we're back to square one," BamBam snaps. "Listen, I know it's a risky plan. But it's the only plan we have." 

"He's right," I utter and their eyes all flicker to me. Jackson opens his mouth to object but I speak again. "We've gotten this far, we can't turn back now or just do nothing. His plan is as good as any and that's the one we're going with." 

"I - But...fine," Jackson growls and turns to storm out. I rush over to him and put a hand on his arm, stopping him. He turns back. "It's bad enough that you have to marry the bastard. Now, even when we get away, you'll still be tied to him." 

"I hate it too," I tell him, his arm. "But it's all we've got. And to be quite honest, I like it a whole lot more than being stuck by his side forever. At least if the French accept and use me as a spy, it'll be on my terms." He sighs and nods, looking down. "Thank y