Chapter CXCIX: An Officer and a Gentleman

The flight from Dragon�s lair to Des Moines wasn�t quite as short as it was to get to her lair from Los Angeles, an understandable problem, considering how much farther away it was. It was not, however, as long as the flight from her safehouse in Newfoundland to her compound in Vancouver nor as long as the flight from Vancouver down to LA. All told, it was only about twenty minutes, give or take. To go halfway across the country, that was basically no time at all.

It was still enough for me to get used to the feel of the armor and the weight of the pistol in its holster. It looked a little strange, I was sure, to be wearing it over top of what was essentially my formal work attire, but there was enough give in the material that it never got uncomfortable. Dragon really had made it specifically for me, and it showed.

�You seem to have gotten comfortable with that armor quite quickly,� Dragon commented. 

�I have,� I agreed. �But you expected that. It�s custom tailored for me.�

�Yes,� she replied, �but it�s always nice to know your work is appreciated. Isn�t it?�

�It�s good work,� I praised. �Da Vinci is going to want to take a look at it the instant we get back. Compare notes, learn whatever she can, try and improve upon it in some way, shape, or form.�

�She sounds like an interesting person,� said Dragon.

My voice was dry as bone. �She�s a genius, and the worst part is, she can back it up. With how much of her time is spent just keeping things running, any sort of challenge is something she�ll jump at.�

Dragon smiled. �If only I could talk to her and meet in person � so to speak. I would like to collaborate with the woman who figured out how to reverse-engineer and replicate Tinkertech.�

I paused only a second and weighed the pros and cons. Marie probably wouldn�t appreciate me making the offer on Chaldea�s behalf, not with the reservations she had about Dragon�s capabilities and how easily she might cripple the whole operation, but she would still defer to my judgment on it, I think. 

�You could come back with us,� I said cautiously.

Dragon blinked, a wholly human gesture. Defiant turned from where he�d been politely pretending not to listen, staring with open curiosity. �I�m sorry? Come with you?�

�Servants don�t belong in Singularities,� I said slowly and deliberately. �They�re aberrant factors. They get corrected, just the same as everything else, and go back to the Throne.� I left a brief moment of silence there for emphasis. �But they don�t have to, if they want to stick around. Chaldea as an organization is designed around the idea of fielding multiple Servants alongside its Masters. It�s completely and entirely possible for us to form contracts with the Servants we meet inside a Singularity and bring all of them back to Chaldea with us when we leave.�

Almost as an afterthought, I added, �That�s how we contracted the majority of our Servants. In terms of actual summoning, we�ve only done that a few times.�

�It�s that simple?� asked Dragon, sounding mystified.

�As long as you can follow the rules and don�t endanger the personnel or the mission,� I confirmed. My lips pursed. �There are�limitations to who and how many Servants we can take with us into a Singularity. Us Masters can only support so many at once before it starts to negatively affect our health. Beyond that� Yeah. It�s that simple.� I glanced at Defiant meaningfully. �You can both come back with us, if you want.�

The two of them shared a look, and knowing them, probably a whole lot more along with it, and then Dragon turned back to me. Politely, she said, �It�s a tempting offer, I will admit.�

I sensed a �but� in there. �Is there a reason you don�t want to?�

�Edison,� Defiant grunted immediately. �I�m not certain it�s worth the risk that he�ll act out and attempt to wrest control of the organization from you and Director Animusphere.�

Ah. I probably should have seen that one coming. Yeah, after Shakespeare�s bout of nonsense over Valentine�s, Marie probably wouldn�t want to take a risk on a Servant so willful and capricious. If Edison was as megalomaniacal as Dragon and Defiant had so far said he was, then he was probably a security risk waiting to happen.

�I mean no offense, Taylor,� said Dragon. �However, if you�re going to give me the choice instead of abusing your authority as a lawful agent of the United Nations, I think I would prefer to stay with Defiant and ensure everything returns to normal for Earth Bet.� To take any sting out of it, she smiled, �Besides, there is no guarantee the two of us will make it to the end of all of this, is there? It might be counting the proverbial chickens to start making offers like that.�

A nasty, niggling thought stuck with me � that was right, I could order her to form a contract with us, couldn�t I? If what Marie had said in that conversation with the directors was true, I was technically the highest form of legal authority in the Singularity. If I gave her a direct order with all of that weight behind it, she would have to obey, no matter how much she didn�t want to.

But I�d felt that temptation with Dinah, too, once upon a time, and I liked to think I was a better person than I�d been back then. The thought might have stuck, a whisper of a memory � finally, everyone was working together � but I wasn�t that person anymore either. I could put it down like the passing whim it was.

�I guess not,� I allowed. �Just�think about it? Please?�

Because Dragon and Da Vinci working together was the kind of thing that would give anyone who knew what they were capable of pause. If there was any team-up that could ferret out Solomon�s weakness and give us a way of beating him, those two together would be it. More than just that � defense, offense, there would be all sorts of things they could make that would better not only us Masters, but also Chaldea and the facility itself.

The two of them together could turn the place into a veritable fortress. Between them, the upgrades to our systems would mean that something like the Sabotage would never happen again.

A chilling thought occurred to me on its heels � except that would put nearly the entire facility under Dragon�s control, and when the time came for the accounting, her fetters would mean she had to obey whatever investigator came to find out what happened, no matter what order was given. If she was told to lock us in, if she was told to subdue us for retrieval and study, if she was told to eliminate us before we could use our Servants against their lawful authority, she would have to follow. The only thing we could do then was use our Command Spells to force her to commit suicide before she could be forced to vivisect anyone.

Dragon smiled. �Sure, Taylor.�

And it was left at that.

It wasn�t much longer before the Dragonfly began to slow as it approached our destination, not long enough for the silence to get awkward and convince me to try and start up another conversation. Instead, as the Dragonfly started to drift downwards, I made my way up to the cockpit so that I could look out the window at the front and see what I was going to be working with.

I found Vancouver.

The city of Des Moines had been cut in half. From above, I could see the river that snaked its way through the city and down southwards, carving a meandering path that didn�t quite neatly divide east from west. The city itself was much the same � to the west of the river, a modern metropolis yawned, skyscrapers stretching upwards towards the clouds. It was not as densely packed as Brockton Bay or New York City or Los Angeles, but it was still a city of concrete, glass, and steel.

To the east of the river, however, there was almost nothing except plains and trees. A few buildings stood to the north, low, squat, connected to the other side of the river and the city by bridges, but nearly all traces of civilization abruptly disappeared, leaving behind only that single patch cradled in the curve of one of the river�s bends.

The only other sign of people was a large camp situated a mile or so from the river. Across a section of flattened land, there was a sea of white tents, occasionally interspersed with the beige or olive green of something more modern and more easily camouflaged. Thin clouds of smoke rose from campfires, lazily puffing up into the air and spreading out until they were nothing more than vague suggestions against the blue sky.

�Dragon,� I began, �is this�?�

�Yes,� she said solemnly. �I�m afraid the situation in Des Moines is much like Vancouver. I�m sorry to say that this is much more common a problem than you realize. Boston, Brockton Bay, and Los Angeles are not the only cities in the country to escape largely intact from the effects of the Singularity, but their circumstances are the exception, not the rule.�

�The estimate is that only about a third of the actual country has actually been fully assimilated by the Singularity,� Defiant added grimly. �The only positive � if you can call it that � is that the reduced population size has made it easier to manage the resulting food shortages and supply chain disruptions. That is the only reason we and Coil both have been able to avoid large outbursts of civil unrest.�

But that wasn�t something that could last forever. My education on economics was largely at the high school level, which meant that � aside from the things I�d picked up from Dad � there were a lot of intricacies that just went way over my head. Even I could understand that there was going to come a point where the supply outpaced the demand, and that would cause a domino effect that led to things like riots and looting and all sorts of problems as the social contract unraveled.

Earth Bet � or the parts of it that got sucked into this Singularity, anyway � might wind up ripping itself apart before anyone ever had to worry about Solomon�s plan destroying everything.

The Dragonfly made not for the city or any of its buildings, but instead angled down towards the camp on the eastern side of the river. The closer we got, the more details started to clear up, and the tents became more than just white blobs as tiny dots slowly grew into the shape of people milling about and performing their daily tasks. It was hard to make out individual features, but the local insect population slowly came under my control as well, and with it, I could start exploring more.

Militiamen. Colonials that looked like they could have just stepped out of Valley Forge, carrying more of those rifles that Emiya had first picked up and sent to Da Vinci. Knowing what I knew now, Dragon must have been the one responsible for them, although how she got them to the point that she was capable of mass producing them, that part, I was a little less certain of. The way Defiant had spoken of Masamune gave me the impression that he wasn�t around, although whether that meant he was somewhere else in the country, dead, or just hadn�t been pulled into the Singularity, he hadn�t ever said.

Maybe Edison had something to do with it then. I hadn�t asked Defiant what Edison could actually do, mostly because even talking about Edison seemed to be uncomfortable for him, but�

�Those rifles,� I said, �the ones that have been modified into coil guns. Was that you guys?�

�Ah,� said Dragon. �Yes. I suppose you encountered them when Karna and Paule Revere were retrieving the Grail?�

I nodded. �Yeah.�

�The militias being what they are necessitated producing something with a familiar look and function so that they could be fielded with minimal training,� said Dragon, confirming what I�d already suspected. �An interesting challenge, but I was satisfied with the result.�

�How did you mass produce them?�

Dragon glanced over at Defiant, and for a moment, he was silent. As the Dragonfly approached a clearing to the side of the camp that seemed obviously set aside specifically as a landing zone, he unglued his jaw and admitted to me, �One of the abilities possessed by Edison is mass production of technology and goods. Although I do not have full access to all of his abilities, I have enough to accomplish at least that much.�

�Although it is frustrating,� Dragon added ruefully. �It�s hard to take pride in the mass production of tinkertech when it�s reliant on such a�controversial source.�

Wisely, I said nothing. Tinkertech was itself derived from powers granted by passengers, so technically speaking, very little of Defiant�s accomplishments in that particular area were strictly his own, were they?

The Dragonfly set to hovering in place, and then it slowly sank towards the ground. The Colonials had apparently seen such a sight often enough over the last several months that none of them batted an eye except to note its presence, and a handful of people approached from inside the camp, meandering over our way. We landed with a gentle thump, and as the ramp began to descend, I gave Jackie a nudge.

�I want you to stay in spirit form for now,� I told her quietly. �I don�t think the people in this camp are going to understand that you�re a Servant who could beat them all up without breaking a sweat, so I don�t want to draw too much attention to you just yet. Okay?�

�Okay, Mommy,� she said guilelessly, and then she gave my hand a squeeze and vanished.

�Probably a good decision,� Defiant commented. �The Colonials have already seen people like Dragon and Narwhal prove their competence, but a young woman touring the camp with an obvious child might perhaps give the wrong impression.�

�That was my thinking,� I noted. �Do any of them understand how Servants work?�

�The basics,� said Dragon. �Bringing everyone to a certain competency was necessary so that no one threw their lives away fighting an enemy they couldn�t hope to match, but ensuring that everyone also understood the exact nature of Heroic Spirits and their summoning was deemed to be too inefficient. A waste of resources.�

I made a noise of understanding in my throat. �So they know enough not to pick a fight with C�chulainn, but not enough to start explaining how classes work or anything like that.� 

�Essentially,� Dragon agreed.

That was good enough, I thought. I wasn�t going to be leading them directly either way, but it was lighter on my conscience if I didn�t have to worry that they were all liable to charge headfirst into a fight with Okita and get slaughtered to the man.

When we went down the ramp and exited the Dragonfly, that small group of militiamen was waiting for us, rifles slung over their shoulders.

�Dragon,� the one in front greeted us, eyes a soft blue and hair the color of straw, �Defiant.� He turned to me and hesitated.

�Taylor,� I said. �Taylor Hebert.�

He inclined his head, and whatever he thought about my gender or whatever else about me, he kept it to himself. �Miss Hebert, then.� He turned back to Dragon. �The General is waiting for you.�

�Washington is here?� I asked.

Some part of me was irrationally excited to meet one of America�s founding fathers.

�Ah, no,� he replied. �My apologies, Miss. General Washington is not expected for another hour or more.�

�You meant Ruler, then,� said Dragon. 

The man � whose name I still didn�t know � nodded. �Yes, ma�am. He asked me to receive you and escort you to his tent.�

�I see.� Dragon seemed then to realize that she had never actually introduced us. �Ah, forgive me, Taylor, for forgetting � this is Lieutenant Nathanael Martin, late of the South Carolina militia.�

The so-named Lieutenant Martin gave me a respectful nod. �Ma�am.�

�Lieutenant.�

He turned back to Dragon. �If there is no cause to delay, ma�am��

�No, no,� said Dragon, slanting a brief look my way. �I�m sure Taylor has already begun familiarizing herself with the camp. I believe we can make our way to Ruler�s tent with all due haste.�

Lieutenant Martin glanced at me, too, obviously not understanding at all what she meant, and I neither confirmed nor denied it and offered no explanation. He decided either that it was above his paygrade or that he was not meant to know, because for all that he looked like he wanted to ask, he refrained. �Ma�am. Right this way, then.�

He turned and began to walk away, and Dragon, Defiant, and I all followed as he and his men charted a path through the camp. They didn�t carry their rifles ready to shoot, as though some threat might materialize out of thin air and strike without warning, but they did keep one hand firmly on the straps securing their rifles to their bodies.

Dragon was right, in any case. The camp was large, large enough to host easily more than a thousand men, maybe as much as ten thousand, although I refrained from an exact headcount. That might be a little too obvious and noticeable amongst a group of soldiers who had spent the last six or seven years at war. Best not to risk spooking them just yet.

Once again, that left me with a question: how much did these soldiers know and understand? This time, about capes. Something I think I was going to have to ask Dragon about later on, when we had a little more privacy and weren�t at risk of being overheard. 

We eventually made our way to one of the biggest tents in the camp, and I could tell before we even entered that it was basically a war room. It was huge and spacious and had enough room for an entire council of military commanders, and at its center was a large table, too large for anyone to reach all the way across, of the kind I remembered from a few of my dad�s war movies. I didn�t have enough bugs to get a clear picture, but the texture of the surface suggested a map, a really big one, with tiny figures on it representing allied and enemy forces.

There was only one person inside the tent, head bowed, arms crossed over his chest, dressed in robes that looked like they could have come out of a kung fu movie. From their presence, a Servant, which meant the armor could no doubt be manifested in an instant, and based upon the clothing, that had to be Ruler. The Chinese general.

He was short, I was a bit surprised to realize. Shorter than me. Not tiny, not exactly, but his presence was larger than the man himself, and his eyes would probably reach only up to my chin.

Lieutenant Martin lifted the tent flap out of the way and walked in, reporting, �Sir, I�ve brought Dragon, Defiant, and Miss Hebert, as requested.�

Ruler glanced up at him when he was addressed, and in a soft but firm tenor, said, �Thank you, Lieutenant, that will be all. Dismissed.�

Lieutenant Martin snapped off a salute � �Sir!� � and then turned on his heel and left, giving us only a short look as he passed us by. Ruler, on the other hand, only looked up once we had entered the tent proper and stood opposite him at the massive table.

�So.� Dark gray eyes rose to meet mine, skipping past Dragon and Defiant as though they weren�t even there. �Miss Taylor Hebert. As I have been informed, the most experienced Master currently available on this planet, and therefore the one most qualified to lead our Servants against the enemy�s.�

As he sized me up, I took the chance to do the same to him, from the dark-colored robes that swathed his body, just loose enough to hide weapons in without impeding his mobility, to the clean topknot he had gathered his silky black hair into. Clean-shaven, for whatever that meant. A complexion and face that was obviously ethnically Chinese, so there wasn�t any doubt that he was what everyone claimed.

No hints about his identity. Nothing that would give any clues about which Heroic Spirit he was. Even so�there was something naggingly familiar about him.

He was testing me, so I was confident and sure when I replied, �If there was someone else more qualified, I wouldn�t be here.�

�And yet,� Ruler said carefully, �you arrived here without any Servants of your own.� Finally, he slanted a quick glance from Dragon to Defiant. �Beyond those who are not sworn to your banner.�

�I thought it better not to advertise around camp. Raise fewer questions,� I told him. Even if I hadn�t already known that I was being tested, that wouldn�t have been enough to make me flinch. �That doesn�t mean they aren�t there.�

�They?� Defiant rumbled, almost accusatory.

I paid him a short look. �I wasn�t sure who or what I could trust, so I�ve been keeping a few cards up my sleeve.�

His lips pulled into a tight line, but he didn�t try and start an argument over it. The only sign of Dragon�s thoughts, by comparison, was the slight furrowing of her brow.

�Wise,� said Ruler approvingly. �All warfare is based on deception.�

My brow twitched, but I gave nothing else away. Sun Tzu? A Chinese general of the Ruler class who had been entrusted with holding the line against Fionn mac Cumhaill and his army, who had apparently organized Washington and the Colonial militias into a fighting force that could match an endless tide of Medb�s Celtic warriors � no, that made perfect sense, didn�t it? Ruler was Sun Tzu. It fit all of the details neatly.

And yet�

Ruler slipped his hands into his sleeves and folded his arms. �I am given to understand that you engaged the enemy directly in their stronghold � Brockton Bay, correct?�

�there was still something that felt off about it. Something that made me think that I wasn�t looking at Sun Tzu at all, but someone else, someone who had at least heard of him, which didn�t narrow it down much since The Art of War was the most famous military text in all of Asia. Old enough that there was a copy written down on blocks of bamboo.

�We were working under the belief that the Patriots had the Grail and Coil had the information we needed to retrieve it,� I said, choosing my words. �His Servants ambushed us as we were about to leave the city. Okita, Medb, and C�chulainn, with their Archer preparing his Noble Phantasm while we were distracted.�

�Arjuna,� Ruler interjected. �The name of that Archer, the man in white, it is Arjuna, a hero of the Indians.�

Arjuna. I burned it into my memory, the name of the man who had cost us Arash. It wasn�t as familiar as I would have liked it to be, just then, but I was sure that I was going to become an expert on it in the coming days. The strengths, the weaknesses, all the things I could exploit so that he could never put us in that position again. 

But it proved my original guess was right. Archer � Arjuna � spoke so confidently about Karna because he had known him in life. Fought him, in fact, if I was remembering right, from opposite sides of the battlefield. Rival, brother, nemesis � technically, all three.

Which meant Karna was going to become my new best friend.

�One of our Servants sacrificed himself to stop Arjuna�s Noble Phantasm before he could finish charging it,� I went on, �but the resulting backlash separated the three of us Masters. I told the others to continue investigating while I negotiated with the Council of Directors.�

Ruler dipped his head in a short nod. �And that has brought you here while your compatriots assist Sc�thach�s cell and Nightingale�s cell � that matches my understanding of events. Do you intend to recall them now and have them fight beside us?�

I sensed the wrong answer, and it was the one I wouldn�t have given anyway. �No. It�ll be better if the enemy knows we�re not all in one place, in fact. Hammering Fionn with overwhelming force might work, but it�s smarter to force him to spread his own forces thin to account for the others and take him out while he has fewer allies to support him.�

�A strategy such as that will only work if the caliber of our own forces outmatches his,� Ruler remarked. �Otherwise, it is merely bold and reckless.�

�You�ve managed to hold him off for almost six months,� I pointed out. �You�ve even pushed him back, haven�t you? After all, when Coil told us where we could cross over into Patriots territory, he suggested Omaha, Nebraska � west of here.�

�Through great effort,� Ruler said. �Much of it is owed to the efforts of my men and the presence of the Morrigan. As you have no doubt already been informed, he has retreated from any battle where the tide is turning against him and she is present, for fear of her Noble Phantasm.�

�She refers to it as an ace-killing joker,� Dragon supplied.

Ace-killing joker? The Morrigan had said something during that meeting about how Tametomo was a powerful archer and that was his undoing. Did that mean her Noble Phantasm worked by turning the enemy�s strength against him? Taking his attacks and reversing them? If so�did that mean it could be used as an effective way of countering the enemy Noble Phantasms?

In that case, no wonder Fionn refused to commit to any battle where she might have the chance to deploy it. A Noble Phantasm that could turn your own strength against you would be terrifying.

�If he won�t engage the Morrigan, then she�ll need to be seen elsewhere,� I said, letting the topic slide. �Maybe helping out at one of the other camps with one of the other groups. Only when he thinks we�re at our weakest will he dare to attempt something bold to turn things back in his favor.�

I made a show of looking down at the table in front of me, at the map of the country that took up most of it and the strange, almost chess-like pieces arrayed across it. Representations of Servants, with an eerie resemblance to the standardized illustrations used in Chaldea�s literature about Servant classes and their baseline abilities and focuses. I already knew where each of them were, had already flagged them before we entered the tent, but it turned Ruler�s attention towards them.

�How accurate are these?�

�As accurate as we are able to determine from here,� Ruler replied. �We receive regular reports from our scouting parties via these�� He held up one hand, letting the sleeve slip down to reveal his wrist. ��communication devices.�

A familiar band of silvery metal wrapped around it, all but identical to the one I wore. Silently, I turned to Dragon and met her eyes. She had the grace to appear embarrassed.

�Ah,� she said awkwardly, �yes, I� I apologize, Taylor. The design was simply so elegant and effective that I�appropriated it.�

�And I mass-produced it,� Defiant added shamelessly.

And managed to distribute them all in just the handful of days I had been in Los Angeles. I wasn�t sure if that was supposed to be impressive, frightening, or both.

Then again, Dragon had never needed sleep, which made sense as an AI, and if he still slept at all now that he was a Pseudo-Servant, Defiant had likely gotten the time down to an hour or less. I couldn�t remember what it was the last time the subject came up, just that it was ridiculously low. When you had an extra eight hours to work with that most people spent sleeping, I guess that opened up a few avenues that were otherwise closed.

�It�s not me who deserves that apology,� I said in my best �disappointed mother� voice. �You ripped off proprietary Chaldea technology. If anyone is going to want a pound of flesh from you, it�s Da Vinci and Director Animusphere.�

Although Da Vinci might wind up more impressed than anything else. Marie was the one more likely to be angry about it, as much because Dragon hadn�t asked permission as because she had risked compromising our communications suite. The speed and apparent ease with which she�d done it wouldn�t help either.

�The first chance I have, I�ll do just that,� Dragon promised, �as well as provide them the frequency for our own communications channel. As a peace offering.�

I wasn�t sure that would be enough, but it wasn�t like I had any ideas for something better, so I let the matter drop and turned back to map and the Servant pieces. Several smaller red pieces � no doubt representing Coil�s regular forces, Medb�s warriors � formed a dotted line that started up near Milwaukee, bulged outwards to encompass Iowa City, then swerved backwards towards St. Louis and down the Mississippi River, through Baton Rouge and New Orleans. A sparser collection of blue pieces formed another swooping line opposite them, leaving a gap between them that created the proverbial no-man�s land.

Larger and gray, the Servant pieces stood out, grouped together in little clusters. Strips of red fabric were wrapped like scarves around Medb�s and blue around the Patriots� to distinguish them; the highlights of Medb�s line were a Saber down south around where I knew Rika and Emiya to be, a handful of Lancers parked in Iowa City to the east of us, and a Berserker up north near Milwaukee. Our side had a Lancer in Madison � Sc�thach � with a modified Saber piece holding a shield, representing Mash, then a Ruler piece here in Des Moines, and a Berserker, Caster, and two Archers further south that must have been Rika, Emiya, Nightingale, and whoever else they had with them.

There were several other pieces interspersed throughout � at least one Assassin that had to be Gensai, a Caster I didn�t know, a pair of Sabers, another Berserker that accompanied one of them � but there didn�t seem to be any organization to them. They were just haphazardly scattered across the country.

Karna was presumably around somewhere, but he didn�t seem to be accounted for on the map.

�The rest of these are those �Rebel� groups, right?� 

�Correct,� said Ruler. �For one reason or another, they have elected to reject the authority of the Patriots and their leadership, although they have not separated themselves so completely as to join the enemy�s cause.�

Some of them, I could leave to the twins to charm. Some of them, I was probably going to have to get into contact with myself.

�We�ll need to send envoys to whoever we can reach,� I said. �The more united a front we can present, the better this will go.� I turned briefly to Dragon. �Do you think you can have enough of those communicators ready to go to send them off to all of these Servants?�

�By tomorrow,� she confirmed. 

I nodded. �Between you and Gensai, do you think you can play diplomat? At least well enough to convince them to give me a chance?�

�I can attempt it,� she hedged, �but they may be less willing to listen to me because of my connection to the Patriots.�

Good enough, or it would have to be, at any rate. There wasn�t really a better way to reach them aside from sending the twins running across the country to visit them all individually, and while that was definitely a contingency plan, it would be much faster if Dragon was the one who delivered the communicators. 

I turned back to Ruler. �Any objections?�

�None,� he said. �At least in this regard, your prowess has been proven. If you are equally competent on the battlefield, that is a question which can only be answered by witnessing it firsthand. I shall inform my men � your word is as good as mine, your orders as valid. They are to respect you as they do me.�

A bunch of Colonial militiamen? To be fair, there were some modern military soldiers amongst them, a couple of capes I didn�t recognize, but the bulk of his army was made up of Washington�s soldiers, the ones he had brought with him from when he dispersed that conspiracy. They were at least competent enough to follow Ruler, but�

�Do you think they�ll have any problems following a woman�s lead?� I asked. After all, I was no Jeanne d�Arc. I could freely admit I didn�t have the same charisma that she did, whatever the directors had once thought of my supposedly gravitic personality. Men from that era wouldn�t be used to the idea of letting a woman lead them in battle.

Ruler smiled wryly, and with a bit of amusement, told me, �I should hope not. After all, they have been doing so for nearly six months.�

My brain short-circuited. What?

Ruler reached up and undid the leather cord holding his topknot in place, letting his hair fall down and about his face in a silky, shimmering curtain. A moment later, his outer robe faded and vanished into glittering mist, and the inner robe loosened, falling out over the swell of a pair of �

No fucking way.

Ruler reached up and tucked a lock of his � her black hair behind one ear, and all at once the strangeness, the familiarity from before hit me like a sledgehammer. This time, I knew what it was, because looking back at me was my own face. There were obvious differences � the characteristic Asian shape of her eyelids, straight hair instead of wavy, irises that weren�t the same color as mine, slightly fuller cheeks � but most of them were subtle enough that they were easy to look past.

She could have been my sister. From a different father, maybe, but still, and that didn�t even adequately capture just how much she looked like me.

�I suppose it would only be appropriate to reveal my true name to you, if you are to command me effectively,� said Ruler, and that wasn�t a tenor, that was an alto, how did I miss that?

�How�?� was the only word I managed to choke out.

�The male hare has heavy front paws, whilst the female tends to squint,� said Ruler with the cadence of a song. �But when the two hares run side by side, how can you tell the female from the male?�

In my mind�s eye, one of the question marks filled in: Parable of the Two Hares, Rank A. 

�I am the Servant Ruler,� she said in a strong, clear voice. �My true name is Hua Mulan. It will be my honor to fight beside you.�

And suddenly, it all made sense. Hua Mulan, the famous female warrior from ancient China who had disguised herself as a man and went off to war in her aging father�s place. Of course she could make herself appear as a man, her whole legend was based off of that deception, although Disney had no doubt taken a lot of liberties with her depiction in the movie.

Several people had referred to Ruler as �he,� but Dragon and the directors, both of whom no doubt knew exactly who she was, had only ever used �they.� A compromise between keeping the secret and respecting her actual gender, maybe?

I was saved from making a further fool of myself by a disturbance at the edge of the camp, and as I investigated it with my bugs, I told the rest of the tent, �General Washington is here.�

�Is he?� Mulan took in a breath, pulled her hair back up into its topknot, and the outer robe reappeared, securing her disguise back into place. Even knowing her identity now, it was easy to forget that it was just a disguise. It was a subtle difference, but it was such an important difference that it messed with my perception of everything about her, from her voice to the structure of her face. The swell of her bust, modest as it was, vanished behind the thick fabric of her clothing. �Then I suppose it would be best to look as though I am prepared for war.�

I dealt with the uncomfortable incongruity by focusing instead on Washington�s path through the camp, his and Paul Revere�s, who was accompanying him. He made a beeline through the rows of tents, offering nods to the saluting soldiers he passed along the way, and it wasn�t long at all before he was pushing the tent flap out of the way and walking inside to join us.

�Pardon my intrusion,� said Washington. �I do hope I was not disturbing any plans you might have been in the process of making.�

�Not at all, General Washington,� Ruler said smoothly. �Miss Hebert and I were merely discussing how it is we might bring the rebel groups under our banner in lieu of a proper command structure.�

Washington looked at me as I turned to face him, and something passed across his expression, there and gone again before I could figure out what. 

�General Washington,� I greeted him.

He dipped his head respectfully. �Ma�am. I must say, I have yet heard a great many things about you from the mouths of your comrades in arms.�

�All of it good, I hope,� I quipped as though I wasn�t talking to George fucking Washington. 

�If you are even half the leader they have painted you to be,� he said, �then our victory is all the more assured.�

Ritsuka, Mash� Whatever they had told him, it was apparently enough to convince even Washington that I was someone to listen to, that I knew what I was doing and could pull this all off. They had instilled enough confidence in him that he was willing to listen to a twenty-year-old woman whose qualifications he couldn�t verify and whose skills were, as far as he would be concerned, otherwise untested.

No pressure, right?