TWW -- Ryan: Puppet Strings.

The Twilight War -- Ryan: Puppet Strings.

The window is cool below my hand as I stand there.
Eight-fifteen, the sun has risen, the glow still comes through my ruined eyes. Down on the street I watch as Niccolo and Leigh leave the building, he's practically carrying her.
I am Judas, I have betrayed my family, my friends, the tribe I came from.
But this is the way it has to happen. The clarity of vision that a blind man posseses can be a terrifying thing, in the coming years Leigh will learn this. She'll go home, she'll wonder through my bedroom and find the note I left, and she'll take up the chains.
Niccolo will pursue this as he always has, headless of the danger to himself he will rail against the darkness for the pain it put his childhood self in. In the end he and leigh will be the one's who finally purge the taint from Boston.
Burko will become the warrior that we need him to be, and he will fight the demons that are released in New York in 2015 on Christmas day. I feel sorry for him the most; Edward Burke, the eternal champion, always getting recycled back to this point.
I hope Ali isn't too hard on herself. She probably imagines herself as some stainless steel temptress luring me away from the others. But this is the way it has to be.
In the coming months the Ascension War will turn, humanity will reject the offer of Awakening, and the Order will be able to begin it's slow path to universal enlightment. The Tradition mages will continue the fight for Humanities soul, striving against the darkness beyond.

And I will direct it all.

"Ryan." a voice fills the room with golden perfection. I never heard her enter; but then when have I ever heard her enter.
I turn and face her, lovely and sylvan, her blond hair falling about her shoulders and her sad grey eyes looking at him.
"Come'on we need to get you fitted for your suit." She said.
"Of course, I'll be right there. Just...can I ask one question first?"
"Certainly."
"How long have you know this day would come?" My voice was little more than a whisper.
"From the day you where born."
"Thank you, Agent McCormick, that's what I thought. Let's go then."
I set my hand on Carroll's arm and the two of us walked out of the conferance room.