Champion

"Sir?"

The man they addressed lay slumped in his chair in deep thought.

He had reached the end. And he didn't understand it. He had tried to rationalize it, but then, some things are not open to reason.

He sighed. Reason had been his most potent weapon since he had arrived here a year ago. His arrival had been sudden, but not the purpose. He had landed up with them. They had been repressed for ages now. A purge two years ago had shaken them, and made them all but abandon their cause. He had been moved by their story, and vowed to help.

An involuntary smile appeared on his face as he remembered events past. It had been a long and hard battle. It was good that a major war had broken out earlier. His would be one of many battles of the Great 21st War. He had been through three purges now. Each one more deadly than the previous one. Yet all of them had failed. He had recruited unlikely allies to propound their cause, and each had done his best to keep it alive. He had also fought, with words, reasonable or not, with the skeptics. Ancient codes and rules had been broken -- they were archaic anyway. Each limit had been systematically eliminated until none that mattered remained. He had won, decisively.

And yet ...

"Sir?" they repeated. They were now concerned.

"Are you alright?"

He broke out of the stupor, something he had inherited from his host.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a little tired," he said. He stood up and looked around. There was no fear or panic anywhere. That was always good. He smiled. These had been his best troops ever.

"Did we ... "

"No you didn't. You were perfect. In fact, you won't need me anymore. I have to leave now."

"But where will you go?"

"To the blocks. I must correct the sole mistake."

"But the blocks ... they protect us, don't they?"

He winced. Hadn't somebody who had been through pre-lib and post-lib in India know what "protectionism" really did? "Walls keep the enemy out. But they also keep you in," he replied patiently. That would have to do for now. He had a tough job ahead, though one he knew was becoming easier by the day. The Change of the aftermath had already started. The blocks were going anyway, he just had to make sure.

He rose and walked out of the door humming. The tune was his "anthem song", he had said so months earlier. They had never understood why, with his mission, he had chosen that song.