I. "The only thing that stays the same is everything changes."
Garnet looked up at Alyx, who was looking out the window.
"There was a time where I would have killed someone rather than looking like this." He gestured at his right side, which was burned and scarred. He was regaining some use of his right hand now, almost ten years after being set on fire.
"But you look like this now and it's fine by me." She leaned back and smiled at him.
"If you say so. I still don't understand." His voice, too, was scarred by burns and smoke inhalation. It was raspy and gritty, the verbal equivalent of sandpaper. She smiled at him. He turned and looked at her from under his mop of hair. He had a faint smile on his face. "But you say the same about me liking you." She stood up as he approached, her metallic leg clicking on the floor. "Hey... Lemme give you a hug." He was asking permission. Why, she didn't know, but he always did. She opened her arms to him and he pulled her into his arms. She was literally a foot shorter than he was, but had both eyes and arms in working order. They worked together well.
"What makes you so melancholy, Alyx?" He smirked a little.
"I haven't been melancholy in a while." He leaned back, then bopped her on the head. "You're It." By the time she realized what he'd said, he was out the door.
"Boy! I'm gonna get you!" She ran after him. As she barrelled out the door, she nearly tripped over a child who was about to open the door. "Sorry Leah."
The girl looked up at her. "Mommy? Why did Daddy just run off?"
"He's playing Tag." She glared in his direction. "And so are you." Garnet tapped her daughter on the head. "You're It."  She ran for it.
"MOMMY!!!"
Her laughter echoed down the hall.

Garnet caught up with Alyx in the dining room, where he was standing stiffly behind a door until she slammed it open, ramming the doorknob into him. He doubled over. To his credit, he remained silent. To her credit, when she noticed that her husband was doubled over (a doorknob to the groin does that), she tried not to laugh. "Alyx..."
He glared. After a moment he straightened up and stepped out of the way just before the door slammed open again. He looked down at the fuming five-year-old and smirked. "Why so angry, davi?"
"Mommy tagged me!" The indignant child's parents flashed a grin at each other and took off in different directions.
"NO FAIR!" Leah decided to chase her father...
...Who knocked over her uncle as they both sprinted down the hall.
"Dred!"
"Alyx!"
"What?"
"RUN." Alyx was on his feet in seconds and scooping up his daughter as the brothers sprinted side-by-side down the hall.


II. "And now I feel what you felt inside you, Brother."
Leah was handed off to Garnet when they reached her. "Run!" She shook her head and mutely pointed behind her, where the pursuers had broken down the door.
"Well." Said Alyx.
"Okay." Said Dred.
They moved so one was on either side of Leah and Garnet.
"Be ready." Garnet knelt so Leah could climb on her back.
"Which way?" She asked.
"To me." Dred said. "Even if Alyx falls, come toward me."
"Even if Daddy falls? Daddy never falls. He's not clumsy like me." Neither Dred or Garnet had the heart to explain what Alyx falling would mean.
The yells of challenge made both sets of pursuers stumble, just long enough for the brothers to grab makeshift weapons and start fighting.

They made it out, all running different routes to the other places they had to stay. They reached one halfway across town all within fifteen minutes of each other. Alyx had a black eye and Dred a busted lip, but otherwise they didn't have severe injuries. From there, they set out in a van with sparkly paint on all sides and the Revolution's insignia on the side. Alyx sat bolt upright in the passenger seat, somehow folded so his feet were planted flat against the airbag compartment. Leah and Garnet were in the back and Dred was driving. Alyx was zoned out, mumbling to himself in a foreign language. He said something in a beaten tone in the same language to Dred, whose eyes widened. "That's just it!" He said. Alyx looked at him.
"I'm glad you like my idea..." He said softly. There was a faint smile on his face and demons in his expression as he jumped out of the van as it slowed going around a curve.
"Careful!" Dred yelled.
"Not my strong point!" Alyx yelled back as he ran out of sight.

At nightfall they checked into a motel. A quick call to a payphone yielded no results. Garnet expressed concern about this, and Leah fretted. Dred turned to them with a smile. "Listen." He said. There were transformers exploding in the next block. "Duck." The lights exploded and thin glass would have shredded them if Dred hadn't grabbed a blanket to cover them with. "Now." He said.
He led them quickly out of the motel, to a park three blocks down. A middle aged couple was sitting on a park bench near where they hid their van, in the garage of an abandoned home. The couple looked up in a near-sighted squint at them and stood up and left.
Dred and the girls followed them from a distance, then approached where they stopped at another bench about half a mile away.
The woman looked up and took off her hat, shaking out long brown hair touched with grey. Her husband just smiled.
"Where is he?" Dred asked.
A sandpaper voice above him answered. "He is laying in the tree right above you."
"What are we going to do?"
"Leah, Garnet, would you mind staying with these two?" There was much mutual studying.
"They look nice." Leah said.
"If you trust them." Garnet agreed.
Alyx slid to the ground beside them and nodded. "Then you'll stay with them. Tell no one you know us. If someone comes in that Katherine or Robert doesn't adknowledge them as KR, say NOTHING about KR. Unless they ask, then give a brief explaination. We're starting a roundup."
"Huh?"
"The transformers let them know that they were needed. We're starting to take all the KR out from under the covers. There's thousands, Garnet. We've got to revolt."
"Trust me." Garnet said.
"I love you." He said, then the two left, leaving the child and her mother with two almost-strangers.

III. "Here she comes, just like an angel."
By the next morning, there were news reports about the transformers being blown.
By that afternoon, an abandoned home in the next city had exploded.
The next day, two derelict homes were burned in the capital city and in the city in the opposite direction, a huge sign had been painted on the courthouse.
The sphere of warning grew.
The brothers had struck out in separate directions, calling out thousands of revolutionaries from hiding. A sign painted on the Capitol lawn in DC informed the government, "It may be months, it may be years, but WE WILL WIN." No one was seen, but videos showed almost twenty people working in unison to create the sign. But the workers hid their faces.

It was almost a month since Garnet had seen Dred and Alyx. She was awakened at four in the morning by Katherine, who told her to come with and bring Leah. They left in their car, driving for hours until they reached a out-of the way dirt road. It was old and rarely used, but when they got to the end of it, they found the KR van and a low profile building. Katherine led them into the building, which was a one room shack that was badly maintained. Through a trapdoor in the floor they found a flight of stairs leading to a whole compound underground. It was well built and well lit.
"There's exits in half a mile in almost every direction. It was built for hundreds of people. It was completed just recently. Our old place is being burnt by Max and Zi then we'll have people coming here. Everyone else will be on foot. There will be two vans at every exit. Each van can fit ten and there's more than ten exits. Some are barely more than air vents, but it's okay." Alyx and Dred had been working on this for years. This was their last leg. They knew what they had to do. And finally, they had enough people to make it work. And more every day.

IV. "I've met our makers, they don't even know your name."
"Alyx?" Garnet rolled over and blinked wearily at the body beside her. It wasn't Alyx, it was Leah. She was shaking her mother violently.
"Mommy! Daddy hurt himself!" Garnet jumped up and clambered to her feet.
"Where is he?" Leah pointed to the hall outside.

He had indeed hurt himself, somehow falling from a ladder that he'd been on. Leah had given her the impression he was badly hurt, but he had only twisted his ankle.
"I told Leah I was okay." He sounded sulky, but he was smiling. He was standing a little unsteadily, but when he walked he was barely limping. Garnet smiled and picked up Leah, holding her up and looking at her.
"You worried about him anyway, I suppose?"
"Yes, Mommy." Alyx shook a little at her voice. What Garnet saw of his face hurt her. He looked like Leah's words had hurt far more than anything else. She decided to confront him about it and sent Leah to find Dred.
"What is wrong with you?"
He flinched. "I can't do what I need to do with her so protective."
"What do you need to do?"
"I need to do anything at any cost, even if it means I don't come back. The likelihood of me doing so is slim."
"Not come back from where?"
He looked at her, and she could see that he was ready for whatever it was.
"From where, Alyx?"
"From Hell."

Garnet hunted down Dred, who denied knowledge of Alyx's plans.

And when she got back to their room, most of Alyx's stuff was gone.