Chapter 3 – Disciplinarians
My sister, Níngjìng, and I stand on the rooftops of the city as we pray for the sinners below us and the soldiers that keep them in line while we listen to any conversation that may be considered as defiance towards God and His Church. As I cycle through the conversations every ten seconds, I stay as patient as I was trained while remembering that this is all for the good of the Church and God’s Will. I then tune into one conversation that may be of interest.
“Shh. Don’t you know that they’re listening to us?”
“So what? We’re already dead as far as I’m concerned. That damn empire is in control of our planet and we have no choice but to pretend to believe and practice their beliefs.”
That’s all I needed to hear. I put my two blades together so that it forms a sniper. The signal from the recorder allows me to zero in on the location of the conversation and the scope of my rifle lets me see through the many walls between me and my targets. With my sights locked on my target, I take my shot.
“Ahhh! Screw you, you demons!”
I take another shot. My high powered shots go through buildings, walls, and whatever else that’s in the way. I’m pretty sure it also goes a fair way into the ground before stopping. My targets are eliminated so I put my blades back in their sheathes and resume the prayer position.
“Good work, Jìjìng,” Níngjìng says.
“Thank you, Níngjìng.”
I shuffle through the recorders again until I find another conversation worth listening to.
“Did you hear that?”
“Another one was speaking a bit too loud.”
“I’m not sure what’s worse. The Divinus Carnifex indiscriminately slaughtering people or these watchers in owl masks listening to us from above with soldiers at almost every city block.”
“Do you want to end up like those other two? Keep your opinions to yourself at least for the sake of the people between the owls and you.”
“Oh, that’s right. I remember hearing that at least five people were caught between a single shot of their rifles. Um, how’s dinner at five sound?”
“Sounds good.”
Nothing else they say in the conversation sounds suspicious or defiant, so I tune out from that recorder and shuffle through some more.
“That one person might be a potential target later,” Níngjìng says.
“Possibly.”
Níngjìng can see which recorder I’m listening to and can tune into it if she wants to know what I’m hearing. She can accuse me of incompetency if she thinks that I’m letting potential targets go. Our superiors won’t judge our targets and punish us for shotting the wrong people since they trust us with our jobs. We wore crow masks and did surveillance, assassinations, and combat work before taking up owl masks and this task.
“Listen to what I am hearing, Jìjìng,” Níngjìng says.
I tune in to what she’s listening to.
“We’ll have to meet there because they destroyed the church we go to.”
“But it’s not as private. Isn’t there any place we could meet outside of the city?”
“The Ecclesia have the outside of the city guarded and no one leaves without a good reason and evidence, and we aren’t good liars.”
“It’ll have to be the bar then. I’ll tell everyone else.”
“See you then.”
“Keep an ear out for a meeting at a bar. We could have a secret meeting of rebels. I’m going to tag those two people,” Níngjìng says as she takes out her sniper and tags the two people with small tracking darts.
“It could also be-”
“You can never be too careful. You should already know that.”
You don’t have to remind me. I don’t need to remember when we didn’t take out a potential target because they seemed like a normal family. What we didn’t know is that they were part of an organization of undercover families that would one day massacre a meeting of local bishops then kill themselves before they got caught. Our families were caught in the crossfire. Dang it, I didn’t want to remember it. I’m sure Níngjìng constantly remembers it because it was her call to let them go and not mention them to our superiors when I asked what we should do with them.
It's no wonder why she is so suspicious of everyone and trigger happy when someone seems even the least suspicious. I’m not sure if I should get her help because she could end up losing this job and being excommunicated and jailed and who knows what she’ll do from there. I don’t want that to happen because she’s the only family I have left. I’ve been praying and talking to her about this and she seems like she wants to get better though I’m not sure if that’s completely true, especially with current events. This is taking up too much of my concentration, so I switch to a recorder near some of the city’s politicians.
“Why did the Ecclesia let us live while they executed everyone else?”
“To pre-to show that they can still be merciful.”
“You call this…um, I don’t see how this is mercy. Our entire military and law enforcement is wiped out and replaced, and all our weapons have been confiscated. Also, I have to watch how I talk more than ever now.”
“I’d go with it if I were you. It’s easier to stay alive that way and not die on the spot. Don’t worry about me, watchers. I’ll behave.”
You better. It was easy to get most of the politicians to submit to us after our show of force with some in hiding for whatever reason. It’s not like they can do anything against us even if they have some weapons locked away. Looking behind me, I watch as my sister take out her sniper and shoot four times before resuming her prayer position.
Noticing that I was watching, she turns to me and says, “They were too suspicious to let live.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I judge with right judgment, Jìjìng. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m not acting irrationally or paranoid.”
“I didn’t say you were, Níngjìng.”
“Every source of defiance must be crushed. If not, they may one day-”
A sniper shot from a far distance hits Níngjìng! It’s a good thing the armor we’re wearing is stronger than it looks. From the outside, it looks like we’re just wearing cloaks, but on the outside, we’re wearing armor that’s stronger than the average soldier.
“Are you okay?!”
“I’m fine! Where did that come from?!”
I use my sniper’s shot tracking function to see that the shot came from.
“It came from an apartment building down that way. I see two girls running away with one carrying a rifle.”
“Lead me to them. We have to make an example out of them.”
With our specially designed cloaks, we glide to the apartment and enter it through the windows.
“Where are they now-”
The room we’re in blows up! Our armor is a damaged a bit, but still usable. They must’ve known that the rifle wouldn’t kill us and bet that we would go after them for shooting us.
“They’re really going to pay now! Where are they, Jìjìng?!”
“Two floors above us, Níngjìng.”
“If they’re going upstairs, then they must have backup.”
Speaking about backup, people in masks with makeshift guns and weapons enters the room and appear to be a little shocked to see that we’re alive.
“Hurry and finish them off!” one of them says.
My sister and I use our blades to cut apart our enemies who barely know how to fight and shoot their guns. Níngjìng even makes one of their guns overload and blow off their arms by giving it a little jolt with one of her blades before cutting off their head.
“Where are our attempted assassins now?”
“Still on the second floor. They’re in a room with a group of other people.”
“Let’s get them down from the floor below.”
We go up to the next floor and barrage into the room below our assassin’s feet.
“You two can’t just force your way in-” the resident says before my sister cuts her head off.
“Níngjìng!”
“These people need to learn their place! Help me cut down the ceiling. Cut down everyone who isn’t our assassins.”
There’s no arguing with her right now. We cut open the floor beneath our assassin’s feet with our blades so that everyone in the room falls down. After, we cut down everyone except for the two who shot my sister. They sit injured on the floor holding each other and covered in the blood of their allies.
“These are the two?” my sister asks.
“Yes.”
“Just kill us already,” one of them says.
“You’ll burn in Hell for what you’ve done. Our deaths will be an example for others to rise up against you.”
“No, it won’t, but it will be an example.”
Níngjìng picks up one of the sisters by the throat and throws her out the window for everyone to see. She then picks up the other side the same way and gives her the same fate.
“Níngjìng! Don’t you think this is too extreme?”
“How can it be? They tried to kill us. They blew up their own room and endangered the lives of the people around them, and they tried to martyr themselves to inspire more rebels. These scum got what they deserved.”
Níngjìng then focuses on a door that is slightly open behind us. In it are three siblings who watched everything that happened. The oldest one lashes out at Níngjìng by hitting her with a chair. Enraged by her defiance, Níngjìng tosses away the chair and puts her knee in the girl’s face before grabbing her throat and holding her out of the window.
“Níngjìng! She’s just a child!”
“She’s of the age of reason! She knows what she did, and she deserves to be punished for it!”
The rest of the children gather around Níngjìng and beg on their knees for their sister to be spared.
“Look at what you’re doing, sister!”
“No act of defiance will be left unpunished! We’ve already shown these people mercy and they still fight against us. There are more people like this in the world and we need to make them know that they can’t fight against God and His Church. They have to learn the consequences of hurting us.”
“Stop!”
She lets go of the girl forcing me to quickly jump out of the window and grab her before she hits the ground. Thankfully, I’m able to glide us to the ground. Níngjìng glides to the ground and takes out her blades as a group of people watch us from afar.
“This is treason, sister,” she says.
“No. This is mercy. This is the right thing to do.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“We don’t have to fight.”
“Every act of defiance must be punished!”
I put down the girl before stopping Níngjìng’s blades with my own. Since I have no choice but to fight her, we cross swords until I eventually beat her. It’s easier than I thought it would be because rage has blinded her. The hardest part was pushing myself to keep fighting her to point of me knocking her out. Once our fight is done, I call for guards to take the girl to safety and to arrest my sister. Currently, she’s imprisoned on the planet and in chains for her turning on me and since she knows how to escape a normal cell. Thankfully, I convinced my superiors to spare her life because of her condition due to a traumatic event. I visit her one day to see how she’s doing.
“How are you feeling, sister?” I ask.
“Fine. I’ll be better once I get out of here.”
“That won’t be for a few months.”
“It’s not long. What I’ve done should’ve given me a life sentence or death. Thank you for sparing me from that.”
“It’s what family does for one another.”
“I did what I did because we’re family. I didn’t want to lose you. I didn’t want what happened to us to any other Catholic like us. I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you.”
I give my sister a hug as she leans her head on my shoulder. I didn’t want this to happen, but at least she’s getting better now. In the meanwhile, things are quieter in the city I watch over with a few other watchers. With what happened, I haven’t had to shoot anyone. In any possible case of defiance, I show up or scare them with a warning shot and this gets people to calm down. Hopefully, Níngjìng will do the same when she gets out. As for the other watchers, I can only pray that they do the same as me.
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