Becoming Defiant •• OneRepublic {3}

Video 1

Video 1 - Ryan

5/15: 11:34 p.m.

"I knew my life would be all over the place, but...I never thought it'd end up like this."

Ryan Tedder, a man now labeled a fugitive, an enemy of the state, a rebel, sat in front of the camera in the dark of the motel room. He was pensive. His voice was quiet so he didn't wake his fiancée sleeping in the bed just across the room, but his voice was also gruff, stressed, even angry.

Yet Ryan had every right in the world to be angry, of course. The government's ruthless killings all plotted under unjustified reasons, their prohibition of anything that gave anyone individual representation, the securing of borders both physical and within the media and press. But this wasn't really what to be angry about, it was their reasons, which all turned out to be lies. The biggest one was the war.

That's why they did all of it - they cut programs to cut war costs, they ripped families apart to provide soldiers against the United Kingdom despite no combat yet happening, they killed their own people but put an English mask on those that did the deed.

Except there is no war.

No, dear friend and trustworthy Adele told him that. Her words, coming from the U.K. themselves, piece by piece, were reliable. Even when Ryan spiraled into madness for several minutes after reading the email, he knew that of all the lies, this could not be one.

Yet this wasn't even specifically what made Ryan upset. He was livid for a thousand reasons, and they could all be compiled into one fiery mess of a pile. But a few things were at the top, even worse than the government's deceit about everything they'd been doing and why.

"Our lives are going to suck for...God knows how long. But I'll admit that. It's going to be hard. I just don't know how much the others, especially the girls, have faced that. All I know is that they're very upset...but it's going to be hard. So they have a right to be angry with us. In fact, I'm angry with us, even though I know we did the right thing. I might be upset about the outcome for a while, but I will never regret what I did today."

Ryan suddenly became absorbed in deep thought, with the way his eyes suddenly looked less alive and his face lost most emotion. He stared off to the side past the camera. The bed behind him stirred as Ramona moved around in her sleep. The creaky movement of the bed seemed to bring him back to the moment and he turned to check on her.

It was barely audible, but with the heavy way his chest rose up and down, Ryan had sighed. He turned back to the camera and ran his fingers over the stubble on his jaw in thought.

"And then there's Ramona, but..."

His eyes looked acutely distant again, but he was clearly still there in the same thought. His pause was long, and as it progressed, each detail in his expression grew sadder. He knew something that had yet to come.

"But I'll leave that for another time."

The light came back to him but it was not the same light that he'd carry so often. He usually had within the green-gray of his eyes a lightning of passion or a fire of love. Now it was just a small flame, filled with the shattered ruins of what little happiness he had left in life.

But, alas, as Ryan reached forward to turn the camera off, the flame also held the beginnings of a willful rebellion.

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Hello again! I also apologize for the awful length of the premiere chapter! Anyways, never mind it, here's some important information that you should definitely take with you.

1) This is most certainly not what you were expecting, was it? BUT these "videos" are a new addition and what you're supposed to see it as is from the screen of a video camera, if you didn't already. Just keep that in mind. These will pop up throughout the story, much like the flashbacks of the last one. :)

2) Speaking of "pop-ups," your update schedule is odd this time. I'll explain it as best I can: As you may know, I have my books planned out completely, chapter by chapter. With this, I also schedule dates on my calendar when I upload them. I often upload on Saturdays (generally my off days), commonly celebrated holidays (especially in my country), as well as the birthdays of my (caught up/current) readers or people in the book. However, your finale was originally again on Christmas, this book is the longest of the trilogy. But I was uncomfortable with that - not because RS also ended on Christmas, but because it would go on all year. SO I moved it up so your finale is instead about two months earlier. That leaves eleven (or ten?) unscheduled updates, so what did I do with them? I scattered them all over. Now you'll have 10/11 random updates. I will not tell you when they happen either, so expect some surprises.

3) God this author's note is so long, I'm so sorry. Speaking of updates, though, on another note: Since I did this most of last summer, I will still be going through with my plan to update twice every week beginning in June and ending early August, since I get very bored over the summer. Granted, I might be taking a summer job this year, so I'm not sure if I'll actually get to these, but I'll try my best, as always.

4) I think I'm done with telling you important stuff so here we go - your next update is Sunday (more so to make up for how short and not-that-great this one is)! I also want to hear any predictions again, if you have any still sitting around in your heads. Thanks guys! Love you all! x