Rising Up
"My friends!"
The bustle of the crowd instantly quieted the second he spoke. Nix had been waiting for this for far too long, and now that it was here, he could hardly contain himself.
No, no. Not yet. Start small, rise to something bigger. You know how this works.
"We all are aware of what's been taking place over the past several months, and I'd like to thank each of you for being with me now, for seeing this out until the end. Tensions are rising, higher than they ever have been before; relations are precarious, and the lives of everyone living in the biggest megacity of the world are hanging in the balance. This is our home, and tonight we're going to prove it."
The words came so naturally to him, slipping off his tongue and out of his mouth as if he had been preparing it all along. It had always been like that.
"I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting this day. Like myself, you are devout supporters of the vision we seek and the world we wish to live in. Today is the tipping point; right here, right now. After all this time it's finally come to an end, and we're going to make sure that when it does, we will be the ones who are still standing."
Nix looked out on the crowd that had gathered before him in the street, feeling a sense of pride fill his chest as thousands of individual faces stared up at him, awaiting his every word. Though he had only just begun to speak, he could feel the tension crackling in the air like a growing flame.
"It's close, I know you can all feel it. So I extend one final invitation to those who are still hesitant about being a part of our cause. Stand with us or stand against us; the choice is yours. But know this; whether or not you join us we will succeed, and you had better be on the right side when we do. It's not a question of 'if' anymore, it's a matter of 'when', and that 'when' is now."
Nix knew his audience, and better yet, he knew what drove them. He knew exactly what words he could use to inspire, to motivate, to raise a force from a once sorry people, and turn them into an army. He knew how they worked, how they thought, how they lived. He knew where they came from, what they wanted, he knew their hopes for the future, their dreams of a better time, a better place— a desire to make their world safe. He knew who they were. After all, he was one of them.
"You all know me." Nix put a hand to his chest, bowing his head slightly as his eyes flicked down to the ground for a split second. "You know who I am, where I came from, and why I'm here today." A silence had settled on the crowd as he spoke; he had them captivated. "I'm fighting this fight, not for myself, but for you. For us."
Show them your empathy. Show them you care. Let the people see you as their own.
"I've been where you have been, I've walked in your shoes. I'm no preacher or prophet, but I'm confident that when I say that it's time for change, I speak for everyone here. I know there are many who fight this coming wave, this rising tide-- many that are still afraid to act even after all this time. We have strength in numbers, determination in our hearts, and this time we will not back down. We will win this fight, and those that say otherwise will be the ones that stagnate with the rest of our traditionalist oppressors."
How many before him have said that he was only leading them to destruction? Leading them astray? No, this desire of theirs to fight back had always been there, an ember of hope that he had been brave enough to feed.
"Do you want to know what drives me, what spurs me forward day after day of facing an impossible threat?" He gestured with both hands, arms outstretched to the people below him. "This! This is what government should be! Together, our goal is possible and the threat we face is no longer insurmountable. I've been transparent about my goals, our goals, with all of you from the beginning. What we want is simple; we want control over what should have been ours from the start. We want our lives back.
"No one thought it would ever come to this and it never should have, but we have been backed into a corner for far too long. We have stayed in the shadows, afraid of what might happen to us, our family, our friends-- afraid of what might happen if we stood up and told them 'no'." Nix allowed himself a small breath, a pause that, though small, left everyone else holding theirs.
"We didn't ask for this, no, not any of it, but they have given us no choice but to force our hand."
The light from the setting sun sent a cascade of orange and red light across the plaza, swathes of intense color creating long shadows that framed each crowd member almost sinisterly.
"They call us ungrateful while they sit up there, behind their walls and counting their millions while we, the people, scrounge and scrap for anything just to get by. They call us radicalists when we are beaten down by their policies and policing, they call us terrorists when we are the ones being shot in the streets, harassed for merely existing, and having our very lives stolen out from under us so the officials that are supposed to represent their people can use us as the foundation they build themselves up upon.
"Our so-called leaders are nothing but mongrels that leech off of our labor and hard-earned money! How long has it been since they have been challenged? Any of them? I don't think I need to repeat it. You already know." A chorus of affirmation rose up from the crowd.
"We wanted change and they kicked us down. We wanted equality and they spat in our faces. We wanted peace and what did they give us?"
The one-word answer rang through the air with the power of two thousand voices.
"And now we take that war to them!"
Nix's claws dug into the makeshift podium beneath his hands. He could feel the heat of his own fire warm the air around him, driving back the two attendants he had on either side.
"They will fall, and when they do, we will be the ones to rise from the ashes of a broken regime and take back our lives, our homes, our families—"
The intensity and urgency in his voice only grew with every word.
"Our freedom!"
The cheering rose to a roar.
"Isn't it about high time we claim our own futures for ourselves?!"
The sound was deafening, but it was everything Nix had ever wanted. Both of his arms were in the air, raised as if he were conducting a choir. In a sense, he supposed he was. These were his people and he was their hope, the one that would lead them to the world they fought for.
He was their Phoenix.