Darkness swept over Sokovia like an encompassing blanket, old withering men and young children alike only just returning to their homes for rest. The government of Sokovia, headed by the President, was an oppressive force to say the least. Everyone who still lived in the small Eastern European country, namely those who did not have enough money to leave or knew no other lifestyle than primary services such as farming and mining, were all worked to shit. The government put it across as 'taking maximum advantage of the available resources', but anyone would think they were hoarding provisions for a period of war. The only people who
knew they were preparing for conflict was the government themselves and the evasive syndicate known as the Shadow Conquerors.
The Shadow Conquerors had been founded a couple of decades ago, by a man surnamed Lehnsherr, and under a different alias, during a period of absolute despotism of the Sokovian government. They had been small at first, only taking action to diminish the government's power where they could, and they were not perceived as a critical threat to the rule of the country for decades.
However, as the syndicate grew and attracted angry Sokovians fed up with their lack of freedom under the government, the aim of taking over the country became more realistic. It was then that the government began to respond to various skirmishes with their own strike teams, prompting the start of decades-long fights between the government and the Shadow Conquerors. Other groups, also noticing the Conqueror's rise in prominence, regarded themselves as better rulers of the country - and they entered the secret war, until Sokovia became a free-for-all battleground between gangs and organisations. None of the other ambitious groups ever managed to match the power of the Shadow Conquerors or the government, though, and they always remained the duopoly of the combat. At least, this is what Killgrave knew of the organisation he was a part of.
---
This life was all Zebediah Killgrave could remember, sabotaging external supply shipments to the government and occasionally sending a bullet careening at a government official. He had seen friends killed in the midst of gunfights, and he had seen accomplices executed by higher powers in the Shadow Conquerors for failing various tasks. Zebediah had taken note of the punishments in store very early into his syndicate induction, and he had yet to fail in a mission provided to him. The other factor of Zebediah's head still being attached to his neck was his obedience. While he had oft thought of challenging a superior or murdering those that irked him, he was intelligent enough to understand that displaying these thoughts outside of his mind would lead to his death. He also knew that eventually he would find power in the Conquerors or elsewhere, and when he was in a position of safety to do so - he would enact the situations he had thought of previously.
Until then, though, he was content to do as the syndicate asked, and their aims of taking down the government was not far away from Zebediah's own motivations. The government had forced his mother to degrade herself entertaining the scum of Sokovia, in dirty back alley bars and brothels. Her speciality was dancing, but that didn't stop her from occasionally being carted off to a candle-lit bedroom with a man who payed enough. Zebediah had not known his mother for much of his life, but if he were associated to her now then he would absolutely find it unacceptable for a woman of her age to partake in those endeavours. He went along with the syndicate to force the government's members into positions of embarrassment and submission, before killing them. After that, he did not know how far apart his own ambitions and the syndicate's would lie.
---
It was an important night, in which Killgrave was to assume the position of a new guard in a government facility. The Conqueror's inside man had uncovered information about a shipment of potentially catastrophic weapons, from machine guns to shrapnel grenades, along with an experimental nerve gas that the government had apparently payed a hefty amount for. The gas's container was the target of the mission, Killgrave was to secure access to it and the weapons and install timed explosives to ensure the government could never use any of the new weapons against the Conquerors. It would surely weaken them and their wealth, and Killgrave had been trusted with the task. He had hand grenades and a pistol as backup equipment if anything were to go awry, but Zebediah was confident he could complete the mission without problems.
He was to meet the inside man in an alley near the facility's back entrance. He quickly approached the meeting point, keeping close to the wall where the shadows were greatest. Any position this close to the facility, especially since they now possessed the shipment, was shoot-on-sight territory.
"Killgrave, here." Whispered Melvin Potter harshly, the inside man in the government. He was large and had been a thug, but he possessed an aura of intelligence and responsibility at the same time. He was a perfect man for security in the government, and they had not done ample background research years before to discover Potter was an agent of the Shadow Conquerors. He had been nicknamed 'Gladiator' a time ago, for the frequent occasions when he would take on multiple thugs in fist-fights or bar brawls. Behind him lay a blue-eyed freshman in the government, the new guard which Zebediah was to assume the position of. A bloody cut ran from one end of his throat to the other, a look of shock and fear etched into the lines of his face. Potter glanced at the man with Zebediah, and he chuckled. "One less government bastard."
Killgrave ignored him as the two began stripping the facility uniform from the deceased guard.
"I hope you're ready for this, Killgrave," Potter muttered as they unbuttoned the jacket of the corpse, "Tonight could change everything."
Member
