All the oldies, except old man Jenkins and the toothless cane lady, immediately had goosebumps. He was willing to sacrifice his one and only granddaughter for a cause. They did not know if they were to respect his decision or to keep their distance from a patriot of his level. Does that not mean he would absolutely give them, his childhood and teenagehood friends, up for the cause as well if he had to? How scary! They unconsciously stepped away from him. Who knows if he would suddenly go crazy and claim they were spying for the nobles. As unlikely as that was, nothing was impossible at this point. After all, he already gave up his last surviving blood to be brainwashed to avoid her compromising the revolution. And what's more, none of them could take him on. That will be them asking for some insanely painful death. He was the most skilled and the most dangerous. Nobody in this room had a higher body count than old man Jenkins. They could never forget when he first killed someone. It was also the first time they considered fighting against the nobles. Even then, they were too scared to do it. But then, very many years later, they were forced to watch Jenkins' children and their families get killed and his granddaughter almost get killed. The sight gave them nightmares and as if it was not enough, the same noblemen came for their children and grandchildren as well and made them watch the females, regardless of age, get raped and the males get castrated before they were all beheaded. The power-drunk nobles ensured they were punished for having the luck of being friends with a killer named Jenkins.
Death might be a terrible thing, but what was worse was to be left alive with the image and knowledge that their mistake was what caused their entire families to be wiped out. Staying alive was much, much worse. They even contemplated suicide and that was when the idea came back; The revolutionaries. An idea they came up with when they were much younger and more hotblooded. An idea with the goal of dethroning those nobles from their self-imposed power and authority. It seemed stupid and crazy then, but not anymore. When they were younger, they discarded it because they had a lot of things to live for and had a lot to lose. So, they were unwilling to put their lives at risk. But, what do they have to lose now? They have already lost everything.
They, at first, tried to rally up the commoners for the fight against these disgusting nobles, but the commoners were too scared. They had developed an instinctive fear for the nobles. The nobles were naturally seen as people superior to them. People who were more like gods. People who mere commoners can never be compare themselves with. People to be feared and ass-kissed and had each and every commoner's lives in his hands. There was absolutely no way the people would stand up for their freedom, but they did not stop trying.
One fateful day, they came across a young master of noble roots trying to take advantage of a young woman at a street corner. She cried and yelled for help but nobody bothered to look in their direction. They moved onwards as if they heard nothing. The oldies were passing by and heard her. Without putting any thought to it, Jenkins ran to the corner, grabbed the young master by the hair and dragged him out to the street. The cane lady grabbed a stick and hit the young master's lackeys with it till they were too weak to move (That was where she got the cane fetish from). The not so old Jenkins of that time sat on the young master and pounded his face to a pulp, tore off his pants, and straight up cut off his balls with a butcher knife and then left him to bleed to death while in immense pain. He proceeded to kill the two lackeys that actively helped their young master hold the girl down. After which, they went on their way.
Two days later, several law enforcers arrived at an inn, and went straight upstairs to a room. They barged into the room and attacked Jenkins with full force. Jenkins, being the smart, skillful man that he was, managed to jump out through the window in time and escaped. He ran for half an hour to a broken down house. When he got there, he saw the same woman he had killed a noble young master to save with the law enforcers, pointing at his picture. He looked around and realized his friends had been captured with rage boldly written on their faces. Jenkins quickly hid away as he watched them and wondered what to do. The loud youngest looking old lady was enraged and screamed at her;
"We saved your life and dignity. Why would you give us up?"
The young lady immediately burst into tears and kept saying; "I'm sorry!"
The captain beside her, on the other hand burst into laughter.
"You think she cares about you people? All we had to do was offer her some money and she immediately poured down everything she knew." The other officers also burst into laughter when they had the explanation. These old people were very stupid.
That was when these oldies truly realized that when it came to commoners, even the bold and boastful ones were useless people who usually ended up as disposable lackeys for the nobles. They were all bark and no bite. They, the oldies, knew they had to come up with a new plan to get even with the nobles. But first, they had to escape prison and imminent death. Of course, they were expecting to be tortured to death if they could not find a way out.
Old man Jenkins ended up busting them out of the law enforcer's headquarters all by himself, while the superiors were at a party and the junior officers were either incredibly drunk or having a good time with the women at the brothel. They probably never expected that someone would attempt a jail break.
Then one day, baldy came across a piece of paper that had an incomplete method of brainwashing people, named the 'puppet maker. It involved dark magic and alchemy. There was quite the controversy over the use of dark magic but they chose to go with it after the old cane lady reminded them that they could not afford to be betrayed. And so, for the next couple years, they continued to gather youngsters by breaking them out of prisons all over the country, regardless of their crimes while they prepared for the brainwashing ceremony.
And finally, it was almost time for the great day.