Eighteen years have passed since the death of Sitting Duck. Mako, now thirty-one, couldn't hide behind his youth to be rebellious anymore. As he read one of the many bulletins posted throughout the reservation, he could feel the frustration of the entire tribe. Everyone here had lost someone close to them within the last thirty years since the Treaty of Tears, and the Ghost Dance was the one time to reconnect with them. It was how the Snake Tribe dealt with death and loss. The chance to feel his Uncle's presence at least once a year was the sole thing pacifying Mako at this point, and it was now gone.
As the rain continued to pour heavily, and thunder struck overhead, all Mako could imagine was the smug grin on Stonewall Jackson's face as he and his cronies laughed at their decision to strip away all of the tribe's rights and culture. They probably felt quite satisfied with themselves, believing that the tribe was too weak to stand up for themselves, or too scared to defy orders.
"Not today." Mako thought to himself as he ripped the notice from its post and crumpled it in his hands. "Today the Snake Tribe makes a stand."
Back in the cathedral, while Chief Red Sky was still petitioning to Stonewall and his son Ura was trying to escort him out, everyone could hear the unmistakable sound of drums being beat to the familiar rhythm of the ghost dance.
"What is that?" Stonewall asked as him and his men rushed over to the window.
"No!" Both Red Sky and Ura cried as they scrambled to look out the window as well.
The Chief could only watch in horror as Mako stood in the center of the reservation, beating a drum and chanting out prayers in their native tongue, with tears streaming down his face. This was the Ghost Dance, and it didn't take long for the other members of the tribe to notice what was happening as well.
"Well. Looks like Mako is going to be executed." Stonewall said smugly.
"No, I will take his punishment instead!" Red Sky offered.
"Of course he will. He can take a bullet." Old man Sharp piped up, eliciting a cackle from Stonewall's other men.
"No can do." Stonewall agreed. "He can't hide behind daddy any longer."
"Uh, Boss!" Jorgan interrupted as he pointed out the window with his strange bell arm. "More are joining."
"What?" Stonewall said as he poked his head out the window again.
Mako's dance seemed to resonate with the other tribesmen. As he chanted his prayers and performed his dance, the spirits began to flow into the reservation. Soon they would all be overcome with joy as the spirits beckoned everyone to join Mako in his dance. Before long, Mako had the entire tribe dancing along and praying with him.
As horrified as Red Sky was at the fact that his entire tribe disobeyed their captors, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of pride.
"I'll stop them." Ura'oan announced. "Please, don't do anything rash, General."
"You can try, but no promises." Stonewall said with an evil grin, as Ura rushed out of the cathedral to meet his tribe.
"Are we going to execute them all?" Bo Hood asked joyously as he rubbed his hoof-like hands together.
"I will take all of their punishments." Red Sky offered. "You are going to shoot them all? Shoot me instead."
"That's two hundred and one shots." Sharp yelled.
"I can take it." Red Sky replied.
Stonewall looked skeptically at Red Sky. "I know the Mother's Cap is strong. But that many shots will kill you."
"It will do no such thing." Red Sky said confidently. "I won't die before I take every shot. I will bear that burden."
As Stonewall pondered the offer, Ura ran down the cathedral into the open reservation. He too could feel the spirits dancing around happily with his tribe, but he didn't allow himself to get swept up in the festivities.
"Stop! All of you!" Ura yelled desperately as he ran to each individual tribe member to get them to stop dancing. "Please!"
Mako was too lost in his dance to hear his brother. He could feel the presence of Sitting Duck and his mother dancing with him, and a great calm had overtaken him. Any anxieties of the consequences to his rebellion were being washed away, as long as he focused on the presence of the spirits. It took Ura marching up to Mako and punching him in the face to break him, and everyone else, out of their trance.
As if his brother had scared the spirits away, Mako was snapped back to reality as he collapsed to the ground from the punch. He could only look up in anger at his brother.
"You can hit me all you want! But you can't stop us from practicing our culture." Mako said as he stumbled back to his feet. "We are taking a stand now, brother, and you are either with us, or against us."
"No, you fool. You don't get it. Father is interceding for us right now! What do you think they are going to do to him now that all of you-!" Before Ura could finish his warning, everyone was interrupted by the sound of gunfire coming from the cathedral.
Hundreds of shots rang out in quick succession. The volley of shots sounding like an active battlefield as the tribe could only stand in silence and horror.
"He's taking the punishments for all of you. Don't you see? They are going to kill him. Just because you had to have your little dance, Mako."
"You wouldn't know how important this dance was. You never joined us. You know nothing about our culture, Father knew how significant it is!"
"Well, I hope it was worth it. All of you!" Ura yelled out. Addressing the entire tribe as they all stood there silently.
After what felt like an eternity, the volley of shots had finally ceased. The silence that followed was deafening. The open windows of the cathedral spilled out with smoke from the plethora of gunpowder that was just expended. Finally, the balcony doors of the cathedral swung open, allowing a large cloud of gun smoke to escape and obscured the area. Soon the tribe could see the unmistakable silhouette of their chief emerging from the smoke.
Both Mako and Ura took a momentary sigh of relief at the sight of their father, but their hopes would soon be dashed as they saw that his head was actually being palmed by the giant stone gauntlets of Stonewall Jackson. He revealed himself from the smoke and held out the injured chief. The tribe could see the various heavy bruises and open bullet holes that littered Red Sky's bloody and broken body. Mako could even see his chest taking shallow and heavy breaths. He was still alive, if barely.
"Behold! The Chief of the Snake Tribe! Red Sky, has an announcement!" Stonewall mocked loudly as he addressed the entire tribe from his balcony. His underlings soon followed behind, standing at his side.
Almost on cue, the rest of Stonewall's Dixie army spilled out from the cathedral and surrounded the tribesmen, rifles aimed and fingers on the trigger. Ura could only look back at his tribe shamefully before slipping into the ranks of the army.
Red Sky tried to breathe but he could only manage painful coughs that spit out blood as he struggled to get the words out of his mouth. "En…dure." He barely managed to whisper before forcing his voice out as loud as he could. "Enduuuuure!"
As tired as Mako was of hearing those words, he was more worried about his father. He knew he was strong thanks to the Mother's Cap, but he had never seen him injured this gravely. "Father," he cried to himself as tears began to well in his eyes and he realized the consequences of his zeal.
"He's so strong," Stonewall mockingly complimented as he shook the barely conscious Red Sky in his hands like a ragdoll. "He took two hundred and one shots, and he's still breathing. What's one more?"
With those words, Stonewall placed him down beside him and old man Sharp aimed his sniper rifle point blank at the Chief's temples before opening fire. Red Sky collapsed lifelessly on the balcony as Mako screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Hahahahaha! Yes, Endure! Endure as the walls slowly close around you, and grind your will away to dust!" Stonewall yelled in between fits of laughter. "Endure so I can play with your lives even longer! Endure until your suffering is no longer amusing to me!" Stonewall then signaled over to his soldiers that surrounded the tribe. "Open fire on the Snake Tribe!"
Mako and the rest of the tribe could only freeze in place as the Dixie army aimed their rifles at the crowd of them. Mako knew the army outnumbered the entire tribe two to one, and their actual capable fighters was probably an even lower number. Now, unarmed and bunched together, this would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Shink! Shink!
Ura'oan had preemptively positioned himself in the middle of the Dixie soldiers. With two swipes of his tomahawks, he was able to behead every soldier within arm's reach of him. Their bodies collapsed onto the ground as the blood that spilled from their necks mixed with the pouring rain and sprinkled around him.
"Stonewall!" Ura yelled at the top of his lungs before lunging at the cathedral, with his axes aimed at the General.
Any Dixie soldier in his way was similarly cut down by the vicious swings of Ura'oan's tomahawks. This caused the soldiers to focus their fire on him, but he managed to expertly block the shots.
Mako, seeing his chance, started grabbing rifles from the slain soldiers and throwing them back into the crowd. "Arm yourselves!" He yelled out as he lunged the bayonett into an unsuspecting soldier. "Fight back!" It was the first time Mako had ever held a weapon, or even hurt someone else, for that matter. But this was a fight for his life, and the adrenaline pumping through his veins stifled any uncertainty or anxiety.
With Ura's charge, Mako's rallying cry, the sons of the chief putting their lives on the line with zero hesitation, the outnumbered Snake Tribe steeled themselves and all able bodied members joined the battle. They grabbed any fallen weapons and tossed any new ones back to add to their arms. Within minutes, a proper war was being fought.
Ura's rampage was unable to be stopped by any Dixie soldier on the ground, as Ura effortlessly cut through them like nothing. Stonewall could see his average soldier was no match for Ura, and was soon forced to order his men to back off. "Leave him to me!" Stonewall ordered as he used his Tye-serpent power to construct a set of stone stairs that shot from the ground and led right to him on the balcony. "You want me? Come and get me."
Ura eagerly raced up the stairs. Moving faster than any normal human could, he blitzed over to Stonewall with a powerful slash of his tomahawks. His attack was stopped by the stone armor of Stonewall Jackson. The general laughed as the axes stuck harmlessly into his arm and Ura struggled to pull them out.
"Hah! I always knew it was a matter of time before you broke. Always standing quietly at attention as I beat your father and tortured your brother. I was beginnng to question which of us was actually made of stone." Stonewall joked as he pushed back on Ura's charge. "Truth is, I wanted you to break so I could kill you in front of your father. But you never did break, did you Not until now. It's too bad your father won't be able to witness this!"
Ura thought about the years under Stonewall's thumb. All the beatings he watched his father take, all the deadly missions the General would make him do to try to kill him off. Ura wasn't dumb. He was always aware of Stonewall's intentions towards him. He always knew he was just another way to torture his father. That's why he dedicated his life to making sure that he was too strong to fall into Stonewall's mental traps. Too strong to die on a mission and have his father grieve him. Too strong to ever be a burden.
"I promised myself that if i was to ever break, it would be to kill you," Ura said as he pushed back with his Tomahawks, gaining some ground against the General. "And I intend to keep that promise."
With one swift and powerful motion, Ura sliced his axes off of Stonewall's armored arm, cutting that portion of his armor clean off, and exposing Stonewall's unarmored, human arm. As Ura reeled his axes back to slice at the exposed arm, Stonewall pulled his other armored fist back and slammed it into Ura's unsuspecting side. The force of the blow caused Ura to spit out blood before flying back out of the balcony.
"Brother!" Mako yelled before having to block the oncoming thrust of an enemy bayonet.
Ura slammed into the back of a tree, splintering it in half before landing on his knees.
"Go get him." Stonewall ordered to Jorgan Bell and Bouregard Hood. "Finish him off."
Bo gave an excited sheep bleat as he leapt from the balcony over to Ura's position, with Jorgan landing heavily behind him. Ura got back to his feet and crossed his tomahawks into a defensive stance as he faced his former comrades. Ura knew he was in for the fight for his life, so he grabbed a bone knife he kept on him and held it with his teeth. For this fight, he needed to use every weapon, and all of him, to win. Jorgan charged at Ura and started throwing heavy punches with his metal right arm, that Ura had to intercept with his axes in order to block them. The blades of his axe glanced off Jorgan's metallic fist, leaving sparks on contact, and the two locked themselves into a clash. Bo saw his chance and started leaping back and forth, hopping and skipping flamboyantly, which managed to steal Ura's attention.
"Un, deux, trois." Bo counted with every leap in a sing-songy voice.
Ura's eyes followed Bo's movements so carefully that after the third leap, he could feel his body begin to fatigue and his movements became sluggish. Jorgan took this chance to slam his metallic fist at Ura, who was too slow to block. The punch slammed into his face and sent him flying backwards, but he flipped midair to catch himself on his feet. Ura had used the knife in his mouth to take the majority of the impact.
"Clever son of a bitch." Jorgan said in an annoyed tone as he noticed his punch did less damage than he had hoped.
Ura could only wipe the blood off his lip as he faced down his two foes and steeled himself for another assault.