The first rea out of Abeiron was shoaturally. He hadn’t seen Athene in two days. They reported her missing, but could do nothing to locate her with the immediate problem of the intruders. “Lieutenant ahene!” Abeiron rushed to meet her, seeing the shambles of an appearanbsp; However, she stopped him with her hand stretched out. “Where were you? We would have sent a search party if we could, but—“

  “Where is Captain Simonides,” she repeated, cutting him off. ‘He’s c for something…’

  “Are you hurt? I’ll have one of the MPs tend to you.” He deyed his answer with the best words he could. Abeiron knew he couldn’t trick her for long. ‘Should I tell her about the Captain? She o e back with us.’ Keeping up his ploy, he motioo one of the soldiers to e forward. ‘If I say what I should…I know what she’ll do.’ Under ordinary circumstances, he kheo be level headed. She wasn’t one for rash as. ‘Ever since tured that kid, she’s been unstable. Something happeo her in his mind…’

  Athene brushed off the aid. “I’m not injured, Abeiron. I might be blind, but I’m not ignorant.” A metal device rose up from the ground. “Now answer my question before I take a more direct approach.”

  ered, his options ran out quickly. Against her skills, he knew she could learhing she wanted and everything she should not. ‘Maybe it would be better that way… No…I ’t think like that…’ Abeiron turned back to the men. “You stopped long enough! Keep marg!” He motioo his sed in and to get the men moving again. Ohey begrudgingly resumed, he stepped aside with Athene.

  “What’s going on, ander?”

  ‘It’s the only way.’ Abeiro miserable already lying to his men; he had to repeat his sins again. “Captain Simonides is…no longer with us.” He was still deying.

  Lines formed between her brows with the i answer. “What are you saying?”

  “He’s not here!”

  “I know that all ready!”

  “Dammit, Athene! Don’t make me…”

  “Abeiron”!

  “He’s dead!” The deed was done. His hands shook. The words repeated from his lips once more. He hoped everything worked out in the end just as the Captain believed.

  Atheaggered back finally having the clear answer she o the question she already knew. She feared the truth, but . ‘Dead?!’ A flurry of thoughts flew through her mind. The world disappeared for her.

  “e back with us,” he offered. His words didn’t make it to her. He noticed it affected her as deeply as he imagined. Abeiron tried to approach her cautiously. However, the momeouched her she spped him away.

  Anger and rage fueled the light in her dull eyes. “What happened? Tell me everything!” Her preseurned dark with a crazed expression developing. It only made things worse for her.

  Abeiroated in an answer. He began tret his decision. ‘Her mind wasn’t ready for this…what have I done?’ Everything was already dug for him, by his own hands. He had to step forward, no matter the pain. “It was…them. Those kids.”

  The answer seemed to spark something in her. “What?!”

  “The Captain had them ered, but they broke through our lines and hit the and post. He was caught up in the chaos.” Lies beget more lies.

  “So it was him, again…” She started to mutter her words afterward. Nothing came out clearly other than her i. Atheurned in the dire she saw movement. “They’re that way I assume?”

  The mistake left Abeiron a little fused until he remembered she never seemed to fully ect with his eyes. “No, that’s the dire of South Gate.”

  Athene’s hand jumped out lightning fast to grab Abeiron by his uniform. “The Captain’s dead and you’re walking back while the bastard that killed him is out there still! What the hell’s the matter with you, Abeiron?!”

  “We’re under orders!” yelped the ander, surprised at her rea. It took him several seds to recover enough to fill the rest in for her. “We were trag them, but and told us to stop.”

  “And you listeo them?! The Captain’s dead, what matters more than revenge?!”

  For the first time since he met Athene, he actually feared her. Not because she . No, anyone could have the look she had. It was madness he never saw in her before. It possessed her pletely. “They’re deploying Omega to deal with them! I had to make a choice between revenge and the lives of the men!”

  She gred at him with almost animal like qualities. Nothing came from her lips, but nothing o. Her words came out through pure presence.

  “You know how they are! They’ll take down anything in their way, even if it is us! Especially in this situation!” Athehrew him away from her. He stumbled on his feet trying to get his bance back, but fell anyway. Prone on the ground, she loomed over him.

  “Which way were they going?”

  “The Capital,” he answered, but thought about how meaningless it had to be for her. “10 o’clock from your position.” She already started in the dire with no more words to him. “Be careful.”

  “Tell that to those that stand in my way.” Athene disappeared a moment ter.

  It took Abeiron a full mio recover himself from everything that occurred. He remained seated, his men marg in the distanbsp; Everything moved into difficult dires. It made him sigh. He turned his head to the clouds above. ‘Captain, I’ve seo you. Hopefully, she’ll be of help in your pns.’

  Chapter 219 – Waking the Titans

  A rge stone door stood with imposing embellishments decorating the door and frame. It ended in a long hall with no doors. This door oed because sometimes normal humans o enter. The rest of the rooms were only for MPs. So doors were unnecessary.

  Such a design was less about security. The inal reason was long lost on them. A fact that bothered Demosthenes. So easily was the truth lost.

  Demosthenes kept walking at the same pace he maintaihrough the hall. The door looked to refuse him at his pad he seemed ued in such a fabsp; I moments, the door opened as though bowing to a superior. Within the rge chamber was a long graable and twelve matg chairs. The backs of the chairs rose high towards the ceiling, clearly impossible to move despite most pushed in properly.

  Three individuals sat at the table. Two properly with respect to the table, the st rested their feet oable. None of them aowledged his presenbsp; He seemed as important to them as the dust oable. If it bothered him, he made ion to it.

  He came to a stop at the head of the table in front of him. The three remained in their own worlds at the table spaced out in a seemingly random order. “Only the five of you are here,” he ented aloud. ion. “e out Rheia, you’re not sneaking up on anyone. Same for you, Nereus.”

  Suddenly, a light brown haired peared a meter behihenes without a sound. A bit of an annoyed expression painted her face for a brief moment before walking out. She took up the seat closest to Demosthehe chair moving on its own for her.

  Shifting out of another dimension, a slightly older man appeared in the chair at the opposite end of the table, far away from Demosthenes. “One of these days,” he muttered.

  Demosthenes pushed his gaze around the room taking in the five members. “You’ve all been summoned by me as the only Titan members in the Capital currently.”

  “A special mission, General?” asked Teris, Omega Divisio and member of the Titans, fifth stro of the Titans. He sat a little forward sihe General began talking to them. Teris had a tall figure, but surprisingly thin build g in any sort of menag presence.

  “Is there any other type for the Titans?” mocked Glykeria, third stro of the Titans. The Titans gathered a varied group with none of them like the . Glykeria was the you of the group at the out of pce age of nine. She barely came above the table. However, the Titans didn’t care about anything other than power and talent.

  “Something to do with the mobilization orders?” queried Ourias. He had a mostly disied expression on his face as though only there because ordered. Despite his attitude in front of the General, he was at the bottom of the rankings amongst the Titans, twelfth.

  “That’s right. As you no doubt already know, the cil has ordered all of the Omega Division to deploy against the intruders. Being who you are, I expect you all to be aware and up-to-date on curres.”

  “Eudokia Ismene…I mean Eudokia, leading some ants through the tryside,” Nereus answered, in a pletely ft tohat from anyone else would have sounded desding. It was simply facts for him. Nereus rested in the eighth seat for the Titans. He had age w on him, but his fme red hair remained as strong as in his youth.

  “I always wanted a ce of fighting her,” Rheia added, a pyful smirk dug into her face bearing a few teeth. There was almost nao be found in her. She almost seemed child-like. However, her position as the top of the Titans, the elite of the Omega Division, wasn’t disputed by any of its members. Underh, the childish expression was a dangerous womaher Titans respected and feared equally. She didn’t seem to extend such courtesy to Demosthenes, her eyes g any sort of aowledgement of their status or difference.

  Ign her, he tinued with his briefing. “Field agents have already been issued their orders.” The table suddenly lit up a faint green. A map of Atntis appeared before it zoomed into the st known location of their targets. “Most ret intel has them in two groups, both moving to the Capital.”

  Glykeria stood up on the chair to get a better look at the table. She looked a little disappointed. “We’re not going to have anything to do. They’re going to all get killed.” Several dots, marking location of Omega field agents, already moved in on both parties. It was very good odds they would be found.

  “They have already defeated the entire South Gate. These kids aren’t to be uimated.”

  “A bunch of weaklings and dirt are hardly going to stop anything,” ented Nereus.

  The map disappeared with the faces of Yuki and his friends appearing. Detailed information appeared with eabsp; “These are the nine members of Eudokia’s rebellion.”

  Rheia leaned in with her eye catg something of i. Her finger pushed down on Yuki’s dossier and dragged it over to her. A wider grin came over her fabsp; “I like the way he looks. Something about his eyes.” Yuki’s page suddenly disappeared. She looked up at Demosthenes.

  “That one’s mine.” His decration got the attention of everyone.

  “The General’s going to the frontlines now?” Teris questioned.

  “Old bones, growing mold,” sang Glykeria.

  Rheia's eyes grew a little wider, she caught on to something of i. “Aren’t you getting to be a little too old to be fighting? An easy retirement pying with the old men in the marble walls is more to your paow.” She ughed a little making a clig noise.

  Demosthenes didn’t even give her a gnbsp; “He’s more than you handle.

  “I’ll make that decision for myself. You ’t stop me from breaking in my oy.” It seemed like she tried to get a rise out of him. The faothing seemed to affect his tone or posure annoyed her. The childishness started to drip out of her.

  He held his stoic, cold expression. “I’ve already decided for you. Find your oy among the rest.”

  Her hands rubbed against the hard granite surface of the chair. It chaffed her skin making it raw. She started to grin even more as an idea came into her head. “You’re just an old man. You always lost to Eudokia, in fact you were never even a Titan during your time in Omega. You’re just some crippled weakling touting old glories. You ’t—“

  Rheia motioned her hand through Demosthenes’ e or thought she had. It came to an abrupt stop on his forearm. Her eyes fshed over reading him quickly. ‘Not the real one, but even this close.’ A curious brow raised as she uood.

  He finally met eyes with Rheia for the first time. Staring at her, he waited the seds for it to surfabsp; A bead of sweat dripped down the side of her fabsp; The pierg gaze hit her harder than she expected. Weight of purpose and experience, something beyond her and immense, he towered.

  Demostheurned away marg for the door. “You’re the Capital’s defense. If they reach the walls, you have permission to move.” The door opened soundlessly, waiting for him. “There's a reason I was never part of the Titans. You do well to remember it. It’s not without cause I hold the name of Alexander.” He disappeared behind the closing door leaving them alone once more.

  “A fake and still not detectable,” remarked Teris, staggering a little at the sheer trol Demosthenes dispyed.