Pettiness

  It would have been a simple matter to resolve; simply walking back into that room and apologising for the inconvenience like Number Three wanted would have resolved the issue instantly. In total, taking this route would have saved me six grueling hours of my life - and yet it would also have left Michaela as the smug victor, knowing that her demand had gotten through to me in some other timeline - and I would not let that happen. I would not give her the satisfaction. I would not let her delude herself into thinking she could mess with me and succeed. Never. And thus, in total, I spent nine hours repeating the encounter. That bitch Dreamstress. I thought in annoyance, my eyes narrowing right as I felt myself become unable to move for the twelfth time, Number Three pushing herself off the wall and beginning her speech once more. Who does she think she is?! I am KRONOS!! I am GOD!! And she dares play with me?! I don’t care how many attempts it takes, I’m going to find a way to crush her.

  I waited patiently until Love Love inexplicably broke Michaela’s hold on me for the twelfth time, my expression shifting into a pleasantly uncanny smile. I walked past my sidekick casually without a word, pushing her aside with my body before she could finish her silly one-liner, ignoring her while making my way to where the heroine had been punched through a door. I stepped through the hole and squatted down, patiently waiting until she began to rise again with a guttural growl emanating from the depths of her throat, her head raising in anger only for her eyes to suddenly widen as soon as she saw me casually crouched right next to her. I smirked sadistically and brought down a punch, slamming my knuckles against her nose with my full strength even if it meant breaking every last one of the bones in my hand.

  You’re so damn pretty, Number Three. I thought placidly, my expression unchanging from a pleasant smirk even as it got tainted by blood while I raised my fist again. Hey, why don’t you just become mine already? We really should stop this song and dance one of these days. Wouldn’t you look cute if you smiled at me? Though your scornful expression’s quite adorable, too~ I didn’t even really mean any of those thoughts, since deep down I enjoyed her putting up a fight a lot more than I would ever enjoy her submission. I brought down my fist again, though the hit never connected since an inhumanly fast strike from the heroine ripped my arm right out of its socket before it could reach her. I blinked, looking over at where blood was now pouring from my shoulder. “You’re so damn annoying, Dreamstreeeess~ Hey, would it REALLY kill you to sing my praises just once? Would it really be so awful if you could look at me with cute eyes and fawn over me? You don’t HAVE to hate me this much, you know… How about a change of pace?” I asked rhetorically and drily, my tone as monotone as possible. Dreamstress’s hands reached up gently, wrapping around my neck in an almost sensual way, before suddenly rotating my head 180 degrees with no effort whatsoever, “Sorry, but I can’t do that,” was her only response followed by a short cough.

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  “And I would have FOR SURE died a horrible death if he managed to crawl his way towards me, so I had to bail!! Really, I couldn’t move a damn muscle!! I’m surprised by how strong his willpower was, it was awesome!!” Eiken chuckled while pumping his fists and grinning broadly, describing his battle against Oliver to the rest of the Celestials that had gathered around his bed. Empress sighed, rubbing her temple with one of her hands, her eyes closed. Horde approached Warpbreaker, crouching down to inspect the stump where his foot was supposed to be, “I guess this confirms it,” she muttered grimly, pulling out her phone and ordering a foot donor to replace Six’s missing appendage, her eyes darting over to Empress, “I don’t think there’s room for doubt anymore.” Empress grit her teeth and opened her eyes, her purple irises glowing with menacing light from her sheer frustration and anger, nodding, “Indeed. That fucking insufferable bastard… Does he really think we’re so stupid that we wouldn’t realise it?! Or does he already know that we know and just doesn’t care?!” she let out a deep breath, clenching her fists so tightly that blood began to drip down from her palm. None of the heroes gathered had ever in their lives seen their leader, the president of the Hero Association, THIS altercated. She took a second deep breath and fixed her posture, leaning back against the window while crossing her arms, “I apologise for my outburst,” she stated bluntly and in a dry tone, the light in her eyes dimming.

  “What the actual hell are you two talking about??” John asked with a furrowed brow, turning to look from Eiken to Empress and then to Horde, “I’m lost as hell over here. Did I miss some email explaining this or what??” Breadman sighed, the perpetual yellow glow emanating from behind his sunglasses failing to betray anything about the emotional turmoil within him, “No, this emergency reunion here was unplanned. But, I’m fairly certain I’ve figured it out. They’re talking about Kronos,” he muttered monotonely, flexing his fingers, a tendril of dough emerging from his back and spearing into the floor in front of him as a way of relieving his anger, cracking the floor, much to the surprise of everyone else, “More specifically, that with this most recent incident with Warpbreaker, the evidence overwhelmingly points at him being in contact with the Rebellion.” Immortalis’ eyes flickered over to Four, realization dawning on him as a shadow passed over his crimson eyes. Kevin, helping the Rebellion? But he offered to go back to warn me about Alexander’s attack, so that doesn’t make any sense. Unless… he already knew I would say no?! Fuckin’ hell… Maquineer was the next to speak up, “There have been too many coincidences. Every single confrontation so far with the members of the Rebellion… it’s as if they were specifically tailor made so we would lose. Of the ones we’re aware of; Alexander, Cassandra, Miguel, and now Oliver… none of them would have won against any one of us except specifically the person they were up against - and at times, even then, it was only because of the location or circumstance,” she listed off pessimistically, muttering something unintelligible under her breath in frustration before quickly shaking her head as if to dispel her thoughts.

  Two swords suddenly impaled themselves on the floor side-by-side to Four’s tendril, Crusader slicking back his hair with his hands along with letting out a dissatisfied growl, “The Rebellion hadn’t dared attack any of us Celestials directly ever before, but now they suddenly feel confident enough to strike over and over consecutively like that?! I agree, there’s no room for doubt. However…” his eyes opened, scanning the people gathered one by one, “Number Zero isn’t our enemy, not in the true sense of the word, or at least not yet. Or else not a single one of us would still be alive.” His words rang out through the people gathered, placing a pin on what everyone already knew. “No shit Sherlock!!” Warpbreaker called out in a fit of disbelieving laughter, clapping his hands together and teleporting a beer bottle into his hands, “You all must be slow as hell, I swear!!” he smashed the tip of the bottle against the air in front of him, snapping the cap off while giggling to himself, “I figured it out ever since Alice got her ass handed to her by the hydromancer. If Kevin wanted the Rebellion to win, she’d be dead as hell and John would have been encased in a tungsten cube and dropped into the Mariana Trench! In fact, Kevin’s servant lady specifically came up to me and started to talk about some conversation I never actually had while dropping some pretty obvious hints about where I should go during my battle with Grey Matter. That tells me all I need to know; the bastard’s having fun playing both sides, and I’m NOT gonna be the one to bother him over it lest he literally unmake me.”

  “Kronos hasn’t changed one bit since I first met him,” Stalwart mumbled, looking out at the window and at the invisible bubble he had placed around the entire building, “He’s always up to something. Not one waking second passes where he isn’t scheming or plotting. Does he never get tired of it? An existence like that sounds like hell,” he muttered pityingly, rubbing his chin while deep in thought, “Of course, he could always be spacing things out with bouts of relaxation that he just rewinds whenever he feels like he’s had enough. But… Something tells me that that’s not the case.” Michaela’s eyes twitched at that, nearly imperceptibly, being the very first movement she made that entire conversation. Her eyes lazily drifted over to the elder hero, a hidden fire deep within their depths raging in fury. He can tell?! Kevin you- YOU-!!! Are you so far gone that even others are starting to notice you?! No no no, this can’t be… She quickly used her power to force herself to calm down before risking pouncing on Number Nine to kill him. “Umm…” Seraph suddenly muttered, drawing attention to herself, making everyone else turn to look at the second strongest creature on the planet in much the same way a teacher would look at a child about to ask a question, “Pardon my ignorance but… Isn’t Miss Empress Kevin’s superior? Even though he’s the top Celestial, Eight is still the president of the entire Association… right? I don’t see why you can’t just, ya know, get him to stop,” she asked with a click of her tongue, pursing her lips. They’ve always acted strangely about Kevin in particular, and I think it’s about time I figure out why. It’s not like he’s the only one in this damn room who could topple a country. Hell, I think ANY of the people here could if they really set their minds to it!! So why does he specifically get treated like that?

  “Number Zero has a special deal with the World State,” Empress answered in a somber tone, the shadows cast by the walls of the room seemingly converging on her, obscuring her face, “He’s unstoppable. He knows it. We know it. The World State knows it. Ever since he proved he could indeed time travel, the world knew it. So, he made the Council of Five a deal they couldn’t refuse; he would be beholden to the Hero Association and by proxy to the World State… on paper. In reality, he’s basically free to do whatever the hell he wants, only really answering to me when it comes to minor things or on a whim,” she shrugged, staring up at the ceiling, “The only people aware of this special circumstance are the Council of Five who rule the World State and us in the Celestial Ten. Of course, that is, unless the secret’s been leaked to someone else, which wouldn’t surprise me.” Number Two took off her glasses, polishing them distractedly, “Kevin doesn’t need the deal in the first place. His power already makes him so untouchable that he would be able to do whatever he pleases without needing a paper with a signature on it… the real question, then, is why would he place restrictions on himself and make the deal? Much like with any other question regarding Kronos, we can only assume it’s part of some grander plan of his,” she finished, the uncanny sparkle in her pupils reflecting the clinical light on the roof just enough to be barely visible, “In fact, if you think about it, the very existence of any sort of organised group resisting the World State was already evidence enough that he wasn’t ever fully on our side. We’ve been aware of that fact for a while now… only that it’s gotten to the point where it has become too blatant.”

  “Oh,” Angellica sighed in response, a hand on her chin, realising just now just how much of a newbie she really was in comparison to the people around her, “So it’s not like we can even really complain to him, then? What would be the point of confronting him?” I would rather not… Like, he already has me on a leash and it’s pretty obvious nothing will happen to me as long as I remain useful. I agree with Warpbreaker, let’s just let him do as he pleases… Immortalis’ eyes narrowed and he suddenly leaped towards Number One - much to her surprise, snapping out of her inner monologue - landing in front of her just in time to intercept a sword as it impaled him through the chest, stopping just shy of Seraph’s shoulder. Crusader’s pearl white eyes were glowing menacingly, one of his arms outstretched towards the heroine, “Because,” he hissed, closing his hand into a fist and making the sword pull out of Seven’s body, “It is the right thing to do. We are the world’s most powerful, we are the tip of the spear, the shield, the finest, we aren’t TOYS for Kevin to play with!! His actions are an injustice on human dignity itself,” he finished, his bloodied sword spinning in mid-air before returning to where the rest of them were floating behind him.

  John spat out blood, the red liquid staining Angellica’s dress, although he didn’t seem to mind much besides a wince, “Because even though he’ll give us the same answer he always does, it’ll send him a message,” Immortalis muttered to the heroine in front of him, straightening his back despite the pain ebbing out from his wound, “He’ll know that WE know, and that we aren’t happy about it. Maybe we can’t stop him, but we can make him suffer if he pushes things too far,” he added to what Number Ten said, his wound disappearing along with any damages to his clothes and even the stains of blood on both the hero’s sword and the heroine’s dress. Heh, I’ll have to thank Ibrahim for the assist. Number Seven thought in amusement, winking down at the shocked Number One below. Jumping in front of a sword for a damsel always seemed like a cool thing to do. Ten had stopped the sword just short of actually striking the heroine anyway, which is why none of the other Celestials had intervened, but John had decided to get involved anyway.

  “Because,” Number Four suddenly spoke, his voice deep and gruff, drawing the attention of everyone gathered, the light emanating from behind his sunglasses seeming as immutable as ever, “I need to hear him say that all of this is for the good of the world, that every act he performs is to save lives. If he won’t say it willingly, then I will strangle it out of him. I will dice him to pieces, rip off his limbs one by one, break every single bone in his body with a mallet, until he tells it to my face. Because… I won’t be able to sleep at night, unless he does,” Breadman admitted in an utterly intimidating voice despite the otherwise pathetic words. When it comes to Kevin, we have no choice but to trust in his word. If he won’t give us even that, then all bets are off. Even if he erases me from having ever existed for it, I would still not hesitate. Lev thought to himself with determination, his yellow eyes remaining glued to the floor unflinchingly. Number Eight spoke next, purple eyes closing as she leaned back on the wall, her expression impossible to read, “Because, Seraph…” she added with a huff, her voice becoming cold and calculating, as well as fearful, “If we don’t remind him that what surrounds him are sapient, intelligent creatures, he will stop treating us - and by extension all of humanity - as such. We, no, the world itself, cannot afford that.” The utter somberness of such words rippled through the Celestials gathered, the weight of what that meant sinking into each and every one of them, as well as the unspoken threat that lingered in the air; That is, of course, unless he already doesn’t see us like that.

  Michaela chortled, making heads turn towards her, before she suddenly broke into a ravenous laughter then and there, making the other Celestials look at each other in rising concern. She laughed and laughed until tears sprung from her eyes, and she laughed even as she collapsed on the floor on her knees. Only when the others approached her to ask if she was alright did her lava-lamp-esque eyes begin to glow, paralysing everyone where they stood, and she stopped laughing abruptly and coldly. “All of you,” she suddenly spat out, standing up on her own two legs while wobbling from side to side, “You’re all so stupid. You think you’re humans?! You think even a single one of you is- is even comparable to a person?! You’re all idiots,” she slicked back her hair and stared off into the night sky through the window, her eyes resting on the moon, a wide and bright smile on her lips, “Blind and stupid. The only human, the only one who even MATTERS is Kronos! He’s the only one who gets to call himself a person; the rest of us are all ANIMALS at best, and objects at worst,” she sighed dreamily, trailing a finger through the glass. Her eyebrows then perked up as soon as she heard my footsteps echoing through the halls, along with the accursed steps of Love Love behind me. What does he see in that girl?! Dammit, control yourself, Michaela. She’s just his brand new toy. He’ll get bored of her soon enough. You’ll see. She snapped her fingers, and everyone began to move again; only suddenly the memories of everything she had done disappeared - not her laughter, nor her monologue remained in their minds. Empress blinked a few times and then her brow furrowed as she tried to get her bearings, unsure of why she had been moving towards a seemingly random spot of the room, only for her eyes to quickly narrow as she too caught the sound of my footsteps. “Everyone,” she called out with a swish of her arm, “Kevin’s here.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Is that really how you see us, Dreamstress? Horde wondered. She, unbeknownst to Michaela, still retained her memories due to being a hivemind; so even if she deleted the memories from one of its bodies, the rest were unaffected and the memory was quickly returned by osmosis. However, Number Two decided to act as if it had worked, only giving Three a subtle side-eye as any indication whatsoever of suspicion. Is that what you think of yourself? You would deny your own humanity? Why?? Horde wondered, her eyes trailing away from the Celestial one rank below her and instead drifting over to Maquineer in worry. Is this all part of your obsession with Zero? I knew you had lost your mind, but this crosses a worrying line. I’ll have to inform Empress of this. Alice, meanwhile, was gritting her teeth in sheer, unadulterated anger. Michaela messed with me. I don’t know how, I don’t remember how, but I can tell. And whatever it is she did… It made me mad as FUCK. The normally calm and cheery Number Five was boiling over with anger and hatred, yet she was smart enough to remain put and leave the subject for another time. After all, how was she going to confront her fellow heroine on something baseless like a feeling? Especially in front of everyone… no, it would be too embarrassing. Dreamstress, meanwhile, had of course noticed this; the amount of rage emanating from Maquineer was simply not normal, after all. Number Three’s eyes narrowed as my footsteps approached ever nearer, her feet tapping on the floor anxiously. I lost my temper and acted foolishly. Dreamstress thought to herself in disgust bordering on self-hatred. Number Five’s a cyborg with the only biological part of her remaining being her brain. I can control it - and thus erase her memories - but there’s no endocrine system for me to use to reset her feelings, thus she still feels exactly how she did before I eliminated the past few minutes from her mind. Still, damn, why’d she get THAT mad?? I’ll have to keep my eyes on her.

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  “Really?” Love Love had asked nervously, her brow furrowed, walking about three steps behind me as we slowly made our way to where Eiken had been interned at the hospital, “Me? But… I don’t understand, how does my power counteract Dreamstress at all??” I chuckled in response, swaying my head from side to side for a few moments with my eyes closed, “I don’t know~ That was the first time I ever saw you do it, too!” I answered eagerly, doing a little spin on my talons to be face-to-face with Jessica, continuing to walk backwards to keep up the pace, “It’s up to you to figure it out on the way there. If ya haven’t found the solution by the time we’re at the door, I want you to tell me everything you thought up before we walk in, ‘kay?”

  Why do you keep putting me in stressful situations like this?! Jessica lamented, dragging her feet and trying to not think about my smoldering gaze as she tried to think of a solution. I had already tried nineteen other times, mostly by doing a repeat of everything that led up to my pet magically being able to resist Dreamstress followed by very quickly trying to interrogate her before she passed out - but it didn’t work, she’d drop cold to the floor almost instantly after realising I was free from Michaela’s hold. This isn’t the best strategy either, though… I thought while scratching my chin, looking away from my sidekick and off towards the void, my muscle memory taking me where I needed to go without needing to even look at the path, still walking backwards. Maybe I need to go even further back, have Jessica ponder on it for a few days? Ehh, I’m just a bit apprehensive about what unforeseen changes there could be to the timeline if I go too far, things are going SOOO well right now… But if it’s what I gotta do, then it’s what I gotta do. “I think I got it,” Love Love suddenly muttered out after only a few minutes, her eyes sparkling anxiously, looking away from the floor and up at my face, “I-I can’t promise anything, though!! It’s just a theory!!” she quickly added after a few moments of my eyes burning a hole through her own, causing her to once more look away nervously.

  “Really? So fast?” I whistled, stopping our walk and leaning against the wall of the hallway, “That’s surprising. I thought it would for sure take at least a few repeats… Oh well, come on, spit it out!” I smirked, tilting my head and giving her a nod. Love Love pursed her lips and looked down at her hands, a mist-like pink energy beginning to emanate out from her body, her neon pink irises beginning to glow, “My power is enhancement, yes? I mean- that’s not a question, you already told me that it was enhancement but-” I rolled my eyes in amusement, flicking her on the forehead before she could continue to stutter her way into incoherency, “Enhancement and a side dish of healing/restoration, yes. Go on,” I placed my hand on the top of her head, ruffling her hair. Love Love held her forehead with a pout, her eyes staring up into mine with a bit of make-believe murderous intent, “Well, so, I was thinking… I can enhance anything, right? I’ve used it to enhance Seven’s regeneration timer, to enhance Cassandra’s water bolts… But what if what I did - or well, the me in the other timelines did - was enhance your body’s metabolism? Your body metabolised the hormonal cocktail that Three poured into your body so-” I interrupted her, leaning forward so that our faces were mere inches apart, my lips contorted into an unnatural grin, “So I was able to begin moving much, much faster than she anticipated!! My, but in order to do that you must have enhanced my body a thousand, no, ten thousand fold!” I realised, my smirk disappearing while I placed a hand on my chin. I’m very familiar with the hormonal mixture Michaela uses to keep people paralysed. It, like any of her commonly used tricks, is designed to last for so long that there’s basically no way to snap out of it before she herself wills it… And yet, my body metabolised it all fast enough?

  “No, that can’t be it,” I muttered, looking away from Jessica and leaning back on the wall again, “If you increased my metabolism by that much, it would have had a ton of pretty terrible side effects on my body. But I didn’t feel any different-” Love Love raised an eyebrow and suddenly flicked my forehead, making me stop, baffled, and turn to look at her while blinking a few times, “Heh, there’s my payback~” she smirked cockily, swishing her hair to the side while smiling playfully, “You gotta learn to let me talk, Kronos!! I wasn’t done explaining! I was gonna say; I must have enhanced your ability to metabolise hormones specifically - if not then that specific mixture of them.” I furrowed my brow, still somewhat stunned by the flick to my forehead, “Ah?? You’re able to enhance something so specific, and with so much potency?!” I asked her incredulously, to which she blushed and quickly looked away, “I-I…” she muttered, and then sighed, “I don’t know. Maybe in the spur of the moment I exerted myself extra hard? Or I had some sort of awakening? I’m not sure, but I don’t see any other explanation…” I bit on my index finger and closed my eyes to immerse myself in my thoughts. Well, first thing’s first, did Jessica just flick me like that?? ME?! I’ll do something about that later. Anyway, that aside, I also don’t see any other explanation. Hmm… I opened my eyes, looking down at my finger and realising I had nearly bit it right off, having chewed straight to the bone. Love Love stared at it blankly as well, her mouth slightly ajar, her eyes slowly drifting from the gaping wound and towards my face, only for me to smile at her with blood on my lips and wind the clock five seconds.

  “We’ll try that,” I decided with a shrug, “If it turns out that what you said isn’t the solution, I can just go back and try something else.” Jessica tilted her head slightly while looking up into my eyes, her brow furrowed, “Okay then… So what? We go in and I activate my power on you as soon as we get immobilised?” I pondered on that for a few more seconds and then shook my head, “Nah. Try to use it on the other Celestials. If you think you can only use it on one person, then pick whichever one you feel like.” Love Love raised an eyebrow and considered questioning my choice, but in the end decided to just sigh and accept the plan. She knew better than to question my decisions, after all. Oooh, this is so exciting, though!! She considered with a bit of a sly smile. Not only am I helping Kevin with something totally new to him, I’m also gonna get to show off in front of the Celestial Ten for once!! She grinned smugly, blush overtaking her cheeks as she immersed herself in her fantasy. Hehehe… I’ll get to stand in front of Kevin and proudly tell them all that if they want to get to him, they’ll have to get through me first!! I’m going to look so cool~ And then we’ll walk out while they stare at us with their jaws on the floor and Kevin’s gonna buy me donuts!! It’s going to be awesome. She knew, of course, that all of this was just daydreams. She had no actual delusions of grandeur, and knew that nothing she had just thought of would probably come to be - but still, she at least found some entertainment in these fantasies.

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  “He’s an agent of Kronos, duh,” Alexander answered with a roll of his eyes, using his pinky finger to charge up his phone which was on low battery with some sparks of yellow lightning-like electricity, “Why are we even having this conversation?? This is dumb as hell.” Cassandra side-eyed him viciously, the left side of her face still completely covered in bandages, “HA?! Are YOU stupid?! We're talking about the guy who single-handedly allowed us to get an upper hand on the fucking CELESTIAL TEN, and you’re saying that this conversation is dumb?! If I was any less patient, I would rip your damn face off!!” she growled at the unperturbed electromancer, a bubble of water floating in the air shifting into the form of a razor. Falco snapped his fingers and a blast of flames evaporated the bubble, his other hand being lazily used to heat up canned food, “No one’s getting their goddamn face ripped off, Cassandra,” he muttered with half-lidded eyes of annoyance, “But I do agree with her, Alexander. I don’t think anyone here’s stupid enough to not have realised by now that the masked guy’s working for One - or well I guess he’s Zero now - but it’s still important to discuss!! At bare minimum we have to be on the same page,” he finished with a sigh.

  “I shouldn’t have let him in that day,” Tendai hissed through grit teeth, thinking back to when he had been on bartender/guard duty and he had let me into where the rest of the high command were having a council, “I should have smited that bastard then and there for daring to intrude with a mask on!!” he lamented, slamming a well-muscled fist into the table. “It’s nice that you joined us today, Tendai,” Miguel amicably added with a smile, his body slightly hunched over still from his wounds against Dreamstress, “What’s brought you here today? You always say that an old man like you isn’t suited for politics. Isn’t that why you were out bartending that day?” Tendai snarled at the ex-hero, placing a hand on his forehead, “I’m not that much older than you, Destructor, first of all. And second of all… I think this situation in particular is far too important for me to ignore!! The fucking World State has infiltrated us!! US!! I say we kill that bastard the second he shows his face here again!!!” Gray rested his chin on the table, his head vibrating slightly thanks to his elder’s earlier punch, “Don’t call Miguel that,” he sighed, his eyes piercing into his comrade’s soul, “Or do you want us to keep calling you ‘Savage’? I thought you told us that your previous identity was a shame, a stain on you. Think about it.” Tendai gritted his teeth even further but didn’t answer, slinking back while crossing his arms. They’re going to agree on keeping this charade going. Savage thought to himself, his bright silver eyes beginning to dim apprehensively. THIS is why I work alone, damn these spineless cowards!! I won’t say anything for the rest of the meeting… Because no matter what, I will do what I have to. Tendai was only a part of the Rebellion due to convenience. He saw some merit in their plans and goals, but he only really liked their version of the future - he didn’t love it, nor was he in the organization to achieve it.

  “Enough,” Rachel calmly spoke, the room quieting nearly instantly, her beige eyes lighting up for a few moments before dying down, “It seems obvious that the unanimous agreement is that the masked man is an agent of Kronos, and for good reason. I understand your sentiments, it’s just that…” her lips pursed, her brow furrowing. Gray, noticing his leader’s hesitation, decided to speak up, “What Rachel’s trying to say is that despite it seeming like the obvious choice, maybe capturing or killing this ‘masked man’ might not be a good idea.” Murmurs rippled through those gathered, but very few were actually surprised by this decision. “Hah?!” Falco asked incredulously, his bright orange eyes lighting up and the air around him beginning to wave and fizzle due to the sheer heat beginning to emanate from him, “Rachel, did you just say what I think you just said?!” he growled viciously, his hand gripping the canned food closing completely, the object within melting into an unrecognizable puddle. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed in on Rachel as well, her facade of perfect calmness betrayed by the fact that the water within each of their cups suddenly began to sway like waves, “I will kill you here and now if you propose we work with him,” she casually, almost monotony, stated, “So what, you think that he’s suddenly on our side because we’ve gotten a little dog treat or two? Don’t make me laugh. If he really wanted to help us…” a wide, wicked, villainous, downright horrifying smile settled on the half of her head that wasn’t bandaged, “He would have undone the very reason we are here in the first place.” And finally, Tendai merely nodded in agreement - his silence not going unnoticed. Savage’s gone silent. Destructor noticed with a quick glance. I just hope he won’t follow in Oliver’s - no, in Grey Matter’s footsteps. Damn, what a weird thought to have about someone older than you.

  Rachel sighed, slumping over in her seat and closing her eyes, “Please. Just… listen to me,” she pleaded with them, her voice nearly quivering with vulnerability. The trio that had reacted the most negatively to her and Gray’s words quieted and settled down, but their expressions and body language made it clear they were still unhappy. The leader opened her eyes again, her stare blank - as if gazing into the distance, “The general consensus across the more knowledgeable people in the world is that Kronos is only out for himself and no one else. If he truly took a side, none of the opposing forces would even exist, after all.” Her eyes then suddenly focused, like a predator that had just spotted prey, albeit still seemingly gazing out into nothingness, “I disagree. I won’t challenge the notion that Number Zero knows a lot, that he borders on omniscience. However, I don’t think he knows everything. No one can know everything. Not even after a hundred thousand years, not after five hundred thousand,” she smacked her lips, a nervous smile taking over her face.

  She continued, “So, he wants to help us? He wants us to win, but he doesn’t want us to kill? That seems to be what he’s up to, at least, and I say we let him. I say we act like we don’t know, like we don’t suspect a thing.” Alexander smirked, an eyebrow raising as electricity arced through his finger tips, “I get the gist of it. You say we try to deceive the world’s greatest detective?! Haha!! It’s a suicide mission!!” he exclaimed with glee, balling his hand into a fist and raising it into the air, “Oh, I am SO in~” Miguel suddenly laughed, breaking the tension in the room and making all eyes go to him, his face one of sheer amusement, a massive smile carved into his lips, “So, our glorious leader Rachel wants us to follow into certain doom just for the slightest chance to get one up on Zero and Eight, eh?? HAHAHAHA!! That’s just like every single other mission ever!!” Not a single person objected to that.