"Once Garmen has recovered enough, we'll evacuate him and the kids out of the facility." Peri declared enthusiastically, his contrastingly serious eyes meeting the gaze of every supervisor in the room.
At this Garmen grimaced silently, obviously annoyed that he had been put in the "Vulnerable Civilian" category with us.
"What about the other patents and staff?" Havoc sent a nervous glance at the three of us sitting on the desk. "This place is still crawling with the Underground intruders. If they start taking hostages...."
"If they were willing to do that, they would have done so by now." Reece intercepted gently, hand reaching up to straighten his small glasses.
"Instead, they sent a single boy to sneak in and get what they wanted, using the chaos to distract us from their real goals. It's obvious that they wanted to keep their intentions and motives a secret, to make this as quick and clean as possible."
I stared at Reece in unconcealed hero-worship. Not only was he nice and could kick ass, he was smart too.
Finally. A genius who isn't plotting against me.
"Exactly." Peri smiled appreciatively at the small man, holding up a lecturing finger to the people sitting in the "This plan sucks" corner.
"That being said, our best option is to get the children out of here. Once their mission becomes too prolonged and complicated, these intruders will have no choice but to abort."
At this, I glared moodily, not all that convinced that this was a good plan.
The idea of running away while every else was left to the whim of these criminals made my brain ache.
I was more of a "crush anyone who defies me" sort of girl anyway, so what I really wanted was to stay here and fight...
But being completely outnumbered and outgunned, the only other real option beside run would be for us to surrender...
"Why are these people even here in the first place?" Winkle demanded, glaring down at Jack frustratedly, who was all butterflies and smiles at the attention.
At this, most of the supervisors turned to stare at us.
Great, not this again...
"Ahem" I cleared my throat wryly. "Well, you guys are not going to believe this, but according to this week's teen magazine, I am the chosen one, destined to become the Dark Lord." I shrugged delicately. "These guys just came to pick me up for my Coronation party."
"What about me?" Nigel asked with an eager smile, to which I gave him an appraising look.
"You are my baggage." I declared, ignoring Nigel's crestfallen look as I pointed a haughty finger to Artemis, who had been sitting quietly beside him. "That goes for you to Shorty."
Startled out of his thoughts, Artemis blinked at me in confusion before comprehending what I had said.
"Honestly, Love." He sighed, leaning back. "If I'm going to be anything in this fantasy, I'd rather play the role of escort." Artemis sent me what seemed to be his most charming smile, but even I could tell it fell flat.
He's worried about something...
I glared, my face screwing up like I had just bitten down on a lemon."Not happening, Arty. One, you're old. Two, you're short, and Three, you're related to the guy who put me in not one, but three jars." I stared down at him like he was the scum of the earth. "Just be happy you get to come to my party at all."
"....I'm not that old" Was Artemis' only attempt at defence. Even he knew better than to try and deny the other two.
"It must be nice to be so young and carefree." Peri sighed, rolling his mix-matched eyes at me. "And, you know, to live in a world of complete delusion."
"Do you hear me complaining?" I raised an eyebrow at him. If its words had had any actual bit to them, I might have put more effort into being offended.
Peri wasn't nearly as straight forward or serious as Winkle, displaying a geeky sense of humour and keeping his keen mind private, but he was still genuine.
Reece spoke up, distracting me from my observations and returning me to the problem at hand.
"Is there perhaps a reason why you three are so reluctant to speak up about this?" He questioned studying our faces carefully.
Even knowing that he was watching, I couldn't help adverting my eyes to the floor. Guilt makes the gaze heavy after all.
"Not really," I answered, though I doubted that it sounded convincing. "Besides, we already explained it to Garmen. Do you know how annoying it is, having to explain the same thing over and over?"
I could almost hear every single person in the room bite their tongue.
"I imagine that it must be very tedious for you." Garmen finally muttered dryly.
With the following, it became obvious that none of us had any intention of explaining for ourselves. Garmen sighed, excepting his fate
"From what the kids have told me, these people have come here because..."
I quickly tuned Garmen out, not having the patience to listen to how screwed up my life was for a second time.
While I focused on not listening, my gaze wandered over to Jack. Even with all the practice, I had had, it was difficult to remember that he was still in the room...
I froze. None of the supervisors, even Winkle, were looking at Jack, seeming to have forgotten his presence. Until this moment, even I had been ignoring him.
No one had been paying attention to him. He had to know that this was his chance.
But he hadn't moved.
Jack just sat silently, watching us with an amused smile on his lips.
Even as he sat there, he didn't look like he had lost control of this situation at all.
He didn't look defeated.
He looked like he was...waiting.
"What!?"
Before I could finish the thought, Peri was suddenly right in front of me, his fretful face full of exasperation.
"Why didn't you tell us any of this during the interrogation?!" He demanded, his voice rising in disbelief.
I blinked at him, a little taken aback at his sudden intensity. This wasn't like Peri at all...it seemed more like a Winkle thing to do.
Vaguely, I wonder if maybe this Link thing was making Peri channel a little bit of Winkle.
"Uh, it never really came up in conversation?" I leant back uncomfortably, not liking how his giant face hovered right above me.
"The fact that you're wanted by the Underground is something you should have told us to begin with! This whole situation could have been avoided if you had bothered to give us some sort of warning..."
At this, my patience snapped. My gaze hardening into a glare, I stiffly climbed to my feet.
"Oh, yea?" I hissed, the anger in my face actually making Peri back off a little. "If you're so fricking big on honesty Peri, Why did you lie to me about Apollo?"
At this Peri actually flinched back, straightening up so that he stood above me. The aggression seemed to fade away, leaving only an indignant Peri.
"I didn't lie!" He protested. "As I said, there is no Apollo Mc'Valium at the facility."
I twitched, wanting to slap him for being so obtuse.
Having rocks for brains is something only I am allowed to get away with.
"No, but his look-alike brother is!" I shouted I pointed accusingly at Artemis.
"I didn't realise that they looked so similar!" Peri defended, exasperation evident in his half panicked expression. "What are the chances of brothers with a four year age difference looking identical?"
I fell silent, hearing the solemn answer to that question behind the indignant tone.
It was near impossible. Artemis didn't just look like Apollo's brother.
He looked like Apollo.
My suspicious gaze zeroed in on Artemis, intensely studying his features.
Exactly like Apollo.
Artemis straightened, suddenly stricken with panic. He looked about ready to run off, screaming that he had forgotten to turn off the oven.
Before he could move, before he could even cry out for help, I was upon him.
Pale green eyes grew wide as I pinched his cheeks, stretching them as far as they would go as I critically analysed his expression.
Reluctance. Fear. Guilt.
"I should have known when you said that your name was Artemis." I hissed. "No one would actually name their two sons Artemis and Apollo. It's insane!"
"Love?" He managed to get out past the disfiguring hold I had on his face.
"Confess!" I demanded, giving his cheeks a sharp pull. "This was all some elaborate scheme to cover up the fact that you really are Apollo! Everyone here knew that I would murder you if I ever got my hands on you, so you all came up with this Artemis character to save your scrawny self!"
"What?!" He yanked back, freeing himself from my hold to stare at me in disbelief. "Honestly Love! That doesn't even make sen- ow!"
I yanked on his black bangs, punishing him for resisting me as well as shutting him up. I opened my mouth to continue my accusations but seeing the pained look in Artemis' eyes...
I let him go with a sigh.
He was right. He couldn't be Apollo.
Even in his most badass moments, Artemis had been a gentleman. There was no way the cynical, mopey Apollo could get away with constantly call me Love without sounding creepy.
"It was a long shot anyway," I muttered, standing up out of my crouch. I stared down at Artemis, silently watching as he attempted to meet my gaze, only to guiltily lower his head a moment later.
It was obvious that Artemis was hiding something.
But seeing his haunted expression, I decided to let it go for now. Prying wasn't going to do us any good at the moment anyway...
Just as I turned away from Artemis with a sigh, I saw Peri jerk upright, his attention suddenly focused on the doors.
"Damn it." Winkle hissed, and a second later, the door suddenly slammed open.
"What..?"
"Why the hell are you here?!" I exclaimed, pointing in outrage at the new arrival.
Standing hunched over in the doorway, trying to catch his breath,
Was my Supervisor