The Dragon

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

"This has bad idea written all over it."

I ignored Keros in favor of taking a sip of my beer, placing it on the table and watching Keros glare at me before he took a swig of his own drink and pushed it aside. Seven frowned, glancing at his boyfriend, then looking at me as he ran his fingers along the sides of his bottle nervously.

"It's not going to be easy," he told me, "Six may not have done well last night, but when he's got his head in the game, he's dangerous."

"He's definitely not a fun guy to encounter," Keros agreed dryly, taking another angry sip of beer, "From what I remember, he kicked my ass. Hard. He does not fuck around when it's serious, and if what Seven says is true, he's going to take you down no matter what, because that's what the psycho Mother lady wants." I looked at my drink, still not intimidated in the slightest.

So far, I'd learned that Six was one of the most dedicated soldiers the Mother had, according to Seven. He, like the other soldiers in her army, had been raised to believe the Mother was the one true path, that anything else was sinful and wrong.
And yet, that didn't change the fact that he hadn't gone all out on me last night. He'd been hesitant, like something was holding him back from truly attempting to kidnap me. Which was a whole other deal.

Why would the Mother want to kidnap me? To hurt Hades? That seemed like a silly reason to want to kidnap someone. Too much work just to make someone cry a little. Plus, it wouldn't make Hades cry; it would make him furious. The Mother didn't want to aggravate Hades. She wanted to kill him... or something. At least that's what Seven made it sound like.

So why kidnap me?

Seven didn't know.

But Six obviously would.

So I really had no other choice here. It was time to capture Six and see what information I could get on my own. Of course, I would certainly be telling Hades all about this... once I had the information I needed. I didn't need Hades's help right now. He'd only get in the way, like he did before. The last thing I needed was a panicked nutcase hovering around me while I tried to figure this out.

It wasn't that I hated Hades, certainly not. He was family. He'd done so much for my parents, and myself and Lumen, growing up. He would drop everything to come to us if we needed it, and I knew that. At the same time, I also recognized that Hades made mistakes when he panicked and if he thought my life was in danger, he would certainly panic. I knew from experience.

After all, it wasn't just my parents who protected me from attempted kidnappings while I was growing up. Hades himself had also inserted himself into the fray and tried to help, but it only made matters worse. Especially in one particular incident.

I wasn't ready to bring Hades into this mess right now. Not until I had all my ducks in a row and ready to present. And that was final.

"Alright," Keros said at last, "Fine, so what are you going to do? Just wait around until he attacks again?" I shook my head.

"No. I need to know more about him before I do something," I said, then looked at Seven, "Tell me everything you know about him." Seven blinked, then cocked his head thoughtfully.

"Well, we grew up together. He's older than me by a couple years. He was the star pupil in all of our classes together. He moved up through the ranks fast and he was always happy to be the first one to do anything. He was also one of the few people who didn't attack me or pick on me. He kinda kept to himself. Although..." His voice trailed. I frowned.

"What?" I asked. Seven shrugged.

"He was really close with Five and Three," he admitted, making me look at him curiously, "Two other artificial soldiers that grew up with the rest of us. Five is pretty low key and quiet, though. She never really called attention to herself. She hung around Six because he was quiet like her. But Three confuses me, because Three is... Three's an asshole. A regular prick who took every chance he could to pick on me or anyone else. He's really strong, though. Like, insanely strong. He's like a fucking tank."