The Olympians: The Fall of Kin

What It Means To Be an Assassin

Twelve Hours Ago

Roof of Hotel somewhere in Seattle

"You know," Adastros spoke to his brother atop the moonlit rooftop that loomed over the stark city of Seattle. "I never wanted this."

Kyn peered at his brother with something in his gaze. It was an undefined something that Adastros could not fully understand. Sorrow, love, hate, betrayal. The list of different roiling emotions that rolled across his brother's face was too long to list.

Part of Adastros felt those same emotions. The brother that once believed that humans were the bane of their existence was gone. The brother that had stood by Adastros, through thick and thin, even in the face of their father's brutality, was gone. The assassin that killed without remorse...Well he was gone too.

"Never wanted what?" Kyn said, placing his sword back at the small of his back. "Never wanted to go to war? Never wanted to kill innocent people?" Kyn closed the distance between them, grabbed Adastros by the shirt collar. "What the hell are you doing?! Attacking Washington!? Do you have any idea how many people died? Not just the humans! Kirin killed thousands of Godkin!"

Adastros didn't bother getting angry. Once upon a time, he would have been as angry as his brother was now. But, not anymore. Not since he'd ascended. Gained true awareness of his station. He was darkness incarnate. Not because he wanted to be, though. He was the savior of his people. "They were a necessary sacrifice." Adastros said this as if it were true. But he knew that it wasn't. It wasn't necessary to kill his people to win the war. It was only necessary to start it.

"Necessary sacrifice—are you fucking kidding me!?" Kyn, torment in his dark-eyed gaze, pushed his brother away and ran his gloved hands across his tired face. "Who are you? Because...the brother...the kind hearted brother that I knew would never have done what you have!"

Adastros snorted. "I've done what I had to. Become what I had to in order to save our people."

Kyn glanced at his brother's arm. The black armor virus, which had spread all the way to Adastros' right cheek and chest and abdomen. "Putting in with a force we barely understand...you've become a monster. You're hardly even human anymore!"

"That's just the thing, brother! That's the problem you've always had. We were never human. We were clones made by that immortal madman who wanted an army. Nothing more than weapons. And even though we may have gained some freedoms, we are still not human. It is you who would deny our race. What we truly are. I've merely embraced my true nature, whereas you—the most powerful of all of us—have deigned to step into the shoes of those powerless pigs that have the audacity to subjugate us! And, before you dare to judge me for what I've become to save us, try to remember who found Karyon. Try to remember who first introduced us. It was you! You and your Bane."

Kyn clenched his fists. "I never thought that this would be the outcome. We were children Adastros, playing with fire. You just never walked away from the temptation of power."

Adastros sneered at his brother. The weak-willed bastard who turned his back on his own people. "You know, after I killed our father—for you!" Adastros pointed at Kyn with rage permeating the very air around him. "I asked you if you were willing to do what needed to be done to save us. To bring the Godkin where they needed to be. You told me that you did. That you would do anything to see Kirin...Deity—everyone like them—living free in the world."

"Yes, but freedom isn't your objective anymore, Adastros. I don't know when it mutated—and it has mutated—but your goal now is far from what it was."