The Oracle of Tartarus [malexmale]

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

The meeting was longer than usual and it was mostly arguing.

I loved my brothers, sometimes, but most of the time, I wondered why Hades didn't curse them to keep their mouths shut. They were like a band of ADHD teenagers that would much rather see the world destroyed than having to work at saving it. It'd been three hours of constant shouting and cursing as we tried to come up with the name of the traitor that we were seeking out. I wasn't able to speak, so Noe was speaking on my behalf, but even he wasn't sure what I wanted and could barely get a word in with my brothers swearing at each other.

"Now you're just being stupid," Cain snapped at Cerberus impatiently, "Why the hell would Adrian be the traitor if he was the one who started this whole thing?" Cerberus threw his hands up, exasperated.

"I dunno! All our problems started the moment he got here, and he is half-Titan, or is everyone conveniently forgetting that?" He demanded, sobering up from his drunken mess that had him giggling for a while and now he was tempermental and hungover. Adrian pinned Cerberus with a withering stare.

"Yeah, sorry. I planned to sort of cannonball in, but I tripped." He replied with enough ice in his voice to freeze over the desert. I was mildly surprised by his comment. It seemed the longer Adrian stayed here, the more confident and outspoken he became. Cerberus didn't look too pleased.

"Yeah, well, this would've been much easier if Zelios had just done his job and killed you." He answered dryly. Adrian didn't have a chance to defend himself because Malachi's eyes flamed with anger and he threw his hand out, sending Cerberus slamming back into the nearest wall. Leon winced, but didn't run to him. No, Leon just walked over and got on his hunches beside Cerberus, who groaned and clutched at his head.

"You were kind of asking for that, Scooby." He commented pitilessly. Cerberus shot him a dirty look and got to his feet as Adrian sighed, obviously frustrated as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Look, let's go over this again. Noe, can you tell us everything that happened to you the day before your powers started to take over? Before you became an oracle?" He asked as politely as he could. Noe frowned before sighed wearily. He began to explain everything from the moment he left Tartarus to his trip to Styx, then back. He went through every person he'd come in contact with, but a frown began to work itself onto my face.

We had already gone through this. It wasn't anything knew. We couldn't figure it out and we'd already sent Abel in to talk to each of the people, but he reported that none of them were suspicious and had no connections to the Titans.

And yet, I felt like we were over looking something. Something extremely important.

"So, you're trying to say Hannibal is the traitor?" Cain demanded once Noe had finished speaking. Noe's cheeks flushed, but he didn't deny the claim. Hannibal didn't react. Just stood there, arms folded over his chest, eyes cutting a path across the room at Noe, who met his eyes. They stared at each other for the longest time and it was almost like they were having a conversation that the rest of us couldn't hear.

"Well," Noe spoke at last, still not breaking eye contact with Hannibal, "He was adopted by Titans, wasn't he? Which Titans?" Cain glared at him, his blue eyes sharpening.

"Iapetus and Clymene. And just so you know, it wasn't a big happy loving family." He responded heatedly, making Hannibal frown slowly as he finally broke eye contact with Noe to look at his master. The look on Hannibal's face said he did not want it to be discussed, but we had no choice if we were going to figure out who the traitor was, and honestly, right now? My sights were set on Hannibal, despite the nagging at the back of my mind.