The Child of the Moon

Chapter Eleven

11.

"That's why I told you not to shake," Phoebus whispers, "Now he knows. He has his weapon on him." Phoebus yanks his staff back up. He starts to gain a ball of flame at the tip of it.
Jetaime backs into a wall, and digs into his pocket to reveal a pocket knife, about five times bigger than the original. It's almost as big as Nestor's dagger and has a red circle and a star in the center for the symbol. He bends down, and places it on the floor.
The flaming ball starts to lose its flare, until it is no more, but the staff is still standing, with Phoebus not afraid to use it.
"Phoebus," I whisper to him, "He might help us. Please put the staff down."
Phoebus holds it up for a couple more seconds, then he lowers it, and turns away from Jetaime.
"Sorry," Phoebus says scratches the back of his head.
"No, no," Jetaime replies, talking with his hands moving, "I should be the one apologizing. You didn't know, and I didn't warn you. It's a procedure for all Children of the Dwarf Planets. We need to have weapons on us at all times."
"So, you're not going to tell anyone about me?" I ask, confused. He could get a promotion, like those other Children of Pluto said. Why wouldn't he turn me in?
"Of course not," Jetaime chuckles, and leans down to pick up his pocket knife, though it's really more like a fist knife, "Why would I do that? That would basically be me giving up my only chance of escaping this hellhole and not to work for those brats."
"Actually there would be a 37.89% chance that Cynthia would escape, but it would cause some sacrifices," Nestor comments, butting in, but then he realizes what he says, drops his dagger on the floor and covers his mouth. I hear him mumble, "Son of an asteroid, Dad."
My face breaks into panic. Phoebus glares at Nestor in shock. We're there, frozen for a couple of seconds until Jetaime says something.
"We don't want to risk that, what, 38% chance, then."
I don't think any of us are expecting that response. We turn back to him, and we're all bewildered.
"I know you probably don't trust me," Jetaime says, shoving the knife back into his pocket,  "And I know you want to travel alone, but if you want to know, the control center is on your right from the kitchen. They have security cameras in the dungeon, and the entrances to the house and the control room, so they'll know you're here soon."
I tuck a strand of hair that has fallen out behind my ear, "But how are we going to get to the kitchen?"
Jetaime sighs, moving towards the bedroom door,"I'm sure you heard that room with all of the chatter?"
I nod my head, Nestor is keeping his mouth closed, and not saying a thing, but Phoebus replies, "Yeah."
"That's the kitchen."
"How are we going to get past that?" Nestor asks, finally saying another word.
"All you have to do is crouch against the wall. You'll see. It's simple." Jetaime responds.
---
Jetaime opens the kitchen door to a crack, and his siblings are putting dishes in the dishwasher. Some of the Children of Makemake are staying there, getting out mops and brooms. They begin to sweep the floor, and pick up remaining food. Some kids are hand-washing the dishes.
The kitchen is similar to the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Not that big, of course, but it has three long tables going from when you enter and at the other side of the room. At the side, lies the fridge, the sinks, dishwashers, and other things that would be of use in a kitchen.
I find this normal, people cleaning up their own mess, until Jetaime pushes the door open, and yells, "Are the Children of Pluto making you clean up their mess again?"
Half of them nod, and the other half groan, "Yeah."
"Well, we may not be able to revolt, but I do have some people here that could lead to our freedom," Jetaime continues, opening his arms wide to make sure everyone is listening, "But the others can't know, or they'll kill them, and then torture us to insanity, like they did to Zorren."
I have no idea who Zorren is, but knowing what the Children of the Dwarf Planets did to him, makes my heart pound and my stomach flip upside down.
Jetaime opens the door all the way, as a signal for us to pop out. We slowly move out of our spot, located on one side of the door. The Children of Makemake (they're children of all ages) tilt their heads and scratch their chin. I think they may be confused why there are teenagers just standing in their kitchen.
Jetaime opens his arms to Nestor and says, "The Child of Mercury," Jetaime's siblings seemed a little more intrigued, as he moves over to Phoebus, "The Child of the Sun," There are murmurs among the crowd as he finishes with Phoebus, and begins to move over to me, "And the Child of the Moon."
The murmurs turn to shouts, and Jetaime closes the door. All of the siblings look so excited to see me, but I have no idea how to even work the scepter, which they stole from us.
"Guys!" Jetaime shouts, "Quiet down. The Children of Eris and Pluto are on guard duty. If they find them, we're dead."
The shouts quiet down, but then a door, near the sinks, barges open. A man, about twenty,  wearing a gray t-shirt and the same shorts as Nestor, but with a belt around it, walks out and yells, "What's with all of the commotion? Get to work, scrubbing those dishes."
He stares around the room, and his eyes stop upon Phoebus and Nestor. He glances down to their weapons. He steps down to them, towering even over Phoebus.
"I've never seen that kind of play toy before," He grunts, raising an eyebrow, "What's your parentage?"
All of the children of Makemake begin at their stations again. All of them, but Jetaime. He stays where he is, by Phoebus and Nestor, not moving an inch.
My heart pounds when the man towers over Phoebus. What if he catches us and they kill us? Or what if they torture me into doing horrible things, because of who I am descended from.
Jetaime replies, "They're captives, Sir Leonine of Ceres. They were found on the street with these weapons. Orion gave direct orders not to touch them or figure out their parentage yet."
His poker face is still, and so accurate it scares me.
The man, Sir Leonine, glances up to Jetaime and shouts, "I didn't ask for you to answer, boy." He stares down at Phoebus and Nestor, "This true?"
They give nods, shaking their heads, assured. I can tell Sir Leonine is almost convinced, but then he spurts out a sentence that make my jaw drop.
"Then you wouldn't mind if I called up Orion himself, would you?" Sir Leonine heads back into the room he came from, but he is stopped by a flaming ball flying past his head, and into the wall, making it erupt in more flames that crawl among the wall. The Children of Makemake struggle to it put out.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," Phoebus smirks, the staff out in front of him, and flames are bursting out of it from every direction. "Or else you would blow our cover, and we can't let that happen."
Nestor's eyes widen, and he hesitantly raises his dagger up. By the expression on his face, you could make an inference that he was thinking, What the hell Phoebus? He's twice our size!
Sir Leonine flips his body around, completely forgetting about contacting Orion, and cackles, "You must have a death wish then. Coming here, and trying to face me."
He reaches down to his belt, and pulls out a spear, that seems to be made out of the same material as Honos's sword, but this spear has a circle on it, and what looks to be a piece of grain that's carved into it. It has a small grip on its upper end, near the point, that's made of rope, wrapped around it.
Phoebus smirks, "Maybe, Maybe not. I guess we'll know in a couple of seconds." He twirls the staff in his fingers for a couple of times, like someone on colorguard, and then points it at Leonine.
The Children of Makemakes' faces go pale. Some of them turn away, afraid of what to happen. Some others keep watching, intrigued by this, but the rest continue working, and pretend that this isn't happening.
I shuffle over to a Child of Makemake, in a stealthy manner, hoping that Leonine doesn't spot me. I whisper to her, "What's a job you have that I can do?"
I whip my head around for a second to double check if Leonine isn't looking. Or anyone, so nobody would question me. I tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear, as the strand falls down from my body turning back to the Child of Makemake.
She hands me the rag she's using to wipe down the table. She shoves the spray bottle at me, and her force almost makes me topple over. She ventures over to the kitchen and pulls out another rag, without Leonine noticing, because of his sharp focus on Phoebus.
She works on another table, and leaves me to finish this one, as I glance over to Nestor and Phoebus once in a while to make sure they don't get hurt.
Phoebus lifts up his hand and flames come spireling out. He yeets the flame at Leonine, and Leonine puts his spear in front of him, making the flame disappear when it comes into contact. The spear almost shatters from the amount of pressure put on it.
While all of this is happening, Nestor creeps behind Leonine, and lifts his dagger right up Leonine's back.
Leonine cries out in pain, he turns around to face Nestor, and shoves him into the wall near the security room. The one the Child of Makemake just extinguished.
My eyes can peer out to see Leonine's back clearly. His shirt is torn, and in the tear is a deep cut, with blood gushing out and dripping on the floor. The shirt is getting redder and darker.
Nestor is making little movement. Phoebus jumps in and throws another ball of flame at Leonine, when he is staring at Nestor, prepared to finish him off.
The flame wooshes past, and nearly misses Leonine, but it's side stings Leonine's shoulder blade, leaving a swell of red, and little white circles, that look as they are about ready to pop.
The rest of the fire crashes into the wall again, and some Children of Makemake give dirty looks to Phoebus, who shrugs and mutters "Sorry.", apologetically.
Half of the Children of Makemake struggle and dash to put it out.
Leonine turns to Phoebus. He starts to curse at him for doing such a thing to his arm. While he's distracted, I drop the rag and sprint over to Nestor, I attempt to shake him awake, but he just doesn't budge.
I heave his body over to a chair. I use all of my strength just to drag him over to one. Once his body is lying there, I shake him even more.
I feel so helpless staying here, not able to help Phoebus or contribute to anything. My guy drops as I realize I'm a bystander, not possessing the ability to do anything special. I don't have the wits to outsmart Leonine or the strength to fight him.
When I turn back to Phoebus, Leonine is towering over him, and Phoebus is cornered. His back is to the wall.
My face turns into panic. "Don't touch him!" I shout, squeezing my fists together. Even though I have no chance beating Leonine, I can at least try.
"I'm not going to hurt him," Leonine sneers, reaching his finger out towards Phoebus, "but his memories and feelings will."
His finger lays on Phoebus's head, and Leonine mutters to himself, "Ah, yes I see."
He backs away from Phoebus and lifts his finger. Phoebus lifts himself up, but barely manages to stand. He holds himself by leaning onto a wall.
I glance a confused look at Phoebus and he replies with a slow grunt, "Children of Ceres have the ability to read memories and feelings for people with a simple touch, if they have their weapons. Similar to Children of Makemake."
My posture straightens. I've seen Phoebus's nightmares and what he's encountered. If Leonine has a recollection of all of the memories and feelings Phoebus has ever felt, this can't be good.
"Oh, little one," Leonine says, with a sly grin on his face, "have you ever heard that it was your fault that your mother was mad at you. It was your fault for her abusing you all along."
Leonine creeps up to Phoebus and flicks a finger in his face. Phoebus blocks his face and flinches even though Leonine didn't lay a speck on him.
"Stop!" I scream, jumping on to Leonine's arm, punching him with all my might, but he flicks me off his shoulder, towards the ground, as if I'm a little piece of sediment.
I land on my bottom, tough and in pain, but I push myself back up, for Phoebus.
All I hear is Phoebus screaming horrid things, and Leonine continuing.
I hear one thing, "You think she likes you? You're so simple and she's so special. You are ordinary. There is nothing special about you."
I knew they were referring to me. There could be no other possible way they were referring to someone else. "That's not true, Phoebus!" I shout back, loud enough he can hear me.
Phoebus can hear the echo of my voice in his ears. He shoots straight up and eyes me through his tears and sniffles and shouts.
But the next thing I know, there is a knife in Leonine's chest, and more blood is oozing out. Soon, he's on the floor, not making one movement. All heads turn to where the knife came from.
Jetaime stands tall in the direction everyone is turning to.
He stares directly into my eyes when he says the next sentence, "Nobody was going to do anything. I had to do something." He glares around the room at the other Children of Makemake.
They all stand there, awkwardly. They stare down at the floor in shame.
"We're sorry," the female who gave me the rags mutters, "We were scared we wouldn't be strong enough and suffer the same fate as... you know."
"Who?" Jetaime grows furious, and begins to snap at his siblings, "Zorren? He sacrificed his life for us. If you all want freedom, we need to start taking risks, like our brothers and sisters ten years ago! And that needs to begin with standing up for our heroes if they are unable!"
The siblings nod in agreement. They all start conversing with one another about Jetaime's speech and how he has to be right. If they wanted freedom they had to get it themselves.
Nestor eyes flutter and his body shakes itself awake. He peers out and looks on to the ground, seeing Leonine's body. He flails back, and almost out of the chair.
Nestor lays a hand on his hip. He groans, "That's gonna leave a huge bruise there." Then he flashes towards Jetaime, "How long was I out?"
"About twenty five minutes."
I ignore the conversation Nestor is starting with Jetaime and dash over to Phoebus, before anyone can question me about it.
I sit by him, and my heart sinks seeing him suffer like this. I want to take him away from here and cuddle up with him on a couch. I want to whisper that it's okay and he has nothing to fear, because I am beside him.
He's curled up in a ball, like an armadillo. His wet tears have soaked on to his pants, his golden hair is spiraled in all directions, and his shirt is all wrinkled up.
I reach out my hand and touch him. He flitches again. He's about to shout something, until he looks up to see my face. His face relaxes and he squeezes my hand so tight that I wouldn't be able to let go. I wrap my arm around him, and he sighs.
"I'm sorry," He chokes on his words, "I didn't want you to see all of that. You shouldn't have seen all of that."
"No," I pull him closer to me, even though I'm much shorter than him, "It's okay. I don't know how you may feel, but I've never grown up with a mom, so I was always teased in school. My father dated someone genderfluid for a while, but they broke up after my brother was born. I've just always wanted a mom, even if it were like yours, I would still be happy."
Phoebus nods. He knows that I've had issues with my mother, too. He knows he's not alone.
He mutters a simple, "Thank you."
We stay there for a couple of minutes.
"I don't want you to suffer," I reply to the silence, while the Children of Makemake are cleaning up the mess, "I want you to be happy. I know it's hard to talk about it, and I don't want to force it out of you, but you can't keep it repressed in there forever."
"I know." He whispers, in a faint voice.
He doesn't want to relive the experience, but shoving it to the back of his brain won't do any good. I know he's scared, and I know it's going to haunt him for the rest of his life, but I'm going to help him, no matter what it takes.
"Moonlight, this probably isn't the best time, but-" Phoebus starts, but he's cut off by Jetaime.
"Everyone! Hide the body!" Jetaime shouts, over everyone's voices. "They're going to come check on what all that ruckus was." He turns towards Phoebus and I. "You two, get your friend into the Security Room. He still looks a little pale."
Jetaime runs back and forth giving orders, while I stand up, and lift Phoebus up to his feet. We walk over to Nestor and put one of his arms around me and the other around Phoebus, so we're carrying him. Phoebus bends down to pick up his and Nestor's weapons on our way out.
So much chaos is happening in this room, I can't even tell what's going on. Kids are dashing all over the place, and Jetaime has lost everyone's attention.
We make it into the Security room, at a slow pace. We slam the door shut behind us, and we lay Nestor in the chair sitting in front of the controls. He rubs his eyes and cracks his knuckles.
The Security Room is small room, even smaller than my side of the room at home. The walls are black and there is a single wooden chair and a desk, with computers piled on top of it, showing every single room in the Hideout of the Dwarf Planets, I assume. I can tell because it shows the kitchen and the Children of Makemakes' room, and seeing what Leonine was wearing, it shows that he was probably sleeping here, and that was the reason we didn't get caught.
Phoebus places Nestor's dagger on the desk next to Nestor, and he lays his staff in the corner of the wall, next to the computer.
Nestor, barely awake, has trouble sitting up straight. He lifts his hand up, grabs the dagger, and places it on his lap.
Nestor yawns, as he begins to type into the computer, "The cameras don't show the captive's cells, or any map, so I'm going to have to hack into the data system and code my way into the building."
"Nestor, are you sure? We don't want you overworking yourself." I respond to his comments, leaning on the side of the chair (I would choose the top of the chair, but I'm too short).
Phoebus would probably want to ask him this, but I can tell he's still recovering from that moment by his facial expressions and distance from Nestor and I.
"I'm fine." Nestor grunts, opening up a tab of code. "Don't worry about me. We just need to get the three of them, get the Moon Scepter and then get the hell out of here. Plus, it's only going to take me a couple of minutes. After that the system's easy to control. All you have to do is- Dammit, Dad. Why do you make me this way?"
The sound of typing continues, as I wander over to Phoebus. He's in the corner near the door, and on the opposite side of the room from his staff. He's silent and doesn't speak when I approach him.
I go to touch his hand, and this time he doesn't flinch or hold back. He keeps ahold of it.
Tingles spiral up and down my back, as my heart beats faster and faster. My hands begin to sweat. I don't know why they begin to sweat now. It's the only time I really don't want them to sweat.
"And got it!" Nestor shouts to us. He looks back from the chair. Even though he's struggling with strength, he sees our hands and teases, "Ooh. Phoebus is making a move I see." He wiggles his brows at Phoebus.
I feel my face flush, and when I look to Phoebus again, he's glowing. Like literally glowing like the Sun. The glow is dim, but still shines out and is not afraid to show itself.
Phoebus notices, and the light grows a little brighter as his face turns a deep shade of crimson.
"Nestor..." Phoebus warns.
"Alright, alright!" Nestor chuckles, putting his hands up. Then he puts them back down again when he points to the bottom left corner of the screen.
The screen shows a woman with orange hair, chained against a pole, and a man in front of her. He has a long sword and silver armor. He seems to be asking something, but when the girl refuses to talk, the man scraps the sword against the side of her upper arm. The girl is screaming out pains and cries of agony, yet we can't hear a thing.
"Jove." Nestor gasps, staring deeper into the corner of the screen that has the video named "Prisoner #27, Live Camera".
Phoebus's head tilts up, "Is there a map on the computer anywhere?"
"Trust me, I'm looking," Nestor says, and the typing begins again. His eyes stay on the computer and don't move a single bit. He's so focused that it seems like nothing can stop his mind.
My gut drops when I think of Jove again. What will happen to her if we don't get there in time? Will they bring in Astra or Halley? Or will they continue torturing her until insanity? Is she going to be okay? She needs to be, right?
"Got it!" Nestor shouts, pulling up a tab of a blueprint. He shuffles around the room and finds a pen from behind the computer. He begins to doodle on his arm.
Phoebus and I come closer. We stare at his creation he made on his arm. It looks like a bunch of zig zags in a cluster.
When he spots our baffled faces, he says, "I know my handwriting sucks... and my drawing skills, but trust me, I know what I'm doing."
I don't like to admit it, because it feels rude, but seeing that works makes me cringe.
Nestor scrambles around tabs and closes every single one. He erases all of the history that we've ever gone through, and powers off the "secret" part of the computer with the prisoners. The regular camera spike back on once he shuts off the "advanced" computer.
I look to the video that's labeled "Kitchen" and it's not good. Jetaime is faced by a couple of guards. They have weapons pointed at Jetaime. Jetaime says something, but it isn't heard from our side. Jetaime begins to get dragged away. And shouts begin to erupt from the other side of the door.
Then, the shouts stop.