The Custodes

Chapter 19 - Zuro Arc Part 3

Hadi and Charon sat beside each other in a small hidden section of the brush, their eyes focused on the trail in front of them. The co-ordinates Dolion had given them led to the middle of a forest-like environment, albeit one without a single tree. Instead of trees, on this planet huge formations of land arose from the ground, like great jagged uneven dirt spikes. Different plants and fungi grew on it, and on the ground around it, providing foliage and bushes in amongst the large towers of land. In this particular area, a path had been cut straight through the entire jungle for anyone who was travelling through on foot. Since they were waiting by the path, it seemed evident that the party they were planning on ambushing were on foot rather than operating a Foalk. The city was likely still getting over the methods the trio used to escape it, so it was a good thing this area was relatively far away from it. After Dolion's message, the group had driven their Foalk to the very edge of the underground wall. The way the city worked was that there were sensors all over the underground, and as soon as anyone tried to get through via Foalk or other methods, the alarms were instantly triggered and teams of authorities were dispatched to deal with it. The plan of escape was relatively simple. Across the city, many resistance members would trigger those alarms at positions extremely far away from one another. While the authorities were dealing with it, the trio would break through their own part of the wall and blitz it away from the city as fast as they could. The teams would be spread too thin to deal with them at that point, and they would make an easy escape and head towards their next location. Now, Leona was on her way to the resistance base with everything they took from the Sage's library in their Foalk, while the twins sat in waiting for the royal family member to arrive. There was a strange sort of awkward tension between the twins, one Charon inevitably broke "What do you plan on doing when we get back to the resistance?" Hadi looked up at his brother, and for just a second he saw a glimpse of the man he'd grown up with - the loyal brother he'd always love and trust. But then the dying woman's face took form in his mind, and in an instant there before him stood the man that murdered a carriage-full of innocent people mere hours before. He would never again see him the way he did before, nor would he ever agree to do something in the name of the rebellion or his father again. "Leave." He answered simply, secretly attempting to keep the conversation with his brother to a minimum. "Where will you go?" Charon asked, though he didn't sound even remotely intrigued. Hadi didn't know why, but in all honesty he didn't care. "Wherever. It doesn't matter, as long as I never have to do anything for the rebellion again." He said, his clawed hand scraping tightly against the ground beneath him. "I'm sorry you feel that way Hadi." Charon replied, though yet again there was no meaning behind his words "I just need to make sure your head is in the right place for what we're about to do." Hadi stayed quiet for a second, then shook his head "This is the last thing I'll ever do for you Charon. And that's the only reason I'm even doing it - for you. I'll help you get your powers, then you can take my place as the figurehead of the rebellion and I never have to be a part of it again." "You could transfer me your powers you know. Then we'd never even have to do this - no more killing. We could just go home." Charon said, sounding oddly convincing in the matter. Hadi had thought about it himself however, and while the idea of not having to kill anyone else sounded good, he knew it was likely he'd need to protect himself if Dolion sent someone after him once he left. He knew all the rebellions secrets after all, it would be a sort of insurance so that he'd never go and tell the royal family anything that would jeopardise them. Also, he still believed the royal family was corrupt and evil. He had no qualms with killing one of them, he just no longer had the motivation to try and take them down after what happened to those innocent people in the Foalk. "No, Charon. I'm sorry but I don't plan on throwing my life away just yet, and giving you these powers would be doing just that. I merely want to...escape. That's all." Hadi explained to him, not facing him and merely hearing his words hang in the air. "Alright." His brother said eventually, sighing as he brought the conversation to a close "That's fine."