D E L P H I N I U M

"Are you sure everything was gone?" Hunt asked Jaxon, Finn and Arlo as we all sat around a table at the compound.

"Yes. There was nothing inside but empty tables."

"And apparently explosives," Kane remarked in a dry tone, leaning back in his chair.

"They were going to lure you there and kill you," Hunt spoke almost more to himself than to us.

"But," Finn said, holding up a finger, "The most worrying part was that there were no cannons, none of those Scorpions. They'd already shipped them off to the fortress."

"So now they do have Scorpions," I said, my heart sinking, "The one thing that could make them even stronger." My mind went back to the discussion Jake and I had with Benny yesterday in which he'd said that once they had enough firepower, Imperium was going to begin taking over the surrounding areas. I met Jake's dark gaze from across the room. We both knew what this meant. If Benny's prediction for Imperium's rise was correct, then it was going to be coming very soon.

There was a moment of silence. "At least we still have Benny locked up, right?" Finn asked weakly, trying to bring our spirits up. It didn't work.

"As well as Gigi," Riley added, crossing her arms and looking around with slitted eyes.

If it was possible, that put an even bigger damper on the mood. I thought about her sitting in a cell for all these days. "What is she like?"

Hunt gave a half-shrug, looking pained. "The usual. She's still violent, unstable and needless to say, dangerous. I'm simply glad that we got her back to her cell."

"What's going to happen to her?" Finn's voice was soft.

"We still don't know. The council doesn't know what to do with her, especially given the circumstances surrounding her growing madness."

"But that power she displayed that day..." Jaxon shook his head, at a loss for words. "No wonder she didn't tell us about it."

"Did you know about it?" Riley snapped around to face Hunt. "Did you know she could do that? I mean, she was killing Delphinium from the inside out." Her eyes lingered on me for a second too long. I still wasn't sure of her thoughts on me after what Benny and Gigi had revealed.

"We knew some of it, not to the full extent."

I sat up straighter. "You told me that something happened when she was younger, something bad enough to make you aware she could do these things."

"I did say that."

Leaning forward so that my knife-wielding hand was resting on the table, I asked, "What was it?" What could Gigi have possibly done to put herself on a government watchlist as a child?

All eyes went to Hunt, who sat back in his chair. He seemed to be grasping the words to explain what had happened. "As a child, Gigi was...well, you know how she used to be. She was quiet, timid. A target for the other children in school, especially with the rumors that she was some sort of witch. We know that she was bullied badly for it."

I could foresee where this was going and was dreading the words coming out of Hunt's mouth. "When she was eleven, there was one day where she finally tried to fight back against her harassers. A boy was later brought out of the school in a body bag with a crushed windpipe and internal bleeding. Gigi had inadvertently killed him." Bowing my head, I thought about how my first kill had been at age fourteen. Gigi had been three years younger.

"Gigi was arrested and tried for second degree manslaughter. During the trial, she tried to explain how she had a strange power that allowed her to manipulate human organs. Of course, the jury thought that she was insane and Gigi was promptly sent off to an asylum for the mentally sick and deranged at the age of eleven. The entire situation was very secretive. She was there for six years—with no human contact and constantly sedated—until I found out about her and began the process of removing her from the facility."

No one said a word. When she'd still been so timid and scared, I had suspected that something had happened to Gigi to make her that way. However, I'd never thought that it would be something so dark and dehumanizing. I pictured a young girl, terrified of her own power and unable to control it, accidentally murdering someone. Perhaps she and I were alike after all. Or at least, we had been.

The irony lied in the fact that although she had been mentally stable when she entered the asylum, now that she'd left it, she was almost fully insane. I thought back to the day she and I had fought. The loss of her mother combined with my alleged betrayal had completely driven her mad.

"Good god," Arlo drew out when the silence had become uncomfortable. "Now we're all screwed up."

Sweeping my gaze over my remaining teammates, I realized Arlo was right. Tragedy had touched each of our lives in different ways. Maybe it was because of the unique power we all held. Maybe it was something else entirely. But whatever it was had brought us together in the beginning. We were falling apart now. No one had said or done anything about it, but the tension was palpable in the room whenever we were all together. Whether it was because of Kane's realization about Benny, my part in Gigi's mother's murder, Jake's constant ruthless takedowns or simply because we couldn't trust each other anymore, Imperium was succeeding in ripping us apart through the truths we'd kept secret.

Hunt's phone rang and he excused himself to answer it out in the hallway. The room was quiet even in his absence; the realization of what had happened to Gigi was still sinking in. I felt bad for what had happened to her. I did. But she was going to do everything in her now power-mad state to kill me and I wasn't going to let her.

I could hear vague echoes of Hunt's conversation outside the door but I couldn't make out what he was saying. However, I could hear the strained note in his voice as he gave rapid orders over the phone.

It was clear that something wasn't right when he came back into the room, shoving his phone into his suit pocket. As the director sat back in his seat, he gave the news he'd just found out. "Almost all the soldiers I sent to sabotage Imperium's incoming supplies have been killed."

"How many?" Jaxon asked, his tone low.

"Three hundred and fifty soldiers were sent. Less than fifty remain now."

"What are they doing there now? Can they still make it out alive?" Kane's eyes narrowed on Hunt.

"They're miles away from the fortress and trying to get out now, but Imperium's forces will most likely be too great. They went knowing that it was very likely they'd never come back, but...we have to face the possibility that they'll all be gone by tomorrow."

I stood. "I'll go. I can help them." The words were out of my mouth before I could realize the gravity of the situation. But even after it had set in, I found that I still meant what I said.

Hunt shook his head. "They're severely outnumbered and on foreign soil. It's likely that none of them will survive. You might not either if you join their fight this late."

"I have to try." When I saw that the director still wasn't budging, I added, "They're going to slaughter all of your soldiers without a problem, especially if they now have those Scorpions. I can stop them, or at least hold them off long enough for them to get out of danger."

"Delphinium-" My sudden need to save those soldiers was strong. I wasn't quite so scared anymore; I was full of rage. I needed to make Imperium hurt. I needed to make them sorry they ever brought me there in the first place.

"I know them. I know how they work and how they'll kill each and every soldier to weaken us even more. If someone doesn't step in, they'll be even closer to rising. I can do it."

He surveyed me with those wise eyes for a moment before answering softly. "I know you can. But you need to be careful. I haven't gotten any information back about who exactly is attacking them or where their leaders are."

"It doesn't matter. I'll kill whoever I have to in order to make sure your men are safe." Besides, I knew Orion and the Tribunal—along with the other higher-ups—wouldn't bother themselves with this sort of trivial problem. To them, the ONNT was just another pesky line of red tape they'd have to cross in order to achieve their goal. They'd send out their soldiers to do their dirty work. I knew that firsthand.

"I know that you can do it alone, but I think it would be best if you all went," Hunt said slowly, taking his eyes off of me to glance at the others. "You're far more powerful together."

"I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never been on a real battlefield before," Arlo said, hanging his head in shame—I couldn't tell if it was jokingly or real. "But I'm willing to go and experience it for the first time."

"Yeah," Riley drew out like she was still unsure but felt the necessity to agree. "We should all go."

"If we're all going, then we need to leave now," I said, making my way to the door. "Every second we waste here, Imperium is slaughtering more people."

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

We all sat in Hunt's private plane, headed straight to Romania. I couldn't sit still; I was ready for battle. For once, I was welcoming it with open arms. Staring out the window, I watched the scenery pass by. We seemed to be miles higher than the earth. If only our problems could be as small as they seemed when looking down from such great heights.

"Scared, Tesla?" Jake's tone was mocking. He was trying to get a rise out of me.

I turned to him at my side. "No. Are you?"

With a scoff, he said, "What do you think?"

"I think..." I trailed off for a moment and then spoke with even more fervor, "I think that I'm going to make those Imperium operatives wish they'd never been born."

"That's very confident of you."

I watched him from the side, holding my head high. "You doubt that I can do it?"

He stared back. "You tend to be cautious and paranoid. But now you're...different." That wasn't an answer to my question, but I let it slide. His suspicion was clear. It was true, I had been changing recently. And I think I liked myself better this way.

"I'm tired of fearing what Imperium can do. I'm tired of waiting for them to make a larger move." I didn't mention that no matter how angry I now was, I was still terrified of them. Shaking my head, I told him, "For the longest time, I hated what they did to me. I hate that they made me into this inhuman killer. But I can use what they taught me to end their reign of terror." I didn't even mind telling him my thoughts. The idea that I was finally going to make a dent in Imperium, that I was going to do something good for once, was making me bolder.

"They made the mistake of making you one of them, therefore giving you the very instructions on how to destroy them."

"Taking that into account, along with how my power is growing..." I said, staring down at my hands in wonder, "I think that I finally have what it takes to begin their destruction."

"Just be sure to not let that head of yours swell too large."

I scoffed. "Oh, like yours?"

"I'm perfectly humble." His tone was pure ice. I couldn't tell whether he was making a joke or not.

"On a good day, you're only slightly more arrogant than Jaxon." At the mention of his name, Jaxon's dark blond head snapped up. I gave him an innocent smile.

"Maybe my so-called 'arrogance' comes from my prowess in both combat and strategy."

"You're awfully sure of yourself."

"Need I remind you of my skill on the battlefield, Tesla?"

"Maybe you do," I said, giving him a sly grin. "I'm usually taking out so many enemies that I don't have time to see what you're wasting your time doing."

"I'd tell you how many times I've saved your sorry ass in combat, but I've lost count by now."

A small smile found it's way into my face in spite of his jab. Nothing could bring me down now. I was on my way to slay Imperium's men, the people that took everything from me. I wanted them to hurt. I wanted them to bleed. Once, they had been my doom. Now I would be theirs.