D E L P H I N I U M

Hunt had the eight of us driven to the ONNT building in downtown New York. The council had gathered and was going to make a decision about the situation with Imperium. The director had wanted us there to give the council a recollection of what we'd seen and heard there.

I felt nervous on the car ride there, though I wasn't quite sure of the specific reason. The discovery of Imperium had clearly put me on edge. I hadn't been able to sleep properly ever since we'd gotten back to the United States.

I felt as if at any given moment, they could be watching in the shadows and waiting to attack. Benny was out there. He'd come close to killing us on several occasions. It could be any day now where he attacked and succeeded in ending us once and for all.

The car door was opened for me and we were escorted into the familiar building. Led by a group of Hunt's men, we made our way into a massive room where at least twenty people sat around the table. I saw Hunt present, but he was the only one there I could immediately recognize.

"Please sit down," a woman sporting a sleek blonde bob and a pantsuit said to us, gesturing to a line of empty seats by the wall. We obeyed wordlessly.

"As you already know, we have assembled here to discuss your findings in Romania last week," the same woman addressed us all as she sat back down. "We'd like to hear your testimonies: everything you saw, encountered and did."

"Finn," Hunt called, wanting the blonde boy to speak first. Finn and Hunt had always gotten along better than the rest of us.

Finn got up and stepped forward, looking slightly nervous but nevertheless determined. "Start from the beginning, Mr. Peterson," the woman said.

"Yes, ma'am." He stood with his head high and back straight, like a soldier. "We were in a dense forest. Delphinium led us to an overlook, where we were able to view a massive fortress in the distance. It seemed as if it was built into the mountain underneath it. We were all shocked because Delphinium told us that she had destroyed the place in the past."

"What signs of life did you see?"

"There were a few armored trucks driving up to the mountain," Finn told her matter-of-factly. "We were too far away for even Arlo to get a good look at the top of the fortress to see any people inside. But then, as we were going back through the forest to return home, we were attacked by a group of their warriors. We won the fight, but I fear that there are lots more just like them coming."

"You were attacked?" A man asked, raising his light, almost nonexistent, eyebrows. "Did you recognize any of the people that assaulted you?"

"Only one. It was the same man in the mask that came after us in the airport with a gun. The one that Kane later saw conversing with a member of the Crepuscule Club."

"That will be all. Thank you, Mr. Peterson," the woman stated cooly. "Ms. Tesla, please tell us what you saw."

I stood slowly, feeling the weight of everyones' gazes on me. Walking over to face the council, I couldn't help but remember the last time I'd been in front of them, forced to speak. They'd been wondering what to do with me right after I'd escaped Imperium's clutches, an assassin that had internationally racked up numbers of kills in the triple digits. Except then, I'd been in chains.

"I saw everything that Finn spoke about: the rebuilt fortress, the armored trucks, and of course, the assassins who attacked us in the forest."

"And having originally worked for Imperium, did you recognize any of the people that attacked you?"

I wouldn't tell them about Benny; they already thought I was enough of a monster. "No."

The woman straightened the papers laying in front of her and then fixed her eyes back up on me. "Ms. Tesla, what reason should we have to believe you?" It wasn't rude, just a simple question. But it struck deep in my heart.

"You don't believe me?" I asked, staring her down from where I stood.

"I didn't say that," she said. "I'm simply being cautious."

"You think that I'm lying." It came out as a statement rather than a question.

"It wouldn't be the first time," the woman said, holding a level gaze on my face. Suddenly, she stood up from her chair and began walking around the table. "Ms. Tesla, there's no doubt you've been through too much for a young eighteen-year old. Or for anyone, really. And for that, I am sorry."

I watched her through narrowed eyes as she went around the opposite side of the table. "But with trauma comes side effects. Paranoia. Anxiety. Violent outbursts. People that experience such emotionally and physically traumatizing events are never the same person that they were."

"What are you saying?" I asked, my voice completely even. I didn't want to hear any more of what she was saying.

"I'm saying that you've picked up a tendency to protect yourself because of what you went through. Because of that, you've become paranoid, waiting for Imperium to attack you at any point."

"Are you saying that I, and the rest of the crew, are simply imagining that we were attacked by Imperium's soldiers?" The statement came out more sharply than I'd intended.

"No, I believe that you were attacked. But Imperium cannot be back."

"That's exactly what I thought until I saw the rebuilt fortress with my own eyes."

Another woman spoke. "Damien's men searched and investigated the area for months after your trial with the ONNT was over. Yes, there was a fortress exactly where you said there was. But it was destroyed; it had collapsed in on itself. During the investigation, they found hundreds of the dead bodies of people who had worked there. Delphinium, they're dead."

"I don't know how," I said, beginning to feel frantic, "But they're back. I know I killed them all, or at least I thought I did."

"Our investigations showed that you did," the woman told me, nodding. She was just humoring me now, wanting me to feel like I'd been right about at least one thing.

"Your investigations don't explain how the place was rebuilt and occupied by people."

"Yes, they do," the woman said slowly, "After we concluded our search of the fortress, the Romanian government rightfully took it over. They're planning to use it as a military stronghold; that's what it was built by Imperium for in the first place, before you brought them down."

I shook my head, wanting for her to stop talking. They didn't believe me. "Even if that was true, we were still attacked by their soldiers in the woods."

The first woman waved her finger in the air. "Not their soldiers, Delphinium. There are many groups that you've mixed with, many of which didn't end well. Namely, Adiago Hundsen and the Crepuscule Club."

"The Crepuscule Club is working for Imperium," I told her desperately. "They're giving Hundsen weapons and men and in exchange, he does their dirty work."

"The FBI is currently searching for Adiago Hundsen. They will undoubtedly find him and he will then undergo intensive questioning before eventually being locked up for life for his crimes. On that note, Mr. Evans, come forward."

I numbly walked back to my seat. They didn't believe me. Jake passed by me as he went to stand before the council. We made eye contact for a split second before I sat down and broke it.

"Jake Evans," the blonde woman said in a harsher tone than she'd used when speaking with me, "I've heard much about you."

"I'm sure you have."

She clasped her hands together, still standing behind her chair. "Mr. Hunt tells me that you were adamant on tracking down Adiago Hundsen. He also told me that you came back empty-handed."

"Yes," Jake snarled, using his signature colder-than-ice tone. "That's what happens when you enlist mere children to do your work because you don't want to get your hands dirty."

"Don't pretend you're an innocent child, Evans, we know all about you." The woman's tone held a note of warning. "Your hands are plenty dirty as it is."

"And I don't mind dirtying them further." He took a threatening step forward. Several of the council members suddenly looked uneasy.

He continued on, sneering, "Isn't that what you were hoping for when you assembled this godforsaken crew?"

"It's better than rotting away in a jail cell," the woman countered sharply.

"Not if it comes with being forced to attend meetings with people like you."

With her dark eyes narrowing at the raven-haired boy, the woman began the questioning. "Evans, how long have you been affiliated with the Crepuscule Club?"

"I thought you knew all about me," he threw her words back at her flippantly.

"Just answer the question."

"Five years."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Is that the truth?"

Jake's icy gaze bored into her. "It's the most truth you'll get." I narrowed my eyes at him; I couldn't tell if he was actually telling the truth.

"How did you become affiliated with the Crepuscule Club and Adiago Hundsen?"

"Not all of us are made to have a job prestigious enough that you have free healthcare and can afford a gold watch," he gestured to a man closest to him, who was sporting a shiny watch. "When you aren't given things, you learn to take them for yourself."

The watch-wearing man blinked slowly, taken aback. "That doesn't really answer the question."

"What do you want to hear?" Jake gave them all a smile, but it looked more like he was bearing his teeth. "Do you want me to tell you that Adiago Hundsen conned me into joining his gang? Do you think that I was an innocent, naive child that didn't know what he was getting into?"

Jake shook his head slowly side to side. "No. I knew exactly what I was doing. I willingly fought my way through and built it into my own empire when the others saw that I was not to be trifled with. You think that I needed saving from them? They needed saving from me."

The room was quiet for a few seconds as everyone processed what Jake had spat out. Sitting next to me, Arlo was the only one in the room who still looked carefree and unbothered.

"Well...do you have any idea as to where Adiago Hundsen is now?" a man with an impressive handlebar mustache asked, breaking the silence.

Jake scoffed. "No. Do you think he would still be alive if I knew where he was?"

"Your orders were to bring him in, not kill him," the man said, shaking his head.

"I don't work for you," Jake spat coldly. "I work for myself. If you try to stand in my way, I will do to you what I've done to countless other enemies."

The mustached man looked like he wanted to retort back, but the blonde woman stopped him and told Jake firmly, "That's all, Evans."

Jake went back to his seat without another word. The council then began to question all the others, but their recollections didn't deviate from the stories Finn and I had given.

When the questioning was through, Hunt turned to look at us. "If you don't mind, we're going to have to ask you to leave the room for a few moments. The council must decide how to act next."

The eight of us then filed out of the room, led by Hunt's secretary. He had us stand in the hallway outside he conference room before going back inside.

As I leaned against the wall, I wasn't sure which was worse, not knowing what they would decide for us, or my realization that they didn't believe me in the least.