“Everyone be on your guaaaAAAA!!!” Higen blocked the ram of the titan with his tower shield, this time it took the form of a whale that could use the ground as if it was made of water, it seemed like its way of attacking was to ram and tackle us, it had a massive size and it was giving us a run for our money, “Niko did you find anything?” “No… I can't get any good info, it keeps despairing underground before I can get a proper read… watch out!” Niko pushed me out of the way of an incoming hit and was promptly sent flying against one of the coral walls. His Barriers broke upon impact, and it turned around, going for the kill. “REJECTION!” I yelled and sent it flying back to keep Niko safe. “Hey, that's my friend, you dumb Cetacian!” Carter yelled and tried to hit the Titan in the back, but when he was about to connect, a mouth opened and sprayed water at him to push him away. He crashed into me. “Hey, watch it, Carter!” “Oh, zip it Pipsquick. Have you tried to dodge?” he is the absolute worst.

  Higen and Donna kept fighting and keeping the Titan busy while Carter and I kept arguing, “Why do you have to be such a jerk all the time?” “I′m sorry, maybe if someone had better control over their powers, they could be more helpful!” “Oh, because Someone has mastery over theirs? Need I remind you, YOU were about to turn into the bull last time?!?” I pressed my finger on his chest, and he answered by grabbing me by the collar of my shirt. “OH, we are painting things out? Well, my F′ing turn!” he started to bark in my face, “Need I remind you how YOU almost fry Niko and me and the last time YOU lost control?” “HEY!” Higen rushed to our side. “You two need to stop, now!” We both pushed him away and yelled, “STAY OUT OF THIS!” as the Titan ate both of us.

  Carter and I kept fighting and arguing while inside the Titan until everything was bright once again. “You are such an idiot, Carter!” “Oh yeah? Why don't you say it to my face?” Higen and Donna came over and separated us so we would stop trying to kill each other, “Wow, Ozwald please calm down everything is okay now” “Babe cut it out please, and let me see if you are not injured” We stopped and walked away while been checked by our respective partners, the labyrinth disappear and the after-team came to pick the core up, “Ozwald you need to stop your quarrels with Marten if thing keep like this you could be in danger” I crossed my arms and pouted “he is the one that has a problem with me!” he nodded “yeah but-” I cut him before he could continue “if you are about to say you should be the bigger man I will turn you into a squirrel”

  “babe come on, you can keep this up” Donna complained to me while she was checking for injuries “I just don't like why every time is my fault” she bit her lip “Well Carter, you used to bully him and a lot of people” “that was in the past, I have done good things now” Niko squinted at me and sighed “yeah and that's kind of cool, but, a few weeks of giving up bullying does not erase months of it” “...” Donna kneel close to me and rested her head on my shoulder “you are still upset about what he did to you right?” I nodded slowly. I wanted to put things behind me, us, but remembering how Ozie almost killed me by stopping my heart still hunts me.

  after we went our separate ways, Miss Lulu sent me a message requesting me to go to Tartaros tomorrow, she has been asking to see me after missions to check how Allure is doing and how much in control I am, some times I heard its voice taunting me from the shadows, a few times it appears in the mirrors, “Ozwald I am informing you that I will enter your room now!” Higen said as he usually does, so I went and opened my door, outside I found him holding a bag of acorns “Did you go for a snack?” he shook his head and let himself in “We have to talk about what happen and if you turn me into a tiny animal that loves acorns I want to be ready” I sighed and sat on my bed “big guy I was upset now I′m calmer I won't transform you into anything, I promise” he nodded and sat next to me “good… but then that means I use a chunk of the day planing which tree would make me the king of tree vermin” I started to laugh only him would have taken to heart that.

  “Ozwald listen as the appointed leader of the team, it′s my duty to talk and flat things out with the members of the team, and as such, I need to know why can't you and Carter collaborate” he said firmly and expecting an answer from me, I scratched the back of my head I am unsure of how to answer “liste, Higen is not that I dont want to, but, Carter makes things difficult and I don't know” I know I am partially in the wrong and that I should be better than him but there's a part of me that doesn't want to do that a part of me that wants to be childish about it “look, Ozwald, Carter is a self-proclaim Dick” I looked at him with my eyes opened wide “oh my god, did you just say that?” he blushed and got all flustered “what?!? Is that a bad thing? But he says it all the time!!!”

  “gentelman, I called you here because it has come to my attention that you two are having problems” I wasnt expecting to be sitting at Lulu′s office next to Carter, he was tapping his foot on the floor impatiently like he probably does when he is at the principal office, “you five are a team, this viquering and fighting has to stop” I looked to the ground, it wasnt my fault, not entirely, Carter is the one with the problems not me, it is strange he is not fighting or annoyed, “look, Miss Lulu, I will try to be better but I dont know what his issue is” “I dont really want to be here right now if you are going to ground me or whatever do it so I can leave, please” oaky something is very wrong here, he said please and he never sais that “if you cant get to an agreement then…” she opened a box and after a flash of light I had a bracelet in my wrist, it looked like a cop handcuff but with out the chain, Carter had one too.

  “Alright, the hell is this, Mrs. Aster?” Carter asked while trying to take his cuff off, “Heavenly linchpins, I want you two to spend some time together to iron out your differences and move on.” Carter jumped from his chair and moved quickly, stopping by the desk in front of him, “NO, no, no, please, anything but that, not with him!” “Wow, is my presence that bad?” I asked expecting to have a snarky remark made by Carter didn't say anything “Mr. Marten have I not met my part of our agreement? You have two options fix your relationship with him or walk out” he looked to his left defeated and sat back down, now I'm concerned, sure I don′t like him but this is strange he is very upset about something “these linchpins will trigger if you are ever more than teen steps away from each other if that happens they will drag the two of you together, have a nice trust building exercise”

  “..." What Lulu said was true. I got distracted by someone from Tartars, and my linchpin immediately dragged me near Carter. We′ve been walking to the parking lot in silence for a while now. “So… why the sudden mutism?” I finally asked when we were at his car he sighed and twisted his key to start the engen “Look, I had something important that I had to do and now I can′t because I'm trapped with you, so less talking, and more, do whatever whe have to to take these things off” he started to drive out of the Tartaro′s HQ building the day was sunny and nice, okay maybe Higen is right and I can be the bigger person here, deep down I know it would be for the best for everyone if Carter and I get along “Carter where are we even going? Is your plan to drive towards the sunset?” he tapped his finger on the steering wheel he was about to speak when his phone connected to the spekers Big Idiot is calling you the machin said is that how he has Higen save in his phone? he took a deep breath, looked at me and said in a snarl “Not a singule word” I just lifted my hands as he pressed the answer botton “hey shortie, whats up?” it wasn’t Higen but another person, also shortie? Carter is taller than me. He somehow sounded familiar, although I can't quite… “What do you want, Tayler?” AW, is that how you talk to your big brother? He looked at me and sighed, “Half-brother, and why yes, yes I do, now out with it!”

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  Carter never talks about his brother, I do know Niko and Donna have siblings like me, but I honestly assumed Carter was an only child like Higen, I have heard that tone he uses it sounds like… like I talk to Talo when he is being a prick oh don’t be so dramatic shortie, I just wanted to see if you are going to visit our old man, that’s all Carter growled and looked at me, why is he upset? Maybe he doesn’t want me to see his dad or something, maybe it's like a father-son thing I′ll be butting in “Tayler… something came up, and I don’t think I can is something I′m bound to and-” You always chicken out like the little coward you are, is just Ja- “DON’T!” Carter hit the brakes so hard that hadn’t I been wearing the seatbelt, I would have ended up in the windshield. Jail, what's up with you? Is not like you have been close to juvie anyway, just go see if he hasn’t kicked it and-

  Carter hit the button again to cut the call his right hand was encased immediately in the red metal of his shackled gauntlet, we were on the side of the road for a moment I didn’t know what to say, his brother sounded like Talo, he always gave me a hard time and maybe Tayler is just like that, now I fell terrible I don’t how to address this situation, I was butting into something Carter wanted to keep a secret “out with it Ozie” he said “just speak your mind is not like I can just kick you out of my car” “Your brother is a dick, does he have a weird relationship with his muscles?” his gauntlet disappeared as Carter started to laugh “he does! Jejeje, I hate him is like his sole mission in life was-” I knew exactly what he was thinking and pointed at him as we said in unison “To ruin my life and make it as hard as he can!” we squealed a little I can't believe we have this in common; we talked about our brothers and resumed the trip, we compared notes and talked about what have they done to us and how we get even turns out we pulled the same prank on our respective brothers once “hey Carter, I can keep this a secret you know the Jail part of the conversation, it sounded personal” he nodded slowly and stopped at a red light “it is, I have only told Donna about it, but are you cool with keeping it a secret from Hig?”

  As the light turned from green to red, I nodded as the wind blew my hair in his convertible. “Actually… I keep a few secrets from him,” he made a surprised face, “Oh really? Like what?” I guess it′s only fair to tell him one of my secrets, I like Higen, he is really good and kind, but I know he can be easily hurt by my words, like last time “Sometimes… I wish I weren’t a sorcerer." “Ah, come on, that can't be,” I pressed my legs against my chest and continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I like some things about it… but some days I miss my family too much or I keep thinking I′m not good enough or powerful enough, and maybe Higen would be better with someone better…” even with all that has happened, and all the boost in morale and confidence I still have looming insecurities that threaten to swallow me whole “you are not that bad” he said in an honest tone “thanks, okay let's go” “Where?” he asked “Jail, not seeing your dad is not good, I′ll just be around, I′ll cover my ears” he nodded and turned the exit singe now indicated Riverview Correctional Facility

  The building came into view a towering thing, projection a big shadow over the concrete, I have never been in a place like this not here or in the underworld it’s a bit intimidating, Carter drove to the entrance where he showed a piece of paper to the guard, he eyed us for a second and then nodded, he pushed a button and a yellow bar blocking the way moved, “Alright, look, we had a moment and this is cool of you but some ground rules ′k?” Carter said when he parked the car, I just nodded “First, don’t look at anyone in the wrong way unless you want to get barked at, second if a guard says something to you be cool” I nodded and closed the door of the car, he showed me the way there was something weird in the air, I felt watched and not exactly by the guards, it felt like someone was glearing at me with malice and hatreth, it′s probably noting, just me being nervous a woman in a beis colored uniform walked us to the area we needed to be, rows of deskes separated by a wall of bullet proof glass there was a few people talking throw phones, we sat on the metallic chair, Carter picked the phone form the wall and waited, a ruged man eventually sat on the other side of the glass, he had carter′s gray eyes and his hair was impresivbly well kept, tattoos filled his big arms, he smailed and picked the other phone “hey sport, how′s it going?” he said in a raspy voice, Carter squineted at his father.

  “It′s going fine… whats up with the smile?” he asked but the man smiled harder “Nothing you know how I am” Carter nodded “Yeah, a prick with a long face, you don’t usually smile like the Joker” he disregarded his words and looked at me, suddenly it done on me a lot of the people in this places were looking at me “Carter, something is wrong!” I squinted and hung onto his shirt. “Nonsense, why would thou say that?” “You are right, Ozie…” Carter said and put the phone down “My dad… he doesn’t know what thou means” “Carter the wall!” a rose started to bloom in the wall near us that’s when it hit me, I took my phone out of my pocket and I was able to use the Tartars′s app, the electricity, and the uneasiness, Carter did the same and reach the same conclusion “we are not in Riverview Correctional Facility we are in a Titan′s labyrinth!” “Ozi RUN!”

  The people around us started to chase us down the corridor everyone had that unsettling smile, we managed to spot vines and roses on their bodies, a guard grabbed me by my leg and started to pull me away Carter turned around and with a guttural roar, kicked the Guard in his face “Hands off buddy!” he helped me to my feet and continue to run, “How can this happen? We didn’t step through anything, right?” Carter asked “No, we didn’t, there was no light or anything and this is not like the siren this place is a labyrinth but it has the shape of the Facility!” we kicked open a set of double doors that let us to the courtyard of the place were we found out just how screwed we were, instead of the typical places where you would exercise the place looked like a garden form a royal family, flowers bushes were kept by the inmates and guards as a man in heavy armor sipped on tea in a stone table at the center of everything behind him a rose as big as a playground slide dreaping petals covered in red fresh blood at its center a glowing green eye was looking at us the man put his cup down and walked toward us.

  “Mine companion words were true, you wicked creature have come to this place… fitting that a place for evil-doers will be your grave!” he stabbed the ground with a claymore, the action was so effortless for him and yet I felt the shockwave through the ground, his blade was almost as big as he was, at the end of the handle a golden cross bearing the crest of Elysia dangled “alright, who the heck are you and what have you done to everyone here!?!” Carter asked the man laughed, a deep laughter, filled with pride, in a fashion I have only seen done by Higen, he hit his breastplate and smiled showing all of his teeth and in a loud and clear voice said “I am Commander Eugin, Eugin the Holy Cross, and I have taken over this place to fulfill my duty!” in a flash he was already near me about to swing his claymore “to behead to unholy incubus that has charmed my proudful knight, let this riot ends your fate!”