Chapter 9: Secrets Secrets, are no fun

POV: Lynoe

So, I had just told Zac that I wasn't buying his goofy idiot routine, which seemed to have an effect. Through the whole process, he had that endearing smile on his face, but as he got more annoyed with my probing, the tone in his voice had long since formed a creepy dissonance. When I finally asked my question, he dropped all pretenses, and that smile melted away. The only thing that was left was that glare, oozing with ill intent. Accompanying that stare, that dark energy of his started to radiate off his body. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he wanted to kill me right now.

"Put it away, Zac. Even if I let you kill me, you couldn't." Zac seemed to calm down as he looked at himself and immediately retracted the dark energies that seeped out of him. He just started to laugh in defeat as he rubbed his face in frustration.

"You got me, and here I thought I was doing rather well. I almost fooled myself a few times." He said. I let out a sigh, as it seemed for the first time since I met him, he was going to be himself. He then quickly asked,

"So, what gave me away?"

"The night you came back from your 'date.' Your personality seemed to switch a little too quickly for me," I told him; he just nodded his head. I'm sure he tried to space his "transformation" out a bit more. Still, he didn't think he had enough time, with the subsequent encounter with the Galdents approaching rapidly. Now that they seemed to be taking their time, I'm sure he regrets his little play.

"So Zac, what exactly did you do for a living on Earth?" Knowing what his job was would give me insight into how he got to this point.

"I worked in Research and Development." He responded shamelessly.

"Cut the shit!" There was no way I was going to believe that at this point.

"What?! It's true! I worked in RnD!… for a company that was used as a front for a group of assassins.*clears throat*" He rapidly said that last bit in a very hushed tone. I rolled my eyes at him while shaking my head.

"So you're an assassin? Exactly how many people have you killed?"

"WAS an assassin, briefly. And less than you probably are thinking and more than I'd care to admit." He answered honestly for a change. I rolled my eyes, as it seemed he wasn't going to be sharing much more unless I was blunt about what I wanted to hear,

"Spill it. How briefly. Explain everything."

He lowered his head as he glared at me,

"Is that important?"

"The fact that you seem so intent on hiding it makes it important, yes," I responded with a severe tone. I didn't understand why Zac wanted to keep something like this to himself. The more information we had on him, the easier it would be to prepare him for what came next. What could he possibly be thinking?

"I'll just hit the key points. Back on Earth, I was kidnapped by a group of assassins, and another group led by my friend saved me. He informed me that there was something special about me and that they would keep coming for me." He laid out his story in a very concise fashion. He was trained by his friend to defend himself and joined them as a trainee for a time. After his training was complete, they were going to implant nanomachines in him. It seemed those Assassin's from his planet relied on Primitive technology to push themselves past their limits.

"But the machines didn't take. Thus I was sidelined until they figured out why. Eventually, I just became a glorified extra." He shrugged his shoulders as he pretended not to care. Quinn had made his deep-seated sense of inferiority clear to us. I was starting to see where that was coming from. I closed my eyes as I thought things over for a while,

"Why didn't these Nano-Machines take effect?"

"They weren't sure; they just vanished whenever they began to initiate. I only started to understand after Omega… Quinn gave me a general rundown on BENTs." He responded without diving further. I just gave him a look, and he rolled his eyes, letting out an annoyed sigh,

"Those Assassins from Earth, those Nanomachines didn't push them past their limits. Piecing things together, it seems more like they drew in the minuscule Soul Source that was on my home planet, and…." I put up my hand to stop him as I got the general idea behind everything. Those Primitive machines drew on Soul Source to stimulate these Assassin's bodies, awakening whatever BENTs they may have possessed. In Zac's case, that Darkness would stir and devour those little machines as soon as they began their work.

As long as Zac remained on Earth, those Machines would never be able to bring out his full potential. Especially with the low amount and low quality of Soul Source from his former Universe. After coming here, he must have been ecstatic somewhere in his heart. He was too big for that minor planet, and in return, that speck of dirt made him feel insignificant. Coming here should be liberating, but that in itself could cause a problem. He could get drunk on his power and become something that could cause more harm than good.

We might be forced to put him down if things escalated too far. The fact that he was trying so hard to keep this from us was already sending red flags. I looked at him and asked,

"Why not just share this with us?"

"I don't trust you." He said without hesitation in his voice. I could do nothing but give him a bitter smile. Honestly, I didn't blame him. I wouldn't trust any of us either. It was only now that we realized that he was not a naive child. This wasn't going to do. We could not move forward with things like this.

"You do understand that the moment you took those masks, we were bound to you? You have complete control over us."

"Bullshit!" He snapped at me. I didn't know what a bull was, but the shit was easy enough to understand, and from his tone, it seemed he didn't believe me.

"I've been paying attention, too, Lynoe." He stared daggers into me. This was the first time I saw this look coming from him; I didn't know he could make this look. It was an emotionless disgust that bore into my pride. He looked over towards the corner of the room, not wanting to make eye contact with me.

"You Quqe are bound to us to 'protect' us. The Castle picks your original partners are, and it needs something from those chosen. So, do you work for me or the Castle itself?" I opened my mouth to speak, but I could not find the words to refute him.

"The way you and the others act towards me isn't how a subordinate acts towards their superior, and it certainly isn't how partners act. You hardly pay attention to anything I say unless it already aligns with what you already want. Taking that in mind, it's clear the moment I become useless or stray too far from whatever path you feel this Castle has for me, you'll do one of two things. Abandon me, or try to kill me."

Lost for words, I said nothing for a while. I couldn't wholly deny his conclusions. Not moments ago, I thought of dealing with him if he got out of control. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It seemed that there was no point in hiding anything.

"Well, aren't you perceptive?" I said sarcastically

"Imagine…" He mocked, looking back at me.

"You're partially correct. We are bound to help, by the will of the Castle. So anything that goes against the safety of the Castle overrides our need to protect our partners. However, killing you or abandoning you is not as simple as you think. Our souls link us, and severing that is… detrimental to us." I now understood why he was keeping this all a secret. Learning from us under the guise of being a useless sack, he could stall and accumulate all the knowledge he wanted.

If the day came where we approached a crossroads, he wouldn't need to fear being abandoned or us coming for him. I wondered how long he had these thoughts, but there was no point in asking, and I doubt I would get a solid answer from him.

"I've only trusted three people in my life, and you 3 aren't them. You should understand why." He placidly spoke. He had a point, but it didn't stop him from annoying the shit out of me. I clenched my fists, trying to hold back my anger,

"We don't trust you either, you little shit. How do you think it feels to be shackled to someone I don't know with only vague instructions on what to do? You're not even my true partner; they have long since died." Once he heard those words, his face finally changed from that cold stare. It softened up a bit as he sucked his teeth and turned away, unable to bring himself to look at me. If this was half an hour ago, I might have thought that was real emotion, but now I couldn't be entirely sure.

"I get it. You have baggage from your experiences back from Earth, but this is not Earth. So leave it at the door! You don't trust us, that's fine. No one's asking you to. But you need to feed us at least enough information to teach you properly." The way Zac was now, I wasn't so naive to think that declarations of friendships would immediately sway him. However, he would understand the need for a working relationship. We could build trust quietly, but that would be impossible if he refused to share even a little bit.

"You’re right." He said simply. His hands moved towards the back of his head as he leaned back further into his seat. "I almost forgot, one of my desires is to help you guys free yourselves from those shackles. I don't trust you, but I don't like the idea of people being sold off." He let out a sigh; I couldn't get a read on his thoughts.

"Thought you said you're not a Hero?"

"I'm not, but I'm not a complete asshole, either." He responded with a smirk on his face. I relaxed my clenched fist and rested my left arm on the couch, relaxing my posher.

"If that's one of your goals, then it is a great one. We can get behind that, and it will benefit not only us but the Castle. It won't be easy; it may be impossible." Before I could finish my thought, he interrupted me,

"From my understanding, in this place with enough knowledge, nothing is impossible, and the improbable becomes a mild inconvenience." He smiled. This time it wasn't that goofy carefree smile that regularly radiated off his face. It was one filled with confidence and a bit of arrogance. He stood up from where he was sitting and started to walk towards the stairs and spoke,

"I won't promise anything, but I will be more cooperative. We can build trust over time." That was the best I could ask for at this moment. If he had just suddenly decided to trust us, I would have been apprehensive, and his trusting us entirely from the beginning would have also been disappointing. It was all somewhat confusing.

"You're not going to tell me not to tell Quinn and Winne?" I asked curiously. It honestly wouldn't change much if I didn't tell them. To my surprise, he began to chuckle,

"How would that be helping to build trust if I asked that? Besides, call me paranoid, but…." He looked over his shoulder, and those dark purple eyes of his began to glow. His pupils turned into slits like that of a Gteju (Tey-Jue),

"I'd have to be an idiot to believe they weren't here the whole time." I felt my heart stop for a moment. His eyes scanned not only me but the area around me. He stopped and shrugged his shoulders as he started to walk up the stairs to take his rest. After he left, I let out a breath and waved my hand. The space around the room began to wiggle. The illusion I cast over the area vanished, revealing what was underneath. Everything was the same as before; only now, Tuwinnie and Quinn were in the room.

Just as Zac had guessed the both of them were here from the start. Quinn was even sitting next to him within arms reach. Winnie was leaning against a wall in the corner of the room. She looked slightly agitated as her eyes were staring in the direction that Zac had left. Quinn, on the other hand, just sat there with a serene look plastered across her face. If I didn't know better, I'd say I saw a hint of pride.

"Looks like you were right, Lynoe. He was hiding something. It seems I've severely misjudged him." Winnie responded. Quinn continued to sit there quietly.

"I'm sure he has other secrets. I just don't understand what he gains by hiding his past experiences, even if he doesn't trust us. Even if we turned on him, did he think he could improve fast enough to deal with us?" Tuwinnie continued to contemplate Zac's train of thought. She was never the best at reading people or understanding them, and she was more robotic than that artificial soul that Zac had with him at all times when it came to organic emotions.

"It doesn't matter if he could take us; it would give him the peace of mind of having a fighting chance." I tried to explain it to her. At that moment, Quinn looked at me and interjected,

"You're wrong. Zac wasn't looking for a fighting chance. He was looking to assure victory if the moment arose. You heard the story he told, right? Those Assassins had access to BENTs. Meaning, at the very least, they had physically superior bodies." My eyes widened as something crossed my mind. Those Assassins wouldn't stop going after him because the other party got their hands on him. They'd try harder.

Zac learned to defend himself but never got those enhancements, and he admitted to killing more than he'd like to admit. From the way he described their abilities, they weren't precisely weaklings.

"You're saying Zac was capable of killing individuals with at least Adept levels of AOS ability, geared towards combat. He did all this with just a basic body, with no Soul Source to speak of." Quinn said nothing and just smiled. I sunk further into my seat as Tuwinnie jerked her back off the wall. I had listened to everything he said, but that never crossed my mind because it was ridiculous to think about.

"Now imagine someone like that accessing Soul Source and learning they have Multiple BENTs of high quality." Quinn continued as I could hear Tuwinnie's breathing becoming faster. She and I both were starting to understand just how dangerous Zac could be if not handled correctly. She hadn't even mentioned that strange Darkness of his.

"We need to change how we handle him. He's not the lost child in the woods we thought he was. He is a caged beast that's been let loose into those woods." I nodded my head in agreement. However,

"You want us to put him on a leash? I don't think that will make things better." I said my piece.

"I- I agree with Lynoe on this one." Tutu hesitantly added on. I know to agree with me must have torn her right up. Quinn still had that same unconcerned look on her face that she always wore,

"You don't need to leash or re-cage him. On the contrary, as nature intends, we need to let him roam free and claim his territory. However, we need to help fix his mental state. Not trusting others isn't a flaw, but trusting no one ever, will be counterproductive. He won't be able to do anything alone, even with us helping him."

That was something I could get behind. Going lone wolf, even if he used the 3 of us, four if you included Devin, we could get far, but we'd eventually fall short. We'd have to add couch time into his daily curriculum. That shouldn't be too hard, as it seemed we'd need to spend less time on Melee combat and weapons training. That would just be dusting the rust off and making improvements, rather than starting from scratch like we initially thought.

"Hmm… just a pity that I called in that favor for nothing. It seems there was no point and stalling the Galdents' investigation. Even without teaching him, he would have been fine, at least at the start." Quinn said with the look of satisfaction spreading across her face. The one enjoying this the most was her.

She was the first of our kind and the most mysterious. The fact that Zac was her partner never seemed to sit well with her, seeing how average he appeared to be. However, now it appeared that he was just as mysterious as she was. I'm sure she was just so pleased with herself right now.

"We'll have to make some adjustments to the schedule, but it shouldn't be too difficult." She said as she got up from the couch and began to walk towards the door.

"How long before the Galdents get here?" Tuwinnie asked

"That would depend on that Aonani girl, but I'd say 1 Ruler Week at the earliest", Quinn responded without looking in her direction. I frowned a bit as I thought about Aonani and how Zac was so quick to help her. After today I refused to believe that he simply did that because he found her attractive. My gut told me Zac saw something or picked up on something that made him drawn to her. The fact that he was so quick to offer his help, after everything I just saw today, something wasn't quite right with this setup. He wanted to use her for something I was sure of. I turned my attention to Quinn,

"I know you must have looked into her. So what did you find out?" I asked. Quinn stopped in front of the door, not saying anything for a while. She touched the door, and it came to life, sliding upward. As she walked out of the door, she said,

"I found out that Zac has quite the eye for talent." With that, the door closed behind her. What the hell was that supposed to mean?!

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