They remain unaware of their fate

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"Miss Fauna! We've left your ordered supplies in your room."
"You will find them on your bed."

The maids bowed then excused themselves from the group studio.

"They're such sweet girls~!" Fauna held her cheek.

"No joke, they've got a 5 star rating from me." The rat kicked up her feet on the table with a bowl of...cherry tomatoes in her hands.

"They're competent. It's a nice change to see in humans for once."

"You're just happy someone's finally feeding into your ego other than you." IRyS stood behind a seated time warden and spun the clock hands on her head with her fingers.

"Or maybe I've finally found some people who aren't shy in their appreciation of me." Kronii swatted her hands away.

"Can I come out of the bathroom now...?" Mumei's muffled voice was heard through the bathroom door in the far corner of the room.

"No, you're still on time out." The warden huffed.

"Come on! You know I was joking, I love and appreciate my bestieeeeee!" The doorknob rattled.

"Anyway...." Bae slid her glance away from the bathroom door. "I'm kinda surprised how easily Yagoo approved our request. I thought he'd ask bigger questions or even see through our plan but apparently it seemed like already planned on having us move here."

"Even if he didn't question us much, it still feels wrong to hide our true intentions from him..." Fauna looked bitter as she gently stroked a small sapling in her palms.

"The less involved the better. We don't need him worrying about this nor anyone else that falls in. It was 'her' request and we have to make it happen." Kronii crossed her arms. Now suddenly more serious and duty bound.

"'She' didn't specify how we're supposed to go about this with him, and something tells me he's not as easy to get as we think." Bae scratched her head.

"Why? Because he managed to poke a knife in you? Don't be stupid, he's still a mere human."

"He's a human that's managed to gain the trust and respect of Myth. It's something to take into consideration." Fauna glared at Kronii.

"I'm not sure if we should even consider him in the sense of a threat, we can find out more once we talk to him." IRyS added.

"We shouldn't stray from the initial plan." Kronii stood up. "When the others return from their break, Cyrus will be ours and once we confirm the contents that we seek, we'll see what we do with him."

She walked over to the bathroom door and unlocked it swiftly, only to be tackled by an owl girl who latched herself onto Kornii in a hug.

"But he's a nice guy thooooo! Can't we take a less violent approach?" Mumei pressed her cheek against Kronii's shoulder.

"Not to say violence would make a difference with him." Bae smirked at the thought. "Human or not, he's capable and head strong. Even if we throw down, he won't hold it against us."

"I agree with Mumei and would like to not encourage a huge confrontation. Especially not the type that might make things difficult between us and the girls."

"We will do what we have to to bring judgement. And that's all you need to think about, any objections to that?" Kronii brushed Mumei off, gently, mind you.

The lack of response gave the warden the answers she needed before quietly leaving the room.

Despite her demeanor now, the other council members never once took a sour impression of Kronii's attitude when it came to official business. They don't want to admit it but someone has to actually do the job they're meant to and unlike Bae who is actually the head of the council, Kronii takes greater initiative in keeping their dignity as the council of concepts high. After all, to remain perfect you must keep your roots perfect as well, and that includes her position.

As the Warden struts her way down to the main hall, she's surprised to be met with the sound of the door bell. Curious, she found herself nearing the main door and just an inch away from the knob.

"Ah, no no! For security reasons, we'll be the ones to open the door miss Kronii." Runa hasted towards her.

"Oh, alright but I don't really mind..."

"Cyrus, open up!"

A pitched, annoyed voice yelled from the other side of the door. This tone made Kronii raise her hand and stop Runa from coming any closer.

"I know you're already there, M told me it's pretty much your job to answer the door!"

...

"Cyrus!!" The bell rang again. "It's Claire, just come on already!"

"Interesting..."

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"The guards were right!"
"It really is her! She's returned!"

"Why and how is she back...?! What does this mean for the royal family?"
"Her presence can only mean one thing!"

These were the words that fell into the girls that walked with the proud general down the large street. They were traversing through a market place and it was there did Myth finally notice their looming suspicions.

The people around them...they had electronics.

Some were holding out mobile devices to take pictures of the girls, others were simply making transactions in the markets. Even the spears used by the guards were made up of metallic materials and managing to shoot lasers?

"We've stumbled upon Sci-fi land if I've ever seen one." Calli whispered to the girls.

"It's amazing isn't it? When I was last here, we only had landline and that was a few thousand years before landline was invented by humans!" Gura jumped.

"Do they have Twitter here?"
"Please no."

Amelia looked around at the fascinated eyes staring at them as they make way through the streets and chuckled.

"How do you resemble these people at all? Most of them look like they were inspired from the Zelda games."

"Okay, first of all, chill. Second, atlanteans are a diverse population and the family I belonged to came from the sea itself."

"The royal family is the reason these beings of different origins can come together and exist in peace, their presence is what gave these lands it's legacy and we will forever cherish it." Dru said as he triumphly marched on.

...

"By the way! Dru!" Gura yelled. "There's something we need to do first."

"What is it?"

"Well, thanks to your artillery show, you sank our boat and that ended up stranding one of our friends here. I was hoping if you could send out a search party to look for him."

The general suddenly stopped in his tracks then turned around to look at the girls with a wide eyed expression.

"Him?"

"Uh...yeah? Black hair, gray eyes. He was wearing a brown coat too."

"For once." Amelia mumbled with a scrunch of her lips.

Dru was now sure of his worried realization. "Come with me, quickly!" He ran off.

The confused members of Myth looked at each other and assumed that they had already found Cyrus. They chased after him.

Nudging and dodging through a sudden crowd that formed ahead of them, the girls finally caught up to Dru and noticed that they had walked through a large arc shaped gate.

"What's going on here?" Kiara asked.

"We didn't know you were on that ship. When we brought it down, we captured a human male and took him as a prisoner."

"Prisoner...? Why would...Oh no." Gura let out a shakey gasp before picking up her speed and brushing through the crowd.

"Why oh no?! What's happening?!" Calli demanded an answer.

The group finally happened upon what looked like a glass dome. It was surrounded by a railing which had people leaning against it to look into it.

Seeing the General and Gura approaching, the people backed off to let them all stand watch as they look inside the dome.

"Prisoners have two options in the grand jail, either rot away in their cells or fight each other for a chance to be freed. A bizarre tradition but Atlantis has long turned this prison into a battle arena."

"And Cyrus is in there with other criminals?!"

"I'll try and stop it, stay here and try looking for him." Dru ran off while the girls glued themselves to the dome.

"There's alot of them down there!" Ina yelled.

"Yeah but only one's winning." An old man caught the girls' attention as he stood next to them. "I've been here for hours and I've only seen one guy stepping out alive in these fights."

"Who's..."
"Wait, alive?!"

"There's no rule against taking your opponent's life in the arena."

"What kind of place is this?!" Amelia clenched her head and yelled loudly.

Their panic was suddenly interrupted when the sound of glass shattering silenced the entire crowd. An atlantean was thrown out of the dome, unconscious upon landing.

Looking back inside, the livers bore witness to a relieving yet also horrified sight of Cyrus. He was standing slumped over in the center of the area, bleeding from his head and his shoulder, which was visible due to the fact that his sleeve was ripped off. But that's not what got the girls in a panic.

What terrified them was the spear lodged in his lower abdomen.

"CYRUS!"

He didn't try looking up. He had other matters to attend to, which were the remaining prisoners who were approaching him for another round. A total of six were snarling at him, and he delivered their request.

Two jumped at him from both sides. Cyrus elbowed one in the face then jumped back to avoid the second one. After a quiet scream, he ripped the spear from his body which made the others cringe. Using his how acquired weapon, he slammed the spear head onto the ground and broke it off. Wielding it as a staff, he swung and knocked out one attacker then charged at the other, holding the spear horizontally which was brought up to the criminals neck then forced him up against the wall.

Holding him in a choke hold, Cyrus was prepared to jolt his push to knock the man out.

"AGH-! Mother fucker..!!" But he was struck on the back by a rock.

Another soon followed that aimed for his head which faltered the hold he had on his attacker against the wall. He managed to squirm out of Cyrus's hold and jumped him. The others came rushing in as well.

"Okay! Fuck whatever rules there are!"

"Calli! Wait!"

The reaper jumped through the shattered hole in the dome and landed violently in the area, strong enough to stagger the men around Cyrus. She swung her weapon at them which was only meant to pry them off the man.

She reached down and grabbed Cyrus to lift him up to his feet, but he suddenly used Calli's support to vault over her then land a downwards kick onto a criminal sneaking up on her.

Landing on his feet, Cyrus pressed his back against the Reaper who held her scythe close to her, ready to not be taken by surprise again.

"I'm getting you out of here."

"Don't...kill them.." His voice was barely reaching anymore.

"Are you out of your mind?! They're all ready to kill YOU!"

"Just don't..."

Calli groaned at his unexplainable logic then struck first. She twisted her scythe before attacking so that the blade was not in use. Knocking and breaking away stones that were thrown towards her, she blasted towards two men who were throwing them, sweeping them off their feet then delivering individuals blows to their heads and causing them to slam against the cylindrical walls of the area.

Cyrus was wasting no time to finish off on his side by throwing his coat over his target then tangling it around his head to immobilize him, soon sending a barrage of one sided punches to his face. Finally, he pulled off the coat and used the tug of his to throw the man to the ground with driving force.

He then raised his hand up then caught Calli's scythe that she threw towards him. Swinging it like a bat he hit another man in the face then jumped in a back flip, the reaper dashing right underneath him to drive her fist into yet another unfortunate attacker.

All these criminals were pouring out of tunnels like ants to try and somehow beat these unstoppable forces. They were all blown away like the flame of a candle, Calli and Cyrus becoming a display of unspoken communication that dominated the ring with ease. Astonishing performance, considering that one of them was supposed to be wounded to the brink of death.

"What...am I looking at?" Kiara muttered with a hanging jaw.

"How is he keeping up with her...? How is he moving at all?!" Amelia gripped the railing in utter excitement and anxiety.

"When it comes to natural born fighters, they have this unspoken talent of adapting to their partner despite never even meeting each other before. And well...it seems that human is a stubborn soul." The old man remained unmoved and looked on.

The girls were now somewhat enjoying the display before them and even started cheering on the fight. Amelia on the other hand discovered that there were bets placed on the fighters and took her chances in the sidelines.

But much to her sadness, the gates to the tunnels suddenly closed. There were no more hostile atlanteans around for them to worry about and Calli didn't want to take any chances. She grabbed Cyrus from the back end of his collar then jumped out of the dome.

Gura wasted not even a breath and fell to assess the damage done to Cyrus who could barely remain on his feet. The utter panic in her voice and frantic pressing of the blood gushing wounds was an apparent sight to everyone around.

Especially the populace.

"Who are those people?!"
"What are they thinking!? They let a human escape the Grand Jail, are they outsiders too?"
"Someone call the guards already!!"

"That is enough."

A loud but significantly pitched voice boomed. It was familiar to the people who immediately backed away and knelt in silence.

"Thank you for alerting me, general. Please make sure any run aways are detained."

"Understood." Dru bowed and quickly commanded the guards.

While Ina and Gura stayed before Cyrus to try and heal his wounds as best as they could, they couldn't take their eyes off their approaching savior who took Gura for a bigger surprise than the rest.

A tall man fitted with a flurry of white and gold, a deep cut on his bottom lip and most importantly, a large shark tail and white hair that swayed with his movements.

"I'm sorry for the crude welcome and the... unfortunate circumstances of your friend here, the guards will take him to medical bay at the castle right away."

"I think we got him, he should.."

"No, let them take him." Ina interrupted Kiara. "The spear wound and the bash to the head are too deep, I can't heal them like this."

Even though the man nodded in acknowledgement to the girl's words, his eyes did not shake away from Gura who was equally locked on him.

"Who...are you?"

The man stepped closer to the short girl, their identical eyes meeting each other more properly.

"I'm the current ruler of Atlantis. My name is Gawr Kael....Your partial younger brother."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaat."

Amelia yelled in a very shrill monotone while Kiara gestured a mind explosion with her hands.

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"Hey!...Hey, stop!" Gura yelled as she ran after the king through the castle gates. "You can't just say something like that and walk away! What do you mean you're my brother?! I don't have a brother! I was an only child!"

"Ease up, he said he'll explain." Calli pulled the girl's arm once the group stopped at what they assumed was the throne room.

Kael took his seat and sighed as he looked upon the people around him. He then waved his hand to get the guards and servants to leave the room.

"You are correct, you were an only child." He took off his white furred robe. "But then you left, and your parents discovered the dire need of an Heir to the throne."

"What are you talking about...? What about mom and dad!? Where even are they?!"

Kael didn't say anything for a moment. He seemed unsure if he even wanted to tell her but thought it would be unfair to keep it in the dark but there was something painful that was holding him back.

He swiped his hand on the arm rest of the chair then tapped away at the screen that appeared.

A clam shaped lense hovered down from the ceiling to the center of the room where it began projecting a video of sorts.

"Much time, after you left, mother and father were content with ruling the city as is but..."

Gura and the others had already taken notice to a few issues. The image before the girls were more so a slide show that displayed this very throne room where in the two seats before them sat the king and queen.

But they were pale, their eye sockets sinking in and their ligaments showing from the skin of their hands.

"An unknown sickness had engulfed them. It was nothing ever heard of nor even written in history for them to find a cure. It wasn't contagious either, it was as if the disease only existed for them."

The image shifted to people banging at the gates of the castle, stones being thrown at guards who tried pushing them back and the like.

"Their condition was no secret to the people and because of their lack of response to the public, the atlanteans assumed that the royal family became so weak to even be considered rulers. But in all their time of isolation, mother and father were trying to find a solution..."

The projection suddenly turned off, on the other side seeing Kael standing up from his seat.

"...they made me."

"So...if- where are..."

"This incident was a few years ago, they passed away."

The confirmation that she didn't want to hear, Gura's tail dropped to the floor in a light thud. She was once again feeling the shattered resolve she did when back at home but now, she worried there was nothing that was going to fix her.

From behind her, Kiara slid her hands around the girl's shoulders and pulled her into an embrace, in both means of condolence and an attempt to keep her calm.

"Wait a minute, you said they "made" you..." Calli pointed at the man.

He smirked sadly. "Indeed. Given their declining condition, they were in no position to have a child and they had already made plans for an heir."

"Then how?" Ina asked.

Amelia began looking around them. The sliver maned castle, the use of holograms and display screens in every corner that they would look at. The people.

"They...genetically engineered one." Her realization caught everyone's ears.

"Which is why said I was her 'partial' brother." He placed his hand on his chest. "I carry her blood but I was not meant to exist naturally. But it was my creation that would be the saving grace of these lands, and so I took it upon myself to do for what I was created for. And so I must ask...."

His expression dulled to the point it would send a chill down anyone's spine. His hand went limp and fell from his chest as he looked down at the group.

"Why are you back?"

...

At the corner of Gura's eyes, there were small puddles, ready to break away and fall.

Some Time Later...

The relentless stinging. You'd be a fool to try and nap through such a pain, even someone like Cyrus is no exception.

A moan of dissatisfaction, he would open his eyes to see a sharp object mere inches away from his face.

He grabbed the wrist twisted it and knocked the blade out of the user's hand before bringing it closer to his supposed assailants throat.

"Wait wait wait! Stop!"

Amelia's familiar voice caught the man's attention as she saw her and other atlanteans who were dressed in... hospital gowns and surgical masks.

The man looked at his