Meanwhile, in Britain, Thomas Holland was driving home late at night in a sleek black car. He came to a red light at a four way intersection, when suddenly a man in a British military officer uniform walked up beside his car, opened the passenger door and sat down in his car without saying a word. As this man closes the car door behind him, he looks over at Thomas, whom had a gun already pointed at him. "Who are you and why are you in my car?" Thomas says coldly.
"My my" the man says, "I'm here to see an agent capable of passing some very dire, under the table, confidential intel to the director of the MI-6".
"No commanding officer would be so careless as to just enter my vehicle without paying respects first" Thomas says as he starts the drive slowly. "Who are you really?".
"Me?" The man asks. "You may call me Agent Ares. And I have possible intel on The Six Guns".
"You certainly don't look Chinese" Thomas says, "and I don't recall making another pact with a rival agency. Who sent you?".
"It's not about who sent me" Ares says. "It's about what you're going to do".
"... Go on" Thomas says with the gun still aimed at Ares.
"The Six Guns, as I've heard from this possible lead" Ares says, "are about to do something big. Word has it that they've been laying low in Omnia, and something big is about to happen. They're the epicenter of it all".
"And why should I believe you?" Thomas asks. "Where'd you get this intel from?".
"You don't have to believe me" Ares says. "But, after it happens, if you should so choose it to be, I'll be around".
"Be around where?" Thomas asks. Suddenly, Ares opens the door of the car that is still moving and steps out of the car without losing balance or rolling. Thomas keeps driving, batting his head back and forth between the road ahead of him and Ares as he fades away in the distance. "What the hell was that!?".
Later that day, Loki and the other gods gathered The Six Guns. They left the castle and traveled a little into the forests to avoid being overheard. "Zeus and the others are on the move" Loki says. "I hope you're all well prepared for a fight, because they'll make themselves known any moment now".
"I'm coming too" Shelby says as she approaches the crew from outside the forests.
"Oh no" Rose protests. "You hurt Doc, so I don't trust you! You're sitting this one out!".
"If there's actually a person as dangerous as you're harshly whispering about here" Shelby argues, "then we can't afford to take any chances. I don't know what's going on, but I want in".
"No, we can't take any chances!" Rose argues. "That's why we're not bringing you along!".
"You have no idea what kind of-" Shelby begins to say.
"Enough!" Siran yells. "We won't get anywhere like this. Shelby, I agree that we can't take any chances. That's why if worse comes to worst, I want you and your crew here in Pilloa to keep these civilians safe. Let us handle what's going on here for now, and trust that we'll be back. Can you handle that?".
Shelby sighs, then says "Fair enough. I'll be here at Castelul din Pilloa then".
After Shelby finally walks away, Siran then asks "So, where do we find them?".
"That's another big problem" Athena says. "I can't seem to locate them anywhere. They've hidden their tracks. It was already so hard to find them, but now I can't sense a single trace of them even being here".
"Okay, so the god GPS is broken... now what?" Siran asks.
"Chances are" Loki says, "they'll make themselves known".
"They know about you and Zia" Meili says. "They also know we're here. They'll likely wanna have us taken out before trying to finish their plan, just in case we'd manage to ruin the last step for them. If they're going to be as meticulous as you Greek gods are known to be, then they'll still have to get rid of us before trying to finish their craft project".
"And that is?" Haru asks.
"Essentially turning this whole world into a lifeless one that's full of energy fit to house gods with immense power" Yngvi says. "That, or try to bring the different universes together into one again and make it a plain only habitable by immortal creatures, once again leaving it void of life".
"Again?" Holly asks.
"Universes?" Ying asks.
"We... didn't tell them about that?" Athena asks.
"Look" Loki says. "There are copies of this universe, yadda yadda yadda, if we don't stop them, imagine allowing this whole planet to die, but like... thousands of times all at once. The layout of the universes isn't as important as it's approaching doom, people! Focus!".
"Alright" Holly says. "Let's pretend we're on the same page here for a moment. How do they plan on colliding multiple existences together at once, and how are we going to stop them?".
"I don't know!" Loki says as he visibly gets more stressed.
"If I had to guess" Meili says, "there is something that set each universe apart to begin with. Right?".
"Chronos..." Athena says. "That's it! They're collecting the shards of Chronos and bringing it all to one place!".
"And you've lost me again..." Holly says.
"That's right!" Loki says. "Chronos is the reason the other universes were created! But if you remove the shards, there's no longer a universe to be had. The shards are parts of his scattered body, and without Chronos, means no time. No time, no existence".
"Isn't time like... a concept?" Haru asks.
"Yes" Loki says. "Wait... no. I don't know! But what I do know is that without Chronos, time does not move".
"Yeah, I've gotta say, you've lost me too" Siran says.
Loki facepalms and takes a deep breath. "Okay" he says. "Let's move onto how to defeat him. We need everyone to keep him busy until he's weakened. As soon as he is, we'll call upon Odin to restrain him and have him taken back to Valhalla".
"So, kick his ass until he's sore... then magic portal thing?" Holly asks.
Loki looks blankly into the distance as he grows more stressed and disdained by his company. "... yes" he finally says. "Magic portal thing...".
"I understand it's a hard concept to grasp so suddenly" Meili says.
"I'm still not believing the whole reincarnation hoax" Siran says.
"... Anyways" Meili continues. "It is of utmost importance that we do not let this fail. Can we count on your aide?".
"Sure" Siran says. "You can count us in. Then, after that, you will leave us alone?".
"Pfft" Loki scoffs, "I don't remember doing anything bad".
"You killed a guy by throwing him through a theist gate" Zia says.
"And pestered my son" Siran adds.
"Oops" Loki says with a shrug.
"Oops!?" Siran says as he rolls up his sleeve to prepare to punch Loki.
Suddenly, Loki's face turns into that of a woman with shapeshift magic. The same woman they met several years ago in the Philippines. "You wouldn't hurt a girl, would you?" Loki says with a short laugh.
"I don't think you count!" Siran shouts as he tries to swing, only to be held back by Athena and Zia.
"Relax, please!" Thor says. "Take this time to make sure your families are safe and sound. When the time is right, they'll make themselves known".
"And what if they find us first?" Holly asks.
"Then we'll need to leave them behind and go somewhere that doesn't put them in harms way" Athena says. "Look, I know it's hard to have to leave your kids behind for any amount of time, but it's best if we don't get anyone involved that we shouldn't".
"For once, we agree" Siran says. "I would never forgive myself if I let anything happen to Silas".
"Then leave them here for now, and decide quickly on a place to stay at temporarily".
"Seeira" Vivi says bluntly. "We have a place to stay in there, at the very least. While it may be in harms way for us, the kids won't be a part of it".
"Not bad" Siran says. "Then I guess we're going back to... Seeira?".
"Again..." Finn says. "I know it sounds weird, because I do miss home, but... I dunno, maybe going back and forth between these places while we're being hunted puts me at a certain uneasiness".
"As it should" Haru says. "It comes with the risk of letting the enemy know all of our locations".
"Got anywhere else in mind?" Alex asks.
The crew stood around in silence until Siran says "I guess we don't really have anywhere else to go. With the rest of the world demanding our heads, we've been kinda backed up against the wall...".
"Then Seeira it is" Zia says.
Suddenly, a faint noise barely caught the ear of Athena. Athena looks around as the crew discusses the plan. Eventually, she heard a faint noise again from behind a tree. She takes her shield off of her back and holds it in her hand tightly as she pulls her arm back and prepares to throw it. When she finally throws the shield, a sudden blast of wind came from the shield purely from the force that Athena had thrown the shield. The shield sliced right through the tree and made a loud and metallic thunk noise, followed by the sound of something limp hitting the ground. The crew fell silent as they looked over at Athena in shock as the tree fell over with a loud wooden shrieking noise, before it made a loud an echoing snap and finally hit the ground. When the team went to investigate, they saw a soldier wrapped from head to toe in a familiar black uniform, pinned against the tree with Athena's shield still stuck in their chest. The soldier also had a metal harness with tubes filled with Endo, now pouring out black smoke from the tubes that were shattered by the shield. Their body hung limp and lifeless against the tree, and the crew heard more faint noises from off in the distance. The sounds of other soldiers retreating.
"How long have they been here?" Satomi asks.
"Long enough" Athena says. "They now know our plans".
"Were these Ly'Lum?" Finn asks.
"Not even close..." Haru says as she takes off the mask. The man behind the mask was in no way a familiar face, nor the face of anyone from America or Omnia. "These are just like the mystery soldiers that attacked us in Japan".
"Yeah, but the ones from Japan actually looked like they were from Japan" Alex says. "Who are these guys?".
"They look British" Vivi says. "But definitely not soldiers". Vivi searches around for pockets or anything that might identify the body, but there were none. "No ID, no personal belongings... it's like this man never actually existed".
"Which only relates more to the soldiers we saw in Japan" Holly says. "I thought they were hunters at first, but now I don't think that's possible either".
"Wait, there was that officer with those soldiers in Japan, remember?" Siran asks. "The guy who seemed... off".
"Yeah" Haru says. "The man I believed to be connected to that Endo-Stream that opened during that time in Japan. He went by the guise of Daiksuke Yamamoto, a commanding officer that I'm pretty sure never existed".
"If he was one of the gods under Zeus's command..." Siran says, then these strange soldiers must be their way of finding us".
"We already hypothesized that Yamamoto was giving them endo, due to their lack of physical and emotional response" Holly says. "If we were right, then it all makes sense".
"And this Yamamoto character you're speaking of" Loki says, "to tie it altogether, must have been one of Ares's many guises".
"Gods can give endo?" Ying asks.
"No, not usually" Athena says. "Ares is the god of war. His domain for magic is along the lines of elemental magic and mind control".
"Mind what now!?" Rose panics.
"It's a minor domain" Athena clarifies. "And it's hard to pull off. It only works on weak subjects, and usually works by overpowering their will and their capacity of endo with his own. However, similar to illusion magic, can be broken with some strong will and capable sense".
"Unless the illusion is greater than the subject's mind" Finn adds.
"Exactly" Athena says. "Even for a weak human, to control their mind, they'd have to believe it was already a thought or an idea, goal or whatever that they already had wanted. Meaning his power is restricted to basically making people think more on an idea they already like, such as a violent drive, and making it more... passionate".
"So, if Ares's soldiers know" Siran asks, "then how long until Ares knows about our plan".
"He already does" Loki says. "When his drones scout out something, he's able to detect it with his endo that's pumping through their body. With that, he's already aware within these past minutes of what our plan was. We need to get a safe distance away from your friends and families, and we need to do it fast".
"We still need time to see them!" Zia protests. "We can't leave without telling them about what's going on".
"Oh yeah, tell the kids you're going on an adventure with a Greek goddess and a lovely band of Pagan gods... they'll love to hear about that" Loki says.
"At least let us say goodbye..." Rose says with a pouty face.
"Fine" Loki agrees. "We leave at sundown. But you better be ready by then. Don't take more risks that aren't needed".
Athena slaps Loki over the top of his head and says "Let the humans have their time with their children, sheesh!".
Before sundown, the crew had told the staff at the castle, as well as the kids and Shelby about them going to Seeira alone for the time being. "Shelby, if we really can rely on your help, then we're counting on you right now" Siran says. "For the love of all that is considered holy, please make sure the kids are safe. Can you do that?".
"If it'll make you believe that I'm not just some baggage and can help" Shelby says, "sure. I'm great with kids".
"Your hair color is weird..." Dana says as she points at Shelby.
"Shut it, brat..." Shelby says.
"Oh, I am soooo gonna slap a hoe tonight!" Rose says as Vivi tries to hold her back.
"Down, girl" Vivi says unenthusiastically. "We don't have the time. As much as I'd honestly like to see it...".
"Alright, I'm sorry" Shelby says. "Maybe I'm not as good with children, but I'll let the rest of these guys you got here handle their play time. I'll be on watch duty then...".
"That would be best!" Rose says with a stiff posture.
The crew finally leaves the castle and meets up with Loki and the others. "Finally finished your goodbyes?" Loki asks.
"I guess so..." Zia says as they all start to climb into trucks and prepare to leave.
"Then off we go to Seeira" Blake says.
"Again..." Demetri says.
"Don't complain" Blake says. "You know you miss the place".
"True, but what about our kids?" Vivi asks.
"... Well" Blake begins to say as he tries to find his words. "You don't hear Robin complaining!".
"I don't talk..." Robin says. "I don't have much to say".
"You're gonna be a real hit with the ladies someday..." Vivi says sarcastically.