Cassius stormed out of the room without thinking. Almost immediately, he was stopped by four armed guards. They withdrew their guns without saying a word and aimed them either directly at his head or his chest. He rolled his eyes, inwardly groaning by the inconvenience. Was it too hard for them to let him storm off in anger without being interrupted? It didn't exactly have the same oomph when he was being threatened.
"It's alright. Stand down."
His jaw clenched. Of course Mica had to get involved. He simply couldn't get enough of being the "hero".
Mica stood directly behind Cassius. He raised his right hand to once again make it clear that he was giving the guards an order. They didn't hesitate, but their faces clearly showed that they were confused why a Mekiah like Cassius was being given so much leniency. If Mica hadn't told him his agenda, he would be confused as well. He had been before he'd been let in on the deep secret.
The guards straightened up, tucking their guns away. They moved to the side, back into their previous station, and it was as if nothing had happened at all.
An unsettling feeling shivered down his spine. He hated how the government had these people wrapped around their fingers. Cassius had no choice in the matter—and he supposed neither did these people—but they had voices. They could rally together to change everything, but they were just taking it like they loved it.
Maybe they did. He wasn't surprised anymore by how fucked up people were. A lot of them got off on seeing others suffering.
Before he could continue his pissed off exit, Mica grabbed him by bicep and steered him in the direction of Mica's room.
"Have you lost your goddamn mind?" Mica hissed once they were down the hall. "There are some certain things I can't save you from. Like a fucking bullet to the head."
Cassius scoffed in disgust. He didn't even try to wiggle his way out of Mica's firm grip. "They'd be doing me a favor."
"This isn't funny. I've worked my ass off for years. I'm not going to let you ruin it because your ego is bruised."
Cassius laughed. "It's your fault for trusting me."
Mica sidestepped into a blindspot in the hall. He yanked Cassius toward him and Cassius went stumbling into his chest from the force.
Mica forced Cassius to look him in the eyes.
"I don't make mistakes," he said in a cold tone.
Mica's arrogant personality was impressive. He really deluded himself into thinking he was the savior of the Mekiah. It would be fucking hilarious if it wasn't so hypocritical.
Cassius wanted to straight out laugh in his face. However, the laugh never came. He was caught like a deer in headlights when he looked back into Mica's eyes. For a suspended moment, they merely stared back at one another, silently waiting for the other to falter. It was clear to Cassius that Mica wasn't going to back down.
"What happened, Cassius?" The stoney look in Mica's eyes lessened just a bit. Not enough to make Cassius comfortable being around him, but just enough for the tension in his shoulders to go away.
The way he said Cassius's name was strange. It didn't sound right. Cassius hated to admit that he somewhat liked it. Like somehow Mica was submitting by just muttering his name. Almost like a soft prayer.
Cassius still didn't break. He wouldn't let himself. It would be humiliating. He kept his gaze even with Mica's even when it grew too uncomfortable.
"I saw the Mekiah," he said. He bit the inside of his cheek. "But you already knew that if you were paying attention."
"I know that. What I don't know is why you threw a fit when you didn't capture them." He said it so matter of fact, like it didn't mean anything, that it finally pushed Cassius over the point of being irritated to pissed off.
He tried to swallow the feeling down as much as he could. He gritted his teeth, glaring at Mica.
"Am I supposed to be happy about getting my ass handed to me? Not only do I have to go back there and try again, but I have to come back here and face you guys."
He shoved Mica's hand off his arm that he'd completely forgotten about. Mica pulled his arm back and let it hang at his side.
"I won't give you a hard time about that," Mica said.
Cassius snorted. "Thanks but I don't need you to treat me different than any other dirty Mekiah."
He crossed his arms and turned to the side. In the end, he couldn't stomach looking at Mica. He'd rather not see the look on his face when he said what he was about to say.
He hesitated, unsure if he wanted to say it at all. But he guessed that it would be better this way than trying to hide it. Mica would find out eventually.
"It's not just that. I can't feel anything again. It's all numb."
How many times was he going to lose his magic? Was he so weak that anything could come along and turn him into a useless husk?
For the longest time, Mica didn't say anything. Neither of them moved. Cassius could hear talking in the next hall, faint enough that he couldn't make out the words even though he wasn't trying to listen. Along side the talking, he could hear his heartbeat. It was faster than usual, thumping in his chest and just a level away from ringing in his ears.
"What about the Projector?"
Even though there was no teasing in Mica's voice, it still irked Cassius. He scrunched his nose, lips twisting into a nasty grimace. He felt like he was being targeted. He already felt like shit. He didn't need Mica making him feel like this was something that could be fixed if he just tried.
"I kinda need magic in the first place for that dumb piece of junk to work." He tilted his head out of the small space in the hallway they were in. He thought about storming off, but admittedly, his chances were better off staying with Mica.
"Cassius."
His breath hitched. He stopped still. His arms were crossed over his chest and he'd been glaring at the wall, thinking about all the things he could have done differently inside the Veil. It was too late for that though. No matter what he came up with now, his chance had passed. And now he had to deal with being powerless all over again. This time, it didn't seem like there was a way out for him.
He fidgeted uncomfortably as he felt Mica's gaze on the back of his head. He swore he could feel the gaze down the side of his neck. Suddenly, he felt over exposed. His face flushed when Mica stepped toward him. His uniform became too hot. As Mica stood behind him, he pulled his collar up in a sort of mock sense of modesty.
"I'm sorry. I should have thought before I spoke."
Cassius kept glaring at the wall, but he couldn't stop thinking about how close Mica was. It didn't help at all that Mica was being nice again. The niceness wasn't at all natural when it was coming from him.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter," he bit out. His words were low, muffled behind the clenched fist of his hand.
Mica raised his hand as if he was going to touch Cassius, but before he could, Cassius stepped to the side. He sent Mica a look, one that he hoped was scathing enough that it would deter Mica from trying to touch him again.
The look in Mica's eyes was once again on the edge of pity and Cassius hated it so much. He wanted General Rexton who wanted to skin Cassius alive—the one that played in Cassius's game of hatred. Instead, he was left with this Mica who wanted to be a good person. It was just as disgusting as it was insulting.
"Stop doing that," he bit out. He didn't know any other way to say it. He wished that he didn't have to say anything at all. He wished they were still fighting tooth and nail against each other. But that was the old them.
Even though Cassius wasn't over all the shit Mica had done to him, Mica was done with seeing Cassius as just a Mekiah.
Mica's brows furrowed. His eyes searched Cassius's face like there was going to be a clear answer there. Cassius stared blankly back, praying that his face didn't give away how much he was irritated. Or how his body was thrumming with heat because of how close Mica was.
"What am I doing?"
Cassius rolled his eyes and turned his head. "Being nice. I hate it."
So keeping his emotions a secret wasn't exactly working out.
Mica didn't say anything for a while. He didn't so much as move either.
The silence was becoming deafening. Cassius thought about just walking away and hiding somewhere though there wasn't anywhere for him to go. Except back to Mica's room. That seemed worse than staying here with Mica.
Maybe if he asked Mica would give him his own room. It might seem suspicious to everyone else, but Cassius couldn't take it being in that damn room. It was a constant reminder of how weak Cassius's will and body was.
Mica gave a jerky nod. His Adams apple bobbed and he turned around so that his back was to Cassius. He stood for a moment and then he walked away. Cassius watched his back as he waked down the hall and disappeared around the corner. He stared after him, not sure at all what had just happened.
He blinked. He thought maybe this was a trick and that Mica was going to come back, striding in full glory as he dished out some punishment. It was silly to think that, but he simply couldn't comprehend how Mica could just walk away without saying anything.
Cassius stood there like an idiot. He looked around, craning his neck like he expected the rest of his SWARM to jump out and say this was all a big prank. That didn't happen. He was there alone, the silence now suffocating him.
Another few minutes passed him by. He held onto them, grip so hard but fruitless because time slipped through even Gods' hands. He sniffled, ashamed that he felt an overbearing anxiety crushing down on him. He wiped his nose and left the safe spot tucked away in the hall.
It didn't hit him that he was going to Mica's room until it was too late to turn around without looking like a fool. The guards there eyed him with suspicion—probably fucking confused as to why he was walking around with no chaperone—but they didn't stop him. He through the door and closed it softly behind him even though he wanted to slam it a couple of times.
He strode to the corner where a desk was tucked in. He sagged into the chair, legs splaying out until they touched the wall beneath he desk. He leaned back, groaning while he hid his face behind his hands. His eyes closed and the unbearable weight of the world fell down upon him.
He felt like he was crying but there was nothing. No tears. No sobs. He was an empty husk except the pain and the hopelessness remained. It made no sense.
There he remained, wondering where the hell everything had gone wrong.
***
Mica slammed his office door closed and stormed across the room toward his desk with such speed that he almost ran into the chair in front of it. He jerked to the side with a curse, his right hand pressed to his temple and his left flailing to the side to avoid the chair. He swore that the chair hadn't been angled so far to the side the last time he was here.
When he looked up from the floor, gaze focusing, he saw the reason why the chair was pushed so far from the center.
Lucius looked back at his adoptive brother with an amused expression.
"Problems?" He said with a smirk.
Mica blinked as he tried to wrap his mind around what exactly he was looking at. Lucius had pushed the chair Mica almost ran into so that he could prop his feet up. The chair he was lounging it was turned to the side as well so that he could more comfortably use the other chair as a footstool.
Mica shook his head. "I don't have time to deal with you. Go bother someone else."
He waved his hand like that would work. But Lucius was a cockroach. The only way to get rid of him required an extermination.
Mica would have laughed at the dark ironic joke, but he seriously wasn't in the mood.
"And what are you so busy with? Is that Mekiah driving your patience again?" Lucius snorted like he said something funny.
Mica wasn't at all amused. He turned his attention to his desk that had seen better days. The usually organized papers were sloppily piled on top of each other. He'd been in a rush this morning to join his SWARM as Cassius went back into the Veil to go after the Mekiah that he hadn't cleaned up his mess from the night before.
It wasn't surprising that he was pulling all-nighters. He was up to his neck in not only political drama from Maxem, but he was being harassed by media outlets and rich business people in powerful places. They all wanted a piece of him whether that was because they wanted to be in good graces with him for his power or because they wanted to knock him down a few pegs. It was all a power play that was so fucking frustrating that he was sure he was going to go bald from tearing out his hair.
Mica swallowed down his feelings as he sat at his desk. He moved the stack of papers and started to go through them, straightening and sorting into categories so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed when he had to dive back into them.
"You should have handed him over to me," Lucius said, sighing. He looked down at his nails, but Mica fucking knew that he wasn't looking at them at all. He was just playing the part. Like he wasn't trying to manipulate.
"And what would you do with him?"
Lucius shrugged. "He's special, I guess, in some ways. He's powerful for a Mekiah. Unnaturally so."
"I'm unnaturally powerful," Mica pointed out.
"So you have some magic." Lucius rolled his eyes. "Father doesn't ever let me hear the end of it. Mica this and Mica that. I'm surprised your head isn't bigger with how much he inflates your ego."
The corner of Mica's mouth lifted into a small smirk that he coyly hid from Lucius's view.
"Anyway." Lucius made a face. "I would run experiments on the Mekiah. There's a lot of research that could be done to improve our technology with him. He survived a demon. That would prove to be very useful for our weapons."
Mica wasn't at all surprised by Lucius's bland answer. It was so typical and unoriginal that he couldn't quite get himself to be that bothered by it. However, what did bother him was the fact that he could tell Lucius was lying.
He was lying through his fucking teeth and Mica didn't have a clue as to why.
Mica ignored Lucius. He kept sorting through his papers like he hadn't heard Lucius in the first place. It took only but a couple of minutes before Lucius became agitated. He adjusted in the chair a couple of times, crossed and uncrossed his legs, and then begin to glower over at Mica.
"Do you have a real reason for bothering me?" Mica finally asked. As much as he liked to get under Lucius's skin, he had too much shit to deal with to be playing these childish games.
Lucius frowned. "I want to be on the case."
Exasperated, Mica groaned. "No. Absolutely not. I don't need you."
He didn't want Lucius sniffing around like some deranged mutt either. Lucius was only ever up to no good and it was quite obvious that he was planning something. He was just like his father in that regard. Mica couldn't so much as breathe around him without worrying Lucius concocting some evil agenda.
Lucius straightened, sitting on the edge of the chair. He leaned forward, catching Mica's gaze and holding it. Mica held it.
"I'm strong," Lucius said. Usually when he threw about how strong his magic was, he was being cocky. Not this time. The only thing Mica could detect in his voice was sincerity. "I can help the Mekiah in the field. You need my help."
Mica stood up. "I don't need anyones help. Cassius found the Mekiah. We have a good lead and I'm not messing that up by bringing you in."
He couldn't imagine how Cassius would react with Lucius in the Veil with him. He knew first hand how Lucius's magic felt. It was a boa constrictor around his neck. Over the years he'd grown used to it, but with tensions high already between the two of them, Lucius would just botch the whole deal. Cassius didn't need that added pressure.
He didn't want to leave his own damn office, but he needed peace and quiet. He wasn't going to get that with Lucius running circles around him like a dog. For a moment, he stilled at the corner of his desk, unsure if he wanted to leave or hold his ground. He didn't know if he could get Lucius to leave on his own accord and it would be more embarrassing if he couldn't rather than if he just left in the first place.
"I'm not going to mess anything up," Lucius said exasperated. He rolled his eyes and stood up as well. He didn't clamor to his feet, but stood with grace that could only be found in his father. He stood taller than Mica, looking down at him with a look in his eyes that was pure begging.
"I want to help."
Mica would have snorted if Lucius didn't have that damn look in his eyes. As much as he hated Lucius, he needed to change something or else they were never going to catch the Mekiah.
"Fine." He turned back to his desk. "Meet us tomorrow. If it doesn't go well, you won't have another chance."
Lucius grinned.
Mica narrowed his eyes. "And reign it in when you enter, got it?"
"Oh, don't worry. I won't try and strangle your pet."
Mica really hoped he could trust Lucius's word.