"You know Sin, you were so courteous earlier with me and you're hostile again. I thought we'd finally made some progress in this rapport becoming more friendly between us. We are still allies you know." A smile spreads across his face, mimicking innocence.
Bavarthos steps forward and suddenly an amber filled, barrel glass appears in his hand and he takes a sip.
"Oh that's quite nice." He says after swallowing.
"You didn't answer the question, Bavarthos. What are you doing here?" My lip starts to curl in disgust at his blatant disregard of answering me.
"I know, you can be so impatient Sin. I see I've lost my honorific with you again.... Pity. I'm here because we are allies.... I'm here to inform you of the assistance I am able to offer you in this situation. That's what allies do is it not?" He gives me an arrogant air that has me taking a deep breath.
"Okay then, what does our ally have in mind?" I spit out through gritted teeth, feeling the tension from John rising as Bavarthos continues to smile cunningly at me, a twinkle in his eye that could mean various things.
"I would not say in mind, the phrase... in place, yes, adequately describes what I'm able to offer in assistance." Bavarthos and his smug arrogance was already making me regret signing the contract.
"Alright, what do you have in place?" John stands pointing at the map table. "Please show us. We will need to be heading back soon and we should probably know before hand what you'll be doing."
Without even looking at John I can feel the daggers in his gaze. Why does Bavarthos get under our skin like this so badly?
Thietian spoke up breaking every ones focus. "Bavarthos will you stop playing with that hostile pendant already? I know you find it fun but since we are allies now, let's act like it."
'what? hostile pendant?'
Chuckling Bavarthos slips a pendant off from around his neck and pockets it. "You know I like to have experiment with my artifacts, but you always did like to spoil my fun. I was merely testing to see how strong their willpower was to archaic devices that father likes to gift to humans without their knowledge."
Stepping up to the map table he sets his glass down after downing the liquid. "Do you both feel better now?" His head goes between John and I, examining us and our reactions.
I do notice I don't feel as irritated with him now and I sense Johns tension ease up slightly as well.
"Good..." Bavarthos starts off before John cuts him off.
"Since we are allies now, I'd appreciate if you kept your comments to yourself which involve how attracted you are to my wife or her attractive qualities."
"As you wish. There is one more thing that I'd like to say when it comes to our personal interactions though. John." Bavarthos turns to him a satisfied smirk on his lips.
"What's that?"Crossing his arms, John asks.
"For someone who wouldn't be here, enjoying your life with your lovely wife, with out my help, you sure are ungrateful." He pauses as that sinks in. "I've never received so much as a thank you from either one of you, for that matter." Indignantly he shakes his head, crossing his arms and raising a brow at the both of us.
"I knew it..." I muttered under my breath.
John and I are silent, embarrassed over the newly discovered fact, that he was the one to thank for bringing back John.
"Thank you, Bavarthos. Later, I would appreciate us to all sit down together and have some things explained, honestly, this time, from you both. However, we have the Erl's forces moving closer and closer to our men and I need to know how we can keep them from getting past us."
I was craving to hear the truth from them both so badly, but I knew we had a more serious dilemma on our hands to tackle first.
"So Bavarthos, please show us what you have laid in place to aid us."
Bavarthos nods a smirk catching the side of his lips in a twitch before pulling up the interactive controls.
Once he goes over what he has in place and where on the map, the map with the new markers are sent to our coms and back to camp. John and I give each other a look, because we know, we needed to get back, the sooner the better.
"One more thing, before you both leave. I'm snapping over two divisions of soldiers, they will be there in four hours. Don't worry about space or feeding them, they'll handle it once the threat has been minimized. Stay safe you too." Thietian tells us before morphing to Cass.
"Chew some gum and kick some ass you two." Cass says before morphing back to Thietian.
We snap back after nodding to Bavarthos and get to work preparing ourselves for the wave.
....................Bavarthos POV........
"So... little brother... can we talk freely?" I laugh at Thietian after Sin and John have left.
"We can now, Bavarthos."
Thietian goes and sits down at his desk as I saunter over taking the seat across and sit sideways on the chair one knee up for my arm to rest against as I cradle my face in the hand.
"So many lies, how do you keep them all straight?" I ask him.
"You know why I lie about these things." He begins to tap his fingers on the desk.
I can't help but sigh, "Do you think they will be able to forgive you for the lies, again. You keep getting caught in them you know."
His taps become faster as he reads my demeanor and posture for signs. He must be wary of me, thinking I am plotting some grandiose scheme to take him down or expose the truth of the matter he's so desperately kept hidden.
"Omitting certain facts does not mean I lied about what I told them before." He defends himself, sticking his chin up and out glancing to the right before turning back to me.
'Stubborn little ass, but I do admit I can't really fault him...'
"Be that as it may, those are some big details you omitted. I would think that after so many lies though that EVEN I would not be able to have faith or put my trust in you. .....Little brother....." I snigger at him as he glares at me.
"You think I enjoy telling any of them lies? Knowing that later it's going to hurt them? I don't want to hurt them and make their lives a mess more so than what they've already become! We wouldn't be in this mess, if you hadn't put us in it!" He snaps at me.
"Ahhh... I see how it is now. You know that if I had refrained from it, where would you be then? You would never have had this opportunity to do and experience the life you have right now. You even have fallen in love with the humans woman." The little shit pouts for a second before opening up his mouth.
"Yes. So what?! When this is all said and done, I would like to know, what are WE going to do? Hmmm? You can't deny that everyone prefers my company to yours."
His smug little smirk and that flash of triumph in his eyes gets under my skin. My blood begins to boil and I feel the twitch begin in my eye. I grit my teeth and take a breath to clam myself before standing up and walking around the desk before reminding him of the truth.
"Thietian, be that as it may, that they would rather have you around than me, right now, you seem to have developed some form of amnesia. You have forgotten some imperative and inevitable facts about our situation."
I pace back and forth behind him as I refresh his memory.
"You were forced into the vessel you are in now. Forced to share a body with a human. You were left to die inside of that body, BY EVERYONE. While, I, am in my own body, merely exiled from home until I am allowed to clear my name. Which, I can do once every thing is over with the Erlking. Now that I am your ally in this war, I can ensure that these little strong holds of ours are never used for the reason they were made. The reason we are in this damn predicament."
I place my hands on his shoulders as I lean over the back of the chair to whisper,
"We are complimenting factors you know, like yin and yang."
I turn the chair so he can see my eyes as I emphasize my next point.
"But ...Contrary to popular belief Thietian,.... YOU ARE NOT THE BEST OF THE TWO OF US!"
I yell at him in my moment of rage before standing back up straight again, straightening out my shirt sleeves and hem and walk away.
"The fact that everyone thinks you are a better man than I, is rather well.... comical.."
I turn and look at him still frozen in his chair, but anger boiling in his eyes.
"Don't worry, I won't tell them your secrets.... you can do that and watch the betrayal in their eyes flare for yourself. See you soon... Little brother."
I laugh as I snap away.