"Don't let that woman anywhere near my grandchildren. She wants something from them."
Short and precise. Maia opened her eyes and saw that Damian and Maki were right in front of her staring at her worriedly.
"What happened?"
Even before the alarms blared, Maia heard a distinct sound between a man and her grandmother. Then her grandmother mentioned Leticia's name. It was something that still deeply concerned Maia.
"It looked like someone is here to get us"
"Someone?"
Damian clarified but Maia couldn't stare at them. She knew who she was. She couldn't hear her through the walls of the pentagon but she knew it was her.
"It's mom. She came here to get us."
Maki and Damian was taken aback. They had taken days when they traveled from the SDC bunker.
"How is that possible? She's a wanted woman. Everyone knows her face because she instigated the rebellion. Even without hiding, it would take her days to reach here, and how could she possibly know that we're here"
Maki felt himself shiver at the thought of something ominous. He stared at Maia and remembered something that she had said before.
"Ate you said your ears have been ringing non stop didn't you?"
Maia looked up at her brother and nodded. Until now she could hear the annoying ringing in her ears.
"But are you sure it isn't tinnitus?"
"I thought you guys said it might be?"
"No, let me take a look"
Maki wanted to punch himself, why hadn't he thought of this possibility before?
If everything was predetermined by their mother then the plans of the government, the intel from the front house, he could only see one person to whom she could possibly take that information from.
Maki lifted Maia's white hair and inspected the back of her ears. On the right side, on the small nook behind her ears, was a tiny black round thing. It looked like a mole but Maki knew his sister had never had a mole behind her ear.
"Ate, she's been spying through you"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"What did you find Maki?"
Damian moved to see what it was that Maki was looking at now.
"There's something attached to the back of your ear Maia"
"WHAT!?"
Before Maia could even stand up because of the shock, Damian held down her shoulders and plucked the mole-like device from behind her ear.
"Ouch! Hey! Can't you be gentler?"
"So…sorry, wait Maia your ear is bleeding"
As soon as the device was plucked out, an electrifying sting ran through Maia's body followed by a slight pain on the back of her ear.
Damian stood up and went to the bathroom and returned with a wet towel on his hand. He immediately placed it on Maia's ear.
"Are you okay?"
Maia stared at Damian, she squinted her eyes when she saw how worried he looked.
"If you were going to worry, why cant you just pluck it gentler?"
"He can't ate, look at this."
Maki held the device upside down and saw that it had three spikes.
"They're probably to keep the device in place so that it'll stay planted in you no matter how long"
"Maia, did the ringing stop?"
"Ugh"
It did. Maia nodded as she realized that this entire time, her mother knew that she was alive.
"She really…"
Maki gritted his teeth. He feels disgusted right now. He couldn't believe that their mother knew his sister was alive. He couldn't believe that she had let his sister endure those experiments just for the intel that she could provide from the inside.
"Maki…"
"If she had known that you were alive all of this time then she could've told us. We could've saved you and you didn't have to endure all those horrifying things all by yourself. I hate her."
Maki's tears were now falling. He loved his mother because she was a loving figure to them when they were young but now that she had shown this side of her, all he could feel for her was anger.
How could someone choose another reason besides family. How could someone even
think about sacrificing their own family. He would never understand that.
Eos make sure they don't leave their room.
Maia stared at Maki who was now bowing his head. Out of the two of them Maki was the closest to their mother, partly because he was the youngest. Maia knew just how much Maki cared for their mother.
"She's rampaging on the outside Maki, For some reason she managed to kill Leticia who was on our tail and she's here for us"
"Why? What could she possibly want?"
"Maybe she wanted her hidden soldiers"
It was Damian who had answered their questions. Whether his answer was the truth or not there was one way to determine.
"We need to face her properly before grandma ends up killing her"
"Kill her?"
"Maia if she kills Artemis, the whole rebellion would come for her head."
"That's right Ate, she's the face and head of this rebellion. They don't know about the fact that she had heinous intentions"
Maia looked at the two before her gaze went to the device that was hooked up to her before.
"She might still be listening right now"
All three of them stared at the device and horror was written all over their faces. Maia stood up and searched for something to write on the bedside table.
There she wrote what Maki had to do.
They need to know the whole truth. What was it exactly that their mother had wanted all these years?
"Mom, do you still want to do this? It's still Artemis"
"No it isn't, that is nowhere near my daughter anymore"
Sol had a loaded gun on her hands, a belt full of knives and an angry and cold demeanor that was out to kill a monster. There was no empathy left for her, she wouldn't forgive Artemis for what she had done to their family.
"Sol, she would forcefully open the lift if this continues"
A soldier hurriedly came down to where Sol and Helios were. They could hear Artemis outside pounding the lift so hard. Sol gripped the gun tighter.
"Get ready to open it, send back-up immediately, I'm going up there alone first"
"But mom…"
"If she makes a move that would threaten my safety, shoot at sight. That is an order Helios"
Helios, who was worried about her mother's safety, couldn't say a single word. His lips were shut tight in a grim line and he barely made a nod towards Sol. He knew that there was no turning back now.
He too has his own family now, and he would do anything to protect them, especially his children.
Sol walked up to the stairs, her lone footsteps setting the only noise while every soldier on the pentagon held their breath.
The woman outside was no normal being, that they were sure of. They were scared for their safety and Sol's but it didn't mean that they were willing to just let Maki and Maia go. They knew that whatever Sol decides to do will affect them in the long run. After all, for them Sol has never been wrong.
As the lift opened up, the pounding that Artemis was making stopped. A menacing smile was on her face as she saw her mother slowly ascend from the inside.
"Mother"
Sol almost wanted to puke, in front of her was a woman so familiar yet so strange. Her hair that was parted in the middle were both colored white and black. And the blood shot eyes that were almost too similar with Maia's were piercing right through Sol.
"I don't remember having been given birth to a monster"
"You pained me mother, truly"
Artemis' hands which were covered with blood flail around as if she was rather enjoying the emotionless and cold look from her mother.
"Turn around and never come back. There is no reason for you to be here anymore"
"Oh please, I am here for my children"
Sol's grip on her gun tightened. She knew that Artemis would look for them, afterall she experimented on them because of her ambition.
"They're not here"
"It's no use trying to lie mother. I embedded an earpiece and locator to my daughter. I know what she does, who she talks to, where she is, and what is happening around her."
Artemis grins like a psychopath which only made Sol's anger boil up furthermore.
"You knew she was alive and yet you had let that child be in danger multiple times"
"Oh do not blame me, isn't that why I killed this amateur scientist. The bitch doesn't even know how to properly pick compounds and yet she calls herself my daughter's creator"
Sol took one glance at Leticia's body and instantly knew that Artemis is capable of killing her even with her bare hands.
She took out her gun and pointed it at Artemis.
"Turn around Artemis, my grandchildren will stay with me. I wouldn't let you take another grandchild away from me."
Artemis' smile faded at that instant. She knew now that her mother wouldn't let her see her children.
"Then you die, after that I'm taking them back"
In an instant Artemis was in front of Sol, her right hand posed like a claw and when she used it to slash at her, she knew that she would come out beaten up already.
Artemis' hand wasn't just posed like a claw, it had turned into a claw itself. Her nails were so sharp that it left a scratch in Sol's left arm the moment it got caught in her first slash.
"Now I know why they all died so easily"
Sol muttered under her breath as she moved a considerable distance between the two of them.
"You'll follow suit soon mother."
Before Artemis could shorten the distance between them again, Sol had fired her gun. She fired two consecutive shots that had both hit Artemis on the shoulder. Artemis had tried to dodge off the bullets but they still grazed her in the shoulder, a result that was expected.
After all, Sol was known to be the greatest sharpshooter during her younger years. Sol's eyes widened when she saw the liquid that flowed through Artemis' open wound.
"You… just how much did you experiment on yourself?"
Sol's pained expression just brought joy to Artemis. She wiped the black colored blood from her wound and licked it, staining the lower part of her face black.
"Do you like it, mother? Ain't I attractive like big sister Eos now?"
"Wha—--"
Before Sol could even ask what she had meant, she leapt from her place and pounded on Sol like a large wolf. Sol couldn't maintain her balance and fell on her back. Artemis, who was on top of her, shifted all of her weight on her lower body so that Sol wouldn't be able to stand up.
Her claws each held Sol's hands in place as she faced the older woman with a maniac-like smile.
"Aren't I as strong as big brother Helios now? Aren't I as pretty as big sister Eos now? You said you always liked the color black, that's why my hair was the only thing you liked did you not?"
Sol's words drowned at her throat. She pondered on the thought of her comparing Artemis to both Eos and Helios when they were young. She had already admitted this, she knew that there was something wrong with how she had raised her. But, she never knew that it left a deep impression on Artemis.
She called Artemis a monster that she created, and she was never wrong.
"I regret ever having you"
As Sol spoke these words, a flash of a pained expression passed Artemis' face before she let out a laugh.
"Oh mother it doesn't matter, for I had compensated you for the wrong things you had done when you had me. I have created the perfect children who will bring me what I really want. They are my redemption, my salvation"
Sol knew that she had done so many things in her life that was why she wanted to do the right things for her grandchildren. They are after all her blood and they are her joy and pride. She wouldn't let Artemis harm them or use them any further.
She lifted her knees and kicked Artemis at the back of her head. When her grip on Sol loosened, the older woman took this as a chance to push Artemis off balance. She regained her stance and took out her knives.
"You just don't know how to give up mother"
"Stop calling me that. You will never be my daughter again"
Artemis grinned.
"Fine by me"
Artemis once again ran, her speed being incomparable. Second by second she slashed at Sol which the older woman countered with her knives.
But there was so much that an old woman like Sol could do. Every slash that Artemis creates has a power that even the air surrounding them seems like it was being slash at.
Sol, who was continuing on the defense was getting tired and even with the little injury she had, she had admitted that she was nowhere near her younger self.
She would die, she thought. But she would die protecting her grandchildren.
Artemis saw an opening on the lower part of Sol's body, she didn't hesitate and saw this as an opportunity. She aimed at Sol's abdomen and sure enough, she pierced through it with ease.
Sol coughed blood while Artemis smiled triumphantly.
"Still so easy to read, Sol"
The coldness and mocking voice of Artemis had sent every cell in Sol's body screaming in agony. She was a fool if she had thought that she could just as easily diminish the fact that the woman standing in front of her, monster or not, was still her youngest daughter.
Artemis pulled her claws out. Sol fell on her knees, hands on her abdomen to put pressure on the bleeding. Artemis gazed down at her kneeling mother and couldn't contain her joy. She laughs as she raises her arm ready to strike a blow onto the back of her neck.
"Farewell, Mother"
Sol closed her eyes as she waited for the blow that could very well cut her head off.
But, it never came.
As she looked up, she saw that what was in front of her now was the back of her granddaughter. Her long white hair flowing along with the wind.
And a few meters away was Artemis, blood dripping from her shoulders and left arm. Her expression a mix of joy and annoyance.
"I was getting bored my daughter"
She happily claimed as she opened her arms wide like she was waiting for Maia to come running into them.
But Maia despises how her mother looks now and more than anything she despises what her mother did to her and her siblings.
"Come now, let us return to SDC. I made it, especially for you"
Maia wanted to scream at her but instead, she stood her ground and glared at her. And with much force and determination in her voice, she said.
"I… am no longer your daughter"