Styx: The River of Hate [malexmale]

Chapter Fifteen

"Anyway, we need to plan better. What happened with Epimetheus was extremely dangerous. We need to be more cautious and alert. Something like this could happen again, and very soon, so we need to make it so that it's easy to spot someone if something like this ever happens again. We need a code to share with each other whenever we're suspicious that someone isn't who they say they are." He explained, making Cain scoff.

"A code? Like a password? What is this? A clubhouse?" He asked dryly.

"I think it's a good idea," Abel chirped, folding one leg over the other as he sat on the entrance desk, "It has to be something that only the people in this room would know. Something that the enemy won't expect."

"Like what," Cain drawled rudely, "A knock knock joke?"

"I think the Titans are old enough to know every knock knock joke in the book." Cerberus smirked, making Theo grin and Cain roll his eyes. Malachi cast Cerberus a sour stare before looking at the rest of us, frowning with his arms folded over his chest.

"Abel's right. Something that only we know. It doesn't even have to be a word. It can be a phrase or term or something. But it has to be something that nobody will guess or figure out. Something that doesn't take much thought either, because if they can read our minds while hidden inside us, they can dig it out. It has to be something natural, yet something unexpected." He explained as calmly as possible, though, I could see the tick in his jaw.

"What about something from Aristotle?" Noe suggested, shrugging and pausing to yawn, rubbing at his eye sleepily.

"Not all of us are Greek." I pointed out with a shrug. Noe scrunched up his nose.

"How do you not know Aristotle?" He asked dryly.

"I don't make it my hobby to converse with Greeks."

"You're serving a Greek."

"Theo doesn't count." I answered, then paused to see Noe give me a curious look. I averted my eyes, clearing my throat at the mistake of not having said "lord" out loud. I could see the looks on Cerberus' and Cain's faces when they looked at me in surprise. Even Malachi seemed intrigued, but Theo didn't give anyone a chance to question it.

"Then what's something that everyone knows, but doesn't? How is that even possible?" Theo demanded in irritation, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking down to avoid the stares. He cast me a warning glare that I quickly avoided by coughing into my palm.

"That alone sounds like code to me." Cain deadpanned, scrunching up his nose.

"Why are we doing this so early in the morning? I don't like thinking before noon." Cerberus grunted.

"You don't think at all." Cain answered flatly, making Cerberus scowl at him. Leon frowned, watching them argue before looking at Malachi with his eerie gold eyes.

"What's something that you all know and don't need to think about, that nobody else knows? Maybe something Hades told us something that we shouldn't tell others." He suggested, shrugging and folding his arms over his chest.

"What about the whole if one of us dies, everyone dies thing?" Cain asked, glancing at Zelios in annoyance. Zelios averted his eyes, reaching up to brush a lock of hair out of his eyes, looking mildly annoyed.

"Like I said, Hades told me not to tell anyone else." He replied in monotone.

"But he told you." Cain sneered, making Zelios glance at him drolly as if the reason no one else knew was very plainly obvious.

"We can't use that one, dumbass," Abel snorted, making Cain snap his head to glare hot daggers at him, "Epimetheus already knows and once he reaches Tartarus, it'll be the gossip of the Titans. In fact, with the amount of shit Epimetheus got out of us, I'd say they're the ones that are most prepared."