Apocalyptic Returning

Chapter 24: A Monster in Wolves Clothing

Before Shen and Graves could continue any further, a wave of purple energy pushed them away from each other. "That is enough Shen." Malachi's voice ordered from the darkness a moment before he stepped out from it. Moving between them after taking a couple steps, he turned to face Graves.

"What the hell do you want from me?" Graves questioned while backing off defensively. "I thought I told you already, I don't like you."

"Why do you stay here in this forest?" Malachi questioned. "Do you not have some kind of interest in the outside world?"

"That's a stupid question." Graves responded. "You know we silver suits don't belong out there with the civilized. We belong out here like the lone wolves we are."

Hearing that caused Malachi to sigh heavily before speaking. "So, you believe in the in the God amongst men ideology."

"God amongst men?" Graves repeated in a confused tone.

"It means you believe that we above humanity." Shen explained. "That we are in a sense, no longer human and that we are different from them."

"But we are different, stupid." Graves crossed his legs to sit on the ground, his wound now fully healed. "We are stronger than they are, we live longer as well. You can kill a regular human by gunshot or ripping off a limb. We do not die from such injuries, to us, that is like stubbing a toe...so to say."

"So, in a certain point of view, we are like gods to them." Malachi said disappointedly. "I would understand that point of view if it was actually our power that made us this way. We are simply allowed to borrow these powers, for what reason I know not. But take away our exosuit and tell me...what are we?"

"We are..." Memories of the past began to flood Graves' mind. A moment from his childhood caught him off-guard, stopping him dead in his tracks. The memory of his parents being ripped apart by the infected resurfaced, filling him with sadness. "I was a child when the Τέρατα came."

"My parents and survived for a while in a city called Thessaloniki."

"Greece's capital after Athen's was destroyed by the Japanese." Malachi spoke before thinking of why that city sounded so familiar. Then it hit him as to why he could remember Thessaloniki. "Oh...yes." He sighed before continuing. "That was the first city attacked after the Princess took over Athens."

"So that's what she's called...the Princess." Graves sighed. "We were able to do an adequate job at holding off the infected for the first five years. It was one of the only cities in Greece that didn't fall to them. But once she, no, the Princess came all that changed in a matter of days."

"I was barely able to make it out of Thessaloniki alive, thanks to the knights of gold. They fought off the infected and saved as many of us as they could."

"Knights of gold?" Malachi pondered. "Must have been Ruler and his posse." Malachi zoned out for about half a minute while thinking, only hearing a couple of the words Graves spoke.

"I remember the day she and her city flew into space, and it was all finally over." Graves let himself fall onto his back and stare into the sky. "I wonder sometimes if she's out there somewhere among the stars."

"She is out there." Malachi stated. "But not among the stars."

Graves sat back up and tilted his head while staring at Malachi. "You do not seem so bad anymore. I can't sense that deception in you anymore...I like that."

"Nice to hear." Malachi chuckled.

"I know I asked you what you wanted from me earlier, but I already know the answer to that." Turning to Nero, Graves bowed his head. "I'm sorry for earlier." He said before lifting his head back up.