Phoenix

Chapter Twenty One - Opposition

DK's apartment was empty and it had no signs of DK for weeks. So, one day, Stella persuaded Garreth that they may stay on the apartment and wait for DK to show up. She wanted to personally talk to him but everything in the apartment showed no signs of disturbance or movement by anyone except them. DK was not going home; a mission, if he was pursuing one, would not take him as long as such.

Garreth would not allow Stella to go back to the Organization again unless she talks to DK first or Garreth sees him first. He has become very protective of her from the day he met her again and would not leave her presence. Stella was beginning to love the woman Stella has been and the life spent with the ones she loved. There were no more killings and bloodshed but only warm embraces and sweet, truthful words. She hated what her life has been through for the last two years especially the death of her parents. But, she had Garreth, her ever faithful husband. He had not found himself another woman but mourned for her death for a very long time.

Now she was in DK's apartment though to make her one last fight —to fight for everyone she loves and protect them. It was also Garreth's battle since the Dark Knights continue to kill even more Hunters —more innocent lives. She remembered Catseye and Kilo but they were persons she barely knows anymore . . . and DK, though she needed to save him if she can. It can't be too late; she will ask him what he knows about the truth and she will help him build a new life —apart from the dark, desolate duty of being an assassin. She was not sure but she could find a way to liberate him even it would mean an opposition against the Empress, the mightiest hypergene living. Still, there were a lot of questions to ask.

Stella kept denying to herself that she had also loved DK even firstly in a brotherly way but thereafter, he had treated her with an unconditional affection that only the two of them can understand. Garreth would not understand it unless she would tell him that DK told her that he loved her. DK's absence only made it harder for Stella so she kept on waiting for DK while she sat on his work desk.

Amidst the silence, there began a thumping on a floor. "Somebody is there. DK's here!" Stella jumped out of her excitement. A man of average stature walked in to the apartment's entertainment room. It was a hooded figure but then he quickly shoved it off and Stella suddenly was thrown aback.

"What are you doing here?" Stella asked Kilo.

"What are you doing here!" Kilo teased.

"I am waiting for DK. There's just something I forget to tell him."

Kilo stepped ahead. "Oh. Why don't you join me? Let's get some snacks from my car, shall we?"

"No. . . I just really had to see h-him."

Kilo cocked his head sideways. "Are you with someone?" Kilo sensed the presence hiding from behind me. Stella and Garreth were trapped; both their hands ready to grab the gun.

"Yes. I am just a friend of Phoebe." Garreth showed himself up.

Even before Stella could talk, both their guns, Stella and Kilo, were already aimed at each other.

"And you forgot to wear a different uniform." Kilo joked about Garreth's dark moss vest which was the Hunters' uniform. Shoot, Garreth thought.

"Okay. We don't have to do this." Stella negotiated. "Kilo, listen to me."

"You're with a Hunter. Tell me what else I should know."

"The Empress —she's merely fooling you. . ."

"Stop. I don't want to listen. I know what you're thinking. That we lied to you."

"W-What? How did you know?"