The Elite

Nineteen

Julian

Even if we epically failed to get Mimic or Green Blast, I felt the mission was a success for the simple fact that Tass finally opened up to us, putting her one step closer to fully being our friend. My happiness from that fact quickly faded, though, when Okeke screamed at us for pulling a trademark Squad 16 fail. He was quite irked that Belle tagged along, but he still placed the condemnation on us for failing rather than her. My happiness only faded even more when we arrived back in Lagos, and Belle pulled me aside almost instantly.

"Julian, can I speak with you?" she asked.

Dread settled in the pit of my stomach. Her singling me out was not a good thing, and every part of me knew that. My fight or flight instinct was trying to kick it, wanting to take action, but I shoved it down. I had to remain calm and in control, for I didn't even know what Belle wanted to talk to me about yet. There was no reason to panic.

"Of course," I replied impassively.

Belle waited until everyone else left the plane before speaking. It gave me plenty of time to worry about what she was going to say. There were some good things, some okay-that-could-be-worse-things, and then there were the bad things.

I was expecting it to be the bad things.

"Julian, I know you're Black Queen's son," Belle told me. "I've always suspected. My squad tracked her down, and you've always looked like your parents. The way you acted towards her only confirmed it."

"Figures," I said with a careless shrug. "Why does that matter?"

Inwardly, I was highly terrified that Belle was going to get me in trouble, but I wasn't going to let her know that. It would only give her an advantage. I couldn't let that happen, so I shoved my fear down into the deep, dark parts of me where it couldn't bother me. It was best to let it hide there.

"I could tell Okeke that," Belle suggested idly. "You'll get kicked out of the Elite for it. I bet you don't want that to happen."

That was right, though likely not for the reasons she was thinking. I'd stopped caring about being the perfect Elite, so my growing experience there told me it wasn't the amazing organization I'd hoped they'd be. Instead, they were flawed. I couldn't let Belle stop me from changing it.

"What do you want?" I asked, wanting to get to the point of why she was threatening me.

"You're just like your father, you know," Belle commented. "He was also very direct."

"I wasn't aware you knew my father," I replied icily.

A surge of hate rose within me towards her, but I tamped it down. My father was rather direct; he didn't like to dally with things like unnecessary small talk, but preferred to get to the point. It made me slightly sick to know the she knew that. It was Squad 2 who'd attacked my parents, and Belle specifically who killed my father. Therefore, she had no right to know him, not when she so carelessly offed him.

"You'd be surprised," Belle replied, a smile curling up on her lips. "Not everything is as it appears. I did know your father."

A surge of anger rose up inside me, blinding me with rage. All I wanted to do was smash Belle's face in for suggesting that she — her terrible self — ever knew my perfect, wonderful father. If I'd had an offensive power, it probably would have lashed out instantly at that, possibly even going for a kill. Thankfully, though, I managed to control myself, reining in my anger before I did anything I would regret in the future. With a deep breath, I calmed down.

As I did so, I began to realize that my anger seemed out of place. It was rare I ever experienced harsh anger, and never for something so simple before. After everything that had happened to me, I'd become very adept at controlling my emotions, but that control seemed to be slipping. It worried me, for it showed a trend of anger that wasn't typical for me, making me worry something serious was going on.