“Something wrong, my dear?”

Pryvani looked up from gazing out the window of her office to find Zhan standing on her desk by her wrist. She smiled softly and shrugged.

“Nothing really,” She sighed and shook her head. “I’m just pondering what it is I’m supposed to do now.”

“I don’t follow.” Zhan replied as he climbed onto her hand and carefully ascended her arm until he’d reached his customary spot on the edge of her left shoulder.

Idly, Pryvani tapped at the keyboard of her computer and a small holographic picture of Avalon appeared floating above her desk.

“I’ve worked for years, Zhan.” Pryvani sighed. “Decades. I’ve spent every waking moment thinking, planning, plotting, and trying to make this work. Not to mention millions of credits.”

Pryvani ran a finger through the image, which caused it to pixilate around her digit before reforming after it passed. “I’ve collected people and moved them around like pieces on a game board to where I think they’ll do the most good. And I like to think those people are better off where I’ve put them but…”

“Alex doesn’t call you a fairy godmother for nothing, Goddess.” Zhan quipped with a chuckle.

Despite herself, Pryvani smiled. “Exactly. But the problem is now I’ve done all that. The cards are all dealt, the hand is played, and I’m out of moves. If this doesn’t work… I’ve got nothing left. And, what’s more, there’s nothing left for me to do. All I can do is sit back and watch the tiles fall one by one and hope that they all topple according to the plan.”

“Is that so bad?” Zhan asked as he reached his hand out and stroked the skin of her neck.

“I don’t know.” Pryvani sighed. “Zhan, I’m afraid I’ve worn so many masks for so long that I really don’t know who I am without them.”

Zhan stayed silent for a long time, thinking about what his wife had just said.

Finally, he took in a deep breath. “Pryvani, you are… You are the mother of three brilliant children. You are the most amazing wife a man could have. You are generous with what you have (And that’s true whichever mask you’re wearing) …Pryvani, what else do you need to be at this point?”

“Nothing. You’re right. That’s more than enough.” Pryvani sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “We should take a vacation, when this is all through. Azatlia, maybe. I-”

Pryvani’s pad beeped urgently and she turned her attention to it.

As she read, Zhan watched her expression go from confused, to worried, to angry. All within a span of a few seconds.

“The vacation will have to wait, darling.” Pryvani said grimly. “Something terrible has happened.”

*.*.*

Emily Torgerson’s home in Prior Lake, Minnesota was quiet. This was despite the presence of two of her great-grandchildren. Of course, they were too busy watching cartoons to make much of a fuss.

Which left Emily plenty of time to read. She vastly preferred reading actual books to bringing up the text on her gool. She was grateful for the technology of course, she wasn’t a luddite, but there was no way that could replace the feel of actual paper in her hand.

So it was rather shocking when her gool abruptly flicked on and the page she was reading was obscured behind a video that suddenly appeared in her vision. It started with static that was slowly replaced with a message across a field of green and black.

And now, a message from the Titan Empire to the People of Earth.

Emily frowned as a sinking feeling developed in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes flicked to where her great-grandson and daughter were staring at the screen, confused as to why their cartoons had been suddenly preempted.

Emily had a bad feeling about this. “Jane, Michael… why don’t you go play in the den for a while?” There was no TV in there, and nothing else with a screen either. Thankfully, her grandchildren shuffled off into the other room without a fuss.

“Em? Are you seeing this!?” Emily’s wife, Julie, called from across the house.

“Of course I am!” Emily yelled back, even as she fought down the revulsion as images of humans in cages floated past her eyes. A series of loud footsteps thudded through the house as Julie appeared in the doorframe.

“What the hell is this?” Julie hissed angrily.

“Sh!” Emily admonished. “The kids are in the other room.” She was doing her best to hold down the sudden urge to vomit as she watched a man being executed in what might be the most horrific way possible. She watched as a blonde titan literally ate a man alive, and apparently just for the sake of her own- and others- titillation.

Julie let off a string of whispered invectives, but Emily was too busy analyzing the images themselves to be as upset as her wife was. That’s not to say she wasn’t upset, of course she was. But analyzing the intended message of the video kept her mind off the horrors she was being forced to witness.

“Wait, I know him…” Julie muttered as the image of Yamanu Neutha appeared on the screen. Like many others around the world, she physically recoiled as the giant hand had appeared behind him. Emily, however, had stayed firm. She’d spent far too much time video calling Rixie and Alex to be suddenly surprised by the appearance of a giant.

And then, the two of them watched in silence, as Yamanu Neutha was sent to his death along with dozens of other souls.

The video ended, her gool clicked off, and Emily collapsed into the chair behind her. She glanced over at Julie who was leaning against the table, breathing hard.

“I’m… I’m far too old to have watched that.” Julie muttered. “At least the children didn’t see anything.”

“Thank goodness for small mercies.” Emily sighed.

Julie turned her gaze on Emily, her eyes narrowed in disgust. “I can’t believe your brother is… involved … with one of those… monsters.”

Emily’s eyes widened in shock. “Julie! You’ve met Rixie. You know she’d never…”

“How much do we really know about Rixie?” Julie asked shrewdly. “We’ve spent a couple of hours with her, at most. How do we know what she’s really like?”

“Alex loves her.” Emily defended. “That much is obvious.”

“Does he? Stockholm syndrome is always a possibility. He’s been relying on her for survival for decades, after all.”

“Stockholm syndrome?” Emily scoffed. “If that were the case, if all she saw Alex as was a pet, then why bother bringing him back to Earth? Why would she need to impress us?”

“Oh come on Em, we both saw the same things in that video. Horror after horror after horror. Each worse than the last, and all perpetuated by these Titans. We just saw a man being eaten alive, Emily.”

“Yes we did.” Emily acknowledged. “And those images were undeniably horrible. And shocking. And all designed to elicit precisely the reaction you’re having right now.”

Julie’s brow scrunched. “What?”

“It’s propaganda, Jules!” Emily snapped.

Julie rolled her eyes. “Propaganda? What makes you say that?”

Emily shrugged. “Come on, I’m a journalist, I can recognize the way media is designed to manipulate the consumer.”

Julie snorted. “You were a sports reporter.”

“I still had to get a degree!” Emily snapped, her voice edged with irritation. “Think for a second. Do you believe for one solid moment that the actual Empire just sent that to us?”

“Well obviously not!” Julie rolled her eyes. “But those things weren’t faked!”

“No, I’m sure they were not faked. I’m sure, going just by what Alex has told me, that they were all too real… but why were we showed them? And why now? If the Empire didn’t send them, then who did? Who stands to gain from Earth lashing out at Archavia?”

Julie bit her lip, a worried expression crossing her features. “I don’t know.”

*.*.*

The Emergency Room sports bar in Houston, Texas was alive with raucous laughter, the music from an ancient jukebox in the corner, and- of course- the football game on the televisions. The Dallas Cowboys were going against the Texans, in the latest chapter of a rival that had lasted over a hundred years.

Right now, tensions were high as the Texans were up by a single touchdown heading into the fourth quarter, and they had possession of the ball.

But Tessa Murphy wasn’t really paying attention to that. She was more concerned with the young man sitting across the table from her, and she wasn’t talking about her idiot brother who was screaming at the screen.

The man she referred to was Dymon Tideraes. Or, rather, Decanus First Class Dymon Tideraes. And, true, he wasn’t “really” there with her. He was in New Mexico sitting in a giant box. The closest thing to “there” of him was the fist-sized holographic projector clipped to her belt. But, still, the technology was amazing, there was no way anybody would be able to tell he was a titan just by looking at him.

She reached across the table and intertwined his fingers with her own. They’d met on Titan Station when she’d been posted there six months ago. She’d heard the stories of humans “shacking up” with Titans and she’d originally scoffed at the idea, especially since it seemed like all the examples were men going after Titan women. (Of course.)

But then she’d met Dymon and… well, if love at first sight were a thing…

The noise reached a crescendo as the Texans receiver weaved his way across the field towards the endzone. He seemed to flow like water around the Cowboys defense when-

The screens suddenly blanked. Amid the shouts of anger and confusion a black and green banner appeared on the screens and in front of the eyes of every person who had a gool implant.

“What is this?” Tessa’s brother, Sean muttered.

“I don’t know…” Tessa responded in confusion. She turned to Dymon. “Do you know anything about this?”

Dymon shook his head, but he suddenly had a very bad feeling.

For the next few minutes, nobody said a word, nobody seemed to breathe. Then the Titan woman swallowed her victim and a wave out outrage ran through the room.

“We need to leave.” Sean whispered in her ear. “Right now.”

Tessa nodded and grabbed Dymon’s hand, carefully rising out of her seat. The three of them quietly filed out of the bar, making their way through a crowd of people who were transfixed on the screens in front of them.

They were almost to the door when Tessa felt someone grab her wrist.

“Hey!” She snapped, turning back to look at the woman who had her arm in her grip.

“That patch on your jacket.” The woman hissed. “That’s a Titan Station patch.”

The bottom fell out of Tessa’s stomach as, upon hearing the word “Titan” all eyes seemed to turn towards them.

“Titan?” Someone in the crowd muttered. “She must be one of them.”

“I thought Titans were big…”

“They can make themselves look human. I saw it on TV.”

Tessa, Sean and Dymon were backing towards the door, watching as the crowd of patrons turned towards them.

“Get off our planet.” Someone hissed and shoved Sean through the door.

Tessa screamed and ran to her brother, she and Dymon quickly helped him back to his feet.

“Leave us alone!” Tessa yelled angrily. “Yes I worked on Titan Station, but I’m human damn it!”

“The hell you are.” The woman who had grabbed her spat as the crowd of angry men and women poured out of the bar and into the darkened parking lot. “You’re one of those giant freaks.” The woman, who was at least four inches taller than Tessa and probably outweighed her by fifty pounds, drew back an arm to strike at her. Tessa cringed away from the incoming blow.

Before the woman could throw her punch, Dymon had moved in front of her, but rather than take her punch, the woman’s fist went right through his Avatar. The woman was thrown off-balance and fell to the ground with a surprised squawk.

“He’s the Titan!”

“Fucking aliens!”

The crowd pressed in closer. Dymon raised his arms into a defensive posture.

“Are you going to fight us, alien?” Someone standing next to Tessa laughed. “You’re going to have a hard time doing it without this.”

Before Tessa could react someone had grabbed the hologram projector and ripped it from her belt.

“No!” She screamed but it was too late, the burly man smashed the small piece of machinery against a rock, shattering it to a million pieces.

Dymon had time to send her a panicked look before he vanished from sight.

Someone grabbed her shoulder and Tessa struggled for a moment before she realized it was Sean. He dragged his sister to her feet and pushed her behind him.

“Get to the Embassy.” He snapped. “And you and Dymon get your asses off of this planet, while you still can.”

“But-”

“Go!” Sean snapped loud enough to scare Tessa into running. She looked over her shoulder to see the angry mob closing in on her very-human brother. She heard angry yells behind her and, with tears streaming down her face, she ran from the scene as fast as she could.

She only hoped that that wasn’t the last time she’d see her brother alive.

*.*.*

In his bedroom in the large family suite that the Clan called home, a young man stared at his reflection. He was pleased at the neat and tidy appearance of his uniform and the way his heavily polished rank pin of three bronze squares caught the light, making it stand out rather impressively against his all-black uniform.

True, Victor Archer-Pria was only a Probatio in the Imperator corps, which made him the low-rank on the ladder. However, the young Hybrid was able to console himself with the knowledge that he was still the equivalent of a mid-rank officer in any other branch of the military.

Not that he’d ever wanted to be in any other branch. Not since he’d been enthralled by Miss Rixie’s stories of her missions which she would tell him when he was growing up. Well, the ones she was legally able to recount, anyway.

And now, here he was, the first Hybrid in the Imperial Military.

Victor preened in front of the mirror for a moment longer, before deciding to go and find Miss Rixie and see what she thought.

Victor stepped out of his room and into the long hallway where all of his brothers had their rooms. He walked with a spring in his step through the living room and towards the door that lead out into the common areas of the compound.

However, a noise stopped him short. He heard a muffled voice coming from his mother’s office, which surprised him as he had been under the impression he was the only one home.

He crept closer and pushed the door open. The room was dark, but he could see the silhouette of his mother sitting in front of the screen. She had her back to him, and the glow reflected off her red hair and pale skin.

“Hear that folks? The little guy says his name is Charlie.” 

Victor’s stomach twisted. He recognized the audio clip Brinn was watching.

Brinn, still not realizing she was being watched, clicked on the keypad of her computer. The video clip jumped backwards.

“What’s that Charlie? You say you want me to give you a kiss?” 

Victor watched his mom in horror. He caught her reflection in the screen in front of her. Her eyes were sunken, her skin ashen, and her hands shook every time she pressed a key on her data pad. Still, she kept watching bits of the clip, over and over again.

Finally, Victor couldn’t take any more of it.

“Mom, what are you doing?!”

Brinn jumped and fumbled with the keyboard of her computer for a second before she successfully managed to close the video file. A second later, the lights in the room raised and she turned to face her son.

“Victor!” Brinn’s smile was forced and Victor was able to catch a glimpse of the tears that had been on her face before she hastily wiped them away. “I…I didn’t realize you were home, dear.”

“Mom… why were you-”

Brinn quickly crossed the room to where her son was standing. “Is this your uniform? It’s very nice looking. Have you shown Rixie yet?”

“I was just about to, but mom… that was Trell in that video…”

Brinn placed her hands on his shoulders and tried to talk over him. “Oh don’t worry about that dear, I was just…”

“Mom. Stop.” Victor spoke in his best “Imperator” voice. “Please, just answer me… why were you watching… that?”

Brinn licked her lips and swallowed nervously. “Victor… you don’t… I was just…” She swallowed again and then cleared her throat. “I just… I wanted to understand… understand why she did those horrible things.”

Victor shook his head. “Mom… you can’t. You won’t be able to understand. Trell she… she was crazy. I don’t know what made her that way, and neither do you. But she’s dead now… let her go.”

Brinn shuddered and looked into the rose-colored eyes of her oldest son. “I’ve tried.” She mumbled. “I’ve tried to leave her buried in the past. But every time I think I’ve finally managed to let the horrible things my sister has done go… something like this happens and everything just comes right back.”

Victor nodded. He knew the feeling. They all did. Every one of his siblings felt the sting of “Aunt Trell’s” legacy, but none more than Victor and his biological brother and sister. He felt the worse for his sister Yurea, because she somehow managed to inherit their Aunt’s golden colored hair… though Victor suspected that was more because of her father Taron’s genes than Brinn’s.

With a sigh he drew his mother into a hug. “Mom… you can’t change what happened. And you’re not responsible for what your sister did. All we can do is move forward from here.”

Brinn sobbed and pulled away from her son. “It’s not just that. When Trell was arrested by Rixie… she said something to me. She said we weren’t that different. And… I don’t know… I wasn’t the best person to your father when we first met so I can’t help but wonder if… If things had just been a little different, would I have turned out like her?”

Victor shook his head. “No.”

“You don’t know that.” Brinn responded, leaning against her desk.

“No, mom, I know you.” Victor persisted. “And I know how much Dad loves you, and you love him. You never could have hurt him like…” He gestured to the blank screen. “Like that. It’s not you.”

Brinn smiled sadly. “It’s a good thing you got your hair from me… and your smarts from your father.”

Victor chuckled and ran a hand through his short, red, hair. “Yeah, and my eyes from grandma. I know.”

Brinn sighed and pushed away from her desk. “Okay… I’m done wallowing. You should go show Rixie your uniform now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Brinn chuckled and wiped a tear from her eye. “But thank you… for everything, Victor.”

Victor smiled and turned towards the door. “Anytime, Mom.”

But as Victor turned to leave the room, he didn’t see the smile on Brinn’s face crack, just a little. Nor did he see the deep well of pain in her ocean colored eyes.