Chapter 87: Kellen can never stay still

Sergei went on to give Kellen and Charlie a brief rundown of how the meeting went, and why it went so smoothly. It was simple.

Sergei and Rhys were of the same mind. The sooner they dealt with Gunther being ’missing’, the E.A.G. being in the city and the funeral for those who lost their lives in the gate, the sooner Brent could be retrieved.

And boy, was he going to be retrieved.

Kellen shifted, leaning forward as Sergei explained about Brent, his expression grim, tight. His eyes flashing with the strength of his emotions.

Kellen knew that Brent was alive. He’d seen photos and videos on him. Did he look well? No, he didn’t, but apparently, there was a lot more to it.

Apparently, Brent wasn’t just alive, he was across the ocean in the seedbed of where others assumed the E.A.G. had started. One of the older towns that had managed to survive after the gates first appeared.

Not only that, Brent was from one of the prominent families from that area. A prominent family that had started with several Espers in their line, but slowly they had failed to awaken anyone in their family line for a long, long time.

Until Brent.

Suddenly, some of the things that Brent knew began to make sense. Apparently they ran a very prominent Guild, the Chronos Guild. Kellen had heard of them because they were assholes, in his Aunt Dina’s words. They were bullies who tried to push everyone smaller than them into doing whatever they wanted.

It was unfortunate for them that Aunt Dina was in their city and wouldn’t back down to fucking anyone-her words. Which was surprising to Kellen. He would have thought that if Brent was from such a prominent family that he would have heard of him before he’d met him. It turns out, he was the black sheep of the family. Unsurprising, but the reason for it was.

“Apparently, his father cheated on his mom. That caused a huge rift between Brent and the rest of his family and thus, he was hidden from the public eye most of his life.” Sergei said, vibrating. Kellen had no doubt that the man was pissed. Kellen couldn’t even wrap his head around it.

Cheating? On his wife? What man would be able to do that? What person would be able to betray the person that they loved like that? Sergei clearly couldn’t understand it either, but he was more upset about what that had probably done to Brent, and what scars that had left him with.

Apparently, in the research that Sergei’s people had done on Brent, he’d been born with two arms, he’d lost his arm in a tragic accident that had no one in the room believing it. Brent had always laughed it off, but wouldn’t let others ask him questions about his missing arm. He’d always dodged answering.

Hearing that it was an ’accident’ made Kellen’s fingers itch, wanting to grab his gun. Rhys having hold of his one good hand prevented him from doing anything ridiculous.

The most surprising thing that Sergei told him was where Brent was at the moment. He’d been sighted more recently, only a few days ago, and where he’d been spotted? It wasn’t the Chronos Guild or anything associated with his family. It was the Phoenix Guild.

Kellen blinked, startled.

“Aunt Dina has Brent?” Kellen asked, shocked, and Sergei jerked.

“Aunt Dina?” He repeated. “You know her? You can get in contact with her? She’s been brushing off contact with us at every possible level.” Sergei sounded frustrated, and Kellen couldn’t blame him.

Kellen released Rhys’ hand, reaching for his phone and balancing it in his lap once he had it. He tried to consider what time it was there before he settled on not calling her directly. He’d just send a message and tell Sergei the outcome after.

Aunt Dina, is it true that you have Brent? Is he okay? Is he fine? We only knew that he wasn’t in the gate once I cleared it. Please tell me he’s okay and that his dumbass family haven’t hurt him. Also, how are you doing? Are you alright? We’ll be coming to pick up Brent soon once we deal with another ’problem’. Tell Brent that we’re going to get our other Lieutenant back and he’ll understand what we mean.

Kellen sent off his long message, hoping that she’d see it, and also hoping that she was asleep.

“I’ve sent a message off.” Kellen said, raising his head to meet the hopeful gaze of an S Class Esper who hadn’t heard a word from the man he was pining after. Sergei would accept that description in a heartbeat.

He was literally withering away with Brent at his side.

“Thank you Kellen.” Sergei sounded reverent when he spoke to Kellen. Rhys growled.

“Watch it.” Rhys warned and Sergei chuckled.

“Am I supposed to not thank the man who might have finally gotten me access to my Guide?” Sergei asked, before pausing. He coughed, clearing his throat. “I mean, uh, if he wants to.” Sergei stuttered, trying to backtrack from his true thoughts. Kellen laughed, patting Rhys’ chest as he did so. Comforting his Esper while laughing at the other.

“It’s alright. He’s not here, and I’m not going to shoot you for saying it a few times. I’m not foolish enough to think that your intentions are anything less than that, Sergei.” Kellen told him, smiling. Sergei still looked a little embarrassed.

With them all waiting for word from Kellen’s Aunt, the discussion turned to Gunther’s rescue. Like Sergei had suggested earlier, a mixed team was going with Rhys. This was for a couple of reasons. One, there were too many people pissed at the E.A.G. for one Guild to be allowed to go in.

Yes, the Saturn Guild had a bigger piece of the pie when it came to their anger, but the D.E.C. also had blood that they were owed from them making them a laughingstock. The Nemesis Guild also wanted a piece and the Peach Guild?

They wanted the members that they found alive. Sakura had a rather interesting plan for them, and Carlos was heavily involved in that. Kellen almost felt sorry for the members that they were going to catch.

Almost.

Two, it would hold everyone accountable. Strange, but true. If one Guild went in instead of a mix of everyone, it would mean that they couldn’t just do whatever they wanted. In theory, but it was a theory that Rhys was willing to uphold since Rhys was the one who was leading this mission.

So, a mixed team it was, and Rhys, Sergei and Lieutenant Fisher had already come up with the list of who was going. All A Class Espers, all Espers had a deep grudge against the E.A.G. and loyalty so unflinching to their Guilds that there was no way they were working for the other side.

Esper Blake was one of the Espers on the list, which surprised Kellen, but only for a moment. She would have a huge chip on her shoulder about the E.A.G. and certainly wouldn’t want them to hurt anyone else related to the Saturn Guild.

The plan was to have Sergei announce tomorrow that he was going to be doing a press conference in three days. It was going to be in front of the Nemesis Guild, which was close to the area that Kellen had seen. It wouldn’t be unusual for Rhys and the D.E.C. to be there in support, since they had been there when Kellen had done his press conference as well.

Well, it was a bit different when a Guide was doing a press conference, and his press conference had also been outside of the D.E.C., but those were just semantics. It would draw a crowd because Sergei never, ever did press conferences. The people would want to know what the Nemesis Guild wanted to talk about.

Which, in this case, was what happened to the front lines during the gate ’explosion’. After their last incident where the E.A.G. was able to turn public opinion, even for a second, against the Espers and Guides, Sergei did not want that happening again.

This was his city, they were his people, he was not about to let some fresh-faced twat come and ruin everything. Especially if they were planning to kill and hurt others. He viewed telling the civilians what was going on as a way to alleviate that problem.

Kellen wasn’t exactly sure if that was going to be true. He had a feeling that they might panic, but Sergei was ready for that as well. It wasn’t like the Espers hadn’t panicked. It was a scary situation, but now that it had been dealt with, he felt that they deserved to know what was going on.

So, that was the plan. Rhys was going to be in charge of the group that was going to attack the hiding spot of the E.A.G. in their city while Sergei held a press conference to tell the common folk what they had been up to on the front lines while the public had been unaware that their lives as they knew it could have disappeared.

All of this was happening in about…four days. Plenty of time for it to get done. Kellen wanted to smack both of them for rushing this, while also knowing that they had to. They had no idea how much time Gunther had. Kellen just hated knowing that he would not be able to help in any capacity.

Well, that was what Kellen thought until Sergei suggested something.

“Why don’t we have Kellen show up at the press conference as a surprise guest? I think it would be a great idea, and probably scare the shit out of the E.A.G. It might even get some of them to come to the press conference.” Sergei suggested. “We don’t announce it, we say nothing about it. We have the Nemesis Guild protect him with maybe your lieutenant Hill coming as well. That would get them anxious enough to get sloppy.” Sergei suggested.

Kellen could tell that they hadn’t discussed this upstairs from the way that Rhys stiffened. He knew what Rhys was going to say. Knew what Rhys wanted him to do. He also…knew that it wasn’t a terrible option.

“You could even suggest in your announcement tomorrow that you were going to have a surprise guest who was going to give a presentation on the Gate. Who better to do so than the first person who survived in the Gate?” Kellen suggested and Rhys let out a frustrated growl.

“It’s not safe.” Rhys protested and Kellen chuckled.

“The only place safe is in the tower, Rhys, and you know I’m not going to remain here. Especially when you and everyone else is risking their lives to save everyone else. I can’t stay back and do nothing, and it’s good for the people to see that I’m alive, we’ve saved people from the Gate, and honestly, I don’t think the people have ever seen an injured Guide. The cost. All they’ve seen is the perfect image that we give them. It would be good to make them think I am weak so that when we have the funeral, they aren’t prepared for me to blow their brains out.” Kellen told his Esper seriously.

Rhys was still upset, while Charlie had gone white at the casual way Kellen spoke. Sergei looked like he was trying not to laugh.

Kellen, unfortunately, had Rhys there, and begrudgingly, Rhys gave in. There was a long list of things that Rhys wasn’t going to bend on when it came to his safety, and Sergei, the cheeky bastard, said that this was good training for when he got Brent in his hands. Rhys hated that.

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