A - ζ - Θ - Ι - Ο - Υ

Brutus the basilisk gazed upon the wide octagonal chamber, tall and dark with flaming braziers burning in all 8 of its corners. The ceiling towered into a black abyss above, tall and imposing as it swallowed the smoke from below.

Tattered black banners hung from the walls, depicting a flanged silver helmet accompanied by two open claws, ready to snatch up any unfortunate soul who looked upon them. At the heart of the room was a huge table of jet black stone, carved with the full map of the Nine provinces of Marte.

At each flat of the octagon were 13 tall podiums where bodies would gather to doubtlessly plan and tact. however, a mere 5 of those thirteen were attended.

Brutus nearly recoiled at the Figures who shifted to meet her and Nyx then, never before had she encountered such strange creatures.

Their appearance sent shivers down Brutus' spine, but she held fast and in her morbid curiosity she examined the Five who left their podiums to line before them.

"Our captain has returned." The beastly voice crackled from the small but heavily armoured male who clambered forth in a wild and quiver gate.

He wore little... she regretted that but thanked that he was mostly shrouded in his heavy cloak of Black and yellow dotted fur; a shame that it was fused to his skin.

It was attached to his entire back and fell down as a hood and cloak to shroud his bent-over posture.

...And yet, Brutus could see his misshapen bulky arms that shook unnaturally, and the bloodthirsty clawed fingers that were covered in gloves of sharpened steel.

They were massive she realised, each paw five or ten times bigger than her hands or the others.

His face was clamped into an iron muzzle, a heavy visor had been grafted to his eyes and cheeks, an ominous yellow light shined through the minuscule holes as his fur covered the majority of his top half.

His heavy boots made little sound as he moved, and his breeches of hard leather was polished so clean that it too made nary a scratch with the movement of his crooked legs.

Brutus was disturbed, how could such a creature be?

"There was no question." The woman, if you could call her that, shambled towards Brutus. She was warped and twisted, with arms that flopped loosely, her chest skeletal and unusually pronounced, the air felt unpleasant around her, her head eraptured in a tall helm of quivering bronze, bulbous and round with only a single eyehole, abyssal and empty.

She too was cloaked but in wide mantle dotted with long bronze quills, sharp as knives. Her back twisted and quivered as she bowed.

The.... Man who bowed next... Brutus refused to look at him, and was glad that he was covered head to toe. She felt as if seeing the humungous figure neath his thick robe of black leathers with unnatural buldges fringing from the shoulder and lkneecaps.

He did nothing but grunt in silent acknowledgement.

"Enough. We have little time to waste on your Pleasantries." Nyx cut in marching past her Majesty's most "Sacred" Warriors as if they were nothing.

She walked up the stairway towards the second highest podium at the table.

Brutus however did not move... and neither did the Beastly beings that continued to look on her, like dogs gazing for the word of their master.

"They... obey me, and me alone... but if I am a mere captain... she is the general, how could I possibly have more power than she?"

"Come then..." Brutus whispered, and her Centurions, her black legion, did as she bid, as if it were from the lips of god himself.

Brutus moved on feet, ghostly silent on those steps of black glass, she acended the Hidden Centurim and perched at the highest stand hesitantly, at Nyxs beckoning.

And so there she was, at the forefront of this council, without a clue of how or why she would be directing it. Maybe... she shouldn't be here? why was she here and not discovering who she was, what she was... something was very wrong with these people, and very wrong with her, perhaps if she could just discover what was going on here--

YOU WILL OBEY.

A deep sense of dread filled her, as the words **** themselves from her lips.

"Report." Her voice boomed from above, filling every inch of the room.

The Fourth Figure arose, and looked up with her eyeless feathered mask. Brutus felt zero curiosity, it was as if a numbness had sealed off the warmth in her blood, the worry and fear that flooded through her, she could barely stay fully grounded in reality.

"Captain, permission to speak." Out of the five present, this one had a clearer more natural tone.

"Granted." She answered.

"We fear that our numbers are pitiful in your eyes, Captain. Three and Four attend to the aristocracy to the North and south, Ten, battles with the Rebellion to the east... But-"

"Speak clearly, Omicron-Eleven. You doubtlessly wish to ask for your fellows who journeyed with our Alpha-One within the peralious red sea, do not waste our time by dancing around it." Nyx spat with a narrow gaze.

The Centurion with the feathered helm, remained silent, but the Fifth centurion did not.

"With the highest of respects, dear general, we had entered with the expectation that our Captain would return with Beta-Two, Epsilon-Five and Sigma-Six in tow... You of course realise that we worry also for tick-tock, Yes of course, Omega-thriteen had ventured to find you, after we had heard that the Griffin of Blades was nearing closer to the Litchen Savage's eye of Ares."

Brutus paused, Tick-tock... Omega-Thirteen, the name seemed to deeply unsettle her. But then again she had no memory of ever crossing the Southern border into the Red sea, and so could not account for her missing bethren who has supposedly gone with her.

Nyx curled her lips at the final Centurion... she was different than the others, coheraint... pleasant in an unnatural sort of way.

"The where abouts of your agents are-" Nyx started, but she did not finish.

"Sigma-six has perished." Brutus spoke suddenly... there was a silence "Beta-Two and Epsilon-Five escaped the battle, they were not amoung the wounded. Omega... I do not know. But the Griffin of blades has escaped, and the Son of War did not come." She could never get used to this, it all just spilt out, none of it was solid memory.

The others looked to her quietly "Sigma-Six was a unstable fool, we are lucky to be rid of that filth." Theta-Eight spoke, the quills on her mantle shimmering as she spoke.

"A Centurion of the Black Legion has not fallen in many a year, our brotherhood is incomplete, a fractured whole is no whole at all." Spoke Omicron-Eleven, the most coheraint of them.

"Ghmmm." The largest; Iota-Nine responded in subtle agreement.

"How ridiculous, Her Majesty's immortal Centurions scattered and divided. The Empress will not be pleased." Nyx noted, shaking her dark head.

The Beastly Centurion; Zeta-Seven shot up from his seat "We will not suffer you, Nyx. We adhere to the word of our Captain and our Empress alone, the Faith Militant requires little approval from you and your pathetic Steel-handed fools!" His voice was a roar now, a screaming madness.

"Be silent, filthy beast. We beat with the heart of one unit, one soul, Zeta-Seven would have known this, but you are nothing but a screaming monster."

The air grew heavy, as Brutus felt a darkness inside, it raptured at her stomach, and burned at her skin. The air became heavy as the flaming braziers began to flicker. The Centurions quivered at this, as they felt the pressure building like dread in the air.

All lowered their heads and remained silent as the Captian rose from her chair and pointed with her taloned finger.

"Silence." her whisper was a commandment branded on the entire room. None spoke again. She was their leader, they would obey her or die. it made little difference. "General Nyx. Sigma-Six will need to be replaced."

The General smiled deeply and darkly "Of course, Lady Bassilisk, It will be done."

"Do so without pause, Beta-Two and Upsilon-Five will be tracked down and accounted for, any desertion will be met with met with ****. Am I Understood?"

"With Clarity, My lady." Nyx responded, bowing low.

None of them had the right to challenge her, she wondered why it was that they did not choose to disobey her?

"Very well. Now, we will hear what our Empress has summoned us for, only then will we discuss on Omega-Thriteen."

General Nyx arose from her seat at the podium, as Brutus allowed it. "Our esteemed Empress has felt your absence, Lady Basilisk. Compliance amoung the houses have fallen into termoil in the past months... and Rebellion continues to seed , even under our noses."

The talkative Centurion; Upsilon-Twleve, shimmered with disgust "Dearest General, You cannot possibly be insinuating that the Rebels dared to try and establish a foothold, In the capital?"

"That is exactly what I am insinuating, although it seems that these... males who have reportedly gathered in the Black wards of Olympia, are actually Varoon."

Varoon? the word conjured images of the ****-smiths in the hall beyond the Centurium, a front to keep those who do not belong away.

"Male-Filth." Theta-Eight spat.

"I will tare them apart myself, for this insult to our Empire." Zeta-Seven growled.

But Brutus held out a silenceing hand.

"What forces have they gathered?" Brutus asked.

Nyx was straight as a musket barrel, she held fast and looked especially venemous in that moment "The Varoon scum are said to have a hundred strong bodies, they reside in the Black Ward protected by the front of a wood workers mill. Our agents managed to infiltrate their numbers, and report that they move supplies Southward in alliance with the ****-Rebellion. We have uncovered Food and drink, weapons, paraphinalia, all of the above, stashed with the Arch-wood meant for our Warships." Nyx peered at the Centurions eerily, but settled on Brutus "Her Majesty has beckoned the Iron Banner."

There was a silence, not of dread, but of mild excitement.

The Largest of them, Iota-Nine, stood promptly and growled out a sound that resembled grinding gears.

"I too volunteer, I tire of handling these complacent little noble squabbles. Dear Captain, if you would issue the command, we would see that every rebel and Male-scum was purged." Upsilon-Twelve offered.

"And I, Captain." Zeta-Seven readily volunteered, He seemed especially bloodthirsty.

Nyx looked on expectantly "Is that, your order? Lady Bassilik?"

But she did not have time to answer, as her ears pricked up. Hands pressed against the doors, and in a swift motion they swung open, screaching as they did. All turned to see who had entered.

Boom, boom, boom, its feet clanged like the hammers outside as it walked in, a gigantic twisted mass cloaked in a shaowy cape that was dusted and tattered, two heavy stump emerged from it's hood, but it's face was also obscured by a mask, solid and rectangular, it shambled in, making horrible sounds like pipes being blown through, and a subtle ticking sound as it's form (even bigger than Iota-Nine) shook as it gleamed with the splatterings of black blood that coated its twisted body.

It wore little armour, and so Brutus did not look at what was hidden bellow, she barely looked at all, as a low-panic shook her bones, the sight of this centurion managed to dispell the numbness as a full splintering fear began to fill her.

"Omega-Thirteen, How lovely of you to join us, we thought you dead." Nyx spoke with a warped delight.

"Omega-Thirteen... I... I need to leave."

"You look a lot worse for wear, the red sea must be truly perilous to have done such damage to you?" Upsilon-Twelve noted.

Brutus wanted to run, wanted to hide, but her body would let her. But as the Empty yellow eyes of Omega-Thirteen rested on her, is when she truly felt the dread.

It did not speak, there was silence as it ticked and spasmed, for a moment, Brutus expected it to yell to scream to jump her and kill her... but it did not, it merely continued to stare, as it shambled along over to it's podium, never once taking its eyes off of her.

"Lady Basilisk? are you not joyful to see one of your brotherhood has survived? Tick-Tock ventured after you to ensure your return, a loyaler dog you have never possessed." The General spoke spitefully and sarcastically, but Brutus was not concerned.

She peered at Omega, and it peered back at her.

Standing promptly, Brutus spoke sharply "You will act on your orders, Find the others, replace Sigma. I will handle the Rebels alone."

Most were silent, but Zeta burst with outrage as the Captain immediately left her seat, her legs moving with the fear of her newly come compatriot.

"What folly is this? you must not go alone, I must have bloodshed, we have lingered in your absence, Captain, I must taste rebel blood, I am no democrat like that fool The Gorgan." He pointed at Upsilon who merely folded her arms quietly.

The Beast continued to rise, moving to get out of his seat to confront Brutus who choose to neither hear him nor see him. Iota tried to grasp his comrade but the Beast slipped out his grasp and approached.

"Zeta-Seven, sit down!" Nyx commanded fiercely.

"I am the Beast of the Brass Ministry, the Killer and ripper and tearer, I will taste blood, I will not suffer thi--"

The air once again became heavy... but no one felt it's weight like Zeta-seven in that moment. Brutus was quick and efficient as the power burned inside of her, stirring like hot magma beneath the surface. Her head snapped towards him and like plucking a thorne from a flower, she reached out and pushed against Zeta's chest cavity.

The beast immediately collapsed, squirming and writhing as she continued to crush harder and harder on his protruding ribs, palpitating it's patchwork heart and whispering as He screamed.

"You will suffer me." She whispered

"Chhhh... Auuh... ch--ch---chaptiiin... mer.... mercy.... I meant.... ougghhhh no... offence." He whimpered as she **** his blood to start pushing on his false-veins.

With every inch his chest shrunk, the greater her wrath grew, cold and hard and wanting, it buldged in her chest and made her tingle between her legs, the warm glee of his potential **** exited the Monster within.

But it seemed... that monstorcity wasn't the only thing left within her shell.

The Image of a girl, with happy eyes and silky hair filled her mind, she spoke so softly and laughed with glee "...Don't be so silly. Honestly, if Mama heard you, she'd lose it. Slaves are so much lesser, and all the things they've done, they don't deserve your kindness."

"And who are you to decide that? come sit here, let me tell you something that I learned a long time ago. Tell me, have you seen a **** smile?"

"Umm, yeah of course I have, not often, maybe not real smiles but I have."

"Hmmm, then I supposed you have seen them laugh too?"

The Girl went quiet.

"They laugh like us little one, they cry like us, they live like us... and they die like us. We may have horns and we may have control, but the past is past, we are not monsters, kid. And niether are they."

Brutus stood... and let Zeta-Seven go. He gasped unnaturally and shifted quickly to prostrate at her boots "Thank you, C-Captain. I am not worthy of your mercy."

Brutus looked at him, looked at the centurions, looked at Nyx... she looked at Omega, and then without another word, she left.