“Aidan finally crossed the line,” Maria said as she looked out at all of us in the auditorium seats, “you all know I let him get away with things that normally a Phantom would be killed for. I did that because he never failed to give me near-perfect results. But now… he has betrayed us all, even those closest to him.”

She gestured over to her left where David Joseph was sitting. After pointing towards the man she then turned her attention to the front row, where I was sitting with several other Phantoms who had been close to Aidan and gestured at all of us as well. There were angry mutters all throughout the room.

“I am sentencing Aidan Colt to death. He is our highest priority target right now, every member of Chronos has been given the order to kill on sight,” Maria said as she looked at all of us, “since he came from this facility we have been tasked with hunting him down, so I am sending out a group of Phantoms to lead the chase. Sophia, you will lead this group, you know him better than most of the other Phantoms here. Spencer, Kali, and Carter… you three will go with her, the four of you should be capable of catching and killing Aidan and anyone who tries to help him, however just to be safe I am also giving you command of a small task force, fifty of our best soldiers who aren’t Phantoms. Once he’s dead, bring his head back here for confirmation of the kill.”

I stared at the woman as her words registered with me. I had never led a group of Phantoms before, Chronos stopped sending groups out after what happened with Omega Squad on their last mission. Their near failure had cost Chronos a lot. I couldn’t believe that Aidan had done all of this, I know he doesn’t like Maria, or Chronos, or any of the things we’re forced to do… but he never seemed like he would openly rebel against all of it.

“Sophia, meet me in my office so I can give you the latest information that I received about their location. That way you’ll be able to start off on the right foot,” Maria said as she walked towards the door, “everyone else get back to work, for now I won’t be sending anyone else out to kill Aidan, but your time may come, so be ready.”

The woman left the auditorium and I jumped up to follow her to her office. I saw the three Phantoms who had been assigned to help me find and kill Aidan sitting together near the doorway. When they saw me they got up as well, Kali helping support Spencer since he was still recovering from the thigh wound he had received from Aidan during his escape.

“Let’s go get that information, boss,” the injured boy said as the three Phantoms joined me.

Spencer I knew before having him assigned to my team, I had been the Phantom he was pitted against when he arrived here, he did well, I still have the scar from when he managed to steal my knife from me and slashed it across my arm. His cerulean eyes had a determined look in them, he was ready to go after Aidan so he could get back at him for betraying us. I knew why he was so bothered by Aidan’s betrayal, he had always looked up to and almost idolized him… now Aidan had turned against us, and Spencer had been directly affected by that betrayal when Aidan shot him, he wasn’t just physically hurt when that happened.

Kali I recognized because she had been part of the same group of recruits as Spencer. Other than getting taller and looking a little older, she hadn’t changed much since she got here. She still had the same dark brown, pixie cut hair, her eyes were the only thing that had changed much, they were still brown but they looked colder now… less innocent, which wasn’t surprising since she had now been a Phantom for two years.

Carter was the youngest of the four of us, only twelve, and had only been a Phantom for almost a year. He had light, olive skin and dark brown eyes that didn’t have the same broken look that most Phantoms get after being in the program for long enough. He constantly had to push the bangs of his wavy, dark brown hair out of his face. As far as I knew he had never been on a mission, and he still looked somewhat innocent which reinforced that idea. Despite not having done a mission yet I knew he was good, I had seen him practicing and training, and he was nearly as good as I had heard Aidan had been at the same age. Many people talked about his potential as a replacement for Aidan, long before Aidan became a traitor and high priority target.

“You don’t have to call me ‘boss,’” I said as the four of us walked out of the room and towards Maria’s office.

“Not comfortable with the idea of being in charge of a group that’s responsible for hunting down your friend?”

I turned and glared up at Spencer. He had an evil gleam in his eyes, but despite the evil look I could tell that he didn’t like the idea of hunting down and killing Aidan, no matter how angry he was.

“Of course I’m not comfortable with it. I’ve known Aidan since I got here four years ago, he was not only a great Phantom but he was a decent friend. Now I’ve been tasked with going after him and killing him,” I said as I continued to glare at the boy, “none of us should be comfortable with it, he’s still one of us… he’s gone through everything we have and more.”

Spencer raised his hands up in a gesture of surrender. Kali glanced between the two of us warily, as if she expected us to start fighting right here in the hallway, and didn’t know if she should side with the boy she had trained with for two years or the girl who was now her leader. Carter rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like “so much for being a team” under his breath.

“We don’t have time for this, Maria wants to see me… she didn’t say anything about you coming with me to get the information. Go get ready to leave, I’ll let you know what she tells me later,” I finished as I walked ahead of the three of them.

I knocked on Maria’s office door when I arrived, I heard Maria say for me to come in and I opened the door. The woman was sitting behind her desk scanning through something on her computer.

“Took you long enough to get here.”

“Sorry, the others made it kinda difficult to get here very fast.”

“Whatever. That’s not important,” she said as she waved her hand dismissively, “I know where Aidan and all the kids are, I’ve been tracking them with the C-Watch that they used to hack into our system.”

“How’d you manage that?”

I had always thought it was impossible to hack into a C-Watch because the newest models, like the ones we use, are connected to the DNA of the person using it to prevent them from being hacked into.

“That’s not important, all I want you to worry about is your job… your only job right now is to go after Aidan,” she said as she crossed her arms and frowned, “Aidan must die, try not to kill too many of the others with him if possible, I want them. But if it’s necessary, kill anyone who gets in your way.”

I nodded in response as I thought about everything I had learned so far. The mission seemed to be very straightforward, follow Aidan’s tracks and kill him while trying not to kill the others with him if possible… I’ve had far more complicated missions before… this one was only different because on my other missions I wasn’t assigned to kill someone I cared about, and they were never trained to be able to combat my abilities. If I have to fight Aidan one on one I’ll lose for sure. Even if the other three phantoms with me helped we would likely lose.

“Give me your C-Watch, I’ll connect our devices so that I can stay in touch with you and give you updates on their location if you need,” she said as she gestured at the device on my wrist.

I took the watch off and handed it over to her, she did whatever it was she needed to do so that I could talk to her directly, then handed it back to me.

“I’ll send you their location now, if you don’t manage to catch them there then message me and I’ll tell you where they are,” she said as she crossed her arms again, “now go get your team ready, I have the soldiers I gave you waiting in the garage, we had to hack into the trucks to start them because Aidan took all the keys. You have three trucks at your disposal, don’t turn them off and don’t lose them… it’ll take hours to get new ones hacked and out to you if the ones you’ve got are turned off or otherwise lost.”

I nodded and got up and left the room, closing the door behind me. I found my team waiting in the hallway with all their gear.

“Come on, we’re losing time, let’s get to the garage and go find them.”

Soon everyone was loaded into the trucks and I instructed some of the soldiers to start driving. I looked at my watch and found the location Maria had shared with me, it was right on the outskirts of the city, an hour away at most. We launched out of the garage and down the road after I instructed the driver where to go, the other trucks would follow. I sat down and stared down, thinking about what I would have to do once we found Aidan.

“Do you think this is as crazy as I do?”

I jerked my head up to look at who had spoken, it was Carter.

“What do you mean?”

“Us being sent to kill one of our own. It’s crazy.”

“Yeah… but he betrayed us, so we have to.”

“In the hallway you said Aidan was a friend of yours. Will you be able to kill him?”

I glanced away from him and back at the ground before responding.

“I have to b-“

“Sophia, I know you HAVE to be able to,” he said, cutting me off and causing me to look back at him, “we all HAVE to be able to… but can you do what you have to do despite the fact that he’s a friend?”

“Yes,” I answered, not quite as confidently as I wanted to.

“Maria should have given this assignment to someone else,” he said before scooting away from me and over to Spencer and Kali.

Maybe he’s right… if I'm not able to kill Aidan then I’ll fail the mission, my team, Maria, and Chronos. But I’ve known Aidan so long… and I’m not certain that when the time comes I’ll be able to take his life as easily as the targets I’ve killed before… I had no connection to them, they were just names and faces… but Aidan was different.

“If you can’t do it… don’t get in the way,” I heard Spencer whisper threateningly as he walked by me, before walking the rest of the way to the bathroom at the back of the truck.

I put my face in my hands and stared down at the floor through the spaces between my fingers. After a moment I steadied my thoughts. I would do this, I don’t want to, but I will NOT fail. Spencer came out of the bathroom and as he was walking back towards Kali and Carter I stood up and grabbed the neck of his shirt and pinned him against the wall of the truck.

“Don’t ever threaten me,” I said as I stared into his eyes, “otherwise you won’t make it through this mission.”

Soldiers looked over at us, I heard a few mutter stupid comments about “lovers quarrels” but chose to ignore them. Kali and Carter had both looked over, slightly shocked by my outbreak, but hadn’t moved.

“I am in charge of this mission and this team, Maria made that choice for a reason, sit down and shut up,” I said as I shoved him towards his seat.

The boy stumbled slightly as he tried to catch himself after the shove. He glared at me as soldiers chuckled around him. He sat down and continued to glare at me.

“Maybe you’ll be able to do it after all,” Carter said as he slid away from the other two Phantoms and back to me.

I scoffed and sat back down as well, “of course I will, it’s my job.”

We sat in silence after that. I stared straight ahead of me, determined not to let myself think about anything that was going on too hard.

“We don’t always perform well in our jobs,” Carter’s voice broke the silence suddenly, “just ask Xander about that when we see him.”

“Well I’m not Xander,” I said stubbornly, “and Aidan isn’t a friend anymore, he’s a traitor and a target. This should be easy.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” the boy whispered as he looked up at me, “just because he’s not a friend now, doesn’t mean it needs to be easy to kill him.”

“Where the hell do you stand, kid?” I asked as I looked at him in confusion.

“With myself and my team leader,” he answered confidently, “I’ve got new respect for you after that little display with Spencer… whatever you choose to do, you’ve got an ally now… if that means we kill Aidan, then we do… if it means we follow in his footsteps… I’m right there with you, and the two of us should be perfectly able to take care of these soldiers and those two.”

He glanced over at Spencer and Kali, who were talking quietly and ignoring us.

“You’re more conflicted about all of this than I am… and that is very, very conflicted. One moment you’re telling me we all have to be able to kill Aidan… now you’re saying if I choose not to kill him then you’ll do the same. You need to sort yourself out,” I stated as I scrunched my eyebrows together and looked at him.

“Yeah maybe I do,” he replied with a shrug, “but the more I think about things… the more I realize that we don’t have to do anything we don’t want to do. Chronos only has as much control as we let it have.”

I stared at him as I tried to process everything. Now I was even more conflicted than before, and it was all this little boy’s fault.

“We’ll see what happens… you may be prepared to do whatever I do, but I’m not sure the others are. They’re going to try to kill Aidan no matter what.”