After Paul had spoken his words, reality hit them in the face. They really had to make a decision about this, and as a group no less, but how would that be possible? It would be fine if the people in the room were all they had, but many of them had family to take care of.
And once again the room had fallen silent. Paul was now seeing the cracks in this team's foundations. They couldn't have all known each other for long. The school system didn't allow it. Yet they had to trust each other so much.
This proved that Quinn, at the moment, was still not fit to be a leader. If so then Paul would have made a second suggestion to them all, but now was not the time for it. The fact that Quinn hadn't suggested this himself proved it as well.
"I guess I will start again." Paul said. "I think we should rule out going to the military as an option. The people who are in power there will keep their positions till no end. You would have to start from the bottom and there wouldn't really be much we could do to influence or change anything.
"At first I thought maybe I could use my position of power, but the way things are I don't think that's possible anymore. They would most likely ask me to lead a team and send me to these expeditions where they hunt for beasts.
"They would find out in an instant I no longer had my ability. It would be a tough one to explain and even if I could, in times like this I would be demoted from my position. Joining the military won't be advantageous for any of us."
It was one option down, but for some reason Quinn didn't feel it had gotten any easier, and the tension in the room felt heavy.
'Should I just pick one at random? We could always change after finding out whatever we could. But what if that faction gets weaker? What if I made the wrong choice?' The weight felt heavy on his shoulders. He didn't expect to come back to all this so soon.
"Quinn, maybe we should do our own thing." Vorden said.
Lifting up his head, Quinn couldn't understand what Vorden was suggesting.
"I mean this in more ways than one. You have to return to the vampire world eventually. Your position isn't with any of these places." Tensing his fist and taking in a deep breath, Vorden had prepared himself. "I think I'm going to need to do my own thing anyway. With all this happening I need to return to my family. See what's happened to them."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtQuinn wanted to say something. This whole time Vorden had been by his side no matter what. Even when they had gone to the vampire world, and Quinn didn't want to take him, he had refused to take no for an answer. Yet, now for the first time he was saying he wanted to leave.
"We can come with you!" Quinn said.
"No, you can't Quinn." Vorden replied. "Not this time. There are others you need to think about as well."
During his time as a vampire, Quinn managed to learn how to listen to a heartbeat quite well. In a way he could tell how someone was feeling based on this. Right now, he knew Vorden wasn't going to change his mind.
"Actually Quinn, it's the same for me as well." Logan perked up. "I was thinking about going back to my family in the first place. I hadn't seen them during the summer and there are things I want to ask. My family lives on one of the planets owned by the Bree family. While I'm there I can give you as much information from that powerhouse as possible."
After hearing something like that, he couldn't ask Logan to stay. It would only be selfish of him. His head naturally turned towards the girls, as it looked like they wanted to say something as well.
"We want to join the Pure faction." Layla said, thinking it was the perfect time to let him know. "After hearing what they said, me and Cia had already talked about it. It will be safe for us, but not for you guys."
A saddened look was on Quinn's face. Was everyone going to leave him? He hadn't realised it until now but it was really hurting him. Before he had no family, he was an orphan for the longest time with no friends.
"Look Quinn, we're not leaving you." Layla said. "Just like how we left Leo and Erin back in the vampire world. We are all going to return."
After everyone had voiced their concerns and wishes, there was much discussion. Some of the others were worried for Layla and Cia, but she assured them they would be okay. In the end, it looked like the split would happen no matter what.
Surprisingly, Quinn thought that maybe Kazz would have said something about this. In fact he was hoping she would. With Logan and Vorden splitting, they were two humans she could no longer keep an eye on.
However, she said she was told only to follow one person, that person being Paul. Wherever Paul would go she would go as well.
With the decision made, they needed to decide a few things. First, what to do with the large ship. It was far too large for them to take it to any of the planets or such without causing a scene.
Again Paul had come up with a good suggestion. There was no need to. The ship was mainly powered by beast crystals, and for now they had plenty on board. They would need to gather more at a later point somehow but they didn't need to worry about that right now.
His suggestion was for one of them to stay on board the ship at all times. Logan could create an autopilot device. As well as a system that would make the controls of the whole ship much simpler. They could keep it drifting out in space in a no zone. A place that no one owned or would bother to look for them.
On the large ship, there were smaller spaceships inside the storage unit which they could use to travel with instead. Then they would purchase teleporters and whatever they had they could bring back to the main ship. They would essentially treat this large ship as their home or base drifting out in space, moving to and from.
As for the person who they had chosen to stay with the ship, they had two choices. It would either be Fex, or Peter. They could choose from them whenever they needed to.
However, when Fex was suggested, he complained nonstop about the idea. Saying if he knew he was going to spend his life on a ship, he would have just stayed back on the vampire planet.
In the end, Peter was selected as the person for this role. He didn't voice any concerns because he wasn't there to voice any.
Before all of this was to happen though, they needed to find some way to return the others to the places they needed to be. According to the information that was given from Bugen, the earth teleporter stations were seen as a neutral zone.
Everyone decided to leave them as they were, allowing for Wanderers, Travelers and faction members to go where they wished.
So a plan was finally made. First, they would find a place to leave the large ship on earth to start with while Peter would look after it. Then they would head to the closest earth station using one of the smaller spaceships inside.
There, each person would depart ways. If they needed to contact each other they could do it. Logan had hooked up the spaceships communication device to work with the masks. No matter where they were they could get in contact with the large ship at any time.
Then heading out to space, it was up to the rest of them to decide where to go from there. Which faction to possibly join.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThere was no timeframe given, but it was clear that for Layla and Cia at least, they wouldn't be able to just come back whenever they wished. While Logan and Vorden would perhaps be able to move more freely, going back to the ship and their families and meeting with the others from time to time.
The first to leave the room out of everyone after the talk was over was Quinn. "I'm going to get some rest." He said. "I'll see you all tomorrow."
His eyes looked dead, and everyone felt a little strange. They hadn't seen him like this before.
"We have no choice, everyone is fighting against each other." Logan said. "This is best for everyone and Quinn as well."
No one replied and one by one people started to leave the room, until there was only Vorden, Paul and Kazz who had remained to keep an eye on Paul.
"There was something you looked like you wanted to say earlier." Vorden asked. "As if there was another option?"
Paul was right, this boy was very perceptive indeed. It was making him wonder how much this boy had gone through in his life to be this way. Someone like this, wasn't trusting of others at all.
"Of course people always have a choice. My final suggestion was going to be to not join any faction." Paul replied. "Start your own. Invite those you care about to join. Use this ship as the headquarters. With enough of us and enough power, we could compete with the others as well. We may be smaller, but that just means we can make decisions quicker and act faster.
"But for that, you need a leader fit to take the role, Quinn is not fit to take that role."
Everyone had gone to sleep, and that night Quinn struggled to sleep more than ever. In the middle of the night towards the morning, a certain scent started to hit his nose. It was a scent he knew and his eyes immediately popped open.
He threw the bed sheets away, and bolted towards the smell.
"No! No! No! No!" Quinn said in a panic.
When he finally arrived he was in one of the other rooms. It was completely covered in blood splattered everywhere. On each of the men a clean cut on the neck.
The three men including lieutenant Bugen had been killed, and Quinn had a good idea who it was .
"Kazz!"
*****