(BL) Taming the Field Guide

Elder Ellis did poke Rhys a bit more after that, asking him some probing questions while quite a few of the Espers looked awkwardly away. Kellen liked it, even if it did mean that they weren’t able to get more of the Espers to hang themselves on their words again.

Of course one of the things that Elder Ellis asked for clarification on was when Rhys spoke about manufactured Guides. That was when anger washed over Kellen, Rhys’ and Sergei’s face. Sergei and Rhys shared a long, passionate look debating who should speak on it, but they both turned to Kellen.

He had to be the one to speak on it. They were his people, after all, and he was the one who had spent the most time with them outside of Rhys. Kellen sighed heavily.

"We weren’t fully honest with everyone, and for good reason." Kellen stared at Elder Ellis, watching him, wondering how he would react. "Currently, in our city, we have probably 5 S Class Guides." Gasps went around the room. Even Elder Ellis looked shocked. "One of them is my brother, so if you get any funny ideas I will shoot you." Kellen said honestly. Kellen didn’t care to clarify either. "The reason why we hid this is twofold. One, it’s not safe for any of them to be revealed, myself included, and two, their origins are mysterious, even to us." Kellen glanced at Sergei, pulling his eyes away from Elder Ellis. "Or, they would be, if I didn’t have a best friend who’s recently returned to his hometown."

"Guide Kellen, what are you getting at?" Elder Ellis asked, a true horror of understanding seeming to come into his eyes. He knew something, and whether that was a good or a bad thing, he wasn’t sure. Kellen didn’t like knowing that Elder Ellis might understand what Kellen was getting at, but then again, it wasn’t as if Brent’s family had acted without help. How else would a family that didn’t have an Esper or Guide in their family line get so rich and famous?

Kellen didn’t get up, he stayed where he was. He took strength in Rhys at his side, especially as he worried how this would be heard and received. It wasn’t even his story to tell, but it was clear that some of the Espers that were sitting on the fence needed more evidence against the E.A.G. and those who worked for them.

"What I am getting at, Elder Ellis, is this. The E.A.G. has been manufacturing Guides, children, and using them. They’ve probably been killing any that were ’failures’ since we haven’t heard a damn thing, and we found a bunch of them when we saved Gunther, our Lieutenant, from their clutches. Amongst them were children, awakened children, who were S Classes. Now, Rhys has explained to me what you consider creates S Classes, so I just want all of you to sit with that information and tell me why children as young as 7 or 8 are awakening as Guides?" Kellen demanded, his voice growing tight with anger.

There were several looks of horror around the room. Several of the more emotional Espers had their mouths covered, tears in their eyes. While Elder Ellis also looked horrified, he leveled Kellen with a look that told him he had to ask the next question.

"Guide Kellen, while that is horrifying to hear, I fail to see how you are so confident that they were able to do such a thing. As far as I am aware, all of the tests to create Espers failed." He said and Kellen gave a loud laugh. He was right when he said Esper, that was for sure.

"Yes, that is true. The Esper trials failed." Kellen told him, a bitter smile on his face. "But my best friend and partner, who has been for three years and is well into his twenties, is the first success story of creating a Guide by blending genetics." Kellen told him, no pride in his voice. "Not only that, they are an A Class Guide." Kellen said. "Their family are also corrupt as all hell, but that is neither here nor there. I feel a normal family wouldn’t attempt to do this to a child, anyways."

Elder Ellis stumbled, the first time news seemed to impact him heavily. A few of the faster Espers moved to him, helping him sit down. The air in the room was cold, Kellen could see his breath, and he knew it was from all of the S Classes experiencing their own inner turmoil.

Sergei couldn’t remain alone on the other side of the room. Not when they were speaking about Brent in such vague terms. He came over and Kellen didn’t even hesitate to offer him a spot on the couch. Rhys scooted over too. They sat together as the rest of the room grappled with the bomb that Kellen had dropped on them, and he wasn’t done. He could feel his anger rising again at the crimes that the E.A.G. had committed, even if Kellen didn’t have full proof. Charlie existing was proof.

What they had been doing, so insidious and cruel, forcing him to guide until he was literal bones and organs, was a crime. How they had infiltrated a Guiding Center was also a sign. Kellen didn’t even know how much rot they were going to have to get rid of in these cities knowing what they had gotten rid of and what they would still have to get rid of.

"That’s not the worst part." Kellen said. "Though I do believe child murder is one of the most heinous things anyone can do, they are also brainwashing the kids. Forcing them to think that what they are doing to them is normal. My brother was the same before I saved him from his circumstances." Kellen told them. "He was told he was a C Class Guide, he was underage working in a sanctioned Guiding Center. If I hadn’t had a meeting with the manager of the Center over some personal matters, I never would have known. I never would have been able to save him. He would have died and that would have been another death on their hands." Kellen said. Rhys squeezed his waist, as Sergei sighed loudly.

"Kellen’s partner isn’t involved. While he is the product of what they did, and the proof that there was some kind of success that could be achieved, he was shunned by his family and abused. He ran away to our city so that he could escape them and is only back because his grandfather passed away and now there is a succession issue. The issue being that he’s alive and everyone else wishes that he wasn’t." Sergei growled.

Kellen had wanted to keep Brent’s identity under wraps. He did not want to make it obvious who it was, but Sergei wasn’t about to hold back. Brent was his, and he didn’t want any of these fools to target him. So, Kellen was a little confused as to how revealing who Brent was was going to protect him.

The realisation of who Brent was was coming to most of the S Classes here. They knew Brent’s family name better than Sergei, Rhys and Kellen did. They hadn’t known that Brent’s features were typical for family members from that family, so they wouldn’t have been able to tell that a one-armed man with blonde hair and green eyes and scars was a James. They also didn’t care.

However, the others did, and it was clear that if people hadn’t considered that everything was so connected, they were understanding just how long the E.A.G. had been working.

"How old is your...brother, Guide Kellen?" Elder Ellis asked after catching his breath and calming himself. Kellen frowned. How old was Charlie? He didn’t care about his age much, more about his well-being.

"Probably...19? 20 at the most? He’s a child." Kellen confirmed and Elder Ellis let out a heavy sigh.

"I would agree. That is underage for working at a Guiding Center, at least in my city as well. I know that some allow 19 at the youngest, but I take it your city doesn’t?" He suggested and Kellen nodded. "And this...partner of yours. They wouldn’t happen to be a...James, would they?" Kellen stared at Elder Ellis for a long moment without responding.

"Who he is or isn’t doesn’t matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. I just wish his brother would fucking leave him alone. It’s not his fault that his grandfather left everything to him because he could see the forest for the trees and knew he was a fucking psychopath. I bet the old man even knew that he was working with the E.A.G. but that these were the consequences of his own actions. Don’t go against nature and you won’t have to face the consequences." Kellen said with a shrug.

Sergei exhaled, low and slow.

"He’s innocent in all of this. A victim, actually, since he was a child. He wasn’t born with only one limb, it was taken from him." Sergei growled, protective. Elder Ellis watched as the trio confirmed without words who they were speaking about, while also making it clear that he wasn’t up for them to discuss freely. They were protecting the new head of the James family, the one that had conflicting reports about who he was and had been while he was living in the city and away.

However, if he had been acting as Kellen’s partner, there was no way that the reports about him being weak were true.

Elder Ellis stared at the trio, their eyes all monstrous, delivering blow after blow, and wondered what was different about them? What had made it so that they were the ones who had kicked the E.A.G. out of their city? What was so different about them that they had been able to do what other cities hadn’t been able to?

He was coming up blank, and it was just as well that the two Espers who had gone out to clear up their differences came back after all of this had been said.

They were bleeding heavily, blood dripping onto the concrete floor, and one the S Class Healers approached and began to patch them up. The one who had agreed with the E.A.G. spat blood on the floor, scanning the room grimly.

"What’s with the fucking tension? What happened after we left?" He asked and before Elder Ellis could answer another Esper spoke up. One who had been silent until now.

"We found out that not only had genetic modifications of humans have been performed successfully, but that the E.A.G. has had access to it and has created their own army of Guides just for themselves." She cleared her throat. "Children, to be clear, that they are killing." The man who had been so staunchly defending the E.A.G., who had just gone outside to fight against another Esper because he believed that they were right, paled of all colour.

"What?" He asked, horror coating his words.

"It’s true. There are a group of supposed victims that were rescued from the most recent raid the Truant region completed to eliminate them. They’ve kept them hidden because not only did they create Guides, but they created S Class Guides." She slid her gaze to Kellen. "If Guide Kellen is to be believed, they were created using the same methods that the James family has been hypothesized using to keep control of the city. They sold that to the E.A.G. without a second thought." She seemed to have a good grasp of the situation, even knowing the name of the family that Kellen wasn’t saying.

The Esper, who was now being healed, turned to look at Kellen. He met Kellen’s hard gaze, and flinched.

"I-I didn’t know. Thinking that Guides are inferior is one thing, but harming children...I would never condone that." He told him, told the room, and Kellen believed him. He looked sick to his stomach. He’d thought he was fighting for people who were a little twisted, not actual monsters.

After all, children didn’t go into gates. The children were innocent. That was one rule that hadn’t really changed in the hard times either. If the E.A.G. had not only crossed the line into killing others, but using and killing children, very few people would condone that.

It was upsetting that Kellen had to reveal that to get others to agree with him, but if he had to do that to paint the true picture of their evil, so be it. He just hoped that Charlie forgave him for revealing his existence like this.