ARRKEN KNIGHTS

"Let's get to the point, what do you want with me?" Cillian asked in a defeated tone.

"Don't make it sound like a bad thing. You are lucky that we found you first. Don't overestimate your disguise and think that you would go unnoticed. An S grade garners more attention than you think. If the bastards from the Foundation got to you first, then it would've been a disaster," the director explained as if they were doing Cillian a favor.

"You mentioned that we have a common enemy. Is it the Foundation?" Cillian asked curiously.

"Yes and no. Before James saw your past, we didn't even know about this 'Constella Foundation.' But when we did a little digging, we found a curious connection between this foundation and an organization we're constantly pursuing. Further investigations have led us to the conclusion that they are working together," the old man explained.

"The Arrken Knights," Cillian unconsciously uttered.

"How did you know that!" Director James jumped up from his seat.

Cillian expressed a genuine smile on his face. "Your past-seeing abilities are not so good after all. You can only see snippets into my past, not the whole story, I assume? Let me fill you in on some details. I don't know much about the Arrkens, but what I can tell you is the Foundation isn't working with the Arrkens—they are Arrken!"

Everyone was shocked by this revelation, but Cillian continued. "The Foundation, the Arrken Knights, they are the same entity. The foundation in charge of resources while the arrkens does the executions. I was supposed to be transferred to Arrken as soon as I awakened my resonance as a part of a special unit. Unfortunately for them, they miscalculated with me, and they will pay dearly for that," Cillian said with a grin.

"The Arrkens are a bigger threat than you think. They were founded during the height of the human civil war and grew exponentially as an anti-war organization. They had extensive support among the people who were tired of the constant war and suffering. After the civil war, they declared themselves as enforcers of peace. Whenever a state started a conflict—internal or external—the Arrkens would appear and try to undermine the government in order to stop the war. This may sound very heroic, but their actions are anything but that. In order to pressure the governments, they incite rebellions, attacks against government facilities, kidnapping, and even public executions of people they deem as unfit for society. They are a bunch of terrorists enforcing their own rules and calling it the people's will. The sad part is that most of the population believes in them. As a result, we have almost zero public support in chasing them down. They became such a nuisance that even all the human states came together to pool their resources into hunting them down, and the intelligence division was tasked with finding info about them."

The old man said with a frustrated look.

"Knights, huh? What a joke! They are advocating peace through terrorism," Elena scoffed.

" Oh They are doing much worse than that. They have devised a successful method of brainwashing normal people and pioneers!" Cillian said in a low voice.

"Brainwashing pioneers! That's a taboo under intergalactic pioneer law! After the Artimia incident, all researchers pertaining to brainwashing or the creation of artificial pioneers were categorized as taboo by the DPMC and acknowledged by all human states. If anyone is found breaking this taboo, it will prompt a joint response from all states, and the involved party will be eliminated completely," Elena blurted out .

Cillian had also heard of the Artimia incident before. The incident was named after the planet Artimia, which hosted a research facility secretly doing experiments on pioneers in order to mind control them into perfect soldiers. But unfortunately, a B-grade pioneer who was brainwashed went rogue and went on a rampage. It took 3 B-grades, along with more than a hundred C-grades, to finally put down the rampaging pioneer—not before he killed more than a billion people, thousands of pioneers, including a B-grade, and caused trillions in damage. More than half of the planet was reduced to rubble. This incident caused a massive uproar among both normal people and pioneers. The people accused the pioneers of being too dangerous, while the pioneers protested being exploited. This forced all the states to rethink using pioneers as just weapons of war. As a result, the new law came into effect, banning all experiments on pioneers, tampering with their resonance and mind, along with stopping all attempts to create or clone pioneers. All states agreed to uphold this law, but everyone doubted how long it would last. Surprisingly, there hasn't been a single incident since then, assuring the people that at least the states are not involving citizens anymore, even if they did experiments secretly. Cillian also thought that way until he was in the situation himself.

"There is more. I was codenamed ZETA, and according to the wonderful doctor who brainwashed me, I was just next in line to be sent to the arrkens to join the special unit. In the worst-case scenario, there were other successful cases before me and after me. What's even worse, they may all be flux users," Cillian said in a laid-back tone.

"Wait, a unit entirely made of flux users?" James asked in a panic.

"Maybe, maybe not. I wasn't exactly in a position to ask while being brainwashed and experimented upon," Cillian said sarcastically.

"The boy is right; we can't eliminate the possibility. I will look into it as soon as I get back to HQ. So, does this mean that you are accepting our proposal to join us?" the old man inquired.

"Do I have a choice here? It's either join you and exact my revenge or live under house arrest for the rest of my life, isn't it?"

"I wouldn't say exactly that, but you got the gist of it. So, what will it be?" James asked.

"Well, the only reason I choose to walk this path is to destroy the Foundation. If joining means that I have a better chance at doing it, then count me in. But I need your assurance that I will personally take care of some of the people we will encounter," Cillian said in a stern tone. While his face didn't show much emotion, everyone in the room understood the meaning behind his words.

"Agreed!" The old man answered without a second thought. Elena wanted to protest her grandfather's decision, but seeing the hatred in Cillian's eyes, she didn't voice her opinion.

Cillian was satisfied with the reply. He was now one step closer to exacting his revenge. His heart rate raised for a moment, thinking about his revenge, before settling back down.

"So, what will I be doing for the DPMC?"