(Anubis' PoV)

     I find my way to my new room, I open the door and take in the sight of it again. The head of the bed is up against the wall directly across from the door. The bed had deep green sheets on it and a white comforter with vines that went in all directions. The wall to my right had a large window with a little bench in front of it for reading, on either side of the bench were small end tables and a coffee table sat in front of it creating a private little reading nook. A curio cabinet lined the rest of the open space of the wall, on this side of the room and bed was my empty wooden desk.

     To my left the whole wall floor to ceiling has bookshelves built into it, I knew that the bookcase had hidden entrances. One for the bathroom which was closer to the door, the other was our closet which was closer to the head of the bed. On this side of the bed sat Rose’s desk, I walk over to it and look at some of the decorations. Her utensils holder is made of clay and looks handmade, I pick it up and find there’s little grooves on the bottom. I flip it over making sure to hold onto the utensils so they don’t fall out and see the number 2292. It takes me a minute to remember whose serial number that was. But come on, give me a break, it’s not like I haven’t had my whole life flipped upside down and thrown into a burning inferno.

     I set it back down carefully, even I knew I didn’t want to face her wrath if I accidentally broke something Dahlia made her. I turn my attention to some of the books on the shelves, a lot of them were brought up from the palace's library. I assume the ones I don't recognize were stolen during our little mission yesterday, I start to turn around when a book catches my eye. I walk over to the bookshelf that’s secretly the door to our closet and examine the book on the shelf, it looks handmade. Its cover was two different types of leather, the spine was made of sticks and the binding appeared to be old frayed shoelaces. I go to grab it when a hand grips my wrist lightly, stopping me and I know it’s Rose by the sparks that run up my arm from her touch.

     “I’m sor-” She cuts me off and shakes her head “Here I’ll show you. It’ll make more sense if we go through it together.” She says. She keeps a light hold of my wrist and grabs the makeshift book with her free hand, and guides me over to the reading bench. I sit and she sits next to me so our knees are touching, with the lightest touch she runs a hand down the front cover of the book. “I made this myself… Poppy isn’t the only one who’s stolen from the dead. I tell myself that I’m doing them a service because no one will remember them otherwise, but does that really make me better than any other grave robber?” She asks and opens the book.

     I notice that all the pages are different, some look like pages ripped from other books, memos, mission objectives and so on. On the first page there is a really old photo that has a small tear on the bottom, under the photo are ten serial numbers. I look at the photo, there’s ten kids lined up in two rows of five, all of them shaved bald, and each one of the kids looks terrified. On either side of the formation stands a man holding a gun smiling like they were posing with their successful hunt. I felt my stomach churn, Rose point’s first to a child in the front row and then one in the back. “That one in the front row is me and the one in the back is Snappy. This was after intake, we’d already been branded and prepped, back then they didn’t have the collars they have now. So they put these metal, pronged, chokers on us instead. We, also, had dog tags to remind us that we were animals meant to be used.” She says quietly.

     She flips the page and there are four pictures on each page with a dog tag pinned under each photo. “Those two didn’t last through the first week, they died from the process. The next one died when they started torture training, she lasted a whole week before her body gave out. The next two died in a training exercise, both of them blown up over a faulty I.E.D. They died from blood loss. Then the other two survived long enough to see field work to only be gunned down on the battlefield, Anti and I are the only ones from the group who saw adulthood.” Her voice shakes as she speaks.

     As she flips the pages there’s more group photos followed by photos and dog tags of those that died, the farther we get into the book the longer the kids in each group survive. “It’s easier for some, I honestly didn’t think Anti was going to make it. He was born into a different life than I was, from what I can remember he grew up in a loving family. I don’t remember faces but I do know my family didn’t like me, well except my older brother. But he would just ignore me which was better than the rest of them, Snappy and I joke that he let me go first. Truth is we were drugged and taken to the first compound, I woke up to them burning the numbers into the back of my head. Only the ten of us survived the branding, the first number is the month, the second is the batch number for that month, and the last two numbers are the order you were branded.” She explains as she continues to flip past more photos.

     “Sorry I keep letting myself get sidetracked because it’s hard… It’s hard for me to admit that in the beginning I was the most effective weapon to ever be made. I thought if I did good enough that they would see that, and I would get praised. I hoped they would see me as more than just an animal, as long as I did the job perfectly. I’ve killed a lot of bad people… But when I finally realized that I would be nothing more than a tool for them… I rebelled in the worst kind of way..” She stares at the book as she trails off. I look at her, her body is rigid and her hands shake, her eyes almost glazed, she starts breathing faster and I can just make out the tears that threaten to spill over at any minute.

     I reach over and take the book out of her hands and set it on the bench next to me. I stand up and before she can do anything I sweep her up into my arms, hugging her tightly. She wraps her arms around me and hides her face in my chest, and I can tell from her accelerated heartbeat that she isn’t fully with me right now. She is stuck in whatever bad memory she is reliving, I take her over to the bed and sit down pulling her into my lap so her back is to my chest. I wrap my arms around her again, holding her tightly. “If you can hear me you are safe and I am here, I am not going to let anyone hurt you. Feel me. Feel my breathing, match your breathing to mine.” I say in my most comforting voice I can.

     She seems to be fighting herself. “I killed kids, Anubis… I killed innocent kids, instead of doing what I could to save them. I just did the easy thing and killed them… I remember…” Her body starts shaking as she loses grip of her own emotions. “I see him every time I fall asleep… The begging and pleading… His cries for his parents… The fear in his eyes when he realized I was about to do the same thing to him… and… and I… I told him… I told him he was dead either way and I was doing him a service.” She says and I feel her tears drip down onto my arms.

     I hold her tightly and let her turn into me, she hides herself in my chest again, like hiding meant she wasn’t breaking down. I let her confession tumble around in my head, this confession was hard to take. I take some deep breaths “Calm down and match your breathing with mine.” I say. We sit there as I take deep, slow breaths in and out and try to think rationally about what she told me. “Antithirium.” I call out to Anti through the mindlink. “Yes Daddy?” He replies. “Bro…” I was not expecting that. “You can’t call me by my full name and not expect me to get hard. It’s not my fault everyone prefers a nickname, I get excited when someone uses my full name.” He replied. “... I don’t think that reply had the effect you wanted. Look Rose-” I get cut off.

     “On the contrary my friend you are no longer stuck in your head. I’m already on my way.” He says and I let out a relieved sigh. While I wait for Anti to get here I hold Rose to me, whispering words of comfort and support, doing what I can to help her calm down. After a few moments, our doors swings open and I see Anti and Dahlia who is leaning on a pair of crutches. Anti doesn’t say anything and strides over to the bed “First thing you did wrong was coddling.” He grabs the back of her shirt and the waist of her pants lifting her off of me with ease. “We’re animals.” He says.

     Rose just lets her head hang and I’m on my feet “Anti what? If I knew you weren’t going to help-” This time Dahlia cuts me off “Look stepdad, we appreciate the help. As much as I love Rose, Anti’s right. We’re animals, cold blooded killers. Maybe one day we’ll get to the point where coddling is okay, but right now it doesn’t help. You can tag along if you’d like but I will stop you if you try to interfere. I may be crippled but that doesn’t mean I’m crippled.” He says and moves to the side as Anti carries Rose past him out of the room.

     I start to follow but stop, I quickly grab the book and hide it in one of the cabinets so no one will mess with it in the meantime. I then turn and run to catch up with the trio, when I catch up to them Rose seems to be regaining her control. “Anti on all gods and goddesses if you don’t put me down.” She practically hisses, smoke billowing out of her nostrils. “That’s not how this works Rose.” He says. Rose lets out a grunt of discontent but doesn’t fight anymore, we make it out to the field when Anti drops her. She catches herself and uses the momentum of the fall to flip herself over. She lands on her feet and she reminds me of a cat who has just found her prey, Dahlia sinks a crutch into the ground in front of me stopping me from moving forward anymore.

     “Remember if you try to interfere I will stop you.” Dahlia warns and turns his head to watch Anti and Rose. They stand facing each other, Rose staring Anti down while he smirks and I see him raise an eyebrow. The next moment all I see is a blur as they begin to fight, they move so fast I can barely make out who is who. “I don’t think I could try even though I want to. I can’t even tell who's who, they are moving so fast.” I say. I end up turning around as their movements were causing me to feel dizzy. “Don’t worry, these end as quickly as they start. I think it’s… Nice that you tried to care for Rose and I appreciate you caring for her. I hope one day those two won’t have to sort out their traumas this way.” Dahlia turns away from the fight and comes to stand next to me gazing up at the castle. “With you I think we’re on the right track.” He says in barely a whisper.

     I smile softly at Dahlia’s words, I’d have to remember to thank my father later for convincing them to accept our help. I would do all I can to help them and all the other shifters we save in the process. “We refer to the shifter in captivity as ‘The Collared’, those freed are referred to as ‘Unleashed’. Rose and Anti did a lot of horrible things in the beginning, but you can’t hold that against them. They didn’t have a system or any outside help until much later on, they saved kids from unimaginable torture. As much as I hate to say it, they were doing the kids a service, those that were brought in… Well let’s just say we’re not the only three those two have sacrificed nearly everything to protect and keep alive. You don’t have to like their actions or choices, all I’m asking is you put yourself in their shoes.”

     “They’ve been collared for over a hundred years, one hundred and twenty years of torture and death. Not knowing if tomorrow will be their last day on earth, but hoping that it was. They live with so much guilt and grief, pain is reality. Sleep is more terrifying than reality, so we sleep as little as possible. Not because we’re strong, but because we cannot face the demons that wait for us in our sleep.” Dahlia says. I jump slightly as Rose brushes her hand against mine and Anti pats Dahlia on the back “Getting all philosophical on us now nephew?” Anti asks him with a smile.