Darkness greeted Ethan when he stepped into his chamber. A green glow surrounded him, taking on a texture not unlike water. He reached his hands out to touch the glowing, emerald waves around him, and it felt and behaved as if it were actual water.

In the distance was a spot where the green seemed to coalesce, merging into a massive form that looked unclear from his vantage point. Ethan walked towards it and with each step, it seemed to come into focus. Something from the green reached out towards him and he held his hand to meet it. When the green trail touched his hand, it had formed into a tentacle.

Ethan focused on the tentacle for a few moments before he looked up at the green, now staring right into the face of the Karkinos. He had a massive jaw and two gigantic eyes that turned toward Ethan, a brighter glow emanating from them.

His mind was awash in images stretching back centuries. Ethan watched the various Green Knights throughout history, each one bonding with and drawing upon the Karkinos’s power. In that brief moment, Ethan could understand the breadth of the Titan’s experience, even if he could never remember any of the specific details once this encounter ended.

The Karkinos spoke no words, but the intent was clear. The Titan had opened itself up to Ethan, and now it was his turn to do the same.

For years, Ethan had held onto the trauma of his family’s mysterious end. Trying to piece together what he’d witnessed and being told that his memories were nothing but a child’s imagination trying to make sense of the trauma. He remembered the fire, the heat of the flames. And through the smoke, he could see something. Glowing red eyes, towering high above him. Back then, he thought it had been a monster. Whenever he told that to people, they dismissed it as a child trying to make sense of a senseless trauma.

But through this connection with the Karkinos, Ethan learned just one sliver of the truth—he hadn’t imagined what he saw. Within the flurry of images, he saw a child crying amidst the ruins of a house, pulling desperately at the arm of a father who would never wake again. The image changed again and Ethan watched as the Karkinos’s massive pincer clamped around the neck of a beast cloaked in shadow.

Ethan shook his head, the images leaving his vision, and he saw himself once again staring into the ethereal face of the Titan. The Karkinos still had the same fixed expression on his face, but Ethan could swear he sensed something more from the Titan.

“You were there…” Ethan whispered. “I didn’t imagine it…”

The Karkinos didn’t respond with words. If someone asked Ethan later how he knew what the Karkinos felt, he wouldn’t have been able to articulate how he interpreted this. But he could feel some sense of deep regret coming from the Karkinos.

Ethan’s mind raised more questions. Just how long had the Quantum Group watched him? And if they hadn’t kept the truth of these breaches a secret for so long, could they have given some sort of warning to the victims, like his family?

This alone gave Ethan reason to accept the bonding. He needed those answers.

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Alexa stepped inside the darkened chamber, unable to see even a step ahead of her. An impossible flow of wind started moving through the chamber, coming from all sides. As Alexa felt the breeze tickle the hairs on her arms, she could see the wind visualized with trails of purple.

She didn’t know how it was possible, but she felt herself becoming weightless, moving as one with the wind. Alexa started moving through the air, the purple trails flowing past her and carrying her up higher into the darkness.

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Most influencers became that way because they wanted fame or money or attention. And there was a part of Alexa that did live off that adulation. But more than anything else, it was the freedom that lifestyle provided her. She’d seen how the nine-to-five grind and the chains of expectations could damage a person and she swore to never live that kind of life.

The freedom of performing these death-defying stunts for a paying audience not only freed her from those same chains, they also let her fully embrace life. But all the parkour stunts in the world didn’t compare at all to what she felt right now.

There was another presence in here with her. She held her arms out in front of her and the purple trails flowed along her arms, coalescing before her eyes. The form that took shape was vaguely humanoid, but with a much thinner, more serpentine body. He had arms, but the fingers attached to the hand stretched out impossibly long, with flaps of skin linking each digit together and forming giant bat-like wings. He had what looked like the head of a dragon, with his mouth opening wide and his tongue snaking out towards her.

Alexa almost recoiled until the flood of memories came over her. She had seen what the Wyvern Titan had seen in its long life, though the images came too fast for her to process. She felt the emotions that bonded the Wyvern to previous Purple Knights. And she could sense just how free the Wyvern felt as he soared through the air.

Through the Wyvern, that sense of true freedom she’d always desired seemed closer to her than ever before. All she had to do was agree to share everything about herself with this strange being.

“Yes…” she whispered, and the Wyvern let out a jubilant screech to indicate his approval and acceptance of her as well.

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The darkness that greeted Olivia was all-encompassing. She couldn’t see anything, not even her hands, as she waved them in front of her face. It was almost too much for her and she wondered—not for the first time—just why she was here.

“Hello?” she called out into the void, just to be greeted with her own echo. “Is anyone there?”

Her echo trailed off into silence and for a few moments, there was nothing. Olivia tried to turn around to step back outside the chamber, but she couldn’t find the exit.

“If this is some kind of weird hazing thing, I’m really not in the mood!”

Again, just silence.

Olivia huffed. “This isn’t going well. Here I thought I was getting some sort of job offer and instead, I’m dropped into the middle of something out of a comic book.”

The ground shook. Just a brief tremor, but it almost knocked her over. Olivia stood still after the tremor had subsided, bracing herself for another. Once she was sure it was safe, she stood upright.

And that was when another tremor hit. This one reverberated with alternating levels of shocks. Olivia thought for sure this barrage of quakes would bowl her over, but surprisingly, she maintained her footing.

She noticed that a flash of yellow light accompanied each tremor. Olivia crouched to prepare for the next quake and when it came, she saw that the light was reverberating from a spot in the distance. She moved closer towards it between the tremors, finding that they were coming sequentially. There was a kind of rhythm to them.

Olivia moved closer and she could see the source of the light. Something banged on the ground and each time, a tremor reverberated out. As she approached, the light briefly illuminated the features. The closer she got, the more features she saw, until she realized it was a giant horse. No, more than a horse—it had a horn jutting out from its forehead.

The Unicorn whinnied and ceased stomping. She focused her eyes on Olivia, her body glowing bright yellow with softer golden hues shining off. Carefully, the Unicorn trotted towards her.

Olivia reached a hand out for the Titan. Hesitation filled her as she extended her hand towards the Unicorn, uncertain of its response. She reached for the Unicorn’s head and laid her fingers on the tip of the horn. Once her flesh made contact, her eyes widened as images flooded her memories. Images of the Unicorn’s past and all the battles she had been in, all the previous Knights she’d bonded with.

There was so much violence in the Unicorn’s past. How could she look beyond that all? But there was more than that. Olivia saw through the Unicorn’s eyes all the people that had survived thanks to the Titans. This was an opportunity to save not just a handful of people, but to protect billions.

Until now, Olivia had been uncertain about this whole endeavor. She wasn’t a fighter, she abhorred violence. But that firm resolve seemed to be what drew the Unicorn to her. And through this Titan, Olivia was now beginning to understand what her place in this entire system would be.