The First Titan

"Protect Fen." That was the goal in mind that served as the catalyst for the transformation. With the hazy feeling of having done so, withered by the feeling of waking, Boro's still-steaming body weakly watched as one of the men stepped toward him.

Breaking away a sheet of compromised crystal, Kent grabbed the weakened Fen by the scuff, holding the animal around the neck so it couldn't bite him, before taking his sheathed knife to the dog and keeping his foot against the semi-conscious child.

"Hey! What if he—" cried Sid, vaguely defending his body with his arms while backing away slightly.

"Lucius." muttered Kent, barely able to hide the panic in his voice. "If you don't kill him now, I will. We have to do something before he tries to do whatever that was again!"

"He shouldn't be able to transform again so soon. Especially not after his first time." said Lucius, rubbing the shoulder that shot the lightning spear.

"So there's nothing to worry about." said Kent, moving to point the knife downward at Boro, who was glancing at the weapon with half-open eyes. "We kill him now!"

Lucius' hand moved upwards to rub his neck. He breathed out, sighing to the side. "Mm. Yeah, we could do that." he said in a half nod. He pulled something out from behind him: it was sleek, thin, compact, and the black finish had blended it in perfectly with the rest of the gear. He pointed it at Kent. "Or, you could let down the dog and step away from Boro."

"Are you crazy…?" said Kent, eyes widening in a half-whisper.

The silence of the stand-off was broken by another click, this time behind Lucius. Dan stood close behind so that the muzzle of the gun was almost flat against the man's silver hair. "You sound like you have some idea of whatever's going on here."

"Dan!" said Sid, now gripping his weapon too. Sweat dripped down his nervous disposition as he felt the deadlock threaten to shatter at any moment. It was the second time today that he felt like everything might go wrong— an emotion he wasn't used to at all.

"Hey now," said Lucius, unfazed, "I thought we were joining hands or whatever."

"We are." said Dan, coolly, "As soon as you tell us everything you know, friend."

"Fair enough." said Lucius, looking up at the disintegrating crystal. His mouth widened into a grin and he laughed. Dan moved the gunpoint closer, but Lucius took his time. "I didn't believe it either. Thought it was all a hoax— a waste of time. All until today." He turned to face Dan, who swallowed, trying to maintain composure. "This is known as 'the power of the titans.'"

"What the hell does that mean?" asked Dan.

"I'm not quite sure myself, to be honest." Lucius pointed at Boro. "I think he's the one to ask."

"What?" said Kent, still holding the knife to the boy. Sid looked at the child as well, still heavily on the defensive.

TWING!

The forest was filled with the ring of metal hitting metal at supersonic speeds.

"FUCK!" someone shouted. The gun in Dan's hands had been raised upward to the sky. Suspicious stares danced around the field.

"Did you shoot?!" screamed Sid, who now had his machete out in the open.

"No! It wasn't me!"

Meanwhile, the knife was no longer in Kent's hand. Fen had escaped, fleeing from his captor who was clutching his now-empty hand, reeling from the shock and sheer impact. A small billow of smoke was rising out of the mouth of Lucius' pistol. "Gotcha."

"Lucius— "

"Old man, you— !!"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Four shots were fired into the sky silently by Lucius, sweeping a strange calm over the group. Despite his earlier tone, his eyes didn't bare a shred of kindness. "This is my decision, Kenton. There is one more bullet in this gun. If I have to use it, I will."

Suddenly, Lucius was twisted around violently by the collar and made to face Sid, who was very unused to being so on the sidelines. "Hey, what the heck was that!" On account of all the strangeness he had come across today, he had deferred to the role of voiceless observer for some time, but he could take it no longer.

"Don't worry," said Lucius, keeping the gun and his empty hand between them, "I don't have any more bullets to shoot with except for the one."

"That's not— don't you get it? How… how have you survived this long?! Don't you get it? People are going to come to investigate all the sound, and you just keep— "

Lucius made a shushing sound, bringing a finger to his mouth. "We won't need to worry about that too much." he said, pointing to Boro, who finally seemed to be coming to. As what could only be a natural reaction to the situation, his body stood itself up slowly as it regained the capacity to do so. "Besides, I think having people come here wouldn't be so bad of an idea, actually."

Breaking away from Sid's grip and stepping past the flustered Kent, who was still paralyzed from the aftermath of the altercation, Luicus put his hand on Boro's shoulder. His grip was firm, yet uncharacteristically gentle. It was a strange, almost unsettling feeling that thrust Boro out of his sleeplike state.

"Boro. Do you remember what you just did?"

Boro stared off, away from the group— past Lucius, at something he was still questioning to be real or not. Kent saw the child's gaze wander far away from him, gritting his teeth as he held himself back.

"I… I think so." said Boro, blinking slowly. He looked around. Sid and Dan were watching him at a distance, gripping their weapons tightly, fully fixed onto him. Kent had his hands at his side, formed into fists. Fen was watching closely, now safe, wagging his tail with an eager rhythm. He looked to Lucius, who was still by his side. "What's going on?"

"As you can see, we've joined forces." said Lucius with a smile. The others had no response, but held their stances wordlessly.

As Boro processed that statement, looking over the group again, something caught his attention. "Is that…?"

Jon's still body lay in the distance where it had been left.

"Ah…" said Lucius, putting his head down. "... that's a little something that happened a little early on, but we're all past that." He looked toward Kent, who was biting his trembling lip, the rest of his expression hidden behind a hat.

"That bastard," said Sid, spitting, "he's long dead now. Cut him through every disgusting layer of fat he's got."

"No… he's still alive. Just barely." said Boro, staring intently at the body.

"What?" asked Sid, doing a double-take.

"There's something…" Boro spoke slowly with uncertainty, taking a step toward the body. "…something I can do…" He raised his hand toward the half-corpse.

Sid drew his blade instinctively but was waved away by Lucius, who watched the scene with quiet interest.

As a wave of heavy smoke emanated from the pores of Boro's outstretched hand and drifted down toward Jon, carried by a wisp of wind, Fen let out a low, feral growl, but was held still by Lucius, still entranced by the event.

"Stay silent, dog." he muttered under his breath.

What seemed like a fruitless effort was suddenly interrupted by the violent contortion of the body, in which Jon arched backward in an impossible angle, opening his eyes and mouth as if to let out a primal scream, before they were filled with an unnatural, blinding light.

When the luminescence subsided, a hulking giant was kneeling still before Boro. It was roughly seven meters tall, given its stance. It had inward, small, almost non-existent facial features, with its small caved-in eyes, flat nose, and a few pathetic patches of hair, except for the mouth, which bore a set of tall, jagged teeth, permanently extended outward from its thin lips.

"I-It's a monster!" yelled Dan, taking aim with his rifle and firing toward the titanized Jon. The bullet ripped through the close side of its face, dislodging an inhumanly large eye and ripping chunks of flesh and bone matter from the body and strewing the ground with them.

"What are you doing?!" yelled Sid, followed by Lucius, grabbing the gun away while looking back at the titan, "don't go antagonizing that thing!"

Fortunately, the titan didn't show any signs of retaliation, instead standing still without emotion despite the damage it had taken.

"My God…" said Kent, with eyes wide and his mouth hung open.

There were no words that could be said by the men, looking on as the giant creature remained motionless and slowly regrew its missing parts with a steady inward gust of steam. The bloody bits on the dirt were already sublimating into the air.

Dan broke the silence. "C- Can you control that thing…?"

Boro looked back without giving a reply, but after a few seconds, gave a slight nod and looked back at Jon.

"Please pick up all the broken wood back there and put it all in one pile." said the boy, pointing back at the wreckage of the giant tree where he had just been. Receiving his command, without a second glance at the child, the titan made its way over to the location of its goal, paying no mind to the shocked faces watching it.

While Sid, Dan, and Kent were frozen in place, Boro looked back and called out to Fen, who recognized the voice and dashed towards his friend after the briefest hesitation. The dog was followed by Lucius, who looked at the titan with the faintest of smiles before looking back at Boro.

"Well," he said, partly to those men behind him as well, "shall we speak of the future?"