Tensions in the house were high over the next few days. Every time GAIA sent out an alert for a monster, Catia's gut twisted oddly. Ever since she'd began her training, they had drilled it into her mind that she protected humans from monsters.

But now, with the rules the Council had in place, she could not do that. All her training felt wasted now.

Skye hadn't come out of his room much in the last few days. For the first little while, a muscle in his jaw had feathered whenever the monster alerts would go off. But soon, he hadn't been able to take it and he'd stormed off to his room.

Catia saw him occasionally as he grabbed food, but besides the most basic of pleasantries, they didn't speak. There was nothing to say they hadn't said. Both Catia and Skye were too angry about these new rules.

Connor was in his office constantly. Whenever Catia left her room, she could hear him on endless video calls, though his voice was too low to make out what they were talking about.

Despite how restless she felt, training felt hollow.

There was a knock on her door and Catia sat up in her bed. "Come in."

Connor entered, the deep shadows under his eyes making him appear older than he really was. "The representative from the Council just landed at the airport. He'll be here in less than an hour."

Catia prickled at the news. "Am I supposed to act excited?"

He sighed, looking frustrated. "I know this isn't ideal for anyone. But this is what the Council has decided. I want you and Skye in the training room when the representative arrives. This place needs to act like it's still functioning."

"But it's not functioning because of the Council's stupid new rules. So why should I have to pretend for their benefit?"

"Just please, for me?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. She loved Connor. In a lot of ways, he was her father. But what he was asking her to do wasn't fair.

"Catia, you know that if you refuse to follow the Council's rules, they won't react kindly."

Catia stiffened. The Council didn't take kindly to those who created dissent or tried to leave the ranks of the Guardians. They would wipe the memories of dissenters using water from the River Lethe in the Underworld and sent to live with the mortals. But those were those that were heard about. The others... they disappeared without a trace.

She finally relented, though she was still bitter. "I will not pretend to be happy about them micro-chipping me."

Connor let out a small chuckle. "I didn't expect that you would be."

He left then, and Catia let out a long sigh and fell back against her pillows. She stared up at the ceiling for a minute, wondering how much trouble she would get in if she refused the microchip.

Would they remove her memories and send her away from her family if she didn't let them implant it? The thought didn't sit well with her. Life without Skye and Connor would be lonely, even if she didn't remember them.

She stood up, gathering her training clothes from a dresser drawer before heading into the bathroom to change. After pulling on her workout clothes and tying her hair back into a tight braid, she left her room.

The training room was in the house's basement. It was always a little cold down there, but it made it easier when they worked up a sweat. Practice dummies sat along one wall, ready to be moved into the center of the room. Weapons hung along the walls and mats covered the floor.

There was a door on the far side of the room that led into a gym. She didn't much feel like lifting weights or running on the treadmill today, though. It was supposed to be part of her daily regimen, but with the ban on hunting down monsters, she decided she wouldn't bother with that part of her routine today.

Sitting down on the mats, Catia stretched out her legs, warming up for training.

A few minutes after she sat down, the sound of the door at the top of the stairs slamming had her turning to glance at the figure stomping down the stairs.

Skye's mouth was pressed into a tight line and he didn't bother greeting her as he stormed past her. He sat on the other side of the room and began his stretches as well, though the anger radiated off him.

"I guess Connor told you that the representative from the Council is showing up today?"

Skye didn't respond to her, just cast a glare towards the top of the stairs where the door was opening. Connor appeared on the stairs, dressed in his own training gear.

"I hope you're both warmed up," Connor said as he turned towards them at the bottom of the stairs. "You've both been slacking the last couple of days."

Skye let out a small scoff. "I think we're entitled to a few days off every now and again."

"You aren't normal people, Skye," Connor said. "We don't need days off."

Catia continued to stretch out her legs, watching the interaction between them. The air was thick with tension and Catia wasn't sure when it was going to snap.

"What's the point of training if we can't do what we're trained to do?" Skye countered as he stood from his stretches, eyes narrowing at Connor.

This will not end well, Catia thought to herself.

"We have to follow the rules that the Council sets for us. If we didn't, there would be chaos."

"There's chaos now!" Skye protested. Catia couldn't help but silently agree with him. There had been a headline on the local news about a family slaughtered in their homes about an hour from here. It was clearly a monster-related death, but none of them had responded to the call. If they had, those people might still be alive.

"If we follow the protocol that the Council has laid out for us, we should be back to operating as normal soon. But if we fight, the longer it will take until the Council allows us to do anything."

Catia thought he might have a point, but there was also a lot of potential for that to go very wrong. What if the Council decided the danger to the race of Guardians was too high to return to duty as normal? Would they keep them under lock and key forever, all for the sake of protecting the demigods?

She shuddered at the thought. Despite her human upbringing in her younger years, the need to help people had always been there. She'd even wanted to be a doctor when she was little. Even though there wasn't a chance of that happening now, she still had that need to help people.

Skye looked as if he wanted to retort, but the sound of the doorbell rang through the training room, echoing off the cement walls.

"That'll be the Council's lapdog," Skye growled.

"Behave in front of them," Connor warned. "I won't be able to protect you if you do something stupid."

Without waiting for Skye to think of a response, Connor headed back up the stairs to let in the Council's representative.

Skye turned to Catia as soon as the door to the basement had closed. "You know this whole thing is a bunch of crap."

Catia stood up from the floor and wiped a stray piece of dirt from her leggings. "I agree with you, but I also agree with Connor. The rules are stupid, but if we defy the Council, who knows what will happen to us. I've already lost one family. I can't stand to lose another."

Skye looked like he wanted to respond, but said nothing instead.

"I know this is rough," Catia told him. "I don't want to be micro-chipped anymore than you do. But I don't know what other kind of choice we have."

"We could leave. Just do all of this on our own."

Catia shook her head. "The Council's Senior Guardians would hunt us down. Do you really think Connor could hunt us down for the Council?"

Skye shook his head.

"Exactly," Catia said. "He'd defy the Council to protect us and they'd kill him for it."

He fell silent then, as if realizing there might be much more at stake than he'd originally thought of.

The door upstairs creaked open and they both tensed as they turned towards the stairs.

"Catia Delos, please join me in the infirmary?" A voice called from above them.

Skye shot Catia a worried look, but she reached out to touch his arm lightly. "I'll be fine," she promised him, but he didn't look like he believed her.

At the top of the stairs, the door was open. Just beyond the door frame, there was a girl with short dark hair and dark eyes. She was dressed in casual clothes.

Catia eyed her as the girl moved past her.

"That's Nehera, the representative's daughter," Connor told her. "She's headed down to train a little with Skye."

"That's going to go about as well as cutting the head off a Hydra."

"I know."

Catia moved past him and towards the infirmary. Every step that took her closer made her nerves fray a little more.

Inside the infirmary, a man dressed in a pristine gray suit waited, with a nurse that was moving around the room, pulling equipment out of several large suitcases that had been brought in.

"Catia," the man greeted her. "My name is Steven Smith, and I'm the representative from the Council of Guardians."

She gave a thin smile in return to his greeting, but he didn't seem upset that she didn't return his greeting.

"All Guardians and Guardians-in-training will have a microchip implanted for their safety."

"And what exactly does this microchip do?" Catia asked as she took a seat on one of the clean beds. The sheets crinkled under her as she sat.

"The microchip will track your movements, as well as track your vitals. It's compatible with GAIA's interface and will allow for greater knowledge when she's treating you for post-battle injuries."

Catia raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean we'll be back into the field soon?"

"The Council wants nothing more than to have Guardians serve their natural purpose of keeping the humans safe from harm. But of course, with the recent attacks, we need to take every precaution possible to keep ourselves from extinction."

"And how will these microchips save more Guardians from brutal deaths?"

A muscle in the man's jaw feathered slightly, but he was quick to regain his composure. "With the microchips being able to detect the vital signs of Guardians, as well as their whereabouts, we can tell which of the Guardians have perished in these attacks and which have survived."

Catia leaned back on the bed and studied the man. "You mean you don't know who's alive and who isn't after these attacks?"

"That's classified." The man waved the nurse forward, and she stepped toward Catia, a syringe held in her right hand.

Catia glanced towards the syringe with a sense of apprehension. A dark blue liquid was inside, which glowed slightly. Catia wrinkled her nose in distaste.

The nurse moved to sweep her hair back off her neck and Catia balked, her hand grabbing the nurse's and holding it in place. "Where are you going with that?"

The nurse's face was blank and expressionless. "The microchip is to be placed in the neck. Please remove your hand from my wrist and let me finish."

Nervously, Catia removed her hand and released the nurse. She squeezed her eyes shut as the nurse moved towards her, gloved hand reaching for her neck. The flinch when the nurse's hand brushed against her skin wasn't avoidable. She took deep breaths in and out, hoping this would all be over soon.

"You will feel a slight pinch," the nurse's monotone voice filled her with a sense of dread, and Catia squeezed her eyes tighter.

She wasn't necessarily afraid of needles, but the point of this one had been thicker than normal to allow for the microchip to pass through and implant under her skin.

Pain lanced through the side of her neck and Catia bit her tongue against the squeal of pain that threatened to rise. A warm sensation spread underneath of her skin and a wave of nausea washed through her. Catia opened her eyes slowly, as if she could keep the nausea at bay. But the sting of bile rose in her throat.

The nurse thrust a bucket into Catia's hands moments before she hurled her breakfast into it.

"Nausea is a common side effect of the injection."

Catia gave a thin, sarcastic smile through her rounds of vomit. The rancid smell made her feel even more queasy. Tears tracked down her face that she longed to wipe away, but she couldn't tear herself away from the bucket. Eventually, the feeling subsided, and the nurse took the bucket and gave Catia her leave.

She cast one look back towards Steven, who had a slight smile plastered on his face.

She exited quickly, before she could do something stupid.

Once out of sight of the infirmary, Catia reached back and rubbed her neck, which still burned from the needle. Under her fingertips, she could feel the small, barely there bump of the tracker under her skin. Another, smaller wave of nausea washed through her and she dropped her hand before she vomited again.

Connor wasn't in the living room when she headed back through, so she made her way to the basement, where Skye and Nehera were circling each other. The irritated look on Skye's face vanished as he took in Catia, who was sure she looked crap.

Nehera's sharp, dark eyes zeroed in on the small mark on Catia's neck.

"They chipped you?" Nehera asked. There was a curiosity in her voice that grated on Catia's nerves.

Catia gave a small noise as an answer. She squared off in front of a dummy, even though she still felt woozy from her injection. She ignored Nehera as she badgered her with questions about the injection. Until finally, Nehera reached for the spot on Catia's neck.

Catia whirled on the girl, her hands slapping Nehera's away with force. The girl looked stunned as she pulled away her hands.

Then Catia turned back to the dummy and slammed her fist into his chest. Maybe it was from the injection hurting like hell or maybe Nehera's relentless questions, but Catia punched the dummy so hard the indent didn't immediately snap back out. Breathing heavily, Catia faced the girl.

"Yes, it hurt like hell. I am not in the mood for your questions right now." She shot a glare towards Skye, who went back to his own training with the ghost of a smile on his face.

Catia let loose a sigh of frustration. Nehera had walked away from her, the disappointment and hurt clear in her eyes. But Catia just squared her shoulders and faced the dummy, thinking that Nehera needed an attitude change.

If her father was the Council's representative, then surely Nehera had already gotten her microchip days ago. So why was she so interested in learning all about Catia's implant?

She turned to watch the girl out of the corner of her eye, but Nehera was heading back up the stairs, her shoulders slumped with dejection.

There was something off about Steven's daughter, and Catia would not stop until she figured it out.