#1st Place Jared Leto & Mars Fanfiction Contest-- Full-Length Piece
When an accident at a concert gravely injures Jared, he and Shannon are plunged into a dangerous supernatural world. Desperate to protect his brother, Shannon finds himself hunted b...
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"So which side did we land on?" Shannon asked carefully.
Masha regarded him again. There was so much in that simple statement and the calm way in which he had asked it. We. He understood he was in this now too and his role, to some degree, had already been set. He was choosing to play the hand he had. Masha admired that survivor's spirit. Shannon seemed to have a lot of different dimensions. Masha was becoming increasingly more fond of all of them. "The one that doesn't want to make enemies of the humans again," she started by way of explanation. "Very simply, the main authority for the supernatural community is an organization called the Tratat. It means pact or treaty and refers to the agreement set in place to hide our community and blend in with the human world. Their main enforcement branch is Manus or The Hand. If you kill a human or reveal us they will be the ones that come for you." She looked at the brothers sternly. "And you won't like what happens when they catch up with you. And they will catch up with you, there is no escaping them."
Shannon nodded. He had no intention of crossing anyone at this point, he understood how tremendously overpowered he was. "What about other things?" he asked. "Who's going to be getting involved in this? Because you said your friends are dead, and that has to be against some kind of law or rule or whatever, right?"
Masha sighed. This one had a way of getting right to the heart of the matter quickly. "That's where it gets a lot more complicated."
Silas put his glasses down and went to check on Davrosh, who had finished drinking and was lying unconscious and still the way Jared had at the motel. Jared was still sitting at the end of the sofa but was now paying rapt attention to the conversation. Silas picked up the explanations.
"We are allowed some degree of autonomy within our individual communities. We are mostly expected to police our own, to handle things before Manus has to step in. Manus being called in is not considered a good thing and most communities go to some length to avoid that. We are responsible for resolving any internal conflicts, delivering small scale justice in whatever manner we choose as long as we are following the rules of the Tratat. Of course, there are things that fall outside of all of those lines, things that do not fall under the authority of either the individual communities or Manus. Things that are too messy for them to dirty their hands with. Forgive the pun." Silas gave a little chuckle but everyone else maintained their serious expressions. "Fighting between species, larger movements to disrupt The Tratat, that sort of thing. Those things require a special touch, a sort of supernatural special ops team if you will. The Subterra."
Masha gave Shannon and Jared a wry smile. "Welcome to the Underground."
Shannon exhaled slowly and tried to digest what they had told him. He and Jared had really landed right in the thick of it, and all the answers they were giving him just brought up more questions. He wanted to know more about Subterra and how that all worked, but he still didn't know who he was in the room with. "Okay. I have more questions about that but you still haven't answered my first question," he asked, turning to Silas. "Are you a vampire too? Are you moroi?"
