Welcome to part two of my Evolve expansion! I will answer a couple questions someone has asked me.

Guest: I honestly have no idea if there is an origin story behind Elder Kraken or if they just named the Kraken variation that because it sounds good. I looked it up but haven't found anything canon about him. However, I do plan to use Elder Kraken in this story but it's not until much later. As for Val, I completely forgot about that. I'll see what I can do.

Anyway, please enjoy this brand new chapter :)

Ares was standing in the middle of nowhere covered in a shroud of darkness. This was different than the memories that he received from the humans he ate. There was just the nothingness. Then the scent of blood reached his nose and his mouth watered at the potential meal. He recognized the smell as human blood and paused. He was sure that Caira wouldn't want him to eat them so he forced himself back.

"Why do you do that?" A female voice asked. It was everywhere yet nowhere. He recognized it as his mother.

"Do what?" Ares asked.

"Hold yourself back my son. You are hungry, you should eat."

"B-But.."

"Do not let a human dictate what you can and cannot do. You are no one's pet." His mother did have a point. As much as he liked Caira, she really had no right to tell him what he couldn't eat. Wait, where did that thought come from? He couldn't deny the truth of that statement though.

"I was never told I could not eat humans."

"Do you really think she would approve of it?"

"You make it sound like I have to eat them. I do not." His mother hissed at him.

"It is in your nature to hunt and kill. That human is trying to change who you are. You must realize that."

Ares woke up and glanced around at his surroundings. Everything was quiet outside his cave home. The Goliath shook his head and stood on two legs. His mother had spoken to him but didn't call him a traitor this time. His mind wandered back to what she said. Was Caira really trying to change him into something that he wasn't and could never be? That led to another question. Caira told him that she wanted to learn more about him. She called it 'research' but what did that really mean? Ares walked over to a river and stared into its shallow depths. Doubts started to surface in his head. Who should he believe? Caira was his friend but that voice was his mother. He felt a certain loyalty towards both of them and that conflicted him.

'I do not know what to do.' Ares thought.

'So, will you let that human control you?' His mother's voice rang in his head again.

'What? No! No one controls me!' His beast blood boiled at the mere sound of that word. Control.

'Does not seem that way to me. You are being controlled by those humans.' Ares growled.

'And why should I believe you?' The voice sighed.

'Because I am your mother. You just being your true self benefits me as well as you. The humans on the other hand want you under their control.'

'And if I do not want to be?'

'Then they will kill you. Well, try to anyway.' Ares didn't say anything else after that. He had observed humans before and had a few hunters try to track him down. The Goliath even saw them kill many of his kind. Was what his mother said really so farfetched? She seemed to have sensed his doubt and spoke up again. 'If you are still unsure then allow me to prove it to you. I will guide you there myself.'

The savage-skinned monster was hesitant at first but followed his mother's directions. After an hour, he stopped in his tracks. The fire beast had heard a loud screeching sound.

"That sounds like..a Wraith." Ares said to himself. "And she is in pain."

The Goliath started running towards the sound and nothing could've prepared him for what he had seen. There was a Stage-Three Wraith contained in a see-through tube-like chamber in bright orange fluid. She was flailing around and Ares could see the terrible amount of agony she was in. For a while, Ares couldn't move. He continued to watch in the shadows.

"W-What is this?" Ares asked out loud.

'This is what those humans do when they want to research our kind. My poor child-your older sister-is being subjected to such despicable torture.'

'But why? Learning about us should not be this way! Do the humans not see that she is in so much pain?' His mother sighed.

'Oh they see it.' Ares was confused.

'Then why?'

'Simple. They do not care.' Ares backed away a little at that revelation. 'If they did care, then she would not still be in there suffering. They could just kill her.'

'Kill?'

'Indeed. After all, our existence is a threat to them. If they cannot control us, they will destroy us. They want her powers.' Something clicked in the Goliath's mind and his eyes started glowing. A growl escaped his throat and rage began to build at a fast pace in his blood. 'I am sure that human of yours already knew about this and something tells me you are next.'

'Caira..lied to me.' His rage was reaching a boiling point.

'So, what will you do now my son?'

"I will make them pay!" Ares shouted and released a loud roar.

"W-What was that?" A researcher asked and he took a look outside the window. His eyes widened when he saw a Stage-Two savage-skinned Goliath clawing at the Wraith trap trying to break the machine. It started slamming his body into it and several cracks appeared. "S-Someone stop it! We need this research to help save thousands of lives!"

Ares managed to punch a hole in the thick glass and some orange fluid started to spill out.

'Good my son. Do not let any of those humans stop you from protecting our race.' The Goliath heard footsteps running towards him and turned to see several Ebonstar mercenaries wielding their weapons. Ares roared in anger at their presence and shot his Fire Breath at them.

Caira was walking to the Briefing Room by herself. She hadn't seen Ares for quite a while and she starting to get a little worried. They had planned to go see Atlas sometime soon.

"What's wrong now Cabot?" Caira asked.

"There's a Goliath attacking the Wraith Trap." Cabot said and Caira looked around. She was surprised to see only herself, Abe, Parnell, and Cabot in the room. She soon got her answer when Parnell spoke up.

"The researchers said it's a Stage-Two savage-skinned Goliath." The medic already saw what he was getting at.

"No, it can't be Ares. He's not the only savage-skinned Goliath out there."

"But he is the only one with a blue scarf around his arm." Abe said. Cabot replayed the video feed and Caira's eyes widened. There was Ares and he was killing people.

'Oh no.' Caira thought and she turned to leave.

"Wait." Cabot commanded and she stopped in her tracks. "We're going as well."

"We're not gonna hurt him right?" Cabot sighed.

"That depends on you. You have to stop him and keep him under control. Or else.." Nothing else needed to be said. Caira understood completely.

Ares crushed an Ebonstar mercenary under his foot and one last punch broke the Wraith free from her prison. She weakly picked herself up using her scythes and slowly floated away. The Goliath calmly watched her leave and snorted some black smoke out of his nostrils.

"Ares!" A familiar voice shouted and he growled again. Ares now found himself face to face with Caira and he knew she wasn't pleased. He could sense it.

'Of course she is not pleased. You are thinking for yourself. You are breaking out of her control over you.'

"Ares, what are you doing?" Caira asked but he didn't say anything at first. Ares glanced at the other three hunters.

"Is this what will become of me?" Ares asked and Caira wasn't sure what he was talking about. Then the Goliath pointed to the destroyed chamber and the hunters gasped. The Wraith that was captured was now gone.

"You freed it." Parnell said it more like a statement than a question.

"I did." Ares said.

"Why the hell would you do that?" Abe asked and Ares growled even louder.

"Is it not obvious?" The hunters looked at each other. "I saved her."

"Saved?"

"She was suffering in agony as more humans did research on her." Now Caira understood what Ares meant earlier. The Goliath looked at her. "Did you know about this?"

"A-Ares-"

"Did you know or not?!" Caira remained quiet and Ares looked at the other three. "Did all of you know?"

"Yeah, we did." Parnell said and Ares snarled.

"So this is what will become of me."

"No! Of course not!" Caira shouted. "You're my friend Ares. I wouldn't let anything like this happen to you!"

"But you would for others like me." The Goliath narrowed his eyes when the medic didn't say anything.

"Look Ares just calm down and let's talk this out." Cabot said and the Goliath growled.

'See, that human wants to order you around. He wants to dominate you.' It was one word. That one word that sent Ares over the edge. Dominate.

Domination was a very familiar feeling. It was a part of him before he even knew what to call it. It was something he participated in everyday. Everytime he fought dangerous wildlife, it wasn't just to survive. Ares wanted to show that he was stronger. That no one would have any kind of hold over him. Now it made sense. He had allowed Caira to have such a hold over him!

'Only the strong can dominate over the weak. A strong Goliath like you should not let weak humans like them dominate over you.' His mother said and the Goliath's instincts kicked in.

"I do not take orders from you human! I do whatever I want!" Ares roared and tore the blue scarf off of his arm. Then he leaped away.

"Well this fucking sucks." Abe said.

"Looks like we'll have to kill him now." Cabot said and Caira turned to him.

"You can't be serious boss!" Cabot turned to her.

"He's no longer under your control Caira. He's gone back to being a threat to us. We need to stop him." Caira quickly tried to think of something. What was going on with Ares? How did he find out about all this? There was only one person who might be able to help her with this problem.

"Cabot, let me take care of this."

"Caira-" The medic cut him off.

"Please, just let me handle this." Cabot didn't say anything and he glanced at Parnell and Abe. The two just shrugged and the support sighed.

"Alright. I hope you know what you're doing." Caira smiled in gratitude and took off on her jetpack.

Caira made haste over to the caverns where Atlas and his pack lived in seclusion. She rushed through the entrance and looked around for the Behemoth leader. The air was different here today. There weren't many monsters outside their caves this time and there was some tension in the atmosphere.

"Caira?" A deep voice grabbed the young woman's attention. She saw the sandstone-skinned Behemoth calmly walk over to her. Whatever was going on didn't seem to affect him nearly as much as the others. Atlas however, could tell that something was wrong with the female human. "I don't see Ares with you. Is something wrong?"

"Atlas, I really need your help. It's about Ares." Caira said and the Elder One gestured for her to follow him to his cave. The medic sat on the same boulder as last time. She told Atlas everything that happened between herself and Ares and the Behemoth closed his eyes in thought.

"The root of the problem is simple..or at least it was until it spiraled out of control." Atlas said.

"What do you mean?"

"Stage-Two is the equivalent of what you humans call adolescence. He's basically a teenager and he's going through a rebellious phase." Caira looked dumbfounded and Atlas opened his eyes. "He's gotten more aggressive."

"Are Goliaths naturally aggressive?"

"I wouldn't say that. They're surely more susceptible to rage but most of their aggression is based on dominance and to them, strength equals dominance."

"Please tell me you don't mean physical strength." Caira deadpanned and Atlas chuckled.

"Well amongst other Goliaths that does play a part. However because of the bond you share with him, you don't need physical strength. What you need to use is your mental strength."

"Really?" Atlas nodded.

"You need to be calm and assertive. Doing so will settle him down enough so you can get him to listen to reason. Right now Ares is lost and has little sense of mental stability because he can't find the balance that he needs."

"Oh." Caira understood now.

"What he needs is someone to help him find that balance or else his instincts will force him back into the state he was in before he met you. That wouldn't be such a huge problem if he wasn't a savage-skinned Goliath."

"So the color of their scales matter after all."

"Indeed. There's a reason why humans call the ones with his color palette 'savage'. The grey-skinned versions of our kind have no control over their actions. The savage-skinned however, their actions are entirely intentional."

"So they do know what they're doing." Atlas nodded.

"Most of us are fine leaving some humans alive but the savage-skinned are not. We kill when we have to but they kill whenever they want." Caira sighed.

"I have my work cut out for me then. Great." Atlas smirked as much as he could.

"It's not all bad. Since his brain has evolved it'll be easier to convince him...or at least it would've been our mother hadn't decided to interfere." That actually reminded the medic of another big situation at hand. Before Caira could say anything, the wendigo-skinned Kraken entered the den.

"Elder One! Humans approach the caverns!" The Kraken shouted and the Behemoth narrowed his ice blue eyes. Caira checked her mini-map and her eyes widened when she saw several red, yellow, green, and blue dots converging onto her location. Atlas curled into a ball and rolled out the cave. The medic leaped to her feet and followed him out.

"Holy fucking shit!" Abe shouted as he and the other hunters had their weapons raised towards the monsters. They weren't outnumbered individually but they were as a group since it took four of them to kill only one monster.

"We need to retreat." Cabot said but as soon as he said that, a large rock wall appeared and blocked one of their escape routes. A couple Krakens flew in the air and blocked the giant hole in the roof. Then a Stage-Three sandstone-skinned Behemoth rolled over and changed back to normal.

"You humans aren't going anywhere. Now that you have found us, we have to kill you." Atlas said in an apathetic tone.

'Yes! Do it! Kill them all!' His mother's voice echoed in his head but the Behemoth ignored it. Though it wasn't without effort.

"Atlas wait!" Caira shouted as she landed in between the humans and monsters.

"Caira, what's the meaning of this?!" Torvald shouted.

"What the hell are you doing with those monsters?!" Maggie shouted.

"Look I came here for Atlas' help. Not just with Ares but with someone he called mother." Caira said and that caught Atlas' attention. The medic turned to him. "We ran into big trouble with an army of eggs hatching simultaneously and Ares heard someone in his head."

"Yes. Our mother." Atlas said and the rest of the hunters turned to him. "She has decided to involve herself in our struggle against you."

"I still can't believe there's more that can talk." Val said.

"This is so cool!" Sunny shouted and Atlas looked at the hunters.

"Why have you humans trespassed here? Speak up now or you all will die." Atlas said.

"Bring it on ya big fucker." Hyde said with a psychotic grin and the Behemoth narrowed his eyes.

"Shut the hell up Hyde!" Caira shouted and that got the attention of everyone. "Right now, we need Atlas' help against whatever is laying all those eggs."

"Atlas?" Parnell asked confused.

"Me." The hunters looked at the Behemoth. "Caira gave me that name."

"Seriously?" Maggie asked annoyed. The magma-skinned Wraith floated over to Atlas.

"Growls..(Elder One, we have to kill them before they bring more of their kind here.)" The Wraith said in their monster language.

"Growl.(Not right now. We'll see what they want first.)"

"Snarls.(They want to destroy us!)" Atlas turned to her and snarled louder.

"Snarls..(We wait!)" The Wraith hissed but said nothing else.

The hunters were gathered around by the lake along with the other monsters. Atlas was in the middle separating both parties along with Caira. The monsters were behind the Behemoth and the hunters were behind the medic.

"This is ridiculous Cabot. We need to eliminate all these monsters now." Torvald said.

"Now is not a good time to say that out loud." Slim said.

"Nope." Crow agreed.

"So, do you know what's going on Atlas?" Griffin asked.

"Indeed. Like I said before, our mother has decided to interfere with our ongoing battle against you humans. She's the one who's laying the eggs."

"What is she?" Lazarus asked.

"Who gives a fuck what she is? Where the fuck is she?" Hyde asked but Atlas shook his head.

"No one knows what she looks like. However, finding out where she is located is a bit tricky. She can't be found normally and she's not on this planet."

"Then how are these eggs popping up here?" Slim asked.

"I believe the armor coating the eggs protect them from inter-dimensional travel." Caira said and Atlas nodded.

"So she must be located in another dimension." Sunny said.

"Indeed."

'What do you think you're doing?!' Atlas winced at the small headache from how loud his mother's voice shouted.

"That still doesn't really tell us where she is." Parnell said.

"Even if we did know, we have no way of getting there." Bucket said. "The ship is not equipped for inter-dimensional travel."

"I'll look into it and see what we can do." Atlas said and the hunters looked at him in both shock and confusion. Why was this Behemoth so willing to turn on his own mother? Then the Elder One turned to Caira. "However, there is something you must do first."

"Ares." Caira understood and Atlas closed his eyes. Everyone stared at him and he suddenly growled.

"What's wrong Elder One?" A Stage-Three bog-skinned Goliath asked but Atlas shook his head.

"Later." Atlas took down his rock wall. "You humans are free to go. However, if I sense that you've become a threat to us once again, we will kill you."

Before Torvald, Maggie, and Hyde could say anything, Cabot signaled for everyone to leave. Caira was about to follow her comrades out but Atlas' voice stopped her.

"Be patient with him Caira. Our mother may have influenced him and he's largely conflicted over who to trust. He currently resides at what you humans have named the Broken Hill Mine." Caira nodded and left the cavern.

Elsewhere in the shadows a monster was growling in anger. Another child of hers had betrayed her and what's worse was that he was much more resistant to her influence than the others. Ares was coming around but this confliction he still held was bothersome.

"For now, I'll observe what happens next. If they manage to move any closer towards me, then I will send my more obedient children to keep them in line. They will learn not to defy their mother's will. Especially that Behemoth."

Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the way things are going so far. Read and Review and I'll see you guys next time! :)