The ancient temple lay in ruins. Built by the Greeks who had perished fighting the Atlanteans over thirteen thousand years before, it had seen the soldierly faces of Achilles, Agamemnon, and Odysseus and heard the scholarly voices and teachings of Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato, who had never known of the Greek civilization before theirs. Now the trampled and time-worn marble floor was crossed by the leather-clad feet of Gaius Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.
Pompey hugged his friend in a powerful embrace. The gold-embossed eagles on their chest armor came together with a soft sound, almost as comforting to the old soldiers as a mother's soothing voice had once been in their young ears.
'So, old friend, why have you asked to see me in this place where our ancient ancestors plotted and dreamed so much? I thought you would have been more comfortable meeting at one of the villas of your wife's family, and maybe a just a little closer to home.'
Julius Caesar broke the embrace and smiled at his friend as he turned away and removed his scarlet cloak. He walked over to a fallen pillar and slowly sat, placing his cloak beside him. His hair was askew, and Pompey could see that he was perplexed about some matter.
'I have news, brother. News that will astound even you, the down-to-earth Pompey, sensible Pompey, wise and wonderful--'
'Okay, old friend, you have my attention. No need to spread the olive oil on the bread further,' Pompey said as he removed his helmet and sat next to Caesar.
Gaius looked at the older man and smiled. It was an honest look that Pompey had seen many times before in child and man. It foretold an idea, of which his old friend always had an abundance.
'The old stories told to us about the Ancients, our forefathers--remember listening to them as children?' He looked at Pompey and grinned. 'Not that you ever were a child.'
'True, true. I remember listening to the stories with you upon my knee, but please, continue,' he said, looking at the rising moon.
'One particular story from the Ancients intrigued us as boys more than most. You know of which story I speak?'
'Of course: we used to dream about the great power. You speak of the Wave?' He looked from the moon to his friend.
Caesar nodded and then slapped his friend on the leg.
'Your mind isn't as addled as rumor would have it. Yes, the wave.' His gaze went from Pompey to the worn marble floor. 'What would you say if I told you I have been searching for the forbidden hiding place of the library of our ancestors?'
Pompey stood so suddenly that his helmet fell from his grasp and hit the hard floor of the temple. The noise was so loud in that revered place that both sets of personal bodyguards turned their way. Pompey looked back at the soldiers until they looked away. Then he returned his fatherly stare to Gaius until the younger man looked up.
'You know searching for the scrolls is forbidden. Have you gone mad? If the rest of our brothers and sisters find out, they will have you banished and shunned. Brother, tell me you jest.'
Caesar stood slowly and took Pompey by the shoulders and held him in place.
'For you and the others it is easy, your families are like stone, while mine was weak and always without the funds to make the family Juliai as powerful as the rest of you.'
Pompey shook off the embrace and turned away.
'Because the family Juliai,' he turned back to face his friend with a sad look about his features, 'has always been dreamers, Gaius old friend. You and your fathers have always sought the easy way to power. The rest of the children of Atlantis have always been there for support, but we cannot continue to throw money at your dreams. We share the consulship, isn't that enough?'
'Mere money is no longer a problem.'
'Yes, we know you married into wealth, and I hear you are doing wonderfully in Gaul and Britannia, and that alone should be enough--but not with you, Gaius, wealth isn't what you seek. Do not look so shocked. You may fool the rest of our brothers and sisters, but this is me, old friend, I know what it is you seek, and this quest will lead to your destruction.'
'I have many soldiers seeking out the scrolls of our people, and now I have knowledge of where they were hidden.' Caesar walked a few paces and then turned. 'We are allied not only by marriage and blood but by power. With the tales that were told about the power of the wave we could rule all the earth, bring all mankind together for--'
'The first family of man will not abide this, Gaius,' Pompey stated sternly. 'Remember the last renegade of the Ancients, our brother and my joint consul Licinius Crassus? He too dreamed of the power of the old story. The families of the Ancients made him pay for his adultery to our new faith by never returning to the old way, and now you, Brother Gaius, now you. My friend, you are diving blindly into black waters I and the others cannot allow you to swim.'
Caesar faced his friend, the man who had married his daughter, Julia, and frowned.
'You will not stand by me, brother?'
The light of knowledge suddenly filled the eyes of Pompey. 'Spain! I had heard that you sent that little monster Antony there on some sort of mysterious mission. It was he who found the trail of our ancestors, is this not so?'
'My time spent in that horrible place had its merits. Spain is the hiding place and we
Pompey shook his head in shame. 'If you continue this madness, I will have no choice but to inform the rest of the society of your actions to discover the old ways. That will end you, Gaius; it will end
Caesar looked at his friend and then reached down and removed his cloak from the fallen pillar and swung it so that it barely missed Pompey as he clipped it around his shoulders.
'I must return to Gaul, there is an uprising there.'
'Gaius, please do not do this thing. The family of man will send troops to Spain to thwart any effort you may make to recover the old scrolls. You will be banished from the brotherhood of Ancients!'
'I have more than just a few of our brothers and sisters on my side; they are not afraid to rise again as many of you are. I ask you one more time, Pompey, join us in the quest,' he placed the golden helmet on his head and then his right hand went to his sword, not hiding the threat the action well conveyed, 'or there will be war among us, and that will destroy the family of the Ancients forever. Is that what you want?'
Pompey's eyes were on the ivory handle of Caesar's sword, and then they moved upward to his determined eyes.
'I see far more than you know, Gaius. I see ambition that would allow no interference from the family, even from me.' Pompey slowly picked up his fallen helmet and placed it on his head. 'I will thwart you, Gaius, even unto the destruction of our ancestral heritage. Even unto splitting us into two factions, one against the other. Leave the Key and the scrolls in their place, I beg you one last time!'
'Return to Rome, old man, and from here on out, stay out of our way. I came to this sacred place to convince you of our true calling, that our race must--must, I say--be the dominate force on this planet. But alas, you have become a timid old man, not deserving of being an Ancient.'
Pompey watched Caesar turn away, his scarlet cape blotting out the rising moon as it fanned out in his haste. The old shoulders of the Roman coconsel slumped as he watched his friend leave. The younger Gaius was right about his age, he
Gaius Julius Caesar turned back one last time and saw his friend among the ruins. The face he could not see, but the determined stance of Pompey in the moon's glow told Caesar that they would meet on the field of disharmony, and the Ancient family of man would divide forever.
