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Velhall Palace

Oitylon [capital city], Ravelous [planet], Despæ [star system]

25 June; 09:21:43 Hours

Clunk, clunk, clunk rumbled up the large hall where it washed against the massive double doors of the throne chamber. Four Stormers stood guard. Black armor that absorbed the sun shining in from their left. The inner two Stormers stood with pike staffs crossed in front of the double doors, as the outer two stepped forward, glancing down the length of the marble to the approaching silhouettes.

Eerie tension thickened with the two sets of armored boots pounding in unison; one jagged and silver, while the other was pristine and gold.

“Is there a reason Sara and Cole stayed back on Talon?” Drake asked as he and Theo grew closer to the throne chamber.

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Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]

Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]

23 June; 13:55:09 Hours

“Master Theo?” Edmund called over Theo’s commlink while he piloted Talon alone, and Theo glanced up to his right out the corner of his eye as he answered.

“What is it, Edmund?”

“May I ask…”

“When don’t you?”

“Hah, ha, very funny, sir!” Edmund quipped before his tone now grew serious, “Where is Lady Dax?”

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Xynyx [planet], Ibish-8C [star system]

30 June; 07:34:09 Hours

The deep purple horizon grew to black as it reached to the stars and four moons that riddled the sky. Several mountains pushed through the clouds, which were cast in an orange and pink glow by the distant rising sun, sending flares of yellow and gold firing up from the horizon. A small Class III cruiser idled in the stone hollow, its ramp lowered to the ground. At the cliff’s edge stood Ravena, wind pulling her long brown hair aside as Klaus called out to her.

“We still haven’t properly thanked you!”

“For what?” Ravena asked as she turned around to him and Kyra, who descended the ramp.

“For what?” Kyra chuckled before she answered, “We wouldn’t have got off of Kandok without you.”

“I just gave you four a way off of that death rock, that’s all,” Ravena sighed as she folded her arms.

Klaus stopped in front of her, he extended his hand out to her, and let out a breathy chuckle. “Come on, you did more than that - You saved Far’s life from that droid. Believe me, that’s more than just flying us out of there.”

“Beelezika was the one who saved you all - Thank him,” she still tried to refute the two, but now Amelia chimed in from the top of the ramp.

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Aluxora [submarine mega-city]

Oscio [planet], Elysium [star system]

03 May; 23:15:44 Hours

“You look so happy, Toots!” Sacks said with a giant smile as he looked at Syia, who sat across from him at the table in a small tavern.

“<I do?>” she cooed as she held the Yahmo pup in her arms, with it sound asleep.

“Yeah, and it’s honestly beautiful.”

“<She is, isn’t she?>”

Sacks let out a brief chuckle, which caused Syia to look up from the pup to him with her eyes narrowing slightly.

“<What? What’s funny?>”

“No, no,” he now chuckled before taking a sip of his pint, then answering her, “I, I didn’t mean the pup - I meant seeing this innocence you have with it, that’s beautiful.”

“<Wuh-why?>” she asked with a sincerity that took Sacks aback.

“Why?”

“<Yeah, why is that… beautiful?>”

“It’s… Well, since we met you, you’ve been tense and acting like you’re running for your life, Toots,” he explained while motioning his left hand around before again taking another sip, and then he finished, “but now, with the pup, you seem almost at peace.”

“<I just, it, um, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt—” Syia now started to admit, but she caught herself and turned it on Sacks as she now asked, “<How did you and Augur meet?>”

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Idris-9 [city], Teltobah [planet], Meertomb [star system]

1 July; 10:25:09 Hours

Eeeeeeerrr, the high-pitched screeching ripped through the underground rail tunnel as the speed train shot through the dimly lit and musky passage. There were quick bursts of bright white as the inlet lighting of the tunnel flickered, and steam bellowed free from several small ports that the train shot by. The passenger cars, themselves, were elbow-to-elbow with Astronauts as chatter and laughter consumed their entirety, all while Gabe sat upon one of the benches - asleep.

“<Can you believe we’re going to be within eye sight of the Golden Voice, Nevaeh?>” one of the dozens of Astronauts said to his Mechlic - a grey with violet blotches, octopus-like being - friend, who happily nodded.

“<Yes! She’s saying what we all have!>”

“<Soon there won’t be anyone holding us back!>” another Astronaut loudly expressed, as he passionately spoke with his group of friends several feet off to Gabe’s left. “<The True Vision will not be able to keep us from changing the world anymore!>”

“<That’s right, Heltur!>” his friend agreed before another echoed.

“<Nevaeh is us all!>”

“Ohhhhhhhhh, Gabe…” an eerily familiar voice weaved its way past the Astronauts where it perched beside Gabe’s right ear, and his eyes shot wide open before they flickered around, taking sight of the car.

Gabe slowly leaned forward with his hands upon his knees, several of his dreads fell in front of his face, and the loudness of the chatter twisted into a pounding murmur. His eyes now specifically darted from one Astronaut to another. He watched their mouths moving while no longer being able to hear their words. He could feel the joy of their laughs, yet was deaf to their bellows. Then, Gabe’s eyes grew wide as he caught sight of a streak of crimson that moved through the thick toward the back of the car.

“Bastard!” Gabe roared and shot up from the bench seat, with Astronauts gasping and shrieking as he pushed his way past them in chase of the figure.

“<Hey!>” one yelped before a young female Telvian cried out.

“Ahhh! <That backwater-ape touched me! It touched me!>”

“<Watch your primate-hands, you backwater filth!>”

“<They have no standards! No standards, I tell you!>”

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However, Gabe paid none any mind as he continued to rush down the car as he caught flickers of the crimson silhouette through the crowd every several feet. His brown eyes slowly turned emerald as he closed the distance; he saw several wolf-like Astronauts who brandished their fangs to him, then he saw a dark olive skinned teenage Human-like girl who locked eyes with him for but only a moment before the crimson blared at him through another set of heads, and he moved deeper, only to then make out the rear door of the car slide open and then closed.

“No! You’re not getting away again!” Gabe growled before he squeezed by two large, pot-bellied Derks, and the door hissed as his approach triggered the sensor, with it sliding to the left.

Gabe paused. He could hear the shrieking of the speed train rushing through the tunnel. The warm, musky, and tense air blew in at him with his dreads pushed back out of his face. Gabe then exited car-twelve and onto the small connection bridge, with the next car’s front door hissing as it slid to the left. Something was different, however, as a thick and cold air wafted out at Gabe and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

“Mmmmmhm,” again, the eerily familiar voice came before the deep popping sound like someone cracked their neck, and Gabe entered car-thirteen. “I can smell it, Gabe… I can smell what you hate to admit…”

“Heeeh, huh, heeeh, huh,” Gabe panted with the door closing behind him, and his burning emerald eyes locking onto the silhouette in the alien darkness that smothered out the car’s overhead lights.

The familiar voice finished as a deep, gravelly and demonic tone bled over it, “… fear!”

“Theo!”

“What’s wrong, brother?” chuckling, the being who was silhouetted out now raised its head, as it stood out before Gabe, with the inky blotched crimson hood lifting just enough to reveal a twisted Theo. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

Gabe took an aggressive step forward with Shade crawling across the floor. “Your mind games never worked on me - They’re not gonna start now!”

“My mind games?” and then directly beside Gabe’s right ear, an ear-to-ear razor-sharp fanged mouthed Theo emerged from the Shade for a brief moment as he grinned, “No, not my mind!”

Gabe spun to find nothing but the dark with the flickering inlet lighting of the tunnel flashing in every few seconds through the window of the door.

Then slowly, Gabe turned back to the lurking embodiment of his eldest friend, and he growled at it, “You didn’t beat me!”

“Hmm, it sure feels like it!”

“You ran! You did, Theo! You ran away from me with your tail tucked firmly between your legs, to your Shim whore!”

Only the razor-sharp fangs could be made out through the shroud of darkness that blacked out Theo’s face while Gabe vigorously pointed at him, and yet they remained in the largest of twisted grins.

“I’m gonna end it,” Gabe breathily muttered as he proudly nodded his head over and over again, “Yeeeah! Imma end it! I’m gonna end it right here like I was going to on Ravelous!”

“Oooooooh,” the corrupted vision raised his right inky index finger, wagging it slightly. “Lying now?”

Gabe gritted his teeth and let out a deep breath from his nose.

All while from the ceiling behind Gabe, slowly emerged from the thickness of the Shade another shadow of Theo, who lingered upside down with arms wide open, and whispered, “I guess you couldn’t meditate me away, huh, brother?”

“Albatross!” Gabe roared and spun around to find the doppelgänger gone, again.

“Mmm, heh, ha, hah, ha!” simply bellowed from the monstrous Theo back off behind Gabe, but then a hiss ripped free in front of Gabe, and everything changed in a blink.

The cold darkness had vanished with the dull blue lighting of the overhead lights of the car painting its emptiness around him. Gabe’s eyes blinked in disbelief. He glanced around, and even back over his shoulder as he panted, but then heard the soft voice of Mya call to him, “Gabe? Gabe? What are you doing back here? We have to go! We don’t have much time!”

“He was here!” he frantically tried to convince her, as she grabbed his arm and pulled him along to exit the car. “He was right here, Mya!”

Mya stopped and looked up at him while she winced. “He? Who? You mean she? Nevaeh? Was Nevaeh here?”

“Nah-no, no! Thee—” but he stopped as he could see they were in the station and nearly all the Astronauts had disembarked and were moving through the substation toward the stairwell to the city above. “Wuh-wait… We’re here?

“Yeah,” she confirmed.

“Already?”

“Yes, Gabe! We don’t have much time! The Fangs are in position and are waiting for us!”

“The train ride was supposed to be thirty minutes,” Gabe couldn’t wrap his mind around the time loss, as he tried to rationalize to not Mya but himself, “I saw him… We boarded the train, and I closed my eyes for a second, just a second…”

“Gabe?”

“… Then, then I immediately heard him - I heard his prong-tipped tongue! I, I, I saw, I suh-saw that bastard! I could smell the death that lingers upon him! I know it, I nuh—”

Mya grabbed his forearms and forced him to look at her. “Gabe, pleeeeease! We have a tight window! We don’t have time, and if we linger any longer, we’ll miss our only shot!”

“Heeeeh,” Gabe sighed before he gently pushed strands of her long black hair out of her face, and then nodded his head. “Okay, let’s move.”

Mya smiled. She then guided him along as the two hurried through the substation toward the stairwell. The echoing thumps of their exit left behind the empty cars and suffocated in the hollow, before from the thickness of the dark, a deep and gravelly laugh rumbled free.

***

Thirty-five minutes later…

“Tear out its eyes!” roared from the massive, two-thousand large crowd that Gabe, Mya, and a small squad of Fangs looked down upon to the courtyard below them. “Make the Vision blind! Tear out its eyes! Make the Vision blind…”

“<Don’t get me wrong,” one of the Fangs expressed as he turned to the others with Gabe sitting upon the ground looking at his hands that were folded in front of him, “The True Vision is a blight to the Universe, but if we allow this cult to grow any larger - We’ll have a much bigger problem on our hands!>”

“<It just feels wrong, Kahto,>” another noted.

“<Wrong?>” a third scoffed before the second spun to him and snapped.

“<Yes, Lah’tahmar! It feels wrong to assassinate someone fighting against their oppressor! Does it not?>”

“<She’s not an oppressed, Ceedro! She’s a Tameerkan; a whisperer of lies; a cognitive bender!>”

“<So wuh—” Ceedro exclaimed, but as Gabe listened, his shadow cast upon the ground to his left twisted in his peripheral with Theo’s twisted laugh taunting him.

“Mmm, heh, hah, ha, ha - Listen to them, brother… Even your precious Quarter can’t decipher good from evil… How can your mission continue if they cannot simply differentiate the monsters from the virtuous?”

Gabe’s nostrils flared. His eyes again flickered between their natural brown and the burning emerald. He panted while biting his lip. He then clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles bulged and roared his growing frustration; however, all of their nipping attention quickly shifted over the ledge as cheers erupted.

“Nevaeh!”

“<We love your voice, Nevaeh!>”

“<Your golden tongue will set us free!>” what felt like the ten thousandth gleamed.

Escorted to the eye of attention, a dark olive-skinned woman entered the celebration of the thousands. Five followed her - neither ahead nor behind, as they orbited her like measured presence of the realized reality around her. Each scanned the crowd, and none spoke a word as the cheering continued what appeared nonstop.

Her long, curly black hair swayed in the subtle breeze of the courtyard. She raised her right hand in acknowledgement, gold-coated fingers that caught the glimmer of the sunlight, and she held it for a small eternity. The crowd grew louder and louder in adoring pride until she slowly lowered her hand, with the cheers instantly smothered. Her gold eyes scanned the Astronauts before her, and she smiled.

“<We love you, Nevaeh!>” a voice called from the crowd, and Nevaeh subtly blushed before giggling.

“<And I love you all!>” and she felt the reverberating uproar of their cheers that followed.

Gabe’s eyes were locked on the Golden Voice. His upper lip twitched while he heard the chatter of his Fangs still bickering at the other.

“<We have to take her out now!>”

“<But think of what ripple this will send across the Universe!>”

“<Think of what ripple will be sent out if we don’t,>” Lah’tahmar stressed to Ceedro, who looked through the enhanced sights of his Kramat B92-LR rifle, which was locked on Nevaeh.

“<For generations, their wall was unclimbable!” Nevaeh preached with the thousands before her at a dead silence as they listened to every word that left her lips. “<Many were lost; many could not take their persecution; many betrayed their own to preserve themselves, but now their wall cannot endure!>”

“<This is wrong, Lah’tahmar! Come on! Yurlish? Walgus? Mya?>” Ceedro expressed his tearing convictions and tried to gain unity, all while the twisted whisper of Gabe’s life-long friend rode the breeze where it again perched upon his shoulder.

“You’re so close…”

“<Take the shot, Ceedro!>” Lah’tahmar growled before Walgus affirmed.

“<This is Shaomhav’s mission - She is a threat far greater than the True Vision!>”

Nevaeh continued as she approached the edge of the elevated stage with arms wide open. “<The vision is now clear! We are its true nature! We are its true people! We are…”

“… She’s within striking distance, brother,” the whisper burrowed its way deeper into Gabe’s ear, as he grit his teeth and attention shifted from Nevaeh to Ceedro, who now closed his eyes. “Yet she’s still breathing…”

“Come on, Ceedro,” Mya even urged him, but now he removed his finger from the trigger of his rifle as he softly said.

“This, no, this isn’t my mission.”

“Grand? Mmmh, heh, ha, hah, ha!” the twisted whisper had contorted into a sinister laugh before finishing in a deep, solemn assessment, “My, how the once grand Shaomhav Quarter has softened!”

Gabe’s eyes nearly quadrupled. His chest puffed and contracted faster and faster. The high-pitched ringing he heard like a white noise for over several minutes now felt unbearable, and then in a blink, Gabe snapped.

“Enough!” he barked, stormed over to, and grabbed Ceedo by the shoulder before he launched him across the roof.

Mya gasped. Ceedro tumbled to a stop nearly twenty feet from the others, where his head slammed off the concrete ledge and knocked him unconscious. Lah’tahmar, Walgus, and Yurlish each glanced to their fellow Fang before their attention shifted slowly to their Grand Mane, who, in the moment of explosive frustration, flickered violently and rapidly with emerald surges.

Gabe, however, let out a deep breath before he took position. He grabbed the rifle and then he, himself, took aim at Nevaeh. The hairs of the advanced sights slowly lined up upon Nevaeh’s forehead, with the vertical moving into place as the horizontal bounced ever so slightly. Then, as Gabe calculated where her exact location would be in between his next breath, he squeezed the trigger, boom.

Perception for Gabe, Mya, and his Fangs all slowed to a crawl as the energy nail shot down the barrel and fired at its target. The cheering of the thousands muffled to a drawn-out, twisted moan that reverberated like a demonic horn that heralded an end. Yet Nevaeh smiled as she had just finished a sentence, completely unaware of the nearing death nail until a silver streak met it less than a half foot from the Golden Voice’s face.

Ting screeched free as a blade deflected the shot, and the crowd erupted in fear.

The yellow burning eyes of Alarik, a Nemaakian and head of the League, pinged around at the rooftops as he slowly lowered his curve blade down to his side. Nevaeh’s eyes grew large as realization flooded her of what was prevented. Though before she could move, a jagged and berserk Knight, Kom, moved in front of her with his shadow swallowing her in a glistening silver of his invulnerable skin. Then, in the brief glare of the sun reflecting off the sights of the rifle, Gabe now locked eyes with Alarik, whose scarred face cracked a small smirk.

“Dammit!” Gabe roared before he yanked back with the rifle and shot up to his feet, as Mya panicked.

“Gabe? Gabe? Wuh-what just happened?”

“<Is the target neutralized?>” Lah’tahmar echoed the sense of concern, but his facial expression answered his question before Gabe grunted and began moving toward the stairwell door.

“We have to get out of here!”

“Oh-okay,” Mya yelped and hurried in front of him.

“Fetch Ceedro,” Gabe then ordered. “We can’t leave him behind here!”

“<But our mission isn’t his anymore, remember?>” Lah’tahmar said as he threw his arms up.

“<He’ll be a liability now, Grand Mane,>” Yurlish added as she stopped at the stairwell where Mya held the door open.

Gabe now growled as the high-pitched ringing returned. “I said… fetch him!”

Lah’tahmar and Walgus’ eyes were narrowed as they looked at Gabe, who rubbed his temple, but the two relented despite the gut-churning feeling of festering darkness as they quickly hurried over to their fellow Fang. Mya, as the others had, she continued to look at Gabe while he slowly continued toward her in almost a daze. His index and middle fingers appeared buried into his temple, like he was contemplating age-old concerns, as the whispery voice of Theo howled by his ear, “Albatross? No… Your Damocles!”

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Gyltorish [city], Lytoris [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

26 Dec; 21:20:44 Hours

“… day forward, you exemplify the courage, sacrifice, and spirit of Shaomhav; a legacy forged through honor, peace, and the commitment to defend what is right. You are now part of something greater than yourselves - an oath that binds us together, a bond that unites you with those who have walked this path before,” Gabe Hightower spoke to a massive audience in the city square, as nearly one hundred graduates sat directly out before him. “It is with the greatest honor that I stand before you today, to welcome you into the Quarter. May your courage never falter, and may your honor be your guide. Congratulations, Claws of Shaomhav!”

Cheers erupted as the graduates jumped up from their chairs, they tossed their shawls into the air, while many hugged and congratulated each other as others were met by family and friends. The night sky overhead lit up with beautiful bursts of color as fireworks went off, and the booming echoed for what felt like miles. However, as Gabe still stood at the podium watching his graduates congratulating one another, he saw three of his Fangs looming off beyond the crowds to his right before they subtly moved back where they faded from sight.

The alley was dark and carried a musky smell that appeared to fester as the three Fangs stood in a circle talking to one another before Gabe approached them. He stopped several feet in front of his top warriors where he glanced back over his shoulder, and said, “What’s happened?”

“Grand Mane,” his Left Fang, Kairyu bowed his head and explained, “something of concern has unfolded in Aen’Goor.”1

Gabe’s eyes narrowed. “Wuh-what? What’s happened? Something with Theo?”

“What exactly, well, we’re not sure,” Tehvuh, the Right Fang answered as she glanced down.

“What do you mean that you’re not sure?” Gabe growled.

“The, the annual Aen’Goorian Royal Address,” Kairyu stepped forward as he elaborated, “King Theo Walker was not present, Grand Mane. No, his, heeeeh, his queen and their princess were in sole attendance for the royal family, and she made the address.”

“Dax…” he growled even deeper this time, but Tehvuh said.

“She spoke in terms of conquest, Grand Mane. It was almost as if she was channeling the lore of her fallen father. She was angry and, well, she, she, uh, she cried several times throughout her speech.”

Gabe clenched his fists tightly while his eyes ignited emerald in the dark, saying, “Eeeeeh, this is not good—”

“What’s not good?” Sadria O’Thsa asked, who was Gabe’s wife and Lioness of the Shaomhav Quarter, as she approached. “What’s going on, my love?”

“Heeeh, heh, ha, hah!” Gabe chuckled at first before he turned to his wife and smiled, saying, “Well, um, just some, uh, some rising concerns regarding Aen’Goor. Nothing for you to worry about, Sadria.”

“Rising concerns with Aen’Goor? Wuh-what? I thought Shaomhav and Aen’Goor had an understanding, my love!”

“We do, darling. We do.”

Sadria’s eyes narrowed as she stepped close to Gabe. “Then why are there rising concerns?”

“It’s, it’s the Shim. The Shim,” he said through his teeth before a grin transformed out of his disgust, and he finished, “but like I said, nothing to worry about.”

Sadria’s head slightly tilted to the right with her eyes still narrow, but Gabe reached out and took her hand before he began to lead her back toward the celebration. However, the two stopped in their tracks as the final Fang, the Secret stepped forward and he called to them, “There has been more, my Manes…”

Gabe’s eyes closed tightly and he bit down on his lip. “More?”

“Wuh-what are you speaking of, Grador?” Sadria asked as she was the first to turn.

“The imperial politics of Aen’Goor are not what we are here for, Lioness,” he said as Gabe turned and repeated himself.

“More?”

“Yes, Grand Mane. Many more.”

“I do not understand,” Sadria snapped as she glanced at her husband.

Grador again stepped forward, lowering his voice to barely above a whisper as he said, “Thirty-seven. There were thirty-seven this time.”

“Thirty-seven?” Sadria gasped.

“It was one, maybe two every few months but thirty-seven… No, no, this, it, it cannot be accurate,” Gabe tried denying, however Tehvuh confirmed her fellow Fang.

“It was a massacre, Grand Mane - We’re doing everything we can to conceal it from those on Bay’Etor.”

Kairyu sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “The locals are whispering and night tales are sure to spread, and when they do, they’ll spread like the leaves in the harvest moon wind.”

“Are, are there bodies this time?” Gabe asked as his hand pulled free from Sadria’s.

“Yes,” Grador confirmed, “all thirty-seven.”

“I must see!” Gabe exclaimed, but Sadria yanked his arm and spun him toward herself.

“My love! We cannot leave this celebration! If the Fangs speak of night-tales spreading already, our departure will breathe life into them!”

Gabe placed his hand over his mouth and his pupils shrunk as he thought, but then he nodded while saying, “Very well, we will return to the celebration… but tonight Tehvuh will depart for Endul to seek the Shimmer Queen’s attention regarding Shaomhav’s questions of Theo’s absence, and tomorrow, I will depart to the sight of the massacre…”

Immah [city], Bay’Etor [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

28 Dec; 18:31:22 Hours

Tssssshhhhhh sounded as the ramp of the cruiser lowered and smoke bellowed from the opening where Gabe and Grador emerged with a unit of Claws. The city was small and only possessed mini-ports for any extraterrestrial arrivals, which made any ships larger than a cruiser impossible to land within the limits. Local kids quickly hurried to the gated entrance of the port where Gabe and the others were, and they started calling to Gabe with cheer.

“<Grand Mane! Grand Man!>” a young boy yelled as he jumped up and down while several others chimed in.

“<You’re so cool!>”

“<I wanna be just like you, Grand Mane!>”

The crowd grew several folds from just a small group of kids to over forty people, who were all cheering and calling to Gabe as they now began walking toward the crowd. Gabe waved and smiled, and he stopped in front of them where he took a knee and said to the children, “Look at all of you! Young, smart, and powerful Clawlings!”

“<Clawlings? You, you think we could be Claws one day?>” one of the kids asked with gleaming eyes.

“<Even, even me?>” a ten-year-old girl said as she bowed her head.

Gabe reached out, gently flicked her chin up, and smiled. “Even you.”

“Grand Mane,” Grador called as he placed his hand on Gabe’s shoulder, “We must be going.”

Gabe glanced over his shoulder at Grador before he subtly nodded, and then he slowly stood up. However, one of the kids reached out and grabbed his wrist and whispered, “<Are you here be-because of the Lytoris Eclipse?>”

“The Lytoris Eclipse—” Gabe said as his eyes narrowed.

Grador nudged Gabe. “Grand Mane…”

He again looked to Grador as this time a speed-transport pulled up just out front of them from the crowd, and Grador now nodded in the direction of it but Gabe refused. “What is he talking about?”

“Wuh-what?” Grador stammered as he stepped toward the transport.

“If I’m here because of the Lytoris Eclipse - What is he referring about, Grador?”

“The Lytoris Eclipse? It’s, it’s just a planetary eclipse of the sun for Bay’Etor, that’s all,” he explained before again urging Gabe toward the transport where Claws awaited them. “Now please, Grand Mane, we must go.”

Gabe stood in front of the crowd with the young child still looking up to him while he reluctantly began to back away, moving toward the transport while the others in the crowd cheered him and called out, “<I can’t believe I met the Grand Mane!>”

“<Did you hear him? Did you? He said we could be Claws!>”

“<Grand Mane! Grand Mane! We love you!>”

“What is going on here, Grador?” Gabe hissed to his Fang while they neared the transport, but just as they were about to get in, a woman grabbed Gabe’s arm and spun him to herself while she pleaded with him.

“<Grand Mane! Grand Mane, please! My daughter! My girl! She’s missing! She wasn’t amongst them! Please—”

“Your daughter?” Gabe uttered with wide eyes while Claws pulled the woman back.

“<YES! Yes, Grand Mane! My daughter was not amongst the others! She’s still missing! Pleeeeeease!>”

Grador quickly ushered Gabe into the transport and closed their side door as the Claws boarded through the rear and the other side, all in a near blink before the vehicle sped off. Gabe bobbed his head around, attempting to look out the windows to the mother who begged for his help and instead, he barely got a glimpse of her as the crowd disappeared in the distance.

***

Fifteen minutes later…

A loud hiss erupted as the side doors opened and rose which allowed the Claws to disembark before Grador and lastly, Gabe whose eyes narrowed while he looked around. The homes in the small neighborhood were abandoned, the streets were empty with something that caught Gabe’s attention. He tilted his head slightly to the left before going to his right as he walked around the transport, where he stopped. Gabe even knelt down and looked to the ground as that same oddity remained, so much so that it caused him to reach out and grab a handful of the gravel that he looked at in his palm.

“This is ground zero, Grand Mane,” Grador announced.

“It’s,” Gabe said barely louder than a whisper as he slowly poured the gravel out of his hand to the ground beside him, “it’s red…”

Grador turned to him as his head clocked back slightly. “Excuse me?”

“It’s all red,” he elaborated as he stood up and looked around to everything. “It all has a red tint, why?”

But nothing as everyone remained silent.

Gabe’s nostrils flared as he glanced around at them all before finally barking, “Why does everything possess a red tint? Why?”

Still, none answered at first but after several minutes of staticky tension with Gabe continuing to glare them all up and down, one of the Claws stepped forward with his head bowed and he answered, “<Grand Mane, um, it’s, uh, it’s red because of, well, of, of the blood.>”

“Buh-blood?” Gabe asked with an up-tick in his voice.

“<Yes, everywhere.>”

“Where? Where is it then?”

“<We, we cleaned the area, Grand Mane.>”

Gabe’s pupils shrunk to pinpoints as his brow furrowed and he stepped toward the Claw. “Yous what?”

“Grand Mane,” Grador interjected, “I ordered them to clean the area.”

“What?” Gabe exploded as he spun to Grador before demanding, “I want to see it!”

“Grand Mane—” Grador attempted to push back, but an emerald aura ignited off of Gabe as he roared.

“NOW! I want to see it, now!”

Grador immediately bowed his head to Gabe before he turned slightly to the Claws, and ordered, “Retrieve the recreation disc,” and without hesitation, two hurried over to the transport where they unpacked a four-foot-in-diameter disc that they carefully set down in front of Gabe.

The air had grown thick as Gabe stood looming over the disc and the two Claws who readied to start it, as the intensely green glowing aura burned off him. Then like a countdown initiating, the Claw closest to Gabe tapped the top of the disc and a bright blue light blinked once, twice, and then a third time before a powerful flash erupted. The Claws, including Grador, almost flinched back as the pulse of light shot out from the disc to every portion of the neighborhood around them; yet Gabe stood unfazed.

The emerald whipping wisps quickly grew less violent as Gabe beheld the three-dimensional, lifelike recreation before him. There, mangled and a lot dismembered, were the thirty-seven corpses of men, women, the elderly, and even children which drove the glowing emerald eyes of Gabe dark and the aura extinguished. The Grand Mane was hit with the realization of what he demanded and promptly received as he stood in the middle of the massacre, looking upon blood everywhere.

Eduun Palace

Babuul’t [capital city], Lytoris [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

19 Jan; 06:27:44 Hours

There was a chill that lingered within the Mane’s chamber, the only light within was from the three-dimensional holograms of the miniature recreation of Bay’Etor, as well as dossiers of nearly a dozen other similar incidents that Gabe was going over. He swiped them around and pulled up their recreations which he analyzed as his eyes pinged back and forth between each one. Yet Gabe time and time again found himself returning to the massacre. His eyes dilated at the blood and grew teary at the mutilated bodies that until he had stood at the scene, he had convinced himself that the massacres were just simply rumors thrown around to scare the people of Shaomhav.

However, the reconstruction dematerialized slightly, parting in the middle, where a bust hologram of Tehvuh was constructed as she softly spoke, “Forgive me, Grand Mane, but Queen Dax is prepared to speak with you.”

Gabe nodded. “Patch her through.”

Tehvuh’s bust immediately dematerialized and was followed by others as the chamber went dark for a moment, but then out in front of Gabe constructed a life-size hologram of Dax who sat upon the Aen’Goorian quad-spire throne. Her eyes glowed bright blue as she looked at Gabe and snapped, “How dare you! Who do you think you are, summoning ME!”

“Where’s Theo?” Gabe asked.

“Where my husband is, is none of your concern… naexu!”

“Perhaps. Perhaps it’s none of my concern…” Gabe acknowledged as he slowly rose from his chair, a smirk growing over his face and his tone shifted to barely louder than a whisper, “… but rumors are spreading across the Uni, rumors of Al’taek Shihaev.”

Dax clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles went white and cracked while she grit her teeth.

“A blackening.”

“WHAT…” she now snapped, “… do you want?”

Gabe sighed as he bowed his head, but then slowly looked up to Dax as he said, “I’m asking for your help.”

“Excuse me?” Dax chuckled. “You? You want Aen’Goor’s help?”

“Heeh, yes.”

“Ooooh, see, now you have my attention - What does the Grand Mane of Shaomhav need from Aen’Goor?”

“Information… More so, confirmation.”

“Information?” Dax’s left eye squinted as her head tilted back slightly, and she asked, “Confirmation of what?”

“Murders,” Gabe quickly answered. “Brutal, bloody murders.”

Dax again chuckled as this time she leaned back in the throne and raised her arms out to her sides. “In Aen’Goor?”

“Why else would I be seeking Aen’Goor?” Gabe’s voice ticked up as his face contorted with a scrunched brow and flared nostrils.

“Watch your tone when you speak to me!”

“My tone? My tone? My people are dying! They’re being slaughtered! And not just being killed, but in the most brutal and bloody way, dammit!”

“Do you truly believe that Theo and I would allow such atrocities under Aen’Goorian colors?”

“And you think I do?”

“Is it not happening? That’s why you’ve come crawling to us, is it not?”

“MY PEOPLE are being bled! They’re bodies dismembered!”

“Hah, ha, ha, hah!” Dax laughed as she crossed her right leg over her left and her eyes dimmed back to light blue. “You sound like a scared little child hearing the night tales of the Hidden Dragon!”

Gabe’s eyes fluttered and he clocked his head to his right. “The, the Hidden Dragon?”

“Heeeeh,” Dax sighed and rolled her eyes at him before she growled, “I don’t have time for your games, naexu.”

“No, nah, no, wuh-what’s, what’s the Hid-Hidden Drag—” Gabe stammered only for Dax’s hologram to disperse as she ended her feed, leaving him to yell, “WAAAAIT!”

The Mane’s chamber returned to its darkness as he stood several steps from his chair, panting and clenching his fists so tightly that the veins in his forearms flexed through his emerald survival-mail. Gabe felt cornered by what was going on and now the lack of help from Aen’Goor, he wasn’t sure what to do but his eyes shifted as they narrowed in a sense of curiosity. He looked to a faint glow that cast against his back and lit up the floor in front of Gabe, which caused him to spin around where he found dozens and dozens of dossiers holographically constructed before a voice sounded, “Query complete: The Hidden Dragon…”

Gabe’s eyes narrowed further as he slowly stepped toward the holograms. Though the staticky tension grew tenfold as he found thousands of reports, drawings, photographs, and redacted documents before himself. “Nuh, nah, no…” Gabe stammered as he moved one of the documents into view and saw an ancient depiction of a man biting a woman’s neck, “Vampires.”

Brahm Castle

Totihry [mountain], S’Tohk [dwarf planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

21 Jan; 22:05:24 Hours

The deep and haunting melody of strings reverberated through the stone hallways of an ancient castle. Faint flickering wisps of candles lined the cold and musky hall as an old man rounded the corner and walked forth toward massive wooden double doors. A shrieking creak ripped free as the man pushed open the doors and entered a colossal chamber. Hundreds of candles illuminated the empty chamber, as only a jagged and bone throne sat across from the entrance.

The old man remained silent as he proceeded to the heart of the emptiness, where he stood and pulled a gold amulet from around his neck which he gazed upon for a moment before taking a knee on the dragon etched in the stone floor. A sharp tink sound cut through the silence as the man placed the amulet into a deeper etched portion within the dragon’s mouth. His eyes pinged from side to side as a rumble followed and the chamber shook momentarily before the loud sound of gears cranking erupted. The old man quickly arose and staggered back with the stone floor cracking open and spiraling outward from the center of the dragon.

An intense and powerful heaviness consumed the chamber as the opening grew larger and larger until a boom erupted, and a gold sarcophagus started to rise. The old man cracked a large smile as he watched it come up into view; a dragon head, gold scales, and wings crossed over the chest. Slowly he approached the sarcophagus with a powerful pull directing everything to its center, and as he stood beside it, the old man drew a dagger from his belt that he used to carefully slice his palm. The man grimaced for a second before squeezing his fist closed tightly and holding it over the dragon's head’s mouth just as a single drop of blood fell free. Time appeared to slow for the old man as he watched the droplet fall through the air and splash upon the tongue, but that was when time returned to its normal perception as a deep guttural growl emanated from the sarcophagus.

Tsssssssssh erupted as pressurized air released from various parts of the sarcophagus. Then, the left wing slowly opened just a nanosecond before the right and the head of the dragon proceeded to lift and fold backward which revealed the silhouette of someone. The old man shakily took a step forward where he now saw the pale, gauntly man who laid arms crossed over his chest.

“<Muh-m-m-muh-my Lord?>” the old man stammered but gasped as the Dark Lord of the Hidden Dragon, Vlel’Debash slowly sat up while he growled.

“<Why… Why have you awoken me from my slumber?>”

“Al’taek Shihaev,” he answered barely louder than a whisper, “Al’taek Shihaev, <my Lord.>”

A sinister grin crawled free from the gaunt face of Vlel’Debash as his eyes were deeply sunken and a dim blood red. He proceeded to move toward his throne, leaving out a low chuckle with the old man begging of him as Vlel’Debash took his seat, “<I, I, I ask for your e-eternal fuh-forgiveness, my Lord! I would never have interrupted your slumber, but, but the River of Blood, it, it rushes to the Heartwood!>”

Vlel’Debash chuckled as he motioned his hand out before him. “<Forgiveness? You are aware, Kasyn, I do not grant forgiveness…”

“<Muh-my Lord—”

“… and I am quite famished, Kasyn!>”

Kasyn’s teeth nearly chattered as he could see Vlel’Debash’s eyes narrow upon him, but he quickly whipped his head back to his left as the sound of faint screaming echoed down the hall to the chamber. However, Kasyn’s attention quickly returned to Vlel’Debash who took in one of the deepest and longest breaths through his nose, only to bellow as the screaming grew louder and louder, “<Ahhhhhhhh!>”

“<Let me go! Let me gooooooo!>” a young girl screamed as she struggled to break free from the two pale men who dragged her into the chamber and up before Vlel’Debash.

The Dark Lord licked his fangs as his blood-red eyes slowly began to get brighter, and he asked, “<What spec do you come from, child?>”

“<Heeeh, heh, mon-monster!>” she breathily hissed and Vlel’Debash arose from his throne.

“<Bay’Etor,” Kasyn stepped forward and bowed his head as he explained, “The next phase in your prophecy, my Lord.>”

“Heh, ha, ha, ha, hah,” Vlel’Debash laughed before in an instant he had moved from standing in front of the throne to holding the young girl in the air by her jaw, saying, “<Heh, fresh blood!>”

Shaytur [town], Wylow [moon], Lytoris [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

28 Jan; 20:24:02 Hours

“Ughhhhh,” a young man, Faylor groaned as he and a group of friends were roaming down one of the abandoned streets of the town, “<Can you believe they’re actually enforcing this damn curfew?>”

Boom erupted down the empty street as another boy, Gabur kicked an old can and snapped, “<Yeah! Who does Shaomhav think they are? Aen’Goor? They don’t govern us!>”

“<That’s what I’m saying!>”

“<The Mane thinks he’s the King! Hah, ha, ha!>” a third young man, Teluht laughed but one of the two young women stopped as the others continued down the street and she shakily called to them.

“<Buh-but, um, but did you hear the rumors about what happened on Bay’Etor?>”

“<Huh, Meluh?> the other woman, Shyler turned to her with her head clocked back and she asked, “<What rumors? What happened on Bay’Etor?>”

“<There was a massacre, you guys!>”

“<Oh, come on! It’s just Shaomhav’s way of Exerting power on us all!>”

Meluh threw her arms out to her sides as she loudly said, “<No, Shy! I have a cousin on Bay’Etor! He, he told me that there was! It, it was horrifying! It, you, you don’t understand! It was so bloody!>”

“<There really was?>” Faylor asked as he took several steps toward Meluh.

“<Yes!>”

Shyler rolled her eyes at Meluh before she turned slightly away from the group who all started to move toward their friend. Still, from around the corner where they had come from, a group of Claws came walking and saw the five. The group of kids flinched as their eyes locked with the six Claws who now quickly marched up the street to them. The Captain of the group aggressively pointed his index finger at the kids, barking, “<Hey! What are you five doing out after curfew?>”

“<You don’t rule us!>” Gabur barked. “<Only the Wylom Congress can enact a legit curfew!>”

“<You all have a set of balls to be playing dictator after claiming you’re warriors of peace!>” Shyler growled as her brow furrowed and she stepped up to the Captain while the other Claws circled the group.

Meluh grabbed Shyler’s wrist as she aggressively whispered to her, “<What do you think you’re doing?>”

“<Standing up to these bastards, that’s wuh—”

However, the Captain snatched Shyler by the right bicep and pulled her close as he growled at her, “<We are the blade of the innocent! We have and will continue to protect you all…>”

“<HEY!>” Faylor yelled but the Claws began pushing the men back.

“<Let her go, now!>” Teluht snapped as he and Gabur pushed against the Claws.

“<Enough, all of you!>” the Captain yelled over everyone and the tussle instantly stopped with him pushing Shyler to the ground. “<The curfew is for your own good! You all will abide by it, understand?>”

Shyler pushed herself up with eyes wide as she looked at the Captain, shakily breathing. Meluh, though, quickly helped her friend up as the three boys hurried over to them and they then slowly began walking back down the street. The five looked back and forth between each other, not saying a word yet each look spoke loudly between one another. Yet they stopped ten feet from the corner as they heard the Claws now yelling, and they turned to see the six approaching a group of three not far from where they had been stopped moments prior.

“<HEY! We said all of you!>”

“<Get moving,>” another barked. “<Curfew is well into effect!>”

“<Your friends got the message,>” the Captain said as his unit stopped twenty feet from the two men and young woman. “<It’s time you three get it, too!>”

Meluh’s eyes narrowed as she uttered to her friends, “<Huh-who are they?>”

“<I have no idea,>” Teluht whispered as he started to back away.

One of the five other Claws took three steps toward the small group, sternly saying, “<Hey, are you three deaf?>”

The men still didn’t budge, but the young woman now turned around and looked at the unit. Her skin was pale and her hair was scraggly as it hung down in front of her face slightly. Her bright blue-eyes practically shined through her hair and the darkness of the night while she looked up to the Claw that again took three more steps toward them. Still, the two men didn’t budge and the young woman just stared.

“<What are you three waiting for?>” the Claw yelled, but the Captain’s eyes now narrowed as he watched his man take two more steps forward and it was at that moment something changed in the atmosphere of the street.

The young woman who appeared sympathetic at first, now a devious grin spawned free with the Claw taking a final step toward her as her two fangs brandished and those bright blue-eyes blinked blood-red.

Eduun Palace

Babuul’t [capital city], Lytoris [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

30 Jan; 07:41:35 Hours

“If this is all true…” Gabe breathily whispered as he looked upon hundreds of hologram dossiers and recreations, “… Vampires were never a myth—”

Errrrrrk ripped through the throne room as the left door opened. Sadria came walking in, looking up to her husband who was locked upon numerous massacre scenes and ancient depictions of Vampires. She shook her head while hurrying toward Gabe, calling to him, “My love, please! Please come to bed - You’ve been up for days, maybe a week!”

“I can’t!” Gabe barked with sunken and bloodshot eyes, as he moved holograms around.

“Pleeeease!”

“This… This, this plague that is spreading, it, it needs to be stopped!”

Sadria walked directly through the holograms which caused many to disperse before kneeling in front of her husband where she again pleaded with him, “I understand, my love, I do but you won’t think straight if you don’t get sleep!”

“SLEEP?” Gabe roared as he shot up from the throne. “Sleep, Sadria? Blood-suckers are massacring our people and you want me to sleep?”

Sadria bowed her head. “I’m worried for you…”

“You don’t understand,” Gabe tried to rationalize as he pulled and moved massacre recreations around, and tried to show his wife. “For millennia there’ve been reports and incidents scattered across the stars but over the last year, there’s been such an influx, Sadria! And more and more the Hidden Dragon has been whispered,” and he yanked forth the hologram of an ancient scroll that detailed the Dragon, but Sadria’s eyes grew large and she pointed out an emblem at its top.

“Is, is that, that the Eternal Tree?”

“The wuh-what?” Gabe stumbled and glanced at the scroll before denying his wife, “Nuh-no, no.”

“My love, that is it… It’s the Eternal Tree! The Heartwuh—”

However, the massive doors of the throne room roared as they were thrown open and twenty Claws and several Fangs came urgently into the chamber. Gabe waved his hand down to his right and all of the holograms instantly dissolved while he stepped forward to the edge of the platform with eyes narrowing. His nostrils flared repeatedly and his brow furrowed before he snapped, “What is the meaning of this?”

“Grand Mane…” Grador answered as he led the pack to Gabe and Sadria, “… There was another massacre, and far worse than the others!”

“Wuh-what?” Gabe gasped, though the sound of a young woman crying could be heard as the remainder of the pack ushered in.

“<Help me! Puh-please! Please, help me! They, they kidnapped me!>”

“A thousand dead,” Grador announced and Gabe’s eyes fluttered while Sadria stepped slightly behind him.

“<Some-someone! Please! Hel-help me!>”

“A thousand? Are, are you certain?” Gabe asked but his attention shifted from Grador to the young blue-eyed woman that the Claws dragged up before him in power-restraints.

Grador nodded. “Yes, Grand Mane.”

“Who is she?” Gabe pointed to the young woman with his left eye narrowed again, and he asked, “Why is she here? Why is she restrained?”

“<Your Majesty! Puh-please! Please help me! Pleeeease!>” she cried.

Sadria moved back further from the ongoings while Gabe instead took a step down the platform as he looked her in the blue-eyes. Grador, though, quickly stepped to him and placed his hand on Gabe’s chest thus stopping him. Grador urgently told him, “Her. She is responsible for the Wylom Massacre.”

Gabe tilted his head slightly to his left before looking her up and down. “You?”

“Heeeeeh, heh, hah, ha,” she bellowed with her blue-eyes blinking to blood-red and she cracked a large grin that showed her fangs, before hissing, “<Release me!>”

“We’re not the ones who’ve placed you in a prison,” Gabe said before wincing in a sign of compassion.

“<You think what I am now is a prison? No, no, my Lord has set me free!>”

“Your Lord?”

“<He will ensure we drink from the Tree!>” she gleamed before her tone grew dark and she said, “<And you will not be able to stop him!>”

“Is that true?” Gabe asked with the young woman eagerly nodding her head. “Then where is your Lord?”

“<The Head of the Dragon is where he needs to be,>” she laughed before taunting him, “<and I cannot wait to bathe in your blood!>”

Gabe’s eyes ignited emerald as he thrust his left hand up and clenched it into a fist before yanking it down, which caused a baseball-sized hole to rip open and a beam of sunlight to shoot down directly in front of the woman. Her eyes grew threefold and she leaned back while letting out a hiss. Now Gabe was the one to laugh, as he said, “Oh, now you’d like to get serious? Well then… Where is your Lord?”

“<You do not scare me!>” she yelled. “<Your blood! All of your blood! It will be ours! And we will drink from the Tree—”

“ENOOOOOUGH!” Gabe roared as he thrust his open hand palm up to the ceiling, which caused the small hole to rip open to a staggering thirty feet in diameter.

The glory that was the sun rained down into the chamber that was dark and gloom. The young woman immediately let out a bloodcurdling scream as the rays obliterated her into flames and ash before leaving her nothing but bones. However, what Gabe and Grador believed was the end in that singular moment twisted into a nightmare as other screams followed the woman’s. The two, along with half of the Claws, looked around to find Claws and three of the Fangs in flames as they flailed and thrashed around. There was a combined gasp among them as they watched their brethren rendered to bones and ash, and Gabe’s eyes dimmed back to brown as he uttered, “Nuh-nuh-no…”

Court of ‘Ever, Eduun Palace

Babuul’t [capital city], Lytoris [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

30 Jan; 19:13:27 Hours

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud echoed through the vast courtyard that sat within the center of the palace, with Gabe slowly walking through. The luminosity of the stars above lit up the vastness around the Grand Mane who gazed down to the stone walking path; as glorious marble statues that represented the free universe stood large, and stunning flowers from the Seven Spring Planets made up its beauty. It was quiet with the faint sound of water running in the massive fountain to Gabe’s right, where he stopped and looked at it but yet his mind wasn’t there.

“Wuh-what have I done?” he thought while the scene of his Claws and Fangs burning to ash before him replayed in his mind. “How could I have allowed this to hap—”

Gabe had frozen mid-thought, though. His eyes ignited bright emerald before spinning around as he expected to be face-to-face with the fangs of the Dragon, but instead, he found Sadria. His wife stood in front of him with large eyes and her bottom lip curled down. Gabe let out a sigh before he began chuckling, “Ohh! Heh, hah, ha! It’s, it’s just you!”

“I said to come to bed,” she almost scolded her husband, who now scoffed while subtly shaking his head at her.

“I can’t, Sadria! I can’t! Especially NOW - You saw what we’re up against… How, how I failed Shaomhav! ME!”

“How you failed Shaomhav? Wuh-what? What are you talking about?” Sadria struggled to get out as she couldn’t understand where his mind was, and out of desperation, she gently placed her hand on his face but he pulled away from her as he snapped.

“YES! Did you not see what I have allowed to fester in our ranks? These, these blood-suckers who have been within arm’s length of you! Of the innocent! And, and I’ve allowed that to flourish under MY nose!”

Sadria stood silent with Gabe slowly turning back to the fountain.

“I have failed.”

“Per-perhaps, perhaps it’s not all bad…”

“Not all bad?” he dramatically turned around with eyes narrowing, and he said, “Sadria, I’m in no mood to be playing games.”

His wife looked him deep in the eyes as they grew teary before she now turned from him. Sadria crossed her arms and bit down on her lip as she could hear Gabe let out a defeated sigh, but then she looked over her shoulder to him as she pondered, “Why?”

“Why? Why what?”

“Why, my love, why would some brood go through all of this for some, some mythical Tree of Life?”

Gabe didn’t answer her, however, he laughed which caused Sadria to turn to him before she playfully hit him on the shoulder as she said, “What’s so funny?”

“Ohhhhh, Sadria,” he smiled while turning so his back was to a small dying tree that sat between two marble statues, one that depicted a tortoise while the other a bear.

“Wuh-what?” she subtly scoffed.

“Myth?” Gabe slowly raised his arms to his sides with his eyes reigniting to an intense emerald, as his voice grew powerful and he emanated a tremendous pressure, “No, no, no, see, it was always right here!”

In a blink, a violent emerald aura erupted from Gabe with reality appearing to shimmer in and out of perception. Sadria stumbled slightly from side to side as she couldn’t believe her eyes; the small dying tree behind her husband flickered back and forth from that to that of a colossal, magnificent gold-leafed tree - the Heartwood.

Court of ‘Ever, Eduun Palace

Babuul’t [capital city], Lytoris [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

30 Jan; 20:36:40 Hours

“Heh, heh, heh, heh,” Sadria panted while her eyes were locked on the Heartwood and its radiating pressure as it came into focus.

Gabe slowly turned around to the glorious Tree of Life, looking at it with its shimmering gold leaves and colossal trunk that stretched up to the stars above. The Grand Mane slightly nodded once before he told his wife, “I was drawn here, to Lytoris because the Heartwood called to my Hae’Lektaes, Sadria…”

Sadria ceased panting. Slowly, she turned her attention to her husband with her eyes growing larger. Her mouth then subtly opened as if she was about to say something, though Gabe cut her off with the reality of where they stood and what the journey’s road that brought them there was paved with.

“Here. Everything, everything has led here; from the Prime Genesis to the Heartwood, every decision whether it was made by myself or everyone in the universe has caused this. Ohhh, my green days with KOG where we were just young guns with dangerous power going out into the universe and fighting for an idea we loved…” Sadria simply watched Gabe as she felt his pressure changing with his recalling of the events to her, “The early days after the tragedy of the Shaomhav Quart where Talius, Barret and I forged what would become this coalition. Brothers turned enemies, love lost, and the ever-raging war of good and evil is the blood that flows through the heart of the universe.”

However, Gabe’s eyes now subtly narrowed as he sensed something shift. The golden leaves upon the Heartwood raised slightly, indicating that what had been unfolding over the last few months was continuing to do so.

The Grand Mane turned to his Lioness who he took a step toward and let out a sigh. “Sadria… A Crown of Darkness, a Neutron Soul, and an Avatar of the Heartwood - We all began this journey from the same brick, but we are where we all are because of the decision made by ourselves and others.”

Sadria’s eyes deepened ever so slightly more, and a tear broke free as it rolled down her left cheek.

“Sadria?” Gabe gasped but she pulled away and turned her back to him. “Hey, hey, hey, what’s wrong?”

Still, she didn’t say a single word as she stood several feet from him with eyes closed tightly and biting on her bottom lip.

“Sadria? Come on, none of what’s happened is your fault. I promise you that. I should have seen what was lurking within the dark around us but after so long of not looking at everything as something evil… I was blinded to this dragon within our midst.”

Sadria whimpered, and Gabe walked directly up behind her where he gently turned her around to him. Her eyes remained closed yet tears now rolled down either cheek. Sadria tried to hold back her cries but she did so again and again, which caused Gabe’s face to wrinkle with confusion.

The Grand Mane softly pushed strands of her long silky black hair out of her face before he ever so slightly lifted her chin. “Sadria, it’s okay. I promise. Whatever you think is wrong, I promise it’s not. It truly isn’t.”

Sadria took in a deep breath through her nose and a pull of pressure came rushing toward her with Gabe’s eyes again narrowing, but now she opened hers as they glowed blood-red and she whispered, “I’m sorry, my love…”

Eduun Palace

Babuul’t [capital city], Lytoris [planet], Savan-4 [star system], Sector-0107, Shaomhav Domain

30 Jan; 20:50:16 Hours

Thud. Thud. Thud roared from just beyond the Mane’s chamber doors with it growing louder by the step as an ungodly presence neared. Thud, thud, thud until sound itself appeared to cease in a blink. An ominous pressure radiated through the double doors before a click now cut through the recently crowned silence, and the doors pushed forth. Ash wafted up into the air like snow before the steps again boomed through the emptiness, and a silhouetted man in the darkness slowly embarked up the chamber toward its core.

Thump. Thump. Thump reverberated with the man’s slow heel-to-toe steps kicking ash up into the air. The man passed the skeletons of the obliterated by without even a glance; their agape skulls like a haunting cry into his uncaring presence, and instead his attention remained posed upon what lay before him. Then, as he neared the heart of the chamber, the aura of moonlight shone down, giving sight to his blackened survival-mail and birth to the crimson of his robe. The man took a brief pause with his long, bony clawed fingers stretching forth before retracting back into tightly balled fists; he stepped forth and crushed the young girl’s skull under his heel - Crack.

The moonlight, bellowed a deep and reverberating hum like the haunting psalm of a coven’s choir while illuminating the Chancellor of the Hidden Dragon, Vlel’Debash.

Vlel’Debash stood at the core of the chamber where his attention slowly glided to the full blood moon above. His blood-red eyes ignited crimson in its light. Then a sparkle broke free as his cold and gruesome expression cracked a smirk that brandished his fangs to the fallen sovereign around him.

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Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser], Orbiting Endul

Endul [planet], Dasihik Galaxy

12 June; 06:16:42 Hours

There was a heavy silence that consumed the dark and cold common room of Talon as the blue haziness of the side hatch forcefield barely illuminated four feet into the cruiser while a young teenage girl stood nearly face-to-face with the sight of the Crown Planet. The girl, Noeh clenched her fists tightly with her nostrils flaring over and over again while her short white dreads that had black tips shimmered as her head subtly shook. Noeh’s attention was honed on Endul and its glowing ring, however, her light blue eyes darted to her left as a voice called to her.

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Rulic [capital city], Titus [planet], Jeppa [star system]

14 January; 23:09:44 Hours - 14 years ago

There was an eerie and heavy silence that gripped the night sky over Rulic. The streets of the royal capital of the Iron Dictate of Blaque were distant with life; only the faint flames of torches that lined their cobblestones lit up the midnight darkness, barely a soul in sight except for the Iron Boots who patrolled the night, and the haunting caws of crows that perched on the peaks of homes. Normally, a night was deaf after curfew, but there was an unusual anxiousness that loomed like thick humid air, as if the Deep could sense an approaching grim change in the pressure.

Errrrr-ah. Errrrr-ah. Errrrr-ah. An alarm sounded while red flashing lights lit up the dark cargo bay of a B-24S stealth cruiser that flew undetected above the sovereign’s sky. A hulking silhouette stood center in front of the rear bay door, becoming visible only in the red glow of the blinking lights. This man, wearing dark gray mail and donning silver jagged armor from neck to toe, held a silver knight helmet in front of himself that he gazed into the eye holes of with an intensity before his attention shifted, but barely with only his eyes, to a woman who spoke his name.

“Theo?” Helena Madds, her hair tied back into a tight braided ponytail, marched down the bay to him where she said, “We’re two minutes from drop.”

Theo smirked. “Have I ever told you how much you sound like Com Sarg Wales?”

“Oh, shut up, Theo!”

“Seriously, he used to bark at us at academy just like that!”

Helena blushed slightly as she playfully rolled her eyes, though a moment later, her voice took on a more serious tone as she asked him, “Are you ready for this?”

However, Theo didn’t respond to her.

“Theo? Are you ready to do this?”

“Hel…”

“There’s still time,” she made a point as she looked him in his blue-green eyes while standing in front of him.

“Still time?” he said with his eyes narrowing.

“T-minus one minute…” called over the intercom, and Helena gently placed her right hand on Theo’s right cheek before answering.

“We don’t have to do this…”

His head shifted ever so slightly to his right as they held eye contact.

“… We can still back out of this…”

“Thirty seconds,” again called as a hiss ripped free, and the bay door began to lower with wind gushing in at them.

“Theo?” Helena whispered, but he raised his helm and lowered it atop his head.

A high-pitch suction hiss ripped free as the helmet connected to the spinal mech that lined down the back of Theo’s mail, its HUD flickered on, and he smirked at her. “I’m ready, Hel.”

“Fifteen seconds, fourteen seconds, thirteen seconds…”

Helena let out a brief sigh, closed her eyes tightly for a moment before returning her gaze to his, and then she turned to the open hatch. The two then looked out at the city below, they were no more than a thousand feet above it all, as the buildings appeared to be zipping by in blinks. Helena then gently grabbed Theo’s right gauntlet-donning hand in her left, and whispered, “I’ll always have your back.”

Again, Theo didn’t say anything back to her but instead he squeezed her hand.

“Ten seconds, nine, eight,” now counted down intensely with the two walking down the bay until they stopped on the edge of the ramp, where Theo’s tattered crimson cowl violently flapped back in the gusting wind, “five seconds, four, three seconds, two,” and just as the countdown finished, Theo let go of her hand and leapt forward where he shot down through the night sky at the gothic, contorted stone castle - Valkore.

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***

Moments later…

“Master Theo,” a voice with a thick British accent called over Theo’s secure commline as Theo slowly arose from his left knee, looking up to the gigantic entrance double doors of the castle.

“Edmund…” he whispered while pulling his curve saber, Gaerlus, free from one of the several elite guards’ chests whom he carefully neutralized.

“Sir, what exactly is the bloody plan here?”

“Execute the mission, Edmund - Take out any obstacles, eliminate the target, and retrieve the asset.”

“Of course, sir. Of course… but, you do realize that you’re going to encounter more Titans as you proceed, which will result in your stealth evaporating, correct?”

Theo let out a subtle growl before saying, “Tell me why I haven’t recalibrated you yet.”

“Master Theo,” Edmund quipped, “your threat is not as threatening as it once was.”

“Just, just upload the target’s location and overlay it with the GPS of my HUD, Edmund.”

“Very well, suh—” Edmund agreed, but cut off as Theo tapped the side of his helm and ended the transmission.

A high-pitch chirp upticked over Theo’s helm intercom as the data he requested uploaded to his HUD. He then tapped its side again with his vision shifting from a low-level incorporated night-vision to a multi-varied overlay of ultraviolet-vision, three-dimensional GPS, and an adaptive heart rate sonar. Theo could then see, with his new vision, the near dozen Iron Boots that lined the entrance corridor just before him and beyond the giant double doors. The gothic Goliath that once concealed his target’s whereabouts behind its twisted stone was now dissected as the GPS displayed the castle’s layout in real-time, with the target’s specific heart rate signature immediately located and highlighted.

Theo’s pupils shrank as his eyes now locked onto the highlighted and displayed location of the throne chambers of Valkore, only for the Kalber Knight to begin his siege forth.

***

Ten minutes later…

Boom. Boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom. Boom erupted and echoed throughout the long halls of the castle. Columns of marble lined every hall, though now a thick fog of smoke filled them too, with the bright purple charges zipping in either direction. Their deep glow lit up the whiteout with flashes of horror as pools of blood accumulated upon the marble, columns were cracked and even some crumbled, while the silhouettes of bodies that were sliced down left in the wake of merciless Kalber approach.

Shrieks ripped free from just beyond the throne chamber doors, and a young raven-haired woman turned to her husband, who sat dominion upon the Blaque throne. “<Kai’Fes! My love! What is going on? What is coming for us?>”

The King didn’t respond to his queen. His pitch-black eyes remained locked upon the doors where six Iron Boots stood at the ready to take out whatever was approaching. His long hair hung partially in his face while the crown rested upon his head. Kai’Fes’ nostrils flared every few seconds, taking deep breaths that he immediately let out in his growing frustration, but then the true horror arrived.

The screams and blaster fire all ceased, and the hall went deaf.

The Iron Boot Titans slowly glanced back and forth at one another, their eyes all squinted, and a couple gulped as a thick aura of staticky uncertainty rose from the ground and wrapped around them.

“<Kai’Fes?>” his beautiful wife called, her eyes sunken deep as black tears began to glide down her pale cheeks. “<I, um, I, I’m scare—”

However, before she could finish her admission, the torches within the throne chamber extinguished one by one. The Iron Boots began turning from one direction to the other, the light ripped from its domain as they searched for its executioner, but they found nothing other than the expanding darkness, which was encircling them relentlessly.

Click, clunk, errrrrrrrrr-eh ripped through the throne chamber as it sat in darkness, and the double doors opened inward. The Iron Boots quickly raised their RAK3 energy rifles to the opening doors, with a deep hum roaring from the six as an even deeper purple nail charged up. Then, like the torches, one by one the Titan guards disappeared in high-pitched whistles.

“<Kai’Fes! Kai’Fes!>” his wife pleaded as tears rolled down her cheeks and she pulled upon his right forearm. “<We must run! We must leave, now! Please, my love! Please!>”

Still, he spoke not a word but instead raised his left hand as if to tell his queen to silence and halt as his pitch-black eyes took careful sight of his throne chamber. He watched the remaining three Titans each fall; first, the forefront center, who disappeared within the dark like a small child snatched by a ruthless beast. Then, as his attention shifted to the second, he witnessed him split in two before vanishing as if he never was there, and finally, he gazed upon the sole remaining. This final guard of the crown fired aimlessly in almost every direction while he took slow step after step back, and then as his right heel stopped firm, his RAK3 ground to dust from the tip of the barrel up to his hands.

My’Esha, Kai’Fes’ wife, let out a shriek as a death rattling gasp ripped from the Iron Boot and a jagged blade pierced free from his back. Then, in one quick sequence, the blade retracted and the Titan flew back thirty feet, where his lifeless body slammed against the steps of the throne platform. Clump, clump, clump sounded as the corpse slowly slid back to the floor.

There, before the King and Queen of the Iron Dictate of Blaque, they bore witness to Theo as he stood tall. His jagged silver armor was scorched from blaster fire and blotched by the royal purple blood of the Iron Boots he laid waste to upon his siege. Theo’s pressure could not be denied as he looked upon the two, with My’Esha cowering behind her husband, who finally arose from his throne.

“<Impressive…” Kai’Fes broke his silence, saying, “… a Stark Knight - What an unexpected lamb they have sent to slaughter!>”

The chamber grew deeply dark as Theo took a step forward with an eerie clank reverberating within as his boot moved upon the marble floor. Theo’s head then tilted slightly to his right, his crimson tattered cowl swayed as he stopped, and a smirk broke free of his intensity. He then bellowed with his voice deep and darkly augmented by his knight helm, “It’s always those who die so quickly who speak of certain demise for their slayer!”

“<Slayer?>” Kai’Fes barked with his eyes growing large and nostrils flaring. “<Every might in the Universe has sent some inept knight to die and be snuffed out by the Deep! And you will be no different!>”

He then thrust his hands toward Theo with black tentacles of Shade ripping free from the platform around him, shooting straight at Theo, who still just smirked. One by one, the tentacles shot through his silver Kalber chestplate with Kai’Fes grinning ear to ear. However, My’Esha watched with clear eyes not fogged by the rage her husband’s were fueled by, and her bottom lip quivered as she softly uttered, “<It’s a trap…”

Kai’Fes laughed while he raised his arms out to his sides with the tentacles now wrapping around Theo’s slumping forward body. “<Pathetic! A Stark Knight fallen - No fight; no will to reignite the honor of your ancestors; no reason for songs to be written of your name… Oooooh, your blood, pathetic mortal, it deserves the ruin it meh—”

“Mmmm,” Theo appeared to groan as he slowly looked up to Kai’Fes, and smiled, “I thought this would be extremely harder…” then, before Kai’Fes and My’Esha’s eyes, Theo dispersed in glistening particles of Straedum with Theo’s voice now calling from behind the King where he sat upon the throne, “… but clearly not!”

“<Wuh-wuh-what?>” Kai’Fes exclaimed in horror as Theo arose from the throne and raised Gaerlus with its tip placed firmly against Kai’Fes’ chest.

“Understand… there will be no songs written of you or your fallen empire, the Uni will fear to even whisper of its time…”

“<This, it, no, it, it isn’t possible!>”

My’Esha was frozen in disbelief as she could see Gaerlus piercing through her husband’s chest, but the Shade refused to save Kai’Fes and instead pulled and pooled around the two. Tentacles breaching the sludgy darkness around them, slithering up and standing at attention while black tears rolled down Kai’Fes’ cheeks and he steadily gasped in a choppy manner.

“Heh, ha, hah,” Theo chuckled and just before thrusting his curve saber completely into the falling King’s chest, he whispered, “Pathetic…”

***

Ten hours later…

A Washington SD-76 Destroyer orbited just outside Genu, where on the command bridge stood General Travis Willick, watching out the gigantic observation shield. He stood with arms folded, hearing numerous beeps and augmented noises as the command crew went about their duties. Then, before General Willick constructed the three-dimensional, realistic holograms of the Seven Presidents of the Union, he immediately stood at attention to.

“Misters and Madam Presidents,” the General saluted them before they all nodded.

“At ease, General,” Chief President Bruce Starus relieved him.

“What is the update, General?” Fourth Associate President, Gerald West, inquired before others chimed in.

“Yes, what is the status?” Third Associate President, Jericho Draax, said, and then the Sixth and Second Associate Presidents demanded.

“Was it a success?”

“Tell us what retaliation we will need to be aware of is coming!”

“Enough,” Bruce snapped at them all.

“Yes, enough,” First Associate President, Cullen Powers, chuckled, “Allow the General to speak - Go on, General.”

“Thank you, Presidents…” he nodded before explaining to them as they watched him intently, “Operation Knightfall was a colossal success. The target was eliminated, and the asset appears to have been retrieved.”

“That is music to our ears, General,” Bruce said with a smile, but Jericho raised his right index finger as he leaned toward the General.

“Wait… What do you mean that the asset appears to have been retrieved?”

“Yes, and a colossal success?” Sixth Associate President, Jennifer Gage, added.

The General sighed. “Well, Presidents, our Knight has been unresponsive since completing his operation and hasn’t been debriefed yet…”

“Then how can we know that the asset has been retrieved, let alone that the operation was a colossal success?” Second Associate President, Simon Fyre snapped.

There came a brief silence as General Willick looked to the seven, then he answered with a deep tone, “Genu’s population has completely flatlined.”

Jennifer and two of the other Presidents gasped before Bruce stepped forward, asking, “Flatlined? The entire population? Wuh-what?”

“Yes,” the General’s voice echoed as the B-24S stealth cruiser exited Genu, where in the bay sat Theo with his armor caked in royal purple blood as he held his knight helm in his hands and looked deep into its eye holes.

Helena was kneeling beside him with her hands upon his left forearm while standing to Theo’s right with arms folded was Klaus Walker, his brother, who looked upon him with sunken eyes. Standing silent before Theo were the remaining knights of his Title: Drake Cage at center, Gabe Hightower to the left, and Amelia Donté to the right. There was an unbearable pressure that consumed the bay as the stealth cruiser returned to the destroyer, everyone waiting for Theo to finally speak since they retrieved him, but he wouldn’t break.

“The-Theo?” Helena whispered with teary eyes. “Theo? Wuh-what happened? Theo?”

Then, he slowly looked up from his helm with Amelia and Helena gasping as everyone saw the inky blackness that now claimed dominion over the whites of Theo’s eyes, and General Willick’s voice finished unbeknownst to them all in a twisted symphony of bloodcurdling screams, “… Operation Knightfall was a complete success.”

Siihd [dwarf planet], Muhnt [star system]

3 August; 09:31:44 Hours

A gentle breeze blew through the surrounding trees of the open stone field where Crystal stood with her eyes closed tightly. Her white cowl shimmered off to her right as did her long brown hair. Still, her facial expression did not change as the vision she had on Lynden replayed in her head over and over again. The heavy reverberating breathing that called her to the throne chamber, and then the large and impending silhouette of flickering Shade that loomed supreme in the presence of a fallen crown. The pressure emanating the being was unmistakable to her, even as she recalled the vision, and again a tear broke free from her now-closed eyes and rolled down her cheek but before falling to the stones beneath her feet, Alastair called to her.

“Crystal - We have to decide, and we have to do that soon!”

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L’ynden [ruin city], Genu [planet], Saber [star system]

30 July; 23:00:27 Hours

A high-pitched ringing consumed Crystal’s ears as her eyes narrowed tighter and tighter the louder it grew, her knees rocked slightly, she grabbed the sides of her head and before she knew it, Crystal found herself in an unknown place. The glossy white marble floor beneath her feet was soaked in royal purple blood while several columns were cracked. Even a couple were spilled across the ground, as they dripped with the remnants of what she knew only to be a massacre. Terror reverberated through the hall around Crystal like the internal head sound of a beating heart; shrieking screams briefly ripped out from the end of the hall in front of her, booming echoes of rifle fire echoed opposite, and then it all went deafeningly silent.

“Oh-oh-o-hola?” Crystal’s shaky voice finally broke free as it faded into the unknown ahead. “Alastair? Wuh-where are you? Alastair? Al-Alastair?”

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L’ynden [ruin city], Genu [planet], Saber [star system]

30 July; 22:28:49 Hours

“The image of what?” Alastair snapped, his tone ticking up, before he glanced at Crystal, who hadn’t broken eye contact with the four.

The four appeared to be radiating a powerful aura as if the sun was held within their presence, creating a pocket of day within the deep and suffocating night around them. The man who adorned the white cloak then slowly lowered his pressed palms before extending his arms to his sides as he spoke directly to Crystal, “We have been waiting for you, Sister…”

“Sis-sister?” her eyes fluttered, her head clocked back slightly, and her feet pivoted in a sense of no longer holding her place firm. “I, I, I’m not your sister.”

“Of course you are - The Lord has prepared us for this day.”

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Bleq’Puhl [town], Genu [planet], Saber [star system]

30 July; 11:45:30 Hours

Creeeeeeeak echoed through the small apartment that overlooked the large center courtyard of the small town, Crystal quickly spun around from the window to the opening door with her hand reaching to the hilt of her saber. Her eyes narrowed and flickered with uncertainty until she caught sight of Alastair who shuffled in and closed the door behind himself. Crystal let out a sigh and let go of the hilt of her blade, “Ay Dios! You didn’t knock like we said!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry about that but,” Alastair chuckled as he lowered the dark blue hood of his cloak, and his tone grew serious, “you were definitely right that he was here… Well, not this town but the city that used to exist a couple of miles to the west.”

“Yuh-used to?”

“Yup.”

“Wuh-what do you mean?” Crystal stammered as she took a few steps toward Alastair who reached to a pouch on his belt.

“Well, from what I could find out from some locals,” he explained while pulling a holo-disc from the pouch and holding it out in front of himself, “The Light… and the Dark… became one…”

He squeezed the disc with it leaving out a chirp before projecting a three-dimensional hologram of what ruin remained of L’ynden. Crystal quickly covered her mouth with her right hand and nearly stumbled back a step as her eyes sunk. She then subtly began to shake her head at the destruction she saw before she muttered, “Nah-nuh-no, what, light? Dark? What are you saying, Alastair?”

Alastair’s left eye now narrowed slightly before he said, “Crystal… They don’t want to say anything about this, this, this Event Horizon, but the one word I did get out of them - and more so a whisper… Beelezika.”

“We, we have to get there!” Crystal frantically told him before she spun around and ran to her white cloak that hung over a chair. “I, I have to see, um, see this for myself!”

“To L’ynden?”

“I need to see…”

“Crystal?”

“This, it, it couldn’t have been him…”

“Wait…”

Crystal finished latching her cloak’s clasp before she turned back to Alastair. “It couldn’t, um, Theo wouldn’t do that! He wouldn’t! He, uh, he, he would neh-never - I have to suh—”

“Crystal,” he cut her off as he gently grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, “Slow down. Please. I get that you don’t believe your friend would do that, I do, I get it but we can’t just stroll right on into L’ynden. The locals here are already skeptical of us, and well, if we try to get there, I have a bad feeling.”

“A bad feeling?” she softly asked with her head tilting subtly to the right.

“Yeah… I got a bad feeling they’re not so innocent, Crystal, and they’ll put us in the same position as your friend.”

“Let them.”

Alastair’s eyes fluttered. “Let them?”

“Sí, nuestro Padre nos protegerá,” she said before clarifying for Alastair, “Our Father will protect us.”

“Alright,” he nodded before advising, “but let’s make our move at dark.”

Crystal nodded in return before Alastair turned and he slowly headed toward his bedroom of the small apartment, but he stopped as he heard her softly call to him, “I’m sorry.”

Alastair looked back over his left shoulder to her and let a grunt. “Hm?”

“She was kind and she didn’t—”

“We’ll leave at dusk, so we better get some sleep,” he sternly cut her off before quickly heading off, leaving Crystal alone in the room where she gently wiped away a tear, bowed her head, and folded her hands together in prayer.

***

Later that night…

Zuuu-oooooooom! Zuuu-ooooooooom, hummed through the deep of night as Crystal and Alastair zipped down the empty old, and worn street on their hover speeder-bikes headed toward L’ynden. A blur of resolve and the other honor as they shifted from one side of the road to the other in a blink to avoid barricades and fallen trees. The two were wearing HUD goggles that allowed them to see in a mix of night-vision and advanced-predictive sonar as the road before them was pitch black.

Alastair turned the throttle forward with his speeder-bike kicking a gear higher as he came side-by-side to Crystal, he glanced at her only to find she was locked in on the journey before them, and Alastair’s eye narrowed in a sense of uncertainty. “Hmmm, what aren’t you telling me?”

However, the resolve that pulsated from Crystal began to shift with a spark of uncertainty. She eased up on the throttle of her speeder-bike that then began to fall behind Alastair as she felt a growing change in the aura of the city as they continued their approach. The darkness that consumed the road and the foresight of the HUD goggles blurred with a flicker of powerful luminosity. Voices soon began to whisper past her ears in the blitzing of wind from the speed she was traveling.

“She is chosen,” one voice whispered before a soft woman’s followed.

“The Word guides her…”

“But she is clouded,” a deeper firm voice rebutted the others, “She is connected to it…”

“We must trust completely in what He has planned,” a final voice noted just before Alastair pulled directly beside Crystal and stopped her with the two drifting to a stop alongside the road.

“What the hell were you doing?” he barked at Crystal as she shook her head as if snapping out of a trance, then stammering to speak to him.

“Wuh-what, what, wuh-what are, are you talking about?”

“Crystal! You were flying! You slammed down the throttle and were practically on a death mission!”

“What?” she gasped.

“I almost couldn’t catch you,” he bellowed as they idled on the side of the road with Crystal’s eyes pinging around in confusion.

“The Word will guide her,” again whispered past Crystal’s ear, this time causing her to quickly look in the direction of L’ynden with eyes now large and sweat beading up on her forehead.

Alastair’s eye narrowed as he saw the concern wash over Crystal as she glanced to her right, and he quickly reached out grabbing her shoulder. “Hey! What is going on?”

“Maybe,” she breathily said as she still looked out into the distance, “this, heeeh, this was a bah-bad idea.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Crystal?”

“Nuh-nothing,” she quickly answered while turning her attention back to him.

“Don’t you lie.”

Crystal didn’t say anything as she looked him in the eye.

“What is going on?”

“Something is out there, Alastair.”

“Your friend?”

“Nuh-no,” Crystal shook her head and said, “Their pressure is nothing of the sort similar to Theo’s.”

“Their?” Alastair’s voice grew deep and low.

“Yes, I don’t know what they want but—” she explained only for him to cut her off.

“Well, let’s go find out!”

Alastair didn’t give Crystal any time to stop him as he turned, threw the throttle forward, and zipped off down the road in a blink. She gasped in disbelief while watching him speed off, only to hear one of the voices again as it emanated all around her, “Do not be afraid…”

***

Moments later…

The soft hum of Crystal and Alastair’s speeder-bikes bellowed through the silence to what remained of L’ynden. The two looked around at the darkened silhouettes of crumbled buildings like haunting shells of the life that was. Crystal’s heart rate was ticking up as there was a growing realization with her coming to a stop twelve feet from the very spot Theo stood during the Event Horizon.

Shakily, Crystal dismounted her bike and slowly she took step by step closer to the spot. Eight feet from it, she heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice, “Why do I feel like I know her, yai Emoor?” and Crystal stopped with her eyes narrowing.

“Hey?” Alastair called as he looked over to Crystal from his bike. “You okay?”

“Yuh-yeah,” she said, only for her to close her eyes while placing her index and middle fingers on her right temple with more voices, but familiar ones, coming to her.

“SARA! We have to get out of here now!”

“They took her from us!”

“Sara…”

Crystal’s eyes shot open wide as she witnessed a massive blackened void before her with a shimmering blaze of light orbiting it. Bloodcurdling screams filled the growing silence that grabbed ahold of the once lively city around her. Within the darkness were two, one blackened silhouette that she knew the pressure of all too well while the other burned bright, and her gut turned.

“Crystal…” she faintly heard at first while the unholy images of destruction and massacre continued before her, only to feel Alastair yank her from the vision as he yelled, “CRYSTAL!”

Like the air being sucked out of a sealed room, what Crystal bore witness to pulled away from her eyes as she now set them on four before her and Alastair. Her eyes pinged from left to right at them while her hand moved toward the hilt of her blade, with Alastair already holding his snub claymore, Ramghrut out in front of him. He softly asked her while refusing to take his eyes off those who stood before them, “Are these the ones you sensed?”

Subtly, Crystal nodded her head as she continued to eye them up and down; each adorning white survival-chainmail suits with gold armor-bands, and they stood as if the threat posed to them were of no concern. “Yuh-yeah.”

“Do not be afraid,” the voice Crystal heard earlier reiterated, as now the man adorning a white cloak of the four spoke and stepped forward as he pressed his palms together and looked up to the above. “For we are Imago dei Latores.”

“Imago— What?” Alastair hissed, though Crystal clarified in a calm tone as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Bearers of the Image of God.”

Battle Dome [megastructure]

The Mattis Academy

New York, Earth [planet], Sol [star system]

07 Sep; 05:28:37 Hours - 15 Year Ago

“Listen carefully - This will only be said once,” a voice called from the front of the two hundred Squires who all stood at attention, “You all have been paired with another! Your partner will be your key to passing the entrance exam! You two must survive three rounds within the Battle Dome where the lot of you will be reduced by half! Do you understand?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” the Squires answered in thunderous unison.

“An identification tag was issued to you upon enrollment, and that tag will be assigned to your partner!” the Command Sergeant explained as a three-dimensional display constructed behind him where a recreation of the Squires’ Tethers was shown with an example partner dossier. “You will have less than a half hour to find your partner, report to your injection point of the Battle Dome, and get on the same page before zero-six-hundred! Understood?”

Sweat beaded up on the brows of the Squires as realization sunk in on them all, but yet without missing a beat, they again all answered in unison, “Sir, yes, sir!”

There came a pause as the Command Sergeant simply looked out at the two hundred thirteen-to-sixteen-year-olds who all donned survival-mail and sidearms. He could see the concern in many of their expressions, but a smirk soon curled out of the right side of his mouth as he caught determination within quite a few’s eyes. The Command Sergeant then took a single step forward, where he nodded to the Squires before raising his arms to his sides and said, “Time starts now…”

In a blink, all two hundred Squires frantically pulled out their Tethers where they looked to find who their partner was. Thunderous talking over one another consumed the massive chamber with them beginning to run and try to locate their other half, many yelling out the name of their partner while others panicked.

“James?”

“Lily!”

“Darnell!” sounded out with more screaming.

“This, this isn’t what I thought we were going to be doing!”

“Did he say survive?”

“I think we could die!”

“Ohhhhh, no,” a sixteen-year-old, black young man sighed as he looked to his Tether while others ran past him from all directions, and he finished with his bottom lip curled down and brow furrowed, “Why? Why? Why him—”

“GABE!” another young man’s voice called to him, and he slowly closed his eyes tightly while biting his lip. “Gabe, we’re partners, bay-beeeeee!”

Gabe Hightower slowly turned around to see the massive six-foot-tall thirteen-year-old, Klaus Walker hurrying up to him. Gabe shook his head, chuckling in disbelief. “No, no, this isn’t right. Nah, it’s, it’s got to be broken!”

“Nah, it ain’t broken! We’re partners!”

“Klaus, listen to me…” Gabe raised his hand out at Klaus to keep him back, saying, “Just because your brother and I are best friends doesn’t mean that we’re best friends, you get that, right?”

“I don’t care about that,” Klaus chuckled briefly, grabbed Gabe by the shoulder, and grinned nearly ear to ear, “but you and I are partners now! And that means the fun is just beginning, bay-beeeeee!”

“Oh God…”

A young sixteen-year-old woman looked to her Tether at her partner’s dossier, she let out a sigh before uttering his name, “Theo Walker,” and then pushed several strands of her long black hair out of her face before she looked up and glanced around.

Most of the other Squires were now gone, as they had found their partners and headed to their injection point. However, the young woman simply turned from her left to her right and then one hundred and eighty degrees as she still looked around for Theo. She saw roughly three dozen others still shuffling around, watching as they partnered up one after the other, and she sighed again with her eyes sinking. After several moments, she then looked back to the dossier where she saw Theo’s test scores and battle stats which now caused her eyes to open large and her eyebrows to perk.

She gasped slightly louder than a whisper. “Oh my…”

“Hel?” a deeper voice called and she, Helena Madds quickly looked up from her Tether before she glanced back over her shoulder to a blurry silhouette.

“Theo?” she asked while turning around and finding the young man donning dark gray survival-mail while shrouded in a crimson cloak with his hood up.

“We’re gonna be late.”

“La-late?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled and took a few steps toward Helena, “We only have a half hour and that was about… fifteen minutes ago.”

“Oh my God!” Helena shrieked and frantically looked to her Tether for where they were to go. “We only have fifteen minutes left! What injection point? Which one? Where, um, where do we go? Wuh—”

“Injection point two,” he calmly told his partner and lowered his hood from atop his head, cracking a smile at Helena who looked him in his blue-green eyes before she sighed.

“Two? How far, how, how far is that?”

“Like five minutes to our east.”

Helena covered her mouth with her left palm and blushed. “Oh.”

“It’s okay, Hel - You and I are gonna be fine.”

“I, I could see,” she smiled and raised her Tether showing Theo his partner dossier.

“You’re pretty good yourself,” he smiled back at her.

“Oh? Am I?”

Theo was just about to answer her when a voice called over the intercoms, alerting the Squires, “T-minus eight minutes! I repeat - T-minus eight minutes!”

The two looked at one another with their eyes growing large, and Theo smirked as he held his hand out in the direction of their injection point, “You ready, Hel?”

“I’m ready,” she said and nodded before they took off running.

***

Seven minutes later…

Helena and Theo stood in front of a gigantic metal door with numerous holographic displays in front of either, each display possessed vitals for them as well as various maps and schematics for the Battle Dome. They were going over and taking in as much as they could before a voice again came over the intercoms, counting down, “Twenty seconds… eighteen, seventeen, sixteen…”

“Are you really ready?” Helena softly asked as she glanced over to Theo who looked to her solely out of the corner of his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“No, I, I mean are you actually ready to kill other teams?”

“Yes.”

Helena gulped before she looked away from him and to the door in front of them as the holographic displays dissolved, and the lights dimmed until they were nearly off.

“I don’t mean to scare you, Hel.”

“You, you didn’t.”

“… eleven, ten seconds, nine, eight…”

“You sure?” Theo asked as he finally turned his head and looked at his partner.

“I mean, I knew this was something we might have to do at some point,” she admitted, “I just didn’t, well, I didn’t think it’d be this soon.”

“Hey,” Theo called to Helena and she quickly looked over at him, “I got your back.”

A smile slowly broke free of Helena’s concern and she reached her right hand out to Theo who in return reached his left out to her, with their fingertips grazing. Crack, boom, boom, boom erupted as the thunderous cranking rumbled around them and the steel door slowly separated from its middle. Their attention quickly shifted to the door with bright lights flaring through the small and growing opening as the voice finished counting down, “… four… three… two… one - DEPLOY!”

Room 456A [diplomatic suite]; Mul’Tarvuh Tower

Te’ev [gold-section], Skies Rim [floating belt-city], Dawma [planet], Elysium [star system]

7 July; 22:13:07 Hours

“<You must listen to me!>” Vhael screamed as she stood across from the head diplomatic envoy of the Sovereign Kingdom of Wendale, Caetor Tael. “<He is coming after my son! He will not be stopped! No one can stop Him!>”

Caetor looked at Vhael with a stone-cold expression while he sat behind his desk, two Lancers flanked him with one to his left and the other to his right. He then let out a sigh before leaning back in his chair, saying, “<Allow me to get these accusations in order if you will…>”

Vhael’s mouth went dry as sweat beaded up on her brow. She looked Caetor in his light brown eyes, only to then quickly glance around the luxurious office where she caught sight of two more Lancers who stood guard at the double doors behind her.

“<… Your family? Yes? You all have been on the run from the Sovereign with your husband, who is now deceased, being a head of the domestic terrorist cell known as the Righteous Glaive? Correct? Numerous acts of sedition have been committed on all of your parts? Am I right? And now you’ve come to the Sovereign seeking its protection because someone is hunting you all down, and successfully doing so as well as executing those who attempt to shelter you? Is that correct?>”

“<Suh-someone? Someone?>” Vhael snapped as her eyes grew large and she stepped up to the desk where she slammed her hands atop it. “<HE is not just someone! HE… is… BEELEZIKA!>”

Caetor raised his left hand as he signaled for the Lancers who all charged their TAK8 rifles to hold, and he then leaned forward with his left eye narrowing. “Beeleizka?”

“<YES! Yes, Beelezika is hunting my son! This is what I’ve been trying to tell you!>”

Caetor’s eyes pinged side to side as realization slowly flowed over him. “<I, I must alert Commander Waelum—” but he whipped his attention back to Vhael as he spoke with a pinch of franticness, “The boy! Where is the boy now? Where?>”

“<My son, Jaes?>” Vhael said as her eyes fluttered and one of the Lancers stepped forward and answered.

“<The boy is asleep in the guest quarters, sir.>”

“<We must secure him, now!>” Caetor then exclaimed. “<NOW!>”

***

At the end of the long hall were double doors to the large guest quarters where two Lancers stood guard. Their white armor radiated a slight aura in the dimness of the hall, their royal blue capes hanging to their knees while they each were armed with a white and silver TAK8 rifle. However, the dimness of the hall began to shift toward a thick darkness that rolled upon them. The left Lancer was the first to notice the change in atmosphere with his head clocking slightly to the right before he took a step forward.

“Yaet mei dun taei?” the right Lancer asked in their native tongue.

“<Do you not notice the thickness, Jaevuh?>”

Jaevuh now took a step forward with the other now several steps in front of him, and he looked around before noting, “<Perhaps we should alert Envoy Tael, Poltaer?>”

Poltaer turned completely so he was looking at Jaevuh and he could feel a thick pressure in their surroundings. He even let out a sigh as he contemplated radioing in the Envoy when the Captain Lancer came over their commlines while simultaneously emerging from the darkness behind Jaevuh was the Goliath Crow, Haertrus.

“<Secure the boy! Secure him now!>”

Poltaer yelled while aiming his TAK8 in Jaevuh’s direction, “<Jaevuh, move! MOVE! Mooooooooove!>”

Jaevuh perked up in confusion but before he could even move an inch away from where he stood, Haertrus violently grabbed him by the back of his head and plowed him face-first into the ground. The silver visor of his helmet shattered while the followthrough force Haertrus exerted squashed his skull before Haertrus slowly looked up with pitch-black eyes that locked with Poltaer’s light brown beneath his visor. Poltaer immediately began squeezing the trigger of his rifle, firing focused charges down the hall at Haertrus but Shade thickened around the Goliath Crow and absorbed each energy-nail before contact.

“<They’re here! THEY’RE HERE—” Poltaer yelled over the commline but from the wall beside him, out of the Shade emerged the Huntress Crow, Gael, who sliced the back of Poltaer’s thigh and dropped him to his knee before she thrust her curve saber through his neck.

Haertrus arose with the Shade retracting from around him while Gael pulled free her blade and pushed Poltaer’s corpse to the ground in front of her. Then, ascending from the floor through Shade came Daemus, as if he were climbing stairs. The Third-eye Crow stopped and looked around at the death his fellow Crows reaped, only to turn to the double doors while he let out a sigh of disappointment. “<My, how the Shims that Laes deploys have… heh, diminished since the Blaque was torn down.>”

However, Caetor, Vhael, and a unit of Lancers charged down one of the halls in an absolute panic. Vhael was panting, her vision shifting in and out of blurriness, and she felt a powerful surge through her chest as they rounded the corner. There at the end of the hallway, Vhael and the others saw the Crows entering the guest quarters with the thick darkness rolling into the room amongst them.

Vhael uncontrollably let out a shrieking scream just before the Lancers opened fire. “JAAAAAES!”

Hmmmmmmm roared before the loud booms of the energy-nails ripping down the hall at the Crows. Boom, boom, boom-boom, boom. Streaks of bright blue lit up the now dark hall, but the Crows never turned their attention from their prey and instead, the Shade thickened at the entrance of the quarters where it intercepted every single charge. Vhael felt her chest growing tighter and tighter as she watched the energy-nails hit the darkness mere seconds before dispersing through it, fading out like the flames of candles in the cold night. Then in an explosion of terror as she heard her son let out a scream, Vhael’s eyes ignited bright blue with Shine surging through her veins before she shot down the hall in a blaze of intensity and through the Shade into the guest quarters.

Time appeared to slow down to Vhael as she found herself in the guest quarters, a shimmering white aura wafting off her, and as she looked around she saw Haertrus holding Jaes as Daemus and Gael stood to the Goliath Crow’s sides. Her heart dropped as she watched her son fighting the monstrous Pitch to let him go but his attempts all were in vain. She then witnessed the thick transmorphic Shade, like rolling smoke, begin to fold in on the four which caused Vhael to lunge for them. Everything started to go cold for Vhael as she found herself spinning in an inky darkness that grew blacker and blacker, but then in a blink, she felt her body hit the ground where she rolled across the roof of one of the thousands of skyscrapers on Te’ev.

“<It’s Shim mother managed to tag our trail,>” Gael hissed as her black eyes locked onto Vhael.

“<She is of no consequence,>” Daemus chuckled while Vhael was on her hands and knees thirty feet from them where she was throwing up and gagging from her body rejecting the jump. “<She is poisoned by the essence of her Goddess.>”

“<I don’t care!>” Gael barked as she glanced at Daemus before turning back to Vhael who she stepped toward. “<I want to extinguish her light! One light at a time, and cleanse this universe of the blight they are! Return it to its true glory! Return it to black!>”

“<NO!>” Daemus snapped and then he pointed to Jaes who continued to struggle with Haertrus. “<One fading Shimmer is NOTHING! Her light snuffed out will not bring us anything compared to what will will bask in with that flare!>”

“Let me go!” Jaes screamed, and the Goliath Crow obliged by throwing the boy to the ground where he smacked his head before drifting into unconsciousness.

“<Gael is right!>” Haertrus cawed. “<We should just snuff them both out, ourselves!>”

Gael simply licked her fangs with a smirk.

Daemus, however, was prepared to explode at his fellow feathers but his eyes pinged around before they fogged to complete inky blackness. “<It’s time…>”

Haertrus rolled his shoulders forward as he positioned himself just beside the unconscious Jaes while Gael scanned the rooftop, which became thick with a foggy Shade. Daemus briefly closed his eyes only to immediately reopen them with the inky blackness gone, and he found himself taking a step backward as the sound of thunderous footsteps echoed in their bubble of darkness. What felt like an eternity to the three was in reality only a few seconds as the colossal Shade armored Being approached from the black, His burning white voids of eyes locked on not them, but Jaes who still remained unconscious.

“Kae’oo laek’tei mayhnuk baesh’tae nhoaw,” bellowed from the Being in the most deep and reverberating sense possible.

Daemus’ eyes narrowed as the tongue the Being spoke reminded him of the one the Being they encountered on Otebah had briefly - an ancient and long-since forgotten tongue. It was at that moment that the pressure had become so thick that even Haertrus found it difficult to move. The Crows noticed, one by one, that the Shade itself had begun to move differently as it bent to the will of the Being who began to now approach them.

Boom. Boom. Boom erupted with each heavy pounding step He took. The roof shook with such power that the building itself appeared to tremble, it was then, that Haertrus let out a thunderous roar as he clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles cracked. The Goliath Crow then charged forward, moving not quite as fast as he normally would as the pressure continued to thicken around them.

Haertrus had closed half the distance between the two, but that was the moment when Gael’s eyes opened wide as she caught sight of Him before her fellow Crows - before Haertrus.

“<WAIT—” she tried to warn him, but Haertrus was struck from the side by a colossal blackened wing which sent him tumbling across the roof where he stopped just at the ledge.

The slender Being’s back was to Gael and Daemus, however, His head slowly turned one hundred and eighty degrees so He was looking at them with His burning white voids. His head twitched side to side, in a way of sizing the two up, as the colossal Being stopped just behind Him. It was then as the last footstep’s booming echo faded into the nothingness where to the colossal Being’s right arose out of the ground into the thick of Shade, was the petite Being.

“<Daemus…>” Gael whispered as they stared down the trio. “<This, this was a mistake. We must leave now!>”

Daemus’ eyes grew blacker than black as he tapped into the Shade, in an attempt to decipher what they were. “<They are heresy! Whatever He has done, clouding the Shade from my eye!>”

“<Daemus…>”

“<The Shade, it whispers in that tongue while in their presence!>

“<Please, Daemus…>”

“<They are not of the Deep! No!>”

“<Daemus! Daemus, this was a mistake,>” Gael snapped as she inched her way closer to him while her hands moved to the hilts of her sabers. “<Whatever they are, He will have them kill us! We must get out of here! We must! We cannot stall any longer!>”

Daemus’ left eye, however, began to twitch as the blackness again started to spread out from his eyes. The Shade not only clouded his ability to see through it but now was exerting upon him, which forced Daemus to drop to his knees and grab the sides of his head while he winced. Daemus growled, “<I will not allow Him… ERRRRR… to, to, to contort… UGGH… our birthright!>”

“RRAAAAAAAHHHHH!” Haertrus roared as he now charged the colossal Being, which drew Daemus and Gael’s attention but none of the three moved an inch.

In a blink, Haertrus was within striking distance where he unleashed all the force he could muster in a shockwave ripping right hook. It was like sound was sucked away from them all before a thunderous crack boomed across the roof and then Te’ev in totality. However, Haertrus groaned as his fist was stopped by one of the slender Being’s six wings.

Again, the deep reverberating voice of the colossal Being bellowed, “Taesh’lae byt kaer’l Shihaem,” and then nearly impossible to perceive, the slender Being moved on Haertrus.

The Being practically retracted in His wing’s direction as if it glided across the roof, and then there His head returned to its proper position while simultaneously the top right wing thrust down at Haertrus. He gasped and coughed briefly before glancing over to Daemus and Gael, who saw the Being’s wing plunged through Haertrus’ chest. Before he could look back to the Being, He retracted His wing and then used both to swat Haertrus away with the force launching him across the roof where his body tumbled and rolled directly off the ledge.

“<Noooooooooo!>” Gael screamed after watching her fellow feather killed before them, but Daemus immediately grabbed her arm as he ordered her.

“<Get the boy! Get him and I’ll meet you back at the nest!>”

Gael’s face contorted with a sense of knowing, but then she glanced for Jaes only to find he was gone. “<Wuh-where is he? He, he’s guh—”

“MOM!” Jaes’ voice yelled, and Gael immediately turned to see him kneeling beside Vhael who still had not recovered from the jump.

Shade pulled around the petite Being and she then folded in on Herself within it. Daemus saw this and barked at Gael, “<Get him now! Go!>”

Gael didn’t hesitate, she charged straight for Jaes while Daemus struggled up to his feet with the two other Beings now sizing him up as he threw his arms out to his sides. “<He has what is OURS! You perversions will not stop us,>” and Shade pulled toward his hands where it congealed into blades of darkness that Daemus then twirled around.

“Juh-Jaes,” Vhael stammered as she now lay on her back with Jaes holding her hands while he looked down at her with tears in his eyes. “You, you have to run! Please! Please run!”

“But Mom,” he cried. “I can’t leave you! First Dad! I won’t lose you too!”

Vhael shoved her son’s hands away as she screamed, “RUN!”

Jaes nearly jumped up to his feet. His heart was racing, his eyes grew large, and his bottom lip quivered as he couldn’t believe what just happened. Though behind him where Shade bloomed out from a central point, the petite Being apparated. Shade now pulled from the air around Her before congealing into a blade that She took and was prepared to swing down on Jaes when Gael blocked it, and threw the boy to her left.

Jaes rolled several feet where he stopped on his back and quickly looked over to the two, who were twirling blades around with deep clangs of Kalber and Shade connecting that left a hollow feeling deep inside him after each clash. Jaes’ eyes, though, began to narrow as something caught his attention across the roof. The Shade was thick like a ghost fog that shimmered on the ground, but yet on the other side of the roof from him and the others, lingered a faint silhouette. The longer he stared at it, the louder the whispers on the Shade became to him, “Rael’tihaev buhlrym tae Shihyrm gaes’tu’odaem,” but Gael interrupted his perception as she came tumbling across the ground in front of him.

Jaes looked at her as she struggled to get back up before he slowly panned to his right where he met eyes with the petite Being, who now locked sights on him and began Her march upon him.

“ERRRRR-AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Daemus roared as he struggled to hold back the slender Being’s top two wings with the blades of darkness, but he found himself blindsided by the colossal one.

Daemus was rocked by a shoulder strike that dropped him to the ground where the blades he wielded dispersed back into the Shade that now coiled into blackened tentacles.

“<More perversions!>” Daemus hissed at the tentacles that now retracted beneath the haze.

Yet as the darkness now appeared to close in on the Crows and Jaes, with the two looming over Daemus while the petite Being stood atop Jaes who looked up at Her with tears running down his cheeks; Vhael lunged at Her and screamed as she tackled Her to the ground, “RUN, JAES! RUN!”

Jaes didn’t hesitate now. The young boy shot up to his feet and took off toward the stairwell door. Each step Jaes took, the louder the whispers on the Shade grew, “Hael’taer de O’taer,” and now less than ten feet, “Gaer’tek behlt yaeh’maer,” Jaes slammed into the door before he frantically grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, then in a blitz, he yanked the door open to find hundreds of pitch-black three-eyed owls exploding out of the stairwell at him, “Aem’Shihaev…”

Jaes screamed in confusion and fright while he swatted around at the owls, only to in the panic feel a sharp sting. The entire rooftop then went silent and cold, as Jaes’ eyes slowly panned to the source where he found the the owls piecing together and forming the slender Being. The burning white voids looked deep into Jaes’ glowing bright blue eyes that dimmed back to light blue, and Jaes let out a gargling groan as the Being further thrust one of His wings deeper into Jaes’ chest.

“JAAAAAES!” Vhael screamed. “Nooooooooo! No, no, no, no, noooooooo!”

Gael who had crawled over to Daemus, reached out to him as he did her, and with their hands grabbing the other’s, the two folded in on each other through Shade. Yet Vhael panted and cried as she ran to her son, despite the Beings, with the slender Being having yanked his wing free and allowed Jaes to collapse dead to the ground. Not even a second after his body hit the concrete, Vhael was on her knees at his side, cradling him in her arms.

“Wake up! Jaes! Jaes, honey, please wake up! Please,” she begged him, despite there being no life left in his eyes. “Don’t do this! Please! Pleeeeease come back! Pleeeeease!”

Vhael’s eyes now ignited bright blue with the subtle blue veining through her face and body intensifying before she glared around, looking for the Beings but nothing. The trio were gone, as was the thick pressure of Shade that they carried. Vhael threw her head back in anger and frustration and sorrow as she belted out a thunderous scream that ripped through what felt like the universe, “Errrrr-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

***

A shrieking scream ripped through the pitch-black alley as the thumping sound of fast footsteps followed, and a woman came running around the corner toward the other end. She glanced over her shoulder every several steps but then found herself smacking into the dead end where she slammed her palms off the wall three times. She rested her forehead on the concrete and let out a breathy sigh before frantically spinning around to the sound of whispering that rolled in. Her eyes narrowed as a thickness came over her and the surroundings, and the darkness grew darker.

“Buh-bay-Babe? This, it, it, this isn’t funny!” she called out, though the whispers became clearer and the pressure felt nearly unbearable.

“Rael’tek shael’tev myr’muor Shihyrm gao’dyb…”

The woman’s eyes grew large as thunderous footsteps echoed down the alley toward her, with a colossal silhouette of light-eating blackness came into view. Her head started to shake and then beside him unfolded six gigantic blackened feathered wings, and she muttered as a petite woman arose from the ground, “Oh, oh God!”

Burning bright white voids of attention locked onto her as she felt the wall to her back, allowing her to only scream in terror, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” and Sara shot up in bed with sweat pouring down her face, panting and struggling to catch her breath.

“Sara? Sara? Are you okay? What happened? Sara?” Drake frantically asked as he sat up beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

Sara couldn’t begin to fathom what she dreamt as it felt more real than nearly anything she had ever experienced awake. Flashes of the three’s burning eyes glaring into her soul hit her over and over again. Sara could still feel the lingering pressure that preceded the Beings. Her body shook like she was out in the frigid cold, and all she could bring herself to do was turn to Drake and bury her face into his chest, crying.

Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]

Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]

5 December; 20:11:50 Hours

A sharp, high-pitched ringing shot through Drake’s ears. He frantically grabbed either side of his head and stumbled forward where his eyes pinched shut and teeth gritted. The ringing seemed to get louder and louder, and Drake continued to stumble where he slammed into the steel table to his left before nearly falling over. But, in an instant, it all stopped.

The heavy sound of Drake panting reverberated through the entirety of the common area of the cruiser, nearly gasping for air as he slowly reopened his eyes. Then, he just as slowly lowered his shaking hands from his head. He was experiencing double vision, still wobbling as he tried to remain upright but dropped to his knee nearly several times before quickly shooting back up straight.

“Hey… Hey, Drake… Hey… you oh—” Drake heard someone calling to him just before he violently gasped, his eyes rolled back into his head and it was as if he was thrust through a flood of colors; green, gold, crimson, and blue with what sounded like a million more voices calling from all around him.

“We have to move, Amaehun! We can’t stay here! Come - Abahaet won’t have died in vain!”

“Where is she? Answer me, dammit… Where… is… she?!”

“I don’t want to— I love you!” a familiar voice cried before another voice he knew but couldn’t place his finger on whose, said to the other.

“You prom-promised me - It’s okay. It, it’s okay. Don’t, erhmmmm, don’t cry. Puh-please… This, it’s something that, that’s, that has to be d-done… For the good of the U…”

Then he felt the intense pull that yanked him through the wash of colors, and a voice grew clearer and clearer as light broke through the colors while his vision cleared.

“How dare you! How dare you question his rule…” Dax barked from just beside a quad-piked marble throne.

“His rule? We, we vowed to fight against tyrants!” the single most familiar voice he heard yelled, and Drake laid eyes upon an older sight of himself while he loomed overhead of what was unfolding. “Not take their seat!”

There, sitting upon the throne beside his wife was Theo, and to his left, barely peering around the throne was a thirteen-year-old, raven-haired, olive-skinned girl. She wore a peacock blue robe that had ivory lace sleeves and adorned a glistening silver circlet upon her head. Dax, though, did not back down from Drake’s older self, as she quipped.

“He only took what was his… His BIRTHRIGHT!”

Drake then found himself standing beside this older version, watching him recoil at what she said, even looking away from the three before he grunted and took a step forward. The soldiers, King’s Guard, who adorned silver armor from head-to-toe with crimson capes that hung from their left shoulder had matched Drake's aggression as they stepped to him. Drake immediately stopped where he raised his golden robotic left hand, conveying he meant no harm. He quietly pleaded to Theo, “Hey… brother… will you look at me? Please. Please. Are you hearing what she’s espousing? It’s what WE promised to fight against… Come on—”

Theo’s head slowly rose, the sun shined on the blackened spires that orbited his head - a crown of darkness, and he looked into the older Drake’s eyes. Drake took several steps forward, through himself as he now stood between the two, where he watched this twisted vision. He shivered at the darkness that now sat dominion in the eyes of the man who he called a brother, only the iris in Theo’s left eye remained while pitch blackness consumed all else.

“The U needs order,” Theo spoke, “and I could not sit back in good conscience and allow an even worse evil to fill the void that WE created. So I decided—”

“To become that evil?”

“SILENCE, NAEXU!” Dax hissed at Drake.

“No, to become that order we both believe the U needs.”

“Don’t…” Drake softly warned.

A small grin spawned out the right side of Theo’s mouth. “Don’t what… brother?”

“Heeeeeh… Don’t make me have to stop you.”

“We all do what we must,” Theo sighed, raising his arms out to his sides as he now leisurely sat back on the throne.

Drake could see the older version of himself’s face contort with fury and disgust seconds before he reached behind his back, but before the unfolding events went on any further, Drake was yanked back through the rushing colors again. Though unlike before, Drake gasped for air and his eyes popped wide open as he felt his knees hit the ground. A woman placed her hand upon his back as a man crouched down in front of him, saying, “Hey! Hey! Are you okay, brother?”

He blinked several times fast, his vision was still a bit blurred but slowly cleared as he regained sight with Theo in front of him, smiling. Drake then frantically glanced over his shoulder, looking at his wife, Sarah, whose eyes were teary and a bit sunken from the fear of the state she just witnessed him in. His eyes continued to dart around, scanning the common area as he saw Cole who watched on from back behind Theo before he heard Theo again.

“What happened? You okay? You just… just blanked on us.”

“Yeah, what the hell?” Sarah said as she nuzzled her forehead into his shoulder.

Drake gulped and hesitantly nodded. “Y-yeah. I’m…We, we're okay… for now.”

Rael’aek [castle]

Daeobet [capital, mega-city], Endul [planet], Dasihik Galaxy, Sector-0000, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

5 December; 11:11:11 Hours

Unknown point-in-time

Clang, shink, clank, clang, shink, and high-pitched hums and booms roared from the hall leading to the throne room. Each time they grew louder and closer as the eight King’s Guard stepped forward from their positions at the columns lining up to the throne. Their crimson-tattered capes swayed slightly as they positioned themselves ready, their blue t-visors of their silver helms glowing and the front four gripped their Kramat TAK02 rifles tightly. This all while upon the throne platform; a young raven-haired girl turned to Theo who sat on his throne as three small Kalber orbs, Gaundraes, orbited him, and the girl then glanced over at Dax who stood beside him.

“Abahaet? Amaehun?” her bottom lip quivered as she called to them, her peacock blue eyes darting side-to-side, but then there was a thunderous bang as the doors rattled. “<What’s going on? Who’s coming for us? Abahaet? Abahaet? Amaehun… I’m, I, I don’t understand!>”

Theo’s attention remained on the doors though, his eyes narrow, hands clenched tightly as several screams could be heard from just outside before an eerie silence followed and consumed the chaotic uncertainty of moments prior.

“Abah—” the young girl went to call again, but the throne room doors flung open and banged against the walls.

No sooner than they did, an Elite, one of the hundreds of millions of clone soldiers who formed Theo’s powerful and universe-shaking army flew into the throne room. The Elite slammed upon his back and slid across the marble floor to a stop with crimson now covering his sliced chestplate. Smoke soon followed as it wafted in from the hall. The air had become staticky with a tenseness as a silhouette stepped into focus and caused the King’s Guards to take aim.

One glowing gold eye pierced through the fog before a golden robotic left hand raised and signaled to wait, before a voice called, “If I remember correctly, an old friend once told me that if you want to be heard… you need to make sure that you’re heard.”

The man, Drake walked forth with the King’s Guards not breaking their aim on him. His tattered tan cowl flapped behind him as he approached the throne. Though the young girl was quick to hurry behind her father where she peered out from behind one of the four pikes, watching Drake as he stopped forty feet from the platform.

“How dare you!” Dax snapped, stepping up to the edge of the platform where she looked down upon Drake and violently motioned her hands out to her sides. “You siege Rael’aek and then demand an audience?”

“No one has done that better than Theo,” he quipped.

She grit her teeth as her light blue eyes lit up intensely.

“Speaking of whom,” Drake’s attention shifted from her to his old friend who sat with his head slightly bowed, and he said with a deep reverberation, “What are you doing?”

“How dare you! How dare you question his rule!” Dax yelled.

“His rule? We, we vowed to fight against tyrants… Not take their seat!”

“He only took what was his!”

Drake’s eyes narrowed as his left eyebrow raised slightly. “His?”

“His BIRTHRIGHT!” she said loudly with overwhelming pride, but Drake’s eyes now closed and sunk as his gut turned.

Though he then grunted and took a step forward with the four King’s Guards who stood before him each matching Drake’s aggression as they stepped to him. Drake quickly stopped, he raised his golden robotic hand again as he reiterated his position from earlier. His attention then shifted back up to Theo who he quietly pleaded to, “Hey… brother… will you look at me? Please. Please. Are you hearing what she’s espousing? It’s what WE promised to fight against… Come on—”

Theo’s head then slowly rose with the sun shining upon him and the blackened spires that orbited his head - a crown of darkness, and he looked into Drake’s eyes. Drake couldn’t help himself as he gulped and winced at the darkness he saw that now sat dominion in the eyes of the man who he once called a brother.

“The U needs order,” Theo spoke and his voice rumbled through the throne room, “and I could not sit back in good conscience and allow an even worse evil to fill the void that WE created. So I decided—”

“To become that evil?”

“SILENCE, NAEXU!” Dax hissed at Drake.

“No,” Theo’s voice up-ticked before growing even deeper than before, “to become that order that we both believe the U needs.”

“Don’t…” Drake softly warned.

A small grin spawned out the right side of Theo’s mouth. “Don’t what… brother?”

“Heeeeeh… Don’t make me have to stop you.”

“We all do what we must,” Theo sighed, raising his arms out to his sides as he now leisurely sat back on the throne. “And I can see that you came here to do exactly that.”

Drake’s left hand moved behind his back where he grabbed the hilt of Namagun, his tanto blade. Everything, though, appeared to slow down as his perception lagged while his grip tightened; he saw the four King’s Guards who stood at the ready in front of him each draw one of their twin long sabers, Dax’s attention shifted to Theo who Drake could faintly hear her speak to but was too soft for him to understand, and then he looked to the girl who now looked at him with a fury that burned in her eyes. Drake’s eyes narrowed with confusion, but he was forced to act as one of the King’s Guard charged him.

“Ah shit,” he mumbled as he realized what he had allowed himself to be distracted from.

Despite their armor, the King’s Guards’ speed seemed unreal to Drake. His right eye opened wide at the Guard who closed the twelve-foot gap between them in a near blink, and Drake immediately raised Namagun to meet the Guard’s long saber which let out a thunderous clang. He grimaced for a moment as they tried overpowering one another, but then Drake managed to push up before delivering a vicious front kick to the Guard that sent him sliding back several feet.

Drake then spun and swung his tanto blade up to his left where it now met the downward swing of another Guard. He used the force and momentum of the two blades meeting along with his explosive follow-through in order to spin back around where he met the third King’s Guard. This Guard had unleashed all of his force in an overhead downward swing upon Drake. Clang, boom erupted as a shockwave released and pushed out from the two. Drake dropped to his knee where he struggled to keep his tanto blade steady as he blocked the long saber.

But Drake’s attention shifted yet again, he glanced to his left and then right where he saw the other three moving on him.

“Dammit,” he growled, reached into a pouch on his belt where he pulled a small plasma charge that he squeezed just seconds before he tossed it toward the two Guards marching at him from his left.

A loud high-pitched beeping chirped out, growing faster and faster as the charge flew through the air toward its targets but also at the throne platform. Dax’s eyes now grew large as she realized the charge was mere seconds from detonating in the air, and she quickly glanced at their daughter before looking at Theo who she screamed for.

“THEO!”

“Amaehun?” their adoptive daughter, Cortana looked to Dax and saw the uncertainty in her mother’s eyes that caused her to grab her father’s shoulder as she panicked, “Abahaet? Abahaet? Abahaet!”

Yet he didn’t move an inch even as the charge now detonated, it let out a thunderous roar with a bright purple light that flashed before the plasma energy exploded in all directions.

A high-pitched ringing consumed the throne room as Drake’s vision slowly returned, the purple glow dimmed, leaving him in disbelief as he found his effort had failed. The Gaundraes that loomed around Theo and his family had broken his orbit and intercepted the charge, through generating a forcefield that contained and neutralized the explosion. Each orb then absorbed the energy, with the purple glow fading within them, only for each to return to the sides of Theo, Dax, and Cortana.

Drake’s eyes immediately sank as he saw a small grin creep over Theo’s face, but Drake then flew backward onto the marble floor where he grimaced. He glanced up to see one of the King’s Guards standing several feet in front of him before looking at himself where he found a cut across the chest. Drake panted, blood began to cover the chest of his gray survival-mail, and he slowly looked back up to the Guard as he let out a thunderous yell and jumped up to his feet.

“RAAAH-AHHHHHHHHH!”

Drake twirled Namagun around before swinging it down on the Guard who had sliced him. There was so much force behind him that when his blade met the other it unleashed a shockwave so powerful that it slightly cracked the marble floor. The King’s Guard was now dropped to his left knee and Drake quickly raised Namagun above his head to unleash upon the Guard, but before he could, he stumbled back several steps as he was struck twice by bright blue charges in the upper left pec and the bicep from one of the other four King’s Guards.

Before Drake knew it, he was sliced on the left thigh by one of the first three Guards. He grimaced and twirled his tanto saber around in an attempt to put distance between himself and them but was met with another swing of a Guard’s long saber. This time, sparks exploded and Drake tried to block and dodge the third’s thrust, yet the blade of the Guard’s long saber cut him on the side of his head.

“Er-AHHH!” he groaned, then collapsed to his knee when two of the King’s Guards kicked them out from behind him.

Everything went hollow to Drake as his knees hit the marble. He felt his body shake from within, he could hear his heart pounding and his heavy panting before the high-pitched clang of Namagun hitting the ground beside him. Drake’s vision was blurred again, but this time as he was trying to realize what went wrong. It wasn’t until he heard the deep hum which ended with a high beep that he came to, he looked down in front of himself where he saw neutra-restraints had been strapped onto his forearms and locked in place.

“I want you to realize, brother,” Theo’s voice called and Drake looked up to him as he rose from his throne and subtly shook his head. “After what had happened… heeeh, this, it, it didn’t have to be a nightmare - No, you chose this. You decided this fate… and now—”

“WHAT?” Drake barked, struggling as two of the King’s Guards held him upon his knees. “What now? What now, huh? You going to have me killed TOO? Huh?”

Theo sighed before he turned his back to his old friend, folded his arms in front of his chest, and ordered, “Take him away.”

The Guards yanked Drake to his feet before they began to drag him backward toward the throne room doors, all while he struggled with them to break free. Yanking and pulling with his arms locked in front of him, Drake grit his teeth as he saw Cortana run over to her father who she hugged so tightly, though the fury within him ignited brighter as he caught sight of Dax who grinned at him before she stepped beside Theo who she wrapped her arm around his waist and rested her head upon his chest.

“This isn’t over, Theo! This isn’t,” he exclaimed as the doors slowly closed before him, “This won’t be my nightmare! It won’t! I swear it, dammit! This won’t be my nightmare, THEEEOOOOOOO!”

Iop-71A [planet], Velmurrk Galaxy, Unmapped Sector

6 December; 11:02:32 Hours

Thunder rumbled through the sky as lightning flickered like the dancing tails of Bel’a’toore, and standing there in the pouring rain was a bruised and battered Drake who gazed deep above. His mind could not remain calm as he continually returned to Endul, watching himself fall before his old friend. Drake’s stare intensified as he thought of his inability that day to free himself, yet there he was on the forest planet, standing in the rain - free.

“Honey?” Drake heard a soft voice call to him and he spun around to Talon, the Class V Light Cruiser.

“Sara?” he yelled and took off running straight into the cruiser. “Sara? Sara? Where are you? Sara, please!”

Drake looked around, frantically turning from his left to his right before back again. He was panting like he couldn’t catch his breath when he closed his eyes, dropped to his knees, and slammed his fists off the floor. Drake let out a primal yell that reverberated through his body but as he looked back up, he was no longer on the cruiser and instead was being dragged down one of the hundreds of halls of Rael’aek. Glimpsing so vividly of his fall on Endul, Drake could feel the King’s Guards’ tight grip on his biceps and his legs dragging across the marble floor.

“Shao de mai’teh,” one of the King’s Guards said with his deep and augmented voice as Drake’s head dropped again and he looked at the glossy floor beneath him.

“Kei’ndeh ba—” another was beginning to respond when he let out a death-rattling gasp and Drake found himself falling to his left.

Within seconds, he was completely on the ground, Drake rolled over onto his back where he looked up to find the several King’s Guards battling others but these were different. The Guards that had taken blades against the King’s adorned crimson from head to toe. Their visors glowed a deep scarlet as the ten outnumbered the ambushed and were quick to strike with deathly precision in the King’s Guards’ confused encounter with them. Drake, himself, looked in shock as he watched Kalber meet Kalber before the white armor quickly turned blood red and the floor became a marble display of death where the five King’s Guards lay forever gone.

Drake’s head pounded as he winced and his vision became staticky, he only managed to see these crimson donning Guards turn their attention upon him before he gasped. He found himself yanked back to Talon as the soft voice again called to him, saying, “You must finish what you started! Drake, you must!”

“Sir?” another voice then called as the lights in the common room flickered on, “Are you alright? Your vitals spiked to a concerning degree, and your heart rate is still at a bloody dangerous level.”

“I’m, I, I’m fine… Edmund,” Drake stammered as he stood up.

“Have I ever mentioned how terrible you Humans are at deception? Master The— Heeh, I mean, sir, please do not lie about things I can detect. Especially when you look like you’ve seen… What is that saying? Like you’ve seen a phantom?”

“A ghost,” Drake rolled his eyes as he corrected the AI who was like an old friend to him, “Like you’ve seen a ghost - That’s the saying.”

“Oh, yes, of course.”

“Have you completed the scans of the planet?”

“I have, sir.”

“And?”

“Well, there has in fact been life detected but it’s of the indigenous fauna. Nothing that reaches sentient intelligence, sir.”

Drake sat down at the table where he opened his leather satchel, pulled out a cylindrical device that he pressed the button of which erected a needle, and then jabbed his right thigh with a high-pitched hiss ripping free. “That, that’s good to, to hear.”

“Well, sir, this is an unmapped sector.”

“I’m very well aware, but you never know who else could’ve stumbled upon this forest rock.”

“Quite true, but I did want to ask,” Edmund said, and Drake again rolled his eyes.

“Heh, go on.”

“How did you come across this planet? It’s not normal for anyone to just have the bloody coordinates of a planet in an unmapped sector of the universe.”

“It’s, uh, it’s,” Drake mumbled as he returned the device to his bag, but something caught his eye as he reached in and grabbed it, “it’s a long story.”

“A long story?” Edmund said with a heavy dose of curiousness.

Though Drake slowly opened his right hand, his gaze setting upon his wife’s gold wedding band and again he heard the soft voice as if it whispered into his ear, “You must, Drake. You must end this. You cannot allow his darkness to spread. You can’t…”

Flashes of the hall on Rael’aek and then him piloting off Endul before him locking sights with the darkness that sat dominion in Theo’s eyes, Drake clenched his hand tightly and whipped his head up as he finally could make out what Edmund now said for the fourth time, “Sir? Sir, are you alright?”

“Set course for Titus,” Drake ordered.

“Titus?” Edmund’s voice upticked. “Have you bloody lost it?”

“Just set course, Edmund,” Drake snapped as he marched into the cockpit, “We’re leaving now.”

Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]

Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]

6 December; 13:24:02 Hours

Bright white streaks and raging colors shot past the view shield of Talon before everything appeared to pull forward, and a beeping alert sounded that caused Drake to flip a switch and manually pilot the cruiser as they now set their sights upon a planet in the distance. There was a haunting aura that radiated what was once the home to a kingdom that was feared across the universe. Drake’s eyes were locked upon Titus, even as he could hear Edmund going on and on about what they were headed into.

“Sir, please listen to me! My probability analysis is clear, and there is no justification for this lunacy!”

“I don’t care what your probability analysis tells you, Edmund,” Drake snapped through his teeth before motioning his right hand around. “How many times did you tell us that we had like, what? Like a six percent survival rate, or that there was only a ten percent chance of success AND every time we did exactly what we were supposed to!”

“Exceptions! Those times were obvious exceptions, and let us not forget that when KoG was active, there was no way to have all the variables on targets and missions! We have that here!”

“Edmund…”

Edmund didn’t stop as Drake had tried to warn him to watch what he said, and he went on, “Sir, you’re going to see the Baroness of Gal’telk! This isn’t some warlord terrorizing a small portion of a star system that you, Master Theo, and Sara—”

“ENOUGH!” Drake roared, flipped the autopilot switch, and shot up from the pilot chair where he looked up to the ceiling and fumed. “I have no goddamn choice, Edmund! None! Do you think I want to search out one of the most dangerous people in the universe to beg for help? Do you? Theo must be stopped… And, and at this point, I don’t care what the costs are.”

“Very well, sir…” Edmund acknowledged before going silent, leaving a thick and staticky tension in the air as Drake glanced to his left and caught sight of an old worn photo of the Knights of Old Glory that hung on the upper control panel.

***

Long Gwurd Palace

Kal’druv [floating mega-city belt], Titus [planet, ruin], Jeppa Galaxy, Sector-0002, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

Moments later…

The thunderous crack and creek of the massive throne room doors opening bellowed through the wide open chambers, as a Royal Caller slammed his staff upon the wooden floor several times before announcing, “<My Baroness! My Baroness! I announce to you, a guest seeks your eyes…” and escorted in by four crimson donning Empress Guards was Drake, “… The Golden Armed Knight, Drake Cage!>”

There, sitting upon her dual-pronged throne was the deep-tanned-skinned woman whose name was whispered across the universe - Niyuuh Dahbyrt. She adorned black survival-mail with gold armor-bands, but specifically a deep purple cape that draped over her as she quickly arose from her seat and smiled at Drake. Niyuuh raised her arms out to her sides and then slowly licked the corner of her lip before motioning him to come.

“<My, oh, my! My knight of my dreams has finally come back!>” Niyuuh softly called.

“Baroness,” Drake nodded as he stopped at the foot of the throne platform and slightly bowed, saying, “It is good to see you again.”

“<Come? No hug for me?>”

“I don’t come on pleasure, Baroness… I’ve come for a favor.”

A small smirk cracked out the left side of her mouth before she turned her back to Drake. “<Oh? A favor? Would this be due to the fact that your crusade upon the Stark King failed? Failed as I warned you it would?>”

“Heh, I may have failed but I did not go that day to slay my friend.”

“<Of course not,” she giggled, “because if you had, then Aen’Goor would have crumbled.>”

“Listen here!” Drake snapped and clenched his robotic hand tightly, but he was quick to ease off as the Empress Guards who had saved him now reached for the hilts of their blades to raise against him. “Please, please hear me out… Baroness.”

Niyuuh slowly turned around with big puppy dog-like eyes, whispering, “<Anything for you, my knight in golden armor.>”

The crimson-armored Guards completely returned their blades and stood at ease as Drake now slowly ascended the steps to Niyuuh. He slightly winced as he stood before her and she moved so close to him that her chest slightly grazed his, and Drake closed his eyes for a brief moment. He then looked deep into her golden eyes, saying, “I need your help in stopping Theo… Please.”

“<Now,” she whispered as she gently ran her hand down his chest, “you would like my help in ripping the Stark King down from his throne?>”

“Yes.”

“<And what will I gain from risking my life to help you, my knight?>”

“Anything,” Drake sighed, “I’ll, I, I’ll do anything at this point.”

“<Anything?>” Niyuuh’s voice grew low as she now leaned in toward Drake as if to kiss him but at the last second moved next to his ear, and said, “<I will grant you your favor, but upon one requirement…>”

“Okay, name it!”

“<A blood bond.>”

Drake’s left eye narrowed. “Go on.”

“<A simple blood bond, that’s all.>”

“And what of this blood bond will you want me to fulfill?”

“<Once you kill the Stark King and Aen’Goor crumbles,” Niyuuh proudly said, “I want you to take me! You will ascend as my Baron and we will rule the universe together!>”

“Wuh-what? No!” Drake stammered before he chuckled and shook his head at her. “Why would I kill my friend who’s allowed this darkness to consume him and is on the verge of taking complete control of the universe, only to do exactly that myself?”

Niyuuh’s eyes appeared to intensify as she looked Drake deeply in his own, as if she was gazing into his soul and she said, “<Because you’re not like him… Are you?>”

“Honey,” Drake then heard the same soft voice again, “Theo must be stopped… You can’t allow him to spread the darkness… You can’t!”

“Fine,” he muttered as a single tear ran down his right cheek. “You have a deal, Baroness… You have a damned deal.”

“<That makes me very happy, my Baron,>” Niyuuh said with a smile as she gently placed her hand upon his cheek before wiping the tear away.

Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]

Mytejur [planet], Mu-5 Galaxy

Years ago…

“Dammit, Theo!” Drake yelled as he followed Theo out of the cell corridor and into the common area where Dax, Sara, and a six-year-old girl were standing around talking. “We can’t take this risk! We have to kill him!”

“Honey!” Sara snapped and nodded at the girl as she quickly covered the girl’s ears. “Watch it!”

“No, Sara,” Drake continued his frustration as he now pointed at Theo who removed his tattered crimson cape, saying, “He’s going to let him live! He’s just going to do nothing!”

“Nothing?” Theo scoffed.

“Yes! Nothing!”

“El’terih bae boorimuh,” Dax hissed in her native tongue as she rolled her eyes, but Theo was quick to raise his hand as if to tell his wife not to escalate the situation before he turned to Drake.

“Enough, please. We’re not killing him.”

“Why? Tell me why he deserves to live! Tell me!”

“Because,” Theo exclaimed with a tone of frustration and exhaustion, “we’re just not, brother! We’re not!”

Drake threw his arms up as he looked around the common area. “This is madness!”

“<… My Baron? Excuse me? Excuse me?>” Niyuuh called to Drake who finally shook his head, snapping free of his memory’s hold before he looked to her as she stood several feet in front of him with her arms folded and head tilted slightly. “<Are you alright? Second thoughts, perhaps?>”

“N-no, no, I’m, I’m fine,” he said and continued down the hall toward her, “I’m having no second thoughts! Let’s just finish what we started!”

“<Ohhhhh, you don’t have to tell me twice,>” Niyuuh said and licked her bottom lip before she turned to the colossal steel containment door and the numerous Empress Guards who stood guard in front of it.

Boom, crack, clank, clank, clank erupted as the massive gears rotated and the door began to open from the middle at four separate points, each portion of it turned counterclockwise and retracted. A gigantic cell was what Drake and Niyuuh stood in front of, and it emanated a heavy gravitational pull that felt like the ground was slipping away from under Drake’s feet. He instinctively took a step back, he looked at his hands that appeared to vibrate, and his eyes fluttered which caused Niyuuh to chuckle as she looked at him.

“<Is the neutro aura even too much for you, my Baron?>”

“I’m very familiar with this technology, but, but this, it must be emitting unimaginable levels.”

Niyuuh smiled from ear to ear before she turned back to the cell and approached the opening that was protected by a forcefield. “<Prisoner-T024 demands such.>”

“Perhaps.”

“<Oh no, there is no doubt and I know that you know this.>”

“You can’t play mind games with me, Niyuuh.”

“<Play mind games with you? Me? No, I would never dare enter the mind of my Baron.>”

Drake’s brow furrowed as his eyes shrunk to near pinpoints. “Do you take me for a fool?”

Niyuuh simply looked at him with her eyes double what they were.

“Understand that I only agreed to our deal because my mission is too important.”

“<Well then,” her face relaxed and the forcefield dematerialized with a sharp hiss as she motioned Drake in, saying, “What are you waiting for?>”

Everything appeared to converge for Drake at that moment, as his vision locked into the cell where a single dim scarlet light shined from overhead onto a man who was upon his knees at the center. There were massive chains that stretched out and restrained him from the wrists and neck while Prisoner-T024’s ankles were locked to the cell floor. Drake slowly walked forth and into the cell where he stopped ten feet from him, and the thunderous ringing of silence was dominion before he finally called out, “I have an offer for you…”

Still, there was nothing but silence as Drake’s eyes twitched with the man not moving a single muscle.

“I said that I have an offer for you… Your freedom.”

“Bodeekil,” his deep and raspy voice bellowed. “<I would never take an offer from Aen’Goor scum.>”

Drake let out a laugh. “Aen’Goor? Oh, please! I’m not Aen’Goorian, not even close!”

“<You’re here, are you not? You sound like Aen’Goor scum. You even move like him.>”

“Well, maybe if you’d look me in my eyes you’d see the truth standing before you.”

Again he went silent and still refused to move an inch.

“Heh, okay,” Drake said, “Again, I have an offer for you; an offer that will grant you your freedom; an offer that will deliver you vengeance.”

The atmosphere changed in that moment with the chains letting out a slight rattle as they tensed up, and now Drake smiled. “You will have your freedom if you help me… Help me kill Theo Walker.”

Slowly, looking up with his piercing emerald eyes glowing in the darkness that shrouded his face, Tavvuk said, “<Unchain me…>”

***

Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]

Mytejur [planet], Mu-5 Galaxy

Years ago…

The blue haze of the containment cell force field shimmered as Tavvuk slammed his fists against it over and over, yelling each time as blood covered his mouth and his broken nose. His mail was tattered, scorched, and destroyed in various spots but he refused to let his battered state stop him as he slammed the barrier harder each time. Tavvuk’s voice could be heard roaring from down the hall, “<I will spill all of your blood! I will not stop until I slaughter every last one you love - Like you did to me! Like you slaughtered those I loved! Do you hear me? Do you hear me, Beelezika? Do you?>”

“You hear him? You hear what he’s saying, brother?” Drake whipped back around to Theo who looked at him with eyes that appeared light-years away, and he told his friend, “He’s killed Cole! He’s taken the spirit from ‘Melia! Hell, he even brutally maimed Klaus, Theo! We have to put an end to him NOW!”

Sara, the young girl, and even Dax looked to Theo who was standing with his eyes closed and head slightly bowed. He didn’t say anything at first but then softly said, “I won’t.”

“Dammit, Theo!” Drake yelled again, but this time Dax gently grabbed Theo’s wrist as she leaned in toward him and whispered.

“Yai Emoor, perhaps Midas has a point here—”

“No, Sparky,” he now denied his wife, before saying to them all, “I will not kill him. I won’t. I have already wiped out every other Titan there was… I will not slay the last, too!”

Drake took a step toward Theo and Dax where he pointed at him. “Then you better hope, Theo, you better hope he doesn’t come back to haunt you one day.”

Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]

Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]

7 December; 08:25:53 Hours

Click, the sound of Tavvuk’s belt buckle locking around his waist as he looked himself over. He ran his hand down his chest, feeling his gray survival-mail for the first time in nearly seven years, and his glowing emerald eyes slowly panned over to Drake who sat at the table. He let out a deep breath from his nose, then grabbed pouches that he clipped onto his belt, he at first chuckled but his tone grew more solemn by the word, “<I cannot tell which it is; if you’re stupid, or if you have a death wish.>”

“Depending on who you ask,” Drake laughed, “I’m both stupid and I have a death wish, so.”

“<You wanted me dead; you wanted Beelezika to plunge his Kalber through my chest; you begged him to snuff me out!>”

“I did.”

“<And now, now here we are.>”

Drake nodded before he stood up and stood nearly toe-to-toe with Tavvuk. “You’re right about it all. I wanted you slaughtered like the animal you are…You killed and maimed friends who were family to me, but now I need that animal you are. Simple.”

“<Short-sighted, wouldn’t you admit?>”

“Yes.”

Tavvuk chuckled. “<Who did Beelezika kill of yours?>”

Drake didn’t answer him, he just stared Tavvuk in the eyes.

“<It’s always that simple. Heh, hah, Humans especially - You don’t care about the horrors that are committed, no, not until those horrors come slaughtering your own.>”

“You’re familiar with that though, aren’t you?” Drake now growled at him. “The slaughtering part.”

Tavvuk let out a deep growl back as he gritted his teeth and watched Drake now head toward the cockpit of Talon. However Drake stopped halfway and raised his left robotic index finger in the air, warning, “You have your freedom, just don’t be stupid and try what I’ve already glimpsed you’re thinking of trying… It’d be a waste of you.”

Slowly a little smirk cracked out of Tavvuk’s cold and stern expression.

“Edmund,” Drake then called.

“Yes, sir?”

“Set course for Metrog.”

“<Metrog?>” Tavvuk’s eyes grew massive as he barked at Drake.

“Very well, sir,” Edmund called back, “Travel course is being set to Metrog.”

“<Metrog - That’s nowhere near Beelezika!>”

“Yes, I’m aware of that.”

“<Then WHY?>” Tavvuk stepped up toward Drake who still had his back to him, yelling, “<Why are you wasting my time? You freed me to kill him! You freed me for that purpose, and that purpose alone! And now you are wasting my time when I could be hunting him down and getting my vengeance!>”

Simply, Drake glanced over his shoulder to Tavvuk with his right eye narrowed. “Wasting your time? Heh.”

“<You think this is funny?>” Tavvuk seethed as he now reached for the hilt of the dagger on his belt.

Though in a blink, Drake spun around while he simultaneously drew his tanto blade that he forced up against Tavvuk’s throat. “Funny? Do I think that this is funny? Heh, heh, no, I think that this is all a waste of our time! That’s what I think this is!”

Tavvuk’s left eye twitched and he let out a breath before slowly easing back his hand from the hilt. He then softly asked Drake who pulled back his blade, “<Then why are we going to Metrog?>”

Drake chuckled as he turned and walked toward the cockpit where he stopped while sheathing Namagun, there was a hiss as the door slid open to the right, and then glanced back to Tavvuk. “We’re gonna need a Light Slayer…”

Rael’aek [castle]

Daeobet [capital, mega-city], Endul [planet], Dasihik Galaxy, Sector-0000, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

7 December; 19:24:09 Hours

“Four!” Dax yelled as her eyes glowed bright blue and a faint shimmering aura of Shine pulsated off her. “Four fallen King’s Guards! Four! Midas had help, Aaela forsaken! We want him to pay! We want him and whoever lent him aid to suffer…”

There before the throne platform stood the near lifelike holograms of two of the three Envoys of the King; Talmik Komm, the Grand Lord of Bael’drie, and Baesh’lae Faedyv, the High Lady of Skies Edge who both had their heads bowed to their Queen and King. There was a tension that consumed the throne room like the intense radiation of a giga-star in flux while Dax was beyond animated in her hatred-fueled tirade. However, Theo remained silent with his left index and middle fingers pressed against his temple while Dax sat on his lap.

“… We do not care what lengths must be gone to in order to bring him to justice for his acts of war,” Dax ordered as she now stood up and approached the edge of the platform where she stood in her lace dress adorning gold bands around her biceps, forearms, and wrists. “Do you understand?”

Talmik who was a giant compared to Baesh’lae, standing nearly seven feet tall, looked up to his Queen with solely his eyes while his partner lifted her head. However, before either could answer, a third hologram materialized between the two, and finally Theo’s attention appeared intrigued as they all watched Niyuuh come into focus.

The Baroness of Gal’telk bowed and motioned her hands out to her sides, saying, “<Please, my King, forgive me for my rudeness. Matters required me elsewhere.>”

“<Matters?>” Talmik growled as his eyes narrowed and nostrils flared.

“<Where have your knees been bent?>” Baesh’lae hissed but Niyuuh gave her not even a glance.

“<My King, please, my Empress Guards have been hunting this rogue knight who eludes your greatness,>” Niyuuh instead continued her plead, “<I was lending guidance to assure his demise.>”

Baesh’lae immediately began laughing at Niyuuh, “<Lending guidance? Lending guidance? To Empress Guards? To your elite Elite force? Do you take us as foo—”

“<Watch your wet-tongue when you speak of me!>” Niyuuh snapped as she spun toward the High Lady of Skies Edge.

“<Or what, knee bender?>”

“ENOUGH!” Theo roared and slammed his fist upon the arm of his throne. “I have had enough of your two’s bitching and nipping at one another! I care nothing for my enforcers to be at each other’s throats, dammit!”

In an instant, Niyuuh and Baesh’lae both bowed their heads to Theo who now arose from the throne. Dax smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist as he stood beside her, listening as he now ordered his three envoys, “I want him alive! I want him back before me; king before rogue; knight before knight; friend before friend… This will all end then! Do you three understand?”

“<Very well, my King,>” Niyuuh quickly accepted and bowed to him yet again before Talmik placed his fist over his heart and echoed the understanding.

“<It will be done, my King. I will make sure of it.>”

Baesh’lae though, glared at Niyuuh out the corner of her eye before she finally acknowledged, “<Understood.>”

Then as Theo returned and retook the throne, the Envoys’ holograms all dissolved. He let out a short chuckle in his moment of realization of the position he was in, but as Dax turned to him, she tilted her head before quickly hurrying to her husband. She dropped to her knees and grabbed his face, asking in a bit of a frantic before wiping a black tear that ran down from his left eye away.

“Yai Emoor, are, are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine, Sparky. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

The Hole [deep dwelling black market district]

Metrog [planet], Condor Galaxy, Sector-0003, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

10 December; 01:02:24 Hours

Deep within the steel and glass giant, nearly thirty stories below the bustling surface yet the glimmering light of the stars could still touch the deep within the Hole, Drake and Tavvuk carefully navigated the maze of dark alleys. Both wore their cowls with hoods up, hands firmly gripped the hilt of their daggers as their eyes darted from side to side while they passed numerous killers, crime lords, slaves, and dark vendors. There was a thickness to the smoke and musky tainted air, as Tavvuk’s lip twitched and his eyes began to narrow with the growing frustration that they had been walking for over an hour.

“<Where are they?>” Tavvuk growled.

“We’re almost there,” Drake groaned.

“<You’ve said that several times now! Several!>”

“And I’ll say it several more, dammit!”

Tavvuk grit his teeth and spun around in front of Drake, his glowing emerald eyes piercing through the darkness cast by his hood as he looked Drake directly in his. “<You had me freed for one reason and yet you seem to be taking your time on bringing me anywhere even close to accomplishing that reason… I will not be slowed down from getting vengeance! I won’t! Do you understand me?>”

There was a long pause as the two just stared at one another, but then Drake let out a brief chuckle before he walked around Tavvuk and toward the massive entrance to their right. Several holo-boards were around the double glass doors, each one advertising a fight; the right holo-board displayed a gigantic hulking man flexing and taunting, while the left played footage of this man’s previous fights where he brutally killed each opponent, and the top read like an introduction, “The Undisputed Champion - Od’igon, the Terrible!”

Tavvuk slowly turned after Drake where he saw the boards and the advertisements, his eyes narrowed in a bit of confusion as hundreds of Astronauts were flooding into the giga-arena. In the flood of heads, he almost lost sight of Drake who melded into the crowd and entered along with the rest, which caused Tavvuk to let out a loud grunt before he too quickly joined the lines. Tavvuk though kept his attention high, watching those around him and scanning everything he could as cheering, booing, and talking grew louder and louder by the step.

Drake slowed up and turned to find Tavvuk in the crowd before he nodded in the direction of the fight floor which Tavvuk subtly up-nodded to. Bright lights whited out anything beyond the threshold with Astronauts passing through, and oddly Drake slowed to a complete stop in front of it where those behind him pushed right by and into the fight floor.

“<Move!>” several Astronauts barked, who were in line behind Drake, while others hissed at him as they purposefully bumped into him as they cut in front of Drake.

“<We have a fight to watch!>”

“<I don’t want to miss Od’igon slaughter this one!>”

“<Come on, backwater scum! What are you waiting for?>”

Tavvuk stopped beside Drake and said to him, “<What are you doing? Are they not here? Did you waste more of my time?>”

Drake didn’t say anything though, instead, he just motioned in and without hesitation, Tavvuk walked through the light and onto the fight floor while Drake closed his eyes tightly as everything seemed to be pulsating to him. However, Drake shook his head and followed right on in.

“<NOOOOOO!>” an Astronaut off to Drake’s left yelled.

“<This can’t be happening!>” he heard another in the opposite direction shout, “<I bet my second life’s savings on Od’igon! This must be rigged!>”

Drake looked all around, seeing the fight floor in its whole as everything slopped down to the fight zone with thousands in attendance as they watched the gigantic Herculean, Od’igon who was the Undisputed Champion, struggling to get up to his feet. He had several gashes across his chest, back, and thigh while his opponent looked untouched. Tavvuk stood several feet in front of Drake, who walked up beside him and Drake pointed down to the opponent.

“There.”

“<There?>” Tavvuk nearly gasped as he slowly looked at Drake. “<That? That is the Light Slayer?>”

“<What a disgrace!>” a short and quadarmed Teltekian woman screamed as she watched Od’igon rise only to collapse back to his knees.

The entire aura of the arena changed, as the cheering for the Undisputed Champion transformed into thunderous boos, and now his opponent, the Light Slayer that Drake and Tavvuk came looking for, twirled her Gungnir, that was called Laehlux, around before finally thrusting it directly into Od’igon’s chest. Drake cracked a small grin as he watched Tavvuk fold his arms and closely watch her twist the hilt shaft which caused Od’igon to cough up blue blood.

Drake patted him on the shoulder as he continued to smirk. “Impressed?”

Tavvuk didn’t budge, he instead continued to watch her as she now yanked her Gungnir free and kicked Od’igon to the sand-covered fight zone floor. The entire arena went silent while everyone watched in shock, it was as if the sound of Od’igon’s body hitting the floor echoed while the Light Slayer let out a thunderous primal roar and thrust Laehlux in the air as she did. Drake, though, began his descent down the steps several men, each a different Astronaut, hurried out onto the fight zone floor where they circled Od’igon before they then conversed amongst each other.

Then, concurrently, they announced to the thousands in attendance, “<ANNNNNNND YOUR NEEEEEEEW UNDISPUTED CHAMPION… AHEMESHA KIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAAAAA!>”

Thunderous cheers erupted as nearly everyone in attendance shot up to their feet and celebrated. Ahemesha stood at the center of the fight zone floor panting as she glanced around smiling, but her eyes narrowed and her head slowly tilted to her right. She caught sight of Drake who now slithered his way through the ground crowd who reached up to Ahemesha, begging for her to acknowledge them.

Clink. Chink, chink, chink, as Ahemesha’s Gungnir collapsed to a simple six-inch hilt rod that she returned to her utility belt. Before she could head off after Drake who now began to push his way back through the crowd toward the other stairs, the three announcers grabbed her and began to interview the new champion, “<Ahemesha Kiida! Ahemesha! How do you feel after that absolute clinic you put on?>”

“<Ahemesha, are you ready for your next challenger? Tregah, the Formiddable!>” the taller of the three, a Feldoouhrian, wrapped his arm around Ahemesha as he asked and put his microphone in her face.

“<Stunning Kiida,>” the last snatched the microphone and got on one knee before her, as her lips puckered and head clocked back, listening as he said, “<Your people want to know how you keep yourself in such ravishing shape! What do you do? WHO do you do?>”

Instead of answering any of them, Ahemesha pushed past them all, and in doing so, she purposefully knocked the last announcer onto his back which caused the crowds to erupt in laughter. Her attention was locked on Drake, seeing his tan cowl as he pushed his way up the stairs through the crowd and toward the back exit. But as she now made her way to and started up the stairs after him, the Astronauts started to flock to her, calling her name, begging her for autographs, and some even offering her their young child.

“<MOVE OUT OF MYWAY!>” Ahemesha snapped, yet they barely listened as she then had to start shoving her way up.

Boom, the emergency exit door slammed against the wall as Drake threw it open and ran out into the dark alley. He placed his hands on his knees, hunched over as he panted and chuckled, “Now this brings back some memor—” but before he could finish, Ahemesha had him by his robotic shoulder and threw him against the wall where she pinned him by the throat with her left hand.

“<Who are you?>” she growled. “<Why are you stalking me?>”

“You seem quite spooked for a powerful woman who just slaughtered the reigning undisputed champion with ease,” Drake laughed but she tightened her grip on his throat which caused him to choke briefly.

“<Who are you?>”

“Who do you think I am?”

“<You’re about to be a dead man!>” Ahemesha hissed as she grabbed the hilt of the dagger on her belt.

“<Don’t think about it,>” Tavvuk’s deep voice growled into her ear as the cold steel of his blade pressed against her throat, and Ahemesha’s brow furrowed as she grit her teeth.

“<You lured me here!>”

Drake chuckled. “I’m kinda shocked myself at how easy it was, huh Tavvuk?”

“<And you want her to join us?>”

“<Join yous?>” Ahemesha scoffed as she yanked her hand away from Drake. “<A Backwater-ape and, and a… a Titan?>”

Tavvuk slowly pulled his blade back from her as a smirk crept over his face.

“We thought,” Drake shrugged and finished, “that you’d want to kill the Shimmer Queen.”

The Hole [deep dwelling black market district]

Metrog [planet], Condor Galaxy, Sector-0003, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

10 December; 02:59:00 Hours

“<K-kill, kill her? What?>” Ahemesha gasped and took a step back from the two whom she glanced back and forth at.

“<I know he speaks a backwater tongue,” Tavvuk growled, “but you understood what he said!>”

Ahemesha’s attention turned solely upon Tavvuk now as she brandished her teeth and squared up to the Titan. However, Tavvuk didn’t flinch and instead, he cracked a small grin as his feet pivoted slightly.

“Enough, both of you,” Drake sighed as he rolled his eyes, “And yes, kill her.”

“<Why?>” Ahemesha scoffed at him.

“Why? What kind of question is that?”

“<Why would I join you two? A backwater-ape and the last of his kind, why would I join you to kill her?>”

Tavvuk laughed. “<Because we can see how well you’ve been doing deep down in this… Hole.>”

“<I don’t get it… Beelezika is feared across the universe yet he couldn’t kill the likes of you.>”

Tavvuk’s eyes now shrunk to near pinpoints as his brow furrowed and he growled while his grip on the hilt of his blade tightened but before either could take a strike at the other, Drake snapped, “Live up to your name… Light Slayer!”

She glanced at Drake out the corner of her eye as horrors came flashing back to her from her childhood, but her attention as did theirs immediately shifted to the exit door that they’d come through moments ago where now a frantic flood of Astronauts came exploding through. People were pushing and shoving one another to get out as they went running down the alley, many of them yelling and screaming while Drake and Tavvuk looked at one another with their eyebrows raised.

“<Get out of my way!>” several Astronauts exclaimed while others yelled.

“<They never venture down here!>”

“<I don’t know who they’re after but I’m not getting killed!>”

“<Why was there no warning they were coming?>”

“What’s going on?” Drake called to Tavvuk as Astronauts pushed past between the two.

“<I don’t know,>” he grunted before grabbing one of the young men by the back of the neck and yanking him into the air, barking, “<Why are you all running? Who are you trying to escape?>”

The Meltonian, a species who had tan skin and four eyes with a long feeler nose, sniveled and stuttered, “<The-they’re coming! They, they, they’ll k-kill us, kill us a-all!>”

“<WHO?>”

“<Oh no,>” Ahemesha gasped, “Aen’Goor!”

Drake instantly spun around to her, his eyes were open wide as he asked, “What are you talking about?”

“<The Grand Lord and his guards!>”

Tavvuk tossed the Meltonian to the ground before he rolled his shoulders and chuckled. “<Good! I’ll get to warm up then!>”

“<No,” she denied him before she tried to explain, “you don’t understand! Grand Lord Talmik may not be Beelezika, but he is far more dangerous than you could imagine! And, and his Grand Guards… Only King’s Guards are more deadly!>”

Drake rubbed his brow as he was frustrated that he hadn’t glimpsed this happening, that he hadn’t received even a vague warning of what they might end up coming face-to-face with. Tavvuk smiled and started to walk toward the exit door as the flood of Astronauts had stopped, and he wanted blood.

“<Stop! We must leave! We must get off Metrog now!>” Ahemesha screamed.

“<No!>” Tavvuk yelled as he turned back to Ahemesha and Drake. “<He freed me for one reason! And this will only be the start of it!>”

“No, we must leave,” Drake said before tapping the earpiece in his right ear. “Edmund?”

“Yes, sir? How has the hunt for the ravishing Light Slayer gone?”

“Ping my live-time location and be ready to rendezvous…”

“Oh, bloody hell, I assume it hasn’t gone as planned?”

“… Stop with the smart-ass remarks - Just be mobile and ready to lift us, we gotta get out of here ASAP!”

“Very well, sir.”

Tavvuk thrust his index finger at Drake, barking, “<I am not running from some Aen’Goor boots, nor some Grand Lord!>”

“We’re not taking any unnecessary risks, dammit! We have a mission! A mission that you were freed for,” Drake yelled back, “And you’re not going to jeopardize it so that you can refresh your blade with Aen’Goorian blood!”

Tavvuk was nearly panting as he stood a dozen feet from Drake, the two’s eyes were locked as if they were ready to clash Kalber with Kalber but Ahemesha butted in, frantically saying, “<I know of a hidden way! A way to a docking port, it’ll be fast and, and we won’t run into any chokepoints that they might’ve set up!>”

***

Thump, thump, thump, thump echoed through the vast and empty streets of a long-ago abandoned section of the Hole. Massive apartment sectors, entire business districts, and even a school that all existed in a perpetual shell of what was as the three ran down the street. Only the light from the lumen-strips on their survival-mail illuminated them in the near pitch blackness.

“What, heh, huh, what happened here?” Drake asked as he was running almost directly beside Ahemesha who glanced at him.

“<This was one of the original portions of Metrog,” she explained, “but the Steel Giant in its terraformation built atop it and grabbed for the stars!>”

“<How far?>” Tavvuk snapped from their rear, as he didn’t care about the history lesson.

“<Not far,>” Ahemesha said.

“<That’s not an answer!>”

“<We’re almost there!>”

“<How long?>” Tavvuk now yelled, and this time, Ahemesha spun around to him as she stopped and again the two squared up to each other.

“<Watch your tone, Titan!>”

“<I wish you would,>” he bellowed as his right hand reached for the hilt of his blade. “<Give me a reason! I just need a reason, because we don’t really need you! I can get my vengeance without some Light Slayer killing his queen!>”

“I’ve already said enough!” Drake stepped between them, raising his hands at them as he yelled, “If either one of you thinks you can kill Theo OR Dax, you’re both lying to yourselves!”

Though laughter sounded from the darkness around them, and the three began looking around to see from where when a voice could be heard, “<Perhaps we should allow them to kill each other?>”

“<No, the golden armed and the Titan are of no concern to us but we must ensure she does not leave the world alive.>”

“<Then we better act quickly or the Grand Mane will not be pleased if we fail,> a deeper and solemn voice said before the lumen-strips of several mails ignited and men emerged from the darkness in front of the three.

Drake’s left eye narrowed as his head clocked to the side. “Grand Mane?”

“<These are not Aen’Goorian,>” Tavvuk growled.

“<I don’t care if they are or not,” Ahemesha hissed, “but they die right here!>”

The four each drew blades as they started to spread out, but the one who spoke with a deep voice locked eyes with Drake as he now urged, “<Go, leave here now and we will do you and the Titan no harm.>”

“You’re Claws of Shaomhav,” Drake acknowledged.

“<And you are the Golden Armed Knight, the Grand Mane wishes you no undue harm.>”

Clink, clink, shink ripped through the quiet as Ahemesha constructed Laehlux and spun it around before cracking a smile. “<Warlords, Undisputed Champions, Claws or Manes; you don’t scare me!>”

The air got thick with a staticky tension as the high-pitched cry of Tavvuk’s blade leaving its sheath followed and he stepped up beside Ahemesha. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she let out a shocked sigh, and he chuckled, “<You’re not Beelezika’s creed, but I’m willing to make an exception!>”

“<The Stark King is no friend of Shaomhav but His rule is acknowledged by the Grand Mane,>” the Claw said and Drake shook his head. “<So step aside or fall with her!>”

The other Claws now nearly circled the three as Drake sighed. He closed his eyes for a brief moment but then unsheathed his tanto blade, Namagun. Drake then looked over his shoulder to Tavvuk who he shrugged at and said, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

In a blink, Tavvuk charged straight at the Claw in front of them and swung his blade down on him. There was no time to react as Tavvuk moved faster than any of the four could have prepared for. The power he unleashed behind his blade was so intense that the sparks from his blade cutting through the mail of the Claw briefly illuminated the area as he split him in two. All of the air seemed to be sucked away as the other Claws’ eyes were locked on their brethren falling to pieces with the eerie sound of the right portion of his torso and the rest of his body thumping off the ground like an explosion in the gap of emptiness.

Slowly Tavvuk looked back with his glowing emerald eyes piercing through the dark at them, and a grin of horrific satisfaction reigning upon his face.

“ERRRRR-AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” one of the remaining three yelled as he took off in a blitz of rage at Tavvuk, though the Titan didn’t flinch as he instead stood up straight and awaited the Claw with the grin still firmly upon his face.

However, the Claw was forced to stop midway where he blocked Drake’s tanto blade that he swung horizontally at him. Clang. Sparks exploded and again lit up the darkness of the area around them before both men spun around and unleashed tremendous swings at the other, which clashed, and a shockwave ripped free that cracked the ground beneath their feet. Blades interlocked in a challenge of power that was quickly becoming clear was one-sided. The Claw looked Drake directly in the eyes but only for a moment as his attention then quickly shifted to his left where he saw his two brethren fighting Ahemesha, who appeared to be fending them off with utter ease.

The Claw’s pupils dilated as a sharp ting sounded. He then gasped as his attention shifted back to Drake only to find that Drake was no longer in front of him, and his eyes immediately pinged back and forth in an attempt to find where he had gone. However, the Claw let out another gasp but this time he felt a sharp pain shoot through his chest as Drake had managed to spin behind him where Drake thrust Namagun through the Claw’s back. Drake then yanked his tanto blade free and the Claw instantly collapsed with Drake rolling his shoulders and breathing heavily.

“You must get out of there,” Drake heard the familiar soft voice whisper past his ear, “Please, Honey! You must get out now!”

Drake frantically glanced around as his chest puffed out and contracted over and over again. Tavvuk came walking up beside him where he looked Drake up and down before he went to head toward Ahemesha and the last two Claws when blaster fire nearly hit him. Tavvuk spun to his left, twirling his blade around and deflecting several more energy-nails, and both he and Drake could now see the oncoming Grand Guards as they pushed down the street. Their glowing white t-visors lit up the darkness like torches in the night, but it was the thunderous pounding of their armored boots that sent an ominous warning like a haunting wailing horn.

“<Ahhhh! Now the fun begins!>” Tavvuk chuckled.

Drake grabbed Tavvuk’s bicep. “No! We have to get out of here now!”

Tavvuk growled as he looked at Drake’s hand before slowly up and into his eyes, snapping, “<Release me!>”

The blaster fire continued as several of the energy-nails struck one of the Claws just as Ahemesha thrust her Gungnir straight into the side of his head. “AHHHHHHH!” she screamed out of frustration, yanked free her weapon, and finally turned in the direction of the oncoming fire.

Ahemesha gasped. She could see at least twenty-five t-visors glowing within the dark that grew closer and closer by the second. Out of instinct along, though, Ahemesha spun around and raised Laehlux horizontally up in front of herself where she blocked the final Claw’s blade before delivering a fierce front kick that sent him tumbling back across the street. She then whipped around to Drake and Tavvuk who were nose-to-nose yelling at one another.

“<You’re not going to stop me!>” Tavvuk barked.

“You’re being shortsighted, dammit!” Drake shouted. “The mission is clear and these boots don’t matter!”

“<If you attempt to stop me… Your mission will not matter!>”

There was a brief pause between the two that felt like several hours dragged by, but then Tavvuk yanked his arm free as he chuckled and turned to the oncoming Grand Guards. With an elegant twirl of his blade, Tavvuk smirked and took two steps in their direction. However, everything went dark for him as Drake delivered a ferocious left elbow to the back of Tavvuk’s head which knocked him unconscious.

Ahemesha gasped yet again as she hurried over to the two. “<Wuh-what have you done?>”

“We need to get off world NOW, and we’re doing it any way possible!” Drake made clear before picking Tavvuk up off the ground and tossing him over his shoulder.

Clang, the Claw plunged his blade into the ground which he used to push himself up to his feet where he could manage to see Drake and Ahemesha disappear into the dark distance. He grimaced as he looked to the lower right of his abdomen where he found Ahemesha had cut him, but his blood ran cold as several deep hums ripped through the silence. Ting, ting, ting, ting reverberated as the Claw’s right hand trembled and his blade repeatedly nicked the ground.

“<Death to ty—” the Claw started to yell as he spun around with blade in hand, but one of the Grand Guards struck him in the face with the butt of his Kramat TAK02 rifle.

In a blink, the several golden-armored Grand Guards overpowered the disoriented Claw. They restrained him upon his knees, holding him by the arms while two stood behind him with their boots upon his ankles and hands on his shoulders. The Claw screamed and yelled, “<Release me! Aen’Goor has no power of a Claw of the Shaomhav Quarter! You are enacting war! Do you hear me? You are enacting war!>”

“<War?>” a deep voice called from the distance, the Grand Guards who stood at attention parted and Talmik approached. “<You dare conduct covert operations in Aen’Goorian domain, and then cry war because you failed?>”

“<Guh-Grand Lord Komm?>” the Claw stammered.

Talmik chuckled as he stopped in front of the Claw. “<You cost the Stark King his prize.>”

“<We wanted nothing of the Golden Armed Knight! The Grand Mane just wants the Light Slayer dead!>”

“<Light Slayer?>” Talmik asked as his left eye narrowed.

The Claw nodded. “<Yes, we wanted nothing of the two others!>”

“<Tell me more of this… Light Slayer.>”

“<You, you don’t know of her?>”

Talmik’s nostrils flared, he reached out with his gigantic hand and grabbed the Claw by the jaw, snapping, “<Who is she? What does Shaomhav want her dead for?>”

“<No,” the Claw laughed, “I will speak nothing!>”

Talmik’s face went stone cold as he stepped back from the Claw and turned his back to him. “<Then you will die.>”

“<Then kill—” he went to taunt the Grand Lord but one of the two Grand Guards who restrained him from behind quickly grabbed him by the chin and back of the head before violently twisting his head, and snapping the Claw’s neck.

Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]

Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]

10 December; 09:03:22 Hours

Boom, Drake slammed his robotic hand down on the steel table in the common area before he took in a deep breath. The table had dented under his force with the eerie mechanical sound of his hand relaxing for a brief moment before he clenched his fist tightly again. His pupil had shrunken to nearly a quarter of its size, his brow was furrowed, and his nostrils proceeded to flare before he began to pace back and forth. The thickness of the air was staticky with his frustration, but then that fiery fury pulled in on him as his attention directed to the three-dimensional hologram that materialized at the center of the room.

“<I’m surprised, my Baron,>” Niyuuh cooed as she fluttered her eyes at him, “<I didn’t expect for you to call for me so soon—”

“You set me up!” Drake yelled as he vigorously pointed his robotic finger at her.

Niyuuh’s eyes opened wide and she took a step back. “<What?>”

“You heard me! You set me up, dammit!”

“<I have done nothing of the sort, my Baron! What are you speaking of?>”

“We were just nearly taken out by the Grand Lord and his boots!” Drake barked as he stood there with eyes locked onto her and he panted.

Her eyes narrowed and her voice upticked as she asked, “<The Grand Lord? You, you crossed paths with Talmik?>”

“Is that not what I just told you?”

“<I did not set you up, my Baron,>” she assured him, “<I couldn’t. Our blood-bond would not allow me to do such a thing!>”

Drake walked right up to her and grabbed her by the throat, despite his hand going into the hologram, and he whispered, “Then how did he know we were on Metrog? How… did he know… we… were there… for the Light Slayer?”

“<Light Slayer? What are you planning, my Baron?>”

“Answer me!”

“<If you would’ve told me that you were going to the soul of Talmik’s sector, I would’ve warned you of his Kalber-clad stranglehold on Metrog.>”

However, it was as if Drake now ignored her as he yanked back his hand and stormed over to the table where he again slammed his robotic fist.

“<You know what must be done…” Niyuuh softly said with her voice reverberating through the common area as Drake whipped his attention back to her.

“What? What must be done, huh?”

“<You must take the last Titan and the Light Slayer to Skies Edge, my Baron, and kill the High Lady!>”

“Are you insane?” Drake snapped and turned completely toward her.

Niyuuh’s eyes began to glow a burning gold as she walked up to him where she placed her hand upon his chest, and she looked Drake deep into his eyes as she assured him, “<If you successfully take out one of the Stark King’s Envoys, it will destabilize him. Her fall would also serve to distract Talmik and thus lessen any unforeseen variables, my Baron.>”

Drake rubbed his brow and closed his eyes tightly as he heard the soft voice again, whispering to him, “It’s the only way, Drake. You have to do anything you can to stop Theo. You have to.”

“Fine,” Drake sighed. “I’ll do it - I’ll take Tavvuk and Ahemesha to Skies Edge, and we’ll snuff her out!”

“<Very good, my Baron. Very good,>” Niyuuh again cooed before her tone grew solemn, “<Soon the Stark King will fall and Aen’Goor will crumble, and we shall ascend as the rightful rulers of the universe!>”

Drake just stared at Niyuuh as she smiled and ran her fingers down his chest. His bottom lip quivered as an unconscious display of boiling frustration that each day continued to build up within him, only for Niyuuh’s hologram to slowly disintegrate as she ended her connection and left him standing alone at the center of the common area.

***

Several hours later…

Boom. Boom. Boom echoed throughout Talon as the blue haze of the forcefield shimmered under the force of Tavvuk’s fists after each thunderous slam. The Titan’s glowing emerald eyes were nearly bulging out of his skull as he gritted his teeth and continued to whale away until the containment room’s door hissed and slid open with Drake walking in. The two locked eyes for a moment before Tavvuk growled.

“<Coward!>”

Drake scoffed. “Coward? You would’ve had us all die right there on Metrog, and then what?”

“<You’re weak! You deep down fear Beelezika! You fear him so much that you’re not even willing to engage his hands and their boots!>”

“I fear him? You know… Maybe I do, but last I checked, the last time you came into contact with him, you were in the same spot you are now.”

“BODEEKIL!” Tavvuk roared as he slammed both fists off the forcefield and it trembled under his explosive force.

“<Both of you need to stop!>” Ahemesha snapped as she walked in beside Drake, where she looked at the two. “<If we’re to kill the Shimmer Queen and the Stark King, we cannot do that if you two continue to go for each other’s throat!>”

There came a moment of pause between the three, despite Drake and Tavvuk still staring at the other. However, Drake stepped forward and typed in a code to the touchpad which caused the blue forcefield to dissolve outward from its center.

“<Drake is right, though,>” Ahemesha said as Tavvuk exited the cell, “<We all would’ve died if he wouldn’t have done what he did back on Metrog.>”

Tavvuk slowly looked at her as he chuckled, “<All I’m hearing is the sound of your tails tucking between your legs.>”

“<You will die with that logic.>”

“<I am not afraid to die,>” he bellowed as he explained, “<I have seen and experienced much worse than death… Have either of you returned home to find your wife, daughter, family, and entire world blackened? Huh? Tell me! Have you?>”

“<Not blackened, no,>” Ahemesha responded as a tear welled up in her right eye.

“<Then I don’t want to hear your weak excuses!>”

Ahemesha, though, grabbed Tavvuk by the wrist as he went to storm past Drake and her, and she growled at him, “<I witnessed the Sovereign Kingdom of Wendale invade my home world; I witnessed the Shimmer Queen, though she was only a young teenager like me then, murder my two older brothers; My mother, my sister and I were then taken into custody and enslaved for years until I was able to escape… but, but my mother died in my arms not even six months after we were conscripted to serve Lord Waelum, and my sister sacrificed herself so I could see freedom! Don’t dismiss my knowledge of the horrors that we’re confronting! Don’t!>”

Tavvuk gently placed his hand upon Ahemesha’s cheek and her eyes grew large with disbelief and confusion before he softly told her, “<I am sorry for the horrors that befell your blood. I truly am.>”

“Edmund,” Drake called out.

“Yes, sir?”

“Set course for Skies Edge,” he ordered and immediately Ahemesha and Tavvuk spun to him.

“<What?>” Tavvuk barked before Ahemesha nearly screamed.

“<Have you lost your backwater-ape mind?>”

“Sir, oddly I understand the two’s anger and confusion,” Edmund noted. “You wish of me to set course for the High Lady’s home sector? Why?”

“Because we need to destabilize Theo, and killing Baesh’lae will do just that,” Drake rationalized which caused Tavvuk to rub his jaw while he looked down off to his right in a moment of understanding, but Ahemesha wouldn’t have it.

“<You just knocked out Tavvuk and imprisoned him because he wanted to engage Talmik and the Grand Guard,>” she hissed, “<And now, NOW you want to go directly to the High Lady’s proverbial home and kill her! That is ludicrous!>”

“No, engaging and killing Baesh’lae will kill two birds with one stone.”

“<Two what? With, with a stone?>”

Drake sighed before he motioned his robotic hand out to his side, saying, “Talmik would’ve gained us nothing but death if we had engaged him back on Metrog, he knew we were there and so he had the upper hand… but Baesh’lae has no such thing. And WHEN we kill her, her death will destabilize Theo AND distract Talmik enough for us to accomplish the mission.”

“Course is set, sir,” Edmund announced.

“Good,” Drake said before he turned and headed out of the containment room, but Tavvuk and Ahemesha lingered for a moment as the two slowly looked at one another with narrowed eyes.

Asgyr Palace

Skies Edge [mega-floating city], Dawma [planet], Elysium Galaxy, Sector-0004, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

10 December; 23:44:09 Hours

“<High Lady! High Lady!>” a stunning, slim woman cried as she came running into the throne room of the palace with the wailing sirens echoing off in the distance. “<There’s been several explosions across the city-belt! Concurrent explosions, High Lady!>”

Baesh’lae leisurely laid on her tri-pronged marble throne with her legs crossed as High Guards stood guard beside her and she looked to Mara Jix, who was her right hand, and she sighed, “<Yes, Mara, I am aware.>”

“<But, but High Lady, this has never happened before! Never in the city-belt’s history! Especially under Aen’Goorian rule!>”

“<Watch your tongue, Mara,>” Baesh’lae warned with Mara immediately dropping to her knees and bowing her head.

“<Forgive me!>”

“<Now is not the time… Do know that I am in fact aware of the diversion.>”

Mara’s voice upticked as she looked up. “<Diversion, High Lady?>”

“<Yes, a diversion, and I’m quite disappointed at how childlike of one it is.>”

“<A diversion from who?>”

“<Mara, go - Send word to King Theo of the bombings and an attack on Skies Edge.>”

“<But High Lady—” Mara stood up as she attempted to refuse Baesh’lae but the High Lady cut her off.

“<Go, and make sure King Theo is aware that I am personally handling it!>”

Mara pushed strands of her long red hair out of her face as she looked up to Baesh’lae with her deep indigo eyes large while her lip quivered ever so slightly. Baesh’lae shooed Mara off, which she reluctantly did with the High Guards pushing her along before they closed the massive throne room doors behind her. However, upon the doors shutting, there came a thunderous explosion that not only rumbled through the entirety of the palace but blew the doors off their hinges and sent shrapnel, smoke and other debris blowing forth.

Several of the High Guards who were on the floor and walked Mara out were taken down by the explosion as a glowing mist lingered in the smoky air, the remnant of a Shine-charge. Baesh’lae didn’t move despite the explosion but her direct detail did, the four High Guards who stood at her side stepped forward as did the remaining three on the floor. An eerie silence followed the thick smoke into the throne room which the guards each stepped into and only left the white glow of their t-visors to find where they were, but one by one they went out.

Now Baesh’lae’s attention was peaked. She slowly sat up upon her throne, her eyes narrowed as she gazed deep into the curtain of fog before them, and her detail descended the throne platform to the room floor. The High Guards’ dark blue capes swayed as they approached the smoke and soon they too disappeared within the void. Clang. Chink. Clang, shink sounded as sparks erupted into the air before raining down around the silhouettes of the High Guards, only for them each to go down with their t-visors dimming to darkness. Then there was a high-pitched whistle that let out before another skin-crawling screech of Kalber cutting armor when the final High Guard’s helmet-donning head rolled across the marble floor and stopped just in front of the steps of the platform.

Baesh’lae laughed as she looked up from the helmet to see a glowing gold eye within the smoke. “<Bravo! Bravo! The Golden Armed Knight has come to kill me first? What friends have you brought to do such a suicidal task?>”

Yet Drake said not a word as he emerged from the smoke with Namagun in hand.

“<Come now, you would not have made it this far without help!>”

And still, Drake said nothing as he slowly approached the throne platform.

Baesh’lae’s upper lip curled as her nostrils flared. “<WHO? Who has the righteous Golden Armed Knight of song brought to help him take out the High Lady of Skies Edge?>”

Drake was less than thirty feet from the stairs when he had yet to say anything, but now he cracked a smirk which infuriated Baesh’lae and caused her to grab her tanto blade, Daikon that leaned up against the throne.

“<Huh?>” she screamed, “<Who have you brought with you to di—” but Baesh’lae twirled Daikon around mere seconds before raising it where it met and blocked Tavvuk’s long curve blade as he came flying through the air out of the smoke up to her.

Clang rang through the throne room as their blades interlocked and sparks rained upon the floor while they struggled with one another. Baesh’lae’s eyes dilated and her mouth drew agape, so many things began to make sense as she looked up to Tavvuk in the glowing emerald eyes. However, she glanced to her right as Drake now charged her and forced her to tap into her blood ability of Quicken which slowed both Tavvuk and Drake’s perception, and she quickly thrust forward with Daikon that sent the Titan tumbling backward before she spun her tanto blade around and blocked a barrage of strikes from Drake.

Clang, ting, clang with each strike of their blades before the two’s locked, and Baesh’lae growled, “<Ohhhh, it’s all making so much sense now; how you managed to escape; how the Last Titan is here… My King will find this all to be greatly interesting!>”

Again, perception slowed for Drake as he could see her pull back Daikon and despite how much energy he exerted to swing forward at Baesh’lae, it wasn’t enough as she unleashed a shuffle kick that struck him in the chest and sent him flying onto his back. She then twirled her tanto blade around with it passing behind her back where it blocked Tavvuk’s blindsided swing down upon her before she spun around and sliced him across the chest. Tavvuk rolled to his left and hit the ground where he grimaced before placing his hand on his left pec, only to look to his palm and find his royal purple blood.

“<Do know,” Baesh’lae laughed as she again exchanged a flurry of strikes with Drake who now pushed her toward the platform stairs which she climbed several of in the final two strikes, “I’m going to take great pleasure in watching my King crush her—”

Though Baesh’lae’s eyes grew ten times their size with a sharp and quick pain exploding through her chest. Baesh’lae’s attention fell upon Ahemesha, who had launched herself through the air from the smoke-cloaked entrance and across the chamber where she plunged her Gungnir through Baeh’lae’s heart. Blood ran down from her nose before she coughed it up, with Ahemesha front kicking her in the abdomen and pushing Baesh’lae free from Laehlux.

The three watched Baesh’lae as she stumbled up the last remaining stairs before she fell backward against the throne, where she struggled to breathe only for her chest to completely contract. Her bright blue eyes appeared to fade to a muted gray with the pitch-blackness that had controlled the whites of them leaving and now black veining spidered across her brow and cheeks. Baesh’lae’s limbs then followed as they went limp as her right arm fell to her side, but that was the very moment when a staticky tension quickly pulled back over the atmosphere, with the Kalber band that was adorned around her forearm unlocking before it fell free only to then crumble into a sand-like quality in front of their eyes.

Ahemesha’s Gungnir collapsed to its hilt-rod form as she turned and walked down the stairs to Drake and Tavvuk, telling them with a sternness to her voice, “<He knows… The Stark King knows one of his Envoys has fallen.>”

Rael’aek [castle]

Daeobet [capital, mega-city], Endul [planet], Dasihik Galaxy, Sector-0000, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

14 December; 05:13:59 Hours

Gaundraes, the tri spheres existing completely of Kalber, orbited Theo as he sat on his quad-pronged marble throne staring at one of the spheres which levitated in front of him. His pupil was nearly a pinpoint as his nostrils were flared wide and the upper right corner of his lip quivered. The atmosphere of the throne room was heavy and cold matching its master, so much so that as Cortana hid off behind one of the columns where she watched her father, her breath was visible in the air.

The thirteen-year-old, her peacock blue eyes were large and slightly sunken while her bottom lip curled down in a sad and confused sense. Cortana rubbed her right eye with her closed hand, wiping away the tears that welled up as the urge to go check on her father grew by the second. However, before she did, a thunderous creak ripped out as the throne room doors opened. Her attention quickly shifted to her right where she watched her mother storm up the aisle while she angrily snapped.

“Why haven’t we done anything? Why, yai Emoor? Why?”

“Sparky—” he attempted to speak but she continued while climbing the stairs.

“Midas has not only taken out Kings’ Guards but now he’s extinguished an Envoy! He’s beginning to chip away at our Aen’Goor! He’s going to—”

Theo roared and slammed his fist upon the arm of the throne. “ENOUGH! Can you not see that Drake has an invisible hand assisting him? Can you not?”

Dax stopped before her husband where her eyes now grew large and her head slowly bowed slightly. The Gaundraes now all shifted as Theo rose from the throne and stepped up to Dax where he looked deep into her light blue eyes with his narrowing. His presence had grown overpowering with the shadows of the chamber having pulled in his direction, and he reiterated to her, “Can you not see that, Sparky?”

“His escape? His siege upon Skies Edge?”

“Yes, Sparky. Yes.”

“Then, then we have a traitor, yai Emoor?”

“Heeeeh…” he pushed one of her white dreads out from her face and behind her ear before he answered, “… Yes, an invisible hand reaches out from within Aen’Goor on his behalf - Drake is smart and powerful, I will not sully his capabilities but not even he can accomplish what he has without an invisible hand betraying us.”

“Who, yai Emoor?” Dax softly asked as she rested her hand on his chest.

“I, I don’t know.”

“My, my, I never thought that I’d still be running to witness the anomaly reoccurrence that Master Theo would admit to not knowing!”

The shadows retracted back to their origin, Dax and Cortana both looked around in confusion, but Theo cracked a smile at the voice that was all too familiar to him and he chuckled, “Edmund?”

“Edmund?” Dax repeated her husband in a tone of disbelief as she spun back to him.

“Yes, Master Theo,” Edmund confirmed. “I’m afraid that it has been too long.”

Theo leisurely retook his throne. “What do we owe this pleasure to?”

“I feel obligated to warn the man who created me, even if I still do not bloody agree with what he has become.”

“Warn me?” Theo’s eyes narrowed and his head tilted slightly to the left as he asked, “Warn me about what?”

Edmund’s tone grew solemn as he proceeded to say, “He has returned to where it all began, Master Theo… and he’s not alone.”

“Where it all began?” Dax asked as her eyes moved around like she was searching for Edmund.

“Correct, your Highness.”

“He’s retrieved Tavvuk, hasn’t he?” Theo said without hesitation, which caused Dax’s attention to return to her husband with her eyes now growing large.

“Ah, there is the Master Theo that I know!”

“Tavvuk? The Last Titan?” Dax uttered while she subtly shook her head.

Though Theo ignored her as he pressed Edmund. “There’s another, isn’t there Edmund?”

“You already know the answer to your bloody question.”

“Who is it?”

“I can’t tell you that, Master Theo.”

“But you just did, Edmund.”

There was a brief silence before Edmund spoke with a dryness to his voice, “You know, there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t wish that I could’ve stopped you.”

“There was nothing you could have stopped, Edmund,” Theo confided.

“Heeeeh, I know and I’m bloody sorry, Master Theo. I am.”

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for, old friend. Nothing.”

“Goodbye, my friend,” Edmund signed off with a deep and heavy silence falling over the throne room.

Cortana placed her hand over her mouth as she felt the sorrow that she could see in her father’s eyes while her mother’s lit up bright blue. Dax clenched her fists tightly with her chest expanding and then quickly contracting as she breathed heavily, and then shattering that silence, Dax screamed.

“NEAXU! She was to be an Envoy, NOT a traitor!”

Theo again rose from his throne as he walked to the edge of the platform where Dax was quick to grab him by the hand and turn him back toward her. She shook her head at him, saying now in a frantic, “No! W-what are you doing?”

“What I must,” he softly answered and she hugged him tightly, burying her head into his chest.

“You can’t, yai Emoor! Please! It’s a trap! It’s a trap!”

Theo closed his eyes for a brief moment before whispering, “When has that ever stopped me?”

North east of what was the United States

North America, Earth [planet], Sol [star system], Sector-0001, Aen’Goor [kingdom]

16 December; 12:33:21 Hours

Lightning cracked in the distance with thunder rumbling across the sky above as Drake stood at the top of the steps that led up to an old and ruined school. Drake looked down at Theo who stood just at the bottom as Theo slowly turned his gaze up to him with the rain pouring down upon them. Another bolt of lightning erupted but off beyond the school which cast Drake out in an ominous silhouette while only his glowing gold robotic eye remained. The tension that existed as the two locked eyes was itself enough to explode into its own charges of electricity when Theo broke the silence.

“Back here?” he assessed before chuckling, “Heh! Not exactly where I thought this would come to its end.”

Read more

A’tep [town], Kandok [planet], Baultrek [star system]

19 June; 14:21:03 Hours

“Heeh, heeh, heeh,” Ravena dropped to her knees as the shimmering purple soul field dissolved where she slowly looked up to find the smoldering fiend turning to Kyra, and she uttered, “The, the whih-whispers were, were tuh-true…”

Klaus’ gray survival-mail was scorched and smoldering as his eyes burned crimson so much that it was as if flames were flickering free. His face was contorted, a thick brow that was furrowed and fangs brandished as he turned completely to his fiancée who looked up to him with big eyes. Kyra slowly began to reach out to Klaus, her hand started to transform back to its living-steel condition with fingertips first and spreading up toward her arm the closer she got while Klaus, himself, retrospectively was beginning to cool down. The heat emanating from him dissipated and his transformation was reverting with fangs retracting and his thick brow shrinking.

Kyra spoke to him, but barely higher than a whisper, “Kuh-Kluas? Are, are you oh—” though as her hand was about to touch his chest, the two were blindsided and struck with a vicious shoulder strike that sent both tumbling through the rubble.

Baontun had charged and unleashed on them. The Drespin stood for a moment in the wake where he rolled his shoulders forward, his mail was burned away from his chest, shoulders, and left arm completely while steam wafted off his unharmed skin. Baontun’s chest puffed out and quickly retracted, which it did over and over as his eyes scanned around. He saw Kyra lying on her stomach unconscious before he saw Klaus struggle to his knees. He didn’t hesitate as he quickly charged him and hit Klaus with several vicious punches that connected with the right then left and back to the right side of Klaus’s face.

Baontun barked at him in between each strike, “<Indomitable Human will… Heh, hah, ha… Like I told you… You’re weak… You believe in your backwater myths—”

However, Baontun quickly jumped back as the intense, radiating purple energy blade swung down in front of him before Ravena positioned herself between him and Klaus. Baontun’s head tilted slightly to his right as he sized her up, but then cracked a smirk. Ravena, though, engaged him despite his amusement with her and she swung her blade down at him which he caught between the palms of his hands. Her blue eyes grew large and she grabbed her right wrist with her left hand to add more force, but Baontun chuckled and shook his head.

“<What a fool,>” he bellowed before clapping his hands together and shattering the energy blade, which disoriented Ravena long enough for Baontun to deliver a fierce right elbow strike to her jaw.

Ravena struck the ground just to her right with Baontun’s followthrough being so forceful that the ground cratered under her body. He then slowly turned his attention back to Klaus, though he saw one of Klaus’ twin sabers plunged into the ground several feet from him and marched over to it where he freed it from the ground. Baontun twirled it around, he walked toward Klaus, smiling as he looked over the blade before he said, “<Ohhhhh, Bounrdih’Dyr,” and he stood before Klaus where he gripped the hilt tightly with both hands and he raised it high up to his right, “Now you will see… You… all… fall—” and Baontun swung the blade at Klaus, however, it stopped just centimeters from Klaus’ neck.

His lip quivered up to the right as he growled and continued to try to swing the saber through Klaus’ neck, but still, nothing as he then heard a deep voice call off from behind him, “Heeeeh, Klaus… Why are you playing games with this Ripper? Huh?”

Slowly, Baontun looked back over his shoulder to see who had spoken while Klaus chuckled, “Well, I was waiting for my big brother to finally show up!”

Cort now was standing as she looked across the way, and beyond Klaus and Baontun, where she saw Theo and Dax standing side-by-side with Drake, Sara, and Cole just behind them. She shook her head in disbelief as she muttered to herself, “Beelezika!”

“<What an honor!>” Baontun erupted and threw the saber down into the ground to his right as he positioned himself to be able to see both Klaus and Theo. “<I get the pleasure of not only retrieving my tag but of also bringing down the mighty Bounrdih’Dyr AND the feared Beelezika…>”

“Yai Emoor,” Dax sighed as she rolled her eyes at Baontun, “can we please end this, this, this Drespin already?”

Baontun’s eyes grew slightly wider while realization struck him as he looked at Dax, and he chuckled. “<My, my! Is this what I see? The Archangel? The Princess of the Sovereign Kingdom of Wendale… with, WITH Beelezika? Now this, this truly has my attention!”

Tink. Tink, tink, tink, tink sounded as Dax’s trident, Aelysah fully constructed from its hilt-shaft and Shine started pulsating through it while her eyes ignited bright blue.

Drake, though, quickly stepped up beside the two where he raised his left hand and motioned to hold on. “Wait! Wait, wait, wait a minute here!”

“Wait?” Dax snapped.

“Yeah! We need to stay focused!”

“I am very focused,” she hissed and pivoted her feet as she aimed with Aelysah and Baontun continued to smile while he turned in their complete direction.

“Dax, please, we’re not here to cause… to cause, uh, uh, m-muh-m-more de—” Sara said while she stepped up directly beside Dax who looked at her, and more specifically at her pregnant stomach.

“He’s not our concern,” Drake whispered.

Dax’s eyes shifted from Sara to Drake before she slowly looked to Theo, who still stood to her right. “Yai Emoor?”

Theo didn’t say a word though as he kept eyes locked with Baontun, who in his mind, was ready to kill every single one of them.

“YAI EMOOR?”

“Dax, please,” Sara begged, seeing the prongs of Aelysah glowing with Shine.

In a blink, Cort shifted from where she stood to beside Baontun. Drake immediately took a step back where he positioned himself to shield Sara; Cole drew his spark-pistols that he aimed with; Dax grunted and directed her aim at the two, all while Theo still had yet to move. Cort, however, simply grabbed Baontun by the wrist, and in less than a second, the two were static before it was like they were never there.

Though in this moment, Sara panicked and pushed past her husband where she reached out at Dax to stop her, and inadvertently she grabbed the black heart-shaped necklace Dax wore. Sara felt her entirety go cold. Time appeared to slow down around her while the light faded out from Sara and a darkness pulled in. Sara’s eyes were opened wide as she looked around and saw a realm of obsidian, only for her attention to turn onto her hand where she saw that she was still holding the heart-shaped necklace. The hairs on the back of her neck raised and slowly Sara looked back out in front of herself to witness the revelation of the Deep; as a female Being rose out of the ground with Shade crawling all over her before Sara’s attention whipped to her right at six gigantic black wings opening and revealed the winged slender Being, but it was the thunderous pounding of the colossal blackened armored Being who approached that shook Sara, with each of their burning white eyes locked with hers.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Sara shrieked a mere second before she let the necklace go and collapsed to the ground beside Dax.

Drake gasped, “Sara?”

Quickly, Dax’s eyes opened wide and she lunged for Sara who she managed to catch just before Sara hit the ground. She cradled her in her arms as she looked around while Drake hurried over to his wife and Dax, and for the first moment in the previous moments, Theo moved as he turned to them in confusion. Dax frantically questioned, “Wuh-what, what, what’s wrong with her?”

“What happened?” Drake echoed as he kneeled beside them and gently placed his hand on Sara’s face.

“I, I, I don’t know,” Dax stammered, while Drake carefully took Sara into his arms before pushing her hair out of her face. “She, she just collapsed.”

“Sara? Hey, hey, Sara? Sara, wake up baby?” Drake called to her but she was in deep unconsciousness, and Theo stepped forward and loomed over the three.

“Maybe it’s the stress? She’s got to be close, brother.”

“She’s close, but…”

“Theo?” Klaus cautiously called while Kyra, Farah, Amelia, and he walked up to them. “Is everything okay?”

Theo turned to them and simply nodded.

Klaus then reached out his hand to his brother, saying, “Thank you, Theo.”

“Hey,” Theo softly said before he smirked, “I’m your brother - I got your back.”

“Brother?” Farah nearly yelled as her voice upticked. “That’s your brother, Klaus? That’s Theo?”

“Yeah, Far, that’s my big brother.”

Kyra, though, rolled her eyes at Klaus proudly answering Farah, and Amelia playfully gave her a shove as to say to knock it off.

“Oh my! I’ve heard so much about you! You’re so cool! Oh, man! You’re like the coolest!” Farah gleamed, as Dax stood up and held Theo’s hand.

Klaus quickly turned to her with his left eye narrowed. “Hey, Far! What? Coolest?”

Theo chuckled at Farah, but her eyes grew even larger as she looked right at Dax and Theo’s hands, and then pointed at them as she asked, “Wait! Wait! Is she your girlfriend?”

“Girl-girlfriend?” Dax asked and turned to Theo with her lips slightly puckered. “What is that, yai Emoor?”

“Heeeh, um, Dax, uh, a girlfriend, well a girlfriend is a woman that a man is romantically together with,” Theo explained as he looked at Dax, and immediately her face took a blush red tint and she smiled from ear-to-ear.

“Theo,” Cole butted in, as he seriously said, “Come on, we can’t drag this out any longer.”

“Heh, what? What does that mean?” Kyra scoffed as she stepped up next to Farah and put her arm around her. “Drag what out?”

Theo glanced to his right at Cole who now stood next to him with spark-pistols still drawn. “I know, Cole. I know.”

“Theo?” Klaus called with a slightly loud tone. “What’s up?”

“I’m sorry, little one,” Dax told Farah as her trident deconstructed back down into its hilt-shaft.

“Huh? Why are you sorry, Dax?” Farah asked.

“Because,” Dax softly told her as she kneeled in front of Farah, “we’re here… for you.”

Farah’s eyes grew massive as she stumbled back away from Dax. “Wuh-what? What do, do you mean? ‘Melia? Kyra? Klaus?”

“THEO!” Amelia yelled as she quickly pulled Farah behind her. “What are you thinking?”

“Heeeeh, ‘Melia—” Theo went to explain, but Kyra stepped toward him with fists clenched and screamed.

“You AREN’T taking her!”

Dax jumped to her feet and went to go face-to-face with Kyra, though Theo placed his hand upon her stomach and halted her, yet she snarled at her, “You can’t stop us…”

“Hey,” Drake breathily said as he helped Sara up to her feet, “We, we don’t want to do this, believe me!”

“Believe you? HAH!” Kyra snapped.

“We don’t,” Sara groaned while she held her stomach.

Klaus now stepped toward his brother who he looked at with narrow eyes. “Theo… Are you here for her? For Far?”

“We had come here for her…” Theo answered, but Dax spun toward him and placed her hand on his chest as she gasped.

“We had? Yai Emoor?”

“Sparky, I wouldn’t be the Union’s weapon, you know this,” he looked her deep in her eyes as he softly told her, “and, and I’m not going to be HIS.”

“Yai Emoor!” Dax now grabbed him by the sides of his face as she returned his look deep into his eyes, pleading, “We need her!”

“Hey brother,” Drake called while standing with Sara who rested her head on his shoulder, “Dax, she’s right!”

“Theo,” Cole asked as he scanned from Kyra to Amelia and then to Farah whose eyes were glowing scarlet, “What’s the plan here?”

“I’m sorry, Sparky,” he whispered to her, and then looked to his little brother and told him, “We’re not taking her.”

Dax let go of Theo’s face as she stepped away from him, mumbling to herself, “<It’s not supposed to go this way!>”

Farah was elated as she jumped up and down with a giant smile on her face. She even ran over to Theo who she gave a big hug around his waist, saying over and over again, “Thank you, Theo! Thank you! Thank you so much!”

Theo closed his eyes and took in a deep breath as Farah let go of him and started to back away. It was at that moment, that Amelia’s attention perked with her head subtly shaking as she went went to lunge for Farah. However, Theo was much faster as he drew Gaerlus from his back, and in one swift swing, he cut Farah’s left forearm off.

“Noooo!” Amelia shrieked.

Everything instantly went silent, as Amelia reached Farah and grabbed her by the shoulders while one by one realization slowly hit the six others. Faces contorted with Kyra’s eyes and mouth opening wide; Sara quickly turned her back in disbelief; Drake bit down on his lip; Cole remained silent, and Klaus’ eyes ignited with a burning crimson. The silence shattered as Farah now looked down in front of herself and saw her severed arm lying on the ground and she let out a bloodcurdling scream that could’ve shaken the planet. However, it didn’t last as Farah was overcome by the shock and pain which caused her to succumb to unconsciousness.

“THEEEEO!” Klaus roared and stormed toward his brother, though Dax immediately spun around with her trident reconstructed and aimed at Klaus as it surged with Shine. “What the fuck did you just do?”

“We all do what we must,” Theo admitted while he reached into a pouch on his belt, and then proceeded to walk over to Farah who Amelia held on the ground.

“Don’t you touch her!” Kyra hissed.

Theo ignored her warning and instead kneeled beside the girl where he poured the Kalber grained upon the open wound. Farah started to twitch and grimace in pain, but before either Klaus or Kyra could say a word, Theo motioned his right hand over her arm and extended it out with the Kalber constructing itself into a robotic form of her now missing arm.

“Maybe three years ago,” Theo whispered before standing up and turning to his brother. “I could’ve killed her then, but, no, I couldn’t bring myself to do it now.”

“I don’t understand, Theo,” Klaus said as his eyes dimmed back to normal.

“Let me just say, we needed her but you three need her more.”

“So what now?”

“Like I said,” Theo chuckled and nodded over to Cole who was wrapping the severed arm up, “We all do what we must…”

***

About one hour later…

Thud. Crunch, crunch, crunch echoed through the ruin as a unit of soldiers armored from head to toe combed the area. Their augmented gargled communication with one another was haunting as several soldiers escorted a man toward the opening. This man, wearing all white with a long stretching sapphire cape following behind him stopped before a pool of blood where Farah’s arm once laid. He, Count Eryndor kneeled with a vial in his left hand that he then used to take a sample of the blood before looking up to one of the soldiers and nodded at.

The Count arose as he sealed the vial while the soldier laid out a holo-disc before him that the soldier then tapped. There was a brief pause before a staticky flicker that projected from the disc with it constructing a hooded figure whose face was completely shrouded in darkness. Eryndor, without hesitation, bowed his head to this hooded figure, only for him to bellow, “<Speak.>”

“<My Lord,” Count Eryndor addressed the hooded figure, his voice was crackly and high-pitched, and he raised the vial in front of himself, “we have retrieved the contents.>”

The hooded figure slightly raised his head, only enough that his mouth came into view from under the shadows where a smirk broke free.

A’tep [town], Kandok [planet], Baultrek [star system]

19 June; 13:01:59 Hours

Tssssssssssssh hissed as steel melted and sparks rained around Vee’s feet. The eradicator droid looked down to the powerful pulsating purple energy blade that protruded out its chest before turning its attention across the way to Baontun who was still locked in a standstill with Klaus. Baontun, though, looked at Vee with eyes wide while his arms began to shake slightly. Vee then spoke with its voice glitching and skipping through various tone shifts.

“<Baontun… zzzt… I, er, I, I muh-missed…zzzt… missed… zzzt… I muh-missed a… zzzt… a, a, a… zzzt… zzzt… a variable, a var-variable—”

The radiating purple blade cut up to Vee’s left before violently hacking down to the right slicing the droid in two. There in the wake, a woman, Ravena Damore who donned gold survival-mail with her long brown hair shimmering in the breeze, stood with the purple energy blade emanating from her right fist. She looked upon the popping and hissing remains of Vrut-92r before slowly turning her attention up across the street to Baontun whose eyes were narrowed in a burning gaze with her. A loud suctioning hiss accompanied the blade pulling up and merging with her energy arm. Baontun let out a shaky breath of closure.

However, Klaus acted in the growing uncertainty and delivered a fierce headbutt to Baontun. The Drespin’s nose broke, his grip on Klaus’ fist released, and Klaus clocked back his freed hand before unleashing an ungodly body shot fueled with kinetic Thrust. The force was barely visible to the eye but was so powerful that it sent a bone-rattling shockwave through Baontun’s body. He didn’t move for a second as his eyes gradually locked with Klaus’, however, the ground around him cracked at first before completely cratering beneath him, and then the nearly 230-pound Drespin was launched back and through the wall of a building.

“Oooo-AHHHHHHHH!” Grap’rik yelled as he flew through the air at Ravena with fists clenched above his head that he swung down on her.

Revena didn’t even bother to turn to him, but instead, a second and third energy arm constructed from her right side, as the first caught Grap’rik by the jaw before the second delivered a vicious punch that connected with the right side of his face. Grap’rik immediately was plowed into the ground behind Ravena who then slowly turned around where she stood over him. The additional two arms then began pulling back to the original energy arm while the pulsating energy blade started to materialize down toward Grap’rik, but it stopped as a shrieking scream erupted off behind Ravena and she quickly spun around.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Velliyah roared as she backhanded Kyra to the ground before charging up behind Klaus where she jumped onto his back.

Klaus whipped his head back as he felt Velliyah land on him before she viciously grabbed his hair with her left hand and his jaw with her right. Velliyah’s face contorted with her eyes growing large and pupils thinning to slits while her mouth opened and jaw dislocated, and Klaus was forced to look at her as she turned his head to her. Kyra held the back of her head as she struggled up to her feet and turned her attention to what was happening, as she saw the scorching spread up Klaus’ arms while Velliyah’s long white hair fanned up in a pulsating shimmer.

A deep crimson glow then began pulling off of Klaus as it funneled into Velliyah’s mouth, and Kyra started to limp toward them as she muttered to herself, “No, no, no, no…”

Ravena took a step back, positioning herself in front of Farah who was still unconscious, as she saw Klaus catch fire while Velliyah proceeded to drain soul aura from him. Klaus reached up with burning hands and grabbed her forearms as he let out a guttural growl, only for Baontun to emerge from the crumbling building he was knocked into.

Kyra now pushed herself to hurry toward her fiancé, seeing a powerful crimson glow emanating from his chest, and she screamed, “KLAUS!”

“No!” Ravena gasped, raising her energy arm out in front of her and channeling her soul to push forth a shimmering purple force field just as a shockwave released from Klaus.

Like a sonic boom, the shockwave cracked the ground around Klaus before a bright flash erupted and was followed by a powerful explosion of Blaze, the living-energy flame - Super Nova. Kyra’s skin instantly transformed to steel before she was struck by the fire, and it spread like a massive explosion of nuclear energy. The buildings in the immediate area faded to ash and rubble while the ground churned from the kinetic force that displaced in the blast. Sound itself appeared to have been blown away, and only a high-pitched ringing lingered in its absence as vision gradually returned from the whiteout in at first the form of blurriness before complete sight.

Smoke and dust filled the air as Kyra scrambled to her feet. Her skin slowly reverted back from steel with it steaming from the radiation of Blaze, and she called out, “Klaus?” and she quickly spun around at the sound of rubble crunching, only to see a burning silhouette out before her.

Her lower lip quivered as she slowly moved toward the monstrous being which burned with the living energy, and it was as she got within twelve feet of him that she noticed the skeleton hanging upon his back. Klaus rolled his shoulder with the bones falling from him where they hit the ground around his feet and he let out one of the loudest and deepest growls Kyra had ever heard.

Kyra stopped within his presence while his back was still to her, and she softly called, “Kuh-Klaus?”

She saw the muscles in his back tense down as he stood up straight, and slowly his head slightly turned to look back over his shoulder to her with his eyes burning crimson.

A’tep [town], Kandok [planet], Baultrek [star system]

19 June; 11:33:27 Hours

Flesh to steel, Kyra’s hand transformed as she reached out and held Klaus’ hand which was scorched and radiating a powerful heat that coursed up through his forearms. She glanced back over her shoulder quickly, to see Farah and Amelia who were walking ten yards behind, before she rested her head on Klaus’ shoulder. Kyra then softly said to him, “Lover, what’s wrong?”

Klaus just chuckled as if to try to brush off her concern.

“Something’s wrong,” she pushed, “I can tell.”

“Okay, what gave it away?”

“What? You want the obvious reason?” Kyra now stood up straight as they continued to walk down the street, saying with a bit of sass, “You’ve been burning ever since we landed, or do you want the less obvious? Like how we’ve been zig-zagging for the last six months when we knew we wanted to get here.”

He let out a brief breathy chuckle before he stopped in the middle of the street and turned to his fiancée. “What? I guess you could say I’m a bit like my brother.”

“Klaus…” she snapped and looked at him with her brow scrunched and eyes a bit narrowed.

“Heeeh, alright, alright… We’re being followed, Kyra.”

“Fuh-followed?” and he nodded to her before she reiterated her now spiked concern, “Wuh-what? Followed? Are, are you being serious?”

“Yeah, I’m being very serious.”

“Even, um, even now? Like right now?”

“What’s wrong, Kyra?” Farah asked as she and Amelia came up on the two, Amelia looked at them with her left eye narrowing while Kyra stumbled to say to Farah.

“Ruh-wrong? Um, nuh, uh, nothing. Nothing’s wrong, Farah. Um, nuh-nothing.”

“Damn, and here I thought that Theo was a terrible liar,” Amelia scoffed.

“Lying? I’m not—”

“She’s not lying,” Klaus cut her off and sternly suggested, “Let’s keep moving.”

“Oh no, we’re not going anywhere until you two let us in on the secret,” Amelia snapped as she folded her arms, and Farah sassily repeated her.

“Yeeeeah! Let us in on the secret, Klaus!”

He was irritated and raised his voice at the two, “No! There is no secret, okay?”

Farah’s eyes sunk as she pouted. “Why did you yell at me?”

“Wuh-what?” he stammered, “Yell? Yell at you? Nah-no.”

“Yes, you did, Klaus!” Farah whimpered, tears welling up in her eyes as she turned her back to them and Amelia stepped up to him.

“What the hell is going on, dammit! You two are acting way off! And now you’re yelling at her and me! What the hell!”

“Listen to us, ‘Melia,” Kyra lowered her voice as she leaned in toward Amelia, “We’ve got a tuh—”

“You’ve got pretty eyes, muh-Mister,” they heard Farah say to someone and immediately all stopped.

“<Not as pretty as yours,>” the man, who was crouched down before Farah, said back to her as Klaus and the others turned to see the two.

Without hesitation, Klaus stormed right over to Farah and the man, where he put himself between them, and slowly the man, Baontun stood up. His piercing blue eyes looked Klaus in his burning red, only for Baontun to leave out a smirk; from the small crowd of Astronauts off behind Baontun emerged a silver-haired woman, Velliyah Somb and the eradicator droid, Vrut-92r. Kyra, though, hurried over beside her fiancée and whispered to him, “Is, is this them?”

Klaus subtly nodded to her while his attention remained locked on the three before them.

“<You have something that belongs to us,>” Baontun chuckled.

“Something?” Klaus said while clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles cracked.

“<Hand it over, or believe me, we’ll take great pleasure in taking it.>”

“It?”

“<His speech was not impaired,” Vee stated while scanning the four in front of it, “and by my vital scans - Your cognitive activity is functioning properly… Abort these linguistic games you’re attempting, immediately!>”

“<He’s stalling for time!>” Velliyah growled as she placed her hand upon the hilt of her buster tanto blade.

Amelia placed her arm around Farah’s shoulders as she pulled her close, hearing Klaus bark at the three, “You all need to turn back now!”

“Heeeeh,” Baontun sighed, “<You Humans… You all believe in this myth, this myth of the indomitable Human will but you all fall eventually!>”

“If you don’t listen to me, you’re gonna find out how much of a myth the indomitable Human will really is!”

Baontun’s smirk grew into a larger grin as he took a step toward Klaus, growling, “<You’re not> Beelezika, Bouhrdih’Dyr!”

Amelia’s eyes were pinging around as she tried to gauge the severity of their situation, but she noticed Kyra who motioned her hand down at her side in a shooing manner. Amelia’s heart sunk and her eyes grew teary before she heard Farah softly whimpering. She looked at the girl and forced out a smile before whispering to Farah, “Come on, we got to get out of here…”

“Buh-but what about Kyra and Klaus?” she asked while Amelia turned her and they started to hurry off toward the growing crowd at the rear.

“They’ll be fine - I’ve seen them fight far worse than those nobodies!”

“Oh-okay,” Farah smiled, but that tone shifted to a gasp as Amelia and she slid to a stop as a woman and an Arpin, an ape-like astronaut, emerged from the thick.

The woman, Lev Drugov licked her teeth with a big smile while Grap’rik grit his teeth with intense glaring eyes that honed in on Farah. The two slowly moved toward Amelia while she positioned herself in front of Farah, with Lev softly saying with a thick Russian accent, “Ohhh, did you think you could escape? Oh no!”

“Heh, hah, hah, ha!” Baontun laughed as he saw them try to flee, and he redirected his attention to Klaus who he smugly told, “<So much for that indomitable Human will, aye?>”

However that was the very moment, Klaus shot forward while he clocked his fist back and unleashed a shockwave rendering punch on Baontun but as the boom ripped through the street and windows shattered - Baontun stood unfazed as he caught Klaus’ fist.

A blitz followed the clearing smoke with Velliyah charging Kyra, while Amelia was forced to shove Farah back as Lev and Grap’rik converged on her. Amelia quickly drew her curve blade, Dakmaar which she used to deflect several charges from Lev who fired her Kramat PS22 pistols before she then raised her blade to meet Grap’rik’s snub saber. Clang ripped out just before sparks rained down on Amelia who twist spun off to her right where she pivoted her feet and used her momentum to swing Dakmaar up at Grap’rik. He was slightly faster than her though, as he backflipped away from the blade while drawing several kunai which he threw at Amelia mid-flip.

Tink, tink, tink shrieked out while Amelia twisted and spun around Dakmaar as she blocked the kunai. Farah watched each one deflect before they hit the ground around Amelia, though her attention shifted to Vee who was carefully circling around to her. She shook her head quite frantically and screamed, “‘MELIA! ‘Melia! He’s coming!”

Klaus heard Farah and quickly glanced over his shoulder. “Far?”

Amelia, though, viciously front-kicked Lev in the chest and sent her flying back nearly seven feet to the ground before quickly turning to block Grap’rik’s blade yet again. This time, she thrust her left hand down to her side where she clenched it tightly with Kalber grains pulling from a pouch on her belt that solidified upon her fist. Amelia then released the blade lock which sent her spinning counterclockwise, allowing her to deliver a powerful backhand that struck Grap’rik on the side of his head and threw him to the ground. Amelia quickly shot back up, trying to catch her breath as she was ready to turn to Farah but before she could, Amelia was blindsided by another woman who thrust her shoulder into Amelia’s side.

The dark olive-skinned woman, Cort Willow who had long black hair with the right side of her head shaved, whipped her head to her left and locked eyes with Farah. The girl’s eyes tripled as she stammered while Cort started to make her way toward her, “No, no, no, no, no!”

“Klaus!” Kyra screamed, her skin completely living-steel as she blocked Velliyah’s buster tanto blade with her forearms. “Amelia’s down! Klaus, she’s down! We need to do something, now!”

Klaus grunted as he and Baontun each clenched the other’s fist, but Klaus couldn’t manage to outright overpower the Drespin who brandished his fangs at him.

“Don’t make this difficult, kid,” Cort warned Farah who was crying. “Believe me, I don’t want to kill you!”

However, something snapped in Farah as her eyes went completely blood red. The young girl let out a thunderous scream at Cort who flinched unsure of what was happening, as she then found it difficult to step closer to Farah. She even began to shake her head rapidly with every step as if to shrug off the tingling sensation that was quickly flooding her body. Cort coughed once at first but then coughed again and again as she now started to bleed from her nose, and she said to herself, “Wuh-what? What’s hap-happening?”

Farah stood up, her eyes locked on Cort who dropped to her left knee before she looked back up at the girl. Her mouth and chin were covered in blood that she struggled to wipe away, but then she flickered in and out before she completely shifted from her knee back to the spot where she had blindsided Amelia. Cort still could not shake the shooting pain as her vision grew blurry and she swayed side to side, but then in an instant, it stopped as Vee struck Farah in the back of the head.

It was now Farah who’s vision was blurred, as she struggled to look up from the ground at Vee while she slipped in and out of consciousness. Her head was pounding, ears ringing, and she reached out grabbing Vee’s steel foot. The eradicator droid tilted its head slightly to the left as it looked down at her, its glowing white eyes locked on Farah and it said, “<Your curse is ineffective against my circuitry and steel, Blood Witch—” but a shrieking hiss ripped out as Vee bluntly stopped, whipped its head back, and a brilliant purple glow ripped through its chest.

L’ynden [ruin city], Genu [planet], Saber [star system]

15 June; 05:12:44 Hours

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch, as Tavvuk walked down the street of the once city that now sat gone. His boots crushed debris, glass, and stone that survived the event horizon of Theo and Dax, and Tavvuk stopped at that very spot where the two stood almost exactly a day prior. His emerald-tattered cowl swayed slightly in the damp breeze before he kneeled and grabbed a handful of the remains. Tavvuk’s eyes narrowed as he looked to it in his palm, but then crushed it.

“<Some, um, some, something isn’t right here,>” Althya, the young girl from Vectir, shakily said as she shuffled up behind Tavvuk who poured the ash out of his hand and growled.

“<You’re not on Vectir anymore.>”

“<I, um, I know. I do… but, but something, some, something doesn’t feel right.>”

Tavvuk chuckled at her as he stood back up.

“<Wuh-what happened here?>”

“Beelezika.”

Althya’s eyes grew large and her blood ran cold as she heard Tavvuk say that name, and without fear but instead a deep contempt which reverberated in his voice. She then stammered, “<He, he, he did ah-all of, of this?>”

“<I’ve seen his aftermath before… but this, there is far more this time.>”

“<More? Wuh-what do you mean?>” she asked, but a woman called off from a distance behind the two.

“Baghul…” Helena Madds said as she looked straight at the two but her gold eyes locked on Tavvuk who still was crouched down with his back to her and Baghul, “Do you think that Theo did THIS on Titus, too?”

The monstrous Knight, with his living steel skin reflecting a vague terrified image of Althya who stared at him, chuckled, “I don’t know, Hel - Perhaps we should ask the Last One?”

Slowly, Tavvuk stood up with his cowl flapping slightly in the breeze that picked up. His nostrils flared, then his brow furrowed before he let out a deep growl. He didn’t even bother to turn around as he snapped, “<I can smell him on you,> Bodeekil!”

Helena pouted as she took a step forward. “Awww, did someone just get some post-traumatic stress flashbacks?”

Tavvuk’s fists clenched tightly and his feet pivoted in the rubble while he let out another deep growl, but his attention slightly shifted to Althya who stepped closer to him.

“<Huh-who, who are they, Tavvuk?>”

He now turned around as Helena and Baghul began walking toward them, and he softly told her, “<Union filth.>”

“<Union? They’re gonna arrest us?>”

“Arrest?” Helena laughed. “No, no we’re not going to arrest you…” but her voice shifted to a serious tone, “It’s been a while, and, well, we need some warmup before Baghul and I take out an old friend of mine—”

Though before Helena had completely finished, Baghul charged Tavvuk in a blitz. The colossal Knight closed thirty feet in seconds as his crimson cape whipped behind him, only for Tavvuk to reach out and catch Baghul’s forearms and plant his feet to stop him. The debris and ground kicked up behind Tavvuk’s heels as he managed to slow Baghul to a stop, and they looked the other in the eyes while Baghul bellowed, “The way my name will be cheered when I bring your head back to the Union!”

“<I’ve encountered your kind before,>” Tavvuk chuckled at him. “<I don’t think they’ll be cheering when you come back to them in pieces!>”

Tavvuk, in an absolute show of power, released Baghul’s arms before moving so fast that he was able to reposition himself to deliver several powerful body shots that cracked out and the shockwave of ringing through the ruin around them like bombs. Baghul let out grunts after each hit; he pushed back nearly a half foot from the first, then the second, and then he attempted to block the third when Tavvuk had spun around him and struck him with a kidney shot. The Knight refused to leave up, despite stumbling forward from the combination, and he spun around with a whipping forearm that Tavvuk proceeded to block with both of his forearms - unfazed.

“Heh-huh-pf-wuh-what?” Baghul gasped while struggling to exert his force on Tavvuk.

Alytha’s lip quivered as she watched the two, however, she quickly turned to her right as she heard Helena call, “What’s a teenage girl doing with a savage? Huh? You his little pet?”

“<P-pet?>” Alytha stammered, only for her to jump as Helena appeared next to her with bright gold electricity surging through her.

“Yes,” Helena whispered as she pushed Alytha’s hair behind her right ear. “You’re what? Fifteen? And you’re traveling the stars with the likes of that blood-thirsty Titan…” Althya slowly turned her head to look at Helena as her voice got coarse, “You’re either his pet…” and Helena reached out to grab her by the jaw, “Or you’re dead, just like he’ll be!”

Helena violently and quickly snatched Althya by the face, though her eyes narrowed as she watched Althya crack like glass before the young girl pushed away from her and there was now five yards of distance between the two. Helena’s eyes grew wide in disbelief as she looked at her hand like she was hallucinating what just occurred, though as she looked back to Althya, her attention didn’t last long as it immediately turned to her right as Baghul came flying at her.

“Wuh-what?” Helena gasped a second before the seven-foot-tall monster collided with her and sent both tumbling through the dirt, stone, and debris.

She winced as she rolled over onto her hands and knees before she slowly looked across from her to Baghul who punched the ground and let out a thunderous roar. Helena then realized the true reason for his frustration, and she shot up to her feet to find Tavvuk and Althya were gone. Her face grew red, nostrils flared and gold electricity surged through her as she spun to Baghul and yelled, “What happened? Huh? How did you let him best you?”

“Heeeeh,” he growled and stood up before looking at Helena, and said, “I underestimated his power.”

“His power? His power? Theo slaughtered his entire species! Power? They don’t have any fucking power!”

“I didn’t see you take him on!” Baghul snapped back. “Actually, that’s right, you were too busy being upped by the girl!”

“You sonofa—” Helena growled and stepped toward Baghul when she stopped and clenched her fists before screaming at the top of her lungs. “DAMMIT!”

He stepped back and tilted his head slightly to his left while his eyes narrowed at her.

“Dammit,” she went on, saying, “We missed it!”

“Missed it? I don’t understand, Hel.”

“The Titan!”

Baghul shrugged. “Yes?”

“We missed the whole point of why he was here!”

“For Theo?”

“No!” Helena denied before she explained and walked over to where Tavvuk was when they first approached him and Althya, “We all knew Theo wasn’t going to be here, the power surge that was detected from whatever he did, it was an aftershock…”

“Then why, Hel?”

She crouched down and grabbed a handful of the dirt and debris. “To get what he needed to generate a star map!”