When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY, “A Farewell to Arms”
Metos [planet], Phentum [star system]
22 August; 18:47:50 Hours
Purple lingered within the air like a thick fog. Glimmers of gold flickered around, jumping from one moment to the next, while an emerald glow sat at the center of the haunting pressure. A subtle breeze moaned through the tan, tall blades of grass in the sprawling field. Silence held the evening before a deep panting not far from the mass broke it. Then, a louder thumping drummed out, and a ferocious yell rumbled for miles, “Fuck… Fuck… FUUUUUCCK!”
Klaus Walker, disheveled, knelt within a massive void of the field. The grass that rolled had been vaporized directly around him. The soil blackened. Like a wafting shimmer, a sulfuric heat that burned the air pulsated off him. His mail had almost burned away completely, revealing his skin was scorched nearly head to toe, while at the center of his chest burned a red-hot coal - his heart.
His eyes, however, then quickly shifted. They pinged from his smoldering hands over to his left, where the transmorphic, thick, purple fog sucked in upon itself. A brief pulse of emerald flashed and lit up the colossal stone remnant of Gabe, who cupped his hands into the ground - forever locked in a prison of himself.
“Heeeh, huh, heeeh,” he continued to pant, and then, even more slowly than he had to his left, Klaus turned his attention to the right. His nose scrunched, and eyes narrowed nearly closed.
Klaus reluctantly laid his eyes upon his brother, Theo, who sat up against a small boulder. He too, like Gabe, was gone. Theo’s body was encased within a skin-level Kalber sarcophagus. It was an attempt to heal the Stark Lord after a final battle won was ultimately lost.
A soft hiss cried out before another, and then another, before what sounded like a million as rain fell upon the field. Klaus grimaced with the downpour; however, not a single drop touched his smoldering skin. The beads of water instantaneously evaporated within the aura of heat that emanated from him. The monster of a man that burned from within could no longer hold his boiling frustration as he threw his arms out to his sides and let out a primal roar.
***
Several days later…
The sky against the horizon glowed yellow and orange like a warm fire as the sun was upon its early rise. Still, upon his knees in the field, Klaus remained, with the void having burnt nearly triple what it had from days prior. The ground beneath him was not only scorched but now crackled and flickered with embers of his radiating Blaze. He had not removed his gaze from his brother for nearly two days, as the battle replayed in his mind over and over until there came a crunch from behind him.
Klaus let out a deep growl as a warning to the approaching presence, yet he didn’t bother to give visual acknowledgement. He remained unmoved until a soft voice called to him, “Papa?”
His chest puffed out as he took a deep breath. His eyes grew threefold, and the burning rage dimmed to a flickering crimson. Klaus then whipped his head around to those approaching him - his twin children.
Kalsey, his fifteen-year-old daughter, attempted to rush toward him, but he raised his hand out to her just as Jai grabbed his sister. She dug her feet in the ground and swung her arms back at her brother, as his arms were wrapped around her waist and he pulled her back. She screamed as tears ran down her cheeks, “Let me go, Jai! Jai! Let me go! Papa is hurt! He’s hurt, Jai!”
“Kal,” he said, but she continued to scream.
“He needs our help!”
“Kal…”
“Papa needs us!”
“Kalsey, please…”
“NOOO!” she screamed as she struck Jai with her right elbow, and he instantly let her go before stumbling backward. “Why won’t you help him?”
Kalsey then spun back to their father and took a single step before Klaus growled, “No… Stay back!”
“We can’t help him, Kal,” Jai then whispered, as Kalsey’s eyes panned down from her father’s face to the burning coal sitting center of his chest.
“Papa?”
“Heh,” he chuckled as a small smirk cracked out of his face, “Don’t cry, Kay-Kay. Please don’t.”
She sniffled and wiped tears from her eyes. “But Papa…”
“No, no buts.”
“Jai,” she then spun back to her brother, who looked at their father with tears welling in his eyes, and she pleaded, “We can help him, right? We can? Please, please, we can help Papa?”
Jai didn’t answer.
“Please!”
He subtly shook his head as he whispered, “I don’t think we can, Kal.”
“Jay,” Klaus called to his son, whose ears perked up as he looked into his father’s eyes, “Take your sister and get as far away from this star system as you two can… Please.”
“Wuh-what?” Kalsey yelped as she whipped her attention to their father before glancing back at Jai, who nodded his head.
“Oh-okay, Dad.”
“No! No, we have to help him!” she screamed again. “We’re not leaving him!”
“Go now,” Klaus warned. “Not many sunsets will be left here.”
Again, Jai nodded to their father before he grabbed his sister’s wrist with his hand transforming into living-steel. Kalsey immediately tried yanking free, but failed. She screamed for what felt like the ten thousandth time, continuing to try pulling free while Jai pulled her away from Klaus - the last remnant of a Title not needed to be named.
“Wait!” Kalsey cried, “Wait! Jai! Jai, pleeeeease! We can’t leave Papa! We can’t,” and her voice grew more and more, “Jai! Papa needs us! Papa! Pahhhhhhpahhhhhh!”
Klaus’ attention panned from his twins as Kalsey’s voice faded out, where his eyes set back upon Theo, whom he smirked at. “I get it now, brother… I get it… We all do what we must…”