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Wapeesh. 

It strikes it. A flicker of its electricity springs away from the contact point and grazes my shield as it returns back to the uglier of the two Lords left. In the middle of my success is Four thrusting their sword. It pressed against Saamuki’s blood-red sword, which funny enough looks much more heavenly than Four’s pretentious light sword, grinding, and half a heartbeat off from making a hole into the squishing muscle between my creasing eyebrows. I throw their sword off of mine. It stabs the floor and gets stuck. Four tries prying it free, giving me time to turn on the offensive. I can hear Seven’s chains rattling as it’s being waved towards me. After tearing the air, I send the fragments of my blade towards the way too enthusiastic Lord’s closing wound as they’re smiling while watching my scattered, flying weapon coming towards them. My weapon pushes the Lord’s weapon back to them and then is about to dig through their all-white, too bright cloak into whatever their flesh has become. They deviate away from its direction at the last minute. Seven is annoyingly theatrical, after all, but at least I finally landed a hit on Four. Saamuki’s sword slices through the monstrous figure before me. A cut has been made through their stomach, but seeing the Lord’s blood on her sword is an eyesore. There’s a drastic contrast between the dark shade of red and the bright yellow along the tip, dripping towards the crossguard. 

Four’s sword pops out of the ground while I flick their blood off. The Lord grips the wound and looks at me with shock as their teeth point away from the hole in their face, then interest. “Congratulations. You’re not wasting my time,” Four sarcastically affirmed after their teeth clink together. Speaking of clinking, again, Seven’s whip comes at me. Its suddenness pushes me, but I’m able to block it. “You’ve gotten respectfully stronger in such a short amount of time. One would be jealous, but it’s not enough.”

Summoned a second sword, the two clashed with the single sword in my hand. It sends out a ringing sound with each swift and brutal hit, causes a deepening crack in the unfortunate blade in my hands, and pushes me towards Bichak. Seven is the least of my worries as they continue to hit at my side, rougher than before, but my shield won’t hold on much longer as well. As for Bichak, who’s at my back in pain, his words enter my head without opening his mouth. “Please hold on.” 

Both weapons in my possession snap. Saamuki’s sword breaks into two, and my shield explodes, sent to dust. I sandwich the two of us, the only ones left, in a cube. The four Lords, whose bodies are decaying, have their essence passing through. Finally, we’re safe from danger. Although, it’s only a matter of time before this breaks because I’m on one knee with my arms at eye level. The two Lords continue to attack. Four clashes their swords, and Seven lashes against the illusion. The two break into it. Pieces of wall and the roof rain down on us and fade once they land on the floor. I quickly patch it up, but that took too much out of me, so I only have one arm in the air. 

Something hits the floor behind me. Turning around, I see Bichak’s tears are red. He’s bleeding out of his eyes. His light is fading as he’s trying to use the book to stand back up, but the crystals are still spinning around him. They’ve either been spinning faster, or I imagine them to. Either way, despair is clearly plastered on our faces. Because of it, the words on my arm now mock me. My face looks bitter, but I’m crying. It all finally hits me. Saamuki is dead. Syco is dying. Kaishi and the others are going too soon if they aren’t already. Mikrovos stabbed all of us in the back. So much pain. Too many sacrifices. We had to endure it for so long, and for what? 

I’m sorry, everyone. 

I can’t do this.

I can’t be anything but a failure. 

A familiar voice sighs, “Not this again.” One of Four’s swords went right through the roof and would’ve killed me if it weren’t for the owner behind that voice jerking me away. Shiitakee is sitting between me and Bichak, who seems to not notice the spirit and thankfully not me talking to my deceased mushroom friend because it would’ve looked like I’m talking to nothing from his point of view. 

Gleefully through hiccups, I admit my relief, “Shiitakee, you’re back.” My smile is turned back into a frown. “We’re all going to die. Your sacrifice will go in vain.”

“Well, yeah, it will if you keep sulking in the middle of a fight. I’m surprised you’re not dead yet, but I praise whatever higher being is out there that you’re not. The universe needs people like you, and I’d rather not have this no-smoking life I now have been for nothing.” He touches my shoulder, and once again, he recharges me. I’m glowing again. 

“But I’m never going to be enough. I wasn’t enough to save Saamuki.”

“You sure about that?” 

A ball of blue light zooms past us and smashes Four. Four falls back. Their swords stab the ground before they stumble back further, and Seven is blasted away. They spin in the air before falling face first. Watchers are trying to help the latter Lord back up. Saamuki is fully healed, blue, and is floating above us. The blue fire swirling around her doubles in size, and with it, the temperature skyrockets, heating the room as she shrieks out, “They’re dead now because of you!” 

She charges towards Four again. Four lunges at her with both swords, but they just go right through her afterimage. She reappears at their right and punches them right across the face. The Lord nearly trips on their footing when forced to the left.

Left and right, Saamuki is punching. Four barely has time to counter. All they’re able to do is try to shield themselves, but her punches are causing their swords to crack. It’s only a matter of—

Both shatter, and the sudden release of energy pushes Four back. Before Four can create two new ones, Saamuki is charging up for a blast, but Seven is creeping up on her. Their whip ruptures the air around it. It flings towards her, and as I cause this already disintegrating six-shaped barrier to vanish so I can deflect the incoming weapon by blasting it away, someone jumps on the seemingly slowly disappearing illusion and shoots at the incoming blast’s owner. At the same time, Saamuki fires with a shout. It would’ve easily destroyed a planet.

Half of Four is smoldering. Their blood is spurting and oozing, but their body is slowly fixing itself. Not only are they a lighter shade of yellow, but also transparent, tiny tentacles are wiggling from the destruction and wrapping across the wound. They harden when they flatten across what’s left of the Lord’s body. Saamuki can’t do anything in fear of the consequences of killing a Lord. The explosion, release of energy, may have the power to detonate a solar system, but most importantly, it will kill all of us instantly. 

Kaishi, whose faintly glowing blue lands in front of me, is watching Seven’s reaction. Seven is holding the side of their face where a couple of their eyes were blasted away. Her glow fades away as she then turns towards me, and as she helps me back up, she asks, “My love, are you okay?”

I’m aching everywhere, but I’m not dead, so I nod. I wish Bichak could do the same, but as soon as the four Lords are absorbed, his frontside is planted on the ground. The only other ally conscious isn’t done yet. They force themselves up and try to reconnect the connection of Four and Seven. The latter tries to take advantage of our distracted states, but I block the incoming thrust of their whip when I manifest a shield. It breaks soon after it hits. Whereas the former just swats away Bichak’s attempt. Four with their body whole again explains with laughter, “Do you plan to waste what’s left of you with another meaningless attempt? Have you forgotten I wrote that book? I know how to counter the spell.” A symbol appears on their forehead. It translates to “locked.” It fades away before they continue their explanation with, “I will keep countering your pitiful attempts until you wither away like my siblings. Seven and I will rule the universe alone for countless millennia to come. You’ve lost, mortals.”

“No, we haven’t. Not yet.”

Hands behind their back, Four leans down to me. “Should I assume you think you can stop me? Human, you’ve survived this long because I’ve let you. I could squish you right now if I wanted to. Like so...” Saamuki tries flying away, but Four already has her. Her blue hue fades. She screams with the slow crushing of her bones. The two of us down below try stopping this queasy over-the-top showmanship of power. Kaishi’s arms stretch towards her, and I shove a wall toward their face, but Seven stops us in the middle of our preparations. Seven aims low, causing us to separate and jump about. 

Bichak is trying to force himself up. He gags but swallows it down. Kaishi and I are working up a sweat as we’re hopping about and trying to counter. Each attempt is forced to be canceled with the fear of getting zapped. We’re at a standstill until limping Mikrovos, whose hand on his forehead, came back into the picture.

Four pauses their crushing and greets him, “Welcome back.”

He walked past us. For a moment, he said nothing. Then, standing before Four, he wiped his smeared blood off his face and grabbed hold of the symbol on his forehead. It began to flash, and he began to cry out. Four asks what’s the meaning of this then asks if he hit his head too hard. Mikrovos tells them, “You promised me no one would get hurt. I’m done being your puppet, and I’m especially done watching you hurt my Saamuki!”

Once Mikrovos rips off the symbol, he jumps and impales the Lord in the chest with his horns. The Lord lets go of Saamuki, and he catches the nearly unconscious reptilian. She mutters, “Mikrovos?”

Mikrovos crashes to the ground with Saamuki safely in his arms, but the two aren’t safe for long because Four manifests a new sword and swings it at them. Mikrovos cannot dodge in time, but the blade doesn’t go through the two. They’re not hurt, but Sakhra is. Sakhra’s body is glitching around the sword, which is deeply embedded into his chest. Saamuki, being too tired to speak, can only reach her hand out towards the deleting Sakhra. Sakhra’s body is vanishing pixel by pixel. 

He slides off the weapon, turns around, and walks towards Mikrovos and Saamuki, swaying almost drunkenly. She reaches out to him. He smirks. “I guess you owe me again.” She sniffled then began to weep. He reaches out towards her, and while his body is nearly gone, he manages to wipe away her tears. “I’m proud of the woman you’ve become, my daughter.”

Sakhra is gone. Mikrovos is comforting Saamuki, and I can’t hold in my anger. 

“No more,” I cried out. I grabbed Seven’s whip. It burned just as much as before, but this time I’m able to ignore the pain. I force it out of Seven’s grasp and empower it with my powers. The pain ceases. It’s brighter than before, and I use it against Four. Four’s sword connects with my stolen weapon, but instead of wrapping around it, it shatters it and Four’s forehead. 

The once cocky Lord now feels their forehead in a panic. “Impossible!”

Then, a stream of their essence begins to travel between us towards Bichak and his crystals, but the Lord isn’t going down so quickly. They make a run towards Bichak, but Kaishi is one step ahead. She shoots both knees, one after another. The Lord falls and begins to wilt, unable to heal their wounds. 

Reaching out towards Seven, they plea, “Please, Seven. Help me.”

All of their lips let out a wide toothy grin that stretched uncomfortably, nearly tearing the skin around their lips. Kaishi’s ready to shoot, Mikrovos steps back, and I’m prepared to use Seven’s whip again.

Seven responds with a bow, “As you wish.”

Opening all of their mouths, they begin to suck up the feeble Lord. Four lets out an outcry, and the three of us move, but with the snap of Seven’s fingers, Watchers step between us. They attack, but they’ve merely become obstacles. We breeze through them quickly, but not fast enough because, by the time we get close enough, the Lord’s cannibalism is finished. Four’s teeth encircle the sides of Seven’s head. I can feel the massive boost in strength even though the fused Lord hasn’t done anything but dodge. 

The Lord merely stares at us, but with just that, they push us back. Seven points a single finger up in the air and charges it. Without yet touching us, it blows us back even further. Us out of the way, Seven takes back their chain. 

They point their finger at us. We don’t have anything strong enough to deflect it with. If we dodge it, Seven will just charge it again. We can’t escape. We’re going to die. Realizing this, too, Mikrovos shields Saamuki for what’s to come even though it’s pointless. Kaishi looks at me. “No, this can’t be the end. After everything we can’t die like this. I won’t let anyone else die today!”

I’m brighter than before. I summon both Saamuki’s broken sword and mine. Both hands, which both have orbs of light floating above them, grab the two weapons and collide them together. It takes everything that I have. The fused sword, which has a golden aura spilling out of it, is as big as Mikrovos. It has two fat blades of equal length with the same symbols that were on me prior. The weapon is massive, too heavy in my normal state. Because of my nanites, my arms don’t shred over trying to lift it up. Still, even this is too much for them. I need help. I can’t do this on my own.

All around me are those that have fallen. Each comes one by one. The Director. Skeema. Shiitakee, of course. Khavas. Licata. Sakhra too. Lastly, a group of people who my heart tells me are my crewmates. Maybe I said my plea out loud, or perhaps I’m just easy to read because Kaishi joins in too. She presses her right shoulder against my left and wraps her hands around the handle. They smile at me, but it’s when Kaishi states, “Together,” that we go. 

Seven tries bring us down with their chain. It whips the air before coming right at us. Without words, the two of us slashed right through the chain. Piece by piece, they snapped, scattering everywhere. One weapon down another to go, Seven aims. 

“This is for everyone,” I exclaimed.

“We forgive you,” several voices whispered into my ear.

We jump and Seven blasts. Together we swing, and not only do we cut right through the blast, but we also cut across the Lord’s forehead. 

When the two of us land back down, Kaishi orders Bichak, “Bichak, now!”

The Lord is being sucked into the crystal, but just like with Four, they’re not going down without a fight. They, though swaying, try to wail. Their teeth vibrate, preparing to make a sound, but they are abruptly stopped when a Tauvox elbows them in the stomach then uses the back of his hand to smack Seven’s face. Both fall. Seven is unconscious while Syco is in pain, clutching his soaked chest. It’s covered in his blood.

Sword vanishing into thin air and its light returning to me, I ran to him. “Syco, the nanites. Why aren’t they working?”

Kaishi, placing a hand on my shoulder, has me look up at her. “Before coming, here he had us remove his nanites.”

I’m on the verge of tears when I tell him, “You bastard. Why?”

Syco, with a bloody hand, reaches out towards me but retracts it before touching me. I grab it anyway. “Because I’ve done what I told you I’d do all those years ago when I was behind bars, little human. Besides, I miss Shiitakee, but may I ask you a favor before I go?”

“Of course, Syco.”

“Do you remember that promise I made to you when Commander Saamuki was unconscious after we defeated Commander Cala?” I don’t answer. I let go, and I looked away. I feel around my shirt, and I pull out my dagger. It’s bent the wrong way but still deadly. My tears fall onto the blade. He’s now holding my hand, grunts, and clutches his chest even tighter. “Please, my dear friend.”

I tell him what Apulsion said to me before he died. Syco smiles. 

It was fast. It was quiet. It left me hollow. Kaishi held me, but I didn’t cry. I didn’t know how to feel. 

She helped lead me to where everyone is, and that’s around the leafy giant. Bichak is getting treated by the somber Saamuki. I hand him back his dagger. He looks at me with his reddish eyes and raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. 

Checking the green alien’s pulse, Mikrovos states. “Alive.”

Nobody says anything to this. We’re all still digesting everything that happened.

What looks like an older version of Saamuki appears next to her. Saamuki’s free hand then glows when raised towards this mysterious figure. She looks up at her for a moment. Her mouth opens. Saamuki is about to speak. Hesitating, she looks at us, Mikrovos mostly. When she whispers something to the older of the two while touching her ring, something I didn’t get to hear, the figure smiles and places her hand on Saamuki’s shoulder. Then, she fades away. By the looks of everyone, it’s only the two of us that noticed Saamuki’s sister. 

Watchers are looking all around us inquisitively. There are still a couple hundred or so Watchers left. Upon Bichak healing, Saamuki gets up and looks at each of us. “I have a promise to keep.”

So many gravestones. So many lives have been lost, and yet the war still goes on. There are still Watchers out there, low-ranked species who went past their quadrant limit. The consequence is known to high-ranked species, but not to people like me. To the Lords, we’re animals, but it’s not like those above us are that much better. To the Lords, they’re children. It’s exactly like how Four said. They played all of us. They used all of us. In this universe, there aren’t anymore Lords, but there’s still plenty of problems. At least things have died down. They’re not as bad as the Lords predicted. For once in their lives, people are truly living. They’re genuinely free now, but everything is still shit nonetheless. 

I’m on a cold, inhabitable planet. Sitting on a rock, I look at the resting places of those I know and those that I didn’t get to. Looking up, it seems like the stars are within reach. They’re not so frightening anymore. After all this time, I feel fond of them, but I have yet to call them home. I laugh at that because I still don’t have a homeworld. Whenever I look at her, I’m reminded of what I did. I still feel guilty.

She’s told me multiple times, “There was no other way.” 

I know, and I also know that if I didn’t do it, then they’d live like that for eternity, but while I can try to justify my actions, it still pains me. 

“To be human is to feel pain,” she assured me. 

I’m a partial Lord, essentially a god with what I could do, but the Lords have proven that even a god can’t just wave their hand and make the universe a better place. To be human is to accept our limits. To be me is to accept myself. To live is to accept the things we can’t control. 

Just like with their line, they tear the connection between Seven and their crystal. This brings Bichak to scream and nearly break away from his trance. 

Growling, Mikrovos brings his fists to his sides as Saamuki steps towards him and gently wraps her hands around the cold barred hand closest to her. His nostrils flared when he took a whiff of the air, cooling himself off before turning to the wide-eyed, curious Saamuki. The gauntlet unsheathes his other hand so that he can cup a bare hand around her cheek. Together the two looked like night and day.  

"What are they talking about," she asked him, concerningly. She slides her fingers between his. They're holding hands now, but they're growing apart. 

"Even to his wife, he continues to lie. Tell me, Mikrovos, how long have you two been together?"

His ears perk up. Mikrovos' eyes drift away from Saamuki's and look at her ring. He then turns to Four and yells, "Shut up!" The Tauvox shows his canines to the stone-cold Lord, who's clicking their teeth together. 

In the corner of my eye, something is happening to Seven. They're gripping the sides of their lowered head. Not only that but their numerous eyes and mouths are splitting apart because their skin is being pulled apart by some unknown force. Horrifyingly, blood drips out from their eyes and mouths, and when the sickly thickening rivers connect, they appear to dry, discoloring Seven's skin. 

"Not until you stop prolonging the inevitable." He looks away and doesn't respond. "Fine, I'll set you free myself. I will first start off with a question." The Lord focuses on me. "Human, did Mikrovos' explanation over helping you escape from the Tauvoxes' ship all those years ago ever irk you?"

I turn back to Mikrovos, who refuses to meet anyone's eyes. Then, after a moment, I go back to looking at the hideous face that is Four's. Four leans towards me with their head resting on their hands, attentively waiting for my hesitating answer. I was alone without the memories of my home for the first time, waiting for what happened to that other prisoner to happen to me, my coming death. Khavas' rough demeanor was first, then the gentle giant I would be defending years later. No, defending my beliefs of the man I think I know. Of the man, I hope I know. I gulp before responding with, "No, I saw it in his eyes, his selflessness."

"You saw his empathy, yes?"

"Y-Yes."

"Half right. It's because of him that the Earth was invaded."

"What?" 

Kaishi goes pale.

"With a group of Tauvoxes, he laid ruin to the invader's homeworld, knowing full well they'd have to find interest towards a particular blue and green planet. He was jealous of your homeworld's beauty as it reminded him of his. In his prime, he was just as insane as the rest of the Tauvoxes. He only saved you that day to make right of what he caused, but this is only the lead into the juicier secret he's been keeping from all of you, especially his dear wife.

"Hypothetically, let's say you defeat us. You'd then have to deal with the war beyond, which is a lot worse than the first and will worsen with time because fear will no longer keep them in their place. The universe was in complete chaos, worse than it is now, before Zero as they absorbed the worst in people. We have maintained that tradition for thousands of years. Sure, I'll admit it's because of us, Lords, that things are in turmoil again, but that's why the others need to be taken down, and the two of us need to remain. We will do what they couldn't, and that means bringing the universe to true peace.

"I brought Mikrovos to his senses, brought him to the realization of this a long time ago. For his understanding, I promised I'd grant him a world untouched by civilization, and because of it, it would be the finest in this universe. Within the promise, I'd let him and a chosen few inhabit it in seclusion, but you can never hope to grow a seed without putting in some work. In return, sacrifices had to have been made."

Kaishi, after turning her gauntlets into two blades, which glint, looks straight at Mikrovos with murder in her eyes. Her eyebrows are knitted, and her teeth are grit, showing her gums, until she pieces together, "Khavas...Licata...you bastard! You were the one that murdered them!"

I grip my chest as my heart drops. "Licata, I'm sorry we weren't able to meet again," I muttered to myself. 

Saamuki, with watery eyes, jerks her hand out of his grip and shuffles her feet away from him. Mikrovos snaps out of his daze, looking at her. She's gripping the hand with her ring. Her fingers press against it and twist it around the finger. 

Kaishi flings herself at Mikrovos. Watchers move out of the way, making room for the fiery commander whose weapons clash with the liar, murderer, and once friend. Sparks fly as metal grinds against other metals. It rings as well. Mikrovos is stepping back with each brutal stroke of Kaishi's morphed armor.

"Kaishi, please, I don't want to hurt you."

"Makes it easier for me because I want to hurt you. You brought that hell hole to us. You killed our friends. I don't even know who you are anymore." One of her blades nearly stabs his throat, but he deflects it just in time. 

"Ah, yes, those two were but assurances of Mikrovos' loyalty. But, vengeful as you are, it won't matter in the end. Mikrovos already knew how all of you would react. To live the life he's yearned ever since he was a child, the pain must be forgotten."

Seven, whose head is now propped up by thousands of thin, icky veins, steps on the shriveling Six. They launch themselves along with their chain. It cracks in the air as they abruptly halt mid-flight. I realize who it's aimed at too late because it enveloped the trying to swerve away Kaishi and muffled her screams as she's stung with its electricity right when I teleport to her. As she flails around as smoke comes out from her predicament, I grab hold of the intense imprisonment without thinking. I scream and bury down the pain as my hands blacken, and tears evaporate once they hit the electric current. My heart races as well. It feels like it will explode because the electricity is climbing up my arms and into my chest. I hear screaming, and I can't tell if it's Kaishi's or someone else's. The zapping is numbing my hearing along with the rest of my body. 

It's not me that brings me to loosen my hands from her. It's Mikrovos. We look at each other. I swat him away and inch myself towards the freed Kaishi, whose eyes are closed. She's in my arms. She's breathing, but she's not going to wake up anytime soon. 

"Now, with her out of the way, Mikrovos, bring me those crystals."

Before doing as Four ordered, the small Tauvox hushes an apology to me, "I'm sorry. I never meant for any of you to get hurt, but I guess it had to come to this. You're going to forget the pain soon enough, though, my dear friend." Appearing in front of Mikrovos' chest is the Lord's symbol.

"I'm friends with Mikrovos, not you." Mikrovos, the one I don't know anymore, doesn't reply. He, determined, heads towards the sweaty Bichak whose veins are popping out and, besides being tired, is helpless there in the air until the four Lords are done being absorbed. The determiner of the worthiness of everything we've sacrificed turns, the book moves with him, with red eyes to the Tauvox who transforms one of his lustrous gloves into a blade. I see the floating alien's fear reflected onto the flat, sharp, and most importantly, deadly weapon. With fear and pain, he coughs out blood and lets it drip off his chin to drop and splatter across the page of the book. 

Syco and Sakhra charge towards the now enemy Tauvox, both fighters are way taller than him, but neither seems to land a hit. The bigger Tauvox punches right, and the computerized stone ally beats with his left. Mikrovos can move so fast their punches seem to go right through him. He goes for Sakhra first, punching his chest with such incredible speed. Its déjà vu as Sakhra's coat is torn and burnt off along with layers of skin. Well, rock. He's defeated. “Sakhra,” Saamuki cried out. 

Syco and Mikrovos catch and block each other's movements, and between them, the former points out, "Oh, how the tables have turned."

"And now it's about to flip," is Mikrovos' comeback right before sinking his blade through Syco's hand into his chest. The small Tauvox yanks his bloody weapon out of Syco, who drops to his knees soon after. He's about to finish the job, but he's stopped when struck by an edged leaf. The leaf misses his heart. It's the green giant who's the owner of the small weapon, which Mikrovos figures out as soon as I do. He cuts the green one off of him. His attacker pulls out, stumbling, as Saamuki, with tears streaming down her reddened cheeks, stops in place when she blasts him into the ground from above. When the smoke clears, Mikrovos' disheveled, shaking body is trying to get up, but as soon as he looks up, she sends another powerful beam of blue light his way. The ground beneath him cracks and the darkness lying beneath the white floor peaks through. She cries out again when she shoots the third time. Trying for a fourth, Seven's chain comes whipping towards her. I rush towards her, and this time I'm able to stop it from hitting when I push her out of the way. We both crash to the ground, and Seven's infamous chain comes barreling towards us. Saamuki, this time aims at it, and Seven deflects it. The Lord then wrenches it back to themselves. It swings and wraps around their arm. 

Saamuki looks at the aftermath of what she did and covers the cry wanting to escape her lips. I rest my hand over a shoulder for a moment and share my heartbrokenness with her. For me, it's just a long-time friend turned enemy, but for her, it's a lover turned stranger. 

The multi-eyed freak that is the seventh Lord opens their mouth and bellows out a screech. Besides the unconscious, Watchers, and of course Lords, we spew our guts out. I have to force myself to wave my hand, causing the shards of my fallen sword to fly towards the thing that is Seven. To my rising vexation, Seven darts out of the way. I groan between my gag, but to all of our surprises, our vomiting stops when a familiar red sword goes right through the Lord's gut. Even Four places a hand over the pit at the center of their face. The Watchers cover their mouths as well. Another surprise hits all of us, but it's not a good one. Saamuki grunts. It's all she could do because Mikrovos has reawakened and the first thing he does is kill the last person that loved him. She falls to her knees, and I can't scream. I can't do anything but watch her bleed out, but Sakhra does the former for me. Unable to get up, he lets out a scream. While Syco, who's still bleeding, punches Mikrovos straight to the jaw with such force that I heard the bone explode right when the Tauvox is about to go flying across the room, hundreds of feet from us, becoming a nearly nonexistent dot. 

Syco falls to the floor. Again, my heart drops because his wounds aren't healing. I fight back the urge to find out why because Four manifests a sword made of pure, ironically, heavenly light as they come storming towards me. Using my cursed powers, I unsheathe Saamuki's sword from Seven and parry. Four's sword skates across my borrowed one. In the middle of their next swing, Seven's chain makes its return. I manage to push it off course with the leftover parts of my blade and somehow go on ahead to defend myself against both Lords until Four's blade cuts through my wrist and Seven's chain slashes across my face. I jump back, trying to regain my composure, whereas the two Lords are thinking of nothing but how to savor this fight. Somehow I'm going to have to solo this. 

Four comments a philosophical remark as they pull their sword and left foot back, "Loneliness is the death of all."

That’s what brings his structure to crack. His chest is splitting and outcomes a bloody cough. He wipes off the green blood from his lips before Five grabs his throat. 

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had to move this much, but it’s also been the most fun I’ve had in quite a while, so thank you.”

None of us can help. Three placed their ridiculously long hands behind their back. They watch Kaishi having to fight against the laser coming out of One’s reddish eye. The floor beneath her is rupturing, curving inward towards her or piercing towards the sky as One’s veiny weblike structure around their intending to slay eyeball expand and depress as they muster out their mocking. “Commander Kaishi, I’ve heard so much about you. But, after all these years, this is all you’re capable of? Pathetic.” 

Out of the three, at least Syco isn’t on edge even though he is busy trying not to get his neck snapped from Six’s fists. Six’s gold swings along with the swing of their fist. Syco dodges and sends a fist the Lord’s way. The Lord catches it, and the two of them grab each other’s second hand. Both proceed to shake as neither wishes to release the other.

As for us three, the rest of the hundred or so other Watchers who aren’t out to kill the lover duo found interest in us, so I’ve barricaded us. All four of Bichak’s eyes, his hands and book, are glowing as all seven crystals spin around him, and the ends of his coat and entire body are drifting upwards. He is whispering what I assume is a spell from the first language. With each new word, they become meshed with the previous. The healer in our group and now brawn punches through the small openings I make. So, preoccupied just like the others. When Watchers begin to climb onto the dome I created around us, I add myself to the list of people that have barked at the defeated Sakhra’s ex-brother and the once late Shiitakee’s boss. “Explain to me why those damn crystals are so important.”

At that, the roof cracks with the strike of the group of Watchers climbing above. I repair it. “Besides the copious amount of years it took to convince the Nantos to grow these after the last time they were asked to farm?” 

“Yes.”

Our brawn punches the group of Watchers thumping above. 

“These were made to capture the Lords. Saamuki figured it would be impossible to kill the Lords. She said it was a very slim possibility after being corrected by Sakhra, who then said through the little possibility that the energy that would be released would be catastrophic. So, it was Commander Kaishi that proposed we should learn from the tyrannical Knox, which Mikrovos took offense to because it was how you—”

“How I died. Got it. So, how long until those things charge?”

“This isn’t as easy as it looks. I’ve studied for days on end. This is my first time actually doing anything remotely this powerful and will hopefully be the only time I need to. I’m under a lot of pressure right now, you know?”

“I get it, but we don’t have all the time in the world. Universe. How much time do you need?”

“Five minutes.”

“A long five minutes.” On one side, the brawn grabs the faces of two of the Watchers and smashes them together. On another, I send a beam of light through four of them, then another directly at One’s eye. One once again stumbles back. Their one-eye waters. They’re blinded as Three replaces One by taking on Kaishi. The clap from them pushes Kaishi back. She pierces two blades into the floor before getting swooped any further by the heavy breeze but is slapped into the ground. 

Three lifts their hand, revealing Kaishi and her broken arm. I’m about to scream, distraught, but I notice her arm reforming first. Nanites. Of course. She stabs right through Three’s incoming hand with her healed one. The Lord plucks it out and looks down, and grunts at the satisfied commander. 

Now encircling the floating Three is a golden ball of light. I try taking down Three, but my efforts are merely met with a bounce. Kaishi steps back before my ricocheting blast can hit her. Hundreds of arms even longer than Three’s cartoonishly long arms stretch out from their light. They twist, turn, hop, and glide over the other transparent arms. She’s able to dodge most. Those she can go right through the floor and those she can’t, she tries shooting and slicing through the all too close ones. These split into two, become more arms, and continue towards her until they pause before her when her back meets Syco’s.

I want to burst out of this dome and help them, but I can’t. Those floating crystals that are taking way too long to be usable are our only shot. I can’t keep letting my impulses take the better of me because not only do I know by now that it’ll somehow just make things worse, but it also means letting all their sacrifices go in vain. I choose to believe growing up means understanding there will be times you have to do things you don’t want to do, but that doesn’t mean I can just watch. It doesn’t stop me from flinging the bits of pieces of what was once my blade at Five. They cut right through the arm that’s clinging onto Sakhra. The hand falls with a hard thud, and plenty of blood spills all over Two’s seat. I ignore Two’s reaction and instead focus on the high-pitched cry, nearly the sound a pig makes when endangered, as they try to cauterize the wound.

In contrast, Sakhra tries holding in a cough, which is challenging considering their chest is crushed even if it is repairing, but there’s something different about his healing process. I see numbers, code, squirm towards each other. They bunch up as he tries landing a hit on the pig-like Lord. 

One hand creates steam as it heats up the bloody wound, so the Lord is technically handless, yet they’re still landing hit after hit on their not-so-privileged opponent as their kicks smack across Sakhra’s arms. He’s having a tough time defending himself against the surprisingly now light on his feet Five. 

With stretched gauntlets, she’s able to keep pace with the barrage of fists and the return of One, who has returned to trying to blast with their one eye. The cyclops’ target is also Syco, who can dodge, but is now having a tough time being Six’s equal as he gets punched in the face multiple times. Things are growing dim, which isn’t entirely figurative as the green giant and I are growing tiresome, pushing off the Watchers, causing us to lose light the slower we become. At least before I’m unable to see what’s happening outside of the dome, Mikrovos and Saamuki remain to have the upper hand. Saamuki even lands a cut across Two when her sword slides across their sword after a cling. The last thing I see before the rest of the Watchers buried us is Two inspecting their wound and being shocked at their blood having been spilled. 

I’m crouching because of the weight of keeping this dome from collapsing from the immense amount of added weight. Some parts are cracking again. I reknit them, but once I do, three more pop up. The sounds of their thrashing don’t help my frustration. “Please tell me those things are done charging.”

Both the green one and I try to catch our breaths as we turn around and look at the sweating figure behind us. Bichak’s words are slurred. “Almost. One minute.”

A chunk of the dome above falls between us. It shatters once it hits the ground. A charging hand slides through the hole. I summon a shield before the Watcher can shoot. It smacks their hand out and them away from the dome. We don’t have a second before another replaces them, and we don’t have a minute because the dome’s cracks have become too much for me to fix. “I don’t think we have a minute.” 

“Fifty seconds now.” More pieces of the dome are sent falling. The now not so silent one grunts as he shields us from the falling parts. On the other hand, I shoot at the wiggling hands, pushing off the Watchers as well in a seemingly pointless attempt at buying us some time. “Forty-five seconds.”

A pesky Watcher manages to squeeze themselves through one of the widening holes. Another is trying to force itself through as the two of us stand, protecting the four-eyed annoyance and his crystals. My partner punches the Watcher straight through their gut. He then sends another punch their way, but it catches it. With those two entangled, I teleport right beside it. The beam goes right through them and a couple more lying on the other side of the wall. We work through several until the long-awaited words are spoken. 

“Done,” Bichak finally announced. He raised a hand into the air, causing the crystals to spin faster as his other hand rose above the sparking book. “I just need room.” I push the remaining dome away from us along with the Watchers around us. I then burst out some more of my energy, killing most of the Watchers around us and the duo some feet beside us. Those left stare. 

All seven of the Lords fell on their knees. Streams of rich yellow light are being pulled out of them towards the crystals. Besides Four and Seven, they questioned their weakened states as they’re easily overpowered by Sakhra, Kaishi, Syco, Mikrovos, and Saamuki. Speaking of Seven, with trembling hands, they’re slowly slipping off the chain wrapped around them. Killing all those Watchers took a lot out of me, sure, but not enough to leave me weak, helpless. I’m charging up as I look at Seven who’s eyes smile upon noticing me. My hair is floating around me as I burn with not-so heavenly light. 

“There,” One realized and pointed at the levitating man behind me. “Get him.” When the Watchers turned to the Lord then looked back at me, they stepped back. One’s eye glowed. In unison, yellow light escaped from the crevice between their faces and masks. Along with that, their awe seems to die as they dart towards us. 

“Shit,” the vegetation finally spoke. 

“Yeah.” Back to back, the two of us are preparing for the long fight ahead as the others are busy with the Lords. I’m about to shoot, and he’s about to punch when suddenly Seven gets up from their throne and removes their chain. All of us follow the swinging of their chain as it coils around One’s neck. Before One can react, electrifying energy bolts across the metal, electrocuting the Lord, incapacitating them as they fall face first. As soon as they do, Seven yanks the groaning Lord towards them. 

Both their whips reappear in their hands and come zipping through the air and at me. I outmaneuver both and am about to respond with a heated ball of rich, golden light, but they vanish. 

Looking around the room, I try to sense where the Watcher went. I try focusing to the best of my abilities, but to no avail. So, I wasn’t able to stop the knee to the face, and both straps of electric currents tightly looped around my body, electrocuting and spinning me about as they slid off my frame. 

Above me, the reminiscence of the guard’s commander is charging their hand. It glows. Rays shone between their fingers, but my focus turned elsewhere. One mouths that I have thirty seconds left. Looking up at the opposing figure, I tell them, “This isn’t the end, and I’m sorry about that. I wish I could’ve done better than me that brought you here.” 

The blazing light disappears from their lowering hand. “I can’t forgive you because I won’t forget.”

“I understand. I don’t think I could either. I am the monster.” Two hands charged, I release a massive energy blast that finally puts to rest the still Watcher. Two summons a shield that absorbs the explosion before it could hit One and Five. The Lord struggled a bit, arms shook, and they were pushed back as they fought to best the roaming energy. When they do, the Lord looks at me with a mix of interest and respect as the both of us are exhausted, I am a lot more so, but it marked the end of my one-on-one fight. The outnumbered fight continued on with the return of hundreds wanting to blast my limbs off, hundreds more wanting to tire me more out with hand-to-hand combat, and eight of them hoping to slit my throat with a solidified, sharpened aura. 

I survive it all not because I’m a fighter but because of this cheapened state. So, I don’t take pride in what I’ve done. But I don’t feel disgusted either. With each blink, I can still see and hear them. They’re crawling onto me, piling up, covering the light, pushing me deeper into the emptiness beneath, and moaning in agony. The flames of my gleaming light envelop us, killing not only them but my emotions as well. My vision, too, apparently, because I can see a familiar red-headed figure lifting me up from my collapsed state. She looked like an angel with how the light circled around her edges, softening it too. The blinding, heavenly sight brings me to push myself once again as I reach out towards her. Resting my trembling hand on my love’s face, wiping the tears with my numb thumb, brings her to rest her other hand above mine. It’s warm, unlike mine. For me, it’s only been minutes since the last time we touched, but for her, it’s been years. Her eyes are baggy, and wrinkles are prominent. There’s a thick, white strand of hair at the center of her synthetic red hair. Most associate the color with seduction, but I switch it with blue’s symbolism. It brings me sorrow and tears in my eyes because I left her alone in this confusing place we call the universe for far too long. 

Instead of me forcing out an apology, it’s her letting her heart out, “I’m sorry for everything.” She then proceeds to hug me. It hurts, but not because I have hardly any strength left. Instead, I’m in pain because I love her so much. 

One dismisses their cigarette as they get up from their throne. “A minute off.” 

Raising a single finger, they shoot, and I try creating a shield before her. Something sparks in front of her, but it poofs out of existence. I’m far too weak to do anything but cling onto Ashley, who’s looking confidently directly at the spinning light. I shut my eyes, and with the ringing, loud resonant sound that followed after, I reopened them to see a large blue shield between us and the attack. Turning my head back, I see Saamuki with a rich blue coat, brown boots, and a red sash to tie it all together. Her arms are raised, holding up her makeshift shield. On her ring finger is a ring sparkling because of the blue light. Two Tauvoxes, one a long-time friend and the other a prisoner the last time I saw him, are on either side of her. Like Saamuki, and now that I notice Ashley too, Mikrovos is wearing Quadrant Forty’s fifth battalion uniform and has a prosthetic horn. He also has a ring on, which has me crack a smile. The four of them aren’t the only ones here. Sakhra, Bichak, and that leafy, fearsome giant from the fallen Zeq’s town are here too, with the same clothing as well. Syco is not matching. He’s also the least clean, having scuff marks and untamed hair. An odd reunion, but a welcome one. 

“So, this is where you’ve been. I knew it would take a lot more than that to kill you,” the musty Tauvox professed smugly. 

The smaller Tauvox rolls his eyes before replying with, “We can do the whole ‘I told you so’ after we beat the Lords. Bichak, what’s your status?” Bichak, who’s quickly skimming through the floating book Four gave to him, slides his free hand into his coat and takes out seven dull crystals. Three, Five, and Six join with One. Saamuki encases us in a bubble as Two separates from the Lords and teleports behind us with a battle cry and a flaming fist. It cracks but holds. 

She’s gotten a lot stronger but not all-powerful yet. It’s the reason why she blurts out, “We are all going to die if I’m the only one defending us against four Lords.” The silent vegetation presses his hand on Saamuki’s back. Soon after, she burst with a blue glow, which is almost blinding. Blue symbols etch onto her skin, peeking between her scales, as well. They’re the same ones I’ve seen plenty of times, and as I learned not too long ago, they are words from the very first language. Finally, with Saamuki overflowing with her powers, he pushes past to get to me. He motions for Ashley to hand me over to him. She hesitates, looking into his eyes as she tightens her grip on me.

“Kaishi,” Sakhra hissed. 

Ashley has changed her name. Of course, she’s changed a lot, but she’s still the same woman I’ve grown to love. Respectfully feisty as she grabs hold of the green alien and orders, “Don’t do anything that will make me regret bringing you along with us.” He slowly nods. “We’re all going to make it out of this.” She lets go of him before turning to Bichak. “We only have one chance at this. The Nantos won’t be giving the second time.”

“Just a quick memorization,” Bichak assured.

“Right. Saamuki, the bubble.” Coming from her back, liquified metal slides down to her hands. They solidify once they cover them and shoot through the newly formed opening. “Syco. Sakhra.” The two nod to her. As the Lord stumbles back, holding their wounded eye too, the three dart towards the rest of the Lords. They easily dodge Three’s, Five’s, and Six’s blasts. While the three of them are against the four Lords unless Four and Seven decide to stop being spectators, it’s Saamuki and Mikrovos against the one beefy Lord who’s been trying to smash through.

The bubble does, but it smashes against Two. It flew towards the Lord, who could’ve just moved out of the way but trying to push it back towards us interested them more. A shield comes flying towards the Lord and then another. Another comes. Each time Two tries to punch through it. It takes five times until they unleash a solidified, sharp aura in the shape of a sword to cut right through the sixth time. Mikrovos, with two blades from his gauntlets, blocks the colossal sword. Two’s much greater size pushes Mikrovos back, but Saamuki quickly returns to the fight by transforming her sash into a sword again. It floats next to and follows her as she runs across the makeshift, see-through blue staircase. She jumps the final step and thrusts the barreling long red blade towards Two with its tip pointed directly between where the Lord’s eyes should be. The Lord sidesteps away but is cut by Mikrovos in the process. 

Saamuki strikes the floor. Her sword comes back right next to her. It spins in the air as it once again tries to contact Two, but it clashes with the Lord’s sword. Mikrovos proceeds towards Two’s weaponless right, jumping over Saamuki’s blast, but Two realizes this between having their sword gliding against Saamuki’s, and so forms another one. Both of the Lord’s hands are preoccupied with the lover’s swords, and they are also busy swerving away from the serpent’s blasts. The trio seemed to match until the titan’s right foot stomped across the floor, causing the floor beneath Mikrovos to rip open. A pure black hole appeared beneath him, it swallowed him, but he didn’t disappear for long because he came crashing into the ground from the newly conceived tear above. 

Five is about to grab Kaishi, but because of their weight, it slows them down, making it easy for Sakhra to defend her with a ferocious punch. Amazingly, the collision didn’t crack the stones that makeup Sakhra’s right arm. Sakhra’s other arm grabs the Lord’s wrist and, with ease, throws the figure who’s more than four times his size and weight. Five’s fats jiggle as they spin in the air, going between the recently distanced One, Three, and Kaishi. The three watch the bulbous Lord land at Four’s feet. The landed Lord asks for Four’s hand, but Four peaks up from their book for just a moment and then slides it back up, ignoring Five’s continued pleas. The two reconvene when One and Three send disembodied fists, which Kaishi shoots. As for Six and Syco, the two are engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Like with Sakhra, Syco cannot yield against the far more powerful force that is Six. Nevertheless, he’s holding his own.

Everything seems to be going well. I thought it was until I noticed the subtle look Four and Seven give to each other as Seven’s crusty fingers stroke against their chains. I feel my body revitalized. I’m glowing brighter than ever before with symbols from the ancient language I’ve grown accustomed to pulsing across my skin, so with the boost thanks to the nameless hulking figure over my shoulder, I set myself towards the suspicious Lords until I’m scolded by Bichak. “What do you think you’re doing?” The seven crystals are spinning around the small four-eyed figure who also has the same symbols across his arms and face, coloring, no longer a hideous gray. 

“Helping my friends.”

“Commander Kaishi ordered us not to get in the way. Well, you weren’t a part of the order as everyone assumed you were dead, but she’d see it best for you to stay here. Protecting these crystals until they’re ready is everyone’s priority. Besides, I’ve seen how angry she can get. So I don’t want to be on her bad side this time.” All four of his eyes side-eyed the green giant. 

I look around the sickening crowd that’s circled around me. Although the Watchers all appear to be the same, I can sense out a few. Human Watchers have been following me for weeks now. I cock a smirk to hide my rage. “Four minutes to clean up this mess before they arrive.”

Earth is crushed between their hands. Its water drips between their fingers, and rocks are sent to dust. One shrugs. “They’re pretty mad at you, so good luck,” they wished me as they headed back to their throne. Upon touching the seat, the army around me charged at me all at once. 

“I’m sorry.” My blast goes through six. They’re twitching, and I’m swooping underneath and dodging the hundreds of other bursts of light in turn. Between these attacks, I elbow then use the back of my hands to hit two, which causes them to stumble and fall onto a group behind them. Before the ten jumping Watchers could flatten me, I command the shards of my blade to cut right through them, sending them falling on the Watchers that have been shooting at me, but they’re quickly replaced. I’ve barely budged the army, only eliminating twenty, but I’m already gasping, and it hasn’t been a minute yet. When four of them punch me at once, it nearly marks a minute as I hit the floor. It’s their second round that not only brings my time down to three minutes but has me release an explosive amount of energy in a desperate attempt to push off the itching darkness as the inching crowd comes closer towards me on all sides. 

I’ve killed a couple hundred. Definitely not enough. Of course, it isn’t, and of course, that took way too much out of me. I’m on one knee and hand but still manage to slice through the Watchers midway through their movements. Still, they easily regroup. Killing one means two will replace the defeated one’s post. Those hundreds around me are all about to fire. I’m preparing the fragments of my blade until some are pushed to the side. 

The Watcher they need to get to past nudges them back, which brings the rest of the Watcher’s and the Lord’s, especially Four’s, attention along with it. The angry Watcher points for them to go back to the back. That’s met with an electrifying whip locking around the Watcher then ripping off its head. It rolls towards the presence I’ve seen from afar a long time ago. Who also steps on and eventually crushes the small upper body part. 

“The process was excruciating. Imagine your body being torn apart. You’re still somehow alive, so you feel your limbs being cooked. You survive all the pain just to be renewed as a Frankenstein, only plenty uglier than the movies. We’ve been waiting years for this. We’ve been waiting years to kill the one that sacrificed one soul for millions.”

The whip lashes through the air. Watchers move out of the way, and the breeze that came with it burns my skin, a warning for what may be. I dodge before it can actually hit, but the Watcher summons a blaster that cuts into my skin then shifts it into a second whip that wraps around my wrist. It stings, sizzling the skin beneath it. I try pulling myself free, even as it electrocuted me, but that only causes it to tighten its grip. The first whip comes towards me again. I summon the shards and turn them into a cracked shield with an inch of space between each piece. The force of the lengthy weapon collides against it, sending sparks of electricity away from the hit, and it immediately breaks through. Shards fly past and fall around me as the whip lashes against my face. 

I can feel the nanites at work, which my opponent notices as well. “A waste of brilliant technology.” The other whip wraps around my other wrist, and the Watcher throws me up, sending me flying. 

We’re both above everyone, levitating hundreds of feet. I’ve recollected what’s left of my sword. Its bits are floating above my left arm. That was another minute. There’s still plenty down there, and I’m nowhere close to beating this Watcher. I’m not going to finish this in time, and by the look of One’s face, they know and find it entertaining. One is sitting with their legs wide open again with another cigarette and smiling with one eye. The others, besides the furthest Lords, refuse to take a seat. All seven of them are watching, but it’s Seven that’s watching so intently. I thought I heard Seven speak. My body began to feel nauseous. 

“People like you excite me.”

“Yeah, I got that the first time we met.”

My opponent’s mask disperses, revealing an unsurprising upsetting face covered with way too many darting eyes. “Then, don’t let me down.” Both whips barrel towards me. I twirl down and dart towards the Watcher with my shards surrounding me and pointing at the monstrous fusion. A few of their eyes smile as most send lasers at me. The fragments reknit into a shield that causes the light to spray out, bouncing off the makeshift shield. While my top half was protected from this attack, my legs were open for the next one, its whips wrapped around my ankles and dragged me across the air. I’m flung back towards the ground. I spin for a moment before I stop myself from smacking into the ground. 

A whip slice through the air, coming towards me. I block it with half of the fragments. The other is formed into a dagger, which intercepts the second incoming whip. It envelops it. I struggle to pull that free as the whip once again breaks through my defenses, but the shield is quickly put back together and blocks each new incoming attack. I could do this all day. My nanites will let me do it all day, or I will force myself to, but I don’t have all day. All I have is down, so that’s what I do. I let go and fall. Both whips smash the ground, and before I could join them, I fly above the crowd and send the shards the Watcher’s way. It dodges each with ease. It avoids my distraction with ease. With my clutching, glowing left, I aim it at the distracted Watcher, who notices and tries to dodge the blast as well, but I have the bits of metal poke into its clothing and force it towards the ground. The rest of the Watchers step away before they slam to the ground and are then hit with my blast that they try deflecting with their whips, which they flick with their wrists. This was an explosive combination. It takes a moment for the smoke to clear, another three seconds bit off my time, and when it does, I find the Watcher is still in excellent shape, minus the scratches and dust. They’re upright and cracking their whips. Right when the shards pierce through them, their lashes wrap around me. They tighten them as I force the fragments deeper into them. Once it goes right through them, they send me crashing into the floor. 

I’m stumbling back up, and the Watcher is on their knees. They’re bleeding and coughing, but their wounds are healing. I’m not sure how much time I have left; I know it’s way too little. That smirk worsens my impatience. It brings me to zoom at them, push the other Watchers in the process, and then punch them left and right. I do so until my hands are covered in their blood and my hand is gripping their neck. Slamming them onto the ground, I proceed to choke them. Through the gagging and all of their eyes popping out, they do nothing, and it’s the lack of emotion, especially the lack of desire to stop me, that brings me to let go and step away. I look at the blood on my hands and see my monstrous reflection. 

The Watcher gets up as if our scuffle never happened. “It’s not what we don’t know we need to fear, but what we do know we should fear. I am a Watcher, and you look like a human, but I am more human than you because I can at least accept what I am.” This time deflecting their whips isn’t so easy. They push me back. Their lashes burn through my skin, causing my skin to blacken and blood to bubble around the cuts. “Even if you defeat me, the thousands of other humans you selfishly deformed, and the Lords, can you defeat yourself? Can you live pretending to be a hero, pretending to be human, knowing you killed the last remnants of humanity?”

“No. That’s why I’m going to keep the burden to myself.” I grab both whips with one hand and yank them towards me. The Watcher pulls me towards them. Thank these shared powers for giving me the strength to regain my footing and move them back towards me. 

Chest inches from my makeshift dagger, they let go. I let go of their whips and lunge at them. The Watcher swerves away from each of my swings and manages to land a hit into my stomach. A blast goes right through me, and I fall forward. They grabbed my face and shot right through it too. The center of my face is missing. I, along with the pieces of metal, finally fall to the ground.  

“Hurry and get up. I know you’re not finished yet.” I hated it, but I did what they said because they’re right. I get up, but I trip on my own footing and fall back down on my behind. They place a hand in front of my face. “I’d rather not kill a helpless animal.”

Hesitantly taking it, they helped me back up, but it meant I’m no longer a helpless animal as they summoned another whip and snapped it in my direction. Again, I am pushed towards the crowd behind me. A second stroke, and this time I’m able to block it with half of the shards, and by overflowing the other half with my powers, I cut right through it. 

“Now you’re exciting me.”

One points at me and replies, "This isn't a joke." They place their hand on their chest, over the symbol. "That is my daughter."

"Blasphemy, Zero would say." Two yanks their hand off of One. 

Off to the side, Four nestles before whispering with their head deep into the book and hand still jotting down what's happening. "This is getting good." 

My crown floated on its side in front of One's chest, slowly spinning as it did. Through it, my eyes focus on the symbol. Everything around me turns a dark yellow, but after I blink, the tint fades. Another blink, and I feel my hands heating up. Moving them in front of me, I see a spark of my powers; apparently, a spike of my hidden bloodline, one moment until it vanishes with yet another blink. 

Besides Four, who's smiling with the eyes on their raisin-like arms, and silent Seven, the Lords are squabbling. Two are shouting at One with a blazing golden aura around them. Lanky Three is begging for Two to calm down. Overweight Five and glamorous Six are also bombarding One. Still, the former is more interested if they're any more "abnormalities" rather than angered, while the latter is scared over how crowded this void will get in the coming days. One has ignored Two and is trying to relieve the two Lords to his left when I interject with, "How can you possibly be one of my parents? I've seen my mother and father and I'm sure I would've noticed either of them being some white cloaked, faceless giant."

All but One grows silent, but they all focus on me. Even Four stops writing and lowers their book to peek up at me. The Lords around One hesitantly turn towards them. "That's because your mother was a whore."

Hands returning to being submerged into a golden light, I encircle my crown with some of my powers. Before One can react, I snatch my hurtling crown and point my longsword at them. "Take back what you said about my mother."

Somehow this void became bigger. I suppose it's thanks to the Lords around One either stepping away from them or sinking into their thrones. One teleports just a foot in front of me. Air slams onto me like I was just hit with a violent hurricane the size of an entire country. It pushes me, much of my skin off my bones, away from the giant as my feet point upwards, fluttering against this rough wind. I nearly fly up and am lost to the void if it wasn't for me, forcing the tip of my blade into the seemingly nonexistent floor and holding onto its handle for dear life. My heart drops as I see my sword wiggling loose. It felt as if it climbed up my throat and slid out of my mouth when it eventually gave in. I scramble in the air, watch the Lords look up at me for a moment until I change my sword into a bow. I shoot. One steps back before the arrow, which is attached to a string I'm gripping so tightly that my veins are popping out, can strike their left foot. 

Moving one hand closer, along the rope, to One and the lingering force of their teleportation meant being pushed back two paces. This pattern not only leaves my hands with lacerations but me gripping the rope's unwound end. I'm one heartbeat until I'm sent flying deeper into the void until I fall face first back onto the floor. When I change my bow back into a sword and use it to stand back up, I look up at One, who's staring down at me again. "You, feeble human, want me, a being you can never comprehend how powerful, to take back an observation about a woman who treated you like a dog until she died? She never loved you, you know that?" One bellows out a laugh. "That's right, you don't. You don't remember anything about her.

"You wish to protect the honor of someone who you don't know. Zero, who we seven were, would've laughed at that, which could be an accomplishment depending on how old they were. In the beginning, Zero felt nothing, but near the end they felt everything."

"I don't remember my past. So, yes, I don't remember her, but I knew her at one point and she is still my mother whether she loved me or not." Golden electricity sparks around the blade as I swing it towards One who simply steps away between my swift, blurring movement. Once my sword finishes making an arch, a force as strong as the beat of Cala's wings blows out from it. 

One swings a foot towards me. I try cutting through it, but when it hits my blade, it cracks, then is sent shattering, and I am sent flying towards the other Lords along with the pieces of my sword. My back and the fragments of metal hit One's backrest, and I, along with them, fell down on the seat. It's the feeling of someone poking my shoulder that brings me to force up my aching body as joints slide back together and bones and tissue reknit. 

I throw up and am greeted by a severed hand that's popped up from a floating disk of pure darkness directly right in front of me. There's nothing on the other side of it, but the punch that comes from the hand that's at its forefront tells me that it doesn't matter. 

Back of my head grating against Two's throne, then body flopping back down, I wipe the drip of vomit from my lips. One clarifies as they rub their wrist when I finally manage to look at them, "That was for making a mess of my seat, but I can keep tossing you around if you wish."

Sitting on the throne gets a growl out of Two and One to turn to me. I hold my side, which is still in pain, and eye my broken sword a little off from who's supposed to be my other parent. "What I wish?" I see my body is glowing through my reflection from the blade's pieces in the corner of my eye. Resting my hands on the armchairs once the nanites finish healing me nearly gets Two to pounce. I saw them bursting with the golden glow, which was almost like they were being engulfed in a gold-colored fire until Three rests their hand on the annoyed Two. "Why does it matter what I wish? I am what I've grown to fear and what I hate. I killed Knox. There's still a war out there, but I can't do anything about it because I am stuck in wherever the hell this place is."

"Why do you hate us?"

I blurt out, "Because you've made an entire fucking mess of the universe. Knox was insane, but he is right. You've all been sitting on your ass while things out there turn into chaos. My life too, apparently."

The Lord that just ripped a hole through the void moments ago now rips a hole right beside them. They seemingly grabbed hold of nothing, and after the white flap touches the floor, the new view gets me to jump out of the throne and step towards it because, before me, I see hundreds of ships shooting at each other. One explodes, and its pieces are sent flying into other ships and through a handful of men and women about to land on a nearby enemy ship. Billions are fighting on enemy ships: millions are punching and kicking, shattering helmets or denting armor, thousands are blasting or clawing right through chests and heads, and some have even ripped through others by grabbing their wrists and pulling them apart until their bodies became two, which caused guts to float out in space, but a handful did worse. I'm sickened through all of this, but it's that last bit that breaks me. I grab my face and try to talk myself to remain composed, but my tears push through anyways. 

One breaks through my disgust, "Yes, we have, but the universe isn't black and white. There are so many colors out there. With Knox gone, things are much more fucked up than before. 

"Some feel the need to avenge Knox. Others see weakness. Most are inspired by the fallen commander. At least this is only two years in. Things will get progressively worse, though."

"Two years? I just killed Knox a few minutes ago. How has time passed that quickly?"

They put back the flap, and the horrific imagery of war is put away. "We are in the very blackhole that created the universe. Time is fast out there and slow in here, but I think your friends will arrive here in six minutes thanks to that serpent girl, give or take. Isn't that right, Watcher?"

I jump when a Watcher suddenly appears to my left. The thing looks at me. Two steps out of the way as the multi souled being drifts towards One and bows before them when they're a few feet in front of the Lord. "Yes," the Watcher confirmed. 

"Excellent. You may go." The Watcher vanishes. "Now then would you like to continue to be thrown around like a ragdoll until your friends come and I kill them or sit back down to wait for me to kill your friends?"

"Why," I grunted through gritted teeth.

"Why what? Why were we created? We were created because people wanted us to be created. Did you know everyone spoke the same language before us? Even humans used the same language for a time long ago. That was when Zero was just a speck. Zero became us seven because people wanted to feel. Initially, emotions didn't exist. It's because of Two you want to rip off my head and now that you know this I still don't understand why you hate us. We are you and you are us."

Knuckles turning white, I burst with a golden glow and shout, "No, why did you make me?" I don't have my sword anymore, but that doesn't mean I'm harmless. I fly and charge towards the Lord, and when I'm about to punch them, they simply move aside. 

"You are the first and only one of your kind. You are a partial Lord, but while you've only known about this for mere minutes I've gotten used to my powers for thousands of years." Again, they rip a hole into the void and grab the back of my head. One throws me down and drags me across the floor. For a place of nothing, I sure felt something grind against my face. My face is leaking blood, but One seizes my legs and then hurls me across the room. I'm sure nothing was there before, but something sharp goes right through me. I cough out blood, and as I'm grabbing whatever it is and slowly pull myself free, One quickly does it for me. I scream, and midway through my body stitching the hole up, the Lord punches through the hole forty-five times until One grows tired of that.

I fall with a hard thud and try to inch away, but the Lord sets a foot onto my back and proceeds to crush me. I feel the bones that make up my spine fracture piece by piece. I sob and beg for mercy. This gets Two, Three, and Five to inch towards us. They resist taking another step, probably because One motions for them to stay where they are. "You're a late bloomer, human, but we both know you can stop me. So, why are you letting me do this to you? Do you hate yourself so much that you'd let your third parent brutally hurt you? Answer me." 

I sigh with relief when One steps off of me, but it's not over yet. The Lord kicks me, and I'm flung across the room towards the rest of the other Lords. I coil and wrap my arms around the shrinking hole in my stomach. Once that heals, I stumble up, swaying a little, and look up at the sudden arrival of One. One steps on my feet and proceeds to punch me left and right. I motion my hands in front of me, once again begging them to stop, but they only stop when their fists are hot from all the punching. 

"My daughter, I'm barely using one percent of my powers." I flop down, and One has one of their hands, which is now glowing, raised towards me. They're charging up for a final attack. "Do you wish to die that much?"

"Yes."

Lowering their hand, the Lord asks, "Why?"

"I asked the same of you. Hey, what are you waiting for? Kill me already."

"No." One takes a seat in front of me, but there's still a considerable size difference between us. They sigh before continuing with, "I made you because I am not a real person. I'm made from envy by a number of people you can't even comprehend how many, so my thoughts are not my own. Through the part of me that lives in you I'm able to live as a real person. I'm able to have my own thoughts. I'm able to have my own feelings through having an actual life."

"Selfish bastard!" I blast at them, but One easily deflects it when they summon a shield. 

"I answered your question and now you have to answer mine."

I tried to let out, “Forgive me, Ashley, for leaving you as I did.” It came out as a grumble. 

I squeeze my eyes shut, but S1Y’s blaster never goes off. Hesitantly opening my eyes, I see his wrists are being held above his head by my still lifeless Ashley. As he’s staring up at me in disbelief, he tries wiggling himself loose and begs for answers. She stays silent, not even piping up as he smashes the back of his head against her forehead, which has it bruised soon after.

I’m floating above them. I see that my hands, which I can now feel as I clench and unclench them, have a golden glow around them. No, my whole body is glowing. I’ve seen this sort of light before, but I don’t have the time to question it, and I especially don’t have the time to get hurt for what I’m about to do. 

Reaching my hand out, my sword becomes engulfed in the same glow around me. It spins in the air towards me, flying past the two, nearly cutting off one of S1Y’s hands, and I grab it with one hand before I float back down. S1Y makes another attempt at pulling himself free, but this time, he’s successful. He rips out one of Ashley’s arms from its socket. Eyes widening, I watch it fly past me, its blood sprays across the left side of my face, and it then twitches on a vein in the corner of my eye. Her only hand lets go of him and clutch the stump as she stumbles away from him and eventually goes on her knees with gritting teeth and tears falling down her cheeks. She doesn’t cry out, but I could only imagine the pain, and I think this is the angriest I’ve ever been. Whatever guilt I would’ve felt dies down along with my senses. My body moved on its own as the cause of my love’s pain shoots at me with two blasters. While those lights seemed to slow and blur, I didn’t even see my body moving. I didn’t even notice I’m in front of S1Y and preparing to decapitate him until I heard his voice in my head. “Thank you.”

He moves his arms to the sides, almost as if he’s giving the entire universe a hug, and closes his eyes. It’s been too long since I’ve seen that smile that I thought was lost forever, but I don’t relent. 

I catch his head and his actual lifeless husk before both can hit the floor. I look down at his smile one last time before setting his halves gently down and moving to Ashely. What’s left of her right arm is leaking out too much blood. It’s all over her left hand and right leg. Through squinting eyes, she looks up at me. She smiles, and my heart skips a beat. I bury down all the things I’ve been waiting weeks to tell her, especially my sorrow for running away from her rather than talking it out because we’re running out of time. 

Two glowing hands leaned towards her armless half. Without hesitation, she removes her hand from the wound so that my hands can clasp it. I infuse some of my new power into it. She squirms as the armless sight heats up. Her blood has stopped pouring out of her as I have her right arm fly towards us. I catch it and press it against the now glowing site.

As bone and skin stitch back together before our eyes, she touches the side of my face and wipes away her blood from my cheek. I so desperately want to press my lips against hers. I’m about to as we lean towards each other. I can feel her body heat, which increased my hunger to taste that cherry chapstick. We’re about to kiss, but she stammers out, “Help Saamuki.” I step back and see her clutching the sides of her head, pulling at her hair. Her nails draw blood. “Knox is trying to regain control. Help me by helping her.”

No matter how much it dreads me, she’s right. We have a minute left. With teary eyes, I remind her, “Until death do us part.”

Her eyes widen, and before she can respond, I snap my fingers. She’s teleported out of the ship along with Mikrovos, Khavas, and the bodies of Shiitakee, Skeema, and S1Y. 

Across Saamuki’s no longer glowing body are Knox’s blades. She’s been lifted in the air and is locked in place. Before he can ask, I punch him in the face. The swords slide off of her body, and I catch her. Her body returns to its blue state, and she smiles at me with a weak expression as those bloody holes close. I set her down and order, “Get as far away from this planet as you can.”

Saamuki, who’s now revitalized, gets up, reaches out to me, and asks with wide eyes, “No, wait—” 

She’s teleported out of here before she could finish. Now it’s just me in this wretched state and the actual Devil himself. He spits out a tooth as he mocks me, “A little late to show off don’t you think?” He turns to the timer and smirks at me when he notices I’ve gripped my sword even tighter. “Don’t you get it? You’ve lost. How can you possibly stop what’s meant to be in under a minute?”

I swing my sword with one hand to the side to send a blinding golden beam of light at the crystal with the other hand. It’s beginning to crack and between the cracks is purple lightning firing across the room. One zaps between us, but neither of us flinches. “That. We have under a minute until we both die.” 

He shuts his eyes, and he shows his purpling gums. His teeth grind against each other as his body shakes with rage. His fists go above his head then thrust at his sides. Knox growls and whatever was left of his humanity leaves as long claws are pushed out of his fake fingertips and toes, as well as horns and three sets of wings. Where flesh was has been turned into an exoskeleton. His fur turns into quills, and fangs grow with the horns shoved out of his head’s sides, which touch his shoulders and curve. Two purple rings of light appear and spin around each other and his body. Opening his eyes, purple goo flows out of them. Still, I don’t flinch as he shows me what happens when you slice and dice your DNA. “Before I kill you I’d like to congratulate you for being the first one to witness my true form.” His voice has gotten a lot deeper, almost demonic, fitting. That symbol used for the Lords appears above his forehead, but there’s a line going straight through it. “Thirty eight seconds to entertain me. Make me see that you have gone even uglier, worth my while.” 

He smirks. More purple goo gushes out from his mouth, and it fizzes at the corners of his lips. One moment he’s staring down at me as he’s shooting quills, which I slice through all, and the next, he’s diving towards me. My sword connects with his claws, cutting through them. I was about to mock him, but his claws regrow, and I swerve away, but the claws I cut extend towards me. I’m able to fly up, escape all but one, which penetrates my neck. I pull it out, but once I do, I find Knox has joined me in the air and smashes his wings together. They propel me away and cause me to lose control. I try fighting against the wind current to the best of my abilities, but I end up smashing against the crystal, which electrocuted me. I drop both the quill and my sword. 

Knox comes at me, and I pull my sword from its fall, and it reconnects with my hand just in time. I swing it at him, but he teleports to the left, pulls me by my hair, spins me around, and then throws me into the floor. I fall through the floor, room after room, and when the smoke clears, I see I’m back in the storage room and sent in a panic because of it. 

The room is warmer but is darker than I remember. The crystal above only outlines a few crates, so my glow is my only source of light. It’s surprisingly quiet in here until I hear Knox’s laugh echoing. I wave my hand across the room and see nothing, so I’m met with surprise when I find Knox appear in front of me and ready to punch me. My sword was supposed to go through him, but his body crystalized. So, his fist collides with me, and I am sent flying once again. I land in a crate and am covered in something slimy. There is no sign of any of those things, but a massive shadow now looms over me. Knox is descending onto me with his feet first. I teleport away, and he smashes the rest of the crate. 

On a railing, I look down as he looks around the room for me. When his eyes spot the hole Saamuki cut, he realizes, “Ah, you’ve got to see my experiments. A shame their pitiful lives were wasted because now I can’t become what I was always destined to be because of you.” He spots me, and I dash towards him, breaking through the guardrail in the process. The rings around him send beams of purple light at me. I evade them all. “One second,” he added, 

The last thing I see before the explosion is my sword, which its blade has turned into pure light, going right through Knox’s chest and one of his horns going right through my chest. Then, boom. 

“Take my hand,” a familiar voice called out to me. Ojos?

People say when you die, you see the light. I did, but it’s not the type they always talk about. I don’t see dead loved ones, hear a harp playing or doves coo. Maybe being burned in the afterlife makes more sense for me, but I don’t think I did die even though I’m standing in a white room before seven almighty beings. The Lords of the universe are sitting in their thrones staring down at me. The Lord I talked with at their library has their head leaning into their propped hand at the very end of the left side. On the far right side is the one I met in my unconscious state, but now they have chains wrapped around the lower part of their face, covering their mouth. The center is a Lord who has their legs spread apart and left arm behind the headrest and the right across their right leg. There’s a cigarette pressed between their ring and middle finger. Somehow smoke blows out in front of their mask where their lips are supposed to be. 

Sword reforming in my hand, I’m about to lunge at them, but the center one snaps their fingers. My crown is teleported in their hand. I’m weaponless, yet I bravely inquire, “What am I doing here?”

To the right of the center one, a Lord that’s the bulkiest out of all of them grips their armrests, cracking it; the action causes their muscles to stretch their cloak even more, and they shout, “First, you dare to strike us. Now you’re commanding us?” This Lord’s voice is almost entirely masculine. 

Between them and the Librarian Lord is a Lord hunched forward. They look to be the tallest and longest. This Lord softly replies, “You’re a Lord. No need to waste your energy shouting, especially when it means hurting my ear.” They proceed to rub where their left ear should be. 

“Clearly, this human isn’t as perceptive as you.”

On the center one’s left is a porky Lord. From what I can tell, this one is the shortest. They respond, “It’s been centuries since you complimented them. Correction, any of us.”

Right of the one that tried taking my soul, who’s the only one that has a gold, faceless mask coos before asking, “If Second wishes to compliment them, let it be, but if they do then they should give me the rest of the compliments.”

Fourth, the first Lord I met sighs, “One, can we just answer her question already? I am growing tiresome hearing you idiots bicker. No, I have been tired from having to deal with all of your constant blabbering for centuries.” 

Wait. Where did Knox go? I look around the room. S1Y is still standing there, looking at me. When Earth was taken, we came onto his planet thinking we could take a break from the mess happening beyond the stars. That once-friendly robot risked his life to save me, a stranger he barely met, because he genuinely believed in helping those who couldn't help themselves. That smile, one that's been replaced with a frown, said it all. While my smile in return said the opposite. Now the tables have turned. He's gone. He's alive, though, but in a broken shell, and as for me, I'm trying to keep living for my previous self because she was killed too soon. Or so I thought until I noticed something in those eyes. They darted left. I follow it and see Knox has teleported to my left. Knox's blaster is charging up. Electricity surrounds the increasing purple ball of light. My nanites won't be able to put me back together if that thing hits. So, all I'm left with is down. I hope for the best as I let go just when he shoots. Cool air rapidly pushes against me. What's left of my clothes flaps at my sides, still clinging onto my body. 

I smack the ground with my left arm first. I didn't have enough time to readjust myself to balance out the force. So, my left arm shatters. I shout, but I don't hear it through the ringing in my ears. At least my eyes work. S1Y looks away from me, which means he's in there somewhere. My working arm reaches out to him. 

Knox reappears in front of me, standing between my helpless state and S1Y. He steps on my only working hand and crushes its bones. I scream. S1Y twitches, but he remains glued to that one spot, but something does push him off of me, and that something is a rushing beam of blue light. Knox is sent flying into a nearby wall, chunks of its metal are sent scattering away from him, and Saamuki replaces his previous position. Her body is covered in blue light. Some veins have popped out of her blue flesh. They are pumping, and a lot of them are bulging around her flaming eyes. Her hair and the hems of her cassock are floating too, but not her sash. She lifts the red cloth over her shoulders. It turns into a sword as big as mine, but hers looks more like a cross. 

Saamuki helps me up. Her powers flow through me again. My body has a tint of blue to it, my energy renews, and my skin and bones have healed. Hints of The Speaker are heard when she asks, "Are you okay?" I nod. Her hand moves behind me, and metal being scratched is heard. My sword seemed to pry itself free and flew towards me with the pommel directly pointed at me with a now glowing blue handle. I catch it, wrap my hand around the handle, and the blue fades away. 

Knox removes himself from the wall. He falls, and his eyes slowly move from Saamuki to me. When our confused opponent stands back up, his fingers flick off a dark drop of purple blood from his lips. His eyebrows furrow as he frowns, but he quickly shifts the grimace into a nonchalant expression. The Virmus dusts himself off. He smiles as he finishes. "Look what we have here, S1Y. I now have two sinners that wish to defy their savior. Two Lucifers instead of one and it appears one of them is planning on stopping me with a cross." He swipes a finger in front of him, activating a screen with a timer, and pushes it. The screen floats past us and stops above the crystal. "Ten minutes to entertain me, and after that I will make you join me," the tyrant commander continued. 

Saamuki and I turn to look at each other. We nodded, and she bolted left, and I bolted to the right. She became a blue blur, and I'm sure I looked like a blur mainly of red and yellow. We jump over vein after vein and slide our feet across the floor when we're on either side of him. At the same time, the two of us swing. Knox teleports away, and we stop right when either of our swords can cut the other's heads off. 

Knox is standing above an arching vein behind us and smiles as he pulls his arms back. He stretches his arms towards us, and we swerve away from the incoming hands. They hit the floor, and once its smoke clears, I see it went through several rooms beneath us. I gulp, but another nod from Saamuki, and we begin running towards Knox on the veins at our sides. He pulls back his arms and turns them into blasters. He aims at us. The two of us deflect the rushing purple light as we jump from vein to vein. They bounced off our weapons, sent all over the room, smashing through the walls and floor. Each easily could've killed us if we weren't quick enough. The ones that become directed towards some of the veins don't even leave a mark on them.

Knox turns his pointer fingers into large swords. Near his knuckles are angelic wings as their cross-guards. Their blades have those symbols again, which glow purple along with, now, his eyes. Our swords clash with him from side to side, but the two of us struggle to keep up. Saamuki and I are gritting our teeth. His fluid movements are too much for our eyes to keep up with. I mainly as I'm gaining cuts across my arms. The nanites are stitching my skin back together, but another cut replaces that one every time they do. The rest of his fingers grow swords. I nearly slipped off of the vein to dodge the attack of five blades all at once if it weren't for Saamuki summoning a platform underneath my feet with my next backstep. Knox yawns through our struggles. 

He reverts his hands back and bends his arms towards him, pointing his elbows which suddenly turn into blasters at us. He shoots, but Saamuki is one step ahead of him. She makes shields for both of us. The electrifying purple energy goes around these blue shields, hitting everything around us, S1Y dodges the stray blasts and this time some tear through veins. Purple goo flows out of the newly formed holes. Being so, we're being pushed back, and our defenses are starting to crack. Piece by piece, these things are being vaporized. I try to keep it stable with my flames. It binds it, but not enough. He's going to tear through the shield. The vein underneath us is starting to crumble as well because of the blast's sheer strength, but I don't know what's going to snap first, and my faint blue glow is beginning to fade. The crystal is slowly absorbing my energy again.

I'm on my knees when someone bellows something. That thing inching closer to taking me away makes it hard to hear what was said and who said it. When Saamuki shouts, I'm finally able to hear, "Raise your hand towards me!"

I was growing numb, and I was losing my vision. My body is rapidly growing too heavy. 

I can't do it. 

I can't save us. 

I can't protect the universe. 

I was about to blackout until I heard a voice whisper into my ear. "Please, stay awake. They need you." 

A hand is lightly pressed onto my shoulder. I felt energy soar through me. It rushed towards my hands, and when I turned around to see the cause, I found my eyes watering. Shiitake, glowing, has his head back. My mushroom friend wipes away my tears. Before I can thank him, he fades away from me and appears before Knox, floating before him, and punches him in the face. Saamuki and I, standing in shock, watch Knox fall and spin into a lower vein, which he crashes through, breaking it. Knox quickly recovers from it, using his blasters to fly towards Shiitake. Pulling back his fist, he then punches Shiitakee, but it goes right through him. The ghostly figure that was Shiitakee vanishes into thin air. 

Knox is back between us. He turns left and right, looking at Saamuki and me. No one has an answer for what we're all questioning. I shrug. We do get our powered-up selves towards him with our swords pointed forwards. No, overpowered selves because Knox is no longer outpacing us. We slice through him, but his nanites fix it. They're not fast enough, though. He's gritting his teeth as more and more of his blood splashes onto his face. 

Knox is stumbling about with his hands swaying in front of him, nearly slipping off. He's looking at the two of us, but he can barely keep his eyes open. We're about to win this. We're about to decapitate Knox until he snaps his fingers. S1Y steps in front of him. 

"S1Y, I know you're in there somewhere. I know you can hear me. You have to fight against Knox's control."

"He doesn't have me like how he does with your friends. All I'm about to do is of my own volition, but I'm sorry."

What I thought was my friend shoots at me. My sword is ready to block it, but instead of having to face the same blast that killed that serpent on his homeworld, the ground beneath me breaks. He shot at the vein. I fall, and as I do, he jumps and flies towards me with his fist pulled back. My back hits a vein, causing a painful tingling sensation to run up and down my body. After I grunt, I roll out of the way of S1Y's punch. The vein cracks, and pieces of it and its goo are sent upwards. They rain down on him. He stands upright when I do it with the help of my sword. 

We're five minutes before the end. Knox is still wounded, but his pace is much better now that he only has to face Saamuki. Her sword has to deal with ten swords, which their maneuvers get faster and faster with each swing. She only has seconds until his nanites recover him fully. Whereas I don't know how long I have, but I do know it's not short enough. Sword in both hands, I command, "S1Y, step out of my way. I don't care how much you think you're in control of your own body. I know you and this isn't you. The you I know won't let what happens after that timer hits zero."

"On that day, I protected you and your friends. It's in my program to help others in need. In five minutes, my master will make my purpose pointless. He will protect all those left that didn't get to be part of the greatest purpose a person can be given. Commander Knox will make the universe a better place."

"By taking away the lives of billions, some of which includes the friends you saved."

"I've learned you can't save everyone."

"How can you even say that? Why are you truly doing this, S1Y? What happened to you?"

"What happened to me? Simply, I was reunited with my creators. Virmus three generations ago created my people. I am the last of them now. Each one sacrificed themselves to make this day possible."

"S1Y, I'm sorry."

"No, I am." He sprints towards me with a ferocious punch. I blocked it with my sword, but I felt the impact hitting my abdomen, and he's pushing me back. As I try to move him away, in the corner of my eye, I see Saamuki taking a hit. One of the ten blades pierces into her shoulder. She grabs it, and it cuts into her hand, but Knox pulls it back, causing the cut to deepen and her to nearly slip. 

Mikrovos comes up from behind the bigger Tauvox. His shadow engulfs the wilting mushroom. He’s about to turn Shiitakee into a pancake until Saamuki blasts him. She runs over to him with glowing blue fists when he falls with a hard thud. I get out my sword again and step over to help Shiitakee, but the Tauvox he’s engaging with points his free hand at me. The gauntlet stretches and clutches me, and when I’m lifted several feet in the air, he tightens his grip until I feel my ribs cracking. I scream, flail, and try to keep my sword from slipping out of my shaking hand. 

Even with my limited mobility, I try jerking my sword at my suffocating seal. It merely clinks rather than cutting me free. 

Saamuki punches Mikrovos across his face, but he follows it up with his own punch. She dodges that and even catches the next one, but she doesn’t get to counter his kick. The kick from the beefy alien flings the flail alien, causing her to come barreling back towards the elevator, but she readjusts herself so that her feet hit it instead of her back—the metal dents around her feet. 

Just like with Khavas, Mikrovos extends one of his gauntlets towards her. She tries blasting at it, but she’s too slow. Saamuki is grabbed too, but he swung her over us, across the room, and then let go when she passed us. 

Saamuki smashes through the roof, and I am sent falling back down. We crash into the floor. Someone screams as soon as we do. 

My body tried to relent. It screamed at me, but I forced it to get back up. Breathing became difficult. It is as if a Tauvox is sitting on me, pressing their mass onto my chest. Considering my chest has collapsed in on itself as I can see through blurry eyes that some pieces of ribs have pierced through my skin, of course, with my squirting blood, the feeling makes sense. Standing back up is met with slipping and falling back down face first. I still have my sword in my hand through my struggles, which I transform into a shield and get my blaster out. I try aiming it at Khavas because he’s currently engaged in a brawl with Shiitake. This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen him truly mad. Annoyed he’s been, but nothing even remotely close to this. He swings left and right, giving no time for Khavas to do anything but be his punching bag. With every swing, his fists crack, but they quickly reknit. The same is said for Khavas, but his nanites can’t process fast enough because of the downright brutal jabs. His chest is covered in bruises, a sizable second-degree burn, and his face is covered in his blood. He can’t stand anymore, and I think I can see pieces of rib have torn through his flesh as well. The Tauvox goes unconscious, hitting the floor; the out of breath victor tries cooling his smoking hands by shaking them about. Although his victory doesn’t last long. Mikrovos brings himself back into our senses, Shiitakee’s mainly, when he grabs the worn mushroom’s face. 

I crawl out of that crater and limp towards them. I shoot as well, but he blocks all but one. It digs into his flesh, dispersing a clump of fur on his cheek, and twists it until it comes out of him. Mikrovos huffs then while squeezing the now squirming Shiitakee. Something takes over me. Is this what Ojos was talking about? Heart racing, everything in the room blurs but him. I don’t feel the pain anymore. I didn’t even realize I dived away from his fist and smashed the shield into his stomach, cutting into it, but as soon as the collision occurs, Shiitakee’s head explodes in his grip. 

He drops the headless Shiitakee. Around Shiitakee’s twitching body is his blood gushing out of his neck and pooling underneath him. I turn back to the beast above me and look into his lifeless eyes. I shove my shield upwards. It smashes his face. His head juts back, and when he returns it forward, I see that his nose is bleeding, but I shove the shield again into his face. He growls and reforms both of his hands into blades. They are rammed towards my neck, but I shoot into his mouth, missing his spinal cord. It’s now his attention is focused on himself. Mikrovos presses down on the wound, covering the spurting blood. 

I’m crying, but I’m smiling. I’m too scared to mourn yet. “It’s because of you I’m standing before you. You’ve saved my life, my dear friend, too many times. Now I am going to save yours once and for all.” My shield’s fire soars onto me. It consumes me as I transform the broad piece of metal into a war hammer. The weapon, the biggest one I’ve ever had to create, has two faces on either side as big as the Tauvox’s face. Without this invigorating feeling, I wouldn’t be able to hold this monstrous weapon upright with just a single hand. I wouldn’t be able to hold it at all.

I ready myself, widening my stance and tightening my grip. The hole in Mikrovos’ neck must’ve been patched up because he returns his focus onto me and stretches both his gauntlets towards me. I outmaneuver some and strike the rest. Shoot, too, as I’m circling around and inching closer towards him. Mikrovos evades all of them. I knew he would, and I made such a seemingly pointless effort because it made it all that much easier to get onto one of his gauntlets and dash across the rippling armor. Upon noticing how close I am to him, he tries batting me off with his other hand. I slid under it and beat my hammer on his forehead. 

Another Tauvox lay knocked out. Both will get up soon, but I still head to the comrade I have left and begin to carry her away from the brutality. Upon my touch, she begins to wake up, but she’s groggy. 

“S-Shiitakee...Where is he?” Her eyes move around the room until she spots what’s left of the man in question. She tears up, but she can’t bring herself to cry. I place her head on my chest. We stand there in silence as my eyes linger on Shiitakee’s lifeless body. I still can’t bring myself to cry, but I can bring myself to bring our focus back to the bright room at the end of this hallway. Both of us drag our feet. 

The crystal is colossal and purple. Besides the size and color difference compared to the Tauvoxes’ spaceship, this crystal is covered in beating veins. They cover the room as well. What was once an energy source now looks to have become a parasite. Stepping inside the room validates that assumption because the two of us become weak. She’s slipping in and out of consciousness, her eyes flick from blue to its regular color, as streams of blue light emanating from her float towards the sickly rock, and now I’m having trouble keeping us both upright. When I get on my knees, she moves a trembling glowing blue hand towards me. I, in turn, grab it with a fiery one. 

Our unworldly powers blend into each other and surround us, creating a rainbow-colored bubble. Our energy comes back to us, but we find out we have our backs to Commander Knox as he slowly claps. I have my blaster ready to blow off his head, and she’s ready to blast him into deep space to choke on his failure, but he grabs the two of us before we can and throws us further into the room.

We go tumbling, and as I do, I see he rips into particles. He teleports on top of me and presses down on my neck with his foot. Saamuki comes right behind him and blasts a blinding ray of light. That would’ve easily killed Cala, but Knox reaches out towards it. The blast doesn’t even scratch the metal arm. He grabs her face and throws her across the room. She goes right through the wall across from us and several others beyond it. 

Knox laughs at my pitiful attempts at trying to pry him off. I feel myself growing weaker again. “I didn’t get a good look at you the last time we saw each other, cousin. What an ugly sight you are.”

“Your people have gotten this far yet none have created a mirror.”

“A true shame, isn’t it? But I don’t need one when I know the beauty I carry, centuries worth of splicing and dicing our DNA with some of the most powerful civilizations.”

“Power, but the catch was your humanity.”

He grabs my collar and lifts me up. Then, slams me into the wall directly facing us. “Your people would do the same things I have done. In fact, they have done them—wars and slavery. Our histories have always been about atrocities. It should not be a surprise a semi-human would be at the forefront of the second intergalactic war, but we’ve always done it all for a reason.

“So, now I’m here asking why you are trying to stop me? Humans have made Earth a living hell, but they’ve also made it one of the best planets in the universe. I’ve caused destruction. Beyond these walls, thousands are dying as we speak, but sacrifices must be made to make the universe a better place.

“The Lords are merely puppets. They do not care for us, but I do. Do you really think it doesn’t hurt me knowing so many are dying out there?”

 I don’t respond. 

“This is the part where you explain yourself before I kill you.”

“How did you even know we would be here?”

“Instead, you bring out a question rather than an answer? Fine. Relieving you of your worries is the only mercy I can grant you.

“That idiot Syco, a child that kissed the ground I walked on, has been missing my calls, so of course I began to question. I wondered for some time if he finally moved on from his daddy issues. Thankfully my suspicions were proven to be right long before you entered my ship.” He snaps his fingers. S1Y jumps down from the roof with a familiar, limp shape over his shoulder. He throws Skeema’s pummeled body towards us. 

Skeema’s eyes are swollen shut, his legs are bent the wrong way, and he is covered in dried blood. He’s breathing, but barely. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled out. 

Another snap of his fingers and one of S1Y’s hands impales him. 

“Skeema!”

Because of the state that Virmus is in, he doesn’t relent when S1Y yanks his still-beating heart out. The robot squeezes it until it explodes. I cry out. 

“There are plenty of places to hide on this ship, but there’s only so much time before a rat becomes hungry. He survived far longer than I calculated. I’ll give him that.”

Once more my fire envelopes me. I punch the Virmus’ commander square in the face with such a force he lets go of me and crashes into his crystal. He lands back on the ground with a shaking body and looks up at me with the broadest, toothy grin I’ve ever seen from anyone. 

S1Y is about to engage me, but with the third snap of Knox’s fingers, the robot returns to being an audience member. Knox dusts himself off. 

“All of you messed up fucks only know how to care about yourselves! You make us pawns in your sick little game, but us pawns are people just like you. We have history. We have thoughts. We have feelings. All so meaningful, precious, but it takes you to be brought to your lowest for you to finally understand that, so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to cut off that stupid smile off your horrid face.”

“The outdated fighting against its perfect form?”

“More like it’s broken form.” In an instant, I’m in front of him with my longsword about to slice off his head. He stops me from doing so with just a single finger pressing against the blade. Again, not even a cut. He smirks as my eyes widen.

She grunts. That blast was much stronger than the ones before, which caused everything around us to shake. Her arms shook. “Syco wanted your head. Explain that instance.”

“I need to concentrate. If I feel too stressed I may release a much deadlier gas than that red one. If those two weren’t Tauvoxes they would be dead. My black gas will most likely kill all three of you even with your nanites and blue powers.”

She opens her mouth to respond, but I interrupt her. “Saamuki, let me through. I’ll deal with Ashley.”

The two of them looked at each other then turned to me. It’s Saamuki that speaks out their concern, “Are you sure?”

“No matter how much I’d rather not be in this situation, I have to accept I’m our only option right now. Besides, I just have to buy enough time for Shiitakee.” I look at the lean mushroom with a grimace. I’m not mad at him. I’m angry at myself for wanting to run away. I’m irate that I lied to both of them, two people who have been by my side for far too long, because they’ve genuinely cared about me, at least for the most part, as I’m unable to accept that I need to face her now. So many times, I’ve nearly died. So many times, I wanted to give up. I kept going because of her, but now I can’t go forward because of her. 

Two hands are placed on either of my shoulders. I flinch from Saamuki and Shiitakee’s touch. This time it’s Shiitakee, that’s the first one to talk. “Syco’s mistake was that he believed it was him against the universe. I suppose that’s the fault of being raised by the most egocentric man in the known universe.” He grins before continuing with, “He thought he had nobody even though he has everybody. Well, almost everybody.” 

Using both hands, Ashley sends a massive blast our way, which causes Saamuki’s wall to abruptly fade. She lets go of me and quickly reforms it before we actually take a hit. “Shiitakee, speed up your speech before it becomes an obituary.” 

“You’re better than him. You know you are, but don’t let yourself make the same mistake he did. Honestly, if he moved on from his predecessor sooner he could’ve taken control of the universe, or at least a good fourth of it.”

Placing my hand on his, I softly say, “Thank you.” I grip my blaster tighter and let go of him. A shortsword is now manifested in that hand. Looking at Saamuki I regard her, “You’ve helped me since the beginning.”

“We’ve helped each other since the beginning, but she’s helped you far longer. Go to her. She needs your help again, but you’re not going to face her alone.”

“I never was alone. Let’s help her together.”

I step out of the opening. The shield reforms soon after, and the battle taking place far beyond these cold, metal walls return to my hearing. I was too focused on her trying to annihilate us, and now since that has taken a brief pause, I can listen to the world around us. The ship feels bigger. We’ve become smaller. On the other side, many are still shouting and blasting at each other. Explosions cause this vessel to rumble. Killings continue on even as the world around me comes to a halt. Imagining the gorefest pisses me off even when they include Knox’s side. 

My red-headed opponent stands stiff and eyes me down. She notes my weapons. One of her guns shifts into a sword. “I know you’re somewhere deep down in there, Ashley. I know you can hear me. Believe me, this isn’t the reunion I wanted, but in order to save you I have to defeat you.”

Ashley sprints towards me, but it’s wonky. Clunky? But she looked like one big, red blur, one that shoved me against Saamuki’s wall. My back is slammed against it. I grunt, but I’m able to deflect her incoming blade with my sword. Her weapon’s tip pierced the floor. If I slipped up, she would’ve cut me into two. As she tries getting it out, she raises her blaster towards my face. I move away, but she gets her blade out of the floor and swings it at me. I block it again, but I don’t have enough time to defend myself from her second shot. I brace myself for the impact and hope my nanites protect me from the incoming pain. That never comes because a small, blue shield appears between us. Saamuki saved my life again. I mouth my thanks to her. 

My mind-controlled wife then changes her blaster into another sword. She now has two blades, and the new one goes right for the shield. The shield vanishes as I sweep at her legs. Ashley stumbles back, and I elbow her before she can regain her footing. I think I elbow her a little too hard because blood has smeared across one of the corners of her lips. She ignores this and sprints towards me again. I shoot her, and she dodges each blast. 

Something speaks to me, a voice I’m unable to pinpoint. Sword pulled back, I concentrated more fire on surrounding its blade. Its blade grows as I do, but I don’t feel the weight change. Still, I can feel the power shift. When she’s close enough, I swing. My sword collides with only one of her blades. Its flames begin to consume hers.

We fight for dominance. Our sharpened metals moan from the stress. Hers cracks, but it slides across my sword. It would have decapitated me if I hadn’t adjusted mine in time. Speaking of close calls, the other blade was a mere second from stabbing my guts if it weren’t for Saamuki once again. I was relieved one moment, but the next, I face horror when that second blade goes right through my defense and into me. I hold myself from spitting out blood, but I can’t keep myself standing. 

Maybe it’s the dizziness. I’m losing too much blood, but I think I see Ashley’s eyes water. Even so, she buries the blade again into me and begins to slice me in half. I try to pry it off of me. It cuts into my palms. I screamed. The pain and her greater strength hindered me from being successful.

A large shield comes zooming towards her. She pulls out the blade inside me and uses both of them to slice through the blue wall, but soon multiple come her way. Ashley can cut through most, but she’s not quick enough to do the same for some. They slam into her, pushing her across the hallway. 

Saamuki rushes past me, towards her, and onto several small, square, and blue platforms. She continues towards her from above, and once more does she rain down those thick shields onto Ashley. Turning behind me, I see Shiitakee running towards me. He inspects my injury once he’s in front of me. Of course, it’s healing. I can feel my skin reconnect, but it will take some time. I’m a sitting duck until it can. He’s pressing one of his hands against the wound, putting back my intestines inside me and preventing me from going unconscious from too much blood loss. Shiitakee uses the other to rip a piece of his clothing and wrap it around my wound. I’m in pain. It’s nothing compared to when my heart was stabbed not too long ago, but when that piece of clothing tightens around the wound, my eyes water. 

“Sorry,” he apologized. 

“Tell me you can release a nondeadly gas now, preferably one that can make her unconscious.” I try getting up, but he motions for me to remain sitting. I eye my blood on his hands. That could’ve been his blood. 

I can’t let that happen. Not to anyone. I want to stop that from happening, but I’m in no position to stop anything anytime soon. I can’t stop the fight taking place in front of us from afar. I can’t stop the battle taking place outside, at least not yet.

“Wait here.” I blink, and he’s still in front of me. I blink again, and he has joined up with Saamuki. She and Ashley are panting. Same movements but different expressions. Of course, Saamuki’s is more animated. Even when asked to move away from Shiitakee, she’s able to pronounce her personality, delicate and coordinated. Somehow powerful, too, as she tries to stride towards me. The robotic one, not entirely because of her inorganic parts but for her imitations at trying to act like how a person would in her situation, repositions herself. She readies herself to attack, which she does by forcing herself to bolt towards Shiitakee. She’s much slower, making it easy for Shiitakee to dodge her swings and eventually grab both her arms and headbutt her.

Ashley’s now crooked nose is bleeding. I wince, ignoring Saamuki asking if I’m okay. She continues to ignore her injuries by trying to land a hit on the much taller figure. Again, through her desperate attempts, Shiitakee grabs her. This time he pushes her back, and she hits the wall behind her. It’s then he finally releases a dark yellow gas, kind of gray. For the third time, she tries cutting into the threads that make up the vegetation’s body, she coughs too, but this attempt abruptly ends when she falls to the floor. 

“We don’t have to worry about her for a while.” He points a thumb towards her then proceeds to carry me. I don’t relent because I don’t have the energy to. I won’t have any for a while. “So, how much time do we have left?”

“Well, we didn’t count on a full blown intergalactic battle to take place right now. So, your guess is as good as mine.”

“Damn. Okay, so how far away are we from our target?”

She gets out a map of the spaceship. She points at the lowest floor. “We’re here.” Her finger drifts upwards until it stops at the highest level. That should be a good hour of running at best. “My captain’s agent said he last saw Commander Knox in his chair about an hour before his ship made contact with Commander Zel.”

“So, we’re going to rely on the words of a Virmus?”

“No. Our best bet would be heading to the ship’s crystal.” That would cut my calculated time in half, but it’s still a long run, especially for Shiitakee, considering I will weigh him down until I can get my strength back. Her focus is turned to me as soon as her screen vanishes. “You should be healed by then.”

“Until she is, please tell me this ship isn’t like Syco’s. I mean yours. The bigger one, obviously. Does this ship have an elevator, especially one near here? I don’t care if that giant freezer’s door is forever locked. I want to get as far away from those things asap.” 

Acoustic music, mainly the piano, played as we went up the elevator. The machine is in the shape of a cylinder. It would’ve been a tight squeeze with a Tauvox, but it’s just big enough for the three of us. Shiitakee tapped his foot to the beat and started singing, it sounded like a ballad, but it wasn’t good. I wished I didn’t have nanites because I wouldn’t be awake enough to hear this if I didn’t. I wouldn’t be alive at all. I may sound too harsh, but it was akin to a cat scratching its nails on a chalkboard, a boy going through puberty, or an old duck—an ancient one. I’m thankful for his kindness but not for what he claims is his singing voice. The ballad is apparently well-known. When Saamuki joined him, it sounded better because she could sing. Still, the sight makes me smile even though I’m in pain because even in dire moments, I am reminded of how not so dark the universe can be. 

A feminine robotic voice announces we’ve arrived at the ship’s center. Shiitakee gently helps me back down. I feel where the wound is supposed to be. No cuts and guts, but plenty of blood is now stained there and on Shiitakee. I make this guilt obvious, but he brushes it aside and smiles. I can’t help but smile, too, as its metal door revolves past us. A glass door then is shown, and it too then spins past us, but now in front of us are two Tauvoxes. I haven’t seen either in some time, but like with Ashley, this isn’t the reunion Saamuki and I would’ve wanted. They growl. 

I only caught a glimpse of him the last time I saw him. Now that he’s standing to my left, I can see his brown fur has sprinkles of white and grey. His body type is similar to the others in that he is muscular and about double either mine or Saamuki’s heights, but he’s wider. His stomach is protruding. There’s a scar over his left eye, and a small metal pole has replaced the bottom half of his right leg. The captain, as I soon learn his rank, truly fits the physical description of a pirate. 

“Captain, if it comes to that, we just have to give it our all. That being said, our best option should be having a small group sneaking onto the ship and assassinating Knox while he’s busy conquering that planet. Rescue the others as well, but finding Shiitakee should be our priority.”

“Then, I volunteer to go, Commander Saamuki,” the lieutenant offered. He saluted when Saamuki made eye contact with him.  

“No. We can’t afford to bring any Tauvox with us. This mission requires stealth. Besides, you’ve proven you can keep this entire ship from blowing up.”

“That would put you at four hours if Commander Knox defeats Commander Zel in the time I calculated, which my calculations are never wrong.” This Tauvox standing right across from Saamuki would look like any other Tauvox, but his fur is longer than the rest. He tied the ones on his head into a ponytail, which looks like a wolf’s tail because of its aged appearance. He gets out a screen and tosses it towards us. Once it’s right above the replica of the enemy ship, it changes into three shapes. One is a large ball and the second is a dot slowly inching towards the larger shape. The third is a clock that shows how much time we have left. We’re at eleven hours, twenty minutes, and thirty seconds. “With such limited time, Commander Saamuki, if none of us can join you in such an imperative mission, one that will decide the fate of the entire Universe, who could possibly qualify then?” 

All these men had their eyes on her. As someone who was once a sex worker and one who still looks like one, even with her conservative outfit, the look of these men isn’t of lust. They are hungry, yes, but not for a taste of Saamuki. Instead, those eyes hungered for answers and hope, hope for their commander to make the right decision.  

The fate of quadrillions is in the hands of us—a snake possessed by some nonbinary ghost, a mushroom with a smoking addiction, and a human with a magical crown. They flew towards Commander Knox’s spaceship using Saamuki’s much smaller spaceship. Her Tauvoxes are following not too far away. Commander Knox had apparently defeated Commander Zel an hour earlier than predicted, which got a rise out of the ponytailed Tauvox. While the three of us didn’t show how anxious we are, I could feel it in the room. Shiitakee and I stayed silent. While piloting her ship Saamuki mentioned how we’re finally getting the others back, but I didn’t vocalize my excitement.

I didn’t vocalize anything because I was far from excited, even if I’ve been longing for this moment. I just sat and watched the stars fly past us, looking like lines because of how fast this tiny ship was going, with the outfit I copied from my dream using my crown. I did look at Saamuki, though. Without words, we shared something, and that was acknowledging our contingency plan. If we failed, then one of us would need to stay behind while the others escaped. The one that does would have to detonate Knox’s crystal. That would instantly kill everyone in a hundred-mile radius. Not even an overpowered Watcher could survive such an explosion, which would mean the one that would stay behind wouldn’t either. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. 

Quadrant Eighty-Five. The planet is called Vecta. It’s the same as I remember it. Its moons light up the night sky, this rocky landscape, and its light glints around the edges of those ahead, on the other side of this boulder. I can see Tauvoxes, Virmuses, and other alien species fighting on Knox’s side. No signs of Skeema, Ashley, Mikrovos, or even Khavas. They clash against the Talten’s blazing weapons and the weapons of the other figures. I spot a red-painted symbol, which is glowing, on one of the wrists of the Talten’s allies. Not only may Licata be part of the fight but Sakhra too. Saamuki doesn’t know who she is, of course, but I can see she realizes the same thing I do in the case of her long-time rock friend. She turns to us with fiery blue eyes. “We have a mission. We can worry about the fight later. Come on you two while everyone is busy fighting each other.”

Saamuki, with a blaster far more superior than the ones we used in the beginning, is the one in front leading us to Knox’s ship that’s about a yard away. I’m in the middle with my dagger in one hand and my own blaster in the other. It’s just as strong as the one in her grip. Before we separated from her Tauvoxes, I watched her test them. They went through five walls of what’s been her ship for about two days now. It nearly took off an inch of the Tauvox in one of the rooms she shot through. Luckily he dodged just in time, or he would’ve joined Apulsion in the afterlife. Shiitakee is last in case he needs to omit one of his gases and is empty-handed. What he can do with that cap compensates for his lack of weaponry. 

With every step we took to bring us closer to the spaceship ahead, the louder the battle to our left became even though they continued to be well far away from us. Screams are heard as well as curses to Knox’s followers. Hundreds of blasters are going off, probably from the Virmuses, but only a Talten is heard collapsing from the shots. Horns, those from Tauvoxes, rip through flesh, and screams follow suit, but Knox’s side isn’t in complete control of the battle. I smelt flesh being burned. Some of the Taltens set a few Tauvoxes, which howled to the night sky, on fire. Sakhra’s group is pulling their weight in the fight, hitting the opposing side with their symbols.

In the corner of my eye, Sakhra’s group slaughters hundreds on Knox’s side. I can’t even imagine how many have been killed. The battlefield must be covered in bodies, blood, and whatever insects are on this planet. While over here, it sounds brutal enough; the fight taking place above our heads doesn’t seem too merciless either. Several factions of Space Pirates are shooting at each other. Thousands are probably fighting outside of their ships, fighting out in space. There must be hundreds of corpses floating out in outer space now. 

One of the ships catches my eyes. Banners stretch over their sides. Those long strips of cloth have the symbol of the Lords, which means one of the battalions has joined the fight. This must be their last stand against Commander Knox, but Saamuki’s Tauvoxes aren’t taking part in it. Knox would know we’re here if they were, but the lieutenant is in command of the ship if they’re spotted. 

Saamuki activated her screen, which has the layout of the ship. She took a moment to study it, and then she motions for it to vanish. “Shiitakee, this will take a bit. Watch out backs and,” she turns to me then continues with, “Make sure both of your weapons are at the ready in case there’s someone on the other side.” With that, she held down her blaster’s trigger, causing it to become a blowtorch. Sparks flew, and the metal groaned as its being forced to tear. I held my weapons even tighter as she got closer to finishing. When the piece finally gave way, we were thankfully not greeted by someone pointing their blaster at our heads but instead a four-sided hole the right size for each of us to easily slide into and enter a dimly lit room with flickering lights and some crates. The room must be for storage. Our leader’s eyes are fully engulfed in blue. Then, as quickly as they swallowed the rest of her eyes, they went back to just filling her pupils. 

“I didn’t see anyone in the room. So, let’s go.”

We stepped inside. The room is far more expansive than what it looked like on the outside. It’s about the size of the library, but a lot colder. Someone set the air conditioner to the max, it seems. I’m shivering even with this armor. Shiitakee is too, but not Saamuki. She has her supernatural powers to thank for that. 

For such a big room, there isn’t much in here. We walk past a few crates as tall as Shiitakee. “Those boxes are giving me the creeps. Please, can we walk a bit faster? They’re weirding me out and I’ve been friends with Syco for years.”

Saamuki jokingly remarks, “I’ve known Cabelo all my life and I have to tell you Syco has nothing on Cabelo.” 

“Cabelo? That guy that owns that whole sex hotel? That Cabelo?” She nods. “I knew you looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure since you’re you know wearing that whole get up. Never heard that you had the whole blue thing going on until, well, we met, but it’s really cool. I wish I could do what you can. I would’ve shot Syco a long time ago.”

She giggles. “I haven’t always been able to shoot fire out of my hands. My powers are recent. It has some ups and downs too.” She shrugs.

“You got to tell me the story behind it, especially how you and her met. A human. Wow. I mean Syco already told me a long time ago, but I’d still love to hear it from you two. Also, about your friends that are on this ship. Who’s Mikrovos? Syco complained about him plenty.”

I felt the tension emanating from Saamuki. She is facing away from me, but I just know the mention of Mikrovos made her uncomfortable. Her vibe is making me uncomfortable, but Shiitakee hasn’t noticed. Our backstories must’ve distracted him from his worries, but I get a terrible feeling. So, I slide the dagger underneath my breastplate, grab Saamuki’s hand, and bolt towards the door. Shiitakee follows suit but asks what’s happening while he’s trying to catch up with us. Saamuki is questioning too. Both are answered when a hand to my left smashes through its wooden container. We’ve run past it, and I try not to look back around, but it’s Shiitakee’s cursing that gets me then Saamuki to glance back. An oozy, hairless, and eyeless body goes splat onto the metal floor. Their mouth opens, or what is supposed to be one does, as strands of skin have stuck parts of their lips together. They struggle to make a noise. They muster out a groan and begin crawling towards us. Their slime spreads around them and trails behind them as they slither closer to us. When we’re right about to exit through the door, they reach their hand towards us. I turn back around and force myself, with Saamuki still holding onto me, to sprint the distance left. Once the two of us then Shiitakee finally escape, I get out my blaster and shoot the door’s control panel. Whatever it is won’t be reaching us anytime soon. 

As the three of us try catching out breaths, Shiitakee comments, “Thanks for almost leaving me back there. A little warning next time, don’t you think, but what the hell was even that? Saamuki, I thought you said you didn’t see anyone in that room?”

“I-I didn’t. It must not have a soul.” I’m hit with another sense. I look away from them. My grip on Saamuki tightens. I’m standing stiff. “What’s wrong,” she asked me.

I respond to her, “Her.” On the other side of the hallway is a red-headed figure. Unlike the last time I saw her, she’s been fitted with gauntlets that stretch to her elbows. Like before, her eyes are dead.

“Who’s she?” Shiitakee finally looks to where Saamuki and I are looking. 

I raise my knees to my chin, wrap my arms around them, hugging myself snugly, and wipe away my tears as I look up at the lights above. “I wanted to believe I finally found someone that understood. That was stupid of me because I already have people that listen.”

“And you’re wrong.”

Standing back up, stiff, I ask, “Excuse me?”

 “Again, I’m not discounting everything I did wrong, but I didn’t dehumanize you. You’re still human even with the nanites. Maybe you’re even more human with them. The universe needs more people like you.” Syco reaches up, and he touches the same horn that stabbed me. “Maybe I’m not in the right place to say this, but thank you.”

Relaxing my posture, I respond with, “For what?”

“For being the only one to call me out.”

“Well, at least you’re learning to listen. I still need to figure that out.” A laugh escapes from my lips, but I’m not happy. I’m hurt. I’m broken. 

It’s as if Syco read my mind because he replies, “You’re not broken. No one is. We’re all people and we make mistakes, some unforgivable, but there’s always still time to learn, at least that’s what I’ve recently been telling myself. I just know we’re not God, so stop forcing yourself into trying to be them. 

“Unlike me you’re not imprisoned. You’re free. Please, human, do better than me.” 

“I’m going to ask Saamuki about letting you free.” His ears perk up, and from looking over his shoulder, I can see him looking down at his hands, at his shackles. “This isn’t because you’re forgiven. You’re far from being Mikrovos and you’re not like your predecessor. I can accept that now, but we need all the help we can get right now.”

“I suppose you’re referencing Commander Knox’s plan.”

“You’ve known about his plan?...Of course you do.”

He admits, “I wanted to destroy it all. I didn’t care who was hurt. I told myself these things for a long time, but that’s not true. If it was, then I wouldn’t have put those nanites into you. Everything I’ve done was a cry for help. We all want somebody to save us from ourselves, but it’s up to us to be our own heroes. If Commander Saamuki agrees to let me free, I want to save those who forget this. Still, I am a bastard. I’ll always be no matter what I do because I can’t erase what I did, but I can help save what people can do.”

He turns to me. There are bags underneath his red eyes; Syco has been crying. It’s that realization that gets me to crouch down so that we’re the same height. Syco opens his mouth and barely phrases the first word of what he wants to say before closing his mouth, hesitating. The Tauvox gulps and looks away from me briefly until he turns back around and meets my eyes again. “I wish I can take back what you’ve had to go through, but The Commander is still alive.” I knew this already because I saw it before my eyes when Saamuki and I went into that trippy state a few days back. Because I already know, it doesn’t mean I’m okay with remembering. The reminder has me clench my jaw. “I’ve been trying to keep him alive by feeding his body the energy from the ship’s crystal for months now. I thought with him like that I’ll get him to finally listen to me. I’ve learned there’s no point in talking to a corpse. He’s in the basement. You deserve the right to know.”

I ease the tension boiling in me with a sigh, unclenching my jaw. “Thank you, friend.”

This other person before me, a new friend of mine, gives me a lopsided smile, but it’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him. 

Overhead the dim light buzzed. On either side of us, it is pitch black. It looked like two blackholes sat on opposite ends of the hallway, hungry. I felt like I was being pulled towards them. The walk to get here was long, but after several twists and turns and one ladder later, we stood before the room. I have a holographic screen before my hands. Just one swipe across its smooth surface and this agonizing wait, one that gets my heart thumping and goosebumps to prickle along with the hair on my arms, can finally be over. It’s simple, yet here my hand is, quivering above it. I was on the verge of throwing up, but Shiitakee rested his hand on my nervous one. “You’re not going to face him alone. I’m here.”

No one knows we’re down here besides Syco, so we’re all alone in the gloomiest part of the ship. Even so, I told him, “No, I want to face him alone. He can’t hurt me or anyone else again.”

My mushroom friend let go of me and raised his eyebrow. “A-Are sure you want to go in alone?”

I smile at him and confidently reply, “Yes. Besides, Saamuki probably needs your help. Before I left, they were having trouble contacting Sakhra, her friend who’s also against Syco, the other Space Pirates, and, well, the Lords, but who isn’t?”

He scratches the back of his cap and then looks off to the side. “Sakhra, is it? That name sounds familiar, but I don’t think he’s part of the group I’m in. My group is small, so I know the members.”

My eyes widen, and I lower the small green screen. Putting the hand not holding the device behind my back, I begin to form my sword. “Small? How small are we talking about?” 

“Four hundred and twenty eight, as of the last time I got into contact with them. Why?” His question is answered with my sword being pointed at his neck. Shiitakee raises his hands. “Whoa. Whoa there. What’s all this about?”

“You’re with that four eyed guy who originally owned my dagger.”

“Dagger? Oh, that one. I knew it looked familiar. Bichak’s, right?” I move the blade’s point even closer to his neck. “Look, I’m not sure what trouble has Bichak caused you, but I swear I’m not out here planning to do the same.”

“He tried killing Sakhra, Saamuki, and me.”

“Okay, yeah I see why you want to decapitate me now, but I assure you I’m on whatever is the right side, which is your side. I only joined Bichak and his group for Syco’s sake. As of an hour ago, I’m technically not in it. I haven’t told them yet because I haven’t gotten a hold of anyone, but I told Syco. You can ask him, but I swear once I can get a hold of them then I’ll terminate my membership.”

When my eyes meet with the top of his cap, I lower my weapon. “I can’t kill you. You are, or I guess were, a spy. It’s in you to double-cross, but as I told Syco we need everyone on board.”

“Thank you for not killing me, but what exactly are we ‘on board’?”

“I’ll tell you the gist of it. You can ask Saamuki if you want the details, but Commander Knox wants to become his own Watcher. We have less than twelve hours if we’re lucky before he downloads everyone that has nanites’ souls into himself.”

“Everyone? That has to be tens of thousands by now, right?”

“It’ll be a little more than a billion, but Saamuki is working on a way to stop this using a code that was embedded into my nanites. I’m sure she can find it and deactivate all the nanites with it, but I’m planning for the aftermath. They’ll still be a war once Knox is dealt with and there’s also the case of the Lords. Something needs to be done with them as well. They’re keeping my homeworld and the rest of the universe imprisoned.”

“Again, not the strangest thing I’ve heard. I get it, I really do, but you’re asking for a lot. Look, let me get this right. That code Saamuki’s trying to find will turn off all the nanites, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, if the nanites are destroyed how can we do anything about the Lords?”

I didn’t plan that far ahead, but it’s an obvious obstacle. Maybe I didn’t want to think that far ahead because I know I’ll lose my only chance at defeating the Lords. “I’ll think of something once we get to that point.”

“We’ll think of something,” Shiitakee corrected me. 

I didn’t respond, and I left him. The door closes behind me, so now I’m truly alone. Just a few feet before me is the cause of all of this, glowing green because of the tubes inserted into him, connected with the ship’s life source, stretched on a long, metal table. My body shook, and it told me there’s still time. I could turn back around and call Shiitakee to join me before it’s too late, but I pushed my wants aside because this is my time to be brave. I need to do this alone for my sake and for everyone else’s sake. 

Back straight, chest puffed out, and hands clenched at my sides, I stride towards the one who took away a part of me. Somehow The Commander looked far worse than when I last saw him. It could be because my anger blinded me last time, but his skin looks more purple, yellower, and of course, greener. The light above me shines onto me. I probably look like an angel staring down at the devil, but I am no angel with the things I wanted to say and do to Mikrovos’s aftermath. His green glow is prominent, mainly because of how poorly lit this room is, but all I can see is red. It’s not because I’m blinded by anger. I’m empowered by my strength to keep my emotions at bay even though I got out my sword when his eyes darted towards me. I didn’t stab him right then and there, but that’s the thing. Even though green is reflected onto his eyes, all I see is an abyss. Unlike Syco’s eyes, his are nothing but darkness. They’re duller than coal and colder than the icy planet we last stood face to face.

“You come to me again,” the corpse wheezed out. I noticed a vein had popped out of the sickly Tauvox’s throat, which only has scraps of fur left and has patchy skin. If I look hard enough, I can spot a hole in his throat, surrounded by green pus. It must’ve strained his dying vocal cords as he’s clearly decaying. He coughs right after. What’s left of The Commander’s claws sink into the table beneath him until he spits out a thick, dark yellow, and bloody phlegm. It slides down from the tip of his bottom lip to his chin. The gross fluid drips onto his chest’s fur. I try not to gag. 

“Wait, you really did see me that time?”

“Even you, a human, can see that I am dying. I can see such things easily now.” He smirks before continuing, “I wished for the death of others, I relished in their agony, and now I wish for my own, well deserved karma. Since you’re here it must mean you’re here to kill me.”

“I’m just doing what Syco failed to do and that is finally letting you go.” That’s when I raise my sword above my head and prepare to swing. Before I can slay this beast and release myself from my demons, he presents a trembling and bony hand before me. Its flesh looked like it was melting off of its skeletal structure. 

He’s looking up at the ceiling and smiles. It’s genuine. What surprises me next is that he begins to cry. “I’m proud of Mikrovos, Syco, and even Khavas. All three of those men did something I couldn’t and that was breaking away from our culture’s dreaded expectations. Most importantly they, at one point, stood against me. It’s because of this state I’ve been in for months that I realize in my fight against the universe I was really fighting myself. I don’t deserve to plead, but please before I die can you promise me you will tell them I am proud of the men they’ve become?”

“I promise, Apulsion.”

His smile is turned into a smirk before he continues, “Thank you.” He closes his eyes. His chest stops moving. I hadn’t killed him because he was already dead. The room darkens as the tubes slowly dull. I drop the sword, it goes clattering onto the floor. I fall onto my knees and sob. 

As I walk out of the room, I wipe away the tears from my eyes. I should feel relieved. I feel relieved for a moment until Shiitakee comes rushing down the ladder across from me. He ran up to me and panted. “Shiitakee, what’s wrong?”

“Saamuki. Code. Found it.”

“Really? That’s great!”

She straightens herself and places her hands behind her back with her chest puffed out. Her eyes flick to blue. The three Tauvoxes before us, especially the one who's now her second-in-command, are much taller than either of us, yet here she was managing to look down on them. "Lieutenant, I thought I explicitly commanded that my friend be watched until she woke up and when she did I was to be notified."

"I apologize, Commander Saamuki." His second salute is followed by the two Tauvoxes who are awkwardly standing on either side of him, scrambling to do the same. 

"You're apologizing to me, lieutenant? I believe she's the one you should be apologizing to. Not only was she about to open an airlock but you encouraged Syco, which led us to this situation in the first place." The lieutenant's grimace turns to me. I prepare for a fight as I whip my right arm to the side. My sword manifests in my right hand, and I motion for my body to move towards him, but when Saamuki places a hand in front of me before I can even take the first step, I halt and look at her again. She's barely glowing. The lights above make it hard to see that blue glow, but I can feel its heat. "Do you want me to repeat what I said, or would you rather repeat what I did?"

His face relaxed. He sighs, "No, I apologize for everything."

"Good, now is there a reason you left your post?"

“Yes, Commander Saamuki. We just received a transmission and I think it's worth accepting. It's from one of your comrades aboard Commander Knox's ship." 

During our run, the other Tauvoxes saluted Saamuki, pausing from their duties to show their respects, but I saw no signs of Syco, so I looked at Saamuki as her words haunted me. Did she kill Syco? He wanted to kill me. I felt where his horn pierced through me, where the hole should be, as we continued running. I have no scar from it besides my torn clothing and the mental fault; a flash of the event hit me, but I don't think we can afford to decrease our numbers. We need as many people if we're going to survive this even if it means working with Syco.  

The deck's door slid upwards. "Accept it," Saamuki ordered as soon as we stepped inside to the Tauvoxes down below who are typing away.

Skeema appeared. Just like how the last I heard of him hinted, he's wounded. His left arm has been completely ripped off of his body, so he can't reform a new one. One of his eyes is swollen, and he appears to have been shot through his left leg. He's covered in cuts, nothing too brutal there. I don't think he's lost too much blood, but with how he's looking, he still went through some hell. He brushes away the sweat from his forehead and smirks when he notices Saamuki and me. "It's good to see you two again, especially you, Saamuki. You're away from Cabelo for once," he coughed out.

He's in that state because of me. No, I know better than to begin my self-hatred in moments like this. This is bigger than me. Focus. Assess the situation at hand. 

"Thank goodness you're alright. You are alright, right?"

He spits out some blood before responding with, "I'm not anywhere close to dying if that's what you mean."

Saamuki looks around him before questioning, "Where are the others? Please, tell me they're alright?"

"Mikrovos is fine and so is Ashley." 

The two of us let out a sigh of relief.

"But I didn't risk my life to contact you two just to drop in and report that none of us are dead." He looks at me, "As I said with you, Knox is planning something big. Knox wants to absorb everyone's souls, those that have nanites."

"He wants to make himself a Watcher, or a version of it," I concluded. 

"Yes, he believes he's the only way to defeat the Lords of the Universe."

Saamuki steps forward, pushing past the Tauvoxes ahead of us. "What? How is that even possible?"

The lieutenant, who has his arms crossed over his chest, huffs, which Saamuki ignores.  

"It sounds impossible, I know, but do you know how the nanites connect with the brain?"

"Yes."

No. 

"Well, those tiny things scan the entirety of your brain. It's how they can advance the body and heal the organic parts as it learns which string, so to speak, to pull. Unfortunately, I don't have such a luxury. 

"The nanites are so thorough that they scan the quarks in your brain."

"I'm guessing the quarks in the brain are what we define as a soul."

"Correct, as always, Saamuki. My younger self, years before we met, knew about this. I interrogated Knox about it when I was his commander as soon as I put the pieces together. It's why I didn't remember my past for some time. That bastard not only erased my memories but pinned my people against me as well. But this is all my fault because I was the one that instigated these endeavors of his." He slammed his fist on his intercom. "Damn me."

I cut back into the conversation, "Skeema, I know better than anyone that bullying yourself won't do anything but distract you from the real issue. How long do we have until Knox becomes his own Watcher?"

"He's injected nanites into all the soldiers and pirates we've beaten." Knox's ship shakes; something has hit the spaceship. Skeema almost falls over. Luckily he has a good grip on the intercom before him. "He wants a billion souls. After he defeats the Space Pirates blasting us right now and the planet we're heading to next, he will accomplish this. A little over a billion, though, after the planet. We have half a day at the most."

Saamuki's second-in-command breaks out of his aloof state because of this dire news. The weight of the matter finally hits him. 

"A billion souls? That has to be a deathwish, right? Not even real Watchers have more than twenty souls. The Lord I just talked with only had a couple thousand at best." Saamuki steals a quick glance from me. "I'll explain later," I told her. 

Skeema continues, "Maybe the nanites won't cause him to explode, but if I read the right file, which I'm sure I did, then that many souls will overload him. Unless…" He rubs his chin. "He must have a different set of nanites, a better version. Of course his nanites would be different. Why didn't I see that before?"

"Skeema."

"Yes, Saamuki."

"You said something about a file. Can you send it to us?" A moment later, of him typing, and the ship received the file, which one of the Tauvoxes below confirmed. "Thank you, Skeema, but considering you're not under Knox's control—"

Skeema interrupts her with, "Knox placed a firewall even I can't crack, so I can't help the others. Even if I could it would take too long to deactivate a substantial number of nanites, but I'm also not here to just relay bad news. I have some good news too. I believe I've cracked half of the firewall." He sends information about this too and then looks directly at me for the second time. "After the last time we spoke, I have reason to believe you hold a code somewhere in your chip thanks to your nanites that can override the firewall and deactivate all of the nanites instantaneously."

"Considering Syco's background, why in the Universe would Knox create such a catastrophic hole in his plan," Saamuki asked Skeema. 

"That's because he didn't. Knox isn't the only brain behind this. Before becoming infamous, Apulsion, Syco's predecessor, thought of this exact same plan. At the time, Apulsion knew the chances of survival would be slim because technology hadn't advanced enough. So, he wrote a fail-safe."

Mikrovos is right. The Commander did some good things when he was alive, but mainly awful things. It's technically his fault we're even having this issue. 

"Got it. Get the code. Deactivate the nanites."

On his side, metal being banged can be heard, which Skeema turns towards. "Damn it. He found me." Skeema reforms his only hand left into a blade. A figure bolts towards him before the transmission ends. As quick as the figure moved, I caught a good enough glimpse to know who that was. 

"S1Y is alive." I could cry because of the relief this brought me, but I was more concerned about Skeema, which Saamuki is too, of course.  

"Skeema? Skeema!"

Five minutes have passed since Skeema's transmission abruptly ended. Commander Saamuki has her screen floating in front of her. Currently, she's pacing back and forth while scrolling through the code of my nanites. 

Saamuki's second-in-command walks up behind her. Before the lieutenant can interrupt her, he salutes, and when he's about to open his mouth to speak, he is interrupted by her. "Have we gotten in contact with Sakhra yet?"

"Unfortunately not, Commander Saamuki." That was the first time I've seen the lieutenant genuine. 

"Keep trying. We have to find him before it's too late."

He salutes before leaving the two of us. We're not alone as he rejoins the other Tauvoxes below, but he's far enough to make me feel awkward. Even him staying would make me feel less self-conscious. The question is on the tip of my tongue, but I'm afraid to ask because what's happening right now is something much more important than my vendetta. Staying here is the more sensible option as I might be needed, even though I'm not an expert in either code or Sakhra. My cognitive dissonance must've been clearly written over my face because Saamuki breaks me out of my thoughts when she calls me. Her face is greener than usual, thanks to her screen. Much of it is blocked by all the numbers, letters, and symbols, but I can see the understanding in her still blue eyes.

"Cabelo is similar to me as he too is an orphan. The first war took away his family as well," she laughs, "Cabelo thought opening that hotel would help people like him. He wasn't wrong because in all honesty it did help me, but I know it did more harm than good to me. Now that I realize this I wish I could've talked with him about what he did to me and what he's been doing to many others instead of nearly killing him. So, that's why I'm telling you he's on the third level. I'm sure you know where he is now, but I hate that you do."

Words can't erase what was done, but time can. So, I stuff the pain away and thank her before I leave. 

The hallway is long, too long. All but one of those dark cells is empty. That one, to my surprise, already has someone talking to the person of interest inside. I can't hear what Shiitakee is telling Syco, but I have a feeling it's really personal, so I take my time walking towards the two to give them more time to talk it out. My hand slides across the bars. They're cold, unsurprisingly they are, but they create music with my touch. It's not worthwhile music, but it's still powerful nonetheless. It makes me feel heartfelt because I'm not the one on the other side of those bars this time. I'm no longer a prisoner to others. 

My anthropomorphic mushroom friend removes his eyes from Syco and places them onto me. He smiles through his cigarette. It's soft. It's the same understanding look Saamuki gave to me. I guess I was too loud. Whoops, but with that look, at least I didn't interrupt them in the middle of their conversation. It appears I made it just in time, right after their conversation ended. 

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd come." I take a good look at him. He's all healed up. Thankfully he is, but his nanites had a whole day to repair him because apparently, I was unconscious for an entire day. "Oh, yeah. I've been fully healed for the past twenty two hours." An awkward silence hits us until he realizes we've been staring at each other for too long. Shiitakkee excuses himself, and before he's out of earshot, he reveals I won't be alone with Syco because he'll be waiting down the hall just in case. 

We clutch our heads as those around turn their attention back to me. My vision is blurring. Everything around me is spinning. I can feel my blood drip down from my forehead. Somehow I sit back upright. With gritted teeth and a growl, Syco takes a step towards me, but he only gets a step closer because Kaishi gets between us. Her back is facing the Tauvox’s current commander, but he is no commander here. The back of her hand is raised towards him. He relaxes, retraces his step, and then stands stiff. 

“Still trying to be the hero, love?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Ugh!” It felt like someone was slamming a sledgehammer into my head. Tauvoxes are too durable. Hitting my forehead against Syco’s skull felt like I slammed myself into a cinder block. 

“Why?”

A simple question, but it’s one I have trouble answering. I’ve heard the graphic stories of the millions who couldn’t make it out of the cities, and I’ve seen the actions being done to thousands and a handful right before my eyes. In each case, I couldn’t do anything but watch. I was either too young, too weak, or too scared. I’ve had nightmares about my powerlessness. The guilt and regret ate me up as I tossed and turned for two decades, never getting sleep. At one point, I wanted to end my life because I thought it wasn’t ever going to end. They tried to exterminate us all because they needed a new home. Those bastards could’ve easily wiped out all of us all at once, but instead, they wanted to prolong their entertainment in torturing us until our bodies gave out. So, I should say that I continue to be a hero because I want to seek vengeance and make up for all the times I couldn’t do anything. Instead, here I was, finding it difficult to do just that. I merely stared at her until I answered, “I don’t know.” 

She reached her hands out towards my sword and dagger. They shook, then flew towards her hands at such a speed that it pulled me towards her and then had me land on my face. When they connected with her palms, it sounded like a bomb went off. It was like magic. She never showed herself to have such power, but Kaishi never showed she could revive herself. Kaishi moved both weapons above her head, towards each other, and when they collided, it was like thunder erupted. Light magically flashed from them, blinding me. 

I open my eyes to see both have fused. A sword of two equal, massive blades is gripped in Kaishi’s hands. She shifts the sword so that only one of her hands is holding it, and the other is resting at her side. The blade is balanced and angled on her shoulder. Somehow those intense blades didn’t cut right through her shoulder and tear her in half. At this point, I shouldn’t be questioning how much any of this makes sense. I need to focus on surviving. I can make sense of all of this later if I make it out of this. 

“You’re confused and hurt. Love, I can help you with that.” She removed that monstrous sword from her shoulder and placed it on her other bare palm. It didn’t cut her. 

“Help me by killing me.” My voice cracked. “Be honest with yourself, love. You’ve been wanting death for years, but you were too scared to do it on your own. I promise I’ll make it quick and painless,” she cooed out. She pouted, and when she noticed my displeasure, she snapped her expression to be one filled with laughter. “Besides, you literally can’t stand. Were you planning on crawling away from someone with two legs?”

“Maybe? Probably. Yes.”

“Adorable, but I am serious about my promise.”

“Shove that sword down your throat and choke on it.”

Again, she laughs at me as she drags the sword across the rocks beneath us. She could’ve just lifted it with both hands rather than let it cut between stone and create an ear-bleeding screech, but she’d instead relish in my squirming, huffing, and gulping. I tried doing what I say I’d do, crawling away. My attention should be towards trying to flee, but instead, I notice my twin’s right leg twitching. 

Kaishi is overhead, reverting my eyes’ focus to her smile. She lifts the sword up above her head and has the blade pointed directly between my eyes. I look around, and that’s when it hits me. It’s childish, but when you know you’re about to die, and it’s a way to prolong your life, even if it’s for a few seconds, who cares about what it is. I splash the bloody water into her eyes. Kaishi stumbles back, still gripping the sword, but one of her hands is trying to wipe away my desperation. Behind her, I hear Syco and the crowd members move. Kaishi orders them to remain where they are, but her temporary blindness isn’t the reason why they’ve moved. The reason should be a shock and an impossibility, but I accept it because of everything that’s happened. 

My twin hops from Syco’s head and dashes towards me. I cover my face, hoping to protect myself from the impact, one of which I soon understand I won’t feel. Again, a light blinds me, and with it, Kaishi finally wipes off the mess because she screams, “No!”

Once the light disappears, I flutter my eyes open, and after weeks, nearly two months of being disabled, I have my right leg back. That’s not all. My outfit has changed. I look like a knight with the same monochrome color scheme as my twin’s outfit. My twin is nowhere to be seen, but I have a feeling I know where she is. Not only that, but with my change, I know who she truly is. As I get up using my newly formed right leg, Kaishi has a tantrum. She stomps, jumps, and screams. The crowd and I step back, but neither of us can flee as she turns herself around to face the group that was behind her and opens her mouth wide. She begins to suck up the crowd. After she does, she grabs the sides of her face. She screams yet again but begins to laugh as a flash of golden light envelops her. I’m not blinded this time, but I wish I was because I see faces, familiar ones, pop out of her flesh. They scream as she continues to laugh and transform. I try to stop her transformation from finishing, but I can’t even take a step towards her because somehow that light is pushing me away, so I’m left to watch once again. 

She finishes with a white cloak engulfing her with a circular symbol on the back of it. She no longer has her sword, but now she has a horrific wrinkled face. Hundreds of faces have been squeezed between her wrinkles, each with eyes crying out blood. 

“Watcher,” I whispered the realization under my breath with eyes wide and another gulp. My body moved for me as I flung my right arm to the side and what came next is the emanation of a familiar blazing two-handler, almost like my previous one before she stole it, but without all the sci-fi elements. 

With the flick of her finger, her feminine features, what was left of them, disappear. Her face is now covered by a faceless mask. “Not quite.” Its voice is deep but not quite masculine. It is powerful. The figure’s voice makes me feel like my organs are on the brink of exploding. 

“A Lord? Here? But this is just a—”

“Now.” They wiggle their index finger from right to left before continuing, “Don’t ruin my fun just let.” I puke out. “Gross.”

“Why are you here? What am I doing here?” I press my free hand against my forehead, which has now healed. Although, it hurt trying to remember. “I was battling Syco...Shit! I need to get out of here.” I turned around one moment, and the next, I’m right in front of the Lord. The Lord moves its hand towards me, and I move my sword towards it. It goes right through where its stomach should be, but the Lord just laughs. The faces stretched across their arms open their mouths and laugh as well, but they’re forcing it out as they’re crying out blood as well. The sight grosses me out, but it does not warrant another puke. I don’t have anything else in me to throw up anyways, but my guts feel like purging again when the Lord begins to talk again. 

“Sorry, human. I must admit to you that I am a little bit insane. Okay, I’m pretty much insane.” To my surprise, one that nearly has me let go of the sword, the Lord caresses my chin. It’s gentler than how Kaishi did, but considering she was this Lord, it’s another surprise, I suppose. “Although, it’s because of my insanity that helps me be such a great performer. I’ve played so many characters, yet all were believable. How were my lines? You think they were passionate, eh?”

“Passionate, maybe, but not believable.”

Sure, I can’t see the Lord’s eyes through that mask, but I felt them. I felt the Lord’s judging glare. They sigh. “A shame.” It lets go of my face. “Two thousand years and yet I can’t produce the perfect play. Playing director can be straining.”

“Everything that is and was here was made by you?” I shouldn’t be surprised about a Lord’s power, but I still am amazed. Maybe it’s the shock that I am before another Lord that drives me to question because I’d rather wish this not be true.

“Of course, but you were the producer. Can’t create a world out of thin air. This is all in your subconscious. I just pull strings. You called me over here, after all. 

“You are such an interesting person. Maybe the most interesting case I’ve ever had to deal with. Actually, no. That short woman with the four eyes was way more interesting than you.”

There’s a power difference between us. The Lord is the one in power while I am not, but I buried down my fear when I clutched its cloak and pulled them closer to me. “What did you do to Ojos?”

“No need to get so worked up, human. Nothing happened to that poor, old hag. She didn’t submit to my offer.”

“Offer? You tried to kill her just like you did with me?”

Kaishi leaned into the touch, placed her hand above my own, closed her eyes, and kissed my hand. I’ve spent years with her, my childhood, and my early adulthood, but I blush at the touch. My cheeks heat up more when she looks into my eyes and smiles. I’ve gone through all the motions with her, first to third base, yet here I am, gushing over the quick and soft contact. I suppose if you loved them once, you could learn to love them again, or maybe it’s because we finally get to officially be together. 

Her short, red hair blew with the wind. She cut it just above her shoulders and dyed it back to red the night she chose to change her name. She changed her whole identity that night. No, she finally took back her identity. 

The bird flapped its wings and flew away. For some reason, the sight caused my heart to drop. Kaishi’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear it. I asked her to repeat. I couldn’t listen to her because of the wind, or so I thought. When I asked her again, her grip on my hand tightened. “Kaishi?” She lowered her head, and I saw her shoulders move up and down. She was laughing. “Kaishi, my love, what’s going on? What’s wrong—”

She stood up. Her boots dragged against the rock beneath us as she did so. Both her hair and back were hunched forward. The very hand that clawed into the back of my own is now covered in blood, my blood. I stumbled back up using the two-handed sword I stole from those demons a few years back on our first raid. My eyes wandered back to her bloody nails. I watched my blood drip down from her nails and her brushing her hair away from her face so that I could watch her tongue slip from her pink lips, almost like how a snake slithers out from its burrow, tasting her flavored cherry chapstick before sensually licking my blood off of her fingers. She looked directly into my eyes as she did so. 

In another context, my stomach wouldn’t be churning, and I wouldn’t be forcing out a shout. My pleas for answers are met with silence. Kaishi has smiled plenty of times at me before, each I’ve loved, but not this one. This one gets me riled. “I said stop, Kaishi!”

She did so and lowered her hand, but it’s because of that head tilt with those dead eyes that has me even more confused and especially worried. She stepped forward, and I did as well, with my other hand reaching out towards her. The love of my life, my soulmate, reached out towards me with tears pouring out of those soulless eyes, but right when our fingers are about to touch, she yanks away her hand and jumps off the cliff. I foolheartedly lunged towards her and dropped my sword in my rush. It comes clattering down upon my stomach hitting the edge. It hurts, but what I see next hurts even more. I bawled my eyes out and clutched my hand, digging and piercing into my palm, as I curled up into a ball. 

All those years of pain. All those years of planning, hoping for this day, and she gave it all away. The day I lost my leg was the day I thought I lost her. If only that version of me knew how lucky she was. I was on the floor reminiscing. The day I met her, I was alone in a field crying. Now nearly twenty years later, I’m alone on this cliff crying. I was in the fetal position until I noticed the mini waterfall, now red, almost black. The way it’s chugging down isn’t like a moment ago. It’s sluggish, almost thick. God, it is blood. I immediately scramble away, but I’m stopped in my tracks when my back hits something hard. 

It’s a shadowy figure. With whatever that thing is lowering its head to look down at me, I dash for my sword and get back up. Although it is plenty worn, bent, and scratched up, I point my dagger that’s been resting underneath my chest plate at the thing. It cocks its head, mimicking what Kaishi did before she left me, left me alone with whatever that is. I gulp down my breakfast. It burns my throat, causing me to cough. “Whatever the hell you are, please, I’m not in the mood to fight.”

Their build matches my own. I don’t see any weapons on them, but that’s what causes my hand to shake because that means I don’t know what that thing is capable of. Steady. Assess your situation. Look for a weak point, if any. 

They step forward, but I step backward. The next step, I lunge at the faceless figure with gritted teeth, but they dodge. I turn and swing. My blade goes right through it, and I hit the ground and drop the small knife. I feel my chin scrape, but I brush the pain aside and focus on my frustration. I just killed the commander of those alien freaks about an hour ago, so sure, I’m damn tired, but I still shouldn’t be slacking like this. I roll, turning myself back to facing up, but that thing is looking away from me. Everything around me has either become engulfed in flames or has lost its color. The sky is covered in black clouds. What was once a new day, a fresh start, has now seemed to turn into the end. I cuss, but I just mouth it because I am too shocked to say it out loud. I manage to ask what happened as if it knew more than me, though. In response, it just continues its silence but turns back to look at me. It moves towards me. My eyes dart from the left then to the right. I stop it in its tracks when I point my sword straight at its neck. “After all we’ve been through,” my voice cracks as I continue my crying, “Please, this isn’t how it should end. What’s happening?”

Something told me no matter how much I begged for answers, the thing wouldn’t share. It also told me it’s not like it knew any to begin with, but once you lose it all, you become desperate. You become irrational to keep yourself sane. 

A hand rested on my shoulder. I turned, dropped my sword, and froze because its owner is Kaishi. She’s wrecked. The fabric of her outfit is covered in rips and holes. Kaishi’s body is covered in bruises, a big one has spread across her chest, and both her right arm and leg are bent the wrong way. Blood, this time her’s, leaking from her head and the cuts from the places her armor had fallen off from because of the battle we barely managed to win, but apparently a war we lost. I let this mangled figure, one I still love, place her broken hand on my chin. She doesn’t wipe away my tears, but she brushes away the strands of hair covering my eyes. My love has become a corpse. She smiles and blushes as she metaphorically jabs her hand into my chest and yanks my still-pumping heart with ecstasy, “I’ve never loved you.”

“K-Kaishi?”

“How can I ever love someone that let me die? 

“No, I-I didn’t. You—”

“You let all of us die!”

Circling me is everyone. Those that died on the mission stood here with cuts, bullet holes, and stab wounds. Their wounds are as fresh as the last time I saw them before we wrapped them up and buried them. Also, here are those that have died long before the mission. They also appear the same way I last saw them. Adding to my pain are people I know the names of, but I don’t quite remember them. In unison, “You’ve failed all of us.”

I lower my head and mumble, “No, I didn’t. I didn’t mean to. I tried saving all of you. I did the best I could, everything I could have done.”

She lifts my head and continues to hit me where it hurts in front of the now-silent crowd, “And yet it wasn’t good enough. You weren’t ever good enough, but you knew this all along. Didn’t you?” She’s right. I shouldn’t have taken leadership because we would still have a world and each other. “You tried to be the hero, but the thing about that is that they only live in fiction. Let me give you some advice, love, there are two types of people. There are dreamers, those that live in fiction, and there are realists, those that live in the real world.”

My head slumped forward once she let go. I watched my tears splatter onto my floor and saw my hands shake beneath me. I let the fires consume me. The screams from the animals below and from the figures around me have me spit out my breakfast.  

“This isn’t how it’s supposed to end because this isn’t real.” The one that said that sounded exactly like me. 

The one that said that was the faceless figure. Actually, no, it’s no longer a faceless figure because as it squeezed through the crowd, it morphed into me. While we have the same voice and now the same face, it's outfit isn’t the same as the one I have. Theirs is a black and white space suit minus the helmet. 

“What are you all doing? Don’t you dare let her through. Stop her,” who I thought was my lover commanded the crowd. 

They did not react quick enough. Me? I? She came sliding in front of me, between Kaishi and me. She grabbed the sides of my face and lifted it up so our eyes could meet. It’s weird looking into myself. “This isn’t how it ends because this is a—” My sword went right through her chest. As she spat out blood onto me and squirted out of her chest, I looked up to see the bearer of my sword. Kaishi’s hands are gripped onto my sword. She ripped out the weapon from my twin. Upon my twin landing onto me, I let my ex-lover pull and lift her by her hair. She begins to twist one of her arms. 

“How dare you touch her,” Kaishi growled at her. 

Syco grips one of Shiiitakee’s legs and twists it. Again, Shiitakee shouts, voicing out his pain. His voice turns into a yelp when he hits face-first on the floor. 

“I won't let you through because finally, Commander Syco is back. He is a true Tauvox again.” Immediately after the little speech that revealed his purism, he was blasted away from me. His back hits the wall furthest from us. A trail of blue smoke followed him and continues to stream out of his burnt chest as he lays limp with eyes shut. 

I turn to the source. Saamuki tells me, “I heard that enough times already.”

The wrecked, hunched figure that is Shiitakee slips his gaping, bloody tongue between his bleeding teeth and back into his mouth. He must have bit it when he hit the floor. Shiitakee can barely look up to meet Syco’s eyes, much less spit. It plops to his chin. He swings. The hunched figure sort of swings with his good arm because he nearly slips. Effortlessly, Syco grabs his wrist and is about to swing him around, but I manage to grab a part of Syco’s arm right when he pulls it back. Syco does not look at me. “That is enough. No, this is beyond enough. What are you doing, Syco? Do you not see you are acting like your predecessor? You are better than him. I know you are,” I scolded him like he was a child. He most definitely is older than me. I have seen the creases. I say he is better than The Commander but frankly doubt this belief. I say the lie because I just wish he is. I want to believe in the lie because I need something good. I need to see some light in this awful, awful dark place we call the universe. 

Compared to everyone else besides the fallen Tauvox, he is a giant. Even with his ears perking up, he remains intimidating. 

“Let go of him. He has had enough. You said you trusted me. Well, now prove it.” He proves the opposite when he shoves me off of him. I fall, and Saamuki steps in. Another realization hits me. He never trusted me as much as he has said. He lied to himself, as well, because he wanted to believe he still had someone in the darkness he had created. He is the true coward here as he can not face the truth, can not look at me. I ask Saamuki to step away before having her and Shiitakee’s eyes on me when I offer to Syco, “If you want someone to fight, then fight me.”

Ignoring me by proceeding to crush Shiitakee’s wrist, I swing the staff. Its fire forms a tail as I move my weapon towards Syco. Syco catches it, and lets go of Shiitakee. Seeing Shiitakee bent forward with both of his arms dangling at his sides, I reform the staff into a sword. The blade slices into Syco’s palm. He pays no mind to the blood leaking from the cut and dripping to the back of his hand. “Are you sure you want to fight me alone? Human, currently, you stand no chance against me. Without the nanites, you will be dead, but with them, you will still fall.”

“If it means protecting the weak against people like you, I do not care.”

“Have you already forgotten that he is a spy? 

"Fine, if you want me to fight you so badly, I will give you what you want.” A fist comes at me. I deflect it with a shield. His other hand comes barreling towards me, and I reach into my pocket. The dagger’s blade flashes the sword’s light into Syco’s eyes. Blinding him, he stumbles back and rubs his eyes. While distracted, I move towards him with my shield and dagger. By the time he gets back his sight, I am seconds from lunging the blade into him. He stops it with his hand. The small weapon goes right through it. Again, he does not react to his wounds. Because of the nanites in him too, it is understandable but terrifies me because he is no longer a person. He is no longer alive. He is dead. 

My shield slams the bottom of his chin. His head falls back, but he soon regains himself when he twists and kicks. Again, my shield can defend against his attack, and yet again, I thrust the short knife towards him. This time I can pierce his gut, but my success is met with regret. I left myself completely open, so he does to me what he did to the now on one of his knees Shiitakee. I hear the joint pop and crack. I can feel it pull apart. Saamuki once again steps forward, but I bark at her to remain where she is through my cries. I can get through this. I can heal. I can feel it healing. It is a little tingle, but what happens next is much more than a little tingle. It is a sweep kick to my knee. This time I hear the bone shatter. He tries headbutting me, but I am at least able to counter it with the shield. It vibrates, and I think I heard Syco’s skull crack. The next moment, before he punches me from both sides, I jab the broad metal piece into his neck. He gasps, I avoid his sharp claws, and my sword goes right through his shoulder. 

Syco wrenches it out by stepping away from me. His chest is puffed out, and his head is straight, as straight as it could be after that. The blood from his shoulder wound reached his fingertips. With a distance between us and the dagger's handle clenched between my teeth, I shoot arrows at him. He dashes from side to side, dodging each. When he gets uncomfortably too close, I deflect his attacks with my staff. His limbs bruise as they collide with the long, metal pole. 

“Have you already forgotten how your predecessor treated you?” He tries elbowing my face. I move out of the way, drag my incapacitated leg in the process, but his claws deems that pointless. They dig deep into my face. A gash starting from my jaw to my left eye, one I am no longer able to see through until it heals, appears on my face. It not only stings, burning, but it itches as well. I have to step away. I have to get away. I do. I get a few steps until he charges towards me. Way before he can reach me, I summon a whip, and it lashes across his face, not quite mirroring how he maimed my face. Returning the favor again, I whip the whip over and over again. Some Syco can duck and swerve away from, but most hit him since he is heading towards me. At first, they simply irritated his skin. Now they have cut into it. His blood flies left and right and up and down, following the direction of the whip. 

The Tauvox is just as bloody as me. Luckily, I have been able to hold my own. Once overhead, he tries reaching for me, but the dagger slits his fingers, cutting them into two. They twitch on the ground in the corner of my eye, but Syco continues to grab me by my hair with what little stumps he had left. I am just below his eye level. For the third time, he tries headbutting. I try protecting myself with my shield, but his other hand grabs that hand and yanks it out of its socket. Syco’s grip remains on it. It hurts, and I am hurt even more when he does get to hit me with his forehead. I fall to the ground just how Shiitakee had, if not harder. My ears are ringing, and my vision is blurry. Everything and everyone around me is spinning. I feel something warm on my forehead. It is sliding down and has moved on either side of my nose to eventually drip onto my lips. Tasting it, I find out it is my blood. It should be obvious how defenseless I am. I am powerless, vulnerable, so there should be no point in continuing. Syco does not think so as he pummeled my left and right. I see my blood fly through my fading vision, and my body is helplessly tossed around. 

Saamuki can not take it anymore. I would feel the same if roles were reversed. She punches Syco square in the face with a blue flaming fist. He flies, landing next to the still unconscious second-in-command. Leaning against the wall, Syco gets up. I get up as well by leaning against Saamuki. As he stumbles towards us, Saamuki gets herself ready for round two. I do too when I fling the staff and send it ablaze. It is reborn into my sword. “You have done enough. Leave the rest to me.” 

“No, this is my fight.” She looked at me, shocked at my willingness to keep going even though it is obvious I would not be winning this fight anytime soon, and pained to see me like this. I probably look insane to her. I probably am. She did not move away, but I did. My sword, which is gripped with my regular left hand and crippled right, connects with his horns. I try pushing him back with what little might I have left, but he can move me back easily. Coming out from it is a long ear-bleeding squeak as my shoes slide against the metal floor too. I stab him in the eye with my dagger when the back of my shoe touches the tip of her ankle-length robe. 

Both of his hands work to disconnect the sharp blade from his eye socket. I thought this was the best time to try to shove the blade through his chest, but I am proven wrong because in the next second, after the sliver of time between him taking it out and me bending my elbows to propel the blade upwards, he sunk one of his horns into me. My sword clatters to the ground. I follow soon after with first my knees, then face planting. Saamuki screamed, and I heard her running past me, towards him, immediately seeking vengeance. 

“Most importantly, you are before me. Compared to the other Lords, I am the least patient. Do not test that. So, speak unless spoken to and do no more. How many of you are out there fighting against the rebellion?”

“Currently, a little more than four hundred, Lord.”

“Interesting. I will be blunt with the following because I want this done as soon as possible. It is rare for me to find a day like this one. The Lords have long comprehended what is happening. They know of your efforts, and if they knew you were here, they would thank you. That is why I am going to hand you this book.” One golden mist engulfing their hand later, and a book, far thicker than the many others I have glimpsed, lays flat on the hand. The Lord hands it to, at first, the hesitant anti-rebellion member who nearly drops it because of its weight. “This should be all you need to know. Now off with you.”

He reads the title and shakes with excitement. His hands turn page after page before the Lord repeats themselves. He scampers away but glares in my direction before leaving.

“The Lords have grown lazy. True, they have slacked before, but now it has become completely unacceptable. After thousands of years, they still believe mortals are primitive. This is why they have not done anything to quell the anarchists but instead use the same things they claim are beneath them to do their work. Their hands would not get dirty, sure, but it would send the wrong message. It will give people a reason to question.”

“Then.” I gulp. I gulp twice. I think of words. I make a sentence or two in my head. I think of things to say, but nothing comes out. Was the Lord's whole body glowing? They looked ironically heavenly. “Why did you let them go with that book?”

“Why did I help further the agenda of something I so clearly detest? Well, one reason is that I want to give them what they want. I want them to feel a moment of success, but I also want them to realize the consequences of their actions. They will beg for my forgiveness. Hopefully, finally, respect me after. The next I will not say, but I can say the last is, funny enough, one of their reasons. This will be interesting.

“Now, I no longer need your presence. Be off as well.”

Up above, three moons lit up the night sky. I bathe in their light. They shine on the dusty books around me as well. They sparkle. They look fantastical, magical. I would look heavenly if this body was not made from binary code. If I was, I would not feel heavenly. Heaven. Hell. Two different places, both used to explain what happens after death. The good go to Heaven, and the bad go to Hell. They help explain the universe to many, but it just leaves more questions to be asked. Like why should we be judged for things He could have prevented? Why must we suffer for caring about the wrong things?

Four hundred. There are four hundred just like Sakhra’s ex-brother. There is also the rebellion and what Sakhra has in store. The war continues from beyond that window. Casualties, thousands of them. Trillions are in the middle of it as they have yet to choose their side. I am not sure what to make of the Lord perched up and walking along the slender handrail that is barely the width of one of his feet. Essentially a war on all sides, one that I instigated. I started this, but I am not sure how to end it. 

The Lord, now the biggest person I know, danced along the handrail. They spun, raised one of their legs, and jumped. Lots of leg movements. They pranced. They were delicate, even more, delicate from the long-gone cloaked man. A beautiful show, but it is a warning. They are balanced, and I am not.

I did not know I dozed off. I woke up to Saamuki softly calling out to me and blinking my eyes open to her waving her blurry hand across my face. I said something, but I think it came out as a mumble, stutter, and a ramble all at once because she takes a moment to respond with, “I finally found what I was looking for. I found this secret room first, and then bam, I found this. Would you want to take a look?”

“Sure,” I slurred out. 

It is still night, but only one moon lit up the night sky. I must have been asleep for a while, but I am still sleepy. I nearly dropped the heavy book she handed to me. We both fumble with it until I get a grip on it. “Ha. Ha. Ha. Whoopsie. I think we should head back in case I get butterfingers again, and the book actually drops this time.”

“Agreed.”

That woke me up. Back on the ship with the book remaining in my hand, I tighten my grip on it. Should I tell the others that I met one of the Lords? Should I tell Syco? I thought about it until Saamuki brought my attention to the absent Shiitakee. He is nowhere in the room. 

Both of us think it is unusual, but it is Saamuki that voices our concern. “Weird,” she turns to me, “Do you know where he could have possibly gone?”

I am about to reply, but I am cut off by the shout of two distinct voices that seem to be coming from the end of the hallway. We do not hesitate to follow the sounds. 

“You bastard,” Syco shouted. Who he is shouting at is unclear, as his and a handful of crewmates’ backs are facing towards us. The two of us, Saamuki and I, squeeze past them. Most do not mind. The second-in-command looks at us with a frown. We ignore and try to look over Syco’s massive figure. 

Shiitakee, who is the one being shouted at and has acquired a black eye in the time we separated, replies with, “Syco, I have known you since the beginning. We know each other better than anyone else, so you have to know what I am doing is for you. You are not well. You keep making rash decisions.”

“You dare to use our friendship right here, right now, after what you have done? How long have you been plotting against me?“ His black-eyed friend looks away. Ex-friend now? Spy, obviously. “I said how long, Shiitakee. How long?”

“Six months ago when your predecessor was killed. Supposedly, he was,” the black-eyed spy blurted out.

“And what do you mean by that last statement?” 

“I know what you are doing to him. It is sick, Syco. Sick! You need help. You know I am right. You had a feeling I would do this because you let her join your little meeting. I have known you far longer than her, but you have never let me come with you. I should not be surprised, considering you never listen to me. You fear for my advisement.” Syco's ex-friend grew heartbroken. “Listen, I wished this did not have to come to this. At first, for some time, I did not want to do this.”

Interjecting, I asked, “What are you two talking about? What happened?”

Syco, still eyeing Shiitakee, ignores my question. Instead, it is his second-in-command that elaborates, “Commander Syco found out Shiitakee has been backstabbing him. Shiitakee has been sending information to our enemies about the commander's plans for years. Recently, which is how Commander Syco found out, he sent the schematics of our ship.”

“Tell me why I should not send you out an airlock?”

“Because I would survive.”

“I do not care whether you do or not. I just want you gone, far away from me, and I want you to suffer. Grab him and send him out the closest airlock.”

Those around us, Tauvoxes besides Syco and his second-in-command, head towards Shiitakee. Shiitakee, determined, with a fighting spirit, refuses to be captured so easily. He dodges their reaching arms, and with both of his hands, he punches. Two stumble back, but two come forward to confront him. They swing, which Shiitakee dodges by lowering, but the two kick in unison. Their knees smash his face. His back hits the wall, and he gets less than a second to relax before the two come at him with their horns. They pierce into him. I squirm at this, and I meet Saamuki’s eyes. He spits out blood before several holes appear on his cap. They open wide. 

“Fools, get out of the way,” Syco told his men, but it is much too late before they realize it. The gas, this time red, quickly spreads around them, causing the two Tauvoxes to immediately pluck their horns out as they stumble away and cough. One of them pukes. The two in the back try to crawl away, but it is soon too late for them too. They cough as the rest of us try to get away. We do, but Shiitakee flees. 

While Shiitakee can go one way, we are forced to take the other. It was a longer route, though, so we met him almost too late. He has his hands on an escape pod, but he does not know how to use it. If he did, he would have been gone by now.