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Among the Stars

Chapter Fourteen

By Roofles

The ornate doorway, carved from some sort of soft metal, opened for them as Cyclone pulled on the brass knocker. Soft white light flooded the hallway, momentarily blinding them. It carried a weight to it as if it had a physical form. The blinding wall of light softened, falling to the floor as Isaac shielded his eye with an arm from the initial exposure.

It was blindingly beautiful. It hurt to look at, yet Isaac didn’t want to tear his eyes away from its source. Like staring at the sun. An otherworldly, cosmic force of nature. Astronomical in size, yet, condensed somehow into this room.

A true wonder of the universe laid before them and Isaac didn’t want to look away from it’s brilliant, comforting warmth.

A massive white crystal floated there in the room, surrounded by people staring up at it in wonder and awe. Enraptured by its stunning, captivating beauty. Mesmerized and lost in its exquisite shape and form of it. It was like an uncut diamond, shining in the sky, like a star that had fallen from the heavens. Glistening golden white light that radiated from every facet of its very being.

It was truly otherworldly. Alien and beautiful. Comforting warmth emanated from with that light that pulsed from the crystal’s center like a beating heart.

Isaac’s stress, his worries, his concerns and cares began to fade away underneath it’s brilliance. Washing them away. There was no discomfort here. No more pain. No obligations for him to try and fulfill and live up to.

Underneath this light, Isaac felt the shackles break away. Feeling lighter than air, he approached the crystal.

“Isaac!” Typhon reached for him.

Isaac had unknowingly walked further into the room. Past Typhon, past Cyclone who called out to him as he became entranced by its comforting brilliance. For within this light, nothing else mattered. No one else matter. Cyclone? Typhon? Isaac?

He didn’t matter as Dio Lux, a being beyond mortal comprehension, ascended above them all.

“Dio Lux!” Cyclone shouted at him as Isaac was pulled further into the room, out of his outreaching hand. Cyclone, finally offering to take Isaac hand, only when it was too late to do so. The Terran once more slipped through his fingers before his very eyes. “This is not what we agreed upon!” Cyclone ran into the room, only to be met with a crystallized light that blocked his entry.

The light formed and crystallized around him. Pieces jutting out, taking shape, solidifying into brilliant white diamond crystals that trapped his arms and legs. Encasing him in a prison. Lifted off the ground, Cyclone was brought into the room. Hovering off the floor as the crystals squeezed tightly around his frame, threatening to crush him.

“The hell is happening? Is this the showcase?” Typhon shouted as he ran into the room. Ignoring Cyclone, he ran after Isaac. Easily catching up to the Terran, he pulled Isaac back. The man continued to try to walk forward, towards that comforting light.

Isaac eyes were wide open, staring at that light. Tears ran down his face.

“It’s… beautiful. Typhon…” Isaac words were no more than a whisper, nearly lost in the humming sound the crystal made.

“Isaac? Dammit, snap out of it!” Typhon said, shaking him.

“Don’t shake him , you idiot! It’s the crystal’s light!” Cyclone shouted down at him from where he floated above. “Stop the light.” Cyclone snarled, trying to reach into his jacket. Unable to move, his struggles were for naught.

It was futile and Dio Lux, the white light guardian, knew that.

“How?” Typhon turned to look at the ominous crystal floating overhead. It didn’t feel threatening. In fact, it was making him drowsy. Like finding the perfect spot in the sun to curl up in. To be lost in the warmth and safety that ray of sunlight would bring in an afternoon.

No work. No fighting. Typhon didn’t need to fight anymore. His people’s endless war against the dark didn’t matter. Nothing matter. Only comfort that soaked in through that warm light that bathed him like a fountain of pure bliss.

“Cease your struggles. Let me take away your pain, your struggles. Know only bliss.” A voice rang around them like church bells, coming from no discernable source. “You’ve fought so hard over these years. Trying to escape that hellscape of a planet. Poor, sweet, strong Typhoon.” It chimed with ringing bells. “Enough. All this fighting? It wears on you, I know. I can see it. I feel your pain. Let me make you… happy.”

Typhon closed his eyes as if that would help, covering his ears. The voice wasn’t lying. Everything it said was true. Typhon knew that down to his core.

“You lost your parents at such a young age. Forced to fight in a war you had no part in. A war that could not be won. And they know that,” Typhon ears perked at that. “Oh, yes. They know. The war council on Saber knows very well that there is no winning against the darkness that threatens to consume the universe. Yet they struggle, they fight. They battle on endlessly. In this Endless War.”

Typhon snarled, baring his teeth.

“I do not mean to chide them for their struggles. There is beauty even in that,” the melodical voice echoed around him. The light increased as if it were to give Typhon a comforting hug. “You mortals struggle endlessly. Fighting and striving to survive. Yet, only the strong can live on. To spread their genes to the next generation doomed to continue their parents fight… These, their, sins are not yours to bare or carry.”

“Dammit, why can’t I block that noise!” Typhon felt a shiver run down his back as his muscles began to relax, his breathing evened out and he felt hot tears running down his face. No matter how hard he struggled to fight against the light, his body reacted to it.

Like a massage, a warm cup of tea. After a long evening of love making, Typhon’s body reacted to it and all the stress, the adrenaline in his system began to bleed away. Leaving only a tingling warmth behind that tricked his senses and encouraged him to sleep.

Like angels guiding his way, the warmth of light wanted him to give in. To-

“Stop struggling.”

To-

“Give in. You’ve done enough.”

“To give up…” It said without saying. “No matter what you do, how much you struggle and fight and bleed… it will change nothing. The Void will take you in the end. Only I can shepherd you all to the promised happiness your people have lied to you about. Convinced you,” it spoke not just to Typhon but to all those gathered here.

Old and young, the Celestial Nations people had been gathered here today. Each with their own responsibilities and struggles. Money? Power? Debt? Obligation? Family names to follow? None of that mattered.

Not anymore.

That weight pressing down on their shoulders, the burden Typhon had always carried from his people, was lifted.

“And all I ask you in turn, is to give me a chance to show you. Show you all! My Showcase of Salvation. A haven, a sanctuary for everyone in the universe to be, forever, preserved in.” The crystal voice changed. Every word shook the room around them.

It shook the glass of each of the terrariums, it shook the ancient portraits and carved statues from civilizations long since passed. It made the tapestries on the wall bounce. Tapestries weaved and sown from an ancient race of spider people that had long since disappeared.

Leaving only their history behind.

From within that light, there was a deep sorrow. An endless pit that made Typhon clutch his chest as tears ran down his face as that aching well radiated outwards effecting them all. There were silent sobs and others crying as they felt it.

The emptiness that it left behind.

“So many people have died. So many lives have lost. The brightest of lights, the most beautiful of stars… snuffed out.” The crystal, Dio Lux, The White Guardian Light, spoke. Up above, Typhon could see the light taking shape and form as if a video was beginning to play. “I have existed long before any of you were even specks of stardust, waiting to be formed.”

In the endless dark, there was a twinkling light. A multitude of lights that burst forth from the overwhelming dark. Brilliant and stunning, these lights all had different colors. Far outranging any rainbow, there were colors and shapes there that Typhon had never seen before.

“My kind were the first, your predecessors. From nothing, we were born. A miracle, some may claim. A burst of energy that created something from… nothing.” It spoke in awe and wonder, marveling at how frightening and chaotic nature could be. “We existed before it all. The first stars, in the night sky.”

The beautiful array of colors continued to spin in perfect harmony with one another, an endless dance as their light radiated and bounced off each other. From one light clashing with another, a new one appeared. It grew and spread to add to a tapestry that would birth the universe they knew today.

“My siblings and I all are one, yet, all disconnected. We are our own lights, birth from a single source, that would go out to create so many more wonderous things in the vast nothingness. Painting colors on a dark canvas. Galaxies, nebulas, what you know as constellations, asteroids and comets. Seas of stars in the dark void to guide those that would one day need them. All things we inadvertently helped create and shape. Our very existence shape the universe around us. Radiation, gravitational pulls, cosmic rays of pure energy. Planets. Stars. Trees and animals… Eons and eons would pass as our energies charged this emptiness. Creating the chance for life…

“Now, I wish to give you all more. Another chance. To show you what is possibly when you simply… believe.”

Words both true and false, mixed together. From its point of view, Dio Lux was corrected about everything it had said. An ancient being far beyond anything Typhon had met or faced before. Ancient and old, ageless would be the best way to describe it. Seeing eons worth of time. All compressed into it’s crystallized form.

“Why?” Someone asked. They all were under his spell, yet able to talk. To think. To communicate with Dio Lux. Reaching up for his warmth, seeking shelter underneath his light.

Some of these people even dropped to their knees in prayer or worship. The top echelon of society, now groveling on their knees pitifully before something one could call truly “alien.”

Typhon gripped his arm tightly, nails digging into his flesh until blue blood dripped to the floor. He couldn’t feel the pain. His senses were dulled like everyone else here. The smell of blood, however, was something he was intimately familiar with.

“Why? Oh, dear children, I have finally returned for our creations. We only made the marks on the painting, the canvas of the universe and life sprouted forth from them.” Dio Lux said with deep inspiration and wonder for such an event.

Typhon felt no hostility from him. The crystal meant every word it said. Every thought and emotion radiated from it’s body. Like radiation in space, it changed those around it. Not intentionally. Such a force of nature, unchecked, however would inadvertently effect all those around.

A tornado doesn’t choose where it goes or what wreckage it causes. A volcano will erupt all the same no matter what the cause. Nature was a force for a reason. At times, unpredictable and chaotic. Other times, it was the clouds parting in the sky for a ray of light to shine down on those in need.

And those who had just suffered great suffering, might forget what had just happened when a helpful hand was reached out for them…

“Enough, is enough.” Typhon let out his breath, closing his eyes and drew upon his power. It made his fur stand on end. Blue sparks jumping from the strands of fur from one to another. Charging himself. The cosmic energy protecting Typhon from the crystals alluring, captivating appeal. “I don’t think it’ll break if I just hit it.” Typhon opened his eyes, glaring at the thing.

People still gathered, throwing themselves before Dio Lux. Wanting to know the bliss of his light. Throwing away their pride, their responsibilities to know comfort possibly for the first time in their lives.

Artificial happiness, that was what Isaac had called it. Their lives, the lives of Celestials, were ones that were created from the highest of society with strict rules and limitations. Burdens placed on their shoulders since birth. Unable to choose a career path, forced to marry who their leaders dictated them to do so for the betterment of their kind.

Typhon almost laughed seeing them now. Willing to sacrifice one cage for another. Wanting to be free without ever seeing the new burdens such things created.

“Maybe if I ram the ship into it…?” Typhon muttered aloud, trying to come up with some kind of solution to their problem.

“Idiot, dumb, stupid, fucking moron!” Cyclone winced as the crystallized light continued to encase his body, tightening around him, suffocating him as his mechanical parts barely held on to the increasing pressure. “Think for once without Isaac telling you what to do!”

“Uh…” Typhon blanked on that. He tried to snap Isaac out of it again, hoping if he just slapped the Terran hard enough he’d wake up from this waking dream. “Really need you to come up with an idea here for me.”

“We’re doomed,” Cyclone howled in pain as a crystal cut deep into his side and black blood dripped over it’s perfect surface, staining it.

“Hopeless,” a voice chimed. Typhon’s ear flicked and then he jumped back, letting Isaac go as Sphinx appeared. “Don’t let him go!” Sphinx shouted at Typhon who quickly hurried back to pick Isaac up. The Terran had been mindlessly approaching that light again. “Take him away from the source,” Typhon was already running for the open doors with Isaac slung over his shoulder.

“Mo… ther…” Isaac voice droned out of him with his breath. “Why did you have… to leave me… alone…”

“Almost there, buddy.” Typhon tried to encourage him as he ran for the entrance they’d come through.

The doorway snapped shut as members from the security team stepped forward. Each wore white masks made from diamonds over their faces. They formed perfectly to their face. Maybe too well. The diamonds cut their cheeks, embedding into their fur and flesh and scales. Becoming a part of them.

“Stop resisting. Give Dio Lux a chance.” They spoke in unison. “All mistakes will be forgiven.”

White, glowing orbs buzzed in front of Typhon’s face like fireflies. They tried to latch on, to form and create a mask for him. The blue electricity sparking from his fur kept the lights at bay as Typhon ran for another exit. Trying to escape as the fireflies of light buzzed lazily after him.

“I expected a trap, this is just ridiculous!” Typhon banged on the next door. Trying to kick it open as he shifted Isaac from one shoulder to the next. “Fuck!” Typhon cursed as the fireflies tried to latch onto Isaac. He swatted them away quickly before moving to another spot. “Can you map out an exit for us? Anything?”

“I’ll try to find one that isn’t blocked.” Sphinx replied as he began to look things over. “From the energy readings, each of the entrances and exits have been sealed with that solidified light. You’d have to break through it.”

“Like punch it?” Typhon liked the sound of that.

“Can you punch through diamond?” Sphinx rolled his eyes. “Watch it!” He warned. “Energy readings are spiking around you.”

Typhon jumped back just as the crystallized light formed where he was standing. It tried to ensnare him as it did Cyclone. The fluttering orbs of light gathered around the spot and diamond-like structures grew and sprouted like crystallized plants as if it were alive.

“Don’t get caught.” Sphinx advised him.

“No shit!” Typhon shifted Isaac to his other shoulder and ran towards the other side of the room. Typhon didn’t care about the countless other people in the room. Shoving his way through the crowd as he tried to exit on the other side of the room.

The fireflies chasing him flew up overhead, buzzing around in the air out of reach. Sphinx turned to look at that, analyzing everything around them as he floated next to Isaac’s face. Isaac’s left eye was still working, creating the holographic form Sphinx took.

“Wait, wait. It isn’t attacking us when we’re in the crowd.” Sphinx said and Typhon paused at that. Surrounded by people, the Saberwolf looked around the room for an escape.

“The vents?” Typhon offered.

“Can you fit in a ventilation shaft?” Sphinx gave him a once over. “Sure. GO ahead. Love to see you try that,” the lion laughed.

“I’ll shove you where the light don’t shine if you keep this up!” Typhon growled back at him.

“Relax,” Isaac spoke making Typhon jump. “I do not wish to harm you,” he said, yet it was clearly not his voice.

Typhon pulled him off his shoulder, holding the Terran before him. Half of Isaac’s face was crystallized with those diamond fireflies. They clung to it, molding and taking shape over it. Oddly, they only buzzed around Isaac’s mechanical left eye. Seemingly unable to effect it.

“Give him back!” Typhon shouted, glaring at Isaac as he shook him violently.

“It’s the crystals doing,” Sphinx sighed, shaking his head. “Isaac is in some kind of trance. I haven’t been able to get a hold of that part of his brain. Only his mechanical parts are immune to whatever this all is.” Sphinx noted, trying to think up a solution.

“Snap him out of it!” Typhon growled, lifting up a hand.

“Stop that. I’m working on it.” Sphinx said. A matrix of numbers and codes ran through his holographic body. “It’s not exactly easy dealing with a predecessor.”

“A what?” Typhon shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t care. Just fix Isaac!”

“He doesn’t need fixing,” Isaac said, and Typhon whined from the strange, melodic sound he was making. It was like bells chiming. “He’s perfect the way he is. Broken? Cracked? It doesn’t matter. They’re all beautiful.” Isaac gestured around them. “Damaged, they are still lovely. I won’t throw them away as their kind has. As society has. Abandoned, left to gather dust on a shelf…”

Everyone in the room moved with the motion making Typhon shudder at the abnormality of it all.

“Isaac will glow with the rest of them. Perfectly safe, perfectly preserved beings that will never age, never die. That will forever stay with me.” Another voice said from above. Typhon turned to see Raphael descending down from the glass ceiling. The Motha didn’t even flap his wings.

Wings that were made of white crystals.

Raphael had taken on a transformation from the last time they had seen him, if he wasn’t always like this. Using holograms to display what he should’ve looked like, instead of what he did. His large black eyes were crystals, his wings were crystals, crystals jutted out of his body as he floated above the crowd radiating the white light.

“Uh, I think I missed something.” Typhon pulled Isaac close, hugging him against his chest. Refusing to let him go. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Raphael.” The crystallized Motha said. Typhon just frowned. “Hah, oh yes, I forgot for a second there…. You Saberwolves are always so suspicious of everything and everyone. It’s a wonder that you could bond with another outside your species.” The Motha opened his spindly black arms. “I am Dio Lux, the Guardian. You know my kind well, Saberwolf…” He said coldly, looking down at Typhon. “After all. You’re kind killed my brother.”

“Who?” Typhon scratched the side of his head, thinking about that. “I don’t ever recall meeting another Motha before.”

“Not the Motha! The crystal! The Blue Guardian! My brother. The other crystal guardian.” Raphael rolled his hand, trying to jog Typhon’s memory. The Saberwolf wasn’t getting it. “The Blue Guardian? The Predecessor of your people? The one who uplifted you beast into what you are today…?” Raphael dragged a hand down his face. “The guardian core you have inside you,” the Motha pointed at Typhon’s chest. “You got it from him. Or I should say stole it!”

“Oh, blue sparky sparky boom boom.” Typhon said patting his chest with a hand. “Yeah, what of it?”

“Void, I hate you.” Raphael sighed heavily before putting his hands together, trying to keep his calm appearance intact. One of his eyes continued to twitch. “I’m going to enjoy killing you. Ripping you apart, piece by piece and retrieve that core for safe keeping. Even gone, I can still keep his memories alive. Boisterous, loud and foolish… So very foolish. My brother was a fool for ever trusting your people. He should’ve known you would turn on him, in the end.”

“What did I do?” Typhon yipped, jumping back. He grabbed a nearby person and held them up like a meat shield.

“What have you done? What have you done!” Raphael shouted and the crystals light glowed painfully bright. Anger radiated from it, only for it to dim once more. The Motha collected himself with several deep breaths. “You, simple beast… Your entire kind! Have committed the grievous of sins. You killed one of us. An immortal. Coveting our power as the Tigeron did mine ages ago.”

“How do you kill an immortal if you are, well, immortal?” Typhon asked, confused over how that possibly worked.

“Shut up.” Raphael’s eye twitched. “Just shut up! You stupid, arrogant, ignorant, vile creatures killed my brother! Your ancestors are to blame. Their sins are yours! Tore him apart and devoured his energy for yourselves. Hungry beasts drooling after his power. Disgusting, barbaric beasts. That’s all you are. Wild animals that need to be contained.” He shook. Raphael shook as he clutched his hands together. “All the others I can forgive for their ignorance. Not you. Not your kind! Not after what you have done!”

“We did?” One of Typhon’s ears splayed out as his tilted his head. “I don’t recall.”

“How? How do you not know your people’s history? This.” Raphael gestured towards Typhon, shaking with furious rage. “This is why we must preserve history! Lest we forget what has happened before. What sins were committed and wrongs that needed to be righted. Doomed to repeat ourselves eternally. Ignorance is no excuse. That is why I must preserve you all. Pieces of history itself.”

Raphael gestured around the room. At the walls. The murals, the pottery and statues set up. At the sealed environments. Each with a different worlds biome inside. Locked away in what even Typhon realized was compressed space. Crystallized like Cyclone was becoming. He wasn’t the only one.

Around the room, Celestials became encased in the white crystals. Slowly caged within it before it sealed, locking them in place. Preserved in time, forever motionless, yet, alive. Behind that glass to be viewed, to be studied and collected like some kind of pieces of merchandise.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Cyclone laughed above, wheezing as the diamonds hardened over his chest making it difficult to breathe. “You are no different from the blue guardian! You boast about doing what’s right. Using us, abusing us, forcing us to fight in your war! Your no different. Always looking down on everyone else.”

“Cute,” Raphael turned to face Cyclone. “What would you know, aberration? You don’t even belong in this timestream.” Raphael laughed at Cyclone’s shocked expression. “Oh yes, I am well aware of the sins you have committed. Sins against nature itself. Against the very cosmic balance of the universe. None could forgive the crimes you have committed. Even the Tigerons, as arrogant as they are, would never dare attempt such a thing. And what? All for… this,” Raphael glanced down at Isaac.

Cyclone snarled at the Motha for that.

“Although, a Terran isn’t exactly needed.” Raphael motioned towards Isaac. “My aim was after the Celestial Nations that have forgotten where they have come from. Their races, the species of you animals that are most compatible with us? We uplifted you for a reason. Because you are compatible with us. You can channel our energies with only minor consequences… I fear what might happen to a Terran if he were to be exposed to my radiance for too long.”

Typhon jumped at that, shielding Isaac with his body as he snarled at Raphael. The crystal behind the Motha continued to hum with its soft light almost in laughter at the action.

“What did you do to Isaac, you bastard!” Typhon demanded to know.

“Peace, beast. Peace. No need to get angry. I have not harmed him, or anyone else here. Other than you, no one else has earned my ire. He is in a waking dream. Somewhere safe, where his fears can’t reach him. Preserved, forever, in time... Or at least, for how long his simple body can take it.” Raphael said as his spindly black arm began to crystallize and turn white. One finger snapped, braking off and fell to the floor. Dio Lux didn’t even seem to notice as Typhon looked at it in horror. “Unlike your kind, I have no need to harm him or wish to do so! I am not a monster, as you beasts claim us to be. You, on the other hand, are beyond salvaging.” Raphael laughed as he stayed above Typhon’s head out of reach.

“I don’t care about me. What about Isaac! I thought you two were supposed to be friends.” Typhon snarled back.

“Friends? Ah, yes. The body I inhabit once called him a friend. That was when they were equals. You cannot be friends with lesser creatures, you should know this playing with that Terran after all.” Raphael held up a hand. “Peace,” he said as Typhon snarled viciously at him. “I do not mean insult by such a claim. He, like all the others here, are limited by their mortality, you see. They have either rejected a guardian’s light or aren’t compatible with it. A sad thing, really. Such a gift? Forsaken. I will not forsake them. For I understand their finite existence and wish to cherish and preserve them evermore. They will not know suffering or loss again. Even Cyclone came to me, on begging knees,” the Motha pointed at the cyborg Saberwolf.

“GO fuck yourself, ya’ cunt!” Cyclone snapped back, still struggling against the increasing crystal mass around him.

“Even when others forsake me?” Raphael turned, lifting up a hand to the heaven’s dramatically. “I will forgive them,” he clutched the hand tightly, pulling it close to his chest. “For they know not what they do. I! Yes, I! Must be better than all of them.” The Motha floated upwards some more as he continued. “This frail insectoid creature came crawling to me as well. Where the other guardian’s would cast him aside for not being able to harbor his light? I will ferry him to the great beyond!” Raphael threw out his hand. “To paradise! All of them will come with me. Inside this vessel. We will find paradise!”

Everyone around Typhon began to clap in unison with one another. An astonishing feat seeing as how so many didn’t have the same arms lengths or arms to begin with to do so.

“No applause, please!” Raphael turned away from the crowd as if embarrassed. They continued to clap for him. “Oh, if you insist…” Raphael soaked in their applause as the spotlight was on him. The center of the universe. “Where was I? Oh, yes! Salvation for the meek and bread for the hungry…” Raphael rambled on. “All will be welcomed. I will ferry around the universe, gathering as many as I can before the dark sea washes all light away. Together, we will exist in the emptiness. Together, we will be. All as one, all equal. No more burdens, no more suffering! Just happiness.”

“Holy fuck, you like to talk don’t you?” Typhon’s shoulders sagged, feeling exhausted from Dio Lux’s long-drawn-out speech. “Well, while you’re busy with whatever that is. I’m going to go over here and slap my husband until he snaps out of it.”

“I will not forsake you!” Raphael turned on Typhon. The Saberwolf, with his back to the Motha, sagged once more. Wishing to go ignored during all this. “Repent for your sins, for your crimes and I shall forgive you. All you must do is ask. Fall to your knees and toss aside your pride! All will be forgiven. All will be spared. All-,”

A door up above slammed open with such force it dented the wall.

“Holy shit, there were so many stairs. SO many, many stairs.” The Tigeron panted, holding his knees with a set of hands as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

“About fucking time,” Cyclone cursed, spitting blood to the side. “What took you so damn long! Been waiting forever.”

“What travesty is this to interrupt my moment?” Raphael gasped, turning to face the Tigeron’s that entered the room.

“Just give me a freaking second,” Bai’Tai coughed into a closed fist, clearing his voice before approaching the golden laid railing of the second floor. Pointing at the crystal, he called out. “Liar! You are such a fucking liar!” The noble white furred, black striped Tigeron said as he marched forward from the balcony above. Behind him, several others dragged forth a machine. It was covered by a white cloth, barely being held up on a rickety table cart that looked ready to break under its weight at any second.

It must’ve been what had been delaying them. The machine Isaac had spoken about, and that Cyclone seemingly knew was going to be revealed this evening. Why else, Typhon reasoned, would Cyclone knowingly walk into this trap? Allowing it to be sprung on them so that Dio Lux wouldn’t realize he himself had been in a trap all along.

“A Tigeron? Here? What a surprise!” Raphael said as Typhon rolled his eyes at the clear set up. “Here I was only expecting the traitorous Saberwolves that killed their Guardian, but it appears they have banded together with the tigers of the jungles!” Raphael feigned surprise. “The ones who abandoned theirs!”

“Team up with him?” Typhon and Bai’Tai said at the same time. “As if!”

“Well done,” Raphael clapped. “Well-rehearsed, what is my next line in all this? Oh yes, yes. How dare you betray me!” The Motha pointed at the Tigeron. “For I have given you everything and your kind abandoned me. My white light transformed you! Changing your colorful fur white, creating the noble class amongst your people. I was your everything and you abandoned me.” Raphael wiped away a crystallized tear.

“Abandoned? You… You,” Bai’Tai visibly twitched at this. All four sets of his hands closed and opened in random intervals from each other. Trying to contain the bubbling, boiling rage inside. “It’s all some kind of game for you, isn’t it? Your kind always looking down on us. Treating us like… like toys! Things to be played with! For your entertainment! Just because you are older than the Tigeron race, you proclaim to know what’s best for us? Laughable.” Bai’Tai actually laughed at this.

“Is this a giant play I didn’t know I was a part of?” Typhon felt left out of what was actually going on. Feeling more like a third wheel as the two argued back and forth.

“You-,” Raphael started.

“You!” Bai’Tai snarled back. The two pointing at each other. Typhon could already see there was a tempestuous history between the two of them. A vast storm that hadn’t calmed. Ex-lovers perhaps? Typhon really didn’t care all that much. He chose not to get involved. Typhon was the third wheel in all of this and began to slink away as they argued back and forth like children. “You abandoned us first!”

“Nu uh, you did.” The moth practically stuck his proboscis out at him like a tongue. Taunting the Tigeron even further.

“I’ll rip your wings off!” Bai’Tai shouted.

“AS if you could reach me from all the way down there.” Raphael laughed.

Typhon rolled his eyes as he removed himself from the crowd of people that had turned on Bai’Tai. The two still arguing overhead as Typhon set Isaac down against the wall and lifted up a hand. Typhon didn’t know or care to know about their history. Whatever that had been? Didn’t concern them.

Reaching out, Typhon planned to pull the partial mask off Isaac’s face.

“Don’t,” Cyclone grunted from overhead. With a glance, Typhon could see he was nearly fully encased in the crystallized glass of light by now. “Use. Your energy. To snap him out of it.”

“Like electro shock therapy?” Typhon wasn’t sure how to do that.

“Sure. Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Cyclone winced as a shard jabbed into his side. “Just wake Isaac up before he gets consumed by the crystals.”

“Consumed?” Typhon’s ears shot up hearing that. He quickly looked back at all those gathered here. Every one of the Celestial species seemed to be handling Dio Lux’s light just fine. However, glancing upwards, Typhon could see the Motha.

The Motha’s body was slowly turning white. His fur, his eyes, even his fingers and toes. Every part of his body was slowly turning a luminescent white. Raphael’s wings had been the first thing to crystallize, then his eyes. Slowly, the Motha’s body was being consumed by the very light controlling him.

“Right, right. Oh! The shard,” Typhon turned to look at Isaac. “I’ll just power up his shard and it’ll break him free of all this?” Typhon began rubbing his hands together.

“Wait! Isaac,” Cyclone clamped his eyes shut, trying not to howl in pain. “Isaac’s shard!” He shouted out. “It’ll do the same thing to him as it did Raphael! When you power it up? It’ll activate the shard inside him and cause it to grow and fester like an infection. It’ll eventually kill him!” Cyclone gritted his teeth. “You have to remove it. Only you can! I don’t have the Guardian’s Blessing any longer. You still do!”

“Remove it?” Typhon jumped at that. “I thought you; I mean he… did I do this?” Typhon was about to have an existential crisis before a thick wad of spittle hit his cheek from above. “The hell!” He snarled, wiping it off his face as he shot Cyclone a death glare.

“Shut up,” Cyclone spat down at him. “Just shut up about all of that! We don’t have time for any of this. Either break me free, or snap Isaac out of it before it’s too late! I can’t watch him die again.”

Just then, up above, Bai’Tai pulled the sheet of white cloth off the thing he had brought into the room.

Instantly, everyone in the room felt the weight of gravity increase. The very room became heavier. It became harder to breathe. Typhon tried to shield Isaac’s body with his own, what little good it did them as the pull of gravity intensified.

Oddly, it wasn’t pressing them down against the floor but drawing everyone in the room to the device Bai’Tai had brought into the room. It pulled them closer to it. Like a black hole, suctioning everything in.

“Fuck, he brought it in already.” Cyclone coughed. “Change of plans. Stop him from activating the damned thing. I’ll drain the energy from these crystals and save Isaac. You stop them! Or we’re all dead.”

“Uh, wait, you? But I?” Typhon glanced between Cyclone, Isaac and where Bai’Tai and Dio Lux were squaring off. “What do I do?” He howled, pulling on his ears.”

“Stop Bai’Tai.” A familiar voice said, and Typhon looked down to see Isaac clutching his chest. Wincing the Terran was breathing heavier than Typhon was. “Bai’Tai is trying to activate the monolith again…” He winced as the white masked cracked and pulled on his face. Pieces of the diamond being ripped off and sucked towards the device that drained all the energy from the room. The pain, the cold, the ache of his heart ceased to exist as he slipped back under its spell. “Stop Bai’Tai before he… the academy… Typhon…”

Then Isaac went still as the others in the room had.

Bodies hit the floor. Everyone under Dio Lux’s influence crumbled to the ground like an old bag of potatoes. Unable to support their weight, they collapsed. Some were slowly being dragged towards where Bai’Tai was.

Typhon only reacted when he noticed Isaac being drawn towards it. It wasn’t just his gravity, but everything about him. The outline of Isaac’s body was being siphoned off. Drawn in and absorbed by the black monolith in the room.

It hummed with dark energy. It pulsed as if it had a heartbeat. As if it were alive.

Typhon’s skinned crawled as he made up his mind.

“Okay.” Typhon stood up. Glancing at Cyclone, he gave the wolf a single warning. “IF anything happens to Isaac. I’m coming for your head,” he flashed his fangs before bolting towards Bai’Tai and the device.

“You and me both,” Cyclone coughed as he struggled to reach his arm. With a single bloody finger, he pressed one of the buttons on the side. The mechanical left arm lit up and the air around him began to get vacuumed into it.

From the black blood coating the crystals, the shards broke and the pieces were changed. From solid mass, they broke down into raw energy that was soon absorbed into Cyclone’s arm. Cracks formed in the glass like diamond. Spiderwebs that stretched outwards further and further until…

They shattered.

The crystallized glass broke and shattered, Cyclone falling heavily to his metal feet. His knees bent, the metal biting into his thighs as the weight of the room increased as Bai’Tai laughed maniacally from the other side of the room.

“Yes! Yes! It’s working, it’s working!” Bai’Tai laughed. “They called me a fool! An idiot. Sending me to that damn Terran academy for theorizing this would be possible! Even the light can’t escape a black hole!”

With a roll of his eyes, Cyclone wiped off the remaining shards from his left arm.

“Thank you, Saber Tech.” Cyclone huffed. “It’s only thanks to this that they were able to defeat and take the Blue Guardian’s light? By developing a weapon specifically used against them.” He said, looking down at Isaac. Crouching down, Cyclone pet the side of his face. “Oh Isaac. This isn’t at all what I had planned for. At least, in the end, we’re together again.”

He laughed. A hollow, wet sound that made him cough several times after. Holding his bloody chest, Cyclone took a moment to stare at Isaac as if trying to carve the image of him into his brain forever.

Cyclone tilted his head, about to kiss the man before him when a blue spark flashed from inside Isaac’s chest. Like a violent storm of energy, Raiju lashed out at Cyclone forcing the Saberwolf back.

“What do you think you’re doing, monster?” Raiju’s light glowed so intense, Cyclone had to shield his eyes. The spark flashed out, using all its energy to take control from where it had been suppressed inside Isaac’s shard.

The white strands of hair on Isaac’s head, changed by Dio Lux, turned once more to the vibrant blue energy that crackled inside the shard embedded inside Isaac’s chest. Raiju unleashing his energy inside Isaac.

“Filthy, tainted creature touched by the void. An aberration! That’s all you are. Unnatural, unclean.” Raiju spoke using Isaac’s voice, using the Terran like a pawn. Showing his true colors. “You force my hand, void scum.”

“Finally showing yourself, huh?” Cyclone snorted already knowing this would happen. He began adjusting a dial on his mechanical arm, changing the setting to the right frequency.

“I escaped that idiot Saberwolf to use this mortals body as a vessel, yes. However, I miscalculated admittedly.” Raiju scoffed as Cyclone continued to ignore him. “Foolish creature was too weak to harbor my power and was beginning to succumb to it,” Raiju laughed. “Such fragile creatures. Only a Celestial’s body will do, like yours.” Raiju, using Isaac, reached out a hand for Cyclone. “I will take over your core and erase your consciousness from this universe! You will be alive, but unable to do anything.”

Raiju laughed as Isaac’s hand sparked with energy. Blue shards of crystal sprouted from his skin, making him bleed as the blue guardian pointed at Cyclone’s chest.

“Your body will be mine.”

“Yes, yes. Very dramatic. All things I’ve heard many, many times before.” Cyclone twisted the dial then pressed it in with his thumb. “There we go,” the white energy inside was released, venting it behind him leaving it empty and dark inside. “Much better.”

“Wait,” Raiju hesitated. Unable to locate Cyclone’s core. “Where is your-,”

“Oh that thing? I got rid of my core eons ago,” Cyclone sneered at Raiju before reaching out his left arm towards Isaac’s chest. “Now then. Shall we have this dance?”

“What are you-,” Raiju lifted a hand to stop him. Cyclone slammed his fist against Isaac’s chest, ripping into his chest with his metallic fingers. Fingers sealed around the metal casing of the Terran’s heart using it as the perfect conduit.

Instantly, the energy inside began to drain out of it, out of Isaac, and into Cyclone’s Saber Tech arm.

With a frightened scream, Raiju tried to stop him. Isaac was only a Terran and even with the Guardian’s light, he could do little against one who had changed himself specifically to combat a guardian.

“No matter how many times I do this.” Cyclone face split in a gleeful smirk, showing all his fangs in a wicked smile as he laughed. “I never get tired of getting my revenge on you. On you, for taking Isaac from me.” Cyclone’s arm increased in output, draining all of Raiju’s energy from the crystal shard inside Isaac’s body. “How you used me! How you used me to infect Isaac! Trying to escape a Saberwolf, to transfer into another body to escape your fate. You failed then, and I’ll make sure as hell that you fail now!”

“No, this can’t be. Not again. Not again!” Raiju cried out, trying to pull the arm off Isaac’s chest. He could feel himself fading. Feel himself draining away into Cyclone’s arm. Feel his brilliant, volatile blue energy crackle and fight against the empty darkness inside Cyclone.

But a single spark did little against an endless ocean.

Endless and deep, the void sea filled Cyclone’s empty husk of a body. Endless and deep. Endless and deep. Endless… and deep. The dark swallowed the light within.

All Raiju saw was darkness as he fought against it. Fought against the dark that threatened to consume his light. The last shard of his existence, escaped into Typhon long ago on the planet Saber. Using the Saberwolf to escape the barren, dying planet. Using Typhon’s body as a vessel, a hitchhiker, to find a new host to possess and take.

Only for that Saberwolf to fall in love with one not compatible with Raiju’s light. Out of the trillions of stars in the night sky, why would a Saberwolf fall in love with a Terran?

From the very beginning, Raiju’s cursed existence was doomed to fail. To drown away in a sea that reflected the stars, that didn’t shine above, but from within…

“You are so similar to the void, it’s frightening.” Cyclone turned another dial as he increased the flow inside his arm. He kept it slow at first. Even if it harmed Isaac, it was so damn enjoyable watching Raiju suffer. For him to realize the futility of it all. That there was no hope for him to win. “I will drown you in the emptiness you left me with. The scars you left behind? I’ll repay you tenfold, a hundredfold in kind! Know what true suffering is you piece of shit and die.”

Dripping.

The heavy sound of dripping increase. Flooding the arm as the black ooze poured in from all sides. A thick sea of darkness that spilled endlessly from the nothingness. Filling the arm, dripping from the seams and sockets of it. Oozing from every port as the blue spark inside continued to fight against the inevitable end.

“Not like this!” Raiju cried out. “I saved your kind! I lifted you up! You were to be my warriors against the dark! A shield, a barricade to protect me from its grasp! I was to be immortal!”

“Die and waste away into nothingness.” Cyclone licked where his missing fangs were. “No matter how many times it takes, I will kill you until there is nothing left.” With an extra kick his arm increased, like a vacuum sucking. He pulled the last remnants, the last flickers of light from inside Isaac until Raiju, the blue guardian, returned to where it had come from.

From Typhon’s core, Raiju had hid away. His body killed and siphoned by the Saberwolves that he had uplifted eons ago. Granting them knowledge, only for them to turn on him for his abuse and neglect. For pushing them to the point of near extinction. The Saberwolves had turned their fangs on him.

Shot down from the sky, he was ripped apart and devoured. Piece by piece, they ate his crystallized form. Siphoning the energy away, Typhon’s ancestors gained cores inside their chest from the crystallized guardian.

Through sexual exploits, Raiju had been able to spread throughout their people. Unable to control them any longer, they used his power to fight in his war against the endless dark. There was one Saberwolf, though, that held great promise. Typhoon of the wastelands.

Transferring his body, his being, into Typhon’s core. Raiju had planned to stay hidden until the time was right. Then Typhon had met Isaac.

In the beginning, before Cyclone, Typhon had accidentally met a Terran out in the emptiness of space. Only having each other, the two would eventually form a bond. A bond that Raiju would exploit and take advantage of. Unable to control Typhon, Raiju would use his lover to enact his revenge with!

Only to learn that not all species and races in the cosmos were compatible with them. Raiju would inadvertently kill Isaac and start Cyclone down the path he would take…

Raiju saw all this. Connected to Cyclone and his memories for that brief moment. Knowing what he had done, what Cyclone would go on to do. How many times this had happened. How many times Cyclone had hunted him down and killed him.

Again.

And Again.

Cyclone had killed Raiju countless times before resetting and doing it all over again.

“This isn’t possible. This can’t be happening. I can’t! I can’t die! I am a god,” Raiju wanted to say. To cry out. To be heard. To crash like lightning and roar like thunder. “Your people howled for me!” Cyclone couldn’t care less. “You cried out for my power! You need me. Want me. Need me! Praised and worshipped me! I was your god!”

“No,” Cyclone said in an ice-cold voice. “You are no god. You are closer to a devil that built his throne on countless corpses of my people, and my lover. You deserve a fate far worse than this…”

Cyclone, like the rest of his people, forgot all about the deity that had fallen from the stars onto their planet. Granting the nomadic Saberwolves power beyond mortal comprehension. At a cost. A cost that Cyclone made sure to pay back ten times over when he was forcibly reminded of his existence.

“I’m! I’m… I… ‘m…” Raiju final words echoed in the endless nothingness. No more words to be said, no more deeds to be done. One of the brightest of lights in the entire universe, turned off with a simple switch on Cyclone’s arm.

Whatever he was, whatever Raiju would become?

It didn’t matter. For in the darkness of space, no one could hear you scream.

Whatever he had to say, whatever his purpose was? Cyclone made sure that it ended before he could accomplish anything. All his plotting? All his plans? It would all come to naught. Over and over again Cyclone would show him that. Bleak and miserable, that’s how Cyclone made sure he went. Allowing Raiju to accomplish nothing. To know what it was to suffer. To know endless defeat after defeat.

That Endless War that Raiju forced his people to partake in? Raiju would know it as well. To know defeat after defeat. That there was no victory to be had when you fight against the inevitable. For that was what the void was. Inevitable.

Cyclone knew that better than anyone.

There was no future for Raiju. There was no need for a past or a history. Cyclone would erase him from this existence along with all the others. No one would remember his name. A name that had already been erased centuries ago. The name Isaac had given him? Would be forgotten in time as well.

Another member of a lost civilization to be forgotten.

With one last flickering blinking light, Raiju went silent and dark. Leaving only steam jutting from Cyclone’s arm as he released the pressure inside. His hand spun around, fingers flexing as he looked it over. Making sure there were no errors.

Other than the dripping blackness from the seams. Every time Cyclone did this, it got worse. A festering wound that wept black ooze.

“Uh,” Sphinx spoke up as Cyclone glanced over at Isaac. “Thanks? That bastard was preventing me from doing anything. I was about to-,” Sphinx started up with, appearing in holographic form next to them.

“Right,” Cyclone bent down on one knee. Reaching over, he lifted the artificial flap of skin from the side of Isaac’s neck. “We won’t be needing you either.” Cyclone pressed the button, opening up the port and pulling out the device Sphinx was installed into.

“Wait-,” Sphinx cried out as Cyclone crushed the data drive in his hand, letting the pieces fall to the ground.

“Alright, that’s two things taken care of.” Cyclone let out a heavy breath. Looking over, he could see Typhon fighting against Raphael and Bai’Tai. He’d be at that until the glass ceiling broke and then they’d take it out into space. Cyclone didn’t plan to be here for any of that nonsense. “I’ll let him handle that.” Cyclone turned back to Isaac. “You must feel drained after all that. Raiju might’ve been threatening to consume you, but he was also what was powering your heart.” Cyclone touched Isaac’s chest. “You feel so cold… or maybe that’s me.”

Leaning forward, Cyclone opened his jaws.

“Don’t worry. That emptiness inside? I know what that’s like. I’ve had ever since you went cold. Ever since your light went out… Let me fill you,” he spoke as the black ooze bubbled up from his throat and dripped from his lips. “Fill you with the endless void.”

And, from Cyclone’s lips, the void fell over Isaac’s chest and body.

Covering him in a thick ooze that no light could ever hope to shine through.