*Earth – Caelum’s POV*

Flarea put her finger on her chin and looked up towards the ceiling like some character from an anime. She stood there for a minute before shrugging her shoulders, “I can’t really think of one, how about you pick it.” I sighed and then thought about it for a bit and then I thought of that scene I saw. I snapped my fingers, “How about King?” Flarea and Katarina both looked at me and then at each other before they both busted out laughing. I frowned, “What’s so funny?”

They both looked at me again and started to laugh again. I frowned again and waited for them to get done laughing before I spoke again, “Seriously though, is it that bad?” Katarina wiped a tear from her eye, “Sorry for laughing at you, but seriously; King? That is all you could come up with?” I frowned and looked away, “She told me to pick.” Katarina laughed and then pinched my cheek like I was some kid, “You know you’re cute when you pout.”

I frowned again and swatted her hands away bringing another laughing fit from Flarea. I sighed, “Okay if King doesn’t work then you think of something Kat.” She thought about it for a bit before she spoke, “King is just too generic and has been used so many times that the Mercenary Union actually banned from being used, but there are a lot of other words that mean the same. Sovereign is one example of a word that means the same.” I thought about it for a little while and then made a decision, “I know it is over used a lot in certain things, but I want to go with the code name Sovereign.”

Katarina nodded her head, “Okay then. It is used quite a bit in the stories on Earth, but surprisingly no mercenaries from Earth that are associated with the Mercenary Union use that as a code name. It makes no sense, but the amount of people actually able to leave Earth and go explore the universes is small, like very small.” I raised an eyebrow, “So multiple people can have the same code name, but only one of that code name per planet?”

She nodded her head, “No not really, it’s more like per universe.” I sighed, “So you mean that out of everybody in this universe no one has used the code name Sovereign?” Flarea was messing with a tablet that I never saw her have before when she spoke up, “I am checking that right now.” We waited a few minutes before she answered again, “There has not been a mercenary that has used that code name from this universe.”

I sighed again, “I don’t see how that is possible honestly.” Flarea looked up, “Honestly the word Sovereign was developed here on Earth. Almost all of the languages from Earth are not used in the universe. There are trillions of languages in the universe, but there is a common language simply called Universal.” I face palmed, “Universal? That is really all they could come up with as a name?” She smiled, “That’s right Mr. King.” She put some emphasis on the word king and it caused me to cringe. It really was simple and a little egotistical now that I think about it, but Sovereign is a little egotistical as well.

I sighed again, “Can you register me from here or do we need to go somewhere?” She smiled at me, “Hold out your hand.” I did as she said and she pricked my finger, hard. Blood dripped out and a little stick popped out of the tablet. My blood dripped onto the stick and then the stick slid back inside. She tapped on the screen a few times and then smiled at me again, “Okay, your code name has been added to your mercenary profile.”

I sucked my finger for a second before speaking, “So when do we leave?” She looked over at Katarina who spoke, “You guys can leave as soon as you want.” Flarea nodded and left the room. Katarina walked up and grabbed my face with both hands. She tilted my head to face her and smiled, “Be careful, okay? There are many dangers out there that even Galactic Fighters such as Flarea have to be wary of.”

I nodded my head, “I will, I can have Violetta worrying about me, can I?” She smiled, “That you can’t.” She gave me a kiss on my forehead, which shocked me, and left the room. I followed after her with my eyes and wondered what the heck that was for. Flarea walked back into the room, “You ready kid?” I shook my head and turned towards her, “You should know from that moment in the car that I am no kid.”

She blushed a little as she snorted, “Compared to me you will always be a kid.” She headed towards the garage and I quickly followed behind her. When we entered the garage, I saw Violetta standing there waiting on us. She was leaning against my Chevelle and staring off into space. I walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder slightly startling her. She jumped a little and then she noticed me standing there beside her.

She smiled at me, “Don’t scare me like that.” I grinned at her, “Sorry, you were just so deep in thought that I didn’t know if you would hear me speak.” She snorted, “Sure you did.” I grinned and then I got a little serious, “We are heading out.” She got equally serious, “I figured as much.” She sighed, “Be careful out there okay?” I remembered the scene with Katarina from a few minutes ago and it brought a smile to my face, “Don’t worry, Flarea will be there.”

Violetta laughed, “That’s what I am worried about.” I grinned, “Oh? What could she ever do to me?” She grinned, “She could probably do somethings that your or I would have never even thought about doing.” I smiled, “Oh sounds fun.” She punched me in the shoulder, “Don’t go conquering too much now, dear.” I laughed and rubbed my shoulder, “I’ll try my hardest.”

She was about to say something else, but I quickly kissed her and shut her up. We kissed for a few minutes before Flarea honked at us, “Let’s get a move on lover boy.” We both laughed and I gave her one more, quick kiss before heading towards Flarea. Violetta spoke up behind me, “Don’t forget to call.” I held up the Uni-Phone on my wrist and smiled, “I won’t”

I got in the car and Flarea headed out of the garage. We got on I-35 and headed towards the city again. After almost thirty minutes of dead silence I finally couldn’t stand it anymore, “Where are we headed?” Flarea responded simply, “We are headed towards a transfer array in the middle of the city.” I raised an eyebrow, “Transfer array?” She nodded, “They are all over the world and in America there is one in every state capital. I was shocked, “Every state capital?” She nodded, “Yeah, but those are just the public transfer arrays. As for private ones, there are too many to count.” I shook my head, “There is so much on this world that normal people don’t even realize.” Flarea snorted, “That’s an understatement.” I furrowed my brows, “What does that mean?” She didn’t answer me this time and I didn’t push any further.

We were traveling down the highway when my wrist made a little chime noise. I looked down and saw that it was a message from Violetta. I smiled and opened it gaining myself a mushy little text message. I grinned from ear to ear at the contents and Flarea snorted, “We just left and she already is texting you. It’s like that high school romance where you guys are constantly all like “oh I love you baby” and “I love you too snookum”” She shivered after she said that and then concentrated on the road.

I laughed, “It’s not like that at all Flarea. If you weren’t so cold to people maybe you could find yourself someone other than a fuck buddy.” Flarea snorted again, “I am not cold to people.” I smiled, “You are pretty cold though. Except when we were sparring, you brush me off like I don’t exist sometimes.” Flarea sighed and muttered, “It’s not like I mean too.” I grinned, “I know that. I could tell that it was some natural thing that you just do. I feel that something happened and now you can’t bring yourself to get close to people other than Katarina and Violetta.”

Flarea didn’t speak for a few minutes and we rode in silence. After a bit she finally spoke, “I did have some rough times a long time ago. I was pretty much left for dead when Katarina found me.” I perked up a little bit when she started speaking about her past, but she quickly shut down again. She spoke in that serious slash annoyed voice that she usually had around me, “We are here.”

I wanted to see that smile she had when we were sparring again, but I bitterly smiled and looked out the window. We were actually pulling up to the Thunderdome which surprised me. I looked over, “What are we doing here? Are we going to watch the Thunder play or something?” She snorted again, “Just follow me.” She seemed to be acting colder than usual and I chocked it up to the fact that Violetta and Katarina weren’t around. When we were at the house she would at least talk to me and answer my questions. This complete flop in attitude annoyed me. Not much I could do about it considering the person in question is a Galactic Fighter.

We walked into the back door of the Thunderdome when it hit me. What the hell could leave a Galactic Fighter for dead? From what Katarina told me, Galactic Kings and Universal Powers usually wouldn’t bother with anything below them. I watched Flarea’s back as we walked and she looked a little lonely if you stared long enough. I sped up a little and walked right beside her.

She cut her eyes at me, but other than that she didn’t say anything to me. I sighed and then we continued to walk in silence. We made it to a service elevator and walked inside. She activated a little of her flame and then stuck it near a hole in the wall. The flame was sucked in and the elevator started to move. I looked up at the floor screen and saw that it was actually going down. I knew that the Thunderdome had a basement and maybe even a second level to it, but when the screen said B9 I had long realized that this elevator went way further than that.

The elevator finally stopped at B777 which was an extremely weird number to stop on, but also amazing. One has to know that the tallest building in the world is only a little over one hundred and sixty stories tall. That means that the floor we are on, if it was above ground, would be almost five times as tall. It was almost thirteen thousand feet below ground. This is just short of the Bingham Canyon Mine in Salt Lake City. It miles it equals out to two and a half miles underground.

It amazes me that something could be built that far underground without any signs of it on the surface. The elevator opened and we were greeted with a bustling area. It looked like a mall had been built underground, but it was filled with aliens. Yes that’s right, I said aliens. It looked like a scene straight out of Star Wars or something. Flarea stepped out of the elevator and I quickly followed.

We were walking and I was busy looking around at all the different beings. I saw an Arachne type of race, elves, fairies, wolfkin, kitsune, and a whole lot of different races. I even saw what looked like an angel except for his wings were black. He noticed me looking and flashed a smile at me that caused me to actually get weak in the legs. I was shocked at how that could happen to me especially since I was a male that was not interested in the same sex at all. Flarea spoke up, “Succubus, when Incubus I should say since he is male.”

I looked at her and saw that she didn’t even look back at me when she spoke. I was really starting to get irritated at her cold attitude. I spoke up, “Why are you being so cold to me right now? This attitude is completely different from when Katarina and Violetta are around or when we were sparring.” She didn’t answer me and just kept walking I got a little ticked and grabbed her arm, “Hey, answer me.”

She actually turned around and punched me with a flame cloaked fist. I flew backwards and smashed into a food cart. The creature running the cart started to get pissed, but when he saw Flarea he backed down. I would have been shocked if not for the massive amount of power radiating from her. Her chest was heaving causing her restricted bust to seem like it wanted to burst out. She growled at me, “Don’t touch me.”

I groaned and decided to try and figure out why she was acting the way she is now. I stood up from the cart, to everyone’s surprise, and dusted myself off. Most people probably wouldn’t have noticed it, but when I notice the lighting quick punch headed my way I slowed time down enough to dodge a bit. I didn’t get hit by the actual fist, but the pressure from the swing itself was enough to throw me backwards.

I walked over to Flarea, “What the fuck is wrong with you, seriously?” She growled, “I don’t like people touching me.” I snorted, “What about when we sparred then?” She snorted, “That’s different.” I sighed, “Someone who doesn’t like people touching her has had multiple fuck buddies?” She snorted, “It’s a good cover to keep most people away, plus if anyone really wants to get fuck me then end up in a hospital or the morgue.”

I raised an eyebrow, “So you really haven’t had any fuck buddies then?” She snorted, “Why should I tell you?” I smiled, “How about this, if I can land a punch on you again then you will have to tell me.” She snorted, “That’s fine, but I won’t go as easy as last time. The wards on this place are far stronger than the wards at Katarina’s.”

She released her power some more and it radiated from her body. Cracks spread across the floor, but they quickly fixed themselves. Everyone in the area quickly backed off to a certain distance. They didn’t leave the area, but they didn’t get too close either. There were some murmurs in the crowed as well, “Galactic Fighter!” and a few others. I frowned and found it difficult to even stand with her power pushing down on me.

She grinned, “How about I used fifty percent of my power right now. If you can land a hit on me not only will I tell you what you want to know I may even let you touch me whenever you like.” I grinned and looked her body up and down a couple of times causing her to get a little irritated, “Make that fifty-five percent.” Her power flared up again and I could feel my bones protesting and grinding against each other.

I grunted and actually fell to one knee, but I didn’t go down completely. I thought about the powers at my disposal and quickly found one to use. I made the neutral element of earth coursed through my body and strengthened it. The pressure caused by her power lessened and I was able to stand straight pretty easily. She raised an eyebrow, “Not bad kid.” She disappeared and then reappeared in front of me, “But just being able to stand isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

A lightning fast punch was heading my way again and I activate the element of time and dodged out of the way. Even with time slowed down for me the punch was still moving extremely quick, which caused me to barley dodge the fist. The pressure from the punched snapped my head back and sent me flying into another building.

I groaned in pain and slid to the ground. My face was quickly grabbed and I was lifted from the ground. My neck protested and made some popping noises as I was lifted. I gritted my teeth and kept myself from making any noise. There was a blow to my stomach which almost caused me to lose consciousness. I remembered what Katarina said about losing my consciousness, “Wait, Flarea stop.” I was barely able to spit the words out when another punch to my gut made my vision black out for a split second.

I was thrown to the ground and then kicked in the stomach again. I spit out some blood and looked up at Flarea. She snorted, “You need to remember, there is always someone or something stronger than you.” She looked extremely sad when she said the next statement, “Don’t ever become conceited or you will lose much more than just a fight. I could feel my consciousness fading no matter how hard I tried to concentrate. I slowly looked up at Flarea, “Run…” Then darkness took over.

*Flarea POV*

I saw that he lost consciousness and I felt extremely bad. I really didn’t want to hurt him so much, but I felt he was getting a little too big for his britches. I didn’t want him to end up like me so I decided to beat it into him. I looked down at him and sighed, “He really does have a great smile though. He sticks up for his women too, which is a great trait. Sadly I don’t want to get really close with anyone. I can’t lose someone like that again.”

I cleared those thoughts from my head and then thought about what he said before consciousness left him. I furrowed my brows, “Why would he tell me that?” I all of a sudden felt a shiver down my spine and I looked at him. There was a dark shadow spreading from him and it gave off an eerie feeling. It even made me feel a trace of fear, which, shouldn’t be possible given who it was coming from.

I then remembered something that Katarina told me and I instantly felt the blood leave my face. I stepped back from him and then saw him stand up. The darkness was radiating from him and it looked like pitch black flames were coming from his body. He opened his eyes and they were pitch black. They felt like they would suck me in if I looked at them for too long.

He moved his head side to side and it made a popping noise. He let out a sigh, “Oh… that feels better.” It wasn’t his voice that came out of his body, but something more dark. It sounded like a dog growling and the devil whispering at the same time. He, or it, looked at me, “I should thank you for making this brat lose consciousness. His freaking mental fortitude is outrageous. The Temple of the Light barely holds a candle to this man’s fortitude.

Temple of the Light? What the hell is speaking through Caelum’s body. It coughed, “Oh please forgive me. Let me introduce myself.” He made a sweeping bow, “My name is pretty complicated so most people just call me Darkness.” He straightened up and I spoke to him, “What happened to Caelum?” It smiled, “Oh, he is still here. Even now he is fighting to regain control of his body, but I’m afraid it won’t be that easy. Especially since that woman sealed his power over the light.”

I instantly felt bad, because Katarina actually warned me about something like this. Violetta told her about what happened to Caelum on the plane ride back. She had to wipe the memory of the pilot and it was hard for her to walk for a while. I came back to reality and saw that it was standing right in front of me.

It licked its lips and then looked my body up and down. There was a smile on its face, “I see why he finds you attractive. I still don’t know why he cares for you though. He is very peculiar when it comes to those he cares about. He could literally meet someone once and develops feelings for them. This is normal for humans though, they can develops feelings of lust, anger, admiration, joy, among many others during their first meeting. What I find odd is that the feelings he has are those that usually would only be between two lovers.”

Caelum has feelings for me? I figured he would lust after me, because almost all guys are like that. I never would have thought that he would have those kinds of feelings for me. My question is why? It spoke to me again, “You’re wondering why aren’t you?” I didn’t say anything, but it continued to explain anyways, “He is has actually lived a semi-difficult life He had parents, but they were almost never home. He didn’t have hardly any friends, at least not any true friends. He has been alone for almost eighty-five percent of his life.”

I was a little shocked at that. He acted way to happy to be alone. It stepped back and smiled, “He has changed though from the memories I have seen. Especially since he met that purpled haired girl, she has had quite the impact on him…” Its voice trailed off and it looked like it was deep in thought. Its face contorted and it mumbled, “Blasted human… why is your fortitude so strong!?”

Power pulsated from its body as it continued to fight Caelum. It grabbed its head and I heard Caelum’s voice, “Leave them alone… I won’t let you hurt them.” The other voice responded, “I will kill them both… but not before I have my way with them…” I unconsciously stepped back as the power leaking from Caelum’s body was truly unfathomable. The area started to shake and cracks went up the walls.

“What’s going on!?” I heard a familiar voice in the air. When I looked up I saw that Katarina and Violetta were flying down towards us. She landed beside me and looked towards Caelum. Violetta gasped and covered her mouth with her hands while Katarina cursed, “What the fuck happened?” I looked down at the ground, “I got a little irritated at him and when I was teaching him a lesson he passed out.” Katarina face palmed, “What the hell did he do?” I frowned, “He touched me.”

She grabbed me by the shirt, “Why the fuck would that piss you off!? It was just a touch!” I yelled back, “You should know better than anyone what happens to those that get close to me!” She reached back and slapped me. I knew it was coming and I could have easily blocked it or move, but I didn’t for some reason. There was silence after the smacking sound and the only thing that could be heard was the thrum of Caelum’s power.

She looked me in the eyes and spoke in a stern voice, “That was a long time ago. What happened to your lover may not ever happen to another. You need to move on from that.” I grabbed my face and looked down at the ground to ashamed to speak or look at her. I looked over at Caelum and saw that he was still struggling with the it. We couldn’t figure out what to do, but Violetta started to walk closer to him.

Caelum sounded out, “No V… don’t!” Violetta ignored him and kept walking forward. It laughed, “That’s right keep coming closer. Get torn apart by my power while staring at your lover!” Its power kept pulsating and every few seconds it would cut deeply into Violetta’s skin. I was frozen in place. Why would she keep walking? Why does she care for him so much! She pretty much just met him!

Violetta stopped moving when she got within ten yards of him. She couldn’t move any closer. There was blood dripping on the floor at this point. Katarina was yelling at Violetta, but she couldn’t hear her. Over the thrum of its power I couldn’t hear her either and I was right beside her. Violetta took out a knife and held it in her hands.

It sneered at her, “Like that is going to do anything little girl.” She took the knife and twisted it towards herself. She held it in front of her with the blade towards her stomach. It looked like she wanted to commit Hara-Kiri. Caelum’s voice came out, “No… V… don’t…” Violetta smiled and then stabbed herself in the stomach.

Normally this wouldn’t hurt her, but if the universe recognizes that someone is committing self-mutilation then their power pretty much gets canceled out. She smiled at Caelum and then fell to the ground. I quickly looked at him and saw that the struggling seemed to stop. Neither one was talking and there was a vacant look on his face.

The dark power was still pulsing around him, but it seemed gentler somehow. Katarina spoke up, “My seal was broken.” The dark flames around Caelum started to change color. They went from a pitch black to a solid gray. A solid gray crown appeared above his head. He started to float above the ground and a pulse of power spread out from him. It was deathly silent, but when the pulse hit us it knocked us back. Katarina directly flew into the outer wall of the underground area while I was knocked through a couple of buildings before coming to a stop. I jumped up and started to panic, “What is this level of power!?” The entire area was shaking, “I don’t think that the planet will be able to handle much more of this.”

*Surface of Earth*

“This is Lacy Smith with CNN issuing an emergency broadcast.” A lady on every television in America was speaking. She had utter shock in her voice, “There are strange happenings all over the world and some experts are saying that it is the end times.” The television switched over to a live feed of different things throughout the world. Tornados in the bible belt, Earthquakes on the west coast, hurricanes on the east coast. There were tsunamis headed towards Korea, China, and Japan. Massive sandstorms in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. There were massive natural disasters happening everywhere and no one could answer why.

*Flarea’s POV*

I watched Caelum while trying to rack my brain on what to do about his power. It was almost suffocating even from this far away. He floated over towards Violetta and knelt beside her. I saw a tinge of red in all that gray and I could see that he was crying tears of blood. It utterly shocked me, he cares about her that much? I felt happiness for Violetta, but I felt another emotion at the same time. One that I thought I would never feel for the rest of my life.

He gently held her in his arms as the tears fell from his face. She wasn’t responsive, but I could tell she was still alive. Her body was completely wreaked from his power and there was a whole in her stomach from the knife. He brushed her hair from her face and caressed her cheek. He leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. There was a surge of power that caused everything within a couple dozen yards of him to be vaporized.

The flames sucked back into his body and he sat her back down on the ground. I watched in awe as her wounds started to heal at rapid speed. In a matter of seconds her body looked like nothing had ever happened to her. He looked over at me and smiled. It was a dazzling smile and if it wasn’t for the blood red tears it would be as bright as the sun. He held his hand out towards me and I found myself teleported to his location.

My eyes were wide and I felt afraid. Teleporting something other than yourself with just a thought shouldn’t be possible. There has never been any recording of anyone being able to bring someone towards them through teleportation. He caressed my face and it brought me back to reality. When he spoke waves of pleasure coursed through my body, “Please watch over her and me for a little bit. I need to rest now…”

He kissed me on my cheek and then he collapsed to the ground next to Violetta. I touched the part of my face that his kissed as I knelt beside the two of them. Violetta was breathing steadily and so was Caelum. I couldn’t help but shiver when I thought about the amount of power he released and how he teleported me towards him, but when I looked down at the two peacefully lying there like nothing happened I almost laughed.

Katarina came stumbling over towards us, “Is he back to normal?” I quickly jumped up and felt my face turn red, “Yeah. He healed Violetta before he collapsed again.” Katarina nodded and then knelt on the ground, “That’s good… I never should have placed a seal on his light powers.” I tried to comfort her, “You couldn’t know that this would happen.” She frowned, “That’s the thing… I think that I did.”