“Inhabitants of Corona Eternus…”

The Shadow Clan was arranged in various poses (most of which Solares despised), wearing unsettling smirks or deadpan expressions on their faces. Solares stood in the center of them and faced toward the camera. Anastasia had chosen to twirl a knife, contrasting with Sagittari’s straight stance and unreadable poker face. As the wind blew across the King of Demons' cloak, his chest heaved, and a bright gleam from his eyes flashed luminous enough to reflect twin blood moons on the camera’s lens. He appeared taller than before, exuding an unfamiliar, regal force. Power, command, preeminence, and dominance were all things the clan teased him for, calling him the “King Piece”, and "His Infernal Highness". But all of those characteristics were even stronger now in his current demeanor, like some imprisoned part of him had broken from their chains, trading their mumbles for a battle cry.

She heard Sagittari whisper to herself, “So it begins, the Cruvelian Empire...” The poker face began melting into a confident, megalomaniacal smirk, like that of a child upon reaching the cookie jar.

Ignoring the burgeoning galactic empress next to her, Anastasia felt primarily vindication, as though she had finally won her years’ long argument with her brother. Her thoughts were on him.

Look at you, radiating strength and power. You’ve got the aura of a leader, the majesty of a king, and Cruvelia herself who birthed you now looks on you with pride. I don’t see Solares or Licentius here. No, I see my brother, Matthias! And he’s going to exceed every plan that spiral worm had for him, and one day we’ll kick that thing in the… spiral, or whatever produces children. Together! I just hope it hurts.

“I come to you with a message,” Solares boomed at the recording equipment, “depending on how much propaganda you have swallowed, you may believe that I caused supernovae, stellar collisions, pandemics, race wars, and all of your problems… but I assure you, I hold no interest in doing those things. My accusers benefit far more from these crises than you do from their governance. No matter how much your leaders insist on the contrary, such activities are not worth my time. Unlike theirs, my carnage has reason, and is not mindless like that of the menaces that I defeated alongside Cruvelia’s people. With no useful contribution from its impeccably competent government, our galactic community triumphed as one."

Someone snickered next to Anastasia, and that brought her attention to them. Delilah was shaking, eyebrows knit in concentration, and mouth covered. However, the blonde Licentian warrior bent down, reducing her cries to whispered exhalation. Only when Mei went to her did Anastasia realize that her sister was not crying.

She was laughing at how useless Zudra was in cosmic crises.

Sheesh, Delilah. Anastasia watched the dying human from her periphery. I know Zudra sucks at most things, but you find a lot of joy in seeing their failures!

“However, debating these conspiracy theories is a waste of your time and mine, and I did not come to insult your intelligence by discussing them; no, I think better of you, at the bare minimum for a person, who has not seen the light as of yet. More importantly, I seized your planet in an interstellar nature walk. If you are not currently under our rule, you soon will be, and worry not, we do not come for your food. Again, unlike some people, we have decency.”

Anastasia heard Delilah panting and whispering to Mei, “The Iron Hand will smash his entire office as soon as this broadcast reaches him. I feel bad for the secretary.”

“And his janitors. I heard they only made one hundred credits per day?” Mei replied.

“That’s not enough to feed their families.”

“Unless they shop for groceries at the convenience stores.”

“But Mei-Mei, those are more expensive to live off of!”

“Yes, honey, but you see? I’m a Zudrian bureaucrat so therefore I don’t give a fuck.”

Solares’s head turned to glare at the towering stock exchange, and the whispered jokes evaporated into breathless anticipation while Delilah continued perishing at the thought of Zudra's undisclosed defeats. Wisps of spirit energy ran down the King Piece’s arm, hissing and sputtering like steam escaping a boiler. The orange glow of his cloak gave a disturbing reflection off the vapor bathing his body.

The steam cloaked the Demon King in heavier, smothering clouds as his focus returned to the camera, “as such I present you with this offerance,” Solares’s voice boomed across the city blocks as matter swelled around with a tornado’s anarchy, “surrender! Give in! Your military police are long gone, your infrastructure is under our control! Further violence would be naught but suicide, for any resistance will be met with reciprocity!”

Motes of dust tore from the stock exchange’s frame, eroding from the building's structural body to join a hungry cloud of pure gas forming around a singular point alongside the Shadow Clan. As the dust clumped together, the atmosphere was cooked by the unbearable heat emitted from colliding particles, causing Anastasia to swelter beneath her suit almost to the point of collapsing onto the asphalt. Gassy specters, consisting of waves of sediment, smashed into a condensing, hot core reminiscent of a proto-star gobbling a molecular cloud as the phenomenon grew.

During the rising solar tide, Sagittari and Fomalhaut both staggered, hissing to themselves as the wind slapped them with unrelenting persistence. However, the singularity prince opened his right hand, and his sister, no doubt having a similar thought, followed in kind. Event horizons opened wide, twirling rays of light into their radii in spirals, coaxing the furious plumes of Solares’s inferno into them in accelerating freefall. Although the black holes’ gravity was not comfortable in the slightest, they at least comprised an option better than being mowed down by a newborn stellar wind.

The proto-star gave a whining hiss while drawing closer to the Solares’s darkened and thin palms. All control gravity once had over the star’s motion was lost as soon as the object neared the Demon King’s arm. His hands spun and gathered the plasma ball with intent and intricacy whilst red eyes maintained a cold gaze on the stock market in front of them. As for the Assassin Queen, she peered at the bent, curved, and distorted version of Solares filtered through the singularities’ sheer presence. The star was drawing closer to his hands, which now appeared as if they were stuck on an invisible wall. The Assassin Queen hummed with approval, a horrible grin slashing her features in preparation for what was to come.

“By the galaxies, ‘Stasia baby…” Delilah’s mutter managed to get past the terrible whining of the star. “And you say I’m the crazy one…”

A star’s birth never occurred in silence, but rather with a violent bang that would send particles across interstellar space. Supernovae, which helped form them, erased worlds with cosmic rays, and flares torched magnetic fields with nature’s fury. Almost every star and planet to come alive was birthed from the demise of countless others. Likewise, stars often died and took countless with them. Birth and death alike were bathed in destruction.

The miniature sun would be no exception to this fact.

Neither will Zudra, Anastasia thought, my big brother is making a metaphor. How cute… I wonder if he hides poetry somewhere in that cloak of his.

Sagittari groaned as the black hole widened in front of her, falling to one knee and still keeping her hands stretching the fabrics of the event horizon. The stellar storm grew worse, and something told Anastasia that in some seconds the twins’ plans would change.

“Precious!” Sagittari yelled to Anastasia in an echoing voice. “Get over here! Next to me! We’re about to see a flashover and a mushroom cloud!”

“Will the engineers be okay?” even Anastasia's voice faltered, her lungs in a tug-of-war over the air itself.

“I’m working on it! Engineers! Get your asses over here!”

Crawl. Anastasia wormed across the pavement on her stomach, moving like a serpent hunting for food. With desperate movements, the Assassin Queen pushed herself off the ground, letting gravity do the rest of the work of flinging her body to the twins. She flew for what may have been several feet, but the gravity worked all too well. Sagittari watched her move past with bugged out eyes.

Well, shit.

Luckily, a hand seized her by the ankle and yanked until she hit the ground. Mei, having stood in anticipation, latched onto Anastasia to prevent further accidents. The swordswoman tisked so loudly it was audible even in the maelstrom. Anastasia tried to ignore it, at least before the lecture could come in—

“You should really be more careful, Assassin Queen,” Mei crossed her arms and continued with a patronizing tone, “intense gravity is not a bungee cord!”

“I know, Mei,” Anastasia said and rolled her eyes, “it’s not like you’re talking to Matty when he gets in a fight with someone!”

“I might as well be: you and Solares both let your ego overrule your common sense. Love you both, but honestly!”

The raging nebula tightened, its sounds becoming more muffled and contained. Now a luminous, whitening, cloaked silhouette stood adjacent to a blanche ball of light.

Anastasia had only moments to admire its beauty before a motion from Solares sent it hurling at the stock exchange. The Shadows planked on the asphalt; their eyes lifted enough to watch the miniature star make its entry. She whispered at the collision: “Let there be light!”

“Note to self, never bring Anastasia near any star in space.” Delilah noted aloud.

Its velocity reaching hundreds of miles per hour, the star spun in the air, shooting flares and buzzing plasma. The doors and front wall of the Golden Syndicate became molten slag long before the plasma neared. The high-velocity object shone at such a magnitude that Anastasia’s eyes burned. Mei grappled her, wrapping an arm around her neck to redirect her vision from the sun’s blinding glare, and held it averted to stop the damage.

“I swear to the galaxies, you and Matthias need us to keep you in line and we're supposed to be the crazy ones!”

Killjoy. Anastasia’s eyes would have healed again, and now she was missing something beautiful.

“No complaining!” said the killjoy.

I didn’t even say anything… Anastasia was dumbfounded.

Even with her clan sister’s overprotection, light rays furiously bombarded her eyes from the ground beneath. Solares’s power caused just as much damage as the average stellar storm, and the Assassin Queen would have to suffer for seconds either way.

The light began curving away as the twins engaged the afterburners of their singularities, darkening the world around and turning the view into a curved, fish eyed, spiraling version of itself. This was likely all the cameras were able to record. As far as video quality went, this part of the film would feel more like amateur found footage than the work of a well-funded revolution.

Hey, at least we’ll get views, Anastasia shrugged while staring at the blinding miniature sun again since she outsmarted Mei's hold, take your people’s eyes off this, Iron Bland!

Sagittari winked and placed one hand on her hip, “Stop staring at the sun, precious!”

Just as I was getting past the killjoy… mourned the aforementioned, called-out precious.

“You too?” Anastasia hoped her feeling of betrayal would be evident from her tone. She was being bullied by her own family.

“That’s what I told this one,” Mei’s exasperated sigh and thumb jab felt incredibly mocking, “but alas desperate measures.”

“Mei, who died and made you my mom?” the Assassin Queen snapped.

“We’re the Shadow Clan: we all have family issues, issues in general to be honest. In other words, Anastasia baby, we are literally each other’s parents. I thought you caught up on that, but apparently you’re denser than Solares at a mixer.”

“Meanie.”

“You know I’m right!” Mei sing-songed.

After these seconds of karmic humiliation, the light died down. The twins closed their singularities, and behind them dust clouds listlessly hovered in the incongruously calm wind. Anastasia, smothered by the thickened air, coughed into her hand before lowering her mask and spewing phlegm. She brought up her head, bangs blocking her eyes, and saw a silhouette of two bricks stacked on top of one another, steel bars laced around their centers.

The Assassin Queen stepped closer, feet crushing glass and leftover wood. Her golden eyes sought a skyscraper, a building, something left nearby. Yet she received nothing but piles of rubble and snapped power lines. Every step she took, more of the ruined city flashed before her eyes: the entire Syndicate was history, molten steel was dripping from nearby building frames, and everything in the center of the blast was gone. In the outer radius of the explosion, other structures had torn into shreds, with only a third or half of their frames remaining, and the stench of smoke contributed to a dead fragrance.

The new sun had exploded, and with it the entire business district.

“You know? I would love to eat one of those suns,” Fomalhaut grinned before being punched in the side by his sister, “hey miss massive, you’re not one to talk, you keep eating all the food! We can't have cake because of you!”

“Just shut up, Fomalhaut!” Sagittari yelled before softening. “You’ll be better off.”

The dust settled enough so that Solares could continue his speech, and the Shadow Clan hushed once again.

“This, my fellow Cruvelians, is the destruction of a trade built upon carnage. Your Golden Syndicate, your so-called,” Solares performed finger quotes with a sinister gleam in his eyes, “free market, lies in ruin behind me. What a mockery of the word free. All the businesses belong to a single caste that makes its profits from owning people, you can never become one of their caste, and your only freedom is to work for naught until you are a corpse singing Hail Zudra. You should claim the burning of the syndicate as your declaration of independence… glory be to your new and true future, and glory be to the end of Zudra."

Sagittari placed three fingers on her lips and blew a kiss from directly behind Solares. The camera would see her, what she did, and perhaps that would cause a riot in a Zudrian town somewhere. No, Anastasia knew that the black hole princess understood what she was doing; she wanted to spread the revolution and get the lower classes to rise up. And she wanted to piss off Zudra enough to bait them into showing their true colors.

The worst part is, Anastasia watched as Sagittari followed up her blown kiss with several irreverent gestures for the Zudrian XII, it could work. The Iron Hand would eat his political opponents first before acting against anyone else. Then he might launch an attack on his own puppet states. One so heinous that people will be thanking the Shadow Clan for centuries when they intervene. Is this genius?

“Behold this mighty building, or what is left of it. Did you know that the armor lining the walls of the stock exchange were more durable than those on your tanks? They were made from a material considered too expensive to deploy in the fields: orichalcum, better known from your self-important leaders as ‘Zudrium’ because they have no shame. It was mined from colonized planets, transported across the galaxy in high security vessels, and then auctioned off at extremely low prices to a few select families. None of whom ever included any of you, and none of whom ever expressed their patriotism by donating the priceless metal to their beloved troops. Instead it ended up here, protecting their assets."

Of course the Zudrians would do that, Anastasia thought with a slight smile, robbing from their own is the most patriotic thing to do!

After those words, Solares spared a moment to breathe and continued with a softer tone. "Cowardly and pathetic, yes, but also consider that your government is run by lackeys who kiss the credit before bed at night."

Better words could not have described the state of Zudrian governance.

“I will not mince words," he continued with a icy tone, "Zudra does not care about you. If it did, it would place more value on your lives than on this building. Yet, look at what we have here… great rulers, patriots, they call themselves, throwing all of their resources at protecting this building above the nation itself, all serving the grand cause of their unearned, constructed, fake superiority. Should a crisis like the Deathless or worse hit Cruvelia again, expect to be under equipped for it, just as you were last time. Expect to disproportionately suffer, to watch all of your taxes to go to your—it pains me to say this word again—patriotic leaders’ efforts to flee into the intergalactic void… while you are all left for dead, abandoned in favor of so-called ‘national economics.’” He gestured at the building again, “Funny... the economics seemed pretty localized to me."

Sagittari performed a mocking “shocked” expression, hands over her mouth. When she broke out of it, she shot another wink at the camera.

After all, a black hole could still be a star.

“I know this sounds distressing but know that we are open to protecting and aiding you. Only you. Not the pathetic nobles, or people like Iron Hand, they can go and die of terminal disease. Nothing of value will be lost. And though you may feel attacked or threatened on behalf of your society, inclined to disagree with my words… just know that if you are on our side when Zudra sends her police toward this entire planet, including you, they will deal with us… and most importantly, with me, before being able to touch you. And I am sure even the propagandists tell you how that always ends…"

A cough snapped Anastasia's attention away from the speech, and she looked behind. Delilah, again, was keeled over and laughing with surprising silence. She knew Delilah would feel catharsis watching Zudra lose, but who knew she would also find it so funny?

"Delilah honey," Mei herself was struggling to hold her own laugh, "control yourself, please! I know Zudra's misery is good karma but… my galaxies I can't stop thinking about how their strong men screeched like sirens as their property did all the fighting! Survival of the fittest, right? Wee-woo, wee-woo!"

And so the killjoy's self-control went to the trash.

A chortle broke free of the cloak and mask, before their owner stifled it and raised his volume enough to drown out his allies’ giggles, “So to the bunkered soldiers, to the victims fighting in a war that only profits the wealthy weaklings in the mother country, I promise: come out, be free, and no harm will come to you. Cross the lines, leave Zudra, for your right to live in prosperity with your families is part of the reason we wage this revolution. You are all under my protection!"

"Yes, king!" Anastasia didn't even need to think about who whisper-shouted that since the person was dancing right next to her in a way that would make the coliseum slave auctioneers blush. Meanwhile, Fomalhaut was standing like an attentive man watching his brother give a speech, and not looking at his twin sister's party of one.

“Zudra’s reign of incompetence ends here," Solares cleared his throat and then continued, “and eventually, it shall be nothing more than a note in historical chronicles. In its place will be a universe of freedom and true unity, built on the combined power of all races and nations joined together. It will be the greatest form of civilization in existence, a new order, and it will only arrive when we lay down our arms and fight the true beasts of the cosmos as one, living unit.”

Bravo, Matthias, the Assassin Queen clapped in silence whilst her kin nodded their heads at the striding Solares, that is the dream and the future. Oh Matty, we're going to set the universe on fire, and remake it as we see fit.

Of course, Solares did not hear her thoughts, and she was grateful for that because he could have thought her crazy if he did. Then again, he already thought she was crazy, and Anastasia owned the crazy, evil little sister role in their dynamic. Although people would raise an eyebrow, the Assassin Queen remained as comfortable in the aforementioned role as she would plundering a late Zudrian noble’s estate. The bottom line was that sometimes Matthias needed a little shove to unshackle his full power.

This shove was going even better than she expected.

Beautiful.

“One urgent note," Solares made a sudden jog to the front of the camera to the curious looks of the crew and Shadows, "our forces are much better than theirs… the propaganda videos your overlords force you to watch are just editing and graphics. And even then, the quality is questionable… I am sure Cruvelia’s other, beautiful cultures have better cinema and I truly recommend Amazarean action movies. They are great and have actual camera work instead of stock footage."

Delilah broke again, and this time she bent over, holding Mei for support. However, she only dragged her lover along for the ride—now there were two giggling supersoldiers rolling on the ground laughing. Even the killjoy of all people was banging the ground.

I’m not sure if Mei wants Corona to see her this way, Anastasia watched the all-too-amused couple on the ground, but she doesn’t like Zudra too much, so maybe she thinks it’s funny and is tired of pretending it’s not.

“That is all.” Solares looked at Delilah as he turned away from the cameras again, and one of the eyes glowing from within his hood went out in a wink.

Anastasia could have responded to any of his myriad comments, but just like her Shadow sisters, his final jab was the only one she could think of, “Matty, you cruel bastard… are you using this speech to let off your anger at Zudrian films?”

“Some things have to be said, baby sister.” Solares cracked his neck. “We have all been subjected to that trash for centuries, and finally someone is powerful enough to call it what it is.” He walked to the camera crew.

“... all hail Great Solares…” Delilah wheezed and dusted her cloak before slow-clapping while the speaker debriefed with the engineers serving as film crew. The aforementioned Solares stopped, turned, and the glowing spirals narrowed. She straightened herself into a mocking salute, which the King of Demons returned in an equally irreverent fashion. “By the way, I would like for us family members to be kings and queens beside the emperor, not princesses or princes.”

Any reply to her comment was cut short by a series of squealed, triumphant one-liners escaping Sagittari’s lips: “Yes!” was among them quite often, as was, “Finally!” and, “Unite them, Solares! Cruvelia! Freedom!” She first leapt into Delilah’s arms, which was clearly unexpected, but welcomed by a squeeze back. “Though I disagree on the queen note, we can break the norms a little bit… be the queen pieces in all but name...”

“We’re going to be queens, Sagittari! Regal. Responsible.”

“Princesses.”

“We’ll argue about titles when we get Cruvelia united. Okay, you abominable quasar?”

Squirming out of Delilah’s vice grip, her next target was Fomalhaut, who was smiling at the scene. However, he saw his twin coming towards him like a meteor, and it was too late when he did. The poor guy was pulled into a bear hug by his ever too excited sister, and Anastasia watched him mouth cries for help.

If the cameras were still active, all of this would be on the broadcast.

I’m glad I’m not in his position, the Assassin Queen reflected, the last time Sagittari held me while, well… massive… I wound up in a medical bay for three days.

"Anastasia!" Sagittari released her left arm from her poor twin's neck, still crumpling him like paper against her shoulder with her right.

The Assassin Queen believed she had time to think, act, and escape, but the black hole princess's lumbering self appeared in front of her within seconds. She was close, and the person in question — the one in control of gravity itself — wanted her closer. At this moment she remembered that black holes wielded gravity at such a high magnitude that not even light could escape. That did not mean trying to flee wasn't worth the effort. No, that walking singularity was heavy and wanted to cuddle.

She loved Sagittari but sometimes… it was life or death.

"Get over here, precious! Give me a hug!" Sagittari commanded as she drew closer to the Assassin Queen. All of the speed in the universe couldn’t help her. The black hole princess was pulling Anastasia to her and may or may not have known that. "Don't be a wuss!" Every step she took was immediately negated by the distance of two steps back.

Intentional or not, this is cheating, Sagittari’s soon-to-be victim thought to herself. Why did the genetic dice give someone like you black hole powers? Why!

Ten feet, five feet, one foot, seven inches away from the “core”.

It was at that moment that Anastasia knew…

There was no escape.

Sagittari threw her left arm around Anastasia, then brought her arms together and stuffed her against the asphyxiating Fomalhaut, applying a collective squeeze on the both of them that could have cracked concrete. Every muscle on the Assassin Queen's body hurt so much that she thought her spine would break. She glanced toward her cellmate, hoping to join forces and plan their escape. However, he was using his twin sister’s shoulder as a pillow, rubbing her back and not even bothering to fight. It was an alarming amount of resignation, going as far as to appear comfortable.

What a traitor.

“You might be hurting Ana,” he mumbled to his sister, “she’s not quite built like the two of us.” Not a traitor after all. In fact it was noble. He was sacrificing himself for her, to urge his twin to squeeze gentler with her left arm than her right.

Sagittari loosened her grip around Anastasia’s body and despite accommodating his request, argued. “Fomalhaut, you’re being too dramatic!” The Assassin Queen wanted to bark something back, but she was in no position to push it, especially when the singularity was rubbing her own cheek against hers. “Precious is nice and comfortable in my grip! Just like you are!”

Sagittari, Anastasia heaved, stretching the truth, you really are a politician. Maybe you were the propagandist. Maybe the true lying press was the friends we made along the way.

Having won the loosened grip, the one hope remaining lay outside of the painful group hug. She looked around, seeing Mei and Delilah having an animated chat, then, expecting to watch Solares’s post-filming interactions, she looked in his direction.

However, when she turned her aching neck to where she imagined her brother would be, an utmost humiliating sight reached the eyes. Not only was Solares done conversing with the engineers, but he was also standing ahead of Sagittari’s smother club, watching the black hole princess strangle her and Fomalhaut nearly to death.

And he was laughing too!

That was it!

"If only Solares were available," Anastasia called, throwing no conviction into the performance of pretending she didn’t notice Solares standing there, "then the king could be responsible and join his subjects in celebration!"

Sagittari straightened and delivered a smile to the Assassin Queen. “You’re right, precious! He could be responsible!” Solares’s pupils shrank, but he gave Anastasia an evil, glowing eye before he began moonwalking away from the trio. Anastasia’s diabolical plan was working, and it was already too late for him. “What are you doing so far away?” Sagittari’s last two words were punctuated with an arguably sinister emphasis, and with gravity itself. “I have room for everyone and everything...” She let her own eyes glow upon looking at Anastasia’s smile. “Right, precious?”

Anastasia looked at her moonwalking brother, and his still-present evil eye, before she said: “Absolutely. You don’t want him to feel left out, do you?”

Solares growled, his eyes still locked on the impending danger within Sagittari’s arms. “Anastasia… living vicariously through Sagittari, I see? You little shit…”

She shook an imaginary saltshaker and blew a kiss in response.

Then she was liberated and fell to the ground alongside her partner in pain as Sagittari’s attention shifted to the cause of her celebration. Anastasia’s lungs, finally able to expand, inhaled a deeper breath than they had in minutes.

"By the galaxies," Fomalhaut coughed as he staggered on his feet, "She is just so... strong!"

The mighty Solares found himself with no option other than to step away from the gravitational hugger. He could have used powers, but the walking event horizon would have just rendered them useless. So, he stepped left. The gleeful singularity followed. Then he stepped right, and the joyous black hole came even closer. Anastasia chuckled as her brother settled on a desperate last resort.

He ran.

Or at least he tried.

“Don’t be so shy, I don’t bite...” More inaccurate words were hard to find in the universe.

"Damn it, Sagittari!" he groaned in her embrace as his own lungs were no doubt squeezed empty.

"Guess who is the new King of Cruvelia?" Sagittari declared with a booming voice as she rubbed her nose on his mask and squeezed even harder. "Forget Hail Zudra, Praise the Sun! Praise the Solares!" the aforementioned Solares growled within the human's smothering clutch, muttering curses to himself… that went unheard. No doubt due to constricted lungs.

She switched from a hug to gripping his shoulders between hands that could pressure coal into diamond, "The throne is ours! The Shadow dynasty begins!" With every second syllable, the diamond-makers pushed him outward or pulled him back in rhythm to her sentences. “Cruvelia will be beautiful! And the galaxies next to that!” The shaking stopped, and she fixed her eyes on him to deliver an almost cinematic speech: “And when all the known galaxies submit to a commonwealth built by slaves they once were or once owned, everyone will join a new order, they will all have a hand, and the whole universe will shake! Just like you said!”

"What the hell are you—” Solares was interrupted by another, choking squeeze.

“We’re on step one of ruling the universe! Long live the king!” Her eyes widened and she looked around, released her brother into a swaying stumble, and dramatically flipped her hair. ”Say it with me, everyone! We are witnessing the rise of the Shadow dynasty!” The Assassin Queen was grinning like a moron as she jogged over to lock hands with Sagittari. “All my subjects, all my Shadows: SO-LA-RES!”

Even if anyone had the courage to attract the attention of the mighty princess or try to rein her in, none could resist the electric excitement of her singing and dancing in circles around the once dreaded Solares. Fists pumped. The chant was picked up. Soon a few dozen combat engineers and all the Shadows present were yelling the Demon King’s name.

As for his infernal highness, he was blank: “The Iron Hand… the Iron Hand… will be… thrown into con—”

“He will be beheaded at our clan’s coronation,” Sagittari pumped her fist and went back to keeping up the chant, “SO-LA-RES!” Then, in rhythm to the chants, “Come on, everybody! The Iron Hand is a walking dead man! He’s too small to be a man! SO-LA-RES!”

Whether this improvised rally was caught on camera or not, Anastasia could confirm that the entire Shadow Clan wanted Zudra’s leaders castrated far more than as defendants in a court of law. And the best part was, the combat engineers — some of them Zudrian — were emphatically joining in with it.

One of the combat engineers, a blue-skinned, somewhat-scrawny man, addressed the group.

“We are broadcasting on every frequency we can come up with. The beginning moments of your speech are now flooding the airwaves on Corona Eternus.”

With the video broadcasting, every Zudrian military detachment on the planet would soon know where to find the planet’s attackers. After all, the stock exchange was in the video’s background for the first part, and even with their comms acting up (compliments of the Queen), they knew where to find the house of their true rulers — which, after tonight, would be known as the ruined house of their former rulers. Good. Any who decided to move toward their location would soon meet their new overlords as well.

Although the Shadows did not have a capital yet, Anastasia believed the new Syndicate Crater—if not a center of government—would be a wonderful symbol of their new order. For her part, it was a new horizon: the urchin who became an outlaw chieftain, the chieftain who became the thing that went bump in the night for Zudrian nobles, and from there, the soon-to-be queen presiding over a remade galaxy. She would help enact Sagittari and Fomalhaut’s vision, Delilah and Mei’s hopes, and the softest dreams within the heart that Solares denied ever existed (he would always be the family pastry), and her own ambition of creating a free universe where outlaws, urchins and all people were treated with equity and mercy. No fear of the state, no state-sanctioned hate crimes, and only a universe under the reign of the Shadow Clan, united by justice.

Indeed, as extreme as it was to hear Sagittari and the rest of her Shadow siblings hatching their plans for domination, she couldn’t disagree with any of them. Zudra would not stop dominating—in fact they would only get worse after Cruvelia broke off—perhaps eradicating minority groups instead of enslaving them. Everything in their political maneuvering would be about keeping power, and when they got to a specific level of madness, trillions would be shoved into death camps. The safest places in the universe would be the systems ruled by the Shadow Clan.

Hegemony would not be difficult after that point: other nations would want closer ties with the Shadows as soon as Zudra lost its collective shit. If it was only to save their lives from a superpower rampaging through a war of annihilation, countless would fork over their sovereignty to whoever was willing to protect them. Zudra gone mad: the thought of that brought chills to Anastasia’s spine, for the Zudrians were already murderous, slaving, genocidal autocrats. Just how long would it take for them to find a new extreme?

Our rule is necessary, our rule is viable, and the only thing keeping Matty from agreeing with us, the Assassin Queen mused, is his own self-doubt. I only hope he will soon see how badly the universe needs him. You will one day, Matthias. And when you do, no one will have a chance against us.

“Anastasia,” Solares huffed after saying her name, causing her to realize that she was staring at him, “what in the damned are you thinking about? Hoping to throw me to the wolves again?”

“Thinking about how proud I am of us?” He said nothing to her reply, but she persisted. “How happy I am that you’re overcoming anxiety?”

“Listen here, Anastasia, the Solares does not have—”

“I’m too familiar with the man behind the mask to believe you have any valid argument against my statement.” Anastasia squeaked and performed a saltshaker yet again. “Seriously, I feel like we’re beginning a new era here, and for all of us.”

Solares raised an eyebrow at her statement. “New era?” She nodded with speed and enthusiasm. “You mean one ruled by a clan of massively destructive, walking superweapons? Anastasia, knowing just how ambitious you and the rest of the clan are, I can assume that we plan to spend a thousand years rivalling Zudra until she dies. Correct me if I am wrong, please.”

“As long as I have you and the clan,” Anastasia shrugged, “those thousand years of making history will be a lot of fun.”

“Good to know that I will always need to be in my prime.”

“Hold on, we’re not even five centuries old, who are you to determine when our peak is, time traveling brother of mine?”

At that moment, a radio the engineers had set up activated with a beep, stealing the wholesome moment from her.

“Attention all units,” Watcher’s voice said, “our radars are detecting a lot of movement: six, ten, two, and four o’clock headed toward the business district. Our AI’s have reported tanks, fighters, transports, and lower-tier manipulators amongst them. Looks like the royal family tapped the anthill. Brace yourselves.”

“Noted and over, Watcher,” Anastasia ignored Solares’s grunt at being referred to as royal, “we are prepared for Zudra’s leftovers.”

“Good, because I want to see who the real rulers of Cruvelia are. Anyways, you aren’t alone in this star system in the slightest.” The Assassin Queen waited for him to continue, after he dared sip his coffee right now. “Lady Xeshna and Queen Helene are taking out that little stellar flare device Zudra built here.” Excellent. “Helene really let off her temper on that thing, but the good news is… most of it is intact enough for us to repair and use it against oncoming Zudrian fleets.” Anastasia almost wanted to squeal and victimize Solares in her joy, Xeshna and Helene were going to save the system. “In the words of Xeshna: the blue boys will lose their blue balls. Gods, is she just a wonderful personality!” Could he stop gushing over her clan sister? “Also, Princess Vida is leading a majority Amazarean army against the forces of other planets in the system, so… no interplanetary reinforcements for Zudra today. This royal rumble is going to be nice.”

“Watcher, you have become quite casual in talking with your superiors,” Solares said with a sweetness in his voice, “if you do not shut up, there will be consequences and-”

“Ignore him,” Anastasia interrupted, “he blushes a lot when you call him a royal!”

The jabs continued even as the revolution soldiers prepared for battle in response to Watcher’s warning. Mines were laid, gun emplacements were erected, missile launchers were prepared, and anti-spaceship installations and warheads were assembled in case the transmission had already leaked outside of the atmosphere and attracted Zudrians from other systems. This part of Corona Eternus was now a giant beacon for fools.

“Here we go,” the Assassin Queen closed her eyes and brought her mental focus to her suit, “Combat Protocol Ace of Spades Mode activate.”

Liquid nanite splashed across her suit before hardening into dense, metal plates that gleamed in light. As for Anastasia’s gloves, they metallized, turning once gentle fingers into sharp claws akin to a certain King of Demons. Cuisses formed on her legs whilst liquid nanite spilled from her torso, hardening like freezing water into a thin metal skirt designed to deflect the average bullet.

Solares turned around, tilting his head at Anastasia, and that earned him a wink just as the face mask melted in exchange for a helmet frame. Her long, wavy white hair was let free from the nanites as they coalesced into a transparent visor once again. She clenched her right fist just as the systems within her armored form beeped.

“I see Miss Murder is ready?” Mei’s voice sounded along with the rest of the pack walking beside her. “Ready to ruin Zudra for what, the fifth time today?”

“Absolutely.” The Assassin Queen drew her blades and made for where her brother stood, nodding to him in silent communication. “Everyone stay within range of this district, Zudra will break her back trying to break us here. And we will…” A horrible, hungry smile came to her porcelain grey face. “...eat their carcasses for dinner…”

She licked her lips, which was a move that caused even the King of Demons to shrink his own pupils a little. Nonetheless, she persisted after so long of being denied the chance to let herself go, be free, and show Zudra what she was worth.

“Anastasia,” Solares kept his voice down but still sounded careful, “why are you doing that?”

“The stupid coliseum forced me into a role I hated,” Anastasia placed a hand on her hip before rubbing her daggers against one another, “feeling like nothing, seeing families on sale like cattle, and I hated Fabio so damned much… Matty, I’m fucking pissed.”

“I know… and I am sorry…”

“Don’t apologize for things that aren’t your fault! Fight and let Zudra know how we feel about all of this.” The Assassin Queen drew her daggers and stood closer to her brother. “Zudra thinks they can win against us, like they always win against their colonies. So, you… as the King…” If Solares could sweat outside his wardrobe, Anastasia reckoned he would. However, her excitement flicked that one away like an insect. “... should show them their place, like you always have!” Her hands squeezed the blades with such force that they could have cracked. “Let’s show them who the real kings and queens of Cruvelia are.”

Let the moths swarm the flame.