In a packed surgery room, doctors and nurses stood around a bed as doctors of various races observed and worked frantically to try and operate on whoever was in the bed.

“Doctor Zelberg, of us all, you are the most familiar with Human physiology. I could do with your input.”

“Just by looking at him, I can already tell that this Human is what they would call ‘fucked’ on Earth.” The pink skinned doctor said with a shrug of the shoulders.

This attitude wasn’t all that well received, and everybody within the room shot him the dirtiest of looks, to which he just shrugged again. They then all glanced briefly towards a large window which gave whoever was in the observation room a clear view into what was going on in there. The sight of the Police Chief, who was muscled and vast beyond belief sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes locked on the operating table sent shivers down the spines of everybody bar Zelberg. They all looked back at the one on the table, and started pumping him with the most potent Healing Serums and drips, all the while trying to reconstruct his shattered bones. The Human, who was obviously Relovan, barely even resembled a live person at this point – looking more like an organ donor than a patient. The various machines monitoring his condition beeped like crazy as red lights flashed, alerting the doctors of how critical his condition was. The doctors fought for the longest time to try and keep the Enforcer alive, however it seemed as though they were fighting a losing battle. His heart rate continued to drop as the machines became more and more frantic, and the doctors themselves became more panicked. Suddenly, the Enforcer’s heart stopped, and all of the panic and urgency died down. The machines all flatlined, and everybody stood in shock, not necessarily because Relovan’s heart had stopped, but rather because of the Adonian Chief whose gaze they all felt on their backs. Just as things seemed to be lost, Relovan’s eyes opened, he took a deep breath and he attempted to sit up. His heart had started beating once again and he looked around slowly as he tried to make sense of what was going on. The doctors and nurses all gasped in shock, while the Chief actually stood up and grinned broadly.

“Lawman!” He boomed while pressing his large hands against the glass.

As if reacting to the Chief’s voice, Relovan looked towards the window and started mumbling something unintelligible. As if hearing that he wasn’t making any sense, Relovan kept repeating what he was saying, getting louder each time he did. He wasn’t getting any clearer however, and became more and more agitated.

“What are you all doing?!” Zelberg shouted, showing a sense of urgency for the first time. “Subdue and sedate him before his internal organs and the bones we have painstakingly rebuilt all fall out!!”

“We?! What do you mean we?!” One of the doctors boomed as she faffed about with a sedative. “You’ve just been watching while WE have been doing all the work!”

She jabbed the syringe into Relovan’s neck and pumped all of the sedative into him. She had used the strongest sedative that they had on hand, and they all expected Relovan to fall unconscious immediately, yet if anything, he only became more agitated. In an effort to stop the Enforcer from moving and potentially killing himself, nurses and doctors alike held him down as firmly yet as gently as they could. None of it seemed to work, and Relovan’s unblinking eyes suddenly started to glow deep purple.

“What is going on?!” Another of the doctors bellowed as if the others would have an answer.

The mumbling got louder and louder, and in spite of his physical condition, Relovan was displaying immense strength. Just then, the door to the operating theatre was forced open and in walked the Chief. The grin on his face was about as broad as it could get, and he powered his way towards the operating table.

“Chief!” One of the doctors protested. “You cannot just—”

“Silence.” The Chief commanded, before forcing his way to Relovan’s side. “What are you trying to say, Lawman?” He asked.

Relovan seemingly heard his voice again, because he began speaking even louder, yet continued not to make a lick of sense. The Chief reached down and touched the Enforcer’s shoulder gently.

“Use the Voice, Lawman. You were using it freely during the incident, so use your Essence and speak through it.”

Relovan continued to mumble, and it seemed that he could only recognise the Chief’s voice, and not what he was actually saying. The Chief looked into Relovan’s eyes and noticed that the Enforcer wasn’t all there. It was as if he was seeing something completely different, and perhaps even hearing something different. Relovan raised his right hand, bending the arm at the elbow and as if sensing he was looking for someone or something, the Chief took the Enforcer’s hand into his own. Suddenly, the mumbling became clear and not only could he hear what Relovan was saying, but he could also feel what emotions the Human was feeling.

“I will not perish.” Relovan repeated over and over like a chant of some sort.

His determination and drive not to die on the operating table were so strong, the Chief almost recoiled at just how powerful the feelings were. Relovan began to try and sit up again as his face distorted and looked more and more determined not to die. His eyes began glowing even brighter, and this all made the Adonian smile.

“You’re right, Lawman… you will not die. Now pipe down and let these people fix you.”

The Chief released Relovan’s hand, and brought his own to the Enforcer’s forehead. He simply flicked said forehead with his index finger, and Relovan’s head snapped back as if he had just received the most devastating blow he had been subjected to in his entire life. The back of his head smashed onto the table below, and he was now out cold.

“Get back to work.” The large man said as he turned around and walked off.

The stunned doctors could only watch on in absolute shock as the Chief left the room. They couldn’t afford to be still for long however, as they had to get back to work and ensure that the Enforcer’s heart did not stop a second time.

A few more hours went by, and after close to half a day in total, they all emerged from the theatre. Relovan’s surgery had been a success, and the absolutely depleted doctors all slumped against the walls in the hallway. The nurses too were equally drained, and there wasn’t even any conversation between any of them. The silence was almost deafening and after those few moments taken for recovery purposes passed, the medical staff all moved on and disappeared. The Police Chief emerged from the observation room and walked into the room, dragging behind him a comically small chair before setting it down next to the bed and sitting on it. The Chief did not move from Relovan’s bedside, even when a never-before seen subordinate entered the room and attempted to get him to attend some sort of meeting or briefing. This subordinate returned multiple times, yet the Chief did not move. Hours turned to days, and days eventually to weeks, with the Chief standing up for the first time when Relovan was transferred from Intensive Care to a regular hospital room due to him stabilising and no longer being in immediate danger. Sometime during the second week of Relovan’s hospital stay, his eyes shot open without warning and they began to slowly look around and scan his surroundings. His vision was still murky and took a few moments to adjust, however when they fell upon the Chief sitting there grinning at him, he immediately recognised just who it was that he was looking at. He tried to speak; however, his mouth was particularly dry. Two large fingers holding a glass of water slid on front of Relovan’s face, and the Enforcer eyed them in slight surprise at just how well the Chief was able to control his strength. He attempted to move his right arm, and when he found that he could, he took the glass from the Adonian and gulped the water down. He sat up and looked for more, finding a jug and filling the glass before drinking again. He did this multiple times until he was somewhat satisfied, and once he was, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes again.

“Chief.”

“Lawman.” The Chief said with a nod.

“This is a hospital room.”

“That’s right.”

“I see.”

There was a prolonged period of silence as the two just remained quiet in the room. The Chief looked at Relovan the entire time with an unblinking gaze which the Enforcer tried to ignore as he had his eyes closed. Things didn’t quite work out as he would have liked though, because Relovan eventually opened his eyes and looked at the Adonian.

“…what?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know about what happened after you got your ass beat by Juxtae?”

“I already know what happened before, and seeing as how you are here, I can hazard a guess as to what happened afterwards.”

“Is that so?” The Chief asked as he leaned back into the tiny seat back. “So, what happened before you lost consciousness?”

“I was abandoned.” Relovan simply stated.

“And what happened afterwards?”

“I was shielded from some kind of blast, and then I guess things were sorted out.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You are seated right here next to me. If you have the time to be here, then the situation was handled rather quickly.”

“…tell me, just how long do you think you’ve been in this hospital, Lawman?”

“A few days, perhaps?”

“Try weeks.”

Relovan just looked at the Chief in disbelief, with the large Adonian looking at Relovan’s disbelief with a proportionate amount of disbelief of his own.

“Don’t tell me you seriously think your injuries were such that a few days of rest and relaxation would heal them? Your torso was so damaged, it took hours for the team of doctors to put it back together. In fact, you should be dead.”

“I will not die.” Relovan bullishly interjected as he scoffed and looked up at the ceiling. “Was I really that bad, though?”

“Worse. I don’t even know how you managed to wake up right now. Anyway, your assessment of the way things went was somewhat accurate. Your fellow Enforcers left you up in the Terminal and followed us all down, yet when things went awry, they were the first ones to run. They evacuated the civilians with the Officers that were already stationed on the First Planet so quickly, I was impressed. But once it had been reported that everybody had been taken underground more or less in one piece, they just didn’t emerge again. They claimed to be protecting the civilians by remaining with them – ALL seventy-nine of them. Meanwhile, you acted like a true policeman and went to contain the situation on your own. I don’t think you truly understand just how impressive that was, Lawman.”

“I was just doing my duty as an officer of the law.”

“Custodian of the Law is what you called yourself, I believe.”

“What? How did you know that? In fact, and forgive me if I speak out of turn, but where were you during the entire fracas, Chief?”

The Chief smiled in leaned in close, his giant nose stopping short of touching Relovan’s, before practically whispering.

“I believe that you encountered and subdued six of those Personal Knights, am I right? Well, there were thirty-four other Knights that had to be taken care of, Enforcer.”

Relovan’s eyes grew just a bit in size before he closed them and nodded slightly.

“Understood, Sir.” He simply stated before leaning back into his pillow.

“Anyway, using the reports you kept making as breadcrumbs of sorts, I was able to trace your steps and find those Knights you had taken care of. Unfortunately, I was only able to reach you after Juxtae destroyed your sternum with those long, sleek fingers of hers.” The Chief raised his eyebrows suggestively a few times before licking his lips

“And then you shielded me from that dome like thing?” Relovan asked, completely ignoring the Chief’s face.

“More or less.”

“…thank you, Sir.”

“Not at all.” The Chief said with a smile.

There was something of a lull in conversation, and just as said lull became uncomfortable, Relovan spoke.

“So, what actually set those fucking Void Lords off? And what happened to them after I passed out?”

“Well, I can’t tell you what set them off because both camps retreated to their Void Walkers and refused to say a thing to us once they did. Worse still, Vox didn’t even wait for clearance or permission to leave – he just took off and entered the Void.”

“I’ll fucking bet.” Relovan said with a scowl.

“Juxtae on the other hand is still here – she just hasn’t left her Void Walker. As to what happened to them, a Regulator kind of teleported in and stopped them as Juxtae had her fingers in Vox.”

Relovan once again ignored the innuendo and focused on the events.

“A Regulator? You mean the Void Emperor’s Personal Knights?”

“The very same.” The Chief confirmed. “The moment the Regulator appeared, they both knew they were in a heap of shit and practically stopped on the spot. The Emperor spoke through the Regulator, and the moment they heard his voice, it was as if they had been struck by lightning or the like. Anyway, he admonished them, and revealed that they would both have to come back to Oxea to answer to him, but only after accounting before the Council.”

“Hmph.” Relovan snorted as he nodded once in approval. “They should thank whatever gods they worship that there were no civilian fatalities.”

“They really should… by the way, Lawman…” The Chief said, suddenly looking serious as he reached inside his breast pocket. “When you lost consciousness, these tags became visible. Knowing what they are and what the symbolise, I quickly took them from you as I was sure they would have brought about all manner of questions.”

The Adonian held out a set of dog tags, one of which had an acronym of three letters, and the other had a number which had been scratched out. Relovan’s eyes changed as he focused on the tags – as if he hadn’t expected to see them again. He reached up and opened his right hand, prompting the Chief to drop them into his palm. The moment they made contact with his skin, both blood stained tags started glowing, causing Relovan to quickly hang them around his bandaged neck. Once he did that, the tags began to sink into his skin, going through the bandages and disappearing into him. Despite Relovan’s efforts to hide it, this looked like an extremely uncomfortable process, and once it was over with, the Chief smiled and spoke again.

“So, Lawman, tell me; how did you take all of those Knights out?”

“Sir?”

“I want to hear the details!” The Chief exclaimed excitedly. “I want to know what happened and how you reacted to the changing situation and everything.”

“I will tell you all that if you can reveal to me how it is you are able to sit on that tiny chair without it falling apart.”

The Chief laughed and waved away the condition.

“Start talking already!”

Relovan sighed and started from the moment everything began. He was often times forced to elaborate on certain details, or go over them again as the Chief’s interest made telling the story rather difficult. By the time story time had come to an end, Relovan was out cold and snoring ever so slightly. The Chief, who had been by his side the entire time without eating or even drinking, finally stood up and pushed the little chair towards the wall – causing it to shatter into an uncountable number of tiny splinters. After looking at Relovan in silence for half a minute, he turned around and left the hospital room, leaving the Enforcer alone for the first time. He walked around the corner to find a small team of similarly dressed subordinates standing quietly and waiting for him. When they saw him, they all saluted the Chief somewhat tiredly.

“Chief.” They all said in unison.

“Let’s go.” He simply replied before thundering past them all.

They followed after him, and their capes all fluttered impressively as they did. The subordinate who had come to see him whilst Relovan was still in Intensive Care scurried away from the rest of the group and caught up to the striding Adonian.

“Sir.” He said once he caught up to him. “Are you hungry?”

“Starved, Kipp.”

“I figured that you would be, Sir. There is food in the car.”

“Excellent.” The Chief said as he grinned, baring all his teeth.

The group walked in silence, and the intimidated doctors all gave cursory waves as the Chief walked past them and out of the building.

“Finally!” One of the doctors quietly said. “It felt like we couldn’t even go to the damn toilet with that gargantuan Police Chief hanging around here!”

A few of the Chief’s subordinates chuckled to themselves at this while the man himself just walked towards his motorcade. There were a number of vehicles within said motorcade, and the largest one was in the middle of the group. Kipp pulled a set of keys out and pressed a few buttons, both unlocking and opening the door. The Chief stepped in, causing the car’s springs to lower quite a bit. The smaller Police Officer then made his way around to the driver’s side, and hopped in. The rest of the Officers split up and got into the other vehicles and after a few moments, the motorcade pulled off and drove away. Inside the Chief’s vehicle, the Adonian was looking over his choices of food in silence when Kipp spoke.

“Forgive me for asking Sir, but we have all been wanting to ask—”

“You all want to know why exactly I sat in that hospital for over two weeks?”

“…y-yes, that’s correct, Sir.”

“It’s quite simple, Kipp – the Lawman in there might just be the most precious resource we have in the Coalition; thus, he must be protected and cherished at all costs.”

Immediately after saying this, the Chief smiled as he identified something he wanted to eat. Without even giving any further context or explaining why he said such a thing, he opened a large parcel, raised it above his head and then looked up. He opened his mouth as wide as he could, revealing absolutely all of his teeth and then tipped the parcel over; with all of the contents of said parcel falling into the gaping maw that was his open mouth. Kipp, who had an expression of absolute shock on his face wanted by all means to ask his superior to elaborate further on what he said; however, he knew that interrupting the Chief while he ate was akin to giving up on life. Unfortunately for him, his superior appeared to have chosen to eat everything, so the wait for context was guaranteed to be excruciating.

As the days went on, Relovan would flit in and out of consciousness, only to find that the Chief was not there. In fact, none of colleagues came to visit him – including those that remained on the Station and didn’t come down to the First Planet with him and the others. This didn’t bother him, however it also surprised him just a tad considering how he did get along with a few of his coworkers. Towards the end of the third week of his hospital stay, Relovan had grown frustrated of being there and had decided it was time to discharge himself from the hospital. He forced himself out of bed and pulled out every single drip and needle that was present in his body, before standing and walking over to the cupboard where he was surprised to find a fresh change of clothes next to the remains of his uniform. The clothes themselves were in a small duffel bag, with the clothes themselves being rather shocking as they were more military themed than civilian – with there being camouflage pants, black boots and a rather tight-fitting t-shirt. Relovan was slow and measured as he got dressed, being mindful of the fact that he was still somewhat tender. Coincidentally, he finished getting dressed just as a doctor walked in and saw him get up. The Enforcer was still bandaged – with his left arm being bandaged right down to his fingers.

“What is going on here?” The doctor asked as he approached Relovan in a huff.

“I am discharging myself from this hospital, doctor.” Relovan stated matter-of-factly.

“I cannot allow that, Enforcer! Your wounds were such that even with the level of our medical techniques, we were only just able to save your life! In fact, that you’re able to move around as freely as you are right now is nothing short of incredible, however please, I implore you to get back in bed and just stay here for at least another week.”

“Out of my way, please.” Relovan commanded as he picked up the bag with his right hand and began to stride forwards.

The doctor refused to move and even went so far as to spread his arms at shoulder height and shoot the Enforcer a look of steely determination. He was after all only Human, and stopping him would be easier than stopping the Chief. Unfortunately for the doctor, he soon found out just what Relovan was all about as the Enforcer quickly dropped the bag and with one giant stride, closed the gap between himself and the doctor. The moment the space was closed, the doctor felt a vice-like-grip around his neck and before he could do or say anything, was raised off his feet. An instant later, he was being slammed back first into a wall, causing him to cry out in pain and cough a few times. He suddenly felt an intense gaze on his face, and he looked down to see Relovan glaring into his eyes.

“Listen here doctor, I am leaving this place right now. I genuinely do appreciate the work you and your colleagues put into not only preserving my life, but also fixing me up, however I detest hospitals, and every time I am in one, I feel like throttling the very first person I see until their bulbous, multi-eyed heads explode and leave sticky green muck and ooze all over the white hospital walls. So, I would appreciate it if you fucked off, so I in turn can avoid killing somebody who helped keep me alive in cold blood. Do we have an understanding, doctor?”

The doctor, whose eyes by now had grown to be the size of Adonian golf balls, nodded as frantically as he could. Relovan slowly slid the doctor down until his feet touched the ground. He then released the thick neck, bent over and picked the bag up with his right hand once again. After nodding at the doctor as if nothing had happened, Relovan strode out of his hospital room and through the halls, following the signs and prompts until he was at the front desk of the ward, where a few doctors and nurses had congregated. A few of them recognised him, however one of the doctors seemed to have just gotten off a call and quickly spoke before anybody else could.

“Good day, Enforcer! You are free to leave – we will handle the paperwork.”

Relovan just grunted his acknowledgment and strode out of the ward and soon afterwards, the hospital itself. The doctor who had spoken quickly explained the situation to the other doctors, who muttered every rendition of the phrase ‘good riddance’ as they possibly could. The Enforcer didn’t hear any of that, and even if he did, it didn’t seem like he would care very much. The instant he set foot on the pavement outside the building, he took an incredibly deep breath, as if he was savouring the relatively fresh air. After indulging in the somewhat fresh air, Relovan began to look around to see exactly where he was, and if there was a cab nearby that he could hail. There didn’t appear to be any cabs that were readily available, so he had no choice but to wait for one. A minute or two into the wait, the sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention. They sounded as though they were in a hurry, almost frantic in their approach and just as whoever it was that was approaching him exited the hospital, Relovan turned around sharply – as if expecting to be attacked. Instead, he was met with the sight of a female doctor rushing towards him. When she saw him, the doctor immediately put on the brakes and came to a rather inelegant stop – coming close to actually bumping into the Enforcer. To his credit, Relovan looked as though he was ready to catch the doctor if she happened to trip over her own feet and fall. As it turned out, that wasn’t necessary as she not only managed to come to a stop, but she did so with some room to spare. The doctor was a Malanian, a race of people that hailed from Malania, a planet that was covered solely in water. With civilisations built on artificial islands as well as underwater, their Essence Powers were naturally inclined towards them being Healers; thus, it was no surprise then that there was a Malanian doctor on the First Planet.

“Excuse me.” She said without waiting to catch her breath or regain her composure. “You are Officer Relovan, right?” She asked between breaths.

“…Enforcer.” Relovan simply corrected.

“My mistake.” The doctor said raising her hand apologetically before taking a deep breath and looking up towards the sky. “Thank Shaelandria I managed to catch you before you disappeared!! I thought I was going to miss you!”

Despite the white coat and her graceful, ladylike appearance, the doctor not only sounded young but had a voice that just didn’t match her physical appearance.

“What do you wish of me?” Relovan asked, cutting to the chase immediately.

“I have three things to say to you Enforcer, so please just hear me out until I finish. First of all, as a doctor, I would really like to advise you against discharging yourself so quickly after surgery as critical as intense as what you just had. Your body can’t be anywhere near recovered, and I suspect that if an acorn hit you in the right place, your bones would shatter and you would become a pulpy mass of flesh.”

The doctor accompanied her warning with a series of hand gestures and facial expressions that once again did not align with her appearance. Relovan just listened to her, before closing his eyes and nodding.

“Noted. What was the second thing you wanted to say?”

“Well…” She said, having recovered completely from her brisk walk. “…secondly, I wanted to apologise. I really wanted to try and help you when you were on the operating table, but my severely limited knowledge of the Human body meant that I was deemed useless and dismissed before you even reached Intensive Care. All I could do was watch from afar and hope that you pulled through.”

“I survived even without you being there, so you need not apologise. What’s the final thing?”

“…I wanted to convey my heartfelt appreciation for what you did to protect us.” The doctor said as her voice and facial expression became somewhat more serious.

“Huh?”

“Those of us who were evacuated by the local police as well as the other Enforcers were underground during most of the ordeal. Medical practitioners like me were tasked with seeing to the wounded, and we had a young Enforcer with us, and every time you got on the radio to give those… reports I guess, the expression on his face would become more intense. For some reason, we could all hear exactly what you were saying, and the Enforcer who was with us even tried to convince his superior that you needed backup. He was shot down just before you called them cowards and went to confront the Void Lords. The entire exchange between you and Void Lord Vox was also… broadcast, and by the time you charged him, a whole bunch of us, including the young Enforcer were in tears. He wept for and saluted you for so long, I wondered if he was ever going to move again. Anyway, when I heard that you had survived and were en-route to our hospital, I wanted so badly to help save you, but I couldn’t. So again, I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of all my hearts – I have no doubt that your actions not only saved the planets, but all of us as well.”

Relovan listened in silence as the doctor spoke. During her monologue, a cab had conveniently arrived, and the Enforcer had waved it over behind his back with his left hand. Once she was done speaking, Relovan simply nodded and turned around before making his way over to the back of the cab where he was met by the driver. He opened the door for his customer, however before stepping into the back of the cab, Relovan placed his bag on the seat and took one step away from the vehicle. He faced the slightly confused looking doctor, established and held eye contact with her, and then stood at attention before saluting her. It was a slow and deliberate salute, and by the time the tip of his forefinger touched his forehead, the doctor had already crossed her right leg in front of her left, placed her open left hand on her chest bowed before Relovan. The two remained like that for a moment or two, before Relovan climbed into the cab. He let out a slightly tired sounding sigh as he buckled up, and soon afterwards, the driver was inside as well.