[9] Good and Evil

[Friend or Foe]

Ashe
Kaden
Piper
Sage
Sophia

They all stood, side by side, in front of the entrance to the underground tunnel. There was a single stone door that waited to be opened, to grant the five players access. They were missing a sixth, but they had no time to wait.

Kaden stood in the middle of the four beauties. Piper and Sophia to one side, Sage and Ashe to the other. He wasn't sure how he had gotten to the 'leader' position, but somehow, Kaden found himself being the one to nod to the doorkeeper to open it.

"Everybody stay together," he said aloud, "Move as a group."

The door began to slowly open. The five all stepped in, side-by-side. Sage and Ashe were holding hands. Piper and Sophia were...not.

They were in a tiny room, but unlike the other rooms of the tiny, it was completely artificial and made of a kind of foreign metal. In front of them were five seats, all with a helmet on them. In front of that was a television screen. It clicked on immediately at the same time the door behind them closed.

"Hello, contestants," Kai Demolic said into the camera. "This is a pre-taped recording, so please don't bother wasting time trying to find me. You have one more task before you reach me and bring this story to a close. Sit down...and you will understand me."

Everyone looked around, but slow began to sit even as they discussed aloud.

Kai continued. "My real name is Gregory Rogers...a mundane, boring name I was given by parents who couldn't grasp the miracle they had brought into the world. As I realized by the time I was a teenager, my gift of overbearing intelligence had granted me something nobody else had...a limitless future. I could do anything I wanted and get away with it. Anything. At first I was like you all...concerned with the greater good. I wanted to make the world a better place. But as I grew up, I saw how the world really was...there is no good or evil. There are strong and weak...smart and dumb. No matter if I chose to be a saint or a criminal, the result is the same...money, fame."

The five people were all sitting in the chairs by now, helmets in their hands, just listening to the speech. Sometimes someone interject with a sarcastic remark.

"What I'm going to do now, is show you all what you are capable of. You are all just kids...it's easy to throw words around like good, evil, justice and truth. But it's a whole different matter when you are faced with the cruel reality of your situation. You will put your headset on...and you will be faced with what you can become. All it takes, children...is one bad day."

The helmets activated at once. The chairs locked the players in.

They were alone, battling their own demons.























(Your character will now visit themselves in the future...a future where they have become the exact thing they are trying to stop. They will find themselves the opposite of what they stand for, and must discover what it was that changed them. By discovering this, and even arguing or submitting it, you will pass the test. You get ONE roleplay...and feel free to use as much as length as you need.)

[Jesper]

A soft hum filled Sophia’s ears as her helmet clicked on, sending waves of pain to her head as her brain tried to compensate for the sudden source of electronic activity. She allowed a brief glance to her comrades as their helmets did something similar; their chairs locking them in menacingly, as if what they were about to experience was a good cause for someone to want to escape. Her pupils suddenly dilated and she unknowingly clenched the arms of her chair, her eyes closing tightly as the images stemming from the helmet’s activity flashed before them.

Like stepping through the door of the ethereal, Sophia lifted a hand to block the sudden sunlight that she was not used to seeing after having sat in a darkened room. She looked around with a look of confusion pasted across her visage—this was the helmet’s doing, right? She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. After all, she never had access to such technology during her tenure at the temple; when she thought about it, she didn’t have access to much of anything while she was there. Shaking her head, she tried to search past the context of the situation and surveyed her surroundings.

She looked down and kicked the dirt on the path that she was apparently walking, the chirping of birds stimulating her ears. Everything about this place seemed very, very real, which made her feel uneasy. Was he trying to trick her? The sounds of peaceful nature was appealing, and if Kai—or Gregory, she supposed—kept her in this place for too long, she feared that she might begin to accept this as reality. Much more than that, however, was how familiar this place seemed. Every sight she took in, every breath she took made her feel as though she had done this all before.

“’ey!” a shout came from the expanse of road before her. Suddenly, a masked man came into view, sneering. “You’re with us, right? You’re gonna be late if you fall behind too much, and you know how badly the Mistress would take that.”

She looked down at her hands, with were clothed with unfamiliar leather. In fact, everything she wore was made of the same leather, and matched what the man was wearing, only altered slightly to reveal her more…feminine features. They were dressed oddly, and Sophia had a few guesses as to what they were actually supposed to be. The healer supposed that none of that mattered, though—she had to remember that none of this was real, and if she was going to pass this little test of Gregory’s, she had to roll with whatever came her way.

“Um…” she began. “I thought I had dropped some money back here somewhere.”

“Normally, I’d tell you to find it, but we have no time. Besides, there’s plenty of gold to be had where we’re going,” he shrugged. Sophia opened her mouth to ask, but he grabbed her forearm and dragged her forward before she got the chance. “Come on, there’s not time! Hopefully we can sneak into the group under the Mistress’ notice. Not like it’s easy to hide things from that witch.”

The pair started running; Sophia was surprised at the pure intensity with which he moved. Was he just naturally athletic, or was there fear behind his every step? Dirt kicked up behind their heels, and Sophia was getting winded until finally they stopped just short of a group of people. They all had their backs turned to the pair, listening to someone speak as they began to crowd around the person. The man nudged Sophia. “Okay, they’ve stopped for a last second preparation before we invade.”

“Invade?” Sophia raised an eyebrow.

“What?” he lowered his voice to a whisper as they snuck into the back of the crowd. “Shh, Mistress is speaking.”

“Alright, you stupid bastards,” a faded blonde-haired woman began speaking loudly. “The temple is just ahead. We’ll wait here until nightfall.”

“Um…uhh…Mistress,” a hesitant hand raised from the middle of the crowd at just about the same time the color started to drain from the healer’s face. “Um…how will we divide the loot?”

“Fucked if I know,” the woman shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, you all can keep what you find. Naturally, though, I get a third of the zeni we find in their storage room.”

The members of the crowd began to murmur quietly amongst themselves. An irritated look appeared on the Mistress’ face. She drew a glowing dagger and slashed it in the direction of her subordinates. “What’s this? Do any of you idiots have a problem with that?”

“Mistress,” an old man with a tattooed face spoke up from behind her. “A third is an awfully big portion to take, no? I am sure the rest of us are not content with splitting up the rest of it amongst ourselves.”

“Oh, well…Zuo, I meant for another third to go to you,” an innocent tone in her voice started to show when she addressed him.

“Hmhm…yes,” he began to cackle. “Very good, then.”

The crowd no longer made any noise, but the looks on their faces remained filled with disgust. They all began to scatter about the area in different groups, all speaking with hushed voices. The masked man beside her sighed and patted her on the shoulder, motioning her towards a log off to the side. When they walked over it, he sat down on the wood and shook his head. “The work sucks, but at least the money was good. Mistress needs to watch it, though I doubt anyone is stupid enough to actually make a move against her.”

“Yeah,” she scratched her arm awkwardly. “Um…I’m…”

The man waved her off. “You must be our newest if you don’t know that we refer to ourselves by number. I was the newcomer before you came along, and I’m 68. You must be 69,” he began to chuckle, giving her the once-over. “Gotta admit, fate has a sense of humor.”

‘Wh-what? Why is that funny?” she asked, embarrassed.

“Haha, nothing, nothing. It’s probably better that you don’t know,” he laughed.

“…anyway, what kind of person is the Mistress? This is the first time I’ve met her,” Sophia mused.

“Really? She usually recruits everyone herself,” he frowned at her. “Weird. Anyway, just between you and me, she’s a total bitch. I haven’t heard her say one good thing about anything except for money, and even that is just a passing comment about its usefulness. One thing I can say about her, though, is that she’s downright effective. She has yet to lead an unsuccessful raid.”

Sophia gulped, feeling as though she wanted to vomit at the thought of another temple being robbed. It was a painful memory that she did not want to bring back up, though that was likely the maniacal game host’s purpose. 68 went on, not noticing the healer’s reaction. “Rumor has it that she actually used to be a good person.”

“…really? What changed?” Sophia glanced at the Mistress, who was turned away from them as she talked to the old man.

“If I had to choose someone that I hated more than the Mistress, it would be Zuo. He’s kind of like her advisor. He almost never leaves her side,” he shook his head. “Apparently, he was the one that turned her to this kind of profession. Don’t know how much of that is actually true, though. She doesn’t seem like the type that can be easily swayed.”

Sophia furrowed her brow as she saw Zuo whisper something to her. The Mistress’ reaction was initially negative, but eventually started to nod. Turning around, she motioned to the rest of the group. “Alright, fuck this waiting. We’re going to attack now.”

“…is that really wise?” one of the bolder bandits spoke up, who was immediately shushed by his surrounding friends. Mistress smirked and slowly started to walk up towards the man. She put a hand on his cheek as she began to speak softly.

“Have I ever let you down before?” she asked sweetly. The man straightened up with a gasp, shaking as he opened his mouth to answer.

“N-no. Of course not, Mistress!” he answered immediately. Her smirk widened before it curved downward into a sneer. Curling up her fingernails onto his skin, she raked them across his cheek, drawing a surprising amount of blood while creating a scar.

“Then shut the hell up and do what you’re told,” she turned to look at everyone else. “That goes for the rest of you, too! I know this temple. I know how unprepared they are for it.”

She glared at them one-by-one, her eyes slowly searching her underling’s faces for any sign of disapproval. She lingered on the sight of Sophia, however, making the healer grimace slightly in discomfort. A look of surprise filled the features of the Mistress, which took Sophia aback. However, instead of saying anything, she turned around and began walking. Raising an arm, she motioned for the group to follow.

Sophia begrudgingly followed, completely unwilling to participate but at the same time understanding that she had to follow whatever paths she was given. An odd anxiety filled her limbs, and the healer suddenly felt cold. There was the certain excitement that came with being a part of such a large-scale endeavor, which made her uneasy. She knew that it was a temple they were going to, and if it was anything like the attack that she had endured, she knew that what they had in store wasn’t going to be pretty.

She knew that she had to stop it, if at all possible. Forget about Gregory’s soap box.

From the trips that she took with her father to other temples, Sophia had found out that all such buildings looked relatively the same. However, the similarity it bore to the temple she grew up in was striking. That horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach grew upon this realization; she didn’t know if she could take another attack. Something compelled her to move forward, however. Whether it was ambition or avoiding getting trampled by the frenzy of bandits, she took a few steps inside the temple.

“What’s this all about?” an older-looking monk took a step forward, almost stumbling. Sophia had to squint, but she recognized him. It was Jonathon, and this was her temple. She tightened a fist and looked down and away, fighting back tears. The bandits likely would have turned on her if she made any sign of regret. Jonathon frowned as the different bandits drew their respective weapons. Mistress took a step forward from the middle of the group, garnering a surprised reaction. “Is that you…?”

“Hello again,” she smiled before she raised an arm, tearing a hole through his body with a beam of ki. Through the cries and screams, she directed her comments towards her subordinates. “Go! Wreck havoc, ya’ dumb sons of bitches.”

The Mistress immediately ran up the stairs with Zuo, leaving everyone else to the first floor. Ignoring the danger of such an act, she ran to the fallen body of Jonathon, who was somehow still alive. As she placed two hands over the rather large wound, his clouded eyes beamed with recognition. Tears flowing out of his eyes, he opened his mouth to speak, but life fell from him before any words got out.

“Haha, Mistress sure killed him dead,” the voice of 68 sounded from behind her. “Come on, there’s plenty here!”

Laughing with joy, he ran down an intersecting hallway and out of sight. Shaking her head, she sank and began to sob. Not just for Jonathon’s death, not just for the injustice that this temple had been brought, not even for the awful déjà vu she was experiencing. Upon retrospect, Sophia didn’t know why she cried. Perhaps that everything; the game, the deaths she had seen, her own emotional dilemmas—everything—was starting to catch up to her. But suddenly stopped. She felt so stupid as realization dawned on her. The only way to verify this realization, however, was just up the stairs.

Tearing through the curtain that hung in the doorway to a large room, she stumbled upon the sight of the Mistress. With Zuo looking on with a grin, she sat hovering above a dead body, blood all over her clothes as she held an equally bloody dagger in a shaking hand. She looked as though she wanted to cry, but she did nothing. She just…sat. Suddenly, she slowly started to look up at Sophia. The look of confusion that she had seen on her face earlier was now gone; replaced with nothing but emptiness. The Mistress’ eyes locked with Sophia’s for a moment before she started to speak.

“You…” she began. A sad smile crawled upon her face as she looked up at the ceiling. “I see. Is this God’s way of punishing me for my sins?”

“You’re…” Sophia choked on the words.

“Haha, yeah. You’re me,” she looked back down at the healer. “They might not have recognized you, but I do. I’d recognize the innocence in your eyes anywhere.”

Sophia looked away. “I’m not exactly…”

“Juno, right? Wasn’t that his name?” she cut her off. “That’s when it happened. That’s when He abandoned me. You know what I’m referring to, don’t you?”

“All too well,” the healer sighed. The older version of Sophia suddenly cried out in anger.

“Well, you know what? I don’t care!” she stood up and took a step forward, pointing her dagger at Sophia. “I’m not special! I’m not unique! God doesn’t care about me! Those are all things that they will try to tell you,” she motioned to the dead body below her. Sophia took a look at the face of the corpse, much against her better judgment. She looked older than what she remembered, but it was definitely the body of Kira, her best friend from the temple. As Sophia began to tear up, her anti-future continued with rage. “It’s all bullshit, Sophia! She needed to see! She needed to understand just what her God thinks of her. And I’m sure she’s not happy.”

“That’s not true!” Sophia burst out. “I’ll admit that up until now I’ve had some doubts about God’s plan, or even His existence. And to be honest, I’m still not convinced. If He really is there, then why is all of this happening to me?”

“It’s because He hates you!” Anti-Sophia shouted.

“Perhaps,” Sophia nodded. “It’s definitely a possibility. But look at yourself. Look around you. What in the world makes you think that this is a viable solution to your problems? Killing people who don’t believe what you believe is stupid; what if you are right? That would mean that there is no God, and subsequently no afterlife. There’s nothing. They’re no closer to the truth; they’re just dead.”

“Shut up! Shut—UP!” the Mistress shook her head violently.

“You know what you have to do, Mistress,” Zuo cackled in the background.

“I know, Zuo…” her voice was softened now. “I don’t care what you say, Sophia. If I’m no longer one of God’s chosen children, then so be it. I don’t even care if He’s sent you to convince me otherwise. I’ll burn the world to fucking ashes before I give in!”

The Doppelganger swung her dagger downward, the tip of the blade threatening to stab her in the neck. The whole moment seemed to slow to a crawl as she suddenly realized one very sad reality: Sophia couldn’t afford to lose her faith. This went much past her belief in God—if she could no longer believe in people, then she had nothing. She would feel without purpose, set adrift in a sea of void emotions. Her future self must have come to this realization a long time ago, and…Sophia stole a glance at Zuo right before the dagger plunged into her. Sophia’s apathy, coupled with the right urgings, could lead her down a path that she had no desire to travel.

Her eyes snapped open.

[Sage]

Some kind of restraints came down over her wrists and ankles, and the helmet was forcefully jammed over her head. She struggled futilely against whatever held her down, but suddenly, everything went blank.

Sage found herself standing inside what looked like a spectator box that you might find at an arena. It had all the usual comforts: spectator seats toward the edge of the balcony, a mini-bar next to a couple of leather couches, and a counter with a sink and some storage space. Only... there was no entrance.

The azure haired girl walked over to the edge of the balcony and placed her hands on the safety bar, stretching up to look over. With a gasp, she recoiled in surprise, but after a few beats she mustered the courage to look again. Just to make sure.

The spectator box wasn’t actually attached to any kind of building or support. More importantly, it was about a hundred feet higher up than the top of the tallest skyscraper that reached out from the city below. She recognized this city... this was the capital of Vegeta-Sei. Home.

“Sorry to startle you,” came a voice from behind. Sage jumped with a gasp, and whirled around to face the voice. Kai Demolic - or Gregory Rogers, Sage wasn’t really sure - was leaning against the far wall, a menacing grin plastered on his face. He seemed fairly relaxed, one leg thrown across the other, his hands laced together behind his head. Immediately, the hybrid reached for her gun, only to find it wasn’t there. Her eyes met Kai’s, and faced him with a mix of confusion, fear, and anger. “Don’t worry about it, Sage,” he said her name with a deliberate emphasis, his eyes always watching her for any reaction. “I’m not actually here. Technically speaking, you’re not actually here, either. Think of it sort of like an online game.”

Sage didn’t say anything. She just watched him, putting on as determined a face as she could manage. She wanted to edge away from the balcony, lest he try to throw her over, but dared not move.

“As I said before, I’m going to show you what you’re capable of. Show you what you can become. Or rather, in your case, what you could have become. Really, it’s no stretch to imagine it could still happen, but this scenario just dredges up so much of your past, I couldn’t resist bringing it up,” Kai beamed.

“What... could you know about my...”

“Your past?” Kai inquired, knowing full well what Sage meant. “Because you’re from the future, right? So technically your past never happened. Or, it didn’t happen yet. Simple: this machine shows me everything about you, past or present. I know about your mom and dad, how you and Zena grew up together... I know about Aurelius,” he watched Sage’s expression crumble. “I know about... Sol...” tears welled up in the girl’s eyes. “I know everything,” he grinned. “...Do you know why it’s you five left? You, Sophia, Piper, Ashe, and Kaden? Do you think it’s because you were the best? The most capable? Or do you think it’s because you just got lucky? Do you really think I’d let luck factor into something as carefully planned as this?” he gestured all around him.

“I-”

“You really think you had a better shot than Oliver? What about Kazuya or Juno? Tempo? Rose? Ares? Your sister?” he scoffed. “The reason you five remain is because you’re the most easily manipulated bunch I’ve ever seen!”

“Wh-”

“Shut up, I’m talking,” Kai angrily warned. “You’re all victims of circumstance. You let the world around you decide what you are, what you’ll do. People like your sister, or Nash? They’re too headstrong, they’re no good for tv. But you and the others left? You’ll do anything I want you to, because none of you have any backbone. All of you whine and complain about your situation but you all let it happen.”

“That’s not true! I never asked to-”

“But you let it happen!”

“I was-” Sage fell to her knees and began to sob. “I was just a kid...”

“Did you ever move on? Did you ever become stronger as a result? No, you let it consume you. For the rest of your life, you let the world push you around, let it decide for you what would happen. Have you ever won an argument with Zena since? Or have you always given up and gone with her decision?”

“I...”

“You’re just as much responsible for your situation as the situation itself. You let the world smother you, not once have you tried to climb up out of it,” Kai coldly rasped. Sage tried to stifle the tears, but couldn’t. She sobbed quietly while the mastermind behind the twisted game she was caught in continued.

“Your scenario,” he explained. “As I already said, shows what could have been. And, technically, what could still be. Either for you... or present-day Sage. She’s still eight months away or so, right?” he smirked as the azure haired girl quieted as he spoke. “You were never attacked by Aurelius. You never met Sol, nothing happened on your thirteenth birthday. It was dull as hell, I’m sure. You’re twenty in this simulation, and you’ve grown very powerful. Your sister, as a result in this change to your past, is much more idealistic than you know her. While you’re busy training to follow in your parents’ footsteps and studying for a major in political sciences, your sister has been spending all of her time in a laboratory orbiting Vegeta-Sei, working on something called the Lazarus Virus,” Kai grinned. “It’s quite brilliant, actually. She’s engineered a retro-virus that can actually jumpstart a person’s vital systems if they’ve been dead for less than four hours. It’s flawed, but... well... why not get into it, hm? You’ll be here in this sky box the whole time, seeing the world through the eyes of your alternative self. This is not a ruse, this is you. All it takes is a shift of circumstances, Sage. See what you could be,” Kai grinned, before turning on his heel and walking straight through the wall, leaving the crystal haired girl alone. She turned around, and watched as the scenery before her swirled about as Kai’s ‘scenario’ began...

- - - -

“I’m doing it anyway!”

“The Kajin Rala council delivered a verdict, Zena! The Lazarus virus needs to be destroyed. Your project is banned!” came Bra’s retort. She had been arguing with her daughter for nearly an hour by now, while Kirano and Sage listened uncomfortably to the ongoing tirade.

“Since when do you get on your knees for them?!” Zena snapped. “You’re the king, aren’t you?! Aren’t you supposed to be making the rules? Why is some foreign council running the show?”

“Zena, it’s not that simple,” Bra replied. “There are all kinds of arrangements we’ve made with the planets around us, including Kajin Rala. If I refuse to shut down your project, they’re threatening to impose sanctions and refuse trade. We make a lot of money-”

“Money?!” Zena nearly screamed. “You’re willing to give up the chance to save lives for money?!”

“And what happens when the people you save can’t make any money to support themselves?!” Bra roared. “They die, that’s what happens. They die, and their families starve.”

“So you’re just gonna let them call the shots. Our ancestors let the changelings rule over us and you’re letting Kajin Rala take their place,”

“It’s not even close to the same thing-”

“You’re throwing away a chance to change the whole galaxy-”

“Your virus is more deadly and more contagious than anything else on record!”

“It needs to be tweaked!” Zena exclaimed her defense. “But it worked!”

“It worked one time in three years,”

“It can work again, and you know it!”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m ordering a cease and desist. You can preserve most of your notes, but all samples of the Lazarus virus - and the formula to create it - need to be destroyed immediately,” Bra declared. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?! You’re sorry?! Do you know how-”

The king cut her daughter off with a vicious slap across the face. Zena stumbled backwards, into the wall. “You are not to go back to your lab. I’ll take care of the details myself.”

“Whatever-”

“Zena!” Bra barked. “I’m dead serious. If I see you trying to leave the surface before the project’s been destroyed, I’ll have you arrested,” with a deadly glare, Bra stalked away, down the hall, leaving a seething Zena behind.

The blond turned on Kirano and Sage, who had been occupying themselves with a friendly game of blackjack. “You could have-” she rasped, tears welling up in her eyes. “Neither of you... neither of you even care! I can’t believe you’d let mom-” Zena grasped a vase from an inset in the wall and hurled it into the wall opposite her, and stormed out of the room.

Sage rolled her eyes. “The thing didn’t work anyway,” she grumbled, before setting her cards down with a sigh. “But she’s worked on it for so long...”

“Yeah, it’s too bad, but... your mom’s right,” Kirano replied. “Things would get a lot worse for the people here if she defies Kajin Rala. They’re very serious about this - we don’t have any room to maneuver for this one. Believe me, your mom’s tried.”

Sage just nodded.

- - - -

Night had fallen on the Imperial Palace. A lone figure was skulking up a hallway, toward a stairway that would lead to the private bedchambers, when suddenly, bright light cascaded down the hallway.

Zena found herself exposed in the light, and her mother glared down at her from the top of the stairs. “I told you not to leave the surface, Zena.”

“I didn’t,”

“We tracked you,”

“Yeah, well-”

“What’s that?” the cyan haired empress pointed at a vial gripped tightly in her daughter’s grasp. “That’s a sample of the virus, isn’t it?! You brought it here?! Do you know what could happen if the people were exposed?!” Bra thundered. “Are you insane?! You could kill everyone!”

“I’m leaving. I’ll find some backwater planet and start working there. That way nobody will know about it and you won’t have to-”

“Give it to me,”

“What?”

“Give me that virus,”

“No!”

“Zena,” the demi saiyan’s blue eyes burned into her daughter. “I will fucking deck you if you don’t give me that container right now.”

“What the hell’s going on?” a sleepy Kirano complained. Sage stumbled after him, also roused by the noise. Her father looked at his wife. “What’s going on?” he repeated.

But Zena tried to bolt. An absurd proposition, as she was no faster than the average human, and right behind her was one of the fastest people in the galaxy. Bra materialized in front of her daughter without the slightest effort, and sent the blond crashing to the ground with an angry backhand.

“You would really... throw away the biggest, most important breakthrough in the last hundred years... over some stupid council?!” Zena’s countenance was full of hatred.

“Okay, enough,” Bra angrily closed the gap, and the blond panicked.

“No!! Get back! Get ba-” desperately, she pulled her hand away from her mother’s reaching grasp, and hurled the vial at the ground. Her eyes widened with horror as it shattered. All four of them froze. They couldn’t see it, but they all knew the virus was there, in the air they were breathing. They all held their breath, but they all knew it was already too late.

Immediately, the cyan haired empress began to convulse. Soon after, so did Sage, and then Kirano. Zena stared at them, horrified, unable to move. Sage toppled forward, tumbling down the stairs. She landed at the bottom, propped up against the bottom steps, on her back. She could do nothing but stare at her sister, her coral eyes wide with terror as blood began to seep from her mouth, and out around her eyes. Blood trickled from her ears, hampering her hearing.

“How...”

“A temporary vaccine. It’s useless after about three hours or so... but I’ll be able to get to decontamination before then,” Zena said, her voice almost a whisper. Sage didn’t respond, just stared, and then frowned.

“No...” she weakly continued. “How could you do this?”

Zena broke eye contact with her sister, fighting back her tears. For a long time, she said nothing, but then turned back to Sage, her eyes red, her lip trembling. “...Sacrifices need to be made... in the name of progress.”

Zena walked out, leaving her family to die.

- - - -

“No!” Sage protested from the spectator box. “No, Zena would never do that!”

“Oh no?” it was Kai again. He was sitting on one of the couches now, his feet propped up on an ottoman.

“She wouldn’t! She would never do that to me!” the azure haired girl defiantly claimed.

“Right. Your sister killed Grimshaw for the most trivial of reasons,”

“She had to do it so-”

“She had to do it in the name of progress, right?” the maniacal game director cut her off. “Your sister would betray anybody who stood in her way, even you.”

“You’re wrong!”

“Have you ever stood up to her? Have you ever told her she couldn’t do something?” Kai snapped. “No, you haven’t. Not once have you ever stood in her way. But if you did, and Zena wanted whatever you were preventing her from having bad enough, she would go right through you to get at it, and don’t lie to me, you know that. While you’re hooked up to this machine I can see what you’re thinking, remember that.”

“But...” suddenly, a thought occurred to the hybrid. “Then what... does this all have to do with me?”

“You survived the outbreak. About a third of the population on Vegeta-Sei developed an immunity. More or less. You included. Zena claimed the throne for herself, and you disappeared. A few years passed and eventually you were picked up by a rebel faction that wanted to depose Zena because of her crimes. By now Vegeta-Sei has been declared a quarantine zone by Kajin Rala, and with the aid of pretty much every other government in the area, they’re enforcing it by destroying anything that tries to leave orbit. Your sister kept working on that virus, but it hasn’t gotten anywhere. Sources in the underground say that she intends to break the quarantine sometime this year, in search of some kind of material to help her continue her work. Your group isn’t willing to risk her introducing the virus to other communities.”

“But... why would I go against her?”

“Oh, come on. She tried to kill you. She killed your parents and left you for dead. When she found out you survived she put a search and destroy order on you.”

“Why?!”

“You were the only one who knew what she did. Don’t you get it? You were chased underground by your sister’s thugs, and you were eventually rescued by some loyalist group that was suspicious about the deaths of the entire royal family save Zena - you were declared dead as well. You told them what your sister did. You created the rebellion.”

“I wouldn’t-”

“In the name of compassion, you would. People were suffering and dying around you every single day. Either from the virus or from Zena’s shady ruling practices. You’d do anything in your power to make the tragedy end. So why not watch the end, hm? Learn something about yourself,” Kai grinned as he climbed to his feet. He turned and walked out through the wall again, while the scenery outside the spectator box changed again.

- - - -

“We’re just about ready, now,” the pure-blood rasped, sitting on a crate, positioning himself so he could watch Sage. “We’ve got enough men to force most of the imperial army into battle, but it’s a suicide mission. We’ll only have a few minutes before I have to order a retreat; if I wanted to slaughter my people I’d do it myself.”

“That’s fine...” the azure haired girl replied, fixing her hair in front of a cracked, dust-covered mirror. The two of them were more or less isolated, surrounded by supply crates all around. The crates formed more or less a ‘cubicle,’ which allowed for some privacy for Sage and the man who watched her. Since the two of them were in charge, they deserved the occasional luxury.

The headquarters for the rebellion was a laughable one, though. It was an expansive network of tunnels that had been dug out to build a subway system beneath the Imperial City. The project was scrapped after the tunnels were dug and the entrances sealed, but the raven haired man on the crate hadn’t forgotten about them when he went underground after the news of the royal family’s murder.

“You’re nervous,”

“I’m fine,”

“No, you’re not. I can see your breath,” came the reply. “You’d have more control than this if you were fine.”

“You worry too much,” Sage glided over to him and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “You worry too much about everything. If you didn’t worry about Akane so much... you could have done so much more than just train me, Reijin,” Sage straightened up and started to walk away.

“The attack begins tomorrow. I’ll be leading the diversion force. You’re convinced you can get into the palace?”

Sage tossed her head over her shoulder. “I’ve been hunted like an animal ever since Zena killed my parents. I’ll die if it means taking her with me and putting a stop to this. We can’t let Lazarus spread to another world,” her eyes clouded over. “No matter what.”

- - - -

The crystal haired hybrid was leaning heavily against a tree, taking a long drag off a cigarette. She blew out the smoke, closing her eyes for a moment, trying to shake some of the adrenaline before the light show started. It was dark - about three in the morning.

An explosion. Reijin had just blown up an isolated power station, just as planned. She could see the glow from his ascension from here. Taking another drag from her smoke, she flicked the cancer stick into the grass.

Clad in black, form-fitting leather, the girl was hard to spot until she emerged, a silhouette against the spark lights of the palace. Immediately, a few guards tensed up, some began shouting. In response, a sudden blizzard screamed toward them from behind Sage. The snow had hardened into ice, and the tiny, razor sharp fragments slashed and raked at the guards before her like angry bees.

From beneath her feet, massive sheets of ice several feet thick crawled out around her, and scrambled toward the palace. In only a minute, the entire building was a frozen, twisted version of its former self.

From the glacier beneath the guards, still fighting off the snow, immense spikes shot up, piercing through their flesh, impaling them through their torsos. With a flick of her wrist, Sage caused the wall before her to shatter, and casually strode inside.

Zena’s goons opened fire, and a hail of ki from powerful saiyans and energy from guns wielded by weaker ones rushed toward the girl, who didn’t even react as a wall of ice burst from the floor, shielding her from the onslaught.

Suddenly, dozens of spears made from ice floated up over the wall, before being hurled by some unseen force at the hapless soldiers. Blood stained the pure ice and snow that had entombed the palace. There were more guards left, but the cold fury in Sage’s eyes, and how she had so effortlessly dispatched their comrades caused them to hesitate long enough for the girl to wall them up behind a sheet of ice.

The doors to the throne room froze solid, then shattered. A fierce wind blew into the royal hall, and snow and ice immediately began replacing gold and marble. An angry Sage stepped inside as a wall of ice formed behind her, sealing the entrance. Zena was sitting in the throne. There had been two the last time Sage was here - her sister must have removed one.

“You’ve killed billions of people,” the cryomancer seethed. Her sister said nothing. “You killed mom, you killed dad, you tried to kill me a hundred times,”

“I was trying to make the galaxy a better place,”

“You were blinded by your arrogance,” Sage retorted. “Your project was a failure, and instead of admitting it, you threw away the future of the saiyan people to try and prove you were right. Everyone is gone. And what do you have to show for it?! You’re running a dystopia. People can be executed for even implying you did anything wrong, or that you’re not handling the outbreak properly. You said to mom years ago that she made us a slave to Kajin Rala. Well you made the people slave to you.”

“Are you going to kill me?” Zena inquired. Sage easily could. Zena had the power of a peasant. Sage didn’t know anybody more powerful than her still alive, other than Reijin. Of course, she couldn’t leave the world because of the virus, so she didn't know many people at all.

“Would you help me destroy this virus if I don’t?”

“...You know I can’t do that,” Zena replied. “If I do that, then all the people who died will have died for nothing.”

“And if you don’t, more will die every day,” Sage retorted.

“So this is how it ends,” it wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” a hoarse whisper. A spear of ice burst through the backrest of the throne Zena sat in, and tore through her abdomen. The frozen spike burst out from her stomach, the blood glistening brilliantly against the cold surface.

“You know... there is no... cure...”

“I know,” Sage replied. “I’m drawing in a comet.”

“What?!” Zena shuddered. “H-How?!”

“They’re made of ice, Zena,” Sage retorted. “I’ve grown much more powerful,” she darkly declared.

“Then...”

“You were going to go off-world. You were going to expose the rest of the galaxy to Lazarus. Like you said, there is no cure. Anything you or I do can’t cure the people you infected.”

“A comet?”

“You’re a scientist, aren’t you? Do you really believe you can save these people?”

“...No,”

“So then you agree that the only possible way to avoid the risk of contaminating another world is to totally wipe the virus out,” Sage replied.

“You just called me a monster... for killing billions of people... and you’re going to do the very same... thing...”

“You killed them by choice! There’s nothing left here. If these people don’t die then some day everyone will be infected! You did this, Zena! You did this when you released the virus!”

“There’s got to be another way!”

“There isn’t any more time,”

“There has to be!”

“Shut up! It’s too late. The comet’s on a collision course,” the blue haired girl coldly declared. “This is for the good of every other race out there. The saiyan homeland is... damned. I’m not powerful enough to push it back off-course anymore, anyway.”

“So... you’re-”

“I’m going to destroy Vegeta-Sei,” Sage paused as her sister fell limp. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her voice warbled uncontrollably. “And everyone on it.”

- - - -

“Oh my G-!!” Sage pulled away from the safety bar. “No! This- this can’t-!!”

“It’s a perfectly natural progression, kid,” it was Kai again. “It’s right there in black and white.”

“I wouldn’t-”

“No,” Kai interrupted. “You did.”

[Piper Juunanagou]

As she slid the bland metal helmet down onto the crown of her head, Piper felt a strange tingly sensation in her ears. A split-second later, the two electrodes on the headpiece buzzed to life and a pair of heavy steel restraints clamped down around the medic’s ankles. As another band of metal slid around her chest, she felt another tingly sensation, but this time she felt it all over her body. It felt like she was entering a drug high, but before Piper had much more time to debate the feeling, a massive jolt of electricity shot through her body.

With a weak gasp, the woman slumped forward against the back of the large wooden chair. By the time the arm restraints clicked into place, she was already long gone—her mind someplace different than the tiny steel room.

***

A scream clawed its way up from Piper’s throat as she shot off the mattress and into a seated position. Next to her, an alarm clock that read 6:00 a.m. was trilling away, but a quick swat with her hand silenced the terrifying noise.

All around her, the room was bathed in shadows, but even an ingrate could tell that she was no longer in Kai’s mental torture room…at least in a mental capacity. A faint grunt escaped the woman as she slid forward to the edge of the bed and tried to scope the room out. A single window to the left of the bed allowed a few beams of moonlight to spill into the shoddy bedroom. It was enough to give the otherwise downtrodden room a nice little glow, but it wasn’t nearly enough light to properly illuminate the room.

Mulling despondently over her situation, Piper tried to catch her breath as she waited for her eyes to adjust to her new surroundings. Unfortunately, the clearer her surroundings became, the more the woman wished she was blind. From the beaten down that she was sitting upon, it was obvious to the woman that she was in a bedroom. The walls of the room were covered in yellowed, peeling wallpaper and dotted with a few frames photos every here and there. Near a cracked door that seemed to lead to a bathroom, there was a single dresser that was being propped up with brick and some newspapers.

“Damn you, Rogers,” Piper rasped beneath her breath as she slid off the bed and onto the bare wooden floor. Slowly, the woman crept over to the bathroom and proceeded to slip inside. Reaching toward the wall, she felt around until she found a switch, and with a flick of her finger, a shoddy fluorescent light fixture sparked to life overhead. The drastic change in lighting was enough to temporarily blind the woman, but after just a few seconds of rubbing her eyes, her vision returned to her.

For the second time in less than five minutes, Piper wished she was blind.

In front of the redhead, there stood a woman who was uncomfortably familiar to her. Lifting her right hand up to her face, a frown spread across Piper’s face as she realized that she was looking at herself, or at least, she was looking at what she had become in this vision of her personal future.

“I look like shit…” the woman muttered lethargically as she placed a trembling hand against her emaciated cheek. Her normally vibrant green eyes had since dulled—their sheen and brilliant color were now but memories. Piper’s long, flowing red hair had been reduced to a mat of stringy, greasy hair that hung barely below her ears. Purple bags hung below the woman’s dreary eyes, and her jaw and cheeks showed signs of bruising.

With her shoulders sagged in disdain, the woman moved to leave the bathroom behind when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Glancing over her shoulder, Piper noticed the framed picture hanging off to the side of the mirror. Walking backwards, she plucked it up off the wall and brought it closer to her face. The photo was of a happy couple on their wedding day, fit with one of those tiered cake.

Although she should have seen it coming, Piper was nevertheless slightly taken aback that she was the blushing bride in the photo. In the photo, the medic looked much like she did in real life—cheery and alive, as opposed to the broken woman who stood in the mirror. The groom in the photo was what most women (Piper included) would probably consider a great catch—young-looking, blonde, and fit. The only strange thing about Piper in the photo was that she looked like she’d taken on some weight.

Flipping the photo around, the redhead snapped the back of the frame apart and slid out the glossy piece of paper. On the back of the photo were the words ‘Wedding Day – Jacob and I’, scrawled in Piper’s chicken scratch. Beneath the remark were a heart and the date when the picture was taken. Startlingly enough, the date was only a couple years in the future.

“I don’t like this,” the woman muttered as she put the picture into her pocket and placed its frame onto the cracked countertop. As she moved to leave the bathroom, a phone started to ring somewhere in the bedroom. Furrowing her brow, Piper moved back into the dark, dreary chamber and scoped around at the bedside until she found a cell phone amidst a pile of unwashed clothes. “Sophia Rosado…” the redhead muttered as the handheld device continued to ring. Flipping the phone open, she brought it up to here ear and asked the rather obvious question: “Sophia?”

“Who the fuck else would it be?” A grating, angry voice barked in reply, prompting Piper to reel the phone away from her head for a few minutes. Despite such rage, the voice was undeniable that of the Sophia that Piper knew from the competition. “Why have you been ignoring my calls, Piper?” The woman demanded, causing the redhead to furrow her brow once again.

“What are you talking about?” Piper asked as she looked outside the window. From what she could tell, the night was quickly coming to a close. Faint shades of purple were beginning to form on the horizon.

“Don’t give me that shit,” the woman shouted. “You’re going to pay me that money, Piper. I know where you work and were you live, so you can expect a nice little visit from me when you least expect it, you cunt,” just like that, the line went dead.

Not entirely sure of how to handle the phone call, Piper simply let the phone slip out of her fingers and land back atop the stack of clothes. Taking a step back, the redhead plopped down onto the bed and ran a hand through her hair. The act wasn’t quite as comforting as it usually was, as Piper’s hair was now so short it took her less than two seconds to run her hand through the skanky mess of grease atop of her scalp.

“Who called?” A male voice shouted from outside the other door. Lifting her head up, Piper’s jaw dropped as she recalled that she was actually married in this little world. A faint smile spread across her face as she recalled what the man in the photo looked like. The redhead opened her mouth to speak, but all she managed to get out was a bunch of squeaks and some stammered syllables. After a few moments of silence, she heard heavy steps slowly making their way upstairs, and then the door swung inward. “I said who the fuck called, woman?”

Piper’s open mouth instantly clenched shut as she stared at the disaster in front of her. At least two and a half hundred pounds, her husband was clad in nothing more than a pair of sweat pants, a stained muscle shirt, and a ragged flannel. Judging from his appearance, he hadn’t shaved or showered in quite some time, and in his left hand, he clung for dear life to a half empty bottle of whiskey.

It seemed like time in this cruel little reality had been as equally unforgiving to the smiling man in Piper’s wedding photo. Like her, her husband’s eyes were empty and devoid of any real spark, but unlike Piper, there was also an indiscernible rage that burned inside. Was this the explanation for her bruising…this fat, angry alcoholic that she had married? The redhead wanted to frown—actually, she felt like crying—but she figured it wouldn’t help the situation at hand.

“Just a friend,” Piper replied weakly as she slid off the bed and looked around the room for something to busy herself with.

“Whatever,” the ogre of a man grunted as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic bottle. After spitting up a solution of saliva and chewing tobacco, he stuffed the bottle back into his pocket and grunted. “Try and get to work on fucking time today. God only knows you’re not good at anything else,” he added angrily before slamming the door behind him.

For a few moments, Piper simply stared at the door in dread, unwilling to accept what was playing out around her.

Work? She suddenly thought, recalling what both Sophia and her husband had referenced amidst their cruelty and insults. Standing up slowly, Piper disregarded her shaky knees and made her way into the bathroom. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, the women felt like she had a crushing weight bearing down on her. In less than twenty minutes, her vision of her own future had already been defiled, which raised the million-dollar question: Why?

Although she was wearing nothing more than a pair of sweatpants and a cotton shirt, the woman figured it didn’t really matter today. What would her place of employment do? Fire her? The notion of being fired in a nonexistent reality almost brought a smile to the woman’s face as she put on a pair of slippers and made her way through the beaten down shack. On her way out, she ignored the grunting man sitting on the couch drowning himself in booze, even as he threw an insult or two her way. Before slipping through the front door, the woman scooped up the set of keys resting near the kitchen sink.

Exiting onto the sidewalk, Piper took but a moment to look back at her house. Like the other ‘homes’ on both sides of the decaying road, the redhead’s house looked as if it had survived a war. Windows were busted everywhere and there were even a few chunks of the exterior wall that looked as if they had simply broken off from disrepair. Walking down to the side of the street, Piper fumbled with the keychain until she found the electronic lock for the car. A quick press of the panic button caused a nearby car to squeal.

“Should have called that,” Piper sighed as she walked toward the rusted piece of junk. Moving around to the driver’s side, the woman unlocked the car and slid inside. As she tried to adjust the seat, she realized that there simply was no windshield to the vehicle, and there was a gaping hole in the center of the console where a stereo system would normally be. With a heavy sigh, the woman tried the various keys on the chain until she found the one that worked in the ignition. After a few efforts and some verbal coaxing, Piper managed to get the ignition to start.

“Work…” the woman muttered as she began to scope around the front of the car. If Piper knew herself, there would be some sort of directions or a map. With all of her medication, her short-term memory had a tendency to get dumped down the mental toilet. As she rifled through the glove compartment, the woman found a small list of directions scribbled on a piece of paper. “Thank you, Piper,” the redhead whispered as she shifted the car into drive and continued on her despondent journey to get to the bottom of her dreary future.

***

After twenty minutes of driving, Piper’s self-made directions led her to a small parking lot next to a large office complex. After parking her car in an available slot, the woman left the derelict behind her and made her way to the front of the building. As she slowly walked toward the entrance, she quickly realized she was becoming the center of attention.

Maybe it wasn’t a smart idea to look like you just woke up. A voice in her head remarked as the woman tried to avoid eye contact. She had almost managed to get to the front door when an uncharacteristically chipper voice grabbed her attention.

“Piper!”

Turning her head, the redhead immediately saw the young blonde girl waving at her. The woman was propping open one of the buildings side doors. Even though she wasn’t sure if she should go to the girl, Piper knew anything was better than having everyone glaring at you like your some type of head case. Sprinting forward, the redhead dipped under the blonde’s arm and vanished into the office building.

“You’re early!” The woman said in one of those squealing, high-pitched voices you’re supposed to only be exposed to in movies and sitcoms.

“Yea,” Piper muttered as the heavy door clicked shut behind the two. “I was on the ball today, uh…” the redhead added incoherently as she stared down at the woman’s chest. “…Natasha,” she said after reading the girl’s name tag. Looking up, Piper noticed that the blonde was staring at her outfit.

“Are you okay, Piper?” The woman asked as she leaned forward and placed her hands on Piper’s shoulders. With a grimace, the redhead tried to pull away, only to realize that she was already backed up against the wall.

“Of course I’m okay…I just had a rough morning,” Piper replied as she tried to calmly remove the woman’s unyielding hands from her shoulders.

“I just ask because you have that look in your eyes,” Natasha said as a frown spread across her youthful face. “Did Jacob hit you again? You’re not high again are you, Piper? I thought that you were done with that stuff,” she said despondently as she pulled Piper in for a hug.

Great...this is my only friend. Piper mused as she lifted her hands up and patted the smaller woman on the shoulders. After ten more seconds of awkward patting and squeezing, Natasha relinquished her grip and pulled away from Piper.

“Did you have any time to go over the Stewart file?” Natasha asked as she gestured for Piper to follow her through the hallway. Furrowing her brow, the redhead moved quickly to join her friend as they exit the small corridor and entered a much wider one. As the twosome traversed the hall, Piper scanned all of the small rooms that lined it. Inside were people wearing outfits similar to Natasha that were talking to a myriad of people. After a minute or so of walking, Natasha came to a stop and turned to face her friend. “Well?” It was at that moment that all the pieces of the puzzle fell painfully into place. Dropping her eyes to Natasha’s shirt, Piper’s eyes widened in horror as she read the fancy letters embroidered below her nametag.

Carlton and Son’s Child Welfare Services. The woman’s lower lip began to twitch intermittently as Natasha opened her mouth to speak. If she was saying words, Piper couldn’t hear them. In fact, the only thing she could hear was the pounding of her heart inside her ribcage. I’m… I’m a social worker? The irony was enough alone to drive the woman to homicide. Social workers had been responsible for shuttling Piper from foster home to foster home for nearly sixteen years without showing the slightest sign that they actually cared for her well-being.

If it hadn’t been for poor social workers, there was a strong chance Piper could have grown up normal. The very thought that she had become part of the same cadre of bastards responsible for her defiling made her bruises and alcoholic husband look like gumdrops and sugarplum fairies. This was just far too much for one woman to handle—especially when that one woman had an extensive history of instability and mental illness. Unable and unwilling to try and process this god-awful life, the redhead began to tremble uncontrollably. Piper gulped hard in an effort to stifle the sobs vying to well up within her. In front of her, Natasha’s eyes widened as she reached a comforting hand toward her trembling coworker.

“Don’t touch me,” Piper muttered as she continued to retreat backwards. Inside a few of the nearby meeting rooms, a couple of the other social workers had stopped their consultations and were glaring at the shivering woman rambling in the hallway.

“Piper, what’s the matter?” Natasha asked with wide puppy-dog eyes as she tried to console her friend.

“What is this life I’m living?” Piper screamed as she began to rip at her hair. “What the fuck did I do to deserve any of this?” She added accusingly as she glared up at the ceiling and began to slam her fistfuls of torn hair on the linoleum. The next thing Piper knew, Natasha was dragging her into an empty consulting room. With a grunt, the younger woman plopped her trembling coworker into a plastic chair.

“Are you all right, Piper?” Natasha asked softly as she locked the door and squatted in front of the broken woman. “You haven’t been this…down in the dumps since…y’know.”

“Since when,” Piper mumbled as she wiped her face with one of her sleeves.

“You know,” Natasha muttered as a frown spread across her blush-coated face. “Since you and Jacob lost the baby…” At that moment, Piper’s reality simply began to cave in around her. Reaching into her pocket, the woman pulled out the crumbled wedding photo and looked at her smiling self. Her eyes then fell to her past incarnation’s stomach, which the redhead had discarded as excess weight. As Piper stared at the image, she suddenly knew the story.

Just as a touch from a person could reveal their life story, this little image served to unravel what little mystery remained in Piper’s future. In her mind, the medic saw herself delivering the child. She saw the glee on her face and how it was reflected by her husband and the hospital staff. And then, in one single, fleeting second, that happiness turned to sorrow as the doctor produced the stillborn child. Later the couple would find out that Piper’s history of drug and medicine abuse had essentially made her blood toxic to the point where it had slowly poisoned the developing fetus.

Tears began to stream down the redhead’s bruised cheeks as she clenched the photo in her trembling hands. After the baby’s death, Piper and Jacob had never been the same. Both became addicted to their own special type of poison. The fact that it had been Piper’s lifestyle that had killed the child ruined their marriage beyond all recognition.

With the baby’s death, the couple had lost the one thing they had both looked forward to. The fact weighed heaviest on Piper. After all, she didn’t want world peace, or to champion the greater good, right some wrong, or avenge someone. No…she simply wanted to be able to say that something beautiful came out of her life. That despite her upbringing and her tarnished past, she had created something pure, wholesome, and well worth dying for.

Was this what Piper had to look forward to in the future? Sterility and a lonely life of abuse and lethargy working as the very shallow thing that had created her?

What was the point in trying to become a better person if her past mistakes had robbed her of one of the only things she had looked forward to over the last decade?

A despondent scream filled the room as Piper began to violently beat her hands on the aluminum table. Each resounding thud left an increasingly deeper pair of dents on the reflective surface. From somewhere out in the hallway, a bunch of people began to shout, prompting Natasha to dip out into the hallway to access the situation. Before the young blonde woman had a chance to figure out what was going on, she took a bullet the chest and was sent crashing into the corridor. As Natasha’s body collapsed onto the floor, a rather butch-looking future version of Sophia kicked the door in and proceeded to kick Piper’s chair over.

“Where’s the fucking money?” Sophia bellowed as she swooped forward and clutched her hand around the redhead’s neck. “I gave you three ounces, and I want my fucking payment,” the woman roared as she began to forcibly press the barrel of her handgun against Piper’s temple.

“I still do drugs?” Piper stammered amidst sobs and gasps of air. “Oh isn’t that just great?” She wailed as Sophia tightened her grip on the redhead’s throat.

“Either you give me my fucking money, or I’ll blow your fucking brains all across this wall,” the woman growled as she slammed Piper up against the wall of the room.

“Just fucking do it,” Piper screamed hoarsely as she felt her body being hoisted up off the ground. Looking upward at the ceiling, the redhead sucked in her last gaping breath of air. “Is this what you wanted to show me, Demolic? Well I hope you’re fucking happy! I hope you’ve managed to get off already, because it looks like—”

Before Piper had a chance to finish her sentence, she heard a loud bang right next to hear head. In the next moment, there was nothing but darkness.

***

With a scream, Piper Juunanagou sat up off the mattress and into a seated position. To her left, an alarm clock was screeching loudly, prompting the woman to quickly shut it off. As her hand fell back to the dirty sheets, her eyes caught the time emblazoned in red letters on the face of the clock.

“6 a.m.,” the woman muttered as the memories of what she had just experienced flashed through her head. "Oh god, no..."

This was it.

This was her hell—cursed to relive the final moments of her failed, broken future by a madman. If this was Gregory Rogers’ vision of the perfect torture, then he truly was the world’s smartest man.

As the memories of what she had already lived through began to play over in her head, Piper began to sob uncontrollably.

No one heard.

No one cared….

[Kaden]

South City. A familiar sight… more or less. Kaden didn’t even need to look around to get a feel for his surroundings. There was a two story Victorian number behind him, a cul de sac at the end of the road to his left and a high school twenty blocks to his right. Memories and emotions flooded back to Kaden as he stood in the middle of the road. It had been a long time since he had been back to South City, let alone the neighborhood he grew up in.

Even if Kaden had been interested in the surroundings of his earlier years, his attention was grabbed – forcefully it felt – by the massive structure before him. A ten-story tall creation of cement and glass that towered above everything around it. It was so out of place in the small residential neighborhood that it was almost comical. More interesting than the size or shape of the building, though, was its placement.

The massive structure stood directly where the remnants of Kaden’s old house had been. The courier found it haunting to see something other than smoldering debris in that lot; his ruined home was an image that constantly haunted his dreams. Slowly, the courier turned his head to take in the surrounding houses. More than once, he had allowed himself to entertain the bitter, selfish ponders of why he had been the only one to lose everything he had. His neighbors were no more than ten feet away.

The sharp blare of a car horn shook Kaden from his mental wanderings. The courier hadn’t realized that he had been standing in the middle of the street. The car horn sounded once more before Kaden had time to back out of its way. The blonde-haired human watched as a large jeep turned into the driveway of the out-of-place compound before him. Though the base of the structure took up the entire plot, there was a driveway leading up to what appeared to be a garage door. Kaden watched as the jeep drove into the garage and then was lowered out of sight. The floor of the garage seemed to be some kind of elevator.

“Kaden?” came a strange voice.

Blinking, Kaden forced himself to look away from the garage to see who had called his name. From the front door of the building came a white-skinned alien. An eerie sensation overcame the courier as he recognized the purple patterns, sharp horns, and short stature of the alien approaching him. The thought seemed too far-fetched to be true, so Kaden simply shook his head and met the alien half-way.

“Hey,” the courier replied.

“What’s going on? I didn’t think you’d be back for at least a couple hours.” The alien waved for Kaden to follow him back to the entrance of the massive building.

“Yeah, well…” Kaden ran his hand through his hair, a gesture that did not escape the alien’s eyes.. “Things went a bit smoother than I was expecting.” The courier had no idea what was going on, but he thought he might as well roll with the punches.

“Did you…” the changeling squinted his eyes and directed his attention to Kaden’s hair. “Did you dye your hair?”

“I…” as far as Kaden could tell, he had a fifty-fifty shot. “Heh… you caught me.” As Kaden gave his very best fake laugh, the alien simply shook his head and mumbled something about humans.

As they approached the front door of the complex, the alien stepped forward and placed his hand on a small pad. Kaden correctly assumed that the building employed biometric security features. After a second, the pad blinked and the door swung open. A pleasing female voice chirped as the two entered the building.

“Welcome back, Szar,” came the automated reply.

Kaden did everything he could to keep the mention of Szar’s name from registering any kind of reaction. If Gregory Rodgers was to be believed, Kaden knew he was seeing some kind of alternate reality, a reality in which he and Szar seemed to get along fairly well. The courier was never able to figure out whether the alien had simply been plucked from the game show or if there was actually some significance to his appearance.

Inside the building, Kaden couldn’t help but be amazed at the elaborate lobby that was laid out before him. Tiled marble floors stretched across the entire floor, interrupted only by the elaborate columns that stretched from floor to ceiling. The lobby easily took up the first two floor, but it made an amazing impression. Inlaid into the floor was a logo of some kind. A pyramid laid in a deep blue stone was set in front of paid of wide-spread, feathered wings. Written below the pyramid was the word “Paragon.”

Shaking himself from his astonished stupor, Kaden quickly caught up to Szar, who had made his way to the lone desk that stood in the lobby. A rather burly man stood behind the desk, his eyes constantly roving across an array of monitors built into the furniture. As Kaden approached the desk, the man’s eyes lit up in recognition and he quickly hushed whatever he was saying to Szar.

“Afternoon, sir,” the burly man said to Kaden. “Here’s your key.”

“Ah…” Kaden reached out and grabbed a small keycard. “Thanks.”

“Alright, c’mon.” Szar motioned for Kaden to follow once more.

Directly behind the large reception desk, a series of elevators stretched to the back of the lobby. Szar and Kaden swept past the desk and made their way to the back of the lobby. Kaden did his best to hide his interest in his surroundings, but he imagined he was doing a pretty poor job of it. Everything looked so clean and new and intricately tied together that just couldn’t help himself. The buzz of an arriving elevator seemed as an appropriate cue to focus on what was actually going on.

The elevator ride up was particularly uneventful. Kaden was very interested to note, though, that instead of a button marked “10” the floors went from eight, to nine, and ended on “K.” Despite his best efforts, the courier couldn’t help but roll his eyes as the button lit up under Szar’s finger. Pieces were starting to fall into place, but Kaden had no idea what the final puzzle would look like.

The elevator doors opened into what Kaden could only describe as the largest office he had ever seen. Glass seemed to cover every inch of all four walls, which supplied a magnificent view of the surrounding town. Directly across from the elevator door was a giant desk made covered with an assortment of belongings. Between the desk and the elevator was a large, round table carved from a beautiful wood. It appeared to be mahogany.

The rest of the office, a couple thousand square feet, easily, was littered with couches and chairs and bookcases and an assortment of devices that Kaden couldn’t readily identify. There were at least three televisions that were taller than Kaden and, as superfluous as it was, the courier couldn’t help but recognize that it was also completely awesome.

As Kaden stepped off of the elevator and into the office itself, Szar remained where he was. When Kaden motioned for the changeling to follow, Szar simply shook his head and flashed a smile. At least… Kaden assumed it was a smile. If Szar had lips at all, they were… subtle. Really, Kaden just wasn’t sure what to do once he had been left alone. Unfortunately, the elevator shut, leaving him to figure it out.

“So…” Kaden looked around the office. “At least the view is nice…”

Stepping behind the large, mahogany desk, Kaden simply stared out at the houses below. This was hardly the largest building Kaden had ever seen, or even been in, but everything around it was diminutive by comparison. The courier could only image the kind of hell that had been raised by the local residents when construction started.

As he stared out at the town around him, the courier reached backwards and pulled the desk’s executive chair close. With a quick swivel, Kaden dropped himself into the chair as his eyes remained locked on downtown South City, it’s massive buildings just peaking over the horizon. An odd sensation filled the courier as he reclined backwards, letting his eyes slowly drift towards the ceiling. There was an energy all around him. It flowed around and through the courier and Kaden felt as though he was connected to everything.

In the house on his right, a family of four were sitting down together, enjoying dinner, no doubt. Several blocks behind the Paragon complex, a gathering of people would slowly drift forward, stop, and then drift forward again as the bus they were on let people on and off. There was no telling how long Kaden could have simply sat in that chair, letting his sense drift outward. Each person he felt, each flicker of light that met his gaze, fit together to create the complex puzzle of South City. To Kaden, it was the most intoxicating thing he had ever felt.

As he sat, transfixed by the world around him, Kaden began drifting away from his own reality – or rather, the reality that Greg had thrown him into. He knew that he could hear the elevator moving. A minute later, he also knew that he heard the doors slide open. There was a voice, too. It was soft, but strong, and impressed upon Kaden’s remaining awareness a calm while also leaving no doubt about the authority of this person. It wasn’t until Kaden was physically moved that he managed to pull himself back to the office.

Though there was definitely someone standing before him, Kaden couldn’t focus on the person. The office… his body… the building they were in… all of it suddenly felt so small. Kaden could feel a crushing insignificance weighing upon him as he tried to push his thoughts past the veil of euphoria that had been thrown over his mind. The man standing before Kaden continued to talk, but Kaden couldn’t bring himself to actually listen. It wasn’t until, surprisingly, the man reached out and began pulling up the bottom of Kaden’s t-shirt.

“What the hell?!” Kaden slapped away the hand and almost fell backwards out of the chair as he tried to put distance between himself and… himself. “What… the hell?”

“Hey,” was all the other Kaden said.

Before his whole virtual future had begun, Kaden had been told that he’d meet his future self. Or his future potential. Or whatever Gregory thought he could turn into. Kaden had been given no idea of what to expect. That he would be standing there, staring at himself, was something that he had definitely not been preparing for. It helped dull the shock that this bizarre Future Kaden was significantly older. If the Young Kaden had to guess, he’d put his future self somewhere around–

“Forty-five,” the Future Kaden offered.

“What… ?”

“I’m forty-five. We always squint funny when we’re guessing how old someone is,” Kaden’s older self explained.

Whatever little toy Kai had come up with to show people their future selves, it was pretty damn good. Kaden was curious how Future Kaden’s thought process would work, but it seemed like not much had changed. Not much mentally, at least. Future Kaden’s blond hair was marred by patches of grey, though the fading color was not natural. The courier suddenly understood why Szar had asked about getting a dye. In addition to his patches of faded hair, Future Kaden’s eyes seemed to be a different color as well. They actually looked a light pink. Kaden was a little relieved to find that his taste for simple clothes hadn’t changed; his older self was wearing black slacks and a white, silk, button-down shirt.

“I must look pretty beat up, huh?” Future Kaden sighed and dropped himself into the chair that his younger self had just vacated. “Its been a while since I’ve been able to properly look myself – ourself – in the mirror. Cataracts,” the old Kaden said as he tapped his finger next to an eye. “Our eyes still work, but not very well. Doesn’t matter, though. Don’t really need them anymore.”

Kaden wasn’t really sure what to say, or even if he should anything at all. There was a fleeting concern that actually listening to anything his future self had to say would be a very bad idea. After all, this wasn’t anything more than what Kai wanted him to see.

“Sorry about the shirt thing,” Future Kaden ran a hand through his hair as he slowly swiveled back and forth in his chair. “This wouldn’t be the first time that a shape-changer has just shown up.”

“A shape-changer?” Kaden cocked an unseen eyebrow.

“Not counting you, naturally, there are only two people in this world that know about your scar. A shape-changer probably wouldn’t know about it if they disguised themselves as me, would they?”

“That makes sense… I guess…”

“Anyway, take a seat.” Future Kaden gestured to a chair that seemed to have simply appeared in front of his desk.

“Riiiiight. You go from thinking I’m a ‘shape-changer’ to offering me a seat?” Despite his skepticism, Kaden dropped himself into the chair.

“You really think I – we – can’t See through a disguise?” Future Kaden turned to face his younger self. Surprisingly, a smile was spread across his face. “You’re me.”

“Yeah,” was all Kaden had to say.

Looking around, the courier surveyed the objects and trinkets that were spread across “his” desk. Some of them seemed to be just more advanced versions of technology he was familiar with – phone, PDAs, computer monitor – while some of the devices couldn’t even be guessed at. Most interesting to the courier, though, was the nameplate sitting at the front of the desk. Kaden never expected his full name to be printed on it.

“So,” the courier finally found something to ask.

“What is all of this?” Future Kaden finished.

“Well… yeah. And why–“

“Would someone bother trying to look like me?”

“That’s really–“

“Annoying. I know,” Future Kaden grinned wide at his younger self. “Sorry. I’ll stop now. Anyway, the two questions have pretty much the same answer. This is Paragon, and we run it.” When the courier had nothing to reply with, Future Kaden continued. “I like to think of Paragon as a peace-keeping force. We mediate and pacify dangerous situations and individuals. Specifically, situations and individuals that the average person couldn’t be expected to handle.”

“Super powered cops,” Kaden summed up.

“At first, anyway.” A long sigh escaped the chapped lips of Paragon’s owner. “When I was your age I was a bit more idealistic. Well… you know what I’m talking about. I thought that things would be easier if there was a group that helped facilitate… orderly conduct among those of use with unique strengths or skills. Unfortunately, not everyone thought that was a good idea.”

“Makes sense,” Kaden replied, a hand unconsciously mussing his hair. “You probably had to break a law or two just trying to enforce them.”

“The problems were a little more political than that, but that’s essentially correct.”

“Obviously they didn’t shut you down, though,” Kaden waved an arm at the surrounding office. “We wouldn’t be sitting here otherwise.”

“They certainly tried,” Future Kaden shook his head. “People came at us from every angle. We were called everything from mercenaries to vigilantes to bloodthirsty barbarians. Of course, by that time, Paragon had quite a few members. Predictably, things got real violent real fast.”

“What do you mean…?” Kaden leaned back in his chair as he tried to imagine the events taking place as his future self described them.

“I didn’t have a choice. We didn’t have a choice. If you had the power, if you could simply make a wish and have it come true, what would it be?”

“Right now?” Kaden spent several seconds in silence. “Something along the lines of world peace. I mean… not a utopia or anything, but, hell, if people just obeyed laws things would be so much better.”

The courier felt ridiculously naive wishing for something like “world peace.” Obviously people die and people fight and some people are just jackasses no matter what, but if each person, each member of society had even a glimmer of willingness to work to help one another. Or… just… not be complete pieces of shit to one another. It was an old axiom, but Kaden liked to treat other people the way he’d like to be treated himself and if more people could even understand something as simple as that…

“Yeah. I know what you mean,” Future Kaden nodded sagely. “If Paragon had fallen… if we had let Paragon fall, we would have lost our only chance at making that happen. This was our one shot.”

“Our one shot at what, exactly?”

“Why do you think wars happen? People fight with each other over beliefs and over ideals and over the most minute moral detail and, simply, because there’s no one to stop them. All it takes is one second of unaccountability and people become animals. As soon as no one is watching over them, making sure they behave, they do whatever they want to whoever want.”

“And you’re telling me we – you were able to do something about that?”

“I’m telling you,” Future Kaden leaned forward, his hands placed flat against his desk. “That’s what Paragon is. We give the people of Earth one set of laws, one list of rules, and one authority to answer to. Everything happens under our watch, and we don’t miss anything.”

“The people of Earth.” Kaden physically recoiled from his future desk. “You’re saying you took over the planet?!”

“Oh come on…” Paragon’s Owner reclined in his chair, shaking his head as he spoke. “You make me sound like some… comic book villain. I didn’t take over anything. I didn’t have to. You still have a lot to learn about the way the world works.”

“It works however you want it to, apparently.”

“You don’t understand what I’m saying. Paragon doesn’t control the world. It keeps the world in control. Governments work exactly the same way as it always has. We’ve had as little impact as possible on the commercial market and we’re completely autonomous. There’s only one armed force on the planet, and we’re it.”

“So you just walk around killing anyone who looks at you funny? Is that your idea of keeping things ‘in control’?!” Kaden’s voice slowly began to rise as he processed the implications of what Future Kaden was doing.

“Of course not.” Future Kaden remained surprisingly calm. “We prioritize peaceful negotiation and mediation before anything else. Violence is only used as an absolute last resort. And the people of Earth know that they don’t have much of a choice at this point. The demilitarization of all other governing bodies on the planet has already been completed. Weapons are scarce and people willing to fight against us are even harder to find.”

“Demilitarization!? I’m sure everyone was willing to just give up all their weapons.”

“No…” Future Kaden’s voice grew surprisingly soft. “There were… confrontations.”

“Yeah. I’m sure there were. You just wiped out anyone who disobeyed you, huh? Do you have any idea how many lives you had ruin just so you could have a big fancy office?”

“Eighteen thousand five hundred and twenty-three.” Future Kaden’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“… What?”

“That’s how many people I’m directly responsible for killing.”

A knot formed in Kaden’s stomach as he turned that number over in his head. That many lives, that many families, that many futures wiped away by his own hand. No, Kaden told himself, this wasn’t his doing. He hadn’t done anything. And he would never have to. This was just another psychotic trick being played by Kai. Another manipulation. Another lie.

A loud thud broke Kaden’s mental pep-talk. While the courier had been lost in his thoughts, Future Kaden had produced a large binder from one of the drawers in his desk. When his explanation prompted no response from his younger self, the owner of Paragon dropped the binder onto his desk.

“Open that,” he ordered.

To his surprise, Kaden followed the command. His elder self, as he had noticed before, had an odd air about him. Their was a self-assurance in his voice, but it was almost warm. It invited trust and, most importantly, made Kaden want to listen. The courier had never really experienced such a thing directly. Regardless, the courier flipped open the cover of the binder.

The pages were simply lines of text. A name, followed by a date and, often, a location. Occasionally there would be a note listing any family or known relatives, but most of the lines weren’t much more than a full name. The enormity of his future self’s sins began weighing heavily upon Kaden as he began flipping through the binder. There were over seven hundred pages filled with names. Kaden slammed the binder shut and opened his mouth, ready to express his rage, but held his tongue. Tears were streaming from his future self’s clouded eyes and it was all the older man could do to keep from sobbing.

“Each death,” Future Kaden sad after taking a moment to collect himself. “I felt each death. Knowing what I’ve done… knowing how many lives… its almost more than I can bear.”

With almost every fiber of his being, Kaden wanted to yell at this weeping man before him. The pain, the anguish, he deserved every last bit of it. Still the courier remained silent. He knew the older man’s pain and, though he knew that a few tears didn’t just make everything ok, he also knew the sincerity with which the murderer spoke. It had definitely caught Kaden off guard, though.

“You’ll discover for yourself, Kaden… people don’t change. Not unless their forced to. I never wanted to kill anyone. I wanted to protect people. I still do. If I could, I would turn away from all of this and accept whatever punishment this screwed up universe had to offer me. But…” a sad laugh escaped the older man’s lips as he wiped away the last of his tears. “I can’t. If I gave up now, everything would fall apart and then all of those people would have really lost their lives for nothing.”

With a sigh, Kaden began to shut the front cover of the binder. As the first page fell into place, though, he stopped. Where the first name should have been, there was nothing more than a series of question marks. A sadness filled Kaden as he realized what that meant. He had to at least learn the name of the first person he had ever killed.

“If you’re really willing to accept responsibility for… this then why don’t you?” Kaden believed the words of his older self. “You’re that important to all of this?”

“Heh… for now.” Future Kaden leaned back in his chair as he spoke, his features still showing the weight of his depression. “You’ll come to find out, Kaden, that you have a gift. Yeah, we can blow up a building or destroy lives with a wave of our hand, but that’s not our greatest strength. People listen to us, Kaden. Your voice will reach people in ways that you’ll never expect. On top of that, you can see the way people work, the way they fit together, and the way they play their part in the grand scheme of things. Until things are actually up and running, there aren’t a lot of others that can play our part in this.”

“If you have such a silver tongue,” Kaden ran a hand through his hair. “Why the killing? Why the violence?”

“If all it took were words to accomplish our goals, that’s all I would have done. You’ll see, though. Some people simply won’t listen. Not without a reason to, at least. Not without knowing who they’re dealing with. We needed to show them what I was capable of. What Paragon was capable of.”

“So… what does that mean? A show of force?”

“Page six-sixty-three,” was Future Kaden’s response.

Hesitant, Kaden reached out to the binder and flipped open the cover. Once again he began rifling through the pages, his eyes wandering through the names as he continued to the six-hundreds. Eventually, the courier reached the designated page. As he opened his mouth to ask what he was looking for, he found it. All of the names on that page were listed with the same date and location. Slowly, the courier flipped to the next page, and the next, and the next after that. All of them were in the same place on the same day.

“What… what is this?” the courier looked up from the binder as he asked.

“The beginning of the end. That was a military base about thirty miles west of South City. That was our show of force. We – I wiped it off the map.”

“By yourself?” Kaden couldn’t believe that he would ever be able to possess that kind of destructive power.

“By myself. You’ve only Unlocked your power, Kaden. One day you’ll figure out how to Unseal it and, eventually, Unleash your real strength. Let me warn you now… it will be terrible. That list… the people killed on that day… it goes on for seventy-five pages.”

“But… that kind of a show…” Kaden couldn’t help but be surprised as he turned over the implications of the act and pushed aside the deaths it produced. “Showing what one person from Paragon could do against a military force…”

“Like I said,” Future Kaden nodded along. “The beginning of the end. That act went a long way to establishing Paragon as the only armed organization on Earth. It certainly wasn’t the last time that such a confrontation happened. We called them ‘peace initiatives,’ actually.”

“But… how did you manage it. Everyone else just sat by and let you control Earth?”

Future Kaden blinked several times before responding. “Smart kid. No, actually. We wouldn’t have gotten very far on our own.” Paragon’s Owner grabbed up a picture frame from his desk and turned it towards his younger self. “The first thing we did was to go get some help. We needed people that only agreed with what we would be doing, but would have either the strength or the connections to keep our efforts from being shut down.”

There were three pictures in the frame. The first, and largest, showed Kaden with two other people. He recognized them almost immediately as Szar and Sophia. The three of them had their arms over each other’s shoulders and were giving cheesy smiles for the camera. Next to it was a picture of Kaden with three other people, though he only really recognized one of them. Kaden was standing rather stiffly next to a rather large saiyan with long hair and two women. One of the women, a blond, Kaden recognized the same way he recognized the saiyan: from various advertisements and television shows. The other woman didn’t look the slightest bit familiar. In the third, and smallest picture, Kaden was shaking hands with a cyan haired woman he had never seen before.

“Szar and Sophia,” Future Kaden pointed to the first picture, “helped you get started. Raditzu here was the real catch, though. It took you a while to track him down, but once you convinced him to help you out, he was able to put you in touch with Alyra, from the Kajin Rala council, and the king of Vegeta. Without support from people like them, this never would have happened. The last couple decades have been… busy.”

As Kaden listened to his future self, he began to see the pieces fall together. The sheer amount of foresight and planning necessary to carry out something like Paragon was nothing short of amazing. That his future self had been so committed to seeing the plan come to fruition was becoming more understandable. Understandable or not, though, Kaden’s eyes had a hard time leaving the open pages of the binder.

“This still doesn’t make sense, though,” Kaden shook his head and directed his attention to Future Kaden. “You said that you needed to keep people under watch or they’d just act like animals. That’s not even possible. No matter how powerful or well connected you are, you can’t be everywhere at once.”

“Ah… well…” Future Kaden stood up and walked around the desk. “Its funny you should mention that. See, this is kind of a special day for me… for us… for Paragon.” The owner extended an upturned hand. “You were given a keycard when you came in?”

After hopping out of his seat, Kaden fished into his pocket a retrieved the keycard he had been given back in the lobby. He turned it over in his hand, but it was hardly remarkable. One side had a magnetic strip and the other bore the same blue Paragon logo that the courier had seen downstairs. With a shrug, Kaden dropped it into the older Kaden’s hand.

Stepping past Kaden, the owner of Paragon approached the large, round table that sat in the middle of the office. The courier hadn’t noticed before, but along the edge of the table was a card reader of some kind. Future Kaden swiped the keycard and took a seat at one of the many chairs around the table. After a series of low beeps, Kaden was shocked to see a panel in the ceiling slide back. From the ceiling, a massive globe was lowered onto the table. At the base of the globe were a series of translucent, cerulean visors that fit into the device. Future Kaden snatched up one of the visors and fit it across his eyes.

Before Kaden could get a word in edgewise, Future Kaden began slowly laughing. His voice grew until he simply sounded hysterical. The courier was afraid he had been sitting there listening to a madman as he tried to figure out what was so funny. The only thing that seemed odd was the glow that emanated from Future Kaden’s eyes. Though, really, that wasn’t particularly weird. Kaden knew what that meant.

“Here,” Future Kaden said as he picked up a second visor. He got out the words in-between bouts of laughter. “Put these on and it should make sense.”

Taking the visor, Kaden fit it across his eyes hesitantly. As soon as the visor was in place, Kaden could feel energy rushing through his eyes. His Sight had been forcibly activated by this device, but… it was different than usual. As he stared at the globe on the table, Kaden could see light flitting about its surface, the light of people and animals and even the planet itself.

The globe on the table was, in fact, a massive Ki Globe. Kaden knew that such a product as a Ki Globe existed, but that was about all. It made sense that it was a globe that displayed ki, though. Kaden was about to ask what was so special about this particular globe when a cluster of lights caught his attention. If Kaden’s limited knowledge of geography was to be trusted, one of the larger collections of light should actually be South City. As he squinted his eyes to get a better look, the courier almost stumbled backwards in surprise.

The image of the globe actually changed. The visor across the courier’s eyes distorted his view of the office and turned it, instead, into an aerial view of South City itself. After overcoming his initial shock, Kaden focused on a particular building in South City and, once again, the visor’s view zoomed in. It didn’t take long for Kaden to discover that he could actually watch people as they walked down the street, or drove around in their cars, or even slept in their beds. Very slowly, the courier pulled the visor from his eyes and dropped himself into one of the chairs around the Ki Globe’s table.

“This… wow…” was all Kaden could think to say. The enormity of this device was slowly weighting upon him.

“Do you see?” Future Kaden pulled off his own visor and turned to his younger self. “There are not many people in the world with the kind of control and the specific abilities to use this device properly. We can follow the flow of energy in the planet itself and see almost anything, anywhere, at any time. You’ve used a technique like this on a smaller scale before, if I’m not mistaken. Feeling the Pulse of ki anywhere in the world is basically all this does.” Future Kaden grinned wide. “You could feel earlier. The energy of the planet… of people… it flows freely here. I could see it on your face when I came in. Why do you think this building was built here? Do you have any idea how long it took get the ok to put a para-military compound in a residential zone?”

“This is how you think you can stop fights, and prevent wars. You… can see when people start gathering weapons, or meeting in suspicious places… My god…” Kaden pushed away from the Ki Globe’s table and simply wandered away. “This… this isn’t what I wanted. I… I wanted to be able…”

“To protect people,” Future Kaden stood up and followed his younger self. “To be able to prevent killing without having actually having to kill. You want to be able to protect everyone. And now you can.” Future Kaden placed a hand on the courier’s shoulder. “Don’t you see? You can act first. You can neutralize threats. You can do it all without any one else having to lose a loved one.”

“This isn’t protection! This is control!” Kaden spun on his older self, batting away his arm. “That’s all this is.”

“Kaden…” Future Kaden shook his head. “You can’t always protect the people you don’t control, but you can protect the people you do control. If it control ensures that people are safe, how is that not protecting them?”

Kaden opened his mouth to respond, but couldn’t. His mind was barely moving, so entrenched was it in the mire of information that he had fallen into. The harder he tried to push through it, the worse the courier’s confusion became. When his mind simply couldn’t push all of it away, it simply shut down. In the end, Kaden was left staring at the office, blankly. His eyes slowly roved from the binder, still open on Future Kaden’s desk, to the active Ki Globe on the table. It seemed like an eternity passed as Kaden stood, dumbfounded, before simply closed his eyes and focused on his breathing.

That was the way to do it. One step at a time, the courier told himself. Control his breathing, just listen as the air flowed in, and then back out. Yes, there was a lot of information floating through his mind, but he couldn’t deal with all of it at once. Pick one piece and turn it over and figure out how it fit into everything else. That was all Kaden had to do. If he came across something he didn’t understand, he just needed to ask. He just needed to figure out what had been going through his future self’s head. As he calmed himself with a deep breath, Kaden opened his eyes.

And almost screamed.

“So how was it?”

“Kai…” Kaden’s voice trembled with a mix of anger and confusion. He was back in the metal room where Kai had strapped him down and forced that future on him.

At one end of the room, Kai stood in front of the monitor that had displayed his recorded message. The monitor itself showed Kai as he stood there, creating a bizarre double-image of the world’s smartest man. At the other end of the room stood Kaden, fresh from his trip to the future. Between them was a single chair with another Kaden – the real Kaden – strapped down. This was obviously a continuation of the virtual reality.

“Interesting,” the show’s host commented. “I told you my real name and you don’t want to use it?”

“You told us your birth name,” Kaden responded slowly. “That’s all. Kai is the psychopath that decided it would be fun to throw people onto an island and watch them kill each other. That’s who you are.”

“Well aren’t you just Mr. Know-it-all,” Kai responded with a wave of his hand. “Guess you’ve got me all figured out.”

“Being smart doesn’t mean you’re any different from everyone else. You get off on toying with people who aren’t as smart as you are. You just like the power of being able to control them.”

“And you don’t?” Kai guffawed at Kaden. “I know what you saw. You’re the one who’s no different from everyone else, Kaden. You’re so eager to protect yourself that you’re willing to control an entire planet to do it. You’re nothing but a selfish brat and you think you can talk down to me? Grow up.”

“Selfish…” Kaden narrowed his eyes at Kai.

“Of course. Maybe you actually do care about other people, but definitely not as much as yourself. You don’t want to deal with the pain of loss, the pain of people around you dying. You bottle it up and push it down as much as you can, but when its right there in front of your eyes, there’s nothing you can do about it. No matter what you may, right then and right there, that’s your reality. And you’re so scared of having to face that that you’d subjugate an entire planet.” Kai laughed again and shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong with being selfish, boy – everyone is – but don’t pretend its something its not. Don’t dress it up and pretend that you’re some shining knight riding in to save the day.”

“So you watch us for a couple of days and you have us all figured out? Is that how this game of yours works?”

“There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who can make a difference and those who can’t. Most people can’t. There are, however, a few, like myself, with the power or strength or influence to turn their world into whatever they want it to be. They can protect themselves and push away everything that’s a threat to them. You, however, are somewhere inbetween. You see your fears, you see your weakness, and you see a way to protect yourself from it. The problem is that you can’t do anything about it. You’re almost strong enough, you’re almost smart enough, but at the end of the day you’ll be left with nothing but your fears and your failures.” Kai flashed Kaden a devious smile. “At least, that’s what would happen nine tines out of ten for someone like you. With enough help, and a lot of luck, though, you’ve seen exactly what you can be capable of.”

“That’s not something anyone should be capable of,” Kaden’s voice trembled.

“Maybe, maybe not. Fortunately, reality doesn’t care what you should or shouldn’t be able to do, it only cares about what you can do. And, as you’ve just seen, there’s a lot you can do. Dress it up however you like: selfishness, fear, honor, morality, or whatever else you can think of. You saw what you managed to accomplish in the future. The only question you really need to answer is whether or not it was the right thing to do.” Kai paused for a moment, presumably for dramatic effect. “People like you break things down into their right or wrong. As you’ve already shown in this game, Kaden, you’ll go to incredible lengths to stop people from doing what’s wrong, and you’ll push yourself further than you ever thought you could to do what’s right. So, what you saw… was it wrong?”

Silence filled the small metal room. Kaden’s head drooped and his eyes fell to the floor. He felt numb… paralyzed by Kai’s words. If that really was Kai talking to him, then his mental gifts were beyond anything Kaden had ever imagined. If that was simply the device playing his thoughts in Kai’s form, then… then Kaden wasn’t sure how well he actually knew himself. Slowly, the courier raised his head, his eyes meeting Kai’s for only a moment before turning to the vision of himself still strapped to Kai’s device. Finally, he opened his mouth.

“No…”

[Ashe]

Her lips trembled as she slowly approached the edge of the enormous structure. Every footstep took her closer to what she could accept as a finality to everything that she had failed to accomplish. Accomplishment, she supposed, was something that could be left entirely up to one's own interpretation. There were many that felt that she had succeeded in her life's works, rising to the occasion and overcoming any obstacle.

Her previous thought, in view of those who stood against her, could easily be reworded as well to sound far less positive. The televisions frequently raved about her ruthless methods of striking down opposition and circumventing all attempts at moving the woman's decisions to a new course. She was considered a highly intelligent business woman, capable of anything without limitation, for better or worse.

This is how she came to find herself sitting down comfortably upon the precipice of the building that towered high above the others in the city of Halcyon. It meant "peace and serenity". Looking down towards the city, she could vaguely discern the images of the citizens making their way around Kajin Rala's surface while going on with their lives. It was the clouds between them that seemed to keep them separate, but in the grand detail of life itself, there was no true distinction. That distinction fell entirely to wealth and position in society.

From up high, she could relax and organize her thoughts without the chaos and demand that was inherent with her job. The event was soon to begin, anyway, and they knew their orders. Everything had already been set into motion, leaving the inertia to accelerate into a series of events that would create the greatest televised event to date. The cameras were placed properly to survey the rooftop. The microphones were specifically placed to catch every word she voiced.

The woman wasn't sure if anything was recording just yet, however. She was sure that she had been told at some point, but her mind wasn't exactly in the present. Instead, as she slowly lowered herself to a seated position at the building's edge, her feet dangling over the side precariously, her thoughts drifted to a series of events from her earlier years. She was young once, before the grey hairs had taken root, leaving her even more pressured to color her hair in hopes of keeping an air of confidence and strength for her viewers.

She was now in her sixties, which, she supposed, was still fairly young given the way most people had aged compared to her. She was neither most people, nor very aged, in the grand scheme of things. Her superior genetic structure had aged her gracefully, leaving the woman to appear at least twenty years younger than she really was. Appearances, however, didn't help combat the inner turmoil.

Her hand drifted casually to the bag at her side, long deft fingers sifting around until they withdrew, a small leatherbound book within them. Her other hand brushed her long brown hair from her face to cascade down her back before assisting her other hand in opening the book. Contained within this book was a set of recorded experiences and memories that no television could ever hope to match. She honestly hoped that the cameras were rolling, as she looked through the images within, in hopes of revealing a bit of her true self to the world.

The first image, as always, was that of her fierce and competitive oldest daughter. Ashley Rose Branford had at first been a normal girl, especially when Ashe declined to follow her family's tradition of imbuing her with a relic in hopes that she would be spared a life of pre-ordained intentions. Interestingly, her own later actions betrayed that intent, enrolling her in only the best academic programs and employing the most proficient tutors that money could buy. She wanted to give the girl everything, whatever she could to provide her with the best life possible.

Ashley Rose had grown to become a fiercely intelligent woman, working under her own mother in preparation for the day that she would take over the company and continue the business empire that Ashe herself had built. She was sometimes cold, her features taking that of a raptor staring down its prey when a goal had been set before her. She never disappointed, she never failed, and most of all, she never regretted.

She had turned out so much like her mother that Ashe could only smile sadly at the beautiful photograph in her hands of the woman who's voluptuous blond hair flowed out youthfully despite being in her early fourties herself. Ashe had encouraged her eldest daughter to marry and produce children in the event of anything ever happening to her, but she had so far declined. Deep down, a part of Ashe had sought to see her daughter seek love and happiness, but her daughter had explained to her that she loved what she did and would be happy as long as they remained at the top.

So very much like her mother.

Flipping the photograph back, she came to see a small image of a very young Ashelia Branford with her stomach bulging, a second child stored within. At her side was a young man with bright features lit up as if there was nothing else in this world that could make him happier than the moment captured within the square box in her hands. His greasy blond hair was joyfully covering his eyes as his arms held a very young and bubbly Ashley Rose up onto his shoulders. She had been so innocent back then, so naive, and so... happy. What might have bothered Ashe, if she had stopped to think about it, was that she hadn't consciously decided if she was referring to the young girl with the child resting within her womb, or the grinning child resting upon her father's shoulders.

It was sad, she realized looking back. Her eyes pinpointed those of the young man in the photograph, a man that if he walked by her today would be entirely unnoticed by her, his features so lost to time. At one point in her early years, she had naively believed that she had been in love. His ideals were so wonderful. That silvery tongue that he could employ was wooing to most girls, but in his most charismatic moments, he still only devoted himself to her.

They had met under the most brutal of circumstances, leaving them both to endure a great amount of pain and sacrifice in the name of making money, or fame, or even fortune. Their struggle was not what brought them together, not specifically, but it was a beginning. The match had been struck, and she followed through by throwing it to the straw, igniting a passion between the two that might have only lasted a single night, looking back, had it not been for the phone call that the man had received a week later.

"Hello? Ashe?" he had answered, his voice a mixture of concern and surprise at hearing back from her so soon. Apparently she had not been the only one that had been too scared to follow up, but this was one call that had to be made.

"I'm throwing up..." she had begun, not sure how to break the news to him softly. She was terrified. What was she supposed to do as a nineteen year old girl fresh out of High School? Was she going to be responsible for this on her own?

"Wait, what? It's a bit loud here," he apologized, asking her to give him a moment to step outside from the crowd he had been with. "Sorry about that, you said you are sick?"

"Yes..."

"Need me to come by and give you a lift to the hospital? I've got some packages to drop off at the moment, but then again I could always call someone up on a favor as well," he offered.

She chewed her lip nervously before just spilling it out. "Kaden, I'm pregnant."

Her ears immediately reeled at the sharp noise that jolted through her phone's headset and she swallowed tightly, a tear breaking from her ducts to roll down her cheek. She heard him in the background cursing. At that moment, she had thought that she'd truly doomed herself to being alone. She imagined that he was angry, screaming and cursing about this event that would forever change both their lives. He hated her, she assumed.

She held her phone out in front of her, burying her head into her arm as she curled into a ball, listening to absolute silence coming through before his voice came back through from the other side. "Ashe! You there?" he called.

Her head lifted back up and she brushed her dark red hair from her eyes and held it up to her ears. "Yes?" she managed through terrified gasps for oxygen.

His voice was entirely one of concern, with no anger whatsoever coming through the speaker. "I'm so sorry, I kinda dropped my phone," he explained.

She took a breath, choked for words but needing to fill the silence between the pair. "I see," she settled on, struggling with her stream of consciousness.

"No, I mean..." he began, his voice moving towards and away from the phone rapidly as he audibly trembled over the lines. "That's... wow. I'm at a loss for words," he said, clearly in shock. "But... wow."

Anger was building up within her, but she forced it back in hopes of not ruining his life as she'd ruined hers. "Look, my family can help me out, you won't be expected to deal with anything if you don't want to. If you want to visit her, that's not a prob-" she rushed quickly.

"She's a girl?"

His voice had come out abruptly, cutting her off as she looked for a response. "Yeah," she whispered, smiling despite herself. "I know its early and all, but I can just feel it inside me. You know how we can both see things that most people can't?" she explained, getting a verbal nod. "Yeah, it's like that. I just... know. And she's beautiful, Kaden, she's the most beautiful thing that has ever been conceived!" she rushed, getting slightly excited.

He laughed back over the phone. "She hasn't really been conceived yet," he mentioned, sorting through his own thoughts. Before she could protest again, he decided to comfort her. "Ashe, this is... amazing. And now that you mention it, yeah, I can See her as well. I'm... going to be a father?" he realized, his voice teetering between statement and question.

"Yeah..." Ashe whispered back softly. "And I'm going to be a mother."

He'd obviously been terrified, as was she, but he had arrived at her apartment within an hour, having dropped everything to see her. From there, the couple built a strong relationship, giving birth to Ashley Rose. The young girl had received her mother's surname upon birth since the couple had decided to hold off on a wedding until they had the money set aside to have a good one.

That day never came.

They grew so caught up in their future's that they had no time to set aside money for such a large scale event. Ashe was bulging with her second child before she realized it, the beautiful Celestial Rain Branford, as she would come to be called. Terra had helped out as much as possible, as had all their parents, but even still, they were young. Kaden did everything he could with his courier job, picking up a second job at the local police academy as well.

Money had been an ultimate argument in their life, slowly working its way between them like constant rains freezing and melting within the cracks of a concrete road. Life hadn't been entirely bad, but Ashe was young and trying to hold down a job at her age while raising two children had been a difficult task. Her clumsiness and lack of punctuality repeatedly lead to her having to search for another job, another way to help contribute money to her life.

Her family helped, of course, but they had decided to simply set any contributions aside in hopes of building a business of their own. The most damaging part had come when she was twenty three. She'd been arguing with him again and somehow, at some point in the conversation, she slipped and brought up how they had originally met.

Her hand had trembled as she poured the rest of her beer down her throat as the two were sitting at the bar, taking a night away from the kids as they enjoyed the weekend with their aunt. "It's so stupid," she mentioned, waving down the bartender for another couple beers for them.

"What is?" he asked warily. He kindly thanked the bartender and took a sip from his new beverage while paying no attention to her anger.

"We totally get shipped off to compete in some bullshit game show, but maybe he wasn't as mentally ill as we thought," she began, angrily hiding her pout behind another swig. He looked at her oddly when she snapped the bottle back from her mouth. "Don't give me that look, Kaden. I get it. I keep fucking up at work, I'm a fuckup as a mother, and you haven't wanted to touch me in weeks!" she fumed.

"Whoa, what?" he responded, his eyes growing wide. "Babe, calm down a moment," he said, trying hush her by reaching out. She angrily slapped his arms away but he clamped them down on her shoulder. "Chill!" he snapped. "Look, I'm sorry if I've been too distant lately. Work's been stressful, alright? I think we are close to getting that serial child rapist under-"

She pushed back from him, standing up and jabbing a finger at him. "Yeah, work is more important, I fucking get that. That's just it. I keep getting told by everyone what a fuckup I am!" she cried out, throwing her hands in the air as tears streamed down.

He attempted to defend himself, but she simply screamed over him, not giving a damn that everyone in the bar had turned to focus on the normally quiet couple. "Ashley Rose is in the best school that we can afford for her, but she always comes home to tell me about all the amazing things that she learned while she was there, things that I don't even know. Celes is too young to even go to school, and yet I still can't seem to keep from getting overwhelmed just trying to take care of her."

"Are you blaming the kids for the way things are?" he demanded, growing angry at her accusations.

"No!" she snapped. "I'm blaming myself! Even this new internship with the tv station seems... Like I just keep failing. I'm sick of it." He tried to interject again, but she screamed into his face. "What the fuck am I supposed to do, Kaden? I have two kids, I'm twenty three, you are working your ass off, and yet I can't seem to think that if I just shut all of it out, it would be better for all of us."

He couldn't really respond, so he took a step back in an attempt to calm himself since she'd proven unapproachable. "I don't..." he tried, getting cut off as expected.

"You're right, you don't have the answers. We try so god damn hard to be good parents, so hard that we never seem to make money, and yet some cold snake in the grass like Kai Demolic, Gregory Rogers, whatever the fuck his name was, can have a wonderful day in the neighborhood and provide his family with anything and everything they could ever want," she seethed.

"Whoa, hold up, that man was a monster!" Kaden screamed, responding to her assault. "He killed his own wife in the name of television," he reminded her.

She sat down, taking a deep drink of her bottle as the bartender watched her warily. "Yeah, well... When it's not there anymore, it's not there anymore," she finished.

By the time the fight had ended, the two had split their ways, with Kaden taking Celes and never being heard from again. He'd attempted to contact her, but she'd ignored him completely, removing that part of her life. She told Ashley Rose later that her father and sister had been killed in a bank heist. The girl grew with her mother, slowly turning to shun the rest of their family in the name of building a financial empire. She coldly worked her way up from her internship until she had finally used all the money she had saved up in conjunction with what she and Kaden had set aside for the girls to allow her to create her own television studio.

The bond the two developed was a strong one, slowly developing them into the pair that had ruthlessly cut their way throughout the networks. She was sure at this point that Kaden had noticed them and hadn't approved, but he hadn't managed to build a strong case against her yet for her obvious shortcuts and unlawful approaches to the business. What could he do? She had put money into the best lawyers in the business. If he stepped incorrectly and ruined the recital, she could simply have him done away with.

The human part of her hoped that would never happen, really. He honestly had been a wonderful father in Celes's life, from what she'd managed to see of it by way of using contacts to see them when they didn't know they were seen. When only the cameras were watching. She was delighted at times to look into the window of how her life might have turned out had she left things into his hands, but she hadn't created the fissure in their relationship over anything that he had done. She had been the problem. She had, from the start, caused everything, from coming on to him, to getting pregnant, to failing as a mother. He wasn't to be blamed by her for any of it. Celes had turned out beautiful, absolutely gorgeous.

From what she'd seen, her younger daughter had given birth to twin boys, having taken a teaching career to support her family. She'd been quite successful, inheriting her father's skills and insight into the world and genuine humanity. Her older daughter was nothing like the girl. She was all business, just like her mother.

Regardless of her methods, in this later period of her life, she was known as a success. She was the herald of a bright new future, with her prodigy of a daughter, the only one that most people even knew about, in a strong position to bring their company into the doorway of a new eternity, solidifying it for all of their children to come. She would continue the newly established family legacy and using the power that flowed through her body, even the dormant power that Ashe herself rarely exercised, she would eliminate the opposition cleanly if more subtle political methods could not be used. She had her mother and father's Sight, using it to help her gain an edge when dealing with the matters of pen and paper for arrangements.

She would be their future.

There was nothing more beyond this final event that Ashe could do to shock and amaze her viewers into keeping the ratings. Everyone knew this. Ashe would be stepping down and handing the company over to her daughter after this final season had been televised as planned. Live television had never been this good, she realized, savoring the taste in her mouth as she closed the book with a smile, rising back to her feet to gaze down through the clouds to the pedestrian covered streets below.

The cameras turned on, focusing on Ashe from the other building, zooming in to get a great view of her and the floors directly below her, while two others caught images of her side. She was smiling as she set her purse aside, clasping her hands before her. "Good evening, viewers," she began, addressing the crowd.

"As many of you know, tonight is our final broadcast on this station under my direction. I've carefully chosen my successor in a number of ways to continue our tradition of bringing you the greatest television that has ever been crafted," she droned smoothly. "Tonight will be that night, the night that we will kick off a fresh new season of the most awaited competition since Dante's Abyss so long ago."

Her fingertips gestured below her as she kneeled down, almost in honor of what was to come. Her lips trembled... with excitement. No one would see this coming, she believed. She slowly crept forward to the edge of the building and looked over, barely containing herself from throwing herself over before the cameras. She had words to speak. She wavered, the tension creeping through the air, as she gave the camera a final look.

Her arms slowly spread wide.

Her head slowly rolled back to cast her eyes upon the heaven, as she teetered so precariously upon the edge, knowing that over nine thousand planets were watching this moment in anticipation, terrified at what was to come.

What the cameras saw was always what everyone was focused on, she had learned.

It was what the cameras didn't see, until the final moment, that had the most shock value. The killer leaping in from off screen. The car that came out of nowhere to slam into the hero. The explosion from behind.

Ashe slowly took it all in, enraptured by the feeling and excitement of knowing that all the eyes were on her, waiting to see if she'd really do it. This was her moment.

In that moment, a body fell suddenly across the camera's vantage point, crossing within a brief space before the woman on camera until the cameras suddenly snapped their way down, chasing the image of the falling figure all the way down, following it story for story until he slammed lifelessly into the pavement below, blood spraying everyone within range.

The body was too disfigured from its fall to properly identify at a first glance, as all the cameras focused on it. All the cameras but one.

Slowly rising back to the image of Ashe, standing strong, her arms still spread as she smiled with tight lips at the camera. An image slowly appeared on every screen from the one camera that had been controlled remotely by Ashe herself to prevent anyone from spoiling the surprise. The image had zoomed in, catching a perfect frozen picture of Ashe coldly looking directly into the eyes of the falling Ashley Rose, the eldest daughter's eyes frozen in terror as she took in the sight of her mother, a million thoughts raging through her head as realization crept upon her of her mother's plan, knowing that there was nothing that she could do to fight the paralysis venom that had been spread throughout her body.

The cameras zoomed slowly until a tear was visible in the woman's eye. The first tear that had broken from her cold eyes since she was a small girl had been caught on camera. Ashley Rose was the future of the company, known by all to be Ashe's life investment. Everything had been placed into making sure that the transition of power and her strong daughter would be forever engraved into the minds of everyone watching. That equaled everyone.

And it did.

"Ladies and Gentleman..."

No one, not even her company, knew how to respond to this as the lone camera shifted back up to the gleeful woman. "Friend or Foe Unleashed has begun."

Her daughter had always been reported to be destined to make an impact. She had.

---

Within the helmet, a young pink haired girl of only eighteen years sobbed uncontrollably, unable to even release a sound from the shock that she was enduring. Kai, specifically, watched with interest at the events unfolding, knowing that he had forever made an impact on the girl's future decisions in one way or another.

[Friend or Foe]

The helmets clicked off. A hissing sound filled the room as the bonds that held five survivors began to loosen, allowing movement. Even with the ability, nobody seemed very excited to get up and face the future they had just seen.

They would grow up to be thieves and murderers, mad scientists and rebel leaders. Some would be the happiest they had ever been, and some...would become the thing they hated most. The five sets of eyes all looked at each other, around the room to weigh the sadness in each other's eyes. Nobody offered any words of encouragement. The only male in the group, Kaden, was usually the leader but this time had no words to give his friends.

The hissing sound returned as the screen which had previously displayed the speech by Kai Demolic began to open up. It had doubled as a door, now revealing the final five their latest challenge.

"Oh, what the fuck."

That was Piper, Kai had surmised. He was on the other end of the giant crimson pit. He had listened to their reactions as they all started to realize where Kai had placed the final battle of this deadly game. In the pit of a volcano. Under them was a river of scorching lava rock. Above them was an opening to the clear sky.

Kai Demolic was ready. Ready to fight, ready to perform, ready to do the job he had set for himself. After all, what was a show without a villain to take the fall at the very end? The plan was perfect...fight and run. Live to fight another day.

"Demolic!" One of the five shouted. It sounded like Kaden, and since that was the only male left, he had to assume it was. He just grinned and beckoned them forward. A look of confusion crossed their faces. "Demolic!" The voice said again. This time it was very clear...it was not the final five.

He looked up. The sun was blocked by a mechanical bird that aimed it's nose down into the brim of the volcano. Kai looked around at the guards that were hidden around the perimeter of where he was standing, and then back up again to survey who these intruders were.

Kai made eye contact with the pilot of the helicopter. A beautiful blonde woman by the name of Trisha. A woman he was very intimidate with. His eyes then turned to the side of the 'copter, where the door opened to reveal three figures: Champ the dog, Jackson Pride and the man he had failed to teleport away...Oliver Nash.

That's where the voice came from. Oliver Nash, behind the machine gun turret. "Demolic!" He said a third time, "I got something for ya!" The grey-haired detective unlatched the safety bar on the huge ki-weapon and squeezed his fingers on the trigger. "FOE, MOTHERFUCKER! FOE!"

The sheer power behind the turret that was firing into the volcano was enough to tear apart the back wall, made already of unsturdy, burnt rock and ash. Kai disappeared behind a cloud of smoke, running with his guards to avoid being torn apart by the strong gun. The blonde pilot of the helicopter dipped down slightly, allowing the rope ladder to descend from the side opposite where Jackson and Wizard stood.

The final five was running already, seeing the perfect spot to get onto the helicopter. Sophia was ecstatic, leading the group as they sprinted to the safe clearing atop a massive rock. "It's Wizard!" She shouted, "He's here to get us! Come on, come on!"

"I think he took out Kai!" Ashe was saying, picking up the rear.

Sophia lept onto the rope ladder, quickly climbing up it with Kaden right behind her. Piper was third, following by Ashe and Sage. The pink-haired girl turned to see her icy friend, who was struggling to keep up in this scorching environment. Ashe helped Sage up first, then climbed herself.

With all five on the rope ladder, the helicopter started to ride. Sophia was the first to reach the top, looking up to find out who their savior was. "...Rosemary?"

Sure enough, the beautiful scarf-colored prophet was holding out her hand, encouraging Sophia to climb aboard. "Come on," she insisted, "Now isn't the time."

From down below, things seemed calm. The helicopter was rising towards the volcanic crater, leaving behind nothing but ruins and a threat of collapsion. Kaden was the only one looking at the time that Kai Demolic literally lept out of the smoke towards the helicopter.

He was something that nobody had seen from him before.

Mad.

"NO!" He was shouting in mid-air, launched like a bullet at the escape vehicle. "I have worked too hard to be denied my finale!"

"Trisha!" Jackson barked, "Hard left! NOW!"

It was too late. The world's smartest man collided with the helicopter and to put in the most simple terms possible...it crashed.






































(Alright, so this is the hard part. The part where I explain that one of you totally awesome players did not make the final four, and thus the finale. The person is Kaden. Kaden, you made 5th place and you're the last player eliminated before the finale.

The winner of this round was Piper, followed closely by Ashe, then Sophia, Sage and finally Kaden.

Now, I'll explain the finale to you guys in the next thread. Kaden and Wizard need to read up too.)