Full Summary:

Book One-

Something is stirring. Those who were meant to protect are gone and in their absence, something began to grow. Darkness has crept back into the lands. Shadows have taken form. Knowledge that was once, is lost. The Tartarean Pit is opening and the Beast has awakened.

It has been four years since the Guardians took on Pitch Black. A group of major spirits known as the First Twelve, some of the biggest beings of mythology, have been disappearing for centuries. Creatures are creeping into the world that have not been seen since humans began to dominate the planet. Golems of stone are roaming the earth, searching for ancient relics under the command of their puppet master. The Moon isn't talking but the children are safe, …for now.

Alexandra is a wandering spirit who lives for adventure. When she gets caught up with the Guardians and the trouble that's rising around the globe, Alex makes sure she's in the thick of it all. She doesn't see that this isn't like the adventures from her storybooks. Alex needs to get out while she can before she gets in over her head, fighting to keep the shadows at bay.

Attention All! This is a rewrite!

This is also the first book in a series that I want to write. I have tons of ideas prepared but I needed a way to kick start this fanfic universe. When I had originally started this journey, I had no clue what I was doing. I just knew that I wanted to do something. So now, I'm back!

I left this story alone for like, two years to wither and gather dust, but now I'm ready to tackle the unrelenting beast that's known as plot bunnies. I've sort of reinvented the story line I started with, but the plot remains the same. I loved the bigger pictures I had, but the direction I was taking it was not something I was happy with.

This will also be the only Author's note that's put at the top of the story. I really find it annoying when there's a long passage of info that I have to sift through just to get to the actual story, so I'm not going to do it to others.(after this one, sorry) If there is anything really important it'll be at the bottom for you to see once you're done.

For those who have read this story before the rewrite, drop me a line! Let me know how you like or hate the story so far and how you feel about the new direction I'm taking. And if you're a first time reader to the story, let me know your thoughts. Or just say hi. I'll save every one of my comments and post them up on a digital fridge. :)

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my reboot and I hope you enjoy! And with out further ado:

Alexandra and the Gods of Earth: Book One

All the King's Men

"But that will be a long time from now, and soon now we shall go out of the house and go into the convulsion of the world, out of history into history and the awful responsibility of Time." –Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men (1946)

Mahrem's body crashed to the ground in a blaze of fiery red energy. The ground cracked and the trees splintered under his force. The large, dark skinned man groaned in pain from the multiple burns he sustained as the red energy died away like dust in the wind. Mahrem rolled on to his side and curled around the large wound on his stomach. The woolen, African burnouse, covering half of the man's muscled chest, was singed black and torn to shreds. The matching woolen pants, once a dark green, and red sash had met a similar fate. Mahrem opened his golden eyes to the night air at the sound of a light chuckle.

"My, my, brother! How the mighty have fallen."

"Prometheus. Don't do this! Rethink your gains! The deaths of all our sisters and brothers? For what? What could that beast have possibly offered you, for all this bloodshed!?" Mahrem's deep voice pleaded out into the darkness.

The quiet chuckle echoed across the desolate ruins of what had once been Mahrem's home. A lithe figure closed in on the broken form of the once great African myth.

"Let me think," a light voice echoed from the figure. "What could I possibly want from an all powerful God stuck beneath this pitiful planet's crust?"

"Ranamorr is not a God, brother."Mahrem breathed heavily and clutched at the wound on his stomach. "He is nothing more than parasite, feeding on the creatures of this world. You of all people should know this. You were there when we cast him into the pit! We were tasked-"

Prometheus' hand struck the side of Mahrem's face before he grabbed the cloth across the large man's chest. The olive toned figure crouched down and yanked the much larger man's face off the ground and closer to his own.

"WE were tricked," he whispered with venom. "When we saved this dying planet and rescued those pathetic creatures from becoming nothing more than chow, what did we receive?"

Prometheus threw Mahrem back into the arrid dirt before turning his back on him. He ran long, spidery fingers through the thick, honey brown hair that covered his temples. The strands had become slicked with sweat and covered in dust during their previous battle.

"Fame, love, and worship from those weak, bipedal primates. We were Gods!"

"We were never gods-"

"Of course we were! These humans dropped themselves to their knees to worship us! Great beings from the sky that saved them from Armageddon!"

Prometheus moved his hand out to motion towards the lights of a wide city barely visible in the distance. The citizens took no notice of the battle on the rocky plateau in the mountains, far above their heads. They had long forgotten the fortress hidden there and they had long forgotten the spirit that watched over them.

"Open your eyes, brother! The humans have grown to conquer this rock and casted us aside once they received what they needed from us. They no longer believe. There is no reason why we should remain here."

Prometheus sucked in a heavy breath before casting his bright red eyes back on his fallen foe.

"Do you not understand? They no longer see us. We are no longer needed, so why can we not go home!?"

His long red cloak, fastened by two large, silver buttons on his shoulders, flowed behind him like a river of blood. Heavy, black boots crushed stone into dust as he made his way across the destroyed architecture. Mahrem's eyes fell from his brother's face to the silver belt wrapped twice around his thin waist. Under the red cloak, attached by the belt, was a scepter as long as Mahrem's arm. An ice white stone, held by the scepter's black, finger-like branches, topped its thin, wooden shaft. Prometheus caught the gaze of Mahrem's sight. He pulled his cloak back to further show off the item.

"This, my dear brother, is what Ranamorr has offered me."

With a loving smile, Prometheus pulled the scepter from his belt and whipped it through the air. He brandished it in his left hand and held it aloft like a conductor's baton. The ice white stone began to swim with light emerging from its core. Nine different colors of energy, ranging from dark green to powdered pink, slithered like snakes inside the stone and across its surface.

"For every God I defeat in battle, I absorb their energy."

Mahrem looked between the scepter and his brother, confusion written over his features.

"You would kill your siblings," he yelled in anger at the deranged man. "Murder them for their power!?"

Prometheus whipped around and glared at Mahrem down on the ground.

"You dare accuse me of murdering them! I am saving them! Their energy, their life, remains safe in the stone." Prometheus returned as he sliced the scepter through the air. A wave of colors, like a rainbow of smoke, followed. "Ranamorr will rise from the depths of the Pit and he will swallow the moon. The reign of the once gods is at an end. Our time here is over."

Prometheus pulled the scepter back to his chest and cradled the stone in his right hand. His eyes glazed over and his voice dropped to a whisper that barely reached Mahrem.

"You must understand, brother, they no longer appreciate what we did. What we do. So now, we let nature take its course. All will be as it should have been. Ranamorr will take this planet back from the humans and I will take my family back to the stars."

His eyes left the stone and locked on to Mahrem's across the small space they stood apart from each other. Mahrem recognized nothing of his brother in those cold, red pupils.

"It is time we went home."

Mahrem shook in disbelief. He had never seen someone so lost in power. He had failed Prometheus as a brother and now he had lost his way. Someone had to stop him before he released the Beast feared across the universe. He had to do something, anything, to stop Prometheus. Mahrem had been on this planet for far too long to just roll over and give up. He would not surrender, but his time was running out. Hidden from view, Mahrem clenched his fist and began to draw what remaining power he had into something physical. Light flowed like smoke, similar to the colors of energy in Prometheus' scepter, solidified in his closed fist and began to take shape. With his eyes glued back on the bright stone, Prometheus missed the man as he rolled onto his knees with a weapon in his hand. A spear, taller than either of the two men's height and made completely of the last of Mahrem's energy, flew from his hand, aimed at his brother's head.

Without so much as a glance, Prometheus moved his right hand from the stone and towards the spear, centimeters from his skull. With the flick of his wrist, his hand glowed with energy, shaded in the same bright red of his eyes. The weapon halted in its progress through the air and shattered like glass without a sound. The spear pieces dispersed into its original smoky form before it was sucked into the scepter's stone top.

"Oh, brother," Prometheus laughed. "Do not be so quick to go."

With the scepter in his left hand and his right clenched in a bright red light, Prometheus threw his arms up, then down. The earth itself moved as hands of pure rock, stronger than iron, gripped Mahrem by his arms and neck, and prevented any attempt at escape. Mahrem shook and pulled under the stone hands as he tried to find a weak spot. His large muscles did nothing against the unbreakable hold.

"Ranamorr is a liar, brother! It will not stop at swallowing this planet. It will swallow all planets. It will destroy the universe!" Mahrem shouted to whatever part of Prometheus was still left. Ranamorr had somehow gotten its claws deep within his brother. He feared that there might not be anything left of the man he once knew. "You forget your purpose. Our purpose, for coming to this planet! The Beast is poisoning your mind for its own gain. You cannot forget the mistakes we made! This is the price we must pay! It is not a punishment or curse! It is a promise we all willingly made!"

Prometheus stalked closer to the kneeling form of Mahrem. He held himself tall with shoulders back and his chest puffed out. His breathing was calm as he tilted his head just a bit. He eyed his brother's pitiful struggles like the cat that toyed with the caught mouse.

"Do not let it control you, Prometheus!"

"Oh, it is far to late for that," Prometheus smiled at his handy work. He chuckled at Mahrem's useless words, despite the truth behind them. He simply did not care. Not any more, and he had not for a long time. "Its influence courses through my veins and drives its way into my brain. It is a toxic and dark power that lights my blood on fire. My body moves like a puppet under its strings while my mind stays clear; more clear than it has been in many millennia…And you know what?"

Prometheus twirled the scepter in his left hand and cast his ruby eyes around the ruins that had once been Mahrem's home. The great palace, now nothing more than rubble, laid hidden among some of the highest tops of the Kilimanjaro Mountains in Tanzania. Thick clouds separated the ground directly below them from view. There was nothing but the distant twinkling lights from the municipality of Moshi that cut through the clouds below them and vast, open, night sky above.

"I like it." he whispered.

Prometheus placed the head of the scepter at Mahrem's heart. The tip barely grazed his dark skin. The ice white stone lit up with the energy of his fallen brothers and sisters.

"Prometheus, NO!"

"Goodbye, brother. We will be going home soon; together."

Mahrem's body jolted and spasmed then stiffened as the rock hands crumbled away. His mouth opened but not a sound was heard. He turned his final gaze skyward towards the moon. Mahrem closed his eyes against the bright disk in the night sky. Light shimmered then seeped from his skin just as it did when he created the spear. His body lit up with the energy and his own form became translucent. Like smoke in a breeze, billows of the wafting light flowed from Mahrem's fading body in to the stone top of the gifted scepter.

As the last of his body dispersed into pure light and collected into the scepter, Prometheus turned his gaze to follow his brother's last line of sight. There, in the sky, was the moon; full, bright, and ever watching. Prometheus smirked at the moon as Mahrem's body completely disappeared.

"Do not fret brother, you are up next."

Earth was a lucky planet; created in just the right way and in just the right place.It allowed for life to cultivate and develop. Creatures were born and allowed to evolve with diversity. All life, from bacteria, plants, insects, and animals, was simply the outcome of pure, lucky happenstance. Planets like these are rare. They need to be cared for and watched over, because life is the most fragile and mysterious thing in the universe.

The great Beast fell to the new planet in a blaze of light from the heavens. Waves of darkness and chaos followed in its wake. It crashed to the surface and destroyed much of the larger creatures before it even crawled out of its crater. It hungered for nothing more than pain and destruction.

Ranamorr, as other civilizations had called it, tore down the mountains and boiled the seas. The creatures, all of them, screamed. It was not the first planet the Beast had fallen to and it would not be the last. The Beast was a gluttonous being, never swayed or sated for a moment. It would always be hungry; it only ever thirsted for fear and death.

Years after the Beast first landed, twelve lights came down from the stars, as they followed the trail of Ranamorr's destruction through space. The lights worked together in order to break the Beast's power. Battle after battle, they fought the Beast until finally they over powered it. To end the cycle of chaos and death, the Beast was thrown into the planet's core to burn for all eternity. Power nor time could kill the Beast, they could only seal it away. The Beast would try many times over the multiple millennia to escape its prison and bring destruction to the universe, but it would never succeed, not fully. Though it would influence many dark times as the young world continued to turn, the twelve lights would always be there. They tasked themselves with the protection and cultivation of the young planet. They did not want Earth to have what had happened to countless other planets. The lights vowed to watch over all life and keep the darkness at bay. They would never allow for the Beast's cell to be opened.

As time went on, the lights took favor on the creatures called humans. They differed from the other creatures of Earth as they relied on their minds rather than a shell or claws. Life itself was rare, but this was few and far between, on the planets that could sustain it. The lights saw the potential for civilized beings to develop like it had on their own world.

Humans worshipped the lights and believed them to be Gods and Goddesses as they protected the humans and guided them through their ever-evolving lives. Each light devoted itself to one of the twelve different aspects they believed were best for the growth of a cultured and self-supporting civilization.

Perseverance; Creativity; Knowledge;

Compassion; Virtue; Change;

Freedom; Curiosity: Fortune;

Camaraderie; Providence; Courage

These aspects were what every individual being needed for larger, organized groups to develop. These would help the humans as they explored and discovered their world, as they invented and mended, and as they learned and prospered.

As time went on, the humans learned to survive on their own and began to call on the lights less and less. They wanted, and needed, to live and grow on their own. The lights stepped back and the humans forgot. They became nothing more than legends and stories told to children. Regardless of the fading belief, the lights would forever watch over the planet and help those in need from afar.

It had been their original purpose, and this time, they would not fail.