Chapter 5: A New Hope
"You knew him?" Akira asked Javik.
"Yes, it was so long ago before my race's extinction." Javik said.
"Extinction?" Serenity asked.
"You know I haven't seen your kind until we ended up here." Eto said.
"We were extinct for over twenty thousand years after what he did." Javik said.
"What did he do?" Serenity asked.
Nearby behind a large rock was Akechi who was listening to what was being said.
"He destroyed our society, our empire." Javik said.
"Your empire?" Eto asked.
"Yes. We were once a grand empire that would have spanned the entire galaxy, but it never happened. Our society vanquished along with our proof of existence into what you people later called the maw system." Javik said.
"How did he do it?" Serenity asked.
"In my cycle, our empire was conquering planets in our system, we enslaved our own people who were weaker than us, the strong. Then one day we had readings of an unknown vessel enter our system and then another, and another, and by the end of the week it was over a hundred ships. The ones you see above us in fact." Javik said.
Everyone looked up at the triangular ships and then back to Javik.
"He obliterated our bases on planets in our system, wiped out our fleets and stations, and one day he reached our planet and bombarded us from space. We did everything we could to escape but he took our major spaceports, our defense fleets, our cities, our empire. While he was doing this, he created black holes of sorts that began to erase our system. His fleet disappeared into the darkness while our system fell into the many black holes. He wiped our existence away just like that." Javik said.
"Holy shit." Aizen said.
"While we was at war with him, our spies gathered intel that he used an orb to create those black holes. He was testing its power it seems and what he could do with it. Our scientists studied the readings and found its unique signature. A theory a scientist proposed was if we could use our dark energy of aether together, we could somehow have it reach into space and clutch the orb and make a wish. The only problem was, we had dark energy aether, not pure aether. Our only plan failed and thus we lost once he approached our planet." Javik said.
"How do you know this?" Ken asked.
"I was one of the few commanders left when I heard of it. We knew possible ways to gather pure aether but it was too late. Pure aether on our planet could come from natural energy sources." Javik said.
"So what would the plan be exactly?" Serenity asked.
"The plan would have taken time, time that we did not have. We was together what dark energy users we had to guide the aura of aether from the natural resources of plants or rivers and flow it into the sky, and into space to link to the orb that Tenebris was using. We learned he could make wishes with it so we thought if we could link the aether to it and put our psyche into the aura, we could make a wish to defeat him, think of it as a long-distance phone call but we have to establish a connection to that orb through the aetherial aura. We had two problems, time, and none of us knew how to guide aether like that with our dark energy without further research would have taken months or possibly years." Javik said.
"So that was your attempt to stop it." Ken said.
Javik nodded.
"Your empire must have been a testing ground for the orbs potential." Eto said.
"I believe so." Javik said.
"May I ask something, what sort of Empire did your people run?" Serenity asked.
"We conquered and set our goals to conquer other systems in the galaxy from you primitives." Javik said.
"Us primitives?" Serenity commended cocking an eyebrow.
"Our species was the dominant race in my cycle." Javik said.
"Was." Serenity said.
Javik frowned and scoffed.
"We are all equals here, please at least don't think of yourself as superior to us." Serenity said.
Javik said nothing.
Aizen looked at the others.
"None of us have our powers anymore, there's nothing we can do." Aizen said.
"There may be one thing." Javik said.
They looked at him curiously.
Akechi who was still hiding and listening slowly walked off the other way.
"The Underworld has a yellow aura that keeps things lit. That aura has to be filled with aether to keep it glowing." Javik said.
"Your right. And there sure is a lot of it." Aizen said.
"But none of us have powers to actually control it." Eto said.
"That and the Underworld has every single bad guy known to the entire universe." Akira said.
"You think they'd hurt us?" Ken asked.
"Definently." Akira said.
"And we don't know where to begin looking when we get down there either." Aizen said.
They all was thinking about what they could do and then Serenity looked at them in shock.
"I think I know one person who knows astrological magic that could work to control aether, perhaps without the use of powers." Serenity said.
"Who?" Everyone asked.
An hour later.
A knock on a hut door and Stolas answered it with mud around his face.
"Uh?" Aizen questioned.
"I'm trying to get a beauty work done to impress Draykey." Stolas said.
"Again, friendzone, dad's straight, and he's married." Serenity said.
"Serenity, one can dream." Stolas said.
"More like a nightmare." Ken mumbled.
"He is not a nightmare! I have you know he can make any straight man gay. I just so happen to be bi. I have a daughter after all." Stolas said.
"Where is her mom?" Akira asked.
"She didn't want to live with us so-" Stolas began to say.
"Focus please." Aizen said to everyone.
Aizen looked back to Stolas.
"We need your help." Aizen said.
A few minutes later after Aizen explained what was going on, Stolas paced around thinking.
"Can it be done?" Serenity asked.
"It could." Stolas said.
"Could?" Akira asked.
"In theory, but I never tried before. It did say in my book that it was done once a long time ago, the origination of astrology abilities." Stolas said.
"Then after powers was granted generation to generation!" Ken said as he was catching on.
"Exactly!" Stolas said with his finger pointing at Ken.
"So that means it could be done." Eto said.
"But for us to do this we need an aura of sorts to begin." Stolas said.
"There is an aura in the Underworld that keeps things lit." Akira said.
Stolas looked a bit frightened.
"I know what your thinking and your right, it's dangerous." Serenity said.
"Very dangerous, we would be down there with evil people." Stolas said.
"We're going to need to go down there regardless if this is a chance of freedom." Aizen said.
"I suppose so." Stolas said.
"How should we proceed?" Ken asked.
"We must dominate the Underworld." Javik suggested.
"We would be ganged up immediately." Serenity said.
"But he's partially right, we need to look intimidating so no one bothers us." Aizen said.
"How about a large group?" Serenity suggested.
"That sounds like a good choice, I will gather all of our friends." Aizen said.
"It will take a few days to get everything prepared." Ken said.
"That can give me time to try to remember what we must do when we reach the aura." Stolas said.
"No staring at my dad then during that time." Serenity said.
"Oh Serenity come now, would I really do that?" Stolas asked.
"Fuck yes." Serenity said.
"Language." Stolas said.
"You're the biggest curser around!" Everyone shouted.
Stolas just tapped his fingers together nervously.
"Let's get to work." Akira said to break the tension.
As they were walking away, Javik walked over to Serenity.
"Thank you for listening, primitive." Javik said.
"Serenity." Serenity said.
Javik just stared at her.
"My name is Serenity." Serenity said.
"Take the compliment." Javik said.
Serenity sighed.
"We'll work it later." Serenity said.
"Work on what?" Javik asked.
"Nothing, let's get to work." Serenity said.
As they walked away from one another Javik mumbled to himself.
"Primitives nowadays." Javik said while shaking his head in disappointment.
"Men nowadays." Serenity said rubbing her temples.
The next day, Serenity finished talking to Itachi and Starrk and waved at them as they went to tell a few others of the plan.
Walking up to her was Akechi.
"Hello." Akechi said.
"Did you hear the news?" Serenity asked.
"Eto informed me." Akechi said.
"So you in?" Serenity asked.
"Of course, I wouldn't miss this. I may also offer any sort of fighting that might be needed." Akechi said.
"You can fight?" Serenity asked.
"Why yes, though with perhaps a bone rod of sorts, not really good with hand to hand combat." Akechi said with a smile.
"I could teach you sometime." Serenity said.
"You could? Why that'd be wonderful. Being trained by the hero herself." Akechi said.
"Heh, come on I'm not that much of a hero." Serenity said.
"Not from what I heard about you." Akechi said.
"And what else have you heard about me?" Serenity asked.
"Oh, someone said you was attractive to the point of people being hypnotized by your looks. Oh, and your crimson eyes are like rubies in the night sky." Akechi said.
Serenity's face blushed.
"And what's your assessment?" Serenity asked.
Akechi just gave her a smirk and walked up toward her making her blush even more.
"I-" Akechi began to say.
"Hey uh, am I interrupting something?" Octavia asked walking up.
"No of course not no, he was just heading out, right?" Serenity asked.
"Yes, I was just heading out. I will see you later Serenity." Akechi said.
"See you soon!" Serenity said.
The two waved at one another and walked off in different directions but took a moment to look back to one another before carrying on.
As Serenity was walking off, Octavia walked up to her.
"I saw that." Octavia said.
"Saw what?" Serenity asked.
"How you two had a moment, quite cute." Octavia said.
"It was just a friendly chat." Serenity said.
"An awkward chat that felt a bit heated in a romantic way." Octavia said.
Serenity rolled her eyes.
"I got no time for love." Serenity said.
"Excuses." Octavia said.
The two walked off together toward Kugo and his friends.
"Come on, we got a job to do." Serenity said.
"Fine, but we will talk about this later." Octavia said.
Serenity sighed.
"I'm never going to catch a break am I?" Serenity asked.
"Nope!" Octavia said.
"You're embarrassing like your dad." Serenity said.
"Same goes to you and your embarrassing dad." Octavia said.
The two looked at one another and nodded.
"Agreed." They both said to one another.
"We got some strange dads alright." Octavia said.
"Best dads though." Serenity said.
The two approached Kugo and his friends and began to talk to them about the plan.
Nearby, two white fox ears perked up from behind a hut and moved around but then stopped in front of Nishio.
"Aunt." Nishio said.
Mangle popped her head out as her fox ears twitched.
"Are you spying again?" Nishio asked.
"Yup, because I'm bored. I think your mom and Akechi are getting frisky for one another." Mangle said.
"And that's your business why?" Nishio asked.
Mangle was silent.
Nishio suddenly gasped.
"Mom might date again!?" Nishio shouted.
"There we go." Mangle said as she was waiting for him to realize what she said.
"I don't know, do you think mom can handle it?" Nishio asked.
"No clue, all I know is, this is going to be interesting to watch. More interesting than seeing you try to seduce Karura the first time you two dated." Mangle said.
"First off, it's hard to date when I was tortured that day. And she came onto me first." Nishio said.
"But you initiated it." Mangle said.
Nishio didn't know what to say and just looked away.
"Thought so." Mangle said.
"Just curious, how much do we know about Akechi?" Nishio asked.
Mangle tilted her head and didn't know what to say.
Nishio gave her a shrug and the two walked off pondering about it.