Chapter 23: Burning For Revenge

Panic spread throughout Sancturia like a wildfire. Only the bravest of the brave stuck around when Solaris made his decree. Meaning, ultimately, Kairi and Shina were the only ones to remain.

Through the uproar of the crowd Shina swung her head around with eyes dilated in confusion and tried to speak with her sister, "Ummm...who are these guys?"

Kairi tried summoning her staff but the crowd pushing her around in their attempt to flee made it difficult, "These two jerks are Justek's children. A self-proclaimed sun god, and a show-offy moon goddess...!"

The gritting of Kairi's teeth sounded harder on the second one. Shina drew her attention towards the two deities and wondered aloud, "Are you sure?"

She laid a hand against the side of her tilting face, "They don't look very tough...Or Justek-y."

"You...you can't sense their power Shina," Kairi groaned and glanced aside, "Though, you aren't wrong..."

"Oh? Why not?" Shina had to ask. And, for the sake of her sanity, Kairi refused to say what Mew had suggested cause that'd trigger a deadly fangirl-ish reaction in her sister.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, Solaris turned his head away from the fleeing crowd and aimed his sights right at the two sisters. He flashed all teeth in a grin and lurched his head back.

"Well well well...!" He lunged his sword in Kairi's direction and summoned an inferno around the blade, "If it ain't the so-called 'Neo Drive Wielder' and..."

He fluttered his eyelids at Shina, "Some...random blonde girl?"

Shina puffed her chest out and laid a hand on top of it, "I ain't just some random girl! I'm Shina, Shina-"

"Yeah yeah whatever ya ditzy ant," Solaris waved the back of his left fingers at her, where Shina responded by widening her eyes and puffing her cheeks. Then he firmly grasped his sword towards Kairi, "So...Why don't you run along and collect your boyfriends for us?"

Kairi squinted her eyes and summoned her staff, thrusting it out alongside her arm, "How about I just kick both your asses into the stratosphere and save them the trouble of humiliating you again?"

"Awww sis, that was a really cool sounding boast!" Shina said, clapping her hands in delight.

"S-Shina not now!" Kairi said, grunting out the side of her mouth and quickly resuming her stance against Solaris.

"I'm not the mood for your sass!" Solaris' body erupted with flames the moment he tightened his grip on his sword, and swung it over his left shoulder.

"Get movin' or the first thing going up in flames will be you!"

"Yeah pardon me, but I have an objection." A nonchalant voice called to Solaris and drew his attention to the left...Right as Mew flew in and drove both his heels into the god's smug face.

Solaris skidded a few feet back and stabbed his sword into the ground to stop. He snapped his head back and wrenched his neck around with his hand, going from shocked back to smug in a second. Lunis zipped over to his side and joined her brother in staring down the new arrivals, consisting of everyone that were still at the Aurora household.

Mew landed front and center of them all and swiped his hand down before his nose, then rose one foot up like a kung-fu practitioner would.

"Hey fancy that, I was planning on finding you two eventually. Thanks for saving me the trouble!" Mew smiled.

"Don't be thankful you arrogant little shit!" Solaris dragged his sword out of the ground and thrust it at Mew's face with his eyes bursting with fire, "Cause we've been hunting you down to kill you...!"

Mew dropped his foot and leaned his head back with a sigh, "Yeah I kinda figured."

Joe Dark stared at the two with mild discomfort on his face as he murmured, "Are these idiots serious? Even Mew could take them alone."

"Brother already did," Riku remarked, "But that doesn't matter to them now."

"And what do you mean 'Even Mew'?!" The recipient of the insult barked back while looking over his shoulder.

Riku looked past his brother and into the eyes of the moon goddess. She glanced at him briefly and then stared straight ahead, appearing to be curling her bottom lip.

Mew however waved his hand out towards the two and tried approaching them calmly, "Look do we really gotta do this now?"

He stopped when Solaris made a towering line of fire at his toes with a simple swing of his blade. He then gripped it in both hands and dragged it down to his side.

"Shut up...! You're not escaping my sights! This time...I will destroy you!" Solaris roared with impressive determination.

"Well you're doing a crappy job already," Mew couldn't stop himself from smirking, "You missed."

Solaris swung his blade up again and cleave through his wall of flame with a scar of hot ash. Mew crossed his arms and summoned fire to douse most of the heat coming his way. The excess ash laid upon the ground and turned it pitch black.

Mew looked around at just how close the ash got to the houses and took a deep breath, lowering his arms as he breathed out.

"It'd be too easy for him to harm the city...I gotta choose my words carefully..." Mew got a mild stomachache at the pressure of it and slowly creaked his head back with a fake smile.

"Hey Riku, think you can try talking them down a bit?"

Riku hummed for a few seconds and then took a couple steps closer and waved a hand out towards the deities, "If you want to avenge your father, fine...But we're not going to fight you in a populated area."

Solaris grit his teeth and a screech of frustration roared through them, "Uuuurghh! Don't tell me what to do damn it!"

He smashed his blade against the ground a wave of fire nearly splashed out towards the houses, "We traveled from world to world for a whole month, trying to find any sign that our father was alive...!"

He flared his eyes wide as they could go and gave a frenzied account of what he had seen, "And what did we discover?! An empty crater on your moon where his body had been mercilessly obliterated!"

Lunis quietly withdrew a familiar pair of glasses from her outfit that had cracked lenses and bent, broken temples.

"The only thing left of him were his glasses!" Solaris wildly pointed towards them, and then the people before him, "You won't be so lucky! There won't be a trace of you left!"

"..." Mew blinked a few times and then backed away to whisper to Riku, "I don't recall blowing up Justek on the moon, do you?"

"...Now that you mention it, we never saw Justek die at all." A worrying thought, but the proof of death was definitely in Lunis' hands right now. And Justek was many things, but it was doubtful that he'd just abandon his own children like that...right?

"Then who...?"

Mew and Riku were pushed aside at their shoulders as Joe Dark came passing through, exuding a somewhat intimidating black aura. And Mew could swear he saw his eyes glowing too.

"I'm the one who killed that bastard."

The news wasn't even shocking enough to elicit a "What?"

But for Solaris? It provided a good laugh to settle him down just a tiny bit.

"Ha! Ha! HA!" He said, rearing his head back and slapped his gut in glee, "You?!"

He smiled and started to hunch over, barely able to contain his laughter, "Father leashed you like a beast! You couldn't have even laid a finger on him!"

"Yet I'm alive and he's not." The sun god was silly to expect Joe Dark to give a shit of what he thought and would pay the price with the verbal beatdown that quickly ensued.

"You come crawling back to this world demanding our blood but just look at you..." Joe Dark's eyes narrowed and he scoffed his scorn, "You don't even have the balls to fight because any one of us could kick your ass. You bark like a mad dog but cower like a kitten."

Taking in a deep, exasperated breath of annoyance he murmured, "You call yourself a god but you're just a thug on fire."

Solaris completely froze up and grunted. Joe Dark lessened the darkness around him and turned away, brushing a hand towards Mew without looking his way.

"Do what you want to him, I said my piece."

"Sheesh, that was merciless..." Mew muttered before looking back at the sun god, where he saw his body flaring up all-around.

"Nnnghh! NNNGHHH!" He heaved his blade over his head and his face flared up like an angry bull's, "I don't care which one of you did it! You all will burn!"

He lunged forward ferociously and the intensity of his flames made Mew and Riku draw their swords without a second thought. A blur of green swept past them and slammed into Solaris, drawing his katana to keep the monstrous blade at bay.

"That's enough Solaris!" Gabriel declared through gritted, reprimanding him like a father would.

"Get OUT of my way you green devil!" Solaris roared back, pushing the advantage against the samurai, whose feet refused to budge.

"Your father may be dead but that's no excuse to rampage through a city and put innocent lives at risk!" Gabriel narrowed his eyes and shoved the sun god back, "Even Justek had to have taught you better than that!"

"Innocent?!" Solaris barked, firing flames off his back to shove his advantage again, "All of you have blood on your hands, including our father's! You betrayed him...and tossed us into a prison like we're criminals!"

"And this...tantrum is supposed to prove your innocence?" Gabriel calmly, yet bluntly, said in return.

"Grrrrr...!" Solaris snapped off from his clash and hopped back to where Lunis was, where he viciously swung his sword at the ground and yelled, "You always act so high and mighty, it pisses me off!"

So far anyone who has attempted to settle Solaris down have just made him angrier. Who knows what'd tip him to the breaking point of going supernova on all of Sancturia?

Mew wound up finding himself stepping forward and looking the sun god straight in the eyes to say, "Can I just ask you one question?"

"WHAT?!" Solaris barked ferociously.

Mew grimaced briefly and then waved his hand out towards him, "Do you really think this is what Justek would've wanted?"

Solaris grit his teeth and shook, "Y-You don't know anything about what he wanted!"

"No kidding! And we fought the guy!" Mew rubbed the back of his head and chuckled, "But...if you don't mind me taking a crack at it..."

"The guy was really meticulously with how he planned things out. He wanted me to fight you two, and now? I think I get why," Mew looked the two deities straight on without flinching and smiled, "If Alex was there he would've killed you both. If Riku or Kairi had been there, you'd be dead Solaris. Justek knew I'd spare you both, but still beat you up hard enough that you'd be unconscious while he fought the rest of us."

He pointed at them with firm, slanted eyes, "He didn't want you to die for his cause, or destroy yourself trying to avenge him. Because at the very end of the day, he did love you both equally, and wanted you to find happiness when he was gone."

Solaris and Lunis widened their eyes, and Mew went back to rubbing the back of his head while resuming his laid-back mannerisms, "T-That's just what I think anyways. Your father was pretty hard to read."

Solaris resumed glaring at his enemies with his body on fire and drew his sword up before his chest, "Yeah, y-you're full of shit...!"

"Maybe," Riku spoke up, "But I suspect you believe otherwise..."

He turned his head slightly to the right, "Right? Lunis?"

"Oh come on, you really think my sister's gonna fall for your damn tric-" A curved blade was pointed at Solaris' neck quick as the wind, and his eyes lost all their luster in an instant. He slowly looked to his left and saw Lunis trembling everywhere but the arm that held the knife towards him.

"...Lunis?" Solaris murmured in a shrill voice.

She swung her head to look him square in the eyes and told him calmly, "Ever since father died you've been uncontrollable. You've torn up multiple worlds and hurt hundreds of people."

She shed a single tear and exclaimed passionately, "That's NOT you brother! Its the monster the Ten Sages molded you to be!"

Solaris reared his head back with gritted teeth and then lashed forth, swinging an arm out from his chest, "I LIKE fighting! It makes me feel alive!"

"Fighting?" Lunis turned her knife towards the city and exhaled in disbelief, "You call this...fighting?!"

Beyond the houses were a few Aurians that dared to come close and see what was happening. Their bodies were trembling and full of sweat.

"We're terrorizing these people that had nothing to do with father's death!"

"Where do you get the BALLS to tell me off?!" Solaris thrust his pointer finger at his sister, "Huh?! 'White Shroud'?!"

Lunis reeled back a little then slanted her eyes, "I know I murdered people, innocent people..."

She threw her knives to the ground and screamed at her brother, "But we don't HAVE to resort to violence to survive anymore! The Ten Sages are gone, they have no hold over us! We're free...That's the gift our father left for us!"

"What good is freedom if dad isn't around to share it?!" Solaris swung his arm out towards the others, "They murdered him! Are you just going to ignore that?!"

Lunis gulped and then heartily shook her head, "I-I know that! But it was father's decision to fight them in the first place!"

"You can't be serious...!" Solaris grit his teeth and growled so loud internally that it was like a roar, "Are you taking their side?!"

Lunis froze up as her brother panted and wheezed, sweat glistening off his brows. He shook his head slowly, whispering a plea to his dear sister, "Don't do it..."

Lunis silently closed her eyes and stepped sideways away from Solaris. For every step she took, more life was drained from his eyes. When she stood between him and the targets of his hate, she swung her arm out as a wall and stared him down.

"Ghhh...!" Solaris gasped, clutching a hand over his heart as the sweat grew thick over his face.

"Brother...please," Lunis laid her other hand over her chest and calmly leaned out, "These are good people that want to help us."

"Yeah come on," Mew said with his arms crossed up to his chest, "You'll fit right in at our house. We'll just...need to get you a bed of your own but-"

Solaris gnashed the tip of his blade against the ground and gripped the side of his face, digging into the skin with his metallic fingertips.

"You...too?!" He flung his arm out and screamed, "YOU TOO?!"

His body exploded with fire and he began to raise his sword above his head.

"Crap! He's going to attack!" Mew hastened to grab the white trigger of his blade when suddenly Solaris erupted with a pillar of fire surrounding his entire body.

The pillar shot up into the atmosphere, and the flames pulled away from the ground to follow him off the planet. Lunis ran forward, throwing her hand up and desperately exhaling, "Brother! Come back!"

But he was long gone from sight and sound, just a fading red twinkle in the blue sky...

"Mmm..." Lunis clutched her hand into a fist and placed it before her chest.

Mew stared out there for a moment and muttered "Is it over?" as he slowly dispelled his sword.

He looked around and the others were resting easy now. All except for Lunis, who hung her head and sighed.

Mew started moving ahead and raised his hand up, "Are you-"

"You ok Lunis?" Riku got farther ahead and spoke louder than his brother had.

Lunis turned around and had a couple tears rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them on one finger and sniffled, "I-I'm fine..."

She then smiled and tried to think positively, "I'm sure my brother'll be too...Once he's blown off some steam."

"But...thank you, Riku." Lunis gained a mild blush in her cheeks.

"We should've just kicked his ass." Joe Dark murmured. Mew clocked him in the gut with his elbow and he fell to his knees.

He then walked over to Lunis with his hands behind his head and a greeting smile, "Not going to go after him?"

"No," She shook her head, "I don't think he'll listen to me right now."

"I...don't think I feel comfortable letting him loose like that though." Mew remarked.

"Yeah..." Lunis' head sank, only to then perk back up as she leaned towards the right, where her throat then strained to speak, "U-Ummm, Gabriel?"

"Yes my dear?" Gabriel said respectfully.

"Your friends can keep an eye out for him, can't they?"

Gabriel bowed his head, "I will tell Catherine that. You'll be the first to know if we see him."

"Thank you." Lunis in turn bowed her head down to her waist.

Mew fluttered his eyes, "She's a lot more...approachable now."

As Lunis lifted her head she looked shocked for a moment and pointed at Riku's right side, "O-Oh my goodness! Your arm...!"

Riku stared at it and gave the stub a wag. Then he firmly held it against his side and muttered, "Don't worry about that."

He looked straight up into her eyes and asked, "What are you going to do now Lunis?"

"I guess..." She tucked her hands behind her back and stood tall with a smile, "I'll stay with you guys until I can figure that out."

Mew swayed towards the others and nonchalantly asked, "Anyone got a problem with that?"

The most obvious person who'd have an objection is Kairi, but she simply hung her head and shoulders and sighed, "If Gabriel doesn't care that she kidnapped him then whatever, she can stick around..."

She then propped her fists on her hips and leaned in for the critiquing glare of shame, "But I got my eye on you harpy. If you try anything funny I'll give you another smack in the head!"

"O...kay?" Lunis rapidly blinked her eyes.

"Awww don't be mean sis, she seems friendly enough!" Shina trotted on over and extended her hand out, "Hi there, I'm-"

She paused and creaked her head back slightly. And Lunis paused her attempt to shake Shina's hand, wondering why she stopped.

"Oh wow," Shina's cheeks turned pink, "You're taller than mom and me!"

"H-Huh?" Lunis stuttered.

"Oh I'm sorry! Interrupted myself there!" Shina gasped with a hand over her mouth, then grabbed and shook Lunis' hand hard, "I'm Shina, Shina Aurora!"

"L-Lunis..." When the shock wore off Lunis grabbed Shina's hand and gave it one firm shake, "Pleased to meet you Shina!"

Shina started to hum in a rather...curious way, "And your skin is so smooth too..."

Lunis' pupils shrank and Mew had to lean up to her ear and whisper, "She's got her quirks, but you'll get used to them."

Lunis silently nodded her head and let go of Shina's hand. Mew then tapped his foot on the ground and wondered aloud, "Now...where are you going to live?"

"Not at our house!" Kairi immediately threw out.

"Why not? You could have all-girl sleepovers every night!" Mew responded.

"Yeah sis! All-girl sleepovers!" Shina said, clasping her hands joyously before her chest.

"Are you purposefully forgetting the whole 'Solaris and Lunis attacked Sancturia' shit that happened a month ago just to annoy me Mew?" Kairi said with her arms folded under her chest and her face screaming "Grumpy gus".

"She is right." Auris finally spoke up, spooking the others, Mew in particular, after believing she was a statue the whole time she'd been around.

She laid a hand over her chest and then extended it to Lunis, "You will always be welcome in my home, my dear lunar child...But until the others can be comfortable with you, it'd be best if you didn't live with us."

"...I understand, Lady Auris." Lunis nodded in a dignified manner.

"Then you can stay with us." Riku remarked.

Mew rolled his shoulders and laid his hands behind his head, "Sure why not? There's plenty of room on Joe Dark's bed, you could bunk with h-"

"A-ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Joe Dark screamed, and a quick look at him showed that his face was beet red and struggling to scowl.

"Ummm, if I can make a suggestion?" Lunis sheepishly raised her right hand and then tucked them behind her, wiggling them around, "Would it be ok if I shared a room with Riku?"

Mew widened his eyes for a moment, and smirked. He nudged his brows in tune with him going, "Oh ho HO!"

Lunis perked upright and tilted her head aside, the subtlest shade of pink in her cheeks, "Huh?"

Riku gave his brother an aside glance and remarked, "She does know me a little more than you two, brother."

"Oh...yeah, you're right." Mew settled down his dirty thoughts, while his brother resumed looking the goddess in the eyes.

"I'm fine with us sharing a bed together Lunis."

Mew perked right back up and started rubbing his chin with deep curiosity in his eyes, "OH HO HO HO!"

Riku swung back with a tired look on his face, and let out an exasperated sigh, "Why are you doing that brother?"

"Yeah Mew, why are you doing that?" Kairi remarked, raising a lone brow in judgment.

"...Uhhh..." Mew turned away and innocently whistled to himself, hoping that a little time passing would get the subject dropped. But he could feel Kairi's stare stabbing at him like hundreds of tiny cold daggers.

"H-Hehehe!" So he quickly spun around and changed the subject himself, "I...I guess we can make it work if I increase the size of the bed in my room."

"WHAT?!" She hollered quickly.

"What?!" Mew gasped in turn.

Kairi dropped her jaw and now those daggers were coming out as knives, "So she's gonna sleep with Riku AND you?!"

"I-I'm sorry say that again I didn't hear you..." Mew muttered very quietly.

"Don't gimme that 'I didn't hear you' crap!" Kairi started wagging her finger around with bright red cheeks, "Just cause a woman you find pretty offered to stay at your house doesn't mean you have to be so eager to let her in!"

"What on Earth are you talking about?!" Mew exclaimed, glancing aside at his brother, "Riku's the one inviting her into HIS bed!"

Drawn into this vortex of craziness all of a sudden left Riku at a loss for words, but gave him time to think. And it didn't take long for him to widen his eyes and murmur, "Oh...you're thinking of that..."

First he glanced aside and groaned at his brother, "Really...?"

While Mew gave out a flabbergasted gasp he then tried looking towards Lunis and politely said, "I-I'm sorry, I think everyone's getting the wrong idea here."

Lunis was darting her eyes around with her lips sucked in and her face a darker shade of pink, "I...I don't know what you're all talking about anyways...! N-Not at all!"

Meanwhile, Mew and Kairi's argument had boiled down to her saying, "So you're seriously expecting me to believe you're not all going to be sharing a bed?"

"Yes, I'm telling you, I haven't slept in my own bed for the last month!" Mew slapped the side of his face and let out an exasperated gasp, "Why's this getting under your skin so much anyways?!"

"Pah!" Kairi spat with a stutter, then stood tall and folded her arms under her chest, "A-As if I'm jealous of that harpie living under your roof with you!"

Shina leaned in to her sister's ear and playfully whispered, "Sis...nobody said you were jealous."

Kairi's face continued to turn redder and redder until she was a living beet, at which point she puffed her cheeks out and raged internally for a few seconds. Only to then turn away from Mew and lay one hand against the side of her face.

"...Do what you want," Kairi gasped loudly and started walking away, brushing one hand out slowly, "I need a goddamn nap...Pregnancies, sleepovers...I'm gonna have wrinkles before I'm twenty at this rate."

Shina followed along with her hands tucked behind her back and a big bucking smile, "Not if I have anything to say about it sis!"

Mew stood there blinking quite a few times, then tilted his head as Auris shook her head at him. Once the Aurora family + Gabriel were gone, he tucked his hands into his pockets and sighed.

"We should probably get back home too." He remarked, and when he started walking off the others followed his lead with Lunis taking a moment to realize she needed to join them.

"Well I'm pooped! Any objections to just lounging around watching TV and stuffing our faces with popcorns?!" He asked, pumping his fist into the air

"Nope."

"Sure."

Lunis fluttered her eyelashes and remarked, "What's a TV?"

Meanwhile, far off into the cosmos...

A lone, empty moon bursts into flames. Magma spews from its breaking plates, only to disappear in the cold vacuum of space.

Solaris beat his blade into the moon's surface fiercely like a drum. The world broke so loudly that he couldn't his own roars of venting frustration. His feet took a dip in the molten lava that swirled beneath him, just one of the many results of his destructive tantrum.

"WORTHLESS! WORTHLESS! WORTHLESS!" He saw the faces of those he despised on the moon's surface, and every time he beat his blade into the ground those faces broke to pieces.

"FATHER KILLER. FATHER KILLER. TRAITOR! TRAITOR! WORTHLESS...SISTER!" The last face he saw was his father's, which made him hesitate for only a second, "LIAR!"

One more vicious attack split the moon in half with a thunderous sound, and Solaris dropped to his knees on both sides of the crack.

"You said you'd be with us forever...!" He clutched a fist against his beating chest and gasped and panted for air, "Why...? WHY?!"

His anger was interrupted by the descent of a towering shadow over him, silent in their presence. Solaris froze, gripping his sword extra tight and twisting his head over his shoulder with a dark crimson glow in his eyes.

"You...have chose a terrible time to approach me, BASTARD!" He came up swinging but a hand shot past his blade and clutched his neck.

"Gck...! GCCKK!" Solaris choked as his assailant effortlessly hoisted him ten feet off the ground.

A monstrous presence had approached him. Foul was his breath, and dead was his skin and eyes. Cloaked in blackest of nights, the monster feigned humanity in his form but those red eyes burrowed into the god's soul with all the fear Hell could give.

"Ahhh...such wonderful..." The monster's baritone voice dripped with pleasure as he licked his dry, ivory fangs with a moist, dripping tongue, "Anger."

Solaris' heart felt cold, and he struggled to ask, "Who...who are you?"

"I am he who the day cowers before...The Lord of all Monsters, and the bane of all Gods...But you can call me..." The monster breathed in deep, and the sun god felt his energy being drained of all vigor, "Dracula..."

An absolutely gargantuan stone castle wrought with decay appeared from the shadows of space behind the monster.

"Hmmm...this anger you have..." Dracula licked his lips more enthusiastically, "It shares a familiar face to me..."

His eyes began to glow extra bright, "Fledgling star...you will tell me where I can find my Dark King..."

"D-Dark...King?" Solaris had his hands tight around the man's wrist, but upon hearing that name, they began to loosen, and he smiled.

"Y-You're after him too huh...?" Solaris couldn't stop himself from chuckling, "Yeah...I-I'll tell you where to find that son of a bitch!"

Dracula raised his brows with a curious hum.

"But if I do, you'd better help me kill him and everyone else close to him, got that?!"

Dracula breathed the cold of night slowly from his mouth, and Solaris felt a chill crawl up his spine, "You are bold to demand anything from me, little god..."

"...But your anger, it quenches my hunger like none have before..." Dracula glared at Solaris with glistening, salivating eyes, "Yes...I'll agree to your terms. Let us go pay a visit to that frightened little stray, shall we?"

Next Time: The Cost of Pride