Bang felt a familiar twinge in the back of his mind, a calling to feel emotion, though he wasn't sure which one. He remained sitting calmly alone in the middle of his dojo, it had been a long time since he had felt the tug, but he still remembered it well, and this time he would not give in. He remained tranquil, disciplined, bold even in the face of what he knew to be great adversity. No one would win if he were to lash out and give into the urge to emote, if it was who he thought it was, he would gain nothing from killing him. He didn't know how he knew, but somehow he was certain of who it suspicions were confirmed, at least on some level, as a sly, frill voice echoed in through his door like smoke. It was him, as he had known it would be, it was the Prince.

"Old man~" The voice said smugly.

"You have a lot of nerve coming here whilst still so untrained, boy." Bang said plainly without moving.

"Oh? I think you'll find that I'm much stronger than my predecessor."

It was true, the plucking in his brain had come on much stronger than he had remembered it being able to. He stayed vigilant against the enemy in the room.

"Maybe, but I, too, am also much stronger than your predecessor. Even more, I am much stronger than you." Bang said firmly.

"I thought as much, I didn't come to control you anyway."

"Liar! That's all you and that ambitious monster of a master of yours ever intended to do. You'd never do anything that didn't benefit you!" Bang said firmly.

"Ah, but I am getting something out of this little visit: a confidence boost!" The Prince declared confidently.

"A… what?" Bang asked, suddenly worried.

"Nothing gets me more animated than seeing my enemies in a state of absolute despair!"

"What have you done?"

A moment of silence occurred as Bang opened his eyes to see that the Prince was far closer than he had thought. That same, deranged look in his eyes he got when he was stimulated. His tiny pupils and wide, white smile with accentuated canines. Bang remained still and seated, his expression unchanging.

"What. Have. You. Done."

"I've been real busy."

"Prince."

"So busy, but it will all come together soon, very soon."

"Answer me."

"An eye for an eye and I get mine, Silver Fang. You take my family, and I take yours."

Bang jumped to his feet, landing in striking formation and causing the Prince to move back. As Bang had suspected, the Prince still had little to no combat training. Unfortunately, Bang had been provoked enough to react and the Prince's expression exaggerated how pleased he was with that fact.

"You can't do anything to my family, they are too strong for you." Bang said with a shaking voice.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you were lying simply from that tone of yours, but I do know better. Bomb, not yet." The Prince speculated. "The other one, definitely not! But those little redheads of yours, and your new hero friends? Only one of them will be standing soon."

"You can't seriously intend to control him, he's so-"

"Strong?" The Prince moved forward once again, this time with a finger raised towards Bang. "Certainly, the strongest, but do you know what else? Even more so than that? He's human, Silver Fang. He's the most human, and that has a tendency to work well for me."

"You have no idea what you're getting your hands on. You can't possibly control him."

"Not now, not for long, but everyone is playing right into my hands. I hold every piece but the key, but you wouldn't know anything about that. Do you know anything about Kana's little experiments?"

Bang remained silent.

"I thought so. This scuffle was never between you and him or me and you, it was always him and I. He's always been so busy, though, I'm not sure he's noticed." The Prince's smile changed to a more admiring one, his eyes looked to the ceiling as he let out a small sigh. "I've always respected that, always. So busy, busy, busy, always planning, always thinking. What a beautiful mind he had, but he ruined it when he played too much with one of his toys. Instead of breaking it, it broke him. Not for long, of course, this is Kana we're talking about."

"What… what are you talking about?" Bang said, beginning to sweat.

"The Gate! Silver Fang, the Gate!" The Prince rushed forward, once again face to face with Bang. "He couldn't handle it, Silver Fang, I've read the reports that association tried so hard to bury! He worked so hard for the powers but one day, he spent a little too long in the room and *boom*, hundred, thousands of people are gone! The association spends a couple hundred million on hush money and hitmen and no one is the wiser except for- and this is the kicker- Him and I!" His grin had returned to its malignant toxic state. "The gate manipulated him, it made him feel a way that changed him, lose himself!" The Prince threw an arm over Bang's shoulder, never breaking eye contact. "Remind you of anyone? Unfortunately, and I mean this truly, really, it's a shame that Kana has to die in order for me to get my hands on it, but trust me, when I do! Oh, it will be glorious! The Gate will give me what I need, it will be the start of the reconstruction of this world! It'll all start when I kill Kana."

"There's no way, Kana must already know you're on your way."

"He would! He's so clever that way, but he's not clever in any way right now, he hasn't told you, has he? He hasn't told anyone! Of course not, the longer he can keep the appearance that he's fine the longer he has to recover. Fortunately, I've arranged for Tanaka to kill him."

"She wouldn't-"

"She DID! Or she tried, at least, she didn't know that he was preserved by the Gate, and she could only suffer one strike into him. Any other assassin would have made sure that he was dead but she left, thinking he was dead. Still, a sword through the heart is fairly deadly. Trivial for a keeper of the Gate but Kana hasn't used his key in a while, at least, that's the way it seems to me."

Bang began to walk backwards, horrified by what the Prince was saying. He couldn't believe that Tanaka, the little sister that had spent years looking for Kana, had actually tried to kill him just as soon as she had found him. The Prince continued.

"He's just sitting there, in city Z, feeding off of the power of the monsters his clean up crew defeats. His mental state must be deteriorating, He's isolated himself and his only company is the voices from beyond the Gate. Voices? Voice maybe? I suppose I'll find out soon. I don't want to see him like that, but unfortunately, I have to be there when he dies. On the Bright side, I'll always be able to see him any time I want, I'll have the gate for that!"

"What are you talking about?!" Bang said, frightened but utterly confused at this point, the Prince was just spewing nonsense. This Gate seemed either too good to be true or so intensely dangerous that even those who controlled it were cursed. There couldn't be such a thing, could there? The prince let out a sigh.

"I suppose the concept is too much for some people, put simply,this is the end of the world around you, the removal of the keystone. Tonight, holes will begin to appear in the floor around you and soon after everything will come cascading down." The prince gave another look at Bang's horrified face as a grin spread across his own. "This isn't the first time I've seen you wear that face, and it won't be the last." He marched confidently past Bang, and as soon as he was out of Bang's sight, he was gone.

Bang fell to his knees, the Prince may have spoken nonsense, but his threats were never empty. Completely mad or not, the Prince had a plan to destroy everything Bang had become attached to. In his comfortable world Bang was not a god or a king, but he felt like a father. Now he couldn't help but feel that his children were going to be torn apart and there was nothing he could do about it. He sat alone in his dojo, feeling very unlike himself. He felt the slimy sickness that had taken over his mind creep away from him, like smoke.

A/N: Sorry this is a few hours late, I'm writing this Author's note from My IPad since I don't have a computer anymore. I don't have a computer because, and this still feels unreal to even write, last Saturday while me and my family were on our way home from dinner, a faulty plug caused a fire that eventually caught a propane tank and my house burnt down. Luckily no human member of our family was in the house at the time but three beloved animals were lost, Banshee, a nearly nine year old Pomeranian, Shiloh, a two year old cat, and Thorin, my five month old Kitten didn't make it out of the fire. Al, my five year old bearded dragon, the other four kittens, their mother, another outside cat named Zoey, and our three outside dogs were fine, but this is still a terrible tragedy in my life that I am doing my best to move on from.

Banshee was old and had been exposed to harmful drugs at a young age so we knew she wouldn't be with us much longer, but losing Thorin and Shiloh hit us hard. The fire took nearly seven hours to put out, and very little was salvageable but me and my family of six are moving forward as I have said, this is what that entails for me:

Launching a new original story on Wattpad alongside a .

Pursuing other projects on this website (including rewriting Act one of UNM).

Possibly doing requests based off of support.

Launching two other original stories on Wattpad further down the line

When the and new story is up I would delighted by any support given, everything helps, even just knowing that there are people who enjoy my stories. Thank you for your time. I will see you all two weeks from now for the next chapter of UNM.

Next Chapter: and Her Children