Thanatos was not liked. He had known that his entire life and had learned to make peace with it at an early age, but sometimes, he still longed for the joy that only companionship could bring. But with people's strange aversion to him, the most he could do was scare them. When he was younger, he used that to his advantage; he made himself child ruler of his foster home through fear. All the children did as he commanded because they were scared of him. This simple taste of power caused him to hunger for more. He went to college to get a degree in nuclear physics, and knew more about controlled destruction than even his professors.

At college, everybody could tell right from the start that he was different. He didn't advertise that he was from a foster home, and, not having any friends, nobody ever asked him about his parents. They didn't know that part of him, but something about him seemed inhuman. It was nothing anybody could point out, but he wasn't like them. So, the other students stayed as far away as possible, and Thanatos was lonelier than ever. It was no surprise that when somebody came and talked to him of their own free will, a small, hidden part of him rejoiced.

On the very same Thursday that Ilene and Zephyr discovered a shared stubbornness on the east coast, Thanatos was eating his usual breakfast at eight-thirty, precisely, when she sat down next to him. She was nobody Thanatos had ever seen, and he didn't recognize her from any of his classes. At first, Thanatos just thought she was part of some freshman dare and ignored her, but then she spoke. To him. Voluntarily.

"Hello, Master."

Thanatos jumped and looked behind himself. Nobody voluntarily spoke to him. Not sure of what to do with somebody who would, he decided to try his standard glare-them-down-until-they-go-away look. The girl tilted her head slightly to one side and smiled ferally. Seeing that she wasn't going anywhere, Thanatos switched tactics and tried talking to her.

"What do you want with me?" he asked her.

"I exist to serve you, Master. I only want what you want." She smiled again. By this point, Thanatos was getting a little creeped out.

He experimentally glared at her again, "I'd like you to go back to your silly little freshman friends and stop bothering me. Your stupid pranks have gone on long enough."

"Is that all you require of me, Master?" she tilted her head to the other side.

Thanatos was now seriously annoyed as well as creeped out, and his eyebrows had slipped far enough down his face to mostly obscure his eyes. "Yes. Bug off."

"I will return when you have need of me, Master." She slipped off and disappeared into the crowd of the cafeteria.

Thanatos rolled his eyes, brushed some blonde hairs that had come loose of his ponytail away from his face, and returned to his breakfast. Other students liked to dare their friends to come near him and bother him. He didn't know what he did that made him so intimidating that he was a challenge for the brave to accept, but he wished he could be more so, so that even the brave would not approach him on these ridiculous quests.

Still, that girl hadn't shown even a tremor of fear like the others, and she projected an aura of what seemed to be unflinching subservience. Thanatos didn't know how he would handle her if she showed up again. For now, he'd get on with his classes and hope that she wouldn't bother him anymore. He gathered up his notes and papers, slipped them into his bag and left the cafeteria.

About three in the afternoon, Thanatos was wiping his brow in annoyance. Knowing more about the art of nuclear fission and fusion than just about anybody else, he had been recruited by his professor to give a lecture to a small group of middle schoolers on a field trip about the importance of the campus's nuclear reactor. The ignorant children had questioned him incessantly on ridiculous matters, such as if he could build a bomb in his backyard. He didn't know how he managed to make it through the session without strangling anyone, but the professor gave him credit and free lunch for it. He imagined the included brownie to be the dismembered body parts of the infuriating children as he ate it.

Getting up off the bench he was sitting on, Thanatos saw the girl again. She was standing somewhere across the park and smiling at Thanatos in way that deeply unnerved him. She tilted her head to one side and switched her smile to quizzical, as if to ask if Thanatos would let her come near now. Curious about who she was and why she followed him, he nodded.

She came over to his bench, smiled at him again, and asked, "Yes, Master? What do you require of me?"

"First, I'd like you to stop smiling." Thanatos waited as she wrestled her mouth into a more normal position. Deciding to play along with whatever it was that she wanted, he said, "I would like to know why you have chosen to show yourself to me at this time. You have had years before to speak, and yet you have remained hidden." He glared at her as if to accuse her of some heinous crime.

She actually looked briefly consternated before forgetting his orders and flashing him with another smile and continuing, "You seem more ready to take up our quest again than you ever have before, Master."

"That isn't the reason." Thanatos was starting to enjoy this, and she had stopped smiling all together, which he figured was her version of nervous sweating.

"I'm sorry, Master! You know I have never been as strong as you, and I only just was able to come back. You see, I went looking for you all those ages ago, and I spent myself up. I couldn't gather the strength to assist you when you first reappeared, but now I can. Master, we could-"

"Enough," Thanatos cut off her apologies and silently filed her ramblings for later. "You are not telling me the entire truth." He was really starting to enjoy the feeling of being in charge.

The girl turned a shade of red that had previously only existed in cartoons. "The others are being reawaked by the one of least likelihood. I thought, Master, you would want to win the world while they were still doubting their reality."

Thanatos must have looked incredibly confused because the girl's face became very sad, but that was quickly covered up by a layer of pity.

"Master?" she said, "Do you know who are?"

Thanatos indignantly gave her the name given to him by the foster home. "Of course I know who I am. I am Thanatos Grey."

She smiled, sadly this time. "You have no idea who you are, who I am, or who the others are," she said, "but don't worry, Master. I can show you."

"Who are you to tell me who I am? You haven't even told me who you are!"

She smiled deviously, "I don't need to tell you who I am. I don't exist except as your faithful servant, Master."

"You have to at least have a name." Thanatos was growing increasingly frustrated with her.

"It changes," she shrugged and smiled.

Thanatos gritted his teeth. "What is it now?" he growled.

"I have none. I told you, Master, I just came back from nothingness. I have not yet had the chance to become known. Nobody has given me a name." She smiled again.

Thanatos was debating how much longer she should live: if she hadn't been around long enough to named, nobody would miss her. "What can I call you?"

"Maia," She smiled like this should be some inside joke they shared, "You can call me Maia."

"Fine, Maia. If don't know who I am, then tell me."

"It starts with a story. I'm sorry, Master, but you'll have to be patient."

"Fine, just tell me."

"Starting twenty-two years ago, newborn babies starting randomly appearing, a few a year for four years. Fourteen babies appeared in all, but-"

"I know this story. It's the story of where I came from." Thanatos hated being reminded of his bizarre beginnings at the foster home. He knew the other children did it to remind him that, while he may have been intimidating, he would never belong. Why this stranger would tell him, he didn't know. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You'll know soon enough," she smiled. "May I continue, Master?"

Thanatos nodded. She continued as if he had never interrupted her, "But they never appeared at the same time. Always on different days, at different times, but in exactly the same place. Except once. Two boys in the Place, like twins. They even looked identical." She turned to Thanatos, as if waiting for a challenge.

"I haven't heard this part before," he admitted.

"Of course not, Master. It's confidential." She smiled. "One of the twins wasn't adopted. The only one who wasn't and he was half of a set of twins. Of course, I couldn't let this happen. I wasn't completely real, but I could still use some tools of persuasion to convince a deluded foster care worker in New Jersey."

"That basically catches us up to today, doesn't it?" Thanatos didn't want to hear any more of his past. Half formed memories in dreams were bad enough, but being told outright brought fresh pain back.

"Not for the others."

"Others?"

"The other mysteriously appearing children. They have pasts too." Maia smiled. "Would you like to hear about them?"

"Yes. Tell me everything. I want to know where they went and what they have to say about their strange births."

"All of them were adopted by young people who thirsted for adventure. They thought it would be exciting to have a magic child, but later, they realized their precious gems did not show any supernatural inclinations. As the children grew older and started school, their adoptive parents decided to keep the story of their origin secret from the poor children so that they could fit in better. The little things were coddled as they were raised and eventually somehow made it to the same city for post-secondary schooling."

"They don't know anything about the past?"

"No."

"Then how can they help me?"

"There are only thirteen others." Maia stated.

"So what?" Thanatos couldn't see where she was going with this and it hurt him deeply that the others who had come from nowhere had loving parents who tried to keep them happy and safe.

"There are supposed to be fourteen!" she raged.

"How do you know?"

"Because I know where you came from beyond the place. I know your true origin. And there were fourteen other people who were supposed to be here!"

"Where do I come from?" Thanatos demanded.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I know you'll soon find out for yourself."

"That's not helpful!" He banged his fist down on the park bench. "At least tell me what we're going to do!"

Maia smiled deviously, "That I can do. We are going to get one of the others. She has to be the reason only thirteen appeared; she always anticipated you better than the others. We will capture her and bring her-"

"Bring her where? I have no place for a prisoner."

"I built a place. We will have no problems, and, if she cooperates, she can solve all of ours."

"Who is she?" Thanatos didn't know why he would go along with this crazy, illegal idea, but he wanted to find a place where other people didn't inch away from him like he was poisonous, and he hoped that this girl might be the key.

"I don't know, but I know that she will have starlight in her eyes."

Far away, Ilene gazed into the screen of her laptop, working on her astronomy essay. The stars on the screen were reflected perfectly in each of her eyes.

Yep. A chapter.

Actually, I was getting annoyed with somebody I'm following/watching/whatever for not updating, and then I realized that I hadn't updated for two whole months. Karma was getting to me. I meant to finish this a month and half ago, but I didn't. Hey, better late than never. Happy Star Wars Reads Day, which is an actual holiday and it's actually happening the day (well, night) I'm posting this.

I like Thanatos in a sort he-wants-to-kill-the-world-oh-hey-that's-cool kind of way. Urg. He's the hardest to write, but now I'm going to want to write him. Flllrrrgg.

What would the ultimate dark lord have for breakfast? I really have no idea. It's probably a donut (doughnut?) because he's evil, and donuts and evil for diets. You decide.

Disclaimer Thing: All belongs to Tolkien. Thanatos's college is also fictional. I had to make Maia up because I couldn't think of/find a good Maiar servant eternally loyal to that particular master. She's a bit like Ilmare for Varda, but for *ahem* somebody else.

Love to this story, which feels so neglected because its lazy author didn't touch it for a month.