4. Darkness vs Hope

Kousei was fuming as he paced back and forth. He had no idea what had changed in the world, only that it was fuelling his rage towards Koji. Koji was his son. Not Tomoko's and not Satomi's. If there was anyone who had the right to own him, it was him. There was no way he would let any of them get away with this.

"You should channel your anger in a way you can take revenge," A female voice said calmly and Kousei jumped because he had been standing alone in an abandoned corporate building moments ago so where had this woman even come from? And how did she even know what he was thinking? She was a stranger with dark black hair that fell down to her waist, square glasses that fit right to her face and a slim petite figure. He had never seen her before in his life then why was she talking to him as if she knew everything about him?

"Who are you?" Kousei asked, not sure what else to say.

The woman chuckled. "You see the state of the world currently? I caused this and just like that, I can give you the power to do whatever you want."

Kousei raised an eyebrow. "You're just a simple human. How can you have any kind of power?"

She chuckled again. "If I came to you in my true form, you would begin questioning your own sanity and an insane person is of no use to my cause. So, I have temporarily taken on this human form to recruit humans to take on the spirits of the black hexagram which each embody a human sin. The sins choose you. You do not choose the sin. You would be able to capture the boy you want to teach a lesson to and the more darkness that spreads would benefit me to get my own revenge."

Kousei paused as he listened to this. The words she said made sense and no wonder she was willing to offer this to him because it had something in it for her. Of course – no transaction in the world came free but she wasn't asking for money, just for his support and he would get something out of it too.

Yes, that was right. It was a risk worth taking – no one made a fool out of him. Koji would pay and so would Satomi. Koji would be back with him and as for Satomi, he would make her fall to her knees to beg him for forgiveness. And it wouldn't cost a penny out of his pocket, just help him do what he already wanted to do.

"I'll take it," Kousei said simply. "Every business transaction has to be beneficial to both parties and if this will help me teach that brat a lesson, I'm willing to take it."

The woman smiled, giving him a black glowing stick that looked like it was originally made of metal. "Then take this and embrace your new destiny."

The power that was coming from that stick made him feel a little bit sick but that was okay. This was worth it – Koji was his and Satomi nor Tomoko had no right to question or attempt to steal what belonged to him. He had raised Koji, so he deserved this return – he had put money onto him, given him a good education and for what? To get nothing in return from the ungrateful brat? He deserved a reward for everything he had done for them both.

He grasped the stick, a strong gust of wind overtaking him, and he struggled with the sudden burst of strength that he got within him, feeling as if he would stumble from it. He had agreed to this, and it would be worth it eventually.

Damn it, damn it! That stupid Earthbender was strong – his uncle would not be able to hold up if another defence like that came. Their Earthbending was good, but it was nothing compared to Toph, but they needed Aang to be their weapon – they could beat anyone with the avatar by their side.

"We need something else," Cheng grumbled softly, rolling his eyes at his uncle. "We got our butts handed to ourselves back there, this is ridiculous."

General Fong chuckled. "Patience, Cheng. Things are never that easy. I'm quite impressed with that Earthbender but we do need something that they won't see coming. I expected Sokka and Katara to not reveal anything but the Avatar was afraid so I suppose I can understand that protectiveness from those two. However, now the Firelord knows our intentions, we're going to have to be careful."

"This world being like this is just igniting my passion even more," Cheng said scowling. "I want to make Aang ours no matter what. Do you know what kind of position it would put us in?"

He also didn't like the way the boy still had a spark. He wanted to control that and make him bend to their will. He wanted to find a way to make him pay. He had outsmarted his uncle once before and this time, they wouldn't lose – this time, they would come out victorious.

"I like your spirit, young one," A man entered the room in a maroon cloak as he lifted the hood and smiled. "I can give you and your uncle that chance to make this dream come true."

That sounded almost too good to be true. Having been only 13 when the first war happened, he had seen the struggles they had been through, had heard of how they had rejected his uncle. His uncle had been kind, he had only wanted to end the war sooner because he was tired of the suffering they had all been through.

But Aang had thrown it back in their face. He had said no. He had been worried that the Avatar state could kill him and backed out. Innocent lives had been at stake, and he had abandoned them. If the Avatar had not done anything for them, what could this random stranger do for them?

"What's the catch?" Cheng asked. "The Avatar ditched us when we asked for his help so if he won't come willingly, we'll make him a weapon for us against it. We want that power for ourselves and only us because we're the ones who deserve it."

The man shook his head. "There is no catch. You accepting this deal is already a benefit for me. I am here to extract revenge on those that have hurt me. If you accept my deal, it will help me do that. I help you, you help me, what do you say? However, I will not be able to give both you and your uncle this power. You will have to choose who gets the power."

His uncle paused at this and tilted his head to the side. "Cheng, you can take the power. With this power, we'll be able to defeat them together."

Cheng blinked, having not expected that from his uncle, thinking he would want to take his revenge himself. He looked at the man – he was a little hesitant, but this might be the only way he had to get what he wanted. Still, he needed to hear more about this deal before he said anything. "I'm listening."

Allura shifted as she slowly opened her eyes, finding herself laying on a soft mattress. She tried to regain sight of her surroundings, but it was making her head pound, and she held a hand to her head, realising this was not her wedding dress. It was a patterned pink dress with beautiful blue flowers designed on it. Where was she? How had she even gotten here? A gasp left her as she remembered what had happened. Lotor! He was the one who had brought her here.

She quickly got out of the bed, making to run so she could connect with Blue, but he ended up catching her in his arms.

"Now, this isn't nice, Princess," Lotor said softly. "After all the effort I put in to bring you here, the first thing you do is attempt to run away. Do you know how long I've waited for this moment?"

Allura shifted out of his arms, shoving him away. "I do not care how long you waited. You brought me here against my own will and if you don't mind, I wish to return to my husband."

Lotor paused at this, eyes narrowing at this. "You're not married yet. I broke up that silly event you call a wedding. He's not your husband."

Allura rolled her eyes. Well, he clearly did not know anything about his Altean culture, did he? "In Altean culture I thought you would know; we have a smaller wedding ceremony with only friends and family before we begin living together. The only thing you interrupted was the reception. Keith is my husband."

Lotor's eyes flashed even more and Allura winced as she suddenly felt herself frozen to the spot. She couldn't move and she could have sworn Lotor did not have this power before. How had this even happened?

She struggled but it was as if her own powers currently were no match for his abilities. He had definitely gotten stronger – was it due to the time he had spent in the quintessence field?

He grasped her by the shoulders, roughly, staring at her with such intensity that she wasn't sure what he was thinking. She had seen his insane side, but this was different – something had definitely changed inside of him, but she couldn't quite put a finger to what it was.

"You're mine, princess," Lotor said firmly. "It was always supposed to be us. He interfered with it then and stole you from me but now you'll never see him again." He stroked her cheek and she realised she could move again as he did so, causing her to push away from him again and scowled. There was no way he could keep her here.

She looked around for some way to escape and tried to focus on her connection with the Blue Lion, but she could not hear anything. What had Lotor done? Where had he even brought her to that he was able to block out her connection with her partner? This was odd, no this was bizarre in more ways than one and she didn't understand what was going on. Had something else happened to cause him to return, to be able to escape the quintessence field?

"You're not going to find a way to escape here, princess," Lotor said, placing a hand on her shoulder, trying to pull her close. "So just give yourself to me."

"Get off me, Lotor!" Allura pushed him even rougher, and he struck her down.

"Don't make this hard on the both of us," Lotor said and Allura glared at him.

"I won't give in to you willingly, Lotor, I never will," Allura said firmly. She wished she had not spoken these words because this was not the Lotor she remembered who had faked being kind to her once to earn her trust. This was someone who had gone crazy with power.

Each struggle even as she fought back made her realise how strong Lotor was in a fight. No matter how hard she fought back, he managed to push her against the wall, pressing down on her neck lightly as a threat but it was enough to make her choke slightly.

"I told you," Lotor threatened her, bringing his face in close. "You are mine. No matter how much you resist, I own you. Your mind, your body, your heart, I want to possess it all. Keith or the rest of your friends will never find you here."

Allura was breathing heavily – she had never before had a fight with Lotor one on one and she could tell he was holding back on her, simply to stop her and not injure. But even with that, she was exhausted from the fighting and did not have the strength to respond to his words. Lotor paused when her struggles seemed to cease, and he sighed.

"I wish you would not struggle this much," Lotor said softly. "Do you not remember how much you longed for my closeness once?" His free hand cradled around her waist, bringing her closer. "How much you used to enjoy this?" He pressed his lips to hers and she froze for a moment as the memory rushed to her head as his hand caressed her side. It slid down to her inner thigh, causing her to shiver.

It was different to when Keith touched her and the moments that the two of them shared. Keith was tender, sweet, gentle and she leaned into the intimacy just as much as he leaned into her, but this was…it felt disgusting. Even as he pulled away from the kiss, a tear rolled down her cheek which he wiped away with his thumb as almost a caring gesture.

"Don't cry, you'll learn to crave more of me the more you stay here," Lotor soothed softly. "The less you fight it, the easier it will be to bare."

Allura chuckled weakly. "I think you know me better than that."

Before Lotor could reply to this, another voice interrupted them, a smaller, weaker voice.

"Daddy? What's all the screaming for?" The voice asked and Lotor pulled away from Allura who wrapped her arms around herself, trying to gather herself together as well as wrap her arms around on why Lotor had a little Galran girl living with him. Had he kidnapped her too? But why? She looked so young, and she didn't look like she could harm anyone.

Does Lotor really need a reason to do anything? He's kidnapped me after all and is trying to force me into a relationship I don't want. One I will probably never want now…not after how amazing Keith is.

"Go back to your room, Serena," Lotor growled softly. "You're interrupting something."

"You're hurting her like you hurt Mom," Serena said softly. "Please don't hurt her too. She's crying."

Allura blinked at that and realised the tear tracks were still on her cheeks, moving to wipe them away. The little girl was worried about her, and she was saying Lotor killed her mother, was that why she was here? There was no end to Lotor's cruelty, was there? How had she ever fallen for such a man's charm?

"Mind your own business, Serena," Lotor moved to slap the child and Allura moved before she could stop herself, grabbing Lotor's arm.

"Don't hurt her," Allura said softly. "I'll stay, just don't hurt her." She knew trying to run was getting her nowhere anyway and she felt a desire to protect this little girl from him. No one else deserved to suffer and she had to believe that Keith and the others were working to find her. She had to play it smart – she was no longer a teenager anymore, after all. She held out a hand to the little girl and knelt down. "Hey, do you want to stay with me tonight?" She did not want to share a room with Lotor, no way, no way in heaven or hell.

Serena clung to her and Allura instinctively pulled her close causing Lotor to roll his eyes.

"You're lucky I love you so much, beautiful," Lotor said, glancing at Allura up and down, causing her to shiver, the look reminding her of the disgusting touch. "Ok, but only for tonight, ok? Tomorrow I want you all to myself."

Allura flinched at this but didn't respond. So, tomorrow would be another fight. Still, she needed to find another way to fight it rather than being confrontational – she needed to survive to go back to her husband and family. She waited for Lotor to leave before turning to Serena.

"Are you ok?" Allura asked softly.

Serena nodded. "I'm used to Daddy hitting me, its ok. He's hurting you too, isn't he? Just like he hurt my Mom."

"Who was your Mom?" Allura couldn't help but ask. "I know it must hurt."

Serena nodded, a few tears falling down her cheeks. "I don't remember much but Daddy said she reminded him of you but once Mommy had me, he hurt her and took me away. He said she died."

Allura's heart ached at that. She didn't know if the little girl's mother was still alive but the fact that he could be this disgusting to another woman just because she reminded him of her made her stomach churn. He had done this to that woman so what was he planning to do to her? She was the one he wanted.

"I'm sorry," Allura said softly. "I promise once my friends come, we'll take you away from here."

Serena blinked. "Do you think they will? Daddy is smart. He won't let them find you so easily."

Allura smiled. "We know Lotor is smart, he always has been. But they will find me, I promise. And then I want to take you with me as well. You don't deserve this any more than anyone else."

Serena nodded slowly. "Ok. Then I'll try and believe too."

Why? Why was it bothering him this much? Sokka was his friend, at least Avery thought he was his friend. But something felt different about today, like the other was mocking him somehow for winning. Sokka was being so arrogant about winning – how did he even have any confidence? As non-benders, in reality, they really had nothing. It made his blood boil that he acted as if they were as good as the benders.

Even if they were as good, he was clearly the better non-bender out of them. Sokka really stood no chance against him, and he was going to prove it the next time they met.

"You have a lot of passion," A voice interrupted him. "But are you going to just stew in anger or are you going to do something about it?"

Avery jumped and turned to see a water bender behind him who looked about the same age as him and he frowned. He had never seen this person before, especially not with how dark and desolate the world had become.

"Who are you? And why were you stalking me anyway?" Avery asked.

"I am a simple being who desires revenge against those who made me, this is a temporary form," The boy said simply. "The question is, who do you want to be? Do you want to be a non-bender the rest of your life? Or do you want to take the abilities they do not deserve to have?"

"Take away the abilities of benders?" Avery asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is that even possible?" Those little suckers did not deserve being as special as they were. Why were they the ones chosen to be special and the rest of them had to suffer not being able to do anything or having any special powers?

"If you work for me, yes, it is possible," The boy replied. "I can make it happen. All you have to do is work for me and increase that jealousy burning inside of you. It gives me the strength I need to extract my own revenge and it's a beneficial transaction for us both. What do you say?"

Avery felt a small grin appear on his face. This was perfect – Sokka would pay for ever mocking him for losing, for tossing their friendship aside as he had.

"I accept," he said simply. "Whatever I need to do, I will."

Humans were so gullible and so vulnerable to the darkness. Shadow should have known this earlier. She should have known this given what they had done. She just wished the rest of her would understand as well. The humans deserved this – over how much they suffered. Recruiting them for her purpose had been so easy. Kousei wanted to own his son, believing he deserved it due to raising him. Of course, humans always felt a sense of pride and think they deserved everything.

It was how the scientist group Harmony thought. They were intelligent so they wanted control of everything – they just could not leave well enough alone. Because Mist was different, because she was a prototype that they had never seen before, they wanted to claim it. The experiments were painful, and they had torn her apart. And then her other half had rejected her, saying it was not their job to take revenge.

That they were created to help humans, not harm them. But humans were nothing. Humans were lower than them – humans were filthy creatures who were so easily swayed in one way or the other. Mist's argument was that in these same humans, there was good as well. But good or evil did not matter. Only power mattered. Avery was jealous of his own friend, wanting to overpower. Cheng wanted his own personal weapon, just in the way the scientists had wanted to use them as a weapon.

And Lotor – Lotor had approached her, being able to sense her quintessence. She still wasn't sure what that was, but his darkness delighted her – it was the perfect open door to get the revenge she had waited for in years. JP Shibayama, a boy who was supposed to be a legendary hero looked at his blonde friend as if she were something to desire. He was foolish to believe it was love when it was simply a desire to claim her. And the sins did not stop at only humans either.

Aliens, living creatures from other planets, examples such as Lotor but other lower-level commanders as well. They were full of darkness. In all honesty, she was doing all of humanity a favour by having them wipe each other out.

"This isn't right," Mist appeared in front of her in the disgusting form that she took.

Shadow chuckled, her darkness cackling in the way. "You can do the right thing, Mist. I'm not interested."

"I will not let you destroy humans," Mist said firmly. "I will rally heroes to fight you, to stop your plans."

Did she really believe this? Did she believe that anyone could beat the power of the corruption that had taken over society?

"Humans can never be heroes," Shadow said simply. "They are to bound by their own selfish desires. They will fall to the path of sin too. You will fail in this."

Mist smiled sadly. "Maybe I'll fail but I see the goodness in living creatures that you've lost. I will have hope in those that have not fallen onto the path of darkness and sin."

Shadow nodded. She wouldn't stop the other, but she also would not be as weak to accept this. "Then you continue to have hope. I will continue to bring those in sin into further darkness. You have hope, I have darkness. Let's see who wins in the end."