It loved to watch the birds, to race galloping creatures below, often pretending to lose.

One morning, not unlike many others, it was resting atop a mountain watching the sun rise, basking in the warmth of the sun and the twittering of the birds.

It’s funny how much can change in a moment.

It was now drifting in silence surrounded by what looked like asteroids. The warmth of the sun felt like a distant memory. How many moments had passed in between? It did not know.

Beyond the asteroids, far in the distance, it could make out vague shapes. Amongst them, one it almost recognised - a segment of a shattered sphere. The ship recognised the ocean, now spilling into the black of space. It had once felt the mist from that ocean, many years ago. It would not skim that ocean again.

It slowly became aware of the structure - gargantuan, black, looming in the dark. It hung weightlessly above what was once the ship’s home, barely visible, quietly consuming the remains. Methodically, mechanically, it tore through the wreckage, scattering crumbs into the void - rocks, dust, fragments of what once was.

The ship found itself drifting in silence surrounded by what looked like asteroids.

There was no asteroid belt here before.

When god created him, and his brothers and sisters, they were all created without gender. There was no need for angels to procreate. Besides, there was no place for sex or other animalistic activities in heaven.

It had taken him millennia but he didn’t regret volunteering for this. He had been preparing for the rapture and it was a lot of work. He didn’t know exactly how many people will be lifted up at the moment of rapture. All he knew is that it could be anywhere between 0 and near enough 7 billion.

He had decided to err on the side of caution and prepare for 7 billion people. Now that is a large welcoming hall and a complicated party to organise.

The biggest one he had done before was for a few thousand people. He had organised music throughout the hall, played by millions of angels. He had rehearsed with them and it took many hundreds of years before he could get them all to be co-ordinated. The timing is complicated to get right in a hall built for 7 billion people.

Halfway through the plans, he had changed the hall too. He felt it might be a little too restrictive, and so he changed it to a meadow. That took many years again. This also threw off all the acoustics and it took many more years to practice for the musicians to get it right again.

He had thought about food and he flip-flopped on whether to provide it. There is no need to eat in heaven, but people are so used to pleasure and comfort of eating, he thought. In the end, he organised food, or at least something like it.

He recruited a few thousand angels to prepare food and drink. One of the benefits of heaven is that things don’t go bad. This meant that they had as much as they needed to prepare all the food.

He watched as platters of food started to pile up on the millions of tables across the meadow. He watched as butterflies floated across the meadow, basking in the late afternoon glow.

Xioban had decided that the feeling of late afternoon would be the ideal time. It would be the time when you get that lull in the day.

While all this was being prepared, he was also negotiating with the four horsemen. They were not big fans of the apocalypse. They had enjoyed their laziness over the years and were not looking forward to doing some actual work.

If they were on earth, they would have gotten fat and useless. Luckily for them, they were immune to such things.

They had spent their time between heaven and hell, partying hard and taking it easy. Xioban had found it difficult to light the fire of enthusiasm within them. They did not share the passion as he did for the rapture. This would have made Xioban sad, but he didn’t have the gift of the rollercoaster ride of emotions. None of the angels were.

Pestilence had been the most vocal

“How many people will my babies have to” he made quotation marks in the air “take care of?”

“I have no idea” Xioban had to admit “but, it’s more than likely no more than maybe a third. I hear the earth has a lot of religious people.”

“Alright, fine!” Pestilence grumbled

Death was a bit more direct

“I better not have to make too many trips. I don’t like Pela getting tired” He looked at his horse as he said this

“Don’t worry about Pela. Your horse, and you can take as much time as you like” Xioban had said.

The other two horsemen had just grumbled. Over the centuries, Xioban would revisit this conversation in one guise or other. Each time, they would complain and they would finally agree.

Over the centuries, he had found that it took longer and longer to get to the point where they agree. While he had found this a trifle worrying, he figured it wouldn’t be an issue. Since there was no deadline, he could take all the time he needed to convince them.

One day, Xioban was basking in the glory of the almighty, in a meadow somewhere. His eyes closed, and his mind still, he heard someone clear their throat. He opens his eyes to find someone standing over him. His (he assumed from the way he was dressed) wings were white and only partly open. He was smiling, as everyone does.

“It’s ready!” He said

“Everything?” Xioban asked, almost surprised. It had been centuries that he had almost forgotten about it.

“Yes, everything.” He said

Xioban smiled, and thanked him.

Xioban got up and made his way to the four horsemen. It might have taken a few minutes, a few hours, or perhaps a few years. Nobody knew, and nobody cared.

He saw them dancing in the moonlight, around a fire. As he walked up to them, they stopped, and from the expression on their face, he suspected they already knew.

“It is time” Xioban said

“Yes, it is” Pestilence replied.

Xioban smiled, turned around and made his way to the gatekeeper. A few moments of walking later, he could hear soft hoofbeats behind him. He smiled.

It took some time to get to the gatekeeper and nobody spoke the entire time. Xioban enjoyed the walk. He liked the rhythmic beats of the hooves following him.

He saw the gatekeeper, sitting at an ornate desk. The desk was in the middle of a meadow, under a solitary tree. The tree was lush and green and seemed to have different types of fruits. They had different shapes, sizes and colours.

Behind the tree was a stream, and he could hear it babbling. It soothed his heart.

When Xioban got closer, he could see that she was smiling. She heard him and looks up.

“Oh! Hello, I have been waiting for you” She said

“Hello, and I, you. It is done!” He bows as he speaks

“Are you sure?” She asked. Xioban wondered if she too had almost forgotten.

“Alright!” she said, “I’ll push the button as soon as you get to the hall.”

Xioban bowed and started to make his way to the hall.

“Wait!” Pestilence called him from behind and he turned around

“We’ll come with you” He explained, “We want to see how many make it up”

Xioban nodded, turned around and continued to the hall.

It might have taken many years again, but once again, he enjoyed the walk.

When he got there, he closed his eyes and prayed. He then walked over to a podium, and pushed the big red button on it.

The musicians started to play music. The air, already filled with the luscious aroma of food, now also carried the sweetness of music.

Xioban waited, and nothing happened. He pushed the red button again. This time he heard a click and a whoosh.

Three people appeared in front of him. It looked like they had just jumped up, though he didn’t see them jump.

Xioban pushed the red button again, and nothing happened. He heard the click, but no whoosh. He tried pushed it several times more and there was nothing apart from the clicks.

It was dawning on him that his millenia of preparation was perhaps meant for only three people. He put on his biggest smile and looked over to the three people who looked lost and confused.

“Welcome to heaven!” He said into the microphone.

He heard his voice across the meadow. He turned the microphone away and walks down the stage and to the three people.

“It would seem that you are the only ones worthy of heaven” Xioban started to explain.

From the looks on their faces, he knew that this would take some time. He called over some of the angels waiting to induct the newcomers and handed the three people off to them.

Pestilence got off his horse and walked towards Xioban.

“We are not going down there to take care of 7 billion souls.”

“Wait! Let’s go back to the gatekeeper. Maybe there is a problem” Xioban hoped there was a problem preventing more people from coming up.

The walk back to the Gatekeeper took some time. He did not enjoy this walk.

He was almost running now, and he could still hear the soft hoofbeats, following him. It was as if they were chasing him now.

“What happened? What went wrong?” He asked as soon as he got there

“What do you mean?” The gatekeeper looked confused

“What do you mean? What do you mean? There were only three people” He was almost shouting now.

“Really? Well, what can I say! There are only three people deserving of heaven down there” The gatekeeper was nonchalant.

“But that’s impossible! There are 7 billion people down there” Xioban was pleading now

“Ah! You have not been watching them” The gatekeeper tried to explain.

“What do I do now?” Xioban seemed to muster up sadness from somewhere.

Xioban hears someone clear their throat behind him and he turns around. It’s pestilence and he too looked distraught.

“Erm, so what do we do?” Pestilence seemed to be pointing the question more to the gatekeeper.

Xioban looked at the gatekeeper, eyes almost full with tears, expectant.

The gatekeeper mulled it over for a moment.

“Listen guys, just go back to what you were doing. The people down there are doing a fine job of bringing the apocalypse down on themselves”

This was not a good start… Floating in freezing water off the shore of skyrim somewhere on the way to Solitude. Brrrr… Grasping at the strands of consciousness seemingly content to float away on the freezing waters, I dived in to find a way out of here.

There was luckily a few things hanging around in the capsized ship, some weapons and some armour - could be worse. One of the crates also had some snowberry extract as luck would have it. Swigging it down, dived down again and slowly traipsed my way out of the ship before the first hit from the extract finished.

Making my way to the bottom of the ship, which was ironically on top, there was an aldmeri lady on top carrying some stuff, which I conveniently lifted :-D

Now was the hard part, it would seem. I was surrounded by the icy ocean and the cold breeze did not help much either. Preparing myself mentally, finished off the last of the snowberry extract, hoped for the best and dived right into the icy blue seas.

The swim to the shore was not that bad - the snowberry extract kept me going! Once there, I managed to collect some deadwood and light a fire to dry me off and warm me up. There really wasn’t much of anything around - until I spotted a camp - with a tent and a fire and everything. It was an absolute surprise how it was missed the first time round - and it looked a lot nicer than the little camp I put together with deadwood.

I went over there and looked around. There was an Argonian there - and although I tried to talk to him, he was really not interested.

Looking around, I picked up something that was on one of the barrels, and the Argonian friend did not take kindly to me snooping around - so I had to kill him. Hmmmm.. The first drop of blood spilled on this land.. and it was all over a misunderstanding… :-/

Anyway, I warmed up a bit there and looked around more to realise that I had to swim across to another island - and I had no snowberry extract left. Well, the hard way it will have to be  then. Fortunately, it was a short swim across and I found a tent on the other side and a little camp which I used to warm up.

After that, a short hop skip and a jump later, I was in Dawnstar, and freezing. As luck would have it, it was night and everything was closed.. it took me a while, and it seemed like an eternity, but I finally found the inn… and warmed myself up…

As I was falling asleep, it dawned on me that there were a couple of draugr that I killed in a cave earlier but couldn’t remember exactly when or where it was. The cold and the tiredness drifted me off to sleep rather swiftly…

I found myself in Ivarstead one morning on my way to Whiterun. The walk was largely dull except for me trying to play hunter. Trying to shoot an arrow into a moving deer is more difficult than I imagined. Needless to say, little was achieved more than losing a few arrows.

Walking past the alchemists hut, I snuck in to see if the herbs and grown, ready for another pruning ;-) but it was not. It re-ignited my curiosity about the previous owner of the hut but I got distracted by a deer. After losing another few arrows, I decided to focus on picking some mountain flowers and other alchemical ingredients.

Things were dull until I got to Riverwood. I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to deliver a note from Faendal (the scoundrel) to some girl at the bar. I didn’t like how he wanted me to lie about some guy and as luck would have it, the guy was at the bar too singing something.

He probably deserves to know what was happening so I told him the truth. Now he wants me to lie and say that Faendal wrote a stupid letter. Now this was not my intention. Now I am in a situation where it is obvious that this town has not one but two lying idiots. I mean - what’s wrong with these people - can’t they sort this out themselves? I mean even a old fashioned duel would still better than this lying about each other.

I headed over to the girl resolving to tell her that both the men in her life are idiots. I started to tell her that Sven (that was the other guys name now that I remember) wanted me to lie about Faendal and before I would explain that Faendal was the same, she shouted some abuse about Sven and told me that I should probably thank Faendal. Oh wait, the women are crazy too. To each their own I thought and wandered across to Faendals house.

It was a little late in the night and he was fast asleep. I couldn’t be bothered to wait till morning, so i broke into his house. Considering that he’s a lying bastard and he was soundly sleeping, I robbed him of all valuables - which honestly was really not that much. I then woke him up and told him the good news - he seemed happy. The things we do for love… I thought.. For a moment, I wondered if I had done such silly things in my life… but only for a moment and jumped off the balcony and ran across to Whiterun.

Running past the honningbrew meadery, I remember that I had kicked the previous owner out and put somebody else in place for Maven Black Briar (one of the things I did for the Thieves Guild). I thought to drop him a visit and see how he was getting on.

He was happy to see me and told me how fortunate he was to go for being somebodies lackey to a very wealthy man overnight. He did not even offer me a free mead. I went upstairs and robbed him of all his valuables and I was just about to head out when I saw that the bar was full of bottles of Black Briar Mead. Not only are they delicious, they are also worth a fair bit of money, so I snuck around and shoved them all into my pockets.

I also tried to pickpocket the now wealthy Mallus but he had nothing on him that I could find…

It was pretty late when I got into town and stumbling into the first tavern, it turns out they don’t have rooms. I then made it across to the town square which had another tavern. This one did have rent out rooms - thank god.

After ditching all of my extra stuff that I could at the merchants, I headed back out in the direction of Markarth. I did various things on the way including killing a bandit leader is some cave and speaking to Kematu which was enlightening and further eroding faith in people.

Finally, I reached Rorikstead, it seemed like a nice quiet town. I even met Rorik who seemed like such a nice man to have bought a bunch of land for people to live off.

It was a nice enough place that I decided to spend a day hanging around and taking in the scenery and the loveliness of it all. There were even kids running around playing.

As one of them ran past, I stopped her and talked to her but it didn’t quite go the way I hoped. “Most days, I do all I can to stay away from my sister and my father. The beating’s the same from either one.” she told me. Sure enough her sister was right behind her and I realised that they were not actually playing…

This made me very curious and instead of hanging about soaking in the atmosphere, I followed people around trying to confirm how true this was and it saddened me a great deal to find out that it was indeed true. As it turns out Lemkil, their Father had lost his wife to the birth of the twins. A sad thing no excuse for what his daughters are going through.

I was overcome with a desire to put their father out of his misery. I did not even have the patience to wait until it was dark. He was working on a farm, I went up on a hill and hid behind a rock. I took aim and the first arrow hit the rock and rolled down the hill. I couldn’t help but giggle. I then readied another arrow, aimed a little higher and let it loose. Time slowed as the arrow left and found its mark.

Erik screamed bloody murder - pointing out it was in cold blood but I was well hidden and safe. Erik had told me how much he wanted to travel and be an adventurer. Hey, two birds with one stone eh? ;-)

I was in front of the daedric lord Clavicus Vile and it was all slowly coming to me. I heard Barbas barking away in the background and Jordis the Sword Maiden was her usual self, prancing about.

I looked for a way to get out and got to a closed gate. Seeing now way to open the gate, I took the long way back out the cave. No biggie, it was a good way to re-acquaint myself with the world again.

Once I got out of the cave, I re-prioritised. I had enough of traipsing around doing whatever I fancied. It was time to put an end to the civil war and of course to put a stop to all this dragon malarkey.

It was nice to have to followers - and one of them a pet though it did start to get very annoying when Barbas would just refuse to stop barking. He'd bark at anything. If I moved, he'd bark, if I stayed still, he'd bark, ooohhh there's a butterfly, woof woof. but I put up with it. More aggravating was his desire to always get in my way - in his own playful way of course, but he always like to come along an lie down in the door way. I could usually jump over him but it did sometimes cause me a bruised head with the doorway deciding to take up the same space as my head..

The three of us, the merry trio, did a lot of good things in Skyrim - defeated a number of dragons, helped a bunch of people do this and that, sold a lot of stuff and made a lot of money and even got up the throat of the world and travelled back in time.

I would often head back to my first home in Whiterun and see Lydia hanging about and while Jordis too complained about being sworn to carry my burdens, she somehow simply did not irritate me as much as Lydia did and I was happy.

I would often run off without waiting for the two of them and on more than one occasion, I would lose them somewhere, but after a while, sure enough, they would find me. Barbas was usually the first (must be his keen olfactory senses) and Jordis wouldn't be far behind. It usually brought a smile to my face to see Barbas - he always seemed so happy to see me "Where did you go - we've been looking everywhere for you", he seemed to say. I always imagined Jordis probably had a similar expression, but she was wearing a helmet that covered her whole face, so all I could see was cold hard steel - oh well.

After the brief jaunt through history, seeing Barbas still following me around, made my heart sink with sorrow. He was following me around since I promised to find an axe and re-unite him with his master... I hadn't done that for a very long time. I was level 25 when he started to follow me around and I was now level 31.

I decided it was time to find the axe for Barbas and re-unite him with his master. So I traipsed around a mountain, into a cave, killed a wizard and got the axe. That was easy. I returned to Clavicus Vile with no regard for his nonsense, I left Barbas by his masters side. I took a few moments to say goodbye and was confounded by the door I could not open again. This time though, I was used to world and saw the little chain on the right of the door, pulled it and et voila, I was out.

It was once again, just me and Jordis, the sword-maiden. My heart was heavy with the absence of Barbas but I shrugged it off and carried on. Helped with more the civil war stuff and got to Fort Snowhawk. I found these to be a little more difficult than ordinary missions, partly because, as a mage, I had very little health so it was easy to get injured. More importantly, I always found it difficult to be able to tell who was who and as a ranged combatant, it was even more difficult. I usually kill a few stormcloak  troopers by accident but I don't pay it much mind. After taking over the fort, I did various other things and it was time to take over the next fort. Once I got to that fort, I noticed that Jordis was nowhere to be seen.

I looked around, teleported around, and I still couldn't find her. It dawned on me that she might have been killed - and that too a while back - so there may be no way to fix this. I went to Proudspire Manor. Waited a while, and no - she did not come home and I was sure that she must have been killed. I had to be sure.

I wanted to know so badly that I resorted to otherwordly magic (I uttered the blasphemous phrase ~player.moveto 000A2C95) and I was in the strangest room I had ever been in. There were four hallways meeting and each of them led to what seemed like eternity. On the ground were a bunch of dead bodies and among them lay Jordis. I was speechless. She was dead! We had spent so much time together and without even a goodbye, she was dead. She was dead and all her armour was taken off, and I saw her face again. Calm and Serene.

I thought about resurrecting her with otherworldly magic but decided that would not be what she would want. I had to do some otherworldly jiggery pokey (load the previous save) to get out of that place since running out the door would just drop me back in the room.

Just a little while ago, I had two companions and within a matter of hours, I was all alone... I knew that if she takes enough damage, she would yield and  enemies would not attack her. It occurred to me that the last time I saw her was at Fort Snowhawk and then the realisation dawned on me. It was entirely possible that she was killed not by enemies, or wildebeasts - it was entirely possible that it was me who killed her.

I had recently killed a Boethiah cultist and was considering going to her shrine, where I suspected I would have to kill my companion so had avoided that mission. I had also gotten out of killing Barbas. Was it possible that Boethiah and Clavicus Vile were working their twisted magic to get me to kill my own follower? In any case, it was done! She was dead! and I was the most likely suspect for her murder.

When we finally crushed the Empire and liberated Skyrim form the Thalmor, when Ulfric Stormcloak was praising me, I thought of Jordis and Barbas. Fallen Comrades! Friends!

We picked a quiet spot to make camp. The strange creature like man they called Acacius led the group, tending to our severely injured leader, Ta’oma with such care and affection, with such love that it was difficult to believe that he was not a creature of light.

As the moon set, the sun rose and its golden rays would soon blind us. We crawled into the most comfortable spaces that we could find while Acacius stood watch. Here was a creature who did not know fatigure, nor did his power or energy wane during darkness of light, a creature akin to a god but I know better - there is no such thing as gods or demons. Except of course within ourselves.

As my eyelids started to shut weighed heavily by the burden of the night, I saw Acacius sit in the middle of the camp, in the lotus posture, eyes closed. I had heard that sight was not necessary in the lives of someone like Acacius or Ta’ome who could simply sense the energy of the universe.

I know not for how long I slept but it felt like mere minutes when I was woken by the screeching of blades. I reached for my sword and leapt to my feet and I saw that several others had done the same. I kicked awake the few that were asleep near me as I witnessed an awe striking image.

Acacius was on his own, hundreds of feet away from the camp, both his hands holding a sword over his right shoulder about to plunge it into the neck of the brightest most magnificent creature I had seen. It was an advance scout - a pegasus, as white as snow and with wings of an angel. As the sword plunged into its neck, it shrieked and the bright brilliant white had the bright red flowing, tainting, dripping, screaming, deafening. The hands that I had held up to prevent myself from being blinded were now covering my ears and my eyes were closed firmly shut.

As I opened them again, the pegasus was on the ground, and Acacius was knelt in front the animal, wiping the blood off on his knee. What kind of a creature was this, that would kill a creature of the light, and yet, pay his respects to it.

As I made my way towards him, he stood up and started walking towards us. I couldn’t help but keep my eyes the magnificence of the creature, now fallen and motionless.

Acacius paid no attention to me as he walked past. I knelt down to touch the slain creature and it was the softest fur that I had ever felt. The blood had dripped along its neck and it was still flowing with gusto. There was now a growing pool of blood on the ground, seeping into its pure soft white fur.

I heard Acacius talking to Abaddon, the one who had taken charge when Ta’ome was injured. “They have been alerted, we have only a few minutes at the most before they get here. We must prepare to defend ourselves. " I guess neither of them had to explain our disadvantage that we are weaker in the light and that they are stronger.

Abaddon shouted orders and I headed back to join the ranks. Once we dispersed to take our positions, I heard Acacius, whispered to Abaddon, “I cannot partake in this battle.” I could see Abaddon thinking about questioning his motives, then refrained.

As everyone moved to form a circle around the camp, Acacius took his place in the middle, he sat down again the lotus posture and closed his eyes, his sword dug deep into the earth right in front of him.

He just killed one of their soldiers, a scout, and yet he refuses to kill more. If he helped us, we could defeat them easily and make our way to the temple. It was at most another 12 hours trek. I truly struggled to understand his inability to join us in this battle which we would like lose without his help. Ta’ome would be killed or captured. Why does he care for his so yet refuse to assist us to protecting him?

I could not question our orders. These people, creatures, live in ways that I cannot understand, and I left it at that.

Just in that moment, I heard the screech of a winged creature, it was again, as white as the snow but it was small, not larger than a small monkey, but it wielded a sword and moved quicker than my eyes could follow.

I saw as it was struck down by a sword. There was another and yet one more. Then it was quiet but only for a few seconds before what seemed like a swarm of them came at us. It was a strange feeling as the brushed past me and flew around me and my comrades, the softness of their fur in such stark contrast to the sharpness of their blades.

We fought and we found hard and the vast majority of them lie dead at our feet and just as an iota of pride started to rise up within my soul, I saw it; This was again, just an advance guard, the next wave was snow leopards of forms and other creatures that I could not describe, all white. I guessed that they would all be soft to touch yet their growls and screams would describe a contradiction of the most magnificent magnitude.

As we tried to beat back the first wave of what seemed like flying monkeys, they retreated to join their brethren and it seemed like I just blinked before they were just a few dozen feet away from me. At this point, I knew that death would soon be upon me. I closed my eyes for a moment in prayer and cursed Acacius for not joining us, for not protecting us.

As I opened my eyes, The creatures screeched and charged towards us. I dug my feet into the ground and in an instant they all hit a barrier that neither I nor they could see and they fell to the ground. One by one they stood back up and reached out into the air to touch a glow in the air. It stopped them.

I looked behind and Acacius was on one knee, both his hands on the sword. I heard a horn and the creatures started to retreat, slowly at first and started to speed up. I saw the glow in the air now and it was shrinking. I could not understand why the creatures were running since the glow was getting closer to us. It quickly covered enough ground to be a feet or two away from us and we moved backwards into a tighter and tighter circle.

Once we were all as close together as we could be around Acacius, the glow around us stopped for a few moments, moments that felt like hours and it exploded. Racing across the land and as it touched the bright, magnificent creatures, they all fell to the ground. Some of them groaned, some did not.

The ones that were furthest away fell to the ground,  and I could do nothing but watch in awe. A moment later, Acacius stood, took a cigarette, lit it up, reached for his hipflask and took a drink out of it. He allowed himself to enjoy it thoroughly for a few moments.

“They will all be out for a few hours; it might be a good idea to not be here when they wake up”

I stumble into a bar in the darkest of night and order a scotch - neat! The redhead that serves me bring back faintly vivid memories of a blonde I once knew. Her shoulder length hair draped over a bright purple low cut top. Cleavage like mountains.

The bar as quiet as the night herself and the lights as dim as the ones that light my heart. I take off my coat and drape it over the bar and I can’t help but sense the love with which the coat clings on to the bar is if so frightened of falling - perhaps in love. Why did no one bother to tell it that it is not the falling but that sudden stop that will kills!

She brings the drink over and I take a wholesome sip. It burns my mouth, my tongue with a passion I haven’t felt in recent memory. I let it envelop my whole mouth. I can feel it burning through every part of my mouth that it can taste.

I ask for another one as it just rolls down my throat burning everything in its path and the rest of it is poured in my mouth.

She looks at me quizzically! I tap twice on the bar and say “please!”.. and she trots off to pour me another one. As she walks away, I can’t help but admire her from behind. She reminds of a brunette I knew once, not so long ago. The vividly faint memories flush my mind as the scotch burns my mouth and my throat with eager anticipation.

I can feel the peat thunder through my palate, burning all in its path. I close my eyes to listen to the music for the first time and it tells that the I’ve got to believe.. little does it know…

Brought back to reality by the drink being put in front of me, I decide to savour it a bit more this time. I take a big sniff of it and I can feel it rush up my nostrils and try to pierce through to my brain…

I only take a sip this time and turn around to look at the blonde that asks me if the seat next to me is taken. I wave my arm as if to say - “all yours!”… As she sits down, I realise that she reminds me of a redhead I once knew… With curves like a dagger, brutal yet somehow alluring. Inviting me to surrender to death.

She orders a scotch and I wave to the redhead and ask her to put it on my tab.

The blonde turns around and thanks me. I point out to her how rare it is to meet a girl who drinks scotch.

I finish my scotch and order another two as I introduce myself. She tells me that her name is Lana.  I tell her about this girl I once knew by that name… I look into her deep green eyes, caress her face, with skin so soft and tell her that the Lana I knew had eyes bluer than the ocean and her soul as kind as the oceans are deep paled in comparison to how danced… in the darkest of night, in the heaviest of rain, with the full moon the only light…

The next thing I know, I am being thrown up against the wall of my apartment. The glass walls looking out into an ocean. She rips my shirt apart as if it was made of paper and her lips finds its way around my face, my neck and my chest..

I push her away, which fails, so I pick her up and throw her on the couch. Softest leather in the world. I grab the remote and put on the stereo and it blares out screaming to the world that a seven nation army could not hold me back. I head over the bar and pour two drinks - of scotch. She comes over and holds me from behind, running her fingers, as soft as silk on my chest and kissing my neck with her lips softer than her skin.

I turn around and hand her a drink which she promptly puts down to kiss me. I don’t let her - I lean back and make her work harder… I enjoy watching her get a little frustrated… and try harder to get closer.

I take her hand and lead her over to the sofa and I sit down with her looking over me. She leans over to kiss me and I let her kiss me this time, but only briefly. I run my fingers up her soft naked legs, under her dress.

I run my hands softly up her inner thighs kissing her gently, like butterflies with my fingers. She breathes in sharply as I reach round and slowly, gently, up behind her and slowly reach into her pants. I pull them down, again, with my fingers gently kissing her skin all the way down. She lifts up one leg after the other as I take it off and throw it into the distance.

She bends on knee and places it alongside me and then the other to straddle me. She leans forward to kiss me and I let her kiss me… little butterfly kisses to start.

My hands run up her back and into her hair and down her back again. I run my fingers on her shoulders and and across her chest - pushing her away gently to visually absorb her stunning red dress tightly caressing her curves like blood on a dagger…

I look into her eyes and lean forward to kiss her. She tries to lean back to tease me but my arms hold her tight and there is no room for her to move…

My lips touch her lips and I can feel them making love, but her lips are not enough. I kiss her lower lip, her chin and her neck as my hands take hers and wrap it behind her.. trapped but only for a moment, before I run my fingers up them to find her shoulders again. It seems my fingers cannot get enough of her soft soft skin.

She pushes me back. Looks into my eyes, and her fingers run down to undo my belt and I realise that as much I would love to tell you what happens next.. it will have to wait… :-P

I briefly look up and spot the two parachutes landing close by. I look around and spot my target - he is amidst them all in a chariot, heading towards me. The two parachutes land in flanking positions amidst the army. I unsheathe my sword and can’t help but smile.

The soldiers come at me in swathes and I cut them down. I feel my sword enter the heart of one and the lungs of another. As I begin to feel myself get bored of the bloodshed, I clear a circle around me. I leap on to the shoulders of the ones closest to me and run across on the shoulders of the soldiers before they have a moment to realise what is happening or react. I run across and when the chariot is but a stones throw away, I leap and land on one side of the chariot. My lieutenants are not here yet but I see that they have seen what I did and they do the same thing. I turn around and roar.

The soldiers around my leap up on to me and drag me to the floor. I use my sword to block the attacks and push back hard as I leap to my feet. I fight them off and it doesn’t take long for my lieutenants to get to me. Once they distract the soldiers, I use some of the dead soldiers and the shoulders of some who are alive to help me leap on to the top of the chariot. My sword cuts through the top of and I use my hands to rip it apart and drop inside.

I see the fear on his face as my swords softly touches his neck and a smile creeps into my face. I use my other hand to reach for my hip flash and take a sip.

His hands tremble as he reaches under his seat and brings out the urn. I can hear the screaming and fighting outside. As my fingers grasp the urn, I hear the whistling was was faint earlier rapidly get louder and turn into a shrieking whine.

The next thing I know I’m flying through the air riding a shock wave of epic proportions. I crash into the ground and I look around and see that my lieutenants have also landed nearby. Immortality is cool but it can be painful at times. I pick myself up and look behind to see that most of the army is decimated. In the air however, I spot airships - and they’re not mine. They glide low and drop soldiers to the ground and they amass like ants and they rush towards us.

I signal to the other two and turn around to spot our airship in the distance gliding towards us. Its bay doors opening slowly. The hot air hits me like a wall as I leap up and grab on to the hanging door along with the other two. I lift myself up into the bay along with the others and hit the door close button. For an instant, I felt the g-force spike as the air ship made an abrupt stop mid air and lifted off directly into the stratosphere.

I pat them both on the shoulders, grab my flash and finish it off as I head to the cockpit…

As I look at her picture, the flashes of memories tug at my heart and I  can feel the love that I once felt slowly stew and burn and turn into rage and bitter bitter revenge.. It has been a very slow process and it has been months, but there was a lot of love to turn into bitter rage.

I could still taste the bile in my mouth - I don’t know how Acacius manages to keep drinking that stuff as it was water. I’ve thrown up more of that stuff today that he drinks in an hour. It actually tastes worse coming back up than it does going down and that is quite a feat.

I lie back and look up at the all too familiar ceiling and I have stared at each of those specks of dirt, those marks for so many hours, trying to figure out what the hell happened. How did I miss it? How can she have betrayed me so?

I turn over and reach across to the pack of cigarettes lying about - its easy to spot it cos its bright red.

The only thing separating me from those smokes were these empty bottles of various types and brands of alcohol vibrating gently from the loud reverberating music - if you can call it that. It just screams and beats away, tugging at my heart strings - if I still have a heart that is - a debate I’ll leave to other people to discuss and decide, for I simply care not, not in the slightest.

As I knock those bottles out of the way, I wonder how I managed to go through so much in just the last couple of days. Fuck, this is an empty pack, oh it’s ok, there’s another pack, also empty. I crumple them up and throw them into the corner of the room, atop the pile of crumpled up empty cigarette packets.

Ah, here’s a pack - it only has a few left, but I only need one…

I take one out, and barely drape it over my lips… The lighter, where the hell did I put the lighter - I pat myself down and notice I had left one in my trouser pocket. There benefits to having a number of lighters scattered all over the place, I think to myself.

I take it out and light the cigarette. As I take a deep draw from the cigarette, I feel like the smoke penetrates not just my poor little lungs struggling to keep oxygen circulated around my body, but it is draping a huge smog around my brain.

As I breathe out, I feel free, but only for a moment. My mind is clear, and all is well with the world. but only for a moment. Before I  can put the cigarette back on my lips, the door bleeps at me.

I knew this was inevitable. I wouldn’t get to sulk down here forever. I’m surprised it took them this long, but hey ho, I guess it’s time. I contemplate dragging myself up when the door beeps again. I giggle to myself.. wimps - if only they had balls, they would have been more insistent. They should have come in here weeks ago and dragged me out. Just can’t get good people these days.

I  manage to get myself on to a chair and door bleeps again. I wonder if I should sit here for a few minutes and test them - will they keep beeping? will they just come in? or will they give up and go away?

“Sir!”, I hear through the door, the voice trembling ever so slightly.. Poor lad - he’s trying atleast… I realise there is another way to make this fun, so I stand myself up, walk across to the door and just before he is about to put the button again, I open the door and scream “What?”

The boy nearly jumped out of his skin. I giggled in my head. The look of fear on his face was so precious, so adorable. The track changed and it felt like my heart was ripped out of for it brought a flashback with vivid details and the searing pain of it being ripped away. I wondered why I put that fucking thing on random going through all the tracks. That’s just suicide and then I remembered - that’s exactly why.

I didn’t realise this boy could be any more scared when I noticed that he was - he was truly terrified - petrified. I realised that my facial expression must have changed markedly when the track changed.

“What is it boy?” I howled. Trembling, he reaches into his pocket and hands me an envelope.

As I open the envelope, the tracks softly notes:

“Oh her eyes, her eyes
Make the stars look like they’re not shining”\

In the envelope, there is a small folded piece of paper. I unfold it and it simply says.

“We found it!”\

The next thing I notice is the track screaming:
“When I see your face
There’s not a thing that I would change
Cause you’re amazing
Just the way you are”\

I giggled to myself at their people stumbling about, trying to keep their stomach. They seem to have calmed down a bit over the last hour..

As I take another bite off my sandwich, Alvin heads over and tells me that we’re within range of the dive site. The science team were already taking measurements and confirming assumptions. This meant that there was probably only another 10 - 15 minutes to get ready and into the bathyscaphe.

The idea of diving to the bottom of one of the deepest surveyed points in the oceans filled me with excitement and anxiety. It would take me a two to three hours to get down there and it should be an uneventful descent.

I finish the rest of the sandwich and head over to the bathyscape. The crew, nod and wish me luck as they walk past carrying out their duties and I nod and smile, nod and smile.

I climb in and the door is closed and secured from the outside. Pushing down on the communicator button, I check with the science team before starting the pre-dive sequence. They take a moment to reply but come back with an all-clear.

As I run through the checks, the floor seems to fly away as I am lifted up and brought over the ocean and gently placed on the surface. Since so much of the craft is transparent, it is almost as if I am floating in a bubble.

I let the team know that the craft is ready for descent and they confirm dive. As I hit the release button, there is a brief dipping sensation before it settles, and slowly, slowly sinks. I push the button to dive and it sinks faster, and faster but still at a fairly leisurely pace.

As the darkness sets in, I switch on the lights and spot various fish swimming past and I open a bar of chocolate and lean back. I knew there was a reason I had the extra comfortable chair installed on here..

I consider drifting off into sleep, but only for a moment - for the beeping of the detector kicked in. We must be less than 10km away. I make some minor adjustments and lean back enjoying the chocolate bar.

A number of adjustments, a magazine, another chocolate bar and a nap or two later and were just a few hundred metres away. As I take my eyes away from the controls and to look at where we are going, I notice a faint glow in the distance.

I switch off the lights to check that it’s not just a reflection and sure enough, there is something emitting light down here. This is unbelievable, we are 10km or so under an ocean. What the hell could be emitting light?

As I get closer, I see that there are no specific sources of light - it is as if the whole ocean is floor is glowing. Closer yet and I notice that it’s the plants and indeed some of the fish and it is quite a sight to behold. I felt a bit as if I had accidentally wandered into a brightly lit city under the ocean.

There it is - in the middle of it all, in the highest point of the ocean floor, the brightest of them all, and it’s not a plant or a fish, it looks like a flask of some form. The ocean life is richest and wildest and brightest near this flask and very slowly fades into the distance.

I let the team know that I have spotted the artifact and that I was en-route to retrieve it. As I get closer, I notice that the craft is slowing down. Checking the controls and guages, I am not able to discern anything wrong with the engines or the craft.

As I look around, I notice something odd - there seems to be a plant like thing stuck on the rotors on the back of the craft. I reverse the engines and forward again to jettison the plant. Easy enough.

A few seconds later, the craft gets slower again. I lean over to the engine controls and look behind to check when to my surprise, there is nothing wrong with the engine. Nothing in the rotors and then I see it - a creeper of some form had gotten a hold of a bar on the outside of the craft and was slowing it down.

There was nothing I could do. Oh well, if it takes a little longer - so be it. As I turn around, i am greeted by the sight of a fish barrelling itself again the craft. What the hell? Are they blind down here?

As I get closer to the artifact, I notice that there are more and more fish heading towards me. The plants seems to moving towards me too. They are not blind - they are protecting the artifact.

I let the team know and ramp up the engines to get me there quicker. This spurs on the ocean life to attach the craft with even more gusto.

As I reach the artifact and engage the arm to pick up the artifact, half the craft is covered by some form of plant life and the other side is mostly just various forms of fish and other animals. I can barely see the arm pick up the artifact.

This craft was built to survive under very high pressures but these creatures and attacking with an aggression that I had never seen before.

As soon as I had the artifact, I hit the surface button and I start to surface slowly before being dragged back down by the increased weight of the craft.

If that wasn’t bad enough, alarms start to go off. Hull integrity was being compromised - these creatures were causing drag and increasing the weight of the craft making it difficult, if not impossible for me to surface.

I only had one choice left and that was to engage the emergency protocols for rapid surfacing. It was a dangerous manoeuvre, even more so with all these creatures attached to the craft. I had no choice. I  hesitate for a moment, then hit the button.

For a moment, it seems like it had no impact, and then there was an explosion. I saw large chunks of the plant life attached to the craft disintegrate and drift off.

I smile in relief and turn around to see the largest fish I had ever seen in my life heading towards me. I jump onto the controls and swerve wildly to avoid the behemoth and almost narrowly averted it before it flicked its tail fin off the front.

Even though the structural integrity needle was not all the way in the red, we were still intact.

I leaned back into the chair and confirmed that the artifact was still secure. I informed the team about the situation and leaned over to the controls to pick up another chocolate bar when I spot this tiny cute little glowing fish right in front.

It was matching the craft’s ascent and and it looked like it was inspecting me. I waved at it and it came towards me and tapped on the glass. There it was - a tiny little crack.

As it swam away, I thanked the gods that this craft was built to withstand a crack here or there. As I  lean back on my seat, I see the little guy is back and he’s brought friends. There are only a half a dozen or so of them, but they surround me. In a moment of pure operatic genius, they dance, in a beautiful co-ordinated fashion towards the glass and hit it on all sides at the same time.

The see the cracks on each side, and they slowly creep and start to join together. I am surrounded entirely by cracks. Then the first one, the one that I first saw, takes another, one final stab and I close my eyes.

What? Is that all? I mean seriously.. who the hell am I and more importantly? where the hell am i? The frustration, the rage and the panic was starting to build up and.. “beep”, “beep beep”..

I  turn around to where the sound was coming from and there is a terminal beeping and flashing away… I get out of the bed and make my way over.

The screen tells to me to press any key… so I do, I press the biggest easiest key on the keyboard to press and it doesn’t do anything.. I try again - nothing!

I can feel the frustration and rage building up again, and then I pay attention to the keyboard and there it is a key that is marked “any”.

You know how everyone imagines that when you die, you entire life flashes before you… Well, that is nothing compared to what happened at that very moment. I had memories of what seemed like a million years compressed into a few seconds get pumped into my brain..

Typical - of course it is. The trigger had to be something so inane, and of course there were no clues - where would the fun be in THAT!

Even the frustration and rage was explained, as I opened the top draw of the desk, took out the pack of cigarettes, lit one up… looked around for a bottle; and there it is… As it burns down my throat and the smoke destroys my lungs, I can feel the sense of utter calm overwhelm me.. ah, to experience the bliss that is this moment and this unique moment… never to be repeated… never to be outdone.. and there is nothing quite like the first draw…

Alright… back to this fragile reality and I hit the any key to be greeted with the loud beat reverberating through what feels like each and every single cell of my body right through to my soul… and I shall leave the trivialities of whether I have one, whether indeed anyone has one to those who find it a fascinating realm of study…

I wonder how long I have been asleep and more importantly what the weather is like outside. I head on over to the lift, hit the button and it opens up. I get in and the light is flashing at a negative 50. and it goes all the way up to 50.. “Ah, I love symmetry”, I think to myself as I push the 50. I’m glad the 50 above ground is still there and it hasn’t been decimated in the time that I’ve been asleep in here. Perhaps, I’ve only been asleep for a few days or months - who knows?

The lift rockets to the top and it opens on to the penthouse suite and it’s well maintained - just the way I like it. I make a mental note to thank whoever has taken over the maintenance duties.

I head over to the coffee table, pick up the remote and push the button for the curtains which promptly opens, all the way to reveal the glass walls that is now looking onto a landscape that is as white as the clouds or a brides gown and oh so beautiful. My heart skips a beat as I draw on the cigarette.. You know - I don’t care about the reason for being woken - this view is reason enough; and I have to take a moment to admire the view. I look down on all the landscape, all the snow, all that white - “is it Christmas?” I wonder.. nah - it can’t be - there would be presents and tree in here if it was..

I glance across to the calendar on the wall and its only November… The 30th, but nevertheless, only November.

As I wander back to the lift, a thought wandered through my mind that the reason for me being woken should be investigated. I hit zero in the lift and let that thought wander along. It waited all these years; it can wait a few more hours.

The lift plummets to the ground floor and once it lets me out, I head to the garage. It is always such a touch choice as to what I want to take out on such a beautiful day. As I walk past all the cars and the bikes, my mind reels nostalgically to the memories in each of them, but only for a moment for I spot the perfect one for this occasion. The dark horse. yes… on a day of snow, a day when everything is white, the dark horse is the prefect companion to go out into the world with.

I walk over. It is jet black with beautiful sleep chrome lines. I hit the button to open the doors, and as all the others disappear into the ground and the doors open, the chilly air envelops me and I  don the leathers.

I take one last draw from the cigarette and flick it into the distance. I put on the helmet and giggle a little, in victory, as the music gets transferred from the room to my helmet and admire my own technical ingenuity as I get onto the bike.

As I start it I can feel it purring and I  can’t help but smile. I rev the bike just to hear it purr, to feel it purr. I can feel the cold air caressing me as I blaze out of the garage and slide on to the road and speed away.

The world hasn’t changed much. There are still roads, although there isn’t any traffic - hey, all the more road for me… I accelerate and I watch the speed climb rapidly past a 100 when the track in my head is interrupted with ringing.. “ring… ring ring… ring.. ring ring..”

I guess it was inevitable… so I hit the answer button and ask.. “what up?”…

First things first - “is it confirmed?” I ask him. “Yup, source checks out, as does satellite images and local intelligence”. I have an overwhelming desire to order a chopper, fly over with a few teams and just blow the place up. I lost 15 people to them last time - eye for an eye, but that’s not what we are about. We are the good guys - right?

As we go our separate ways and I head to my office, I ask frank to prepare a briefing for the team in 15 minutes. I start to imagine the ways in which we could get payback. I wonder if I want to kill the people in there slowly or whether a high yield detonation would be more appropriate.

I log into the computer and quickly check through the emails, nothing interesting - no voicemails. I have another five minutes and imagine how nice it would be have a cigarette but I quit a few months ago. Darn those health kicks…

I sit back, pop my feet on the desk and just sip on my coffee. I wonder if I’ll be able to get my hands on a sniper rifle and find a location high enough - if the building catches fire, they would all have to evacuate. I could then pick them off one by one. I wonder if they would panic.

Frank knocks once, open the door and tells me that they are ready. I walk over and can’t stop thinking about more interesting ways to kill these people. Where could we place the C4 charges, all around the building?

Frank fills us all in on the intel that we have on the base called “Glaucia” - who picks these names I wonder? As the deeper recesses of my mind imagine watching as a napalm bomb is dropped on the base, we are told that the base is surrounded by acres of woods, lakes and plains. “Well, that removes the option to sniper”, I think to myself. The boundary of the base is marked by a tall electrical fence that detects intrusion and reports it. It will take roughly five minutes for drive from the gate to the base. It is likely that road is booby trapped with explosives although we haven’t been hit by that before.

The satellite imagery shows a few hundred people in the base so it certainly looks in use. We’ll need to manage a strike that is lightning fast to avoid alerting them to our presence since we want to get in quickly so they don’t have an opportunity to destroy all the data as they have done every time we hit them before.

Frank then tells me something that I didn’t expect, and it makes me smile. “We have an in this time…, The west wing of the building is in disrepair and they have contracted a local company to make the repairs. We have intercepted them and will take their place.”

There is a problem with the plan. It has to be a smaller team, about twelve people in total. I interrupt and tell him that there will be thirteen - I am going! Frank starts to object and I make it clear that it was not up for debate.

I tune out as Frank goes through the rest of the plan…

I am in the lead car, Frank is driving. There are three cars in total, two with four people, and mine with five. As we drive the quiet streets, I take a moment to enjoy the snow and imagine it covered in blood spatter… Not long now.

As we approach the gate, Frank lowers the window and shows his fake id to open the gate. This is the first time that we have entered one of the bases without alerting them. This is going to be a success for us. The first one. I can feel my skin tingling with anticipation. I pick up a cigarette from Frank’s pack and light it up - screw quitting. Life is too short! As I take the first draw, I feel the nicotine pulsing through and it calms me down. I forcibly ignore the guilt and just push it to one side. I’ll deal with it later.

Its hard to ignore the beauty of this place and even harder to imagine the snow covered in blood spatter - it somehow feels wrong - just plain wrong. I want to turn around and leave - I don’t want a part of destroying such beauty and we keep moving.

I can see the building now, like a fairytale, majestic and so beautiful. It towers so high that it makes me feel like an ant and it looks so old that I have to wonder how they would have taken that heavy stone all the way up to the top. I  wonder how much blood was spilt in making this beautiful and powerful structure. I wonder how much C4 it would take to blow it into the ground - probably a lot more than we have.  In front of the building, there is a statue, which looks to be very old but well kept.

The car comes to a stop behind the statue and I feel the cold air caress my skin softly and the snow crunches under my feet. The cold air fills my lungs with enthusiasm. I take a moment and close the door. I close my eyes while filling my lungs slowly drawing on the cigarette as the rest of me fills up on the cold, crisp beauty and serenity of the place. By the time I open my eyes the teams have already scouted the perimeter and come back to report.

I take a moment examining the statue, it is difficult to tell if it is merely hundreds of years old or thousands but a lot of care has gone into maintaining its glory. It starts to snow softly  as I look up to see the face of the statue, a man with a look of power and serenity and I can sense a feeling of deep peace, but only for a moment as it is interrupted by quiet radio chatter.

There are no other entry points. The windows are inaccessible and there are no other doors. The main door is the only way in. I notice that there is music coming from the building. I can’t make it out yet - I wonder why they might be playing music, and so loudly.

Two of the teams line up either side of the door. My whole body is tingling, I can feel my heart beating, I concentrate on my breathing to help me focus and relax. They count down silently from three, open the door and enter, I can hear the radio repeating “clear” which the music in the background. I was expecting gunfire but heard none. I go in with the two other teams coming in behind me and the music is louder. The rooms to each side are cleared and we enter a hall which must be the center of the building and it is massive. There are murals over the walls and the ceilings, of gods, angels, demons, war, peace, beauty, everything. I keep focussed. In the center of the room, there is a display panel.

The music is coming from here. The size and the acoustics of the room makes the sound so imposing and majestic. It feels like we should all kneel on the floor and submit to the music but we keep moving, spread through the room. I hear the door close and click behind me. I see a couple of the team try to get it open again with no luck.

As I walk over the panel in the center of the room, I look up and spot someone standing on a balcony looking down. He hasn’t spotted me. I can get him and I  have two choices - shoot him or trace him. As he looks over to spot me, I grab my tracer pistol as quickly as I can, aim and fire. He spots me, smiles, walks to wall, opens it and walks out.

I radio central to pick up the trace as I  spot what it says on the panel - its counting down from 5. By the time I realise what is happening, its already at three. Fuck! If im going down, I’m taking at least that one bastard with me! I radio central to fire the rockets - they ask for confirmation - and I confirm. After 1, it shows a smiley face and in that moment, I felt time slow down, almost stop. I saw my life. The crush on Lisa in school, joining the force, my wedding, the birth of my son, the divorce, the sadness on my sons face when he asked me not to go to work today, the way he wrapped his whole hand around my little finger the day he was born and I can’t help but smile.

I can taste the iron in the blood of victory in the cool air. My armies are committed and it won’t be long before the final battle starts.

After I awoke, I realised that the world had changed in the two thousand years that I was asleep. Humanity had kept itself busy fighting between themselves - we were never even missed. If only we weren’t restricted to meagre fractions of our armies if we are to fight on this world or they could have witnessed a real war.

My awakening meant that the other nine was also awake. The only wildcard was Acacius and his complete absence meant that this was, for the first time in all eternity truly between the armies of the dark and the armies of the light. I knew that to achieve victory, I needed allies.

More importantly, I needed a strong human presence since this was would be fought on all fronts. I sent my team of four to the four corners of the world to build an empire, to make allies and be ready for my call. This works as a good deterring tactic, particularly since Aelia and her armies will be reluctant to spill the blood of the innocent.

It doesn’t matter how powerful my army is if I don’t know where the enemy is. This was for me to tackle.

It took a lot of hunting and a few years ago, I discovered the location of one of their offices. The head of the corporation, Lucia reports directly to Aelia. She was my target, and I got to know her. We fell in love and together, we will rule all that is, and all that ever will be…

As I turn around, I can see Lucia’s airship in the distance dropping her off. I changed the plans to move the final battle a few weeks earlier and she is not going to like that. Our preparations finished ahead of schedule and there is no point in waiting.

I don’t like having to walk all the way over there but there is far too much at stake and it is not worth the risk of being spotted by anyone. The ground starts to turn muddy as rain starts to pour down, as if sad to see the world as it is come to an end. I can feel the rain dripping down my face and I can see her now, her long black hair clinging to her face and her black coat. She is walking slowly towards me. I smile. She smiles back, but its different. I haven’t seen this smile before.

She knows something that I do not… not yet and I can feel my gut twisting - I am not going to like what is to come.

The clouds clear, the rain stops and sun’s brightness streams through with a vengeance. She takes her coat off to reveal white, pure pure white silk clinging close to her soft skin. Her hair changes, the water in her hair glistens, for a moment, and slowly changes to gold, dry, and flowing the soft the soft breeze.

The irony of the betrayal made me smile. This was Aelia herself. Now, we are both equal, just on opposite sides, so I know that she would not be here unless her armies were nearby. I know that her lieutenants are engaged elsewhere through my other sources.

She kneels on one knee and picks up the sand, which is now dry and throws it into the air. From it springs beautiful creatures of gold and platinum, thousands of them. in the blink of an eye, there was an army.

The beauty of it brought a tear to my eye as it always did and I took my stand. She smiled a confident smile and I laughed. She mistook it for arrogance and her smile widened in preparation for victory.

Just as they prepared to attack, there was a loud boom through the sky. It was one of my transports, zooming along at mach something or other. Too fast to pick me up but not to drop something off. Not something, but two of my lieutenants. Before Aelia and her army recovered from the surprise, the two lieutenants had already thrown their daggers at her. The three of us are charging towards them all.

I can see the two daggers join together in front of me to form a sword and going right for Aelia. I’m glad there are rules against using “modern” weapons - swordplay is just more fun. The satisfaction you get from plunging it into a body is unparalleled - where is the joy in squeezing a trigger?

Before the sword finds its intended target, one of her soldiers get in front On impact, it turns to dust, but before the sword has a chance to fall to the ground, my hand is around the hilt. She has her sword out as well. To either side, I can see my lieutenants fighting through hordes of the creatures.

As I raise my sword to strike, I can feel the rage, the anger and the desire for destruction boiling to the surface. I want to slowly place this sword into her heart. Just as I was about to bring the sword down and strike, I hear something metallic drop down at my feet. It beeps and sends out a powerful shockwave throwing us all apart. It takes me a second to recover and I hear the noise of a car - who still drives those?

It screams through the space between the three of us and the army. It spins around to separate the army from us. I can see from his manner, the cigarette in his hand, the hipflask on the passenger seat, and the music blaring loudly that its Acacius. He gestures for us to pop in and without hesitation, we jump in. He turns around and speeds to the cliff…

The army of Aelia following behind. Before I can ask him what the hell he was doing, we are flying off the edge of the cliff. Just as I wonder if I should have just stayed and fought, I see an airship - its docking bays are open. We land, race to the end and come to a stop. He switches the car off and after I take a moment to catch my breath, ask him why he still drives around in one of these. “Meh, I still like them”, he tells me.

We’ve both had some nice red wine, the music is perfect, it is tugging at my heart strings, this is perfect, romantic with a hint of filth, the perfect time for my phone to buzzzzz. I know that I have a few seconds before the ringtone kicks in. My right hand changes it mind, moves over to the phone and pushes ignore. At least it doesn’t call for anything more than one arm.

My right arm makes it way to her back. I like the way her tongue feels, particularly the stud she has in there… not sure exactly what word to use to describe it. My right hands feels along the bra strap onto the buckle again…

bzzzzzzttt. Perfect! its important, but thats ok, its not urgent. I wonder what it could be, for a moment, as my right arm repeats the ignore.

My right hand just strokes her back this time round. I need to allow for a minute or two. The phone could ring again but it didn’t. My body is in automatic pilot, keeping the pace but does not have my attention, not yet. One… Two… Three… Four… Five… I could as slowly as possible… Six… Seven… Eight… and there it was, not a ring, not a bzzzzzzzzttt, but a short burst bzztt. I know what is coming… One… Two… and my phone screams… Its not a call, its not urgent, not at all, its an emergency.

Why is my tongue still in her mouth? I roll her over, take my tongue out, grab my shirt, my phone and walk out as I start to button up, As I close the door, I hear her shouting out for me to call her. Ring up the lift, put my headphones on and click play. Music screams. I need to make a phone call but it’ll have to wait until I’m out of the building.

The lift pings, the door opens and reveals and rugged man with long-ish, ruffled hair, tight shirt, jeans. Can’t help but admire the man and his animal magnetism. Now that is why there should be more mirrors in the world!

I have a minute maybe 90 seconds before I need to deal with this, so I dissolve into the music - auto-pilot.

As I scream out of the garage, I call. It rings only once. “The coordinates for the base Aquila has been compromised”, he tells me. “How long do we have”, I ask. “ten to fifteen minutes. The base is already in auto-destruct with 9 minutes”, “I’ll be there in five!”.

Heavy snow, nicely under the influence of a bottle of nice red wine and I have five minutes when it takes me 20 on a good day. Now, this is what I live for. As the phone disconnects, music comes back, loud and and the whole car reverberates with the bass as the pedal hits the metal - blitzing through the traffic, I can feel the adrenaline hit as I reach over to the passenger street to grab the hip flash and bring it to my lips. I can feel it tingling down my throat. The only thing that could make this better is a cigarette, but I have to wait until the next stretch of straight, and then I spot the lights.

Hmmm, I wasn’t expecting them for another 30 seconds. Oh well! as I turn into a corner, I notice the the lights are red and cars a backed up ahead, opposite traffic is trickling down slowly, so I take the only sensible choice I  have, to weave through oncoming traffic and slide through the lights turning right. I pick up the pack of cigarettes from the passenger seat, flick it open and bring it to my mouth so I can fish one out. Grab the lighter and light it.

As I look in the rear-view mirror, the lights are already so far behind that I can’t seem them through the snow.

I have a minute, 90 seconds to relax.

I can see the door opening - no matter how many times I have enjoyed the automations, I still appreciate it - the less I have to do the better.

The car screeches to a halt as I open the door and get out. The door open automatically - you gotta love technology. I walk through and there is a countdown timer projected onto the wall with a cartoon of a smiley face exploding instead of the zero’s. That still cracks me up! Four minutes and thirty seconds to go. I’m thirty seconds early. I hang a right into the kitchen, straight to the fridge to pick up a nice cold bottle of beer.

Walking back into the main space, with just over four minutes to go, I am drawn to the conference table in the middle with all the pizza - I need to pick up a slice.

As I walk over to the table, I am told that the outer perimeter sensors have detected an incursion. That gives us another seven minutes. An extra three minutes. They are getting faster. I’m glad for the pizza - I wonder if they knew that I was in the mood for some pepperoni.

As I enjoy the pizza, I ponder on whether to delay the auto-destruct by a few minutes so that I can catch a few more of them in the blast. My train of though is interrupted by an informational dialog popping up on the wall to tell me that all sensitive information has been wiped clean and that all personnell has been evacuated. Two minutes to go - we are also getting faster, but we are down by one minute.

“Delay the auto-destruct by four minutes”, I tell them. “But that’ll give them a full minute” responded Arin. “Good!” I thought and nodded to arin. The timer was reset.

As the countdown went down to a minute, the building sensors told us that they were just entering the building and I imagined it. They think that they are early, that they beat the timer. I know that they will see the welcome banner as they walk in - I like that! This is the first time that they will have seen that. They have never gotten this far before.

And they’ll meander in, with all their gear, signalling and shouting, the room must be filled with adrenalin and testosterone. For a moment, I feel bad for them, but let it go. As the timer goes down to ten seconds, I wonder if they got to the heart of the building, whether they are trying to bring the dead machines back to life, opening up filing cabinets with cute little messages on them. I wonder if they smiled.

As the counter hit zero, I know that they heard it, the explosion right outside the building. There are no longer any exits to this building. The building no longer has any windows - the explosion blew them out. It’ll take them a second to figure out what happened. All of the walls of the building now light up with a timer, and the soft sweet voice of a girl counting down… Five… Four… Three.. Two… One… Zero… The zero is a smiley face. It teases them for a second, then explodes, and so does the whole building. They didn’t stand a chance.