October 24, 2008 1:45 pm
Seven's capital, Malison
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▫️Seven

I gaze across the battlefield. Bodies from both side litter the ground like weeds growing rapidly more dense by the second. I close my eyes, part of me knows I have lost. My brothers have gained a great advantage over me and are pressing forward, their Zodiac Rangers are too strong for my average warriors to take. The storm I have created destroyed most of the supplies the loyalists had, sending most into flames as the lightning touched them.

There is only one thing that can help me now. I turn from the window and walk over to the complex computer system set up on the side of the room. There is a single red button that stands out among all the others, beside it is a keyhole to activate it. It is to the bomb we have been working on, it is bigger then any other bomb ever... I am the only one who has the key.

"Should I do this Zavier?" I ask my second. "I know we can do this, but should we?"

It's finally come, time to decide whether I should wipe out the other side, knock them all down, destroying most of my home in the process. Or to do nothing, and lose everything I have worked so hard to gain.

"It's not my decision dear friend," Zavier says. "It is all up to you now. But just know we are going to loose if you don't, we have Zodiac Rangers searching for us in the building now, they have gotten past all out lines of defense. We have five in the building currently. Three are on the bottom floor, while the two are three floors below us."

"So face defeat... or change the course?" I sigh as I stare at that button. The danger of the bomb is real, it could wipe out over half the planet instantly. Not to mention the radiation could mean doom to the rest. There might not be a Malison to rule after I do win.

"Fear is the greatest enemy," Zavier says as he walked by me, "and death is often the reason anyone is so afraid of anything."

"You have told me that before... only now does it make sense. Zavier, do the people fear me?" I ask him, turning to him. I have to look up at him, he is almost an entire head taller than I am.

"Yes."

"Are they right to fear me?" I ask. "Has the dark in me been the only thing that shown? I must seem like a monster to the people of Malison. If only they would see why I am doing all this, why I am fighting for their freedom."

"They won't see. They have been brainwashed in their schools to think of Mike and Luke as the greatest leaders of all," Zavier explains as he puts a hand on my shoulder. "Now good friend, I need to go. When you decide what to do, I'll support you either way. But the Zodiac rangers are close, someone needs to by you time."

With that, Zavier let go of me and left. Little did I know this would be the last conversation I would have with my only friend.
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▫️Stella

I slide around a corner, keeping my sword close to me. Aron is beside me, as he should be, patting out his shoulder from a bit of fire. We are alone now, just two kids stupid and fearless, and we had made it to the final floor.

"Seven has to be on this floor," Aron whispers. "It is the last one."

"Be careful Aron," I warn. "If I get captured, shoot me and run."

"I am not going to shoot you," Aron argues as we hurry around another corner to safety.

"Please Aron... I would do the same for you," I order him.

"I can't kill you Stella, you are my sister," Aron says.

I sigh, before ducking around another corner to continue our advance, but I run into something hard. It grabs me and turns me around so my back is to it, and a knife is held at my throat.

"Stay back Ranger." The deep male voice, thick with a French accent says to Aron.

Aron's eyes go wide. "Don't hurt her!" He begs. "We surrender."

"Don't worry, no harm will come to her," the voice says again. I see out of the corner of my eye that my capture has blond hair and freckles that lined his arms. He must be from Francium. That explains his accent.

"Aron, don't worry about me... run!" I order him.

"I'm not leaving you," Aron stares at me.

"Please!"

"Aww how cute," the voice says again. "Such a loyal boyfriend of yours."

"We are sibling!" I say through gritted teeth.

"Ooo... my bad," he chuckles as he looked at Aron. "Don't worry, she won't be missed by anyone 148."
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▫️ Seven

I have started all this. This war began because of me. The red button is there because of me. People are dying because of me.

I open a drawer and pull out a simple bead, it is clear with a small galaxy circling inside it. This is a rare artifact, one anyone would die to get their hands on. It is called a Vortex, better known as a portal. I am currently in possession of two. One in my hand and one hidden somewhere only I know of. There are more found throughout the galaxy, but their origin location is unknown.

I could use this portal to run away, but I've been running my whole life. I throw other people in my place to fight. And would running away lead to the growth of the problems I am trying to fix? I am making my world disappear through the art of war, how much longer can Malison survive? Is everyone in danger as long as this war continues? Will the destruction continue? Will families still not know the taste of freedom? How much further will I have to go to give them what they deserve? Am I really as bad as they think I am? How did I end up this way, caught in a war I never meant to start? Am I better off dead? If I kill myself, will they ever know happiness?

"Azun?" I speak softly, like I am praying. I look up at the windows, I stare at the clouds. "You know better then I do. Should I press the button? Or am I better off dead?" I stare at the window, like I was expecting an answer that never came. "What if... if I was just gone from this life, will the people of Malison ever know happiness, freedom... and love?" I wait for a moment as my thoughts come to me.

All my thoughts say 'NO.'

I need to stay alive, to fix this mess Luke and Mike have made. I need to make a better world, even if I need to rise it out of the blood of my enemies. I have a monster  to launch, I am a villain. There is a difference because a villain always has good intentions, they want to bring a better world for their people. They always are right in their own eyes. There is now only one more thing left for me to do, press that button. I am not a monster. I will not be a monster. I will be a villain instead. I throw myself at the button and press it, the button sinks down into the table and I feel a rumble at my feet as I feel the bomb take off. I know it will find Luke and Mike and blast them to a billion pieces. Just like they deserve.

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▫️Aron

The ground shakes around us. At that moment I swear the temperature also dropped ten degrees. The guard released my sister in the commotion and I grab her and pull her back to me.

"What is that!" Stella yells.

"I don't know!" I yell back.

"Seven unleashed the greatest weapon of all time," the man laughs beside us. "You are so screwed."

"You can't hurt any of us! You don't even know where our base is," I snap at him.

"Foolish you all are. Take a closer look, do you recognize me? My name is Zavier if that helps. "

I knew that name... "You... you are Zavier. You are Luke's top spy! You betrayed Malison!"

"No, I am strengthening Malison, Seven and I will bring Malison into a better tomorrow!" Zavier stood up as the ground stopped shaking. "This bomb we just launched will destroy your headquarters, all of it, and everything will be vaporized."

"No..." Stella gasps.

"You... you traitor!" I yell at him, drawing my sword I lung at him.

"What you going to do about it?" Zavier laughs as he simply steps out of my way. "Charge me with treason? Sentence me to death?" Zavier turns on his heels and started running down the hallway, probably back to Seven.

"Let's follow him," Stella whispers.

"That's what he wants us to do," I whisper back.

"We need to stop that bomb Aron."

"Guess we have no choice." I follow after him, with my sister at my side. We run to catch up, but Zavier notices and runs faster.

"Seven!" Zavier yells as he approaches a giant set of doors.

The doors open, and a figure emerges.

There is no way that could be Seven... no way. He had soft blond hair that was styled to perfection. His skin was fair and spotless. He was short and his figure was petite. He was small. Too small to be the great villain everyone speaks so highly of. His eyes were bright blue, similar to the color of the sky on a perfect shinning summer day. There is no way a creature as beautiful and fine as him could be the wicked monstrous Seven I have heard about in legends. No way... this had to be someone else.

Zavier slid towards Seven, and ducked behind him. Seven held out his small fair hands, his fingers were thin and long, with a smirk he snapped his fingers. Next thing I knew, the windows on both of the walls shattered around me, glass shards went everywhere. I ducked to the ground and covered my neck and head with my arms. I felt he glass skater around me as it fell.

When I finally opened my eyes, I could see Stella was still beside me, she was alright. Thank goodness!

Behind her however stood Zavier. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.

"Get your filthy hands off her!" I yell as I stood up, about the draw my sword when I felt a force throw me back into the wall.

I gasped for air. When my heart calmed down from the impact I opened my eyes and saw Seven in front of me. He was so short... like he could be my age or younger. There were legends that told Seven had stopped aging when he became Seven, others said he got poisoned from Earth and stopped aging because of that. But all said he was around the age of 16. That's how old I was currently.

"It's a shame you are so loyal to my brothers." Seven says as he smiles up at me, his teeth were perfectly straight and perfectly white. "You would make a perfect warrior for my army. You have a lot of energy, if channeled Phoenix, you could be powerful young Ranger."

"You..." I try to speak but he chocked me with a clench of his fist. I gasped, trying to find some sort of air, any air to fill my empty lungs. Lightning cracked outside the window right by my body, distracting Seven for a moment and I was dropped to the ground. My eyes went to Stella, I could see her eyes were glowing bright purple, a signal she had just used her power... that crack of lightning to save me, was my sister. A sparkle caught my eye, Seven had dropped something in the commotion, it was a shiny little ball almost like a bead and it bounced on the marble ground away from him.

He seemed to notice he had dropped it as well. "Zavier!" He gasps loudly as he turned to try and get whatever that bead was. But I was quicker. I swung my legs under him, knocking him to the ground. I then tried to launch myself at the bead, fighting to get it before Zavier did.

Zavier still held my sister, so he only had one hand to work with. Just as I was about the grab the jewel, I felt myself getting pull back by my legs, then I felt Seven's boney knees as he climbed over me quickly to try and get the bead. I quickly flipped both of us over, I pinned Seven to the ground with one hand, and with my other I created a small flame in the palm of my hand. Seven gasped loudly and tried to move away from the flame.

"Don't like fire..." I whisper as I held the flame closer to that monster.

"Please get that away from me!" Seven begs as he tried to struggle against me, but he was small and I was much stronger then he will ever be. Seven's silver tears reflect the light of my flame as I bring it close to him.

The storm continued to grow outside, and lightning struck the window fames on either side of us. I could tell my sister was using all her remaining energy to try and escape the death grip she was in.

There was a loud crack beside me. It was not the sound of thunder, but of glass breaking. I keep my focus but glance over to see what it was. Zavier was standing there still holding my sister who was trying so hard to break free. The look on Zavier's face... I will never forget the look of pure fear. In the commotion of the moment he had stepped on the glass bead and it had broken.

"I will find you my friend... I will come back to you." Zavier spoke to Seven, and a single tear from his eye as he lifted his foot from the bead.

Where his foot had been there was a blast of white light, blinding my vision and the pure force of the light threw me off Seven and sent us both into the wall. I felt my head hit the wall hard, my vision blurred as I started to be able to see again. There were stars everywhere, little flecks that seemed almost like snow rained across my vision. When they had finally left me, I looked around to see Seven only five feet from me, and that was it. Zavier was gone, and worst, my sister was too.

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