Lavender Skies

The date of November ninth, nineteen-eighty-four was an insignificant date in an insignificant town in central Minnesota, The town of Princeton, Minnesota saw only one birth, a boy named Dennis Skye. The only news of the day was the release of a new horror movie. However, this date will in the future be remembered as one of great importance.

"Mom, why are you doing this to me?"
"Doing what, Dennis? All you've done your whole life is sit on your ass and do nothing. I am tired of it, and I want you out of MY house, now!"
"Good god, Jenny, you are a bitch from hell!"
"You do not talk to your mother that way, Dennis Skye," Jenny screamed at the top of her lungs, with years of frustration reaching a boiling point.

"What the hell is going on here?" Boomed a loud, masculine voice, capturing Dennis by surprise. A large, burly man entered the room.
"Mom's trying to kick me out, dad! Help me out here!"
"Aw hell naw, Dennis, for once, I'm gonna do something about this. Get the hell out of MY house! Now!" the man yelled.
"No!" Dennis screamed. Dennis immediately lunged at his father, with fists clenched, all his own anger at his parents reaching a boiling point. At that instant, Daniel Skye tackled his son to the floor, and restraining him.

"Call the cops, now!" boomed Daniel, with Jenny already dialing the numbers.
"Get off me, dammit!" Dennis repeatedly said, struggling unsuccessfully to get free, in spite of being almost equal in size to his father, for the few minutes until the police arrived. After several minutes, the police arrived. However, instead of letting them take Dennis to jail, Jenny insisted on having her son undergo psychiatric treatment. After a long discussion, Dennis was hauled away.

"Madame President, there is someone here to see you," a masculine voice said over an intercom.
"Who is it?" Asked a soft, quiet, effeminate voice, in a British accent.
"He is identifying himself as 'Anu,' and is refusing to give his full name, ma'am."
"Let him in."
"Are you su--"
"Let. Him. In." She said sternly.
"Yes ma'am." A minute later, the door opened, revealing a tall, dark, and hideous man.
"Come in, your Highness," said the woman. The man walked in and the door closes.

"Nucleina, what the goddamn hell do you think you're doing," he said in a stern, raspy voice. "You know damn well what The Plan is. All you are to do, is to follow MY orders! Nothing else."
"Do you really think that I will sit idly by and watch you manipulate the planet like a boy with his toys?" Nucleina said in a louder, stern voice. "This is MY plan--"
"No, you listen to me, you little snot," Anu interrupted, "The Plan is for you to 'lead' your plane--"
"No!" Nucleina shrieked, "I refuse to let you destroy Belle Hades piece by piece with your 'natural' disasters," she yelled, adding emphasis with her hands.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that, little miss lavender?" Anu chortled. "Just face it. We control the Universe. We decide fates of entire galaxies. We decide the fates of puny little planets like yours. Whether you like it or not, we WILL purge the Universe of all life, and start from scratch." Nucleina sat there and said nothing, with a frustrated look on her face. Anu continued, "And you know what? I am goddamn grateful that we chose someone with a lavender soul, because you can't do shit to other people."
"Wanna bet, jackass?"

"I beg your pardon?!" Nucleina stood up, pulling out a crossbow she had been hiding under her desk. At that moment, men in black suits entered the room from every doorway, including closets, as well as the door Anu entered in.
"Hah! You really think you can kill me, bitch?" Anu now had a hint of terror in his voice, no longer having an obvious tone of cockiness. "You're a lavender soul, remember?" Nucleina slowly smirked, aiming the crossbow at Anu, who was now clearly terrified.

"There IS such a thing as witchcraft, sweetheart. Any last words, you Nibiruan douchebag?"
"That crossbow was a wise choice, my dear. Gun bullets and electrical weapons are too fast to be effective against our personal force fields. But know this, Nucleina. This will NOT be the end of it." With that, Anu closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath, just barely beginning to accept his own fate. Nucleina fired.

"And why do you feel that way, Mr. Skye?"
"I... I... Don't know." Dennis said, his eyes glancing around the room.
"Surely you can tell me why you feel that your mother is a 'bitch.'" Asked the therapist. Dennis let out an exasperated sigh.
"Because she always getting on my nerves and telling me to 'get off my lazy ass and get a job,' when I really don't want to get a damn job."
"Please refrain from cussing, Dennis. Why do you refuse to get a job?"

"Be-- Be-- Because the world is going to end in five and a half years, on December 21st, 2012, and I feel that anything I do won't be worth it. Plus I hate working anyway. I'd rather play computer games."
"And what do you do on these computer games?"
"Well," Dennis said slowly, "I like to live out my fantasies on life simulation games...."
"What sort of fantasies do you live out in these 'life simulation' computer games?"
"Ummmm......" There was a long pause.
"You can tell me, Dennis."

"I......" Another long pause. Dennis could see the therapist staring intently at him. "I like to put duplicates of me in the Sims games and live out various scenarios where I meet a beautiful woman and have a big happy family and a long happy life."
"You do realize that that will never, ever happen, Mr. Skye." The therapist stated flatly. "Large happy families are extremely, extremely uncommon, and especially so if a beautiful woman is involved."
"Bu--"

"No buts, Dennis." The therapist interrupted.
"You're a damn for stomping on my dreams, Mr. 'Therapist."
"Please refrain from cussing, Mr. Skye. And the reason I am telling this is because you need to accept reality, and the reality is that dreams coming true are extremely rare, Mr. Skye," The therapist said in a tone deliberately designed to infuriate the patient. "Trust me, Mr. Skye, because I know from experience, Mr. Skye." Dennis had a look of extreme anger.
"Damn you, you quack!" Dennis yelled.

"Please refrain from swearing, Mr. Skye. And also please refrain from yelling, Mr. Skye." At that moment, Dennis leaped out of his chair and began attacking the therapist.
"Guards! Help!" Within moments, psychiatric hospital security burst into the room and forcibly restrained Dennis, who began sobbing.
"Why, God? Why do you hate me? I hate you too, God! I hate... I hate....." Dennis' voice trailed off as he was escorted out the room, as the therapist silently chuckled.

Dennis was once again in the therapy room, at the psychiatric hospital. He had been there for months, having not left even once since his parents kicked him out at the beginning of April.
"So tell me about these nightmares you've been having, Mr. Skye." The therapist asked.
"I.... I... I don't know where to begin, Mr. Trolle."
"Start with the first thing you remember," the therapist responded.
"I'm.... I'm.... I'm in this room. Some sort of rich person's office, with about five doors leading in and out of the room. At every door way, are men in black suits. They all look.... Weird..."
"What sort of 'weird,' Mr. Skye?"

"Like... Alien weird. Like they're space aliens."
"Space aliens do not exist, mister Skye. Please. Continue."
"There's a fancy desk, with a woman standing behind it. She has this.... aura around her.... The aura is some weird shade of pink or purple... Maybe a combination of both."
"What does this woman, look like?"

"She's one of the aliens. In the center of this room, is a tall black man.... He...."
"I'm listening, mister Skye."
"The black man has a black aura around him. He's.... He's ordering the woman around. But she's refusing to follow his orders."
"And then what, mister Skye?"

"The alien woman is holding.... Some sort of.... medieval weapon. She aims it at the black man, and the black man.... He's not really black. He's just wearing a black robe with a hood. But he's..... He's an alien too. A different alien from all the other ones in the room."
"And what does this alien woman do with the medieval weapon, after aiming at the black man?"
"She has the weapon fire an arrow at the black alien. The arrow.... It hits the black man, and he falls to the floor, dead, but his aura.... His aura just stays there."

"What does the black alien's aura do next, mister Skye?"
"The aura changes shape, as if the alien is moving his head. I see.... I see..... I see evil red eyes.... They just float in mid-air, inside the aura, looking at me.... Staring at me....."
"And then what?"
"The aura and the eyes... They start moving... They move towards me... With the intent on killing me. And I wake up."
"That's very interesting, mister Skye," the therapist said flatly, not believing a single word Dennis has said. "I believe we are done here, mister Skye. Go back to your room, now."

"Press the button, Dennis!" Echoed a woman's voice.
"Press the button now!" Her voice sounded strangely familiar. "Come on, Dennis, don't wimp out on me now, kid."
Dennis was in a strange place, holding some sort of remote. To his left was a large, odd-looking cylindrical device, with what appeared to be a vast network of super-computers right next to it. Dennis was standing, looking straight ahead, towards a horizon, with a sun just about to rise. The sky has a strange mix of blue and light purple, much more vivid than a usual sunrise, with orange and red closer to the horizon, in the direction of the rising sun. A strange, glowing, dark orange-red circle hovers a few degrees above the horizon.

"Damn it Dennis! Press the button NOW!" Continued the woman's voice. Dennis presses a small red button on the remote, and everything goes white.

Dennis opens his eyes, and sees the room's light turned on. He is breathing heavily, having just woken up from another nerve-wracking dream.
"Chop, chop, Dennis. Time to get up," said a stern, female voice. Dennis took a moment to get re-acquainted with reality. He was still at a psychiatric hospital, having been there non-stop for more than two years now. He cussed, and got ready for more of the same.

Dennis was now in an ambulance, being transported to another psychiatric hospital. He was being interviewed by another therapist, who also completely unconcerned for Dennis' well-being.
"And can you tell me why you think your nightmares have been getting worse, mister Skye?"
"I don't know, mister therapist. I... I... I think maybe I'm being targeted by evil spirits."
"Evil spirits do not exist, mister Skye. You are simply delusional."

"How the hell can I be delusional?! I've told everybody my stories and no one gives a rat's ass about me," Dennis screamed. At that moment, the ambulance slowed to a stop. After a moment of silence, the rear doors opened, revealing two men in black suits. One of them pulled out their badge.
"FBI. Please come with us, mister Skye."
"Oh, come on, what did I do now?" Dennis complained.
"Please come with us, NOW, mister Skye," the other FBI agent said sternly. Dennis sighed, and got out of the ambulance. It was night, and and there was no artificial lighting except for the ambulance and the FBI agents' car. The air felt misty, and chilly.
"We are in a heavily forested area, mister Skye. You will be given a sixty second head start," one of the agents said while slowly pulling out his handgun. "Start running, kid."

"Wha..." Dennis started to say, but almost immediately ran into the woods, terrified. However, his utter lack of physical exercise had him gasping for air about fifteen seconds in. He counted down the seconds while repeatedly tripping over fallen branches. With just ten seconds remaining, Dennis fell, and began crawling. At that moment, he saw something at the upper left edge of his eyesight, and looked up. He saw a small clearing to his left, revealing a pattern of stars forming an elongated horizontal triangle, barely above the trees on the other side of the clearing, consisting of six faint stars. His attention drew to three of the stars in the triangle, on the lower left, themselves forming a squashed triangle, at its own oblique angle.

"Ten!" Dennis heard the FBI agent's faint voice.
"Nine!" Dennis looked back, seeing the distant agents holding up their handguns.
"Eight!" Dennis quickly returned his gaze to the trio of stars.
"Seven!" At that moment, Dennis saw the left most star, itself barely discernible by his naked eyes, rapidly increase in brightness.
"Six!" The brightening star almost instantly evolved into a large, black object, blocking the entire constellation, and shining artificial lights of its own. A UFO? Seriously? Dennis thought.

"What the hell?" Dennis heard the agent counting down scream. "Shoot him! Now!" Dennis heard gun fire. Oh shit.... he said in his mind. He heard three gun shots before suddenly hearing a loud hiss, followed by blood-curling screams of horror. He looked back to see the agents being mutilated by a linear, orange beam emanating from the UFO that was now almost directly above him. Dennis immediately covered his eyes, crouched into the fetal position, and started whimpering. A few seconds later, he heard another hiss, followed by an explosion. A third hiss moments later, and a second explosion.

After a minute, Dennis heard a woman's voice, eerily familiar, calling out his name, faintly. He opened his eyes, to see the UFO hovering over the blown up remains of the ambulance and the FBI agents' car, with a silhouette of a person in front of the grotesque remains of the FBI agents.
"Dennis!" He heard the voice again. He immediately realized that it was the silhouette calling his name. "Dennis!" She called his name. "Come on, Dennis!" Hearing her voice a third time suddenly made him remember his nightmares from a few years earlier -- it was the exact same alien woman that was in the room with the black alien. At this point, Dennis did not know what to do.

"Don't worry kid, I'm not gonna hurt you!" Dennis remained motionless, still in the fetal position, and breathing heavily from running.
"I know about your nightmares!" She continued. "Please, Dennis, trust me!" All of a sudden, Dennis felt stinging sensations. Shit! Fire ants! He quickly uncurled and stood up. The alien woman continued to shout his name, as well as encouragements. Dennis frantically brushed off the fire ants, and began walking slowly towards her. When he was about halfway there, she turned on a large, bright flashlight, slowly going from left to right. When the light shone on him, he stood still, petrified.

"Are you Dennis?" He nodded, slowly. "It's okay now, Dennis. You're safe," the woman said kindly. Dennis slowly made his way back onto the road, still somewhat petrified, eventually approaching the alien. The UFO was brightly illuminating the immediate area. Dennis now had a clear look at the woman. She was about four feet eleven, clearly shorter than him. Her skin was of a bluish-cyan color, and her ears resembled elf ears, pointing upwards and back, parallel with her skull. She had otherwise human-like features; humanoid body, hair and breasts. She in turn had a better look at Dennis, and blushed.

"You're cute," she stated, causing him to blush as well. After a moment of blushy silence, the woman continued, "Hi, Dennis. I'm Nucleina," she said as she extended her hand for a handshake.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Dennis responded, shaking her hand.
"Now that we have pleasantries out of the way, I'd like to have you come with me. I need your help," she said, kindly.
"Wh... Wha... What kind of help?" He stuttered.
"I'll tell you on my ship. Can you help me, Dennis? I don't have a whole lot of time left, so it's kind of urgent."
"Ye.. Yeah I can help." Nucleina smiled.
"That's great, Dennis," she said. "Now can you stop staring at my tits and come with me," she asked, surprising Dennis.
"Uh, yeah," he said with a nervous chuckle. She pulled out a flat electronic device, touched the screen, and they teleported onto her ship.

"Your planet stinks, Dennis," Nucleina complained.
"Yeah, it's a shit-hole."
"No, I mean it literally. It actually stinks. And I'm sure as hell not talking about the agents I just butchered to rescue you," she continued. "In the cities, the obvious smell is the pollution, but in the rural areas, especially the areas with very few people around, I can smell blood in the air."
"Okay...." Dennis said slowly.
"Don't worry, Dennis, it's not a predator thing. My planet has extremely few predators, and we're not one of them. What I mean is, every habitable planet has a smell, noticeable only by beings who aren't native to said planet. Right now, we're going to my home-world, and I think you'll like the scents of Belle Hades."

"Ah, okay," Dennis responded. He and Nucleina had just teleported onto Nucleina's spaceship. It was seven after eight. There were no windows, only highly advanced viewscreens, each receiving feeds from various micro-cameras embedded within the spaceship. Otherwise, the interior was similar to that of a sports utility vehicle. After sitting down in the front, Nucleina oriented the spacecraft towards the same star that Dennis saw her ship arrive from just minutes before. After a moment, he felt the ship accelerate to faster than light speeds. On the forward viewscreen, the acceleration past light speed was indicated by the ship going through a simple, blurred, white annulus followed by the background stars slowly changing position correspondingly with Nucleina's direction of travel.

 

The star making up the tip of the larger elongated triangle Dennis saw previously, on the right, slowly moved away from the remaining five stars of the constellation, extending the main triangle. The rest of the stars, including the half of the constellation making up the small, squashed triangle, barely moved. The trip lasted just twelve seconds. The ship flew through another annulus as it decelerated from superluminal travel, with a nearly half-lit, blue, white, and green world, appearing directly in front of the ship. The left half of its day/night terminator had a faint, barely noticable purplish hue.

"Welcome to Belle Hades, Dennis," Nucleina said, smiling. She spun the ship so that the lighting came from the right. "Try looking to your right." Dennis complied, looking at the viewscreen to his right. His mouth opened in amazement.
"Y-- Yo-- You have two suns?!"
"Yep!" Nucleina exclaimed. Looking at the two suns, which appeared in a straight, nearly vertical line. Dennis could tell a clear difference between the two. The primary sun on the top gave off white light, and appeared only slightly smaller than Earth's sun. The second sun, on the bottom, was visibly smaller, appearing three-fourths the size of the primary, but that was it. Dennis could not tell if there was any difference in brightness between the two.

Nucleina navigated the ship, approaching the planet's night side, towards the left portion of the viewscreen, giving it a wide berth.
"We're approaching from about the direction of the south pole," she said. "I have a secret island in the middle of an ocean. It's where I will be training you to help me."
"Okay. What sort of help do you need, Nu.. Nu..." Dennis had a hard time figuring out how to pronounce her name. She giggled, saying "It's Nucleina. Repeat after me. 'New...'"
"'New,'" Dennis followed.
"'Cley...'"
"'Cley.'"
"Nuh.' New-cley-nuh. Nucleina!"
"You got it, boy! Don't worry, I'll tell you everything you need to know when we get there," She said, smiling again. Dennis looked at Belle Hades, forming a thinning crescent as they flew around the planet's night side and getting closer. Dennis watched the crescent. In the final moments before entering the planet's shadow, Dennis saw the atmosphere towards the bottom of the screen acquire a light purplish hue.

"Whoa... That was.."
"Yeah, the lavender hue is because of the way the second sun emits light," Nucleina said happily. She turned the ship towards Belle Hades, which had the night side artificially brightened by the viewscreens for better navigation. The ship slowed down as they approached the atmosphere.
"This part is the boring part, because we will have to come in slow enough so that we don't become visible as we reenter the atmosphere. I could go in faster and survive, but I have to maintain the low profile for the purpose of secrecy," Nucleina explained. The ship entered the atmosphere just south of the equator. At that moment, Dennis felt, literally, a bit lighter.
"Uhh..."
"Belle Hades is smaller than Earth, so the gravity is lighter. That was the gravity generator adjusting to Belle Hades gravity."

After about fifteen minutes, they broke through a low-lying cloud deck, and hovered over a grassy area, surrounded by thick vegetation. Within moments, the entire spacecraft was teleported into what appeared to be an underground hangar. Nucleina set the craft down on the concrete, and powered down. They stood up, and teleported out of the vehicle.
"Wow, the air does smell nice here," Dennis said, impressed by the pleasant smell.
"Yah. It's lavender."
"Don't we have lavender on Earth too?"
"Long story," she chuckled. "Come with me, Dennis. There is much to learn." Dennis followed Nucleina out of the hangar through an automatic doorway, and the lights in the hanger shut off.

"Seriously, Nucleina? I have to kill myself saving the whole universe?" Dennis complained. At this point, he was dead tired, and ready to sleep. Nucleina rolled her eyes. They were sitting at a large table in what appeared to be a conference room. The room had windows and a doorway leading to a larger, space-age control center room, with a few Belle Hadeans working the night shift.
"Yes, kid. It's the only thing you have to do, because I know you like to sit on your lazy ass and play computer games. Plus, you don't have to detonate that nuke for a whole three damn Earth years, giving you time to come to terms with mortality."

"Shoot. This is just like that dream I had back in April," Dennis sighed. Nucleina's eyes widened.
"What dream, Dennis?
"Can't I get some sleep first," he complained again.
"You will once you tell me your dream." Dennis sighed again.

"Crap," he muttered. "Anyways, in the dream, I am apparently just about to do the exact same thing you're telling me to do. I hear your voice echoing, telling me and cussing at me to detonate the nuke, with only seconds left before the Purge. I'm looking at a sunrise that is apparently the same as the sunrises and sunsets you get on Belle Hades. I'm holding off on pressing the button to detonate the nuke because I'm trying to see your sunrise. But with the sunrise in the dream, the first light of the bigger sun peeks above the horizon at the exact same time the Purge is supposed to happen." Dennis paused. Nucleina let out an exasperated sigh, realizing the whole thing is turning out to be a lot more difficult than she had imagined.

"And then what," she asked impatiently.
"I press the button, and everything goes white, which apparently was because someone was waking me up by turning on the lights in my room at the hospital." Nucleina let out another sigh, this one of relief.

"Okay, kid. I'll take you to your new room now. And for the last time, stop staring at my boobs." They got up, and Nucleina led Dennis through a small series of hallways, stopping just before an automatic door. "Alright, kid. Here's where you'll be living the next three years," she said, handing him a small electronic device. "This is your key. Don't lose it. Seriously, kid. Don't. Lose. The. Damn. Key."
"Yes, Mrs. President."
"Call me by my first name. I hate being called by my titles. I friggin' hate it."
"Will do." With that, Nucleina turned around and walked away, turning a corner down the long hallway. Dennis thought he saw a subtle middle finger gesture at the very last second before she disappeared around the corner. Dennis sighed one last time. "Dammit, even alien women hate me," he muttered quietly while holding up the key to a location on the wall.

"I heard that!" Dennis heard Nucleina's voice echo down the hallways as his doors opened. Dennis stayed quiet as he entered his room, not caring what it looked like, and heading straight for the bed.

"Dennis Skye to the conference room, please." Dennis heard Nucleina's stern voice over the intercom yet again.
"Come on, god damn it. What did I do this time?" he whined, knowing Nucleina to be losing patience with him for apparently no reason. He paused a computer game he was playing, locked his computer, and walked these halls straight to the conference room for what appeared to be the millionth time. However, when he got there, he knew something was different. Standing just outside the conference room door were two burly men, wearing black suits, both of whom were glaring at Dennis. Inside the conference room was Nucleina, standing at the end of the conference table with her arms crossed, also glaring at him. She gestured for him to enter.

Dennis slowly approached the door. Just as he was about to enter, the man on his left grabbed his' arm.
"We may be short, kid, but we can still whoop your fat, lazy ass if you dare touch the President," the man said to him in a menacing tone. The door hissed open.
"Come in, and sit down, Dennis," Nucleina said. Dennis slowly walked in and sat down at the end of the table opposite of Nucleina. "Dennis," she began, "since I rescued you three months ago, you've been constantly staring at my breasts."
"Oh god, thi--"

"Shut up, Dennis. I'm talking," she interrupted him. "The only reason you're here, is so you can perform the job I've assigned to you. Personally, I'd like to be rid of your sorry ass and detonate that nuke tonight, but the Anunnaki supercomputers don't activate until about a minute before the Purge. However, I can't have this fail all because you just can't keep your eyes off women."
"Dammit, I have every right to!" Dennis exclaimed.
"Do you have any idea how many times I've had to restrain myself from clocking you in the face because you've been staring at my boobs, mister Skye?!" Nucleina yelled.

"You see these eyes?" Dennis said, pointing at his eyes. "These are my eyes and my eyes only, and I shall do whatever I damn well please with them, Mistress President," Dennis snapped back, emphasizing her title in a deliberate attempt to infuriate her further. Nucleina visibly had to stop herself from walking up to Dennis and slapping him, but was quiet.
"What's the matter, lady? Protocol keeping you down?" Dennis continued in a mocking tone.
"I see now why you never had a girlfriend, you little brat," Nucleina said after another moment of silence. "You drive them all away with your openly perverted behavior."
"I am not a pervert, you ugly hag," Dennis continued the insults.

"Bull. If I was an ugly hag, you wouldn't be staring at my tits," Nucleina said. Without pausing, she continued, this time in a mocking tone, "Oh wait, I am an ugly hag, but you stare at my tits anyway... Because you are a god damn pervert!"
"Shut up, you damned prude!" Dennis screamed at the top of his lungs, unleashing all his pent up misogynist rage that had accumulated from years of his inability to get along with women. The burly men outside didn't hear him because of the room's heavy soundproofing.

"God..... Damn it..... Dennis....." Nucleina gasped, her eyes rapidly filling up with water as she began to break down sobbing. "I am not a prude, okay?" She said quietly, her soft voice breaking, as she collapsed into the chair at her end of the table, rested her elbows on the table, and her face buried in her arms. Dennis remained quiet, not believing her denial, with a smug look on his face. Nucleina sobbed for a minute and a half before speaking again.
"Dennis..... You need to understand.... I've had to made sacrifices for the past three and a half years...." Dennis was unsure if she meant Earth years or Belle Hades years. Nucleina continued, barely starting to control her sobbing, "My biggest sacrifice is not being with my husband, and I miss him.... I miss him, kid..... You have no clue how much it pains me to know that he died because of my sacrifices.... Sacrifices I'm making just so I can save our universe...."

At this point, Dennis slowly began to understand the whole situation, and awkwardly averted his eyes from the planet's sobbing leader.
She continued, "And I'm not doing this for myself, kid.... I'm doing this because there are so many good people out there.... Earthlings, Belle Hadeans, and so on...... And they all deserve a chance of a better existence..... A universe free of the Anunnaki's oppression....." At this point, she got a better handle on her emotions, and looked up at Dennis, who was looking down at the table. "Dennis," she said. Dennis didn't budge his eyes. "Dennis...." She continued. "Look at me.... Please...." Dennis looked up, and Nucleina could tell he was starting to feel remorseful, albeit still angry.

"Dennis.... I mean you no harm. I only ask that you respect me as a widow..... Seeing you looking at my breasts makes me remember the days when I was still with Nucleoid....." Her voice started to break again, but this time she managed to control herself. "And it makes me angry knowing that I can't have those days anymore..... Because my dear, dear, soul mate was assassinated just days after I killed Anu..... And it breaks my heart.... It breaks my heart, kid....." Dennis still did not say a word, his eyes darting all over the place, not knowing what to do or say.
"Don't get me wrong, kid.... You're cute.... But my heart will always, always be with Nucleoid... Okay, Dennis? And I'm sorry for the insults.... I truly am...." Dennis nodded. At this point, Nucleina was done sobbing. She got up, and walked over to Dennis, and extended her hand for a handshake. Dennis hesitated.

"Friends?" Nucleina asked.
Dennis hesitated. "Friends," Dennis said, shaking her hand, and looking her in the eyes.
"Thanks, kid," Nucleina smiled. "Yes, it hurts getting owned by a blue alien girl a foot shorter than you," she said with a half-chuckle. "No worries." She smiled and headed out the door. "Everything is fine now, gentlemen," She told the men outside the door. She gestured for Dennis to come out too. "You can go back to your game now, Dennis," Nucleina said, with a smile. Dennis went back to his room, feeling an odd sense of relief in addition to his embarrassment and awkwardness, knowing he would be better off treating Nucleina with respect.

Dennis was at his computer, reading up on info about the planet he was on, having finally gathered up the motivation to do so after over a year. His door chimed. He swiveled his chair around.
"Come in." The doors opened. It was Nucleina, in her usual white political attire.
"Hi Dennis," She said, with a warm smile.
"Uhh, hi." Even a whole year interacting with the leader of an alien planet did not help with his social awkwardness.

"Is everything going okay?"
"Yeah, I guess..." he responded. Nucleina could tell the tension in his voice.
"Don't worry, kid. You still have two more years before the Purge." Saying that only made Dennis feel even more awkward, which Nucleina noticed right away.
"Why... Why me?" Dennis said. Nucleina sighed, knowing she'd have to give him more explanations. She walked in, and sat on his bed, since the only chair in the room was occupied by Dennis.
"Well, Dennis," she sighed again, "I know you think it's hocus pocus, but..."
"But what?"

"You're aware of the concept of souls and reincarnation, right?"
"Pfft," Dennis scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess..."
"Well, Dennis.... In a past life, we were best friends, and what led to that was that we were abducted by aliens...." Dennis scoffed again. "Now let me finish, kid," Nucleina continued. "The abductions were the typical abductions where you find yourself in a strange operating room, being operated on or anally probed for no reason other than their sadistic pleasures." Dennis crossed his arms, and almost immediately uncrossed them, knowing he was less receptive to words with his arms crossed.

Nucleina continued, "What they did to me was, in a grotesque manner, removing my uterus and harvesting my eggs. After which, they dropped me off on the wrong planet. YOUR planet, Dennis." His eyes widened, after which he shifted his position, indicating he was growing interested in Nucleina's tale.
"What happened then?" He asked.
"Well, I knew they were gonna come back for me to take me to the right planet, but that wasn't until when I found myself waking up in the middle of an unusually cold forest with odd looking trees." Nucleina paused, then continued, "I knew right away I was on the wrong planet, because not a single spot on Belle Hades has EVER been that cold."

"Because Belle Hades is a tropical jungle planet, right?" Dennis asked. Nucleina smiled approvingly.
"So you're finally doing your homework, kid. I'm impressed," She said with an approving nod. "Anyways, it was morning, and I started walking in the direction your sun was rising, which was difficult because of Earth's higher gravity. But I didn't know it was Earth until i came across a lonely log cabin, and saw it's lonesome human occupant. You, Dennis."
"And how exactly do you remember this 'past lifetime' so vividly?" Dennis asked.

"I'm getting to that, Dennis." Nucleina stated. "Anyways, you saw me come out of the woods, and you ran into your home. I slowly made my way to your door, and knocked while trying to empathize that I wouldn't hurt you. After a minute, you opened the door, at the same time that we heard a wooshing noise, and saw a UFO in the air. You let me in, and we tried to hide, but the aliens in it, the Anunnaki, teleported inside and easily found us. They did something to black us out, and...."
"And then what?"

"I woke up in what appeared to be a high-tech prison cell. Apparently they were dumb enough to make us cell mates. On the lower bunk was you."

"How long were we in there?"

"About a few of your months. The first few days were awkward, because of your social awkwardness in that lifetime too. But with no one else to talk to, we became fast friends." Nucleina paused, then continued, "At the end of that time, we promised each other to work together and bring down the aliens. Because they knew everything that went on in these cells, they separated us. Eventually, they made the mistake of anal-probing both of us at the same time, and because of that, our souls managed to communicate, from different parts of the spacecraft. At that point, we found out what was really going on: the aliens that kidnapped us were ancient masters of the universe, going back billions of years, with our souls being the oppressed citizens of their empire. At that point, they caught us, and brought us back to consciousness."

Dennis had a hard time believing it, but something deep down inside him told him Nucleina was right. Nucleina saw his facial expressions, and knew what he was going through. She continued, "Dennis, that was four million years ago. Humans and Belle Hadeans have been around MUCH longer than that, with the Anunnaki controlling us like master puppeteers."
"Wow," Dennis whispered in amazement.
"Yeah. For the past four million years, we have been working our way up, both during lifetimes and in between. However, the past few lifetimes, you've kinda lost faith and gave up, and I've been doing most of the work." Dennis felt a little bit of guilt.

"Why did I.... Give up?"
"Because the Anunnaki caught you and punished you. And since then, they've been forcing you through shitty lifetimes. They knew you would be needed in this lifetime, and that is why you came damn close to being killed off last year."
"I see. Do.... Do you have anyone else helping you?"
"I can't answer that. Please, don't inquire any further. I'm serious," Nucleina said.
"Okay," Dennis sighed. "Thanks for explaining."
"No problem, Dennis," Nucleina said with a comforting smile. "You gonna be okay?" She said as she stood up.
"Yeah..."
"Great." Nucleina said before walking out. When the door shut behind her, Dennis turned back to his computer, but didn't do anything, for he had a lot on his mind, and remembering the explanations she gave him last year when he first arrived on Belle Hades.

Dennis was up late, which had always been a habit for him. Living on Belle Hades for over two years now, his body had adjusted to the planet's longer day, aided by the underground facility's advanced lighting system. With pressure from Nucleina, he slowly increased the heat in his room, so his body could adjust to Belle Hades' tropical climate, and to make it easier for him when the time comes for him to detonate the nuke in December, since he will unfortunately need to be outdoors to complete the mission. Currently, Dennis was watching a video feed from a webcam in Belle Hades City, the political Capital of the planet. The video feed showed the camera pointing to the West, and the two suns slowly setting.

Over the years, Dennis had learned a great deal about Belle Hades, and the system. Belle Hades was a planet smaller than Earth, and with its two moons, was the only major celestial object in the entire star system, save for the two suns, and an asteroid field. While the system was known to Earth as a planet-less binary star near the end of its lifespan, under the name Delta Trianguli, in reality, the system is only two billion years old, with Hadeus as the local system name. The larger, brighter sun, Lilith, is a star similar to Earth's own sun, with a slightly higher mass, and about twelve percent brighter. The smaller sun, Hades, is about three quarters the diameter and mass of Earth's sun, with only eighteen percent the brightness.

Having two large moons made Belle Hades an extremely rare planet, even more so since Belle Hades harbors advanced, multi-cellular life, as well as a civilization that only science fiction writers could dream of. In spite of having two large moons, Belle Hades maintained an axial tilt a little bit higher than Earth's. The high axial tilt, along with the shorter year caused by the added mass of the second sun in the center of the solar system, combined with the longer day and the smaller radius, as well as the atmosphere's higher water vapor content, enabled Belle Hades to maintain a planet-wide tropical climate. The global tropical climate of Belle Hades has enabled life to proliferate at literally every corner of the planet, giving the planet a higher biomass than Earth.

Having done a lot of research on Belle Hades, and later the rest of the universe, Dennis realized that Earth and Belle Hades were exceedingly lucky, in that two naturally Earthlike worlds in such close relative proximity, about thirty five light years apart, was almost unheard of, as the average distance between such worlds in galaxies like the Milky Way was about five thousand light years. It also made Dennis begin to appreciate the value of life, as it was only trying to make ends meet in a Universe that was deliberately cruel due to the Anunnaki. At the same time though, the Anunnaki were not the absolute cruelest, because they terraformed countless trillions of worlds, with terraformed worlds outnumbering naturally habitable worlds a thousand to one. The nearest terraformed world to Earth and Belle Hades was a moon slightly smaller than Belle Hades orbiting a planet known to Earth as Kepler-16b.

Looking at the two setting suns on the video feed, Dennis just sat there, watching the sky slowly change colors. As the suns got lower, the sky acquired a vivid lavender hue, caused by the second sun, and came a fair bit earlier than the "belt of Venus" colors seen on Earth. This was his first time watching a Belle Hadean sunset. The vividness was much, much greater than anything seen on Earth. Looking at the beauty of the whole thing, a tear ran down Dennis' cheek. At that moment, he resolved to face his upcoming doom, knowing full well his sacrifice would save untold trillions of lives.... And then some.

"Goddammit Nucleina, why are you doing this? Can't you just leave well enough alone?"
"Because, Nuclid, I value all life. I already know my behavior is a psychological motive to keep myself alive, but god damn it, I value all life. And you know damn well us Belle Hadeans are raised from birth to value freedom and democracy," Nucleina shot back.
"Eff that, not every species is smart enough to handle Democracy. The humans of Earth are a prime example."

 

"Oh come on! If less intelligent species can't handle Democracy, then what's the point? If they can't have Democracy in the first place, then they'll never learn how to become smart enough to maintain it. You learn by effin' trying!" Nuclid simply stared. After a few moment, he began, "You know what? This has gone on far enough. I'm putting an end to your shenanigans." Nuclid pulled out a gun. He continued, "I follow the Anunnaki, bitch. No one else." Nuclid pointed at Nucleina as she panicked, her eyes darting around the conference room, unable to escape, unable to attack him. Nuclid fired the gun, and Nucleina felt a sharp pain in her forehead, and everything turned black with a red dot blinking on and off to her right.

 

Nucleina cringed, with a migraine waking her up. The room was dark, with a red LED light blinking on and off on the wall to her right. Oh shit, she thought. She knew right away something went wrong. However, her migraine almost immediately intensified, debilitating her. She was being psychically attacked. Her bedroom doors opened, with a silhouette standing in the doorway. The figure slowly moved towards her, and as it got closer, it revealed itself as Anu, the Anunnaki alien she killed a few years ago. Anu slowly shapeshifted, morphing into a grotesque looking creature and glowing red. Unable to move, Nucleina knew she was doomed, and just as the creature opened its mouth, everything turned black.

Nucleina bolted straight up in complete darkness, waking up from a double nightmare, gasping for air. After about a minute, she calmed down. She looked to her right, and the LED light wasn't blinking. She breathed a sigh of relief, only to get a gut feeling moments later that something indeed was wrong. She slowly got out of bed, and grabbed the handgun hidden behind her bed frame. For some reason, she felt a need to carry an older weapon. Unfortunately, the crossbows were located in another room. Having trained herself for event like this, Nucleina made her way to the door, but stayed close to the wall. She knew that whatever enemy awaited her would be prepared for this, and stopped. She took a big step sideways to her left. She could feel someone waiting on the other side of the wall to her right.

For the first time since the whole thing started, she didn't know what to do. All of a sudden, she felt Dennis' energy approaching, and realized he was in danger. She felt a sudden urge to bolt through the door, but in a split second, something told her to wait. Taking heed of it, she quickly made a big arch around the door, approaching it from the other side, knowing full well the energy on the other side of the wall was prepared for this. At that moment, it intersected with Dennis' energy, and Nucleina immediately felt Dennis was in extreme pain. Yet, she heard no scream. She realized she was being lured into a trap.

"I know you're there, douchebag. Stop being a coward," she said loudly. At that instant, she got the idea to take off her nightgown, and frowned. Yet she knew it was the only way out, and obliged. Now nude, she made a split second decision to bolt through the door, knowing it could very well cost her her life. The doors hissed open, she ducked just before a hand wielding a knife swung into the doorway, missing her. She quickly twisted and shot the knife out of the hand as her back painfully hit the floor. It was Nuclid, who yelled in pain as his hand was shot. Having no time to think, Nucleina tripped him with her feet, and immediately proceeded to strangle him with the nightgown she had been holding in her other hand, holding him down on the floor for as long as she could, not noticing the bodies of her two bodyguards laying on the floor in pools of blood a few feet away.

After what seemed like an eternity, Nuclid stopped struggling, just as she finally noticed the dead bodyguards. She exhaled, both a sigh of relief and the same gasping exhales from her confrontation with Dennis two years ago, breaking down into tears. Nucleina got off Nuclid's now dead body, sat on the floor, and leaned back on the wall on the other side of the hallway, sobbing, still completely nude. She sobbed for about four minutes before one of her assistants rounded the corner, and rushed to Nucleina's aid.

Dennis was lying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, struggling to wake up. It was morning, and he had been planning on getting up earlier than usual, due to excitement over discovering a new computer game, and wanted to play it. However, he couldn't tell whether he was asleep or actually awake, because he was dreaming of lying in bed, trying to move a body part and not being able to. Dennis falls asleep one last time, and this time, he sees a window in the wall. He gets up, and walks over to the window, which turns out to be peering out into the backyard of his old home on Earth, before his parents kicked him out. He sees a young girl, all dressed in flowing white, swinging on a children's swing set. He already knew who she was.

She swung for about half a minute, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees a thick, black haze. Dennis knew she was in danger, and tried to open the window, only to find out it was a non-opening window. The haze quickly approached the girl, who was entirely oblivious to the threat. Panicking, Dennis banged on the window, unsuccessfully trying to break the glass. Eventually, he resorted to screaming, but the girl was still completely oblivious to her surroundings.

Dennis looked in horror as the black haze came within inches of the girl, who suddenly stops swinging and turns around, seeing the haze. She screamed, but Dennis heard nothing, as he could only look in horror through the soundproof window. The haze immediately surrounds the girl, who quickly vanishes from view, hidden by the haze. Dennis knew she was dead. At that point, Dennis notices the haze has completely surrounded the house, but only the portion that consumed the girl is moving. At that point, it begins moving towards Dennis at a much faster pace than it did previously.

"No! No! No!" he wakes up moaning in terror, and sees his night light, illuminating an otherwise completely dark room, at which point he stops. He lets out a sigh, sits up on the side of his bed, and breaks down sobbing a few moments later. After about a minute, his door hisses open, and the lights turn on.
"Dennis?" He looked to his right, barely beginning to get a handle on his emotions. It was Nucleina, already dressed for the day.
"Dennis, are you all right?" He shook his head. Nucleina had to fight the urge to sit beside him to better comfort him, opting instead to sit in his gaming chair. After another few moments, Dennis began to regain his composure. He let out a sigh.

"I....." He began.
"Yes?"
"I.... It... It was a nightmare...."
"Was anyone in it?" She asked empathically.
"Just....." He paused. "An old childhood friend...."
"Did something happen with him?"
"Her. It was a her," Dennis responded, having regained composure.
"Oh." Nucleina sensed his energies emanating from him, which were indicating that this was about a very important friend. She also sensed that he didn't want to divulge anything about her, so Nucleina decided it would be best to leave that part of the dream alone. "Did something happen to her?" Nucleina finally asked.
"We were at my home, from way before my folks kicked me out."
"Ok."

"I saw her swinging on the swing set, and there was a black haze behind her. She herself was wearing a flowing white dress." At that point, Dennis almost broke down crying again, but immediately regained self-control. Nucleina stopped herself from saying it was okay, because she sensed that it really wasn't okay.
"The haze.... did it...."
"I'm afraid so. After it killed her, I noticed it had completely surrounded the house, and the piece of the haze that killed her went straight for me, and then I woke up."
"Hmm. Do you remember any details about that haze, Dennis?"
"Actually, I do. It was thick. Like, really, really, really thick. Like what one would see in a horror movie."
"Can you.... articulate how thick it was?"

"Well, if I remember from looking up stuff on the aviation industry, they use the term 'visibility' to describe how far you can see in a particular weather situation. So, applying that to the black haze, I'd say the visibility was about two inches, if I were to stand inside it." Nucleina's jaw dropped, having realized what that meant. She wanted to tell him, and decided against it, fearing for his emotional well-being. But the look on Dennis' face made her realize that he knew that she had figured something out. Nucleina closed her mouth, and smiled.
"Don't worry about it, kid. I got ya covered." Dennis forced a smile and nodded. "Think you'll be okay now, Dennis?" Nucleina asked as she stood up.
"Yeah, I think so."
"Okay, kid." She walked out, almost stopping to turn off the lights, but she figured, correctly, that Dennis wanted to stay up.

Dennis was watching a live feed of one of Belle Hades' moons partially eclipse the primary sun, Lilith, a day after having partially eclipsed the secondary, Hades, on his computer, when his door chimed.
"Come in," he said. The door opened. It was Nucleina. "Hi, Nucleina."
"Mind if I come in?"
"Sure." Nucleina came in and sat on his bed. "What's up," he asked her.
"Dennis, have I ever told you about what happened leading up to our current cycle of modern day civilization here on Belle Hades?" Nucleina asked.
"No?'

"Well, what do you know?"
"I know that some sort of event occurred that ended the last one about sixty-five thousand years ago, but that's about it."
"Okay," Nucleina sighed. Dennis felt slightly uneasy.
"Did I mess up something back then, in a previous life?"
"No, that was a few millenia before that, when you got caught."
"Okay."

"However," Nucleina continued, "It was someone else that screwed up, someone that was working with us over the lifetimes. He impulsively thought he could take down the Anunnaki single-handedly, went against our orders, and tried sneaking a thermonuclear weapon into the star the Anunnaki's Master Homeworld orbited. Instead of blowing up the star, the detonation was suppressed by the Universal Supercomputers, and the physical properties of the detonation gave away its origin."
"Oh, god," Dennis said, realizing what was going to happen next.

"Yeah. The Anunnaki sent three fully loaded spaceships here to Belle Hades, and depleted their entire inventory, which consisted of nothing but nuclear weapons, and...." Nucleina's voice began to break. She failed to hold back a tear, but managed to regain her composure within a few moments. Having been on Belle Hades long enough, Dennis knew how much the Belle Hadeans valued their world, and how traumatic environmental destruction was to them.

"So.... Yeah. That's what happened," Nucleina finished. Dennis also began to realize why the Belle Hadeans hadn't been as passionate about environmentalism before the nuclear holocaust as they are now. Even now, sixty-five thousand years after the fact, while the plant life has relatively recently completely regained its global empire, the animals will take millions of years to recover. Much of Belle Hades' animal life was still insects of various sizes, with other forms of life still rare, although marine creatures fared somewhat better.

At this point, Dennis began having doubts about being able to succeed with the plan. Nucleina quickly saw the look on his face.
"Don't worry, Dennis. I have faith," she said reassuringly. Dennis nodded. "All right, see you soon," she said as she smiled.
"See ya," he said. Nucleina walked out, herself beginning to question the plan's viability.

It was early in the morning, a few hours before sunrise. Dennis was asleep, when the red alarm light in his room started blinking. After a few minutes, he was woken up by the blinking. Dennis bolted upright, immediately recognizing something had happened. A few seconds later, his door chimed. Dennis got out of bed, but stopped. He suspected something was not right on the other side of the door. After standing still for a few moments in terror, he heard thumping, in conjunction with the typical grunts heard in physical combat, followed by blood-curling screams similar to what he heard when Nucleina killed the FBI agents back on Earth.

The door slid open, revealing Nucleina, gory remains of what appeared to be Anunnaki aliens, and a nauseatingly foul stench.
"Dennis, something's happened, come with me!" Dennis stood still in terror for a few additional seconds before heeding her call, and coming out of the room.
"What happened," he asked, stepping over the alien remains. Nucleina immediately handed him a weapon, at which point Dennis realized the situation was serious. He also began to regret not exercising by this point.

"We've been found out, Dennis. The bastards are changing their plans and they're going to initiate the Purge in just seven minutes because of it, at three fifteen in the afternoon, Minnesota time." A wave of multiple emotions took over Dennis, from the sudden realization he had to sacrifice himself much sooner than anticipated. "Follow me, kid."
Dennis and Nucleina walked as fast as his body could keep up. It would take five minutes to reach a room deep inside Nucleina's complex, shooting Anunnaki's and ducking to avoid shots the entire way, a trip which normally would have taken two minutes, if not for the fighting.

"Damn it," she cursed, "Two minutes left," she finished, as they entered the room. The room was dimly lit, with a simple control panel, and what looked like a greenscreen used in television and film productions, and a large black box, mounted on four roller-blade-like wheels. Dennis instantly recognized it as the nuke.
"Shit," Nucleina exlaimed, with her face looking suddenly pale.
"Oh god...." Dennis moaned. He knew right away what happened.
"Dennis. You know what this means. I don't have the detonator. You're gonna have to detonate it the only other way...."
"With my head," Dennis sighed, resigning himself to the potential fate of the entire universe. Nucleina immediately saw the look on his face.

"Dammit Dennis! Don't give up now!" Nucleina's voice had a tone of desperation, after realizing how desperate the situation had truly become. Before saying anything else, she rushed to the control panel, and with a few quick strokes on the touchscreen, disabled the detonator. With a few more strokes, the greenscreen, half of which covered the wall, the other half covering the floor, hummed, and within moments, a bubble-shaped distortion appeared, reavealing a moonlit beach scene inside it.
"Ninety seconds, Dennis! Go!" Dennis, stood there for a second, but realized he had to go. He went to the nuke, and started pushing it towards the wormhole, which led directly to the beach scene, where one of the super-computers was residing.

"Dennis!" Nucleina said. He stopped and looked at her. She had a tear rolling down her cheek.
"He's going to be mad at me for this, but..." Dennis was confused. Nucleina quickly walked up to him, pullde him down, and kissed him on the lips. They looked each other in the eyes. Dennis suddenly noticed one feature about her he had never noticed before. Her eye color. Lavender. Seeing her lavender eyes made the moment all the more intense.
"Dennis, remember, we're not soul mates, but that kiss will be my promise to you; when we succeed, and dammit it Dennis, we WILL succeed, I will help you find yours, in your next life. I don't give a pest's bum if we're on opposite sides of the universe, but, I will help you. You will have done me a favor by detonating that nuke, and my help will by my gratitude, and my return the favor to you."

The control panel beeped.
"One minute Dennis. You know what to do, kid." Dennis' eyes began to well up, failing to maintain his macho composure so deeply ingrained into him by Earth's society, but he soldiered on, and pushed the nuke through the wormhole, wondering why Nucleina kissed him and why they were using a wormhole, before remembering teleportation causes nuclear bombs to glitch up.

"Goodbye...." Nucleina said, trying futilely to hold back tears. Once he made it through the wormhole, she closed the link, but kept the audio open, which was a link to the nuke's box itself.
"Forty five seconds," Nucleina said. Dennis sobbed, failing to keep quiet enough to hide it from Nucleina. More time passed.
"Thirty seconds!" Nothing, not even sobbing. At this point Nucleina began to panic. She resisted calling out any more of the countdown, hoping it would help him concentrate.
20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
Nucleina gasped, realizing it would all fail. She began to hear the humming, from the supercomputer, getting ready to initiate the Purge.
4.
3.
Nucleina's spine tingled, complete with goosebumps, as she covered her mouth with both hands, as if in shock, and tears welling up in her eyes.
"Amy, I'm coming home."
Click.
With one second remaining on the timer, Nucleina felt a surge of pure, dark energy.
It was the kind that only nuclear weapons could give out. With half a second on the timer, an omni-directional inter-dimensional shock wave, generated by the super-computer's catastrophic chain-reaction malfunction triggered by the nuclear explosion, instantly pushed everything out of its path, with a surprisingly small force, knocking untold trillions of objects off shelves all over the entire universe simultaneously, in a direction directly away from the detonation point.
Nucleina gasped, and a sigh of relief. She felt another surge of goosebumps. She felt a wave of pure, light energy, proving the universe was saved.

Mere seconds after the timer reached zero, the skies on every civilization-bearing world throughout the universe lit up, with untold trillions of beams and explosions, and dog-fighting spacecraft, all appearing seemingly out of nowhere; the beginning of a vast, intergalactic rebellion four million years in the making, attacking enemies both space-borne and on planetary surfaces. At the same time, the chain-reacting failure of the Anunnaki super-computer on Belle Hades, triggered a new chain-reaction of its own, causing every Anunnaki super-computer in the universe to fail spectacularly, each with its own inter-dimensional shock wave.

Fifteen seconds after Dennis' nuke detonation, Nucleina felt a much more powerful shock wave knock her to the ground. She immediately recognized what caused it, and was taken aback, having believed it was impossible. The chain-reaction failures of each supercomputer caused an unexpected failure at the central super-computer on the Anunnaki's Master Homeworld, Nibiru. That failure was so strong, the entire super-Earth was completely destroyed, a result of poor planning by the Anunnaki.

Nucleina knew it was not over yet. She still had to either escape or retake control of her hideout. She began to sense someone approaching, and realized it was more Anunnaki. And she could tell they sensed her too. Nucleina sensed additional Anunnaki, and realized she was outmatched. The only way out was through the wormhole. Immediately, Nucleina locked the entrance with maximum protection, knowing full well it would only give her a mere thirty seconds to escape. She suddenly sensed she was no longer safe remaining anywhere on Belle Hades at all. She had no choice but to go off-world.
"Earth." She heard a voice in her ear, almost as if she were a stereotypical mental patient. Nucleina internally objected.

"Trust me on this. Go to Earth." Nucleina knew the voice was right, as much as she didn't want to endure the nauseating stench of Earth's atmosphere. However, she didn't know where on Earth to go. She hoped to hear the voice again, but never heard it. At that point, the Anunnaki were right behind the locked door, thus beginning the thirty seconds before they would manage to unlock it. About five seconds passed before the only place she knew other than the isolated forest where she rescued Dennis popped into her head. His birth place. Nucleina somehow felt it would be the right decision.

With twenty two seconds remaining, she entered the new target into the control panel. When it showed up on the screen, Nucleina cursed. She had forgotten the target was in broad daylight. She knew she had no choice. As she looked for a secluded area, she noticed that the town, despite being rural, had few places to hide, with most of the dense forest surrounding the winding river going through.

"Effin' tree-killers," Nucleina cursed again. With fifteen seconds left, she found a forested spot alongside a paved road she hoped wasn't too busy. She held her breath as she activated the wormhole. Ten seconds. As soon as the wormhole fully opened, Nucleina ran through. The first thing she noticed was the cool air, followed by the expected stench of blood that Earth's natives can't smell, and the higher gravity. As soon as the wormhole closed, the Anunnaki busted through the door, only to be greeted by the self-destructing console, a blinding white flash, followed by absolute nothingness.

In the final milliseconds of the closing wormhole, Nucleina felt a flash of intense heat, not realizing it wasn't the self-destructing console. Curiously, she didn't sense the psychic energies from it, after which, she realized she subconsciously set the console's self-destruct back-up option to take her entire hideout with it.

Shit.

Once the wormhole was closed, Nucleina stood there, already beginning to shiver, and looked around, to get a sense of things. She was surrounded by trees, with the leaves seemingly bizarrely without the green colors she was used to on Belle Hades, both on the trees, falling from the trees, and carpeting the forest floor.

Seasons. Fantastic, Nucleina thought to herself. As she looked around, a sense of familiarity and dread came over her. She looked to her left, and let out an exasperated sigh. She landed right onto someone's property, and saw an old-looking house, in an open area within the wooded area, with the road on the other side, and a long, paved driveway leading up to it from the house. Nucleina began making her way forward, to make a big arch around the house as she moved towards the street. As she progressed, it slowly dawned on her, to her horror, why the area seemed so familiar, yet dreadful at the same time.

She had landed squarely onto Dennis' family's property. That was the reason it looked familiar, as she had seen the pictures of it, but couldn't figure out why she didn't notice it when looking at the aerial view of the area on the console. Nucleina was still mystified by the sense of dread. As she got closer to the road, she sensed the root of the dread. A horrific crime had been committed here, but Nucleina didn't know when. She was suddenly reminded of when Dennis had woken up sobbing four months previously, and it clicked in her head that this crime was what haunted Dennis. Nucleina heard a noise.

It was a vehicle approaching at high speed, moving frantically as the terror of the alien rebellion gripped the planet. Nucleina dropped to the ground, hoping to be hidden by the vegetation and its remaining leaves. Ouch. Damn higher gravity. The vehicle continued on. As a precaution, Nucleina psychically scanned a huge radius around her. Good. No more polluters, she thought to herself. Then the voice came back.
"Knock on the front door."
"What? Are you crazy?!" she exclaimed in an angry whisper.
"I'm Amy. Do as I say, please." Nucleina exhaled a gasp, remembering Dennis' final words, and feeling the familiar goosebumps and lump in the throat.

Nucleina stood there for a few moments, in terror, knowing what might need to happen and fearing the worst. After a minute, she made her way to the front door, and knocked. After what seemed like forever, a tall, gray-haired woman opened the door.
"The Halloween party's not 'till tomorrow, young lady," the woman said rudely, as she closed the door, curiously unaware of the chaos surrounding Earth. Nucleina knocked again. No answer. After another minute, a tall burly man answered.

"Just who the hell are you?"
"Dennis told me he lived here."
Silence. After a few tense moments, the woman who answered the initial knocks appeared from behind the man, carrying a long projectile weapon.
"You give me one good reason why you rescued that lazy bum, space-bitch," the woman snarled, clearly recognizing Nucleina.
"Why do you think, Mrs. Skye?" Nucleina responded, clearly intending to infuriate Dennis' parents further. Jenny aimed the shotgun at Nucleina.
"Do you really want to kill me?"
"Try me."

"Belle Hades may be a tiny, peaceful world, but we will sure as hell not hesitate to nuke the hell out of you. Especially if you assassinate politicians." At this point, Nucleina was glad she had her weapon with her. She had a gut feeling this will all boil down to a who-shot-first scenario.
"You really think atom bombs will stop me from shooting you, bitch?"
Nucleina looked into Jenny's eyes. Oh shit.
"Oh yeah, you know it now, girl! We're Anunnaki. And you know damn well what I have painted on to these bullets," Jenny said gleefully. Nucleina knew this was it. Her energy weapon had no ability to eliminate Anunnaki spirits. And her combat knife was all the way back on Belle Hades, dozens of light years away.
"Any last words, Mrs. President?"
"You're wrong. You do have your knife." Nucleina heard Amy's voice again. Realizing she did indeed have her combat knife on her, Nucleina decided to take a gamble.
"Jenny. You know damn well you have an unfair advantage with that Nibiruan shotgun."
"And?"
"Guess."
"Damn you." Jenny lowered her shotgun. "You wanna die the painful way, huh Mrs. Nuclei?"
"Absolutely." Nucleina said, sarcastically, as Jenny turned around and gave the shotgun to Daniel. Without warning, Jenny spun around, throwing spiked, metallic disks, and striking Nucleina almost immediately.
Shoot.

"You just delayed the Purge by a million years, girl," Jenny snarled, sounding fainter and fainter, as Nucleina collapsed. Nucleina knew full well what was on the disks. As everything began to blur, she felt her soul disintegrating, her intelligence fading away, her body transforming to ashes.
But, something went wrong. Instead of fading to complete blackness, complete nothingness, the blurring stopped. In the center of the blur, it reversed, revealing a young girl. She was oddly recognizable.
"Nucleina. Don't give up. Fight. Fight back. Don't give in to the nothingness. It's not terminal, no matter what you've been led to believe."

Although her severely diminished intelligence rendered Nucleina unable to consciously, or even psychically feel it, she pushed. And pushed. And pushed. The young girl disappeared into blurriness. After what seemed like forever, the blurring reversed. At the same time, her intelligence began coming back, along with physical sensation. Nucleina became confused, but realized what happened. Remembering her old times with Nucleoid, she felt impassioned, and pushed. Seeing the extremely fuzzy outline of a distant, flying nuclear missile's contrail over the patchy clearing in the trees above the house get destroyed by a fast-moving rebel dog-fighter, only further added to her hope and will.

"Oh shit." Jenny said, barely audible. "Daniel, do something!" She screamed. He just stood there, staring at Nucleina's recovering body and soul. He turned to Jenny.
"Honey. It's over." Jenny gasped.
"No! God damn it, no!" Jenny pounded onto Daniel's chest, sobbing.
"It's over."

After a minute had passed, Nucleina was completely recovered. She gasped in pain as she removed the disks. She got up, and saw Jenny sobbing in Daniel's arm, and finally consciously realized what happened.
"So, it's not terminal, eh?" Daniel responded by shaking his head. Nucleina continued, "I don't know how many Anunnaki remain after this rebellion, but if you wish, I can give you amnesty?"
"I know not all of us were domineering, authoritarian monsters, but those of us that weren't were summarily executed. That's why just about every mythology in the universe got so mucked up. Some Anunnaki deities rebelled, including a number of the ones who commanded Earth, but they just couldn't figure out how to stop the madness, and thus got killed.

"However, I don't think it will truly end until absolutely all of our bodies and souls are wiped out. And with Nibiru gone, we just won't want to live anymore." Daniel began to tear up. Nucleina once again felt the familiar lump in her throat.
"I know what you mean, Mr. Skye. Everyone's homeworld is their heart and soul," She said, fully aware of the trauma one can have when anything catastrophic happens to their world.
"Please, call me Daniel," Daniel said as he extended his hand for a handshake. Nucleina paused, but knew he was genuine, and shook his hand.

"If I may ask," Nucleina began. "Do either of you know of a young girl named Amy?"
"Yes," Jenny said, beginning to bring herself under control. "She was Dennis' childhood sweetheart." Nucleina again felt a lump in her throat, realizing exactly who she was, but maintained composure.
"They were inseperable. She lived next door, but I knew our higher-ups wouldn't allow them to be together," Daniel said. "We both know I don't want to go into detail, but ever since that day, Dennis had nightmares about it, every year on the dot. June first, every year."

After a few moments of silence, Jenny continued, "Nucleina?" Nucleina looked at Jenny.
"We know he has passed on. We know he had to make the ultimate sacrifice. I also know that we were the worst parents to him. But, Anunnaki we may be in spirit, we're still his human parents. The least we could do, is give him something to show our gratitude, for making us the damn proudest parents in the universe."

"They already did, buddy. They gave me the life I needed to fulfill my duty. For that, I will always love them, no matter how much I felt like I hated them." Nucleina heard Dennis' voice in her ear this time, instead of Amy's.
"Jenny, you and Daniel already did. You gave him the most precious thing in the universe, and that is physical life. For that, he will always love you. No matter what," Nucleina finished, smiling and tearing up at the same time.
"Thank you, son," Daniel said, finally allowing himself to tear up too. After a few tearful minutes, Jenny began.

"Nucleina, we all know what has to happen next." Nucleina nodded, knowing full well what they meant, finding it harder to maintain composure. "And, don't worry about giving us your knife for that. We already have what we need, and you don't need that burden, for you have a much brighter future now, love." Jenny extended her hand, and they exchanged handshakes.
"Farewell, Madame President," Daniel said, "May Belle Hades, and every wonderful world in the universe, have a happy life." With that, Daniel closed the door. Nucleina turned around and tearfully walked down the driveway. She heard a muffled bang. Followed a half minute later by a second one, and then silence.

"My fellow Americans."
A tall, lanky, graying man was standing behind a podium, on a slightly elevated stage. News cameras were placed at important places, avoiding interference with the audience in the room.
"Today, is a day many of us are perhaps all too familiar with. Today, was supposed to be a day of terror. Of destruction. Of death." He paused. "Many of us believed this was a prophecy by the Mayans, who seemed to pick this day as the end of their calendar, as if knowing today would be the end of the world.

"While the vast majority of us simply shrugged it off, little did we know that it was secretly true.
"Well, it was true, until that fateful day two months ago, on October seventeen, two thousand, and twelve. We all saw the terror that unfolded above the skies of our planet, when we all felt something magically pushing us, and again, and again.
"Many of us wondered, 'Did it come early?' 'Is this the End?'

"Well, I'm here to tell you, that it was. However, instead of being the dreaded Doomsday we all thought was upon us, it was the end. The end of an unimaginably huge reign of terror. Of fascism. Of a dictatorship so huge that our minds would never be able to comprehend.
"Unfortunately, we still had to make sacrifices. Certain cities, that we are all aware of by now, had to be destroyed by weapons of unfathomable evil. The same weapons that, we all know, ultimately ended the Second World War.

"However, on that day, October seventeen, two thousand and twelve, those very same weapons of evil, were used to prevent the Mayan doomsday from happening today. At the same time, with the help of courageous souls, a mighty empire was annihilated in a matter of minutes.
"Thanks to one, very brave, courageous young man, from the town right here in Princeton, Minnesota, we are all still alive today. He made the ultimate sacrifice, to preserve the lives of not just everyone here on Earth, but everyone all the way to the furthest reaches of the universe itself.

"Now. I admit I myself participated in cover-ups following these events, which I do regret, but felt it absolutely essential to ultimately get the word out, and am grateful to be able to do so tonight.
"As some of you know by now, I can confidently tell you, not just my fellow Americans, but to all my fellow Earthlings, that we are definitely not alone in this universe."

The audience burst into cheers and applause, which had been anticipated. After a few moments, the speaker, the new President elected to Office following the previous President's demise in the October rebellion, resumed speaking.
"Now, I know that we all still have our differences. We all still have our nationalities. We all still have our backgrounds. I know it will take time, hard work, tears, and yes, some blood, but I know that with help, we can overcome our differences, and work together, and improve the lives of as many people as we can, both on the planet Earth, and beyond.
"I realize that total unity among all the human inhabitants of Earth may not be truly possible, but I do hope that we can all someday reach across all our political borders, and help out our companion human beings, with love and compassion for one another, and without fear."

The audience applauded once again, subsiding when the President resumed speaking.
"Now. Ladies and gentlemen. I have a very special woman to introduce you to. Like many of us, she had endured hardships. Like all of us, she has had to make sacrifices none of us ever hope to make. This woman, she courageously risked everything, to save the life of the one, very special young man from rural Minnesota, from certain death, on a very fateful day, in October of two thousand and nine, in the far northern reaches of this state.
"Without further ado, I present to you, the President of the planet Belle Hades, Nucleina Nuclei."

Nucleina appeared, entering the room from a door hidden behind a curtain set up with the stage. She smiled, not even having to be psychic to know the audience's awestruck amazement. Even a four-year absence from politics did not diminish her confidence to speak to roomfuls of total strangers. She was glad to be back in the public eye. Nonetheless, the audiance eventually began to applaud.
Nucleina walked up to a podium next to the American President's, which was shorter to accomodate her stature. As she stood, she inhaled. Over the course of the previous two months, with each visit to Earth during her back and forth trips between Earth, Belle Hades, and many other worlds, Nucleina had noticed that Earth's natural smell had begun to change. Not from becoming desensitized, but because the smell itself was changing. It smelled less like blood, and begun to smell more like roses, a flower native exclusively to Earth.

"Hello there, Earth," She began, momentarily forgetting that Earthling political systems were not as laid-back like what she was used to on Belle Hades. She cleared her throat. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," she resumed, as the applause subsided.
"I would like to thank you, and would most certainly like to thank President Olsen, for welcoming us to your world. As Mister Olsen has stated, I rescued a young man from certain death in the northern parts of Minnesota, and ultimately helped him, train him, to be able to help me prevent the untimely deaths of all the wonderful living beings that inhabit this universe.

"During his time with me on my homeworld, we had to maintain absolute secrecy. We didn't even try to recruit help, as it was already in place.
"Yes, we had our fair share of close calls over the years, but throughout it all, we persevered, because we made it our mission, and because we have had enough with the tyranny. The oppression. The evil.
"Now, the plan to wipe the universe's life and start over, was indeed originally planned for today, but somehow, we got found out, and the omnipotent alien tyrants scrambled to initiate the Purge immediately. But. We sprang into action. And the rest is history."
Applause.

"Shortly afterwards, there was an attempt on my life. And I had to come to Earth in a hurry. When I got here, I...." Nucleina paused for a moment, but continued, "I was fortunate enough to have met our young man's parents. While yes, we did have an awkward moment, I will be forever grateful for our encounter. They admitted they weren't always the best parents, but they showed me they had always had the unconditional love and support a parent could have for their child.

"They... They asked me if there was anything they could do in return for their son's courageous, heroic acts. In anticipation for that, our young man, before he went on to rewrite history, wanted me to inform them that. That they had already had. By giving him the most precious thing in the universe. Life. And he would be forever grateful for them, and would still love them no matter what.

"And you know what? They told me, hearing that made them the proudest parents they could be. And they thanked me for my hospitality for our young man. A young man, who not only saved the universe. But also. He became the best friend I would ever have, in the lowest points of my life. And he helped me pull through the biggest struggle in my life. Not just to save the universe. Not just to make his parents proud. But. To save the one thing he and I both truly valued. The one miracle out of many that my homeworld's second sun gave us out of unconditional love...

"Lavender skies."