12 Chapter 12: Fortress of Solitude

Pentos, Essos

Aiden and the group had wait till nightfall to land within the estate marked by Jaime, after their cheerful reunion, Elia and the others were stunned by Aidens growth as well as the suit he was now wearing.

It was like nothing they had ever seen before, it looked similar to scaled armor, but it was soft to the touch yet looked as if it was made from metal.

That wasn't the only thing they had noticed, they also noticed his distant and troubled look. Aiden had thought a lot on what his brother Sho said to him as he flew them to Pentos.

"What's wrong my child?" Elia said as she had pulled Aiden aside after they had their dinner.

"I...I think I need need to leave, there's something I need to do, but I don't want to leave. What if something happens and I'm not here?" Aiden said, his face showing his conflicted feelings.

"Is it important?" Elia asked as she smiled at him and rubbed his cheek in comfort.

"I guess, I don't really know. My brother came to see me that night you left Dragonstone. He said that I needed to go get my inheritance." Aiden said as he held the necklace that had never left his neck.

Elia was surprised by this information, she remembered that night the man had appeared before her holding a baby. She then pulled Aiden into her embrace.

"You should go my son, we will be fine here, you have brought us all together. We will have the protection of the Kingsguard as well as Ser Willem and his men. You were meant for something more, you are special Aiden. You are meant for great things. I have always felt that we were holding you back. If your brother says that it's important than you should listen to him. You can always return, we will always be your family, no matter what." Elia said as a tear rolled down her face. She knew this day would come, but she had hoped it would've been much later.

"But.." Aiden started to say but Elia stopped him.

"It's okay son. I promise, you are a brave and strong boy, we will be okay. Just don't forget who you are. We are safe here, we have friends, plus the Usurper will not know we are here for some time. We have time to make arrangements to keep ourselves safe from harm. I have already sent word to my brothers in Dorne so we will receive even more assistance. You can do what you need without worrying about us." Elia said reassuringly.

"I promise I will return as soon as possible." Aiden said as he squeezed her tight.

"I know sweetheart. I'm afraid that next time I see you, you will no longer be the boy in front of me, you are growing so fast. You look very handsome in your suit, you will break many a hearts when your older. When will you be leaving?" Elia asked.

"I think the sooner the better, that way I can do what I need to and come back sooner." Aiden answered back.

"I understand. Go ahead, I will tell the others. Be safe son, and make sure you don't let your anger get the best of you. The world is full of bad people, I have tried to shield you from it as best as I could, but unfortunately that can only last but so long. Don't forget what we taught you, be a true knight, protect the innocent, don't lose yourself with power. You have the strength to both be a protector or its destroyer, you have to decide what you will be." Elia said lovingly as she had squat down to look Aiden in his eyes.

After seeing him nod she gave him one last hug, "Even though I didn't give birth to you, I love you as you were my own child, I know we all feel that way. Although I think Rhaenys has a little crush on you, so make sure you come back to us okay."

Aiden gave another sad nod and began to walk out of the room to head outside. As he exit the door he saw Arthur Dayne and Gerold Hightower guarding the door to the living quarters.

"I know I don't need to say this, but be careful Uncles. I will return as soon as I can." Aiden said before he began to rise off the ground.

Before they could respond, Aiden shot up into the sky, once he got a good distance from the ground his speed increased, breaking the sound barrier and rushed up to the upper atmosphere of Planetos.

He was looking for peace and quiet to think, so much was at stake.

'To be something more. Why do I get the feeling he's grooming me? But for what? I don't feel any maliciousness from my brother, but he is definitely up to something. He is so hard to read. So somewhere secure, away from people.' Aiden thought as he looked back down towards the planet.

Looking down his vision enhanced and allowed him to search the planet. When his eyes reached the northern lands, his brows furrowed. Usually he didn't feel heat or cold, whether in the middle of a desert midday or on a frozen tundra, he wouldn't be affected in any way no matter what type of clothing he wore.

However, gazing into the lands he only knew as the Lands of Always Winter, he did feel a chill. Not much was known about the lands, those who have ventured there have never returned.

Even Old Valyria knew of the lands, dragon riders had ventured there as well, never to return. Even the search parties sent didn't come back, not even their dragons. So the Valyrian Empire had labeled it a cursed and forbidden land.

Even the First Men stayed away, they and the Children of the Forest knew what had retreated into those lands. They had fought it, although they had won, that victory was incomplete. They had merely won the battle, the war was far from over.

'Well, I wonder..' Aiden thought as he grabbed the crystal that hung on his neck, looking at the crystal, he had a thought.

'Wouldn't up here be the safest place? Who is around up here?' So Aiden studied the metallic key with the sigil of house El on the top.

'What am I supposed to do with this. How is this thing supposed to have a fortress?' Aiden thought as he looked at the object.

Then he noticed a fine line across the top as if the top could move.

Using his thumb he twisted the S, when he went clockwise the top of the medallion moved and a light emmited from the botton of the metal medallion.

Suddenly a six inch clear crystal with sharp pointed ends appeared from the bottom of the medallion.

'Woah, how did that fit into this little thing?'

Aiden thought as he grabbed the crystal to get a look.

He noticed a metal band that wrapped around the middle of the crystal. There was a hole in the same shape as the key that it came out from. Aiden then placed the key near the hole in the crystal, before he could insert it a strong force pulled the key from his fingers, inserting itself into the hole.

This had surprised him, but seeing nothing else happen he looked at it again, noticing the top of the key wasn't flush with the crystal he pressed the top into the crystal fully.

Once he did that a monotone male voice suddenly was heard.

"Activation Sequence Initiated... Identity confirmed... El Command Key detected... Bond with host established... Kryptonian battle suit detected... Establishing link with suit... Link established... Intiating scan of environment... Scan complete... Location confirmed, adjusting Fortress to accommodate environment... Adjustment complete... Fortress ready to be deployed."

Aiden looked around for the voice's source but couldn't find it, "Um, who are you?"

"I am Kelex, I am a custumized artificial intelligence designed to serve house El and manage the Fortress and its various systems." The voice responded.

"Oh, okay well then what am i supposed to do now?" Aiden asked since that answer didn't really tell him anything since he didn't understand what it was saying.

"Please throw the crystal into the exosphere of the planet." Kelex replied.

"What is that?" Aiden asked incredulously, he had never heard many of the terms being used before.

"Please throw the crystal upwards." Kelex replied patiently.

"Oh, why didn't you just say that?" Aiden said as he tossed the crystal further into space.

"Activation sequence initiated."

Then to Aidens shock the crystal began to glow brighter and brighter then it began to expand. It got larger and larger, turning from a small crystal into a large land mass with a large pyramid made of crystals sat in the center.

The landmass, the extremely large pyramid sat on, was about the size of Dragonstone island while the Pyramid within the middle was a good thousand feet tall.

Aidens eyes widened at how large of a structure had just appeared out of something so small. He stared at the large crystal mass as it continued to grow various structures across the landmass.

Various pillars grew all around the pyramid in the center.

Once it was completely finished a clear bubble grew from the pyramid that encircled the top part of the landmass in a dome of energy.

"Fortess complete... Matching atmosphere to host planet complete... Welcome home Aiden-El." Kelex voice then was heard.

Aiden looked at the Fortress in amazement and flew to check it out. He wanted to explore the place.

After entering the dome he was startled by Sho reappearing in front of a large round door in front of the pyramid, it had the same symbol on the door as was on his chest.

"Finally little brother, good choice too. Up here, no one will be able to access it and accidently set off the defenses. Come let me give you the tour. I think you are going to like what is inside." Sho said as Aiden flew over.

"How is this even possible?" Aiden asked in amazement.

"This is technology from our world. We grow everything from crystals, crystals store the information we input into them and that allows us to grow various structures, buildings and even ships can be grown from them. Inside this Fortress is the knowledge of over three hundred thousand universes and worlds that I have visited personally. It's what we do, explore and document the universes. The Omniverse is infinite, within the Omniverse there are various universes and those universes have various multiverses attached. Our job is to protect the Omniverse as well as document its history." Sho explained.

Aiden didn't understand much but didn't say anything as he followed Sho into the fortress.

"That was why you were created along with me. You see, as I said before the Omniverse is infinite and vast, so even with all my power I am only one person, I can only be at one place at a time. You are born to protect alongside me, we will be able to protect worlds better once you are ready. It was why father sent you here first, think of it a noob village. It is a low level universe that will be able to train you, allow to grow stronger. There are some higher level universes nearby so I don't suggest leaving this one just yet, although you wouldn't die in them, there are entities that could trap you for extended periods of time if you aren't ready." Sho explained as he gave Aiden the tour of the fortress.

Aiden saw various rooms designed for purposes he didn't know, he then came to the main room, in its center held the coolest thing he ever saw. A city contained within a bottle.

"Wow it looks so real." Aiden said as he ran up to the bottle and inspected it.

"That's because it is. It's called Kandor, it is a replica of our capital city. It's fully functional and can be used to move populations of people if you need to relocate them from one planet to another, or if you take people under your wings they can live within the city safely. Hell if you wanted you could bring that family of yours into the city. Though they might be overwhelmed since there is such a technological gap between us. That city has speeders and ships and all kinds of tech so they would need to learn how to use it, luckily the city is equipped with thousands of service droids that could help." Sho said with a smile.

"Holy shit, are you for real? This is all mine?" Aiden asked excitedly, this was always his biggest concern, the safety of his loved ones.

"Yea, I already have my own so this one is yours. I have mine filled with my wives and their families."

"Wives? As in more than one?" Aiden asked, in Westeros the practice of polygamy had faded off due to it had caused too many issues with succession.

"Of course, you have to remember, we traverse universes, you will obviously meet a multitude of peoples and relationships tend to form naturally. It is ultimately your choice, just don't be a scumbag and hide things. It never works out, they always find out no matter how good you think you are." Sho replied with a shrug.

Just when Aiden was about to say something two roars were heard, at first Aiden was startled and got into a defensive posture but he could tell those roars weren't hostile, rather the opposite, they were filled with excitement and joy.

"Ah it looks like your two companions are awake." Sho said with a smile.

"Companions?" Aiden asked as he looked to where the roars came from.

"Yea, they both had very tough lives. They were stuck in a very sad cycle of life, they are husband and wife, but every life they are born into they were destined to die the same way, betrayed by their closest friends, I couldn't allow such a thing so I rescued them and removed the curse. When they found out about you, they requested that they accompanied you after their next rebirth. They are Flamebird and Nightwing, they are kryptonian dragons."