Falling

What Jon had just seen and heard sent his mind into a spiral; he never thought something like that was possible.

"The Ambrosia is more than just a supersoldier serum. It allows your body to grow beyond its limits. It improves your strength, speed, indurance, vitality, and intelligence drastically beyond normal human standards, and the more you push your body, the stronger it gets until you have a superhuman-like body."

Irvin said as he put on his shirt, and Jon paid attention closely to his actions in the video, not wanting to miss anything his grandfather might say.

"Xin managed to create 14 serums; five of them were used. Xin still has one of them in his possession; seven of them were in my possession; and one of them is unaccounted for."

'So the seven he had are the ones that were in the briefcase.' 

Jon thought to himself as he gazed at the serum he had taken from the briefcase earlier, and then he started to ponder something.

'What would happen if I used the serum?'

His heart started to race at the thought; the idea of gaining almost superhuman-like physical and mental abilities was hard to ignore. Jon's mind spiraled at the thought until the sound of his grandfather's voice drew his attention back to the video.

"The seven serums that I have in my position, no one knows where they are located, and the only person who knows that I have them is Xin, and not even he knows where they are."

Jon's eyes once again widened in shock at the sudden revelation.

"You could say the reason why I'm being hunted so badly is because I'm the only one who knows where the serums are located. That, along with the fact that I'm one of the only two people in the world who knows where the meteorite is,"

"I have a lot more I would like to share with the both of you and a lot of things to explain too, but I don't have much time. Marcus will help you out with anything you need, considering that if you're seeing this, you already met him. If possible, I would like for the both of you to live long, happy lives without the sins of my past affecting you, but I know that is just wishful thinking. So again, I want to apologize, which is why I left the ambrosia serum with you so you can protect yourselves."

The old man said with a somber expression on his face, his eyes showing guilt, that Jon had never seen on his grandfather before.

"I have to go now, so listen closely; the serum has to be injected into the blood stream for it to have the optimum effect. There aren't any threatening side effects; however, your perspective on certain things might change a bit due to your enhanced intelligence. I'll leave the decision of taking the serum in your hands. You can even give it to Xin if you ever meet him; it's all up to you. However, don't inform anyone else that you have the serum, or else your lives will be in danger."

Irvin leaned closer to the camera, and Jon noticed a sad look in his eyes, but he showed no tears.

"Remember to always have each other's backs because all you have in the world is each other. The both of you brought this old man much joy in the latter years of his life. Thank you and goodbye."

The video ended, and Jon sat there blankly, staring at the screen. The last words of the old man left his thoughts in a mess, and then he realized something.

'I don't know much about my grandfather.'

***

JON'S POV

I sat in my room in silence, contemplating the last words of my grandfather in silence. Not sure of what to do, my gaze moved back and forth between the serum and the briefcase, and like the devil whispering in my ear, I heard the sound of my alter's voice.

"Why are you hesitating so much? Didn't you hear the old man? He said it was your choice; there's no need for you to make a big deal out of it."

I looked over to my bed from where I was sitting, and I saw him sitting on my bed with his legs crossed. 

"...."

"He also said that he wanted us to live long, happy lives."

I wasn't going to answer him, but I did it anyway. 

"He also said that it was impossible for you to do so. Besides, where did all that conviction from earlier go? Didn't you say you wanted to avenge him? You can't do all of that without power. You heard him say that the people who were after him were extremely wealthy and powerful."

"...." 

I grew silent at his words. I wasn't ignoring him like I usually do; I just didn't have a response to give.

"The old man did so much for us. He took care of us and watched over us; he taught us how to protect ourselves; he made sure we were well fed; he taught us how to survive; and he saved us. And those bastards murdered him before we ever got a chance to repay him. AND YOU JUST WANT TO SIT THERE AND DO NOTHING!!!!!!"

"...."

I sat there in silence, listening to my alter shout at me. I could see the look in his eyes. They had grown dark. 

He got up from where he was sitting, walked over to me, and kneeled down so our eyes met. When I looked into his eyes, all I could see was a swirling abyss of darkness that threatened to pull me in.

"Natasha is in her room, bawling her eyes out. You know how she is; she acts all calm and collected on the outside, but you know she's as delicate as a flower on the inside. Our beloved older sister, who took the life of our father to protect you, is crying right now, and you're going to let them get away with that."

My alter said those words to me calmly; he didn't shout at all like earlier, but his words kept echoing inside my head. My eyes widened, and memories from when I was a small child started flashing through my head. My hands started to shake, and I looked down at them.

"Of course not!"

I shouted at my alter ego, and the look on my face slowly started to morph into one of anger as I glared back at him.

"LIAR! If you were really serious, you wouldn't be sitting here with that lost look on your face."

"...."

I grew silent at his words once more, but my eyes glared deeply down his pitch black abyssal-like eyes. I could feel my anger slowly boiling within me, along with another emotion, hatred.

Sigh

"It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be a new beginning. Things were just starting to get better, and now this. Fuck!"

I wasn't speaking to my alter; I was just thinking out loud, and I exclaimed in frustration at the end.

"Too bad, you can kiss that regular life that you wanted to have goodbye. In my opinion, you were way too broken to live a regular life anyway. Get up; you know what you have to do, don't you?"

"I know."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"I'll do everything within my ability to gain enough power to achieve my goals and take revenge for the death of my grandfather."

"What if someone tries to stop you?"

"Then they'll be no different from my enemies."

"What if they try to hurt those you care about?" 

"Then I'll eradicate them and their loved ones."

"What if the world is against you?"

I glared at my alter when he asked me this question. He had a twisted smile on his face, and as his swirling, abyss-like eyes gazed at me with expectation,.

"You already know the answer to that."

I said to him in a dark, cold tone.

"Yes,yes, I know. If the world is against us, then-"

"WE'LL MAKE THE WORLD OUR ENEMY!."

Our voices resonated together as if we were in sync, and my alter trembled in excitement as he watched me stand up from where I sat with the serum in my hand and walk towards where the briefcase lay on the floor.

I opened it, took out one of the syringes that were inside, and closed it. I took the briefcase and slid it under my bed.

I opened the cap of the 20-ml vial and stuck the syringe needle inside to extract the serum, and once the serum was extracted into the syringe, I sat on my bed and held up my left arm, inspecting it. I then folded my fist tightly until a visible vein appeared.

'Here goes nothing'

I thought to myself, then injected myself with the serum. I watched as the contents of the syringe slowly emptied until there was no trace of the transparent yellow liquid. I had injected myself with ambrosia.

I pulled out the syringe and looked at it. I stood up from the bed, then looked down at my arm, where I injected myself.

"I don't feel any different."

I muttered to myself, then looked back at the syringe in my hand, and then frowned as I remembered something.

'I probably should have sterilized the syringe first, huh?'

My thoughts were cut short as I froze up and my head started to spin. I felt dizzy, and I fell to the floor. I watched as the syringe fell from my hand and slid under my bed, but that was the least of my problems.

Inside my body, It felt like it was burning, and my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. It felt like I had magma running through my veins. I felt an unbearable amount of pain throughout my muscles, and I tried to scream, but not a sound could escape my mouth. The pain was so intense, I felt like I was going to die if this continued any longer.

I lay there on the floor, and my body started convulsing. All I could do was stare blankly at the ceiling, unable to shout or move, but even that didn't last long as my sight started to blur and my vision started to grow dark.

'What's happening to me?"

I thought to myself as my consciousness started to slowly fade.

***

In a massive meeting room, a huge round table was placed in the middle, with twelve large thrones surrounding the table. A brown-skinned man was sitting on one of the thrones with his eyes closed.

The man had an otherworldly handsome face by human standards; he had white-silverish hair growing out of his head that was braided and extended to his back or side if his head was shaved and was connected to a shap hairline. His facial features looked like they were perfectly designed to match his face.

He heard the mechanical door to the meeting room open, and he heard well-calculated foot steps entering the room. He opened his eyes, and one could see golden eyes that seemed to glow as he moved them to see the figure that entered the room.

"The others will be arriving soon."

The figure who entered the room said this as they took a seat on one of the thrones next to him. He took a look at the person who just sat next to him, and he saw a light-skinned man with black hair and crimson-red eyes that also seemed to glow. This man was also extremely handsome, and the black futuristic-looking suit with red highlights that seemed to match his eyes brought out that beauty even more.

"Tell me, Hao, have you ever thought back to the things we've done over the years and wondered what would have happened if we took a different path?"

The golden-eyed, silver-haired man asked one of his oldest friends a question that made the crimson-eyed man look at him with a raised brow.

"What's gotten into you? This sentimentalism is unlike you."

The crimson-eyed man said this to him while looking at him with a puzzled look. The silver-haired man chuckled at his friend's response before he answered.

"I just remembered something from our childhood years that got me thinking. I guess the longer you live, the more nostalgia haunts you."

The crimson-eyed man looked at his friends with a deadpan expression and then answered his earlier question.

"I never really thought about stuff like that. Our childhood years, huh? That was so long ago; we were nothing but immature brats. But even so, back then, we had already decided to throw away our morality and live without regrets."

The silver-haired man let out another small chuckle at the words of his friend.

"You're right."

"Instead of reminiscing about the past, I would like to hear about what we should do about our little Sodorian problem. They refuse to find a middle ground with us."

The crimson-eyed man said, with all previous playfulness in his voice nowhere to be seen.

"Yes, this farce has gone on long enough. Let's send one of the admirals to destroy their mother planet."

The silver-haired man said and just like that, the fate of an entire civilization was decided.