Gunwoo wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when they left the NADT Prime behind. He had so very little to go on anyway, not even a direction to be honest. But the first step was actually getting away from everything he knew and everything he’d be leaving behind. Oh it hurt. More than he thought it would. Hyosung’s pain at his abandoning her – there was no other way to tell it. His children’s hurt at their father leaving for whatever reason. His parents… and everything he knew.

                But what hurt more was the uncertainty of what had happened to Changmin. With that brief flicker of hope, the reminder the other angel was out there, he knew he was alive. But why hadn’t he come back? Why, if he survived, were there no survivors at the outpost? The answer was both frustrating and terrifying in its possibility. Victoria knew it too and was quick to remind him as they entered open space, no longer under the obvious protection of the Angel Empire.

                “If he’s alive as you think he is, then chances are good he’s either so injured he can’t get back, captured, or in hiding,” she explained over their coms, her voice abundantly clear in the cockpit.

                “I realize that,” Gunwoo confirmed, focusing on the open space as he felt for a direction. Divining while being talked at was never his strong point.

                “If he’s in hiding or hurt… that’s easy,” she continued as if he’d hadn’t said anything. “If he’s captured, what do you intend to do?”

                Her question nudged into his awareness again and he sighed once. “Get him back by any means necessary.”

                “Oh. Brave aren’t you?” she teased lightly, her chuckle amused. “You sound so much like him when he wanted to find you.”

                Gunwoo winced at the comparison and made himself take a calming breath. “Do you ever regret going to Earth?” he asked her before she could say anything else.

                “Regret?” she mused, mulling his question over. “No, young one,” the elder angel assured him warmly. “I’m only sad about how things ended for you.”

                That was something at least. “What about your wings?” he asked, knowing she’d never regained full use. They were mobile but she had never flown like she could before.

                “Injuries I proudly earned protecting you,” she responded softly. “Do I wish they still worked like they should? Of course, but I do not regret my actions during that time.”

                “I see,” he hummed, fingers tapping quietly over the control panel.

                “Do you regret Earth?” she asked after a quiet pause.

                Gunwoo stilled, not expecting the question. There were so many things he regretted. His youthful stupidity. Cutting off his wings the first time. Running from his responsibilities. Being the cause of so many people and angels getting hurt… But Earth? “No,” he eventually answered. “For all the pain I caused, there were more good things that came of me going to Earth. A brief freedom… friends…”

                “Changmin,” Victoria finished for him, her voice sad.

                “Yes.”

                “Well. Let’s go find him then,” she smiled, the expression obvious in her tone.

                “Yes, ma’am,” he grinned, suddenly grateful for her presence here. He’d been nervous about her coming, but she seemed to harbor no ill will about what had happened in the past and he appreciated having an experienced Captain nearby, should things get… interesting. Closing his eyes, he focused his power on divining, determined to find something. Mercifully, Victoria was silent as she waited for him, patient and steady.

                ‘Where?’ wondered, reaching and reaching. It felt like before, searching in the nothingness with no help, but this time, he wasn’t exhausted. And he was in a ship which could help magnify his ability. Whittling his focus to nothing but Changmin’s face, he pressed hard and then flinched when something came through.

                Find…

                “Find?” he murmured, confused. But the word had been accompanied by a feeling this time: hope and defiance. And a direction. Vaguely.

                “Did you get something?” Victoria’s voice came into his ear, curious about the utterance she’d heard.

                “I think so. Not much but something. Over this way,” he explained, sending the direction to her ship quickly.

                “Huh,” she hummed thoughtfully. He imagined her chewing on her nail. “Nowhere near the Vylorian Quadrant anymore. Not unexpected but interesting direction.”

                “Why?” Gunwoo asked, not seeing any connection.

                “Beyond Empire space, every direction is interesting,” she distracted with a laugh. “But… if I remember right, we had a couple exploration vessels go missing out this way a couple centuries ago,” she added, obviously thinking.

                “Do you think they might be connected?” he asked, glancing over at the second ship curiously.

                “Too early to say,” Victoria shrugged, angling her ship in the direction they needed to go in. “We might as well find out though.”

                “Understood,” Gunwoo nodded, punching in the appropriate vector to begin their high speed travel in the aforementioned direction.

 

                For the first couple days, nothing changed. They got the odd signal from a beacon and passed a planet or two. Not to mention a fledgling space station from another species tied almost directly to the planet it was stemming from. But neither felt like stopping so they didn’t.

                Gunwoo divined at the beginning of every travel day to make sure they were still headed in the right direction and wasn’t surprised when the course changed slightly. Whatever they were following was moving. He didn’t get any new information from Changmin and certainly nothing more than a word at a time, which was strange because he knew they had to be getting at least a little bit closer. It felt almost as if something was blocking him. Not impossible but unusual and not easy to do.

                A week went by and they both began to sense a peculiar dread in the air. Like a buzzing or humming sound that was just out of reach. It made his skin itch and his head ache. Especially when he tried divining.

                “What is that?” he finally asked, unable to figure out what he was feeling.

                “I’m not sure,” Victoria admitted, doing nothing to assuage his concern. “Whatever it is, it’s new. And that’s saying something,” she added, clearly wary. She wasn’t among the eldest Angels but she had been around as a former Captain. “We should probably slow down though. With something like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a wall or some kind of barrier somewhere around here,” she theorized, keeping her voice low. “I’d also suggest keeping coms to a minimum and power as well.”

                “I agree,” Gunwoo confirmed, downshifting to a slower speed and then disabling all unnecessary power grids in his ship. “Going silent for now,” he called, muting his coms so he wouldn’t accidentally send something out.

                A couple hours later and he was almost willing to just turn back. Anything to get away from the non-existent sound that had become one in the last hour. He swore his skin felt numb from the constant vibration and the only reason he kept going, followed steadily by Victoria’s ship, was because his divining kept telling him to go straight. He couldn’t read Changmin yet, but it was a stronger confirmation and he wasn’t going to give up until there was some sign of something.

                Alarm bells flared in his mind though, already open with the Divination channel, and he felt the ship slow of its own accord. Almost as if it had hit something. But not something solid. The ship was still moving, albeit slowly. And there was a pressure against him that was very uncomfortable. It was almost to the point of pain until… it stopped, just as a fleet of ships came into view as if they’d been there the entire time.

                Gunwoo inhaled sharply, mind ringing when his divining screamed Changmin, but he had to drop it in favor of going invisible. Next to him, he could feel Victoria doing the same. He certainly couldn’t see her. “What in the galaxy?” he whispered, staring at the ships ahead. It reminded him of an Angel Empire fleet, with a central station in the middle and carrier ships positioned beyond for protection, but here, there were also many other smaller vessels. “Warships?” he wondered, eyes widening when he realized a couple of the smaller ones were heading their way.

                It was too dangerous to open coms. He didn’t know if they’d be able to hear him or not, but he knew staying in the same place they’d entered would be a bad idea. Drifting carefully to the left, he prayed Victoria was doing the same but in the other direction. Vaguely, he could feel her and realized she was. She’d probably been waiting on him. Good. Drifting to what he hoped was a suitable spot, he turned off all power and focused on bolstering the invisibility around him. If he was right, they were likely going to scan the area and he wanted there to be as little chance as possible they’d locate him.

                Just in time too, he saw the scanning beams flicker to life in front of the vessels, sweeping the area. They turned to continue their sweep moving in either direction, and Gunwoo tried to stay calm. His heart sounded far too loud in his ears when the beam swept over his ship… and then kept going. He sighed in relief and continued to watch the ships as they went on their way, scanning a bit longer before they regrouped and returned to the fleet behind them.

                He very badly wanted to open a channel and talk to Victoria just then, but for the moment, he felt it was better to observe. The ships were neither Angel nor Demon, and he dismissed them immediately as Celestial or Khaos in nature. So what else could they be? He nearly jumped out of his seat when particles of dust began to coalesce in front of him as if magically conjured. Discoverer…

                “The Alium,” the new speaker murmured softly, essentially settling on Gunwoo’s lap in the confined space of the cockpit. While he was talking at the Angel, his attention was focused outward.

                “Okay,” Gunwoo sighed, not sure what to expect at that point.

                “Though they call themselves the Tavarri. In your tongue anyway,” the Discoverer shrugged, turning to focus his attention on the Angel this time. “Nice to finally meet you, former Heir Gunwoo,” he smiled, longish face pulling up into the expression easily. “Interesting that you should be the one to find them,” he mused, clearly thoughtful.

                “Sure. And you are?” he asked hesitantly. His experience with Discoverers was limited but he knew they were all quite different. And dangerous.

                The Discoverer laughed and nodded his head. “So intent upon names. Though it is only fair since I know yours,” he conceded. “I am Discoverer Rho. Though you may call me Hope,” he shrugged, apparently comfortable where he was.

                “Hope,” the Angel nodded in understanding. No stranger than the other three he’d met or heard about. “And what are you doing here?”

                “Watching of course,” he answered without pause.

                “I mean, in my ship,” he clarified, uncomfortable with a humanoid man just sitting on his lap while imminent danger was likely not that far away.

                “Oh right,” he chuckled, making no effort to shift from here he was. He certainly seemed comfortable enough in what amounted to a blue bathrobe and messy black hair he made no effort to tame. “Offering my guidance most likely,” he admitted.

                “Right. Because you guys don’t usually interfere,” he cautioned, chewing on his lip thoughtfully.

                “Correct. How did you find this place?” he wondered aloud, tapping on his bottom lip as he focused his attention again.

                Surprised, Gunwoo blurted the first thing that came to mind. “I divined it.”

                “Fascinating!” Hope blinked, turning to face him more fully. “No other angel has been able to divine this space. What made you different?”

                That was even more surprising. At first, he shook his head. “I don’t know…” But then he trailed off as he looked towards the fleet and narrowed his eyes. “No. I was looking for someone,” he explained softly. “It felt like he was hiding somewhere or that I was being blocked but I made contact enough to get a direction,” he added, his lips slowly.

                “Oh. So they took Changmin did they?” he wondered, mouth quirking to the side in a semblance of a sad smile.

                “How…?”

                “Did I know about your angel?” he finished with a quick grin. “Lambda Myu’s not exactly a gossip but he is stationed near a planet that generates a lot of stories. Yours was particularly interesting,” he nodded. “Alpha Prime makes sure that we are all in the loop no matter where we are in the galaxy,” he shrugged as if that explained everything.

                That was a lot to swallow, though not particularly difficult. If they could hide in plain sight, like Jieun had, then he had no trouble believing they could communicate across the galaxy if they so wished, even if Myungsoo had never done so openly. “So what does it mean that you’re talking to me now?” he wondered, still not sure about that part.

                Hope nodded his head in agreement and pat the angel on the shoulder. “Well, since you’re here, we can finally see about introducing the Alium to the rest of the galaxy. They’ve done well with hiding from the Celestials and the Khaosis and as you’ve noticed, they don’t have much trouble warding off Angels or Demons. A bit reclusive, don’t you think?”

                “Why did they attack the outpost?” Gunwoo asked, his focus honing in on Changmin instead.

                “Oh, to collect specimens of course,” he answered as if that should have been obvious. “They don’t hit heavily populated areas and only take a few here and there. They’ve been studying the persons they’ve captured to better understand them. They think they’re a superior species,” he snorted, rolling his eyes. “As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if they started to mobilize in the next few years or so. Now is as good a time as any to try and nudge them in a different direction,” he explained with a wave of his hand. “Besides, they have a lot of potential that they’re wasting in trying and failing to harness that black hole over there,” he pointed just beyond the fleet to where a shimmering ball of darkness was obvious.

                Gunwoo blanched and then looked again. “A black hole? And they’re trying to harness it?”

                “Superior species comment? Remember?” Hope reminded him with a sidelong look.

                Of course he remembered that, but it didn’t answer his confusion. He shook his head for the moment, knowing it didn’t matter. “So what exactly do you expect me to do?” he asked, trying for a straight answer.

                “I suggest you return to Angel Empire space and let them know what you’ve found,” Hope explained deftly. “You’ve actually remained undetected after having made it through their heretofore successful warding barrier. As such, you can go back and warn your people of what you’ve finally found,” he grinned, obviously pleased with himself.

                “No,” Gunwoo murmured, surprising the Discoverer. “I’m not leaving without Changmin.”

                “Oh, you are attached,” he mused thoughtfully. “What about the other angel?” he asked, nodding towards where Victoria’s ship probably was.

                “She came to help me,” he explained, glancing between the space and the Discoverer.

                “Hmm. Still possible,” he nodded to himself, a calculating expression present. But then he paused as if listening to something far away. “Oh?” he hummed, nodding thoughtfully along to an unheard voice and Gunwoo had the briefest thought he might be a little crazy. But then the Discoverer laughed once and waved his hand in understanding. Dark eyes with galaxies swirling within turned their full weight on Gunwoo and he suddenly felt very small in that moment. “It seems as if Beta One Alpha Four is quite invested in your story. He has asked me to help you if you answer two questions for me.”

                Wary of that proposition, Gunwoo nodded slowly. “I will try.”

                “Do you love Changmin?”

                “Yes.” The answer came easy. There was no reason to try and hide it and the proof was partially in him having made it here at all.

                “More than your family?” Hope wondered, turning his head to the side.

                That was a harder question. It felt like it, but he also knew that it wasn’t so simple. “No. I just love him differently. I love him as one loves the light. Reveling in it when it is there and missing it when it is gone. And I have missed him for a long time,” he admitted sadly, the questions weighing upon him heavier than he thought they might.

                “And your love for your family?”

                “That was two questions,” he complained briefly, falling into silence when a raised brow caught his eye.

                “These are for my personal curiosity. I have one yet to ask for Beta,” he reminded him.

                Gunwoo sighed and nodded in understanding. “My family.” That was harder to categorize, and it didn’t exactly extend to Hyosung but for those specifically connected to him by blood. “My love for my family is like the universe. Endless and without boundaries. Unquestionable for it is just there. I carry them with me always. But I also know that, like a star in the history of the universe, my presence is no longer needed. Like a supernova, my brightness has run its course.”

                Hope’s lips quirked into an amused smile. “Poetic, dear former Heir,” he grinned. “But a supernova does not simply just disappear. It explodes,” he reminded the angel with a shrug. “Which brings me to Beta’s next question. If you had one chance to maybe have a life where you could be truly happy, where all of your wishes might be fulfilled, would you take it at the cost of never seeing this world again and have no regrets?”

                That was a long and complicated question, but Gunwoo thought it was also probably one of the most important questions he’d ever been asked. All of life was a maybe. If he didn’t take a chance, nothing would change so that part was easy. Yes. Especially if it meant that he could be truly happy and all that entailed. But that the cost would be never seeing this world again and with no regrets? That was not so easy. He had said his goodbyes. He had done what was asked of him for the past seventy years. He had fathered beautiful confident, intelligent children he had no doubt would change their universe. All of his Earth friends were dead and gone. And his reputation would never recover from having lost his title.

                He’d lived these years as he was expected to. Had come to terms with his relationship with Hyosung and while he did not regret that, he was sad for her. Like he was sad for his children. That their father could be nothing more than a caretaker to them. He would be sad to not see the world they created but he had no doubt they would do well, whatever came. They had too many good people around them, like the ones that had saved him at his lowest point.

                Taking a deep breath, he finally had his answer. “Yes.”

                “Good,” Hope grinned, clearly happy with the response. “Beta says okay,” he added, turning his attention to Victoria’s ship.

                “Huh?” Gunwoo chirped in surprise as the Discoverer waved and Victoria fell out of invisibility like it was nothing. “What are you doing?” he hissed in panic.

                “Making you a hero,” the Discoverer winked, tapping on the console with a quick finger before he added, “He’s here and this is the black hole,” and then disappeared, flowing away into golden dust in the blink of an eye.

                His coms came to life in the next instant and Victoria announced, “My invisibility has gone down and I’ve been detected by the fleet! Initiating evasive maneuvers!”

                Gunwoo’s focus narrowed to what was in front of him as time seemed to slow. Victoria was out in the open, he was still invisible, and his screen was showing what he could only assume was Changmin’s holding location on one of the carrier vessels. By his own words, Hope had explained that someone needed to get out of here to warn the Angel Empire, but he didn’t think it was going to be him. Nor did he want to go in guns blazing if they didn’t want to initiate an incident that would be harder to recover from later.

                “No!” he shouted into his coms, dropping his invisibility as he darted forward. “You have to get back to warn the Empire of what you’ve found.”

                “I’m not leaving you!” she denied vehemently, already moving to flank him.

                “Victoria, please!” he asked, summoning his circle of protection and utilizing divination to help him steer clear of incoming fire. “I’ll draw their attention while you get away. I can’t leave Changmin and it’s just better this way,” he assured her, rolling and diving as if his life depended on it. This was probably part of the maybe too.

                “Woo,” she murmured, her voice catching. “You’re planning on leaving aren’t you?”

                He didn’t know how she’d surmised that, but there was no point in telling her. “Drop your null stasis field at the barrier and send a long range burst communication to let them know what you found. You can circle back around if you must, but please. Do this for me,” he asked, hissing between his teeth as he ducked under a beam and then swerved rapidly to avoid an entire warship. Cosmos they were everywhere.

                “Dammit, Woo!” Victoria growled, making a hard u-turn as she mirrored his evasions and threw up her own circle of protection.

                “Thank you,” he whispered, shutting the coms off so he could better focus. He’d never actively tried to fly into a fleet of ships before and he certainly wasn’t getting out of it unscathed. To keep their attention on him, he fired divine rays but wasn’t aiming at anything in particular. He flinched when a few shots ricocheted off his shielding but they held for now. Another barrel roll. Loop! Dive and bank right. Back up and left! UP!

                A ship rose directly in front of him and he pulled the flight stick so he went straight up to avoid a collision. Leveling out with his heart pounding in his chest, he tightened his defenses and gunned it straight at the ship where a little blinking icon told him Changmin should be. “Please be there,” he begged, firing his null stasis field just before impact. Using the nose of his ship like a nail, he punctured the hull of the carrier ship and then braked hard, lodging himself inside enough to exit the cockpit within the ship.

                As intended, and hoped, everything was still inside the field. He summoned his celestial armor and flaming sword all the same. “Changmin!” he called, head swiveling as he took in the tall walls and the equally tall creatures before him. They were bipedal, with a tail, and they had four arms, but he couldn’t determine much more beyond that due to the suits they wore. It didn’t matter. The blip on his screen showed the angel was nearby and with a bit of divination, it led him to a wall that seemed no different than the rest.

                “Come on, come on, come on,” he whispered knowing time was counting down. He’d have guests from the outside soon. There! Inhaling sharply, he pulled his sword back and struck down, feeling weak-kneed with relief when he heard a mechanism click. Panels in the wall opened and a series of figures came forward in what he could only guess were stasis tubes. It didn’t take him long to find Changmin. Third tube down. “Yah!” he flinched when something smacked his shield. Looking over his shoulder, he saw one of the Alium creatures aiming some kind of weapon at him. It didn’t look lethal, but he had no time for him. Frustrated at having to use yet another ability, he invoked invisibility and rushed to incapacitate the creature.

                “Killing is bad,” he reminded himself, knowing the less damage he did here, the more chance they had of creating a non-violent relationship later. It still took too long. By the time he’d laid the creature down, more were appearing and he simply didn’t have the time and patience to deal with them all in a non-lethal manner. “Sorry, Minnie,” he whispered, flying to crash into the stasis pod with his sword, shattering the container like a vial.

                Frightened cries erupted around him as what sounded like gunfire went off, but with his invisibility up, they had no good target. Especially when he pulled Changmin’s unconscious and unresponsive body into the protective circle. But cosmos was it draining his reserves. Losing the sword, he shored up his defenses and opted to fly, albeit with some difficulty. They could hear his wings and shot upwards, pinging off his shielding which helped them locate him more. “Star shards!” he cursed, practically crash landing in his ship with Changmin awkwardly held close. He closed the cockpit just in time to keep any intruders from entering and then punched the controls as he diverted his personal shields back to the modified ship shields.

                The null stasis field was already starting to wear off or they were starting to break it down, but either way, it was time to go. “Oh come on!” he shouted in weary disbelief as he came face to face with a half-circle of bristling war ships. They were hesitant to open fire because he was directly in front of one of their carriers but he knew they were also trying to hail him. He declined to accept their call and glanced down at Changmin’s bare form. He was breathing. He thought. And otherwise unharmed, but there was no telling what would happen if they got their hands on him again. Or him for that matter.

                And the black hole was right there… He just had to get to it. Taking a deep breath, he shed his celestial armor and funneled as much of his remaining power as he could back into his ship’s shields. “Not today,” he promised, invoking invisibility just long enough to drop out of their immediate sight. He couldn’t sustain it and keep the shielding at full strength but he didn’t need to. He only needed to get under them. Swooping beneath the ships, he became visible again and then diverted power to his rear shields as he focused on avoiding the front fire with divination.

                He winced and cringed as insistent fire peppered him from behind, his maneuvers not enough to avoid all of them. It felt like he had the entire fleet after him, but he dared not look back. Swerve right and barrel roll back. Feint right again and return to center. Dip under the next ship and turn to avoid the too close wing. “!” he yelped as a shot finally got through, knocking out a stabilizing engine.

                Controls were sluggish. A shot cracked his windshield. “No!” he growled fiercely, seeing the black hole just before them. Another shot clipped the wing and he spun erratically before yanking on the controls to stabilize. Changmin’s body hit the floor when they came back to center and he winced. If the guns didn’t kill them, his flying would. Typing a command in for autopilot, Gunwoo unstrapped himself enough to collect Changmin’s body so he could hold him close and return to the seat.

                “Just a little more,” he promised, slamming a fist on his emergency eject pod with closed eyes.

                Nothing happened.

                Angry and panicked, he opened his eyes and hit it again. Nothing happened.

                “No,” he growled, feeling the ship buck and tremble, falling apart around them.

                “I.” Slam! Another booster gone.

                “Won’t!” Slam! Systems failing.

                “Die!” Slam! Engine hit.

                “Today!” SLAM! Windshield shattered.

                “Yah!” he screamed as the ejection pod launched them forward and into the vacuum of open space. There was no air and his cockpit was destroyed. Holding to the last vestiges of his power, he pulled a circle of protection around them, desperately trying to cling to what air he could. It worked just enough to grant him a moment of hope before terror settled in as the black hole yawned before them.

                Holding his breath and hugging Changmin close, he mentally screamed when he felt the inescapable bands of power wrap around them, drawing them into the belly of the void.