It was the night-cycle and it was raining.

  Raining whilst Magnus heard the constant cries of a 'newborn infant' echoing off in the distance.

  Finding himself standing in an open field outside of a massive, and immaculate looking, infrastructure was the World-Breaker.

  Magnus looked around at his holographic, but very real looking, surroundings in a mixture of confusion and intrigue as the past memory of his late Keeper played out before him.

  “WHAAAA!!!!!! WHAAAA!!!! WHAAAAA!!!!”

  The sudden cries of a newborn child… A boy, to be precise, garnered Magnus’s attention, causing him to look ahead once more.

  Hustling out of a massive infrastructure of impenament and impenametal was a young man who wore a tight black ‘skin-suit’ with a mask hiding his true identity from Magnus.

  As the World-Breaker watched the memory play out from outside of the temple another male; a humanoid looking older man with a scar that ran from his right temple all the way down to the left corner of his chin, wrinkled fair skin, faded blue eyes, long graying blond hair that was tied back in a ponytail, and a big bushy beard fell down from the stormy night skies above and landed powerfully behind ‘Skin Suit’.

  “HALT!!!” the old humanoid boomed, causing Skin Suit to immediately stop in his tracks to the right of Magnus.

  Panting heavily through his mask’s rebreather, Skin Suit rose his head upwards whilst keeping a small wrapped ‘bundle’ in his arms.

  Looking closely at this ‘bundle’, Magnus noticed that it was… A CHILDLING.

  An infant male who looked to have just been recently birthed.

  Whilst the newborn excessively cried in Skin Suit’s arms the old humanoid ordered, “Return to the childling… NOW.”

  Sighing, Skin Suit turned around to face the old humanoid as Magnus continued to stare at the boy in confusion.

  “Sorry, skogger,” Skin Suit replied in a voice that sounded an awful lot like…

  “LERO???” Magnus said aloud in confusion after realizing that Skin Suit was actually a thirty cycles younger version of his late Rannukan Keeper.

  “But I cannot do that,” the younger Lero said to the old humanoid, causing him to glare at him whilst raindrops pelted his wrinkled face.

  “You shall if you still wish to keep breathing,” the old humanoid threatened, causing Lero to lower his scaly brow beneath his mask.

  As ‘Little Magnus’ continued to cry and whine in Lero’s arms, the young Rannukan looked down at him for a moment.

  “Do you even know what that childling is,” the old humanoid asked Lero. “What he TRULY is???”

  “‘Course I do,” Lero replied as he nurtured Little Magnus whilst ‘Older Magnus’ watched him from behind. “Why else do you think I’m takin’ him off of this cursed stretch of stone and soil?”

  “PUT HIM BACK,” the old humanoid ordered firmly through his gritted teeth. “Put him back where you found him… Or else.”

  “Or else what,” Lero challenged. “Or else thracking what, you old Crixan thrack?! I do not fear you! I… URGH!”

  Latching onto Lero’s body with his telekinetic powers was the old humanoid, who continued to glare at him angrily.

  “Put the boy back where you found him and I shall spare your worthless life-cycle,” the older humanoid said as he continued to apply telekinetic pressure to Lero’s body. “If you do not… Then you shall die!”

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  As Lero grunted and groaned in pain whilst Little Magnus continued to cry ‘Older Magnus’ still

  stood behind, watching the memory play out before his very waking and confused eyes.

  While Lero remained under the old humanoid’s telekinetic hold, all seemed to be at an end for him until something very unexpected happened.

  BOOM!

  Landing down between both the younger Lero and the old humanoid from the cold, dark, and rainy night skyways above was another life-form. A man who wore the same tight, black skin suit as Lero.

  Shocked by the sudden appearance of the ‘unknown individual’, who was briefly illuminated by a sudden clatter of lightning and thunder overhead, the old humanoid scrunched his brow after feeling a great sense of grand, gravitational power surging from his well-fit physical frame.

  “LERO… RETURN TO THE SHIP,” the unknown individual said to the younger Rannukan, who had immediately been freed from the old humanoid’s telekinetic grip.

  Jaw dropped and eyes widened, the old humanoid stared at the unknown individual in shock whilst he said, “Thu-That voice. I… I know that voice.”

  “Yes… YOU DO,” the unknown male said to the old humanoid in a voice that Magnus did not recognize due to how dark and groggy it sounded coming through his mask’s voice modulator.

  Eyes even wider now, the old humanoid gasped, “Vykaar…”

  “COLTIN,” the unknown male, now known as ‘Vykaar’, gritted at the old humanoid.

  As ‘Coltin’ continued to stare at him in shock, Vykaar demanded from Lero, “Do you have ‘the childling’?”

  “Ugh… Yuh-Yes,” Lero nodded as he contended with the slight soreness that he had gained from being under Coltin’s brief, but grandly taxing telekinetic hold. “I have him.”

  “THEN RETURN TO THE SHIP,” Vykaar continued whilst keeping his covered eyes locked on Coltin. “The others are already there.”

  “Others?” Coltin stammered in confusion, causing Vykaar to sneer beneath his mask.

  “Yes, old friend… OTHERS,” Vykaar gritted as Lero looked down at Little Magnus again.

  As the infant continued his constant crying, Coltin said in shock, “The other childlings… No.”

  “Yes, Coltin… YES!” Vykaar shouted in a gleeful tone of voice through all the pouring rain and thunder claps. “I have returned to this cursed, WASTED rock for the next generation!”

  “Why? Why would you want the childlings??? How are you even STILL alive, Vykaar? I thought that…”

  “You destroyed me??? No, Colt. You thought wrong. I STILL live and I still wish to continue onward with the plan… THE GRAND PLAN!!!”

  “No… Not again. Not…”

  “LERO, TO THE SHIP! NOW!!!” Vykaar blared at the still dwindling Rannukan as he kept his lens-covered eyes locked on the old Crixan.

  Heeding the word of Vykaar, Lero nodded, “Aye. Very well.”

  Turning his back on Vykaar now, Lero, with Little Magnus still crying in his arms, began to walk away into the cold and rainy night-cycle.

  With his eyes now set on Lero, and his younger self, Magnus was quickly drawn back to both Vykaar and Coltin as the old Crixan shouted, “No! NO!!! I shall not allow you to begin anew with your wretched ways, Vykaar! I do not know how you still live, but alas… I SHALL STOP YOU! EVEN IF IT KILLS ME!!!”

  “You shall stop nothing, you old kroone,” Vykaar jabbed as Coltin’s eyes were now glowing bright, stark white.

  Noticing this, Magnus’s own eyes began to widen in shock as his jaw dropped in awe.

  As all of the hairs began to rise up on Coltin’s head, Vykaar, who stood confidently before the old Crixan, snickered, “Heh, heh, heh… You always were such a thracking kroone, Colt, and tonight-cycle… YOU SHALL DIE AS ONE!!!”

  Vykaar then lunged himself at Coltin as the old Crixan lunged towards him as well.

  Just before the two could collide though, the memory had ended, and a new one had formed a half-milli-cycle later… Leaving Magnus still in utter confusion and with the urge of wanting to know more about what happened that dreadful evening-cycle on what he now realized to be was… PLANET CRIX.