Name: Styx

Age: Mid-twenties to early thirties. His exact age is only known by a few, and one of those few doesn’t include himself.

Race: Human Vampire

Sex: Male

Hair: His hair is very black. It’s long and spiky on the top of his head, but medium length down the back. Itcomes down to just below his ear line, and his bangs fall randomly over his eyes. Styx’s hair is very kempt, despite this rather distraught description. Although he doesn’t tend to it much, and it seems to flow all over the place, it still has a certain quality of neatness to it.

Eyes: Beneath his reflective sunglasses, his eyes are dark grey, nearly black. Since his vampiric transformation they appear deeper than black in the darkness.

Weight: Styx weighs a little over 200 pounds. He’s mostly muscle. If you were to include all of his weapons and accessories, he’d weigh over 360 pounds.

Height: 6 foot 6 inches.

Theme Music:

Bloodthirsty: Scum of the Earth
Victorious: Holy Diver
Personality: Hardcore
Overall: Badass

Weapons:

Bones
Bones is a monstrous sword, a blade most wouldn’t even classify as a sword. It’s almost exactly as long as Styx is tall, possibly about 7 feet from pommel to tip. The hilt itself is long, about two feet. It’s built for holding with two hands, but is also made to be thrown. Very few could properly wield such a massive hunk of metal. It weighs just over 100 pounds.

The blade is made to look like it was forged out of human bones, when it obviously isn’t. It has a blunt edge, not even sharp enough to cut cheese. The edge looks like linked femurs that follow the contour of the blade, making a bizarre round tip, and then returning to the guard. The guard only comes out one inch on each side of the blade, but it’s barely ever needed to protect Styx’s hands. The pommel of the blade looks like a human skull missing the jaw. A small ivory spike extends through the bottom of the crude sculpture, stained red from a few bloody stabs. The blade is about two inches thick, made out of a dense material known as adamantium, a rare substance harvested on Europa that is extremely hard, more so than titanium or diamond. The bone-like edges of the blade are three inches thick, rising over the edge of the sword slightly. The steel is 18 inches wide, strong and thick enough to be used as an effective shield.

The bone-shaped edge has a built in shield generator. There’s a small button under the guard that toggles this on or off. When something makes contact with any part of the blade, save the hilt and pommel, the shield repels it. The force field is strong enough to repel nearly any energy, electrical, magical, magnetic, or physical force. Each strike Styx lands with this blade generates an added kick that knocks things back with twice his normal strength. The shield can only be activated for three seconds at a time. After it burns out, it takes three more seconds for it to fully recharge. It relies on self-regenerating technology. The technology is new and strange. No one quite knows where the means to create a self-replenishing generator came from, or who made it, but it’s starting to become popular in some parts of the solar system, despite its rather large price tag.

Bones is attached to Styx’s back when not in use. It fits in a sheath made up of titanium straps, custom-made specifically for this behemoth of a cleaver. Styx wears a strap over his shoulder and across his chest made up of titanium chains that holds the sheath to his back. To keep the weight of the sword from pulling this chain through his skin, he has another titanium guard beneath his clothes to prevent irritation. This guard leads from his right shoulder, to the left side of his waist. It follows his back from there back to his right shoulder again. This titanium guard doubles as armor, protecting him from any stray blows that may happen to land in just the right area.

Machete
In the case that Styx needs a sharper weapon; his machete is sheathed at his left side. It’s nothing special, it merely being made out of steel. It’s short and broad, but razor sharp. Styx is thinking about customizing its appearance, but he hasn’t found the time to work out a good design for it yet. He usually uses this sword before resorting to Bones, seeing how it’s shorter and not as powerful. After all, he needs to give his enemies a fighting chance.

Morbid
Morbid is a minigun, to put it simply. Morbid, however, doesn’t require ammo, but instead fires concentrated ion shells made up entirely of energy. They act, look, and sound like real bullets, but without the pleasant smell. They also lack the satisfying jingling noise shells usually make when hitting concrete floor, which frustrates Styx from time to time.

Morbid is merely a prototype in the works, but so far there haven’t been any bugs. It runs off the same kind of self-regenerating generator the shield in Bones does. It can fire for 20 seconds before it overheats at a rate of 10,000 rounds per minute. When it overheats, it takes 10 minutes for it to cool off again, so he tries not to let that happen. It weighs 50 pounds, but Styx wields it as if it weighs nothing. When not in use, it’s slung over his left shoulder.

Pain and Panic
Pain and Panic, named after the annoying creatures in the Disney movie, Hercules, are dual pistols. Styx particularly enjoyed watching the movie that they salvaged from an ancient mall, so he only thought it would be fitting to dub these two weapons as his un-loyal sidekicks. They’re customized to hell, not matching the descriptions of any guns made before them, but they’re his babies.

- Appearance
Pain’s main color is black. The hammer, trigger, and safety toggles are painted red, as well as parts of the grip and handle. Pain has the intricate design of a hulking demon sprawled across its exterior, artistically working its way from the handle to the barrel, which is surrounded by the beast’s mouth.

Panic’s color scheme is similar to Pain’s. The primary color is black, but the various other parts are painted blue. Instead of the design of a demonic form, the appearance is more of a snake with legs. The legs look crippled and wrap themselves around the handle, but the body slithers around the body of the weapon where its mouth surrounds the barrel, fangs jutting forward.

- Ammo

Styx usually carries six magazines at a time, three on each side of his belt. Each magazine holds 18 9mm armor piercing bullets. These bullets have a narrow, hard tip that penetrates most armored surfaces. Styx usually paints designs on them when he’s bored, usually red, sometimes with his own blood when at a lack of paint. He’s been known to poison them from time to time, given he has access to the right chemicals, but it’s not something he does too often.

Leg
After being gifted with vampirism, Styx no longer required this leg, a new limb growing in its place. Though he wished he could have kept it, his rapid regenerative abilities disallowed any mechanical parts to remain attached to him. He’s still looking for a way to attach it, but for now it’s slung over his shoulder next to Morbid.

Not having a particular name, this leg is not made up of flesh and bone. Originally attached to his knee, this thing was once welded to his body when his real one was lost during the many tests and mutations he endured. They offered to clone his leg and reattach it, but Styx said he’d personally be happy with a mechanical one. He didn’t want to forget the horrible tests they performed on him; he wanted something to help his memory. He wanted to remember everything, so when he had the chance, he’d kill them all without hesitation. Now that the leg’s no longer attached to him, he gets very frustrated that the symbolic artistic qualities of keeping the leg are vanishing.

The leg weighs about 20 pounds, the different parts made out of various materials, some adamantium, but the exterior mostly of titanium. Instead of forming a foot at the end of the leg, it ends in a sharp point that can be used as a weapon. Styx’s leg is connected through his nervous system, so a mere thought can rotate the sharp point in such a way where the tip of his leg bends down and backward so it forms a flat surface. This allows him to walk on sensitive surfaces without the sharp tip tearing through them. However, because it’s no longer attached to him, this thing’s just a piece of useless metal. Regardless, his neural connection with it remains intact.

The leg itself is a little flat, forming a sort of armor in front of the real purpose the leg holds: Protecting the weapons behind it. Just like the sharp tip on this leg, his weapons are fired by simple thought.

-The Corpser
The Corpser got its name for how it tends to toss corpses across the battlefield without tearing them to pieces. Styx uses its massive knock back effect as a form of transportation just as much as an actual weapon.

The Corpser is located on the back of his mechanical leg, the larger of the two barrels. It launches a purple sphere of energy that knocks things back great distances. When hitting human flesh, it doesn’t tear through it, but instead simply forces it through the air with a powerful shockwave. However, if the Corpser lands a direct hit on someone’s head, the sudden blow could snap their neck or jar their brain. At pointblank range, the Corpser has torn through flesh before, so it’d be wise not to stand pointblank range in front of the corpser’s barrel.

Styx used to use the Corpser to launch himself across the sky. When it’s fired at the ground, it propels himself off the ground and through the sky at great speeds. It’s definitely not like flying, but more like jumping, followed by falling with style. The Corpser can be charged of a short period of time to release a greater, more powerful blast.

The Corpser runs off of self-regenerating technology, so doesn’t require ammo or new charges.

-The Soul Ripper
The Soul Ripper is another gun located on Styx’s mechanical leg. It’s an automatic weapon that fires out the bottom of his leg, just like the Corpser. It’s an odd place for a gun to be, but Styx usually only uses it in short bursts when kicking. Now, however, it’s a last resort weapon he uses as a rifle when his other guns aren’t useable at the moment.

It fires energy based bolts, but requires charges to work effectively. Each charge holds enough power to fire 50 bolts. The bolts themselves can pierce flesh and kill easily, but can’t pass through metallic objects. This makes shooting at armor useless. The weapon fires at 5 bolts a second.

Three spare charges are strapped on the back of Styx’s mechanical leg. The Soul Ripper can be removed from the leg, but it takes a little while to do so. When it’s removed, it fires the same way it usually does, only it uses a trigger instead of being fired by thought. However, Styx doesn’t need to remove it anymore due to the leg itself portable enough to hold as a regular weapon.

Armor:
The only armor Styx has is his sword, his leg, a titanium band cross his chest under his clothes, and metal scales beneath the skin on his arms.

The metal scales beneath the skin on his arms are made of a specialized organic metal, a strange substance Styx doesn’t know much about. They were inserted beneath his skin as one of the various tests that was performed on him. Styx isn’t really sure what they’re for, but they block almost everything, including bullets. However, his skin still breaks when his arms are injured, exposing the strange scales.

The scales expand with his muscles and body. When he grows and when his muscles grow, the scales expand and begin to grow with him. They also help keep his muscles from wearing themselves out using a special chemical inside of them. So when Styx gets stronger, there’s no worry about overworking himself.

After becoming a vampire, the scales have hardened. Styx doesn’t feel any direct change from them, but they can take a lot more damage, being nearly impervious.

Items of Note:

Stimulants
The stimulants are referred to by Styx as his “Stims” or “Meds”. These little disposable syringes hold a powerful chemical that regenerates torn tissue, purges diseases, and builds immunities in a matter of seconds. It also boosts adrenalin, temporarily increases strength, and feels really good. However, if used when poisoned, you will receive the worst case of pins and needles you’ll ever feel.

The main reason he used to inject himself with this is so that his muscles wouldn’t give way from all the pressure they endure and become useless. This chemical allows his muscles to grow and get stronger without wearing his body out. It also improves the effectiveness of his muscles, allowing for even his weakest muscles to do extraordinary things. Now with his vampiric abilities, he doesn’t require the stims, but still takes them when he wants the extra boost.

He carries at least five of them in a small, protective bag attached to the back of his belt. Though he doesn’t require their use for survival anymore, they will still permanently strengthen him over time.

Mp3 player
Upon looting an ancient mall for old-Earth relics, Styx found himself an ancient music device known as an mp3 player, multiple sets of headphones, and entire racks filled with CDs. Since Styx is a huge fan of doing things the old fashioned way, he began forming a taste for old-fashioned accessories. Back at the Edward, he spent time finding a way to link the music discs and player up to one of the onboard computers. He used several other devices that he found in the mall, and eventually got the antiques synced with his computer. Stone disagreed strongly with his time-wasting antics, but Styx would simply ignore him and begin listening to his newly acquired soundtracks. He definitely preferred this old style of music compared to the current mellow sort of the modern day. He liked almost any and every song from the library of music he confiscated, not having much of a strict taste. However, he usually prefers fast paced, louder songs, usually of the heavy metal or electronica genre.

Styx doesn’t like using ear buds, but usually has a larger set of headphones that won’t fall out so easily. He’s known to listen to music while fighting, but only if he’s very confident in his own success. He usually does it just to express his own confidence in victory.

Moxie
Upon exploring a bit of Earth’s desert remains, Styx stumbled across an old soda factory. He found an enormous supply of Moxie, the key soda the factory made and fit into cans. His curiosity brought him to opening one of the cans and drinking its contents. Somehow, he found the taste quite favorable, despite the Moxie being very flat, having been made many years earlier.


More recently, Styx has further enjoyed the taste of Moxie. Its stale metallic taste reminds him of blood, which is what his new main source of nutrients come from.

Styx always carries at least one can of Moxie with him at any given moment


Strengths:

Immortal.

After being gifted with vampirism at the hands of Knives Eclipses, Styx has become nigh unstoppable.

His primary advantage most certainly lies within his physical strength. He’s stronger than any man who ever lived, having been heavily mutated and imbued with the strength of a vampire. He’s gone through multiple genetic and cybernetic alterations, mainly to his muscles and senses. He can lift over four tons at his full capability, possibly more if pushed properly, even more with his stims, and pray he doesn’t have an adrenalin rush. He wouldn’t be described as a brute in appearance, however. He actually doesn’t look that strong at first glance, save for his arms that have a modest amount of muscle built into them.

Using his massive blade, Bones, he is quite the force to be reckoned with. Although Bones has a dull, blunt edge, he can cleave through rows of people with one swipe by sheer force. Despite Bones’ massive weight, Styx can wield it as if it were air. Styx can wield this blade with one hand, just as easily as his machete. However, he usually fights with both hands, allowing him more powerful strikes.

Nearly all of his sword fights end with the first strike. If his enemy manages to block his attack, their blade is always knocked free from their hands, if not snapped in half; all this while Styx keeps his ever menacing smirk.

His hand-to-hand combat is just as deadly as anything. Through his massive strength he can break through any hold or any block. Each blow he lands, no matter where, will most definitely hurt the person on the receiving end. If he’s not pulling his punches, his fists will quite literally tear his victim to ribbons.

His speed is another thing to be wary of. Before now he was fast, but being reborn as a vampire has increased his ferocity. He’s extremely fast, too fast for any human. Before he couldn’t run quite as fast because of his mechanical leg, but now he has two extremely powerful legs. If he has the chance to accelerate over a long distance, he can come close to reaching the speed of sound.

Styx can endure a lot of pain before finally passing out. He has a thick layer of skin known to stop knives and a set of unbreakable bones. He rarely ever surrenders unless he has an ulterior reason behind doing so, though he will retreat if, in the rare instance, he doesn’t stand a chance and he realizes so.

Although Styx is extremely strong, it doesn’t mean he’s a dumb brute. In fact, he’s quite intelligent. He lives in his ship with a genius, Edward Stone. Stone’s strategic prowess and book smarts show up in his daily living, so Styx often learns a lot from him. He’s not nearly as intelligent or quick thinking as he, but Styx still isn’t one to be underestimated. Having such a mastermind as an ally tends to rub off on you, regardless of if you want it to or not.

With his new found vampirism, Styx has gained a new array of strengths. Along with his increased physical strength and speed, his senses have also been enhanced: He can smell what his enemy has had for breakfast yesterday, and he can smell the blood of any wounds they may have received. He can see perfectly in the dark as if it were broad daylight and can track movement without following it with his eyes. He can hear a heart beat from a mile away and can hear the beat of a butterfly’s wings. His skin has increased in sensitivity, though his sense of pain still dulled from his years of torment and mutation.

The laws of physics have begun to bend by the soul of this monster: Once human, now reborn. He seems to defy gravity and reality, moving faster than your eye can track and stopping faster than you’ve realized he’s left. He can crack a diamond shield and outrun sound.

Though he wishes he didn’t lose his robotic leg because of it, Styx is pleased to know that any wounds he receives heal completely within an hour. This includes anything from lost limbs to lost teeth, returning them to what they were the moment they’re removed from his body.

If you know he’s near, he’s already seen you. If you let him strike you, you’re already dead.

Weakness:
Styx’s main weakness is the blatant fact that he is extremely overconfident and self-centered. He can easily kill people, so when entering any fight he always believes he’ll emerge victorious, even when he has failed in the past. He begins a fight with a toothy grin, and leaves the fight with a toothy grin. He’s victorious even in defeat, knowing he’s become stronger from the experience.

Another weakness, though by some might be considered strength, is that Styx doesn’t get scared of anything. While this gives him immense bravery, he also doesn’t know when to run when he should.

Styx likes to rush things. He enjoys getting to the action as soon as he can, and then draw that action out for as long as possible. This causes him to occasionally skip the vital process of scanning his enemy for weaknesses and strengths, sprinting forward for the first attack. And as soon as the attack begins, unless he’s in a mood to be done with it quickly, he likes to make the thrill of combat last for as long as his victim will allow.

Styx is the epitome of greed. He cares first for himself, then money, then his allies. This makes him hard to deal with, but much easier to hate. He almost thinks of himself as invincible. He might as well take on the rank of God; he wouldn’t deny such a title.

Styx self-centered nature has always been a strong attribute of his, but now he has one further weakness: His conceded reality is only trumped by his unexpected love of another similar to himself. Knives Eclipses was the only one powerful enough to strike him down and bring death to his doorstep. She let him drink from the real river Styx, but brought him back to live again. Such mercy would ordinarily be a sign of weakness, but what she gave him was extraordinary. She gave him the gift of power, the gift of vampirism. After a short venture with this woman, they both realized they had fallen in love. Now that he’s found her, now that he cares for her, she’s almost as important to him as himself. He sometimes thinks of this as a weakness, but whenever he looks into her cold crimson eyes she’s his greatest strength.

Appearance:
He’s body is all muscle and bones, although somehow his strength doesn’t pop out too much just by looking at him. He’s tall and has a menacing air about him. His mannerisms and simple gestures expose his insanity and greedy mindset, yet still maintain an odd sense of charm. His arms hang weakly at his side, giving him the look of helplessness, though his face is a sheer giveaway that he can kill you with one swift movement.

He’s very shark-like in appearance, if you can imagine that. He has razor sharp teeth he has filed down himself for the soul purpose of appearing more menacing and insane. After turning vampire, his canines have grown slightly longer and are especially sharp. Using these teeth to feed on his victims makes each bite all the more deadly.

Beyond his teeth, his hair is somewhat loose, yet it retains its shape. It reaches just below his ears in length, though is usually spiked up above his head.

If it weren’t for his lively personality, his grey eyes would appear lifeless. However, his grey eyes have a certain richness to them. They give the impression of an open canvas, printing a deadly painting of whatever they focus on. He remembers every face he sees, and when he sees someone a second time they can almost see a picture of themselves on his focused globules. He’s always staring, whether into space or into your mind. However, you usually don’t see his eyes. They’re usually covered by his circular, reflective sunglasses.

Although his teeth may be frightening and his eyes may be captivating, his most grueling feature would be the tattooed scars running down both of his arms. They are identical marks starting from his shoulders, then running down to the back of his hands in a perfect line. The scars have rows of small stitches that keep his skin together. Styx had them tattooed after he’d escaped from Pandora. He liked the look of them and etched them as tattoos, taking a few artistic liberties on the original design. Now they’re blackened marks, tattooed scars, which remind the viewer that he’s not just any human.



Personality:

Styx is a complicated person, but wouldn’t seem so by first impression.

He has very low moral standards. He’s usually quite outgoing, but he’s occasionally quiet when he has some things to think through. When not actively engaged in conversation, he’s usually daydreaming; thinking about Knives, his past, vengeance, violence, or art.

Styx rarely ever denies a good challenge when coming from a formidable opponent. Whenever someone offers to fight, or offers to compete against him in almost anything else, he’ll rarely decline. He’ll most definitely decline, though, if he sees the person as far too weak to even bother with. He’ll also decline if he’s busy at the moment, but only when he sees that the business at hand is far superior to whatever he’s being challenged with.

Styx is very self-centered. Almost everything he does is for self gain, rarely going out of his way to help someone without a good reason. If he does end up helping someone, it would most likely be by accident, or if he was paid to do so. Styx’s conceded self shows through most of his actions. Just the way he carries himself boasts “you’re scum in my eyes.” He only has true respect for one, and that’s Knives Eclipses. While he respects Edward Stone in his own right, Knives is the only person he holds that reserved emotion of love for.

Styx is very sarcastic. He’s outgoing and can, on occasion, actually be funny. To some he may even be considered pleasurable company for a short time, but only before his true colors show. He turns out to be nothing but a creep and a power-hungry maniac in the end.

When fighting, Styx is almost always overconfident. When starting a battle, he bears his sharp teeth with a conceded smirk. When the battle is over, regardless of victory or defeat, he smirks again. He wins even in loss, for defeat only makes him stronger. As he found out quite ironically with his battle against Knives, even death strengthened him.

Styx is obsessed with violence, overall. He enjoys the art of killing, but won’t kill without a good reason. However, good reason to him includes, “I just felt like it.”

Biography:

His eyes darted frantically around the vast white of nothingness. What was this? Where was he? Why him? Was this a dream?

These questions fell through his mind, along with many others. Why did this seem so familiar? What was he doing here?

Suddenly, he saw something fly from the far corner of the whiteness. The thing latched onto his head, holding it in place. He soon knew the thing was made of metal, and that it was meant to keep him from moving. Everything was so bright, so intense. He couldn’t see anything through the light as the small machine bore through his scull. The grinding of metal on bone filled his head, the pain so intense, but he couldn’t scream. He knew who must have captured him, though he wasn’t exactly sure for what. He’d heard of people disappearing, and the rumors that surrounded those disappearances. He must have been the next one to vanish, the next to be taken. If the rumors were true, he would never see the light of day again, just the overexposed lights of this room.

No longer an artist, he was now a guinea pig. No longer free, he was a prisoner. He would be tortured and pushed to his limit, before the end. He would grow, yet death would elude him. A new self would replace his old nature. The feeling of hopelessness overtook him, and he hated it. As much as he wanted to, he would not wake up.

This wasn’t a dream: The only question of his that was answered.

***

Years passed. No longer was he a young boy, he had aged quite a bit in this Hell. He gave up counting the years after a while; in fact he never did count them accurately. He only judged the clock by the number of times they let him sleep; otherwise it was impossible to tell when it was day or night in the facility. His mind was wearing thin in this place; he was even beginning to forget his name. His days as a test subject were nothing but an eternal nightmare. His torturers, whoever they were, would press him to his limit every day, seeing how long and hard he could work before wearing out. They only fed him after he would pass out from hunger, sometimes not feeding him for weeks. Whenever they did feed him, it was a special concoction made out of who-knows-what. It tasted nasty, but he could only guess it was made to further increase his usefulness to them. It probably aided his muscles, who knows.

His tests were odd ones. One of the tests they often performed required him to carry extremely heavy objects to one side of a maze without dropping them, then bringing them back to the start. Whenever he’d refuse to play along, or whenever he messed up, they’d send in advanced battle androids, the likes of which didn’t exist anywhere else. The machines would fight him until he couldn’t fight back any longer. It didn’t take him long to realize those small fights were part of the test as well, so even resistance was only giving into their game.

Each time he was tested, things got progressively more difficult. He was even trained by a series of robotic trainers. He somewhat enjoyed these sessions for they were the least painful out of all of them. He actually felt like he was getting stronger without being forced to do ridiculous tasks. Also, he enjoyed the company of the androids. They were quite lifeless, but at least he had a voice to listen to, and an entity to talk to, despite their lack of response.

The only comfort he ever had was his art. He never had the supplies to paint or draw, but he’d do so in his mind. He’d sculpt pictures in his dreams, he’d draw whole worlds. At times he got desperate and drew his own blood, using it to paint on the floor and walls of his white, clean cell. Occasionally he’d use bits of the revolting food they fed him as paint, but usually he’d want to get as much in his stomach as possible for the tests ahead of him.

Many of the tests were similar, though his training sessions being an exception. They usually required him to use most of the muscles in his body. They would test every muscle, even the ones not usually used by most people. Over time, they even increased the tough thickness in his meals, filling it with more of their medication, while forcing him to actually chew the tough sludge for a long time before swallowing. It was obvious they were testing every little muscle in his body, including his jaws, and he hated them for it. He wanted to be free, but he was never free.

He never saw another human face during his time of torture. He was usually guided by an ominous robotic voice over an intercom system or by one of the battle androids he so often fought. He never so much as had a chance to see his reflection. He began to forget what his face looked like.

In-between tests, he’d be tortured by various means. He’d be stretched, crushed, poked, prodded, stabbed, and eaten alive by carnivorous insects. He would not die, though, no matter how many times he wanted to. He felt invincible, and he hated it.

Before and after his straining tests and tortures, they’d perform different sorts of experiments on him. They weren’t ones he’d willingly participate in, but they’d perform them with him strapped down by unbreakable bonds, bonds that he couldn’t even loosen… yet. They would perform surgery on him while he was still awake, tearing open his arms, his head, his chest, his stomach, his legs, his tongue, his ears, his eyes. He could feel every snip, every yank, and every implementation of whatever they were inserting into his body. They would dissect, prod, and poke into his organs and muscles. They did this to further increase his strength, inserting aids no ordinary human would ever want. They were giving him power, and he hated it. Why were they doing this? Did they expect him to fight for them? Not a chance. He’d never fight for his own personal devils.

***

During a test, one of the tests where he was being dissected, the blinding lights that usually encompassed his entire vision flickered. They never usually flickered, but this time they did. He saw the room, the entire room, even if it was only for a few seconds. There were many people inside, but all of their faces were covered; all their faces but one, one belonging to a man who stood behind a window on the farthest wall. He saw his face, and right then his face was etched into his mind. That man, he was the one doing this to him, he knew it. He didn’t know how, but he knew that man was the one responsible for his pain and torment. His expressionless face, his commanding demeanor, he had the air of a man with purpose. He didn’t care what purpose this man had in mind, he just wanted whoever that man was to die. The lights flickered back on and the room went white again. He would always remember that face. He would never forget that face. Some day he would kill the man belonging to that face.

***

During one particular test, the facility decided to test him against something different. Their androids had become useless against their prize test subject, so they wanted to pit him against flesh and blood.

“Subject 9!” A human voice called over the intercom; at least… he believed it to be human. It’d been so very long since he last heard an organic voice that he forgot what one sounded like.

He responded to the call, 9 being the number they gave him, “Yes, sir!” He responded. His voice felt as strong as his muscles. He used his voice sparingly; only speaking to talk to the androids he trained and destroyed so often, so hearing it loud and responding to another living being was a weird sensation.

“You will be fighting Subject 66. We feel he’s gotten quite skilled, so we want to know if he can withstand a battle with you.” Wait, subject 66? There were more like him? He hadn’t thought about it before, but it’s possible others were going through the same torment he was enduring. It didn’t matter, though. He just had to defeat whoever this 66 guy was, or else receive some sort of punishment for not living up to his potential.

One of the usual androids led him to the arena where he’d fight occasional android prototypes. Before he got in, they gave him a set of armor. He didn’t want to use it, but he was told he had to or else be severely reprimanded. He took the armor, and then placed the helmet over his face. It barely felt like anything on him, but he could tell it was quite heavy. Inside the arena, he saw his challenger. He was wearing armor similar to his, but that didn’t mean they were anything alike.

Their fight was an intense one. Neither of them used weapons, just their brute strength. Although they had been trained to fight with various weapons before, they weren’t at their disposal in this fight.

While the battle was even all throughout, at some point his enemy got a hold of him. It wasn’t that long of a hold, but it was long enough for him to snap his knee to the side and tear it out of its socket. It was quite painful, yes, but not as painful as some of the torments he was usually put through.

The fight was called on the harsh maneuver. Subject 66 was pulled back to his cell, but Subject 9 was left bleeding on the floor. A group of people, actual humans, emerged from the sides of the arena and rushed their precious subject 9 to the test chamber. There they offered to clone his leg and reattach it, but he didn’t want that.

He didn’t want to forget this. He wanted to remember his first defeat. He wanted to remember this day, the day he was actually defeated. But most of all, he wanted to remember the people who originally put him through this torment. He wanted them to die, so he wanted a little something to remember them by. That way, whenever he was strong enough to free himself, he’d find and tear them all to ribbons.

He requested they fix his leg the old fashioned style, the way he remembered how they would do it when he was a kid. He requested that they give him a robotic leg. Those mechanical parts could sometimes be quite powerful, and he’d witnessed the power first hand when fighting this Hell’s combat machines.

They seemed to consider his request. There were some hushed whispers, a calling of someone over the intercom. They talked about some things he didn’t quite understand, but they returned and agreed to fall through with his request. They explained that they had a powerful device that would match what he wanted, though they hadn’t had a chance to properly use it before that time.

After the leg was attached, and its owner had a chance to get used to it, his tests continued. At first they went back to the simpler tests, going easy so he’d get used to his new leg. However, he didn’t want them to do that. He wanted them to give him everything they had, throw their hardest challenges at him. He no longer was doing these tests against his will; he actually wanted to get stronger. How could he have been beaten so easily after all his years of training in this facility? Why didn’t he win that fight? He wanted to be powerful; he wanted to tear Subject 66’s head from his shoulders. He wanted to be the most powerful force in the entire facility. Just the thought that there were other subjects made him realize that he might have been the weakest of them all and not even know it. In the end, he wanted to be far more powerful than everyone else in this madman’s lab experiment.

***

A year or so passed. He’d gotten twice as powerful as he was when he first lost his leg. He was stronger than he’d ever thought possible. He could tear through any test they gave them without slowing down. At one point he was given a break from his tests. He at first didn’t want to stop, but he decided a break may do him some good. They brought him to a library within the facility. The library was filled with electronic books, small devices which generated a holographic page to read from. It seemed like a waste of money to make such overly complicated machines simply for reading, but he read them anyway.

It took him a while to get used to reading again, but the memory returned to him quickly. He spent an entire month doing nothing but reading. He particularly found the stories of ancient Greek mythology quite fascinating. In fact, any mythology he found astounding. He enjoyed the artistic quality, the magnificent stories, and the power the gods had over the world. He particularly enjoyed the tales of Hades, and the river Styx where all souls flow through.

Styx was a particular subject matter that he somehow found relation to. It was said that the river Styx granted immortality. It was where Achilles was supposedly dipped; making him invincible, save for the heel his mother grasped. It also circled Hades nine times, a mere coincidence his subject number being nine. But the one thing he found most intriguing about the river Styx was that it was used by the gods to swear an oath. Whenever a god was to swear by the river Styx, they could never go back on their oath, else their voice is stolen from them for nine years.

When he first read about this, he found it quite interesting. He felt himself to be invincible, even though at times he would he wasn’t. He’d most likely been in this Hell for nine years. As for an oath, he had a certain one in mind. He wanted everyone responsible for taking his life away, every single one of them, to die a death worse than the one he’d been experiencing. He swore on it, right at that moment. He swore by the river Styx that they would all die by his hand.

***

The last day of his month free of torture, an android walked slowly into the room. It pulled in a large something with a tarp covering it, then left the library. Before the door closed, it said in its familiar monotone mechanized voice, “One day.”

He approached the tarp, throwing it free from what it concealed.

His eyes widened. It was something he hadn’t seen in such a long time, yet something he would never forget. It was a canvas, complete with a brush and paints. Every color of paint was there on the palette, every color but red. There was a knife on the canvas, and he also knew what that was for.

He wasted no time. He knew he only had one day to get out everything he’d been holding back for so long. He painted nonstop, picture after picture. He needed red quite often, so he used his own blood. He’d cut a finger, paint some more. Cut another finger, paint again. He felt he hadn’t lost anything during his time away from his passion. The pictures were just as beautiful as he’d pictured them in his head so many times. Lovely pictures, magnificent scenes filled with his own flesh and blood. The pictures, of course, were none other than gore. That face he’d seen so long ago was the primary subject. He was already exacting his revenge through his artwork. He was planning it all out. He knew his captors would see his work, but he didn’t care. He wanted them to see it. He wanted them to see a small glimpse of what was heading their way, before it would actually happen to them.

***

The day ended far too soon for him. They entered the library to remove him, but he fought them off. Although they were merely androids, he destroyed every single one that tried to take him in. He ran to the wall and began slamming on it, attempting to crash his way through. Every punch he landed put a massive dent in the walls of the fortified room, but before he got too far he started to get dizzy. He heard a faint hissing sound. He turned around to see the room filling with a white fog, or rather gas. He passed out before he could tear himself free of the room.

***

When he awoke, he wasn’t in his cell as he expected to be. He was somewhere else entirely, in fact. He was in some sort of metal holding device. His arms and legs were bound together. Everything was dark, save for three cracks of light poking through a metallic armored plate that must have been for the soul sake of letting air into the mechanism holding him in place.

“Hey!” He shouted; his voice muffled within his small, confined cocoon of a cell. “Hey, where am I?” His voice sounded rough and unused. He didn’t know why he was bothering to talk, but for some reason he felt he should.

“Huh?” A tired voice called back, sounding as if just waking up. “Hey… where am I?” It asked to itself. It was definitely a human voice, not a machine.

“Who… who’s there?” He asked back to the voice.

“Huh? Is someone there?”

“No, it’s the wind, sunshine.” He mumbled back sarcastically.

There was a small pause as if the voice was trying to figure out if he was joking or not. “Do you know where we are?”

“No, I was hoping you knew.”

The voice paused again. “Eh, I think we’re aboard some sort of space vessel.”

“Why do you say that?”

“There’s a slight humming, like the sound of engines. Also, if you pay close attention you can feel everything swaying slightly.”

He paused to create silence, trying to see if he could feel the sensation. He shook his head, even though no one would see the gesture. “I don’t really feel anything.”

“I think we were drugged.” The voice responded. “I think we woke up a little early, though.”

Woke up early? He remembered being gassed, but he didn’t quite expect to be transported anywhere else. What if they’d been doing this frequently and he hadn’t noticed? While he slept they moved him to a place where they could perform more tests on him. It made sense, but it would make exacting revenge a bit more difficult than he had in mind. “So we woke up early, eh?” The thought made him smile. “So… I’m guessing you’re condemned to this twisted little science experiment too.”

“Yeah, that’s a good way to put it.”

“You think we can break the heck out of here?”

He received a slight chuckle as a response, “Dude, these binds are made out of solid steel. Only a god could break through this stuff.”

“Well you’re in luck.” A loud, ear piercing snap filled the room, follow by the clanging of a metal door falling to the floor. He jumped from his confined locker, cracking his neck to the side. He turned around to see a cell similar to his hanging on the wall.

“Holy crap, man. That was intense. Could you break me free?”

“Why can’t you break yourself free?”

Another amused chuckle, “I’m not hulking buff, dude. I haven’t had a good chance to use my muscles much through all these years of mind games.”

Another loud crash filled the room as the front of the holding device was torn free. Inside was a rather weak looking man, in his late teens no doubt. It was hard to tell through his lack of muscle. He grabbed the metal binds and pulled them free as well. The man fell to the floor, stumbling back up to his feet.

“Ah, thanks man.” The boy said with slight chuckle. “Wow, dude. The name’s Edward Stone.” He extended his hand to shake, “Yours?”

He paused for a brief moment. He didn’t know his own name; he’d forgotten it a long time ago. This guy must not have been tortured for as long as he had. It didn’t matter, though. He had a good name for himself. It was perfect. His mouth curled upward into the first real smile he’d boasted in a long time, “Styx… my name’s Styx.”

“Well Styx, we’ve got to get the hell out of here.” Stone’s face was bright with pride as he said the words, “Hell dude, we’re freaking free!”

Styx joined in his joy, bearing all his teeth in a joyous smirk. “Yeah man, now to kill the captain of this ship.” He shoved past Ed, tearing through the door like it was paper. He was going to be free, at long last.

“Whoa man, slow down!” Stone shouted after him, the shorter man chasing at his heels. “We need to plan this out!”

“I’ve done enough planning; now I’m going to fall through with those plans.”

“But wait, you don’t know what kind of people we’re dealing with here!”

Styx ignored him. He stormed forward, his metal leg making a distinct clanking noise on the metal floor. Stone hadn’t noticed the leg before now, but now it was all he was looking at.

Clank, thump, clank, thump, clank, thump.

He crashed through another door, and in he walked.

The crew on deck all turned at once, staring at their escaped prisoner. Instantly, fear penetrated all their minds. They’d never dreamed that one of their prisoners would ever escape.

Styx’s eyes were wide with excitement. Today his revenge started. It made him so happy, the happiest he’d ever been; happier than his one day of painting.

“Hello, scum.”

He jumped forward, his fist plowing through his first victim’s stomach, protruding out the other side. He made a nice bracelet, but he discarded him on the floor, his robotic leg skewering a female crewmember.

“Stop him!” The captain shouted, pulling out his firearm. Others did the same, but they couldn’t stop the behemoth. “Kill him!” he screamed.

His head slammed into one, their scull exploding. His fists tore limbs from their bodies, killing with every move he made. Guns were fired, but Styx didn’t feel their bullets. He was enjoying this far too much to stop. He was soaked in their blood, each swing and punch hewed them all to pieces.

Soon, they were all dead. Everyone but the captain lay in pieces all over the place. The captain backed himself against the wall, hands extended in a surrendering manner. “I give up, just don’t hurt me.” His legs were shaking, and he knew he was going to die.

Styx stopped in front of him, foreign blood covering his smiling face. His eyes were wide, and revenge felt good.

“Stop, Styx!” Stone shouted from the back of the room, running through the carnage to reach him. “Stop, we need him!”

“I’ll see you in Hell, my friend.” He jerked himself forward, his head crashing through the pilot’s face, blood and gray matter spraying through his hair and across the wall. The captain was deader than dead.

It tasted good, it smelled good, and it felt good. Blood, everywhere. He hadn’t seen blood that wasn’t his own before. It felt so good when he wasn’t the one in pain. Revenge was a sweet sugar, and it tasted much better than the crap they fed him back in Hell.

“Styx, why did you do that?” Stone moaned, trying not to look at the mess all over the place. “We needed him. He could have told us more about the people who did this to us. He was also the only one that could properly pilot this thing.”

Styx’s mood didn’t change. He was still grinning far and wide. It might have been better to save the captain in the long run, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want any of that scum to live. He was glad the entire crew was dead. It all felt so right, so correct. It felt so good to kill.

Stone looked down at the captain’s shirt pocket, a small card hanging out. He pulled it out and read the only visible words on the small aluminum badge. “Pandora.” He read it monotonically. It was clearly a logo title. He turned to Styx, who was still crazed after his quick killing spree. “Styx, you think the people who did this to us are members of… Pandora?”

He turned to Stone, face frozen with his continuous insane smirk. “I’ve never heard of them.”

“Me neither, but…” Stone stopped, eyes finally looking out the window, “My God, Styx. Look!”

At last Styx’s expression changed. He arched his eyebrow, amazed to have actually seen it. “Is that…?”

Stone’s chuckled, “It’s Old Earth.”

***

Styx and Stone piloted the ship the best they could manage, being only two people steering a ship built for many. They didn’t make it too far, though, because the ship had already been locked in Earth’s gravitational pull.

The two of them together managed to find a way to slow the ship down enough to the point they didn’t die, but they still got the ship mangled pretty bad. Styx stole the captain’s reflective sunglasses and began to wear them as a sign of his first meaningful kill. He painted the white rim black and blue eventually, merely because he could now freely express his artistic talent.

-------

Earth.

Once the home of all humans, the planet was now nothing but a desert wasteland dotted with the occasional oasis. Long ago, the majority of the human race fled Earth. They’d used up most of their resources and knew that they would die if they didn’t relocate and begin to colonize other planets. They worked for years on hyperspace technology. Scientists claimed that there was a star system relatively close to Earth’s Solar System that bore multiple planets festering with plants and resources they could live another several billion years off of. They spent their remaining time on Earth constructing a device built for galaxy-wide travel: The Subspace Drive.

The subspace drive was built, over a long period of time. They created special beacons that marked the spots where they would link special subspace portals together; creating a path to the distant stars, for light speed wasn’t fast enough. After this was constructed, a mighty ship known as the Armageddon was finished with its construction. It was built to hold two billion people, the largest human structure ever created.

However, since the ship could only hold two billion people, the rest of Earth’s population was forced to die on the slowly decaying Earth. The Armageddon left behind its subspace portal so the rest of the human race could eventually join them, given they survived. However, the portal became inactive not long after their leave.

However, much of the human race stranded on Earth managed to survive. They suddenly came across means for simple Terraforming. The means behind its discovery were unknown, but they found it nonetheless. They used what Terraforming technology they had to attempt to keep parts of Earth alive, at least long enough for the means of planetary colonization to be set in place.

Plans for the subspace drive were left behind by the 2 billion human deserters for hope that the people they left behind would put it to good use, but the resources required to build it were slim. They instead crafted a different sort of drive they aptly named the Hyperspace drive. It was a simpler, slower form of travel, but it was still faster than the speed of light. Instead of taking years to get from one planet to another, it only took several days, to several hours, depending on the quality of the drive.

Terraforming further developed, and Mars soon became inhabitable, even several rainforests forming. The atmosphere was changed entirely, some people nicknaming the planet “New Earth,” though the name Mars still sticking. After Mars was successfully colonized, other moons and planets were colonized, as well as several orbital cities.

Earth was soon forgotten about, but it became home for criminals. Bandits, pirates, thieves, and murderers were all welcome. If you did something bad, you’d go to Earth for protection. What small authorities there were in the star system didn’t have enough power to hold the planet together, so it soon fell into disarray. Pirates mainly ruled the land and skies, hoarding Earth’s water to themselves.

Although Terraforming had means to hydrate water, it was a very expensive process. Water soon became a rare resource, being more valuable than gold. Ice crystals had to be harvested, as well as the occasional comet that swept by. Gold actually began losing its popularity, being replaced with the mineral adamantium, which was harvested on one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa.

Those who didn’t have money for water would die, thus the life of a pirate became an appetizing idea for many.

-------

Styx and Stone worked in the deserts of Earth for a while, repairing the ship whenever they had the chance to. As luck would have it, they crashed near a major city on Earth, located in the land once known as Maine, USA. Of course they tried to aim for an area near population while they crashed, but getting as close as they did was pure luck. Stone would visit the city on occasion to purchase books on repairing and building different models of ships.

They purchased desert bikes to get around, but eventually purchased a buggy to carry their goods (Styx didn’t feel like carrying their stuff all the time).

Whenever Styx wasn’t needed to heavy lift stuff around the ship, he’d go exploring around the desert in their buggy. The ancient ruins of Earth wasn’t often excavated or explored much, so he had the opportunity to find a good many things. He came across several malls, some houses, some skyscrapers, and even a soda factory. Within the Soda factory he even managed to dig out a stockpile of Moxie, even though it was all flat. He harvested as much as possible and it became his favorite drink. Stone thought it tasted awful, but Styx didn’t care: All the more for him.

***

It took several months, and several tries, but eventually they had the ship up and running again. Styx took his artistic liberties with the design. He removed all of the Pandora logos, replacing them with their own. He festooned the ship’s exterior with shark teeth and evil eyes. The artistic design partially encouraged Styx’s insane idea to file his teeth down to sharp points, which he soon fell through with.

Stone decided to name the ship after himself, simply known as The Edward. Styx didn’t complain too much, although he personally wanted to call it Hades.

***

Styx and Stone spent a great deal of time as pirates. They tried to find more information on the company Pandora, but they couldn’t find much about it. They’d attack various ships with designs resembling The Edward’s, but none were run under the company Pandora, at least as far as they could tell.

Considering Styx and Stone were two men piloting a many-hands vessel, their skill as pirates wasn’t all too successful. They actually soon became a laughing stock in the eyes of the pirate community. They would usually be forced to retreat from battle, or upon boarding a ship be forced to leave by other means. They were quite popular as being the worst pirates alive, who had never been caught or killed.

There were two main victories Styx and Stone achieved as pirates. The first one was amazing. They managed to overrun a merchant vessel filled with titanium. They used the titanium to build many things, such as some of their guns and armor. They actually took the titanium to a gunsmith back on Earth. She forged their weapons for a small price, and they gleefully took their new prizes.

Their second main victory was against yet another merchant vessel, this one far exceeding amazing. The vessel was actually a high security, top secret shipment that was tipped off to Ed and Styx merely as a ploy to see if they’d die on this one. However, Ed’s superior mind thought through a plan to catch the ship at the moment it was weakest, having just left port before it even exited Mars’ atmosphere. It was a highly complicated heist, but they ended up stealing a large amount of prototype self-replenishing generators. They escaped with barely a scratch, for the ship hadn’t even had a chance to rendezvous with its security escort.

***

Upon fleeing the scene of their dangerous antics during their second successful job, they were marked and followed by two battle cruisers built of a design similar to The Edward’s. Clearly having no match against two ships, both fully manned, Styx and Stone had no choice but to flee.

They weren’t sure where they were running to, but they just had to get as far away from those two cruisers as fast as possible. They had a good feeling Pandora wanted their guinea pigs back, but they weren’t about to let that happen.

Searching frantically for a way to escape, they stumbled through the hyperspace program. However, somehow the program became encrypted. A different program popped up, but it was written in another language. Rather confused through all the chaos, Stone activated the device and they were launched out into space, far faster than normal.

***

Styx’s eyes opened slowly. They were alive? So intense! They must have been traveling really fast, faster than anything on record before them. He didn’t even know The Edward could move so quickly.

The thought suddenly got him thinking about Ed. Where did he go? “Yo, Stone!” He searched the room with his eyes, soon spotting him amidst the rubble. He moved over to him and pulled him out of the mess with one hand. “You alive, dude?”

Ed coughed, eyes opening wide.

“Aw.”

“What just happened?” He asked himself, a little disoriented.

Styx set him down. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

Stone thought about it for a moment, and then it all came to him. “Right, I remember now. We were trying to escape those two Pandora ships. I tried to activate the Hyperspace drive, but… a different program over-rid it. I tried to slow the ship down, but when I did we were already drifting toward this planet….”

“Déjà vu, man.”

“I’ll say.”

“At least I’m not dead.” Styx smirked, patting Stone once a little too hard on the head. “But I guess we gotta fix this thing up again, right?”

“No kidding.”

“I’ll scout the land, maybe I can see what sort of dismal rock we’ve landed on.”

Stone rubbed his head, “Uh, Styx. I’d be careful if I were you.”

Styx let out a deep laugh, “You forget who you’re talking to, Stone.”

“No, you don’t get it….”

Styx stopped in his tracks. He stopped to listen, his interest spiked by Ed's tone of voice. Something about the way he said that, something about it he didn't quite like. He was serious, there was something wrong. “What are you saying, Stone?”

Ed cleared his throat, looking around the room rather vacantly, “This planet…" He paused, "I got a good look at it before we crashed."

"And?"

"I’ve never seen it before.”

***

Whether it was by pure coincidence, or by the dark side of destiny, Styx’s random travels through the forest around the Edward’s crash site brought him to a lone figure that happened to cry out when he was near enough to hear. When he tracked the source down, it was a wounded woman. She apparently has lost her mind and was on the verge of insanity, or perhaps had already crossed that fine line. Regardless of her mental condition, she attacked. An intense, yet short, battle ensued. The two were locked in an epic struggle that ended quickly, resulting in Styx being pinned to the ground by chains constructed from the blood of the insane woman’s body.

Styx had never seen such magic, if it even were magic. He’d never experienced such paranormal activities, but at that moment he did. The insane woman approached him in his weakened state and sunk her fangs into his neck, drinking deeply of his blood.

Styx was as good as dead then. He was ready to accept his fate, and he took it on with a fearless grin.

However, death did not take him. The insane woman had regained her sanity. When she’d drunk his veins dry, she stared him in the eye and spoke. "You are on the verge of death, and I can see how strong and reluctant your body is to die... I can give you eternal life and powers you could only dream of, or I can leave you here and let you die. It's your choice." She bit her own wrist then, spilling her blood in small droplets into Styx’s mouth. He could taste nothing in his current state, but he didn’t care for taste anyway. Eternal life? What exactly was she proposing? "Drink of me, and you will live..." Styx much wanted to live; he cared too much about his life not to. Whatever she was offering, Styx chose life.

After drinking deeply of her, he soon came to find out she’d gifted him with vampirism to keep him alive. Why she’d done so was beyond him, but she did so regardless. He found out her name was Knives Eclipses, and he in turn told her the name he’d given to himself. From that moment forward, he found himself liking her. It was unlike him to grow attached to anyone, but he adored the woman who was strong enough to kill him, yet value him enough to keep him alive. Yet… even so she didn’t just keep him alive, she gave him absolute power.

What took place soon thereafter was a raid on a small Naga village. Their tense relationship and constant teasing aroused confusing feelings in the both of them as they fought through a fray of violent villagers. Through this, Styx made discoveries he’d only dreamed of. So much was opened to him he’d never considered to be a reality. Now he was a vampire, something that was one unfathomable to him, and it was all because of Knives. She opened his eyes to a world he thought was impossible, and she’d changed his life.

When the battle was finished, Eclipses collapsed from exhaustion. Styx quickly concluded that she was poisoned. Using his stims, he brought her back (with a little resistance). Having saved her life, he felt all the more closer to her.

She fled him after recovering; only barely acknowledging his help, saying she’d teach him how to use his powers after she’d cleaned off a bit. It was fine with him that she would clean herself off, but her exact wording was what bothered him. After he asked her what he was now capable of after receiving his new powers, she responded, “We will work on that later when we have the right elements to work with. We might be able to try a trial and error session so I can tell you what you're doing wrong, or something of the like.”

What he was doing wrong? Now that was just begging for correction. After she fled to clean up, he followed her. He was surprised by his newfound speed and tracking ability and found where she ended up in no time. It was a hot springs, and she’d already undressed.

Slipping into the springs unnoticed, Knives was quickly flustered from appearing before him in her naked state. He obviously had the upper hand through the majority of this encounter, but the vampire was tricky. She began to tease him with her attractive appearance, treating him a way he’d never been treated before. Though they never touched, her seductive attitude caught Styx dumbfounded. Now they were on an equal playing field and neither was winning this meaningless muse.

Styx ended the awkward confrontation with a violent kiss, grabbing her about the shoulders and locking lips in a sudden action that through them both off guard.

To make a long story short, that action connected them both in a way they’d both never felt before. Lust soon faded to attraction, to appreciation, to compassion, to passion, to love. Styx felt weak in her presence. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not, but he loved this woman for she was the only one who had true power over him. She was a weakness of his, yes, but it was a weakness he found himself loving. He was stronger than he’d ever been before with his newfound powers, but this weakness left him with an exposed heel, yet he liked this feeling too much to let it go. If she were just any girl, he’d drop her in fear that it’d kill him, but she was a powerful woman. Her strength exceeded his on certain levels; he’d be a fool not hold on to this love.

Adventures:
Two Shades of Darkness (complete)

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Tree | Styx