Mere moments after Para left the Kalgren household, an uninvited visitor arrived. Vincent had just opened the refrigerator to retrieve a soft drink (he was ever so slightly addicted to sugary carbonated refreshments) before he began training in earnest again until it was time for bed.
However, just as he opened the fridge door, a hand came out of nowhere and slammed it shut. He frowned at the small arm in his line of sight and turned to the person it belonged to. A furious Pax was standing there, decked out in her fireproof training clothes, with her messy dark hair spilling over her shoulders. Her eyes flashed angrily at him, her hand not moving from the fridge door.
“Let’s go, Vince.”
“Show a little respect to your superiors, child.”
“Let’s. Go.”
“Child, have you no manners? Can you not wait until I finish my fucking soda?”
“Fine. One soda.”
She removed her hand from the fridge and crossed her arms. Vincent took his time choosing between grape and cherry soda, and finally, choosing grape, he pushed the metal tab in with his finger and began to chug it. Pax licked her lips, suddenly feeling thirsty, but was too angry to pause in her rampage to consume anything.
“Is your royal appetite sated, your highness?” she asked insultingly. “Do you think the grape soda pop has given you the energy you need to fight me?”
Vincent rolled his eyes at her meager insults. Yet, he was intrigued to see Pax so pissed. It was rare that anyone got angry enough to want to have an all-out spar, so he knew he needed to seize the opportunity. He exited the room and began walking toward his training area.
“No,” said Pax, blurring in front of him. “Not there.”
He looked at her with burgeoning interest. She reached out and placed a hand on his rock-solid arm before teleporting to the first distant planet with an atmosphere and water that her mind could lock onto quickly. She was so irritated that she did not even look around to see what planet she had landed on before she began to force her prana to rise, burning all the sedatives out of her system and assuming Ruby Form.
So you think I’m flat-chested? Pax thought to herself as she increased her energy, transforming her body and letting the flames roar around her. I’ll show you why I’m flat chested, teacher. She channeled even more prana from her center out into her muscles, letting them grow and bulge. Finally, the flames turned silver, and even the pupils of her eyes became metallic and distant. Training with you every day won’t allow me to gain a speck of fat, anywhere. How dare you insult me for being unfeminine when it’s your fault!
Vincent raised his eyebrows in amusement as he watched her little show. He languidly stretched, taking his time to prepare for what would probably be a quick victory. He was surprised, to say the least, when her fist connected with his face. And then again. And again. Her foot into his stomach. Again. Again. Explosion. Another explosion.
Vincent stared at the crazed girl in surprise. Was this Pax? Not the Pax he’d been training with for the past few weeks. Not the girl who had seemed placid and docile since the destruction of the comet that he had wondered if she intended to hang up her boots and never fight again. No, this was the Pax he remembered from long ago. The ferocious girl whose mother had died, plunging her into depression for a year, followed by insane rage for several years. She had been uncontrollable at 16, explosive at 18, and unpredictable at 20. Now here she was; he was not quite sure what her mental age was since the vector zone. Twenty-seven physically, thirty-one mentally? And something much more than that, spiritually.
“What do you want from me, Vince? Dammit, you need to decide now! Why do you push me so hard and put so much pressure on me? Why the fuck do I deserve this kind of treatment from you when you let your kids off the hook?”
“Shit, Pax.” He wiped the blood away from his eyes. “Can’t a man stretch first…”
“First you tell me that my anger is ‘righteous deva rage.’ You tell me that Thorn has no honor and I need to find a better man. Then you mess with my head by making me promise I’ll marry him if something happens to you—what the hell? Fucking marry him? Why would you do that to me?”
Vincent used both hands to skillfully block the blows that she delivered as she shouted her accusations. “I realize that I gave you conflicting advice…”
“You screwed me up!” she accused tearfully as she continued to fight desperately, throwing everything he had taught her back at him. “Is this what you want, Vince? Do you want me to be brutal and brave? Do you want me to be a warrior? Or do you want me to be a useless, pretty piece of shit like your daughter? Decide! Decide!”
“Pax, calm down,” he said, growling as he worked to restrain her. So she’s snapped again. It must be jealousy of that woman Thorn is dating. I don’t blame her. He found that he somehow couldn’t keep up with her angry blows. It looked as though she had finally past the point of no return.
“I have tried to make you proud!” she screamed. “I have tried to be everything you wanted me to be—just like I did for my fucking grandmother. But she was happy that I became a doctor—she stopped demanding shit from me. Will you ever stop? Do you want me to be a girl or a god? Decide! Do you want me to be a woman or a warrior? Make up your fucking mind, Vincent Kalgren, King of Devas.”
Vincent blinked, shocked at how emotional she seemed. She really could bottle it up and just unleash it all at once—was anyone more volatile than Pax Burnson? As he stared at the dark-haired woman who was enshrouded in dark silver flames, he thought of her grandfather, and marveled about how much she reminded him of his old friend Kaden. But the singularity of purpose in her eyes chilled him to the bone, making him think of a young Raymond Burnson; yes, she had her father’s eyes, and his fighting ability.
The girl was growling through clenched teeth as she extended her hands, pouring her vital force forth into a bomb of epic proportions. “What am I, Vincent? A worthless pawn of yours? Is that all you see when you look at me? I looked up to you! For advice on everything! You were my mentor—my role model!” Tears would have been flowing, but as quickly as they gathered they evaporated in the intense heat of the energy which surrounded Pax.
Vincent had been so taken aback by her sudden resemblance to her father that he hadn’t been preparing to take the blast. He realized he was in trouble.
“You’ve been the only one who took me seriously since I lost Grandpa. Since I lost my mom. You were the only one who had faith in my potential; you made be believe that I could be something even more than a human being. You made me believe I had a role to fill, that my decisions and actions were important. When Thorn left me, you were the only person who made me feel like I wasn’t worthless. And for Sakra’s sake, I need you!”
He could see the hatred in her eyes as she brokenly shouted at him. He understood her frustration. It was difficult to respect and care for someone who treated you like an underling and a pawn; and Vincent knew that Pax was one of his most valuable allies. She deserved more of his esteem and attention. With a chill, he realized that his enemy probably valued Pax more than he did. He considered how detrimental it would be to lose her to the other side.
Pax swiveled her body, pulling the bomb back into her right hand and angling herself in preparation for attack. “So quit fucking around with my head!” She screamed as she pivoted in mid-air like a shot put athlete, flinging her arm and entire upper body to launch the energy sphere at Vincent.
He tried to block the attack, but he had underestimated the concentration of power within it. It wasn’t a child’s emotional outburst. It was a blast that had been perfected over the decades, and it was being executed in immaculate form by an adult deva woman. It forced him back down into the rocky ground, burying him hundreds of meters into the surface of the planet before it exploded.
The crater that her attack had formed was massive, and it was several minutes of gasping and panting until she caught her breath. Is this more like it, Vince? Is this how you want me to prepare? Fighting at my maximum and giving it all I have? It also took several minutes until Vincent pulled himself out of the crater and reappeared. The energy blast had apparently knocked the wind out of him and slightly dazed him. When he flew out of the destroyed ground towards her, he had transformed into a different, almost unrecognizable creature. His face and hair were frosty white, like Suja’s. He had relinquished all of his humanity, and he was appearing as a Pure God.
His face was hard. He hadn’t been taking her seriously, but now he understood the kind of fight she wanted.
“Fine, girl. No more playing around. Let’s get down to business.”
“Don’t want another soda first?” she asked mockingly. In truth, it slightly terrified her to talk to Vincent that way, especially when he was in his Pure form. Would he even remember her limits? Would he remember not to take it too far? She had already made him angry enough to goad him into transforming; why was she pushing it further?
“I am thirsty for another soda. But I feel like beating the shit out of you first.” There was a small smirk on his snowy white lips; all the blood had gone from his body, replaced with something far greater. His veins were thick with pumping the fire of pure vitality. “Forget trying to stay conscious, Pax. Focus your efforts on trying to stay alive.”
Is he serious? Sakra, what kind of monster have I unleashed?
His massive arms raised high above his head, stretching to the sky. “I am going to assume,” he spoke as he remained motionless, “that this planet is uninhabited.”
She nodded slowly as she crouched down into a defensive stance. It was petrifying to see his eyeballs completely white, without any sign of pupils. Yet she knew that he saw even more than before. While he was in this form, regardless of the heat of her own body, she would be unable to touch him without being severely burned. A simple punch could ruin her—he was white-hot. She apprehensively wondered how she was going to deflect what came next. Had she ever before taken a full power attack from him while he was Pure? No, it was impossible. He would never have been so reckless on Earth. But she’d made sure that they weren’t on Earth.
Well, I asked for it, she thought sarcastically. Letting him break my legs weekly wasn’t enough.
When Vincent’s lips parted, the man released a bellow of ear-splitting sound that immediately caused Pax to recoil. The yell echoed through the nearby canyons as a beam of white energy left his mouth, hurtling directly toward her.
Oh, shit.
* * *
Meanwhile, back on Earth in the Kalgren compound, Rose was “cleaning up.” Her method of doing housework consisted of pouring herself a glass of wine while she sat to watch her new DVDs, and occasionally glancing at her cleaning robots to make sure they were doing everything correctly. When the first episode finished, Rose stared at the blank screen for a few minutes, lost in thought. She was slightly startled when a figure moved into her line of sight.
“Mrs. Kalgren,” said the cleaning robot politely. “An unidentified object has been found. Should I dispose of this?”
She frowned for a second, snapping out of her reverie as she stared at the object. She didn’t recognize it for a second, and then it hit her.
Medea’s syringe.
“I’ll take that,” she said to the robot, reaching out and carefully picking it up between her thumb and forefinger. She peered at the syringe suspiciously. Noticing a single droplet of liquid left in the transparent cylinder, Rose smirked. I guess there is one way to find out if she was using a recreational drug like heroin or a painkiller like morphine. I should send this to the lab for testing.