Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Ugh. I groaned as I woke up with the worst headache I’d ever had. Well actually it was more like the worst everything-ache I'd ever had. It took me a while to orient myself but eventually I managed to form coherent thoughts. And speak them out loud. 

"Where... Where am I?" My voice sounded rough and sore. Then again, my entire body felt rough and sore. I don't think I'd been this beat up since... I don't think I've ever been this beat up before.

"Oh, you survived. Guess they truly do not grant just about anyone the rank of Peacekeeper..."

I tried to open my eyes but failed. But I knew that I wasn't alone. I didn't recognize the voice, but given the way they talked about my title, I was definitely in enemy territory. This wasn't good. I was running low on mana, whoever was there had probably disarmed me, and exhausted didn't even begin to describe how I felt currently. I was in no condition to punch my way out like I usually did. Nor was my brain really fully operational yet, so bullshitting my way out was out of the question. Even though I pretty much could grasp my situation, more intel could never hurt. 

"Where am I?", I asked again, more stern this time.

"You're on Genesis #25978. I took the liberty to ask the locals to nurse you back to health after our fight. As per our agreement. You did better than most, by the way."

Another voice. Sounded distant; they must have just entered the room. That also meant that wherever they were, the door was. That's important intel. And also more importantly, Genesis #25978... That sounded familiar. WAIT! I was sent to suppress a rebel uprising. Of course. When faced with the ultimatum that was my presence, I asked the locals to send me their strongest champion. Seems like I was defeated though. That's a first. And that means the person that just entered was that champion. Well this situation had just gone from bad to worse. Not only was I defeated completely, the person that fought me is alive and well, while I am, at most, one of those things. No guesses as to which.

"He should be stable enough for your healing magic now, go ahead."

Magic?! Healing magic?! Yeah I knew a trap when I saw one. 

"Hold on, I didn't agree to any healing-" I was cut off.

"Peacekeeper, our deal was that if I were to win, we would nurse you back to health and you would stop your attack on us, and do whatever you can to get our system the independence we deserve. Killing you here wouldn't really help with that. Plus why put you in a hospital in the first place if we plan on killing you?"

They did have a point. 

"Fine...", I groaned. It seemed I was defeated in both body AND mind. That's always fun. As soon as the regenerative magic coursed through me, the pain started to ease. I pretty quickly started to feel rather comfortable, actually. Hell, by the end of it, I could actually succeed in opening my eyes. While some bits of my memories were still foggy, I could mostly recall what happened.

I was sent here to suppress the rebel uprising to preserve the stability of the empire. The usual political shenanigans, whatever, didn't really care about that.

I only really cared about the opportunity to fight the strongest fighter the star system had to offer. That's where the fun was. The deal was quite simple: defeat me and the empire leaves you alone. The catch was, of course, actually defeating me. Not one person had managed to do it. Well until now. And they were looking right at me, sizing me up almost. As if we hadn't been on each other’s throats just yesterday.

"So you two got any names or something I should call you?"

"I'm Amber, the Phoenix, and the young man - yes he is a man - who tended to your wounds, is called Blue."

"That's some pretty nice healing magic, kid. Could use someone like you in my squad. Interested?" My question was met with repulsion. As in he literally jerked backwards in disgust.

"I'd rather live out the rest of my days as the most feminine woman than work for the empire. You're either the most tone deaf person I've ever met, or an idiot, and I'm not sure what Amber saw in you that they thought was worth keeping alive..."

Well damn that was cold. But hey, it's not like Blue is the only healer in the universe. If I REALLY wanted one on my team, I'm pretty sure if I just ask Omega for one I'll have like 50 lined up eager to join up like an hour later... 

Speaking of Omega, I should probably report back. Actually...

"How long was I out for?"

"About three days"

I went pale upon hearing Blues reply. Three days. That was the deadline. Fuck! Fuck! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck! It might not be too late. As fast as I could, I activated my communicator.

"Omega! Come in! This is the Peacekeeper speaking! Commander Omega, come in!" Nothing. Amber and Blue seemed - understandably -  a bit put off by my frantic reaction to being told how long I was out for, but I had more important things to worry about. Fucking hell I'd been such an idiot, I should have confirmed that from the start. Every fucking second that had passed could be the last second where they can stop it. Fuck! 

After what felt like an eternity of me yelling into my communicator, finally the familiar hologram of Omega popped up.

"Peacekeeper, you survived. That's great. You need to leave this planet as soon as possible, however, you know the procedure." He said that as if it was a fact. Well it WAS a fact that I knew what was going to happen. But fuck, I’d made a promise, and I was going to keep it. If nothing else, I'd at least try to buy enough time to get everyone off world.

"Yeah, about that, I'm in a bit of a situation here. They're using some kind of prison I haven't seen before, and it's going to be tough to bust out of there. And I'll have to gather my crew and locate my ship. Can you give me a week for evac?" Blue looked like he wanted to say something, to which I shot a begging look, at both him and Amber. Fortunately the latter picked up on the meaning and covered Blue's mouth, motioning him to keep quiet. If Omega found out I was cooperating with the rebels and stalling time for them, we'd all be toast instantly. I fucking hate that policy.

"You were defeated?" Omega wondered. "That should not be possible..."

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"Yeah, they got the drop on me. Not gonna happen again. Anyways, can you please confirm the extension of a week?"

"That will not be possible, Peacekeeper. But rest assured, you will be remembered as a hero. We might even turn this day into an empire-wide holiday to honor your memory. That being one of death, carnage and destruction of course. Truly you were an excellent lapdog for the empire but we've been meaning to get rid of you for a while now. The risk you pose far outweighs your uses…"

With that, Omega hung up. Fuck. I crushed the communicator in my hand as it had been remotely wiped and deactivated the second the coms had been cleared. He was serious. 

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" 

I punched a wall, causing it to collapse. I'd feel bad for it, but given that the star in this system was going to blow up soon, I doubted it mattered. 

"What IS the protocol this Omega mentioned?" Amber inquired.

I sat down on the bed. Taking a deep breath, I looked at them and simply said, "Supernova.

If the Peacekeeper goes MIA for three days or longer the star is blown up. If you two know where my ship is, you can probably go get out of here alive. I wish I could do more but… I'm sorry. Sorry won't fix or prevent anything, I know, but I can't do anything else."

As I said that I started thinking. Could I do anything else? I didn't have the mana, nor was I in any shape, to fly up there and kick Omega out. Amber probably could do that though. They were strong enough to kick my ass, after all, and I think I could take on all of Omega’s flagships by myself. Also, given that Amber wasn't a man, the prophecy was irrelevant. 

Just as I had decided to ask them to go do that, I sensed Omega’s fleet leave the system. Well shit. The bomb had been planted. There was literally nothing anyone could do at this point. 

"Bomb was just placed. You have about 5 minutes to evacuate as many people as possible. I'll grab as much mana as I can and try to delay the inevitable…" If I sounded desperate, well that's because I was. 

I mean my plan had some merit, and, at least in theory, it should work, but the problem was that I'd be handling way more power than I ever had before. 

" You're going to go up there, knowing the star is going to blow?", Blue asked, flabbergasted. "That's a suicide-mission!" 

"Yup. In case you didn't notice, officially I am already dead. I don't want everyone to remember me as some genocide-machine, so if nothing else, my last act will be to prevent one. However well that turns out…" 

Once I’d said that, I quickly tapped into the mana-pools of the surrounding area and sucked them dry. Usually I didn't like doing that because it could seriously fuck up an eco-system, but I was going to need every last bit of mana I could get if I was going to try and tame a star. Also it was pretty hard to worry about the long term consequences of your actions when you know for a fact that in 5 minutes the eco-system wouldn't exist anymore… 

Having said and done all that I could surface side, I headed up directly to the star as fast as possible. I didn't know how long I had, but I did manage to arrive before it started to blow up. Which was good. Okay star, give me all you got. 

I thrust my hands into the star, flinching a bit at the pressure, and just started channeling mana through my origin to absorb as much of the star as possible.

Which was not enough. And also way too slow. Doesn't matter. I never really intended to fully stop the explosion, only weaken it or at the very least delay it so more people could escape. 

My origin started to hurt and feel hot from all the stress, but that didn't matter. I know that with my origin being an artificial one and me being pronounced dead, burning it out meant no more magic for me, but I had a hard time caring, for reasons mentioned before.

What I hadn’t factored in however, was my self-preservation instincts kicking in. I had been surprisingly successful at absorbing the explosion, but just as my origin hit its limit, I flinched back. It only took me a second to try and resume what I had been doing, but that was one second too long. 

A sudden increase in gravity, finally being allowed to spring into action, violently compressed the star as well as sucking me in. The pressure made me scream out in pain. Weirdly enough though, I did not feel any pain from the heat. Not that I had much time contemplating that, because just as fast and violently as the star and I had been sucked in, the gravity reversed. The star had gone past the critical point. Its pressure now overpowering gravity it rapidly grew.

I was quite adept at flying, however I was unable to focus on anything at all, leaving me at the mercy of the plasma violently erupting out in all directions. I was thrown around like a rowing boat in a storm. Not that I had anything solid I could impact anyways. I think.

I couldn’t really see anything, due to everything around me, and probably including me being about a million degrees hot and therefore glowing in a bright white light.

I couldn’t hear much either, well beyond loud. I don’t really know how else to describe it, it was just loud. Like an explosion but it kept happening and happened thousands of times in just one second.

As for what I felt, it was mostly pain from being compressed on all sides with some occasional force of acceleration as I was rag-dolled through the dying star. 

I did however pick up that a number of spacecrafts had left the system through my magic senses. Amber and Blue made it out. And as many people as they could evacuate. No doubt me holding off the explosion had helped with that.

Knowing this, I did actually find some sort of closure and very soon after this, I blacked out.

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