1 The Tyrant of the Universe
Rex King The Tyrant Ultraman is the most powerful being in the universe. No matter how weak or strong, all shiver in fear and trepidation at the mention of his name.
Imagine the shock of countless beings across the Universe, aware of Ultraman's immense power, if they witnessed the ruthless dictator in his giant crystalline chair coughing up blood.
After Rex's coughing fit, he turns back to his computer rearranging data crystals when a gentle hand brings a silk-like handkerchief to his face and cleans the blood.
"You shouldn't ignore the blood, my love," Siyan-Ur says as she lovingly cleans her husband's face.
"I cough so much now, what's the point? Besides, with you by my side, why should I worry?" Rex laughs as he removes crystals from one place and places them in another.
"Have I become your nanny?" she asks.
"You are my wife, isn't it the same thing?" Rex asks. Siyan throws the handkerchief at her husband in mock anger. After the quick teasing, her eyes look to her husband, and gently rubs the back of his head.
He stops what he is doing and closes his eyes for a moment before returning to work.
"How does it feel to be in the Ice Crystal Palace once more? How long has it been since you were last here?" Siyan asks.
"I think it's been about nine hundred years," Rex takes in a deep breath and returns to his work.
After a few minutes, he speaks to his wife while working. Eighty-five years before I left Earth for the last time, I dissolved the Crime Syndicate of America.
I killed about half the members as I recall. How many were they? I think there were three hundred and thirty-three members at the time."
"You've told me before, Owlman, Johnny Quick, Power Ring, and that awful Superwoman. They were a collection of the most hateful villains," Siyan commented with a frown.
"True, and I was their leader. I did far worse than them when I entered the vast universe. The void of space is filled with the blood and voices of those I massacred.
The numerous genocides, ah now that I think about it those guys were like innocent kids compared to me."
"That was the you of the past, you aren't the same man. Those people were crazy, and so were the other Council members.
Didn't you tell me that Owlman tried to destroy the Earth?
Superwoman's powers drove her insane, Johnny Quick was a drug addict feasting on the speed force of other living creatures. Power Ring's curse turned him against you and everyone else.
Even The Manhunter from Mars revealed his true revolting desires to consume the humans. He thought he could consume you which was his undoing.
You ended the Crime Syndicate so that you could fight for stability and justice. You aren't the same as them. They were just selfish and insane."
"If I say I'm evil it is because I know that there wasn't any justice in anything I did. I told myself that my ambitions were for the betterment of all, but all I ever achieved was destruction.
It wasn't until I met you fifty years ago that I woke up finally! You saved me, the last fifty years I've put my entire thousand years of life in perspective. I've turned away from my evil, but it's too late for redemption," Rex started coughing once more, he took the handkerchief from Siyan's hand and coughed violently into it.
Siyan sped away and brought water to her husband. He drank it greedily and finally suppressed his cough.
"You should rest, this can wait until later, regain your strength," Siyan encouraged Rex with sweet words.
Rex indicated toward the large screen in front of him. Siyan looked at the screen and saw the visual representation of an incomprehensible wave destroying worlds, space, and anything in its path.
"The anti-matter wave will be here in less than twenty minutes, there is no more time. Our battle against the crisis will be over soon," Rex said. Siyan's beautiful face switched to one of sudden desperation.
"I thought we had more time, months you told me yesterday, but it's already here! Will you be able to finish it, can you save our children?" Siyan asked in fear.
"Things changed, the Crisis Wave suddenly sped up, it's moving at faster-than-light speeds. The good news is that everything is finished, all we need to do is upload our consciousness into the Power Pod Ship.
Please sit next to me," Rex said as another crystal chair appeared beside him. Siyan sat quickly and a dome descended over their heads. Wires connected the strange helmets to a small rocket ship, the Power Pod Ship.
Siyan-Ur grabbed onto her husband's arm and calmed the panic in her heart.
"Are you ready to release yourself from this mortal coil?" Rex asked.
"I am, will we be able to reach our eldest son in time?"
Rex adjusted and moved crystals as he talked.
"We can reach him! When we met my powers were already breaking down my body and killing me. I couldn't give you a child at that time but I believed I could save myself and start a family. I thought that I could spend the rest of my life loving you and any future children, but then I discovered the Crisis wave."
Siyan nodded her head, "You abandoned saving yourself and told me we could adopt."
"Yes, There are consequences to all actions. I sinned but have no way to redeem myself."
"Then you realized, you could pass on your knowledge and abilities to others who could help with your redemption. You could save others from your fate," Siyan and Rex's eyes were closed as they spoke.
"I would find myself within the multiverse, and redeem him from a life of villainy to become a beacon of hope for all beings across the universe."
"You found a Rex King beyond the Dark multiverses at the gathering of worlds. There, you found him, a Rex whose life was identical to your own."
"I saw myself and my thuggish ways. Already making all of my mistakes. I will Redeem him and the others who can still be saved. In doing so redeem myself. I will become a blessing to that universe, and more beside it."
"I will be a mother to these orphans of justice and you shall be their father."
"I will bestow my power and guidance upon them. I will discipline them, but not cruelly. I will show them the reward of living a good life and being good human beings."
"I will accept them with a mother's love. They will not be alone. They will never be alone."
The bodies of the husband and wife collapsed into their chairs, they were now lifeless. The Tyrannical Ultraman and the Benevolent Siyan-Ur of Krypton abandoned the doomed universe, but also their power and lives. All that remained was their consciousnesses contained in the Power Pod Ship.
The wires disconnected from the blue spaceship. Its smooth hull glittered in the lights of the Ice Crystal Palace.
It rose into the air, and flashes of lightning exploded before the ship. A crack in space appeared and the ship was pulled in. Not long after it flew through the portal the space returned to normal.
More than ten minutes later, a bizarre wave of destruction swept through space turning everything into nothing and then into anti-matter. The once proud earth was no more, and a few hours later neither was the universe.
