Chapter 8

-Damian-

Waking to the chaos surrounding him, the sight before Damian shook his very bones. The planet in front of his eyes was broken, destroyed. A shadow slowly consumed it until the planet was annihilated. 

His breathing stopped when the shadow opened an eye. Yellow, slitted and feral. The shadow grew past the heights of skyscrapers with incredible ease, until it nearly dwarfed the sun at Damian's back. 

Fear, horror, worthlessness. Complete terror. Words were not enough to describe what Damian felt in that singular moment that seemed to span an eternity, the shadow opened its mouth, sharped jagged teeth that could bite through planets, curved upwards, grinning at him in delirium. 

It stood in space before suddenly moving towards Damian. A clawed hand bigger the size of a small sun reached for Damian's body. 

Then everything went black.

-Dreamscape-

Slowly opening his eyes, he let out a sigh of relief seeing he was in his Dreamscape. The familiar sight of the Universe surrounding and encapsulating him, eased the terror he felt if only a little. Getting up off the ground, he dusted himself off. Looking around, he caught the sight of Locke standing in the distance. 

Sighing in exhaustion, he walked over to the permanent resident that stayed in his mind. "What happened?" He questioned. The previous events he experienced were at the front of his mind. 

"Are you ok?" As soon as Locke turned to him and asked that he cringed, of course the boy wasn't ok. Having to see that... 'thing' he knew Damian would want, need answers if for nothing else in order to keep his sanity intact. 

"Locke," Damian's voice quivered, "What the hell was that?" He was shaking at the end of his words. 

Looking at him, Locke stayed quiet for a time. His face scrunching up with irritation, bitterness and contemplation, trying to come up with an explanation for what his fellow resident saw. 

"That... that was a memory of mine," A chill went down Damian's spine. "Long forgotten to the sands of time. Or at least I thought it was." He muttered the last part under his breath. Damian sensing that there was a lot of issues in poking that bear stayed quiet. 

Turning his back to Damian, he waved in front of the two of them, the 'chaos' that Damian saw was now nonexistent. The planet now looked much larger as his focus wasn't on the shadow. "This was once my home. It was like Earth but far more advanced."

Curiosity bubbled up in Damian as he asked, "What was it called?" 

"Eden. We called it Eden." 

They both floated in the vacuum of space surrounding the planet, talking about anything that came to mind. Damian, for obvious reasons, asked about the shadow he saw. 

"Hm? That thing, look D, you got nothing to worry about. It's not going to come after you alright." Locke's words of 'wisdom' did little to relieve the boy's worries. 

Perking up, he asked Locke, "D? When did we get on a nickname basis?" 

"Well, I'm not going to just keep saying your full name, plus this is shorter and easier." Locke replied. 

Damian started to fade, but before he could Locke spoke, "Harden your heart Damian, if you want survive, to live, harden your heart." 

-Locke- 

Watching Damian fade from the Dreamscape with confusion, he turned around, gazing at the presence he felt when Damian woke up. Stalking the both of them rather poorly. 

Enforcing his authority over space the stalker appeared before Locke, his hand shot to the stalker's throat, choking him. The face of the stalker was eerily similar to Damian's and Locke would have mistaken him for his brother if he had one. 

"Well, I did not see this coming," Locke commented, seemingly knowing something others would not. "Split personality, huh?" 

The look-a-like repelled Locke away with a blast of gravity, more volatile and unrestrained than anything Damian had produced in the short span of time he got his powers. 

"Ah, you got some power in those skinny arms of yours don't you," Not getting a response Locke groaned, his eyes glowed with power, "Fine, my turn." He grinned. 

Disappearing from his position, leaving an afterimage in his place as he appeared behind the look-a-like, cocking his fist back before smashing his face in, knocking him a far distance away. 

Hitting the ground hard, the look-a-like got up from the ground, his eyes glowing with power and amethyst, gravity became more malleable, more focused on Locke and their surroundings. 

The atmosphere shook and bent to the look-a-like's will. "What are you?" Locke wondered, "Ah, no matter, I'm getting bored." With that said, the world around them turned monochromatic, Locke moved to the now still look-a-like.

"Do you have a name, boy?" 

After a futile struggle, the boy gave up and sighed, his face frustrated. "Orion." The boy bit out reluctantly. 

"Locke. It's nice to meet you, Orion." 

'We're going to get along just fine, aren't we?' He thought sarcastically as color returned to the cosmos around them.

-Damian-

Dodging a punch aimed for his throat and kick to his leg, Damian dodged the punch and checked the kick with his shin. Shaking off the impact, he dived into Laura's next attack, barely avoiding her claws and hooked her in the face with a jaw shattering punch. 

Grunting, Laura made some distance between the two of them. Her healing factor taking care of her injured jaw, she lunged back into the fray. Her lithe form going through the throws of battle between Damian and herself. 

Trying something different, Damian threw a seemingly normal punch at Laura, connecting with her arms crossed in an 'X' her arms shattered, flesh, blood and bones coming out from places they shouldn't. 

''Shit, Laura are you ok?" He asked surprised at what happened and only slightly worried about her. He knew she would but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. 

She grimaced as her arms healed, bones going back where they belonged and flesh that healed over them. She nodded her head at Damian's question. 

"We still have more time left." Her soft and silky voice spoke, her eyes declaring that she wasn't ready to give up just yet. 

Their battle came to an end nearly thirty-minutes later, Laura slightly panting from exhaustion and no damage to her. Damian wasn't the same, bruises and slash marks covered his body.

But he wasn't he nearly exhausted as much as Laura, due to the Serum that he was injected with Damian discovered out that he had a very high level of stamina over the course of his battles with Laura that could go for hours. 

Damian also knew that the Serum gave him a boost in strength and speed he didn't have before. Looking to the surveillance room they knew they were being watched from, he swore in his heart that he would make Kimura suffer. 

-Kimura-

Watching the fight unfold from the screen in front of her, Kimura analyzed their battle, taking in the sight of Damian she remembered the events of his mission a week ago. The carnage he unleashed. 

"Fucking monster." She whispered. She didn't expect for him to shake the building they were in with such force and anger. 

In hindsight she should have known what to expect as he was an Omega level mutant with an overwhelming power and shouldn't have provoked him. 

Turning away from the screen, she made her way out of the room. Wandering the halls filled with scientists and military personnel, she came to the door of her 'boss' and went inside. 

Finding Harkins behind his desk doing paperwork she spoke up in irritation, "What the hell are you planning to do with the gravity brat Harkins? He needs to be put down; you know that right?" 

"We'll figure out what to do when the time comes Kimura," He replied, still doing his paperwork, "Now unless you have something important to contribute to this conversation, you can leave." 

Holding her tongue, she walked out of his office and to her private quarters. 'Bastard,' She thought as she went to his the boxing bag hung in the middle of her room.