The Universe's Greed

A control deck bustling with people either on computers or running around. It was all painted a matte black, lined with a gold trimming. At the centre of it all was a throne-like seat raised above everyone else. "There is a powerful reading on the radar sixteen million light years away." Spoke one of the female stationed crew members, "It sits at..." there was a pause along with an expression of shock from her, "6 - 652 trillion... Quetta joules sir."

"It must be an error in the system," a man responded.

"Sir, the system is completely fine."

"What is that..." the man responds, pointing at the screen. The numbers were rising at a fast pace, eventually stopping at 922 Quetta joules. The entire crew was in shock as the woman screamed out the number. However, this shock was overridden by a powerful shockwave that acted as an EMP to the ship, throwing everyone around.

"Hm." A man grunted from the throne. "Now that is something I want," His voice was deep and he spoke with a calm and confident tone, "Move the ship... now." He commanded and the crew immediately got back up and restarted their work. "Engaging the warp tunnel engine," said a male crew member. His voice was followed by a multitude of others as they prepared for a warp.

"Where are we headed?" Aaron asked. The two were on another Journey to find Aaron some clothes, as Eli responded, "we are going to the nearest colonised planet so I can get you some clothes, and so you can learn about societal life of an intelligent lifeform." His words were seemingly more complicated than any other answer he gave so far. Probably because he knew of no other way to phrase it. Aaron began his continuous list of questions, starting with a question on what 'societal' meant. "Society is a concept where people live in communities, or more complicated groups in other words. They live in a more or less ordered fashion so that they can sustain themselves as a community." After this Aaron continued with his list of questions on the definitions of the words that Eli used.

"We will arrive at Gorgar in about thirty minutes. Just wait a bit longer." Eli said after the long bombardment of questions.

The thirty minutes passed quickly and a blue planet engulfed Aaron's and Eli's view. The intercom began to buzz static. Eli responded by fiddling with some buttons and wires, which stopped the buzzing. "What did you do?"

"I... I fixed it. It breaks very often when she approaches planets." Eli's voice wavered implying a lie, however, Aaron did not understand this yet.

As they entered the atmosphere, the ship shook violently as it ignited by the descent. Almost breaking apart entirely, several times, yet they still made it down to the ground successfully. As they exited the ship, they encountered a lush forest significantly smaller in stature than the one on the ancient gardens, Mura-k4, though its vegetation was denser in proportion to the ancient gardens. in the distance the songs of birds could be heard as an ambience. 

One major thing was almost forgotten about, Aaron's eyes. They were not regarded as a natural colour, or even as eyes in the first place. There was a long moment of thought that came to Eli to attempt to find a way around this. In the end he decided to try something that is very confusing to a normal person.

He pressed his hands onto Aaron's temples. Over a short period of time Aaron's eyes turned a brown, hazelnut colour.

"What did you do?" a sense of true intrigue emanated from Aaron as he asked his question. being caught off guard by the slight show of emotion, Eli responded slowly, "Ah... I-I changed the colour of your eyes".

Aaron tried to touch his eyes to see if he could figure out what Eli meant by that, but Eli stopped him before he could, telling him that if he touched his eyes like that, he would hurt himself.

Eli then prodded Aaron forward explaining that they now must make it to a city if they were to get clothes.

The journey this time was not long, taking only about 20 mins to reach the nearest city. Which in this case was also the largest city on the planet, Lambeg, housing up to sixty-three million people and guesting another fifteen million from around Gorgar and other planets. The city scape was utopian. the centre of the city was filled with colossal skyscrapers, where some even reached above the clouds. Skyscrapers were not the only thing within the sky; planes and other vehicles filled the empty skies travelling to and from the city of Lambeg. The rest of the city was incorporated with the nature around it, garnishing it to add colour to the white and grey colours of all the buildings. It was a canvas of Utopian beauty, an image of perfect civilization. Eli glanced over at Aaron to catch some sort of reaction, though to no surprise, there was nothing. The Kid showed nothing, except for the question 'is that a city?' to which Eli responded with a clear and calm yes.

As they were finished with the view of the cityscape they began moving again towards the city. Entering the Suburbs of the city, each house was large and spaced evenly apart. The gap in-between each house was concealed in the local flora. Aaron's head swivelled around in what seemed to be intrigue, apart from the expression on his face. Further ahead the architecture changed. most of the buildings did not have gaps in-between them and reached at minimum three stories high. The only thing that did not change was the flora covering the cityscape.

"That shop there," Eli says, pointing to a clothes store.

"What is that?" Aaron responded.

"That is a place where you can get clothes to wear by exchanging a 'currency' for it."

"What is currency? And how do you exchange?" an addition of two questions, that both came with fairly lengthy explanations. When the explanations were complete Eli led Aaron into the store. Unlike the futuristic and yet brick outside wall of the store, the inside kept a more retro and industrial feel. It was a rather small store, but it still had all the necessary products to create a varied selection. The kids section took up the far-right quarter of the store. As Aaron sat there, Eli wandered around inspecting all the clothes. He showed great care while picking, choosing multiple outfits worth of clothes as well as some shoes.

Eli returned to Aaron and prodded him into the changing rooms, where he helped him get changed. They sat in the changing rooms for ten minutes trying on the clothes until Eli came to a decision, buying roughly half of his original selection.

Aaron came out of the store dressed in a black shirt accompanied by a blue jumper, while wearing jeans and a pair of sneakers, nothing too extravagant. The rest of the clothes were put into Eli's bag. Eli began dragging Aaron all around the city. From the clothes store they explored all the other stores in the vicinity, starting with a bakery where Aaron got his first taste of processed food, a sweet pastry. Unbeknownst to Eli, Aaron's face twitched ever so slightly to the first bite. Along with that he did not ask any questions, instead he ate the pastry quietly. This was a surprise to Eli as he was expecting at least one question, not what just occurred; this uncanny silence that he was not used to. "Is it good?" this time Eli procured a question to which he got a "mhm" as a response. Yet again this was a surprising reaction as it was not something that he taught the boy.

— when did he learn this? I do not remember teaching him this. May it have been from the people around us? That does seem like a possibility. —

Once they were both finished eating, they continued with their journey stopping by as many shops as possible. Their day ended with them going to a hotel where Aaron got to sleep in a bed for the first time. The following day Eli and Aaron toured around the suburban area of the city, followed up by a trip to a small restaurant for dinner. This day ended the same as, in the hotel, and the next day they went into the city centre where all the tallest and most developed buildings were. Each of these days a bombardment of questions came from Aaron to which Eli responded calmly and gently.

Despite his big build, he seemed to be a very delicate man... that was what he was like for a while, yet that image crumbled quickly.

A huge shadow covered the city. When the two looked up they saw a ship covering the entire sky, so big that no light was visible from the sun at all. Only the lights from the ship were visible. Not only that but there was no visible end or front to the ship. It was the size of a planet itself. A colossal black ship with what could be made out as gold lining across it. From the ship, two objects could be seen shooting down. While Aaron did not really understand what was happening, Eli seemed distressed along with all the citizens who were shouting or screaming as they tried to find a place to hide. He picked up Aaron and began running at Mach speed through the city to their ship, which is in the same direction of the falling objects.

Eli made it there in no time, placing Aaron down as fast as possible and chucking everything into the ship.

"Why are you in such a rush?" a gentle voice, that of a woman, came from Aaron's direction. As Eli turned around, he saw a brunette woman of average height and a toned build crouching beside Aaron with her hand on his shoulder. She had an innocent smile on her face, with her sharp yet gentle eyes switching focus between Eli and Aaron. Her facial features were sharp and rough, yet still very feminine, and her hair was tied up into a ponytail. Her two most prominent features would be the simple earrings that each of her ears had; her left had 3, one on her ear lobe and two rings on her ear's helix, the right ear only had one on the ear lobe. Her other prominent feature would be her glasses; small rectangular glasses that made her eyes look even sharper, though they also made her look more mature.

To practically everyone who saw her, they would most likely think of the word 'Beautiful'. This thought did not run through the distressed Eli's mind, he instead thought of the methods he could save Aaron. His face, unlike any other time, was slightly crumpled in anger and his eyes sending knives at the woman. Knives were not the only thing that his eyes were emitting as a line of black 'smoke' rose from his eyes.

"Let go of him-" Eli was cut off.

"That will not be an option. I know that you could kill us in seconds, and if you comply with us, we won't bring any harm to your child," the woman's voice was very calming, she did not raise it one bit and no lies were spoken through it.

The smoke rising from his eyes dissipated and his face kept that angered demeanour, but was no longer crumpled up, "Very well, so tell him to stop rummaging through our things."

"Sure," the woman replied, "stop that now, there is no need for that." A man clad in a black uniform with golden lining, similar to the ship's colours, stopped his rummaging, briefly nodding to the woman and jumping up to the ship. "Well then, would you care to join us?" she was holding Aaron in her hands who was watching her the entire time. Similarly, to the man, she was wearing the same uniform, which was not clearly visible when she was crouched by Aaron. Her uniform had some differences: shoulder pads made of gold, a short black cape over her left shoulder and noticeably less gold lining.

Eli responded and followed her to the ship, through a small pod. Entering the ship they walked through dozens upon dozens of lavishly decorated corridors, each filled with art works and artefacts on display. At the end of this winding path, they arrived at a huge door, decorated with markings and the ship's colour scheme. The woman opened the door still holding Aaron, "come in" she said softly.

A singular light at least thirty metres away from the door was the only source of light in the room. Eli walked into the light accompanied by the woman and Aaron. The door shut, followed by silence.

"I have brought them my lord!" the woman called out towards a faintly illuminated figure of a throne.

"Good!" a voice exclaimed in a powerful and arrogant tone. Though the person could not be made out due to the lack of light, his silhouette was of similar size to the throne. The woman let Aaron down and stepped aside, out of the light. "My apologies, I did try to give you a grander and warmer welcome, but I do not think that you would have liked it." The voice was cheerful this time, but still arrogant, almost playful to a degree... or mocking. "You see there was something that really intrigued me, so I just had to follow it and oh, was it a surprise to see you the-".

"Cut the crap, what do you want with us?" Eli demanded.

"Ay- hey, hey. No need to be so aggressive, not surprised though," he muttered the last words before continuing, "I was in the middle of my story. If you let me finish, then you would have known. No need to be so stiff about all of this." The man waited for a response but was only receiving a death stare from his talking companion, "It is he boy that I wanted originally, and still do," he shifted tones, "but there are some other matters that involve him, and you as well."

"What might these matters be that they involve us three. There is no way that this does not involve you."

The man burst out a bellowing laugh that echoed around the room, revealing a gigantic creature the size of the room itself behind his throne as it opened its mouth filled with fire and magma, brightening the room, releasing a groan and closing its mouth again and dimming the light with it. "I really do FUCKING hate you!!" The man screamed in a psychotic manner, "why can't you just play along the way that I WANT!! ARRGH!!" This time the room quaked from his screams. The man stood up and climbed down the stone stairs, echoing his steps all the way down to Eli. a stature of three metres standing before Eli under the light. He was the definition of a Giant, Dwarfing everyone else around him.

He wore formal clothes, all lined with gold and a thick long coat draping over his shoulders. Pitch black hair in a plat over his right shoulder, tied from the back and sides with the top being left short (kind of like a fancy mullet). A mocking and sinister grin directed at Eli as he looked down at him, hands in pockets. A defined face with those unique eyes of his that had a demeaning gaze. The eyes were unique because, like Aaron's, they did not follow the same biology as everyone else. There were no pupils, no iris and no corneas either. just a pitch black with scattered golden stars glistening. You couldn't really tell what he was looking at unless you focused on the rest of his face, especially his eyebrows, which were thick and black like the rest of his hair.

"Why are you always like this?" the man asked.

"I do not know, why are you always like this as well?" Eli stood his ground against the domineering figure in front of him. "Get to the point already," he commanded.

"Sure." He responded sarcastically, "I got given a prophecy from the old hags. They said that I must 'search out companions for they only can stop the Pride of power'. I don't really know what they meant so I had some people look into the one that was called the 'Pride of power' and they found some interesting stuff."

"That is still not enough of a reason for you to do anything, is it not?"

The man smiled, "you're fucking right it isn't. But the old hags really knew what would move me."

"Let me guess, objects? Money? Power?"

"Close but not quite right... the loss of such things forever. They said that if nothing is to be done then a great calamity will erase everything."

Eli was slightly surprised, "and you believed that?"

"They are the only ones that can be trusted to an absolute fault, though unfortunately, they never let themselves get caught." He seemed to have an ulterior motive with the 'old hags' he spoke of.

"So why did you come for me? And how did the Oracles come into contact with you, I know you are not allowed to see them in person", Eli tried to push some of the man's buttons. Seemingly it worked as the man looked irritated by his words.

"I seemed to have been in their general area," he did not elaborate further, probably because Eli attacked him with his previous statement, "and I was also aiming for you two in the first place." He snarled.

"How did you even know where we were?"

The man bent over to place his head around Eli's level, "that is an awful amount of questions from you, isn't it? aren't you very inquisitive today," a mocking response told with absolute glee. Eli stared back without a word, "wow! aren't you just the merry type. Anyways, why do I need to tell you?"

"I think you do if you want my help."

"I could just take the kid by force; I am sure that he would be enough."

"I am still here you know, you should be careful of your words," the black smoke began emerging from his eyes again.

"Huh. Now calm down, that was just a joke, of course I will tell you. I just followed the reading that the kid gave off. I'm pretty sure that half of the universe realised. And of course, I wanted whatever it was, so I followed it. You should know my surprise when, what I was looking for, was a child." He began chuckling.

"Right. So, what is this about Pride?" Eli switched the subject as the chuckling made him uncomfortable.

"He seems to be collecting some sort of relics." He shifted back to a serious demeanour.

"Relics?"

"Yes, I don't know for what, but he seems to be getting stronger because of them. He accumulated quite the military force as well. He's planning something and I do not like any of it."

"And you do not want him to cause this so-called calamity through his actions, because you do not want your potential assets to be destroyed or taken by him. So, you invited me to help?"

"Yes~" he almost moaned gleefully. "You were always so smart, always understanding what I say."

"You are not very difficult to understand, only an idiot would struggle. It is in your name after all, O' Sin of Greed."

"There are quite a lot of, said idiots around," He giggled, "What do you say though? Will you help me?" he pleaded.

Eli ignored 'Greed's' fake pleading, "I do not see a reason why I should. However, the Oracles were the ones that stated the calamity so I will decide when I talk to them." 

"Ugh," Greed scoffed at Eli's response, "fine but the boy will stay with me, I do need a reason for you to return." Eli did not respond, giving Greed a nasty glare, "I'm not going to do anything to him, you paranoid freak. If you really don't trust me then make a contract with me. During the time that you are away I will have the boy taught and kept safe. In return you must make it back within five years and help me."

"Sure," Eli grumbled. He turned around and began walking towards the door, "prepare me a ship, and if you are lying then I will make sure that this ship is your grave," he threatened.

"I wouldn't want anything else!" Greed professed, "Aafiya."

"Yes sir," the woman from before responded.

"Have someone prepare him a ship, and you be the one to take care of that little monster." He shrugged Aaron's presence.

"As you command sir," she walked up to Aaron, crouching by his side. As she did this Greed climbed back to his throne. "Now why don't you come with me."

"Why? and why did Eli have to go see those Oracles? Who is he?" Aaron pointed up at Greed, "Why does Eli act like that around him?" a large flood of questions going Aafiya's direction.

"Now, why don't we leave first, and I will answer those questions then." She responded calmly with the same tone as always. Once the two of them left, the light in the room was turned off. "Ugh... So annoying, there is nothing I can gain from him. I can't even exploit him to the bare minimum. But I guess I don't have much choice. That youngin has been acting out of order, even by the standards of the old hags. Aaauughh... he is just wasting my time, him and his anger issues. I must get something out of him...something... ANYthing... ANYTHING... absoLUTELY ANYTHing~~"

Greed continued grumbling to himself like a lunatic lost in thought. This continued for approximately fifteen minutes, ending with him laying back on his throne looking up at the ceiling to cool his head off. It wasn't paid much attention to earlier, but the ceiling looked like a starry sky. "Oh Pride, oh Pride, oh Pride. Stop taking my shit!" Greed gripped his throne with anger, turning a small part of it to gold.

"Oops." He lifted his hand away.