Theodore wasn't in the Lab. Theodore wasn't Theodore. His skin was scaly and air passed through his neck. He stood on a beach, looking at a town miles away. Chaos and Screaming. The Sounds were unbearable. But he needed to hear them. His body changed and the screams grew louder each time he changed. From a young thing with a tail to something taller, wearing a suit and what was a companion on each arm. Till finally, he was alone in his home. The door was locked. And he was left alone. All this was his fault.

This wasn't Dalvan's fault. This... thing shouldn't have come here in the first place.

But it was going to be fine, he just needs to calm down and get the flow of his bio electricity into his hands.

(The Crystalline piece of rock sat on the desk of Dal as the rumbling came closer. Taunting him, goading him to use it. He knew exactly how it would go, a simply rewrite of the cortex to make everyone just chill out and let him think of a way out of this. Then it would just be a process of reusing the empty bodies in order to start the process of life, and then we could fix...

It was rushing into his head. All the thoughts that flew into him as the rock washed up on the beach, as it brushed his hand, he couldn't get it out. All the flaws of the Kez that he could fix, if he would just go along with it. And so he did.

"And yet so far from completion."

"Shut up". Dalvan knew he didn't have much time left, it was getting louder. Not only the voice in his head but the people. They had everything set. They were going door to door looking for him, and when they didn't find him..

"Its a simple command. You know I'm powerful enough , I can fulfill what you want. I can bring this back, I can make it better, make them better"

"Shut. Up."

Dal knew there was no coming back. Too many people had died and the process it suggests all led back to the changes, to opening... that. He couldn't let that happen. And he knew that as it infected him, it had infected the rest. He had to keep it together. Get to the roof, get it done.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The Crowd grew louder, he could hear them from outside. From the window he could see what he had done. A gift of immortality, a disease that swept through the oceanic planet. It was necessary, they were applauding him, on their knees thanking him for giving them what was needed to give their planet back from the deaths plaguing them. It wasn't until they were too late that they realized that the immortality required sources of genetic material. It required non immortal material. It required the material of those at the bottom that Dalvan didn't sell the cure to.

They swept through the streets, through the ghettos and the shanty towns until none were left except the inventor.

No. Not inventor. Simply the being who found the accursed tool.

Dal too a deep breath as he climbed up. He looked out at the world around him. At his fellow Kez , dragging out his neighbor Chenzo and unraveling what was left of his and families genetic material for later.

A deep breath.

He felt... apologetic. Something of regret. But as the voice grew louder, it was hate and every piece of his Flesh yelling for him to go back down, face them, and transmute them to something better.

One breath.

In that breath, suppressing all voices yelling at him. Either to take from him, to beg him for mercy, to kill him for the curse he had wrought. This was the only way.

If not, a new galactic conquest would happen, a race of unstoppable Kez, burning the universe and leaving nothing but the dried husks to perpetuate their corrupted thoughts of immortality. A curse among the stars. For what?

To sustain their own Axiom.

Electricity flew into his hands after allowing the liquid to fall onto the rock.

He closed his eyes.

"Bury us. Remove all signs of life from this planet."

A deep blue covered the world, covered the land. Until there was no land. Only a wave covering all life. All that held their breath by chance were eaten by... things with no evolutionary niece until now. Teeth and a metabolism made only for endless digestion and to cannibalize all life. Everything that had once inhabited it. And the structures the life had lived in. Leaving nothing but a silent ocean.

The crystal had flown off after the newest one's stupid attempt at self sacrifice. It was the 425th one he had seen. Unique way to keep them erased though. 425 wasn't the one. He was another coward in a millennia of failures. It would simply fly towards another. Start again. 426 would be the one. Had to be.

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The night sky of Everly, Wyoming was filled with the sparking lights of the cosmos, of objects that had traveled thousands of miles, to go out with a flash of glory to people's who's lives were nearly as fleeting as theirs., and to those who looked up, the shooting stars over the sky made the night exceptional.