"Well, this can't be fucking good," Allan said as he looked around the room. It was clear there had been a large group of children in the room and that they had been loaded onto a ship after being forced to discard their toys which lay in a pile next to the far air-lock. 

"Aly, I need you to get the AIs to crack into whatever security system there is and see if you can figure out where they took the children," Allan said, his voice straining to contain his anger. "Jalla and I will finish purging the station; let me know when you find something."

"Okay," Aly said and then disabled her comms. "Nara, stay here and continue what we are doing. I will return as soon as I can."

"Understood," Nara said, closing the door to the hallway; they had just checked and placed an IED on the door and armed it.

The next hour was a blood bath. As Aly worked desperately with the AIs to break through the encryption of the security station, Allan and Jalla killed a hundred Chiln and twenty or so Url'Esh.

"Alright, Aly, where are you at with the security footage?" Allan asked, watching the last Url'Esh fall to the ground sans head.

"I think I got it...There! Okay, hold on." She said as she began scrubbing backward into the footage. "Alright, it looks like they took the children to one of the continents. Specifically landing platform 23. If you go through the door on your left, there is an auto-shuttle I can have take you there."

Allan and Jalla looked at each other and stepped through the shuttle door without question.

"He will get there in time. He will get there in time." Elunitra said to herself repeatedly as she worked with the other gods to complete a massive inscription of power onto the fabric of reality. Already she could feel the other gods stirring, noting the greater work of divinity being created.

Xulgra walked up when they had completed the inscription. "Alright. No more tears; you will need every ounce of energy." 

"I know, but Xulgra, the children. They have done nothing wrong; why did I not step in sooner?" She berated herself with the last question.

"Stand tall, Goddes of the Quillinar; fate is on your side." A voice rang out, startling the gods, who turned to see Draco watching the happenings on the sheet of energy.

"I will not be stopped even by you, Draco," Elunitra said, fire burning in her eyes as she prepared for the higher being to try and stop her.

"I will not stop you, Elunitra. My presence here is what little I can do to support you. Consider me your very own personal good luck charm."

Elunitra nodded in thanks, then took up her position in the inscription and began chanting with the other gods, and power began to swell around them. 

Allan and Jalla stepped off the auto-shuttle to a gruesome sight. All around the landing platform, a veritable wall of dead Quillinar lay scattered around Chiln Warriors and a single dead Url'Esh; Allan was at a loss for words. "Aly, are you seeing this?" 

"I... I am." She stammered, sounding as if she were nearly throwing up. "Allan, please, I... The children... They need your help." 

Allan smiled and suddenly knew why he loved this woman so much. In this, she was selfless. All thoughts of her own family were gone. Instead, she cared only for the children who were being harmed. "And they shall have it, my love. Be ready to send another Auto-shuttle when we find them."

Aly did not respond, simply watching as Allan and Jalla, alone in the sea of the dead, set out to try and find the innocents of the Quillinar people. 

"It is magnificent," Draco said, watching the greater work of divinity break away from the gods who had woven it. "The wrath of a mother, lashing out at her children's abusers."

"You can thank Allan's mother for the idea," Elunitra said, watching the power envelope the world she had so lovingly filled with her creations. "So long as I live, I will do my best. I am a Goddess of my people, not a ruler of slaves." 

"Well said," Xulgra said, standing next to her.

The divine power washed across the plant, hitting one pole and washing forward, stopping halfway around the planet. 

Elunitra paniced. "What?! NO!" 

"They were prepared for this, it seems," Draco said. "For them to have figured out how to stop divine energy from moving as it has been bid to, that is far more worrisome than I thought. I must think on this."

Draco disappeared, leaving Elunitra and Xulgra to watch Allan fight a war on his own; their plan had failed to reach the side of the planet where he was. Elunitra wished she had more to give.

"What the hell," Aly said, using the station's integrated connections to pull up security cameras worldwide.

"What?" Allan said, snapping a Chiln's neck in one fluid moment, ending his most recent engagement.

"On the other side of the planet, anyone who attacks a young Qullinar is simply... dissolving."

"Like sugar in water?" Allan asked. 

"Yes." 

"Good for you, Elunitra, fuck the rules," Allan said and turned his attention to the scanner built into his suit. "Aly, is there some kind of cave system or something near me?"

"You are near our largest sporting events center; it is underwater and artificial in construction," Aly said, sending him a feed of data regarding the complex.

"Wait, the roof goes away?" Allan asked, looking at a plan illustrating how the ceiling to the whole complex seemed to fade out of existence.

"Yes, it is teleported to another location in orbit." 

"Can you trigger that and the drainage systems?" Allan said, reading as fast as the AI in the suit could translate.

"I could, but why?" Aly said curiously.

"My suit is picking up thousands of life forms under me, and I want open skies for you to get that auto-shuttle in here. So please trigger the drainage system, and right when it completes, remove the ceiling, then get a shuttle on the way." 

"Okay, doing it now," Aly said, getting a sinking feeling in her stomach. Something felt like it was going to go wrong. After setting up an automatic sequence for the drainage system and teleport to be triggered, Aly ran to the nearest shuttle and got in to find Sarah waiting. 

"What are you..." Aly began but got cut off.

"I heard what was happening; Nara can handle things up here, and most people in the area without protection seem to have been brought to the stadium you discussed. So hurry up and get this shuttle moving. Allan needs our help." Sarah said with a smile, and Aly nodded, strapping herself into the pilot's manual flight position, and began tapping the controls frantically.

A lot happened all at once. The enemy was already on edge, thanks to Jalla and Allan leaving a wake of death. So they grew nervous when the water began draining from the stadium structure they had elected to use as their base. At the same time, the water finished draining, and the roof that had hidden what they were doing vanished from above them. As soon as it vanished, two people in strange armor, moving at insane speeds, began running straight down the walls, killing any and all Chiln and Url'Esh in their path. And to top it off, a loud boom echoed from a massive shuttle as it rapidly decelerated over the field. 

It was right after all of this took place that Allan, Aly, Jalla, Sarah, and the gods in the space between worlds, got a look at what the Url'Esh had been doing and why they had wanted the children. In front of seventeen strange machines with swirling dark light terminating from them, the Url'Esh were skinning the children alive, one data at a time, and then feeding the remains into the machines.

The gods knew immediately that, somehow, this was how they were stopping the divine energy. And in that moment, Allan, Aly, and Elunitra all snapped. 

Allan immediately began killing, hardly slowing as he moved from enemy to enemy, his blades moving in one continuous arc through the necks of those who stood against him. Jalla moved just as quickly alongside him, the two of them leaving a path of headless corpses behind them. 

Aly did not know what to do. She landed the shuttle, and regardless of the danger it put her in, she quickly opened the doors to the shuttle and began moving children on as fast as her power armor would allow. She nearly got killed until a shot rang out from Sarah's hands, sending a Teflon-coated slug through the eye of an Url'Esh coming up behind Aly as she carried an unconscious child to the shuttle.

In the space between worlds, Elunitra was descending into madness. She and the gods who had helped her were being restrained by the other gods, being held for violating various rules. And all the while, elunitra railed, lashing out with what little power she had after the greater work. But it was not enough for her to break free. 

"Help them!" Elunitra demanded, staring at the gods who, until now, had been the closest thing to family she had ever known. "Help my children! They do not deserve to be punished for our mistakes! We were the ones who cast the Url'Esh into that dying place. Do not stand idly by and watch this!"

"This is exactly why we do not get involved!" said A god who resembled the ent-like beings Allan had argued with several times.

"I don't care!" Elunitra said, struggling against the bonds of magic. 

"Enough," Xulgra said. His tone was harsh. "Release her; let her do as she wishes." 

"You be quiet, God of No People." The ent-like God sneered, chuckling at his own joke.

"God of no people?" Xulgra said, his tone making the entire room grow silent. The voice he used now carried the weight of every soul that had ever died. "God of no people? I am Death. I am the God of all people, Everything must die, and one day when all of you die, I will be there to collect you and bring you into the fold. At one time, God of No People may have been true, but Humanity is my children, and behold what my children sow upon the enemy we created."

Several gods looked at the pane of power, displaying Allan and Jalla's shredding enemies. At the same time, Aly desperately moved unconscious and wounded children to the shuttle. Many of the gods grew pale at the sight.

"So I say again, release her. Let her do as she wishes. If you do not, I will fight to free her." Xulgra said power none of the other gods had ever suspected he held crackling to life in the area around him.

Quietly two of the other gods who had been helping restrain Elunitra released their power, and Elunitra broke free. Using her power, she willed herself to depart this space and to appear in the stadium. As she departed the space between worlds, Elunitra heard Draco's voice and felt her powers being forcibly recharged beyond anything she had ever felt before. "Go forth, mother of the Quillinar, show them what a real Goddess is." 

Elunitra let loose a primal shriek that rippled through time and space ahead of her.

Allan was nearly lost in the blood lust, his vision narrowing to a tunnel, and would have continued had he not heard Aly. 

"Allan! Help!" Aly cried out, using her body to shelter a group of three children as two Url'Esh rained down blows on the armor she wore. The armor was cracking under the savage blows.

A wild yell that could curdle blood escaped his lips as he seemed to teleport to the two Url'Esh and drove a blade into either one. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am fine, I am just... I... The children, Allan." Aly said, trying to understand her emotions as she talked.

"I understand, let's get ..." He broke off as a shriek of wrath seemed to wash through his very being. "What the fuck was that?"

"I have no idea," Aly said, looking frightened.

The Url'Esh suddenly ignored Allan, Aly, Jalla, Sarah, and the children, more of them emerging from side rooms. Each of them drew weapons. A massive Url'Esh stepped out and spoke. "The dirty Goddess of these heathens comes! Prepare for today; we slay a god!"

Allan shuddered and quickly spoke to Aly. "Aly, you get Jalla, and my mother and the three of you get as many children on that shuttle as you can; I am going to try and help Elunitra. I... I love you, Aly." 

"I love you too, Allan," Aly said, scooping the three children she had shielded up and sprinting to the shuttle where Jalla and Sarah were already working.

Allan felt power radiating from a point, and the Ulr'Esh felt it too. They were quickly forming up; the massive leader and five nearly as large as he was formed a wedge. Allan used his superior speed to get inside the ring and stopped. He was glad he did because when elunitra appeared, her presence shattered the ground near her.

Allan went to stand next to the Goddess; she glanced at him and nodded almost imperceptibly. Her voice roared out. "Url'Esh! Lay down your weapons, surrender your lives to me, and I shall grant you a swift death!"

The laugh that rose from the Url'Esh who circled her drove her to rage. The massive leader of the Url'Esh rose and spoke then. "You have no power in this realm. We already know of your pact with the other gods. You can do nothing. So it is you who will surrender, or we will kill a child every minute you do not."

As he spoke, he grabbed a child from a veritable pile of them and turned to face the Goddess, one hand huge hand wrapped around the head of the child, the other wrapped around the child's chest. He pulled the child apart. 

"NO!" Elunitra, Aly, and Allan cried out in unison. 

"So, as I stated, surrender and be killed, or I will kill another child." The massive Url'Esh said, casting the head and body of the child to opposites of himself.

"You have chosen," Elunitra said and then breathed and screamed.

The energy that washed over Allan, Jalla, Aly, Sarah, and every other Quillinar shredded the Url'Esh. Even Allan could tell she had nearly expended her power when she stopped releasing it. Somehow, the massive Url'Esh and his five subordinates had survived. But every other Url'Esh had simply ceased to be.

Allan stepped up to the side of the Goddess. "Can you fight still?"

"Of course, I can; I am not a mortal woman to be protected!" Elunitra snarled.

Allan shrugged, "Whatever you say. I'll take the five assholes behind him. You get the big guy. Deal?" 

"Deal." 

"Let's Go," Allan said and went to work, fighting a five-on-one battle. And out of the corner of his eye, he saw Elunitra engage the leader and knew she was not the fighter she thought she was.

Soon it was three vs. one, as Allan had beheaded one and delimbed another of the five subordinates, Elunitra had managed to cut off the hand of the leader, but it was clear she was going to lose. Allan threw himself into his fight, making quick work of the three remaining subordinates. 

Allan turned to see Elunitra get knocked back towards where Aly was moving children to the shuttle. The leader snarled a cruel smile and lept. "You die now!"

Elunitra looked up from where she had been knocked down just in time to see Aly step in front of the blade meant for her Goddess.

"NO!" Cried Allan, dropping to his knees as he watched the blade sink through his wife and emerge from the back of the already cracked armor. Tears welled up alongside a cold rage. 

Aly fell back to the ground, coughing up blood. Elunitra cradled her head. "No, why did you do this?" 

Aly smiled at her Goddess. "You are the only one who never left me; I could not stand to lose you."

"You fool!" The Url'Esh said, moving to stand next to Aly and Elunitra. "You would die for one of them?" 

"Gladly," Aly said simply. 

"Then die together." The Url'Esh raised his foot to crush Aly and pull his blade free when his leg was stopped. He looked just in time to see Allan's fist slam into his face.

The Url'Esh was knocked back, and Allan continued to pummel him. His weapons lay forgotten in the blood-covered mud. He did not care. His mind was blank. A primal rage the likes of which the galaxy had never seen before was on display. With a frightening finality, Allan grabbed the upper and lower jaws of the Massive Url'Esh, forcing his fingers into the leader's mouth, forcing the mouth open wider and wider. The leader's eyes widened, and Allan leaned down to whisper. "Let's see how you like it." 

Allan ripped the bottom of the Url'Esh's jaw off and drove the freed bone through the eye socket into the brain, killing him there. Then Allan rushed over to Aly, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Aly," Allan said, completely at a loss for words.

"Hello, my love." She said with a faint smile.

"I... I..." Tears were washing down his face. "Mom! Help her!"

Sarah had grabbed what she had and come over but knew instantly that it was hopeless. She knew there was only one thing she might do. "I will do what I can."

Allan thanked her and then held Aly's hand. "You are going to be okay honey, just... Just hold on." 

Aly smiled. Sarah stood, walked a distance away, and looked up. "I want to make a deal, Xulgra." 

The God of death appeared next to Sarah. "A deal with death sounds intriguing; what did you have in mind, Mrs.Mac'Millen?"