Advent of Cataclysm.

"Excuse me?" Calvet lowered her hand in shock. "Stupid?" She asked. "Everything I have done my entire life is for the sake of furthering the evolution of human beings, I have-" 

"If what you truly seek is human evolution then the last thing you want is more Vessels popping up, there is a reason you haven't been able to find any other but me." Kai shook his head. 

"Are you saying you are the only one?" She asked. 

"Am I?" Kai repeated the question and there was silence afterwards. 

"No, there are two others like yourself, one hidden, and the other already actively evading the pursuers sent by the Red One." The voice in his head replied. 

"Hm." Kai leaned his head towards the doctor again. "There are more, but very few, and there's a damn good reason for that." He furrowed his brows.

"The Red One wants a vessel so he can roam the earth freely, the more vessels that exist then the more likely it is that he will find, capture, and possess one of us, the whole world's survival hinges on the chance that he fails, are you so blinded by your goals and aspirations that you forgot to apply even a small bit of critical thought to your plans?" Kai asked her harshly. 

"Are you saying the human race stands no chance against that red fellow?" The general asked. 

"Aside from somewhere like the Cloud Nation, you don't stand a chance in hell, literally." Kai answered. "Lesser demons attacked me recently, in their true bodies they are easily capable of tearing a grown man apart with their bare hands, they can also possess and grant superhuman strength and speed to the dead." 

"You are underestimating the military prowess of mankind, kid." 

"No, General, you are underestimating the danger that we're all facing here." Kai growled at him. "Have you done any research, or have you just been sitting behind screens like this getting fed information by scientists?" Kai shook his head.

"We have eight billion people on our side, of that eight billion, less than one percent is equipped to fight the forces of Hél, we have grown soft as a race while they have grown stronger, they outnumber us a thousand to ten, will you launch all your nukes when the hosts of the underworld start pouring out?" 

"If there is no option then-" 

"Fucking moron." Kai shook his head and the doctor at his side huffed, amused at how he was speaking to the second most powerful man in the country next to their president. "What happens next, will you live the rest of your life underground, killing off the population with radiation and then dying like a worm? Is that your plan?" 

"Then, what other choice do we have?" The General, humbled by a teenager asked. 

"I have no clue, it wouldn't be called the apocalypse if it was something that could be easily stopped, would it?" 

"Wow," Calvet mused, it was just a simple conversation, but the perspectives she had been given were vast, and the options that they had suddenly seemed more limited than she first imagined. "If I may ask, Kai," She fed him once more seeing him nod while he chewed. 

"What happens to you throughout all of this?" 

"Obviously, I will do everything in my power to stay out of the Red One's hands," He answered her. "I have someone to protect, keeping her safe is my only priority." 

"Do you think we will simply allow you to walk away?" The general asked from the other side, smirking. 

"When shit hits the fan, old man, you won't even remember I exist, you'll be too busy trying to survive, that goes for you as well, doctor." Kai turned his head away from the food. "I hope that was enough to satisfy your curiosity." 

"Well, it honestly made me feel..." 

"Hopeless," He finished her sentence for her. "Welcome to the end of humanity, doc, grab a ticket and get in line; because one way or another, everything will come to an end."

"I have one more question." The general spoke from beyond the glass, except this time he didn't use the mic, and his voice was calm to the point of nigh silence. 

"What?" 

"What if your prophecy of the end of the world doesn't come true?" The old man raised his hand to his chin, stroking his beard again, "What if we prepare and then nothing happens?" 

"Oh, it will happen, it's guaranteed to come whether you prepare or not," Kai turned his head to the screen, coming creepily close to a smile. "I primise you that, general, and it's far sooner than anyone could ever guess." 

"How soon are we talking here?" 

"Soon." Kai responded, relaxing against the restreints once more anf going quiet. 

"I think that is enough for today as well," Doctor Calvet walked away from Kai, straightening her coat and releasing a deep breath of relief that he had indeed kept his promise and behaved himself. "Can I return to take some samples, Kai?" She asked him politely from the door. 

"I don't mind, nothing you do here matters anyway." 

"Gosh, a simple fine would have worked too," The woman huffed and exited, resting her hand over her frantically thumping heart as soon as she began walking.

"Fascinating..." She mumbled to herself. "Being near him was like being next to a beast, his breath, his presence, is that what a superior human is supposed to feel like, is that why they refused to leave when we offered them release?" The image of Ava and Andrew flashed through the doctor's mind. 

°°°

"I haven't seen my mom in a week," Andrew sat in a glass cell staring across the hall at Ava who was in a similar space, it was the size of a small room, fitted with everything someone needed for a comfortable home. 

"What are you even saying right now?" Ava scoffed from the other cell, staring at him through the opened door. "You're the one who decided to stay here when they offered you freedom!" She snapped at him, clearly still upset about what had happened with Kai earlier.

"Yeah-Yeah, I know," Andrew sighed and slumped across the small sofa next to his bed. "I thought it'd be more interesting, Kai said that everything was ending soon, but it's been a week man, nothing's happened yet." 

The two of them were wearing white long-sleeved shirts and pants with white shoes and even socks, the only thing in their rooms that weren't white were the tabs that they were given to entertain themselves with.

"Why are you eager for the world to end?" Ava stared at him incredulously. "What the heck?"

"I'm not," He slumped again. "There's so much I want to do and so many things that left unfinished, the thought of leaving this all behind is really hard to accept, but..." He rolled onto the bed and sighed. 

"You believe him, right?" Ava asked Andrew with a sigh of her own. "He's Kai, and somehow that makes everything that comes out of his mouth plausible, I understand what you mean." Ava confessed her thoughts but then smiled and relaxed with her feet on the wall. 

"We're fundamentally different though." 

"In what way?" Andrew's interest was piqued; the first four days of being there Ava was a bundle of nerves, she hadn't said a word to him until the fifth. "What makes us different?" He asked again when she seemed to be on her way to avoiding the question. 

"I don't care about any of it, the only thing that matters to me is Kai Mora. My home, my family, my life back in South City, none of that matters without him." 

"Where does this level of devotion come from?" 

"You're one of them, you know." Ava's smile slowly turned to a stoic glare directed at him, making him uncomfortable. "You; just like all the others turned a blind eye, one of the perks of being ignored is that you have the chance to see everyone for what they are, so remember that, I see you just as I do everyone else who turned their backs on me." She seethed. 

"For the first time in my life, someone stood up for me, saved me, stuck their life on the line for me, what more of a reason do I need than that?" Ava turned her back. "That day... I was ready to give up and be done with it all, to just give in and surrender myself, but he saved me, he is my hero-" 

"There are countless people who are bullied, I wasn't the only one who said nothing, was I supposed to but in and get bullied along with you?" 

"Make all the excuses you want, Andrew, the fact remains that I needed help in a situation where I couldn't help myself, until he showed up I was completely ignored," She countered. 

"So are you saying that if I was the one who had saved you, you'd be this crazy over me?" Andrew raised his head staring at her back, but the girl across the hall never responded, she remained like that until she fell asleep.

°°° 

"Kai," The Shadow within him stirred, waking him in the middle of the night when several alarms started going off. "Awaken, free yourself and leave this place." 

"Is it time?" Kai asked, already tugging at the restraints that bound him to the wall. 

"Yes, Hél's gates are emerging." 

"The first Collapse is upon us."