First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess

Xavier stopped fucking ground.

He stepped in.

His fist came up and landed square across Jareth's jaw. The punch was so powerful that the sound cracked through the basin.

Jareth's head snapped sideways, feet lifting off the ground for a fraction of a second before he crashed back down. He staggered but didn't fall, the enhancer still flooding his system, driving him upright through pain.

He swung blindly in retaliation.

Xavier caught the punch midair and squeezed.

Metal plating groaned as Xavier's grip tightened around Jareth's wrist. He twisted sharply, forcing the joint past its natural limit. The snap was audible.

Jareth howled.

Xavier drove a knee into his stomach, folding him forward, then followed with a short hook to the ribs that sent shock through the enhancer-stressed armor. Cracks spidered outward from the impact point.

Jareth tried to counter, blade extending again.

Xavier slammed his forearm down onto the weapon arm, crushing the mechanism before it fully deployed. Sparks burst as the blade collapsed uselessly.

"You said you've killed novas?" Xavier said quietly.

He grabbed Jareth by the collar and lifted him off the ground.

"Try again."

He drove Jareth into the earth hard enough to fracture stone beneath him. Dust erupted around them. Before Jareth could recover, Xavier pulled him up again and smashed him into a chunk of fallen structure, splintering it on impact.

The enhancer kept Jareth conscious.

However, it didn't make him equal.

Xavier's fist landed again, and again, each blow stripping away the artificial boost, cracking armor, breaking the illusion that Jareth had ever been in control.

When Xavier finally let go, Jareth collapsed to one knee, blood pouring freely now, the biotech surging in unstable spikes beneath his skin.

Jareth tried to rise again.

The enhancer kept his muscles firing even when they should have failed. He forced himself up on one knee, spitting blood onto the shattered stone.

"You think that proves anything?" he rasped.

Xavier didn't answer.

He stepped forward and drove his boot into Jareth's chest, sending him skidding backward across the rubble. The movement wasn't rushed. It wasn't wild. It was controlled, deliberate, each strike carrying something that had been held back too long.

Jareth clawed at the ground and pushed up again.

Xavier grabbed him by the collar and hauled him upright like he weighed nothing. He slammed him face-first into a slab of broken metal hard enough to dent it, then pulled him back and drove a fist into his ribs. Armor cracked under the impact. Jareth coughed violently, blood spraying across the ground.

"You said you earned it," Xavier said.

Another punch landed across Jareth's mouth.

"You said you bled for it."

He hit him again, this time across the side of the head. The enhancer tried to keep Jareth standing, but his legs wobbled.

"You didn't earn anything," Xavier continued. "You wanted everything handed to you."

He slammed Jareth down again, stone fracturing beneath them.

Reva watched without speaking. Rin didn't even pretend to look away. The sound of bone and metal breaking filled the basin in short, brutal bursts.

Jareth tried to swing again, weak and unfocused.

Xavier caught the attempt midair and twisted the arm until the joint gave with a sharp crack. He leaned close enough that Jareth could hear him clearly over the ringing in his ears.

"You kept asking why he saved it," Xavier said. "Why he gathered everything for someone he'd never met?"

He tightened his grip and lifted Jareth slightly off the ground again.

"That someone," he said, voice low and steady, "was me."

Jareth's eyes widened through the blood.

"The ghost," Xavier continued. "The stranger he trusted more than the crew who stood in front of him every day."

He threw Jareth down again, then followed with a hard kick that rolled him across the rubble.

"He built it for me," Xavier said. "All of it. The treasure. The connections. The legacy."

He stepped over Jareth and grabbed him by the hair, forcing his face up.

"And you betrayed him because of that."

Jareth tried to laugh, but it came out broken.

"So you're the reason," he choked. "He threw it all away for you."

Xavier's jaw tightened.

"In a way," he said. "Yeah."

He let go and stood over him.

"He got betrayed because of me. Then he got killed by me."

Xavier rolled his shoulders once, breath steadying.

"I've accepted it," he said. "His legacy. His mess. All of it."

He looked down at Jareth.

"And I'll hunt every traitor who thought they could carve pieces out of it."

His gaze flicked briefly toward the distance, toward hidden caches and secrets no one else had found yet.

"You won't stop," Xavier continued. "None of you will. You'll keep chasing his treasure until you've dug up every last thing he left behind."

He crouched slightly, bringing his face level with Jareth's battered one.

"So I'll find you first."

He stood again.

"And I'll end it properly."

Jareth lay there, broken and bleeding, enhancer burning itself out in unstable pulses beneath his skin.

Xavier stepped back from Jareth. He just turned his back and started walking toward the others as if the matter had already been settled.

Behind him, Jareth lay twisted against broken stone, armor cracked, blood pooling beneath him. For a second it looked like he was done.

Then his fingers twitched.

The enhancer still burned in his veins, scraping the last of its strength out of a body that should have shut down. He dragged himself up inch by inch, vision swimming. One of the crushed weapons lay a few steps away, bent but still functional enough to fire once.

His hand closed around it.

Xavier didn't turn. He was aware of it. But he kept walking anyway.

Reva saw it too late.

"Xavier—!"

Jareth forced himself upright, arm shaking as he raised the weapon toward Xavier's back. There was no speech left in him, no argument, just the need to finish something before everything went dark.

Lyra slipped from Requiem's hold before anyone could stop her. The earlier weakness was gone from her steps. She crossed the distance fast, faster than Jareth expected from someone who had just been collapsing minutes earlier.

He barely had time to shift his aim.

Lyra's hand came up under his guard, fingers locking around his wrist. The weapon discharged into the ground as she twisted hard and drove her other hand straight into his chest, through cracked armor, into the damaged space Xavier had already broken open.

There was no hesitation in her movement.

Jareth's eyes widened, breath leaving him in a broken gasp as she drove deeper. Whatever strength the enhancer had left bled out of him in that moment.

Lyra leaned in close enough for only him to hear.

"You should've listened," she said quietly. "Goodbye Uncle Jareth."

She pulled her hand free.

Jareth collapsed where he stood.

The irony didn't need to be spoken aloud. The man who had kept her alive for information died because she decided he wasn't worth another breath.

Lyra stepped back, blood on her hand, chest rising and falling steadily. There was no tremor in her fingers now.

Xavier stopped walking. He turned only after Jareth's body hit the ground.

Their eyes met across the short distance. There was no shock in his expression.

'She is stronger than me… mentally. She just killed someone who raised her. Someone she grew up around. I don't think I can do the same…'

He gave her a small nod, acknowledging what she had done and why.

Then he shifted his attention past her.

Kylus was still standing, though barely. His assistant remained at his side, shield lowered now but her posture still protective, ready to move at the slightest threat.

Xavier faced him fully.

"You still standing?" Xavier asked.

Kylus wiped blood from his mouth and let out a rough breath. "Barely."

Smoke drifted between them.

Everyone else watched, waiting to see what shape this next moment would take.

And Xavier's focus was entirely on Kylus now.