34 years ago.

Felix kept his pedal pressed to the floor, his small radio in his hand, his hand gripped on his steering wheel, weaving through the giant trees of the north east. His eyes were peeled to avoid the small ponds and bigger lakes within the jungle. He was close and it was midday.

On top of finally discovering the language of the Man in Red's diary, he was able to build the new invention that was in his hand. It was a short-range radio, designed to transmit only to the outskirts of the city and avoid detection from Nighthawk. Samuel threatened him about coming within the walls, but he didn't say anything about coming to the outside of them. He could radio to his children and get them to meet him outside, turn the tide of the civil war. If they were still alive. If his plan worked.

He knew the war was still raging. His father would have radioed him and gloated by now if he had achieved victory. But Felix had ran the simulations. Weapons and food and water were entirely supplied by Nighthawk. The rebels were running low by now. Hunger wearing down on them, making their fight more difficult, their only advantage being guerrilla warfare and sheer numbers. The leadership of the rebels probably lacking. Cana was smart, but not like his mother Ffion. He would rally the people through determination and will alone, but he was ultimately no match for Samuel.

Felix came to the clearing. Before him were the Seven Trees. He had been to them before, but they seemed larger this time. Aside from the planet appearing out of thin air when they first landed, the Trees were the greatest mystery to Felix. He stared upon them in awe, and then reached for the Man in Red's diary beside him in the passenger seat.

But it was not there. Felix forgot it at the Eastern Outpost in his lab.

He slammed his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. Felix could recite all the words in the section he had translated, but he felt foolish for forgetting it. If the diary was truthful, it was one of the biggest discoveries in Gaiathal history. It was probable that Maeve had made the discovery herself with computers at her disposal, but Felix hadn't translated the whole book. The fear on her face when she handed Felix the diary was unnerving. There were still secrets within the book he had to decipher for himself, but he needed to try something for the sake of his children.

He learned that The Man in Red, the writer of the diary, arrived on Gaiathal some sixty years ago. He stated that when his people began dying, he prayed to the Trees for help. Why his people were dying Felix hadn't translated yet.

But the Man in Red's prayers were answered. A golden apple dropped before him, and he ate it.

He became invulnerable to harm. He became as strong as the Trees that supplied him the golden fruit. He aged until adulthood, but stopped. For a weapon, with his new power, he scratched away at one of the trees with his nail until he crafted himself a dagger.

Felix exited his vehicle, and felt the wet chunk of bark missing from the left-most tree. It was where the Man in Red carved out his weapon, and it indicated his words in the diary were true. Why the Man in Red needed the dagger, Felix did not know. He would return to the diary and discover why after he helped his children. Perhaps also discover where the Man in Red was now.

Felix knelt before the Seven Trees. He didn't feel himself worthy. But he knew his children were. They were innocent, and moral beings, and they needed help. They deserved the safety the Man in Red had discovered for himself in his time of need. Felix was not a religious man, and he could tell neither was the Man in Red based on his words. But he could not deny the divinity of the Trees, and what was evident before his eyes. In time he prayed he could discover their creator.

"Please," he pleaded to them. He felt foolish, but continued, "My father has been warped. My family in danger. My children..."

He began to weep. He couldn't believe his last attempt to stop his father was through divine intervention. The scientist in him scolded him. Trees and an ancient book, this is how you save your children? You are weak, you always have been, he thought to himself. His face was in the forest floor now, tears littered the dark green grass. Several minutes passed. It was hopeless.

You moron, Felix.

He couldn't give up yet. Nicole would understand if he came back in the Ring. She would want him to. Want him to protect their children. He would find a way in the Ring, fight with Cana, find a way to defeat his father, try everything in his might to keep his children from harm. His gut wrenched thinking of sacrificing his wife, his sister, his brother in-law, only for infinitesimally small odds he could conquer his father. If he entered, he could be condemning his entire family to death. But he had to try. He couldn't live with himself letting his children die, praying to Trees, for Gods' sake.

A thud cut through his terrible thoughts off to his right. He looked up, confused.

Thud. Thud, thud. Thud.

Felix was stupefied and looked around. Small golden orbs were sitting beneath the golden trees.

Apples.

They fell. They answered him.

His tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy. He sprinted to each Tree, scooping the fruit into his arms like a child, hugging each golden Tree like they saved his life. He ran back to his vehicle with the five apples in his jacket he used as a basket, and drove back to the Ring, his pedal pressed as far to the floor of the vehicle as it could go.

**

He was at the great walls within two hours. He felt like praying to the Trees again for his new radio to work, but he knew its success bore down entirely to his ingenuity. He turned it on, and tweaked the levers and buttons.

"This is Felix Alva, I am here to help. Please come in, over."

Static. He tried again, "Please come in, this is Felix Alva."

More static. Despair began to set into Felix's mind. He couldn't bear the thought of his father receiving the radio signal instead of his children. Or worse, that his radio signals fell upon lifeless bodies of his children.

Then, he was overcome with brighter emotion. A deeper, battle hardened voice since he last heard, but he could tell it was his youngest son. "Dad? We thought you were dead."

"Oh Gods, Lleyton. Tell me you're okay. Are your siblings okay?"

Silence worried Felix again, and then he heard his daughter's voice. His emotions rotating from desperation to joy over and over like a tumbling rain cloud.

Panza explained to him how his children were leading the rebellion. Samuel's forces had killed Cana. Like Felix feared, they were running low on food, water, and medicines. But all the Alva children were alive. They disagreed often but worked tirelessly together to fend off Samuel and rally the hopeless population like their lives depended on it. And their lives did depend on it. Samuel would have no mercy.

If he could get his children the apples, the tide of the war would change completely. He could see the glow of the Filtration Field above, the high walls impossible to penetrate. The walls of the Ring were completely controlled by the Research Division within Nighthawk. How could his children get out? It was impossible.

He instructed his children to come to the easternmost point of the wall if they could, that he had something to help change the tide of the war. They were hesitant but trusted their father, and Aimos radioed to his father that they had arrived.

They didn't know what to expect. Felix imagined his children directly on the other side of the wall, the closest he had been to his children in a year.

"Can you think of anyway to meet me out here?" He asked his children over the radio.

"There's no way in or out, Dad," Aimos responded into the radio.

Felix looked down at the apples. They were golden and shining. There was only one thing he could do.

"I'm throwing something over the walls, right now. You must promise me you'll eat them. And you must tell me if they make it through," He said into his radio.

He heaved them upwards as hard as he could, one by one, up and over the wall. He closed his eyes and dreaded the radio call back. He dreaded that he threw his children nothing but ash raining down upon them as they passed through the Field. All of this for nothing, only putting his family's lives in danger.

"They're apples... how is that possible? It's impossible. How did they get through the Field?"

Felix celebrated to himself under his breath, and said, "Eat them, now. Each of you."

He waited, and heard his children crunching into the apples over the radio, and his children replied, "Done, what now?"

Felix smiled to himself, and tears of joy filled his eyes yet again. This had to work. It would work. He said into his radio, "Now, go win the war. March straight into Samuel's command centre, put him in chains. You will be okay. I promise. I love you all," He said to them, knowing that they would now be safe. Forever. It was a profound feeling as a father.

"I need to leave now. I need to get something and make sure Samuel didn't know I was here. Save your mother and aunt. I promise, it's going to be okay. I'll return soon."

His children, confused but believingly, said goodbye into their radio and that they'd see their father again.

But they never would.

Felix got back into his vehicle to return to the Eastern Outpost to finish his work with the Man in Red's diary.

***

Samuel confidently stood at the foot of Nighthawk before the great chrome glass lobby, his mighty military in front of him in crisp uniforms and cleaner helmets. His five grandchildren came out of hiding and awaited him in the main street leading up to the great ship between the shattered buildings and houses from the year of civil war, holding makeshift swords and hammers and wearing tattered robes. The rebels all had a single diagonal streak of red paint over their faces. Bodies that had not yet been given a grave littered the side streets, mostly belonging to those with the red streaks upon their faces. The Alva children walked forwards, the people behind them scared, but standing with conviction and honor. They had accepted death but would fight to the end. They would not die on their knees.

"Come to surrender?" Samuel called from his ship towards the children, who were now battle-hardened warriors and leaders, not the children he once knew and cared for. So much had changed in so little time.

"The great Six Alvas!" He called out, his military and government officials laughing. There were five of them of course, but it was their own grandfather, mocking them for their sixth and late eldest sibling, Lisla. The Alva's stood taller, unmoving, and unyielding.

The children still didn't know what their father had provided them. But they trusted him. They would march on Nighthawk as he said. Something about apples falling through Mayla's great Filtration Field filled them with courage, good fortune, promise.

"Kill them," Samuel said flippantly for all around to hear.

Aimos was at the front of his siblings, and five much larger soldiers ran for him, slashing down with their great swords, Aimos with his sword able to block one but not the other four. He closed his eyes as he awaited the inevitable blow.

A silence that no one, not Samuel through all of his long life, or the eldest citizens at the back of the crowd, had been apart of emerged. It was a silence that sent chills up everyone's back, like a slow yet powerful lightning bolt. Samuel's loyalists went colder than ice, while the rebels experienced a warmth they had not felt in years.

Hope.

The four great swords that slashed through Aimos shattered like an icicle clubbing steel. Aimos was as bewildered as the soldiers that struck him, holding bladeless handles, exchanging perplexed and defeated glances beneath their grey-blue helmets.

Everyone remained silent. Samuel looked on, eyes wide, dread spreading across his face, slowly stepping backwards to the sanctuary of Nighthawk which was lifted by the terrible realization that he was staring at Gods.

More helpless soldiers joined their confused comrades, this time hacking at the other Alva children. The children flinched, but didn't raise their weapons. Like Aimos, the swords that contacted them were reduced to shrapnel. The Alva children looked at each other, shocked, slowly realizing what their father had given them.

The people behind them were witnessing something otherworldly. They knelt. They were looking upon deities. Their bravery and honor for following the Alva children paying off. Many citizens began to weep, realizing their fortunes in the war had completely changed. The tide of evil now turning towards greatness.

A horrified Samuel watched as his own soldiers began dropping their weapons, and raising their arms to the Alva children for a plea of mercy. The rebels began swarming the unarmed soldiers, putting their arms behind their backs and putting their faces into the ground, chaining them.

The Alva children turned their attention to Samuel with fierce faces, and began marching forward slowly, ignoring the loyalists that attacked them like they were flies. Samuel retreated into Nighthawk and back into the lobby, taking the elevator upwards. The children quickened their pace and pursued him, the outnumbered loyalists fighting all around, with clashes of metal and futile battle cries from Samuel's loyalist of loyalists.

"Long live the Sixes, justice for the people!" The rebels cheered at the Alva children as they sprinted after the mad tyrant. Samuel was on the run. His reign coming to a bewildering mystical conclusion.

The Alva's entered the southern lift, Lleyton and Nik remaining within the black steel elevator, going to secure their mother's and aunt's locations while Aimos, Panza, and Aaron stormed the command centre where they knew they'd find him.

Samuel was awaiting them. He didn't even barricade the door. He had accepted his fate. He sat in the same chair that he did when he first landed Nighthawk so many years ago. He rubbed the control panel and smiled as his grandchildren entered.

"So, your father came through, did he?" He said to his grandchildren. His smile was of genuine admiration for his son, that he was able to best him somehow.

"Shut your mouth. It's over. Tell us where the kidnapped children are, and your sentence may be lenient," Panza said sharply.

Samuel looked at them, angrily, but then laughed and said, "I had nothing to do with those damned kids. The only thing I'm guilty of is providing a better life for people, yet here I am. How does that make sense?"

Aimos grabbed his grandfather at the scruff of his neck and put his hands behind him.

"I wish you all good fortune in your imminent reigns. Would you like to know the one thing I've learned on this mysterious planet, some advice from your grandfather, hmm?" He said, smiling.

Nik and Lleyton emerged in the doorway, their hands bloodied and eyes filled with utter despair. Samuel's smile grew larger and sinister as he looked at them in the doorway. He continued, "It's that whatever planet we find ourselves on, we always find a way to hate each other."

The other Alva children looked at Nik and Lletyon and closed their eyes. Please don't be true, they all thought to themselves.

"Use it to your advantage, you are now my legacy!" Samuel shouted and started cackling to himself.

Aimos, Panza, and Nik noticed the blood on Samuel's hands, spread along his command chair and on his panel. They all couldn't speak with lumps in their throats and heavy hearts, praying it was not the blood that belonged to who they all thought. Who they all knew.

Lleyton, unsheathing his sword and striding past his verklempt siblings, confronted and stood before the mad man. Gritting his teeth and trying his best to hide his emotions of anger and grief, he beheaded Samuel with a swift chop.

He hoped his grandfather's last moments were not of seeing the utter pain he had inflicted, but rather, the conviction his youngest grandson had.

His shocked siblings looked at their youngest brother, waiting for him to explain himself, hoping it was for some other reason, pleading with themselves that it was for some other cause.

"He killed mom," Lleyton said, his eyes watering.

Samuel had gotten to them before the Alva children.

**

Felix grabbed the diary right where he thought he left it. He closed the drawer to his desk and exited his office into the lab of the Eastern Outpost, and sat to begin transcribing the rest of the book.

But something was off. He couldn't put his finger on it. Something about the distant wall of the lab, the wall right next to Mayla's secret lab where they stored their submarine. It was unusually dark. Darker than usual, yet the lights were no brighter nor dimmer.

He approached it slowly, removing his reading glasses. He brushed his hand along the smooth wall. It was pushed in somehow, which was impossible, yet it explained its darkness, the light reflecting off it differently than the thousands of times he stared at it before. He pushed. And pushed more.

As he applied pressure, it clicked inwards and opened rapidly with a whir of electricity.

It was a door.

It must have been another secret lab room Mayla had created without Felix knowing. He found this strange. The only other secret room was the one that once housed their submarine. Mayla may have had issues later in life, but she never kept research projects from Felix.

He slowly entered.

Fear and bafflement flooded his senses like an exploding star. Before him was a massive tunnel, extending seemingly forever forward and branching everywhere like roots to a tree. As he walked, flood lights of magnificent white illuminated before him. The tunnel was full of unsanctioned and advanced technology that Samuel would never have approved of. Glass chambers full of machinery and tools. It was a scientist's dream. It was out of a dream of Mayla's, but it was not Mayla's work he realized when he continued down the hall. It was out of someone who was much smarter. But that wasn't possible. No one was capable of this. No one was smarter than Mayla.

Fear turned to terror. The next glass chamber in the hall to his left contained row upon row of guns, rifles, and weapons Felix couldn't begin to fathom.

To his right, blindfolded children in five glass cubes, and beyond the immediate ones, purple monsters encased inside the rows upon rows of other glass chambers, silver and black trimmed cases of desperation. Yet there was no smell, nor sound. There were ten children in the first row, two in each of the five glass chambers.

The Apex animals were also inside with them.

The left chamber had a male and female child, and a great Raven the size of one of the children. In the next one, was a male and female and a great Wolf, then a male and a female and a Bear, then a male and female and a Tiger, and then finally a male and a female suspended in water with an Orca. All had bite or talon marks dug into them, but for some reason the Apex animals showed no animosity towards the children.

Above the chambers, the words 'successful infection' flashed, illuminated in green. Beyond, 'failure' in blood red.

Felix realized they were all the missing children. Cana's daughter, Chrea,