34 years ago.

Felix tried to grapple with what was now before him.

"Who else?" Solan replied. He was an adult now. Handsome, with short black hair and piercing green eyes. He looked at the now empty glass chambers, and said, "I'm disappointed, uncle. I thought you were like me. 'Curious'. Welcome to my world, uncle. I call it the Labyrinth."

Felix, ignoring Solan and piecing everything together, said, "You spread the rumors to Ffion knowing it would cause chaos. You told her Samuel was going to get violent when he wasn't going to. You're the one who stole our submarine. You didn't show up in my database because you've never done an Assessment, being too young. You've been kidnapping the children all along. Why, Solan?"

It was dark, brilliant, demoralizing. The rumor caused him to antagonize his father and accuse Samuel of kidnapping the children. A push descending Samuel into madness.

Solan, the orchestrator of it all.

Solan was taken aback, and said, "The answer to why is rather multifactorial, uncle. But one of the reasons is that I'm curious. Samuel was long gone. My extra push only sped up the process of his descent into madness."

A devastated Felix continued to listen to his nephew.

"Don't you want to ask me what all this is? What I found with your submarine? Haven't you always wondered why this planet was concealed from us until the very last minute? The secret about the Trees? How and why your daughter Lisla died? Why this planet is strikingly similar to the First Planet? I am the perfect combination of environment and genes. I am the Universe's finality, the Universe decisively producing me to discover itself. Unlike you and Mayla, I have what it takes – conviction, and courage."

Felix kept his rifle on the monster that stood before him.

Solan continued, "I can answer all of these questions."

Felix kept the gun fixed on his nephew, and said, "The children are already at the Ring by now. what have you done to them?" motioning to the purple monsters in cages to his side which were once children, and the children he had released.

"You really don't know? How far must I go back? I don't have the time to explain to you everything I've discovered thus far, where to begin..." Solan said, genuinely recalibrating how smart he thought his uncle was.

Felix realized his nephew was far, far smarter and capable than he. He had been a step ahead of everyone all this time. It sent a chill of black electricity up his neck.

"The cave drawings, they depicted man and beast. The five beasts to be exact, and the lost continent. I found out that the Apex animals on this planet carry a virus transmissible through the blood, which transfers some of their abilities to humans," Solan said, and then recited from his mind, "'The marriage between the beasts and man, the collection of the keys that have been lost, and a righteous being are the key to unlocking the secrets'. That's what the children are. They're the first step. I'm the third."

Felix scoffed at his nephew and said, "You're that righteous being? Spare me, Solan, you kidnapped and tortured children!"

Solan gave a disappointing smile to his uncle, and said, "I encourage you to stop talking and listen. I'm giving you this one last moment of enlightenment before your end."

Felix thought about pulling the trigger, but the image of his sister Gwenta appeared in his mind. He couldn't bring himself to do so. It was still his nephew.

Solan continued, "As I was saying, I have created that marriage of beast and man. It was hard work, finding just the right qualities and genetic make up that the Apex beasts agreed with. Finally, I found the right children that the virus that lives within all Apex animals could infect. It's quite tricky, you see. They had to bite or claw, but not kill the children. The male and female of each now at my disposal to create a blood line, collateral if something happens to my patient zeroes. I'm particularly fond of the Wolf girl."

Felix blinked unbelievingly, and then asked, "Who was the Man in Red?"

Solan smiled, and said, "Now that's the spirit. I suppose that means you haven't completely read his diary. Tell me, have you ever wondered why such an advanced civilization would draw on caves? I did. And then, when I saw your daughter turning to dust before me, it made complete sense. The entities that turned your daughter to ash, called 'the Dark', they are the immune system of this planet, located in the Gothreek Mountains. They destroy any sentient life that comes here, and the creations that they bring. Buildings, roads... anything of any association to intelligent life. It's why the messages were written upon the caves, where the Dark could not detect and destroy. The things that killed your daughter may seem immobile at the moment, sure, but I've figured out when they mobilize. When the immune response will commence."

Solan continued, "The Man in Red was from a human colony that left the First Planet very early, the last civilization that landed on this planet before it was wiped out by the Dark. With his people dying around him, he prayed to the Trees, and they answered. The apple that he ate left him invincible, even to the Dark. But his people were dying out, being reduced to dust just as your daughter was reduced to. His fists could not harm the Dark. He figured out the only weapon capable of harming the Dark, which he scratched out of the Tree that gifted him the apple, until his hands were bleeding to the bone. I admire him.

Nevertheless, he was too late. He eventually killed the Dark, one-by-one with his new dagger, and lived on this planet alone until we arrived. I bet you didn't know your son Aimos was able to kill him with the same dagger. But I digress. What the Man in Red didn't know, however, is that the Dark will simply regenerate from the Marrow of the planet. Your daughter died among the regenerating entities in the Gothreek Mountains. They will mobilize again one day. And this planet will be back to it's rightful state: nothingness."

Felix's stomach kept churning. He couldn't muster the thought of everyone around him that he loves dying with nothing they could do, while his children watched on helplessly. He needed to find the dagger. They needed to find a way to fight this Dark. He needed to warn his children. He said to Solan, "Maeve read the diary. She knows everything you just said."

"The diary only gives you so much. The Lost Continent was where I received the most intricate details. Those drawings on the cave of the lost continent were drawn long before the Man in Red arrived. I took yours and Mayla's submarine there, as the two of you intended to do but never would, always so scared of Samuel. I wish you could have seen it, uncle.

When I approached, there was nothing but water, but as I went further and further, it appeared out of thin air. I crashed into the shore without warning. Much like when we landed from space before I was born. The cave drawings are truthful. The continent exists."

Felix's head buzzed. Once may have been a coincidence. Twice meant it had meaning. It was like something was shielding the planet from the Universe, and the continents from each other. Why?

Solan continued, "Maeve is not a threat to my goals. She is a coward. She stole the diary from me. She discovered what exactly the Man in Red was from it. He belonged to a group of humans that can read a person's intentions. When the Man in Red first saw into me, he read my desires. While I know my intentions are pure, he thought less so, to say the least. His horrified face in my direction was all that was needed to completely terrify Maeve and send her into hiding and pass the diary to you. She must have given you the dagger, as well. Give it to me, and I can promise you a swift demise."

Felix's skin turned red hot. Solan's words, while being unarmed and looking down a barrel of a rifle, made Felix question everything. He was in no position to bargain, yet he bargained. "I don't have it. Even if I did, I would never give it to you, Solan," Felix said.

Felix looked beside him into the glass chambers of the purple beings while grappling with who his nephew truly was. Seemingly normal children who were interspersed throughout the cubes caught Felix's eye. There were about five of them, and Felix said, "Those children, Solan. Let them go. It's not too late for you. Let them go home. Please."

"Them? Home? This is their home," Solan laughed, pointing at the normal looking children between the purple ones. "Don't worry about them. They will be my finest soldiers in the wars to come. They too, were infected by the Apex animals. They may not look like they have the powers of the children you released, but they have a far stronger power situated perfectly for this planet. And guess what? The virus you just released for me will provide me all the personnel I will ever need."

Felix realized he completely played into Solan's plans. It was his goal all along to release the children. He was always a step ahead. He was playing God.

He showed so much promise as a child. So much compassion. Where did Felix, Gwenta, and Jackea go wrong with him? Then, Felix said something that finally looked like it fazed Solan. Penetrating through the darkness that shrouded him like a lighthouse in a raging storm. It was Felix's desperate last attempt to search for anything that would bring his nephew's humanity back.

"Solan, come with me. We can make all this right. What would Thaia think of the person you've become?"

Solan's arrogant face, for a moment, turned to expressionless stone.

"She is inconsequential in what I am trying to accomplish," Solan said, this time without his smug and nonchalant grin. "I hope you realize that when the children return to the Ring, the virus will spread rapidly within it, human to human, no longer requiring blood-borne transmission. Many will become like the children you released, but many will become the purple monsters you see to your right. What use will the Orca children's ability to breathe under water be when they're being ripped limb from limb? That blood is on your hands, Felix."

It was Solan trying to deflect his uncle's question.

Felix didn't move a muscle, and kept his rifle to his shoulder. He said, "We aren't as weak as you think, Solan. The people have a new weapon. They'll endure whatever this virus creates. Whatever you're planning."

"Fascinating," Solan said to his uncle. "The apples truly fell from the Trees? For all of your children? Many have prayed to the Trees, never have apples fallen except for the Man in Red."

Felix was again uneasy that Solan seemingly knew every card in his hand. He was much older than Solan but felt completely overmatched, and unwise. Desperately, trying to get an upper hand, he said, "They did, and it's too late for you. My children can't be killed."

Solan laughed and looked deeply into his uncle's eyes, and said, "Have you been paying attention, uncle? Everything can be killed. Why do you think I want the dagger? Your son killed the 'invincible' Man in Red with it when he was just a boy. If a piece of a Tree can kill an apple eater, no doubt can the apple eaters kill each other. And if there's one thing I know about the Alva's, it's that we are particularly skilled at that."

Felix went numb. He realized he had to kill his nephew. He was too dangerous. Too powerful. He was on a dark quest that seemed unshakable. He prayed his sister would forgive him, Gwenta's face in his mind's eye. He closed his eyes and he pulled the trigger.

Click. No bullets discharged. Despair washed over Felix like a swarm of hornets. He kept pulling the trigger desperately, click click click, and looked into the gun. It wasn't loaded.

"Amazing the things the human brain forgets when it's under duress, isn't it? We forget the most fundamental things," Solan said, tapping on a cache of bullets that was next to the rifles Felix had grabbed. "Similarly, all it will take to convince your children of my death will be some of my blood and the word of Samuel's former soldiers. Who will be mine, of course."

Solan adjusted his dark suit, and grabbed a remote from his coat pocket. He clicked it. The glass chamber doors of the purple beings creaked open to Felix's horror. Solan stepped inside a glass door to his right and closed it on his uncle who slammed on the impenetrable glass door with his fists in futility.

Mortified, Felix ran for the entrance he had come in which had just slid shut. He turned to run down the tunnel, but hundreds of the purple beings flooded the hallway and blocked his escape. He closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

Felix could barely flinch as he was swarmed by the purple monsters that rushed at him, gnawing and clawing and biting him, limb from limb. He didn't let his nephew hear him scream as his world turned to darkness.

Solan clicked his remote again, lights flashing from the cages the predators originally emerged from, which they returned to like moths to a flame. He closed the chamber doors when the demons returned to their cages.

Solan walked over Felix's blood, careful not to get any on his boots.

He retrieved the diary from his uncle's desk and set it ablaze with a nearby burner after he summited the metal steps of his Labyrinth.

Unlike last time when he left the secret door slightly pushed in, wanting his uncle to discover his lab, he repositioned the secret doorway flush to the wall. He walked down the corridor of the lab, and felt his hand along the smooth wall that he knew Mayla's secret lab was behind.

He grabbed finger imprints from his jacket he had taken from her, pressed them to the wall, and left her secret lab wide open for discovery. She would be blamed for the kidnapped children. The children would infect the population as he intended.

All was going according to plan.