Vekeus was confused. His entire existence, he had been taught that organized groups of Decayons were awful beings. Death gods. Hell gods. War gods. Beings that wanted others dead. His run-ins with the Phantai when he was younger had proved that. The only reason he tolerated the Ventra Expanse was because there was no singular Decay Lord cult there, and there were no Voidborn cults there either.
But the Thantir, the Decayons at the base Vekeus was at, they all seemed… perfectly fine. Sure, they had made comments, mostly about how Vekeus was odd for a Voidborn (he already knew that), but no one had attacked him, no one had been rude and they had cured him without asking anything in return. Vekeus did leave a donation of five kilos of gold (from his old, brief Golden Protector days), he HAD to. The Thantir were thankful, but they all said it was just their job.
Things were calm, up until the appearance of… that one.
Like Itaviir and Galyn, Kaytee claimed to be a former member of the Phantai. He’d left much more recently. While Kaytee looked to be the same species as the little armoured Psion, apparently he was more closely related to the big armoured Psion, but really, he wasn’t related to either of them. According to Kaytee, he was more closely related to Vekeus. And Kaytee was struggling to explain it all while Eksi, the small, cream and yellow Psion, was listening in. Vekeus was confused as to why the Psion hadn’t stepped in yet.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, yeah, you’re not, because you think you’re a full Voidborn. But I swear, you’re not Vekeus, you’re VK0020K, Veekay Theanon. You were the deputy leader of the K-Class Ksa. One of the Six Brothers who fought to stop the universe from ending! Alright, technically, you were all half-brothers, but still!”
“That can’t be true! I can’t be a hybrid! I’m a true Voidborn! I was bound to a universe! I escaped into the Darkness! If I WASN’T a true Voidborn, the Golden Protectors would have killed me for being impure!”
Kaytee didn’t seem to have an answer for that. It turned out though, Kaytee wasn’t even his name. His actual name was TK0016K, Teekay Theanon, but since he was the second Teekay to join the Thantir, he’d changed his name.
“Well, uh… maybe… maybe your father was a special Voidborn? A particularly pure one?” Kaytee glanced at Eksi. “Dude, I’ve been struggling with this for like twenty minutes, why aren’t you saying anything?”
Eksi shrugged. “Being the Master Psion around here is hard when I’m busy trying to use my bullshit Randomly Knowing Stuff powers on purpose.”
Vekeus also turned to Eksi. “YOU are the Master Psion here?”
“Mhm. technically, power-wise, we’re almost the same, Litvir has a slight edge because his telepathic systems are fucking stupid, but he’s busy running a Decay Lord sect with Retvik.”
Vekeus grunted. “I can see why Theocydes mistook that nice Vik guy for being your Retvik…”
“Who’s Vick?” Kaytee asked.
“He is a kindly Decayon that runs a pub in the Ventra Expanse and lets Adogtic Voidborns use his services, as long as we promise to behave. Looks like your Flamebearer, except much shorter and not on fire. He mentioned his full name was Retvikalios or something? But he didn’t remember, he said he had no memories from being in his universe.”
Kaytee fell silent briefly, then rubbed his eyes, tried to speak a few times, failed, then finally said something. “The… The General is alive?”
“You know Vick?” Vekeus stuttered.
“He was the badass leader of the Exaron! He literally attacked the Golden God of Stasis with his fucking teeth and claws!” Kaytee nearly screeched. “Wait… your… father was the Golden God of Stasis…”
Vekeus growled, then turned back to Eksi. “Please, kind Psion, tell me that this former Phantai soldier is talking nonsense!”
Eksi hesitated. “Unfortunately, Kaytee’s completely right. Your father was Kenostaton, a Stolen Prince of the Golden Protectors, who was bound to the Life Goddess Kinisis. Your mother was KL0035L, Kayel Theanon-Aspidon, a Threan-type Retha who was blatantly cursed. Also, you have or had six brothers, one of whom is Arkay, Retvik and Litvir’s missing Third. The other five are Elkay-En Theanon-Photeianos, and Arksi, Thitaksi, Eksi and Psiksi Theanon, who I think… I think they were technically Time Drake hybrids? Your universe though was consumed by Corruption, you escaped into the void, and, because you’re half Voidborn, once you entered the void, your body changed into its Voidborn form and you managed to drift to relative safety until you were picked up, presumably by the Golden Protectors.”
“But… why do I not remember any of this?” Vekeus stuttered. “This… I… I can’t… I’m a disgrace… A monstrosity… If other Voidborns find out I’m not pure…”
“I think you’re overthinking things, actually!” Eksi smiled. “Sure, you’re a hybrid, but you’re the son of a Stolen Prince. Those genetics are so damn strong that the Golden Protectors never realized you were a hybrid, and clearly neither did Theocydes and the big guy! And, like, you don’t need to tell anyone. We’ll keep quiet if you want. Also, do you want to know what you looked like when you were a semi-mortal inside a universe? Do you want your memories back?”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Well, it seems that the handful of folks that escaped your universe, the trauma of what happened made you block out most of your memories. You, this Vick guy, Arkay lost his memories, and I bet your other siblings, if they survived, also lost their memories. Heck, Kaytee here has some memory loss, and Telecharm had quite a bit too, more than he was willing to admit. But the key word here is ‘blocked’. Not ‘missing’ or ‘destroyed’. The memories are still there, and I can unlock them for you, if you want.”
Vekeus thought to himself. “Hm… I… I have always wanted to know what happened to me… Still, it’s somewhat scary…”
“It won’t hurt, if that helps.”
“Ugh… Alright. Fine. Open up my memories. I want to know who I really am.”
Eksi smiled some more as he leaned forward. “May I place my hand on your cheek?”
“Yes.”
“Cool. Take a deep breath.”
“I’m a Voidborn, I don’t breathe.”
“Well, pretend to.”
Vekeus sighed, then did as he was told. Eksi very gently pressed his warm hand against Vekeus’s cheek, closed his eyes and concentrated. Vekeus’s eyes briefly glowed the same yellow Eksi’s eyes did, but as Eksi removed his hand, something strange happened.
Vekeus’s body changed. Into that of his original, mortal form. A Threan-type Retha, with red skin, red and silver plating and fiery, orange eyes. And, for the first time in a very long time, Vekeus was actually breathing.
“Hi, Veekay…” Kaytee whispered. “I missed you.”
“Huh. Hi, Teekay. It’s been a while… Feels weird, having blood again.” Vekeus smiled weakly, then glanced down at himself. “Also, I’m naked right now.”
“We’re Threanics, being naked is fine!” Eksi giggled.
Vekeus turned to Eksi. “Huh. You look like one of my brothers. But I remember Eksi always used to dye most of his armour black… Hang on, you’re NOT my brother. You have the same name as him though.”
Eksi shook his head. “I don’t, actually. My name’s ΕΞ1004Ξ, not… whatever your brother’s alphanumeric name was, and old-universe Skyavok like me don’t have surnames.”
“You are… a Skyavok?”
“Mhm. Your universe had the Retha and its many sub-types. Our universe had the Skyavok, Rethavok and Athrevok and that was basically it.”
A sudden knock on the door distracted everyone. Vekeus looked up to see who it was.
“Hello, is everything alright?” Retvik asked. “We are closing up in half an hour, do we need to prepare a long-term recovery room?”
Vekeus glanced at Kaytee again. “He really DOES look like an Ethran-type version of the General!”
Retvik may have lacked telepathy, but he immediately worked out what was going on. “Oh. Another person from Arkay’s old universe.”
“His half-brother, actually!” Eksi chirped. “This is Veekay Theanon, AKA Vekeus. He’s a Voidborn/Decayon hybrid, technically.”
“I see. Nice to meet you, Veekay. You are the second vok from Arkay’s original universe I have met recently.”
“Who was the other?” Vekeus asked.
“Someone called Tahnaiious. A Kronospast who was shapeshifted into a Beh’evok.“
“Huh…” Vekeus thought for a moment. “That was who… saved me. Put me in a pod and fired me out. When everything was being consumed.”
“Seems as much!” Retvik grunted. “Do you want to stay? Yes, your arm has already regrown, but you are welcome to stay for a bit to recover.”
Vekeus shrugged. “Normally, I’d say I need to get back to my Corruption Purges. But I suppose I ought to take a bit of a break. And I think Teekay… uh, Kaytee and I have some catching up to do.”
“Very well. I will arrange for a temporary room to be set up for you. Eksi, you are on guard tower duty in ten hours, so I recommend you head to bed for a bit.”
Eksi grinned as he got up. “Yes, boss! I’ll leave you guys to it, so see you later!”
Eksi pranced out of the room. Retvik grunted, then left as well, closing the door behind him.
“Huh. The Thantir are so… weirdly nice…” Vekeus lowered his voice. “Is that why you left the Phantai?”
“Yeah. But also I left because, for some reason, there’s seven versions of me, Teekay Theanon. There’s a place here for you too, if you want.”
“I’ll… I’ll think about it. But, admittedly, I’m still a Voidborn, and I’d be ripped to shreds if other Voidborns found out I joined the sect that destroyed some of the local cults.”
“Fair…” Kaytee trailed off. “So… Veekay… what have you been up to all these year-strings?”
“Hah!” Vekeus laughed. “I guess we have a lot of catching up to do…”