The city is melting.

In its core, all its remaining citizens—sans Umbra—wait for it to be saved. They’re hunkered down in an emergency bunker that sits miles beneath the surface, eating rations and praying before the televisions. They pray for their hero to win while wondering why such a thing has happened to them.

They also wonder if they will be as lucky with this strange shooting star as they were with the Shadow.

On the surface of the city, where everything is burning, the hero in question assumes a fighting stance. His opponent watches him with barely concealed amusement, fingers of plasma wiggling eagerly under the curves of molten flame and white-hot teeth searing Umbra’s vision cheekily. The hero steels himself.

He then launches himself forward, using his shadows to propel him faster than his muscles can alone.

As he throws a punch at his enemy, Umbra allows his true nature to take over, knowing he’ll need it. Azure blue skin bleeds to pure black as solid mass turns to misty shadow. His false image of pure, royal, heavenly blue vanishes, leaving only his darkness behind—his Fallen status.

Now, the hero looks more like a living shadow or an embodiment of space.

Strangely—and Umbra’s eyes almost fly out of his head when he sees this; feels it—the being doesn’t even dodge his punch. Instead, It literally allows the hit to land, flying backwards with the force of it. The hero gapes after It, unsure what just happened.

It did want to fight, right???

Yes: yes, it did. The flaming Thing seems pleased when It pulls Itself out of the crater It formed in Unity. A hissing cackle escapes It as It stands mightily again, a galaxy eating grin splitting open Its face.

Umbra can only stare.

“Yes…” The Thing giggles, “You’re perfect.” It regrows the orbs of fire from before and steps forward, “Exactly what I’ve been looking for~!” The being throws one of the flames at Umbra—at his face—while clearly anticipating his dodge. It follows after the miniature thrown star and follows it with an uppercut.

The hero grunts as a burn blooms on his chin.

He careens from the force and lands in a heap on the floor. He holds his jaw as he gets up and rolls to the side in order to avoid the second attack. He kicks out with his foot, hitting the Thing in Its side. There’s less of a burn, this time, as it wasn’t bare skin interacting with It; but it’s still hot to the touch.

Again: shadows don’t burn.

“What in Hell…?” Umbra mutters, allowing himself a rare curse. Again, he wonders what this Thing is.

He follows after the creature, punching and jabbing as an idea begins to form in his head.

It’s made of fire, right? Or, well: some kind of heated gas. It must need to maintain a high enough temperature that the gas stays in the fourth state of matter: plasma. If that’s so…

Water; that must be Its weakness.

Wiping a bit of ichor from his stinging face, Umbra levels a glare at the creature. It grins wickedly back. They’ve both gotten to the point of panting, clearly unused to dealing with such a huge challenge. Umbra dislikes it—preferring to handle things peacefully—but the flaming thing seems to be enjoying it.

As it giggles shrilly, the hero ballparks the distance to the shoreline with his eyes.

It’s not that far. Pleased, Umbra swings again, determined to get this Thing in water and douse it.

It doesn’t seem aware of this.

More fireballs are flung his way. They hit buildings, debris, and concrete when Umbra dodges them. Shadows erupt around whatever the hero can enshroud, but he doesn’t manage to protect everything.

And this is fine: he tells himself that; repeating that the lives of the people are more important anyway.

Plus, he’s almost there. He can see the pearly waters behind the creature and they’re getting closer. Feeling an approaching triumph, Umbra builds up the levels of shadow on his person: adding protection.

He’ll need it.

When they’re only a few feet away from the roaring waves, the hero makes his move.

~

The city is steaming.

Umbra blinks and reels back from the sudden bout of vapor in his face. He falls back, wheezing, and waves a hand in front of him as he squints through the patch of opaque air. Did it work?

Not really.

The creature is not screaming in pain and still very much there, sitting in the water and staring, shocked. It then laughs, hot blue mouth turning the steam around them a similar color, “You really are funny!”

Umbra stares.

Then, something suddenly clicks in his mind: this Thing said It wanted to have fun. As a being of chaos, fighting and destroying would be what It thinks is fun. But, apparently, It also thinks this is fun.

It thinks Umbra is fun.

“… You shouldn’t be trying to kill me, then,” the hero points out carefully. He watches as the creature raises what seem to be Its eyebrows at him—not that it has any hair: even the stuff Umbra originally thought were locks of it are actually just more flame and fire. It’s then smiling, leaning back in the water (how is that not hurting It? It’s literally plasma!) and leering at him in amusement.

“Who said I was trying to kill you?”

Umbra feels exasperated, “You! When you almost killed me several times!” He throws his arm out, gesturing behind himself to the ruined parts of the city they were just fighting in. “Right there!”

The being only laughs, “I was only having fun.”

Unbelievable. The hero sighs as he slumps backwards, uncaring—due to frustration—if it’s unwise. Hissing and splashing can be heard as the creature moves through the water to join him.

They stare at the stars together.

“Where are you from?” Umbra suddenly asks, shocking the creature into looking at him. He glances over and stares into the fiery depths of Its eyes, “Like: which planet?” Feeling all of his ire leave him, probably being pulled away by the calming waves, the hero watches the Thing contemplatively. “Or star?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try me.” Cobalt blue eyes return to the sky as the hero remembers where he came from. He points to it and his finger, from his view, eclipses the sun. “That’s my original home. The center of this system; where God resides; the sun.” He always found it curious how humans believe that the Hell below them is hotter than the Heaven above them when, clearly, the literal fire ball God sits in beats Earth’s core. Then again, not all humans see God in that body; they see whatever they want to see or what they can.

“Why did you fall? Or is that not a thing here?”

Umbra furrows his brows. He glances over at the strange creature and makes a bewildered sound. “What do you mean: not a thing here? Is it not common for angels to fall where you’re from?”

“I’m from the Void; the great vastness between everything; technically, there are no angels there; there’re only universes and worlds—like this one.”

The blue-haired hero blinks, “So, you’re not of this world? You aren’t from any part of this universe?” When the being nods, he shakes his head, “That makes no sense: how can you be here, then?”

“I injected myself.”

Umbra deadpans, “What?” He stares blankly at the strange creature, wonder what drug It’s on. Theoretically, though, that could explain all of this: one big drug trip. But he doesn’t do drugs and there’s no way this other person being on something would cause him to hallucinate or trip out.

But it turns out drugs have nothing to do with this (thankfully): “I injected myself into your world.”

“… O: from the Void?” Umbra hazards, thinking he’s starting to get it. The flaming being nods. However, it’s at this point that the hero notices that It’s not as blinding as it was before. The inside of Its mouth and pupils are still burning blue and Its teeth are still bright white, but the rest of it has paled a lot—almost to an orangey yellow. “… You need to go back, don’t you.”

It smiles at the statement, although it should have sounded like a question: “I can’t hold forms for long.”

“Does that mean you don’t normally have one?” Umbra sits up, confused. He’s sad. Why, he has no idea. This chaotic creature came out of no where and almost destroyed the wonderful place he calls home. This terrifying Thing almost killed off what has essentially become his family!

Why would he ever want this menace to stay?

“Beings like me generally don’t.” The creature sits up as well, unaware of Umbra’s inner turmoil. It watches the sun rise on the horizon, smiling, “We aren’t really anything more than a thought—an idea—that, once repeated enough—believed in enough—slowly becomes aware. I’m really just a concept.”

“But you’re alive, aren’t you?”

“Debatable.”

~

The city is quiet.

As the two strangers sit together on Unity’s beach, a new day comes onto them. The fierier of the two stares at the orb that could easily be mistaken for Its sibling as the living shadow beside It frowns.

“You must be so lonely, up there.”

The living flame shrugs, “I suppose.” Then, It shakes Its head, “But also no: since I don’t have a body, when I’m in the Void, I encompass all of it; I’m able to watch all of the universes inside of it.”

“That doesn’t mean you have company.”

“True.” The orange-yellow being plays with the water—probably something it normally can’t do—before continuing, “I guess that’s why I do this: the injecting. Sometimes… I just want to play with something.” It glances at Umbra, “Or someone.”

“I can understand that,” he smiles; “However, I can’t understand all this destruction.”

It looks behind them and winces, appearing apologetic at last. It then chuckles, “Yea… sorry…”

Umbra smiles a bit more, “It’s alright; next time, just say hi.”

“Next time…?” the being asks before realizing It’s being invited to come back; It smiles.