At twenty-seven, Kai still played video games, so when he saw the explosive entrance that the trident-wielding merman made, he sensed that this particular character was going to play a pivotal role in his story. He carried himself self-assuredly, confidently, like he was used to blowing stuff up and floating past it, and maybe he was. And Kai became sure of his assumption when he felt the drastic change in the stranger's demeanor.

The stranger's arm suddenly tightened around him like a vice, as if he feared that Kai might be snatched away from his very hands. Kai glanced at the stranger to see that his face had turned to stone. A shiver rattled his spine and his heart gave a sharp thump. He quickly looked away.

He returned to scanning the other handsome stranger.

Seriously, were all merfolk drop-dead gorgeous Greek gods? Were they incapable of producing normal-looking offspring? This Astrian looked like he'd floated right out of a runway or the front page of a magazine with his shoulder-length blond hair, honeyed eyes and luscious lips. He wore the same colors as the soldiers who had attempted to rescue him, but his uniform was more of a scaled suit that ended at his hips where his tail began. It seemed that the colors of the Astrians were blue and gold. Gold cuffs circled his large biceps, while a solitary gold earring dangled from his left ear. Kai’s eyes fell on a red medal right above his heart that was reflecting the golden light of the trident. He was too far away to tell what was carved on it.

Clearly, he was different from the other soldiers the Terminator had hacked to pieces and left to the fishes. Even his trident was different; it was much bigger and sharper. They were foot soldiers. He was someone much more important.

"Did you really think that you would get away with this? That we wouldn't find out? You really think we were foolish enough to have left him unwatched?" The blond merman addressed his questions to the stranger, his handsome face contorting in anger.

In return, the stranger remained eerily silent and expressionless. His intimidating silence was even more terrifying than his bursts of violence. Kai feared that it was the calm before the storm.

You really think that we were foolish enough to have left him unwatched? Kai considered those words; they held a dozen meanings and explanations. No, what was he saying? They only held one. His father's people had watched him and his mother all these years, only appearing when it was convenient or necessary. Like when they'd visited his mother to inform her of his father's demise years after it happened, as if they finally remembered she and her half-breed son existed.

"You killed my soldiers," The Astrian accused. His eyes were spitting fire. There was such hatred and anger in his eyes that, if he had been looking at Kai, he would have turned to stone on the spot. It was the unnatural hatred of a grudge that had manifested and grown over the course of many years.

"One would think you would be used to that by now, General Ryodan."

Ah, an Astrian general! And there was a history between them!

Curious, Kai looked between the two of them. Yes, there was indeed a rivalry going on between them, he was sure of it. Luckily, at least one of them appeared to be on his side. Hopefully, this one would last longer than two minutes.

The blond Astrian soldier pointed his trident menacingly at the stranger. The thing glowed brighter once, as if it could sense its wielder's intentions. "You will release him."

The stranger smiled. Kai shuddered again. He'd give anything to be as far from the cruel black-scaled merman as humanly possible.

All hell was about to break loose; he could feel it.

He was at the very center of a nuclear explosion, and he was stuffed in a hole from which there was only one escape. There wasn't even a place to hide. With the Master's Chain tethering him to the stranger like a tied goat, there was absolutely nothing he could do. He certainly couldn't swim to the hole at the bottom of the ship, and from there, to freedom.

Once again, he was overwhelmed by the suffocating feeling of helplessness. It bore into his chest like a jackhammer, drilling into his very confidence. He'd never hated anything in his life as much as he hated this foreign feeling. Hell, he doubted he hated the stranger as much.

"I'm afraid I do not have the time to play with you today, General." The tone in which the stranger spoke was Arctic and biting. He was not playing any games; he meant to be heard and understood.

Whoever this general character was, he'd managed to get more out of the insufferable stranger in five minutes than Kai had gotten in hours.

A glaring match between the two alpha males ensued; each trying to stare the other down. Kai could taste at the tip of his tongue the palpable tension between them, crackling dangerously in the current. He was afraid that it was going to zap him dead.

"I'm not here to play. I've been ordered to bring him back, and I mean to do so." The General declared resolutely.

Ordered? By whom? The advisors his mother mentioned? Or someone else?

The cruel stranger voiced yet another of his many questions. "Back? But the half-breed never lived in Astria. Instead you abandoned him and his human mother like the cowards you are without affording them any real protection."

"I will not discuss Astrian matters with a mercenary like you-!"

"Don't talk about my mother," Kai hissed right before throwing back his fist and then driving it into the stranger's jaw with every bit of strength he had in him.

He'd needed to create a distraction for General Ryodan, as he now knew him, to swoop in, and this was all he could think of. Also, he'd gone ballistic as soon as the deadly stranger mentioned his mother.

He'd caught him off guard. The stranger actually stumbled! Although he still did not release Kai, damn him!

Unfortunately, Kai didn't get a chance to celebrate this little victory. It all went down so quickly that Kai would be left reeling from it hours later.

The mirror that had been the only source of light in the cave other than the glowing trident dimmed all of a sudden.

A moment later, a bright red glow emanated from behind them, filling the entire tunnel with light. Startled, he looked over his shoulder to see that the magic mirror had started glowing again, but instead of showing him his false reflection, it was showing him something else. The silver in the mirror swirled like a whirlpool, at times seeming to extend out of the mirror's frame in bubbling eruptions. It reminded Kai of lava in a volcano that was about to erupt.

"Nostraza," The stranger said, and the word echoed in the tunnel like the fall of an executioner's axe.

Kai's sense of impending doom heightened. A shiver ripped through him and goosebumps paraded across his skin. Everything in him told him to run.

The whirlpool stilled, and then showed them a magnificent black and gold structure.

The stranger leaned close to Kai’s ears, his hair brushing Kai’s forehead momentarily. "I'll see you on the other side," he promised menacingly, his words holding the promise of heavy retribution.

"Hey! Hold on, don't-!"

The stranger forcefully shoved him right into the mirror. Instinctively, Kai screwed his eyes shut and raised his arms to block his face from colliding with the mirror. Instead of an unyielding hard surface, he felt the welcoming softness of a dark cloud that swallowed him whole.