He felt safe.

The plane journey had been long and loud, filled with families and people travelling during the holiday break. In their case, they were making the journey back home and like always, his fear of planes came back. Yet after nearly three hours of travelling, Darius finally felt comfortable enough to relax. 

Now, he was falling in and out of sleep, mind thinking back to the memories of the time they had as a family. 

To Darius, it had been the best holiday he had ever had, better than all those that came before it. The country home was peaceful and secluded with a small nice town a few miles out in the midst of a festival. There had always been something to do and nothing had beaten the hiking and climbing trips he had gone on with his mother and father, Joan and Charles. 

Those times had been the best. 

Stopping at open spots for a picnic where he and his younger brother, Alex would run freely with the homecooked food prepared by their mother. All before heading to nearby areas where she could guide them climbing their father cheering them on and taking photos. 

Both siblings had said numerous times how they didn't want to leave, Alex having cried the moment they began packing to leave. However, Joan had said they would come to do this again next year. 

But it didn't change the fact that they were going home, to their new home now that his father was getting a new deployment. Despite this sombre feeling and his tiredness, Darius forced himself to stay awake as he turned to look out the side of the plane and to the clouds around them. 

Even though he was afraid of heights, now that he could no longer see the floor, Darius found himself amazed by the sights that greeted him. It was peaceful and vast without an end in sight, the clouds passing by. 

Often he wondered what it would feel like to be out there. 

Not within a plane but out in the sky and able to fly freely to touch the clouds with his own hands and have the world laid out beneath him. He hated planes but the thought of flying truly captured his mind more than words could describe. 

However, that fear quickly came back when the plane shook with a few exclamations coming from other passengers. Darius fell back into his seat, urgently looking at Joan next to him, grasping her hand tightly as she looked towards his father who had done the same to Alex. 

Once again, the plane shook violently, more so this time around and then suddenly jerked Darius feeling himself leave the seat from the force. He cried out, Joan quickly wrapped her arms around him and brought him close only for him to fall back down. 

"What's going on?!" A passenger cried out in a panic, other shouts and proclamations coming. 

"Why isn't the captain saying anything?!" Another called out.

Yet the plane continued to shake violently and then everything went quiet and still. It was as if collectively, no one dared to breathe or say anything as their gaze focused on one thing. 

Why wouldn't they be quiet?

For outside, floating in the air was a ship. 

It was sleek and slim in design, entirely white in colour and far larger than their Boeing 757, dwarfing them in fact. There was not a single thing anyone could say in the face of that, no one even dared to so much as breathe or move an inch as they moved past it. 

Then a flash of red and suddenly everyone was screaming in fright. 

Darius couldn't hear anything except for his heartbeat pounding in his ears, his chest heaving as he froze in his seat. Vaguely he was aware of his mother hugging him close and whispering something in his ear. 

But he could not tell what was happening. 

The plane around them crumbled apart, metal ripping off and engines erupting in flames. Entire sections of the plane split apart, passengers who had been unable to fasten their seat belts in time plummeting through the air, their screams ripped from their lungs as the hands of loved ones reached out to try and save them. 

Yet all Darius could focus on with wide, fear-filled eyes was the ship that floated there. It had not moved and as they grew further and further apart, Darius only focused upon it and the symbol emblazoned upon the side. 

It was a red circle with a white triangle in the centre, a zigzag-like line resembling that of a lightning bolt running through the centre. 

Darius focused upon that and perhaps because he did, he was the only one to notice that symbol split apart, the doors opening to reveal a single figure looking down upon them, a cape billowing out to the side in the wind. It stepped forward and began walking through the air. 

That was the last thing Darius saw before he was cocooned in his mother's embrace, her arms tightening around him and blocking his vision. Darius turned into her embrace, tears in his eyes as he cried out in fear as their plane plummeted toward the ground that rushed to meet them. 

There was nothing he could do. 

He was powerless. 

Helpless. 

Weak. 

Feeble. 

Afraid. 

He was going to die and there was nothing he could do to stop it. 

He was going to die. 

-X-

"Emperor Tah." An armoured figure spoke, marching through the rubble and debris formed by the plane crash before falling down to one knee, not daring to raise its gaze toward the man floating in the air. "We have found five suitable candidates."

"They possess the blessing?" The floating man spoke, his gaze focused on one section of the plane. 

The armoured figure nodded its head. "They do. Though they will need to be resuscitated as they perished in the crash."

"Take them to the ship, we must depart from Earth before others learn of our presence here." The man floated down to the ground, arriving before a beautiful red-haired woman who had wrapped herself around a small child, protecting it.

Miraculously they were both still alive, though injured from the crash. 

Not much could be said about most of the other survivors. 

All had perished, yet somehow there were survivors, he could hear their heartbeats and that of one more not far from here. All three were weak, yet still beating though two were growing faint. 

The woman however was still strong and healthy. 

"Does this one possess the blessing?" Tah wondered, indicating to the woman the armoured figure shaking his head. 

"We checked, but she is clean." 

"Take her anyways." 

"And the child." 

"It will soon be dead, leave it." Tah rose into the air, three more armoured figures moving forward to help free the woman from the belt that held her in place, the child in her arms dropping to the floor in a bloody and broken mess. "We must depart now, our trip here has been successful. Now we must return home and prepare for what is to come. The Citadel is constantly pressuring our borders and we cannot be absent for too long."

So, another chapter is done and with it, Darius loses his family and his path to power begins. If you want to support me then please head over to patreon.com/IGG1 or if you would like to head to my Fandom Wiki, then follow this link, https://judgement-day.fandom.com/wiki/Judgement_Day_Wiki. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed and if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.