Daniel flew out with an aura of red and black electricity around him. His hair flew in all directions as if he was a madman, and he rocketed into the air. His face darkened and his eyes turned the bloodiest of red.

“Oh, cousin!” Daniel shrieked at Alex. He stuck out his tongue and taunted him like a demon.

“I can’t fight him,” Alex said, as Nikolas pushed him forward.

“Neither can I; how do you expect me to kill my own son?”

Reluctantly, Alex materialized his sword. It glistened with blue electric sparks, brighter than ever before. Everyone stared at it with their mouths open in awe. Daniel materialized his own sword. It crackled with black and crimson electricity, more dangerous and daring.

“I want you, Falsifier!” Daniel said, his eyes glistening with blood, his face now more demonic than ever. His eyebrows slanted angrily and his cheekbones heightened. His nose grew much longer than before. The chin and ears were sharply pointed. He seemed to have spawned from hell.

The crowd backed away, giving space to the two challengers.

“Don’t do this, Daniel,” Alex said calmly, as he walked closer to him. A faint aura surrounded Alex. Daniel’s aura was the same color as his sword and was constantly increasing in size and intensity. The closer he tried to walk, the farther away Daniel moved. He was afraid. “You don’t need to fight; we don’t have to resolve it this way.” Just then, he felt as if a hammer had struck him right on top of the head. He fell to the floor in pain.

Daniel laughed, “What’s the matter, Falsifier?”

“Uncle John, it’s grandma; she’s dying!” He groped at his chest and began to shake uncontrollably.

Just then, John got a message on his nanophone. Andrew appeared on the hologram in front of him and said, “Sir, Dr. Wallace is on the line. He says your mother’s having an attack.”

“I’ll be there!” John said and looked back at Alex. He wanted to help his nephew but something told him he would be fine. “Make sure no one gets close to them,” he said to Richard and Nikolas. “I will not have any more deaths today!” He left.

Alex closed his eyes. He saw his grandmother. Her eyes were closed but he could feel her heart beating fast. She was suffering.

Daniel, looking at his father and the rest, gave them a bitter smile, showing his large fangs. He flung his sword towards Alex. But Alex backed away just in time. He grabbed the sword by its handle before it went back to its master and he threw it at Daniel. Daniel laughed and gloated and didn’t sense the danger. His own sword plunged into his body and he groaned in agony.

I have to stop this,thought Alex. I need to control this power before it kills me, before it takes over and kills everyone.He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and cleared his mind. He opened his eyes slowly and exhaled. Then he smiled at his impaled enemy. Daniel pulled the sword out of himself and rushed towards Alex. Before Daniel could attack, Alex disappeared, teleported behind him, and threw a blue fiery energy ball at him, knocking him to the floor.

The Rebels sensed the energy around them, pure and potent from Alex and wild and uncontrolled from Daniel. Daniel lay there, recharging his energy. Alex let him. He could have simply killed him there and then but he didn’t and it made him wonder why.

John ran into the hallway. Four doctors and half a dozen nurses rushed in and out with medical equipment and shouted frenzied orders. John pushed his way through to see his mother lying completely immobile on her hospital bed. He looked at the EEG and the ECG monitors. There were sharp dips and spikes in the graphs.

A doctor stepped in front of him, his face barely centimeters away. He smelled of tobacco and dried fish.

“Get away from me,” John said, shoving him aside.

“Sir, we need you to wait outside.”

“The hell you do! She’s my mother and I’ll be with her whether you like it or not.”

“Sir,” said a nurse behind him, “We really do need you to be outside!” John scowled at the doctor. He turned around to walk away. The computers made a faint but monotonous droning sound, which brought chills up his back. No! It couldn’t be!

It was confirmed by a voice, “We’ve lost her.”

Alex felt his heart had fallen into a bottomless pit. She was dead! He could feel her soul leave the body. He wanted to cry, to do something, but he had to concentrate on Daniel. “Grandma!” he said softly, “Don’t leave us.” He felt her presence around him.

Daniel had gathered plenty of energy now. He grinned at Alex, trying to taunt him.

“Alex, I have to go,” he heard his grandma’s voice say. “My work is finished.”

“No. You have yet to do something. I know it; I can feel it.”

“I’m not strong enough, now, child.”

“You don’t need to be strong. You just need to be alive.”

Daniel created a massive energy ball in his right hand. The whirring of the energy was humanly audible now, which meant it would be a massive blow. The vampires could feel Daniel’s raw wrath.

“Now that I am gone, someone else will take my place,” said Alex’s grandmother.

“I won’t have it!” he said angrily. She was farther away now, “No! Don’t go!” But it was too late.

John grabbed the doctor by the collar. His eyes filled with hot spiteful tears and his face shook vigorously. “Do something!”

The doctor said nothing. His blood boiled. He stepped away and said, “I told you! There’s nothing we can do.” He stormed out of the room.

John went to his mother and the others left him alone. He laid his head on her hand and cried. Rage took over from grief and he began to smash all the damn machines in the room. None of them could save her, so what the hell use were they? He punched and kicked them and threw them around the room. Once on the floor, he crushed them with the soles of his feet. He yelled curses and flung everything within reach, vandalizing the entire room. No one was around in the hall. They were all so afraid that they left the ward. John suddenly fell to his knees and then onto one side where he bent double in pain. His stomach and throat burned like hot coal. He took out a handkerchief as he coughed into it. The soft white silk was spattered with droplets of ruby red blood.

Alex hovered in the air. He was aware of the energy ball and waited for it to be blasted at him.

Daniel leaned back and threw the ball hard and fast at Alex. Alex put his hands forward and stopped it. The droning noise stopped simultaneously. He flung the ball ten meters away from him where it hovered in the air. Alex moved his right hand backward and then forward, causing the mass of energy to spin faster and faster and out into the vacuum of space, outside the Hangar. As it reached the speed of light, it collapsed in on itself and exploded like a small nuclear mushroom cloud.

Alex wielded his sword, swinging it to and fro. He smiled. Daniel attacked him and the swordfight began. In turn they led and followed each other, circling around as if dancing. The onlookers watched in amazement.

Sparks of steel flew everywhere and the quick crackling of electricity filled the air. The blue, red and black colors converged and created a bubble around the fighters. The floor lit up in a dazzling array of colored lightning. The audience suddenly levitated in the air, thanks to the vampires’ sudden reflexes. Dazed, confused, and scared they looked on.

A swirling mixture of hot and cold air could be felt, as though a tornado were approaching. The humans felt electricity on the minute hairs of their forearms. The Rebels suddenly lost their concentration and the humans fell to the floor. Luckily, the lightning on the floor disappeared. The two fighters locked swords again, creating another wave of lightning. Just before it reached the humans, they were levitated back in the air.

This new burst of energy instantly shut down the entire power supply of the Regnum.