Extra long chapt since I took so long, enjoy!
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Twenty-five

noun twen·ty-five \ ˌtwen-tē-fôr\, ˌtwən-fîvē\

1.)

     The cardinal number that is the sum of twenty-four plus one. Or countable persons or things not specified but under consideration and being enumerated.

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Drax groaned heavily as he was dropped from the circular prison-ring that previously held up his weight. The bloodied chains that were latched onto his wrist clattered against the solid metal floor below him; causing enough noise to rouse his sleep riddled body, his knees having taken the brunt of his fall were aching as if he'd been stationed on them all night, his wrists feeling so weak under the sudden pressure of his own body weight caused him to instantly collapsed to his elbows.

Although most would've screamed from the pain of such a fall, especially if they were to experience the intense torture that Drax had, he was able to breath deeply knowing that he would get a minor break from the prison-ring.

Or so he thought...

Drax could barely keep his eyes open as a rush of pain and memories swept over him.

FLASHBACK:

In something close to a single filed line they raced towards the roof. KyRue in lead, Jenny and Michael next, Eric after, Iris and himself bringing up the end of the line.

Drax paused when they finally reached the outside, his heart stuttering as he stared at Iris and the children, he was unsure if he would ever see them again and yet his only thoughts were about getting them to safety. Simply put: He would miss them. "I promise if everything goes well, I will come find you. But I need to keep you safe, Iris." Drax explained. Worry was the only thing shown on Iris's face as she went to speak up, but Drax was quick to silence her as he pressed a soft kiss against her lips. He absolutely hated the fact that he had finally gotten the chance to kiss Iris, and it was only because of their current situation that he was able to achieve it. Drax rested his forehead against hers, hating that they had to separate, his blood pumping their bond through his veins with every rise and fall of his chest, his hands pulling her close in a tight hug before releasing her slowly. When Drax pulled away, he reached into his back pocket, pulling a familiar stack of papers out and handing them to her.

He knew she would truly appreciate them even though they were nothing but paper.

It took Iris only a second to realize what they were; the birth certificates she had still yet to fill out. "Give him the name, for me." Drax spoke softly as he raced his fingers over all the boy's cheeks. He hated that he wouldn't see them again.

It was as if Drax was watching his own hearts wither away. Just the sight of Iris and the kids boarding the ship without him was enough to make his insides stutter and crumble. Drax glared in silence even as he felt the guards enclosing on him. His powers whipping out to quickly cover the tracks of the ship so they couldn't discover what direction it went in.

The only thing he regretted was not focusing a bit of his energy on protecting himself...

"Stop what you're doing and lay on the ground!"

"-You are in violation of code one-three-two-two, please relinquish any and all weapons and place your hands out before you!"

"Lay on the ground!"

"GET DOWN NOW!!"

Drax was sure more had been said to him but he couldn't focus much as he watched the ship that held something so precious to him disappear into the clouds. A shot could be heard but the pain didn't register until he was cowering on the ground, the electric current from the firing blaster, zinging through his system.

"Make this easy on yourself, young prince. Don't you think you've betrayed your people enough, already?" A voice murmured as a blurred figure crouched down into view but Drax was quickly loosing consciousness.

FLASHBACK OVER.

"It's been two months since you were released into our custody by the federal council and I must say, I am utterly surprised to see you're still holding up. But then again..." the glimmering, rust colored, seven foot tall, alien spoke. RoNüs, they were called. From the planet ErroNüs. To a person unknowing, the roNüs could be considered beautiful, but anyone who lived on the outer parts of the Galaxy knew they were a violent breed. Headhunters, murderers, rapist. Take any bad word you could think of and multiply it by a million and you would have the roNüs.

Drax was gripped by the fullness of his white hair, the roNüs yanking him backwards so that they were viewing each other eye to eye, Drax still on his knees, before continuing, "then again, you're the last sub-holder to ArüStal. Power was bred into you, and you trade it. For what?? A girl?!"

"W-We bo-both know she isn't just 'a girl.." Drax breathed out heavily, his throat cracking as he began hacking up blood. It took a full minute before he was speaking again,"If she was just 'a girl' you wouldn't be searching for her and I wouldn't be here. Would I?"

The thudding sound of flesh hitting flesh alerted Drax to the fact that he had been punched.

"Crknsa! Shambi nolu!!" The alien yelled out in anger. Drax couldn't help the weakened smirk that covered his swollen cheeks at the fact that he'd angered the roNüs so much that his original language seemed to shoot from his lips. "You think it's funny that your death is so near? I find it hilarious also."

"Oh, do you?" Drax countered with sarcasm.

"Listen to me you haljo! Tell me where the girl went or I'm going to make sure you regret ever being born!"

"How original. 'Regret ever being born'... You'll never get the information you want from me." Drax mocked truthfully. Because the truth was he didn't know where Iris had went, all he could do was pray she made it safely to whatever destination she'd had in mind.

"Why make this more difficult than what needs be? Don't you understand what this girl means for our people?!" The alien growled, his hands yanking Drax towards his face. "She will be the end of us all!"

"She won't!"

"And how do you know that? Is there some new telling that me and my men haven't heard yet?" The alien mocked as he gestured to himself and two other beings in the room.

Sighing out a short breath Drax glared, he knew what the male before him was referring to and he didn't believe it, "That telling is nothing more than a tale! It's come from a time where the council was the only residing powers over the Galaxies. Things are different now!"

"That doesn't change the fact that it's true! Our rector scale registered her power as a level 98.6 on the oranslist. And let's not forget about the blood test that was done-"

"-blood test? What blood test?" Drax questioned seriously. How had they gotten ahold to any of Iris's blood? Worry hit the pit of his stomach as if he'd swallowed it beforehand.

"Did you really think your dectre-friend wouldn't take a sample of her blood?" The roNüs snickered. "It would seem he had done so to simply get more information on who and where she was from. Once he scanned it into the Oran-system, it was like a homing device. It only took threatening his mixlings before he spilled his guys to the council. And then when they realized you were a part of it, they figured they would kill two rycos with one stone; They've despised the fact that your family was left in charge of the system ArüStal, and over the years what you've turned it into."

"It was neither my idea nor my parents idea to turn the planet into what it is now-"

"Everyone knows that but you never tried to stop it either. Both you and your brother continued to ruin the council's idea of a better future."

"What has that to do with Iris?"

"Iris is a Phoenixym! That has everything to do with the future the council has in store."

"They are not real!" Drax argued even as everything inside him started to click into place about Iris.

A Phoenixym. The highest and most powerful form of a Phoenix. There had only been tellings of two others in history and every telling had led to the destruction of a planet and every inhabitant on it. And Iris- gosh, Iris was already showing signs of uncontrollable powers...

Everything was starting to make sense. Iris couldn't help the fact that she was a Phoenixym. Nobody was even sure on how they were made but it made sense on why her father was after her. She was unbelievable strong. Even though she couldn't control it now. Drax saw for himself how she had started to disintegrate his front room, how Iris had almost killed Eric with just a look.

She couldn't control it...

It wasn't her fault, she didn't know.

"You were in her presence on your planet, and according to your dectre-friend you've already given her a child. There is no way that you've never seen her abilities!! And the sad part is, she will only grow stronger the longer she is alive! The last telling of one was less than a hundred years ago and he destroyed a whole planet. Turned everything, even the planets core into a wasteland full of ash. If it wasn't for the council showing up when they did they wouldn't have been able to stop him."

"Him?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Prince!" The rusted color male mocked before continuing, "Don't tell me you've been so buried between the legs of the women on your planet that you don't know the story of... Well, no one knew his name but after the things he'd done, most, if they spoke of him at all, only refer to him as the 'beast'."

"The 'beast'?" Drax murmured in nothing more than disbelief. He honestly had never heard of this male before.

"Yes, the 'beast'." The second man in the room suddenly spoke up. His skin color though a molten gray, was mostly covered by a shielding thick sweater. His hands covered in black, pleathered gloves, his right eye hidden behind a similarly textured  eye-patch. His mouth having a scar that ran jaggedly from edge of his right cheekbone diagonally towards the left corner of his mouth.

"The boy at first seemed normal, a small orphaned child, well, that's what he was when my family moved to the planet. Truth be told, some said he was defective as a child and therefore his mother left him to the care of the guardian woman. And they did what they could for the boy but they were so far up in age that by the time the boy was four wee moons, they had dissolved into the greater dust. I can remember, he would sit out side the gates of the palace begging for crumbs, but Zoryn was not a giving planet. So most nights he starved, my son would sneak him scraps left over from our dinners from time to time.

And having pity for the weak, my family recommended to the superior officer over the town that he be taken in. I mean, he was a child, maybe reaching four moons at the time. Within a years time he was placed with a family on the other side of the city. Most would've described him as weak, but nonetheless trustworthy, harmless, and quiet. Then one day that all changed, he just snapped... It was my free day, I planned to spent it stretched out with my wife and kids besides me..." The man scoffed before finishing, "Instead I was called in, the emergency beccon being rung through my ears like nothing I had ever heard before. 'A level five on the oranslist' they said, nothing too serious but everyone was needed to de-escalate the situation. A child having a tantrum and a power episode." Abruptly the eye patch wearing roNüs invaded Drax's personal space, his right hand reaching quickly to yank off his own eye-patch, before glaring into Drax's face.

Looking down into Drax's eyes with one focused red eyeball, while the other was a milky white, before he spoke again, "The 'beast' did this to me! He murdered countless people for NO reason. My son, my daughter, just eight moons, the both of them, my wife slaughtered for trying to protect them, murdered in cold blood. Their bodies turned to ash, so no passing ceremony for those left behind; the 'beast,' did this. All without even staring in our direction. A whole planet destroyed, disintegrated. And for what? Because he couldn't control his powers? He claimed to not know he even had them but how can you trust a boy who did the things he did because of a tantrum? No one thought someone as young as he would be capable of something so horrible. He left us without a home, the grounds of Zoryn were no longer able to grow anything, almost everything turned to ash. The council declared the planet a wasteland seeing as it's core spark had died out. It was a great loss for those who were left behind. So you tell me dear 'prince', do you still believe them to be harmless? Do you believe they should all be free to roam about carelessly?!"

Drax was shocked at what he was hearing, he had never heard this story before. One would think as old as he was that he would've at least heard about a planet being destroyed but he was totally drawing a blank. "What happened to the boy?"

"Dead, the council took care of that abomination. And we, as males from the time, have sworn to protect the Galaxy from any more beings of such. So if I were you... I would get to talking about where they took her!"

"They don't all deserve death because of one child's mistake!" Drax argued.

"You say that now, even after hearing everything and realizing the council traded both your life and forfeited any claim you and your family might have had to your planet? You are no longer a prince, no longer do you hold the powers you once had, the council has both your family and your people believing you to be a traitor, you've officially been stripped of everything you once held dear... Make this easier on yourself and simply tell me where she is and I promise you, I will not strip you of the right to have a quick honorable death. The world is better off without Phoenix's. Even your brother knew that."

"My brother had nothing to do with this!"

The first roNüs that had spoken to Drax took this as his cue to speak up, his laughter radiating through the air before he breathed out his next words. "It's as if you don't understand the situation you're in. You do realize that the council deemed you no longer useful and handed you over to us, so we can do with you as we please."

"As if you haven't already. Look at me," Drax growled out, his hands outstretched to gesture to his battered body. He angrily looked to the scarred male before speaking, "Well, maybe not you, you've only got one good eye to glare from but-" Drax was cut off by a few punches to the gut. Only when Drax started to bleed from the mouth did the guys let up on him.

"Now, you tell me. Is she worth all of this? The loss of your powers, your planet believing you've been removed because of some stupid rule about mates blah blah blah, the none stop beatings, your death? Is all of that worth losing for someone who will be the end to things as we know it?"

"Yes."

"Then I guess we have nothing else to talk about, do we?" As the roNüs said this his hands yanked a sharpen dagger like blade from his utility belt. "Hold him still!" He coached his men as he started walking slowly towards Drax.

"No!" Drax yelled out as the two guards grabbed his arms, one gripping his head retching it back, while the other yanked at his jaw. The amount of pressure added to his already swollen face caused his mouth to pry open.

Tears poured down Drax's face despite his struggles to keep his anger in place. "Let go of me!!" Drax yelled, his cry almost sounding like a plea as he struggled to get loose.

"You sure about this?" One roNüs asked.

"As both of you have heard with your own ears, he will not spill on where the girl went and since the only thing that seems to come from his lips are smart remarks, let's take away that too. Then once he finally croaks over, we will parade his body around for all those in the Galaxy to see the disgraced prince."

(A/N: just a f.y.i. it's about to get violent so skip to the next part if you can't handle it. Look for the three stars 👉***)

This was a punishment dished out to only the most dishonorable males in the Galaxy. The council would usually only dish it out to ones who'd committed serious crimes; crimes that were unforgivable. In most cases if the males were ever spotted out in the open they would be singled out and beaten by any who dared. Sometimes there would be mobs of people waiting to fight the dishonorable person. One or two people, a person could fight or get away from but when there was a whole crowd all waiting, there was no escape. And most died within two hours of the dishonorable markings. The marks themselves were to show how little the person amounted to and it was nothing they could do about it. The council would usually give the choice between this and death; most chose death seeing as how it ended in death anyways, they just preferred it right away. And though, Drax knew he would never feel the simmering purpled lights of the four sun's of AviLäeShä and never feel the cooling waters of ArüStal's lakes again, he couldn't help the sorrow he felt at dying with the markings of a dishonored male.

He was honorable. Or at least he had tried to be, even with the things he'd done in his past.

"Keep him still!!" The lead roNüs coached as his fingers grabbed a hold of Drax's tongue.

Drax struggled but there was nothing he could do as he felt the abrupt sharpness of the blade cut across his tongue, removing it almost wholely from his mouth. He couldn't even scream out from the pain because the blood seemed to gather in his throat. His eyes watered as he hacked away to clear his mouth but nothing helped. It was then that he felt the blade once again against his skin. A second later, the blade was peircing his bottom lip on a down ward angle and slicing down through his chin. Drax was sure that he would pass away at any moment. Blood filled his mouth and ran in bucket amounts down the front of his shirt, as the roNüs tossed him harshly towards the floor.

Drax loss all will to move as he watched through tear filled eyes both in pain and embarrassment, as the lead roNüs clipped his tongue onto a chain that hung around his neck.

"What a nice souvenir! The tongue of the disgraced prince." They teased before all filing out the door...

Leaving behind a barely alive, silently, sobbing Drax.

***
20 minutes before..

Iris was sat in the entertainment room, a dull ache seeming to fill her body, and unfortunately this wasn't the first time. Iris had been experiencing weird aches and pains since...

Well, to be honest, she wasn't even sure how long it had been. All she knew was that it seemed to have advanced on her pain scale, where she had once experienced a solid four now seemed to be hurtling towards a terrifying seven.

"Iris?" Jenny questioned as she sat slouched on a large brown couch that had seemed to appear thanks to CReSin. One of the baby's sat bouncing in her lap, happiness being read loud and clear on his small face as he pulled and tugged at the ends of Jenny's brown hair.

After having the last conversation with KyRue a few weeks ago, Iris had taken it upon herself to find Jenny and Michael to discuss how things had been. And though they hadn't settled all the sudden space between them, they were working on it. Well, Iris and Michael was, Jenny from time to time would get in her feeling because she felt that Iris acted ungrateful for not calling them mom and dad. It was a weird problem to have but Michael had understood her better than Jenny had. Iris had also had the time to discover what had changed in Michael...

Though it wasn't as if he could've hid it.

Michael had changed when they first got him back from the lab but the changes now, were much more defining.

Whatever that lab had done to him had caused him to not only have another small growth sprout, but his eyes had changed to a shimmering silver, his hair grew two frighteningly wild streaks of white that started at his temples and traveled towards the end of his hair- which was now flowing in droves down his back. No matter how much they cut it seemed to grow back in such a rapid pace that one would think it had never been cut in the first place. His face even seemed to have de-aged by several years. He went from looking like Iris's dad to resembling the age of an uncle, or an older brother.

It was remarkable. Even his muscles had gotten the memo to changes. Sure, Michael had never been a slouch but he hadn't exactly had the best gym body either. But now, his chest had filled out along with his arms and thighs. Heck, even Iris could appreciate that he looked good-

Of course, not in a 'oh-he's-so-hot' type of way but more in a 'oh-crap-what-the-heck-happened-to-you' type of way.

As a matter of fact when Iris had first entered the room all those weeks ago, she was pretty sure those were the first words that flew out of her mouth.

'Oh crap, what the heck happened to you?!'

Nobody truly knew what had happened to him, it was still unknown what all had been forced into his system at that database. Even when CReSin examined him, she couldn't fine anything defective or even offer a solution as to why he had changed.

And all Jenny could focus on was the fact that he look a lot younger, infact Iris could sense a sudden insecurity because of it. As if Jenny felt he would no longer look to her for things. But that wasn't the case, even if she couldn't see it at this moment.

Michael would still hover over Jenny with unreliquished love and kindness; same as he always did. The only reason that he wasn't hovering now was because of the fact that though he has gotten a lot of positive changes to happen, there were also some negative changes too. For instance, he seemed to be in a lot more pain nowadays. Only whenever it would become too much for him to handle, would CReSin come in lugging behind her a healing pod to help out. Everyday for an hour he would rest away like sleeping beauty.

The worst part was that his body scans from the pod would show nothing was wrong, but the pain on his face and in his movements would be so evident.

No one could explain it..

A sudden hand clasped Iris's shoulder, before the feeling of her child getting snatched from her arms caused her to snap out of her thoughts and come back into the present, "Iris! What the hell are you doing? Are you okay?!" Jenny voice mirrored her fear.

"Y-,Yeah, I'm fine, I just-" Iris paused as another surge of pain echoed through her body. She paused until the pain flushed through her system and only then did she continue, "I'm fine, I just haven't been feeling too well the last few days."

"You were doing it again! You started to faze in and out." Jenny said as she bounced the curious baby in her arms while the other two distracted themselves as they played back and forth on the floor.

"I didn't even feel it this time.."

"Iris, you need to tell KyRue! It has been happening a lot more lately and when something happens-"

"Nothing will happen." Iris assured though she was unsure herself.

"You say that but you almost just fazed with the baby in your arms! God forbid it happens, but what if you faze out into space or a planet where the air is unbreathable?! Think of the children, Iris!" Jenny yelled while scowling.

And this was why Iris and Jenny could not suddenly get along. Jenny seemed to be taking her anger and frustrations out on Iris. And no matter what the situation was, Iris got blamed. Even if it wasn't her fault. "I am always thinking of my children!" Iris countered seriously.

"Are you?" Jenny asked sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Iris asked in disbelief. What was Jenny implying?

"I mean, just two weeks ago you were keeping both the children and yourself locked away in a small freaking room with an unknown man. Who we all know isn't your babys father!"

"First of all he's not even awake, and secondly I was going through something!" Iris whisper-yelled trying not to frighten her children with her yells.

"As if we all aren't! Look around you Iris, what. Do. You. See? We are in space! A million light miles away from anything lightly familiar, away from the lives we've chosen to live, and people we love and for what?! We can't go back home because the government now knows about Michael! We can't stop at any nearby planets because your father is after us! So we are damned if we do and damned if we don't but you don't see any of us doing what you did!!"

"I also didn't see any of you get kidnapped!! Be fucking starved half to death, while pregnant mind you, and I also didn't see any of you have three babies-"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Just because I can't have kids-" Jenny angrily replied but Iris cut her off.

"That's not what I meant and you know it, Jenny!" Iris scoffed, throwing her hands up in annoyance.

"Once again, here you go. You don't even have enough respect to call me your mother?!" Jenny berated.

"That's not- why are you trying to pick a fight with me?" Iris had to breathe out to try and calm down, her left arm folding over her chest while her right moved to pinch at the space between her eyes.

"You know what, fine! You don't want me to be your mom? I WON'T BE! After I went to fucking work every day and did everything within my power to protect you? FINE-"

"JENNY!!" The rumble of Michael's voice washed over the room in such a frightened rush that even the children stopped their baby talk. "I leave you two for one hour and I awake to this? What the hell is going on?!"

"You wanna know what's going on, I'll tell you what's going on! I'm sick and tired of all of this bullshit! All of it! I just want to go back to how everything was before! Before we had to take care of her! Things were so much more simplistic without her being around. She is not even our child and yet she is so ungrateful to everything I had to sacrifice for her! Even now! With us being so far away from home, her father after us, she is still an... ungrateful spoiled little bitch!" Jenny's words though spoken in anger could only be registered as true feelings in Iris's eyes.

"Jenny!" Michael yelled in disbelief, his legs carrying him between the two just in case the situation escalated to something even worst than what it had.

Shaking her head in anger Iris ignored the rest of the conversation as she started to gather her children, a headache was also starting to set in. After Iris placed the two that was on the floor in the carrier CReSin had given her, she headed towards Jenny who was now arguing with Michael. Iris stretched her hands out to grasp her child but Jenny yelled out, "No! She is a danger to her own children."

"Give me my child." Iris voice was deathly calm on the outside though all she felt was rage on the inside.

"No. As long as you keep fazing in and out I don't think they need to be with you!"

"Jenny, stop it. Give her the child." Michael coached as he too reached for his grandson.

"No!" Jenny yelled defiantly as she wiggled out of both of their reach.

Before Iris could think, her hands grabbed for her child but Jenny was quick to push her, and because Iris didn't want to hurt her own child, she allowed the force of the push to knock her down. Between the random pain and the furious anger that rippled through her body, Iris couldn't control as her powers ripped around her. Her eyes sparking like a match as she tumbled downwards.

In a space where the floor and her back should have met, Iris fell into a dark hole. Her mouth opening in a scream but nothing came out as she continued to tumble, as if the darkness swallowed her cries. "Iris!" She heard Michael's voice from a distance screech but she could no longer see him. In fact she couldn't see a thing, all she could feel was pain.

It was so deeply entrenched inside her heart and soul, she could feel tears pour from her eyes. Iris gasped out as she suddenly slammed body first into a solid metal floor.

The first thing besides pain to caress her senses was the stomach revolting stench of blood. A lot of blood. The room was dark but not so dark that one couldn't see. As Iris sat up, all she noticed was the fact that there was several torturous devices around the room.

Then the abrupt sound of chains moving slowly across the floor had Iris spinning around with awareness. The sight before her caused a sound so horrendous to leave her lips.

Because there before her, crumpled on the floor and drenched in a sea of dark black blood was Drax. His mouth split open in a way that made her heart break, his once beautifully white hair now mixed in the darken blood, his clothes ragged, his eyes were blurred with unending tears, and his right hand was out stretched towards her.

As if he knew he didn't have long.

"Oh god, Drax!" Iris cried out as she collapsed onto the floor next to him. Her hand gripping his tight.