Dream Partners: Dark Rain (book 2)

Chapter 1: Imbalance

The rain fell hard, fires burned and the once beautiful sky was now covered in total darkness with these dark red-eyed figures everywhere, as two of the Astro-gods ran beside a cloaked figure through their once proud city. The cloaked figure was the ancient star goddess, Maya and the other two gods accompanying her were Ariel and Maldor. As they jumped from cover to cover, the only thing they had on their minds was to get Maya to safety and that meant escaping the city on foot and without much of their powers to help as they were infected.

After a few more hours, the three gods had managed to escape the city to an underground cavern, that would should Maya's power signature and prevent her whereabouts from being exposed. Maya wished to stay and fight the dark army but she couldn't because her being the most powerful god meant if she was captured, her powers could be weaponized and used to make the situation many times worse than it was. After reaching the portal generator, she channeled her energy and created a portal, and entered as Maldor said "Go seek your children...maybe they can help us". Just as the portal closed and Ariel and Maldor left the cavern, the dark figures surrounded and captured them.

[Flashback: 1 year ago]
It had been a month since Andrea Mendoza and Jay Rodriguez had defeated the rogue god, Agathor, and restored the universe to its normal state however deep in the outskirts of the universe, trouble was already brewing. Agathor's children whom he had created during his many centuries of exile, were given a special parting gift before he died. It was a crystal much like the one he tried to capture, only instead of harnessing the power of pure harmony, this one harnessed the power of pure dark chaos that exists within the universe. After receiving this fragment, his children began to train and create more of themselves to form a society that they hid in the shadows from the Astro-gods they knew were watching them.

Meanwhile, back in the celestial temple, Andrea had been called back to assist the gods in one final task. After being transported to the first city, Andrea frowned and said "Why am I here ?...hello anyone home?" and a familiar voice; Ariel's voice said, "Greetings my child, I apologize for bringing you back here but we need your help". Andrea smiled and said "Sure what is it?" and Ariel said, "We're going to take this star fragment and use it with your powers in order to bring the all-powerful star goddess; Maya, back to life". Andrea scratched the back of her head and said "Wouldn't that be disrupting the natural order of things?" and Aula stepped in and said, "My child, Agathor's children, have grown in powers and in numbers and since their power is a flipside of Maya's, we need expertise if we are going to save the children... we've already killed one of our children, those others shouldn't have to die over a failure in our society".

Andrea smiled and said "I'm glad I was able to get through to you" and Ariel stepped in and asked "So will you help us my child?" and Andrea smiled and said, "Let's do it". Ariel levitated the fragment over to Andrea and she grabbed it and closed her eyes. Ariel said, "I'm sending you an image of Maya...clear your mind of everything except that image...focus on it". Andrea did as instructed and Ariel said "Good, now for the last step...picture the stars... become one with them, channel their energy into and let it build until it has nowhere to go". Andrea did as instructed until her form changed and she began to shriek in agony. She stopped and said "It's no use, I need Jay remember" and Maldor popped in and said, "Actually you don't, all you have to do is link with him telepathically and channel his power through your body like you do with the stars".

Andrea growled and said, "Why can't Jay just help me, why do I have to keep him in the dark?". Ariel said, "Because Agathors children are currently watching him tightly and I can't risk them finding out about our plans". Andrea sighed and said "Whatever, let's get this over with" as she repeated all the steps and began to scream out in agony again. She calmed herself, thought of Jay, and channeled his powers until the fragment vibrated ferociously and Ariel yelled "Think about Maya coming back to life and release it". Andrea did as she was instructed until the fragment cracked and exploded, throwing her into a wall and knocking her out cold.

The fragment exploded into smaller pieces that levitated in the air before they began swirling around in a vortex of purple energy that was drawing more and more power from the stars. When the vortex finally slowed down and disappeared, there was this humanoid woman with blonde hair. Her head was covered in white skin as well as her hands too, but the other parts of her body were made out of pure galaxy that was pink instead of blue and had larger stars than the other gods had on their bodies. She frowned and said, "Why have you brought me back to life my friends".