The Prophesied Destroyers

Genesis of the Honorbounds

"You asked about my name when we first met. You see, I was named after a hero who had been plucked from his world only to experience tortures pretending to be days. Even after all that though, he joined the fight against Henry and Nina. I can't imagine being in his place, fighting two monstrous titans. And they're human-sized, not my size."

- Jace Honorbound II, to Samantha

For this next bit, I shall move the perspective to a friend of mine. He was born with the name Lunaria. He had a kind and loving mother and was raised with the knowledge of his heritage as a descendant of Benzedek in a timeline where he had gotten himself shrunk down to a height of just a couple of inches or so.

It all changed in one day.

"Why do we watch over all this?" Lunaria wined, his usual response to his mother's command to check on their family heritage.

"All these books cover the life of Benzedek," she said, repeating the mantra, "his rise as a villain, his meeting with Abzedek and Joseph, and his turn against the deceiving corruptor. It is through him that we know who to fear, so we must keep his work safe, so we don't forget the true enemy."

"Didn't they get sealed away in another planet or something like that?" Lunaria sighed. "They'll never be coming back, so isn't this just a waste of time that could be spent gathering?"

"You know father has it handled," she reassured him before noticing the rising sun, "but I should probably check up on him. You know the threat of humans here." Nodding, Lunaria looked over to one bookshelf as his mother left.

"'The prophecies of the wanderer's daughter,'" he read, taking his time to read the worn lettering, "wonder what's in here?" With that, he flipped to a random page and began to read:

"'Today she gave another cryptic prophecy I don't think was meant for me. Well, I think it was a prophecy. Like some of the others, she spoke of the future as though it were the past. She said Karma had been killed by an immortal and that the escape of Henry followed. She then said that her sons were the key to stopping that threat, just as Henry can only be fought with the heart and mind.'"

As he continued to read from the yellowed pages, he didn't hear his parents scream as my eldest brother found them. If he were half as good as my other older brother, their deaths would have been quick and painless. But no, it is clear the kind of monster he is.

In an instant, the book of prophecies fell to the ground as someone grabbed Lunaria around the neck and pulled him off his feet, dragging him backward. "What the?!" Lunaria gasped as he tried twisting around to see who was dragging him, but the sight of his father with blood dribbling down his face, eyes a deep blue rather than his usual brown was too much for the young child.

"Nothing personal," a voice that was very much not his father's came from that mouth, and Lunaria renewed his struggles until he saw his mother in a similar state, blue eyes covering the purple eyes he inherited from her. "I don't have anything against Abzedek's children. However, in the grand scheme of things, your place here is as nothing more than a bug."

With that, Lunaria slipped and was pulled the rest of the way out of his family's secluded spot. Towering over him was what can only be described as having once been a man. Then it reached down, and Lunaria knew no more.

Too long later,

"Come on then, triple-oh one cubed," Dr. Barnabas Karma Matthews laughed, "if you just get a handle on your teleportation, this cook here wouldn't have to put you back together every time you fail at dodging my foot.

At this point, despite all of Timothy's healing, Barnabas' boots had gone from a lifeless white to a bloodied red.

Without sharing much more detail, he had eventually learned to teleport but at the cost of forgetting his life before my brother's tortures.

"Wake up, child of the wanderer," Barnabas woke to Achilles standing over his prison cell, "your brother has been born. Don't try to escape." With that, Achilles left, and Barnabas thought about the future he had just seen for himself.