2- Unity

King Unity awoke the next morning with his husband Infinity drawing the word "FLOWER" in big, bold letters of their bedroom wall. Old books, scrapbooks and textbooks decorated the brown carpet floor. A lot of these papers were related to the biology or anatomy of a bender. Some were more cultural-focused. Then one was an old childhood scrapbook of him and Infinity. When the king saw him, his translucent eyes lit up like an ember. "Uni, you're awake! Get ready for breakfast I've got big news!"

Breakfast was organized by the cooks again, simple eggs and bacon with extra orange juice for Ghoul. The three ate in silence, but Infinity's face was itching to blurt out his news. "Guess what?" He squealed like a child. Unity was unfaced by his husband's strange behavior. Infinity always had a knack for thinking of a half-baked plan and rolling with it, like when he thought the best way to stop the infestation of sparkle-spiders in the castle was to gather a bunch of wild horn-bears to eat them. "Yes, Finnie?"

The king gleefully smacked down a thick, rusty, hard-cover book. It was a mucky brown color with a rippled cover and pages. The cover read "Operation Re-Population." in swirly yet messy orange ink. Unity looked at the book and back at his husband. Ghoul was just as lost. "What the fuck is that?" He said.

"Language!" Unity snapped at him before glancing back at Infinity. "Really though, what is it?"

"It's complete is what it is!" Infinity exclaimed.

"That's nice, Finnie, but seriously what is it?"

"My grand plan!"

"No really, what is this 3rd grade art mess?"

"Hey!" Infinity took the astrocyte away from his family's sight and clutched it to his chest. "I've been working on this for TEN YEARS now!"

"That doesn't explain what it is."

Infinity set the book back down on the table and opened to first page. It was a collage of different star-benders, most of the pictures were childhood or college friends posing ridiculously. The main three that caught Unity's eye was the old painting of King Shiwosca. Infinity's great-grandfather. He was a powerful king with astronomy skills and knowledge that was out of this world. Now thinking about him, Unity remembered on old rumor that he had an affair and a possible baby with an unknown fellow star-bender. But Unity had always shrugged it off as another spicy story historians made up because history is boring.

The second picture infuriated Unity. The man in it has sleek black skin with purple lines like veins creeping up his arms and legs like cracks in the earth. His sclera (white part of an eye) was a deep purple, with his iris and pupil flooded with black. These are the features all xodes tend to have. The man in the picture was what the people of Carculis called "Finn the snitch." He was the weak link that brought the Xode Empire here to attack and kill their people. Strangely enough, despite how much rage that man brought Unity, when he looked at the picture, all he saw was a humble man gardening with his family. Anyone with no knowledge of the war wouldn't be able to tell what kind of traitor and coward this man turned out to be.

The last picture brought back memories, terrible memories. It was of a laboratory that was still up today. After a terrible reunion with a friend on Infinity's coronation, the friend quit house-painting as he saw it as "A bird stain on the statue of his legacy." And returned to working at said lab on a pretty big project.

Unity turned to his son, who long disconnected from the conversation and had headphones in. Presumably listening to "heavy metal." or whatever it was since he started this new emo phase.

Infinity had a look of nerves, like he was scared of Unity failing this weird art project he was presenting to him. "Do you see what I'm getting at here, Uni?"

"No, what is this new fascination with extinct benders?"

"Well, the war got rid a lot of these benders right? Well, since my coronation..." Infinity suddenly trailed off, looking into space with this look of motion sickness.

"Dad!" Ghoul yelled out from his spot of the table. "What is this old junk book?"

"Huh?!" Infinity snapped back to the present moment, looking alert and confused like someone woke him up from a deep sleep.

"You were talking about the war." Unity reminded him.

"Oh crap, sorry. I've been working on this plan to, well, to...fix everything. These past ten years I've been collecting as much data about each endangered bender as possible, including all of us! Thanks to some reliable sources and friends across the planet, I think I've officially organized phase one of our plan! Find each of these benders and train them to their full potential!"

A stunned silence hung in the air for a few moments. For the first time in two weeks, Ghoul smiled. "You mean there could be others like us! Like me and you!"

Infinity's face dropped again and said with hesitation, "Um- well, from what I've gathered in the whole planet, there are only 3 soul-benders left. Including you and me."

Ghoul kept his smile. "There's another one!! Oh boy this is so exciting! Do you think he'll have time to teach me to fly! OH, what if we know him already!"

"Actually, kiddo-"

"Don't call me kiddo."

"-I think it'll just be you and me. The other one, from what I've gathered is really...really-"

"OLD." Unity put a supporting hand on his husband's shoulder. "He's really old and can't help us."

Ghoul's face read like an open picture book. He clearly had several questions but Unity would rather him remain in the dark than except help from THAT soul-bender.

His son slumped into his arm-chair and angrily placed his headphones back on. "Pshh, fucking lame."

"Language!"

"So," Infinity waited for his husband's thought on his plan. "What do you think?"

"Honey," Unity started "You want us to leave behind our home, travel across the planet to pick up random strangers, take them back here to the castle and train them into doing what? Master their powers? What then? What if you can't get everyone? What if some refuse to join your cause? Your plan is in the right place of heart, but it is extremely single-minded."

Unity could tell his words cut deep into his husband, so he began to re-phrase his response. "I mean, it IS good. It just needs more fine tuning is all. Spend more time on it."

"I've already spent 10 years collecting data."

"Well, y'know, what's another?"

Infinity shot daggers at his spouse. "Uni, I have spent a good portion of my reign over the north taking the blame for what my father did to our people. It's been written in the stars for so long that I am the one meant to fix his mess! It's been my real duty as king since the day I was coronated!"

He's doing it again.

"Finnie, I can tell you in confidence that's not your place. What happened has happened. You are doing a fantastic job already as king. You've gained the north's trust again. Don't lose it by bringing your father into this."

"My decision's already final Uni. I've left the care of the castle to the guards and staff."

"You're really not backing down are you?"

"Nope, as long as I have my family's support with me, I'll be fine."

Liar

"You know you have my unconditional support but I'm just saying," Uni tried to slot these words in an order that won't shoot his husband in the pendant. "You won't have theirs."

If Infinity was hurt, he didn't let it show. He took Unity's moss green hands and held them in his cyan ones. "Theirs doesn't matter to me."

Unity gazed at his husband's transparent eyes. The iris was the color of mist, meaning it didn't really have a color and acted as the windows to the soul instead. Ghoul's eyes were a spitting image of his father's. Or they would be if the reflection off his mobilizer screen didn't blur them all day.

"Alright." Unity said after a few moments. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

*********************************************************************************

He sure did warn him.

Right away Infinity released the plan and explanation for it to the public. The public, let's say, were not impressed.

"Complete disaster of a plan."

"The north left without a king for the summer as he goes on a road trip with his family."

"A king that cares more about leisure than the well-being of his people, nice to see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"I see we're returning to the Paktor era."

"Screw this, I'm moving to the south."

"Let's see if that dumb hashtag's gonna be trending again."

"I really did have faith in this one."

"I blame his husband. We were fine for ten years until this bomb was dropped out of nowhere."

"Incredibly stupid."

"He really takes after his father."

"Probably the most single-minded idea I've heard in my life."

"Dumb and single-minded."

"How many people will he disable this time?"

"Single-minded, dumb, stupid, far-fetched, single-minded, did I say single-minded already?"

"Might work if it weren't so single-minded."

BLAH BLAH BLAH. The only person aside form Unity and Ghoul to support the king's idea, was in fact, the king of the south, Omnipotence. When the press urged for his opinion, he said, and we quote:

"I like the idea of Infinity wanting to spend more time with his family. And as a fellow ruling monarch it's harder and harder to find time to do that. Also, the guy is single-handedly reducing homelessness by picking randoms off the street and adopting them. Simply adorable! Finnie, if you're watching, you got support from the south brotha! Oooh, quote me on that! #supportfromthesouth!"

Soon the summer rolled around and the three had packed for a long journey around Carculis. Ghoul was less excited than his parents. Not at all even, and he let them know it. "This plan is stupid."

"I've heard that one already buddy," Infinity joked whilst helping a guard pack a suitcase into the carriage. "You might want to be more original."

"Ghoul, can't you at least pretend to be excited! I mean, you never get out of the house!" Unity reasoned pulling down the last case from the stairs.

Ghoul did an extra moan and draped the back of his hand over his forehead like a damsel in distress. "Yeah, but the sun hurts my eyes, and my skin. Especially my soul. It is meant for secluded and dark places alone!"

"Your mobilizer, master." It was Gendrick. He'd come to see them off and handed Ghoul his device.

"Thanks for nothing, Gendrick!" Ghoul snarked as he hoped into the backseat of the carriage.

"Thanks for everything, is what he meant, I promise." Unity corrected before hurrying to the vehicle.

"So," Unity took Infinity's hand and planted a warm kiss, much to Ghoul's disgust in the back. "Where to first."

"Oh Uni, you saw where we're going first, it was in the scrapbook."

"Yeah totally...so where are we going?"

The two shared a joking look before Infinity announced:

"Initiation of Phase 1, we are going to Luzica's Laboratory in Balleymay to get a star-bender."