The thrum of power filled Astra's isolation room. A wooden chair sat in the middle of that room, with dozens of thick high power cables leading from the back of it and disappearing into the wall.

The cables, and therefore the chair, were directly connected to the generator that powered this facility. After Astra's power draining fiasco on their first visit short circuited the generator, they were able to get it restarted and functional once more.

This chair was the best alternative. A way for her to steadily absorb the power without shorting the generator and possibly ruining their 'liberated' facility. The chair had a slightly disturbing design, simply because it was modelled after an electric chair, the type that they used to execute prisoners.

The only real difference was the current ran through a pair of metallic rods that were attached to the arm rests, so Astra could hold them, rather than through a dome above her head. Not that such a dome would kill her, it just gave her seriously frizzy hair.

Plus, the chair even had a nice pillow for comfortable, prolonged sitting. So that made it a little less grim to look at... maybe.

Sparks of static crackled between the rods and Astra's trembling fingers as she slowly uncurled her hands. Her movements were stiff and when she let out a heavy breath, it was like exhaling a storm cloud.

The breath condensed in the air, miniature sparks crackling in the midst of that cloud before it dispersed into the air.

Pulling herself to her feet, Astra's legs immediately wobbled and her knees buckled as she collapsed to the ground before she could even properly stand. Sitting on all fours, Astra breathed heavily as she tried her best to keep the electricity inside of her.

The last few months had been exhausting... truly and utterly draining, despite the fact all she had been doing was absorbing energy. But it was exactly because of that, that she was so exhausted.

The last time she had close to this much energy inside of her, it was during the lightning storm. She had felt like an invincible Goddess in those moments! As if nothing could stand in her way with all the power that was at her fingertips.

But now, she felt even a kitten's sneeze might be her end if she didn't put her all into resisting it.

Before, she could absorb the energy and immediately put it to use. It was like pumping yourself with adrenaline and using it to break the world record in a sprint. The feeling now, however, was more like she had been drip fed thousands of those shots, and had no where to put it.

All the energy was roaring inside of her, desperate to be released, and it was taking so much of her will power and self control to keep it that way. Her arms trembled, unable to support her weight, as she completely collapsed onto the floor.

Her nerves were on fire, every inch of her body wracking with pain as her muscles constantly convulsed and twitched as lightning arced across her skin like the surface of a Tesla ball.

Her mind was burning like the sun, going millions of miles a minute only for her thoughts to always circle back to the pain she was in and her desperate need to keep it inside. It filled her ears with the deafening sound of static, so much so that she could not hear the door to her isolation room open.

However, Astra could feel the light pouring into the room from the outside and managed to make out the muffled sound of a pair of voices beneath the static.

"D-don't... touch. Don't touch... me..."

She groaned in desperation, feeling the thumps of footsteps vibrating the floor beneath her. More muffled sounds came, but so did the footsteps. She wanted to wave them away, but just speaking was already difficult enough.

"Don't touch! I'll... I'll kill... Can't... control."

Hands touched her shoulder despite her protests, and before she could shake them off, the lightning burning in her veins took the opportunity to escape. It roared out of her, shooting through the person's arm and coursing through their system.

She could only imagine their heart beating the mambo five, before exploding into a meat firework as the electricity passed through it, before pouring back into her body through the other arm. The human equivalent of a battery and foil lighter... perhaps even with the flame part added on.

However, when the arms shifted, dragging down her own until the person's hands linked with hers, she knew that it could only be one person. A slight smile danced across her lips as she relaxed her control over her body.

It wasn't enough to completely let loose, but just enough for some of the energy to course through her assistant and back into her body in a complete circuit. It relieved the stress on her body enough to dim the static in her ears just in time to hear Seth's voice taking its place.

"-be fine, I promise. But, this is why I told you that we don't interrupt Mommy's Special Alone time, understand?"

"Oh... I hate you, you know that?"

"Really? What did I ever do to deserve such a thing?"

His voice was overflowing with sarcasm, and although Astra's eyes were closed in an attempt to relieve her pounding headache, she could actually hear the smug, self satisfied smirk that was plastered all over his face.

"You and that stupid name... She's been saying that to other people, you know? The look of horror on a baron's face when she told them that is why I was late to a meeting... I should kill you for that alone. I am never going to live that embarrassment down."

Seth couldn't help but laugh when he heard that, a laugh that only annoyed Astra more. He absolutely did not regret teaching that term to Nixie, he only regretted not being there to see the look on their face. After-all, part of the fun of having kids was having them as innocent little parrots that said fun things without realising.

It was especially funny because baron's were the people appointed to run the cities he had... taken possession of, in one way or another. Even though his alter ego, Lord Corvus, was called a lord he really had more of the duty of a king, yet Seth insisted instead on giving himself the title of Emperor, while keeping the name Lord.

Perhaps he should go for Lord Emperor instead. Yes... that definitely had a better ring to it. That was definitely something he was going to have to shamelessly implement when he had ruled over the entire island, which would be the case when this final city submitted.

Shifting Astra's weight and putting her arm over his shoulder, Seth continued to help her limp through the corridors of the facility as they made their way to the Heaven's Gate, which remained the only exit.

Although it had originally led to the space ship, Seth had been wanting to set it up here so he could freely steal... I mean, re-purpose the space ship. However, because of someone who couldn't keep their hands to themselves, he never got the chance to do that and seemingly locked himself out.

Thankfully, he had a competent team on his side to make up for his mistakes. When they had been left behind, Fox and Carnifex had been quick to call Lee away from the duties that had kept him so busy, as they feared the worst.

While Lee hadn't been happy about it, and was still griping about it to this very day, he had still come to their help. Amazingly, he managed to trace the space rupture to where they ended up and open a portal of his own to the facility.

The workers had gotten another lovely surprise at that after Seth grand theft auto-ed their space ship.

After a little extra busy work, they managed to get the spaceships end of the Heaven's Gate in the facility, so they could actually have a way in and out of the place. Since no matter how much they pressured or interrogated them, the grumpy old Director Zero refused to give up where the facility was located.

They still weren't sure what country it was in, if it even was in a country at all.

"You got my message... right?"

Astra spoke weakly, her voice rough and dehydrated. Seth nodded softly, whispering gently to her in an effort to soothe her.

"Yeah, Don't worry. Your ride is on it's way. We just gotta get outside, wait for the curbside pick up. Maybe even say hi to the Loch folk while we are there."

She let out a soft laugh, followed by a groan of pain as she stumbled slightly only to be caught by Seth. When he heaved her back to her feet and kept her walking, she finally opened her eyes to look up at him with a pouting, guilty expression that made his heart melt.

"What about you? Is your... body going to be okay? I know this current can't be good for it."

She glanced over his arms, which still supported her weight. Parts of the metal were starting to glow as heat built up inside them and radiated outwards.

Seth simply shrugged, flashed her another cocky smirk and winked.

"Don't worry about me, I've always been hot. I thought you would have known that."

Astra let out a deep sigh and shook her head as all of her guilt immediately disappeared, his corny line hurting her more than the overcharge ravaging her body.

She looked forwards again, focusing on not falling on her face. But the corner of her mouth twitched upwards in a faint smile.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.