As much as you probably regret getting yourself into this mess by EVER returning to the City, you are a leader now and you're determined to continue to act as such.

Sometimes you wonder what would've happened had you bought that bomb shelter…

You stay and demand to be informed on the current situation so you can position the defenses better. You want double security on the borders. You also order that all non-combatants should stay in their homes.

When Lisa arrives she has Adonis with her, as well as her own retinue of guards. After telling a couple of your men to take Adonis to your quarters and look after him, you and Lisa begin to talk in your half ruined warehouse.

"We've been getting attack from all sides here you know." You say.
"So have we, the ex-members that broke off from my Horde have been leading many of these attacks at least as far as the sewers are concerned."
"Yeah well we got bigger problems, have you noticed some of the firepower a few of these Glow Children are packing?"
"Yes, the same type that you used against us five years ago. Some of my people are starting to think that this is some complex ZL plot to wipe us out again, I've had to alleviate those concerns though I can't say it didn't cross my mind."
"Hey, I nearly got wasted by that colossus lying on the floor over there! And as you said your own ex-disgruntled employees are leading a lot of the attacks so don't think the same thoughts of treachery haven't gone through our mind up here as well!"
"Funny that you should think that about us since we don't have the history of betraying our allies…"

An argument about accusations breaks out until gunfire from your quarters is heard.

"Adonis!" Lisa says stopping her ranting at you.
"Oh fuck!" you say and run to the ladder with everyone else not far behind.

When you get to your quarters, you see a dead mutant cultist lying on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds, one of your men lies dead with multiple stab wounds and happily Adonis is still alive with one of your guards breathing hard. Adonis immediately runs to Lisa when he sees her.

"Whew! That motherfucker did NOT want to die!" he says.

After thanking the soldier profusely, you make a check wondering how the fuck the assassin got in, the only one who ever got through the door before was Lisa and that was because she managed to subdue your guards and had prior knowledge of the place.

And that's when you see a hole in the wall in one of the bedrooms, that hole now leads to the sewers. Knowing damn well that Lisa would make it known that harm should NEVER come to Adonis, any theories that the Shadow Horde is somehow behind things are out of your mind. Lisa's speculations for you are squashed as well.

"See, the enemy is trying to sew the seeds of mistrust. The old divide and conquer, well to hell with that, they fucked up big time with this clumsy assassination attempt. That's it we're mobilizing every fucking thing we got, we're pooling our resources and…"

You get another report while in the middle of your speech.

"SIR! THEY'RE ATTACKING DOWNTOWN!" a soldier shouts from the upstairs.

"Fuck!" you exclaim and rush to the scene.

When you arrive cultists are throwing home made bombs all over the damn place, some of them are purposely blowing themselves up.

"Aim for the goddamn explosives on their chests before they get close!" you order, while you engage in your own fighting from afar with your rifle. They're coming like swarms of lemmings though and the body count is growing, monstrosities like the one that tried to kill you earlier are proving cover fire for the gibbering suicide cultists.

You need to get into a better position to do the maximum amount of damage, so you look for higher ground while Lisa directs from the street level. You enter one of the buildings and begin running up the stairs to get to the roof. In the process of the excitement, you notice something.

"Damn, I used to work in this building."

After this brief thought of the past you make it to the roof, where upon you're kicked in the face as soon as you exit the door, dropping your rifle.

"Good! I'm glad you avoided the assassins, I was hoping to finish you off myself."

As you stand up, you see a nasty looking creature, with a hideous appearance.


"You're going to pay for what you did to me, YOU turned me into this! With your lies and your assault! I was NORMAL until YOU came and ripped me from my protective sanctuary!"

You immediately know who this is.

"Owen?"
"Silence! I'm the High Priest! Owen DIED when you threw me into the blasted City! Do you know how much pain and sickness I suffered? How many years I wandered the streets of Zeropolis little more than an intelligent Feral? You realize how long it took me to get over the madness?"
"Well from where I'm standing I don't think you're quite over it."
"Oh you're wrong, quite wrong, when the Savior came, she brought clarity to us all. She will bring true order to this City, not the Horde and not the Legion, but the Children! For the Children ARE the future!"
"Yeah…and you say you got over the madness?"
"It doesn't matter what you think! What matters is you're going to pay for ALL your lies and treachery tonight! To me AND the Savior! YAAAAGH!"

Owen attacks you, which you narrowly dodge and trip him to the ground, he rolls out of the way and jumps back up.

"Owen, you really want to continue this exercise in futility?"

Owen attacks you again at which point you punch him in the face followed by a kick to his nuts. While he crumples to the ground you retrieve your rifle.

"Alright Owen, you know what happened last time…and trust me I WILL be shooting if you attack again, now what are the defenses of the Savior at the…"

Owen pathetically tries to grab the rifle from you, at which point you blast him in the head splattering his brains and skull all over the roof.

"Idiot."

You grab Owen's corpse and throw it on to the street battle below. His body lands in a bloody broken heap before some of the Glow Children. Upon seeing one of their top leaders dead, this is a great blow to their morale.

"YEAH, THAT'S ONE OF YOUR LEADERS DOWN, NOW GO TELL THE FUCKIN' SAVIOR SHE'S NEXT!" you shout and begin sniping the ones in retreat.

After attempting to mop up the stragglers, the general report is that the Glow Children greatly expended a lot of their manpower in this last attack. It's odd; it's almost as if this "Savior" doesn't really care about controlling the city at all, just destruction.

Lisa suggests an attack be made immediately before they can put up a suitable defense, she's still upset about Adonis nearly being killed, but you'd like to at least regroup and mount an organized attack.

You regroup

"We need to get our shit together first, look, we got people all over the damn place and wounded everywhere." You say surveying the damage.
"You can't be serious! We need to attack NOW! Or don't you remember what they nearly did to our son?" Lisa exclaims.
"Christ Lisa, I'm aware of ALL the shit they've done! What I'm saying is we need to organize here, and not just throw people at them until something happens! I understand that's the Shadow Horde way of doing things but…"

At this point Lisa slaps you, and while your skin is tough, it still manages to sting.

"Oh fuck you; if it hadn't been for YOUR duplicity we wouldn't even BE in this situation!"
"Look Lisa, we NEED to at least regroup. I'm sure that hospital is going to be their last stand and we can't go in attacking half assed. We need to attack from all sides and cut off all avenues of escape so we don't have to deal with guerilla hold outs after the main attack is over. We want to kill them ALL in one fell swoop; we don't want the fucking Savior to escape to cause trouble later!"

After a little more debate, Lisa finally agrees and you quickly gather your troops and implement a plan while Lisa takes care of her own end of things. Within a couple days you're ready, but Lisa still being strong willed sort she is, jumps the gun and begins before you.

"Goddamn it Lisa…"

The battle to the hospital is a slaughter on the Glow Children's side. They still haven't recovered from the battle of Downtown and they've been losing many to the Shadow Horde. The Zeropolis Legion doesn't lose too many troops, though the Shadow Horde is taking a beating due to the fact that they're taking the brunt of the Glow Children's hospital defenses. That needn't had been the case had Lisa not attacked so soon. By the time you make it to the hospital most of the heavy fighting has been done. Dead bodies of both Glow Children and the Shadow Horde are littering the streets. Lisa stands outside the hospital seemingly unconcerned.

"What the fuck Lisa? I told you to fuckin' wait! You look like you lost your whole goddamn Horde trying to storm this hospital!"
"Who cares? If they aren't strong enough to survive then they can die like the rest. They're meant to serve me anyway, and the Glow Children MUST pay for what they nearly did to my son, no matter what the costs. Now go in and PROVE you're a father by doing what needs to be done. Should be easy…I did most of the work for you."

You shake your head trying to reason with Lisa's recent volatile emotions, and head into the hospital with your own people. Sounds of battle are heard and body parts are all over the place. After a few shoot outs with the few wretched hold outs, you eventually track down the infamous Savior. Yet another old face that looks a lot different from when you last saw it.

A severely burned female cyborg attempting to fix up one of her Glow Children on an operating table throws her scalpel down in frustration when she realizes nothing more can be done and sees you enter the room.

"Mutants! Fucking goddamn back stabbing mutants…you're no good for anything!" she shouts.
"Wow, AVA that's a lot of emotion for a cyborg." You say calmly.
"Let's see how emotionless you remain when you see YOUR future destroyed before your eyes. This is all your fault! YOU caused all this! You did this to me!"
"Yeah, yeah, I've been getting that line from everyone lately. It's getting old."
"Fool. We would've brought unity to the world; mutants would've been incorporated too. All you had to do was help, but instead you betrayed us to those who hate you!"
"Yeah and that incorporation would've been the total loss of free will I'm sure. No thanks, I'd rather take my chances with some disjointed puny humans than an army of unified cyborgs."
"Ah, of course. You mutants think YOU are fit to rule the world. Huh. You're little better than humans. You still act on emotion rather than clarity. Look at your wife…she sacrificed hundreds of her own people who she claimed she looked after all for a mere child. Don't look so surprised that I know about that act of total illogic, I could hear her screaming her rants of vengeance when I first saw her approach the hospital with her mutant rabble."
"First of all she's not my wife. And what about what you did? Are you saying sending in multitudes of brainwashed mutants was so different?"
"YES! Yes it was! My purpose was NOT based on emotion! I was trying to kill as many as mutants as possible! I had a clear goal! A clarity of purpose! What do I care what mutants died on who's side? I am not one of them!"
"Uh…yeah. Well sounds pretty emotional to me. Sounds like good ol' fashioned revenge. And I suppose those assassination attempts on me was just business to eh? Nothing personal?"

AVA shakes her head in dismay and looks up at the ceiling. Tears stream from her non-cybernetic eye.

"You'll never understand mutant…it…it should've been us…we…I'm sorry Alex…I'm sorry my father…I have ended up like you…trapped and surrounded by my enemies with only death awaiting me…forgive me…"

Strangely, you almost feel sorry for AVA, putting her out of her misery is probably an act of kindness at this point. And so you do with a couple of well placed bullets.

"(Sigh) Well AVA, if it's any consolation, you did a lot of damage to us, a lot of damage…"

When you exit, Lisa is still waiting outside, she looks like she's deep in thought.

"Yeah, the Savior's dead and from what I can tell so are all the other Glow Children as well as most of your Shadow Horde…" you say to Lisa
"Given the temporary mistrust both side had for each other, perhaps its for the best…perhaps this alliance needs to be dissolved and simply unified under one banner, one name, we are all mutants, no one is better than another, but we are all better than humans."
"So what're you saying exactly?"
"I'm saying we should be joined officially…with this latest annoyance out of the way, Zeropolis will soon be under our total control and then it will be time to handle the humans. I'm already a Queen, and you shall be my King and Adonis…shall be a Prince…heir to our new mutant dynasty."

You're a little surprised by this sudden suggestion

"Whoa! What the hell? You want us to get fuckin' married?"
"Yes, do you not have feelings for me?"
"Well uh…yeah I guess…I mean…"
"Am I not the mother of your son?"
"Well of course."
"Do you not see the wisdom in this action?"
"I suppose, but…"
"Then it's settled…and be honest wouldn't you like to be able to spend more time with your son? Spend more time with me…and be closer to you…"

Lisa's manages to convince you in that way she does through her seductive embraces and strong commanding will. You swear she has some sort of mutant ability to control minds.

A festive wedding is soon held after the celebration of the Glow Children's destruction.

Ten years pass…

Twenty years have passed and the unification of Zeropolis is complete. One City of unified mutants and you are their KING. What was once a warehouse has now been turned into a palace.

War against the humans is also in full swing. Lisa made sure that was the first thing on the agenda the moment Zeropolis was completely unified. The Combine wasn't even prepared for the first few attacks, as entire towns were taken over with relative ease. Never before had mutants been so organized, and are now the greatest threats to them since the Cybernetic Evolution, worse even, since you can breed, and not just with other mutants…

The Combine and The Zero Dominion (That being its new name) fought for a long time, but The Combine lost mainly due to its own internal turmoil. After a couple years of your attacks the government collapsed and splintered into several factions. Some of those factions willingly surrendered to you. Human traitors were not unheard mainly because rule under The Combine was little better. It was a corrupt and decadent organization that bullied its citizens, while human subjects living under your occupation are treated fairly well as long as they know their place and they are certainly well protected from other humans like the outlaw scum who lurk in the wastelands. With the Combine completely destroyed, mutants now rule everything within the area ranging from towns to even the Ground Zero Shelters still containing their inhabitants. (Actually many of those genuinely thanked you for releasing them from those underground coffins! Lisa of course wasn't surprised by the shoddy workmanship that went into most of them given that she used to work for the corporation)

Now eyes of conquest look ever further, but despite all this, you're a relatively benevolent dictator.

Though Lisa often thinks you're too lenient on the humans, and claims you must set a better example for Adonis who shall take over from you one day. Adonis is only a teenager, but has the arrogance of a god. The tests and training Lisa insists that he engage in continue, and have produced a superior specimen of mutanthood thus far. Already he is eager to shed the blood of humans, you sometimes have to tell him that he shouldn't let something like that dominate his thoughts as it can lead to recklessness, but he's very much like his mother despite the fact that you've had regular contact with him now.

Your daughter Venus on the other hand is different. She's still young, but even now you can see that she will be a very dissimilar person than her brother. While you'd think Lisa would want to spend time with her own daughter, she still concentrates only on Adonis. Leaving you to take up that role, but even that is only minimal as Venus often prefers spending time by herself. She reminds you of…well you. Over the recent years, you've often wished you could spend time by yourself like you used to, but that's a rare luxury nowadays…

But heavy is the head that wears the crown and you have a host of concerns as of late to attend to and they only stack up. Hell, you don't even know where to begin anymore. You begin to wonder if any of this is even worth it. You know you're better than humans, but is constant ongoing warfare REALLY what you want?

You continue the war

You think back to when you first entered Zeropolis and how you hoped that you'd somehow be as lucky or as radiation resistant as your grandfather was when he witnessed nuclear blast tests back when he was in the army. As it turns out you were, well lucky that is, the radiation resistance came later.

During your entire stay in Zeropolis, you've always tried to do what you thought was best for you, but many times you've felt like you were railroaded into this path, and indeed sometimes you had little choice in some of your major decisions.

However, ultimately they were your choices and even you have to admit you've done far better than you could've expected. Lisa's a better wife than you really could've hoped for before the bombs turned the world into nuclear ash, let alone after the bombs. You son Adonis is obviously going to be a fine ruler someday, he certainly has all the necessary traits and if Venus is as much like you as she appears to be, she'll do just fine. Their future is what's important, and as such you have come to the realization that making sure they have a great empire to rule is the best thing you can give them. Not just for them, but for their children as well. You finally understand Lisa's dedication to conquest and why she's always pushed you to be a little more enthusiastic about it.

Sure she gets a bit intense as far as the human thing sometimes, but that's just part of her personality. You never quite understood why she's exactly so obsessed on the whole mutant superiority thing (Whereas you just take it for granted that you're better and just leave it at that) especially given that she herself has never even had contact with another one since her transformation. (You have though, one thing that always seem to get her hot is when you recount your time when you were doing raids on Combine town during your alliance with the Cybernetic Evolution) You've always had a strange sort of relationship with Lisa, but it is love though, a weird form of it, but love nonetheless.

People have been fighting wars and taking shit from others since the beginning of time, and from what you can tell they're still doing it. All for various reasons. So your reasons are for love and family. There's certainly more selfish and worse reasons.

After coming to this epiphany you finally have eliminated any lingering doubts and reservations about anything you've ever done or will do in the future. You immediately go find Lisa who's watching Adonis train against one of the few former Shadow Horde mutants left. He's managed to take the giant down with his bare hands too, not many can make that boast, let alone at the young age he has. When you arrive in the gym, Lisa approaches you.

"Well, I didn't expect to see you until tonight. I know how you like to spend long periods of time by yourself… I always found that strange for someone in a position of leadership."
"Not really Lisa, people who rule are often isolated, however I have come to the realization that I'm not alone. The future of our dynasty is important, I see that now and I'm going to ensure what we've built doesn't end."

You think it's the first time you've seen overwhelming joy in Lisa's face, but she immediately hugs and kisses you. You think this is also the first time you've actually heard her say "I love you." to you. Adonis stops his training and wonders what's going on and that's when you turn your attention to him and point your finger directly at him.

"And YOU, you will be the next ruler! But if you want ANY chance of it, you're going to have to beat the me first!"
"Hah! You're kidding right? I just beat an Ex-Shadow Horde mutant with my bare hands! I can easily take you on old man!" he laughs.
"Think so? Show me what all your training has done then, don't worry I'll go easy on you, wouldn't want to mess up that pretty face of yours, you sure you're not my daughter?"
"You're going down old man!"
"Not likely, now stop talking and hiding behind your mother's skirt, mama's boy!"

That one had the desired effect.

Unsurprisingly your minor taunts make Adonis angry causing him to charge at you hard and you immediately drop to the ground and trip him. When he falls on his face you grab his arm and twist it behind him while putting your knee in his back.

"See? You let yourself get too emotional and it threw off your game. You need to learn more about fighting than just the basics. I'll make sure I'll teach you that. Now get up."

From that point on you take a more active role in training Adonis. Particularly in the more psychological and strategic aspects of it. He learns quickly, and in time learns to reign in the arrogance and some of his mother's views on humans, but he always retains his desire to fight. In the years to follow he joins the Dominion army and quickly rises through the ranks. Lisa is very proud and you are as well.

As for Venus, she of course remains her usual quiet self, though she does surprise everyone when she later joins the Dominion army as well, as a scout though. She turns out to be an excellent sniper.

As always there is resistance, but for the most part the Zero Dominion only grows larger under your rule.


Thirty years pass…

Fifty years have gone by since you first set foot in Zeropolis and you're eternally glad you did. It could've only been destiny that guided you to what you thought was most likely a death zone, only to turn out to be the place where you would achieve greatness.

You remember how humans used to shoot mutants on sight mainly to discourage them from venturing far from Zeropolis, but now mutants now control a vast portion of territory, their population has grown much much larger, and half-breed mutants from humans are in large numbers as well. A new era is being ushered in for a newly evolved being that will eventually replace humanity.

Never did you think that you'd actually live long enough to die peacefully in your own bed. But that's what is occurring now, you feel the approach of death occurring and you have no regrets. Right now you're surrounded by your family. Lisa, Adonis, Venus and their children as well. You can die knowing that you've made the world a better place for them.

You've made all of this happen and as you pass your throne to Adonis, while holding on to Lisa's hand who sits by the side of the bed, you say your last words:

"I love you all and finish what I started, my children …"