Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 505: I can explain.

Sunshine froze for exactly half a second before panic took the wheel. This kind of situation would look suspicious to anyone.

Hades cleared his throat slowly, dramatically. "I do not know what to think of this," he said. "The image of my wife lying in a bed with another man is... creatively challenging."

Sunshine launched herself upright so fast she nearly headbutted the air. "I CAN EXPLAIN. It is absolutely not what you think. We returned from another world, the system put us on the bed because we were unconscious. NOTHING happened between me and Carson. You trust me, right?"

Hades replied dryly, "...Well, this is not how you come home when you go with Nimo. This looks exactly like what I think it is. You teleported into out bedroom with a shirtless man."

Sunshine groaned. "I know you are joking but look at him Hades. He is injured. We need a medic bay, not raised eyebrows and sly smiles."

Tank stood to Hades’s right, perfectly still as always, one heavy arm angled. Hunter leaned on the other side, grinning.

"Stop teasing her, Hades," Hunter said. "She looks like she just sprinted out of hell barefoot. Where are your shoes?"

Sunshine looked at her bare feet. She had no clue. Carson’s shoes too were gone! Which route had the system used to send them back?

Hades’s lips twitched, then he laughed softly, the tension draining from the room like steam. "You know, when most wives go on vacation, they bring home shirts and fridge magnets. Only you would bring a half-dead man and bare feet."

Sunshine shot him a glare. "Are you done?"

He nodded. "I am done and there was nothing for you to explain. We saw the portal open and you were dropped off one by one." He tilted his head toward Carson. "Next time, though, I’d appreciate an invitation. If my wife is fighting alien horrors, I want front-row seats. You have taken everyone but me."

Sunshine let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and laughed, rubbing her face. "You are the worst."

"And yet," Hades said fondly, "still you adore me."

Hunter barked twice. "Half-dead man. Focus." The dog scanned Carson, humming softly as it swept over his unconscious form. "Vitals stable. Brain activity normal. He’s in good health_ just...his cells are changing. Perhaps we should put him somewhere he can be monitored."

Sunshine sagged in relief. "Thank heavens."

Tank carried Carson carefully and exited the bedroom. Hades moved closer and wrapped his arms around Sunshine, pulling her into a familiar, grounding hug. "So," he murmured, "want to tell me why you look like you fought the whole alien planet?"

She rested her forehead against his chest. "Because we did to an extent."

He pulled back just enough to look at her. "Really?"

"Fear," she corrected. "We fought fear."

Hades blinked. "...Huh?"

She shook her head. "Don’t ask. It’s one of those things that sounds fake to someone that hasn’t experienced it."

Ariel popped up before them, Ala at his side, in their swat uniforms. "Mom! Ala said you came back with a guy on your bed and he is not dad!"

Sunshine looked at the three year old. "So you can teleport and eavesdrop. Or is it super vision?"

Ala smiled, guilty like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. But rather than respond to what Sunshine was saying, she looked at the shiny prism that had also landed on the bed.

Sunshine turned her head and rushed to the bed on realizing that it was not safely tucked away in the space. "This is a special prism." She held it up to the light. It glowed brighter, coldly shifting like liquid light. "It feeds on despair to create energy. When the darkness comes, this will be our hope. Too bad it needs people to be miserable to work."

Hades frowned. "How? That sounds dangerous?"

Before Sunshine could reply, a small voice piped up. "Don’t let it consume you."

Everyone turned to Ala. She wasn’t from earth, just like the prism. It seemed like she knew something about it?

Ariel grinned nervously, "Uh...mom, Ala means you should be careful."

Hades blinked. "Alien girl says it bad, I say its bad."

Ala walked forward, tiny feet silent. She stared at the prism in Sunshine’s hands, her expression older than her years. "The Nocturnal eater."

The word hung in the air, heavy and resonant. The prism pulsed in response, as if recognizing its true name.

Sunshine crouched before Ala. "You seem to know more about this things than me."

Ala shook her head. "I read about in a book of lost artifacts of the ninety nine galaxies. The one I saw was big...much bigger than this. The book said it was forged by the Nocturnal god from despair to bring hope. That is why it can turn fear into light. But, it always remembers what it feeds on. My grandfather was searching for it. My mother hoped he would never find it. She said that things that depend on despair will always hunger for more."

Her voice was clam, far too mature for a three-year old.

"Guard it, or it will guard you." Ala warned.

"Fantastic." Hades muttered. His wife had brought home an alien princess, she was also an alien prophet.

Sunshine tilted her head. The explanation the system had given about the prism was scientific. Ala’s explanation leaned more on the mythical side. "What else do you know?"

"That it caused the first grey world. It consumed that world until only dust was left. The people who believed in the Nocturnal god thought they could control it. That despair could be tamed and consumed. They were wrong." Ala sighed.

"System, are you hearing this?" She asked.

[That is a myth, not scientific. Someone needed power and they made up the story about the god. It is true, the prism feeds on despair but that is because in that world where it was created, emotions could emit subtle quantum vibrations.

The prism is a quantum resonator. It absorbs entropy waves and reorders them into high frequency energy. In fact, the prism itself is simply made of a mineral that can reverse entropy locally.

I will create a map through which the despair is broken down to produce energy.]

Sunshine sighed and stood up. "Come on, let’s go to the medic bay."

Two hours later, Sunshine and Hades were standing over Carson’s unconscious body. Machines were beeping, and he was convulsing. The few cracks left in his skin were glowing faintly, veins lit with silvery red light.

"Is that normal?" Dr. Choi asked. "His regeneration has never done this."

Sunshine recalled the words of the system. "His old cells are shedding and new ones are generating."

"What do we do?" A nurse asked.

Sunshine ordered all the doctors and nurses out. Everyone on Carson’s medical team stood behind the glass, holding their breath, waiting to see what new surprise would be unveiled in Fortress four.