Dark-Hair, Sea-Eyes (Rewrite)

Prologue

Even the greatest weapons are useless when dull. And even the most powerful men are useless when dead.

At least this one was.

Order had heard great tales about Storm the assassin, a hero with immense strength who originated on an abandoned earth. He was said to be able to announce his presence and still take down armies and knockdown empires, though Order assumed that said more about said armies and empires than the assassin himself.

The master of weapons and tamer of beasts slumped pitifully on Order's golden floor, his head divorced from his body. Yvette, Order's least favorite servant, fumbled around the body hurriedly to clean it up and escape Order's patronizing gaze though this time for once, Order wasn't angry because of her. Order was angry at the assassin on the floor, who had failed to do his one job and assassinate someone. He even dared to come back and report that not only did he fail, but he also did a job for his intended target.

If the man hadn't been so weak and easily killed, he would've gotten more than a mere beheading. But now, of course, Order had more pressing matters to deal with.

The intended target, her last remaining relative, sent her a gift. A defanged serpent, a wordless threat. The limp snake was tied in a knot around a letter wishing for Order's well-being and forgiveness, stained with who-knows blood and delivered by Hermes, His favorite tool to use when He wanted to piss her off.

"My lady," one of Order's advisors Boman said. "If eradicating your brother is your number one goal, the assassin Storm was the quickest way to end him." Order snapped her eyes to the man who she trusted so much but had the most annoying habit of telling Order things she already knew. She knew Chaos wouldn't be put down so easily but after her other brother's death, Order felt uneasy. Chaos wasn't responsible for Balance's death but even so, now it was only the two of them left. If Chaos killed her, her power would go to him.

Of course, she knew who she needed to take Chaos out of the equation; however, her men seemed to be having a great deal of trouble finding them.

"Who's next?" Order asked. "Well, my lady, we don't kn—" "We aren't sure as of yet, however, Storm's failure has enlightened us to a new solution," Boman answered, his answer certainly more satisfactory than whatever her other advisor was about to say.

"That solution being?"

"The network that your late brother, Balance, created," Boman said.

The network, something Order found countless records of upon her investigation on her brother's death, was something Balance created to virtually keep track of everyone he was afraid of. His power allowed him to pinpoint individuals across universes. Often, the individuals were threats and when he pinpointed them he labeled them as criminals so his lands knew not to let them in unless they were working for him. Those registered could also be marked as reserves in case he needed soldiers, usually against their will under well-constructed threats. Each individual was branded with Balance's power, casting a connection that allowed Balance to see anything the one baring his brand could see, granted he'd been to that area before or he'd met those people.

To put it plainly, Balance found deadly individuals from different universes with different abilities, burned a mark into them, and threatened them to force them to fight for him. When looking for his murderer, there were billions upon trillions of capable suspects to choose from this universe alone.

"While looking through this network, we figured out that it can also be used to hire these individuals. Registered individuals could only find work on the network, their jobs and their successes kept track of. We can use this network to bring in countless individuals before it gets out that Balance has been killed. Of course, the one who killed Balance would undoubtedly ignore us," Boman said.