Endless Evolution: Last Star

Everyone knew that the Phantoms had Operators.

If the Phantom was a man then his Operator was a woman, like Adam and Silvana.

If the Phantom was a woman, then her Operator was a man, like Alexia and Louis.

Because of their nature, their powers, and what they had to go through on their journey, more often than not, it was the Phantom who dominated in their pair and the Operator who obeyed.

It might sound strange, but that's the way things worked. It applied to both Adam & Silvana and Alexia & Louis. Find exclusive stories on empire

All four of them were different people, sure, there were certain similarities between them, both Adam & Alexia and Silvana & Louis, but they weren't copies of each other.

It was obvious who was in charge of each of the two couples. At one time, Louis had to go through a real stress and challenge to get the opportunity to be Alexia's Operator.

He had his reasons, his plan worked, but he had no problem accepting his role in their relationship and was willing to do anything for Alexia.

Naturally, there were exceptions to this rule and very rarely it was the Operator who could be in charge, but it didn't happen often.

To do that, the Phantom should still have a soft and timid character despite all the trials and battles he has been through, and the Operator should be tough and strict from the beginning.

This combination worked fine as well, as the Operator did not let its Phantom relax, forcing him to constantly progress.

Things weren't always the same in the first variant either.

The Phantom was in charge, yes, but how much?

Some couples had a relationship close to master and slave, it was the maximum and most rigid variant where absolutely everything was decided by the Phantom, and the Operator did not even have the right to speak and had to obey all instructions.

To some extent, it was a hyperbolized version of what was happening between Tron and Riska, but much tougher.

It was rare, but it was a relationship that existed. After all, both Phantoms and Operators were people.

Usually, such a tough relationship was if Phantom liked to control and was fully confident in his rightness and his power, while the Operator was on the contrary a soft and insecure person, which created such a situation.

Opposite to this option was another one, where the Operator and Phantom considered each other equal, and their opinions and desires had equal weight.

It seemed that this should have been common, but no, it was as rare as the first, harsh option.

The most common was the third option, within which there were many other variations, but the core remained the same: The Phantom's status was a bit higher, his opinion carried more weight as did his wishes, and more often than not the Operator would fulfill his whims rather than the other way around.

The toughness of the third option varied from couple to couple.

This also went to the fact that all Operators, without exception, tried to have a decent appearance and look good next to their Phantoms.

Some, like Silvana, took it too seriously and some didn't.

But, hardly any Operator would allow themselves to look worse than their Phantom, it would be the ultimate shame and disrespect.

Thus, it was expected that the more important and powerful the Phantom was, the better the Operator should look to match the status of his Phantom.

Everyone knew who Damien was, and since he was a Phantom he also had an Operator.

Beth rarely appeared in public, so... most people only guessed what Damien's Operator might look like.

Because of the established rules, both humans and Phantoms expected that stronger Phantoms should have more beautiful Operators.

Thus, the Operator of such a powerful Phantom like Damien must look and act like a true goddess, right?

Well... If these people would see Beth, they would be disappointed.

Beth wasn't ugly, no, she was a pretty girl with green eyes and shoulder-length brown hair.

Her slightly below-average height made her appearance cute and attractive, but... it was still very far from the perceptions of people who had never seen Damien's Operator.

Moreover, when Beth was at home, she didn't care at all what she looked like. Her hair could be disheveled, she could be wearing a dirty T-shirt and shorts that didn't fit her.

Her feet in funny socks were on the table while her hand repeatedly dipped into a bag of chips to head for her dirty mouth.

Makeup? It was out of the question.

But, why was Beth acting like this?

Any other Operator in her position would have spent sixteen hours a day trying to look perfect next to Damien, the Citadel's protector.

Well, she just didn't care.

To her, the opinions of everyone who wasn't Second Rank Phantoms were an empty sound, irrelevant.

Perhaps if Damien insisted, she might have to work on her appearance, but so far she hadn't received such demands.

The only thing Beth cared about was curious events and potentially powerful Phantoms.

She wasn't watching Adam all the time, she wasn't going to waste her time keeping an eye on him losing to Max over and over again.

But, when something interesting happened, Beth intently watched Adam.

Obviously, the moment when he should reveal his Two Walls was one of those events.

Beth glanced at the corner of the monitor, checking the time.

"Hmm... It's forty-five minutes and not even a shiver of energy has come out of him. Not bad, not bad at all. A lot of people think the longer the worse, but they're just fools who don't understand anything about it."

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Beth continued crunching her chips, watching Adam intently.

Her deep green eyes stood out from the rest of her persona, showing her wisdom and amount of hidden knowledge.

Crackle.

At the same time, Silvana clutched the fabric of her pants tightly as she gritted her teeth.

Fifty minutes passed, something that should never have happened, ever.

Riska and Dahla were starting to get nervous as well.

They were prepared to wait thirty minutes, forty at the most, but they had never heard that the unveiling of the Two Walls could take fifty minutes or more.

Crackle.

Adam dropped to his knees, hovering amidst the void in his inner space.

He looked devastated and consumed with despair.

In the hundreds of attempts that he made to see his Two Walls, the Evolution Tree never gave out any response.

All Adam got was silence and complete disregard for his requests and demands.

In those fifty minutes, he did everything - asked respectfully, used commanding and rude tones, tried to negotiate, and even begged the Evolution Tree not to torture him with silence anymore.

However, none of it worked.

Adam wasn't going to give up, but he found himself in a situation where he just didn't know what he was supposed to do.

Then... he was left with only one, last option that he hadn't even thought of before.

Crackle.

Adam clenched his fists tightly and stood confidently on his feet.

There was nothing but anger mixed with bloodlust in his eyes.

"Fine, if you don't want to do it the nice way, don't. I'll make you do it by force. After all, this is my inner space, not yours!"