I’m preparing for an upcoming blog tour starting next week, doing a bunch of interviews, as well as having some new reviews come in for some older works. Stay tuned!
But one of my interview questions reminded me of something: 1) my favorite movie ever, and 2) a little prompt I wrote based on it once.
The questions asked me to describe the movie I can watch again and again, and there was no contest: The Fifth Element.
I have a top five for movies that can occasionally shift, but that is always number 1. It’s a flawless movie for me. Not dystopia, and not utopia either like a Star Trek universe, but this awesome view on the future that’s colorful, filled with action, mythology, destiny, the elements, love conquering all, hilarity, gorgeous and ridiculous costumes, and one of the best musical performances ever put to screen. It never fails to inspire me and make me smile.
So, it should come as no surprise that a couple years ago when I did a July challenge to write a different universe a day, that I thought of The Fifth Element when prompted to: Place your characters in your favorite tv show or movie.
Here’s what I came up with:
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Kieran didn’t like the word ‘criminal’. He preferred ‘space pirate'. Although ‘master thief’ wasn’t bad either.
After all, who else could have stolen the fabled elemental stones from across the galaxy that when brought together at an ancient temple were said to create an ultimate, priceless weapon?
He hadn’t planned to use the weapon, just sell it along with the stones and move on to the next great challenge. But a weapon wasn’t what appeared when the blinding light from the stones dimmed.
“How the hell are we supposed to sell him to Thrax?” Rein griped. “The guy's expecting a weapon, not some scrawny boytoy.”
“What he’s expecting,” Marian chimed in, “was that we’d bring the stones down to the surface and wait for him, but no, the boss insisted on seeing the weapon for himself.”
Kieran frowned at his first mate. None of that mattered anymore. What mattered was that they needed to adapt, roll with the punches, and not panic that they owed one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy something they couldn’t give him. “We will find Thrax another weapon,” he said.
Even if Thrax wanted the young man, Kieran didn’t do slave trading.
Plus, he was hardly scrawny, just lean, all smooth muscle without a single flaw. He had perfect skin.
And hair. And legs. Perfect everything really.
When the light had gone out, he’d suddenly been lying there in the center of the temple, naked and unconscious. Kieran brought him and the stones back to his ship, secured in his quarters now, but he had no idea what to do next. The man hadn’t woken up yet.
“We’ll tell Thrax the stones activated as soon as we got down to the surface,” Kieran continued. “There was nothing we could do.”
“Yeah? Well you better get that story straight because he’s hailing us,” Marian reminded him. “He’ll be here in an hour, and he wants to know our status.”
“So stall him.”
“With what?”
“Think of something,” Kieran growled, dragging a hand back over his shorn hair. “Just until our guest wakes up and I can figure out what to do. And keep the crew calm.”
Rein and Marian shared a strained look because that was easier said than done with their brand of morally gray thieves, but they nodded anyway and took their leave.
The stones sat on Kieran's desk, but the stranger who’d been… born of them slept on the sofa with a blanket thrown over him.
Kieran took a breath. He could think his way out of this. He could think his way out of anything.
Turning to his starboard window, he saw nothing but stars and the planet below them where that strange temple resided. What kind of planet had Earth been once, he wondered?
With another shuddery sigh, he turned back to consider his guest.
Who wasn’t there!
Reaching for the blaster on his hip, Kieran whirled about in search of the man, only to discover him already too close, moving impossibly fast as he gripped Kieran’s shoulder and pressed a forearm to his throat, slamming him back against the wall beside the viewport.
An unfamiliar language spewed angrily from his lips.
“What? I don’t understand!” Kieran struggled to reply as his airway was constricted. “I’m not going to hurt you! I made you!” He cringed at the inept description but how else could he explain it?
The man had the most intense green eyes he’d ever seen, making him even more strikingly beautiful even if he was glaring—still naked, holding Kieran to the wall.
And then he kissed him.
Kieran gasped, feeling the man’s tongue tangling with his as powerfully as he'd subdued him.
When it was over, the man's hold was still firm as he demanded, “Say that again.”
“You speak English now?”
“I took it from your tongue. Now repeat what you said.”
Kieran shivered, drawn to that voice despite the threat in his words. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said again, the words feeling hollow with him as the helpless one. Then he cleared his throat and gestured at his desk. “I made you. Summoned you, whatever, with those.”
At last, the arm on Kieran's neck loosened, and he was able to take a deeper breath as the man turned to the stones.
“You did not steal me? You awakened me.” He pulled away completely but turned back to Kieran with a softened expression. “You unlocked the stones?”
Kieran had been the one to perform the rights in the temple, each task that opened the stones to their element, because the texts said it had to be one person, and Kieran hadn't wanted to risk anything going wrong.
“Yes—"
The man kissed him again before he could finish, less dominating but somehow deeper. “Yes,” he finished for Kieran, arms wrapping around Kieran’s neck gently now as he smiled—breathtakingly. “It is you, I can feel it. My master. My wielder.”
“You’re… what?” Kieran felt dizzy and disoriented. “I thought… I thought I was creating a weapon.”
“I am a weapon,” the man said with frightening sweetness, “for you to aim as you please. I can bring down nations, destroy planets, wipe out galaxies, and rebuild it all in your image. Tell me your will, Master, and I will raze the universe in your name.”
Kieran blinked at the man in mute shock before finally uttering, “Um…”
TBC... maybe someday ^_^