Inhuman Warlock

The red-haired man raised his head, focusing on the screen that appeared before him. 

Lucifer's face was shown on the left side of the screen. On the right side, there were names of all the species that were known to the star alliance. There were all species names except humans. 

"How can this be possible?" the man wondered as a confusion filled expression graced his face. "It's impossible. How can he match all the species known to us except the one species he looks like?"

"Is there a flaw in the system?" he asked the woman. "Run the scan again."

"Got it."

The woman ran the scans again. Within minutes, the results appeared on the screen. The results seemed the same even now. 

Lucifer matched thousands of species known to them even though he looked like none of them. On the contrary, he looked like a human, but he didn't match a human. 

"Run diagnostics on the scanner. There must be some bug in it. It's impossible for someone to match all species."

"If I run the diagnostics, it'll take two days for it to finish. What should we do with that person in the meantime?"

"I'll go talk to him myself. You start the diagnostics. Also, collect the sample of that energy signature and turn the ship back. We're returning."

"Yes, Captain."

The man stood up from his chair and left the command center, going to meet Lucifer. 

"It seems people were right. Whenever I lose my composure, I find myself in trouble. First, I was caught by Xaen; then I was caught by the Atlantis trap, and now this place. I'm making mistakes after mistakes. Why?"

"Is this because I'm disturbed after receiving the message from that Dungeon Dweller? Or is this because I'm troubled by this crazy time ability which is like a ticking time bomb inside me. It can send me anywhere it wants."

Talking to himself, Lucifer started walking back and forth, trying to calm himself since he had faith in his calm self more. 

He pulled out the phone of Alexi.

"As expected, there are no signals." He kept the phone back. 

He looked at the dark glass before him. 

'I should be able to break out of here though. But they are the ones who can send me back. So far, I have no enmity with them. I shouldn't create one either. I should wait and win their trust first. It'll take a really long time though.'

'Can I afford to waste so much time? But I've already made so many mistakes. I can't attack them and make another mistake when I know they are different from what I'm used to. Can I afford that risk?'

"I can't waste too much time either. Xaen will wake up in a few hours too. I didn't even get the drugs I needed. I'll just have to break him up before he wakes up. But if I do that before the people from Star Alliance, they would think of me as a threat to them."

"I need to talk to them first."

"What do you want to talk about first?" A voice fell in Lucifer's ears. 

The glass became clear again. Lucifer was able to see through the glass. 

The man wasn't someone he saw before. Lucifer remembered most of the faces of Star Alliance members that were before him to kill him last time. He didn't remember seeing this guy there either. 

There was a single star on the man's chest, meaning he was on the same level as most of the Star Alliance. Members that had come to kill him. 

He couldn't help but wonder what happened after he went back to his original time. What happened to the person who was surrounded by all the Star Alliance members, close to death?

"I think I already introduced myself. I am Joana. I am the captain of this ship. It seems you speak the same language as us. It shouldn't be hard for us to converse. Identify yourself. Who are you? What were you doing in the middle of nowhere?"

"If your story checks out and you're innocent, the Star Alliance will help you. That's my promise as the Captain of Starship seven."

"I don't know anything about the Star alliance or where I am. I was back on Earth when an explosion took place close to me. A black hole appeared and swallowed me. I ended up here," Lucifer explained. 

"Interesting. So you don't know about Star Alliance? You ended up here because of a black hole?"

Lucifer nodded his head. 

"That's very interesting. Appearance of a black hole that can send you to the Outlands, that too alive? That explosion must've been quite powerful for creating such a black hole."

Joana rubbed his chin. "If I'm not wrong, the strange energy signatures were from that explosion as well. That's why it doesn't match anything we know. That's quite fascinating though."

"I don't know where you're from, but if you people can create explosions of such an extent that can disturb space and time enough to alert the Star Alliance, your world must not be too bad."

"But I haven't heard of Earth before. I'll have to look it up. It's not part of the Star Alliance members' world. It's quite odd."

"Can you let me out now?" Lucifer asked. 

"Not yet. I am yet to know enough about you to trust you. Are all people in your world like you?" 

"What do you mean?"

"We ran a scan on you. It shows that you aren't Human, but other than that, you're giving signals to all other species. So my question is, what are you actually? And is everyone in your world like you?"

"Everyone in my world isn't like me. I would say I'm quite unique. Most of Earth is inhabited by humans. Then there are a small fraction of humans who are known as Variants."

"Variants? What are they? Are you a Variant?"

"I'm a Variant, yeah. Variant means a human who awakens some special ability. You can call them superhumans."

"That is interesting. Humans who awaken on their own without any outside help? Interesting indeed. But still, something doesn't add up."

"If you're a human who evolved, you should still match with a human more than literally every other species in existence. I guess I'll need to wait until system diagnostics is complete to know clearly if the system is wrong or you."

"Am I supposed to wait in this prison until then?" Lucifer asked. 

"You don't have to wait. You can come out. But first, you need to wear that ring.." The man pointed.