Royalty

Chapter 3: Unveiling Shadows

We're finally gone, Aria deeply thought. Saroon was a horrible planet and what's worse was that they had a horrible queen. Hayley was a terrible person for leaving Charlie and that made her so vexed. She was so irritating. Aria would rate Saroon as half a star out of five and that proves how bad it is. Hayley was so suspicious and had been acting eerie. Something's definitely wrong with her. Aria felt something unfamiliar when Charlie and Hayley were talking. But she refused to admit her jealousy, after all, he was just a friend.

Before they left, Hayley gave them a scroll. It was made of paper but was written in a gold substance. Her thoughts suddenly moved to when Hayley and Charlie said goodbye. Charlie hugged Hayley but it was obvious that she didn't return the hug. Instead she waved goodbye and rushed back into her castle, mumbling something about 'being late to a meeting.' The scroll didn't seem to make sense as it was written in another language.

Now, they were headed to the ULE, Universal Law Enforcement. It had been a few hours since they left but the ship remained silent. Atticus was still upset over Julie and mad at Charlie for not taking care of her. Charlie, who was still clueless of Julie and Atticus's relationship, said that he liked Julie as much as Atticus; and that set him off.

Aria was now driving the Nutcracker, with Charlie as the co-driver.

"How was your date with Hayley?" Aria asked, breaking the silence.

"It was fine, not a date though, just ....a catch up," Charlie smirked as he looked outside the window. He seemed to be playing with a bottle of water in his hands, making water ripples with his powers. His olive eyes glowed in the dark.

His curly hair covered his forehead and swooped down across his round face. His mind was focused on the water ripples while his eyes concentrated.

"I know what you two did," Aria said, as she finally took her hands off the wheel. Her long hair was tied up into a bun and seemed to interest Charlie, who had finally placed the bottle down.

"Oh look, a ULE station," Charlie said while pointing towards a big space shuttle, about 50 times the size of the Nutcracker. He either felt uncomfortable about opening up to Aria or he just did not want to.

The majestic East District Headquarters stood in front of them. Atticus who decided to come out glanced at the space shuttle before his jaw dropped. The whole universe was split into 6 regions, The West region, made of The Jupiter sustem, The East District made of the venus system, The South, the mars system, The Central Territory, The Northern Planets, the saturn system and The Outer Region consisting of the Byr. And it was all governed by the ULE.

The ULE usually had surveillance cameras and therefore, they would be able to see the last few spaceships exiting New Vaticus, and from there they would be able to track down CRANE. Aria pushed the lever as the shuttle slowly began to enter the headquarters.

Charlie knew he wouldn't be able to keep his secret for too long. Aria was the type of person who would never give up. The look on her face when Charlie was alone with Hayley was definitely a sign.

The inside of the space shuttle looked much better than the outside, it was clean, modern, and safe. They followed a group of officers as they entered a big white door that had a rectangular window near the top. Atticus who was sobbing over Julie was now filled with adrenaline. Charlie thought that the space shuttle was rather........odd. With how many officers the ULE had, they would be able to take down CRANE.

Something felt fishy. Not long after, Atticus wandered off, finally taking his mind off Julie. Charlie was walking next to Aria towards a clerk who was sitting against a high table.

"So, you two kissed?" Aria asked Charlie, trying to hide her jealousy. Even though she was, she would never admit it. She wasn't going to fall for him.

"Well I have wanted to do it for a while..." Charlie replied as he continued walking, "It's been a while since I saw her." He added while looking into Aria's eyes, burning with hatred, not entirely sure where it was directed at. Charlie thought that Aria was a great ruler and friend but.....not such a great love interest. He could tell that deep in her heart she felt a bit of jealousy. Ever since they left Saroon, all he could dream about was her. "Let's focus on the mission," Charlie said, trying to change the subject.

They walked towards the Clerk who was dressed in grey, they had big glasses and a blue hat. The line wasn't too long which implied they didn't regularly have visitors.

"Hello newcomers, what do you want? The headquarters isn't open to tourists." The clerk said while wiping his glasses. "Prince Charlie?" He added after looking at them again.

"I'm so sorry Your Highness, what would you like?" The clerk continued. His face was full of embarrassment for not recognising who they were.

"We're here to-"

"Take us to the surveillance cameras," Aria said, interrupting Charlie. He could tell that she was still mad.

"Yes, right away." The clerk replied as he tapped a green button which opened a door, "Third room on the right."

The pair walked through the door and saw hundreds of doors in that corridor. The doors were white and futuristic, outlined with neon stars around the border off the door. On every door there were names, and bright signs. One of them said Archives and that room caught Charlie's interest.

The room was highlighted with 'authorised personnel' but Charlie could not ignore the fact that he didn't know how his city was raided. He needed to find out what happened to his family, and maybe, just maybe, the Archives had some information about it.

"Go on Aria, I need to use the bathroom," Charlie said, excusing himself and walking back towards the entrance. Aria nodded and was soon out of Charlie's sight. He checked the halls to see if anyone was watching; before entering the room. The room was a huge room filled with shelves, books and files. The shelves were filled from top to bottom but the glowing shelves lit the room up.

Charlie walked from aisle to aisle, brushing every book along the way. As he continued walking, he saw a case that caught his attention- The Lynx Propaganda.

He didn't know what would be written in the file and what it meant by 'propaganda.' He opened the file and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. As he read the first sentence, his heart skipped a beat. The first sentence was absolutely shocking: Lynx decided to join the newly and rapidly growing opposition and therefore they must be wiped out. Charlie dropped to the floor with tears running down his cheeks.

He continued reading the next paragraph, ater the ULE liberated Lynx, operation Greyhound started; all the citizens were now dead.

Charlie closed the file as tears dropped onto the paper

He wiped them off his cheek. He couldn't continue reading, he couldn't believe it. Charlie slid the file into his pocket as he stood up to leave.

While waking out, he saw something at the corner of his eye; A book that stood on a podium, signifying its importance. The book was titled - as the Suncryphon- and seemed beneficial. Charlie cautiously took the book, thinking that it would trigger an alarm. He walked out of the room and walked towards the surveillance room, two doors away.