On their way back to the space station Wildwhirl, Captain Pitch decided to check on Saros. To see how he was doing in the capable hands of Moon and Starla.
He wandered slowly inside his sleeping-quarters after Moon gave him the permission to come in. The lights were set to night mode. The first thing Pitch saw was Saros sleeping peacefully on the modern rounded couch. Every sleeping-quarters looked almost the same normally. On the walls however, the captain spotted shelves which Saros had installed to store mystical stones and magical artifacts which he owned and carried with him. Books were placed upon them as well.
His curiosity didn't last long and moved his visor back to the sleeping wizard. Starla still had bandages on her body whilst her mother didn't seem to have gotten any kind of scratches in their last battle, she can call herself lucky. Not even Pitch cleaned his blood on his face yet.
Of course, Moon saw him coming in. The mother stood slowly up from the couch and walked over to prepare a glass of water for her captain. She walked softly over to Captain Pitch and handed him the glass of water; He seemed to be thirsty. Pitch accepted the glass and took a few sips before he knelt down to check on Saros.
Saros was peacefully snoring.
"How's Saros doing?" With a deep quiet and calm voice, the captain asked. He softened his voice down to not wake Saros up from his sleep.
The aquamarine commander was surprised that Pitch took the time to check on Saros. Moon was right as she told Saros before, that Pitch did in fact care. She smiled in secret and commented quietly back:
"He's sleeping well. We don't know when he'll wake up from his sleep again."
Pitch nodded. "Hm. Let him sleep as long as he has to."
As those words fell, Pitch noticed a light reflecting in the corner of his half-broken visor. The soft light came from Moon's feather on her flower crown. Pitch stood up and wandered with careful steps towards where Moon was standing. He remembered the voice he heard from that feather. Something about it felt familiar for Pitch but he couldn't point out what exactly it was.
He couldn't get his visor away from the feather.
"That familiar aura...", Pitch whispered, and Moon was puzzled what he could possibly mean. "Commander, may I keep your feather for a while?"
Pondering over it, Moon wasn't sure if she should. But Pitch seemed to be interested in it. Moon was too kind to not deny it. She gently plucked the feather off her flower crown and gave it to Pitch.
"Of course, Pitch."
No one expected what happened next as Pitch held the feather in his own claws: an outline from an invisible white bean with huge wings appeared in front of Pitch's eyesight.
Moon and Starla couldn't see the reflection. They only saw how their black captain held his forehead in pain. He gave the feather back to Moon in an instant. The pain faded after he decided to not hold the angelic object any longer. The outline was blurry, and Pitch couldn't recognize who it was.
But something felt oddly familiar about it...
"Keep the feather, Commander." Pitch said, changing his mind.
"A-alright." Moon replied, still quite confused about his sudden change of mind.
In that moment their spaceship jumped out of hyper-speed. The stars outside went back to their normal shape.
"Commander, we arrived. I need to go to the medical station." Pitch said and was ready to go.
"Stay safe, Captain Pitch." Moon answered back as goodbye.
He gave Moon the glass back and walked briskly out of Saros's sleeping-quarter. Before he disappeared out the room completely, Saros woke up from his deep sleep. He was very drowsy and in need of more rest. But he did hear Pitch's voice and asked quietly:
"W-was that Pitch?"
Moon went down to him and petted his head gingerly. It felt good for him. "Yes, it was him, Saros. He checked on you."
"So, you were right, Moon", The wizard remembered quietly about Moon's and his conversation a while ago. "... h-he does care about me."
Pitch did hear outside at the entrance Saros's mumbling words and was secretly eavesdropping them before he walked away. The mechanical door closed automatically as Pitch decided to finally go back to the space station after he heard those sentences from Saros. A weird feeling flooded into Pitch's body, but he didn't pay that much attention to it.
Almost everyone from the Blackcrow crew had to visit the medical station. Even The Doc had to be taken care of and reported to the doctor's head boss what happened with their own medbay. She looked sternly at him and couldn't believe it.
"It's a rare event that a medbay ends up completely destroyed by some enemy crew after a mission. What did you guys do out there?!" She said, and it was obvious that she was appalled.
"It's a long story, Dr. Jouly." The Doc explained simple and short.
But Dr. Jouly knew what to do. She didn't want to stress her clients out even more.
"Well, it must have been a rough mission. My colleagues can restore the Blackcrow's medbay. But be more careful in the future, alright? It's a challenge to restore our own medicine supplies nowadays." She demanded in a sternly undertone and looked especially over to Pitch whose scars are getting cleaned right at this moment. Dr. Jouly did judge Pitch's work over it in silence and it was for the better, that no one knew about her opinion regarding Pitch's ruler duties.
"Understood, Dr. Jouly." The Doc accepted.
A few quiet seconds flew by but were interrupted suddenly by an emergency bed that was rushed into the medical station as fast as possible. It was hurriedly followed by someone familiar and unexpected: General Cole. A rose-colored bean laid on the emergency bed and every bean present to see this was in inner shock of the sudden ongoing situation. Their heartbeats increased in silence, but they watched attentively what the doctors were doing.
The doctors ran towards them after the bed stood still and checked on the injured bean immediately. Even Dr. Jouly, their head boss, joined to ask what happened. The Blackcrow members noticed the concerned and panic-filled General: he was almost about to cry, but he tried to hold his panic back. His wife was groaning loudly in pain, she sweated profusely and was afflicted with a bad fever. Both of her hands were now covered over her small pregnant belly. She was in immense discomfort.
"What happened to her, General? And who is that? I've never seen her before on this space station." The head boss asked, quite in a hurry. The doctor noticed that she had a bigger belly than usual. The rose-colored bean was a species Dr. Jouly had never seen before.
"M-my wife, Camilla. We got into an impostor incident, and she got badly injured. She's pregnant." He explained in immense panic.
Pitch in the background couldn't believe that General Cole had a wife. The ashen grey general never mentioned anything about her. The more his wife complained about the aching pain, the more he couldn't hold his emotions back. Cole didn't even realize yet that almost the whole Blackcrow crew was watching the situation in silence.
Dr. Jouly nodded and instructed one of the other doctors to check on her stomach with an ultrasound.
"Check her stomach with an ultrasound." Dr. Jouly demanded and the doctors prepared the ultrasound machine.
Camilla couldn't stop groaning. It was difficult for her to lay still as the doctors checked on her stomach. The general held one of her hands, to give her support. Never had Pitch seen Cole so emotional before.
"Calm, Camilla", The head boss advised her to do; and carefully placed a hand on her stomach. "We'll take care of you."
"Doctor", but no one expected the following medical outcome: "We have to do an emergency surgery. Her three-month-old baby isn't moving and there is no clear heartbeat."
Cole's heart broke further as he heard the disastrous news about the baby's condition. His own health condition spiraled down and he felt dizzy. That was the first time he ever saw his child with his own visor on an ultrasound, and it agonized him dearly to know it'll be the last.
"Don't worry, General, your wife will get better after the emergency surgery. Leave everything to me." Dr. Jouly gave the other doctors a sign to prepare the emergency room.
Left speechless, the general could only watch as Camilla's bed was dashed out with a handful of doctors towards the emergency room. A warning sign which was labelled with 'staff only' on the mechanic door closed right after they entered.
Complete silence hushed over the grey bean's ears. Cole's dizziness made it difficult for him to stay on his two feet. He kneeled down and was in total despair. He had to process this traumatic experience in silence.
Even Pitch was secretly in shock what he just witnessed. Never did he expect to see one of his own generals in such a bad emotional state before. Silence lingered for a long time in the medical station. Cole cried; soon enough, Cole was crying heavily. He was sobbing, in total sadness and mourned about the tragic loss of his child. Flashbacks popped up; he saw in his mind how Tricon's spaceships suddenly appeared on Kelki's orbit. Rage inside him increased the more he thought about what happened before they got here.
A shadow behind him disturbed his deep thoughts. He didn't dare to stand up. He didn't want to know who was behind him. Until a black hand touched his shoulder. He winced in fear; that black hand reminded him too much of Lord Mobulous, but it wasn't him. It was Pitch's hands. Before the general assumed the worst, the ashen grey bean stood promptly up and swept the panic away under the proverbial rug. But Pitch's familiar face, which he noticed after he turned wildly around, calmed his panic and the assumption that it could have been Mobulous faded away.
For some reason, their claws looked way too much alike.
Cole was furiously in tears as his visor focused on the black leader. He began to shiver in rage as he said angered:
"You... - You!"
But Cole wasn't sure what to say, it took him a little while to get his words straight and continued enraged: "Do something about these impostors! Immediately! They've just destroyed my wife's home planet and took my child!"
That unexpected demand confused Pitch and answered: "We do, already. Calm down, General."
"No, no you do clearly not! How can you continue your work and life, knowing all too well how many innocent people out there are suffering because of impostors?! Kytarium is clearly corrupted! And has no one realized it yet?! Agh!" His rage was immensely high. If Cole wasn't so restrained in temper, he would've easily started to destroy everything around him out of anger. But he had to control his feelings.
"Corrupted?" The black Lord mumbled quietly to himself; Cole did hear him.
"Yes, corrupted!" He yelled at him. "If this continues, I'd be careful regarding your reputation out there, Lord Pitch."
Pitch didn't know what else he should say. He was speechless.
Cole realized that he wouldn't get anything helpful out of this rageful conversation, so he then decided to angrily storm out of the medical station. As he was outside the general slammed his fists against the wall and as he looked on down the empty space, he looked desperate and deeply hurt down, he found himself sliding down to the ground.
In this galaxy, there was no one he could truly trust. There's no safe place for him anymore. No matter what he did, or which side he was on, he couldn't even save and protect his own family.
Let alone himself.
____________________________________________________________Chapter edited/corrected by: https://www.deviantart.com/spectra-shift