Something jumped out of hyperspeed near the Space Station Wildwhirl: it was Captain Pitch who just made his way back. His half broken visor spotted familiar spaceships near the station as he flew closer to it. As he realized them, a concerned feeling ran through his body and hurried his speed up to get back.
Not yet did Commander Moon nor Saros know that Captain Dawn and the rest of the crews from the Walderan mission had returned and were in need of help from Pitch. The wizard and the teal colored mother were still together with Dr. Gura inside Saros's sleeping quarters as Moon got a call on her pager:
Once the call was activated she heard the following report from a female voice: "Commander Moon, Captain Dawn and the others just came back from Walderan. They are in need of help, it's urgent."
"Urgent?" Moon whispered in concern and replied back: "Thank you for your report, we're on our way to the hangar."
Even Dr. Gura insisted on following the commanders to the hangar to check the situation out. On the couch, Saros hesitated to follow them to the hangar at first, he looked down thoughtfully before he changed his mind...
Only Captain Dawn was seen with a few of the Blackcrow members besides him as Moon, Saros and Dr. Gura arrived at the entrance of the hangar. There was only one burning question for Commander Moon once she noticed that Captain Hawk wasn't here.
With a very worried expression, asked the concerned bean right away: "W-Where is my husband and my daughter?"
Dawn's face moved to Moon's direction, as if he knew that she'd ask that question. "That's why we had to come back, Commander. Captain Hawk, General Skylar and some of our members got arrested on Walderan."
"Wait... arrested? But why would our friend King Ashton do such a thing? What happened?" Moon wanted to know and saw in her corner of her visor that Saros beside her turned his face away, obviously feeling very guilty. He knew exactly why they got arrested... but he was too ashamed to tell them the reason.
"We don't know, Commander", Dawn then answered honestly and shook his head. "We weren't in their castle as it happened. We only got the command to flee back to our Space Station, and to get help from Lord Pitch. Where's he?"
"I'm here, Dawn." Suddenly, a deep voice behind Dawn's back was heard. It was Captain Pitch who had just made his way back in time and had eavesdropped parts of their conversation. Moon was relieved to know that Pitch was alright. Although, his outfit was soaking wet. She was wondering where he was...
Whilst Captain Dawn explained to Pitch what happened on Walderan and why they had to return like this, the lord detected that Saros was standing besides Moon, and it appeared that he seemed to still feel guilty about the situation, on why King Ashton suddenly arrested their members. He couldn't even dare to look Pitch in his visor at all. It was all too clear for Captain Pitch but he refrained himself from talking with Saros, for now. It was already enough to know that the wizard's actions had caused unintentional upheaval that potentially could have dire consequences.
"... now, what should we do, Captain?" Then, Dawn raised his voice slightly, alerting Pitch from his thoughts and the lord resumed paying attention to him again.
"I might have an assumption of why they got in such a dire situation...", He set his disappointed glare onto Saros and refused to let him go. Of course the wizard could clearly pick up that he had focused his visor on him, and was still refusing to look at anyone, clearly avoiding every visor contact.
Even Dr. Gura noticed that there was some secret aura going on between Pitch and Saros. Unspoken tension rising in the room was all she felt.
"C-Captain Pitch?" The lime-colored scientist gingerly interrupted their conversation. Hoping with all her heart that she wasn't going to annoy them further. "There is also something else which I'm able to show you."
"That has to wait, Dr. Gura." Did Moon just hear a very quiet growl from Pitch's voice as he was talking with her? Or was the teal bean imagining it? Didn't seem like the others heard it, so she remained silent.
"O-of course, I'll come to you later then." Gura tentatively said and walked quickly out the hangar, hoping to avoid annoying them any more.
"Do you also have an idea on how we should go about saving our colleagues, Captain Pitch?" Another question came from Dawn, clearly hearing his impatience through his voice.
Silence was all that soon swam into their conversation after the walnut colored bean's question fell onto seemingly deaf ears.
The wizard suddenly flinched once Pitch mentioned his name.
"Saros", There was a small pause before he continued: "Saros and I will go down to Walderan to calm the King's mind. Tell Skylar's crew as well as yours, Captain Dawn, to stay here and await further instructions."
That was the moment for the jasper-colored wizard to try to garther what little courage he had back to be able to look even to the same direction Pitch was, once again.
As soon as the lord's command was said aloud, everyone followed his plan. Back on the Blackcrow, Pitch was able to find some time to change his soaking wet clothes, before he made his way towards the Blackcrow's bridge.
Now back on board, the Blackcrow members could make their way back to Walderan, with the hope to rescue their friends.
Deep down below, within the underground prison on Walderan, Hawk, Skylar and the others were still held captive. It got colder behind the cage the longer they had to be detained inside the prison cells. General Skylar made a frustrated sigh while he was pacing around in circles, impatiently waiting while the others only sat on the edges of the cells or the rotten old wooden benches.
Suddenly, a loud clattering from out the prison entrance was heard, which startled the prisoners. One of the guards opened the lock and chain from the rusty old iron door in order to check on the prisoners. They also had a huge pouch with them. Inside the pouch seemed to be several fruits and an assortment of snacks. Looked like it was dinner time for the prisoners. Was it already that late? How long had they been trapped down here by now?
The guard picked out one fruit for each prisoner, and threw them carelessly inside the cell. After he gave everyone a fruit, the guard simply locked up and walked right out of the underground prison. Hawk and Skylar were skeptical about the fruits they received from him, they didn't look clean. Who knew what those fruits were anyway, they could be poisonous, perhaps riddled with bugs or germs even... But then, Hawk heard his stomach rumble and was reminded that he was still hungry, after all. The other prisoners enjoyed their fruits, but for Skylar, it was rather displeasing to hear them scarfing down those dirty and possibly out-of-date fruits so loudly and quickly like that.
As the guard was on his way back up to the castle, with his empty pouch laying on his shoulder, his visor quickly caught sight of a young lady coming down the stairs: it was Princess Lumina, who had a sneaky plan to at least rescue her best friend.
With a surprised growl, the guard asked: "What are you doing down here, Princess?"
Little did he know that she was about to trick him, with the following: "My father gave me the permission that my friend, Starla, is allowed to play with me."
"Wasn't your father the one who gave us the command to throw them to the prison?" He answered skeptically and Lumina got a little nervous with her counter backs.
"W-well yes, of course. But I asked my father nicely and he said I was allowed to play with her. I'm just really bored at this moment, y-you know? Besides, what would my father think of his guards if they wouldn't listen to him any more?" With that, the guard understood Lumina and nodded slowly. No one wanted to disrespect or disappoint their King.
"Alright, Princess. I'll open their cell door for you to pick your friend up."
And as simple as that, Princess Lumina managed to release Starla at least out of the cells. For now... For now, she secretly hoped that no one would realize that she had tricked the guard.
Captain Hawk was nomming carefully on his fruit and so was Starla besides him, he flinched a bit as their cell door began to clatter. The same guard who gave them their dinner was back. But for another reason.
"Which one of you is Starla?" He then asked and Hawk's fatherly instincts to protect his child, after her name was called, increased enormously.
"T-That's m-me, sir." The young bean was stuttering. She was still holding her half-eaten fruit in her hands.
"There is someone waiting at the entrance for you." The guard growled and grabbed her roughly.
"AHH! DAD!" Starla screamed, now in total fear. Not knowing what the guard was about to do with her.
Instinctively, Hawk grabbed his courage to reach out to his child preemptively, to get her back into the safety of his arms, but he couldn't. Her fruit fell out of her hands as she was already dragged out of the cell.
The purple captain rushed to his cell's entrance door, pushing past everyone else in the way with trembling hands and grabbed onto the door's grid in futility, after his daughter was taken away from him.
"What are you doing with my daughter?!" He yelled, but the guard ignored the worried father's calls rather coldly. "Give her back! STARLA!"
"Stop whining, already", The guard barked rather rudely to the young one once they made it out of the prison hall. "Princess Lumina wanted you."
At that very moment, Starla spotted a familiar figure in the distance, standing at the top of the staircase. It was indeed Lumina!
"I'll handle her from here on. Thank you kindly." Princess Lumina said, and escorted Starla back up to the castle.
There was still a long way to get up to the surface for the young beans. But Starla was just so happy and relieved to be with her best friend again.
Filled with curious questions, couldn't Starla resist to ask Lumina: "Did your father calm down for real?"
"Not really, I think. I tricked the guard with my royal powers to get you out of there." Princess Lumina felt guilty that she had to lie to the guard, but it was the only way to get her friend out of the prison.
"But... What about my own dad?" Starla asked. "He's worried sick about me. He doesn't know what's happening to me at this moment."
Lumina made a quick sigh. "I know, Starla. But that was the only way to get you ou-"
But then, all of a sudden, Lumina's and Starla's ears catched something rattling above them. Within the ventilation system of these dark cave-halls.
No one was inside the cave-halls with them, only Lumina and Starla and the rather broken lights on the walls attached on boulders. With a gesture to stop walking further, the young beans investigated with a suspicious visor, the roof above their heads. Nothing was seen. As nothing was seen, the girls decided to continue their path. But none of them could have ever guessed what would happen next.
Starla and the Princess screamed aloud as something fell out of the vent's entrance by accident as it tried to crawl deeper down. It looked red. Red and... wait a minute....
"Berry?! Is that you?!" The rose one's visor didn't want to believe that Berry just fell out of the vents which were connected with the underground prisons. That was very unexpected. What was he doing here?!
"Ouch... stupid grids", Berry mumbled and rubbed his back which was hurting him from the impact from the fall he just endured.
"Don't tell me you just tried to save us, Berry." Again, Starla was very curious and somehow impressed.
"Ah, it's you Starla. I thought I was hearing footsteps from guards. What did you say again?" Now, Berry looked like he got his orientation back and looked at the girls.
Before Starla repeated her question, the young bean helped Berry to get himself up. "Was that your attempt in trying to save us?"
"Yes, it kind of was. Everything seemed to work perfectly until I stepped into this vent system." Berry explained and knocked some mud off his red spacesuit.
"You're probably a member from my friend's crew, right?" Lumina was now joining the conversation. It was obvious that she was curious to know who exactly he was.
"Indeed, I am one of them." The red bean said.
"My father and the others are still trapped in the underground prison, do you think you are able to get them out of there, Berry?" Starla was begging him as much as she could, and he could see that she was very worried about her father. So was Berry. He was also visibly worried about his captain and colleagues.
Before he could raise his voice to answer, Lumina interfered: "I don't think this could be so easy, Starla. Dad's guards are very smart and well trained."
"But... how else should we get them out of the cells?" The young rose colored bean was still thinking about it.
Lumina focused her visor on Starla as she spoke and was also thoughtfully thinking on how else to save them. All of a sudden, a thought hit Lumina like a flash: "I think I got an idea..."
Berry and Starla then gathered closer to her, so that she could whisper to them her plan.
Right on time Captain Pitch's spaceship appeared above in the heavens, the Blackcrow had returned to Walderan's orbit. They didn't know how deep in rage King Ashton actually was. Not even Queen Shalona could believe her visor, as much as she understood her husband's rage though. Nothing seemed to calm his current anger, not even Shalona's careful touch nor her caring words.
Out of frustration, King Ashton let out a loud and rageful scream from the very top of his lungs. Some of his own spit was visible in the light of dawn, which shined through the colorful mosaic windows.
"I can't believe they've reunited with those who had destroyed my home planet...!" The king kept growling and was talking to himself out loud. With a hectic movement, Ashton turned around to look at his wife, who was in deep worry about him. "After all those years... I thought they were my friends."
Queen Shalona flattered with her wings in curiosity after he said after all those years. "As much as I understand your anger, how long has it been since that event happened, my love?"
"More than 15 years ago, I believe..." King Ashton growled.
"15 years ago?!" Suddenly, Princess Lumina called out behind them near the entrance and interrupted their conversation. Her parents didn't expect her to come back into the throne room, together with two guards behind her. Those two guards looked quite familiar; it was Berry and Starla, very well dressed up as Walderan guards, not even the real guards around the room could recognize the rose-colored bean.
"Lumina, I thought you went back to your room!" The blue mother, Shalona said, surprised that her daughter didn't listen to her.
"Dad, don't you think it is time to let go of the past?" The princess continued, without answering her mother's question. "Like you said yourself, it happened more than 15 years ago, don't you think after all that time people are able to change?! C'mon father!"
Once again, King Ashton let a loud roar in rage out and hissed at his daughter, but stopped once he realized that he saw a shining light in her visor, which reflected fear.
"Stay out of it, Lumina!" He then yelled at her: He totally didn't expect what happened next...
Anger began to course through Lumina's veins and her Walderian-kin fur began to change. Her whole body began to transform into a Mothra form like her father did earlier. As half Jenajan, Princess Lumina figured that she was also capable of changing her own form, which was part of her plan she had. In hope, she'd calm down her father this way... She also started to hiss at him once her metamorphosis was completed. Her already long fur on her back had grown longer and also her sharp teeth grew into imposing saber-like fangs as well. The young princess didn't grow spikes in her Mothra form like her father had on his backside, but that was a small detail, which Lumina didn't care much about. All she cared about was to prove to her father that they were not bad people.
"Look at me, father!" Ashton's daughter demanded for him to look at her, as her transformation was completed. She looked like a monster, and so did her father. "Don't you think it is time to let go of what happened, back then?! Do you really want to let people think we are monsters?! Look around! They are terrified of us!"
Just like her daughter was telling her father to look around, he did and realized for sure that the guards around the throne room were terrified of them. Even his wife, Queen Shalona was afraid. Which hit Ashton on a different level. But something tugged deep down... he couldn't let go of it so easily.
He screamed and hissed again in defiance and heartbreak. "Because of their careless action, they didn't just kill my home planet, Lumina. They also killed my mother, your grandma and millions of innocent residents!"
"But they did everything they could to save the planet!" Without thinking, Starla, dressed up as a guard, revealed her voice behind them near the entrance and Berry beside her started to sweat inside his guard's mask. As Starla realized that she just blew their cover, the young bean gasped and hid her face with her hands.
The green king looked over to the female guard and noticed that he did hear her voice from somewhere before. Not so long ago, in fact. Her young voice also revealed their cover and the king was smart enough to calculate that they weren't actual guards from his castle. With heavy and intimidating steps, King Ashton stormed over to the phony guard. Lumina, who was standing over on the other side, didn't know what to do, and felt her concern reach boiling point.
Lumina quickly lost total control over her Mothra form and rushed to Starla to defend her in a rage that seemed primal.
But before either King Ashton or Princess Lumina could even get close to the young bean, a magical flashing light appeared right in front of Ashton's face: they almost nearly crashed into it. Once father and daughter caught a glimpse of some figures within the magical sparkles, both standing there in a protective manner, Ashton almost fell backwards in shock.
"Pitch! Saros!" Starla shouted, She wasn't expecting their arrival either.
Even Queen Shalona in the background got worried over her husband's reaction, and rushed over to him once she saw how his expression changed: he was on the edge of an anxiety attack, as his visor focused on Saros's familiar face. His breathing became shallower and he began to tremble. Awful flashbacks from the past popped up within the king's mind and made the situation worse for him. Images formed inside his mind: how the familiar wizard stepped into the cave where he was hiding with the other Jenajan's from the toxic substance. And how he lost Queen back then... No! King Ashton began to huff loudly.
"No... NO!" He screamed, and his body became fuzzy but Shalona came in time to give him the support he so desperately needed.
"Yeah, I can clearly see that you still remember me", Saros announced dismissively.
"Who granted you access to my planet?!" The king then kept shouting at them, getting his blurred mind slowly back to barely focusing. Not even Lumina, who was standing behind her parents, was expecting their sudden appearence.
Captain Pitch remained silent and let Saros take over this situation. "Oh, you know, I am still a wizard after all, haha. It wasn't a challenge for us to simply teleport us down here with my powerful magic." Saros explained and made Ashton even more infuriated.
"Argh!" Ashton growled deeply and rushed to the wizard, full force. He couldn't control himself any longer. His emotions were riled up way too high for him to even compose a thought. With his sharp Mothra claws laid bare, Ashton had to block Saros's sword, which the wizard used solely for self-defense. Visor to visor, the king and the wizard looked into each other; Reflecting memories shimmered on their visors.
"Father! Please, stop!" Princess Lumina returned to her normal form and ran towards his direction but her mother caught her into her protective arms instead to avoid her daughter getting hurt by accident. Her father was way too busy trying to fight the wizard down, and could not overhear his daughter within the clattering sounds which his claws and Saros's sword made.
Whilst Saros was keeping Ashton distracted, Captain Pitch had the opportunity to check up on Starla, the bean that was standing behind him and turned around without hesitation.
"Pitch, I'm so glad you're here!" Starla said, relieved to see Pitch again. Berry, who was standing beside her, took his guard mask off and revealed his face, since their covers got blown already. Of course, Pitch recognized Berry's familiar face as well.
"Where's your father and the others?" Without taking any more questions, the lord asked in a hurry. Clattering from the fight echoed along the room behind Captain Pitch and Starla saw how Lumina was trying her very best to free herself from her mother's protective grasp. She knew that she was protecting her, but she wanted to help! Lumina wanted to help her friends!
"Uhm - uh..." Her thoughts weren't straight at all. "They are held captive in the underground prison."
Before Pitch could make a deep angered growl to himself, something crashed hard against a wall behind his back and fell down to the ground with a rough clatter. Starla gasped out of shock: she had just witnessed Saros being thrown square into Pitch's back. The king managed to break Saros' sword with his bare claws and threw the shattered metal away effortlessly.
"Grrr..." Pitch kept growling in discomfort. "This is all your fault, Saros!"
He is right, Saros thought to himself but hid his heartbreak deep inside. "Well, if you wouldn't have ran away like the little coward you still are, we could have found a solution earlier!"
Another growl came from Pitch's throat as he tried to shove Saros away from him. "The only coward I see is you. Because of you, Saros, our crew members got arrested!"
"Oh yeah, as if everything's always my fault, Captain." Saros growled back sardonically and focused his visor deeply at him, after both stood up from their uncomfortable positions and began to fist fight each other wildly.
Not quite sure what was going on, King Ashton fought to hold himself back and observed them silently. So did the others as well. Especially for Starla and Berry, this situation became quite an unexpected turn.
"Are they... seriously arguing now?" Berry whispered to Starla, once he arrived close to her side.
Left in total confusion, Starla then stuttered: "I-I'm not quite sure, Berry. Uhm -"
But Starla got interrupted.
They saw how Pitch and Saros kept fighting instead of focusing on the actual mission to calm King Ashton down, who by the way was still left in complete confusion. No one was brave enough to dare to interfere with their argumentation.
The wizard was now totally fuelled by rage from the last fist attack from Captain Pitch and stormed over to him but the Lord was faster and could block Saros's claws with his own. Now, both of them looked into each other another time. Each of their visors shimmered with a wrathful light.
"Knowing you, it mostly is..." Pitch took a short breather to catch up with his breath. "... your fault!"
"Right", Saros snarled. "And you are so perfect, you oh so great Lord... Pitch! Grraaaagh!"
In that very moment, Saros summoned lightning bolts around his body and his body was glowing brightly in an intense bright light and sparkles. Everyone around them covered their visors and ducked down as the wizard hit Pitch with a storm of lightning strikes. His black hands were burning from the strong electricity and his whole body got thrown against one of the throne rooms pillars.
"No! PITCH!" Starla screamed in the distance but her voice faded like the dust cloud which got whirled up from the now cracked pillar.
Totally appalled, everyone around them looked over in their direction.
All they heard was Pitch groaning in pain. Carefully, the captain moved his body up but sudden back pain got him. He saw with his half broken visor how Saros walked closer to him, his lightning sparkles on his claws disappeared slowly but also his current outraged expression faded away once he realized what he just did.
Saros now felt ashamed; and knelt down exhausted to the cold ground, looking down.
"Why can't you just do your job right for once, Saros?" Lord Pitch asked with a cracked voice.
But Saros hesitated to answer as Starla reached him.
"I'm really trying my hardest to get everything right, Pitch", The red wizard explained, nursing a heavy heart. "... but no matter what I do, it always turns out the wrong way. Do you remember the time where I got you the crystal for Jenaja?"
Now, King Ashton was all ears once his home planet name was mentioned.
As Saros noticed that Pitch didn't answer back and was just looking at him with an expression of total emptiness; he simply continued with his explanation but in front of everyone:
"Yeah... back in that time, you demanded me to get something which could help Queen Lamette's factories to work more efficiently in hope for her to ally with us. I kept searching in books for hours about what could help them and before I knew it, I got the idea about a certain crystal. A crystal which was known in our wizard realm to be used to power factories. But I didn't read the warning which the page had for that crystal. I was too hasty with my actions to not realize the danger behind it... a Myreldius crystal could create a toxic byproduct and could destroy a whole ecological system if not used right. As a wizard myself, I should have known better... I'm deeply sorry for the mistake I caused."
That explanation hit King Ashton like a cold windstorm and some of his thoughts began to calm down.
Saros wasn't aware what his apology just now truly meant for him. And the whole situation made sense now. It wasn't Hawk's fault. It was Saros's fault still, but he admitted what he did wasn't right. Mistakes could happen to everyone, even for the almighty ones.
Ashton's Mothra form reverted slowly, shrinking in size right back to his usual Jenajan form. After he heard Saros's apology, his inner rage faded out of his body. Slowly, the king walked closer to Saros. His tall shadow covered the red bean who was still kneeling on the ground.
Saros looked up but didn't turn around. The only thing he was looking at was at the injured Pitch in front of him, who was clinging onto the broken pillar to stay up on his own. Even though Starla was trying to help him.
"Go on, kill me if you want to, King Ashton. Take your revenge on me." Saros mumbled but the king refused, which surprised the wizard.
"No, I won't kill anyone. In fact, I must say thank you for opening up my visor." King Ashton said; the news of which made Lumina as well as Shalona relieved and elated that he had finally calmed down from his rage.
"For... what? No, no, no!" Saros shook his head, confused and levitated himself around to look at the king. "You should be mad at me, for destroying your home planet, this doesn't make sense! Argh!"
A small smile formed on Ashton's face and almost chuckled. "It is true that you were the reason why my home planet is now destroyed but there's something I just realized on my own just now."
Irritated, Saros looked at King Ashton and didn't know what to say.
Ashton continued:
"I could be mad at you and kill you, like you expected but what would I have after I did? Exactly, nothing. No one is able to change what already happened. Not even anger could change the past", He did a short pause and moved his visor to Pitch, who was now standing behind Saros. "... That's how I realized: why should we hold onto the past, when we can create a better future?"
His visor now turned towards his family, to Queen Shalona and his daughter. They couldn't hold themselves back but to rush over to Ashton and hug him tightly.
"My daughter", Then, Ashton talked to her and let go of the hug. "Our friends shouldn't be in prison, for something they didn't do, ain't I right? - Guards, free them from the prison and bring them up to the throne room."
The guards near the entrance of the throne room nodded and went down to the underground prison. Down below, it didn't take so much time for the guards to spread the word that Ashton just gave the order to free his friends.
As the cell doors were rattling, Captain Hawk pulled a tiny branch from within the muddy cell wall, and tried to protect himself with it. His whole body was shaking and some dirt was also seen on his outfit.
"G-get away from me, I warn you!" Didn't seem like Hawk's mental condition took the short time spent inside the prison well.
His branch got roughly taken away from the guard before Hawk and his colleagues got dragged up to the castle.
"You're lucky to be friends with our King, Captain." The guard said with a deep voice and freed the prisoners.
Back up on the castle, waited the others patiently for their colleagues' return. Berry had to hide a giggle to himself once he saw Captain Hawk and Skylar walk in, both covered in dust and dirt. He just couldn't help it.
Pitch went to Skylar and gave him a silent nod whilst Ashton walked over to Hawk who flinched a little as he arrived before him.
"My friend", Ashton said softly and gave him a close hug. "I want to apologize. I was overreacting and put you into prison for nothing. Can you forgive me, my friend?"
Hawk hesitated to answer but he felt that Ashton truly meant his apology. Looking around, the purple captain knew that he missed a lot. But Hawk gave in to the truth of the situation, his trembling stopped, hugged his old friend back and whispered:
"Your apology is accepted, my friend." And hugged him tighter.
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Chapter edited/corrected by: https://www.deviantart.com/spectra-shift