"On... your planet?" She repeated and was left in confusion. Her thoughts got distracted by what the wizard questioned.
He only gave a simple, yet annoyed nod as answer. "My planet. I'm King Ogron, the ruler of Zudak." Starla looked on as he approached closer. "So, I ask you again: what are you doing on my planet, young lady?"
It was at that moment where Starla felt extremely conflicted. Should she be honest with the magician? Should she tell the truth of why she came to this specific planet? The young bean glanced at the stranger, fearful as to what they were going to do next. Perhaps the stranger could explain further into the things she researched? But she had the almost primal feeling that, while in the presence of such a figure, her knowledge was best left not shared... Yet she still found the words flowing.
"I... I was curious about the elemental crystals... m-maybe you've heard of it before and could share some knowledge about it with me...?" Starla stumbled over her own words, which made the mauve wizard king snap his head back to her and give her a scowl, but this scowl was different. It was less fury and more sheer confusion.
"You're no witch, yet you have little knowledge of elemental crystals?! What are you up to, intruder? How did you come across such arcane knowledge?!" Ogron grumbled, obviously confused. "Is that what star travelers do? Do they let their young go striding out knowing rare knowledge and crash into planets of old asking about powers they can't comprehend?! Grimm damn it..."
Starla felt somewhat called out when Ogron began ranting grumpily. With her hand in her pocket, clutching that verdant earth crystal in her hidden paw, she innocently turned to the one figure who she knew had knowledge about this.
"Uhh... it wasn't as if I found out about it all on my own... M-My parents... they know a wizard who had those books. I know I did go and snoop around behind their backs... and steal a shuttle... but I really wanted to know!" She explained to the best of her ability. But Ogron furrowed his brow a bit at the mention of a wizard in Starla's story.
"What did you say? Another wizard?" Ogron kept growling and was all ears now.
The young and slightly naive adventurer Starla mustered up a little bit too much confidence by pure accident the more she explained. "Yes, a wizard! He works with my parents and he has a big library as well - That's where I found out about the crystals and this planet... I personally have never really met another wizard other than Saros until now."
Ogron's expression turned from confusion to fury so suddenly upon Starla even mentioning Saros' name, it was like a lightning bolt hit the room. Red sparks of energy fizzled around Ogron as he growled loudly.
"You...! So you DO know more than what you were letting on!" Ogron's furious remarks made Starla squeak and flinch in shock. "I wouldn't even be surprised if you're just outright lying about anything else by now! You have little idea the halls of power you have entered, let alone the truth of the wizard you had placed your trust into. Saros deserted his world, and for what?!"
Starla could only sink into the seat she was sitting on as Ogron towered over her in fury. Sweat began to pool on her forehead as she froze in the face of a storm so fierce.
"Like you, he abandoned his world... He abandoned me: his duty, his legacy, his wife-to-be and his planet! For you to follow in his ignorant ways, you must be one naive and foolish star traveler! Guards?! Take this one to the cells!" And with that, two armored wizards stomped forward and summoned lengths of pitch black chains to have a good hold of Starla and took her away. Soon enough, they also surrounded her body with black wobbly chains. Starla was too confused as to what Ogron was talking about to want to resist. She couldn't even comprehend what just transpired.
As the guards took Starla away, Ogron watched on with a furrowed brow and low growl, making sure the stranger was out of his sight. Then, he simply pivoted and turned his back on the situation. Walking away, he then heard footsteps and looked up, only to see an aubergine-colored figure gracefully step into view.
Immediately recognising the figure, Ogron let his tough and cruel guard down a little bit.
"Avah. What brings you here?" The old wizard asked with a tone of voice a lot less harsh but considerably stressed and furious.
"I... I heard about the stranger found and I came to wonder, your highness, if it's true." She asked, a little bit of confidence and forlorn hope in her voice. Ogron, acting considerably more hospitable, gave a growling sigh and explained.
"It seems to be true. The star traveler mentioned my son. There may be the chance that she knows where he went, and she may be crucial in locating him." Ogron confessed, and the witch standing before him looked on with a visor shining a little bit. A tiny bit of childlike hope was shown in her being, which while Ogron did seem to put up with, he knew that it was too soon to fully be hopeful of. "But while there seems to be a lead, dear Avah, we cannot be fully sure just yet."
Avah sneered and rolled her visor at that response, but she took Ogron's word for it whilst he continued: "Go to the tower with them, Avah. Keep an eye on our... guest."
"Alright, your highness. As you wish." She mumbled before she followed his request.
The mansion began to hold a very peculiar aura towards the old wizard after the star traveler revealed that she worked with his one and only son. Hoping up until today, that destiny could change like he wanted to from the beginning...
Back on the Blackcrow spaceship, Saros was still at the medical station, as he was still feeling unwell. His senses and self were tainted with an unwell sense... a sense which left him feeling very uncomfortable and insecure. It was obvious that he knew where Starla had taken them in her misguided adventures: right back to his home planet Zudak.
The spaceship was suspended peacefully around the dark planet's high orbit, waiting for the next step in the mission to recover Moon's and Hawk's daughter and bring her back to safety.
One thing, however, did irritate the black captain even more than normal, as the more he was looking at the planet looming ahead, the more the massive holes in logic and reasoning yawned wider: this territory didn't seem like it had any kind of defender stations or any kind of stations to contact for information or updates. The absence of any official activity in this sector made Pitch even more concerned. If that planet was an ancient magical object in this galaxy... how come that no single soul in this corner of Kytarium was interested in protecting it from anything that could pose a threat to its powerful forces? Literally everything or anyone could target it easily if they'd feel like it. At least, that's what it first appeared to be to the bare eye...
At that time, Hawk, who was still sitting beside Pitch, noticed the dark lord start to look distant. Fully lost in his own thoughts, Pitch stood up from his rather comfortable seat and began to wander about, even forgetting about his surroundings. He circled past from his own navigation desk, which made Hawk worry slightly.
"Pitch? Are you alright?" Hawk cared enough to know if he was, but Pitch was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't respond as he inputted some commands into a panel on a different navigation desk.
A hologram of the surrounding galactic sector suddenly flickered into existence when he pressed enter. The hologram showed several star systems, all in relative stability. Pitch toggled some settings and set the scanner going. But his tests came back negative. No pings were received, and Pitch frowned.
"Grr..." Pitch then complained. "The nearest base or station to where we are is over 40 light years away, well out of the border of this sector."
"What?" Hawk got mystified over what Pitch just told him. "Does that mean that this planet has no protection whatsoever? That's a little odd for such an ancient celestial object, if you ask me."
"Hm..." Lord Pitch muttered, more to himself.
Nonetheless, even Lord Pitch wasn't so sure how he should continue. If even Commander Saros got a panic attack over the bare view of a simple planet, then he had to be even more careful. The explanation that the jasper-colored magician gave earlier wasn't helping much in terms of clearing the air, but Pitch did indeed appreciate the found courage to talk about his traumatic experiences with his crew. Captain Hawk kept watching how Pitch was still lost in his thoughts. It was worrisome to him to see Pitch looking so confused about something. While Pitch stood there, inputting commands into the desk.
The situation was alarming. Pitch was struggling to find a possible explanation to the paradox, and Hawk wasn't the wiser.
"We won't be able to contact the space station if our own communications array is compromised if we can't get to a base. So... this place must not be a recently chartered area." Hawk mumbled aloud while he watched Pitch wander around the bridge.
The whirling confusion in Pitch's mind over the impossible planet would not let up no matter what he did, and he felt his frustration grow further the more he thought about it. Pitch began growling and his clenched fists began trembling. After all of this running around with so much mystery, trouble, issues and inconveniences, Pitch felt the heat in his heart rising.
Soon enough, Pitch felt his soft curtain of calm begin to slip from his temper. His growling grew louder and erupted into a roar. Lost in his anger and confusion on how else to save Starla or even comprehend the mystery before him, Pitch slammed a clenched fist into the panel he was standing next to. This impact hit something and a red siren light flashed before a rumbling occurred.
Out of nowhere, the Blackcrow's laser cannons began to whir into life. Pitch still held his fist on the panel without realizing it, as he was still feeling all the temper, rage and confusion in an outrage. And then, in a hot second, the laser cannons fire upon the planet below them. The red beams zoomed down to the dark planet, seemingly on a collision course with it.
Hawk could only look on in total shock at this whole situation. But what confused everyone even more was what happened next: The laser blast did not hit the planet's surface, but instead was blocked by a mysterious violet colored shield, negating the blast completely with a mystical rune-like effect in the wake of the impact.
But the whole incident made everyone on the Blackcrow's bridge look on in sheer shock at Pitch's overreaction. Once Captain Pitch realized what just happened, he moved his fist up from the navigation desk where he accidentally pushed the laser's fire button.
"Uhm... Captain?" The voice steeped in sheer confusion came from Berry. Just like everyone else on the ship's bridge, no one could believe what they just witnessed. "... are you sure that you're alright?"
But Captain Pitch didn't answer. Instead, Hawk chimed in: "Well... at least we've got an answer to our heated up mystery."
It was obvious now that Lord Pitch was even further annoyed by the current situation. Yes, he saw the protection shield around the whole planet after the laser impacted on it, but couldn't fully understand how such a violet shield was able to be lifted to protect a whole planet like that. He was beginning to think that Saros was being honest, and that there were wizards on that planet, possibly even leagues stronger than Saros himself. This only seemed to fuel Hawk's deep-rooted concern about his daughter's safety even more.
"This is worrisome, Hawk." Commander Moon, who was standing behind them, took all her courage to speak up and to let everyone know about her own concerns about the matter. "Our beloved daughter is somewhere down there, I'm deeply worried about her safety! Who knows what could have happened to her by now..."
Her husband nodded, giving his very best to hold his own temper together. "Time's indeed pressing further, my strawberry. I'm just concerned as you and I believe Pitch as well. But with that kind of shield the planet Zudak has as its protection, I'm not so sure how else we should pass through it... I doubt one of our shuttles could do that."
Another frustrated snarl came from Pitch's direction. An idea suddenly hit him like a lightning bolt.
"Saros. We need Saros once more." His mumbling was barely heard from where he was standing. After that, he turned around to look at Commander Moon. "Perhaps his magic is strong enough to break the magical barrier down just long enough so we can land."
"But Pitch..." Moon began with a worried voice. "I've been with Saros for a bit while he was recovering in the Medbay and his panic attack is still bothering him. I don't want him to overdo it..."
"There's no other option, Commander." Pitch's now rather stern voice gave Moon a different kind of intimidating chill. "Or do you have a better idea on how to save your daughter?"
A short insecure silence washed through the bridge for a mere second before Moon sighed: "... no, Lord Pitch. I don't have a better idea."
"I thought so." Captain Pitch said. "Call Saros again and tell him to come to the bridge."
"But didn't Saros say he doesn't want to look at the planet?" Berry reminded Captain Pitch politely as he could.
Pitch looked to Berry's direction. "I'm aware of what he said earlier. However, we need him nonetheless. Sometimes, you have to take risks and compromises."
"Understood." Berry simply answered and nodded. For the red navigator, it was clear enough that Captain Pitch was serious about it and didn't want to press deeper into it. No one wanted to anger Pitch more than he already was...
The Doc received another call from Captain Pitch, notifying him as he was about to check on Commander Saros once again.
"Doc, we need Saros on the bridge." Pitch told him through the communicator once The Doc took it in his hand and activated it. Saros was also listening beside him, rolling up from his comfortable position lying on the medical bed.
"I said that I wish to never look at that planet again, Captain." But Saros was quicker with answering, rather annoyed that Pitch didn't seem like he'd care about his well being. Which confused the wizard also.
"Captain, is there a good explanation for why you need him on the bridge? I have to agree that Saros' wishes have to be respected." Of course, The Doc joined in to protect Saros and hopes of getting a very good explanation of why he had to return to the bridge.
Which Captain Pitch explained simply: "Indeed. We found out that there's a magical barrier around the planet. We thought that Saros could help us to fly through it."
But all Saros gave as an answer was a deep growl and began to mumble grumpily. "The magical barriers aren't the only thing that's protecting Zudak... To fly down safely to the planet's surface, you need more than just a simple magic trick to pass through the barrier. And I told you that I won't ever go down to that planet ever again. No, over my dead body."
A saddened sigh came from Captain Hawk after Saros made his decision very clear. "Saros... There's my daughter down there. While we respect and understand your reasons to avoid this planet, you must know that she could also be in high potential danger right now. It would make myself and my wife very sad to lose her... We ask you again, Saros: please help us to save my daughter."
For The Doc, it was also clear enough that Saros was struggling. He saw how he rubbed his hand against his forehead and was taking a long while to think about it. While yes, Hawk had one point there... Starla might be annoying for the wizard sometimes, he didn't want anyone to experience the same pain he once did. And with that, he even hoped that Starla would never meet his father down there. That one alarming thought, in an instant, made Saros change his final decision.
"Alright..." The magician sighed and teleported himself to the bridge, standing with his back towards the window, to still avoid every visor contact with the planet before them. Everyone on the bridge looked up to Saros' direction once he appeared magically and Pitch deactivated his communicator chip.
"Let's get it over with." Saros was now determined to also save Starla as well.
What he didn't know was, how the earlier impact from the accidental laser attack which hit the magical protection shield had caused an immense and sudden feeling to spring through the old wizard's head, alarming King Ogron that his planet was targeted by someone or something. He gave a low growl in anger as he turned and stormed off through the castle to the observatory tower that reached out into the dark sky looming above. Ogron checked several arcane instruments as he noticed the odd spaceship that was circling around Zudaks's orbit. Before him was a rounded table, where a violet colored hologram map from the planet flared to life showing everything within the vicinity of Zudak. And with it: The Blackcrow.
Ogron assumed that this spaceship possibly came to rescue their young runaway, and a thought hit him upon seeing a smaller ship disembark from the larger one. Using his magic, the crimson-colored wizard king called upon a communicator to hail the shuttle.
The notification of a call hit the shuttle Pitch was piloting, and he turned to look at the panel in silent confusion. This planet did not seem that advanced upon early scans, so how is it that someone was able to call them like this?
Intrigued, Captain Hawk innocently accepted the incoming call while Saros sat in the seat behind him, trying not to let his nerves fray too much. But, as soon as the call came through and the stranger on the other end of the call spoke, he felt his nerves break down once again, and Saros curled into a ball in his seat, ducking out of the way of the panel.
"Who dares trespass into Zudak's space?" The rather aggressive voice hailed on the other end of the line, and King Ogron's face appeared on the screen in front of Captain Pitch and Captain Hawk. Both beans were slightly taken aback, namely because the notions about wizards living on Zudak were true.
"This is Captain Hawk, I'm the second captain of the Blackcrow. Lord Pitch and I are here to retrieve my daughter Starla. If you have any possible clues to where we can find her, and if she's alright, then-" But Hawk was cut off mid sentence by Ogron.
"Well... I might have a clue: your little outsider scout is here in my dungeon, and I will be willing to trade her for something in return." Ogron proclaimed with a cold undertone in his voice. Hawk and Pitch were obviously annoyed for different reasons by this. Hawk, offended by the fact that this stranger called his daughter an outsider, gave a silent growl to himself.
"You have my daughter in your dungeon and want to trade her like that? Who do you think you are?!" Hawk rebuked in shock and annoyance as he glared down at the screen at the figure that was conversing with them.
All the while Hawk was arguing, Saros sank deeper down into his backseat, trying not to be seen by the figure and created a fist with his claw, knowing all too well who the stranger was that Hawk was talking to... The figure gave a thunderous growl at Hawk's stubborn refusal and glared back with a furious glint in his visor.
"I am Ogron, king of the planet Zudak. You have no power here, as you have entered the realm of wizards. I could smite you and your shuttle down with just one snap of my claws if I so desired. So you'd better heed this warning, outsider. Or I will only offer this once." King Ogron's voice commanded the comms unit, and made even Pitch take his visor off of what he was doing. Saros was still hiding and quietly listening, and Hawk, partly out of worry for both his and his daughter's safety, let down his stubbornness and heard the wizard king out.
"Alright. You have our word. Now... What is it that you want?" Captain Pitch asked and answered instead of Hawk.
"In return for your fellow outsider cadet's safe passage out to your spaceship, if you have any leads as to where Prince Saros is, and can bring him to me, then I will let her go. Otherwise, or if you seek to hide his presence from me, there will be no mercy. Have I made myself clear?"
It was clear that Hawk and Pitch were confused as he said Prince Saros. Resisting the urge to look back in confusion at Saros, who was still silently hiding in his backseat, Pitch and Hawk were sitting there trying to comprehend what Ogron just said. Nothing could've possibly prepared them for that reveal. As they sat in silence, trying not to break the bluff, Ogron kept the pressure.
"Well? If you don't have anything to say, then why did your little outsider scout say she knew about him, hm? Come forward now, and I will allow your little fellow outsider to talk to you." King Ogron huffed, hoping that this would make the two reconsider their obvious facade.
Hawk looked over at Pitch with an incredulous glance, not quite knowing what to say next. Pitch rebuked the glance with a small growl, unsure about whether or not to reveal the truth or not. On one hand, Hawk and Pitch wanted to rescue Starla, but on the other hand, neither were sure if they should go ahead and trade Saros in the process. Not after they both knew and saw how he reacted so irrationally and fearfully upon even seeing a snapshot of this planet earlier...
King Ogron was still holding the call, not budging at all from the line. His scowling face showed that he was growing impatient, but he had the secretive thought that maybe the two outsiders would concede and tell the truth. He watched how the two were holding their tongues over the matter, and he broke the silence.
"So be It. I will give you permission to land your shuttle in my courtyard. And from there, if you do have concrete evidence where Prince Saros is, I will be magnanimous and set you free immediately." The old wizard king humphed. "Consider this a warning. You fail to spill your truths, outsiders, and there will be consequences."
The line went dead as Ogron hung up on the shuttle. Pitch growled in annoyance and frustration as he continued piloting the shuttle down to the planet's surface, while all Captain Hawk could do was sit there, still nursing his incredulous expression and disbelief.
"Prince Saros..." Hawk mumbled in disbelief and broke the silence. "If I'm not mistaken... does that mean that the wizard King Ogron, who says he rules Zudak, is-"
"... my father." Saros growled, still clenching his fists together as he trembled. "The one you were just talking with was none other than my father."
Pitch kept silent all the while this was going on. In all the time he knew Saros, he never knew; he never asked. And now, they were staring a hidden past straight in the face with no idea why any of this even happened in the first place, and Saros was too fearful and furious to even want to begin to answer anything. So, they were left in suspense like the shuttle flying through the troposphere of Zudak.
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Chapter was written by MoonlueArt and Inverted-Opal57
Side Note: the next chapter could take a bit longer to finish! We ask once again for your patience!