Coran walked into the dining commons where the escaped Folgail were. Their chatter died down as they saw the two Galra. Maeve and Freyja got up and walked to Coran and Hunk.
"Any news?" asked Maeve.
"Yes, we think we have found Astraea Gilfaren, but we'll need you two to identify her once she wakes up," answered Coran.
"Thank you, Coran," replied Maeve. Coran's cuff beeped.
He tapped it and then said, "Oh, just in time! She's up! Uh, follow me."
***
Astraea stumbled out of the sleep pod before Keith ran forward and caught her by her forearms. She groaned softly as her eyelids began to flutter. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open. In a flash, she twisted Keith's arms behind his back causing him to bend forward and pulled out one of her astoisium blades from behind her back. Astraea put the edge of the blade to his throat.
"Who are you?" she asked. "Where am I?"
The door slid open and revealed the rest of the group looking at Keith. Krolia instantly unsheathed her luxite blade and hurtled it at Astraea. The Folgail simply looked at it and disappeared entirely before reappearing in front of Krolia as Astraea pinned her to the wall. Kolivan pulled out his own blade and moved to stab Astraea, but she put her hand up and flicked her fingers as the knife shot out of his hand and landed in the wall behind them. Maeve and Freyja ran into the hall and shouted, "Astraea!"
Astraea looked at the two other girls and ran over to them, completely forgetting about Krolia.
"Maeve, Freyja!" replied Astraea. "You have no idea how good it is to hear your voices!"
"We thought you were dead!" shouted Freyja as she pulled Astraea into a hug that Maeve joined.
"You can't get rid of me that easily," Astraea smirked.
"What I want to know is how you even got out of there with all of your quintessence!" smiled Maeve.
"I used the old tricks from school. Temporary multiplication spell and then after that I fainted, so..." Astraea chuckled.
"Well, we're just glad you're back!" grinned Freyja. Coran cleared his throat. Keith, Kolivan, Krolia, and Hunk looked at them.
"Uh, sorry for nearly killing you guys like two minutes ago," Astraea said uncomfortably. "Wow this is awkward."
Keith stepped forward and held out his hand.
"I'm Keith, former Paladin of the Black Lion," he said. She took his hand and shook it. "Welcome to Altea."
"I'm Astraea Gilfaren of Xandora," she answered. Astraea gestured to her two friends. "The ginger is Maeve Philen and the other is Freyja Presthana."
"I wish we all could have met under more cheerful circumstances, but something's threatening universe," Maeve said bluntly. "...again."
"Well that wasn't very subtle," murmured Freyja.
"I wasn't gonna sugarcoat it," retorted Maeve indifferently. Freyja rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Threat?" asked Keith frantically. "What threat?"
"The one that blew our home planet to bits," said Freyja. "Honerva's granddaughters."
"Honerva has granddaughters?" inquired Hunk.
"She had a daughter with Zarkon when they were under the influence of the dark entity. Zarkon, believing that another child would be another weakness, shipped her off to a random planet and erased Honerva's memory of her pregnancy and the child's birth.
"Thirty deca-phoebs later, the daughter had three girls with a local man that she had married. The oldest, Zora; the middle child, Aquila; and the youngest Vidalia. The three granddaughters learned of their heritage quickly and went searching for the dark energy that gave their grandmother the power she had in hope to infuse it in themselves.
"Unfortunately, they succeeded in their mission and gained unspeakable dark power. Crazed by their quintessence craving, the three found Xandora and slaughtered the crew to use the ship for quintessence extraction. We managed to evacuate most of the children. The men were either enslaved or slaughtered and the women were put in gas chambers. I tried to hold off the sentries that were under the control of Zora. I did, but fainted. They have, what I like to call, decoy quintessence. I used some of my last strength to initiate the spell. It basically comes up on their radar as the amount of quintessence they came for and then when they leave, the spell wears off."
"We need to go to Earth, gather the Paladins and the Galactic Coalition," stated Kolivan. "If the Xandoran speaks the truth, the universe must be ready."
"It's Folgail," deadpanned Maeve.
"We could just host it here on Altea. It'll be a lot faster. Preparations should be done in about ten vargas. So, the meeting will be held tomorrow morning," said Coran. "Get some shut-eye. We've got a long day of debating and arguing tomorrow."
The group parted ways, leaving Astraea standing there awkwardly.
"So, where am I staying again?" she asked. Freyja and Maeve ran back towards her.
"Oh, right!" exclaimed Freyja. "You're going to love it!"
Freyja grabbed Astraea's hand and bounded off down the hallway, Maeve trailing not far behind. They weaved through the castle's corridors until they came to a white door with blue lines on it. It opened and showed a white twin bed in the corner, an off-white vanity along the wall with an oval mirror above it. A brown desk was seated in the corner next to the bed and an empty bookshelf next to the desk.
"It's amazing," smiled Astraea, sitting herself down on the bed. "I can't remember the last time I had a soft, comfortable bed to sleep on."
"Don't forget about privacy," added Maeve. "and peace and quiet."
"Well not so much for you and me," said Freyja to Astraea. "Mae' snores as loud as those shipment trucks."
"That bad, huh?" smirked Astraea as Maeve growled at Freyja. "Well, I better start training. After all, I'm gonna need it. We all will."
Astraea walked out of the room and wandered around the castle until she heard swords clanging and groaning on the other side of a white door. She sighed and stared at it as it slid open.
She sighed in annoyance seeing Keith in a black muscle t-shirt and a pair of black pants with red and white combat boots. He dodged to the side to avoid the end of the Gladiator robot's staff. The Gladiator turned towards Keith and, with all the force it could muster, slammed its staff down. Keith put the blade of his bayard katar above his head to stop the attack. The male grunted and was pushed to his knees as the Gladiator pushed its staff down harder. Keith started panting and groaning in effort as sweat soaked his skin. Astraea rolled her eyes and pressed a button on the control panel and watched as the Gladiator powered down. Keith's eyes widened as he looked at Astraea.
"Why did you stop it?" demanded Keith angrily.
"I was saving you from a beating that would have you incapacitated by tomorrow," she said indifferently.
"Oh, like you could do better," he retorted.
"I can and I will," she smirked.
"Prove it," Keith spat as he walked to the control panel and pressed a button and slid two fingers up the screen.
"What level?" she asked.
"The highest," he smirked. Her eyes widened. "What, you scared?"
She turned to the Gladiator and replied, "You wish."
Astraea took her stance as he pressed the start button. The Gladiator's head lifted as the yellow light lit up and the ends of the staff glowed. It charged her as she ran at it. The Gladiator slashed its staff across, but she jumped on its arm and pushed off of it almost instantly, landing behind it. She pulled out her short swords from behind her back and drove them through the Gladiator's chest before it could react. The robot shut down as Keith looked at her with an impressed smirk.
"Nice," he chuckled, picking up his bayard. "Let's see if you can beat me."
"As in... spar with you?" inquired Astraea. Keith nodded. "Alright, let's do it."
Keith walked to the other side of the room and took a firm stance, his bayard turning into a katar. She also took her stance on the opposite side of the training deck and pulled out her astoisium swords.
"On the count of three," Keith declared.
"One... two..."
"Three," they said simultaneously.
Keith and Astraea charged each other. When they reached the center, their blades collided as sparks flew. Keith, being stronger, pushed his blade into her two short swords. She grunted in effort as she was being pressed onto her knees. With a shout, she thrust her blades up and stood. Keith's bayard was thrown into the air and landed at least three yards away from him due to the force of Astraea's strike. She ran at him, her swords slashed as he dodged. He hooked his hands in each arm and pushed them downwards where he kneed her in the stomach, causing her to instinctively let go of the short swords. He wrapped both his arms around her waist to keep her from escaping. Their bodies flush against each other. Astraea jerked from side to side and stomped on his feet in an attempt to find a weak spot in his "arm-barrier" but to no avail.
Unbeknownst to both of them, the door slid open revealing Freyja, Maeve, and Krolia. Freyja smirked at them and looked at Maeve. Maeve simply rolled her eyes at Freyja's childishness. Astraea kept on writhing and kicking, looking like a toddler having a temper tantrum, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to win, she refused to lose; especially to him. Keith was struggling to keep her restrained, with all the thrashing around that was stinging his arms and the strong, forceful blows to his toes and shins, his skin began to take on a lilac hue as his eyes became yellow while letting out an animalistic snarl. Krolia, watching the two spar, raised her eyebrow.
"I spy with my little eye..." grinned Freyja, getting the fighters' attention. They both froze. "something that starts with 's'."
"Is it," started Krolia. "sexual tension?"
Freyja looked at Krolia and smiled, "I like you."
"Likewise," Krolia smirked back.
Astraea and Keith went red as Keith turned back to his regular human appearance. They jumped away from their position, looking incredibly embarrassed. Keith scratched the back of his neck as Astraea teetered on her heels and looked at her feet.
"I totally won that," smirked Keith smugly, standing next to her. She lifted her head and glared into his piercing dark blue-gray eyes.
"Don't get cocky," she snapped. "I was just tired from the Gladiator."
"As I recall, you took it out in less than thirty seconds," he replied.
"And it would've taken you thirty days," she added.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I can't hear you. I'm up here."
Astraea glared at him. He was about a head taller than her. She took a fistful of his shirt and pulled him down to her level.
"Can you hear me now?" she snapped.
He smirked his signature smirk again and said, "Loud and clear."
"We are having a rematch," she growled. "but not today, I'm tired from just getting out of the sleep pod and sparring with your arrogant ass."
"Looking forward to it," he answered smugly.
***
The afternoon turned into a clear-skied evening. Astraea had left an hour earlier to get some rest.
Keith walked over to Krolia, who was by the bench with his belongings.
"What was that with the Xandoran girl?" asked Krolia in amusement.
"Nothing," he stated plainly as he pulled on his red jacket.
"Really," she teased. "because it seemed a lot like flirting to me."
"I was not flirting with Astraea," he growled.
"Keith," said Krolia, her tone turning maternal. "it's okay to have a crush."
"I do not have a crush on Astraea," snarled Keith as he picked up his bayard. "and I was not flirting with her, and that's final!"
Keith stalked out of the training deck and made way to his quarters.
***
Astraea tossed and turned in her bed as she attempted to go to sleep. She kept thinking about the sparring with Keith and could not get the smug jackass out of her mind. Astraea looked at the silver staff leaning against wall in the corner behind the bed and sighed, silently hoping she had not developed certain affections towards that idiotic male. After a few minutes, Astraea let herself be drifted into sleep.
Astraea woke from her slumber and felt a warm tickle beneath her. She lifted herself slightly and saw green grass in a forest of sky-high, magenta-leaved trees. She looked to her right and saw a man with short, sky blue locks that looked as if they had never seen a comb with skin the color of the golden meadow grass. He was tall and fair and demanded authority, but his eyes—icy blue with indigo irises—were warm and welcoming.
Alongside him was a smiling woman with long black hair that gracefully cascaded down her back. Her snow-like skin contrasted greatly with the darkness of her hair. Her eyes were golden, like the glowing sunlight of dusk. They, too, were warm and welcoming.
"Mother!," she shouted. "Father! Can you hear me?"
They remained silent and ignorant of her calls. Astraea followed their line of sight and saw two young children. One boy and one girl playing tag in the small clearing. The girl had the man's icy eyes with the woman's skin and hair. The boy had the golden eyes and short brown hair.
"You can't catch me, Aster!" said the boy, running from the girl.
"Ronan," Astraea whispered as a tear slid down her cheek. She stepped closer to the small boy and reached out to touch him. Once she did, the boy, the girl, the man, the woman, and everything around her began to dissolve into smoke.
Astraea looked around. She was inside a large building with a stone ceiling painted with prophecies and tales of old. She recognized it as the Scere of Light, a place to practice magic.
She turned around and saw the woman with two other females usher clamoring masses of people out the exits. The girl from earlier stood next to her mother as she watched Galra soldiers march into the sacred space and began to shoot the masses. The woman turned to the girl that looked as if she was in her teens.
"Astraea, go now," she said. "find your brother and father. Tell them that the Scere has fallen. I love you."
"I don't want to leave you," the girl sobbed. "I can't leave you."
"I know, my child," she urged, pressing a silver staff into the girl's hand. "but you cannot be harmed. You have a power that no one else here has and you must keep it safe. I love you, Astraea."
"I love you too, mom," the girl cried as she embraced her mother.
"Now, go," said the woman as they pulled back from the hug. "GO!"
The girl ran into the crowds and kept running into the forest until she couldn't hear the cries of the frightened, defenseless congregation and the sound of the blasters that were shooting them down. The girl kneeled and cried for a few doboshes before going back into town. Everyone was huddled in town square as the commander spoke, listening to his words. She got closer and saw her mother and father in chains. Her brother was next to her shaking with rage.
"To those who try to resist," said the Commander, brandishing a blaster in his hand. "or used Galra unauthorized magic will meet the same fate as them."
The Commander gestured for two soldiers to come up. The Commander nodded as the soldiers put their blasters to the man and woman's head and shot them both dead.
Astraea screamed in loss as she watched the corpses of her parents fall to the ground, crimson blood pouring out of their carcasses. Ronan shuddered in anger and pain as he turned his gaze onto the Commander. He screamed as he charged the leader and slaughtered the soldiers that tried to stop him. Ronan swung a right hook at the Commander, but was soon restrained by two of the largest Galra soldiers in the legion.
"Take him to the ship," the Commander said. The soldiers hauled Ronan into the pod as he struggled in the crushing grip. The Commander followed shortly after, smirking triumphantly at her right before the pod door closed and flew up to the cruiser orbiting their planet.
Astraea's eyes opened as she sat up and took a shuddering deep breath. The door slid open showing a tall, lean figure. She jumped, grabbed one of her knives and threw it at the shadowy figure. It dodged and watched as the blade sunk into the steel wall behind it.
"Well somebody's frisky tonight," said a familiar voice.
"What are you doing here, Keith?" she asked exasperatedly. "Gloating?"
"No," he replied as he stepped into the room and sat on the edge of her bed. "I heard you screaming and wanted to make sure that you were okay."
"Yeah right," she scoffed as she turned her head away from him. "It's just night terrors, that's all."
"Hey," he said softly, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No, I'm just tired and want to go to sleep," she answered.
"and very cold," she added on in thought.
"Okay then," he said standing up. She sighed to herself and mentally berated herself for putting her hand on his. He looked at her strangely and then blushed, thanking the darkness of the room for shrouding his face in shadows.
"Can you stay?" she asked sheepishly.
"Okay," Keith answered lovingly against his mind's many objections. "Why?"
"I'm cold and I tend to not have nightmares when another person is around," she answered as he slid into the covers. "only for the sake of tomorrow's gathering, of course. I would like to not be half-asleep."
He sighed to himself as she moved to the other side of the bed to give him some space. Slowly, but surely, they let themselves be overtaken by fatigue.
A/N: I sincerely apologize for the cringyness of this chapter. Thank you for reading it, though.