Jeena continued to work on the lab systems as the communicator mounted on her wrist continued to beep, thinking it was Rallen wanting to tell her about some stupid thing he had found. Finally, she decided to answer, only to find that it was Commander Grant. "Commander Grant, what's wrong?"
"Jeena, is Rallen around?" he asked with a solemn sense of urgency she hadn't heard since the battle with Krux months ago.
"No, he's out excavating like usual," Jeena replied in an annoyed tone.
"Good," he said, surprising Jeena. "Now, answer this next question truthfully. What is the most important thing to you?"
"Protecting the Nanairo system, of course," she replied, even more confused now.
"And you do anything to protect it, right?" the commander asked, receiving a slow nod in response. "Alright. Go to the matter transport system."
Jeena made her way to a large box in the corner. It was able to transport matter across space in seconds, making it much more effective than a spaceship. However, it has yet to successfully transport anything larger than a mustard jar without vaporizing it. A little red light flicked on, and seconds afterwards, a small vial of a dark purple liquid appeared there. Jeena stopped breathing for a second. Even her heart skipped a beat. "You can't be serious, Commander."
"I'm very serious. All the members of Parliament voted for it. I fought it every step of the way, but it still passed. The final authority comes down to you," he said to her in a voice that made him sound like he was speaking at a funeral. "You do know what this is, right?"
"Calmurenite: A poison that has the power to kill a human more than a thousand times over in a minute," Jeena responded. "The poison is so deadly that it requires class-1 government clearance just to access the ingredient list. The recipe is in the hands of only five, hand picked government officials."
"That is all correct. Now, that is to be used to kill Rallen," he said.
"Why on earth would I do that!" she screamed at him.
"Krux possessed the power to take down the NPP. Rallen, who is even stronger than Krux, could destroy our entire system. Even Alodous admits that he's never met a Spectrobe Master with Rallen's ability. They want to prevent even the possibility of him becoming a threat to the peace."
"That's impossible. Rallen fought for us even when he's had so many chances to take over!" Jeena yelled, suddenly realizing the truth in their fears. While Rallen hadn't seized the chances before, there was no guarantee he wouldn't in the future.
"You cook for him, right? Just put the Calmurenite in his serving. The best part about it is the quick, painless death it offers. Just know that I didn't want it, but I couldn't fight it," Commander Grant finished as the screen went blank. Jeena picked up the bottle and stared at it for a long time before she heard the elevator jump to life. Jeena quickly pocketed the poison as she turned to Rallen approaching.
"Hey Jeena. I found a new fossil today. I had to come back and awaken it," he said as he walked by her and over to the lab system. He quickly pulled out the fossil and inserted it into the large machine as he began to fiddle with the controls.
"I'm going to make dinner," Jeena blurted out as she ran for the elevator. Rallen gave her a curious look before returning to the fossil.
&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?
Jeena poured some of the sauce she had just made over the spaghetti she had prepared. She was a genius cook, but barely actually made anything. When both plates were perfect, she reached into her pocket and removed the vial of poison. Is this right? She asked herself. She had admitted that Rallen could do potential harm, but he could do incredible good. For once, logic wasn't showing her what she needed to do. She turned away from the plates and saw one of the few pictures in the spaceship. Ever since the battle with Krux, the ship had been remade with a homelike touch so Rallen and she could go on extended missions to far away places. It was a picture they had taken only a few months after they started working together. Rallen had her in a headlock and flashed a peace sign to the camera as she protested.
"He was such a clown," she said with a smile. He still is and always will she thought as she sat down. My hair was shorter then she realized as she drifted into memories.
—Four Years Ago—
"No way," Minnie, Jeena's best friend back in the academy, said when she saw their assignment postings.
"What's the big deal?" Jeena asked her. Only a week ago, they had graduated from the NPP Academy, making them official members of the NPP. Minnie had been assigned to help artifact recovery for the museum while Jeena had become partners with Rallen.
"You're with Rallen. THE Rallen! I swear, bathroom cleaning duty would be better than working with him," she said with a sigh.
"What's the big deal? I've never heard of him," Jeena responded. She might've heard of him while people were gossiping, but she never cared for rumors.
"He's the guy that crashed two cruisers in the three years he's been with the NPP and hasn't had any partner that was able to last longer than six months with him," Minnie explained. "In fact, the only reason they keep him in the NPP is because of his fighting abilities."
"No one's strong enough that they'd forgive him for all that," Jeena responded. The fighting test was infamously difficult. A graduate would be put in a special vest as droids came after them. If one of the droids hit the vest, the wearer would be shocked into unconsciousness. Even worse was when they sent in more and more as time wore on. Jeena had lasted only seven minutes, barely a passing grade. The average was thirteen minutes. The best in their year had gone thirty-two straight minutes.
"He lasted four hours, twenty-seven minutes against the droids," Minnie answered, leaving Jeena in a state of shock. "It was so amazing, that even his low written test scores were forgiven." Just then, Webster arrived. "Well, there's my boss. I'll see ya' later," Minnie said as she got up to leave. Three other new graduates also went to Webster. There was always a need for new people to help at the museum since it was the position for recruits who the higher-ups thought needed to be eased into the field. The only person to graduate the academy but never leave the museum was Webster.
"Hey, are you Jeena?" some unknown voice asked. She looked up to see a man with a young face and red hair looking down on her.
"Y…yes," she stuttered. Jeena was intimidated. Even through the NPP uniform, it was obvious he was muscular.
"I'm Rallen. Nice to meet you," he said, extending a hand to her. She nervously shook it. He made a goofy grin as he let go and turned around, motioning for her to follow. She followed him and ended up in a restaurant.
"What are we doing here?" Jeena asked, nervous. She had never been to such an expensive place.
"It's my treat. Think of it as a congrats on graduating present," he explained. "Or you can think of it as the one good memory you'll have as my partner." After that, the two ate their dinner, talking about their lives and learning more about each other. One thing Jeena learned about Rallen was that he could hold his liquor while she was drunk after half a glass of beer.
The next three months were chaos at their best. Rallen was always getting into some sort of trouble, but always managed to get out of it. It reminded her of the T.V. shows she had seen growing up. But, even through all the hell he put her through, somehow he always made it so she ended up with a smile on her face (and occasionally bandages). It was one day in their fourth month that made Jeena decide she would rather die than quit.
"What's this?" Jeena asked Rallen, holding up a small book with only ten pages.
"Look through it," he replied. On each of the first seven pages were headshots of people she had never met. Five were women, two were men. The eighth page had a picture of her. "That's all of the partners I've had since I've joined the NPP."
"I've heard you had a few, but eight?" she said in disbelief.
"Yeah. Most people like me, but they say I endanger them way too often. After all of them, there's one thing I noticed about the other seven."
"What's that?" Jeena asked.
"The longer their hair, the better partner they were," he said as he got up to leave, leaving Jeena to think. She could tell how much he had hated losing his past partners. Having so many people reject you must make a person feel like shit. That's when she decided that he would prove that he should be glad to have lost all of them just to meet her.
—Modern Day—
"This looks great," Rallen said as he sat down to the dinner Jeena had made. "Iku Ze," he said in a dramatic fashion before digging in. "Hey, did you put something in this?" he said in between bites.
'If you don't like it, no one's making you eat it," she said, acting stuck up. Rallen looked afraid for a split second before eating again with just as much vigor. Jeena started to eat slowly with some class before Rallen began to cough, drawing no reaction from Jeena. As the coughing became fiercer, she looked at him in amusement. Finally he stopped.
"Eat slower, will you?" she asked as he recovered.
"Sorry, but it tastes so good," he replied. In a few minutes, both of them were done eating. When they got up, Jeena felt the small vial in her pocket. I couldn't do it she thought as she walked up to Rallen. Not only that, but I lied to Commander Grant.
"What do you need Je-," he stopped, his lips covered by hers. He couldn't move even after she pulled back.
"You had some sauce on your lips," she said as she went to go to sleep. The most important thing to me is Rallen.