Three deca-phoebs ago...

Lotor's cruiser hovered beside a palace of silver metal on a monotone landscape. The capitol city was dark and silent with the faint haze of smoke, dotted by the lights of Mieran eyes and colored cloaks. The Trueblood and Royalsoul cults had caused an uproar over a simple task of retrieving records on the military of the planet Mierome, simply because the recipients of the records were a minuscule squad of Galra hybrids. The prince disapproved of the planet's society and its purpose for the empire, but it could not be helped.

Not yet.

"Acxa," Lotor addressed the blue-skinned general from the throne of his ship. "Have you completed translating the reports of the military on Mierome?"

"Yes, I have, sir," the woman nodded, sending the info chart to the main screen. "However, there is one member of the guard that you might be interested in: a half-Galra commander named Ayiko." She pointed out the picture of the mentioned general, who did seem noticeably different compared to the pureblood Miero on the rest of the chart. Her skin held a Galra-like violet tinge, and her ears were pointed like those of a Galra. "The information about her is heavily biased towards blood-purity, so it's fair to assume her way of becoming such a high rank and maintaining it couldn't have been easy."

"She definitely looks stronger than the rest of those puny Miero we got through," Zethrid commented. "Wonder if she fights good, too."

"I wouldn't be surprised, Zethrid," Lotor mused, looking at the mugshot with newfound interest. "I wonder why we didn't fight her when we attacked."

Ezor soon came running into the ship, skidding along the floor to her station. "Yikes! Those guards obviously hate hybrids for some reason, 'cause I just tried to save a weird-looking Miero from a group of generals, and those creeps had their tendril things ready to tear me to shreds! I heard one of them say they were heading to some huge nearby crater and - wow, that's the same one I saw, without the weird helmet thingy keeping her tendril things from coming out."

Lotor's eyes widened. "Hate hybrids... blood-purity... a half-Galra commander... a crater..." he mumbled, going over what the scenario could mean. Only one real possibility stuck out, and it wasn't a good one.

Acxa asked, "Sir, do you believe those generals are planning on inflicting harm on this commander?"

Lotor nodded slowly. "Your assumptions are identical to mine, Acxa. Prepare my personal fighter with the coordinates to the crater Ezor was speaking of. Narti, prepare a healing pod in the infirmary; something tells me this Ayiko will be harmed by her superiors, if she hasn't been already."

The blind general nodded and ran off to do as she was told. Acxa went to the controls, adding the location to the nearest, closest crater on Mierome to the log of the prince's ship. Lotor walked briskly to the shipping dock with his helmet on, leaping into his fighter and taking off into the dark atmosphere.

Mierome, Lotor's thoughts wandered as he flew through the sky. A planet of haunting beauty that masks petrifying power and crippling hatred. Only taken by the Empire because of the danger of its phantasmal population, and the planet's antimatter energy for the witch's experiments. The chauvinistic groups that race across the soil are far stronger than their fragile monarchy. Like a rock amassed with ghostly wild animals no one could dare tame. And yet, there is now one who perhaps can tame the beastly cults, so long as she's taken from their jaws first. Let us hope we can carry her into our world, away from this realm of torment, before her blood-purist race destroys her for her own strength.

When Lotor found the location he was given, he saw three Miero generals standing a ways away from a large crater full of sharp, jagged rocks. Another Miero who looked like a lowly commander was bound and standing at the edge, wearing only what appeared to be a navy-blue undersuit normally worn under the usual slim, dark gray scale armor. The commander's head was covered by a brown dark-visor helmet with a sort of bit in the Miero's mouth, the helmet holding her tendrils inside in what must've been a very uncomfortable fashion. She clearly couldn't see, hear, move, speak, or even fight back, and was oblivious to the fact that a general behind her was aiming a blaster toward her back.

Those monsters.

Lotor swerved down toward the scene as the general promptly shot the commander in the back, sending her tumbling helplessly into the crater. The generals turned and ran at their usual comparatively breakneck speed from the scene upon seeing the Galra ship. Lotor wanted to shoot them all down, but there were two things preventing him from doing so: one, they would already be long gone after he readied the blaster; and two, the commander needed immediate help.

Grudgingly, Lotor landed his ship not far from where the now-unconscious commander lay. The ash gray of Miero blood leaked through her wounds and stained the rocks, especially around her back. He took off the obvious prisoner helmet and tossed it aside, freeing her tendrils and showing it indeed was the commander named Ayiko. While he was at it, he used his sword to cut away the ropes binding her arms and legs. Careful of her various wounds, Lotor picked up the injured commander, placing her in the fighter before jumping back in. He flew back slower than getting there, so as not to cause further harm to the passenger, to his main ship.

Acxa, Ezor and Zethrid were waiting for their superior as he came back into the shipping dock, coming out with the Miero hybrid in his arms. Acxa looked over the injured hybrid girl in worry; she didn't even look fully-grown yet.

"Her injuries are varied in severity, sir," she commented. "Though I believe the worst is the wound in her back."

Lotor nodded in understanding. "Zethrid, bring our guest to the infirmary," Lotor ordered as he handed Ayiko to the larger hybrid. "And tell Narti that she will keep watch over her until she is fully recovered. Ezor, go fetch her armor from the Miero palace. I believe that her quarters there will be easy to identify, considering how the Miero appear to treat hybrids like us."

"Yes sir," Zethrid nodded as she went off.

"Look for a hybrid's room in a blood-purist castle. Probably labeled with a bunch of 'half-breed' messages - easy-peasy!" Ezor grinned as she took off for the palace.

It was already over a day since they brought in the Miero hybrid. Seated on his throne, Lotor wondered when Narti would send Kova to tell him Ayiko was fully recovered. Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid shared a similar sense of worry. Hybrids of any species had to stick together, especially Galra hybrids; everyone in Lotor's crew knew that. And knowing the pain that a fellow half-Galra had to go through - likely her entire life - was an empathy that they all could feel.

When a frightened, meowing Kova dashed into the bridge, Lotor and the other generals spun to the feline. A loud crash coming from the infirmary only sent the four of them into more worry and fear as they all got up and followed the cat, running back to the infirmary. The others went ahead of Lotor, and soon after they entered the infirmary, he heard them yelping in surprise and fear.

When the Galra prince looked in, he was met with a frightening sight.

Ayiko was awake and fully recovered physically, but clearly not mentally. Her face was neutral, but her glowing, pale cornflower blue eyes danced with fear. All of Lotor's generals, Narti included, were each pinned against the opposite wall by a flurry of Ayiko's midnight blue tendrils. Not even Zethrid was able to escape, and that was alarming enough for the superior.

Lotor's blood nearly ran cold as those glowing, frightened eyes turned to him. Her remaining tendrils were lifted, ready to pin him as well - likely to the floor. Lotor instinctively pulled out his sword as some tendrils shot towards him, getting tangled around the blade. The Galra prince narrowly dodged other tendrils until he was close enough to grab Ayiko's fingerless hand.

The hybrid stopped cold, muscles going slack and tendrils retracting, freeing the generals. Lotor stared silently into the hybrid's bright, gleaming eyes as the dilated pupils retracted to a calmer appearance. For a few dobashes, all was still.

"You don't need to be afraid of us," he murmured to the Miero hybrid, taking a step closer. "We're all half-Galra, just like you. You can come out; no harm will come to you."

Ayiko looked down at them with skeptical eyes, her gaze flitting from Lotor to each of his generals. Seeing no hint of a weapon on any of them, she took a shuddering breath before she cautiously stepped out of the healing pod, keeping completely silent. Ezor grinned and gladly hugged the new hybrid in welcoming, earning a smile from the others, Lotor especially. He knew that it wouldn't be at all easy to gain the trust of this new addition to the group, but he also knew that it would be well worth it once they did.