Chapter 2

'Astrae!'

A young, skinny girl about seven-years-old hurried down the hall with a plate of food. The voice sounded angrier than usual. Her nose wrinkled in disgust when she approached her master.

'You are completely useless, Astrae,' he growled at her as he snatched the food away.

'Who's fault is that?' she snapped, her golden eyes flashing. She nimbly sprang back to avoid the hit that was meant to connect to her cheek. If it had, she knew she'd have been flying across the cave. 'Orion's being educated and trained,' she spat, knowing it was a sore spot.

'Orion,' he roared. 'I don't see what Dark Spector sees in that scrawny kid. Your species is nothing special.'

'Dark Spector seems to think we are,' she taunted. 'If properly trained.'

She didn't see the electrical blast coming and was hit with its full force. When it stopped, she lay panting in the dirt, black spots dancing around her vision. Her master was towering over her.

'Don't, ever, talk back to me again,' he told her and kicked her in the stomach for good measure. 'And don't think you can tell me what to do.'

She saw his silhouette walk away and tried to push herself back up. The effort proved too much and she spit up some blood before passing out.

Hours later a beeping noise pulled her back to consciousness. With a groan she pushed herself up on hands and knees and crawled over to the com system. She managed to pull herself up on the panel and drop down in the seat, opening communications. The face of a boy about her age appeared on the screen. Ash blonde hair fell down to his chin, crimson eyes studied her intently.

'You look like hell,' he observed.

'Orion,' she nodded. 'You're not looking so great yourself either.' And it was true. He had bruising along his jaw, a black eye that would surely swell shut within the next few hours and scrapes on his cheek.

'Rough day of training,' he smirked. 'You?'

'I displeased him,' she matched his smirk. 'Again.'

Astrae ran a hand through her short, jet black hair. 'So, what have you been doing since we last talked?' she asked, settling into the seat a bit more comfortably. She didn't quite manage to supress a wince at the pain shooting through her stomach.

Orion's smirk grew, indicating he had noticed. He didn't mention it, but simply started relaying his lessons to her. She slowly relaxed. Talking to her one ally in the whole universe always had that effect on her. In the end, he was the first to give into the yawns. They said goodbye, promising to talk again soon.

She turned off the com and dragged herself through the cave system to her little nest in a dark corner of the lair. She was all alone again, she realized. Just the way she liked it best.

It was a month before she saw her master again. She was in the main cave of their lair working through some simple fight moves that Orion had showed her when they had talked again the night before. They were meant to build up some strength. The moment she heard his footsteps, she dropped to her knees and bowed low. Her eyes were kept on the dirt floor directly in front of her. His feet stopped in her line of sight. She watched them, waiting for the blow she was sure would come.

Instead, a datapad was dropped to the dirt floor between them. 'You want to prove you're so special? Learn from this and if you manage to prove you've got use after all… I might consider training you,' he growled at her. 'I trust that grovelling merchant on Onyx taught you to read?'

'Yes, master,' she told the dirt. 'I will not disappoint you,' she promised, a grin spreading on her face. Somehow she felt like she just won a battle.

That night she lay curled up in her nest, clutching the datapad as if it was the most precious thing in the whole universe. She'd fiddled around with it the first chance she had had and found that somehow, it contained a copy of the full Eltaran education system. Simple sums were drawn into the dirt next to her nest. Pride swelled in her chest that she'd only made two mistakes in them.

She was going to work hard on this so she could be the useful ally to Orion that Dark Spector intended her to be.

Orion lay on his back in his bed, staring at the ceiling. The sound of the foot soldiers moving around kept him from sleep. He hated being here and he hated his teacher.

His thoughts turned to Astrae. He wasn't sure who had it worse. He couldn't remember how they met. All he knew was always talking to her. Once he'd heard his trainer complaining about it and from that he'd learned a valuable piece of information. Apparently Dark Spector endorsed the contact, something about Astrae being a perfect ally for him. He made sure to rub that in whenever his teacher or her master tried to stop their calls.

He bolted up in bed when the door slid open and he glared at the monster standing in the opening, his trainer.

'You should be asleep.'

'Tell those tin cans of yours to be quiet then,' he spat. 'What are you doing here anyway? Trying to kill me?'

'That doesn't concern you.'

'I think it does, it's my room.'

Before he could react, his trainer had rushed forward. A hand wrapped around his neck and he was lifted up and slammed against the wall. He clawed at the hand, already feeling the need for oxygen rise.

'Now listen here, you little brat,' his trainer growled in his ear. 'The only reason you are still alive is because Dark Spector wants it. But don't go thinking you can't be replaced if some unfortunate accident should happen during training. Is that understood?'

Orion weakly nodded, black edges appearing around his vision. He was released and crumpled to the bed, gasping for air. The door slid shut and he was alone in the dark. Angry tears stung his eyes as he lay back down, staring at the wall with his back to the door.

He would do as he was told for now in order to survive. But he swore that the day he was strong enough, he would be out of here. He would free Astrea too and they would roam the universe together.