Author's Note: 'Sup ~Dreamers! Pretty sure I bombed two math tests today, and the rest of my afternoon was spent running errands with my Grandaddy. It was a long, fairly boring day, and I was finally able to sit down and write for a little bit around 8pm (eastern standard time yo!). I'm about ready to pass out, but I still gotta do a load of laundry. Or maybe I won't. Fuck it no. Not today. Sleep…ZzZzZzZ
Enjoy ~Dreamers!
Bonds Beyond the Stars Ch. 4
-Nicole-
"You must be that human everyone's been buzzing about," the red alien woman rang in a high, almost shrill voice. It was kind of a cute tone, but I'd hate to hear her yell.
"That's me. Hello," I said stiffly, trying to appear friendly. "My name is Nicole."
"Pleasure to meet you! My name is Ezor, and this is-"
"Acxa," the blue-skinned woman said curtly, her lips pursed in annoyance, as if she had just eaten something sour. "Why are you not in your room?"
"Well I didn't escape, if that's what you're wondering," I answered acidly, deciding not to be civil unless she was also civil with me. Strike one bitch. "Prince Lotor said I could explore the ship. Staying put would've driven me crazy, and I might as well get to know where I'll be living better."
"Oh, don't mind her," the one called Ezor assured me, waving the other woman off. "She's always been a stick in the quicksand."
"Noted," I replied dryly, before changing the subject. "Were the two of you training just now?"
"Mmhm!" Ezor hummed affirmatively. "Would you like to join us?"
"Uhhh…" after watching their amazing half-assed session just now? Hell no! I choose life.
"So, you're a coward then?" Acxa concluded, shaking her head in disapproval. "I cannot begin to fathom what Lotor sees in you. Your match was hardly what I would call impressive. You fought like an animal."
"An animal that survived," I reminded her, mentally ticking off strike two.
"What was that?" Acxa asked, becoming increasingly annoyed.
"Did I stutter? Or did I overestimate how well you Galran bastards can hear?"
-Lotor-
Lotor viewed Nicole's interaction with two of his generals from the transparent screen of a hologram, amused by the girl's ferocity, the murderous intent in her eyes. After several snide remarks were thrown around, Nicole agreed to hold a match with Acxa.
Nicole hadn't lasted very long at all, though he doubted she would against Acxa from the start. But still, Nicole would force herself to rise to her feet after each beating, demanding rematch after rematch in hopes of redeeming herself. Lotor trusted that Acxa knew to hold back and not kill the girl, but it was clear that even the patience of his most reserved General was wearing thin.
However, even after earning a split lip and several painful-looking contusions all over her body, Nicole continue to push herself up again and again on shaky legs.
The woman was determined, that he'd grant her.
-Nicole-
"I'm sorry…that my existence is such an…annoyance to you," I huffed out, finding it difficult to breathe after receiving more than a few powerful kicks and punches to the ribs. "And I'm also sorry…that you're so jealous of me…getting all of Lotor's attention instead of you."
"How dare you speak to me of jealousy. Filthy human," Acxa said from above where I laid in a crumpled heap on the ground, pulling me roughly up by my hair.
"Are you angry because I'm human, or…" I grunted painfully, glaring at her through mussed locks of my hair. "…because I'm right?"
Acxa only glared at me, before returning me to the ground harshly. Strike three.
"You sure did mess her up," Ezor hummed, the cheek of her face resting lazily in one hand. "Prince Lotor's gonna be ma-ad."
"I inflicted no permanent damage. Nothing a healing capsule cannot remedy," Acxa defended, turning away from me.
"Rise, human. Find a weakness in her technique, and strike. Maintain eye contact with her so she does not know what you are planning," a familiar voice rang from the collar of my suit. It was Lotor. And wherever he was, he was watching me.
"You don't honestly believe I stand a chance against her, do you?" I whispered back harshly.
"That all depends on you. Inspire me."
As much as I would've loved to make some snappy comment in response to his ego, I decided instead to take a breath and clear my head. I was against a seasoned fighter. If I couldn't remain calm, then it was over for me. Keeping in mind that I was being watched by Lotor himself, I could only hope he was enjoying the show.
"Again," I demanded, addressing Acxa.
"It appears you lack more than just combat skills," the woman complied, turning to face me as I rose to my feet again, readying myself for her next onslaught. Cunt was calling me stupid upstairs now. Now I'm more than just pissed.
"We'll see," was all I said in reply.
She sprinted towards me with blinding speed, but this time I focused solely on defense, tumbling and lunging just out of her range. Head still spinning from her previous barrage of attacks, I fought to keep focused, hoping to find some flaw in her stance, or an off swing, or really anything that could help me.
She reacted to every movement I made with perfect, calculated strikes. She was driving me back, and I found that I was losing ground quickly. If we kept on going like this…
"I have an idea," I whispered into my hidden radio, knowing that wherever the thing was located on my collar, Lotor had heard me.
I lead Acxa further and further back, dodging most of her attacks as I was able. For the first time since our current match had begun, I went on the offensive, throwing sweeping kicks and punches her way. Acxa evaded all of my pathetic onslaughts with enviable ease, but I kept coming, hoping to force her into the defensive long enough to…
Losing her footing on the edge of a large body of water (how in the shit was the water in the pool staying in the pool when we were in space again?), Acxa soon found herself falling, with nothing to grab to prevent plunging into the water. She was an amazing fighter, but she had let me get under her skin so much she lost her focus, and failed to pay attention to her surroundings.
The sound of Ezor's laughter filled the entire gym.
"Well played, human," Lotor's approving voice rang through my radio. "I am interested to see how well you will fair when we battle."
"I'm not," I muttered, my voice filled with dread. I groaned painfully, feeling my new wounds in full force now that the adrenaline in my veins had begun to fade with the stress of fighting Acxa. "Now about those healing pod thingies?"
"I'll meet you on the seventh floor."
After pausing to say a brief goodbye to Ezor, who had been civil enough to me to earn my respect, I excused myself, explaining that I was going meet with Lotor. Excusing myself, I practically limped out of the training center, somehow managing to retrace my steps and navigate the elevators to the seventh floor.
When the elevator's doors opened, Lotor directed for me to turn lefts, then right, until I reached the end of the corridor. With only one door at the end of the hallway, I assumed it to be where Lotor and those healing pods were, so I entered – and practically ran face first into Lotor's chest.
I flinched back, startled, having not expected the sudden proximity.
"Had a bit of trouble, did you," Lotor said knowingly, in the Galran accent that reminded so much of the British dialects back on Earth. Ha, maybe all Brits were part Galran.
"That was humiliating," I said defeatedly, panting a little and holding my side. Shit, did she break my ribs, too? "Acxa could have killed me whenever she wanted to. Yeah, she lost her focus, but she was clearly the better fighter. I would've had a better chance in the Arena."
"Though there is much to improve upon on your end, I do not consider your accomplishment a loss by any means," Lotor praised. "If you had been armed, then you could have easily shot her down while she struggled in the water. Had the situation been life or death, then you would have been victorious, instead of Acxa."
Upon noticing me finding it difficult to breathe, Lotor guided me to a row of huge glass pods, the cylinders as high as the ceilings. He typed in a few quick sequences, before opening the glass door to one of the pods. I was reluctant to enter.
"Are you afraid?" Lotor inquired, though he knew damn well that I was.
"…Will I feel any pain?" I asked fearfully, my voice sounding so small.
"Not at all," Lotor assured me, typing in another quick sequence before walking up behind me, though I didn't turn to face him. He placed a hand on my shoulder, coming around in front of me. "You will be in a deep sleep for the entire healing process."
I eyed the pod warily, before forcing myself to step into it. "…How long will it take?"
"It depends on the extent of one's injuries, but in your case…" Lotor gave me a quick once over. "Perhaps a few of your Earth hours."
I turned away from him again, as I had begun to shake visibly. I didn't trust my expression. I was likely going to cry.
"There is nothing to fear, Nicole," Lotor assured me again.
"…We don't have anything this advanced on my planet. Forgive me for being…skeptical."
The glass doors closed around me then, and I could feel myself beginning to panic. Holding my sides, I backed up against the far end of the glass, before sliding down to sit, knees pulled up to my chest.
"Nicole," Lotor's voice echoed through the thick glass, and soon he was right in front of my pod. He knelt down in front of me, placing one large hand on the glass. "Close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. Take slow, deep breaths."
He actually managed to look genuinely worried about me. He was a great actor. Effortlessly deceitful. But I did as I was told, and after a moment I began to feel dizzy, my senses fading as if I was in a tunnel.
"Good," I could faintly hear Lotor say. "Worry not. You'll have your strength back soon."
"…Don't…leave me…" I pleaded, but I wasn't really sure why. Anything was better than being alone. It was as if I was drunk, any filter fading away along with the fleeting image of Lotor's form. "…Momma…"
-Lotor-
Something about Nicole's vulnerable state made Lotor's heart clench unwillingly. How pathetic she looked, curled in on herself and crying out for her mother in a moment of drowsy confusion. For a girl so full of anger and fire, Lotor found it hard to believe that this was the same person who killed two in the Arena, and bested one of his most skilled of fighters.
Hesitating for only a second, Lotor left Nicole, deciding to look up the details of her capture in the Prisoner logs. He had remembered her mentioning that the Galra had attacked her ship, taking her along with the humans she had come with. She had mentioned the Galra killing her mother. Perhaps in the explosion?
Wanting more information, Prince Lotor scrolled though the logs, finding the identities of the soldiers who had commandeered Nicole's vessel. Curiosity piqued, Lotor saved the logs to one of his personal drives, before returning to the check on Nicole in the healing room.
In her unit, she twitched fitfully, her nightmares likely stimulated by the excited particles of the pod. Just what was she dreaming about?
Punching in a sequence of codes into the control panel, Prince Lotor entered the pod beside Nicole's.
After establishing a mental link with Nicole through the capsule, Prince Lotor viewed the girl's dreams with his own eyes.
The scenery around him evaporated, and suddenly they were in some sort of school. He noticed the other students snickering at Nicole from across the room, as well as how isolated she was seated from her peers. Lotor looked down over Nicole's shoulder to view what she had been working on. The material on the instructor's board appeared to be some form of primitive human mathematics, but Nicole was in the middle of drawing a mountainous landscape, blanketed by glimmering stars and constellations.
The scenery changed again, and now he was in Nicole's home. Nicole talked animatedly to her mother, a woman not much taller than herself, but with golden hair instead of brown. They were planning what sounded like a vacation. Camping in the mountains.
Then they were in the cramped compartment of an aircraft. An explosion. Then they were falling. Nicole exchanged a heartfelt goodbye with her mother whilst both were on the verge of certain death. They truly thought it was over. But then they weren't falling anymore, and Nicole watched as her mother plummeted helplessly to her death, a Galran ship pulling her daughter roughly aboard.
Then they were in the prisons, and Lotor watched helplessly as Nicole and her fellow humans were tortured and beaten.
Then they were in the Arena, and Lotor felt Nicole's anger and near crippling fear firsthand as she killed for the first time.
Lotor focused his mind, willing his consciousness to return to reality before he witnessed any more of the girl's horrors, when the scene changed to a cell. Intrigued, Lotor let his conscious continue to mingle with Nicole's, before none other than himself stepped into view. It was the day they had first met. He sensed her skepticism, and her pulse racing at the sight of him. To her, he was just another Galra, mixed or not. A monster. She truly was afraid of him.
But then the scenery changed yet again, and Nicole was exploring the ship. Some of the corridors were distorted in her dream-like state, and Nicole ran around desperately, trying to find an exit. She didn't.
Sensing that Nicole would soon be waking, Lotor at last willed himself awake, exiting her subconscious. Opening his eyes, Lotor exited his pod, before walking over to Nicole floated in her own, still sleeping. He took in her pale skin and her dark hair, which danced around her in the foggy particles of her capsule.
Nicole was just a victim, thrown into the horrors of a war his father had started, her peaceful life shattered in an instant.
He checked her vitals on the monitors, confirming that Nicole's wounds were fully healed. Opening her pod, Lotor caught Nicole's limp body as it tumbled out of her capsule. Gathering her in his arms, Prince Lotor personally returned Nicole to her chambers.
-Please Review! I really enjoy reading what you ~Dreamers have to say about my stories! Any and all feedback is appreciated. Go ham! Give me some serious criticism if you feel like it! :D
