4
It had been three days since the attack.
The next twelve hours after the incident, Jupiter was in a lockdown in her room, much like an asylum. Two guards were stationed outside her door, and she could hardly speak to anybody. The memory was too clear to her.
"Am I not your Queen?!" Jupiter demanded at one point. It had been two days by then. "Let me out, please! I just want to see Caine Wise! Please, I'm begging you..." she began to cry not long after, and this may have bothered the guards.
Captain Tsing was informed immediately, and Stinger was sent for her to bring the news.
"Your Majesty, Caine is in a stable condition now. The wound was not nearly fatal. Aegis soldiers heal and recover quickly. It's part of our genetic design. Please don't worry anymore..." Stinger pleaded, and felt pained at the sight of the queen sobbing uncontrollably.
"Why won't they let me see him? Why can't I see him then?"
"He's being questioned, Your Majesty. He's debriefing the Aegis and the Tribunal for the past twenty-four hours. Quite frankly, he hasn't rested enough from the attack...but he's up and working. The wound has healed in less than a day. He's only busy right now, that is all..."
Jupiter finally found the logic to stop crying. "Stinger...could you tell him come see me when he's available? I just want to see his face again...I want to know if he's alright..."
Stinger exhaled, smiled wearily and nodded once.
After that encounter, it had been almost another day when Jupiter heard an announcement from the posted guards. It was Caine. Jupiter came to her feet and stood facing the door. The door opened, much like the trap that let her and Caine in after the incident, only smaller.
Caine stepped inside, dressed in army pants but with a plain dark shirt.
He was clean, with a bandage across his left arm, and a few scratches on his neck.
"Your Majesty—" Caine began, but looked immediately at the floor.
"Caine." Jupiter's voice quivered.
"Captain Tsing have informed me that you need to be sent to your palace at the soonest possible convenience—"
"Caine, look at me—"
"There are existing threats that we have not identified yet—"
"Caine, please—"
"If you agree to the terms provided by your regent, your security detail can be determined—"
"I-I don't care—"
"The Tribunal will need to have a word with you soon. They need to ask of your condition and might debrief you of the incident. They're worried about your protection—"
"Caine, I'm with you!" Jupiter cried, almost hysterically. "What kind of protection am I supposed to—"
"The Aegis is recalling both Colonel Stinger and myself. There is nothing—"
Jupiter had had it. She grabbed the back of his neck and dove for a kiss. Caine was tall and robust; leaning forward and embracing him was more than a slight effort.
The moment their mouth collided, the High Queen was not denied.
All this worrying, and crying. Jupiter wanted to be rewarded after all the pain she went through. Comforted, really.
"Your Majesty..." Caine closed his eyes, swallowed hard, still holding Jupiter at the back of her head, "I can't...you don't...understand. This...it won't let us be together. Do you understand?" He looked at her in the eyes, staring into them, gazing at her face, as if imploring a miracle from it.
"No." Jupiter answered. Tearfully, she withdrew her arms and let them fall to her side.
Caine felt a pang of hurt the moment she let go. He said one thing, but felt another. He wanted her to distance from him, but the moment that she did, he felt only fear.
"No, Caine. I don't understand." She looked down, and rubbed an eye.
She was tired. She felt immensely tired. And being rejected repeatedly by the man she had fallen hard for made her so exhausted.
"I'm the queen, aren't I?" she whispered. She turned back around, and looked at Caine softly, "So why can't I be with you? I want you. So what if you're a splice." Her voice broke. "You're my splice, you're my protector, you're—"
And that was enough for the soldier to close in their distance and take her into his arms.
With a forceful embrace, Caine crushed his mouth into Jupiter's and decided to forget where his place was.
I don't care. Jupiter cried in her thoughts. I'm in love with you. Don't you see that?
Caine was struggling to restrain himself. He's never had to with women in general.
But Jupiter Jones was not nearly just another woman, but Royalty.
'Caine, you cannot do this.' His mind flashed immediately at an opportunity he confided with Stinger, after the incident. 'You mustn't be with her. Remember, she is the High Queen of the Abrasax Dynasty. She's important to the galaxies and the universe...'
Stinger's words echoed unwelcome in his thoughts.
But though it did, Caine replied.
She's important to me, too...
Even if he was just a splice, another specimen for the royalties and the Aegis to play with or use as they please, Caine knew something very simple.
He could never be the same in any other person's eyes, not in the way he was in front of Jupiter.
In front of her, he felt naked, in his true form, and seen.
To be seen. For who he was. And it felt...real.
"Don't leave me..." he whispered in her neck, "Don't ever leave me."
"I promise."
"But you will, don't you know? They'll keep us apart."
"We'll find each other."
"Not always."
"Caine, I won't leave you. Not in the way you think. I'm yours."
"You say that now, my Queen, but when high politics have corrupted your thoughts, what will become of your heart?"
"...Yours?"
Caine smiled, but his eyes did not. He shook his head, and let her go.
"They can have my mind," Jupiter continued, "and they can break my spirit...but you will always have my heart, Caine."
"They will question our relationship, my Queen."
"It's Jupiter, Caine. Do you have a stutter?"
"Your Majesty, I am serious."
"So am I."
"When they question you and realize our..." he couldn't even find a word for it, and shook his head, "they can easily terminate me or assign me elsewhere."
"I won't let that happen."
"How so?"
"Because you'll be in my security detail."
A smile crept up Caine's face.
"Is this true?"
"Of course, you silly. I am the queen. I can choose who guards me or not." She pointed, "You have saved my life countless times, and more than I can recall." She drawled.
"Then I hope to be even closer to you by protecting you."
"I hope the very same, Lieutenant Wise. I trust your overprotective judgment and your intuitive reactions will keep me alive."
"My overprotective judgment? Is that so, my Queen?"
"Yes..."
I love you. Jupiter quietly thought. But she couldn't bring herself to say it now. Especially because Caine Wise closed their distance, and descended upon her lips. And she forgot the pain for a moment, and the worries.