1 week later-
Anna and Thace sat on the ground, snapping beans from Anna's garden and placing them into a bowl. It was a little mundane action, so small talk was bound to happen.
Anna would look up and down at Thace, while Thace's ears twiched in annoyance.
Thace was almost fully healed. It fascinated Anna at how quickly it took the Galran to heal vs. that of a human's recovery time. Thace couldn't help but watch the woman pout.
"What's on your mind?"
Anna threw her hands up, motioning Thace's whole body.
"You are and how quickly Galra's can heal. It's been like what, three weeks now!"
Thace could not understand the woman at times.
"Of course. Our bodies are not biologically the same."
Anna stopped snapping beans, leaned on her elbows and started poking the alien.
"I know that, silly, I have white skin and black hair. You have purple skin...fur...whatever."
Thace snapped a bean right in her face, causing Anna to fall back into place and start rubbing her nose.
"So, I told you about myself. Tell me more about you? You said you'd tell me about how you got your metals."
Thace didn't tell her everything, just a few things, after all he didn't want to alarm her.
Anna's playful nature, went a little dark. She put her hands in her lap, not wanting to make eye contact with Thace. In that moment, Thace regretted asking. Whatever it was, it was painful for her. He was about to say she didn't have to, but she beat him to it.
"My mother was Korean-American, my father was Japanese-American. They met escaping arranged marriages, so I never really knew my family beyond that. My mother was a gardener, my father was a high ranking general. I was given both worlds in their trade."
Thace listened, still snapping beans. His mind fell to the past tense, "was". It didn't take a trikinian scientist to know her parents were dead. He stayed silent, as she told her story.
"My mother taught me how to grow a garden, kill chickens and pluck them. How to cure meats and dry fruits and vegetables. She taught me how to cook too. My father would teach me the way of war, with games. Like, how fast I could take apart a gun and fix it. How to shoot at moving targets. How to throw people bigger than me…"
Anna let out a little laugh, as Thace "ha" back. He can totally believe that one, throwing people taller than her.
"It was good, until war broke out, in some country that doesn't exist anymore…"
Thace looked confused.
"What happened to it?"
Anna looked at him, her long hair, once again in a messy bun.
"It got wiped out of existence a couple of years ago… now let me finish the story."
Thace shut his mouth, he wasn't going to miss this.
"When I was 7, my mother and I were out shopping. We heard this strange noise. It was something I had never heard before. I don't remember much from that day, other than the noise and my mother's face. It was twisted in fear."
Anna breathed in, letting the memories come back.
"It was a bomb. Dropped from some fighter pilot who's county declared war on The United States...my mother grabbed me and shoved me down a storm drain. She used her body to cover the whole. She sacrifice her life, to save mine."
Thace didn't like this story, because this story was true. He only asked about her metals. He didn't want her whole life story, not when he could one day be her enemy when Zarkon comes exploring. It made Thace question things he wasn't supposed to.
"What happened after that?"
Anna turned her head away, her attention turned towards the open door. She glanced out at the blue, blue sky.
"I had passed out at the time, but when I awoke, I saw my mother. She was dead. I knew…."
Anna didn't want to talk about the charred remains of her mother. How, as she, a child, pushed her mother's copres out of the way to get out. The feel, the smell, the sound it made. She was aware Thace was a fighter pilot was well, so she didn't really need to go into verbal detail.
"I crawled out of the storm drain. To see if I could get help, but there was no one around alive to help, so I walked. I don't know how long I walked for, but I was numb to it all at the time. I only let myself cry, when I heard my father calling for me. He had been at the army base, so he wasn't in the radius of the bomb blast, regardless, he and I were not the same after that day."
Anna looked around the whole room, Thace following her gaze.
"He transferred away from the place that was attacked and moved us to here, this house. My father retired from service and went to training future fighter pilots. I had asked him one time, why we moved here. He told me, that this place was safe. That no bombs could reach here, because if they did, a blue monster would awaken and protect us. I knew he was lying, but it made me feel a little better. That some blue monster would protect us from all the evils in the world."
Anna went back to popping beans again, her story continuing. She didn't pay attention to Thace as his eyes widened at the words "blue monster." Thace kept even more silent.
"Since my father worked at the Academy, I'm sure he had some say of getting me into the place at such a young age, but regardless, I still had to pull my own and I did. At age 10, I bested the champion on a timed events on dismantling a gun and putting it back together, numerous times I did that...but it just wasn't gun's, I threw myself at everything, got good grades, didn't get into trouble, because I never got caught. I wanted to make my father proud. I did when I was 13. I entered a fighting competition and won. I remember my father being so happy that day….that night we went home...went to bed...I woke up and he didn't. He had died in his sleep…."
Thace reached his hand out, petting Anna's head, who giggled at the gesture. She relaxed more under his hand, letting the tension fade out.
"Child service came, they tried to take me from my home, but I wouldn't let them. I fought darn hard and was able to emancipated myself from the state care before I even turned 14 years old."
Thace blinked, that word was new to him.
"Emancipate?"
Anna let out a sigh.
"Where a child can survive on their own, make their own choices in life, without a guardian or parent….anyways, I made sure I went to school everyday, worked hard and lived off of what my father's estate gave me. I managed rather good. When I was 16, I made fighter pilot. I'll admit, my reasons to be a fighter pilot, was foolish and stupid."
Thace finally lowered his hand off of her head.
"What was it?"
"I simply wanted revenge. I wanted to kill the people who took my mother away from me, who took my mother away from my father, where I am sure he died of a broken heart...at 17, I challenged the age limit for the Fighter Pilot Command Unit. I was the youngest and the only female my age to do so at that time. I was accepted and was shipped out for war that month. In hindsight, I wished I thought things through more, but the past is the past...can't change that... "
Thace looked down at his hands. He didn't have a reason to kill, other than for Zarkon, his king. He just blindly followed orders and that was it. He couldn't imagine killing in revenge. He couldn't imagine someone as kind as Anna, could kill so cooly.
"For almost three years, I bombed that place. I had many dog fights in the sky, was shot down four times, stole enemy aircraft, saved my fellow soldiers...I thought of it as a game. Then, it all changed, when I got shot down for the fifth and final time."
Anna stopped her popping. She brought her hands up and held it to her lower abdomen.
"I was getting out of enemy territory, when I messed up and got caught. For me, it was the first time I felt fear in a long time...I was taken and held hostage. I was beaten too…."
Anna swallowed a bit. She wasn't going to tell him everything. Not something that personal. Thace's ears lowered at hearing her story.
"I half expected them to kill me, I wanted them to kill me...I was just barely 19 and I wanted to die...and I almost did die. One of the men, he took a gun and he pointed it here."
Anna lifted her shirt, showing her abdomen to Thace. It was scared, still raw looking. The pinkish, bumpy skin, clashed with her pale complexion. In that moment, she looked more fragile and ready to break since he had known her.
Thace narrowed his eyes in anger. He wanted to kill those men, those monsters who did things to her. But then Thace realized, he wasn't that much different from them and neither was Anna. It was war after all. Regardless, it made his purple blood boil.
Anna lowered her shirt, she hid it away.
"They left me for dead. When I woke up, I made my way out of the place I was in and just walked. I almost got caught again, but a little girl saved me. She was able to show me a way out and to my teammates. Believe it or not, she was going to go back, but I wouldn't allow it. So I took her with me. We flew in the same helicopter, she held my hand till I got back to a medbase and she was there when I woke up from surgery. She was also there to take care of me, she helped me get better. We became good friends, almost like real sisters…It was like I had a family again."
"She's still alive?"
"Yes, very much so. Her name is Samantha. She lived with me for a while. Fed her, clothed her, made sure she did school studies. During that time, I was requested to retire, or at least be honorably discharged. I agreed, willingly, but I had a few conditions so my talents wouldn't be wasted. My conditions were met, I was honorably discharged, given medals, ribbons and a rank. I took Samantha with me back home and we settled for some downtime."
Anna stood up, stretching her legs. She bent down and picked up the bowl of beans and made her way towards the sink. Thace didn't stand, he just turned his body around, so he could watch Anna and listen to her.
"When I recovered from my wounds, I joined the Galaxy Garrison, like my father before me. Because of who I was and what Samantha meant to me, I was able to get her in as a student."
Anna blushed a bit.
"I'll admit, I did favor her more and she was the teacher's pet, but it made me happy."
That was when Thace got up, he came up behind her and loomed over her human frame. Anna didn't tense, but relaxed under his presence. Thace wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. Anna could feel her heart race, her cheeks growing red.
Thace himself wasn't sure why he did something so intimate, but he felt like she needed something more than just a pat on the head.
"Are you happy now?"
Anna sighed, relaxing even more.
"I believe I am….Thank you Thace…"
Thace lingered a moment longer, letting Anna make the decision to move or not. When she did, Thace knew she was almost back to her normal self. He broke the contact, walking away.
"Any time, Anna…."
Anna watched as Thace left out the front door, before turning into a blushing mess of emotions. Realization dawned on her, she was falling for an Alien.
"Fuck…"
