Trigger warning: Suicidal themes
—
The pirates have been training together for months; not only to enhance their physical abilities, but later Spectre organized a pilot training from them as well.
Both were seemingly hopeless at first. Ream was being thrown around by Sheer for weeks. Attempting to dodge and hit back, Ream spent most of the training on her back as Sheer knocked her to the floor quite easily.
The very first time Ream's back hit the ground, Sheer stepped on her wrist, glaring down at the bluish Kai.
"Do not think I'll go easy on you. No one spared me when I started my training."
"You're supposed to help me," Ream objected, "not beat me up..."
"You are weak, you do not defend yourself, that's why you're getting beaten up. No one and nothing is going to wait for you to get ready. You need to be prepared at all times if you want to survive."
"What if I don't want to?"
A smirk crossed Sheer's face. "Interesting. You don't seem like someone who'd think like that."
"That's not what I meant," Ream growled and pushed Sheer's foot off her with her other hand, freeing herself. She stood up. "What if I don't want to fight?"
Sheer threw herself at Ream, grabbing the girl's wrist, pinning her to the wall. "Too bad for you. I'm not happy about this either, but the boss' orders are orders; remember that."
"Woah..." Ream mumbled as her face turned red.
The pale pulled away from her. "I can't believe that someone like you got accepted. Someone so incapable to defend themselves, someone who can't obey orders, someone who has no idea what they got themselves into. I am then stuck with failures like you." She glared at Ream. "With this attitude, you won't be a Space Pirate for long." The black-haired turned around, her steps heading towards the door.
The disappointment in her voice obvious to Ream even back then. She pronounced words sharply and more snappingly than before, her voice shifted lower. Over time, this tone was something Ream did her best to avoid not only during the training, but any time she was with Sheer, which was slowly more and more often.
At that moment, it felt like Sheer has given up on Ream completely, although that was against the orders which Sheer just told her to obey.
She hasn't given up... No...
Sheer knew exactly what she was doing... And it worked.
Ream launched herself at the smaller woman, her punch aiming the back of her head.
With one swift turn, Sheer dodged the attack and grabbed Ream's fist, stopping her punch. Her blood-red eyes glared at Ream. "Trying to strike from behind; impressive. Not perfect, but impressive. You aren't that hopeless."
Ream beamed at her training partner.
"You still have a lot to learn. I thought you'd go after my wings which could help you against a Kai to have a more equal match. You can't fly, however, you can compensate for that with different weapons and tools-"
Sheer went on and on once she saw that Ream proved that she refuses to give up easily. Ream's smile widened as she listened carefully to every single word from Sheer's lips.
Their training always resulted in Ream being throw to the ground for months but unlike the first time, Ream wasn't just a ragdoll beaten in one punch; she learned from Sheer, watching her moves as she attacked, blocking her strikes, finding openings to hit back.
—
Meanwhile, with Foolscap and Gavro nothing really changed at first; the slim man was napping while the muscular man got to working out.
Fools didn't really take this seriously, did he? Spectre won't be happy.
They had to keep this job to finally get out of debt. At this point, they were nearly out of money since they spent all their savings on...on helping her... Although, the results of that aren't finished yet.
With a deep sigh, Gavro headed to his friend, who was once again hovering close to the ceiling. The buff man flew up to him, grabbed his foot, and pulled him down.
A high-pitched screech sounded across the apartment.
"What the sky was that for?!" Foolscap snapped at his friend as he hit the floor. He rubbed his bottom, cringing at the pain caused by the landing. Looked up as a huge shadow covered him.
Gavro was standing above him, his arms folded on his chest. "You are slaking off when you should be training."
The slim man rolled his eyes in irritation. "No need for that."
"Foolscap, we got orders. Boss won't be happy to see that we made no improvement."
"There is nothing to improve," Foolscap replied.
"Then how was everyone better than you when we fought the Gel Jarks?" Gavro wondered.
The blue man jumped to his feet. "That wasn't fair and you know it!"
"Fine." The buff man shrugged. "Then lie around and do nothing while I go ask Sheer for help with my speed. She'll be more helpful; after all, she is far better at basically everything." He turned around and headed to the door. "Well then, I'll head out."
Foolscap stared at his friend's back. As Gavro reached his hand to the doorknob, a cranky sound left Foolscap's lips. "Wait!"
With a deep hum, Gavro glanced back at him.
"I'll prove we can be better than her," Foolscap told him.
"So, let's start the training." Gavro nodded and gave him a soft smile.
"Give me five minutes," Fools mumbled and flew back to the ceiling.
The buff man let out a disappointed growl, watching his friend go back to sleep for a bit.
—
After the said five minutes, Gavro dragged Foolscap to his gym where he explained the basics of the training.
Standing beside a punching bag, Foolscap got easily bored in a few minutes as Gavro kept talking and talking.
"Yeah, yeah. 'Give it the best you got.' I get it," he groaned, interrupting Gavro. He faced the punching bag and gave it a swift kick.
Seeing it move from the hit made Gavro beam happily in surprise. "Nice! Now, keep going. Try adding more force with each hit."
Foolscap listened, repeating the action with more and more force added in. And one of those kicks sent the bag swing high up. "See? I'm already way better than that bi-"
*Pow*
The punching bag swang back, smacking the man and knocking him to the floor.
Gavro sighed tiredly. "This will take a while..."
And it did. They spent the past several months training to be stronger and faster, getting their weaknesses at least partially covered.
In addition to their battle experience, they also had to take piloting courses. Spectre organized simulations for his pirates to learn how to pilot in space because there is no way he'd let any of them destroy his space pods just because of inexperience.
—
A whole year has passed, the four pirates earned not only Spectre's respect but also the right to be sent off on missions. However, that wasn't the most important thing that happened all year. Just a few weeks ago, it was finally made; what Foolscap and Gavro spent all their savings on—an artificial wing for Ream.
The substitute wing allowed her to glide and even fly for a bit. Of course, she needed time to get used to it and to learn to fly. Despite still having a disadvantage, in a dire situation, she'd be able to fly away to safety and that was important.
With this, Spectre felt more comfortable letting all four of his pirates out into space and even other planets.
They visited many different planets, but none of them had any life on them except for one; the one Brontikins is from. The ship was on its way to the planet, set to autopilot while the crew was sleeping, or at least that's what they were supposed to be doing. Instead, the four pirates decided to have a little bit of fun.
While Spectre was asleep they sneaked to the hanger and got into the pods, leaving one of them behind just in case. The Kai version of rock, paper, scissors decided that Gavro is the one to stay inside, monitoring everything as the others have a little trip into the outer space. They got into ball-shaped pods with movable four legs with engines in them.
One pod shot out immediately as the hangar opened.
"Let's go!" heard Ream and Sheer through the pods' communication unit.
Foolscap's pod was flying around way ahead of the two since they were still parked inside the ship.
"Fools, be careful. We shouldn't get too far from the ship," Ream warned her brother.
"Let him go. Maybe if we're lucky enough he'll get sucked into a black hole or something," Sheer said with a big smirk on her face.
The taller woman glared at her angrily through the crimson window. "Sheer, you promised not to be mean."
Sheer looked at her, shrugging innocently. "And I also promised to cut my hair once it reaches my elbows; I don't really keep promises if you haven't noticed, girly." She added a quick devilish grin at that last word.
"Whatever," Ream exclaimed, checking her brother's pod chaotically flying from place to place, "we can't risk losing a pod; Spectre wouldn't be too happy about that. So, could you please help me supervise Fools?"
The black-haired groaned and cringed at Ream's soft, pleading expression. She shot her glance at the opposite side once her friend's face softened a bit more. "What am I gonna get from this?"
"Other than not being thrown into a dungeon by the boss? Well...what about my homemade egg and cheese sandwich?"
Sheer slowly turned to her, pouting. "Make it five."
"As you wish!" Ream agreed and nodded.
The two of them turned their attention to the controls of the pods and flew after Foolscap.
Once outside, Ream's face lit up as she looked around her. "This is beautiful! Look at all these stars. So fascinating."
"Are you gonna fangirl over space every single time you go out?" she heard her brother's voice ask her.
She let out a small chuckle."Of course, I am! This is the most mysterious place in the whole world! No one knows what can be hiding here. No one can ever see all of its secrets-"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Sheer interrupted her, "you love space. No need to repeat yourself."
"Hey, I don't interrupt your weapon rants," Ream said.
"Okay, genius. You know so much about space, what the sky is that thing in front of us?" Foolscap wondered.
Ream looked at several huge rocks floating several feet ahead. "That's an...asteroid belt. It's an asteroid ring circling a planet."
"Let's just stand back," suggested Sheer, "a hit by one of these could easily demolish the pods."
"What is that? The all-mighty Sheer is scared of a few rocks?" Foolscap mocked her, "not so tough now, huh?"
The smallest out of the three let out a deep, provoked growl. "I just have common sense unlike you, but go ahead; fly through that belt if you're that tough," she told him sarcastically, "fly to your own death if you plea-"
Before she could even finish, Foolscap's pod was moving forward at full speed.
"...airhead..." Sheer mumbled.
Ream gasped when she realized what he's doing just to show off. "Foolscap, no!"
Even back at the ship, Gavro could just stand and watch as Foolscap flew towards the belt. "What is he doing?"
"Fools, get back!" Ream yelled, but it was no use.
"Don't worry, I got this," Foolscap tried to assure his sister, but it was as useful as Ream pleads. He was doing surprisingly well, dodging everything sent his way.
"I'm not so sure about that..." Ream admitted.
Foolscap laughed triumphantly glancing at the other pods. "I'll be fi-"
*Crash*
That one second of distraction resulted in his pod completely shattering into pieces as an asteroid clashed with it. Fools himself was not directly hit, but without the pod, he was just floating in the middle of the space with no protection.
Despite the Kai bodies being basically immune to having no atmosphere, there was still a danger of another asteroid hitting him.
"NO!" Ream screamed in horror, but her brother couldn't hear anything. Even if the communication unit still worked, he wouldn't hear her.
Ream wasn't the only one panicking due to what they've just witnessed.
"Foolscap!" Gavro's deep voice resonated through a huge part of the ship and in that part of the ship was none other than Spectre himself, sleeping in his room.
Sleeping until Gavro's scream woke him and Brontikins up of course.
Meanwhile, outside, Ream piloted her pod to her brother, repeating the same sentence to herself over and over again. "Don't do this to me, Fools." She opened her pod and reached out to grab his arm. She pulled him in her pod and drove away as quickly as possible.
As all this was happening, Gavro couldn't stop yelling in panic.
But then the door behind him opened.
He glanced there to witness a silhouette with glowing red eyes standing in the doorway and staring at him.
Brontikins...
Even though he was tiny, that glare would make everybody nervous, not to mention that if the pet is awake, there is a huge possibility that so it'd be the master.
...and that was exactly correct.
Spectre walked into the room with a murderous glare. "What is going on here?"
Gavro could only let out a quiet. "Uh..." before the hangar door opened and the pods flew in.
One of the pods opened and Ream pulled her brother out, holding his arm around her shoulder. "Get up, you klutz..." she told him.
Foolscap peeked through his eyelids, groaning weakly.
His eyes snapped open when he heard Spectre's voice saying, "What is the meaning of this?"
Sheer also got out of her pod and glared at the slim man. "This idiot nearly got himself killed by asteroids."
"That was your fault..." Fools growled.
"Sure, I caused your stupidity."
"Bitch..."
Spectre really couldn't be bothered to listen to the arguments of these two. "Ream, take your brother to his room so he recovers, then I'll have a talk with the rest of you."
The blue woman nodded. "Yes, boss."
—
After having Foolscap rest in his room, Ream returned just like the boss requested, ready to be scolded.
"What were you thinking?" the green Kai asked three of his pirates, who stood in a line, facing him, but received a complete silence. He started pacing by the line they formed. "Going out without my supervision right into a belt of asteroids. Not to mention that you destroyed one of my pods! I can't believe you are so irresponsible"
"Foolscap is the irresponsible one here; he drove himself right into that belt," Sheer spoke up.
"Yet, you all were the ones involved in this little trip outside!" Spectre snapped at her, "that pod cost more than all four of you combined. I could easily have you walk the plank, but that'd simply end up in me having no employees. ...I'll have to clean up the cages until they're shining for several weeks straight. And you'll take care of Brontikins' hygiene. While Foolscap gets an additional punishment for destroying my pod."
"Cages?" Gavro wondered.
"Cages for what?" Ream tilted her head.
Spectre grinned widely. "You'll see soon enough."
—
They were on the way for a few more hours. With what happened, Ream was a bit shaken up. Other than being with her brother, she spent time alone since the accident. She was in the kitchen, busy making some sandwiches with parvaco eggs and cheese.
Parvacos could be described as a simple dragon by humans, but way smaller than expected.
Out of nowhere, she heard a voice asking her, "you feeling okay?"
Ream's whole body jerked and she quickly spun around, seeing Sheer coming closer to her. "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied calmly, "Foolscap is doing better. ...I guess...so..."
"You sure you're fine?" Sheer continued asking.
"Nice to see that you care. Even if I'm not the one you should worry about," Ream pointed out, getting back to the sandwiches.
"Boss and Gavro worry about your idiot of a brother, so someone has to worry about you," the smaller woman told her.
"You can be surprisingly nice when you want to."
"Shut up," she snapped, but not as aggressively as she used to.
Ream shook her head. "That's not a bad thing."
"Whatever." Sheer glanced away, looking back at her partner only once she handed her a plate with two sandwiches.
"Here."
"Why?" The pale Kai was confused by the gesture, despite being exposed to Ream's affection for a whole year at this point. "You promised them only if I helped you babysit your brother and that failed."
"Yeah, but if you remember correctly you'd get five for that. Since that didn't work out, you only get two while I have three right in front of you," Ream explained before taking a bite off her sandwich.
"Didn't know you could be so evil, princess," Sheer chuckled softly.
The blue face of Ream gained a bit of red color for a second. "Wow. Where did that nickname come from?"
"Well, you don't call me a bitch, so..."
"It's because I make you sandwiches, isn't it? You love them more than you love me."
Sheer gave her a devilish smirk. "You got me!"
Ream laughed while Sheer smiled slightly.
The two had no idea that there was someone spying on them. Brontikins was peeking into the room, but there was someone more than him. Something hiding in his shadow.
"How do you feel about the new wing?" Sheer wondered.
A smile crossed Ream's face. "It's amazing! I'm finally not left behind."
Sheer, however, did not share her enthusiasm. "I thought you didn't mind. ...that you liked being the way you were."
Of course, that caught Ream by a surprise. "...I...I guess."
"You managed to live happily without it. You overcame your disability enough to live with it in a way comfortable to you; there was no need to adjust to the needs of others."
"Sheer..." the taller woman whispered, "I just want to be more helpful." She brushed the thick strand of raven black hair away, uncovering Sheer's left eye. "But that doesn't mean that I won't need you anymore. You can still teach me a lot."
"Ream..."
Suddenly, Spectre's voice sounded throughout the entire ship as he announced, "Okay, pirates, leave all your stupidity on board because you're about to visit a new planet and I hope you won't mess up this time."
—
The pirates gathered in one room where they had their first look at the new planet.
"This is...This is beautiful! I can't believe my eyes," Ream exclaimed, "...A planet with actual life on this...This is incredible. Boss, is this where Brontikins comes from?"
"It is," Spectre replied, "and the four of you will now bring me more of these creatures."
Sheer smirked determinately at the challenge. "So, the cages are for whatever these things are. Then, what are the orders, boss?"
—
"WHERE ARE YOU WITH THAT CAGE?!" Foolscap screeched as he was flying away from two bipedal creatures with razor-sharp teeth reaching for him. One of them, the bigger one, and the faster one was white with orange spots all over its body; the other one was purple with yellow stripes on its back. They both chased Foolscap as he led them to the cages the others prepared.
"On our way," Sheer replied, sitting in one of the pods that were holding the cages, "hold them a bit longer."
Hearing that from the intercom was not reassuring since two carnivores were on his tail. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! HURRY UP BEFORE I'M TURNED INTO A SNACK!"
"Good," Sheer chuckled.
"Sheer!" Ream snapped at her softly.
"WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE BAIT?!" they heard a high-pitched scream through the communication units.
"You are the fastest, remember?"
"And you broke a pod. This is a fitting punishment for that," Gavro and Sheer reminded him.
"I know why! It was a poetic question!" Foolscap yelped, "get the cage ready!" He shot right between the two cages while the creatures, ran straight inside them and the cages shut right behind them.
"Well, that was easy," Sheer commented.
"Maybe for you!" Fools yelled at her as he flew up to the pods.
"Okay, calm down, you two," Ream told them, "let's take them back on the ship."
Foolscap folded his hands behind his head, ready to relax. "Yeah-" But got attacked by two flying creatures. They pecked the back of his head and his legs. "Oh, come on! Shoo! Hey, not the hair! And definitely not the collar," he whined.
"And let's hurry before Foolscap becomes bird food," Ream groaned.
"No, no. I'm enjoying this," Sheer teased.
—
Watching the progress his pirates were making through a camera feed, Spectre was pleased, petting Brontikins' head as he smirked to himself.
"These creatures are a gold mine. Imagine how much everyone is going to pay just to see them and they'd pay even more to own them. They're like parvacos, but bigger and stronger. Not to mention how rare they'd be back home. Everyone owns a parvaco or a bronton, but these are on a whole new level."
A tall woman he called Zepar was standing by his side, waiting patiently.
"There are other things that can give you more than just money. But you need to be patient. I'd recommend keeping some of these creatures; you can easily have the upper hand over the entire planet," she said.
"Good point," Spectre admitted.
"You have no idea how powerful they can be." Zepar petted Brontikis. "Even the smallest ones."
Noticing that his pirates are currently putting their newest catches onto the ship, Spectre noticed something on the feed. "It seems that we don't have enough cages. We'll need to head back home and have more of them built."
"That isn't an issue. There'll enough time for a way home and back at the correct point."
—
"That's it! I'm done," Foolscap exclaimed as they placed the two newest creatures on board, "I'm not risking my life anymore. We captured a bunch of these things, this has to be enough."
"There is still one cage empty," Gavro pointed out.
"Yeah?"
"We're ordered to fill all of them," Sheer brought up.
Foolscap crossed arms on his chest, jumping in the air, spreading his wings, and slowly floating around. "Well, do it without me then. I'm done with being bait, especially without knowing why we have to do this.
"You clearly have no brain in that triangular head of yours," Sheer snapped, "it's not that hard to figure out how much money we can make off of these things. Even Gavro understands that."
"I risked my life enough for today and I want a break!"
"Funny coming from a person that flew straight in an asteroid-"
"That's enough you two," Ream stopped them once again, being really the only force able to interrupt their arguments, "Fools, go take a break. We can manage without you."
Foolscap grinned widely. "Alright then! And immediately flew out of the room.
"How can you live with that?" Sheer asked Ream, receive only a soft smile as a reply.
"How are going to lure the last one in then?" Gavro wondered, scratching his head.
"We'll figure something out," Ream said.
—
To figure that out, Ream suggested that they go to the dining room while she makes them something in the kitchen, however, they wait for her, and she did not show up for the longest time.
Sheer decided to check on her and to her shock, Ream wasn't there. Of course, knowing that she's a Cane, Sheer started looking for her partner everywhere, stopping a pod leaving a ship.
She couldn't be serious...
—
Ream left the pod floating above the last cage, which she landed near a cliff. She glided down thanks to her new wing and managed to find a new creature fairly quickly. A huge orange creature with blue spots. It didn't take long for her to get its attention and get it to chase after her.
She started running as fast as she could, but the creature was catching up to her—there was no way she could escape on foot. She spread her wing and flew a bit above the ground. She was indeed faster, but not for long since she flew through tree branches and one of them got stuck in the mechanism of her fake wing.
She was about to hit the ground and be trampled by the creature, but something or rather someone snatched her before that.
The creature kept running and didn't stop in time, trapping itself in the last cage.
Ream watched all this happen from above. She was being carried slowly to the ground by her savior, pale arms wrapped around her.
They landed and Ream beamed happily at her partner. "Sheer... You saved me!"
But the pale Kai did not share that enthusiasm. "You really are a Cane. What were you thinking?!"
"I just..." Ream started while pulling the branch out of her artificial wing.
"You clearly weren't thinking at all!"
"I wanted to be useful."
"Getting yourself killed won't help anyone. Do you seriously think that now that you have a fake wing that you're suddenly a super Kai? You have no idea how to properly fly yet, not to mention that the wing can malfunction at any point," Sheer yelled at her.
"The wing is completely fine."
"Then why did I have to save you?"
All this anger, sharply pronounced words, tune shifted lower, Sheer's disappointment made Ream back away with each word.
"You can't control it!" Sheer snapped.
Ream suddenly stopped, reaching her hand to Sheer. She brushed a thick strand of Sheer's raven hair from her eye.
"Trust me. Please," Ream whispered before making the last step back.
Sheer watched in shock as Ream disappeared right in front of her eyes, falling off the cliff.
—
It is finally done!
I was quite busy recently, so this took me really long. I hope it won't happen again with Shadow World.
To be honest, I really enjoyed writing this chapter unlike the last one. I love the relationship between Ream and Sheer.
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and let's hope that the next one won't take me that long.