Author's Note: Get a snack, grab a drink, get comfy because this is a long one.
The Queen's chamber on the Castle was only illuminated by the red glow of the quintessence coursing through the intricate web of tubes that were attached to her frail body. The Advisor could feel the energy in the air like the static before a storm. She tilted her head up to look at him. Her ghostly silver hair flowed over her body and brushed against the tangled mess of cables and tubes on the floor. The battle they'd fled from had drained her. The red glow of her eyes was not as bright as it was supposed to be. She needed to recharge. The Advisor would watch a billion Alteans die before he would allow this girl to fall.
Even though she looked like an ancient priestess that had emerged from an abandoned temple, she was still just a child to him. The Queen would always be a child to him. They were both so old now. Their lifespans had stretched out far beyond what was natural. Between the two of them, they possessed thousands of years of knowledge and power. It was the Queen who possessed the most power between them though.
She scraped one of her long fingernails along the arm of her throne. The metallic vessel was so worn and old. The tubes that ran in and out of that structure were like the veins of this Castle. They connected to the hunks of the transreality comet that kept her fueled with an endless supply of quintessence. She was apart of this Castle. It was just a mere extension of her body. That is not how it had started but it was what had become necessary to keep her alive. The Queen's chest rose and fell as she took in labored breaths.
"Did you finish probing their minds?" The Queen wheezed.
The Advisor peered out from underneath his hood. A wicked grin crept across his pale face. He'd quite enjoyed invading the minds of their prisoners. He'd found quite a bit of information about this reality. They were still locked away in their stasis chambers. They were suspended in that thick red fluid like specimens in a jar. All of them except for one.
"Yes," The Advisor said. "I think I've gotten everything I need from them."
The Queen was too weak to nod. Her ears just twitched in response.
"And that thing? The Lion?" The Queen asked.
The Advisor shook his head.
"No one can get past the barrier that's gone up around it," The Advisor explained. "It's useless to us for now."
He was bound and determined to get at that thing and examine it. They had never seen anything like it. It was a part of that warrior that their enemies possessed. He didn't know exactly how the mechanisms worked but it appeared they would need it to reform that superweapon. The Queen didn't seem to be very pleased with his answer. She grimaced and he got a glimpse of her sharp white teeth.
"Begone," The Queen hissed. "Come back when you have more answers for me."
She may have been displeased with him but The Advisor knew it was rest that she truly needed. Even just talking to him was making her expend energy that she desperately needed. He was more than willing to part with her this time. He had a new plaything that he was dying to toy with. He bowed before her.
His black and crimson robe swept around him as he left her chamber. He navigated the twisting hallways of the Castle out of instinct. He'd walked these halls so many times that it was second nature to him. He'd helped build this vessel with his own hands. They had been toying with a power that they didn't fully understand back then. He knew it very well now. It had been the tool for their revenge and their redemption.
The Altean crew members would move out of his way without The Advisor having to utter a word. They would push themselves up against the wall and salute him. Their dark red uniforms made them blend in with the walls of the ancient vessel. He had no time for them. He was too eager. The anticipation was eating at him like cancer. It had been thousands of years since he'd had an opportunity like this.
He stood before the doors to his chambers. His mouth was already watering. They'd chosen the perfect reality to invade. The spoils they'd plundered from here were more delicious than he ever would've hoped for. The doors to his chamber slid open. His quarters were dimly lit. It hid the true size of the room. Several rooms branched off from this chamber. The entryway was kept rather plain. There wasn't much to it aside from the sparsely placed red lights on the walls.
His prize was restrained in the center of the room. The glow of her restraints illuminated her round face in red. She was hunched over. Her wild mass of brown hair had engulfed her features. She looked up at him when he entered the room. There was no fear in her eyes. But they were burning with fury and anger. The Advisor waved his slender hand through the air and her restraints flickered off. The prisoner didn't hesitate.
Nayni lept at him. Her thick arm swung through the air and her fist slammed into his jaw. She knocked his head back, his hood fell away. His long silver hair was exposed to the air. The Advisor felt the cold trickle of his blood coming out of the corner of his mouth. He cackled. This Nayni was quite different from his. This Nayni had quite a bit of bite to her. She charged for him again but he shoved her to the ground.
"I'll let you have that one," The Advisor said.
He wiped the blood away from his face on the back of his hand.
"But if you try that one more time, I'm restraining you again," The Advisor warned.
Nayni scowled. She crawled along the cold metal floor away from him. It was truly remarkable how much she resembled his Nayni. Their appearance was nearly exactly the same but he could already feel the difference in her mind. He could feel that this was a completely different soul. Now that his face was fully revealed to her she seemed troubled. Her eyes were wide and sweat was rolling down the curve of her face. He twirled the end of his silver mustache and grinned.
"Are you scared?" The Advisor teased.
Nayni clenched her jaw. It appeared she was going to keep her mouth shut. He didn't mind that in the least. It was going to make this that much more delightful. He walked around her, the hem of his robe dragged across the floor and barely made a sound.
"Don't fret, my dear, I know you'll talk when you're ready," The Advisor said.
That term of endearment seemed to disturb her. She was trying to hide her fear from him but it was useless. No one could hide from him, especially not her.
"You can trust me," The Advisor said.
Nayni just shook her head and wrinkled her nose. That look of disdain she kept giving him was making it so hard for him to focus. Her rage was so intoxicating. It was going to be torture to wait. He already was so thirsty to play his games with her.
"You're a reasonable woman," The Advisor said. "I imagine you need a bit more than just my words before you'll put your trust in me though."
He knelt down. She refused to look him in the eye. He wrapped his long, grey fingers around her face. It took a bit of effort to get her to tilt her head up. He narrowed his red glowing eyes and smirked.
"You are so certain you can trust your companions," The Advisor said. "But I've seen inside their minds. I've seen things about them that you don't know."
Nothing about what he said seemed to shake her. Nayni just gritted her teeth and glared at him. He pulled his hand away and got back to his feet. He straightened out his robes. He didn't want them to be too wrinkled. He did have a guest, after all. His Nayni would've wanted him to keep up appearances.
"The boy for instance," The Advisor said. "He called you a bitch shortly after you met. Now I didn't know what that meant but after I dug a little deeper-it turns out it's not a very nice word."
Nayni rolled her eyes. He didn't expect that to impress her very much. It was a rather trivial piece of information. But he didn't want to dive right in with the juicy tidbits. That would take all the fun out of it.
"Your Lotor is quite an interesting fellow. He's vastly different from the one I know," The Advisor said.
She peeked out from behind her mass of brown hair. Yes, he knew this would reel her in. He'd sensed that tension between them. He'd found quite a bit in Lotor's mind. He was a man with a complicated past. He was rather clever and manipulative. The Advisor had actually started to respect this incarnation of him a bit.
"Now don't you try and strike me again," The Advisor said. "I'm going to touch you."
Nayni stiffened.
"You need to see this for yourself," The Advisor hissed.
He seized her by the hair. He gripped her forehead with his fingertips. Her skin was slick with sweat and her eyes were darting around the room wildly. The tips of his fingers began to glow with red. He watched her eyes slowly be consumed by that strange glow. He started to slip Lotor's memories into her brain. Nayni tried to pull away from him at first but he kept his grip on her. The way she struggled made him grin.
"What do you see?" The Advisor asked.
Nayni's lips parted. She didn't need to respond. He already knew what she was seeing. He was just hoping she'd finally speak to him. She was fighting it. He crept into her mind so he could watch these memories play out for her. He wanted to feel her reaction to it all.
The images in her head were foggy but they were slowly growing more clear. It was the Ark. He had learned what this vessel was from Lotor but it was like an alarm bell in her mind. She recognized the long hallways and the rows of broken sleep chambers. The vessel was in shambles. Only the dim light of one sleep chamber remained. The glow barely illuminated the features of Lotor's face. His entourage was close behind him. Their names ran through his mind again. Nayni trembled a bit as the information was forced into her.
The Advisor could hear the dreamlike quality of their voices as they spoke. Nayni's ears twitched with every syllable that Lotor uttered. She started to murmur and the Advisor smiled wickedly. Lotor's words were coming out of her mouth. They were barely a whisper but they were what the Galra Prince had uttered in that distant memory. One of Zarkon's generals had been ordered to destroy the Ark vessel once it had been tracked down. He failed to finish the job. It ended up costing the general his life.
The words kept spilling out of Nayni's mouth against her will. She muttered all of their words like they were some prayer being whispered in a cathedral.
"No, Zehtrid, we're leaving it. This will come in handy someday," Nayni whispered.
The Advisor released her. She fell forward. Nayni coughed and gagged. She gasped for breath. The red fog faded from her eyes. The Advisor watched her writhe around on the floor with great pleasure. She clung to the rags she was clad in. Her eyes were wide and her bottom lip trembled.
"He was sent to kill me," Nayni stammered. "He was supposed to destroy everything."
She looked over her shoulder. She stared up at the Advisor. He lived for that look. He lived to see that confusion and fear in people's eyes. He took such pleasure in shattering people's perception of their lives. Her violet eyes flickered over him. She fixed her gaze on the cold surface of the floor.
"I'm only alive because he thought I would be a useful tool," Nayni said. "He didn't even know who I was. He didn't care."
So much of life was just a matter of chance and timing. It was a brutal truth of the universe. It didn't matter what version of it someone was in. It was a fact that everyone seemed to find so deeply troubling. It's why he loved reminding people of it. He loved seeing that realization in their eyes. He loved seeing the moment someone realized they were insignificant and had no control. Their entire life was the product of circumstance. There were a few exceptions.
There was something old and ancient that was the lifeblood of everything. Something that wove pieces together in ways that even he did not fully understand. The Advisor had possessed a Nayni of his own and his counterpart here possessed this one. This was the first reality other than his that they had visited. And he would tear through all of them to find out the truth of it all. The Queen would possess all of these worlds and all of these endless possibilities and they would know the truth of it all.
He had Nayni right where he wanted her. The Advisor had gotten her to question things. Now he could toy with her until she let everything spill out of her. He'd open her up and dig out all of her dark secrets. He ran his fingers through her tangled hair. He pulled back the brown mass and exposed the tips of her pointed ears. His lips hovered over the surface of her neck. She was shaking. He could feel her pulse starting to race.
"C-Coran," Nayni stammered.
The Advisor recoiled. He hadn't planned for this. He hadn't expected to feel this way. To hear that voice say his name again. It disturbed him. Nayni pulled away from him and crept to the other side of the room. She looked at him with such disgust and hatred.
"If you lay another quiznacking finger on me, I'll break your arm," Nayni snapped.
His nostrils flared and he started for her. He felt like he was aflame. She pulled her fist back, she was readying herself to strike him again. She was an idiot. He could bring her life to an end with the flick of his finger and she still insisted on fighting him. He grabbed her by the wrist and pinned her against the wall. This startled her but her eyes were still burning with determination. He wanted to break her. He wanted to watch her fall apart but some old instinct that he'd thought he'd forgotten was stopping him.
"I know the lies Tomyko planted in your head," The Advisor hissed. "She only told you the half of it. She only told you the parts that she wanted you to hear. She didn't give you the whole ugly truth of it."
He saw that brief flicker of doubt cross Nayni's mind. He latched onto it. He was going to show her. He was going to show her everything. He pressed his face close to hers. He could feel her hot, panicked breaths falling on his cold flesh.
"I didn't kill you," The Advisor whispered.
He pressed his hand to her forehead again. His fingertips grew hot as they glowed with his quintessence once more. Nayni struggled even more this time. She thrashed her legs and tried to kick him. He placated her with his quintessence. He drained just enough from her so she was too weak to fight him off. He slithered into her mind and her eyes rolled back. They were consumed in that same red foggy glow. The red markings on his face illuminated like the stars in the night sky. Nayni went limp. He dug up those ancient memories and started thrusting them into her mind. His Nayni had given them to him so long ago and now he was sharing them for the first time.
Again with the yelling. Always the yelling. Why won't you come with me? I want someone to come home to on Daibazaal! I just want to be with you again! Don't you love me? Don't you want to be with me every day? Every time they spoke over the telecoms, it was always the same argument. Tomyko was always pressuring her. She expected Nayni to just say goodbye to everything she knew and leave. She expected her to abandon the Princess and everything she loved. Nayni did love Tomyko too.
Nayni loved Tomyko more than anything. It hurt to be questioned like that. It broke her heart every time. She knew Tomyko cared. She never questioned it. But Tomyko always questioned her. She always pushed Nayni to do what she wanted. Tomyko never stopped to ask what Nayni wanted. Nayni wanted to stay home. She wanted to be on Altea. She wanted to scream this to Tomyko. She wanted to shout it from the top of the Royal Palace but even then she wondered if Tomyko would actually listen.
Her hand trembled as she tried to fix her makeup. Again with the crying. Again with the hiding it. Again with the heartache. And again she was too scared to speak her mind. If Nayni told anyone the things that Tomyko said about their King she could be executed for treason. She was lucky that she was stationed on Daibazaal. Nayni still believed in Altea. She still believed in everything it stood for even if Tomyko didn't.
She adjusted her brown curls until they were perfectly styled again. Her eyes still looked red and puffy. She still had time. The walk down the halls would give it time for the swelling to go down. Maybe she'd stop sniffling by the time she got back to the Princess. Her footfalls echoed off of the glossy white walls. She passed by the red tapestries too quickly to pay attention to the elaborate stories that had been embroidered on them.
There was to be no luck. She never had any luck. The Royal Advisor was headed her way. He was her friend and she trusted him but she'd already told him too much. Every time she fought with Tomyko she'd come crying to him. Coran was a good person. Despite how Tomyko felt, Nayni believed that in her core. He would let Nayni unload all of her fears on him and not once did he exploit that. Coran always told her things would work out. He always promised that Nayni and Tomyko could make it through this.
He may have believed it but Nayni didn't anymore. She was galaxies away from her wife and she felt like the space between their hearts was even further than that now. Coran looked fearful as he always did. He could already tell what had happened. She tried to straighten out her red uniform. She didn't know how that would help. No amount of makeup could hide this. He reached for her but recoiled his hand. He was always so scared to make physical contact. His ears were already twitching with anxiety.
"Again?" He pressed.
She gripped onto the deep crimson fabric of his uniform. He stiffened. He was a quiet man. He was much more skittish than she was. He was so bookish and shy. He'd worn his hair the same way for years. Coran wasn't very fashionable and seemed to struggle greatly with social interactions. Nayni felt like Coran let people walk all over him. She wasn't in a position to judge though. Nayni let Tomyko do the same to her.
"I just don't know how to tell her," Nayni said. "She'd feel awful if she knew how much she was hurting me. I'm just scared to say anything."
Her grip on his wrist tightened.
"You shouldn't b-be afraid of your own w-wife," Coran said.
Those words haunted her from that day forward. With every morning she woke and every night that she went to bed they stayed in her head. They swirled around like eels in a pool. The more that doubt grew the more Tomyko pushed. Maybe her wife felt it. Maybe she felt her slipping away but the harder that Tomyko tried to pull her away the more Nayni wanted to stay. And the guilt was tearing her apart too.
She shared everything with Coran. Maybe it was because he never had a harsh word for her. Coran would just pour her cups of his bland tea. And Nayni would listen to him. He'd go on and on about the project he was working on with King Alfor. He found it so fascinating. Tomyko thought this transreality comet was an abomination. She thought the King's obsession with it fell into the realm of insanity. Coran's face would light up when he spoke of the Castle's construction. Every time they came to realize something new about the comet he would divulge it all to Nayni. She knew he wasn't supposed to. She worried what would happen to this gentle soul if anyone found out.
Something rather indecent had started to invade their friendship. The thoughts filled Nayni with such guilt. Tomyko had wanted their marriage to be one of monogamy. They'd had friends in polyamorous relationships but that wasn't the nature of theirs. So Nayni felt like a monster for even fantasizing about breaking those vows. She wanted Coran to push her up on his desk and rip off her skirt. She wanted to see her lipstick smeared all over his face. She wanted to taste him on her lips and grab her by the hair. They were just thoughts. They were just filthy dreams that kept her warm at night but she felt like a monster for having them. She was too scared to even bring it up with Tomyko. She knew her wife would feel betrayed and it would just lead to more yelling.
The Castle had been completed. It was like a giant glittering ruby. Coran was so proud. He spoke with such excitement. They knew it was powerful. They hoped it possessed the ability to travel through realities but they had no idea if it could yet. To see him beam with pride made her smile. She'd gotten so used to how he acted around her that she forgot how sheepish he was around others. The King would mock him for being so soft spoken but Coran still worshipped the ground that man walked upon. He put the Princess on an even higher pedestal. They both did. She was such a strong young woman. She knew when to show mercy and she knew when to be firm.
Alfor's curiosity consumed him. Nayni did not like to think that Tomyko had been right but she wondered about it. He tried to enter the rift left by the comet. Coran had watched the man be torn to pieces. He said he'd been ripped apart and turned to ash. It had disturbed the Royal Advisor. It brought him nightmares. Nayni would hold his hand when he spoke of them. His hand would tremble and she did her best to soothe him. But after the King's death, neither of them had as much time to spend with one another. They had to help the Princess ascend to power. They had to help her transition into the role of a Queen.
Tomyko's insistence for Nayni to leave Altea only grew more passionate and fiery after Alfor's death. She kept claiming that Nayni was staying on a sinking ship. It disgusted her. Tomyko had no loyalty to Altea anymore. She spoke of Zarkon and Honerva as if they were deities. They were not flawless. They had shunned Alfor for his endeavors. They disrespected his memory by using it as some tool to try and sway the other planetary civilizations to close the rift. Tomyko couldn't understand. She didn't even try to understand how Nayni felt anymore. The only thing that kept them bound together anymore was the legality of their marriage vows. Vows that Nayni was too frightened to try and break.
She could parade around at balls and the Palace halls in her elaborate outfits. She could charm anyone she laid her eyes on but when it came to Tomyko she felt powerless. They used to joke that Tomyko was the only woman that had been able to tame her. That joke only filled her with resentment now. She felt like Tomyko's love was real. But it had made her selfish. It blinded her to so much. She felt like Coran was the only one who truly listened to her. He was the only one who truly heard her for who she was.
Queen Allura managed to keep fending off the pressures from their intergalactic allies. She continued her father's research on the rift but the quintessence exposure did something to her. It was weakening her. There were days she could barely walk. Coran would have to carry her to her laboratory. Then there came a day where she couldn't walk at all. She tried to work from her bed but that even came to a stop. Nayni held her bony hand with tears in her eyes. Her ward was slipping away. If Allura was lost then there would be no one left to lead the Alteans.
Coran huddled by Allura's bedside with Nayni. His ears twitched nervously. He kept staring at the floor. Nayni had taken his trembling hands in hers. She looked into his scared violet eyes.
"Just speak, Coran, I know there's something on your mind," Nayni said.
Coran gulped and bit his bottom lip. His gaze flickered over to their frail, dying Queen.
"I w-want to t-take her into the rift," Coran stammered. "If we take the Castle, we should be able to pass through and-and all that q-quintessence should restore her."
Seeing the two people she cherished most risk their lives frightened Nayni. But something had to be done. They could not just sit by and watch the Queen fade away into oblivion.
"But it could kill you both," Nayni said.
Coran looked down at their hands. He tightened his grip. Over all of the years that they had known each other she had never seen him so determined.
"But if we do n-nothing Allura will d-die anyway," Coran said.
Nayni gazed up into his eyes. This was the first time that he didn't seem to be harboring any anxiety.
"And if I d-die, it will be in s-service to the Crown," Coran said. "And that is how I w-want it to be."
She didn't want to lose him. She didn't want to lose either of them. They were all she had any more. She felt like she didn't even have her own wife anymore. But she wasn't going to stop him. He'd spent his entire life doing the bidding of others. Nayni wanted him to have this. Even if it killed him. She wanted this meek man to feel the strength that she knew he possessed. So she got on her tiptoes and planted a tender kiss on his cheek. It shocked her just as much as it did him.
He pressed his hand to his cheek. Coran stared at the smear of red lipstick on his glove. He touched his hand to that same spot when he stepped onto the Castle. Nayni hoped that the two of them would return to her. She believed in his intelligence. She believed that he was right. She still hid their plan from Tomyko because she knew her wife wouldn't believe. Her wife had stopped believing in Altea for quite some years now. Nayni watched the Castle descend into the rift in the dark of night.
The red light of the rift spilled into the inky black sky. Once the Castle had been completely swallowed up by that light, the rift erupted. Lightning snaked up and licked at the sky. An otherworldly thunder rumbled from the chasm and made the earth beneath her feet shake. An icy wind swirled around the rift, it whipped through her hair and sent a chill down to her core. The power pouring out of that chasm felt old. It felt older than the universe itself.
She felt like she was going to faint. The Castle reemerged but it was not the vessel it had once been. It had become something else. It was both terrifying and beautiful. It looked like a mountain of obsidian that had been sculpted into a grand, towering palace. She fell to her knees. The world around her was spinning. The ground rumbled and shook as the rift tore open even farther. It was ripping apart the rock around it. It flung chunks of earth into the air. She watched the crimson clouds swirl around the Castle as it came down to land. She felt the fear in her heart dissolve and her excitation begin to swell.
When Coran emerged she almost didn't recognize him. Gone was the man that scuttled about like some unwanted vermin. He strode down the ramp with such authority. His pink flesh was now a pale grey. It was as if he had been drained of all color. The hair upon his head was silver like the light of the moon and it fluttered in the wind. And his eyes. His eyes showed no fear. They possessed no anxiety or weakness. They gleamed like rubies and filled her with hope.
He held out his hand and she took it without a moment's hesitation. He took her onto the Castle without uttering a word. The Queen was renewed. Her skin had transitioned from that rich brown hue into shades of grey. She would've still appeared to be sickly if she wasn't radiating with pure quintessence. She stood tall on the Castle's bridge. She had undergone the same transformation that Coran had. Nayni was so overjoyed that tears came to her. It had worked. She bowed before Allura. She was overcome with such bliss and relief that she couldn't speak. Coran had done it. He had saved the bloodline. The Altean empire would carry on.
But the rest of the universe thought Altea would still fall. The rift continued to grow. It slowly consumed more and more of their homeworld. News spread quickly across the universe. Zarkon believed the rift was going to consume the entire universe if they didn't close it. Their former ally was suggesting they completely destroy the planet they called home in order to close it. Everyone that had once stood by the Alteans had now become their enemy. That was when Tomyko came for her. They hadn't spoken since Coran had taken the Castle into the rift.
Nayni waited for the Galra shuttle to land. She was finally going to end this and of her own volition. She watched her wife emerge from the sleek purple vessel. She almost didn't recognize Tomyko. The brave woman she'd married, the woman who had spoken her mind without hesitation, and the woman that had let nothing shake her actually looked scared.
"Nayni, please," Tomyko begged. "You have to come with me now."
Again with the orders. Nayni shook her head.
"Nayni, you don't know what you're doing! Please, come with me! You'll die!" Tomyko pleaded.
Again with the yelling. She acted as if Nayni wasn't capable of deciding anything for herself. She was not the insipid pretty little thing that Tomyko had made her out to be.
"Nayni, this is madness! Zarkon has promised all the Alteans safe harbor," Tomyko said. "We have to close the rift or we're all going to die."
Again with the doubt. Again with the betrayal. Nayni clenched her fists. Tomyko hadn't listened for years but she was going to listen now. She was finally going hear what Nayni had to say. The woman that Nayni had been was gone. She wasn't going to let fear dictate her life any longer.
"No," Nayni said.
Tomyko recoiled. Tears were forming in her eyes. Nayni narrowed her gaze. No amount of tears or begging were going to sway her.
"You're going to listen to me, now!" Nayni spat. "You've abandoned your own people, Tomyko! You're the one who doesn't know what you're doing! You're the one who has shut everyone out! Allura is capable of so much more than you could ever imagine!"
Nayni was shaking. All of the years of pent-up frustration were pouring out of her.
"I'm done, Tomyko," Nayni said. "I'm not your wife anymore."
Tomyko started for her. Tears were streaming down her slender face. Tomyko seized Nayni and shook her. She shook her like she was a ragdoll.
"No no no no, Nayni!" Tomyko sobbed. "You don't mean that. Please, I still love you! Don't leave me!"
Nayni pushed Tomyko away. She felt a new fire burning within her.
"I'm done," Nayni pressed.
Tomyko kept shaking her head. Coran emerged from the shadows. Nayni knew he'd been there from the start. He had been there for her as he had always been and always would be. He moved across the landing pad like a specter. Tomyko was the one trembling now. She was the fearful one. She grabbed Nayni by the wrist and tried to drag her back to the Galra shuttle. Nayni squirmed and struggled to free herself. Coran struck Tomyko with the quickness of a viper. Nayni watched her fall to the ground. Violet blood poured out of the wound that had opened up across her nose.
Nayni looked down at her. She felt such a deep satisfaction to be the one with power now. She wasn't the pretty little doll that Tomyko had built her up to be.
"Go," Nayni said. "I'm a new woman now and I don't have room for a traitor in my life."
Tomyko had fled from their homeworld as she had hundreds of times. She was never to return again. But Tomyko had been right. They escaped from their homeworld before Zarkon turned Altea to ash and closed the rift. The Galra King with his Altean bride had betrayed his oldest allies and destroyed his wife's home. The Queen had rescued her people though. And now they had the entire army of the Altean Empire at their backs.
They were a people without a home and without allies. They were a race that had been shunned by the rest of the universe. Coran had reached for her hand. She had gazed up at his shrouded face. He had come so far. He'd brought their Queen back to life. He had restored the person that had been their salvation. He ran his fingers through Nayni's hair and brushed it away from her face. The edge of his mustache curled up as he smiled.
"There will be no more fear for us," Coran hissed. "Now the universe will tremble before us."
He took her in his chambers. Nayni had never felt so alive. He'd lain her down in the scarlet, silken sheets of his bed. He pinned her wrists to the mattress. Their hungry kisses left her dark lipstick smeared across his face and along the skin of his neck. With every touch, with every desperate gasp and sigh, she felt her fear slipping away. She dug her nails into the flesh of his back. She didn't have to tell him what to do. It was as if Coran was reading her mind.
Coran grabbed her by the hair and yanked back her head exposing the tender flesh of her neck. He nibbled on her neck and the sharp pain made her gasp with delight. She arched her back as he kissed along the curves of her body. She could feel his mustache scratching against the surface of her soft skin and she shuddered. He scolded her if she whimpered too quietly. He didn't want her to hold back. He pushed her to the point where she felt as if her body was being consumed in flame.
He tortured her throughout that first night. He brought her to the point of ecstasy over a dozen times. The quiet moments in between were filled with whispered confessions. Nayni found out that quiet man had wanted to make her squirm and writhe for years. She found out that his heart broke every time she cried with him because he felt he didn't have a voice either. She grabbed him by the neck and whispered lurid fantasies in his ear. Coran made every one of them come to be.
They watched a thousand worlds burn. There was something tender and deep that lay beneath their wild endeavors. Coran never passed a boundary that she'd set. He never crossed a line without her permission. He listened to her. He'd bind her hands when she asked and release her when she uttered the word they'd agreed upon.
He never stopped listening. Even after Daibazaal had fallen and they believed their most hated enemies were dead. She'd bend the knee during the day and do whatever she could to serve her Queen. And at night her Advisor would make anything she ever desired come to be. He filled her belly with exotic wine and foreign delicacies. He never tired of it. She never grew sick of that look in his eyes. That sheer, pure delight he felt every time she succumbed to his passion and crossed over the final threshold.
But she grew older while he stayed the same. His gorgeous face remained unchanged. His silver hair still possessed the same sparkling luster it always had. The lines and the sculpted features of his face remained stagnant. The Queen's hair grew longer but she still possessed that same youthful face. Over the stretch of years, the Queen's empire continued to grow and more wrinkles appeared on Nayni's face.
Nayni started to struggle to keep up with the Advisor. The nights filled with animal passion became rarer. He'd spend the dark of night holding her in his arms and stroking her hair. Nayni's brown hair grew dull, the green markings on her face had started to fade. On every Nameday he'd ask Nayni if he could restore her as he had the Queen. And every time she refused him.
The rift had changed Coran. She feared for how it would change her. She'd loved the man he had been and she loved the man he had become. But she feared that he might not love the person that would emerge from that rift. The rift had given Coran a voice. It had unleashed the man that had always lied beneath. But Nayni didn't need that. He'd given her the voice she'd always longed for. He'd treated her as an equal. The only time he'd disrespected her was when she'd asked for it.
Her last day finally came. She'd been too weak to leave their bed for nearly a month. She felt her time in this realm was coming to an end. The Queen rewarded her for her lifetime of service by respecting her wishes to slip away quietly with her longtime lover. The Advisor had stayed by her bedside. His immortal face watching her take in every precious breath. He held her frail hand and rubbed his thumb over her skin that felt as thin as paper.
"Nayni, please," The Advisor begged. "I still need you. The Queen still needs you."
Nayni smiled. It took so much energy and strength just to do that. She tried to lift her hand but she couldn't. Coran brought her hand to his face. He nuzzled his face into her bony palm.
"She doesn't need me, she hasn't for years," Nayni said.
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"And I've told you a thousand times why I want it this way," Nayni croaked.
She felt him trembling for the first time in years. She got a glimpse of the man he had once been. She saw that fear flickering in his eyes. She traced her fingertips along the supple flesh of his cheeks.
"We'll meet again one day, I know it," Nayni murmured.
He tightened his grip. His nostrils flared. She saw the anger rising within him.
"No," The Advisor said.
His tone was so cold that she found herself actually feeling frightened. He wrenched her from the bed. He held her in his arms like a broken doll as he marched through the dark chamber. She was too feeble to fight him. He stormed into the emergency chamber. She stared at the empty hibernation pod and her eyes widened.
"C-Coran, no," Nayni pleaded.
He looked down at her as if she was some precious jewel.
"You won't allow me to take you into the rift," The Advisor said. "But I can't allow you to die either."
She started to tremble. He placed her in the pod. Nayni kept shaking her head. She kept pleading with him to take her out. This would be so much worse than death. She didn't want to be trapped in the pod, on display like some ancient vase in a museum. She didn't want to spend eternity as an old Altean woman on the verge of death. This was her life. These were her choices to make, not his. She kept begging as he typed into the control panel. She kept screaming until her voice was hoarse as the barrier closed around her. She kept crying until the red viscous fluid poured into the pod and filled her lungs. Her eyes were locked on his and all she could see in those icy scarlet orbs was pain and hunger. In her final moments, he had betrayed her. He had finally stopped listening to her.
The Advisor released Nayni. She coughed and gasped as if he'd been holding her head underneath the water. Her eyes were wild and wide. She crawled away from him like some rodent trying escape from a predator. Her knees quivered as she tried to get back on her feet. She clawed at the wall in a vain attempted to stand. She was still too weak from the mind meld to move. Her olive skin was drenched in sweat.
He crept towards her. With every step, he could feel her fear growing more intense. She pressed herself against the wall. She tried to mask her fear with a cold look on her face but it was fruitless. He seized her by the hair and yanked her head back. She growled and thrashed. She swung a fist at his face again. The impact drew more blood from his mouth. He just laughed.
"Let me go, you filthy quiznack," Nayni snapped. "You're a monster! I saw what you did to her!"
The Advisor was actually having a tad bit of trouble holding her back now. He dragged her back to the center of the room. He tossed Nayni to the ground. With a flick of his wrist, the restraints appeared again. They clamped over her ankles and wrists. There was that delicious look of fright in her eyes again. She kept trying to squirm. She kept desperately trying to set herself free, even if it was pointless.
The Advisor ran his thumb across his split lip and smeared some of the violet blood in his silver mustache. His gaze flicked up to the locked door behind Nayni. Behind that door was where his Nayni was still waiting. She was still frozen in time. He knew he had made the right choice. He had known better than her. He had waited thousands of years and traversed across realities but the ancient forces of the universe had finally rewarded him for his patience.
He looked down at this other Nayni. This woman only looked like his long lost lover. But that was enough for him. What soul lay within didn't matter to him. He reached down and brushed the tangled, damp mass of hair away from her face. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and he snickered.
"I'm going to take you into a rift," The Advisor said. "And when I'm done, I'm going to put all of her memories into that newly restored body."
Nayni's eyes widened. He could feel the terror within her. It was strangling her. It was as if he had reached within her and was squeezing the life out of her own heart.
"Her last request only applied to her body after all," The Advisor teased. "And your body is definitely not hers."
He would leave her with those words. He wanted to make her writhe and make her heart beat ferociously. He wanted this Nayni's final days to be filled with terror. He wanted it to consume her sanity like fungus devouring a rotten log. He wanted her to lie awake at night knowing her fate. He wanted to relish in the dread she felt upon realizing that she was going to be a husk. She would forever be his prisoner and nothing more than a vessel. She was just a tool to him and that was all the meaning that her life would ever possess.