Himeko sat on the couch of the Express. Her eyes gazed fondly at a small slip of paper in her hand.
"What's that, Himeko?" A voice called out next to her. Boredom had been filling Stelle's mind for the past thirty minutes. She sat on the other side of the couch, staring out towards the large ball of ice known as Jarilo-VI.
She noticed ten minutes ago, before pulling out a slip of paper, Himeko looked around to see if anyone had been paying attention to her.
"An old photo." Himeko said, her voice as fond as her gaze. She looked over to Stelle, beautiful orange eyes blinking. "Would you like to see?"
"Are you sure?" Stelle asked, just to be sure.
Himeko nodded. "Of course, I suppose you would find out sooner or later."
Stelle stood up from her spot and walked over to the redhead, sitting next to her. Himeko gently handed the slip of paper over to the ashen-haired girl.
"A photo?" Selle asked, taking in the sight. She held the slip of paper; a photo that contained a very young Himeko (that actually didn't look all that different from Himeko now, Stelle noticed), a young man with red hair and orange eyes– who looked oddly like someone had turned Himeko into a man– and a young woman wearing a purple dress, with dark pink eyes and long light brown hair.
"For the first year after the Astral Express was back up and running, it was just us three." Himeko reminisced, before setting a finger under her chin in thought. "Us four, I meant, Pom-Pom was there too."
"Someone called Pom-Pom?" A high-pitched voice asked from the side. Pom-Pom's (adorable) steps echoed through the room. They stood in front of the two with their hands on their hips.
"Whatcha got there?" Pom-Pom asked.
"An old photo, do you remember Hiro?" Himeko asked.
"Your brother? Of course! How could I forget?"
"Brother?" Stelle repeated, the word echoed in her mind. She turned to Himeko with a surprised glance. "You have a brother?"
"I do." Himeko answered with a nod.
"How come you've never told us about this?" Stelle asked. She's asked enough about Welt's past, and she's content with what she knows about him, but besides the fact that Himeko repaired the Express, she knows little to nothing about the redhead's past.
A rare sheepish glance passed Himeko's face. "You never asked."
"Ah–" Stelle made to respond, to argue, but she relented. "I guess you're right."
"So…" A bunch of questions raced through Stelle's mind, she wasn't the indecisive type but at the moment she just couldn't choose. Running into too many options, she asked the question that best summed up her thoughts.
"You have a brother?" She repeated.
Himeko giggled at Stelle's confused expression. "I don't know why it's so surprising, but yes, I do have a brother."
With two fingers she pointed towards the two figures beside her in the photo. "My brother–Hiro– and my sister-in-law: Rita."
"Your brother is married?"
Another nod. Himeko once again gazed fondly at the photo. "That's partly the reason why they left. Rita was pregnant, and they felt that the path of the Nameless was too dangerous for the baby."
Pom-Pom nodded. "It was a shame, they both were great souls, but if it's to protect their young one then Pom-Pom wouldn't complain."
"Where are they now?" Stelle asked.
"They–" As soon as Himeko responded, Stelle's question finally settled, and the mood changed like the flip of a switch. The fond smile on Himeko's face vanished, replaced by a melancholic frown.
"The planet that they settled on was destroyed, a decade after we dropped them off."
"Oh–" Stelle realized that she might have stepped in a landmine with the question, so she quickly attempted to rectify her mistake. "I'm sorry, I didn't think–"
"He's still alive."
Himeko said. The mood changed so quickly that Stelle was still trying to refocus herself. Not wanting to pressure the young girl, Himeko attempted to calm the girl down.
The statement wasn't just Himeko "coping with loss" either. "I received a letter from him a year ago. He's still alive."
So Himeko says, but she did not attempt to explain the letter nor herself. Not wanting to step on another landmine, Stelle did not ask.
Wanting to bring back the mood from earlier, Himeko ended the conversation with one last statement.
"A lot of things have changed since we went our different ways. I can only hope he's okay out there."
This wasn't supposed to happen, it wasn't supposed to be like this.
That woman with a hypnotizing voice and beautiful eyes. She promised that things would get better. She promised that taking the Stellaron would save this planet. How is it that the removal of the Stellaron only made things worse?!
She said that she was a Stellaron Hunter. They destroy the Stellaron's right? That's their job, right? Stellaron's aren't symbols of good, they're pure evil. So it would make sense that people who exist to destroy Stellaron's are good, right?
But that's not the reality at all, he learned that the hard way.
The screams of his people echoed in his mind. Horrid murmurs filled the cities, filling the streets with the blood of those who he swore to protect.
What happened to this world? He asked himself, despite the fact that he fully knew the answer.
He gazed at the destruction from a distance. Explosion after explosion. Flames spread across the streets like a tidal wave.
The Antimatter Legion has come to steal.
"General!" A recruit called out from behind him. A new recruit that he sought out personally. A new recruit had extreme potential to lead an army. But what use is potential when there's nothing left for him?
"General, we have to leave!" The General ignored him. He couldn't just leave the people behind. He was their leader, their general. He was their shield and their sword. Yet like a coward his first instinct was to retreat.
The General knew the risks that the Stellaron brought, which is why he made that deal with the Stellaron Hunters in the first place, to avoid this exact scenario.
But this…
The screams of his people echoed in his mind.
This is how they repay him?
"General–" The new recruit's voice cut off from a strange fleshy sound, like someone cutting into meat. Finally, the General turned around with widened eyes to see a voidranger. The creature had struck its arm– a blade– right through the young recruit's chest.
When did that get here?! The General panicked.
He was certain that no one had noticed him retreat,
The voidranger pushed the body off its arm, its face(?) aimed directly at the general. The General took a step back, moved towards his blade.
The creature lunged, ready to kill.
But an attack did not land.
Within seconds, a freezing breeze swept through the area, and within seconds the voidranger was engulfed in ice.
The entire scenario took a few seconds to register in the General's mind, and when it did–
"What?"
"Are you the leader of these people?" A gruff voice asked.
He turned towards the voice and he could see two figures walking towards him.
A young man with hair as white as snow and aquamarine eyes. Next to the young man was an older man.
One with bright red hair and orange eyes.
The white-haired man wore a black attire that did not look native to this world, while the red-haired man wore casual black clothes, but with a white jacket hanging over his shoulders like a cape. On his short-sleeved shirt laid a single rosemary stuck to his chest.
"This planet," The red haired man started. "There used to be a Stellaron here, correct?"
"Ah–" The general started, but his breath was too shaky. He held his arms, attempting to brace the cold.
"Oh, that's right, my bad. Kevin." The red haired man spoke to the white-haired man next to him– yet his eyes never left the General.
"Captain."
As if knowing exactly what the older man was going to say, the white-haired man, named Kevin, nodded.
The temperature warmed up slightly, before returning to normal. There was still a slight chill, but the General finally noticed the source.
That chill was coming directly from Kevin.
"Now then." The red-haired man's amber eyes bore holes into the General. "I hope you don't mind if I have a few questions for you."
"O-of… of course." The General trembled for a slight second, he didn't know why. "Ask away."
"Do you know what a Stellaron is?" The question came out calmly, and with a small smile on the man's face, but there was something in his tone that held no peace. He was asking a question and he will get an answer.
"I-I do."
"Do you know what happened to the Stellaron here?"
"I…" The general hesitated, but at this point there wasn't much else for him to lose, he told the truth. "There was a group that was here a week prior, they called themselves the Stellaron Hunters–"
As soon as the name left the General's mouth, the smile on the red-haired man's face dropped completely. His eyes glared forward, but while he was looking in the General's direction, his eyes were looking far past the man.
"They said that they'll take the thing off my hands, and I know what the risks of handling a Stellaron are." The General said. "But when they took the damn thing… things only got worse."
As if to reiterate his point, a large explosion of flames spewed from the farthest end of the city, this time it was followed by extremely loud cackling.
The red-haired man sighed as another tremor followed. "Raiden promised that she'll keep those two under control."
"Should I go talk them down, Captain?" Kevin asked, the temperature gradually dropping. It was at this moment that the General noticed a sword tied to the white-haired man's waist. Kevin clutched at the sword, ready to move at any second.
"No need." The red-haired man waved him off. "You know as well as I do what happens when Kal and Senti get competitive. Su and Raiden will take care of any survivors that get caught in the crossfire."
Kevin felt his captain's sentiment, and sighed with his eyes closed. "Yes, I guess you're right."
"Anyways," The red-haired captain straightened himself. He focused his gaze back on the General. "I understand what's happening now. Don't worry too much about it."
Don't worry too much about it? The General would have screamed were it not for the fact that he felt instinctively that if he spoke of any ill-will towards these people, one of them would cut him down in an instant.
"Ol' Eli finally caught onto this little game of cat and mouse." Despite the nickname, he spat out those words with such venom that even the white-haired man next to him almost braced himself.
"I suppose we should play along then. Kevin?"
The temperature once again dropped significantly.
"Yes, captain?" Kevin asked, knowing full well what was about to be said.
"Tell Kal and Senti I said this too." The smile that the Captain had almost threatened to split his face. A hidden rage hidden behind his gaze.
"Go Wild."
Within a nod and a single blink, Kevin was gone.
"Go find safety." The red-haired man threw a device towards the General. "Oh and if you can, grab any sort of interspace travel you people have on this planet. If you don't have any, give the IPC a call using that phone, give them the rundown and they'll send people right away." He walked towards the destruction.
"Who–" The General blurted out on accident. The red-haired man turned around with a raised eyebrow.
"Who are you people?"
"Hm." The red-haired man took in the question, and he smiled. He turned back towards the destruction and continued walking.
A pillar of ice erupted from the west side of the city, and a sea of flames engulfed the east side. Within the center of the city there were large sparks of lightning and waves of red light.
The eruption caused a shockwave so intense that it had traveled to those two. The General braced himself, but the captain's walk did not falter– his coat and hair flew in the wind.
"We're a family of nobodies."
(A/N) there was no beta read nor was there any second read for this. I kept thinking of these scenarios while listening to "Family" by Fabvl. I simply wrote whatever came to my mind first.
This will stay as a one-shot for now because I have like three other stories in my drafts and I don't have the mental strength to write another one.