"Cadet, you are going against every order I gave you. You have exactly ten ticks to get back to your ship."
Kolivan's voice blasted through her eardrums as Andromeda unsheathed her blade, narrowing her eyes.
"I'm not a child, Kolivan. I can hold my own," she said, tightening her wrist guards with her teeth before jumping from the pod.
"That may be, but you are also the crown princess to this empire, and I will not be sending Lotor and Allura your corpse as a yule gift," the Blades commander hissed, and Andromeda rolled her eyes.
"I'm not the crown princess of anything, Kolivan. My family is on Earth; at least what's left of it. And I have every intention of keeping it together, even if I have to travel to the edges of the universe trying," she whispered, tossing her communication piece to the ground as she stepped into the cave. Whatever Kolivan said in response was lost as the princess's eyes adjusted to the shadows, her footsteps ringing along the stone walls. Distantly, she could hear the sound of rushing water and raised voices, but nothing stood out as a warning sign. Taking off her gloves, Andromeda pressed her palms against the earth, feeling for life. Deep underground, she could hear an all too familiar heartbeat pulsating slowly; tightening her grip on her sword, the princess shut her eyes tightly.
"I'm here, Lizzie. I'm here. Just…hold on," she said, reluctantly standing as she slipped quietly into the shadows beyond. As she drew near the center, Andromeda began to see stores of concentrated quintessence, the unnatural lavender color the same as what Stentor and her had found in the pirates' bay. Logging the pictures in her codex, she looked ahead, spotting several uniformed guards standing near a large, rusted door. They didn't look like any race she had seen before, but then again, she had only been in space for about a year. The one on the left was far more muscular than the other, with glossy red eyes and a spined tail to match the quills covering his appendages. The second looked far too much like the space pirate at the mall, only he had numerous emerald eyes on his head (and behind, it seemed, for when he turned, Andromeda spotted what looked like a multitude of others peering around).
"Great, I've gotta fight Mr. Porcupine and Argus Panoptes. My professors in the academy would get a hit off of this," Andromeda grunted as she silently walked across the room, slipping behind quintessence containers until she was only a few feet from the door.
"When is that bastard gonna be done? I thought he was supposed to be finished wit' da girl a dobosh ago," the quilled guard spat, hitting his spiny fist against the metal behind him.
"SSH! Don't wanna disturb 'im, ya lazy ass! Remember the last time ya made 'im angry? Your spikes took four movements to come back in!" Argus responded, accentuating his speech with a flick of his reptilian tongue.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just hope he's here soon because I'm gettin' hungry, and you ain't meaty enough to fill me," the other one said, his crimson gaze flitting to where Andromeda hid behind the container. Just then, a loud crash resounded from behind the door, and the girl's gaze shot towards the now broken hinges as another woman flew through the entrance and landed hard on the rocks nearby. The guards flurried into action, spluttering and stammering as they fumbled for their blasters. Another man, a Galra, walked through the splintered remains of the door; his dark eyes were fixated on the woman lying prone on the floor, caked blood and grime coating her skin.
"No," Andromeda whispered, placing her hands over her mouth as she saw her older sister sprawled on the stones inches away from her hiding place.
"Such a shame, this one. She had so much…potential," the older man scoffed as he kicked her unconscious form with a metal-clad boot. Kneeling before her, the Galran ran his clawed fingertips over the woman's wounds, humming thoughtfully. Andromeda tightened her hold on her sword, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes as she saw the amounts of cuts and bruises littering her sister's body. What was left of her Blades uniform was in tatters, and her weapons were nowhere to be seen.
Whoever this man was, he was far more powerful than she realized.
"What did ya find out, boss?" Argus asked, his smile widening at seeing Lizzie's broken body, and the older Galran sniffed disdainfully.
"Nothing of importance. The Blades keep their secrets well. I doubt whatever she held would be useful, though, without the Princess in our keep," he said, his voice hinting at something else as he stood and walked back towards the dark hole where he had come.
"What do ya want us to do wit da body, sir?" the quilled guard asked, and the Galra muttered something under his breath before saying, "I don't care; let her rot for all I care. Just get her out of my sight."
After he had gone, Andromeda waited until his footsteps could no longer be heard and followed behind the two guards struggling to carry Lizzie's unconscious form down several musty corridors until they reached what looked to be another cave, this one smaller and empty save for piles of trash along the corners. As the guards unceremoniously tossed her sister's body, Andromeda winced as she heard her sister's back collide harshly with the dirt underneath.
"She's pretty for a human," Mr. Porcupine drawled, and Andromeda's hands curled into fists as Argus tsked softly.
"Too bad the master wouldn't let us 'ave 'er for a bit; imagine the price she could have on the market," he laughed, the other guard's chuckling reverberating within the cave.
"That's it," Andromeda said, stepping out of the shadows and gripping her sword tightly.
No one spoke that way about her sister and lived.
"You know, now that I think about it, I think I saw a warrant out recently for y'alls arrest. I think the bounty for serving up your nasty little heads in a box would fetch a nice price, don't ya think?"
The two aliens yelped in surprise, scrabbling for their blasters as the woman sprang forward, swerving past their ammunition and bringing her knees up to smash against their midsections.
"Where'd she come from?!" porcupine shouted, barely missing a sword thrust as Andromeda backed him into a corner, and his partner shrugged, dodging her blade and nicking one of his eyes in the process. Blue blood spurt from the wound, causing the guard to recoil in pain, and his partner roared, bringing his blaster down upon Andromeda's head as she looked back. Dropping to the ground, Andromeda kicked out her leg just as he raised his gun, and he fell, his blaster toppling down the stairs toward Lizzie's body.
"You'll pay for that," he growled, his quills growing larger as he stood, and Andromeda rolled her shoulders, grinning.
"Oh, we'll see about that."