The black clouds perpetually sail away into the distance, as the two of them fly through the clear skies.
Well, more accurately, Frank was just a passenger on Amethyst’s arms, on this Tyrchidian Express.
Above the treeline, he sees just how large the village really is, albeit it was tough to put any borders to it.
Did it start at that massive tree, or end over yonder’s trunk?
Further away, behind the presumed village grounds, almost hidden from sight, a black river glimmered in the sunlight.
The tall forest obscured it heavily, but its uncharacteristically reflective surface made it known. A peculiar feature for such dark matter.
That’s where Luna wanted to take Amethyst…?
Some Tyrchids were peeking from their homes, others already down on the ground as small dots.
A sudden blue flash on the right and green on the left follows; Tyrchids fly past them, taken to the skies again in the cleared weather.
The two speedsters dive back into the canopy beneath, their colorful wings buzzing like a blur as they zigzag at high speed, pulling ahead of the Sunday drivers.
Before them, they launch back up into the open air, frolicking through the air: spinning, vaulting, doing all sorts of acrobatic tricks, flying close enough to each other to almost touch... like an aerial dance.
An ephemeral feeling of envy, to be free like them, changes to something vexing.
If only I could fly, I wouldn't have needed to bind Amethyst to the ground.
Their hard work with Tango, the new steps he invented, feel like an affront, a disgrace.
Tyrchids already had their own way to dance, was he- were they, forcing their views of what was accepted and normal on her?
Then again…
Not only is flying clearly an impossible feat for me... but Amethyst doesn’t even remember her own species’ customs…
She did say, she had never danced before.
Frank looks up at her determined face while he ponders these things. Her hybrid eyes shift to glare down at him.
“I uhh…” Frank looks away, back to the scenery. “-really hope Grent finished the song…”
“Me too…” Her reply carries a similar tone of uncertainty.
While the forest had seemed like a sprawling maze when they first trekked through the thick foliage, Frank started to recognize some of it now, even from above.
Below was the path they had cleared to get to the village, that they now frequented each day.
Over there was the clearing... that especially old and wide tree was etched into his mind, ever present in the background of nightmares.
Thick and stubby, a full head of scarlet leaves, long and drooping.
Getting to see it all from above again, was strangely nostalgic, or perhaps soothing, despite the clenching in his chest.
Spotting the Intergalactic Resources base in the distance, along with the two impressive tubes sticking out of it, a thought occurred to him.
“At least we don’t have to worry about the anti-air cannons anymore...”
“Anti-air cannons…?” Amethyst says.
Oh… I never told her about that, didn’t I? I just dismissed her question back then…
How am I supposed to explain it…?
...
Why should I?
It’s not even important…
Frank shakes his head, breathes deeply through his nose, and concentrates.
“Remember that day when we arrived on Midnight Iris? When I told you to suddenly fly lower?”
“Yeah…?”
“Back then,” Frank points at the base. “-those cannons were aiming at us. A blast from those would have blown us both to smithereens.”
“Those huge things… are weapons…?”
“I didn’t want to stress you out, we were in such a hurry... Though I should have still said something after...”
“You told me now, didn’t you? So... thank you, Frank.” She doesn’t say her kind words in any softer tone, yet it feels like progress.
Frank doesn’t look at her directly, and they start their descent. Amethyst lays him back on the solid dirt ground, as they arrive at the cliffside-carved clinic.
“Can you go ask Grent about it?” A question in just the name, her tone made it clear, a negative answer wouldn’t be accepted.
“I’ll keep my wings open and ready to head back.” She looks somewhere distant, perhaps up at the quarry’s edge.
“Oh, sure... I’ll just be a minute.” Frank glances at her, but she doesn’t change her heading.
He takes off into a jog, hopping through the Amethyst-made triangular door.
The lobby is easy to navigate even while running, with all the space made for their dance floor.
Frank stops at the lab’s door, which burns a bright red light. Locked, inaccessible without a suitable access card.
Blam blam blam.
Frank pounds the metal door.
“Grent, open up!”
“W-who’s there?!”
“It’s me, Frank, of course, who else?”
The door slides open and Grent fills the doorway, leaning from frame to frame, like trying to take up as much space as possible.
“What do you want?”
“We need the choir song, right now. Please tell me it’s ready?”
Frank tries to gaze past Grent as if he could see if the song is inside. Grent shifts to block him at each turn.
Grent ignores his curiosity: “What do you mean the choir song? You mean the sing-along song?”
“Right, that one.”
“Why would you possibly need it now?” Grent shakes his head and then plants his hands firmly in the pockets of his coat, his shoulders rising high.
“Change of plans.” Frank shrugs and asks quickly: “Is it ready or not?”
Grent sighs exasperated.
“Yes... it’s done.”
“Well, can you give it to me then? The lyrics and the file for the background music?”
Frank offers his communicator to Grent.
“Uh… Well… I’m a bit...” Grent throws his neck around and glances behind him.
Finally, his shoulders fall and he swipes the device from Frank’s hand. “Fine… just don’t touch anything.”
What’s his problem? I’ve been to his lab before...
Grent trods to his computer and rapidly clacks on the virtual hologram keyboard.
“Would it have killed you to plan this in advance, ask me this morning or something?”
“Well… I wasn’t really planning on a Tyrchid choir either. We kind of left Pioneer hanging, so… as fast as you can.”
Grent plugs in Frank’s communicator.
“Yeah, yeah… not like I have other things to do than act as your monkey wrench...”
Frank glances around, and spots Amandebot on the operating table, unsurprisingly. However, this time it looks completed, almost fully assembled?
Though on and around it are spots and pieces...
Resembling… flesh?
A nose, lips, forehead…? All sorts of body parts.
Frank’s chest tightens once more; sudden dread devours his breath.
Is that... Jill's nose?
Didn't she have a mole on the left too?
And those earrings...
Jack's ear...?
Pineapple hops up and sits on the table next to them, his paw prods a hand, its wrist and fingers wobble like jelly.
Oh, it's artificial…
As his head steadies and vision clears, the mole and the earrings are gone.
Hah... got me good...
For a moment I really thought...
A push on Frank’s chest – Grent shoved the communicator into his arms.
“Weren’t you in a hurry? Get on with it then, scram.” he gestures to the door, like an impatient bouncer.
Frank raises his hand with one finger up and is about to gesture at the robot to say something, but as he looks at Grent’s expression, he drops the subject.
“Never mind… Thanks.”
Frank turns around and runs off, Grent closes the door right after him.
Plop.
Grent turns to see one of Amande’s skin-substitute hands wobbling on the floor.
“Very funny. Stop playing around and let’s get back to work.”
Pineapple picks up a blue wire and holds it in his mouth. Grent receives it and starts to solder it, connecting it to her left wrist’s tiny chip.
Afterward, he closes the final open panel and looks upon Amande’s lifeless eyes. Robotic, see-through glass lenses, pure blackness inside still.
Where were those luminous eyes of hers? Would he really see them spark to life?
He picks up the hand from the floor, slips it on her, securing it in place with a rotatory push. Grasping the cold wrist, he holds her hand, slipping his fingers in between hers.
“It’s almost done. Are you waiting for me, Amande?
Will you… like it?”
He sighs deeply and hangs his head.
Pineapple nuzzles against their held hands and spooks Grent, who wasn’t looking at the cat.
“You wouldn't have any bright ideas, how to infuse her consciousness into something inanimate?“
Trails of light start to swirl around Pineapple's wide furry collar.
“N-not literally!”
The lights wind down, like a physical machine slowing with friction, gradually coming to a halt and dimming down completely.
As if frustrated at his restraint, the cat swats the plastic nose off the table instead.
“Thanks… “
Grent presses his fingers hard on his temples.
“If I understand the theory correctly, her essence; data, in eternal stasis, is infused in the pure energy of each shot of the mind ray. If it can find no purchase, nothing for it to cling to, no brain nor substitute of one... The dead remain, as just that...
Grent slumps and sits on the table, next to her hips.
“Aargh! I can’t do this… alone… you always knew I was the dense one, but still, you loved me… Can I… not even do this for you...?”
He runs a hand across her cold metal thigh, its surface still shiny and rough without the skin substitute plating.
Pineapple emerges from under his arm, walking onto his lap and curling up into a loose ball, starting to purr.
He pets the cat, the soft generator of noise, his high notes almost hurt Grent’s ears. Regardless, it's a soothing moment, purring loud enough to drown out the negative, refresh his mind.
Amande… You saw the potential of the mind ray, that ISSA was blind to… If you thought it possible, then it must be so.
Pineapple’s jet engine accelerates, as in agreement.
“Because of her, you are here now too, Pineapple.”
Grent takes out the mind ray from his coat pocket, a single suspicious cat eye opens, and peers at the device.
"Don't worry." Grent pets the cat once more, and its eyes close.
Grent gazes at the prototype's steel, smooth angular surface, its geometrically perfect, unnaturally sharp corners — her prison and sanctuary.
He wasn’t ready to realize, it was all that remained of Amande.
In this small device; inside it as data and energy, all of her.
What was left? An empty shell of an expired snapshot...?
No, Amethyst had proved him wrong, there had to be more. A personality, some of Amande’s memories.
But… would it really be her?
If…
When she’d awake, would she be some emotionless, unliving construct, an amalgamation of something else?
Would he summon forth a ghost clinging to life inside this machine, an apparition of the past to haunt him?
Perhaps hoping for more than an obedient, husk of a slave was too much. Could the data last intact for all this time?
Stand on its own without another mind, another person to merge with, fill in the gaps it's missing?
What were the necessary components to forge a person?
What parameters were needed?
Which conditions had to be fulfilled?
"..."
A translucent drop of liquid sploshes upon the metal casket’s unrelenting surface, but it didn’t scatter, nor slide off.
It stuck, remained intact, like it was determined to stay, to break through onto the other side.
To find out what awaited inside, if the person that emerges could be called Amande, his wife, anymore?
It didn’t matter now, he would find out, even if it took a lifetime.
Even if he had to remain in hiding, on the run forever.
Amande would be revived, no matter the cost.
***
“Well?” Amethyst stretches her bone wings, through their crystal or tinted glass-like substance, the light cast taking on a purple sheen, lighting up the quarry’s dirt floor.
“I’ve got them, Grent pulled through.” Frank shakes the communicator in his hand.
“Great, now let’s go.” Amethyst crosses the distance between them with a single step.
“W-woah,” Frank barely has time to put the communicator back into his pocket, when Amethyst already lifts him into her arms and takes off.
“A little warning, please?”
“I did say: ‘Let’s go’.”
“Right...”
Even if it was in part refreshing to see her be more assertive, this new Amethyst was making him miss the more kind and considerate one at an ever-increasing rate.
He sighed and made his peace, he kind of deserved it anyway.
As they approach the village, Frank notices Pioneer’s tiny form on the ground, his white attire making him stand out. He points up at the sky, but not directly at them.
A faint whirring makes both of their heads turn, a drone hovers up on the left, coming up to meet them.
Ugh… Luna…
Frank leers at the quadcopter, its gray metal body looks sturdy, and its rotors embedded inside its chassis, rather protected from outside influence.
Come on… a bit closer… If I could just… swat that thing down…
Frank leans a bit more to the left, not close enough to reach it yet, seriously weighing the pros and cons of establishing aerial superiority.
Amethyst follows the drone with her gaze, other than that, she seemed rather disinterested. It leaves them alone as they start descending back to the surface.
“Here they are, the triumphant return of our forgetful teachers!” Pioneer runs up to them, his film crew following close by.
Amethyst lands and begins to retreat her wings back inside; the sheets of crystalline purple shatter, with a sharp breaking sound of glass.
Shards rain down, rattling against her armor, and plop into the puddles in the grass, dissolving.
Frank hops off Amethyst's lap, onto a relatively dry spot, shaking himself like a wet dog, some shard pieces let go of the folds of his clothes.
Without any audible complaints, he gives his clothes and hair a do-over, quickly swiping them through in case some more shards got stuck.
“Now, let us start the final lesson! Imilald! Zigon! Gnox and Ghoxh! Siflin and Sfipoz!” Pioneer shouts immediately as Frank has finished patting himself down.
“That was all of them right...?”
Amethyst and Frank are swept right back into the rush of filming, without any time to prepare.
Wondering if their students would really answer his call, Amethyst and Frank’s gazes meet. Amethyst soon breaks the moment with a pout, fixing her gaze upwards.
“Oh- oh! Here our students come, I mean, of course, they came! Explorers, feel free to add mastery of Tyrchidian pronunciation in your spreadsheets of my various skills!”
First, Zigon appears, and gradually the other students start to gather around him, looking around aimlessly.
“Come on, Amethyst, let’s get the class ready.” Frank gestures to her and she follows wordlessly.
“Pioneer, why don’t you direct them inside, we’ll… prepare.”
“Ah, of course, I will act as a substitute, no- an assistant teacher! Right this way!” Pioneer marches and directs the Tyrchids inside with grand and sweeping hand gestures, working marvelously.
Frank grabs the blackboard, Amethyst’s sharp writing already taking all of the space up on that side. He turns it around and places it back, leaning to the back wall. This side; unburned red-purplish wood.
“Won’t you slightly char this side, so we can write the song’s lyrics on the ash of this side?”
“Fine.”
While Amethyst blackens the blackboard, Frank takes a look at the file Grent gave him, named: “Tiger_Hymn_Lyrics.txt”
Inside it, a text wall divided into some sort of verses:
> “Danger Danger, Sabertiger, Danger, Help Help, Friend, Home, Go, Home, Go.
>
> Danger Danger, Sabertiger, Danger, Help Help, Love, Queen, Help, Go!
>
> Danger Danger, Sabertiger,
>
> Laugh Laugh Laugh, Sabertiger, Go, Laugh Laugh Laugh.
>
> Laugh Laugh Laugh, Home, OK, Laugh Laugh, Laugh, Friend, Help, OK!
>
> Laugh Laugh Laugh, Queen, OK, Queen, Happy, Laugh Laugh Laugh!
>
> Sabertiger, Food, Sabertiger, Food!”
Does this tell a story…?
Tyrchids warn a ‘friend’ to go protect home and help the Queen, then they laugh as they succeed?
Amethyst finishes burning the blackboard and reads the words on the screen over Frank’s shoulder.
“Oh- What do you think of Grent’s song?” Frank notices her and asks.
“It’s… about protecting the Queen…?”
“Yeah, I think so…”
“About… Mom... who Grent made me kill…?”
It’s rather rich coming from him… Isn’t it?
But, well, I suppose we can think of it as a requiem, a memorial song for her…”
Raising a mediating open palm, he continues hopeful: “Right...?”
“I... I’m not sure if we should sing this…”
“It’ll be fine. In case it doesn’t work out, we can change the lyrics. That's okay, right?”
“I guess...” Amethyst looks at Frank in a peculiar way, but he doesn’t catch the meaning of it.
“W-what?”
“Wasn’t this supposed to be a Tyrchidian song?”
“Y-yes?”
“Why are the lyrics in-”
“Oh..." Frank's face finds the palm of his hand. "Goddess damn that Grent…”
They look up at the class, their students are restless, as is Pioneer, who looks at them sternly, tapping his ring and his foot, the cameras focused on them.
“Uh, can you start translating already? I’ll go and give our class their first treats before they get tired of waiting.”
“Right…” Amethyst starts carving on the blackboard with her blade while glancing at the communicator Frank left on their crooked table.
B-s-i-i...
“Here you are…” Frank goes between each Tyrchid and purchases their patience.
Pioneer has switched to talking quietly to the cameras, clearly they took too long.
“Nice job, Amethyst,” she’s carved half of the first verse, “I’ll help you-”
Frank looks at the ashen board and then Amethyst’s blades.
Somehow…
Would it be enough to just write in the ash? Won’t it get smeared really easily?
Glancing around, he spots a violet shard, stuck in the crack of her damaged shoulder armor, jotting out of it.
It must have gotten stuck there when she broke her wings earlier when they landed.
“Excuse me, I… I’ll take this out of your shoulder.”
With a shaky arm and a voice, he extends a careful hand to take the shard from the hole.
It jots out against the thick, nearly a centimeter in depth, armor’s edge.
A tiny, tiny, gap between her healed skin and the edges of the shoulder armor is visible.
What would happen if the shard slips inside?
A sharp rock, more like a blade, in one’s shoe, except you can’t take the shoe off, ever?
The piercing pressure, sharp sting not just against the sole of your feet, but your chest, stomach, hips… Wherever the shard would end up.
Like nails against a board, the thought makes him reel with a piercing shudder, the worst-case scenario makes his hands that much more unsteady.
Amethyst stops writing and looks down at Frank, scowling along the bridge of her non-existent nose.
Swiftly he grabs the shard, spurred on by the moment. “R-right, let’s write…! I’ll start the second verse already.”
Frank copies what Amethyst had written, as the start was the same, and then he tries to remember some Tyrchidian himself with varying success.
At least, Amethyst, still helped him with the answers when he forgot some words.
Halfway through translation, space is becoming a bit of an issue, the blackboard wasn’t that big. Frank’s shard-writing was a bit slower than Amethyst’s but more accurate and smaller.
“If you can, try to keep your handwriting as small as possible, our space is limited. I’m sure Pioneer’s cameras are powerful enough to see it either way.”
Amethyst looks down at him for a moment with a furrowed brow, before continuing to write, with slightly smaller slashes.
“Thanks…”
After a few more minutes, they’ve finished writing the translation:
> “Bsii Bsii Bsii, Blizh, Bsii, Bhli, Bhli, Shuzs bfhusz, Flufvz, Ghs, Flufvz, Ghs.
>
> Bsii Bsii Bsii, Blizh, Bsii, Bhli, Bhli, Mofs, Floohsh, Bhli, Ghs!
>
> Bsii Bsii Bsii, Blizh,
>
> Flh Flh Flh, Blizh, Ghs, Flh Flh Flh.
>
> Flh Flh Flh, Flufvz, Fxh, Flh Flh Flh, Shuzh bfhusz, Bhli, Fxh!
>
> Flh Flh Flh, Floohsh, Fxh, Floohsh, Fosm, Flh Flh Flh!
>
> Blizh, Shfluz, Blizh, Shfluz!”
The class is unsurprisingly bored and rowdy with their excess downtime.
Pioneer on the other hand seems to have been reduced to performing some sort of puppet show, at least if his hands were anything to go by. Who knows what that was about.
“Ahem! We will start the vocal class now! Today, we’ll teach you to sing, and hopefully in a choir-like formation.”
Frank’s booming voice and a tactical reveal of a Pango grape, allow him to regain their attention.
He points at the board, at the first word, all of the class’ blades rise, to get a turn to answer.
“Right…” Frank sighs. Of course, they won’t just ‘sing’ it, when we’ve taught them to respond like this.
Let’s just take this easy now…
Amethyst looks at him amused, as Frank turns to her and suggests the usual strategy.
Music starts playing from Frank’s communicator; a slow hymn of organs. He points at each of the lyrics, Amethyst pronounces them, like having a slow conversation, rather than singing.
Grent’s song also incorporates some occasional flutes and surprise trumpets.
An unexpectedly classic and traditional sort of sound, was this Grent’s idea of what normal music should be like?
Who knows, but in Frank's head he seemed more of a galaxy-rock kind of guy.
In response to this new audio stimulus, the Tyrchid’s antennae dart and shift around, as do their eyes. Seemingly struggling to place the origin of these strange new sounds.
Zigon eyes around suspiciously, his blades slightly raised, like preparing to protect himself. His sharp gaze soon fixates upon the small strange device in one of his teacher’s hands.
Amazingly the golden sisters seem to completely ignore the music and the demonstration.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Instead, poking each other’s armor with their blades, taking turns, targeting different spots each time, distinctly resembling some sort of a game.
Gnox is standing up vigilantly, ready to face this new threat head-on. His black crystals glowed, blades smoldering with purple embers.
Ghoxh shakes behind him, her long legs rattling, relying on him for protection against this assault of instruments.
Imilald’s legs tap in turn against the wood floor and her antennae sway, seemingly into the music, ignoring the rest of the class’ reactions entirely.
Amethyst looks at their students, her uncertain stare and strained lips are met with Frank’s encouraging nodding and hand gestures to keep singing.
As they got through the whole song, the class has calmed down, used to the music.
Frank stops the song.
“Maybe this will work after all…” Amethyst smiles faintly.
“You’ll see, I’m sure of it. They’re a bright bunch.”
“Right!” Positivity climbs up higher in her demeanor.
Frank gives them all a berry and begins the lesson again.
He points at the first ‘Bsii’ of the song, and the class lifts their hands again.
They absorbed the old lessons a bit too well…
But…
Frank sweeps a hand, pointing at each and every Tyrchid in class, they all say “Bsii” at different timings, with their own unique voice and inflection, a near cacophony.
The Tyrchids glance at each other, clearly confused about this change that went against their previously learned patterns.
Well… that kind of worked…
Frank keeps it up, pointing at words, then giving everyone explicit permission to answer, in rapid succession, like a director of a classical piece, more than a choir.
He makes it work, but the performance is more evocative of a noisy mob than singing.
Amethyst looks between Frank, the ‘singing’ Tyrchids, and Pioneer.
The latter seeming unhappy, his fingers tapping against his pure white trousers, painted with splattered black spots from the rain, now dry.
He frequently adjusted his sunglasses and made hasty gestures in front of the camera at some points.
Amethyst understood Pioneer properly for the first time, she was feeling it too.
Unhappy, and dissatisfied with their lesson for the first time, but she wasn’t exactly sure what was wrong with it.
It felt… forced like they were teaching something against their very nature.
She ponders for a moment more, why she had that feeling. She was after all the one that had felt singing would be a good idea…
A reason, other than them having promised a performance like that to Pioneer.
The ‘singing’ voices of her students fizzling out one by one, causes her to open her eyes again.
They just finished the first verse, but now the choir looked around, repeating “Shfluz?” to each other and towards their teachers.
“Uh… Fine…” Frank gives them all two berries and then continues the lesson. They almost get through the second verse, but the same phenomenon happens again.
With a sigh, Frank gives them more berries and as he returns to the front, to continue the lesson, Amethyst can’t let this farce go on any longer.
“We should drop the lyrics.”
Frank is just about to raise his hand to continue; her words freeze it in the air.
“The lyrics? But Grent made them for us? We promised a song, a choir, it won’t be one without lyrics.”
Frank says insisting and brings down his hand finally.
“Okay, let’s say we do drop them. What then? Would it just be the music?”
“I… I think… we should drop the music too…”
“What? There won’t be anything left without it.”
Frank’s hands root themselves to his hips.
“This clearly isn’t working either.” Amethyst crosses her hands.
“Maybe it’d help if you’d assist as well, maybe sing too to keep them in tune and rhythm?”
“It wouldn't help.”
“How do you know? We haven’t tried it!”
“W-well-!”
“Ahem!” Pioneer stands right in front of their teacher’s desk.
“I took the liberty to send us on an ad-break, due to the clear issues you are having. So please try to figure it out in the break.
You’re almost to the finish line, don’t give up now!” Pioneer clenches his fist and brings it to his chest, in an encouraging manner.
“R-right… I- I think I need some fresh air.” Frank hurriedly leaves Amethyst and the students in the classroom and goes outside, leaning against the great tree’s trunk.
The suns warmed up his face gently, the sky no longer bearing any ill will, just pure azure, with a tinge of violet in the horizon from the atmosphere.
Gah! Drop the lyrics and the music too? Just when I got them to sing!
…
Not that it sounded good by any measure...
What do we do?
This is all going terribly…
His head leans against his fingers, which pinch the bridge of his nose.
What am I doing?
As he sighs and lifts his gaze, he spots Luna, fiddling around with her drone ahead.
Without hesitation, he bounces up and strides up to her.
As his shadow looms over her, she looks up.
“Luna, what the hell was that? What are you trying to do?”
“Maintenance, a stellar job at it, too. Thank you very much.” She taps the drone’s hard plastic surface and smiles innocently.
“No, not that.”
“Didn’t you like the drone filming you being princess-carried?
You should be grateful to have gotten the opportunity to be carried on Amethyst’s arms like that. Exactly like the mythical royalty.” She sighs dreamily.
“Anyway, I think it was a real successful shooting, I’m sure the audience will appreciate seeing you like that.” Luna gets up and brushes her purple blouse with her hands.
“I doubt it! But this isn’t about that, don’t change the subject!”
“But we aren’t even talking about anything yet?” With a single finger on her chin, she looks lost in thought into the distance. A faint wicked grin curling up on her painted lips.
“Argh! Stop playing around!” Frank points at her with his accusation, “You’re manipulating, gaslighting, Amethyst! Why are you trying to get in between us?”
“Those are some pretty serious claims you know, I don’t have any idea what you are talking about though.” She shrugs absently.
“You’ve been hostile towards me from the first time we met! And just today you were filling Amethyst’s head with nonsense and lies about me...”
Frank walks closer to the woman, slightly shorter than him.
Her head held high, she doesn't fall back a single inch.
“Was that really a lie? Are you not a criminal, Frank?”
“What? No, that’s-” His advance stops in its tracks.
“And that other man, isn’t he some unhinged scientist?”
H-how can she know? Did Amethyst tell her?
“I’m just looking out for Amethyst, good thing too with such dangerous men on the loose, trying to get their grimy hands all over her.”
She looks at her own pristine hands, brushes her fingers together, and then checks her long gorgeous nails, colored deep purple.
“No, you are just twisting the facts, mixing around the truth and lies in her head!”
“Well, I’m not the one who denied Amethyst’s fishing trip for no reason. We would have had so much fun...
Thanks to you, she’s finally waking up to how clingy and controlling you’ve been!”
“That’s not true! I was maybe a little harsh today, but it’s all because of you!”
Frank raises his voice, Pioneer’s crew around them who had been watching them from the sidelines, erupt in gasps and gossip among themselves.
“So you admit it then, you’re exerting your toxic influence to control her. You must enjoy being able to manipulate her to your whims so well.” Luna laughs.
“Like, who do you think you are? Her father or something? You’re not even her boyfriend!”
“I… it’s complicated.” Frank squirms and holds his neck from behind with an awkward hand.
“I don’t see what’s so complicated. Sure, she might be another species but love doesn’t just stop at the barriers of biology.”
Luna’s lips curl to a smug smile and she looks directly into Frank’s eyes, defiantly.
“I am proof of that, you know.” She whispers sultry, with a hand pressed to her chest.
“W-what? You? No way.” Frank scoffs and laughs, dismissing the absurd claim away with a wave of his hand.
“Y-yes, way!” Her lips form a quivering pout, barely avoiding revealing a harsher expression.
“I plan on confessing my feelings to dear Amethyst soon… So, stay out of our way.” Her wicked smile returns.
She must be bluffing, she... can’t be serious!
Frank is left speechless, as she gets the final say.
“Anyway, I tire of this conversation, toodle-oo… Frank…”
She says his name in a completely different, cold tone, as he picks up the drone and moves elsewhere.
Different species relations weren’t that rare in the galaxy…
But still…
Is she really-?
“Hey! Wait! I wasn’t done yet!”
Contrasting Luna’s sickeningly sweet voice, Pioneer calls out to him, with a much harsher and deeper tone:
“Frank! Where are you? Break time’s running out!” He hails to him from the entrance of the Queen’s residences.
“Coming...” Frank hurries back to their school, failing to get any rest nor figure out a solution on his break, only serving to further his turmoil.
Amethyst awaits him still exactly at the same spot as before.
As Pioneer starts counting down with his fingers, to the end of the break, Frank says to her: “Sorry… about that. I-”
“D-don’t worry about it. I think… I got this.”
“Huh?”
Then they are live again, fortunately, their students didn’t feel like skipping class during his absence.
Without any word of explanation, Amethyst steps forward and closes her eyes.
She opens her mouth, letting her mandibles come out, and begins humming a long note, accompanied with buzzing from her rapidly moving mouth blades.
“Hmmm h-hmm mmmm~,” Amethyst sways from side to side, along with her harmonious melody.
A tranquil note, that the Tyrchids quickly join in, all with slightly different frequency.
She keeps on going, all of them united in this ballad, like they are all on the same wavelength, knowing what came next, how to compliment each other’s different voices.
“Mm m-m hmm mm~”
Their voices vibrate and drum deeply in the surprisingly acoustic Queen’s residence.
Like a hymn, bright and impressive, rousing hope in one’s chest.
Frank and Pioneer are mesmerized by this unexpected development, Amethyst and their students found a united tune so easily, so naturally.
Then, Amethyst grimaces, her eyes shut tighter letting loose trails of tears.
She returns to the past, to her Mother, to the brutal scene where she was murdered. She lives again the grief, of her and her kin, when they taught the word Queen to them.
The silence of the funeral pyres fills her, the acrid smell of fire and death invades her mind.
Wordlessly she sings those feelings out, letting out the sadness and sorrow.
The melancholy of her present and past saturates her and all of the Tyrchid’s voices.
“Nnn- nnn hhmm nn-mm~”
Some parts are vaguely in the rhythm of Grent’s song, but it is distinctively her own piece.
Her voice rises to a crescendo.
She melodically screams out, reminiscent of her wailing when she called for her mother after escaping Grent’s lab.
Her last call, the final hope for her mother’s well-being crushed.
A serene scene of pure sadness.
Then, she stops. The class keeps the final wail-verse up for another round and then falls silent too.
Pioneer claps quietly for a moment and brushes his eyes. As the silence takes over the classroom, they hear the whole village echoing, reverberating with the same song.
They all walk outside, drawn to the magical sound. Tyrchid’s all around stopped to join in on the song; on the ground, in the forest, while flying in the air, too.
Their colorful hair and antennae swaying with their blades and legs. Heads peek out from the high-up hole-homes, bringing in their unique far-away sound as an echo.
Frank’s touch on Amethyst’s shoulder catches her off guard. He smiles and nods, a gesture which she returns.
Leaning slightly towards his hand, her hair tickles the back of his palm.
Slowly, the song starts to fade and then stops completely, the Tyrchids returning to whatever they were doing before.
Frank retreats his hand and gives Amethyst a bit of space.
“I hope I’m not ruining the moment, but I just wanted to say-”
Pioneer holds his hand solemnly against his chest and with the other gestures around him.
“This is why I do all this, what I wish to show the universe. Share the unknown magic, the spectacle of sapient life.
Everyone has their own way, their story. Moments like these, are truly the pinnacle of my career.
All species should have the right to bring out their culture and enrich the galaxy in their own ways.
This is why I do this, why ISSA, goes through all the trouble.”
Pioneer brings his hand in a grand gesture before himself and bows deeply.
“Thank you, Amethyst and Frank, it's been my pleasure."
I hope you all enjoyed the show! My most sincerest thanks to each and every one of our viewers and of course, my very special supporters, you, the Explorers.
This has been our last full-length episode, but I will catch you all in the celebration, it’ll certainly be a night to remember!”
Pioneer twirls around, poses with his glasses and announces his catchphrase.
“Keep on being curious and remember, a little exploring a day keeps the mind keen and boredom at bay!
Pioneer, out!” He finishes with his free form, stylized wave, and the cameras and staff start to disperse with loud congratulatory chattering.
By then their students had already gone on their way, disappeared right after the song ended, do doubt.
What did their lessons mean to them?
Did they enjoy the lessons? Truly learn anything?
Were they… sapient? One would think they would have come to… say goodbye?
Or perhaps not, there’s no ‘goodbye’ in their language. No ‘thanks’.
But still... Do something?
I wonder what Amethyst is thinking right now...
Amethyst’s trails of tears have dried translucent paths on her face. She faces the suns, basking in their glow.
Pioneer strides to them.
“We’ll have the celebration when the dusk starts, got to have that incredible night atmosphere, am I right?
As it happens we’re always stocked in all sorts of party decorations, lights, confetti you name it. We can handle setting up the place and the cameras.”
So it’s gonna be a ‘human’ party, at least in looks. Though, what would a ‘Tyrchidian’ party even look like?
“We’ll have almost a full Midnight Iris’ day before it starts then?” Amethyst converses with Pioneer.
“Yeah, about 35 hours until dusk, I believe. I trust that’s not an issue?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Where should we arrange the party, any ideas?” Pioneer asks from Amethyst, to which Frank interjects.
“Not here, it’ll probably be too loud for them, right?” Amethyst answers him with a slight nod.
“Hmm, maybe it should be somewhere close to the, um, hotel? So you can set up everything easier as it's closer. Maybe you can find a clearing there, though the vegetation is probably much thicker there as well.”
With Frank taking over the discussion with Pioneer, Amethyst spots from the corner of her eyes, as Luna gestures to her from behind a tree.
“Hmm, we’ll look into it, I’m sure we’ll find a suitable spot,” Pioneer says.
“Maybe near the landing pads?” Frank ponders with him.
They clearly don’t need her for this talk, so Amethyst slips away.
“What if… on the landing pads? No… that’s way too industrial for the party.”
“Perhaps, but I think I saw a suitable clearing near them from the air...”
Luna waits for Amethyst and as she gets close enough, she takes her wrist in between her hands.
“Amethyst, are you sure we can’t go? If not camping, then at least fishing! It’s our last day and everything!”
“I…”
Luna’s gaze falls to the trampled red grass, the small shard pieces among them not entirely melted.
“After the party, I will be gone... who knows if we will ever see each other after that...?”
Amethyst looks back at Frank, but… he’s not there.
“Amethyst.” His voice on her left makes her jump.
“F-frank!”
“Oh great, the eavesdropper.” Luna crosses her arms and looks away.
“F-frank, I-!”
Frank holds out a hand to interrupt her and sighs.
“Amethyst, save it.”
“B-but!”
“Let’s talk about this properly and privately, okay?” Frank says and pointedly glares at Luna.
“O-oh, okay, sure,” Amethyst responds quickly, in a daze.
“If I see you anywhere near us, Luna, that’s the end of our negotiations.”
“Okay, okay!” Luna holds up both hands in surrender and Pioneer appears next to her.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her.” He smiles mysteriously, his intent hidden behind his glasses.
“Uh, thanks...”
Frank gestures to Amethyst and they walk together, arriving in the classroom.
They take a seat on the student’s benches, next to each other.
“Alright…” Frank’s eyes bright with sincerity, shine to meet Amethyst’s. “You can go fishing with Luna.”
“What? J-just like that?”
“Yes. I’d like to clarify some things, though.”
Amethyst carefully nods as an answer and he continues.
"I didn’t have a problem with you going to fish or spend any time without me. My objective was never to be controlling.”
Frank pauses, for the inevitable upcoming conjunction.
“But… I need you to understand. As nice as Luna might seem, I’ve met her kind before; don’t trust everything she says or you will get hurt.”
Amethyst ruminates on his words for a moment before speaking up.
“She may be a little intense and quite rude to you... but… I think she’s just… a bit of a complicated person.”
“If that’s what you think, then that’s fine. But please… don’t just believe everything she says as fact or do whatever she tells you to.”
Frank takes Amethyst’s hands to his, holding onto her wrists.
“Think, really think for yourself. If you can promise me that, I’d really put me at ease.”
Frank looks deep into her multitude of eyes, a strange sensation, but as long as all the pupils acted in unison, it wasn’t as weird as one might think.
Amethyst looks down at their hands joined together.
Think for myself…
I thought I knew the truth…
But who is in the right here?
Luna…
Or Frank?
Amethyst’s expression hardens, and she looks back at Frank again.
“Please... tell me, how do I know you aren’t the one taking advantage of me?”
Amethyst's voice almost breaks, close to becoming illegible buzzing by the end, she looks away once more.
Frank retreats in shock and lets go of her.
“I… I can’t prove my trustworthiness to you any more than I already have. If all of my actions don’t speak for themselves. If my sacrifices weren’t enough, all that I’ve done...”
“There must be something…! Tell me, please…” Amethyst’s antennae droop and she fights against her tears as she speaks. “How can I trust you? I… I really want to… but…”
“Trust once broken, is infinitely harder to regain; I think is the gist of a wise saying. I won’t belittle it, or make excuses for breaking our promise, just know, that I regret it, that I’m sorry.
I promised not to lie, and regardless of it, of what our promise truly meant for me, I still did.
If it’s difficult to trust me or anyone else, I completely understand...”
She has all the right to be torn, suspicious.
Not even mentioning Luna’s bad influence…
“I… just don’t know what to think.”
How am I supposed to know who to trust?
Who everyone is…?
What they really want?
When I don’t even understand myself?
“Trust is always a risk… You just have to first trust yourself to make the right choices.”
But Luna said…
Amethyst shakes her head.
Frank sighs deeply.
“You are not a child, you should make your own decision on this. Isn’t that what you wished for?
You need to ask yourself, based on everything we’ve talked about. Everything Luna has done.
Do you think you can still trust her? Do you want to take the risk?”
Frank hesitates, but says it anyway:
“After everything I have done... if you can still trust me.”
Amethyst’s tears break and splash on her armor, on her hand blades. Her body heaves up and down before she looks at him again.
“If… I go fishing with Luna, can we still be together? You won’t… be mad?”
Together...?
“As long as you heed my advice, I won’t be mad.”
“I’ll be careful, I’ll… think." Her antennae move back up, to their full attention as her tears run dry. “Thank you, Frank, you know, you are sophisticated, too.”
A short burst of unexpected and dry laughter later, they both smile.
“Well, have fun, I have things planned for today too.” Frank stands up.
“Oh, you do?”
“Well, Grent doesn’t know of my plans yet, but I’m sure I can persuade him. Would be a shame not to use the Sauna even once in our time here. I’m sure he’ll join me.”
“W-with G-grent?”
“Yeah, is that a problem?” Frank asks feigning ignorance.
“N-no… of course not...”
Against his better judgment, Frank teases her a little with a rising and flowing intonation.
“Are you sure? You’re not lying, are you?”
“No, there’s no problem,” Amethyst answers factually. “As long as you heed your own advice.” Amethyst tilts her head and smiles radiant.
“Hah. I will. Don’t worry about me, and I don’t have to worry about you. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Have fun!” Frank watches her chitinous back as Amethyst leaves, and his smile fades.
I don’t know what Luna’s trying to pull, but I can hazard a guess...
I won’t let you become another victim... I’ve got your back, even if you don’t want it.
But…
I’m sure it won't come to that.