The return to the Asterism wasn't as awkward as our arrival on Neo Arcadia. Dad and Mom had some business to attend to before wanting to meet up with me later. Kat and Uncle Donnell departed as well leaving Edwin to take us back. Saying goodbyes was something I never thought I had to do. It seemed a little too odd to think about and I could've sworn I felt something was wrong.
So instead of that, my mind chooses to think of how much time has passed. Which honestly wasn't any less depressing. The year 3999 was almost over. Normally those who didn't live on Neo Arcadia would be jamming up the skyways and transport shuttles to hurry home for the holidays. Out of all the Prime System holidays, my favorite had been human's Christmas and the Fafnar's Beldandy festival.
The Fafnar believed that a Goddess once descended on their planet and offered them gifts in exchange for seeing their strongest warriors duel. The festival itself was a pretty huge thing on Zoltan and Neo Arcadia. Even though I wouldn't get to watch any duels personally I'd probably ask Dad to record some of the best ones for me.
In thinking of winter festivities, I thought that maybe I should probably do everyone a favor this year. Having another party for our mission's success was probably inevitable, but there shouldn't be any harm in letting everyone go home for a day. Besides, I'd at least like to see the Wrights. It's only fair that I at least gave my condolences.
When we arrived back at the Asterism, we were greeted by Alice, who by this point had changed back into her uniform. As our transport landed we disembarked with me leading us out. I started unwrapping the sling around my right arm as the pain stopped some time ago.
"Welcome back," Alice greeted, "I hope the Council wasn't too harsh on you guys."
"Honestly they were a lot nicer than I expected," Satomi replied.
"Except the Chieftess," Talia huffed. "But she's always a bit bullheaded."
"Don't forget Ambassador Cadmus," Edwin added. "I take it he's a ray of sunshine on a good day."
"Well I guess it didn't go too bad did it?" Alice sighed.
"Well... It depends on how the others are going to take the news we have," I said. "Go ahead and gather everyone, Alice. There are some things we need to discuss."
It took a couple of hours but Alice managed to get everyone gathered. As soon as Minerva saw me she started acting like Mom. Checking me for injuries and even mentioning how much she was worried about her darling little cousin. It was better because I didn't have random soldiers laughing at me, just the usual suspects. Though I did notice Andrew with a newly swollen cheek.
"The hell happened to you?" I asked.
"I got hit by a cheeky door," he groaned as he started daggers in the back of Claire's head.
I started with the debrief on what went down at the council meeting. I tried spicing it up a bit with some theatrics but Claudia quickly shot me down.
"...So yeah the gist of it. In the next three days, we'll be leaving the Prime System."
"Leaving?" Andrew gasped. "You serious?"
"Yeah... It's what Panopticon ordered," Talia answered.
"Couldn't we barely handle fighting in our system?" Claire asked.
"Well... Yeah but it's not going to be fighting all the time. The original purpose of Nova Astra was to be an exploration task force after all."
The room grew quiet as the realization kicked in. Honestly, I got why they felt the way they did.
"What's with the somber faces?" Seraphim asked as she entered the briefing room. Behind her had been Haumea, who'd been wearing a Nova Astra jacket now.
"We'll be leaving the Prime System in a few days," Minerva answered. "Which honestly isn't enough time to do anything. Like say goodbye or try this new pastry restaurant I wanted to."
"I get that you all are anxious," spoke Edwin. "It's alright to feel that way. But as long as you all remain with each other. Home is never distant."
An oddly nice thing for Edwin to say, but it did the trick.
"T-Then... We've gotta go home," Claire declared. "I'd at least like to spend some time with my folks."
While the others agreed with her Claudia's eyes darted to the right. She appeared to read something for a moment and her eyes widened. Smiling she clapped her hands calling all the attention to herself.
"Everyone. I've just received a message from the Prime Minister," she announced. "Though I'm only allowed to read a small portion."
"Tell the kids not to worry about coming home. I'm making the arrangements now. They should be there by tonight."
There was no way he'd done what I thought he did. I looked at Andrew, Claire, and finally Talia. Then for some reason, more than a few thoughts appeared in my mind. The others seemed to have this realization too, and while they seemed pretty happy I'd been filled with an unimaginable dread.
Every single one of my friend's parents would have some bone to pick with me. Whether it be something I did or something that happened over the past year.
My friends all rushed out of the room, getting ready for tonight's "special" event. Grabbing both sides of my head I bent down and immediately began to freak out.
"What's the matter with you?" Seraph asked
Haumea knelt beside me and started rubbing my back.
"Leave him be for a second. He's having an existential crisis."
Alice knelt next to me as well patting my head. "There there," she whispered. "It'll be alright."
"Come now boy," Edwin snickered. "I'm sure meeting the girl's parents won't be that bad."
Saying it out loud made it even worse.
It took me a good thirty minutes to recover from my stressed-induced panic attack and by that point, Haumea and Alice walked me to my room.
"Thanks, girls... I dunno why I started freaking out."
"Don't sweat it," Haumea chirped. "Look, I'm sure tonight won't go as bad as you think it would. I think you're getting the wrong idea anyways."
"What's he getting the wrong idea about?" Alice asked.
"Don't worry about it, Alice. The guy has a lot of baggage he's carrying... Come on I'd like to talk to you a little more before tonight's festivities."
Haumea linked arms with Alice and started dragging her down the hall. Alice turned only for a short second and waved goodbye for now.
Honestly, Haumea may have had a point. I'd been doing this overthinking crap again. So much for turning over a new leaf. Opening my door I kicked off my boots and hopped right on my bed. Jeez, when was the last time I'd done that?
Turning over to lie on my back I reached up at the sealing. Calling Astrea Trinity into existence I studied the weapon closely. It felt more complete than Ninth Light or Zero Dark ever did. I was sure I'd never be able to summon either of those two ever again.
"Get stronger Xenthos... I have stellar expectations for you..."
Words of encouragement from an enemy. Words that didn't seem to go away no matter how much I wanted them to.
Then there was the vision of that woman. The feeling I'd gotten from her wasn't like Alara or Solomon. There wasn't just sadness, but something else. I wanted to know more about her and I wanted to know more about myself. I wanted to know if what she said had been true.
And I only knew of one way to find out.
I'd rest in my room till the evening. I'd caught up on Go Raiser and even practiced a few of the poses for the next time I transformed. An hour before everyone's folks arrived I decided to dress up for the occasion for a change. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I didn't wanna wear formal clothes but I'm a fighter by nature.
I decided just to put on the formal dress all commanders were required to wear. While it did look pretty similar to my old school uniform it was still at least nice enough to wear. Spritzing some cologne on both wrists and neck I worked on rehearsing some things in the mirror. Apologizing to Andrew, Clarke, and Satomi's parents were going to be the start. But seeing Talia's Ma'at and Da'at for the first time in ages was going to be awkward. Especially after everything.
I began walking to the door straightening my tie as I did but stopped before opening it. Beyond the door, I could see Alice and Talia's aura. I could feel something flutter in my chest as I stood there bewildered by their presence. Taking a deep breath I pulled myself together as best as possible and opened the door.
As our eyes met, the fluttering in my chest grew a bit uncontrollable now. Talia wore a rather striking blue halter dress with a white shall hanging over her shoulders. Her usual messy hair had been combed and trimmed to a very elegant-looking bob cut with a cute-looking snowflake hairpin. She also had a touch of makeup layering her face along with blue lipstick coloring her lips. In all my years of knowing Talia, I'd never seen her wear anything remotely feminine. But now, it's all I could imagine.
"Um, Soran?" Alice called. "You ok buddy?"
I snapped out of my sudden stupor remembering Alice's presence for a moment. Don't get me wrong, Alice was dressed rather nicely, even though she seemed to choose a more plain-looking single-shoulder dress and some heels.
"U-Uh... Yeah of course... Um, wait what..."
Alice giggled seeing my brain shortcircuit. She pushed Talia a little closer to the door. The latter seemed to fret a little bit about the distance.
"Go on now Tali, it's quite late to get cold feet."
She fidgeted with the small purse she'd been carrying before reaching out to me.
"U-U-Um... You L-L-Look really... H-H-Handsome.... S-S-Soran..." She stammered.
Though I reached for her hand I guess my mind and actions were on two different pages. I ended up nearly touching her face before she freaked out for a moment and started backing up to the other side of the wall. I didn't want her to run so I just ended up walking toward her until her back hit the wall. Slamming my hand against the wall behind her I'd realized I accidentally cornered her.
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Our eyes were now locked as the air in my chest tightened. Swallowing the lump in my throat I decided to say something to break the tension.
"S-Sorry Talia," I whispered. "I-I mean... Natalia. I-I-I just couldn't get over how breathtaking you look."
Her face began to turn a dark shade of blue as she held her purse to her face. "S-Soran... Y-Yer a little too close..."
"Oh my... I didn't think it'd work this well." mused Alice. When I finally realized what I'd done I took my hand off the wall and began to back away. But I was stopped by Talia grabbing hold of my hand.
"I-Its ok... Ya don't gotta run..." Her fingers glided along mine until they became entangled in each other.
"Finally... Geez," groaned Andrew, who'd been approaching from behind Alice with Minerva in tow. "I was wondering when you two would just get on with it."
"Be silent Lecher," Minerva hissed. "Or your prize will be taken from you."
Turning to see the two, I'd notice they'd dressed quite nicely themselves. Minerva was in an expensive-looking blue princess-line dress that honestly seemed a bit over the top. She'd have her arm wrapped around Andrew's like the two had been doing their own thing before.
"Andrew? You're wearing a Haori?"
Andrew examined himself while showing off his clothing. He'd been wearing a blue kimono with a white Haori strapped across his shoulders.
"Eh... I talked to my old man a while ago. He said that Mother was beside herself when she heard about my accomplishments in the battle. I thought it'd be best to at least make her a little more proud."
"And Minerva?" I asked while looking her way.
She turned her nose up at the question but seemed to think about it for a brief moment, then she sighed. "He has been relatively chivalrous since he joined us. That and I'd made committed a blunder by promising him whatever he wanted if we survived the battle."
Well, I guess Andrew won more than I expected. I was happy for the two of them even though I knew it was only a start. My dear cousin wasn't an easy catch for most guys.
"Anyways... We should be heading down to the mess hall. It's been rearranged for us to have a little party I hear," said Andrew.
"W-wait!" Shouted someone down the hall. It was none other than Satomi rushing to reach us along with Claire both in formal attire although, Claire chose a shorter skirt than the rest. Andrew and I did our best to look away to save us from catching the evil eye. As the two reached us, Satomi leaned on Alice's shoulder to catch her breath.
"S-Sorry Alice," she wheezed. "I haven't run... In... Long...
"It's alright. Just take your time," assured Alice.
We'd given Satomi a few moments to catch her breath. The way she nearly towered over us almost reminded me of Clarke. Then the thought crossed my mind again. The one I hated thinking about.
Picking up on that, Satomi turned right to me and shook her head. "None of that mister. You're locking fingers with a pretty girl and you're about to dazzle everyone with your panache and cool-mindedness."
"Panache? You sure we're talking about the same Soran?" Claire jested.
"Nah... He does seem a bit different," sneered Andrew as he examined my face. "I know you haven't gotten any action... But maybe it's the fact you got a nice win."
Minerva tugged on Andrew's arm, giving him a look that could kill. I wanted to retort but we were kinda outnumbered by all the girls. Checking the time, I realized we only had a few more minutes until the meeting time.
"We'd best get going. I'll try not to walk so fast."
As we headed down to the mess hall the others began telling Alice all about their respective homeworlds. Alice seemed fascinated by their stories even though I was sure she'd been to more worlds than we were.
I was about to ask where Haumea had been but then I realized she probably didn't want to show up for several reasons.
When we reached the mess hall entrance, we'd find Edwin and Claudia awaiting us. Both seemed to opt for their usual attire rather than dressing up. Which in the former's case, had already been formal.
"Good... You all are here. I was beginning to worry," said Claudia
"Well don't you kids look awfully nice," Edwin chuckled. "And what's this? The young man has found him a little flower."
"Aw come on not you too," I sighed.
"Relax kid... I'm just breaking ya balls, as those ancient Terran gangsters would say... The two of you look amazing... I feel like a proud father."
"Coming from you wise guy, I'll take the compliment," I retorted. I knew what he was talking about from some of my old historical fiction shows.
"Come now, Seraph is awaiting us with our special guests. Some of them were a little over-eager to get here."
Edwin opened the doors to the mess hall and inside it'd been arranged like some sort of jazz club. Our parents were mingling with each other at the tables that were set and there was even a jazz band playing near the corner. As the gazes within the room fixated on us, our parents all got up with different greetings. It was probably better to just get everything over with now rather than deal with it one by one.
The others broke off to greet their parents while Talia and I suddenly stiffened as ours approached. Following my Mom and Dad was a rather tall buxom TTau woman wearing a fur coat over her violet dress. A papahka rested atop her long blue hair. She was followed by another Tau woman who'd been a bit shorter and who'd looked much more like Talia. She'd worn a gothic black dress with violet-colored bats printed in various places.
"Natalia my darling," the taller woman greeted."You look so beautiful. I never thought you'd put on another dress again after the whole Vestov incident."
"Ma'at... Please... You said you wouldn't speak of that," Talia pouted.
"Oh yes... My apologies deary, I was simply overwhelmed with surprise."
"How can you be Balalaika... Our dear Natty seems to have snagged her a male..."
"Da'at, not you too."
"Don't fret over it too much Talia," Dad said. "It's a wonderful thing. You two have known each other for so long, I already considered you part of the family."
"Don't you start Dad," I groaned. "Look this is new to everyone so don't make it such a big deal."
"Of course this a big deal," Ms. Balalaika said. "Doroteya and I wondered when Natalia would just take what's hers. She's only spoken of you in every message she's sent us in the past..."
"Stop right there Ma'at!" Talia snapped. "No more talking for you tonight."
Letting go of me she took both of her parents' hands and started dragging them away. While I wasn't as embarrassed I could feel her pain just a bit.
"Well, in any case, I'm proud of you son. You've come into your own here in Nova Astra."
"He's even grown up a little more than I'd imagined," sobbed Mom. I tried my best to calm her down but who could stop a mother's tears of joy from seeing her son succeed?
Receiving a tap on my shoulder I turned only to see Mr. and Mrs. Wright behind me with Claire.
"Hola Hijo, I see you're looking dapper."
I froze up, now faced with my technical worst fear for the night. "Seniõr Ignacio... Shreemati Maya... Welcome aboard, I hope everything is to your liking."
Rather than anger or even the slightest hint of disappointment. The two had looks of confusion.
"Soran? Is something the matter?" Shreemati Maya asked. "You know you may always call me baba...
I wanted to answer her, yet it seemed the way I looked told them both all they needed to know.
"Baba... Please forgive my idiot brother," Claire harshly asked. "It seems he's still worried about our big brother."
Seniõr Ignacio raised a brow and then shook his head. "Eso es una toneria hijo... My son's death is not on your shoulders... I'm sure he'd want you to continue forward."
The burly man placed his giant-like hand on my shoulder and even though I still felt guilty, feeling that hand sort of reminded me of my last day of school.
"Then I'll make it up to him and you all by doing so..."
Ignacio smiled then took his wife's hand again. "Bueno... Now... Come, apologize to Baba for hurting her feelings. You know how much she loves you."
Baba held her slender arms out and wrapped them around me a little too tightly. While she'd been much smaller than Ignacio, she was still pretty strong much like her daughter.
As her parents left us Claire rested her arm on my shoulder. She smiled as she lightly punched me in the side. "Ya know Conejo. You didn't do half bad out there... I almost felt bad for kicking your tail."
"Come on Claire... You know you enjoyed it."
Her smile grew wider then she patted me on the back. "Well, you better keep it up... Big bro..."
Claire ran up to her parents catching up with them. So much for spending all that time worrying I guess. I'd taken a gander around seeing all the different people at the party. I noticed Andrew and his parents seemingly talking about something in private. The elegance in his mother's attire didn't mess well with the blandness of his dad's suit. Moreover, being in a wheelchair didn't allow him the luxury of showing off more than he wanted.
I happened to catch his mother's eye during the conversation but she didn't make any point to approach me. She whispered something into her son's ear before wheeling Andrew's Dad away.
Andrew then came over to me having two glasses filled with brown liquid in his hand. Handing one off to me he took a swig then chuckled a bit.
"What's up?" I asked as I took the glass.
"Hahaue actually approves of you being my Shogun. So much so that she hates she's not your mother. A lot of noble girls would love such a strong guy like you as a husband."
"Wow... I didn't even know what to say to that honestly."
"Be proud... She even praised me for fighting with honor... I believe her exact words were 'I see the snow rabbit was able to command you little demon. You've done my house proud,' or at least my version.
"Ah... A backhanded compliment," I chuckled.
Looking into the glass I took a whiff of it. The stinging smell of scotch caused me to jolt a little bit. Before I could ask, pointed at his dad.
"Pops said it's to celebrate our victory. There's a special place in hell for those who waste good scotch."
Downing his last bit of the alcohol, he nudged me to go ahead and try it. So I did and tried to down it in one go. It was smooth at first, a bit buttery going down the hatch until the spice hit a bit later. After drinking the last drop I let out an exasperated sigh. I'd never drunk any kind of alcohol in my life. Leave it to my best friend to get me started. But other than the rough finish it tasted rather nice.
"There we go... Loosen up a bit... Enjoy the party... Spend some time with your girl. Come tomorrow you probably won't get an opportunity like this again for a very long time."
Looking out into the crowd of people again I realized this had been much like my birthday. We were all having fun whilst knowing that times like these would be far and few between. But now, because those moments would be like this they were going to be far more enjoyable. and so we carried on tonight as if it was going to be our last.
We ended up partying so much that our folks almost refused to leave a few hours later. But because we had to spend the next day making preparations to venture out into the unknown there had to be a goodbye at some point. Talia seemed to party a little too hard as she wore herself out dancing and carrying on with me and her parents. As Claudia ensured everyone not staying prepared to board their vessel, Seraph and I checked on Talia who'd been feeling a bit queasy from all the spinning.
"I'm sorry Seraph... She can be quite the handful when she's having fun."
"Oh no my liege, it was rather fun seeing the two of you dance. I never knew you had such talent."
"It isn't that different from fighting I think. But anyway... Can you do me a favor and get Talia to bed? I'd take her myself but... ya know..."
"But of course my liege. I learned it to be a strange mating ritual to not copulate on the first night together. Even though her parents deem you worthy of their daughter."
I shuttered at the very notion, "Please... never in your life say that again."
Seraph giggled which led me to believe she was joking or so I hoped. Carrying Talia on her back she carried her off to the dorms of the ship.
As the night passed on I wandered into a corridor with a window that had a view of Neo Arcadia. Loosening my tie I leaned against the wall staring out at my homeworld as if I were looking at it for a final time. Moments later, the echoing of footsteps came from the right and the owner of said footsteps was none other than Edwin.
He didn't say anything at first, opting to reach into his coat pocket to pull out a box of cigarettes. Pulling one of the cigarettes out he patted his jacket only to realize he didn't have something. Then he held the cigarette up to me. "Got a light?"
I snapped my fingers and the cigarette lit up almost instantly. Taking a huge puff, Edwin blew out a large cloud of smoke into the hall. "You know something... Tonight may have been one the best nights of my long life," he said. "It reminded me so much of our golden years."
"I'd have liked to see them," I said. "These golden years you speak of. It would've been nice to at least know my true family."
"You know... Arcadians valued family. It was the most important thing aside from life. If my brothers valued it way more then maybe you could've seen those golden years."
It was a nice thought to have. Even though I didn't know too much about Solomon and could only see Lucian as an enemy now. I wondered what the three were like before all of this. I wondered what if none of this happened, what my own family would be like. That's when that memory from the battle played in my head again and curiosity about it clawed in the back of my mind.
"Speaking of the past... I want to know something."
"Go ahead... Ask away."
I'd swallowed the lump in my throat before continuing with my question. Turning to Edwin I met his gaze. "I did see something when I awakened. But it wasn't something I thought I'd see. I've been wanting to know... Who is Kyla."
Edwin's eyes widened, it appeared as though the very breath from his lungs had been sucked out of him. Dropping the cigarette he frantically looked around before meeting my gaze once more.
"This can't be..." Edwin gasped as he ran his fingers through his hair. "That's not possible..."
"Edwin? You're starting to scare me..."
Edwin approached me suddenly and grabbed both of my shoulders. "Have you told anyone about this!? Don't lie... The second you do I'll make the lie become nothing..."
"I didn't tell anyone man I swear now back off!"
I knocked his hands away and stepped back a bit. As Edwin realized what he'd done he tried to calm himself down. I'd never seen him so worked up before. He usually was calm and composed.
"My apologies... But the person you saw was more than likely the one who will wield Arcanum... There's no mistake about it. But not the end... No, that person is far more important to you than you realize boy..."
"W-Wait... Slow down... What exactly are you saying, Edwin... Who is this person?"
He took a deep breath, then approached me again. This time more slow and deliberate. Placing his hand on my shoulder he looked me in the eyes with a look that could kill.
"I'd been wondering why you'd chosen the name Astrea for your Astra... And now I know... It is because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..."
"Kyla Astrea is your mother Soran... Your birth mother..."