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Chapter prologue 2

Author notes: Sooo... the last prologue for this story... any thoughts?

Chapter Prologue 2

It’s been five years since I adopted the siblings. When they first started living in my home my savings dropped drastically, but eventually I had (forced) Francis to help with the funds. I altered the ship to allow an extra passenger to sit at the back and would sometimes accept easy going jobs to train the brother how to pilot Ceraborous.

The worst part is I had to grit my teeth and quit my drinking habit or my debt will go higher. I had to prioritized money over entertainment.

“Alright kid, good job on the mission. Next time let’s try something more practical. We should go home and see how Selena’s doing right now.”

“Yes sir!”

“Don’t call me that. I don’t want to feel old yet.”

I had the boy pilot the ship back home. He’s still not comfortable landing my ship and I had to verbally instruct him every time.

“Releasing struts, decreasing altitude, decreasing landing thruster output. Approaching landing point in 3, 2- oops.”

I felt a strong bump as the ship landed.

“That landing was too rough, next time wait a bit longer and slowly decrease the landing thruster’s power.”

“G-got it. I’ll be careful next time.”

“Good job though. All that’s left is to file the information to the client, I’ll handle it. Take a break.”

He jumps off the ship and rushes to see his sister immediately. I understand his protection for his sister being his last family since his parents were killed. Aw man, the bolt on the strut is damaged again. I hope he gets better at landing so I don’t have to replace it all the time.

“Where’s the wrench?”

I quickly replace the bolt before heading into my home and worked on the report. There were some loud noises coming from my home as I was fixing my ship.

The mission I chose for Zack was a scouting mission, to remain undetected while we observe the actions of the Memento Mori. A giant battle ship my acquaintance, Lars Forinyard, control and stole from the empire. Before I accepted the mission I had a conversation with him, I told him of the description of the job. He understood my judgment as it was to train Zack and declared he would not attack us on one condition. If his own eyes stopped us he would fire towards our location.

“I’m back Selena.”

“Kai, welcome home. I made some soup over there. My brother already helped himself though.”

“Oh, it smells good! I’ll have to eat it later, I have to go out for a moment.”

“No, you are going to stay and eat it. If you eat it cold again, you’ll hurt your stomach!”

Selena changed too, before she was a timid little girl. After these five years she became more dependant and maybe a bit more assertive.

“Alright, I’ll eat now so don’t get angry okay?- Oh! This is deliecious! It has a strong… I-is this SHRIMP!? This thing is expensive!”

“Don’t worry, it was on sale and I bargained. I bought a large pack for four hundred Hous.”

Selena had a bright smile on her face that hid a dark aura behind her. She used to spend most of her time by the market and now she’s become a bargaining monster… a pack of shrimps like that costs one thousand Hous.

“Zack, remind me not to get on your sister’s bad side.”

“C’mon, I never get angry. Right Zack?”

“Y-yeah… She can never get angry.”

Zack said that with his eyes to the right and had a drop of sweat down his cheek. I think he got scold when he entered the house.

After I finished the soup I left the house towards the market. I need to restock the bolts for the strut and head towards a nearby town. The town I lived near in is a somewhat lively place, Coralline waves, as it was next to the ocean on planet Aquarius. The planet is called Aquarius because of the amount of fresh water covering 80% of the world.

I entered the bar as soon as I could and found my debt collector.

“Hey, Farlyn. Here’s the ten thousand Hous I promised.”

“Huh? Wasn’t it twenty thousand?”

“Don’t play with me. You said ten thousand by today and I brought it. I’ll bring the rest of my debt next time.”

“I’m not playing, It’s thirty thousand and will be.”

“You bitch. Take it or I’ll leave.”

“Not so fast. I still remember the day you killed three of my men. Shouldn’t that raise the value of what you owe me? They were great people with families.”

“Those guys were trying to kill me. Great people my ass they were trying to be murderers. All I did was self-defence.”

“Now that I think about it, I remember seeing two children walking freely into your house. Are they anyone you know-“

My vein almost burst when she mentioned them. My glare pushes a few of her men back.

“Leave them out of this if you want to keep this civilised.”

She snaps her finger as two more strong men blocked my exit.

“Thirty thousand.”

“Ten thousand.”

She lets out a deep sigh as her men all cracked their knuckles. Farlyn walks towards the back, before she exits she mumbles something.

“Break him, just enough so he can still stand and bring me the money.”

I swung my bag of bolts into a guy’s head and knocked him out. I was grabbed from behind and begin to suffer repeated attacks at my stomach.

Shit, I feel like vomiting the soup I just ate.

“Let go of him!”

Two shadow figures smacked my attackers at the back of their heads, it was Selena and Zack.

“Y-you two.”

“We thought you acted suspicious so we followed you. You sometimes get bruises when you come home now I know why.”

“Ouch… They’re kids?”

“Get away from here!”

“WWRRRAAAHHHH!”

Selena kicked one of their groans immediately and one of the attackers fell on his sides.

“I haven’t been lifting all those groceries for something. I’m not that weak.”

Zack covers his sister and sends one of them into a coma with a steel pipe.

“We eavesdropped and heard everything. We’re sorry to make you worry.”

“Don’t be, I’m happy you two came to rescue me. Let’s hurry and get away from here.”

“Wait, that bag of bolts you bought.”

“Don’t worry about it, it can be replaced.”

The three of us ran back home as fast as possible. We laughed out loud knowing the three of us escaped the clutches of my debt collector, it was a joyful moment.

“Kai, what was the bag of bolts for. Was it for the ship?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing big.”

“Zack, haven’t you noticed every time you come home Kai comes in minutes after you? You must’ve done something wrong when you were piloting the ship and broke something.”

“I’m sorry! Please tell me and I’ll fix it!”

I felt sorrier to Zack then my ship when Selena yelled at her brother. I let out a loud laugh.

“It’s just the bolts on the landing struts break every time. Good thing those parts are cheap. If you’re sorry how about you help me with maintenance tomorrow?”

“Is there something wrong with it?”

“Just a check up. I’ll teach you the parts of the ship while I’m at it. It’s late, I’ll call you up early so get some sleep.”

“Yes sir!”

“I told you to stop addressing me as ‘sir’.”

“Goodnight Kai.”

“Goodnight to you too Selena.”

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It’s gotten a lot lively over these five years. I thought I would be alone for the rest of my life until I met them.

“Heh.”

I laid down on Ceraborous and stared at the stars. If I were compare and choose my past life or my current one, I would choose the current life. It feels more lively than what I originally lived and I didn’t have to follow anyone to their death. I feel fulfilled and wish I can live like this forever, except the part of me being beaten up all the time.

-

-

The next day I woken Zack up before dawn and began to do maintenance on Ceraborous. I explained every piece of machinery as well as their functions, taught him how to refuel the ship and had him do basic adjustments. We took it slow but managed to finish before noon.

“My brain… it hurts…”

“You’ll have to learn it eventually, almost every model is similar to my ship but a lot simpler too. I don’t have the money to send it to a garage, they charge a lot.”

“You taught yourself this?”

“I had a trainer, back when I was in a pilot training.”

“You were a part of the empire?”

“I guess you can say that, I went AWOL and stole this after I completed my training because I hated all the superiors ordering me around. By the way, have you given up of revenge?”

“Of course not! And I won’t until I killed every one of them.”

“I see, we’ll have to get you a new ship once you decide to suicide.”

“EH!? But I like using Ceraborous!”

“It’s my ship, I potty trained you in it but it doesn’t mean it’s yours. You better be saving money because I’m not using my funds.”

“Cheapskate.”

“You two finished?”

“Ah. Morning Selena.”

“It’s afternoon now, I prepared lunch. Are you two going to take a job today?”

“Nah. I’m taking a break. I think I saved enough money for a day off.”

“Great, there’s a place where I would like to revisit.”

“You mean…”

“Yes, to our parent’s grave. We haven’t visited them in a while.”

“I see, I’ll make preparations then.”

An hour later we met up. Selena bought a few items from the market and climbed into the back seat with Zack. I set the coordinates to our destination and began the warp drive sequence.

“Ready?”

“Yes!”

Thrusters online, energy shields activated, online. Warp drive enabled awaiting command.

“Let’s go.”

Ceraborous warped through space at my command. It took less than five minutes to arrive to Blore.

“Were here. Zack, watch closely how I land the ship alright?”

“I got it so stop making fun of me!”

I ‘perfectly’ landed the ship and handled all the equipment Selena bought for her parents. We travelled through the woods until we stumbled by the crashed site where I had first met the two siblings.

“Selena, I’ll leave you guys for a moment. I’m going to check out the ship.”

She replied in silence as the siblings brought the things for their parents and started praying. I went near the crash site and began exploring the wreckage. The machines are all inactive and I checked the luggage hoping maybe I can find some cash.

And I did, about twenty-three thousand Hous in total. It is a ship that carried immigrants moving to this planet so they should carry a great amount of money right?

I then found what I remember the soldier held, the documents from the rebels. To summarize the orders, infiltrate the research team at a mining operation, all the documents for clearance have been included in the envelope and… there’s an unfamiliar seal covering the empire’s seal. Could the seal be on top be the rebel seal? Agh… my head hurts thinking about this…

I kept the document and decide to investigate it later for my own interest.

“Oh my radial jammer is still here. I totally forgot to bring it back with me.”

It’s rusted by now. The circuitry is still intact so I can fix it later, the battery has just been drained. Time to head back and see how they’re doing. I can see their parent’s grave neatly decorated with flowers and a picture of the siblings and I smiling.

“Do you think it was alright for me to not send you two to an orphanage?”

“Yeah, both of us are grateful for what did you for us these five years. We couldn’t ask for anything more. It feels like you are actually our father.”

“Is that so.”

“Are you finally admitting you’re old?”

“Dammit Zack! I was trying to flow with the mood!”

I chased Zack around, as Selena laughed at our comedic act. After we spent the day cleaning the graves of other people I could not save, a tiresome day but it felt refreshing.

“Phew, finally finished.”

“I’m beat. Selena just how strong are you, you’ve been working non-stop. Take a break.”

“I’m almost done.”

She pulls the last bit of weeds from the area before taking a rest. The sun sets and colors everything in bright orange. A gentle breeze touches our faces as admire the weather mother nature gave us. I felt some weight onto my left shoulder, it was Selena. The back of her head fell onto my shoulder as I begin to notice Zack slowly drops his head, try as hard as he could to stay awake.

I still have to finish my conversation with him.

“Zack.”

“What?”

“Serious talk. I know this won’t change your mind but I think you should give up on revenge, isn’t fine living like this?”

Zack’s face turns sour from my words. He looks towards the horizon trying to process his thoughts into words.

“I can’t.”

“Then are you planning to join the rebel faction?”

“Rebel faction?”

“Yeah, there’s a group that already disapproves of the empire’s laws. Since the empire forced many lands to be given to them, they want to fight back for it.- huh? What’s wrong? Hello?”

Zack’s face become blank, he falls into a deep thought as I waved my hand trying to get his attention.

“I-its because of them…”

“Wait… who?”

“It’s because of the rebels my parents are dead.”

“Aw wait no! God dammit.”

I think I refuelled his hatred. He’s going to say…

“I’m going to crush them and the empire.”

Yeah. That.

“I can’t stop you but I have many things to point out. If, however you decide to attack the them you would need power, followers, and money. Where would you get those? You would need connections throughout the world and appeal to the masses. One ship wouldn’t do shit and they can label you as terrorist without having you do anything. You’ll just endanger your own sister.”

“B-but!”

“I’m not saying I don’t believe in you. I’m stating the facts. You’ll end up hurting yourself than both the rebel and the empire. You’ll even hurt me.”

Zack pounds his fist into the earth and stares at his parent’s graves. His eyes tear up and his face looks a bit lost.

“E-even so. I just can’t forgive them.”

“I know, life isn’t fair. Some things you have to let go to move on. By the way, can you help me move Selena off my arm, it’s a bit numb haha.”

Maybe when he’s older he can do whatever he wants, but for now I’m just his teacher. He’ll stress himself if he always thinks about revenge, kinda reminds me of a dear friend of mine that followed the path Zack tried to take.

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