Hovering soundlessly over a thick magnetic sheet atop a barren, grey landscape serving as a motorway was a metal carriage that traveled with urgency, at such a high speed that only a person of executive status could’ve dared to move at. As its driver skillfully flicked the wrist of his hand on the steering wheel, being careful to dodge any other craft that were too slow for it, two passengers sat in the compartment behind him, separated from him by a black glass divider.
“I would advise you not to resist so much, there isn’t so much security that you need to be fussing around.” said a man with a spry voice, although his face was veiled by the shadows cast by the curtains that blocked out the windows, keeping him and his grudging guest out of public sight.
“You prick… if I could, I’d take these chains off of my wrists and squeeze the life out every single one of you vermin with them.” the young woman growled, still wearing the gas mask and dishevelled uniform she came out of the mine with. Her wrists were bound together with chains that forced her to keep her hands on her lap. Otherwise, she very well would’ve at least tried to beat him to death. However, with his impervious Titanian skin, it was more of a wish than a goal.
“You can struggle, but I won’t lay a finger on you. And with only my driver and no other vehicles in this envoy except this very one we’re in, no one else will, either.” the high-ranking Titanian shrugged, acknowledging the Terran woman’s anger but doing little to quell it.
“Don’t you dare talk to me about struggling!” she cried. “Our people have had to suffer at your hands for a millennium! Mothers still cry for their sons, husbands still mourn for their wives… it is nothing but a cycle that has brought you nowhere, yet you continue to hurt and destroy us!”
The recently crowned young Titanian Emperor’s chest formed a pang within him. All his life, the trials of the Terrans had been nothing but mere inconveniences that he saw from afar, but the ardor of the rebel-turned-slave’s voice echoed within him. Not particularly because he felt sympathy for her specifically, but because her words reminded him of someone else, someone he knew all too well. The passion she had as a guardian of the Terran people had not wavered a single bit.
“Miss, I was born 975 years after my people first met yours. I agree that there has been a cycle of chaos and destruction, but it did not start with me. Believe me when I say this, but my father Emperor Henrik will have been the last one to continue the sins of his forefathers.”
“H-How can I believe you when… your goons murdered my parents, slaughtered all the friends I grew up with… and tore me apart from my three-month old son and his father? Do you think I fight simply because I like to?”
“No one will have to fight anymore, Miss! I will break the cycle started by my ancestors. We kill for a cause that not a single one of us remembers properly anymore, and I’ll be the one who puts a stop to it.”
“Don’t patronize me by calling me that…” the woman seethed.
“That’s not my intention at all,” the Emperor countered while remaining calm and polite. “I have tremendous respect for you as someone who has never faltered despite all odds being thrown against you. You’re someone any Terran can trust and look up to.”
The woman lowered her head as she reflected back on her years of life. Being born at the peak of Emperor Henrik’s reign, pogroms as well as arbitrary kidnapping and executions were not unheard of to her at all. By the time she reached her sixteenth year, all settlements within an 18-league radius of the one she grew up in had been completely erased from the map, ones that had stood strong against the test of time for over a millennium until they were crushed by the Emperor’s iron fist. This man had been brutal even by Titanian standards, as he seemingly had no strategy and simply ravaged havoc to prove to his ancestors that he was greater than them. At an age when most northern girls became women and married, she took up the sword and gun along with her friends to start a resistance which, three years later, would grow to become affiliated with hundreds of settlements and thousands of members. This was long enough for her name to become known to even the highest-ranking members of the Titanian armed forces. The only reason she had ever been captured was because she chose to stop fighting, to raise her son.
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“So you choose to display your respect by kidnapping me, is that it, Sir Emperor?” she asked sarcastically. “Sure, you might admire my qualities as a fighter, but do you have any respect for me as a woman? As mother who was taken from her infant?”
The Emperor frowned under the shadows that obscured his features.
“I know someone just like you, whose family was broken apart by my—no, our people. That same timbre in your voice, I heard in his. You both yearn for freedom. I understand what you want, and if you allow it, we can work together to achieve it.”
“Someone you know? Like your high-and-mighty ass has even thought of getting to know someone who’s had to suffer like me.” the woman scoffed.
“He’s my brother—my younger half-brother, to be exact. Believe me, he is unlike anything you think of when you picture us in your mind. So, let me get straight to the point. We will negotiate for Terra’s peace and freedom, since you’re one of her most respected defenders. The Terrans will listen to anything you say, which is why I took you out of that mine. But for that to happen, we have to build a rapport. We have to get to know each other, so you will live in the Royal Residence for some time as my guest. Don’t worry, I don’t intend on keeping you from your son for longer than needed. Can I have your word that you’ll try your best to cooperate with me during that time?”
The woman picked her head up slowly, gazing into the Emperor’s icy blue eyes.
“So you want to get to know me? Take this damn mask off my face.” she demanded with a more obliging, yet still harsh tone.
“Terrans aren’t suited to breathing Titan’s air. You’ll die if you breathe it in—
“This floating carriage is sealed. I’ll be fine until you open the doors, so take it off.”
With a subtle sigh, the Emperor reached behind the woman’s head. He unclasped the leather straps, and—
Stefan jolted up from the bed, breathing heavily as he tried to process the scenes projected into his mind during his short time unconscious after his contract with Leon.
“Wh-Who were those? Who were—
A calming pair of hands rested themselves on his shoulder, and as Stefan saw the face of the person they belonged to, his tension subsided somewhat.
“You’re alright, Stefan,” Leon said with a warm voice. “You just had a bad dream.”
“It was—it was just like that last one, though. The one I had when Gareth picked me up back in Derban… it was like… a continuation of it…”
“What kind of dream was it?” Leon asked.
“It was… way too vivid. It was like I was watching memories, or something. My mind definitely couldn’t have made it up. The people in the dream… they were up on Titan… but never mind that. Leon, how are you holding up after our contract?” Stefan asked, remembering the incident that caused him to become senseless and experience the dream in the first place.
“Hey, don’t worry about me,” Leon smiled. “I’ve never felt better. Thanks for asking, though.”
“It’s very likely that you saw a blood memory, then. It happens to people that have become Initiated sometimes. They see memories of past people who were deeply connected to Utrium.” the Anbieter said, who stood at Stefan’s bedside along with Jayant, while Leon sat at the edge.
“But… this isn’t the first dream I’ve had that was like this,” Stefan stated. “And the first time was even before I was Initiated.”
“Well… that ain’t the only time a blood memory occurs,” Jayant felt like he had to add. “Anyone who’s descended—
“Jayant! Were you given permission to speak?” the Anbieter yelled, causing both Stefan and the second in command to flinch.
“M-My apologies, sir.” Jay muttered.
“Good. Now, Stefan. How about—
The door to Stefan’s room swung open hard as a Black Shield member rushed in, a frantic look on his face.