Angron was woken up by a hand shaking his shoulder and someone calling his name. He opened his eyes and mumbled that he was already awake. He then saw Serion standing over him, shaking his shoulder.

Solar was lurking nearby, visibly unwilling to approach. She clutched her small energy blaster in her paw.

“What’s going on?” Angron asked.

“Everything’s a bloody mess out there,” Serion replied.

As Angron propped himself up on his arms, he remembered what had happened. He immediately retrieved a cigarette from the box in his pocket. Taking a drag, his nervousness disappeared, replaced by a beautiful, hazy calmness.

“Are you okay?” Serion asked.

Angron nodded, got up, and headed to the pilot’s cabin. He recalled that something was amiss with the ship, but everything seemed fine now. He settled into his seat, gripped the controls, and steered their craft through the first shield.

“It’ll take a thousand years to get out of here, but thanks to Mirella, we’re one step closer to the exit,” Angron said.

“Mirella?” Solar asked, her curiosity piqued.

“The goddess of Shouta… though I don’t believe in her,” Angron replied.

“Then why mention her?” Serion inquired.

Angron shrugged. “Someone’s gotta talk ill about her.”

“Tell us about her,” Solar leaned in.

“I don’t really want to.”

“Come on! Just say something! I’ve never heard anything credible about Shouta. I’m curious what it’s like!” No matter how much she pleaded, Angron just crossed his arms and stubbornly remained silent.

Solar then looked at Serion with a sad expression and asked him to at least tell her something about his home.

The white-haired man sighed.

“Alright… But first, I’ll get us something to eat.”

While Serion was outside, Solar fidgeted constantly in her seat, stealing glances at the pilot from the corner of her eye. Angron calmly smoked, paying no attention to the fact that the girl was watching him.

A few minutes later, Serion returned, balancing three plates on his arms and distributing them among his companions. Solar immediately began to eat the strange brownish vegetables and the slimy leguminous plants next to them. Angron, on the other hand, looked at the food with disgust.

Serion sat down and began to speak.

“Xanaria isn’t particularly unique, at least not from an outsider’s perspective. It’s cold and snowy for most of the year. The lakes are hot, so they never freeze, and you can swim in them even during winter without freezing. Wherever you go, you’re bound to find some caves, and they’re explorable. We used to have more cities, but now we’ve fortified the remaining one because living outside of it is unsafe due to avalanches and wildlife. Originally, we, the Xannorians, didn’t come from there, we just relocated because our own planet was no longer safe.”

“I heard you’re quite reclusive. Why?” Solar asked.

“Because of the wars. They forced my people into the military for decades, even though we wanted to stay neutral.”

“Do you all look like this?” Angron gestured to Serion’s silver hair and dark, ebony skin.

“Yes, of course. Many find it strange, but there’s nothing special about it to us. It’s rare to see us because most of us are still in the military or in Xanaria. You’ll hardly encounter us as civilians on other planets. By the way, how’s the ship? I heard something might not be right with it.”

“Right now, it seems like there’s nothing wrong with it.”

“I hope there won’t be animals getting stuck on the ship!” Solar grumbled.

“What?” Serion asked, bewildered. Angron also stared at her in astonishment.

“Animals,” the girl repeated, not taking it personally when the two men exchanged glances. “I’ve heard of a few that fly in space. They never land. Sometimes they travel in herds and attack unsuspecting ships. They often get stuck in the engines.”

“Kid, no such animal exists.”

“But they do! I’ve heard a lot about them.

“In my twenty-nine years, I’ve never encountered one, and I’ve done plenty of space travel.”

The girl turned to Serion for help.

“You’ve met them, right?”

“I haven’t even heard of them.”

“Once, they annihilated an entire imperial fleet,” Solar insisted. “They came out of nowhere, and there was nothing left of the ships. It happened near Gadzen.”

“Gadzen was in the middle of a war,” Angron replied, pushing the food away from him. “The rebels were the ones who wiped out most of our fleet. Not many survived.”

“Maybe it was another occasion.”

“We haven’t been in that area for a long time, Gadzen is still under rebel control. If it had happened earlier, I’d know about it because I had to learn about it. Pilots need to be aware of every such incident, learn from mistakes, and see what successful solutions can be.”

Solar stubbornly attempted to provide more examples, but Angron refuted all of them. Serion leaned over his plate, hiding his grin, thoroughly entertained by the situation.

Finally, the pilot lost his patience and snapped.

“Kid, there are no flying space animals, and that’s the end of it!”

Solar fell silent sadly. For someone like her, who could never escape from Darella, such a flying creature was a real wonder. Her gangster associates always told her how much they had seen them during their trips. It was a shame that according to this, she was just being fooled, and the animals weren’t as legendary as she had thought.

“On Darella, they always said that they exist… It was my second life goal to see them.”

“What’s the first one?” Angron asked.

Even though he had the least interest in the answer, he was glad they had finally moved past the nonsense.

“Revenge for my father. When I was little, someone killed him. One of my dad’s friends smuggled me onto a spaceship that took me to Darella. I had to struggle for years. It took a long time for me to realize that I could only rely on myself. That’s why I wanted to leave there; it would finally allow me to find the killer and get my revenge.”

“Who is it?”

“I’m not sure exactly. I never managed to find out his name, and I only saw his face for a moment, but I remember it. I’d recognize him anywhere, anytime, and when I find him, he won’t survive it. Primarily, this is why I wanted to escape from Darella.”

Solar spoke so seriously that this time neither Angron nor Serion doubted her words. However, the idea didn’t seem feasible. The Galaxy was vast, and finding someone with no name was almost impossible. It was also possible that the person they were looking for was already dead, making the search almost infinite. Solar could only hope for blind luck.

“That’s it in a nutshell. Now, tell me about yourselves.”

The two men fell silent. Angron stared at the control panel, and Serion finally tasted his food, only to realize how terrible it was and dropped the plate by complete accident.

“What’s wrong? Is your past so bloody that you can’t say a word about it?”

Angron got up and left. Serion turned to the girl.

“I didn’t mean any harm. I didn’t think the question would affect you this badly.”

“I don’t have much to tell. As I mentioned, my people have been taken away for years, young boys and girls alike. They separated me from my family, and I became a soldier. I’ve killed a lot for the sake of survival. It’s a widespread rumor that our kind can be very cruel, but most of us are forced to kill. I would kill anyone then if it’s a battle or if they’re in my way. I’ve learned that you can only achieve something if you’re ruthless. I’d confront you and Angron without hesitation if it came to that. I’m not sure if I could kill you, but I’d definitely try.”

With that, Serion got up and went into the kitchen.

Solar nervously tapped her claws on the console and contemplated that maybe she should have stayed home after all.

Shouta… Angron felt anger towards the people there, who did this to him. He hated them all, but one, in particular, his father. He was to blame for everything. Angron never understood why his father allowed what they did to him.

The bloody glass was so beautiful. If it had only been real. If only it had been their blood.

Shouta, the shimmering blue planet. Beautiful memories sent shivers down his spine. Horrible memories. He couldn’t understand why they didn’t let him die, like the others. If he thought he would recover, he was mistaken. He’d never recover. He knew that long ago.

The blood began to drip from the glass. Smoke filled his lungs. The picture cleared.

He was patient. He wanted to get to Shouta. They would all pay for what they did to him. If only he were there already.

If only he had died then.

“Are you okay?”

Angron looked up. He found himself on his bed, holding a half-burnt cigarette. He was much calmer now, and as he glanced around, he noticed Serion entering the room.

His head throbbed painfully, but he was fully conscious.

“I think I am. How about you?”

“We’re fine,” Serion replied as he sat down beside the bed.

It was evident that both he and Solar knew something was wrong, but the white-haired man did not keep his distance as Solar had.

“What’s happening to you? Does something hurt?”

“No, it’s just… there are things that are hard to keep under control,” Angron explained. “You could also share something about what troubled you when Solar asked you. I heard you walked away.”

Serion smiled faintly. “I think you understand it by yourself. Everyone has dark moments in their past, even if they don’t admit it.”

Just then, Solar shouted at them, prompting both men to hurry back to the cockpit. They were both frozen when they noticed a dozen starships hovering above them as they exited the last layer.

The girl looked frightened.

“I really don’t want to be a part of this. This is very dangerous…”

“Too late for that,” Angron said, with fright in his voice.

“Do you have any idea which one the admiral might be on? Which is the flagship?”

Angron couldn’t see any differences among the ships, so he shook his head in confusion.

The moment he disabled the autopilot, the ship’s alarm system activated, flashing red lights, and a terrible siren wailed, causing all three of them to cover their ears in pain.

“What’s happening?” the girl shouted, bewildered.

Just as she spoke, a white beam of light shot out from one of the starships and enveloped their small spacecraft. The alarm shut off.

In frustration, Angron slammed his fist on the control panel. Then he buried his head into his palms, not moving a muscle. Solar looked at him in confusion, and Serion sighed.

“That’s the end of our hope for going unnoticed. I guess they were already expecting escaping Imperial forces.”

“How did they know…? Like two hundred ships left before us…”

“Maybe they’re inspecting all of them. I don’t know.”

“What should we do?”

Angron looked up at them gruffly. “We wait. We can’t do anything better. Perhaps they’ll take us

straight to Sephra. That’s something. It’s been such a long time since I last saw Quilen.”

Solar was once again taken aback, this time by the pilot’s casual reference to the Rebel Leader, but she decided it was better not to inquire further. She felt it was wiser to stay silent.

They couldn’t estimate how much time passed before they arrived at the massive starship. Inside, when they landed in the hangar, all three of them walked down the ramp with their hands raised. Dozens of armed soldiers were waiting for them, confiscating everything they had.

Angron’s grumpy expression remained unchanged until someone else entered the hangar. The tall, unnaturally pale-faced man stopped in front of them, gave them a scrutinizing look, and nodded to the pilot, who lowered his head in fear.

The man then ascended the spacecraft and returned a few minutes later, holding the peculiar green shard. He was followed by two boys.

Solar looked as if she had been struck. “Who are they?! What were they doing on my ship?!”

The two boys looked very much alike, almost like twins. One was taller, but they both had similar pale brown fur. They had white eyes, pointed, cat-like ears, and sharp claws. They seemed proud of themselves.

The man twirled the green shard in his hand and gazed with satisfaction at the taller boy. “Nice work, Daron.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The pale-faced man proceeded towards a vehicle. There was something disciplined and proud in every one of his movements. He didn’t even need to command the armed soldiers; a simple gesture was enough, and they knew what he wanted. They immediately herded their captives and the two boys, and all of them boarded the vehicle, which took them to the other end of the starship.

Serion knelt on the cold metal floor and remained motionless. His shoulders were hunched, and his vacant gaze was fixed in the distance. He didn’t look at anyone; it seemed like he was mentally somewhere else.

Solar, on the other hand, appeared surprisingly calm compared to her previous nervousness. Her dark eyes occasionally flashed with scornful, disdainful glances towards the soldiers, but she remained completely still. As a predator, she could maintain the same posture for hours.

Angron sat on the other side of the silent Serion with his knees pulled up, continuously watching the pale-faced man, who, in turn, avoided his gaze. His eyes alternated between flashes of anger and moments of emptiness.

The smaller boy stared wordlessly ahead, while the older one appeared cheerful.

The entire starship seemed gray and mundane. There were no decorations or markings, and everything was made of metal, which could easily cause disorientation. The only splashes of color in the overall grayness came from the blue-glowing buttons next to the doors.

The prisoners felt like they were just walking in circles. Solar examined the locks at each gate and had a contemplative expression on her face. Occasionally, she flashed a faint smile for a second.

Their pale-faced leader dismissed some of the soldiers as they reached a larger gate, which was just as gray as any other.

The room they entered had a row of smaller cells, and their walls were made of white energy beams. Only one cell was activated, and behind it, a woman sat on the floor, visibly bored, resting her head on her arm.

In the middle of the room, there was a large control panel with several panels, each of them equipped with numerous buttons and levers. In front of the keyboard, a man paced back and forth, but he immediately stopped when the soldiers escorted the prisoners. A smile spread across his young face, and his blue eyes sparkled behind his copper-red hair. Everyone immediately recognized him. Quilen’s name preceded his arrival.

Angron’s first impulse was to look at the woman locked behind the white energy barrier; she looked back when she noticed movement.

Sephra didn’t seem injured, only exhausted. The pilot nodded to her, and she responded with a barely noticeable smile and a wink.

“Welcome, all of you!” greeted the red-haired man.

He adjusted his brown shirt and then turned to the taller of the two boys, completely ignoring the smaller one, who stood motionless, almost like a robot.

“That was indeed excellent work, Daron. Congratulations!”

“Thank you, sir. It wasn’t as difficult as I expected,” Daron replied.

Quilen turned toward his captives. He only gave the girl a disdainful smile, as if he disapproved of her presence. He glanced at the Shoutan for a few seconds before Angron turned his head away. Then he looked at Serion, who remained silent.

Quilen made a hand gesture, and two armed guards herded the soldier into a cell, where white energy beams instantly appeared.

“He’s most likely an imperial soldier. I wish to talk to him. Maybe he knows something useful. I’m not interested in the girl. Take her to the prison, just like these two!” Quilen ordered.

The younger boy didn’t react at all, but the older one looked at him as if he had said to shoot them. He quickly took a step closer to the leader, but one of the soldiers stopped him.

“Wait! You said you would let me go! You promised I could leave if I brought them here!”

Quilen fell silent for a few moments, tapping his fingers on the control panel. His eyes turned red.

“Did I really say that? I’ve changed my mind. I feel like you haven’t learned from your mistakes. Take them away immediately!”

The older boy stepped back in despair as the soldiers approached him. He raised his hands defensively, and pleaded with fear, “No, please! I don’t want to go back! I did everything you asked!”

Quilen’s eyes seemed to dart back and forth between the captive Sephra and Serion, who stared at him in silence. Then he turned his head away and made another gesture.

Solar, on the other hand, couldn’t help but notice the slight shame on the Rebel Leader’s face, as two soldiers placed electronic cuffs on the younger boy’s wrists and the older one’s neck. He didn’t need an explanation of the device; he fell silent immediately and his face displayed fear. He didn’t utter another word as he was led away, but tears welled up in his eyes.

A third soldier escorted Solar out right after, and she wore a mocking smile while examining the boys in front of him. However, she cast a more worried look back at Angron, Serion, and Sephra just before the gate closed behind her.

Quilen turned to his attendant.

“Captain, you’ve time now.”

The white-faced man nodded and went straight to Angron. He seized his bound wrists and began to drag him away. The pilot used all his strength to resist and turned to the Rebel Leader.

“What do you intend to do with them?”

Quilen stroked the buttons connected to the cells.

“Nothing extraordinary. I just want to have a chat with them, especially with the admiral. So far, she hasn’t been willing to speak, so it’s up to her how much force I need to use.”

Angron no longer resisted and allowed the Captain to lead him away. He was followed immediately by the last two armed soldiers. The door closed automatically behind them.

They proceeded through more long, boring corridors. It took so long that Angron thought he wouldn’t be able to find his way back to his companions even if he wanted to. He didn’t pay attention to the path, instead kept gazing at the man in front of him. None of them said a word. All that could be heard was the quiet clinking of the soldiers’ armor accompanying them.

Finally, the Captain came to a stop in front of a door. He took out the entry card from deep within his uniform, held it up to a small panel next to the entrance, and as soon as the door opened, he walked into the dark room. The room’s only ornament was the massive window from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, through which only the darkness of space was visible. There wasn’t much inside, just a bed, a table, some small machines, and a few computers. The two soldiers stayed outside by the door, and the Captain clapped his hands twice, causing a dim light to come on in the small room.

The man then turned to face the pilot.

Angron observed his black hair and impossibly pale skin. His build and face were the same as they used to be, yet it felt like someone else was standing before him. It seemed strange to see him looking like this. In different circumstances, if he had walked past him on the street, he might not have recognized him at all.

“We haven’t met in a while,” the Captain spoke first.

“It could have waited.”

Angron tried to appear as confident as he could. It seemed like the other man was indifferent to the coldness in his tone.

“How does it feel to be a puppet of the Empire?”

“Great, thank you. Much better than kissing Quilen’s hand.”

“It’s not like the hand of the Emperor is any different. Although, I suppose you don’t know who it truly is.”

Angron’s expression remained unchanged, even though he agreed with the man’s last words. The new Emperor didn’t appear at the pilot’s honor ceremony, even though tradition dictated he should have been there. Nevertheless, Angron never felt the need to question his identity. Whoever he was, he provided effective leadership and were likely known personally only to the highest echelons.

“See, at least I know who I serve, and I’m content with that. I move within the upper circles of the rebels. Everyone knows my name, and they respect me.”

“You were respected elsewhere too. Traitor.”

The Captain sighed, shook his head, and then slapped the pilot across the face. Angron, due to his bound hands behind his back, couldn’t keep his balance and fell against the wall.

The pilot shook his head and glared back angrily. His face turned to a darker blue shade and his eyes became all black in just a second.

The Captain then smiled. “I suggest you hold your anger back.”

“Maybe I’d be better off if I let it out this time…”

“You don’t really think that. You may call me a traitor, but you don’t know everything that happened. If you’d only let me explain…”

“It was your fault. I hate you.”

The Captain seemed to want to say something but eventually just shook his head.

“I would’ve liked to talk more with you, but it seems like now isn’t the right time. Maybe later. Soldiers! Escort him to the prison! Just a moment!”

The pilot was taken aback when the man walked over and reached into his uniform.

“Now what are you doing?”

With a half-smile, the Captain retrieved a small box from one of his inner pockets.

“This is all I needed. You can take him now.”

“Wait!” Angron resisted as the soldiers pushed him. “I need that! Without it…”

“I know. Take him to the same cell as the girl! Chain his hand to the wall!”

Angron’s voice quivered with fear.

“It won’t be enough! I’ll break free!”

“I know. Let’s see if you can control yourself this time. You can take him now.”

The Captain gestured to the soldiers, then turned and walked to the window.

Angron stared at his back until the two soldiers escorted him to the door. He only had time to say a few words before they pushed him out.

“I hate you, dad.”

After the door slammed behind him, the Captain looked at his reflection in the window; then he lowered his head. He stood silently for a moment before calling Quilen.

“I’m done, my lord. He’s on his way. He’ll change soon.”