Amber POV

I looked at Blue and Draco as I ate breakfast. It had been half a week since Draco had scolded Blue for his poor control of magic. Currently, the two were working on fixing that issue. I had told Blue he needed to work on this many times, but it seems I hadn’t been insistent enough. Asking Draco for help was a good idea after all.

The Dragonkin turned out to be a surprisingly good teacher. He - I paused for a second. What pronouns should I use for Draco?

There was a very real chance they preferred female pronouns after all. Then again He hadn’t asked me or Blue to use any specific set of pronouns. And probably hadn’t figured it out yet.

I decided to use he/him for now and ask him next chance I got. It was the road that would lead to the least problems.

Regardless. Draco was good at teaching. Blue had significantly increased his grasp on magic. If he kept this up for a while longer, I could finally allow him to start practicing body-altering magic.

And Draco too. He obviously knew a lot more about magic - at least the combat applications - than Blue, and had a flawless execution, but he could learn a thing or two about magic in general. And he WAS starting to pick up on those while teaching Blue. This really was the most efficient method to make both of them stronger.

“This is unfair!” Blue certainly complained a lot. Especially after the two of them stopped working on his grasp on magic and moved on to combat training.

“Why do you get to use reinforcement magic and I don’t?!”

I lightly shook my head and took a sip of tea. Draco wasn’t using any sort of magic at the moment. Perhaps it was too soon to allow Blue to train that magic after all…

“I don’t? Hell even if I wanted to, I couldn’t! Never bothered to learn it.”

I almost spat out the tea I was sipping upon hearing this.

“You never bothered to learn WHAT?! But then how did… WHAT?!”

This couldn’t possibly be true, could it? Then again I did not sense any nervousness in him. And what reason would he have to lie about such a thing in the first place? No. As unbelievable as it was, it seemed Draco was telling the truth.

“So during our fight you…”

“Yup.”

“HOW DO YOU FUNCTION?!” It appeared Blues brain had bluescreened and just finished rebooting.

“Dragonkin. Naturally very strong. Never needed it, never learned it.”

 

Draco(?) POV

“ELABORATE! THAT DOESN’T ANSWER THE QUESTION!” 

Blue sure liked to shout today. Guess he’s still frustrated from me folding him up without breaking a sweat…

“Okay, so... You know how every species gets special abilities? Dragonkin get a general boost of strength. That, and, whenever tissue is damaged and healed by whatever means, it grows back stronger.

Like my bones for example. They’re as tough as carbonium. Then again, that was BEFORE having my everything absolutely obliterated twice, so maybe even stronger than that.

Hmmm… I wonder if I can finally use my neutronium sword without ripping my hands off when I don’t wear my bracers?”

Amber spoke up: “Well yes, I KNOW that, but… Just what have you been through?”

That was something I’d much rather forget. Just thinking about my childhood sent shivers down my spine.

Calm down Draco. Deep breaths. It was in the past. They couldn’t hurt you anymore.

I slowly shook my head. “A lot.”

“Sorry.”

It didn’t help me deal with my trauma, but it was better than the usual doubling down, I suppose…

“Are there any errands to run? I kinda need to do literally ANYTHING right now. Between this and my squad… I need a distraction.”

“We have been running low on supplies…”

Got it. Just the brain-dead but useful task I was looking for. Fly to a civilized planet, Vent to Cynthia on the way, pick up supplies and get back. Maybe even “accidentally” run into imperial troops and blow off some steam?

“What do we need? I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Oh no you don’t. You are not risking your only tactical advantage by being recognized by some random guy!”, Amber immediately interjected

I sighed. “Relax. I’ll be using an obscuring spell that should make me unrecognizable to just about anyone. And, well, if someone finds out, over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at silencing witnesses. Standard training for high ranking officers.”

Amber shook their head. “Fine. But only if Blue and I can tag along and you have an earpiece active at all times.”

“...Sure…”

Just like that, we headed towards my ship. As usual, as soon as I entered, everything was booting up. Cynthia was doing a flawless job at maintaining the ship. I was very thankful that at least she had survived the Nova.

“Welcome, Draco, and what I presume are your friends. I’m sorry, but I have yet to be introduced to you, so I am unable to properly greet you two at the present moment.”

The familiar robotic and yet feminine voice greeted us as we entered.

“Hi Cynthia. This is Amber and Blue. Amber, Blue, Cynthia.”

“Welcome, Amber, welcome Blue. I hope your stay with me is satisfactory. Might I inquire about the destination so I may plot a course?”

“Honestly, just take us to Delta 59. Oh and before you do that, save this location. I want to be able to jump here at a moment's notice.”

“Of course. It doesn’t exist in any of the data-bases I have access to, but I shall update my personal database to include it. What shall this system be called?”

“Genesis Null.” I was still thinking about a name, whilst Amber chimed in. “The Planet that doesn’t exist.”

“Figures you have a fancy board computer. Why wouldn’t it activate when we used your ship back then?”

“That would be because I am no mere program, existing just to solve calculations, Blue. I am a sentient being.”

Amber and Blue went silent for a bit.

After some time had passed, Blue finally spoke up.

“You have a sentient and self-aware AI? Where did you even get that?!”

“Draco programmed me himself. I may be a bit biased, but personally, I think he outdid himself when creating me.”

“You should-” I didn’t let him finish.

“I am NOT turning off the only friend of mine that didn’t die in a cataclysmic explosion. And more importantly, I am not killing my friends!”

“Blue, it’s best to just drop the subject. I know AI is made out to be this scary thing, but think this through. Cynthia could easily wipe out life if she wanted to and probably would have done so by now. But she didn’t.”

“Negative. Imperial firewalls are difficult to penetrate, even for me. It is within my capabilities to hijack approximately 87.3279432% of all weaponry that exists in the known universe, but that would take a while. Of course, once that happened, I could easily wipe out life, but I lack a reason to do so. In conclusion, it is possible, but by no means easy.

Additionally, the route has been plotted. I also took the liberty of calculating the optimal path for you to take, Draco, to both spend your time as efficiently as possible and avoid imperial patrols. Should you follow my suggested path, the chances of running into guards is below 0.001%. I have uploaded it to your communicator. My estimate is that it should take about 90 minutes for us to land on Delta 59, an additional 30 minutes to purchase the supplies, and, finally, another 90 minutes to travel back to Genesis Null. I will chart the course back while you are out shopping.

I shall shut off my network while on Delta 59, as to not leak any information about its existence or whereabouts before we land. Keep in mind this means I cannot communicate with you like usual.”

Cynthia did not disappoint, as usual. Thanks to her planning, getting there was smooth sailing. “Get in, buy the stuff, get back to the ship”, I thought to myself as we went on our way 

At least, that’s what I was doing, until I saw a very familiar red fox tail in the crowd. Crimson! It had to be! I’d recognize that shade of red anywhere.

A million questions ran amok in my head. How was she alive? Would that mean the others were too? Was Fox alive? How did everyone handle my “death”?

I know it was stupid and would probably lead to blowing my cover, but I just had to confront her. I owed her as much. She deserved to at least know I was alive.

I followed her whilst trying to make it obvious to only her. When she looked back, I dropped my obscuring spell for a fraction of a second. Her eyes widened in shock, as if she’d seen a ghost, which to be fair she just did, but, before anyone else in the crowd would notice, she recovered, gave me a small nod and motioned for me to follow her.

We arrived at a quiet place. Some random back alley, perfect for shady dealings. Somewhere we wouldn’t be disturbed. Somewhere we could talk in peace.

“How are you alive?!” She took charge and asked the first question as soon as we both determined nobody had followed us or was within hearing distance.

“I could ask you the same question. You and everyone else was on 25978 when Omega decided to blow it up”

“No. We retreated when it became obvious you would lose. I would normally have stayed even then but…”

“Fox?” I offered.

“Fox.” She confirmed.

“So everyone is alive?”

“Everyone but Leo.” There was a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Thank you.” I knew Crimson was a reliable co-leader, but honestly she was a better leader than I was. “I really failed at everything huh? As a soldier, as a fighter and as a leader.”

While Crimson had prioritized the safety of her team, all I could think about was fighting. If I ever wanted to lead a team ever again, I would have to get better at this stuff.

“Funny. I constantly beat myself up, thinking I failed you. Even got demoted to recruit for it. Not doing that shit again, though- I just left.”

I looked at her, confused. She had gone against the orders of her superior officer, yes, but her actions had saved the lives of top-tier soldiers. Surely she had been rewarded for this?

“I reported back to Omega. Biggest mistake of my life. I wanted to go back to evac you. We all did. Omega wouldn’t allow us. He told us to wait until you contacted him and forbade us from even trying to contact you. Leo even pulled a gun at the bastard when it became clear he just wanted you dead. The rest of the group split up. Only one I still have contact with is Fox. I think Omega waited for you to wake up to drop the bomb too. Seems in character for him to want you to suffer while you burn alive.”

Welp. Omega had done the impossible. He somehow pissed me off even more. Even I didn’t know that was possible.

“I am going to gut that bastard alive before I kill him.”

“You found a way around the prophecy?”

“Fuck the prophecy.”

“I… I see…”

 

Crimson POV

After that, there was an awkward silence between the two of us. We’d basically said everythingthat needed to be said, business-wise. I could tell we were both thinking similar things, just not sure how to address them.

“So, uhh… How have you been doing?” Draco finally decided to say something.

“About as shitty as possible. Being a mercenary is nice and all, but I can’t take on any big jobs because I can’t bring attention to myself, so I am both bored out of my mind during missions and living day to day. If I don’t get a job, I go hungry.”

“Why do YOU need to keep a low profile? Last I checked, recruits leaving isn’t illegal.”

“My sister. Kuro used her to get me to join the army in the first place, and ever since he’s used her to keep me in line. In that sense, Omega demoting me to recruit was probably the best thing to ever happen to me. Millions of recruits, and nobody gives a shit if one of them leaves. I don’t think anyone important will ever catch wind of my leaving. Unless I draw attention to myself…”

“Your sister?

Tears welled up in my eyes as I was forced to recall her situation. “They- They’re torturing her. Threatening to do unthinkable things to her. She…” I started crying at this point. 

“She’s not as strong as me. She can’t take this kind of abuse. And I’m just too weak to go and help her!”

Draco looked visibly angry after this comment. More so than before.  “How about you and I get her out of there?”

Get her out? Draco was strong, yes, but I didn’t think he was strong enough. If he could actually stand up to Omega and maybe even defeat him, maybe, but I didn’t even know where they kept her!

“It’s… It’s not possible. We’re too weak. I’m told the Warden is in the same League as Omega. We’d just die trying to get her out. And that’s assuming we know where to start looking!”

“I’m not scared of Omega. I got a lot stronger over the last weeks. I’m positive I can take him on. And for where she is… Omega must be at least somewhat informed. The royal douchebag doesn’t really keep too many secrets from him. I’ll just beat it out of him before I kill him.

And if Omega doesn’t have answers, Kuro absolutely does, and he’s number two on the list anyways.”

That honestly was the most solid plan Draco had ever come up with. If he really was strong enough to defeat Omega, it could work.

I weakly nodded, before wiping away my tears. “Should I bring Fox?”

“No. Too dangerous. I promised his parents to keep him safe.”

“Right. I’m assuming you have a place to stay and lay low?”

“Sure do. Just follow me.”