Albrecht and his crew were now on their way to Gaia. At this point in time, they were a little over halfway there, going the fastest speed they could go without overheating the engine. While Albrecht's generals and pilots controlled the ship, he sat in his chair thinking deeply about what exactly his plan was. Would he kill Lunabelle and Alejandra again, or would imprison them and keep them locked away until they eventually died? The thought of his made him chuckle to himself wickedly.
During these schemes, however, a memory of long ago raced across his mind; a memory of his only daughter. And just as quick as it came, it left. He blinked quickly and sat up straight in his seat, folded his hands together, and stared out of the window in front of him, darkness clouding in his eyes. He searched for the thought again, curious, and when he found it his gaze toward the void in front of him softened.
He started to think about the birth of Lunabelle and how its complications almost killed his wife, Marilynn. As a result, she had to get a hysterectomy, making her unable to bear any more children for them to raise as the next heir. Albrecht remembered adoring his child more than his actual position as the emperor and made sure to raise her with the knowledge of politics and warfare. Since Albrecht was not magical in any way, Marilynn oversaw teaching her all things magical. In the back of his head, Albrecht wondered where it all went wrong with Lunabelle-- why she betrayed him and the empire. Then after some pondering, something in him made him think that maybe it was never Lunabelle's fault at all; what if it was Alejandra's?
Albrecht furrowed his silver brow again, trying to suppress his anger, his gaze going dark again. Black energy lightly rose off of his skin as he growled under his breath. He remembered that Lunabelle did not rebel and misbehave until she met Alejandra at the banquet during his victory speech after taking a portion of D'Chaalö. He always remembered Alejandra sometimes being an egocentric and rebellious individual. It was never Lunabelle's fault she acted out--Alejandra was a bad influence. Did he kill her for nothing?
Albrecht shook his head and snapped out of his thoughts, his eyes returning to normal and his skin no longer radiating. He continued to observe his crew operate his ship, and decided not to think about it any longer— there was no point in getting upset over the past. Right now, he had one mission-- to stop Lunabelle; because even though he hated to admit so, he knew without a proper plan in action, she could easily win against him. He recalled that her combat and magic skills easily took down entire waves of his troops in the past, and a part of him was afraid it may happen again. Eventually, he digressed; he needed a real plan and he needed one quick.
What Albrecht did not know is that his enemies were making their own plans. While it was easy to convince the other planets' leaders to help in the fight, convincing anyone on Gaia would be virtually impossible, as they were not even aware other life existed beyond their own planet. The people of Gaia were clueless as to what was coming next, and this upset Luna because she knew she could not really do much herself to help everyone. By this time, the police had given up on their investigation of finding Luna and Christian because there was not enough evidence besides the camera footage. They eventually shrugged off as tampered; so, their house was left alone. The group stayed there and set up their equipment for the battle.
Though he was still upset with him, Christian agreed to let Alejandra help him train him some more while Luna did her own training beside them. Eventually, Aevaan came over to help too, helping Christian keep his form while Alejandra and Luna taught him different spells and techniques. Though exhausted and sweaty, Christian did not want to take his shirt off in front of Luna because he felt the sudden topic of his top surgery scars would make things awkward or tense between them. Christian pulled up the collar of his t-shirt to wipe the sweat off his face, his sparsely growing happy trail peeking from the waistband of his boxers, which had slid down a little past his hip dips. The sweat shined off the smooth skin on his stomach and upper hips. Strands of hair that came out of his ponytail were sticking to his face with sweat. Luna blushed lightly at the sight of this, but her attention was quickly pulled away from this as Alejandra continued to speak.
"Christian, do you need to take your shirt off like before? You look terrible," Christian shook his head, taking a break to chug some water down.
"Nah," he said, wiping his mouth with his wrist. "I'll be fine,"
"Okay, we'll take a break, then. We all look pretty worn out from training anyway. We'll start again once the sun starts to set," The others agreed and went about to do their own separate things. Christian was surprised when Luna followed him instead of Alejandra.
"Hey, are you okay? You could have taken off your shirt to prevent overheating back there. Not like I haven't seen a guy's chest before," She asked him. Christian chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck.
"It's fine, really. Just trying to get used to the heat. Can't strip every time I do magic," He sat on the grass in front of the house, and she sat next to him. He blushed at how close she was to him.
"Y'know... yellow is an odd color for someone like you to have," Luna mentioned, drinking some of her water afterward. Christian swallowed hard in his throat. "I'm not complaining, though. It suits you," Christian was relieved she did not investigate that further. He leaned against a tree and watched the others prepare for the fight. The two stayed silent for a few minutes before Luna spoke again.
"You know I'll always care about you... right?" Christian blushed and looked over at her. "I mean, we've been roommates for a year and a half, and you've done so much for me. I feel like I haven't returned the favor at all, so I just wanted to let you know that, well... despite everything, I'll always be here for you," His blush grew when she smiled sweetly at him.
"Thanks," is all he could manage to say, but he was thinking so much more than that. He wanted so strongly to kiss her, or at least embrace her, but he knew Alejandra would get pissed off if he did. He glanced up from her lips and saw Alejandra watching them from the doorway of the house, his eyes narrowed. Christian sighed softly. "Well, your ol' man is watching us. I think he wants to talk to you or something," Luna perked up and looked behind her before quickly standing up and running to him with a big smile on her face.
Christian knew Alejandra heard his thoughts, so he looked away and pulled his knees to his chest. He rested his arms on his knees and laid his head down on them, sighing deeply. He wished he had made a move on her sooner because, at that moment, he was pretty sure now he'd lost that chance forever. After all, as Alejandra told him, he probably never had a chance to begin with because he was not meant for her; but the thought of this brought fat tears to his eyes.
Luna sensed the heartbreak and glanced behind her only to see Christian sitting the way he was. She expressed her concern to Alejandra, but he just shrugged it off.
"There's nothing much I can do for him, Lunita," He told her, "He's fighting his own inner battle right now," She sighed.
"But I was the last one to talk to him. Did I hurt his feelings? All I told him was that he means a lot to me," As she looked back to Christian, Alejandra's cheeks flushed lightly out of frustration. Her eyes flashed dimly, and she hummed. "I was gonna take a quick scan of his thoughts just to see, but he has everyone blocked off. Even me," Her voice cracked. "Is it my fault?" She repeated to herself quietly. Alejandra huffed.
"Luna, it's not your fault. Really. You know I wouldn't lie to you," He reassured her. She looked back at Alejandra, her face flushed and tears forming. He was startled by this.
"I've known Chris since school, and he took me in when I needed it the most. He's taken care of me when I was sick and even called off work when I was at my sickest. Of course, I care about him. And now he's hurting. What am I supposed to do?" Alejandra rested his hand on her warm cheek and kissed the top of her head.
"Just relax. I know it's hard for you to watch your friend go through this, but some things are best left alone for now. Sometimes, people need to heal on their own," Luna nodded, wiping her nose with her sleeve. "Come now, let's get you something to eat. You look famished," He held her hand and led her into the house while taking one last look at Christian, who had been watching them for the past few minutes. His eyes seemed to be filled with rage, but it was a sort of rage Alejandra had never seen before; it was rage mixed with heartbreak.
After Alejandra prepared Luna a snack, he went back outside to see if he could talk to Christian, but Christian was nowhere to be found when he stepped out of the door. After asking around, he concluded that no one had seen him leave the property. He gave Luna a quick kiss and set off to look for Christian.
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