บท 4: Facing Reality

Something tickling Varya's leg pulled her out of the deep sleep she was in. She hid her face under her pillow and started giggling. "Squeak, stop it!"

Squeak was her father's cat who sometimes wandered into her room at night and he always woke her up by tickling her legs or feet. The tickling wouldn't stop and she moved her pillow away from her face.

Varya's smile faltered when she didn't recognize anything around her. The bed she lay in was plain and the grey room was like a shoe box. There weren't any particularly distinguishable features about the room, other than a door in the corner leading to God knows where. Metal panels on the wall gave clues to some kind of technology, but without buttons or switches, it was hard to say what. It was mostly dark in the room except for the occasional blinking light on the metal panels.

That's when it hit her that her nightmare from last night wasn't a nightmare at all. Her parents' death, Kallo trying to protect her, and Rosh dying… it was all real. She reached under her blanket and felt her scraped knees from falling off of her motorcycle.

All of it actually happened.

She slumped into her pillow as sadness struck her and she began quietly crying. Varya just wanted to die with everyone else. Heaven would be so much happier than whatever prison she was living in now.

"Why the hell are you in my bed?!"

A growl was heard from somewhere near her and she widened her blue eyes in shock. So that's what she was feeling against her leg. An arm slapped something on the wall and the room lit up to full brightness.

"Well? Are you going to answer me?"

Buried under the blankets near her, a man suddenly sat up and shot her an accusatory glare. He was around her age with thick, voluminous black hair erupting from his head and falling into his orange-colored eyes. He didn't look happy considering the uninvited guest before him.

When she didn't answer he crouched on the bed, allowing the blankets to roll off of him and revealing a navy blue spandex suit covering most of his muscular body. He held up his hand and fire erupted around it. Her eyes widened and she couldn't make sense of what was happening in front of her.

With no warning, the man threw the fire at her. She felt the heat of it as it went over her head and hit the wall behind her. Somehow, there was no damage done to the wall.

Varya slumped forward and spoke in a quiet, dejected voice, heavy with emotion, "Kill me. Please, just kill me. I don't know why I'm here. I don't want to be here."

The man's look softened, but his frown didn't disappear. He crawled forward to the crying woman. He wanted her tears to end. Crying was a sign of weakness and he didn't want one of the guards to come into the room.

"Stop crying," the man's hands hovered over her as he spoke and he decided it was best not to touch her. He refused to be accused of touching some random woman. He clenched his fists, trying to control his mood, and sighed. "It's clear to me now that you don't know why you're here either."

Varya sniffled, but she sat up straighter. She decided that, if she was going to be alive, she was at least going to figure things out for herself. "I'm getting out of here. I don't want to be stuck in a prison cell with some stranger," she finished speaking and crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him. Was he part of the aliens who destroyed her home?

He narrowed his eyes in return, becoming defensive. "Be my guest. Try walking through that guarded door over there." He gestured to the only door in the corner before he hopped to the floor almost silently. "You won't make it a step before they kill you." He started walking away from the bed and toward boots that were discarded in the corner of the room. Crouching down, he loosens the boots and starts putting them on.

Varya was getting frustrated at the feeling of being cornered by someone she didn't have a choice to be around. She wished she could be wrapped up in blankets with Rosh, not caring about the world outside - the thought squeezed her heart.

Varya jumped off of the bed as well and stalked forward to her unwanted company. She recognized that the spandex suit he wore was similar to the ones she had seen on the barbaric aliens, except he had no armor on.

She stabbed an accusatory finger in his chest when he stood up to his full height which was only a couple of inches taller than her.

"You don't have to act so condescending! I'm looking for answers. Trust me when I say you're the last person I wanted to wake up to." Varya tossed her long grey hair over her shoulder in frustration. She mumbled, "Some stranger. Lucky me."

The man scoffed at her. "I don't have to listen to you. I am Prince Basileus and I don't take orders from anyone." He pointed his hand at the royal insignia in white on the left side of his chest. She could discern a dragon head and fire from the crest. "This means I'm the Prince of Planet Basileus. You will address me by my correct title."

Varya, refusing to address him by his title, rolled her eyes in response. "What is this, the medieval ages?"

Prince Basileus scoffed at her, but said nothing more. He turned his back to her as if she weren't important enough to address. She couldn't help but notice his well defined back muscles that were barely contained by the tight spandex.

Varya crossed her arms and glared at Prince Basileus. Princes in the movies were pleasant and charming - all he managed to be was a royal pain in the ass.

"Stop glaring at me. You're lucky I haven't personally killed you for such blatant disrespect." The angry prince turned back towards her and pointed his finger in the air, lighting a tiny fireball at the tip of it.

Varya's blue eyes widened. The action was so familiar to her. Seeing the fire at the tip of his finger reminded her of the alien who killed her parents - all she could see in her mind was their burnt flesh and the light leaving their eyes. Varya stumbled back and fell to the floor. Her arms wrapped around her body and she stared blankly. "You'll kill me just like that alien killed my parents..." Her blue eyes became glossy with unshed tears once more and she squeezed them shut. "Please kill me. I miss my parents so much."

Basileus dropped his hand, snuffing out the ball of fire. He bowed his head as he looked down at her. "It gets easier after a while."

Varya looked up and her eyes met his. At least he wasn't being cruel anymore. "W-what do you mean?"

"The pain of losing your family; it gets easier to handle," he responded cryptically then shrugged. "Avenge their deaths. Live for them."

She slowly stood up on shaky legs. "M-maybe you're right…"

"Of course I'm right," Basileus scoffed at her, his kind gesture forgotten, and sat down on the bed again. He crossed his arms as if knowing she wasn't finished speaking and he looked at her expectantly.

"How can I get out of this room without getting killed?" Varya walked over to the bed as she spoke. "You seem to know what's going on here."

Basileus gave her a disapproving look. "This is the room I was assigned to when I was asked to accompany the Emperor's Forces on their mission to Planet 19692. I don't know why they've placed you in here with me. All I do know is that I don't want you talking when I'm training. You have an obnoxious voice and I won't be able to focus."

Varya rolled her eyes. He went from helpful to otherwise very quickly. She wasn't going to get the answers she wanted for now.

A more pressing problem presented itself. "One bed? For both of us?"

Basileus stood up and walked past her, facing the other way. He didn't know why either, but that was a topic he was going to avoid. All he could offer her was a shrug. He no longer questioned the world around him anymore, he only had one goal.

"Now, allow me to train my aura in peace. If I don't get stronger, I won't be able to defeat…" he looked down at his hand and clenched it into a fist, "… Emperor Kruos."

Varya had to take a deep breath in order to keep her tears from threatening to spill out. At the mention of Emperor Kruos, her reality revealed itself to her once more. Knowing Prince Basileus wouldn't like it if she started crying again, she climbed back into the bed behind him, the only thing she could think to do was take a nap. Maybe he would kill her in her sleep. She wouldn't have to feel anything if she were to be unconscious. "I'm going back to bed."

"Do whatever," he responded, displeased with her lack of respect for his title.

Varya pulled the blankets over her so they were cocooned around her. Her face was peeking out, but it wasn't visible to him because she was facing the wall. She started feeling around for something on her hands and smiled slightly in relief when she felt the ring her father had given her still on the middle of her finger. It had an aquamarine center stone and the band was decorated with tiny diamonds. She held her hand to her chest and her eyes began to water - memories of her family brought enough comfort for her to sleep.

The young prince watched as she tucked herself in and he resumed his exercise regimen from the previous day when she seemed to have fallen asleep.

First, he sat on the floor in the far corner of the nearly empty room and got into a meditative state that caused yellow light to envelop him like a flame. To someone outside of it, it would be hot, but it didn't harm him. Once he was in this state, his orange eyes turned black and he stood up, shadowboxing and manipulating the fire around him. However, the flame faltered as he turned to face the bed and, ultimately, the sleeping woman in it. He was distracted by her. It meant only bad things for him if Emperor Kruos decided to toy with him. If he got attacked now, she was going to be dead weight he had to worry about. He could tell she belonged to a weak race.