Chapter 6: Crescendo

Beta-Reader: Ant0nius

~Different POV~

“This is indeed an interesting turn of events..."

The command room was devoid of people, as this simple comment was only meant to emphasize the interest born from the recent development about the rebellious Royalist cause.

Minos, General of the Empire, wasn't someone that truly found the curious rebellion worthy of much attention.

It has already been years of prolonged fighting against this particularly stubborn group, with costly victories thinning out the numbers of Primes serving Prism's line of monarchs, only leaving a small sliver of the once dangerous threat to the imperial cause.

He could still remember being a young officer when he took part in the last few battles of Queen Sharifa's reign. And the long conflict that ensued with her daughters… and their descendants after them.

Tiredness swelled within the Bull Prime at remembering how long of a fight the one against Prism's survivors was. Primes were tough warriors that easily overwhelmed Narakhans in terms of quality.

The imperial soldiers were easily cannon fodders that hardly managed to win a fair fight against any rebel standing against them, but the Empire had a larger and better-equipped army which meant that losing a few hundred to destroy a squad of thirty Prism Warriors was more than a good exchange.

Losses weren't a problem, not with the extensive propaganda and the Emperor's mark keeping a firm hold over his followers' mind.

Minos was spared from this kind of leash, using his actions to prove his loyalty to the Empire several times over now. Centuries gone by being one of the most dedicated and stern generals within the Imperial Army cemented his trustworthiness, and his own abilities allowed him to preserve a stronger hold over his own armies whenever a battle was meant to happen.

The years of fighting didn't lessen his capacity to notice a dangerous situation, and he was mostly incensed when he learned about Captain Carmesi's betrayal to the royalist cause.

He had now realized that the woman just wasn't fit for the military force. Too stubborn, too loud… she was a troublemaker that easily jeopardized the disciplined sense of duty many soldiers had toward the Imperial cause.

To see someone as important as the Crest of Fire leave the Empire to what looked to be a hopeless cause was more than enough to spread  newer rounds of defectors among the army's lines.

And that is if it was ignored that this very event was going to set a problematic precedent. One that was going to put many Primes serving under the Empire at risk of being discharged or killed for small issues.

The quiet humming originating from the terminal was enough to keep him from distracting himself with his own thoughts for too long.

Red eyes soon regained focus as he tried to resume the simple task of concluding a few reports meant to lessen the chances of brutal reprisals that were going to happen with his subordinates.

A difficult assignment for sure, but one that needed to be done to prevent another brain drain and the loss of innovative officers he needed to have in his own staff.

Scratching his temple and twirling a single lock of his brown hair for a brief moment, the Bull Prime knew that while the situation was becoming dire, circumstances still favored an imperial victory over the monarchs of Prism.

With their cause hopeless since it revolved around the finding of the Crests, it was clear that failure was their only option.

There was no way he was going to betray the cause he had fought for so long now, especially with the chances of being blessed with a long and peaceful life once this war was over.

Once the queen was dead, and the Crest of Light soon to follow, the only possible replacement to the royal succession, the Ancient War was going to end in a glorious success for the Emperor.

He could already see it happen. The grand parade in the Narakhan Homeworld, the impressive celebration that he was going to be invited to join by the Emperor's request and-

“S-Sir!"

Minos blinked, surprise openly displayed as he realized that his secretary was peeking by the entrance of the room.

“Officer Tamerlan, I hope you've a good reason to be interrupting-"

“It's a message from Tundar. They've requested for… books, sir."

...Truly?

His irritation faltered as fascination coaxed his thoughts in a moment of surprise.

“And why is this important?"

Despite the lack of major development, it was still true that this was a complete change from the usual request for simple things that couldn't enable their secret weapon.

Too dangerous to employ directly in their ranks, their trump card wasn't aware of the true situation with the war. She didn't even know that there was an ongoing conflict and that her blood samples weren't being used to create just vaccines for illnesses.

It was still absurd how the 'Agápi' serum was also used as the base for new advanced medicines. The idea of employing the Love Crest's blood for this endeavor came out of an unplanned experiment ordained by a couple of officers in Tundar before Minos was assigned to keep a watch over the planet.

The discovery was as surprising as it was unexpected, but still good news that was going to aid a large part of the Narakhan population to deal with the after-effects of the Taint. Something about the Serum just seemed to work well with the unhealthy factors that rendered a Narakhan's life a short one.

Despite the undeniably good boon that came out of this endeavor, the exposition of the Crest of Love to a normal environment still felt like a huge risk to take.

Her powers weren't as easy to keep control over as it had been with the past Crests of Fire, and the chances of her managing to escape somehow from her restraint was a legitimate fear that more than once saw him contemplate returning to the old status of keeping her cryogenically asleep until better equipment to handle her worrisome magic was created.

“Send them a few children's books. Surely that will do."

The officer nodded, but before he had the chance to leave, the General felt the need of making a point.

“Also, Officer Tamerlan, I will give you this warning just once. If you have something to bring up that isn't urgent, I want you to knock at the door instead of busting inside," The Bull Prime explained with a stern tone. “If you end up forgetting this simple settlement, then I will be more than happy to have someone sharpen your memory through severe punishment."

The ultimatum seemed to go through with the scared look now plastered on his face confirming this successful approach.

Once again, Minos was left alone in his office and…

Once again, he was left to suffer through the unforgiving paperwork that had accumulated in his terminal.

'Just a little longer. Kill the Queen and the Crest of Light… and then I will be blessed with a warless life.'

-------------

“But what about the patrol meant to pass through this route?" Adela inquired quietly, her index finger aiming over the area in question. It was right on the line I had drawn within the holographic map in front of us.

Carmesi was here too, but the Fox Prime wasn't interested in the concept of tactical planning for our next destination.

With the beginning of a new day, the plans for our next steps were laid out in quite the complex map that Archie recreated through the cockpit's own terminals.

Not only did it work well as a useful representation of our current situation that we could work with, but we were also given the chance of handling a route that wasn't going to get intercepted by any Imperial fleet.

With Carmesi's data coming to play, there were a few red ships set within the simulation to represent the hypothetical moves the Empire was set to make for the next couple of days.

It was still tough work considering how much responsibility was behind each step we had to take.

There were multiple routes we could take to reach our destination, Planet Tundar. Some would be faster than others, but in return were riskier to take considering the larger presence of Imperial ships around the planet's region.

It was going to be difficult to arrive there without getting detected and chased around at least twice, and it was really troublesome as some of the Empire's ships were damn fast.

Then there was the fact that the galaxy was… massive.

It was something pretty much everyone was aware about, but to be employed to make a trail to follow to reach our next destination… I couldn't help but feel rather nervous.

Earth was among the heavenly bodies conceptualized by the large construct built by Archie through some of the cockpit's devices, and while I knew that this vast map wasn't completely available to the Empire, I also knew that if we ended up captured and interrogated, I was going to end up condemning humanity too if the Emperor got info about my homeworld.

Not a pleasant thought, but one that kicked me in the right direction as I started to lay down a few trails that the ship had to follow so we could reach the planet the safest way possible.

“We can dodge this by going around Planet Agner," I rebuked quietly, my own index pointing at a large round way over the dangerous section. “Archie will manage the turn flawlessly, and without getting us too close to any sensor in the area."

The young Queen nodded, her eyes returning to study the latest plan I had offered to her. It's been two hours now since we started with this, and we both were slowly getting tired by the stressful mission-making.

The Coffee was barely helping with the minor headache I was suffering from after giving out at least thirty different plans, most of those being variants of five or six original ones.

And next on the 'menu' was a training session. Which is why Carmesi was growing impatient the more time we 'wasted' in finding a solution to this problem, and delaying the training match we had planned before going for some exercises.

I had slowly recovered from our last fight, and Addie had been quite keen to sternly remind us that 'stupidly fighting each other to exhaustion and for extended damage' wasn't something she would be condoning.

But that wasn't the issue for Carmie, or at least not as prominently as the one she had with me about the nickname.

While she was restrained with her efforts of rebuking my way to address her as such, her pride wouldn't allow her to outright refuse that label. The fact that the shortened nickname was also meant to help by 'allowing quick communication to happen during a fight' just added extra salt to her open injury.

She was really vexed about the matter. Her face would just turn a darker shade of red as an annoyed pout would alternate just for an irked scowl.

The Fox Prime was quite the endearing character if one knew how to handle her. Not that she was easy to approach without taking huge risks with her temper, but it wasn't that complicated when sparring and training were involved in any opportunity to hang together.

“I think this will do," Addie concluded quietly, a hum soon following as she looked one last time at the lengthy green line that represented the route we were to take to reach our destination. “I suppose Archie is already aware of the amount of dangerous turns the ship will have to take-"

“I've already run a couple of simulations to test the best speed and curving pattern to follow with each turn, ma'am," The Spirit interrupted chirpily. “While Boss seems to be quite taken with bizarre turns, I can make all of them safely and without a problem."

The Coyote Prime smiled at the positive response. “That's good to know, thank you."

Ignoring the interaction, Carmesi turned at me with a bored look, but her eyes were now hinting a degree of hope that was impressive to find in her. Even though she had yet to speak up, I knew what she was going to say already.

“Does this mean that-"

“Yes, we're going to train now," I interjected calmly, holding back any clue of tiredness at her pestering. For having served the military for a while, she sure was troublesome to handle in this kind of circumstances.

Like a puppy that was given a ball to play with, her expression lightened up and she almost jumped up from her seat.

“Finally!"

I was so close to facepalm at the scene, but I was quickly distracted by Adela as she brought up a curious comment while still regarding Archie.

“Also, since the current course doesn't require major adjustments, how about you join us for training?"

The spirit blinked. “Can I?"

The Fox Prime hummed. “How good are you at fighting?"

The question was met with a smirk as the little guy made one of the unused glasses by the sink fly before destroying it with… his arm-cannon.

A strange contraption akin to a cannon created around his right hand, producing a white beam that easily shattered the sudden target.

“I think I'm good."

“You got a long-range weapon… I suppose you're not good at hand-to-hand combat."

“Nope. Sorry about that, Carmie."

She twitched at the nickname, but still nodded back at that response. “Then you can stay and watch, but I will not spar with someone that can't handle close quarters."

“I'm fine with it," Archie accepted happily. “Also, about yesterday night, I think I should tell you that the washing machines are at the end of the hallway. Hiding your used clothes under the bed will not do-"

“I-I was going to ask," Carmesi interjected tensely, trying to damage control of that awkward discovery.

So she didn't know where the washing machines were and… she tried to pull the standard 'under the bed' tactic.

Heh.

Despite this little dampening factor to her mood, her giddiness for a rematch proved to be as persisting as her determination was.

Twenty minutes passed quietly as we all moved to the gym room, and got all the equipment we needed to set up the spar.

She was using two practice daggers, while I was once again stuck with the wooden.

The rules were quite simple. No Magic was to be used and… the match was over once one of the two was hurt to the point of submission.

It was going to be more tame than what we had in our first brawl, but I knew that this was still going to be pretty intense despite the limitations we were working with.

Standing in front of her, with my hands tightly holding the hilt of the practice sword, I used the quiet preparation to brace myself for a swift assault.

I was proven correct when the Crest charged at me, her dull 'blades' barely considered a threat as I started to swing at her approaching attacks.

Her physical prowess was the same as back then. She had just started to train intensively, and I knew that this was just the beginning for a massive potential growth for Carmie as she skyrocketed to her very limits and beyond.

Her grin was matched with my smile as we both entertained each other with a dance of attacks and counters. There was no reason to rush for the win. The longer this fight was, the more chances of noticing personal flaws that could be improved with new exercises.

Right now her most evident issue was her strength. She was barely reaching my own might, and I knew that it was going to be the element that was going to get corrected the most through extensive muscle building.

I wasn't expecting her to bulk up and ditch her excellent speed just to handle this problem, but I knew that she was going to need more food on her plate to get the mass to keep up with the demanding exercises.

And guess who is going to be the one that will have to prepare bigger meals for her?

Sneaking a kick to her lower thigh through her hasty defense, I felt smug at how easy it was to deal with her without facing her powerful fire-related attacks. The proud woman took notice of this too, her teeth gritting as she tried to outpace me as soon as she recoiled from that first damage she received.

The intensity only grew more as I kept on dodging and blocking the furious swipes of her hungry daggers. Carmesi was now willing to take risk on herself for the sake of returning the favor back to me, and that boded bad for me as I was suddenly pushed to just defend from her high-speed assault.

I tensed as one of her daggers managed to slam at one of my arms, the area quickly feeling the sting and going stiff for a brief moment.

She chuckled, enjoying the unconscious reaction, but not lingering for too long over the sight as she knew this was all but the beginning.

My breath burned in my lungs as air was being forcefully pushed in and out of me, my body demanding for a quickening from everything I had within. My thoughts were speeding up like crazy, and most of them were small and short-termed ones as I couldn't afford to make too elaborate of a plan in the heat of the fight.

I wasn't sure if Carmesi was dealing with the same situation as mine, but I could tell from the way we were soon matching up evenly that her bolstered attack had faded away at seeing a first step in a possible win for herself.

A stalemate, and one I doubted I was going to come out on top if she decided to further press her advantage with her speed.

I was already feeling some strain after that much attention being given to attack me, but I could tell she was screwing her stamina by being so aggressive with her fighting style.

Eventually I landed a noticeable blow on her kneecap, causing her leg to stiffen up and make her stance falter just enough for a quick continuation. The Fox Prime looked absolutely pissed as I managed to take a swift jab at her face, and she retorted by landing a kick onto my chest.

The pressure was insane, and despite our promise to Addie, I could feel the rush starting to kick in and-

“That's enough."

We both paused before we had the chance to resume the tense skirmish, both our stares turning at the young Queen as the girl shook her head.

“You two have done enough for today."

“W-What?" Carmesi blurted with a shocked tone. “But I- we didn't even-"

“Look at each other, you both were trying to remake what happened last time."

The brutal rebuttal got a flinch out of me as that instantly snapped me out of trying to resume the brawl.

Was it the Fire element calling for a more heated fight just like last time? That mere possibility got me to back away from the idea of continuing the spar, and even though Carmesi herself seemed quite understanding of the matter, she was absolutely livid at being stopped this suddenly.

“Y-You could've allowed us to fight a little more. Until we're not beating each other, I don't see-"

“We should stop," I said, drawing her shocked look on me.

“What?"

“We have yet to do our planned exercises today. And if we tire each other too much with this, then we can't go through the rest," I replied calmly, using this break from training to regain control over my breathing. Seriously, that was quite intense. “Plus, I really don't want to sleep at the hospital bed tonight."

Raising some legitimate points, I knew where to press to get her to accept this situation. And she did… albeit with some reservations.

“Still, I think we should do a full spar in a day or two from now," The Fox Prime demanded. “I refuse to just stand with a minor victory-"

“It was a draw."

“Victory, and I want an actual rematch."

…

“Okay," I accepted. “But we're making bets out of those spars."

“Deal."

“Do I get a say on this or-"

“It's between him and me, your highness," Carmesi quickly replied. “So until I'm asking to fight you, I don't see why you should be involved."

“Theo is my knight," Addie rebuked and the Fox Prime merely snorted.

“And does that mean he can't make that kind of decision?"

That very question left the young Queen surprisingly quiet for the remainder of the training session. I was surprised at this sudden comment from Carmie, but I knew she was partly right about it.

I might be Adela's knight, but I was still allowed to make choices as silly as the one I had just made.

But despite my best interest in keeping myself focused on training, I found this topic persisted in my thoughts until nighttime.

----------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d-------

A yawn left my lips as I placed my journal back to the bedside. Another chapter had been written down, and I felt tired enough to call it a day.

Dinner had been particularly light, and there wasn't much happening once we were done through the various training sessions for today. My body felt sore, and the softness of my bed was almost alluring as I prepared to catch some due rest.

But instead of outright trying to get to sleep, I decided to check on a small device I had kept a secret from the rest of the group. Except Archie, of course.

The Nanozell Spirit had quickly spotted my cell phone and had given it a 'full look' before taking a liking with some of the songs there.

I didn't have a long list to pick from, but the little music I had in there was more than enough to keep me distracted as I checked the photo gallery.

Staring at one of the oldest photos I had when I still lived in the United States, I remembered that it was taken when dad taught me how to fish.

At first the task had been so boring for the child me as the activity required patience and quiet, but I soon took a liking to the pleasant silence and pauses between the few catches of the day.

I could still remember when I started to take swimming lessons, when I gave a brief look at photography and… and these times were nice.

Another yawn left me as I allowed the suave tune I had picked to lull me into sleep. At this point I needed to get as many hours of rest as I could.

With how unpredictable things were, I had to keep vigilant and ready in case there was a need of help from me.

Nuzzling on my pillow, I felt so close to actually falling asleep, but just as I felt a smile adorn my face in preparation for a few hours without anything to worry about, my attention was fully awakened by someone knocking at the door of the room.

It wasn't too loud, but my half-tired stare turned to the entrance and I sighed. “Who is it?"

“I-It's me."

Addie?

My mind started to recover more awareness under those circumstances.

“Is something wrong? Do you need to enter inside?"

There was silence for a couple of seconds, and then the girl spoke again.

“I… I need to enter inside."

I nodded. “Please do," I replied quickly, feeling rather perplexed over the unexpected visit.

The Coyote Prime opened the door and took two steps inside before closing it behind her.

She was holding a pillow in her arms and close to her chest. Her usual dress with armor pieces was now replaced by what I could only see as her nightwear.

The dark dress was a sleeveless one that barely reached her knees. It was pretty light for clothes considering how conservative the girl was on a normal basis, but I could tell that it had to be a nightmare to rest with too much on while having fur.

And I didn't have room to say much since I had just a sleeveless white shirt on and a pair of short blue pants as my sleepwear. The sheets of the bed were covering most of me, but she seemed to realize that I was sleeping light myself.

“I… I'm sorry that I came here abruptly."

I frowned at the sudden senseless apology.

“Did something happen? Do you need help with something or-"

“I know it's childish but… I need to ask you a huge favor," She interjected tensely. “You… I wish to sleep with you."

…

“What?"

“I-I tried to deal with the nightmares on my own but… they don't stop," The young Queen confessed. “I… I need to stay around someone I trust. And I need you."

She was still having nightmares about her mother's death?

I was unsure how to treat this sudden development as I knew that this was the kind of scene that either kept or broke a friendship. Then again, this was beyond simple friendship.

Not only was Addie asking me something that revolved around a blind amount of trust. Something that just shouldn't be happening after so little time has passed since we've known each other.

Yet you're the only individual that she can rely on.

That is true-

And you don't want her to go through this alone.

Once again, I don't want to hurt her but-

But what? Should she go to Carmie and be flatly refused? Archie can't exactly sleep properly, so he's out of the count too.

...Okay, you won this time around, brain.

Heh.

“Okay."

“A-And I'm not trying to- Wait, what?"

“I said 'okay'," I repeated myself, blinking at her surprised look. “I mean, you have a decent reason to come and ask that here. I know you're in need of someone around and… I can somewhat relate since I really have an issue with new settings."

Addie pondered about my words for a moment, and then her green eyes hinted at some realization. “That panic attack, back when you were first summoned."

“Yep."

…

“So you're allowing me to… stay here?"

“Sure."

The girl looked incredibly unsure as to how to go through with this, but after a while she managed to walk closer to the bed and… slip inside the empty space I offered to her.

The bed was big as it was for just me, but with a second occupant I felt cramped and pressed quite close to Adela.

Keeping tense for some time, I could tell that the Coyote Prime was having these awkward thoughts too. It didn't help that we were blushing stupidly as this was, albeit strange, a legitimately fine situation.

It was still a hefty amount of trust she was throwing at me and… I didn't know if I was meant to be awed or concerned by this escalation.

I decided to just allow myself to find rest for once, sparing Adela little to none interest whatsoever once we were together in bed.

At first I thought she would've started to talk and ask about my perspective in current events. It was just normal for her to be curious about the current state of things from another perspective, or even ask more about humans since this was as awkward it was for Primes as it was for humans.

But then I saw her yawn and snuggle on the pillow we were now sharing, her face turned my way as she closed her eyes and carefully slipped into proper sleep. The pillow that she had brought with herself became a divisive barrier between the two of us… yet it looked pretty flimsy since how soft and thin the thing looked to be.

Still, this surprising phenomenon took about ten minutes to come to an end, and I was surprised that the cliché I had expected to be part of never took off.

…

Yet sleep took sure some time to take me too in dreamland as I found myself mesmerized by the eased look the girl had on her face. It was so pretty and… I couldn't stare away for a while.

A yawn preceded the fact that moments later I would find rest in that bizarre setting.

With the warmth coming from Addie's size of the bed, I felt surprisingly fine with the current disposition and I expected to have a calm rest out of it.

But while I was able to achieve so much to my relief, the same was partly wrong from the young queen's side of the situation.

It was only theoretical at best since it happened while I was already sleeping, but considering her nightmares, I was sure that the reason why I woke up with her arms wrapping around my neck and her face pressing on my chest was somehow related to it.

And boy, how awkward it was when we both woke up at the same time in that close disposition.

----------d-d-d-d------------d-d-d--d-------

AN

The Queen finds solace in her knight's company… while someone else is thinking about the past, the present and the future.

The question is… will fluff win over it all?