Planet XSQ-1827, Substation 33, Year 16,369 A.I. (9 Weeks after Seraphina’s Awakening.)

I’m back in my room, pacing around the cylindrical chamber.  Pacing literally around my bed, from side to side, in and out of the bathroom, flying around in the room as fast as I dare, all trying to burn off all this excess nervous energy.  But it’s no good.

Nor is anything else I’ve done.  I’ve tried drawing, but I’m just not in the headspace.  Water does nothing for me, whether splashed on my face or ingested.  Deep breaths fail to still my racing heart.  Despite my ability to suppress my body’s autonomic responses and bring myself to calm, I cannot seem to override the all-encompassing fear that’s taken over every fiber of my body.

It’s not Annette that I’m scared of.  If it comes to it, I’m more confident than ever that I can defend myself and even win a fight against her to the death.  Not that I want to.  Even doing what I did makes me most displeased in a way I really didn’t think would be the case until just now.  It’s not like fighting dumb beasts or monsters in the Tower Gauntlet.  Even though I was being threatened for my life and only acted to defend myself, it still felt like absolute shit to attack another person like that.

I… I guess that was probably inevitable at some point.  Maybe that’s what Madison was trying to protect me from.  From all the people like Annette who would use their power to try to take advantage of me.  And… if so, I’m going to have to thank her for her consideration.  I guess.  Even if I won’t like it one bit.

But still, that’s not fair that she had me locked up here in Substation 33 and wouldn’t let me leave!  Not fair in the slightest!  She gives me all this power.  Tells me that the world— no, the entire universe— is resting on my shoulders.  And that I have to train and fight and develop the power I have— the power of ｢The Anomaly｣— in order to do so.  But does she let me see the world?  Experience it?  Meet new people and learn the good, the bad, and the ugly about it?  No, she does not!

And if she refuses to consider how I feel even now, after everything, then… I don’t know what.  I don’t know how to convince her, and I certainly don’t have the ability to force her to listen to me if she doesn’t want to!  Petulant or not, it’s not fair!  Not fair at all!

She gets to go to her fancy meetings on other planets and see the world, and I’m just a girl trapped in a cage!  So what if I’m young and naive and allegedly immature!  It’s not fair in the slightest that you make me fight and train and then just lock me up like a pet bird the moment my presence is the slightest bit inconvenient.

I stamp on the floor with half my strength, enough to crack the wooden floor and dent the metal underneath.  I flare out my aura with rage, striking the air with bursts of my power over and over again!  Hate it so damn much!

I punch once, then twice, then dozens and finally hundreds of times, angry and just needing the sweetness of cathartic release.  But, though my body is starting to tire and my [Ether] is starting to expire, it does nothing to quell the restlessness of my mind that makes me want to vent my many frustrations out on… I don’t know who.  But someone!

I keep punching, not caring about the outside world.  No, it’s not helping in the long run.  My sources of stress are still going to be there tonight and tomorrow and the day after that.  But at least it feels good and it’ll help me get tired enough to rest and then maybe I’ll have a clearer head and not feel like I’m trapped here with no friends and oh, cosmos above, I don’t even have a real family and…

“AAAAAHHHH!” I cry out, dropping to my knees and hitting the ground with enough force that the substation’s barrier briefly flares to life to stop my attack from doing too much damage.  I recoil from the attack, flying backward into the wall, and then onto the floor.  Still fueled by anger and with adrenaline rushing through me, I force myself back to my feet, punching at an imagined spectral image of Madison, venting out my frustrations to her even though the real one neither can hear me, nor would give a damn if she did.

“I hate it!  I hate it!  I hate it!” I scream, flailing at the image in my mind.  “Why do you keep me locked in here?  Am I just a tool to you?  Something to be used when it’s convenient?  Something to be ashamed of?  Locked in a closet, disposed of the moment it’s zero-point-one percent easier to forget about me?  I might be artificial, but you still made me a person!  You still gave me thoughts and hopes and dreams and desires!  And I…  I–”

I throw one last punch with all the strength I have, only to have it hit a piece of something… uncharacteristically soft.  Madison’s hand closes around my fist, her eyes… strangely watery.  Why is she… crying?  And now, she’s moving closer.  She’s… She’s going to kill me, isn’t she?  This is it…  She’s crying because she’s about to put me down like a dog.  Because that’s all I ever was to her.  A dumb puppy.

Her arms wrap around me.  I tense up, bracing myself for the end…  I suppose I should be grateful for the few weeks I did get.  Now I’m on the verge of tears myself.  I’m not sorry for what I did.  Sorry for the mess I caused, I guess.  I’m sure dealing with Annette will be a pain.  But at least once I’m dead and gone, someone Madison actually cares about can step in and fix all my mistakes.

“Just… make it quick,” I say, limp in her arms.  “I know I can’t do anything against you.  Even with my [Seraphina Overlimit], I couldn’t prevail against you.  I know that now, having seen what you’re truly capable of.”

“Make it quick?”

“Going to torture me for a bit first, then?”

“Torture you?  Why would I do that?”

“That’s what you’re here to do, right?  Kill me?  Put me out of your misery?”

“Seraphina…”  Her embrace tightens around me.  She’s only an inch taller than me, but when she stands next to me like this, her presence completely dwarfs mine.  I shrink, expecting the end.  An end which never comes.

“Why?” I ask.

“Seraphina, I’m sorry.”

She holds me closer.  I still don’t understand.  Why isn’t she attacking?

“Why are you apologizing?  Do you need to make me despair even now?”

Madison shakes her head.  “I’m not here to kill you, Seraphina.  I’m here because I heard that you needed me.  And I came to apologize that I haven’t been here for you these past few days.”

“I’m…”  The dam breaks, and water surges from my eyes down to my cheeks.  And the flow of tears just won’t stop as I finally return Madison’s embrace.

I don’t know how long we stand like that, the two of us crying in one another’s arms.  Time always moves so wonky when we use our Skills and slow down our perception to fight more effectively in battles where milliseconds can mean the difference between life and death.  Despite her own tears accumulating on her own face, she spares not a moment for them, instead wiping my own away, still holding me, even as all my tension fades and my eyes grow red and puffy and my whole body grows sleepy.  Sleepy and achy.

Before I know it, I’m sitting on my bed, Madison right next to me, supporting me as I rest on her shoulder.  We stay like that for a bit longer before she speaks.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Seraphina.  For leaving you here by yourself.  And more importantly, for failing to consider your feelings.  I know I was busy, and…  You’re right, I left you here because I thought you would be happier here than in all the meetings I have to go to.  But it shouldn’t have been me to make that decision for you, Seraphina.  I can’t take back what I did in the past, though.  All I can do is offer my apologies, and then try to make it up to you somehow.”

“I–  I’m sorry, too.  I just…  I wanted to see this world.  I wanted to know what the world is like.  Not just the little spaces we use for training or these Towers, but all of the world.  The stars, the planets, all the things I’ve read about in these books. I want to know what you want me to fight for, before it’s too late to see it all.”

“I should warn you, Seraphina.  It’s not going to be as exciting and fun and beautiful as the world you’ve read about in those journals and seen on the holograms.”

I chuckle.  “Yeah.  I kinda figured that right about the time a vampire threatened to kill me while I was in the middle of drinks.”

“In the middle of what?”

“Drinks.  I ended up flying down to some sort of… tavern, I think they called it.  Had some sort of drink and–”

“Seraphina,” Madison says flatly, her gaze upon me.  “Please tell me that you didn’t get drunk, or worse, addicted.”

“I got hit with the [Mild Intoxication] condition, at which point, I immediately panicked, used [Etheric Self-Repair] on myself, and purged all the intoxicants from my body.”

She stares at me.  “Fine.  I detect no lie in your words.  And that’s a good thing, too.  Especially since the testimony and surveillance footage we were able to gather largely corroborates your innocence.”  She looks away from me.  “Doesn’t mean it won’t be a pain in the ass to deal with; the MacConnair vampire lineage is old, proud, and not one to take an insult to their clan lying down.  Even if it was a self-inflicted wound to said pride.”

“I’m–”  I hesitate for a moment.  “I’m sorry for that, Madison.”

Madison guides me up off my bed and into another hug.  “I’m glad to hear that.  As for what’s going to happen now.  My original thought, having only heard about the incident at the tavern, was to confine you to quarters for three days as punishment for sneaking out like that.  However, in light of our conversation earlier and the circumstances at hand, I believe such disciplinary actions would be counterproductive.”

She pauses for a moment, and if I weren’t so tuckered out from venting and the subsequent catharsis, my heart would be racing.  As it is, I’m merely looking at her while struggling even to stay seated upright on my bed.

“It is getting late tonight, so you will be confined to your room for the rest of the day… Although I don’t think you will object to that much punishment.  As you are, I doubt you have enough energy to do much more than have dinner and then pass out.  I’ll make sure a meal is prepared and sent here shortly.  Tomorrow, however, we will begin training again in earnest.”

“More training?”  I do nothing to hide my discontent.

“Please let me finish, Seraphina.  In three weeks, there will be an interstellar summit.  Representatives from planets across the local region of the galaxy will be convening on planet Arbarra to discuss matters of galactic importance.  I, as Lady Protector and the nominal governor of XSQ-1827, will be attending, and I would like for you to accompany me.  As a friend, an escort, and… well, as a bodyguard.”

“As a bodyguard?  There’s no way I could guard you better than you can do so yourself.  And three weeks is hardly enough time to get anywhere near as strong as I would need to be!”

“You are correct.  Fortunately, that’s not a concern.  While the lords and ladies protector of the various planets throughout the cosmos are among the strongest individuals in the universe, we do not engage in direct fighting in such gatherings.  The reasons for that are ancient, as much cultural now as they are diplomatic and practical.  Beyond the fact that my attacking another protector would be tantamount to a declaration of war, suffice it to say that a clash between two individuals in their final classes would involve collateral damage on the scale of the planet itself.

“The problem is that, this aside, there are those who would use the summit as an opportunity to sow chaos and discord among the planets, goading nominal allies into war for political reasons.  In short, spying and espionage are rampant among the lesser diplomats, my own subordinates not excluded.  And that’s where you come in.  You have two of the most absurd intelligence and counterintelligence Skills that I’ve ever heard of, and, with your potential, I’m sure you can get them ranked up quickly.”

“So you want me to be your spy?”

“Something to that effect.  How does that sound as far as getting out, exploring the world, traveling the stars, and so forth?”

“I–  I like it,” I say, sheepishly and with extreme exhaustion.

“Then it shall be so.  Rest well, Seraphina.  We will begin your training in the morning.”