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Acxa is jumping through the woods, briefly looking behind her now and then. Her eyes are glowing, her breath is controlled and sweat is rolling down her jaw, she feels alive. She swings down elegantly, lets herself fall into the grass and waits for her companions to arrive.
“That wasn’t fair Acxa! We said racing, not doing acrobatics in the trees” Veronica flops down next to Acxa, laughing. “I had a nice view though,” she says. Acxa gives her a knowing grin.
Romelle comes in last. She braces herself on her thighs, gasping for air. “How… can she be… so fast…”
Acxa, swiftly changing the topic once Romelle arrives, says: “I am glad you dragged me to this hike, Veronica. It really is nice to have a day off and run around without a uniform on for once.”
Veronica looks happy and pulls a leaf out of Acxa’s hair.
Romelle, who’s, still out of breath, pants, “Well I guess you have to thank me then-” she takes a deep breath, “I practically had to force your girlfriend to finally take a vacation. You should take more care of her.” She doesn’t conceal the reproach in her voice.
Acxa props herself up on her elbows, her lips pressed into a line in concern.
Veronica sits up “Oh come on, Romelle. You know she does, I’m just stubborn.” She grins her well-known mischievous smile. “It’s just easier to force me from the Garrison than from the other side of the universe.”
Romelle sits down in front of them, not facing Acxa. “Why did they even open the Blades’ headquarters so far away, is Shiro not the Boss of everything? Doesn’t he want Keith as close as possible too?”
“Unfortunately, we cannot control where help is needed in the universe,” Acxa answers, now fully sitting up.
“And Acxa is also very stubborn when it comes to her working ethic, that’s why I’m so happy that this weekend I really have both my favorite people with me.” Veronica looks happily at both of them, her joy so contagious, they can do nothing but be happy with her.
*
The sun is nearly setting. Acxa starts a campfire while Veronica sets up the big tent she bought especially for this occasion. Romelle prepares food to cook over the fire. Since Acxa lit the fire in a heartbeat and Veronica refuses help with the tent, she awkwardly asks Romelle if she can assist.
Romelle knows how important it is to Veronica that they get along, so she agrees grudgingly, and does her best to be nice, even after Acxa dared to ask her if she packed anything that doesn’t taste sweet.
Nobody could miss the tension between the two. As the sky above them turns dark so do their faces – Romelle’s out of anger and Acxa’s from frustration. Only when Veronica finally joins them, the two ease up a little. Veronica worries that her plan to get them to know each other better on this trip will actually work. While they sit around the fire, she gets an idea.
“I’ll go and grab some more firewood!” She says all out of a sudden and jumps up.
Acxa looks confused. “But we still have…enough.”
Veronica was already gone.
Romelle and Acxa sit in silence for a while, Romelle pokes at the fire with a stick.
Then she stops. “Do you think she will take long?”
“I do not know, yet it seemed to be an intentional leave. I can hear her eavesdrop behind the bushes.” They hear rustling that moves away and Romelle suppresses a small giggle that forms in her throat. Then she falls silent along with Acxa for a while.
If Romelle would look at Acxa in the dim light of the fire, she could see the otherwise stoic half-Galra visibly going through inner conflict. “The sky is beautiful tonight” Acxa suddenly spits out.
Romelle looks up at the sky.
“It does.” She pauses. “I remember sitting outside with my family to look at the stars and talk about new constellations…. When I was alone I couldn’t sleep. I would go outside and pretend to talk to them.” Her eyes soak up the dark blue of the sky.
Axca looks at her thoughtfully but stays silent. Romelle shakes her head and looks directly at Acxa. The trained ex-soldier notices the slightly narrowed eyebrows and tears in the corners of Romelle’s eyes.
“So what about your family?” the Altean asks. “I never heard you or Veronica talk about them.”
“I am not too fond of my ancestry.”
Romelle holds her gaze. Acxa sighs. “My mother was Queen Merla, a great conqueress beloved by her people yet she only seemed to love those who she could take advantage of.”
At the sound of the name Romelle perks up a little. “Merla? There was a girl named Merla in the colony but the one you describe sounds nothing like her and she sure was not a Queen.”
“Ah yes, Merla… I found out about her, when I became Lotor’s general. She is my younger half-sister; probably one of many. It did not surprise me that the Queen named a beautiful child after herself.”
“Wait wait wait, your WHAT?”
“My half-sister, yes.”
“How could that even be possible?”
“My mother had born many children, but none of them out of love. She left Merla with her father and disposed of me when I was still a child. I did not show the superiority in my training she expected from my Galran heritage.”
Romelle’s face seems unmoved. “So you grew up with your father as Merla did?”
“I was not left with my father since men were not allowed in the queen’s reign. The Merla you know did not even set foot on the planet I once called home, she was an accident-“
“An ‘accident’?!”
“- Not a calculated offspring like me. I had not known of my father for all my life, but after I was left by myself, a nice old woman took pity on me and raised me in the last years of the short time of her existence.”
“Lucky you.”
Unsure if she should continue, Acxa remembers Veronica telling her how important it is to open up and be vulnerable to form a connection and continues hesitantly.
“After my caretaker died I took on the quest to find my father. Two years later I found him. He took me in – even though reluctantly - and showed me everything about the Galran ways and taught me principles and honor.” Romelle huffs. “My father was not a typical Galra - he was strict like one and he wasn’t exactly loving - but he honored the life of others and respected my existence, unlike the rest of them. For them, I was a disgusting half-breed which they never accepted. This only changed when I met Lotor.”
The name is the last straw that it takes for Romelle to lose her cool. With a sudden move, she turns to face Acxa completely. Her fists are clenched and the red color in her face doesn’t come from the fire.
“Do you want pity?! You’re telling me that you grew up a princess and even found your father. What do you know about being alone?!” Her speech takes up in speed. “My people were hunted down. Because of my doubts towards Lotor no one in the colony wanted to be associated with me besides my family. And not even they believed me!” The fire cracks loudly and a cold breeze carries sparks up in the air, shortly illuminating Romelle’s furious expression. Acxa is surprised that she only now realizes how strong-minded Romelle is and that, all in all, they are not that different from each other. The blonde-haired woman continues: “You talking about honoring life when that nice first friend of yours killed them is not only infuriating, but also atrocious.”
Acxa has never seen Romelle so upset. She doesn’t know what to do and tries: “He was not my friend, but our group leader.” Romelle closes her eyes, eyebrow twitching. “My first friend was Narti, who already accompanied him back then.” Acxa realizes her mistake too late. But she also grows frustrated. “I know how it is to be singled out. No matter what planet I lived on, I was always considered different. I was left out of everything.” She looks down, then adds “In the later years it did not help that I did not agree with a lot of the ways of the Galra.” Acxa bites her lip. “Which is what got my father killed.”
Those last words make the Altean pause. Acxa can’t make out Romelle’s facial reaction and it doesn’t help that they didn’t add more wood to the fire. The air around her feels colder but Acxa isn’t sure if that’s because of the dying fire or Romelle staring at her.
“Lotor shared the same beliefs and seemed like a man of honor. He painted a very convincing picture of people not living in fear and being accepted the way they are.”
“So you followed the man that killed my family and thousands of Alteans without questioning his methods.” There it is. The sentence that lingered so long between them in the background. Romelle’s voice is cold and bitter.
Acxa’s head sinks down. She expected it. She thought about it day in day out and yet it knocks the air out of her chest. “I am not proud to say it, but you are right. I see now that the pragmatic “sacrifice a few to safe the rest” is easy to say if it does not concern your loved ones. It was the biggest mistake of my life and will haunt me until the end.” She looks up, sadness and guilt in her eyes. “I am really sorry, Romelle.”
“I do not need you guilt,” she grits through her teeth, looking away.
“You are right. I should not have said that. The only thing I can do now is help to make it better.” Her voice becomes softer “Keith and Veronica helped me realize that.”
The silence that follows feels like the whole forest holding its breath.
“Is this why you joined the Blades?” Romelle’s gaze is piercing like she tries to look in Acxa’s soul to see if her remorse is real or as hollow as Lotor’s words.
“It is. And I still want to help to create a universe with people not living in fear and where everyone feels accepted.”
The next silence feels a bit less tense. After a while Romelle put’s a log in the small fire.
“You are more true to yourself than I thought. I assumed you just wanted to find a new leader you could follow.” Acxa can still hear the suspicion in her voice.
“Keith is a leader, yes. But he is also my friend. By now probably my best friend or ... together with Krolia… they are something like my family,” Acxa confesses awkwardly out of desperation.
Romelle breaks into an unexpected laugh that seems to take the tension out of her body. “Oh my holy quizzack! Acxa you’re telling me Krolia is like your mother and here I thought you had a crush on her and wanted to confront you and tell you to back off.”
Acxa blinks. “Why would you think that?”
Suddenly Romelle becomes almost shy. “Well you wanted to spend all that time with her and you even hugged her which appears to be untypical for you and… and I …. uhm…” She turns beet red. “I probably should have listened to Veronica.”
Acxa relaxes and only now notices how tense her muscles were. “Yes, indeed.” She hears Veronica approaching so she raises her voice and adds with a sweet voice “Since Veronica is always right.”
“I heard my name, are you two gossiping?” Veronica throws some twigs into the fire which engulfs them hungrily.
“Wow Acxa are you learning to be cheesy?” Romelle teases. Veronica’s grin widens “I’m teaching her well.”
“Yes, very well.” Acxa looks smug.
“Ugh ok, please stop,” Romelle grimaces. “Who’s hungry? Because I feel like I carried a Balmeran up a mountain today.”
The trio starts stuffing the food down their throats in quantities that feel like the appropriate amount for an entire fleet. Acxa seemed to have forgotten that she doesn’t like sweets. Veronica sits contently between the two, relieved that her plan at least doesn’t seem to have backfired.
*
Veronica is the first one to pass out in the tent from all the food since she doesn’t have the stomach of an Altean or half-Galra. While preparing for the night Acxa coyly goes up to Romelle. “Uhm…thank you for talking to me Romelle.”
“Yeah…. I will have to do some thinking still and I do not trust you yet. It will take some time and a lot of talking…”
“I know. But you think there is a chance we can get there someday?”
Romelle looks at her, then nods slowly.
“We might get there.”