Chapter Forty: Reunion

Ren walked down the hall, his stomach filled with anxiety and his lungs struggling to breathe consistently, until he saw what he had been waiting for.

"There's no way..."

Ren backed out of the hallway and started breathing heavily, which Lucilia and the others saw on camera.

"I guess he knows them." Aurelia said.

"Seems so..." Lucilia replied.

She was worried about Ren; it had been months since he interacted with anyone from his own planet, and he knows who the prisoners are, which caused him to have a lot of anxiety.

"Ren..." Lucilia said worryingly.

Ren got his head together and turned back down the hallway, which the prisoners heard.

"What are you going to torture us?" 

It seemed like the prisoners couldn't see Ren because he was in the dark.

"No, don't plan on it." Ren responded.

"You speak our language?"

"That I do." Ren replied, still hidden in the darkness.

Ren then took a deep breath, and he stepped up into the light, revealing his face to the prisoners.

"It can't be..."

Ren smiled, looking at the prisoners.

"Ren..."

"Hey Scarlet." Ren said.

Scarlet, who was behind the bars in the cell, rushed towards them to get a closer look at Ren. Tears started to flow down her cheeks.

"Ren!" Scarlet yelled, still crying.

"It's been awhile, Scarlet." Ren replied.

Ren then looked at the other prisoners, three of whom were also crying.

"What? no reunion hug from you guys?" Ren asked.

Lily, Serenity, and Tyler were also there. Lily, who had fallen down to her knees crying seeing Ren again; Serenity, who was still in disbelief; Ren also noticed she knew she had died; the ends of her hair were light blue, which he thought looked great on her and matched her eyes; and Tyler, who cracked a smile and said "I knew they couldn't kill you."

However, there were two other prisoners also in the cell: Eleonora, the fireteam Epsilon captain, and Sakura, another member of the fireteam Epsilon.

"Ren...how are you here?" Eleonora asked in disbelief.

"I could ask all of you that same question; I heard that there was a battle?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, if you could call it that..." Tyler replied.

Ren knew there was more to the story, and he looked at the camera and said "Open the cell; it's fine."

After a few seconds, the cell opened, and Ren walked inside into a barrage of hugs from Scarlet, Serenity, and Lily.

"You found us..." Scarlet said, burying her face into Ren's chest.

"I didn't think I'd see you again." Serenity said, holding Ren's arm.

Lily didn't say anything as she buried herself into Ren's side, crying.

Ren smiled as he tried to comfort them all "I'm here now, and I won't be leaving any of you again."

After a few minutes of Ren calming them down, Ren takes a seat on one of the beds in the room, and the three girls immediately sit next to him. Serenity even sits behind him as none of them want to leave his side.

"Lucilia is going to kill me..." Ren thought to himself.

He was right; Aurelia had to basically tie her sister down to a chair to stop her from marching all the way down there.

"So, Ren, what happened to you?" Eleonora asked.

She was also happy to learn that Ren was alive and well, but she wanted to know what had happened to Ren since he was captured.

"Well, that day I was captured, I lucked out." Ren said.

"Lucked out?" Tyler asked.

"Let's just say nothing we learned about these people is correct, at least not completely." Ren said.

"What do you mean?" Scarlet asked.

"Well, we learned that these people were cruel and vicious, but that's not the complete truth. The people I have met have been nothing but kind to me. There were some road bumps, but in the end, they have done a lot for me. They aren't as evil and twisted as we originally made them out to be.

"So they didn't torture you?" Eleonora asked.

"Nope, not a scratch on me like I said; they are very kind." Ren said.

"Wait...how come they can understand you but not us?" Sakura asked.

"Well, they do understand you; you just don't understand them." Ren said "In short, they install a device that allows for clear communication with most languages. When I was captured, they installed one in me when I was unconscious. They wanted to do the same with you, but they didn't want to force your hands; that's why they brought me here."

"You weren't here originally?" Serenity asked.

"No, I was actually on another planet called Versaerth, living in a village there; in fact, some of their people came with us on this ship." Ren explained.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around you being treated cordially." Eleonora said.

"Well, since you are here now, you will be treated similarly, I expect." Ren said.

Then the comms came on, and Aurelia spoke "Ren, we will be giving them rooms and fresh clothes; there's also showers if they need them."

Everyone but Ren looked confused, which Ren noticed "Sorry, not used to being the only one understanding what they say; they said you will be given rooms, clothes, and showers if you want them."

The group looked at each other, worried about what would happen.

"Guys, trust me, they will treat you well, especially if Lucilia has a say about it." Ren explained.

"Who's Lucilia?" Lily asked.

Ren could feel his arms tighten as Scarlet and Lily held them closely.

"She's the one who's been caring for me; she's very kind, I promise." Ren said.

"Look, man, honestly, I trust you wholeheartedly, but I don't trust them at all." Tyler said.

"And I understand that. I didn't trust them either, to be honest; they earned my trust through their actions, and I'm asking you just to give them a chance." Ren said.

"Alright, Ren, I'll let you lead." Eleonora said.

"Are you sure?" Ren asked.

"Look, honestly, I thought you were dead, and if you weren't dead, you were being tortured. But here you are, alive and well smiling; there has to be a reason for that. I want to know what. Maybe you're right; maybe they aren't as evil as we made them out to be, but I have to see that for myself." Eleonora said.

"That's all I ask." Ren said, smiling.

Ren looked up at the camera's camera and asked "Is it okay?"

"It's fine, Ren; you will just have to keep acting as a translator for them." Aurelia said.

Ren looked over to the group and said "Follow me."

The group did as he said and followed him down the hall, passing by the guard that escorted him.

Once they reached the main room, the entire group's jaws dropped upon seeing Ashastha, Sthora, and Laelli, who were standing there.

"Who are they?" Lily asked.

"Those are the villagers I told you about; this is Queen Ashastha, the leader of the village, and these are Sthora and Laelli." Ren introduced them.

Then Ren turned her head and saw Lucilia tied up.

"Why is she tied up...wait nevermind, I think I know why." Ren said.

"Yeah, she tried to sprint down to the cells the second you received your hugs." Aurelia explained.

"Ah." Ren walked over to Lucilia and asked, "Are you going to attack if I untie you?"

Lucilia shook her head, and Ren cut the ropes. Lucilia immediately jumped on Ren, wrapping her legs around his waist, which made Scarlet, Lily, and Serenity's jaws drop.

Lucilia then kissed Ren and then looked at the group and said "Mine"

"You know they don't understand you, right?" Ren thought to himself.

Ren looked over to Scarlet, Lily, and Serenity and saw the anger in their faces.

"I'm going to have to explain this somehow..." Ren thought to himself.

However, his torture wasn't over, as Ashastha grabbed him from behind and pushed his face into her chest.

"I want some affection too, Ren." Asha said.

After Ren managed to escape Asha's clutches, he escorted the others to their room as he tried to brush off their questions about what Lucilia and Asha did.

Once he arrived, the rooms were supposed to be according to Aurelia, and they had three rooms: Eleonora and Sakura shared one, Scarlet and Lily shared one, and Tyler had his own. Each room came with their own clothes to change into and a shower since they hadn't showered since before the battle they got captured in. Ren waited for about twenty minutes before one of them came out.

"Hey Ren." Lily said as she came out wearing a black dress with heels.

"Hey Lily, you look beautiful." Ren complemented. 

Lily blushed upon hearing that and asked Ren "Ren, what was with that girl who kissed you?"

Ren knew this was coming "I think that's a topic for everyone to hear; there's not exactly a simple explanation."

"If you say so, Ren..." Lily said shyly.

"It is really great to see all of you again; I honestly was worried I never would." Ren said, smiling.

"We didn't know if we would ever see you again either." Lily said. "But we knew you were alive; there's no way you weren't."

"Thanks for believing in me, Lily, truly, and thank you for supporting everyone. If I'm right, you stood by everyone as best as you could, so I truly thank you for that." Ren said.

"Ren..." Lily said, blushing.

Lily took a deep breath and embraced Ren, which Ren returned in kind.

"Thank you for coming back."

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