Inner Pain
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"Raiden! Come over here for a moment," called out Kori.
Raiden, engaged in a conversation with some soldiers about handling prisoners, turned around upon hearing Kori and made his way towards her.
"What's up?" Raiden inquired.
"I've got a little something for you; follow me," Kori said, wearing a broad grin.
"Now I'm really curious. What is it?" Raiden asked.
"Just follow me," Kori replied, continuing to walk. Raiden smiled and followed her.
After a brief walk, they arrived at the storage building. "You see, Raiden, I understand you're eager to get back home. While I can't assist you with that, I can provide the essential item to kickstart your journey," Kori explained as she opened the storage door.
Inside was an enormous spaceship, though it appeared worn-out, damaged, and entirely worthless.
"This, Raiden, is a spaceship – my gift to you! It'll take you through space," Kori announced with a wide smile.
"You're gifting me this junk?" Raiden expressed his disappointment.
"What? It's not that bad! You need this to navigate through space!" Kori defended.
Raiden looked around at the other, much better-maintained ships in the massive storage room. "Or I could use one of these. Why choose this beat-up piece of junk?" he suggested.
"Haha, I knew you wouldn't realize!" Kori chuckled.
"Realize what?" Raiden asked.
"Well, you see, this isn't just any spaceship like the others. While those can take you through space, they won't go beyond the Vega system. This, as you call it, is a Hyper Starship. This, dear Raiden, means it can traverse star systems!" explained Kori.
"Wait, seriously?" Raiden said, approaching the ship. He had noticed its larger size but hadn't given it much thought. Now, his dream of returning home seemed more achievable.
"Unfortunately, it's in disrepair. Fixing it will take some time – our engineer estimates more than five months. But that's not your main concern. The ship runs on a special energy extracted from Polydenum stone, a substance not found on Tamaran," Kori revealed, dashing Raiden's hopes.
"Well, that's just great," Raiden sighed.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, Kori. You have a lot on your plate, and my quest to find a way home should be the least of your worries. Come on, let's go celebrate!" Raiden suggested.
Despite facing challenges to reclaim her home, safeguard her people, and avenge her family, Kori still sought to aid Raiden in his foreign quest to return home.
…
5 Months Later
…
Time passed swiftly, and Raiden, along with the Resistance, achieved numerous victories over the past few months. Two fortresses and several bases were successfully taken down, marking the continuous growth of the Resistance in terms of finances, supporters, soldiers, and leaders.
"We must prepare for our next attack!" shouted one of the new Resistance commanders.
"I said no! We cannot risk it. We do not have enough information about Pegan Min! His fortress is off-limits until we gather more intel," replied Kori.
"We must strike while the iron is still hot. The Citadel hasn't fully prepared for our attacks. We must seize the opportunity!" insisted the commander.
"The Resistance represents the people! We can't jeopardize their lives for the chance to take down Pegan Min! Every fortress we conquered—Yuma, Hjan, Ghander—resulted from the hard work of our intel team. They gather information, identify weaknesses in the fortress, and then we strike," stated Kori, dismissing the idea.
One of the commanders pondered for a moment and asked, "What has the intel team been doing, anyway?"
"Doing much more work than you, may I remind you of my importance? Every fortress fell due to my hard work," retorted Raiden. He was seated at the table and grew visibly upset when the commander spoke. Disputes with the commanders had become a regular occurrence, with some doubting him, others mistrusting him, some jealous of his close relationship with the princess, and others envious of his power.
'And here I thought that Tamarans are all good. I guess an emotionally driven race is going to have some bad apples.'
"How dare you speak like that to a commander! You're just a unit leader! Princess, can we even allow this alien in here? What if he's a spy?" said the commander.
"Yeah, the man who elevated the Resistance to what it is now is a spy. Yup, very smart," mocked Raiden.
"Raiden is my most trusted ally here. I won't accept any baseless accusations like that again, or you will be stripped of your rank. Now, shall we end this meeting, or is there something else left?"
Before the meeting concluded, another commander, who had been consistently helpful, spoke up. "Unlike the other commanders, I recognize the necessity of Mr. Raiden. I would like to share my new discovery. Some men under me managed to uncover a secret Citadel base in North Sandoria. It appears to be a mine of some sort. We believe they were mining Radion Rocks to power the Radion Cannons. If Mr. Raiden can gather more information about that mine, we may be able to cut the supply of Radion Energy needed to run Fortress Pegan. This will allow us to finally take down Pegan Min and recover North Tamaran!"
"Why don't we just attack the mine and claim it as ours? We'll have a way to fuel our own Radion Cannon that we took from the Citadel. Why rely on the foreign alien?" questioned one of the commanders.
The calm commanders responded, "If we take over the mine, Pegan Min will have no choice but to alert the capital of the existence of the Resistance. Upon hearing about Princess Kori, the capital will unleash its full force, a force that the Resistance is currently unable to face."
"So you're asking me to secretly infiltrate the mine, gather information, and then plan a double attack on both the mine and the fortress... Interesting. I'm in," said Raiden.
"Are you sure, Raiden?" asked Kori.
"Yeah, why not? It's just another place to infiltrate," replied Raiden nonchalantly.
"Okay, then. We have our plans set. I declare this meeting to be over."
…
Nori's House.
...
"That was amazing, Nori! The food tasted great!" exclaimed Raiden.
"Glad you liked it, Raiden. So, about that ship of yours, I heard that it was finally fixed," said Nori.
"Yeah, the mechanic was done with it a few days ago," replied Raiden.
Nori thought for a moment before she asked, "So, are you leaving?"
"No, not yet at least. I'll help Kori as much as possible. Once I feel like she's got everything under control, I'll leave," explained Raiden.
"So, you really do care about her," remarked Nori.
"Oh, jeez, don't bring this up again. I'm trying to have a good meal," said Raiden.
"Why not? She's the princess of Tamaran! How could you just reject her advances? She's truly in love with you, Raiden! Tamaranians don't fake emotions; we can never do that!" pleaded Nori.
"I know, Nori. I know that better than anyone, but I can't return her feelings. That's it," said Raiden.
"Why? I know you care about her," inquired Nori.
"I just can't. I have someone I care about back home. I can't betray her," explained Raiden.
"Betray who? Raven, right? That was her name? I don't understand how she could ever be mad about it," said Nori.
"Look, Nori, Earth isn't the same as Tamaran. People's emotions on Earth are played with, lied with, and faked. A lot of traitors and liars exist on Earth, and they feed on emotions. That's why, on Earth, we tend to only have one partner and love them alone forever. It's not the same as Tamaran, where a woman can love two men at once and a man can have three wives like it's normal," Raiden explained.
One of the arguments used by Nori before was that Tamarans don't have an issue with polyamorous relationships. She even suggested that Raiden can love both Kori and his human girlfriend together without any problems. What made it worse was the fact that when he brought up Raven to Kori, she also suggested the same.
"I don't understand it; you humans are weird. Besides, you are special, Raiden. In Tamaran, special warriors and heroes must always have more than one wife to spread their seed wide and create many great offspring," said Nori.
"Yeah, while that's a great idea for Tamarans, I'm still human, so I still go by human rules. So drop it, okay? It hurts me as well, you know. I can't bear the fact that I'm causing Kori to hurt," Raiden said as his heart ached with sadness.
One of the things he learned about Tamarans in the half-year he spent there was their pain from emotions. When Tamarans fall in love, it is considered the strongest emotion possible; its effects are very strong. With Raiden rejecting her, Kori has been going through immense inner pain. She only held on due to the love of her people and her role as the princess of Tamaran.
"Love is pain."
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If you wish to read more or simply support me just because ? than check out my patréon at
"https://www.patréon.com/Riadooo"
Don't forget to change "é" to "e"