Chapter 8: New Official Alliance

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I could have slept better.

I yawned loudly, immediately regretting it because of the pain in my ribs, before slowly getting out of bed. I left my room to look for my pills only to find Zero and Ivory already in the main room.

"Hey, she is alive." Zero called out jokingly. "I've got a surprise for you."

"Should I be worried?" I asked sarcastically.

"Maybe a little." He replied before handing me a box.

I gave him a questioning look before opening the box to find a black piece of fabric. Once I had unfolded it, I realized to my horror that it was a dress.

"What the hell is this?" I exclaimed in disgust.

"We're going to a ball." Zero replied matter-of-fact. "Courtesy of the Awoken, of course."

He reached into another box and pulled out a tuxedo, and Ivory held another dark blue dress uncertainly.

"This is the thanks you get for hunting down her runaway pet?" I scoffed angrily.

"This is to celebrate the our official alliance with the Awoken." He sighed. "It's only a few hours, and it'll be fun. Petra said there was going to be catering."

"I don't know what that is."

"Me neither." Ivory admitted sheepishly. "I'm just confused."

"C'mon, guys." Zero begged. "Maya, when you were younger, you always wanted to be a princess."

Ivory burst out laughing as I felt my face flush furiously.

"Don't ever say that out loud again..." I growled venomously.

He gave me a pleading look, and I looked back uncertainly at the dress in my hands.

"Fine!" I groaned. "But don't expect me to wear any make up."

"The Awoken sent you some of that too."

"I hate all of you."

~~Hours later~~

"I feel stupid."

"Stop acting ridiculous." My Ghost scolded. "You look just fine."

I grimaced into the mirror as I heard a knock on my door.

"Can I come in?" Zero called.

"Yeah, sure."

He walked in with a shiny new tux and a big grin on his face as he saw me.

"Don't even say it." I groaned.

"I wasn't going to say anything." He laughed. "I just thought you looked a little like mom."

I gave him a quizzical look before turning back towards the mirror.

"I wouldn't know." I said.

"Guess not." He replied, ushering me outside. "Come out here, you've got to check Ivory out."

I rolled my eyes as I followed him out of the room to find Ivory dressed up too, and looking uncomfortable in her heels.

"Why doesn't she have to put on any makeup?" I whined.

"Explain how you expect me to do that!" She retorted playfully. "It's a miracle I managed to remove the thousand year old paint splatter over my optic." Zero and I laughed at her outburst.

"So I'm guessing we're all ready to go?" Zero asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I sighed.

~~~

It was kind of nice to see that the Awoken queen was serious about our alliance, to say the least. I've only been to the Reef a few times, but the place I was in today was completely different from those other times.

It was very nicely decorated, with Awoken servants and waiters rushing all over the place with food and drinks I've never seen before.

"When do we get to eat?" I asked Zero, bored.

"I guess we can go now." He replied.

"What about me?" Ivory asked.

"What about you?" I teased. "I've seen you eat lots of times. Glutton."

"Yeah, because food is delicious." She pouted. "I was built with the ability to taste and I won't allow it to go to waste."

"There's enough food here to feed all the refugees for a week! You can eat until your circuits blow if you want." Zero nudged her affectionately.

We made our way to the line where they served out the trays already filled with food. I stopped in my tracks when I saw actual meat in my tray. It was almost impossible to find any meat since almost all the animals on Earth had gone extinct, yet here everyone was being served huge portions of it.

"Where did you get all this meat?" I asked a nearby waiter.

"I was waiting for somebody to ask that." He grinned cockily. "What you have on your plate is a grilled Legionnaire's thigh."

My jaw dropped. "A what...?!"

"Turns out they have a lot of meat under all that armor." He chuckled.

"If I had known we could do this before..." I laughed, still in shock.

"Here," He picked up another plate from the table. "Try and guess what this is."

"It looks like some kind of... mollusk?"

"This is what you'll get after cracking open a Vandal's skull and steaming what's inside."

"And then you wonder why the House of Wolves rebelled." I muttered, taking the plate from him.

He only shrugged, and I left to meet up with Zero and Ivory.

"Where are we going to sit?" Ivory asked.

I looked around the dining room. Most of the tables seemed to be taken. I eventually caught someone waving from the corner of my eye. When I looked, I found Alpha, Li Ling, and someone whom I took a minute to figure out was Jaeger.

We made our way to their table and sat down with them.

"Your helmet didn't go well with your tux, Jaeger?" I teased, earning an indifferent shrug.

"Leave him alone, he still looks great." Alpha laughed. "Can you believe all the meat they gave us here! Where did they even get this?"

"That's Cabal and Fallen meat." I answered quickly, taking a bite out of my food.

"What?! That's disgusting!" Alpha exclaimed, pushing his plate away.

"If you won't eat it..." Jaeger immediately started helping himself to Alpha's food.

"Hey! Jaeger, are you serious?"

"I've been a vegan for too long." He shrugged, savoring the meat.

"It's not good to throw food away." Ling chimed in, joining Jaeger.

"Ling, you too?!"

We continued talking and laughing throughout the meal before we heard music playing in the room. A huge grin spread across Zero's face as he stood up and offered a hand to Ivory.

"So, do you want to dance?" He asked sheepishly.

Ivory beamed as she took his hand and followed him onto an empty space in the room.

"That's not a bad idea." Alpha smirked, getting up and taking Ling's hand. "C'mon, Ling."

"I'm not so sure..." She stammered, but Alpha dragged her anyways, leaving me and Jaeger.

He turned to me quickly. "I don't dance."

I chuckled. "Great minds think alike." He nodded and returned to his food.

"Well if he's not going to dance with you..." I gasped as I felt myself being forcefully pulled onto my feet, facing a familiar Awoken. "I guess I'll have to."

"I don't dance either, Osiris." I groaned, pulling away from his grip.

He squeezed my hand harder and pulled me back, making me wince visibly.

"C'mon, just this once?" His bright green eyes pleaded with mine.

"Fine." I sighed reluctantly.

He grinned as he led me towards the open space. We began a slow dance, not saying anything. I looked about the room, directing my attention to anything but him, hoping that this would end soon so I could sit back down.

"How come I never see you around the Dead Orbit HQ?" He asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Probably because I joined the Future War Cult instead." I replied dryly.

"What?!" He wore a mock hurt expression. "How could you betray me like this? I thought we were friends."

"I have my own reasons for joining FWC. And what the hell made you think we were friends?" I snapped.

"Well I did let you in on the Tower's little secret." He smiled coyly. "It's the reason you're here in the first place."

"Please, as if that would make me forget what you did before that." I scoffed angrily.

"By the Light, you never let go of that little grudge? That was over a year ago."

"Like you actually changed in the past year!"

"Of course I have!" He retorted. "Now I know better than to just take advantage of such a beautiful lady..." He was cut off by the satisfyingly loud clap of my hand against his face.

I was about to give him a piece of my mind before I found myself being roughly grabbed by the arm, followed by Osiris. My brother dragged us into a closet and locked the door.

"Are you kidding me, Maya? In the middle of an important event?" He scolded me harshly as Osiris gingerly stroked his reddened cheek. "And you back slapped him?"

"Yes." Osiris answered sheepishly.

"You should know by now that's not right." He shook his head in annoyance before turning to Osiris. "You're supposed to do it with a closed fist."

Osiris was knocked onto the ground before I could even blink. Zero turned back to me, and I caught a small drop of blood on his tie.

"You...?"

"Yeah, I heard." He pursed his lips, opening the door to leave.

"Hey Maya," Osiris called before I walked out. I turned as he staggered back onto his feet, clutching his nose. He offered me a wink before saying: "You know where to find me."

I scowled and slammed the door in his face, catching up with Zero.

"I can't stand creeps like him." He said angrily, turning to me. "Is your hand alright?"

I frowned at his question. "What...?"

He took my hand and looked at it.

"It's swollen."

I gulped. When wasn't it swollen nowadays, I thought to myself, taking my hand back.

"I guess I hit him pretty hard." I stammered.

"Don't do it again." He replied sternly. "Leave those things to me next time."

"Well it's not like I could just come here with a knife stuffed in my bra." I joked.

This earned a chuckle from him, to my relief. We sat back down at our table with everyone else.

"Is everything alright?" Ivory asked me quietly.

"Just fine." I shrugged, wanting to forget what just happened.

We continued our usual chatter for another hour or so before we heard a loud bell. Everyone directed their attention to the center of the room, where the Awoken queen stood, dressed extravagantly in a silver gown.

"Damn, she's hot!" Alpha remarked quietly, earning a punch to the shoulder from Jaeger.

"Guardians, or should I now refer to you as, Refugees?" She began.

Her voice was so clear and powerful, she didn't even need a microphone for everybody to be able to hear her.

"This night we are making history, as it marks the beginning of something everyone knew was eventually inevitable." She paused for effect before continuing. "It marks the beginning of war. One very different from the one you all believed to have been fighting all these years. The true war starts with the beginning of the new alliance between the Awoken and the Refugees."

A loud applause spread through the room like a wildfire, which could probably have been heard throughout the entire Reef. Everybody, including myself, Zero, and Ivory, has been waiting anxiously to put an end to the Darkness since before we even knew about the true war. Everything we had worked for was finally leading up to this.

"The Awoken do not plan to cut our relations with the remaining Guardians of Earth just yet." She continued once the noise had died down. "Keep in mind that this is for your our benefit, as well as your safety within Ishtar Sink. Together, we will destroy the Darkness and take back our solar system."

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