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star-shooters · 1 year

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Dearly Departed Brother

Gold found herself staring into space, watching the numerous stars passing by as the ship, Faxed Sterre, made its way back to their home, Stellaron. She rarely left herself to reminisce about her past, maybe share bits of her history with her teammates when they shared their own. She was the one that lost the most: freedom, innocence, trust, and family.

Out of all the things she lost, her family was the most important thing she wished to get back. Gold may lose everything and not care if she could return to her siblings who were lost to time and circumstances. She mostly missed her brother Saffron, who instilled so many good morals into growing up and inspired her to name her team Star Shooters.

She asked, “How long has it been since his passing? Days? Months? Years? Decades?”

“No,” she said, trying to shake the growing sorrow off. Gold remembered that day like it happened yesterday, yet it happened long ago. “It had been centuries since Saffron was killed. No one aside from the Geminorum and Centaurus families remembers him. Yet aunt Stellar Sunflower Omicraus just so happened to ‘forget’ Saffron’s existence.”

They had shared the same element, pure iron, in their cores that emitted a goldish color on their skin. They may have a significant age gap, but their sibling bond was strong compared to the rest of their siblings. Despite Saffron being a perfect brother to her, he was not perfect internally. His core was weak and prone to malfunctioning, leading to incompatible parts used to make his body. Even if new and better parts replaced the old, Saffron’s core would refuse them, only working with subpar components.

“Never found out why your core came out the way it did,” Gold walked closer to the window, looking out to an exceptionally bright cluster of stars. The color was wrong, but the bright white light emitted from the burning balls of gas reminded her of Saffron’s light. “You never had any injuries like Silver’s brother, Ghost White. Nor were impure materials used to fuel your core like Yellow. But you didn’t volunteer for experimental coding like me; you were born with it.”

“I wonder,” she said, focusing on a stray floating cloud of debris far away. Her hand itched to grab a rock or something from that debris, but she didn’t and walked closer to the large window. “Should I read the rest of that book, Saffron? Your love for that series inspired me to name our team after it, Star Shooting Cowboys.”

Saffron read many books to Gold, but his favorite series were space cowboys saving towns from corrupt people while saving the main protagonist’s love interest from a new threat. At first, Gold didn’t like the series for its cliché plot and poorly named characters. But with Saffron spending more and more time with her, she had grown to like the series. She waited for the next part. Aside from their older brother, Bone, Saffron was a constant presence in her childhood that she now missed dearly.

“I still have that book after all these centuries,” she whispered to her reflection. She imagined her brother in front of her. Saffron never changed after all these years, staying the same despite how his body was left after his death. “I haven’t read past the part we left off. I promised to finish it with you when you returned, but neither Ube nor our friend, Bone, could find you within the crowd of long-passed Stars and Stellars.”

She sat cross-legged in front of the large porthole, feeling smaller and younger. Gold smiled as she imagined her words being heard by her late brother, pretending that he was there with her. “We aren’t cowboys, but the name stuck after we knocked ex-lieutenant Coquelicot down a few pegs. You should have been there, the look on his face when Stellar Blood came to bring him back home, along with his band of sycophants.”

“We now have his brother, Copper, in our team. Copper is nothing like Coquelicot, and he’s like a big angry version of our brother but red and with hair. Copper reminds me of Bone – our brother, not the friend – he cares about those weaker than him and would sacrifice himself if it meant saving those he cared more about.”

She leaned back, hands keeping her up from behind her, “Kind of like you, Saffron.”

She could already see him sitting the same way across the surface of the reinforced glass, the same as ever. Saffron was like her but with more prominent horns, one protruding from his forehead, while four more were at the sides of his head, front and back. Unlike Gold, Saffron had pale yellow hair tied in a bun with a short bang. He didn’t wear his armored uniform, having a casual shirt, pants, and boots.

“I only wish you hadn’t left that day,” she brokenly said, curling into herself as her arms wrapped around her knees. “You would have still been here having you and Orange Red weren’t left for battle. Maybe if you had backup earlier, you would still be here and collected the complete book series.”

The memory of that dreadful day flooded her mind, dropping her in the last fight she had with her brother before his demise.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

“You can’t leave me and the others behind, Saffron,” Gold sobbed, standing at the doorway to his room as large tears threatened to spill from her dark orange eyes. In her tiny arms, she held a well-loved book that Saffron regularly read to her, the final chapters bookmarked a waiting to be read.

Saffron’s room was packed with memorabilia of Star Shooting Cowboys, having collected them since its first publication. Small figures and plush dolls lined the shelves; posters lined the walls that changed between two or three different scenes; sealed packages of collectible toys; and some incomplete figurines on his work desk. On his bed was an open tote half-filled with medical supplies and weaponry, while Saffron stood with a green set of armor adorned with Sunflower’s crest.

“You promised to finish the book before the end of the month,” she screamed, tears falling like rain. “You plan to leave before reaching the part where Teale Deer defeats Abbey White to save the town from chaos? Teale was to ask Alice Blue to form a binary with her, as our Stellars did after making me.”

“Goldie bug, I will finish that book for you,” Saffron said, leaving his still-open tote to pick his little sister up. He wiped the tears from her now orange face, picking her up before hugging her tightly. “I can’t reveal the ending to you, but I keep my promises. Didn’t Bug-Bo tell you so after I had his arm fixed when some of his threading broke?”

She buried her face into his shoulder, holding onto his as tightly as she could, “Bug-Bo sometimes lies. I can tell when his glass bead eyes shine a certain way.”

Saffron hummed before answering, “Maybe he lied about lying. Sometimes our Stellars tell double lies. Our progenitor, Tangerine, does it to tease our originator, Dandelion. So long as it’s in good fun, double lying won’t harm anyone; it is when others do it for malicious purposes when double lying turns bad.”

“Stop trying to confuse me, Saffron,” Gold exclaimed, turning from her hiding place and scowling at her brother. “You are to teach me good things, not confusing things.”

Saffron chuckled, causing Gold to join in his joy, “Alright, Bug-Bo is a liar. However, I am needed elsewhere. There is a Darkening spot near Aunt Sunflower’s district. She’s not happy that the Darkening came to her territory when most of her defenses are being re-trained by Stellar Blood’s forces.”

Gold grimaced; she hated the Darkening as much as Sunflower did. Gold would instead not let her brother leave, too afraid of what would happen to him. She had nightmares of the shapeshifting creatures since they began to appear near the tunnel systems underneath. She heard rumors that they came from the Stygian Woodlands. The same place where the demented General Icterine eradicated a large hoard before more came and tore her apart.

The Darkening, having grown bold for taking done a once powerful Star, began to creep towards populated territories. As beings with an insatiable hunger for their life force and frustrating ease for taking any form. The thought alone made Gold tighten her grip on her brother again, wanting him to stay and not leave the safety of their home.

Gold never saw a Darkening before, but sometimes Tangerine would have reports lying around that the young child stumbled upon and read. The first time seeing the pictures and videos resulted in many sleepless nights. Gold remembered that she was given a beetle doll, Bug-Bo, and a story that the plush would protect her from lurking Darkening. So far, she hadn’t had a nightmare since Bug-Bo and Saffron told her that story.

However, someone was trying to take her brother away for something stupid.

“Auntie Sunflower should stop being lazy and deal with the Darkening herself if she wants it gone so badly,” she muttered, burrowing herself into her brother’s embrace. Sunflower could learn about dealing with her problems without relying on others to do the dirty work for her.

“Sorry, sis, Sunflower doesn’t want to get her hands dirty,” explained her brother, pattering her back as he kissed the top of her green-haired head and avoided the short horns.

“I can come with you,” Gold said, squirming out of his hold. “I want to help you like the others.”

Saffron set her down, and the little child quickly left the room before he had the chance to respond. As Gold left the room, she weaved between their other siblings, quickly apologizing as she ran towards her room. Gold placed the book under the bed, and the large, to the child, beetle plush was in orange-sleeved arms.

“If I were stronger and braver, I would go out and defeat the Darkening like our progenitor,” Gold claimed, hugging the doll before she made her way back to Saffron’s room.

Running in, she found that he wasn’t there. She looked under his bed, his closet, and his work desk. She didn’t see him and darted out the door. She passed by many halls and rooms to the front of their home. She finally found her brother about to leave with her other siblings.

Gold ran towards the doors, dodging the grasp of Tangerine and Dandelion, who stood over them all at the entrance. “Saffron, wait! I want to come too. I have Bug-Bo to come to protect you.”

She wasn’t given an answer when Tangerine finally caught the slippery child in her grasp. The horned child looked up at the multi-eyed, horned Stellar, noticing the stern look on her face as she was scolded, “Young child, that is enough from you. You are barely old enough to control your abilities and far too young to join your siblings in combat.”

Dandelion joined Tangerine’s side, her two horns towering over the other Stellar’s, “Gold, dear. You can’t join your siblings, nor can we. Sunflower has clarified that she only wants our family to deal with her issue. Otherwise, the little vulnerable Starlites will be in danger of the Darkening. You have seen how frail they are; you were one before you were strong enough for a vessel.”

“But I want to help,” Gold said, holding her plush beetle close.

“Sorry, Goldie bug, but this is just for grownups,” Saffron said through cupped hands.

The brother Bone entered and glanced around the room, “Gold, if this is about you wanting to join, you know you can’t. This situation is not like the Darkening in the stories or tales.”

The pale Star looked at his pale blonde brother, and both left without a word. Gold could do nothing but cry as Dandelion took the child into her room. Her other siblings came to cheer her up, yet Gold hid under her bed with Bug-Bo until they all left.

Gold had known that the likelihood of Saffron surviving the attack was slim. His corrupt coding and defective components would stall him in combat. She wanted to help him in any way she could. Gold went to his room, digging in her closet until she found what she was coming for, her telescope flashlight.

It was a gift from her Stellars, a weak weapon but otherwise applicable against Darkening. Gold took the telescope and packed a small backpack full of other toys. She packed metal jacks, steel-tipped darts, and Bug-Bo.

She snuck through the large vents of her home, finding the upscale layout of it helpful when she needed to escape. Though the palace was anything but small, it was comfortable enough for many of her siblings to remodel one huge room into many comfortably sized spaces. She shared a room with the few sisters that still lived there, the rest having gone off to defend the numerous moons of Stellaron from invaders. So far, the only enemies are the Darkening, but no alien invaders yet.

Gold made her way to an open truck of a hovercraft; she overheard Dandelion and Tangerine talk about the subsequent transport for her remaining older siblings as the child traveled through the vents. She squeezed herself into the smallest crevice she could fit behind many tied-down boxes of ammunition and other supplies. As she made herself comfortable, she removed Bug-Bo from her backpack and hugged him.

“This is for Saffron,” she said before placing Bug-Bo back into the backpack and holding onto a crate as the hovercraft moved toward its destination. “Saffron owes me a few stories when I save his behind from the Darkening. Or, at least, from making me worry about him so much.”

Gold knew that her other siblings would take care of him. They were all family, aside from a few. But something in her stirred uneasiness as she thought about the what-ifs, especially when she heard her siblings conversing.

“Golden Yellow reported that there are multiple Darkening there,” said a deep voice, followed by the shuffling of a heavy metallic object. “We can either support Saffron with Orange Red or Bone with Almond. Who do you think, Amber?”

Amber didn’t respond for a few moments. Gold heard them sigh before they answered, “I wish to go with Bone and Almond, Sunshade. Saffron would fare better with Orange Red than you, me, and the rest of the team. Besides, I don’t want to sound rude, but I don’t want to deal with Saffron’s glitches and weaknesses. It would be more merciful for him to fall in battle than to continue living the rest of his days as he is now.”

A heavy thud followed a few seconds of silence. Amber yelped in pain and colorful expletives that Gold covered her mouth in shock. As the child craned her head towards the source of the sound, Sunshade decided to respond.

“If Gold found you were talking like that, she’d do more than go to our Stellars,” Sunshade chided, lifting the heavy weapon from where it fell. “Be thankful that this was only my lighter mace, or you would have more than a dented head. I want you to drop half the team and me where Saffron and Orange Red are. I am not letting our brethren be slaughtered by those things like they did with Stellar Cardinal’s.”

“Whatever, Sunshade,” Amber sneered. “When the glitching mess is dead, don’t come crying to me about it. Sunflower’s my true Stellar, and neither Tangerine nor Dandelion can change that. I am here because Sunflower made too many Stars to house in her grand palace. If the Darkening could cull a portion of the forming Starlites, then I wouldn’t be in your domain for very long.”

Amber stormed away, muttering many other things Gold wished she’d forget after all this. Sunshade sighed, muttering something Gold couldn’t hear before leaving somewhere else. Gold sat where she was for a while, digesting what she heard.

She looked at the open backpack with Bug-Bo staring at her. She gulped as she realized the gravity of things, turning back towards her plush companion, “W-what do you think I should do? I don’t think I remember all that when we return.”

Bug-Bo said nothing, but she saw the twinkle in his glass-bead eyes. She nodded before turning back towards the wall, “You’re right. I need a paper trail if I want Tangie and Lia to believe me. I just need to find paper and something to write with.”

The child stood from her spot and searched through any crates she could reach. She eventually found a stray journal full of supply notes and a few pens. She wrote down names and what was said, knowing she would need this later when she returned. She tore a few pages from the journal, along with her notes, and placed them in an empty pocket of her backpack with one of the spare pens.

She looked at Bug-Bo for a moment before sharing her thoughts with him, “Bug-Bo, if Amber were so comfortable to say those things to Sunshade, then the others wouldn’t have any trouble sharing their thoughts. I don’t want Tangie and Lia to think I was making stuff up if I can’t remember what was said. What if they still don’t believe me even with the paper trail?”

Bug-Bo only stared at her with his enormous black bead eyes, falling further into the backpack before settling in his new position. Gold stared at the plush a little more before nodding at him.

“You’re right, Bug-Bo. There are traitors within the family. We may be small, but we don’t lie like them. I want to be as good as Teale Deer, never telling lies but still deceiving the enemy with the truth. Maybe we can get a conversation recording if we find a camera or microphone on the walls. This situation calls for vent exploring.”

Gold looked around the trunk for a moment before finding an opening at the bottom portion of the wall. She would fit if she crawled on her abdomen, dragging her backpack behind her.

“It’s not like the vents at home,” she said, slowly making her way under the wall vent. Gold quickly put on her backpack and found a camera a few feet from the wall, facing to her left. She looked at the camera for a moment, puzzled that it only faced a wall and not anywhere else.

Usually, cameras faced something important, but this one stared at a dull wall leading nowhere. It would have made sense if it met the vent since it was the only “entrance” other than the door. Still, Gold knew nothing about “strategic security camera placement” like whoever worked on it.

She took the plush and the darts from her backpack, throwing Bug-Bo at the camera to dislodge it and the darts to cut the wiring off. Somehow, her plan worked, and the camera fell onto the plush with a muffled thud. Gold quickly grabbed the camera, Bug-Bo, and the darts from the floor into the backpack. She heard footsteps approaching and quickly escaped through the wall vent and hid behind a few crates. Gold held her breath, listening to the unknown person as they entered the back of the hovercraft and looked around. She heard the shuffle of papers and covered her mouth with a shaking hand as the person looked around for something. The child silently sighed when the threat returned the way it came, and silence greeted her.

“Bug-Bo, I am so happy they stuffed you with Argentum pellets,” Gold said as she looked at the plush. “You may be soft to hug but heavy enough to take down a camera all on your own.”

She congratulated the doll some before settling down for the remainder of the trip. Bored out of her mind, Gold took the jacks to play with and used the pen as the ball. It lasted until the end of the trip. She dropped her jacks and held on to anything for the rough landing. Gold thought she heard a stream of curses before the hovercraft no longer felt like bouncing around her.

The truck opened, and no one was there to greet her. The child darted out of there with all her items aside from a few missing jacks. The child fled to hide in the shadows before taking out her telescope flashlight and powering it on. The weapon may not be powerful enough to kill an enemy, but it inflicts enough pain to make others think twice.

Sunflower’s domain was far more elegant and elaborate than Gold’s home. A garden maze held various species of flora outside of this specific region. Some fountains had their food source, englowon, flowing through plumbing and wasted simply for vain beauty. Despite being a distant relative, Sunflower was not concerned with the waste that came from her worldly ways.

“Bug-Bo, are you seeing all of this,” asked the child, trying not to let her anger get the best of her. “Auntie Sunflower said that she didn’t have enough sustenance for her Stars but used it to fill the decorative fountains. I wish I had my camera, not the security camera.”

Before Gold could think of pouting, she heard the shouts of battle coming from the maze. She ran as fast as her legs could and went through the walls of vegetation. Gold was most thankful that her time studying the layout of mazes would come in handy, only she went through the walls instead of maneuvering through them. The child found it easier to go through the bushes than around them, especially if it meant ruining her aunt’s property with the excuse that it was damaged in battle.

Every so often, the flashlight was used when a particularly suspicious shadow was around. So far, the shadows were just shadows, but one can never be too sure, especially when one’s mortal enemy can take the appearance of anything but always something shade related. Perhaps it was Gold having too much time to think, but she believes that the Darkening could be better hunters if they decided to take the form of non-shadowed people and objects. However, she’d rather not have the enemy know that when infants were on the line.

Flashlight in hand, Gold finally made it to the source of the commotion: Saffron fending off an enormous Darkening from a fallen Orange Red. Somehow, the proclaimed strong Star was under a pile of stone rubble, once a stone mural of their true originator Hestḗr. The child saw that her brother did not have his favored sword in hand, using a stray piece of wood from a broken bench as a weapon.

Still within the bushes, Gold looked around before she found the beloved sword. She found it meters away from her brother but close to her. Saffron didn’t stand a chance without his trusted sword against their enemy. Gold was only a young Starlin, barely old enough to pick up the heavy sword Saffron lovingly called Fe. The only weapon she could give to her brother was not strong enough to fend off that large of a Darkening. It had to be as large as Bone, if not larger.

Gold was frozen with fear, unable to take her eyes from Saffron when the improv club broke, and his foot slipped from a random stone. The Darkening pounced on him and began to tear off chunks of his vessel. All the while, the child just watched as her brother was mutilated. Saffron fought to survive, clawing at the creature and trying to shake it off. The Darkening clung to him tighter, smelling the spilled life fluids pumped through their circulatory tubing.

Saffron fought even more, when the creature managed to slice his chest open and revealed the orb within was his life force. Gold could do nothing as the sphere shone brighter than the stars in the sky, giving off an ethereal light in an otherwise morbid scene. Time seemed to stop when the light grew so bright that it hurt to stare, so Gold continued to stare at that bright light to the bitter end.

Saffron’s coding and hardware ceased working, his vessel spasming as he desperately tried to get out of the evil being’s grip. His head jerked in her direction, and he locked eyes with the only person he wished never was here to see him die. There was a realization that they would never finish that book together nor share moments of making theories in the night when the newest book came out.

Saffron opened his mouth to say something, but his core was ripped from his vessel, making the body limp without a power source. Gold just stared lifelessly as the Darkening finished him off then and there by consuming his core in one bite. Tears streamed down her face. She could not warn him, too afraid to make a sound as she watched the frightening creature take the form of her now-dead brother.

The thing faced her and started approaching her with a blank stare that was alienly plastered on her brother’s borrowed face. Gold’s vision tunneled as her core tried to make sense of the reality that her brother was no more and there was a pretender in his place. She began to crawl backward, trying to get away from her not-brother and her hand shook when she lifted the flashlight.

Gold remembered what Lia warned her about the Darkening, “A being who craved nothing else but their cores. A being who also takes the form of anyone or anything. The Darkening’s weakness is concentrated hard light weapons. Your flashlight can be a weapon if you can fuel it with a bit of englowon. Now come and rest my child; it is getting late.”

Englowon is the very substance that flows from a Star’s core to fuel its body. Gold crawled back as fast as she could, turning towards another wall and going through before the Darkening noticed. She slowly and quietly made her way to Orange Red, knowing they would help her. Not to mention that she would not want another sibling to be a victim of an awful being.

Gold turned away from Saffron’s broken vessel, knowing that it would never be her brother even if they m it would never be her brother. The core is essential. In comparison, the frame protects the soul from the outside elements and maneuvers without wasting energy. Without a power source, an empty body cannot come to life independently nor act like a sapient being. Yet few believed otherwise or never cared to acknowledge the individuality Stars had.

Gold looked around for something, anything, to open her flashlight. She had englowon but needed to know where to put it in if she made her toy into a weapon. Rummaging around Orange Red’s tote, she found a screwdriver and a sizeable sharp dagger. Gold placed the blade on the ground while the child unscrewed a section from her precious gift.

Inside she found the liquid energy cells that removed them from their spot. The child looked at how the mechanism worked, trying to remember the blueprints and instructional manual. The toy used two liquid cells at a time. The cells fed the specialized toy fuel that kept it as a stun weapon. Yet the toy had two openings where the power was taken in and converted into light and energy.

Gold didn’t have enough time to think about the marvel that her toy was when she heard the bushes rustle. The Darkening had returned with friends, all taking the form of her brother and prowling near her. She looked at the dagger for a moment before taking it and running towards Saffron’s leaking corpse. Gold cut the appropriate-sized tubing and connected it to the telescope.

The Darkening started to run towards her. The child quickly aimed at the coming crowd turning the power knob to max. At first, nothing happened. Gold stared at the approaching force in acceptance of her demise. She prayed silently that the ever-merciful Hestḗr would grant her a quick and painless death. Her life was only beginning, not too far from getting new parts when she reached her next stage.

She felt the telescope shutter, turning her attention towards it and seeing it begin to power up. Whirring loudly and growing hot, the telescope started to glow a bright yellow. She barely had enough time to aim at the Darkening before the toy emitted a concentrated and powerful beam of light. Gold braced herself as she held onto the toy with two hands. It felt like it went on forever but quickly subsided as it had started.

The child looked up at the damage, seeing that it had eradicated the Darkening and left their shadows on the ground. The maze was wholly obliterated, only the parts missing from the beam having survived. Gold sat back in relief, tears spilling again from her eyes as, once again, she was reminded that Saffron was no longer with her.

“Remember,” said a faint voice, sounding just like Saffron. “When a Darkening eats a Star’s or Stellar’s core, a quick kill may save the core if they were swallowed whole. That is why we must kill them as quickly as possible to have a higher chance of saving the victim.”

Gold quickly got up, dropping the improvised weapon as she ran toward the Darkening’s shadows. She searched for a whole core, trying desperately to see something shiny, round, and glowing. There were shards on the ground, not round but shiny and glowing.

“Where’s his core,” she asked with desperation, searching through rubble as her core ached with anxiety. “It has to be here somewhere, but where is it?”

The child searched, finding more and more shards that started to lose their glow. At some point, she began to collect them, pocketing the fragments into her dress until there were no more. Gold stared at the destruction, at the shadows, and finally, at the barely shining pieces.

“He’s dead, Gold.”

The child whipped her head around and found the only standing figure by Saffron’s broken body. Orange Red dusted themself of any lingering debris on their armor, taking care not to jostle a leaking wound in their side. Gold quickly was at his side, taking a roll of gauze from a discarded tote and stopping the injury from leaking anymore.

“He’s not gone,” Gold said, sure that Saffron could still be saved. She needed just to find the core and keep it safe until they rebuilt his body. It happened to many other Stars, loved ones having been eaten by a Darkening but saved, rebuilt, and reunited.

It had happened before. Why couldn’t the child find it? Why couldn’t she find her missing brother; why couldn’t she find her brother?

She looked at his corpse, his powerless body, still finding the cavity empty. The child ran to the abandoned, lifeless body, taking the dagger to open the carcass further. Various fluids spilled like a broken dam as she tore through tubing and circuitry. It was all replaceable. It wasn’t a part of Saffron, an empty moveable frame that protected the core, their soul, from outside dangers.

She tore through the flesh, knowing she was hurting the being it was made of, not Saffron but his Brightening. Gold only stabbed through the creature and body once more before the very skin slipped off and slid away.

A hand stopped her from raising the dagger once more, and the child turned to scowl at the only other living being with her. “Let me go, Orange Red. Saffron’s core must be here if it’s not with the Darkening. I know it must be; there’s nothing left of him if I can’t find it.”

Orange Red took Gold into their arms, holding her close even when she struggled to escape their embrace. The scarlet individual had the smaller being close, removing the dagger from her grasp, which resulted in an angry yowl. Orange Red kept the now crying child in their embrace and turned away from the gruesome sight of a fallen comrade. Saffron may not have been the scarlet veteran’s brother, but he acted like one despite being a distant cousin to the Gemitaurus family.

Gold tried to look for her brother’s body, noticing the soft yellow blob of her brother’s flesh returned to them, taking residence in the orange Star’s tote. She knew it would eventually return to them. The clump of skin was just a Brightening without a host to protect, now taking residence in Orange Red’s tote for its protection. She found some relief that it was still alive, usually hearing the Darkening also consuming their Brightening and their core.

Unlike Darkening, the Brightening fed on the liquid energy Stars and Stellars produced, exchanging sustenance for sheltering the mechanical and electrical bodies from rusting and corrosion. They were protected and cultivated by the Stars and Stellars, making them better, more resilient Brightening to use less energy and hardware. Saffron’s lone Brightening meant that it would be reassigned to another brother or sister whose Brightening was close to the end of its lifecycle.

So far, Gold was the eighth batch of Golds with the fifteen-generation of Brightening that gave her a nonchromatic color scheme. Her green hair and orange blush were not things that came from her core; it was from the Brightening that acted like her flesh. Saffron’s Brightening was a seventh-generation one that was monochromatic and weaker than Gold’s. It was the only thing Saffron cherished as much as Fe, refusing a newer Brightening when enough were bred to give to a select few.

Gold clung to Orange Red, realizing that the Brightening didn’t try to find its host, having hidden inside the opened tote instead. She looked at the older Star, who loosened his firm grip on her. The child didn’t say anything about the broken glass in his eye nor the single broken horn between two others.

“I only found these glowing shards,” she said, trying to snuff the growing comprehension that she may know what they were. “I didn’t find anything else from them. Did Saffron have the shards near his core before, and the Darkening ate those and hid his core somewhere else?”

She saw the array of expressions on his face, changing from confusion to understanding, denial, and acceptance. Orange Red said nothing and held her close as their chin rested on the top of her head, careful of the protruding horns. It took a moment for Gold to grasp what it meant, but now she was aware of the shards.

Gold shook her head, looking at the other with pleading eyes, “You don’t mean-”

The child choked as her core ached in despair. Her brother, whom she was very close to, was the pile of shards that had stopped glowing long ago. She wailed into the other’s shoulder, clinging onto them as if they were a lifeline. When Sunshade came with reinforcements, checking over the scene and ensuring the area was free from stray Darkening, Orange Red said nothing.

Gold was carried through the destruction, not even bothering to tell Sunflower off when the large extravagant Stellar scolded them for destroying her beloved maze. She didn’t know what Orange Red said or Sunflower’s offensive response. Neither did she remember having her special telescope flashlight cleaned up and in her hold.

The little Starlin was silent when she saw her brother, Bone. The pale-hued and tattooed general ran towards her and the scarlet veteran, taking her into his strong embrace as he spoke with Orange Red. Gold heard something about returning the broken vessel and Brightening after recording Saffron’s death.

“The body,” Orange Red said, thickly swallowed as they tried to think over his words. “It’s not a pretty sight, have it covered before it's loaded in the Flicker, Sunshade’s hovercraft.”

“Brother Bone,” Gold finally spoke, not looking up from staring at her now ordinary toy. She heard the shift of mesh as her brother turned to her. “In my backpack – Amber said something that makes him a traitor to the family. I made a paper trail – the camera can back it up.”

Bone looked at his sister, trying to make sense of what she said, “What do you –”

A backpack was trusted to him by the auric Starlin, her beloved plush beetle nearly falling out before the pale veteran caught the items. Inside were her toys, a torn security camera, and loosely written paper pages. The Starlin curled towards the warmth of Orange Red’s core, trying to imagine that it was Saffron’s.

“I- I’ll look through these, Gold bug,” Bone gently said, fixing the backpack onto his shoulder. He looked at the other, taking a calm demeanor despite the emotional turmoil in his core. “Orange Red, take her home. Use my Radiant Flare; it’s the fastest hover around here. I will get the- Saffron’s vessel transported in the Flicker; stay safe.”

Gold felt the veteran salute with their free arm. The child curled as close as she could toward the source of warmth. She could pretend that Orange Red was Saffron, pretend that this was all a nightmare, pretend that when she woke up, her brother would be in his room finishing one of his figurines.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

Gold shook her head, remembering that even pretending her brother was with her would never bring him back. It has been centuries since his passing, his murder. She still held the glass-like shards of his core in a pouch in her pocket. The young adult had held on to them ever since, refusing to give them up despite her other siblings wanting some form of memento, a souvenir.

“The others have your keepsakes, Saffron. You left more than the trinkets in your room; I found a room behind your closet filled with even more Star Shooting Cowboy merch. There were even signed original copies from the author that I had to keep before the others ruined them. I let them keep the newer copies, not the first published but the republished ones.”

She laughed as she remembered the utter chaos when siblings fought over the few trinkets in his room. Orange Red was there to keep the peace, ending up thrown through the far wall of the closet and discovering the rest of Saffron’s belongings. Everyone had calmed down when Gold shouted for everyone to stop fighting, scolding those that tried to get first dibs on the original Star Shooting Cowboys.

It was weeks until Tangerine and Dandelion finally decided to gather all of Saffron’s belongings and let Gold have the first pick. The two Stellars silenced any naysayers, reasoning that Gold was the youngest in their family and spent the most time with Saffron compared to others. The Starlin took a while trying to choose between collecting all copies of the series or letting her siblings have a chance to get a few. She ended up with the signed manuscript and the first published books missing from her collection. There was no point in taking anything else when the books were the most precious to Saffron.

“The series ended after I turned nineteen centuries,” she said to no one, looking past her reflection to stare at the changing scenery of an approaching planet, their home. “I was just thirteen decades old when that day happened, a total of over a thousand five hundred years. There were over two hundred books before the author ended the series. I heard it ended with all the loose ends tied, but I only collected them and never read past the third book. I stopped where we left, hoping Ube and our friend Bone would find you. The spirits haven’t seen you there. I got to meet our grandfather, Red. He was delighted to see me, even when we couldn’t hug each other.”

“I turned twenty-three centuries a few months ago,” she added, looking up at the metal ceiling before looking towards the window again. Gold knew she was rambling. She wanted to fill the silence before getting called to the deck and buckled up for landing. The Star didn’t hate her friends. She loved them like they were siblings from a far distant family. It’s just that she needed time alone.

“We now celebrate by the century instead of years. Tangerine and Dandelion can’t celebrate so many birthdays anymore. It was always chaos trying to manage twenty to eighty different parties for different age groups. Brother Bone finally reached a millennium, it happened a few days ago, and all our family came together just for him.”

She smiled melancholically, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly tonight in her empty apartment. “I miss you, Saffron. The world seems emptier than it is when you cease existing. I moved out when I turned 17 centuries. I had a relationship with those Stars you disapproved of and got hurt trying to make it work. The bruises healed as if nothing had happened, and she replaced the broken parts with the newest one Tangie and Lia could afford. Maybe if I had listened to you earlier, I wouldn’t have to keep running into so many Exes; at least I didn’t settle into an unhappy binary.”

“I tried to be like our brother Bone,” she said in a watery tone, wiping away forming tears from her eyes. Her core ached, and her body was tired and heavy. She wanted just to lay down there and dream of Saffron with her and their family. It was unfair. She should have saved him when she had the chance and not stalled. Gold can now kill Darkening without that fear, having hunted down all that popped up from her home district.

“I tried getting that Logical coding and all that,” she sniffled, drying away her tears as she looked away from the porthole. “Only the program was wrong, and everything goes black when it is on. I am unsure how it can be better when I lose myself to the automatic controls of the code. I lost my hair when they added the code deep into my core. Something about not having enough space in the data tree. I am like brother Bone; only horns decorate my crown while my glow marks shine brighter than before.”

She could almost feel the numbing sensation when the programming took over. It was waning as she grew older, worrying her that she would no longer be warned when she wasn’t in control. She knew what happened to the other victims of the experimental coding, turning into mindless war machines that no one could save. The lone Star was thankful for the patches in her coding, adding commands that prevented the program from taking complete control over her.

“There’s still time to stop it from I am completely lost to Detachment,” she quickly added, hugging her knees tightly towards her chest. “I haven’t fully matured yet, still needing a few centuries until I reach two millennia. The doctors said that, for some reason, I mature a lot slower than you and the rest of our siblings. Maybe it's because of the coding, or maybe, I came out differently. I don’t have an answer for it like you corrupt coding, Saffron.”

“Gold, who’s Saffron,” Gold scrambled to get up, nearly falling over when she saw Silver at the end of the hallway.

The usually quiet silver-tone Star was usually with Ube; seeing him alone here was startling. Gold was unsure what to make of him. They never really spoke since their training on Sauv. Silver never talked with anyone unless it was either Ube or Copper. The auric-hued Star tried to respond, but it felt a lump in her throat rendered her mute.

Unaware of her inner turmoil, Silver tried to fill the silence, “Um uh, s-sorry, Gold. You were talking a lot about someone named Saffron. And I know so little about your family besides General Bone and Stellars Tangerine and Dandelion. You don’t have to share. You’re allowed to have secrets like everyone else in our crew.”

He continued rambling, beginning to stutter as he tried to explain. Gold took a breath, reminding herself that these were her friends, not strangers, that would use her. Silver wasn’t like her bullies at school, the rowdy gang that used to stalk in the dark alleyways, or the toxic exes she once dated. This kind person cared how she felt and reminded her a little bit of her late brother. Gold went towards Silver as he babbled apologetically and wrapped her golden-hued arms around him.

The pale-blue member stopped talking, body stiffening from the sudden hug, “G-Gold?”

“I will tell you when I am ready,” she said, burying her head into the fabric of his shoulder. He was not warm like Saffron, instead emitting a gentle coolness. “I can’t tell you much. But he was my brother.”

Silver turned towards Gold, placing his arms around her upper back, “Hm? Who?”

“Saffron was one of my brothers,” she answered, holding him tight, grounding herself as a sea of emotions threatened to drown her. Gold had cried enough to refill the ocean moon, Apinar, twice. She trusted Silver as much as she trusted Orange Red long ago; hopefully, her streak of bad luck would end with the caring person holding her.

“He and I were very close,” she continued, feeling better in the other’s embrace. “Like you and Ube, Saffron and I were rarely apart. We shared the same likes and dislikes, almost sharing the same creation day by day.”

Gold smiled to herself as silence fell over them. She took a deep breath, fortifying herself, and turned her head away from the pale-hued Star, “I lost Saffron to a Darkening when I was but a Starlin. I miss him dearly, Silver. I miss him every day that passes. I never want you or Ube to experience this grief. Ube and Bone tried to help me find him but never could find his essence among our long-passed kin. It’s like he never existed in the first place.”

Silver didn’t say a word, knowing Gold needed to vent her frustrations and sorrow. He held her as she cried, ugly sobbing riddled with the crackles of a burning fire. Gold needed this, having pretended everything was fine while, inside, grief was eating away at her fragile core. Both spoke no words, slowly returning to silence and occasional sniffling. The two stayed there, holding each other close as the Faxed Sterre drew closer to Stellaron.

Before the others called them to the cockpit, Gold nudged the other off her, smiling at him. Silver smiled back, happy that his teammate was no longer sad. He told her to come with him, to join the others. She quietly nodded, following him back to the front of the ship and whipping away stray tears from her eyes.

Gold finally broke the silence, grateful that Silver comforted her selflessly, “Thank you, Silver. You didn’t have to hug me or hear me spill my grief. I guess it’s because I remind you of Ube.”

Silver looked back at her, staring for a moment before finding a response. He turned towards her and took her hands into his colder ones, a face set with resolution as he stated to his teammate, “Gold, I don’t see you as Ube. I see you as yourself. Someone who is kind, bold, sometimes too ambitious, and stubborn. But, otherwise, you are a champion among others for abating the non-combative Stars of the Darkening threat.”

Gold took a moment to compose herself, surprised at how bold the pale Star suddenly became. His words sunk in, and Gold tried to reason with the other, “But, Silver. I didn’t save Saffron as I did with the others. Had I known what I do now, I would have saved him before the Darkening got to him.”

“You were a Starlin,” Silver responded, taking care not to yell at her. He knew that Ube had spoken low of herself many times before but never would let his cousin let those thoughts fester. The younger Star would not let his older teammate “A young child when the Darkening took your brother’s life. You could only do what your vessel was capable of, which wouldn’t defeat a Darkening alone. I may not know what you did or how Saffron’s murder happened, but I will not let you be so guilt-ridden that you have continued atoning for a sin that wasn’t your own. You killed your brother's murderer. You were an innocent child forced to kill, perhaps to save yourself or another from a horrible fate.”

“You are Gold Gemitaurus: young survivor of a Darkening attack, of malicious coding, of numerous Darkening ambushes, and even of debilitating grief.”

“M-my grief isn’t debilitating,” Gold countered, denying that her mourning was bad enough that a sweet person like Silver had to point it out. “I just tend to talk to myself. Alone. And out loud.”

The bluish-white Star cocked a white eyebrow, and hands rested on his hips. “You were gone for an hour, Gold. Then I came to get you, and you clung onto me like a barnacle on the underside of a boat. That does not sound like normal grief to me.”

“So what of my grief is so bad that it’s got me out of action for a while. At least it happens when we’re not fighting off the shape-shifting creeps. I haven’t lost my luster yet, so what right do you have to tell me what to do?”

“I like you, Gold,” Silver whispered, suddenly feeling his mouth dry and face beginning to warm a bright blue. “I adore you so much that I don’t want to see you hurting yourself. I admire your strength, your passion for justice, and your righteousness. So much so that it hurts to see you down.”

Gold felt the full-force whiplash between anger and perplexity at full force. It took her a few seconds to realize what he said, trying to make sense of everything. Still unsure if what she heard was true, she tentatively asked, “I’m sorry. But what?”

“I love you,” Silver proclaimed, throwing his arms out to emphasize his point. “I had a crush on you that grew as we stayed as a team. The way my core shudders when you laugh or smile is nothing I have ever felt before. I never felt this way before, and it only happens when I am with you.”

He prattled on about his affection for the yellow being, steam rising from his face as it heated up into a powder blue on a normally grayish face. Gold could only watch as the now blue Star professed a speech of his affection for her, stuttering as he got more and more flustered until he finally finished and panted from his confession. The still-silent Star waited until his face cooled to a softer blue, taking a few breaths before finally giving him an answer.

“I,” she began, trying to come up with an answer, but nothing came. Questions started to form in her mind, trying to make sense of everything only to become further confused

Did she want to be with Silver? Would Silver turn out like the others, pretending to love her before showing their true colors? What about the rest of the team? Would Ube approve, or would she try to sabotage everything?

Wait, she thought to herself. Ube wouldn’t do that, nor would the rest of Star Shooters try to take advantage of her. Silver never posed himself as dangerous. Shy, yes. Manipulative, a solid no. The other Stars Gold attempted to form a relationship with never comforted her at her lowest. So, perhaps this was different.

She finally spoke, noticing the growing worry on the other’s face, “I am not saying yes.”

“But,” Gold interrupted with a firm voice. “I am not saying no, either. Let’s try to start slow while I do not have emotional whiplash. My core can handle so much stress, and I hate to disappoint you when we try this when I am not at a hundred percent.”

Silver smiled, saying nothing but the cooled hand wrapped around Gold’s was all the answers she needed. They walked together in silence, joining the rest of the Star Shooters team for landing. Gold sat behind Yellow, while Lapis navigated the ship, and Copper watched the ship’s status on the terminal screen. Silver sat to her right, along with Ube.

Despite knowing that Silver liked the older, amber-tinted Star, he was closer to his cousin. Gold wasn’t jealous. She saw the scene as her sibling relationship with Saffron; it was different and bittersweet, but otherwise, it reminded her that Saffron was there. Somewhere, someplace, perhaps everywhere. Saffron was possibly waiting for her to reveal himself among the sea of Lumens, the spirits of their loved ones. It would take some time, but Gold was always ready for a challenge.

“Star Shooters,” she quietly said to no one, smiling at the approaching station where she could see her brother, Bone, there. “Illuminate the sky for justice to rise from the ashes of battle and lost lives.”

“And may those lost be remembered until our cores no longer burn its precious light.”

#Gold Gemitaurus #Saffron Gemitaurus #Silver Kentaurus-Sirius #Star Shooters #SS #long fic #writers of tumblr #writeblr #science fiction #original fiction #original characters #science fiction literature #one shot #abuse mention #character death #my writing

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