- AU -

The door slammed with its distinct metallic sound. Scott raised his head as the sound of stilettos upon stone floor announced clearly who his visitor was.

“Yo, Ysa. Only you can grant us private audience from the guards,” he nonchalantly said.

Ysadora sat down in front of the window pane separating them. When she opened her mouth to speak, it was no longer English words that Scott heard, but unique slurring sounds, mostly with accentuated s’s, guttural k’s and long l’s, with an overall distinctive flow.

“You’ll be kept here for 10-20 years,” Ysadora simply stated in this new language.

“I can’t believe you can still talk Shiakar,” Scott admired.

“Randall sends you instructions. When the higher-ups at the Temples will decide that the time is ripe to release you, you are to meet up with them. They have received the last steps of Randall’s backup plan for the evolution of Terra, and they will guide you through them.”

“Doesn’t Randall trust me for this?” Scott hissed in anger.

“Not at all. You’re simply in the impossibility to do anything, imprisoned here; what’s the point in briefing you in advance?”

“How dare you insult me?!” Scott rose from his chair.

“Shut up, sit down, and listen, idiot,” Ysadora said, annoyed as she signaled the hidden guards that everything was under control. “Plans are underway to release Splendore into the population within 20 years.”

Scott stared at her for a few seconds before sitting down.

“Splendore? You’re going through with it, after all?”

“Not we. The population is. So be ready if you still want a piece of the reward,” Ysadora finished before rising.

“I hope for your sake that our superiors forgive your mistake,” Scott teased.

Ysadora turned to him, her turquoise eyes staring at him with coldness.

“We’re going to their HQ; I guess that despite it all, they must value humans above Rodguls to allow our presence into their fortress while abandoning you in a meager human prison. Randall wanted me to repeat something he said to you earlier on: that you will prove a wonderful challenge for humans to overcome.”

She turned heels without looking back, slamming the door behind her. Scott balled his fists together, seething with fury. The guard entered the room.

“Come on, Mr. Johnson. Time for you to come back inside...”

His last words were spurted out as Scott dug his fingers into his throat. As the guard fell and an alarm rang throughout the prison, Scott looked with disgust at the corpse.

“How dare they?! Me, a challenge for the stupid humans?!”

As the alarm rang, reverberating against the stone walls and floors, Ysadora casually entered the security room.

“Stop here, this is off limits to visitors...”

The guard didn’t finish his sentence as Ysadora pointed her handgun to him and fired the heart-stopping frequency. Leaning over his slouched body, she reached the computer and erased the recordings of her meeting with Scott. Satisfied, she walked back out of the room, watching with amusement at the guards flooding the corridors to the meeting cell. Clearly Scott had reacted in his usual way; she was glad for that distraction, as the evidences had been erased, and if miraculously recovered, all they would hear would be essentially hissing.

“Hurry up, our ride is leaving soon,” her father’s voice rang through her head.

“I’m ready; I’m getting out of the prison right now,” Ysadora replied.

“Any resistance?”

“Yes, but nothing I can’t handle,” Ysadora said, stepping over a fallen guard, her chain sword retracting back at her side. “Scott is informed of Splendore, although he’s not pleased of us meeting with our superiors and him being left behind.”

“A vermin will be treated as such. Humans will soon understand that as well.”

“Not our problem. You’ve got something much better in mind, don’t you?”

“If the Prince agrees to it, yes. Humans won’t ever be given the slightest chance of becoming inadequate if my solution works.”

“I can’t wait to see that,” Ysadora sighed as she sat into her sand-coloured car.

“That’s exactly what I hope for your future, Ysa,” her father softly replied.

Ysadora looked surprised.

“This isn’t like you, Randall.”

She heard him chuckle.

“No, indeed it doesn’t. Age must finally be getting to me. Now, hurry up; the Shiakars don’t like waiting.”

“I’ll be there in five,” Ysadora answered, pushing the throttle further, the car roaring.

Her head became silent again, save for her thoughts and her racing heart. Somewhere deep inside her, she realized that she was dreading coming back to that place. Knowing how inadequate she had been, and still was, compared to them.

But another feeling was slowly creeping up her heart. That her father was hiding from her something incredibly important.