I had been living on Hala for about a month now and had started training to be in the Starforce. The only Ateran in the Starforce, because the other refugees that fled with me, didn't want anything to do with war. But when the Kree had explained to me that it was a species called Skrulls that infiltrated my home and started a war, I had felt nothing but rage.

All I wanted was revenge. The Kree had taught me how to channel that anger into power, how I could stay clearheaded and still fight at my stongest.

They didn't yell at me when I accedentily almost set the gym on fire the day I got that element. I think that was only two weeks after I landed on Hala. It was probably triggered by my rage and fury and expressed itself in the most ironic way possible. Completely fitting my emotions.

When they saw the force of my power, they quickly determined they had to keep a close eye on me because I could accomplish great things. So the next day, after I thought training had ended, Jaa-Nus came to pick me up and brought me to a secluded training room where I couldn't hurt anyone or destroy anything and told me he wanted to see what my powers could do.

I already had good control over my water and air elements, so I kept it quite save with those, but I knew he didn't come for those, he came for the fire. So I gave him fire.

Let's just say the walls and ceiling needed some painting after that. But he didn't seem to mind. He looked at me proudly and confident, like he knew I could do this all along.

From that day forward, I trained my powers extra in that room. Fueling the fire and channeling it so I could control it. Making myself and giving them the weapon that they wanted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour later, I was on my way to the front entrance of the building after a nice shower and was wearing my uniform. I had to report to the commanders' offices in one hour, giving me just enough time to show Vers around.

I half expected for her to not show up, either because of the way our conversation ended, or because she couldn't find it, but to my surprise, she was already there when I turned the corner.

She looked lost and it was clear that she didn't know how to hold herself in this unknown environment, so she 'nonchalantly' leaned to the wall while everyone was walking around her. No one paying attention to this unimportant person in the hallway.

But she scanned everyone who walked past her. Soldiers, Captains, Commanders, Officials, Technical staff. Everyone in different outfits and with different appearances, but with the same neutral look on their face.

So when I rounded the corner, her eyes didn't miss me, and her whole attitude changed from seemingly chill to full attention. She immediately pushed herself off the wall like she was caught doing something that wasn't allowed and walked my way. As she came closer, I saw some hope in her eyes that maybe I wouldn't have the same mindset as before and she looked like she was about to say something to me, but I just walked past her. 'Follow me'

That made her swallow whatever words she was going to speak and her eyes showed only disappointment when she followed me through the doors, outwards.

I walked down the big stairs in front of the entrance so we could have a better view off the whole building. The size of it never seizes to amaze me. It made you feel so small, like an ant, an irrelevant ant. And when I looked at Vers next to me, I could see on her face that she felt the same way.

Her eyes widened when she turned her head from left to right, trying to find the ends of the building, but you couldn't, not from here, I had tried.

Slowly, her lips turned up, like she couldn't believe she was lucky enough to see it. Her expression reminded me of a child that just walked into the candy store, not sure where to look. It almost caused me to do the same, but I caught myself just in time, turning my eyes away from her and towards the building again.

'Wow', she whispered under her breath.

'This is the Kree Starforce Headquarters', I said to her. 'Soldier's wing is on the right side, Captain's in the middle and Commander's on the left. We have about ten thousand Soldiers, fifteen hundred Captains and a hundred and fifty Commanders. Every Soldier answers to a Captain, a Captain to a Commander and a Commander to the Supreme Intelligence, the AI leader of Hala.'

'An AI leader?', she asked, surprised.

'Yes an AI leader'

'Well what does it look like?', a curious look on her face.

'Nobody knows'

'What do you mean nobody knows?', she asked almost confused.

Sighing, I explained to her: 'It appears before you as the person in your life you most admire, so everyone sees a different person, it is without form.'

A short silence followed and Vers looked like she was in deep thought.

'Mommy', she said, half to herself, like a conformation of something she expected, and half to me.

'What?' I had heard her perfectly, but I had a hard time accepting it.

'Yesterday, when Yon-Rogg said to you that you had to go to Mommy with questions, that is what he meant. The Supreme Intelligence. You see your mother', she said matter-of-factly.

I was completely taken aback by this. A bad feeling started in my stomach when she saw she was right. I had told Yon-Rogg that I saw my mother when I visited the SI in trust, back when I still liked him. And he had kept my secret until he started hating me, which was when he started telling everyone who wanted to hear. It just shows how you can't trust anyone with anything.

And now Vers knew too. I hadn't even known her for a day and she already had too much information about me, she knew too much already, way more than I would like anyone to know.

Who you see when you go to visit the Intelligence is something everyone keeps to themselves. Nobody talks about it, and asking someone who they see is a big no-no. It is the biggest secret the people of Hala keep.

So that is why I stepped in front of her the same way Yon did when he had threatened me all those years ago. But I wasn't angry, not really. I was scared, but I wasn't going to show her that.

'Don't ever say that again', it was in the most calm voice I could manage, making it sound way more dangerous than if I would have screamed the words.

But Vers wasn't impressed by my little outburst, I think she expected me to blow up at her again, and she said it anyway. At this point I didn't know if she was just provoking me, challenging me, testing me, or if she was just really that stupid. But I knew the latter wasn't true and her eyes looked into mine like they wanted to see what I would do about her dare.

'Why?' She smirked. She freaking smirked at me. So she was challenging me.

'Don't test me Vers. I am not someone you mess with', but I saw that my words didn't leave an impression on her, because while her smile faltered a little, it stayed on her face. A knowing look in her eyes told me she knew my little display was fake.

She could see right through me and that scared the hell out of me.

So I did what I always did: I ran.

I turned around and without sparing her another glance, walked back up the steps and into the building. I could hear her boots on the ground as they followed me, but she didn't say anything anymore.

And she wouldn't for the rest of the tour.

She just had that damn victorious look in her eyes and a ghost of a smile on her lips.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before we went our separate ways yesterday, I ordered Vers to be in the Commander's training room at six in the morning. I would usually go around that time and I wasn't about to change it just because she trained with me.

It was early, yes, but she would have to adapt. However, it didn't seem like she needed to, because she already waited for me at the door when I walked from my apartment to the gym.

I did not sleep well and it definitely had something to do with the blonde standing in front of me, so my mood was worse than usual and I had bags under my eyes. Her happy spirit only made it worse when she said:

'Good morning to you. Sleep well?' She knew all too well that I did, in fact, not sleep well and I guessed she knew it was because of her. At least her smile told me so.

I huffed at that, which sounded like 'it's none of your business' and made my way over to the matted part of the room, which I believed she was definitely going to need today. I wasn't going to go easy on her. That is not the way I learned my skills and is not what I believed to be the fastest way at learning. You learn by falling on your butt a hundred times and standing up a hundred and one. Well, maybe for her, it would be a little more than that, because my eyes scanned her stance when she stood on the mat.

She looked unready and vulnerable standing there, waiting for me to do or say something. She held her body in an awkward way. She looked like she wasn't a fighter.

But my suspicions proved to be wrong when I unsuspectedly threw a mean right hook at her jaw and her left hand blocked mine in a fast reflex. Her eyes widened when she looked at her left arm, as if it had moved on its own.

Well if she was surprised about that move, imagine my amazement.

Alright, let's see if it was just a lucky catch or if she could actually keep up.

I threw another quick punch with my left hand, aiming for her exposed ribs, but she was focused now and saw it coming, blocking that one too.

After that, I just sped it up. I tried to get into every spot she left unprotected, but she was almost always on time to catch my hand or dodge my leg. It looked a bit stiff and some of her movements were awkward, but she had definitely had training before.

Just when I thought my job was going to be easy and I would be rid of her soon, she missed the hand that went for her nose and fell backwards with a loud thud.

Now she clearly didn't smile anymore and it was my time to look triumphantly. Her hands went to her nose and she looked at me bitterly. Her eyes were watering because of the force, even though I pulled my punches.

'You missed one', I said when I extended my hand for her, which she took, and hauled her up from the ground.

'Yes I felt that, thanks', she answered sarcastically.

I quickly let go of her soft hand as soon as she was back on her own two feet and she took a step back when she noticed how close her body was to mine. I ignored her red cheeks and walked over to my water bottle, taking a long sip.

'You've definitely had training before, but it has been a long time ago', I told her.

'You remember the movements and your reflexes are okay, but your technique is bad and you don't move your feet.'

'Well I don't remember learning this. Where could I have learned this?', she asked, distraught.

'My guess would be the army, but you don't have any visible scars on your body', I said as I scanned the exposed parts of her that weren't covered by clothes, 'and your hands are too soft for them to have held a gun or to have done a lot of fighting'

She didn't react to my comment about her hands, but she clearly felt uncomfortable under my analyzing gaze and crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to cover herself.

'So what is it then?', pushing me for an answer.

'I don't know. Maybe another government protection department like an intelligence organization with field training', I said honestly.

'That would explain why everything feels so familiar here', she muttered. She had let me know how she felt about this place, trusting that bit of information about herself to me. She looked vulnerable now, the uncertainty about her past written all over her face.

She didn't know who she was a week ago, where she lived, who she knew, what she did and what happened to her that gave her those powers that kept flaring up every few minutes.

In that moment, she looked utterly lost, like she had kept up a mask for too long and finally let it down, showing what she truly felt.

'Let's find out if we can sharpen those skills a bit, shall we?', ignoring her emotional statement.

She smiled at my attempt to cheer her up and she looked grateful that I wanted to help her. So she pushed her feelings away and got ready again.

'Ready when you are, Commander' Her tone was teasing, but I could see that she wanted to learn, wanted to get better, and I couldn't help but appreciate that.

So for the next couple of weeks, we trained her combat skills and I taught her how to control her powers. It didn't take long for those trainings to become my favorite part of the day. Vers was funny and kept making snarky remarks or teasing comments and although I didn't react to them most of the time, that didn't stop her from trying to get a reaction out of me. Whether that was in the form of a smile or a look that told her to shut up.

But she didn't shut up. No matter how many times I told her to concentrate and to block all her emotions. She tried, but her character just kept coming through.

Normally I would have yelled at her to keep her mouth shut and really mean it this time, but I had to admit, I liked Vers. Her personality reminded me of my old self, when I wasn't alone yet. Always happy, hard working and innocent. Most of all her innocence attracted me.

She didn't have anything on her conscience, or so I thought.

About three weeks after we started training, she walked into the training room late. That was very unusual for her. She was normally already here when I came in. So I was about to chide her, when I saw how she looked.

Her normal air of happiness had disappeared and she walked in with a frown on her face. It was immediately clear to me that something had happened and my guess was it had something to do with her past. Working with her powers could have unlocked some parts of her brain that were closed off before, so it was likely she remembered something.

She walked straight to the mat and waited for me to join her. She didn't say anything, which was very odd, and just stared at the ground with that far away look in her eyes. I saw this as an opportunity to get back to her for all the times she teased me when I wasn't in the mood, so while I walked over to her, I couldn't help myself.

'What, no good morning?' I said with a smirk. Part of me felt worried about her and I wanted to know what she had dreamt, but I knew when I would've asked, she wouldn't have given me a straight answer.

She didn't hide her emotions like I did, but she didn't like talking about herself. At the moment, she just felt a lot of frustration and wanted to let it out, which meant I was the chosen one to be on the other end of it. She would most likely talk when she got it all out of her system. So I just let her do her thing.

Her moves were messy when she threw kicks and punches at me, it was clear that she let her frustration take over and didn't concentrate on what she was doing. I just caught her attacks and didn't go into the offence, which frustrated her even more.

'Fight back' she said through gritted teeth. She wanted a challenge, a fight, but I wasn't going to give it to her because her emotions were clouding her mind. She seemed to sense I wasn't gonna fight back, but it just made her speed up her movements. Pushing me to do the same. After about five minutes of this, I believed she had learned her lesson and swiped her legs away from under her, making her fall over.

She still didn't protect her legs, it was unquestionably her weak spot.

'You need to calm down', I said to her, looking down where she was laying on the floor. 'You're letting your frustration guide your movements and it leaves you vulnerable'

She turned over so she lay on her back on the ground, her anger replaced by sadness.

'You gonna tell me what happened now?', I asked when she didn't react to my statement.

Sighing, she sat up and put her hands in her lap, looking at them, she said 'I don't know. My dreams. They look like little flashes from my old life, but they don't make any sense. It is like they don't belong to me, but at she same time they do.'

I could see she was very lost and my heart ached for her. I hadn't had known her for long, but she had already weaseled her way into my mind, no matter how hard I tried to resist. So for once, I gave in to my instincts and crouched down next to her.

She seemed surprised by my sudden closeness, but didn't say anything, which encouraged me to put a hand on her shoulder. She tensed up a bit, but relaxed when she realized I meant it comfortingly.

'Don't worry about it. We will figure out what happened to you. Even if it takes a long time.' It felt nice to say those words to her, to be able to comfort her. But when she looked at me with a look of adoration, I felt myself slowly crawl back behind my stone wall. She saw in my eyes what was happening in my head and sadness soon overtook her features when she realized my moment of tenderness was over.

So I hurryingly stood up, still feeling she way the skin of her bare shoulder felt on my hand, and took a couple steps back so she could get up without getting too close to me. I wanted to end training right there and then, but I couldn't do that to her, so I just decided to skip fighting today and go straight to 'powertraining' as she liked to call it.

My moment of vulnerability had messed with my head and I couldn't get the feeling of her skin of my mind. So for the next half hour or so until I called an end to training, I stayed as far away from her as I could, not risking an accident like that again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Man these chapters seem to get longer and longer and I only now realise how slow my writing is, I hope you don't mind that.

So Aayala is trying to keep Vers at arms length while training her, but she can't help but feel a connection to her. So let's see how this plays out, shall we?

(3412 words)