I quickly became stronger and stronger. The extra training I was getting for my elements was really enhancing them and I didn't even have earth yet.

The combat training I also received changed my body in a good way. All muscles and strength.

I was so driven that I quickly rose to the top of the class, surpassing some older kids that had been training longer than I had. It earned me some jealous looks, but these kids knew better than to let that get the best of them.

The day I turned eighteen, about one and a half years after I started training, I was promoted to Soldier. On Hala, the minimum age for a Soldier is eighteen, and the Kree wasted no time initiating me. They needed me as much as I needed them. I was a big weapon to them and they didn't want to lose any time using it.

I wasn't stupid, I knew they mostly only cared about me because I was powerful, but I honestly didn't mind. They got what they wanted and I got what I wanted: a chance at revenge.

So I went on small missions first. Missions that had a low chance of being dangerous. Jaa-Nus always went with me. Or actually, I went with him. He had become somewhat of a mentor to me. Being there every step along the way. He made me feel less alone, although I would never tell him that or admit it to myself.

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

After about six months, it was clear to me that Vers had permanently made her way into my mind. Whenever I had nothing to do, she surfaced and there was nothing I could do about it.

And I tried, oh believe me, I tried.

Training with her every day and being so close to her when we were fighting wasn't good for the mess that was my mind now. But spending time with her felt so right and I wanted to connect to her, but I couldn't, I just couldn't. It went against everything I was taught in all my training here.

So I decided that she should find someone else to train her combat skills.

I needed space, distance and I couldn't think clearly if she was around.

So about seven months after the first time I saw her, I walked into the training room as usual, preparing to give her the bad news.

She turned around when I walked in, hearing the door slide open. Her instincts had gotten a lot better and she payed attention to her surroundings whenever she was fighting now. I had taught her well.

'Hey Aayala', she said to me with a smile. I could see that she liked these training hours at least as much as I did, maybe even more. But her smile dropped quickly when she saw my face. Usually I would give her a small smile when I walked in, but not this time. She knew I was going to say something she wasn't gonna like.

I didn't know how to say it, so I just threw it out. 'I can't train you anymore, Vers. I will keep doing your 'powertraining', but someone else will train you in combat from now on. I'm sorry' With that I turned around and started walking away, going to train on my own somewhere.

'Wait, what? Why?' I didn't react, just kept walking. But she wouldn't have any of it and ran up to me. Grabbing my wrist, she turned me around. 'What is going on Aayala?' She had started calling me by my name very early on in our training. I had corrected her at first, but she just kept calling me that, so I just left it. I kind of liked she way she said it, very gently.

Her eyes held disappointment, more than they should have, and confusion. I guess my announcement did come out of nowhere.

I was contemplating on whether to say the real reason why I wouldn't spend my mornings with her anymore, but her hand still holding my wrist made it even more clear that I should get out now.

'I just can't, I'm sorry', but I gave myself away when I looked at where her skin touched mine on my arm.

Of course she saw that and when I watched her eyes change, I knew she had realized what my real reason was. The reason I would never tell her.

She blushed a little, but still didn't let go of my arm. It was like she tried to get me to stay by just holding it forever.

'You don't have to run, Aayala', she said. 'You don't have to hide your emotions from me. I just want to know what goes on in that head of yours' Her voice sounded so sweet and pleading and I could sense that she was speaking the truth, but I was too scared. I pushed back the tears forming in my eyes that displayed how torn I was.

'I can't', I whispered, looking anywhere but her face. When I heard how pathetic that sounded in my ears, I took a deep breath and cleared my throat, pushing my feelings down.

'I can't', I said again. My voice strong and authoritative now when I looked her straight in her beautiful brown eyes. I all but ripped my wrist away from her hold and took a step back, her body too close for my liking.

I thought the conversation would be over then, but Vers wasn't going to let me off so easily.

'What happened to you that made you hide like this?', she asked gently, studying my eyes carefully. She wanted to understand me so badly and I didn't know why. She couldn't possibly be feeling the same things for me.

'That is none of your business, Vers', I said angrily. My past was something I didn't talk about with anyone, let alone someone I had known for such a short amount of time.

It looked like she wanted to say something more, but I just stalked out of there. I needed to cool down and think how I was going to face her tomorrow. I could make someone else train her, but I was the only one who understood her powers because they were so similar to mine. I needed to be the one to help her with that. It didn't matter how much I needed to say away from her, I couldn't just leave her to figure it out all on her own.

I wasn't that kind of person that just left someone whenever they needed me the most. I stuck with you till the end and I liked helping people, but I couldn't slip up again.

But that plan almost seemed to fail rapidly when I walked into the training room the next morning, about half an hour later than usual, for our powertraining.

I was nervous, because our little fight from yesterday still hang in the air and I didn't want her to hate me for saying those things. I might not want her to get too close, but I didn't want her to hate me.

So I put on a little apologetic smile when the doors slid open, but it turned around instantly when I saw who had replaced me as her training buddy. You probably guessed it. My dear friend Yon stood there on the mat opposite Vers, looking like he had the time of his life.

A pang of irritation (or was it jealousy) shot through my stomach when I watched them converse while fighting and heard her laugh at something he said.

A slick smile appeared on his face when he saw me standing there, watching them with what probably looked like a very pissed expression on my face.

Vers whipped around when she realized who he was smiling at, a big smile still on her face. She looked beautiful, just standing there in her Kree assigned gym outfit with her hair tied back and her shining brown eyes. That smile was everything and it looked like it could light up a whole room. It certainly did for me.

She looked like she wasn't angry with me about yesterday (man, was this woman even capible of being angry at someone), but maybe I just saw what I wanted to see. However, that smile did give me the courage to walk up to them, ending their session.

'Hey', I said to her softly. I felt partly guilty about falling out to her yesterday. She just wanted to get to know me better and I cut her off completely. She didn't have any bad intentions and I sounded like a bitch, which I really am not.

'Morning Commander', she smirked back to me. Completely ignoring Yon-Rogg and having her full attention on me now.

And he did not look happy about me interrupting him and stealing her attention.

'Aayala', he said curtly.

'Yon', I replied just as toneless.

When he saw I wasn't planning on leaving them alone again, he gathered his stuff, grumbled a 'see you tomorrow' at Vers and threw me a dirty look, which I answered with a triumphant one, while he strode out of the gym.

She, of course, didn't miss our interaction and looked at me curiously when she followed me to the other end of the room, ready to start our training. I knew that look. She wanted to ask a question, badly.

Groaning a little, I turned my head to where she was walking next to me. 'What is it Vers?'

'Is it that obvious?', she laughed.

'Yes, it is like you have a big question mark floating above your head'

'You are not going to yell at me again are you?', she smirked at me. This woman was unbelievable. It was like she had no fear. I kind of admired that.

Deciding this was a good time to say my apology, I shot my shot. 'About that, I'm sorry. It's just that I don't like talking about myself and definitely not about my past and I took that out on you.'

'That's okay, I understand. Probably more than you know', she replied kindly, although the last part came out more as a mumble.

'Thank you. It's just that I sounded like a total bitch which I really am not so...', I continued my awkward apology.

'Yes, you did kind of sound like a bitch', she said with a grin and a smile in her eyes.

I turned my head so I look at her properly. 'Watch it Vers', I said with a playful warning in my eyes.

She just laughed at that. A light, airy laugh that sounded like music to my ears.

'So what did you want to ask me?', I said when we arrived at the Holo-room, opening the glass door for her so she could step into it.

'Why do you hate him so much? Yon-Rogg?', she asked carefully, afraid of asking the wrong thing. But I didn't mind talking about that, maybe I could get her to turn on him a little. Not that the things that happened between us have anything to do with her.

When I laughed a little at her question, she looked at me weirdly. 'What?'

'That is want you want to know?', I asked, looking at her.

'Yes', she answerd immediately.

'Why?', I countered just as quickly, playing along with her little game.

'Well, you really seem to hate him' Ahhh she was wrong there. She thought I had messed up, not him. Well, can't really say I blame her after what happened yesterday.

'I don't hate him, he hates me', I corrected her. At that, she looked a little surprised. Like she didn't expect anyone to hate me.

'Why?', she asked again.

'You really like your questions, don't you?'

'So do you, Commander', she smirked.

I turned on the machine that powers the Holo's and began setting it to something I thought she could take, but wouldn't be too easy for her.

'I don't know where his hate for me started, but it was a long time ago, when we were both training to be soldiers. I was around sixteen at the time' She listened intently to my story while carefully watching my face, looking for any emotions I might show her. But I just stared at the machine in front of me, ignoring her piercing eyes.

'He was a little older than me, probably around a year, but I was placed in his class. At first, everything was fine between us and I trusted him enough to tell him some stuff about myself, but soon, the Kree leading the training saw how powerful my fire element was when I almost set the whole room on fire once.' She laughed at that. Probably imagening sixteen year old me almost frying everyone alive with my bare hands.

'Hey, don't laugh at that', I said almost seriously, although my smile gave away how funny it must have sound to her.

'Sorry, sorry', she said, mockingly holding up her hands in defeat. 'Go on', she nudged me.

'So like I said, after I had almost set the room on fire with everyone in it, the Kree saw how powerful I could become if I trained harder and more. So after every training with the rest of the class, I had a little private training to strengthen my powers and turn them into weapons. I could see Yon was getting jealous of the praise and special treatment I was getting, taking his spot at the top of the class. After that, he just started sending me dirty looks and ignoring me.

It also didn't help that I became Commander a year before he did, even though he is older and was born here.', I ended my little speech.

'So basically, he is just jealous of you', she established after she let it sink in.

'Yeah basically', I smiled. 'Oh and he hates me because I am Ateran but serve on Hala. Says I don't belong here'

'Men', she said after a short pause. As if it was an explanation for his behavior and a conclusion to my story.

I couldn't help but laugh at that. I liked her more and more. 'Yes, men'.

It seems like she only then realized where we were, in the room she saw me for the first time, practicing my skills. 'Wait, are you making me do this?', she sounded nervous and almost scared.

'Yes, I want to see if you can at least hit something now', I said, teasing her a little.

The challenge in my voice changed her expression from unsure to confident, ready to prove me wrong. 'All right, you're on Commander', trying to sound confident.

'You got any last tips for me, before I show you what these can do?', she asked, waving her hands around and standing ready in the middle of the floor.

'Try and remember what I taught you. Concentrate and predict your enemy's movements and don't get distracted.' Even though we were having a little fun before this, training was serious and she needed to see it that way if she ever wanted to control her powers.

'Yeah, yeah, I got it. Hit it', she referred to the big button next to my hand that would start the simulation.

For a second, I thought she wouldn't take it seriously, but she proved me wrong when I closed the door behind me and watched her from behind the glass.

The little tab behind her left ear started to glow when she summoned her powers to her hands. They had put it there to make controlling them easier. At least it said so in her file.

Her face was all concentration while she waited for the first Holo to appear. And when it did, she hit it square in the face with one of her photon blasts. This was off to a good start, and by the look on her face, she thought the same.

When more and more Holo's showed up, she struggled a bit and missed a lot, but not one Holo came too close to her. I had to admit, I was impressed. She had picked up a lot more from our lessons than I had realized. She wasn't quite there yet, but I could work with this.

When no more Holo's appeared, she relaxed and tried to control her powers by taking deep breaths and calming herself down. Slowly, her hands stopped glowing and the tab went out.

Then she turned around to see what I thought of her little display. When I nodded, she broke out that stunning smile of hers again, proud of herself.

Yes, her powers were dangerous, but that smile outweighed it by a mile. I would have to be very careful not to get too attached.

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

So Aayala's defence is slowly breaking down and she just can't seem to keep Vers away from her.

Btw: I am stuck in quarantine like almost everyone else in the world, so I have nothing to do. I have written some chapters in advance, so you can expect a new chapter every two days and maybe every day :)

(2798 words)