[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/2D38s61.png[/img][/center]
[b][color=#ffffff]Zkedia Mining Colony, Jiden-V[/color][/b]

[color=#ffffff]The Protector of the Universe they called him and yet as he watched the clouds above Jiden-V fill with smoke, Wendell Vaughn couldn’t help but feel undeserving of the title. Drex, leader of the Kymellian outpost at Zkedia since before Wendell was born, was sitting beside him on a stool with a pink shawl thrown over his shoulders. There were red blotches over it where his wounds had bled through their dressings. The sight of it was a reminder of how recent their suffering was. The human struggled for words of comfort before settling upon a cliche.[/color]

[color=#e06666]“I’m so sorry for your loss, Drex.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Drex’s eyes remained glued to the ground but he managed a feeble, distracted response. “Thank you.”[/color]

[color=#e06666]“Had I only arrived sooner I might have been able to st-”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Something about Vaughn’s tone shook the Kymellian out of his stupor and he stood up from his stool. As he did so the shawl fell from his shoulders onto the floor of his quarters to reveal the scale of the injuries beneath it. If he were hurting, Drex didn’t let it show as he lifted one of his hooves and placed it sympathetically on the human’s shoulder.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“You must not blame yourself, Wendell. Not even the mighty Quasar can be in all places at once. My people understand that. You have done enough for us over the years.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Wendell nodded and a pang of guilt passed through him as he realised that Drex had done a better job of liberating him from his guilt than he had done of consoling the Kymellian in the first place. Vaughn scanned the horizon from the window of Drex’s quarters at the hobbling Kymellian’s making their way across the salt. It was hard to believe that they had survived – it almost felt wrong to say that they had given all that had been lost in the process.[/color]

[color=#e06666]“There’s something I need to ask you about. I busted some Centaurians trying to escape the system on my way here. They were babbling about something the whole way to the Kyln. Something that, well, ought to be impossible and yet I’ve not been able to get it out of my head ever since.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Vaughn felt the bands on his wrists tingle slightly as the cosmic awareness he had been gifted by Eon began to awaken. The conversation he’d had with the captured Centaurians played in his mind as clearly as if he were having it that very moment. His eyes had glazed over, replaced with a starry look that made Drex flare his nostrils with discomfort, but in a matter of seconds Wendell had returned – and Drex’s discomfort had been replaced by expectance.[/color]

[color=#e06666]“They said that their general’s mind had been melted by a Martian.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“It’s the truth,” Drex nodded.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A heavy sigh left Quasar’s chest as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Since Eon had named him Protector of the Universe, he had seen no shortage of impossible things – and yet that a Martian would never stray from their homeworld was one of the few unshakeable rules the universe had ever produced. He found himself recounting the reasons, almost in an effort to convince himself as much as the Kymellian.[/color]

[color=#e06666]“No Martian has left Mars for millions of years, hundreds[i] [/i]of millions of years even. Why after all this time would they break with tradition? What business would a Martian have on Jiden-V of all places? It doesn’t make any sense.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The Kymellian brayed in frustration and strode towards the thick glass to place one of his hooves against it. For a time the men stood in silence and watched Drex’s people hobbling along, a Kymellian child or two playing amid the salt, even an elderly Kymellian feeding a wounded Centaurian that had decided to remain on Jiden-V. It was a microcosm of the world that Drex loved so dearly, what he had almost lost, and crucially, what he might lose again if he revealed the full truth to Wendell – and yet he knew he had no choice.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Do you trust me?”[/color]

[color=#e06666]“You know I do,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Vaughn swore with a sincere nod.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“I saw it with my own eyes, Wendell,” Drex sighed heavily. “I’d be dead now had that Martian not intervened, so too would my people, and for that we are all in its debt. There’s no disputing that. But what it did to the Centaurians was… barbaric. It could have subdued them, planted them to the ground with a single thought, but instead it [i]chose [/i]to send them to their deaths as penance for what they had done here. Those aren’t the actions of a man, they’re the actions of an angry god.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]With one of his hooves, Drex tapped against the glass at something in the distance. Wendell squinted in the direction the Kymellian had pointed in and noticed a makeshift shrine that had been erected by a fire. At its centre stood a statue of a hand holding a beating heart.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“There are some among my people that [i]already [/i]raise icons in the Martian’s image. Perhaps I’m being impetuous, but it does not bring me comfort to know that such a force exists in the universe. That one day should its wrath might be turned upon those I love, I would be equally powerless to stop it.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]There was pain in Drex’s voice. The kind of pain that Wendell Vaughn had encountered all too many times over the past few years. Though he was ashamed to admit it, this pain he felt more keenly than the rest because of his relationship with Drex. In their hour of need, Quasar had failed Jiden-V and a lethal protector had stepped into the void to fulfil his Wendell’s for him – and now, no doubt, the Centaurians that slipped through his net would pass this horror story on when they returned to whatever hive of villainy they called home. 

It would only be a matter of time, be it ten weeks or ten years, before some would-be despot rose the Centaurian banners and sought to finish what was started here. All that death and murder was for nothing – it was an indulgence that served only to perpetuate a cycle of violence that would see [i]more [/i]dead. Wendell raised one of his fists in Drex’s direction and let his hand open gently.[/color]

[color=#e06666]“There are times when it takes everything I have to hold back the power of the Quantum bands, but I do it. Even when it means putting my own life at risk, I show restraint. And you know why? Because wearing these things does not make me a god. The power I wield doesn’t give me the right to play judge, jury, and executioner – nobody has that right. There’s nothing impetuous about standing by that whatever the costs, Drex. It’s principled.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Once more the Kymellian gestured towards the shrines that had been erected. [/color]

[color=#ffffff]“I am afraid there are many among my people that will not see things that way, old friend.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Quasar chuckled sardonically at the suggestion. [/color][color=#e06666]“Then I suppose it’s a good thing that justice isn’t a popularity contest.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Drex nodded reluctantly, signalling his acceptance more so than his approval, and limped back towards the stool he had been sat on. As he reached it he perched down to pick up his shawl and let out a pained wince. Wendell knew better than to offer to assist the Kymellian, as proud as he was, so instead stood with crossed-arms and waited as Jiden-V’s leader pushed through his discomfort to grab the shawl.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The Kymellian threw the bloodied shawl over his shoulders and then looked towards Wendell Vaughn resolutely. “What are you going to do?”[/color]

Quasar's boyish features hardened into a determined scowl. [color=#e06666]“I’m going to track this ‘god’ down and make it answer for the things it did here.”[/color]