Astran

The seven of them were sent on a mission. They had failed and she had to stay behind and watch them go. She thought of renewing everything in the city where her parents had died. She couldn't, she had

Astran

She stepped down on the face of another Sevilyan. These guards had been trying to capture her since the other day.

She ran.

She ran from the White Palace they call Capitol. It's almost two years since she saw their plane go. Almost two years of stay here in Sevilya and she could not bear the hole in her chest that gnaws at her every single second. The unbearable dreams of what the seven of them went through, together, here at their first task in Sevilya.

She couldn't bear the lost of them, her only friends. Him, her only love. The consequence of the incident that crushed the mission fell upon her. Her passport was refused to be signed by the Father. Though he said she could stay. She was delighted, of course.

Sevilya is a beautiful city. It was just mismanaged that's why it's a ruin at the moment. She have so many dreams for it. She thought of rebuilding everything and renewing the people that was left, those of who hasn't planned to migrate to Astra --- her city --- yet.

All those dreams crashed, too.

She could not achieve them. She was a nobody here. Even though she was the only Astran, she was treated just like the other Sevilyans. It's not about the power and special treatment she is after. But how can she bring a change in this city if she wasn't even acknowledged? Moreover, the people refuses to submit to their leader, The Father.

There weren't many of them left. Only a mere two hundred, the Father told her once. Though she only saw about a quarter of them during her stay here. They were scattered, unorganized even. The system is also on a poor state. The level of leadership is not effective on everyone.

Her drea has become distorted ever since she realized what a hard case Sevilya has become. It got worse every passing time.

The proposals she had told the advisors of the Father would not work if the leaders would not abide. The people is being mislead on the fact that Sevilya is dead and that in Astra, they would be saved.

She wanted to show them what a beautiful city Sevilya is. How beautiful it was back then.

Her parents were researchers in Astra, they were the best. They had so many pictures of the once-beautiful and adored Sevilya. But Sevilya was corrupted by the colonizers from the East. The people were tricked that this country from the East could bring them more wealth and new things that their side of the world could offer. But no, these foreigners only used Sevilya to produce for them. Sevilya was raped of its beauy. When he people realized this, it was too late. They wre already broken in all terms. Their leader commited suicide and was followed by many. People tried to kill one another for no apparent reason that the non-Sevilyan knows of. Her parents were sent to Sevilya by the Elders to investigate about the situation in the beautiful Sevilya.

This was a crucial memory for her.

 She went with her parents since they coudn't just leave her at their house, she was only nine. They had no relatives.

Her parents immediately made their way to the Capitol once they reached the city. Well, they tried to. She saw how a group of Sevilyans attacked her parents with all kind of weapons she didn't know of that time on their hands. It was pure murder. Her parents tried to run back to their car but hey could not. Blood was running down their faces. They had staggered on the ground, just a few feet away from the car. She sat there watching. She could only see the back of her arents' killers as they kill the two of them. Then there was fire. They had lit her parents in fire.

Stare was all she could do as she read her mother's wounded and swollen lips, "Don't give up on them." And as if on cue, both of her parents whisphered, "Cara, be strong."

She jolted upright and took hold of her pounding chest. The visual memory of her parents' death had not haunted her for the past five years. She thought that the two years of pure grievance was already enough to keep the memories away. She had remembered everything like it was just yesterday.

Fresh, clear and precise.

She stopped the feeling of sadness and heartbreak that she knew wouldcome before it even started. She could not afford a distraction now. She needs to find a way back to Aastra. Sevilya is not for her. She needs to get back to her friends. She needs to know if they are all okay. She needs to see them. She needs to see him.

She needs to escape first.

It breaks her heart at the thought of leaving Sevilya but she knew she is a failure. A failure to the Father who have given her the chance of another life. Death was the punishment for her crime. The Father ammended it and had let her stay. The Father is a priest; well, he used to be one in Astra. Truth be told, the Father had saved her life even before the mission. He was he one who found her in her parents' car. He brought her back to Astra but left immediately.

She had only found out about it from the bits of memories she had recovered from the five years of recovery. She bet the Father had forgotten about her.

He is the leader of Sevilya from then, until now.

He had asked her to stay here in Sevilya and she accepted. She was even told that her parents lived here once. But who knew, her parents did not live to tell their story. They left her nothing but a house filled with researches she don't know anything of.

Before she knew it, she as knocked out cold by a guard who has found her llittle hide-out.

She woke up a few hours later on a four-poster bed. The Father was sitting aross from her facing the window wih a drink in his hand. The bright moon was shining down on his white hairs.

"Father," she whisphered. He turned to look at her straight in the eyes. She could not decipher the emotions that he holds in his eyes. But they were so strong, she feel the intensity of it.

"It is time, child," he started ti say. "It is time for you to take over."

She was on a plane to Astra the next day. The sun has not risen yet but it will in a matter of minutes. To say she was beyond shocked on what the Father had said was an understatement. The city was being handed to her a while ago. A heated argument came after the shock worn off. She was out of the bed in a matter of a second and was shouting refusals to the Father. She could not lead her team back then, she could not lead a city. She knew nothing about it. Well, a little but it was not enough to make her a ruler.

She told the Father that she could not do it and that she was an Astran and in Astra she should be righfully be placed. She pleaded the Father to help her get back to Astra.

"You do not belong in Astra, Cara. You belong in Sevilya."

She stood her ground and he complied after a stare-off. Later on, as she gaze at the rising sun, she could feel her lips lifting at the corner. A flicker of hope sparked in her mind.

She was finally coming home.

As the sunlight shone down on Astra below, she whispered," Astra, I will embrace you like the sun embraces the whole world."

At the airport, people were staring at her. Even the attendants were. She was the only passenger of the plane and her clothes shouts Sevilya. She was wearing the typical Sevilyan formal clothes as what the Father had told her to ---- his last request. A long flowing blue green silk skirt and a matching sleeveless top embroided at the sides with Sevilyan inscriptions. Or maybe it was the thick-gold choker she was wearing.

Everyone on the airport was wearing work clothes and something quite formal like a dress. The Father had said that it will help her journey easier. She was wearing the clothes of a Sevilyan Royalty back in the days where it was still fresh from the Easterns. It was a gift from the Father.

She was met by two men and a women in business suits at the entrance of the airport. One of the men took her duffel bag as the woman introduced herself as Maria, her assistant here in Astra and the two men were here bodyguards.

She asked Maria who they worked for. "To the lady in Sevilyan Royalty," was her answer. She shrugged at her assistant even though the answer was quite quizzical. She asked them were they were going when the car they went into started to move. "To where you wished to be, m'lady," one of the guards said.

She recognized the road as the one to the Abbey she had grew up after the murder of her parents.

"I'm home, guys."

The gravel crunched as tey entered the gates of the Abbey. She thought that it was empty, she could not see anybody. They stepped out of the car and she was lead to the west side of the Abbey. There they saw number of cars pulled up. There was a wedding on-goig at the Church. They started to walk towards it but was stopped by about ten guards. Her own guards talked to them and hey had let them in through the side door.

The Church was packed. She recognized some of them but couldn't quite recall their names. She wasn't actually a socialite back in her days. She only talked to the Mother Superior, her friend James and her bestfriend Leila. She has set up that kind of defense mechanism so strong that only a few had managed to break her guard. Until the mission.

They were sent to Sevilya to capture a group of fugitives. The Abbey makes the bes agents along with the Seminary at the other side of the city. Three from the Abbey --- her, James and Leila --- and the rest from the Seminary. Her team broke her guard down and she found herself at ease. She had six friends.

James had become her lover eventually but it failed. Though she formed an enemy in Rey, she had fallen in love with him. But it was too late for the two of them, they failed the mission because of her love for him. She did not know that it was love back then, she was only familiar with it from her deceased parents.

She did not know that she was still capable of that feeling, she thought she was void from it. But now, she might get a chance with him again.

She has come back gor her team, her friends. She hascome back for him.

The ceremony was already halfway. The couple were exchanging vows. She was sitting at the far end of the last pew so sche couldn't wuite see their faces. But their stance looked familiar. When they turned to face one another to say their vows, she went still. The woman spoke, then the man.

She knew that voice, she knew both voices.

Their voices were achingly familiar.

It was Leila getting married to Rey.

The hole that she was nurturing at her chest has expanded tenfold. Multiple shards of glass has penetrated her insides. And as he say his vows of forever to her bestrfriend, it was a continuous flow of acid on her wounded soul.

She couldn't take her eyes away from their happy faces. Both oof them were glowing. She couldn't move from her position. She was hoping for numbness but it did not came. The pain was eating her from the insides.

She was breaking.

A loud hoot from someone at the front made her jump. She steered her eyes toward that voice and there she saw James with Max --- another member of the team. Clearly, both men were a couple. They even kissed.

It was her undoing. They were happy.

Who was she to come back and just barge in and ruin everything? She was a nobod. She will just add to their nuisance. She had no place beside any of her friends. She had no place in Rey's life.

She had no place in Astra now. Astra was with them. She was the reason why Sai, Max's sister, died in the mission.

She is just a problem. She is not accepted here.

She could not bear the I do's being exchanged and the kiss that will surely come after. She just can't.

She stood up abruptly. The noise she made had invited attention. All eyes turned to look at her. She did not ntended to capture all their attention. She just wanted to leave ad go back to Sevilya. To the Father.

Now that she have their attention, she stood still. She looked at Leila and fear and shocked was evident in her eyes as registration came. "Cara," she said and it reverberated in the silence of the church.

She could see James and Max stand at the corner of her eyes. They were all wearing the same shocked expression. Though she couldn't look at Rey's eyes, even in his direction.

"We thought you were dead," Leila added.

She couldn't help but smile bitterly at her so-called friends. The bitterness of abandonement and betrayal had overcome her senses.

"The Father was right, I do not belong here. I have no place here. I am dead. I am dead."

With one last look at them, she turned and walked away. But at the door held open by Maria, she glanced at Rey and said, "Congratulations, Astran."

 

Author's Note

Sorry for the spacingand you can all give any review about it!