"I didn't find you!" I said quickly. "I crashed. I swear! Look at my ship. It—it's a mess. Please, don't..." I swallowed thickly, still trying to look through the darkness. 

"Lunar uniform," said a gruff voice a bit to my left. Not the one who'd spoken earlier—his voice was deep and male. 

And he could see my uniform, which meant that he could see through the black clouding everything. 

"I wasn't—" I bit my lip. "Look. I was drafted, okay? But I defected. Ran away. So if you could just let me fix my spaceship, I can just leave, and we could forget about all of this..."

The person right next to be didn't seem to react, but the darkness started to seep away. I turned my head so I could see the figure next to me—warm, mahogany brown skin, curly red hair, shimmering gold irises the same metallic colour as the gun aimed at my head. And that uniform...

"Shit. Are you guys Stellar soldiers? I swear I didn't mean to end up here, okay?"

The red-haired person raised an eyebrow. "No, we're not Stellar." 

"But the uniform..."

"You're wearing a Lunar uniform," the man to my left said. I swivelled around and studied him. 

His eyes were solid black, and his skin was deep purple. He was of about medium height and sturdily built. A shadowborn, then. Which explained the darkness. And he was wearing a space suit, which meant that unlike me and the redhead, he didn't have a celestial spirit. So he couldn't survive the outer space conditions. 

"Yeah, well..." I trailed off. "Who are you guys then?"

Solstice laughed lightly. "Doesn't seem like you're in any position to be asking questions."

"Fine," I muttered. "What do I need to do so you'll let me go?"

Solstice hesitated. The shadowborn glanced around as if awaiting further instruction. 

"Wonderful," I said under my breath. "Um, could I at least adjust myself a bit?" My stolen uniform was in rough shape, and the knees were worn out. The rough rocky ground was digging into my legs. 

"No!" Solstice snarled, pressing the gun even more tightly against my forehead. 

My eyes widened. A smile quirked at the corner of my lips. "Wait. Do you guys have any clue as to what to do in this situation?"

"Shut up," Solstice hissed, but the tone was unsteady and tense. 

"No way." Suddenly, my situation seemed much less grave. If not for the fact that I could be killed at the twitch of a finger, I would've laughed out loud.

I looked around the asteroid once again, looking for some kind of base or hideout they'd come from, but I couldn't see anything. I waited in heavy silence for a minute or two. Using a freehand, Solstice gestured wildly at the shadowborn. The shadowborn waved back, using hand signals I couldn't understand. Finally, they seemed to reach some kind of consensus. 

"Alright," Solstice said finally. I felt the gun lower from my temple and breathed out slowly, relieved. 

"Thank you," I said, smiling brightly. 

Solstice started to walk away, leaving me stuck on my knees. I flinched as the shadowborn grabbed my arm and pulled me back up onto my feet. Silver blood leaked from a few tiny cuts on my knees, staining my uniform's frayed blue edges. 

"Hey, there," I whispered to the shadowborn quickly. "How loyal are you to Solstice? Because I just so happen to have access to a very large amount of money and a very good escape plan and if you could just undo these knots I'm sure it would be very beneficial for the both of us."

The shadowborn laughed. "Even if I did want to let you go, Solstice would shoot us both before we could even get away. They're not worth betraying. C'mon," he said, dragging me along. 

I glared at him, walking along slowly. "So what are you gonna do with me, then?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Considering it's my life on the line, I feel like I have quite a few reason to worry about it," I grumbled. 

"Seriously?" Solstice sighed and turned around, their luminous gold eyes flashing dangerously. "You can't be quiet for, like, five minutes?"

"Nope," I replied. I figured that if they were going to kill me, they would've done it already. 

"You'll see what we're going to do with you in a bit," they said, turning back around and resuming her quick pace. 

"Can't wait."

We walked in silence for a couple hours, which is quite possibly my least favourite thing. Still, I didn't want to push my luck too much. We crested red hill after red hill until rusty powder was caked into my clothes and my boots looked dipped in blood. Finally, Solstice paused.

"Here," they said.

My eyes scanned the area eagerly, but there was nothing worth noting. Just more useless red nothingness with useless red foothills. 

"You're going to leave me here to die," I guessed.

"Don't tempt me," Solstice mumbled, kneeling and pressing their hand to the ground's surface. 

I heard a clicking noise, followed by a soft humming, and finally a pop. A square of perfect darkness disappeared downwards. The shadowborn shoved me into Solstice, who caught me easily, and jumped down the chute without hesitating. 

I leaned against Solstice's chest. An underground hideout inside a free-floating asteroid. Brilliant.

 "Not bad," I said begrudgingly. "Not bad at all."

"Shut up," they muttered, pulling me down the chute with them.