“I’m speechless, Kayden. First, you go rogue; then you come out of nowhere recommending Squires and crewmen. I don’t know where the Kayden I knew for over nine hundred years has gone to,” he said, and Kayden furrowed his brow.

“I’m quite serious, there’s seven of them, mixed races, but they’ve lived hard lives. They’re hungry for a better life. And it’s been closer to nine hundred, to be fair,” Kayden said.

“I’ll make a deal with you. Come back to the Guardians for a year and stop taking bounties and I’ll recruit them all as Squires and crewmen,” Briggs said, and Kayden growled as he made a fist; he was so frustrated. He looked over to the cell and covered his face as he leaned back in his chair.

“Let me think about it…I’ll dock in an hour and release the prisoner. I’ll get my bounty for that at least,” Kayden said, and Briggs nodded.

“See you in an hour with your answer,” Briggs said as he closed the comms. Kayden slammed his metal fist against the console, causing it to shake and make the buttons light up.

“Frack!” he snapped. He couldn’t face seven Walkers with bad news if he didn’t want to agree to return to be a Guardian again, even though every fiber of his being wanted to cut and run. He had hyped them up and given them hope, and the look in their eyes glistened so brightly, he could still see it when he closed his eye.

“Creator…give me strength,” he whispered as he leaned forward and pressed his head in his hands, and closed his eye tightly. He walked into his kitchenette and brewed some coffee, still yawning and looking at his wristband. He took his coffee cup with him to the room with the cell, tapped the bars with his wristband’s side, and woke the Walkers.

“I’m going to unlock the cell so you can come with me to the kitchen and get a bite to eat. I imagine you’re all quite hungry, and I don’t know what they have in store for you right out the gates,” Kayden said as he input a code on the door to the cell, and it opened.

“Follow me, and no funny business. I can take all seven of you out in less than a minute on my worst day, and I’m not even awake yet,” Kayden said grumpily. He led them to the kitchen and showed them where the food was, and they each took a turn serving themselves and sat on the floor.

“You can have seconds. I’ve got loads of this protein crap in storage,” Kayden said, and they rushed back to the food station and prepared more. Kayden chuckled as he watched them while he sipped his coffee.

“We’ll be splitting up but keep it in the back of your minds that I’ll be checking in on your progress as you move on as Squires or crewmen. I’ll contact your Guardians or Captains and ask how you’re all holding up because my reputation is on the line here, and I expect you to put your all into this,” Kayden said.

“You seem down. What’s the matter?” Kavlia asked.

“Is it that obvious?” he asked.

“Tell us why your spirit is so diminished,” Rio requested. Kayden knelt before them, putting his cup on the floor.

“My superior said that I’ve got to come back as a Guardian for a year,” Kayden said as he looked down at his cup of coffee.

“What’s so bad about being a Guardian?” Rio asked.

“You get tied down to the job, don’t make as much…and you have to take orders,” Kayden said.

“But Guardians are the heroes of the universe!” Kavlia exclaimed.

“I’m no hero. Heroes save the day. I lost my ability to be a hero when I couldn’t save the person that mattered most to me,” Kayden said as he continued to stare at the cup. Kavlia scooted closer.

“Was it a lover?” she asked. Kayden averted his eye.

“It was, wasn’t it?” she asked.

“Yeah. I left her for just a moment, and she got shot by a couple of thugs. I broke the Guardian codex and killed them. I left their faces unrecognizable for any record search. To this day, I don’t know the identity of her killers, and I don’t care. They’re dead, and that’s all that matters,” he said coldly, and a shiver went down their spines.

“But they want you back as a Guardian…so surely breaking the codex was a small offense?” Rio asked. Kayden eyed him.

“I’ve lost the respect of my peers, superiors, and the rank of my Guardian status. If I am to be a Guardian again, it’ll be from the bottom,” Kayden said with frustration.

“Surely it can’t be that bad…” Rio said. Kayden snarled as he thought about it and hated the thought of it all the more. For a moment, he considered abandoning the seven of them on an inhabitable planet. But he flinched as his lover Felicia came to his mind, and he thought about what she would say to him in such a situation. He remembered words she would say to him that made his hearts glad: “Your heart shines in your eyes when you are true to it.” The words resounded in his hearts and in his mind as he realized he couldn’t doubt his offer any longer.

“A deal is a deal,” he said as he rose to his feet. The others stood up as well and put their trays in the sink, and Kayden unlocked their shackles one by one, and the metal turned into liquid and went into his wristband, assimilating into fabric. He couldn’t help but feel guilt seeing how dirty and ragged they looked compared to himself, who just took a shower the other day and wore clean clothes. For a moment, he considered cleaning them up but realized the more rugged they looked, the more they would be taken care of.

“Chins up and stand up straight. First impressions are key,” he said as he went to the helm and took on manual control of his ship, and the crowd of seven watched in wonder as they neared the Citadel. They gasped in awe at the grand scale of it. It was a literal floating Citadel made out of Obliturium—the hardest metal known in space. There were precious golden crystals floating above it that resounded and chimed to make a beautiful melody to all those in the quadrant. It was a breathtaking structure with millions of docking ports and personal quarters and courts. It was bigger than the size of Jupiter. It was the central hub of the known universe.

“Rio, are you excited? You’re going to see your sister soon,” Kayden said with a grin, and Rio blushed.

“She’s going to be so surprised!” he exclaimed. Kayden grinned as he set his ship up to dock and pressed a few buttons on the console, and it took over on autopilot. It maneuvered into the docking station and a docking bay attached to the side of his ship. Kayden paused before he stood up, and when he did, he went over to his closet and took off his shirt. He grabbed another stretchable black sleeveless shirt and a special leather jacket with the Guardianship insignia coat of arms on it. He straightened out his pants and took two metal circles and placed one over each leg. He pressed down on the metal circle and activated his magnetic field to make it extend over his leg and match up with the fabric. Suddenly, the metal stretched and grew over the entirety of his leg and turned part of his pants into metal as it all connected. He did the same to both legs, and as they both turned into metal, he touched his belt, and it glowed red where it all had connected as his legs lit up and his armor came together to fully cover his lower half.

“It’s been four years since I’ve donned this uniform, quite a few medals shy, but it still fits,” Kayden muttered. He turned around to face the seven Walkers, and they looked at him with awe, and he smirked.

“If you’re impressed by this little stunt, you’ve got a lot of surprises ahead of you,” he said.