Captured by the Yandere Space Pirates

Aster's boots echoed in the dim corridor, her blonde ponytail swaying with each determined step, her teal eyes burning with a mix of hurt and fury.

She'd seen Syn slip out of the medic bay, Pako's arm hooked through his, her black bob bouncing as she led him to her room, her laughter a faint echo down the hall.

The sight twisted something in Aster's chest—Syn, so distant with her, yet so easy with Pako, and now tangled up with Olivia, that shapeshifter ghost from his past.

The image of Syn and Olivia hugging, their faces inches apart, lips nearly meeting, looped in her mind, a relentless torment.

He was kissing random women, letting them close, but her?

He'd pushed her away, his apology hollow, Ila's shadow a wall between them. It was maddening, unbearable, and Aster needed answers—now.

Why is Syn avoiding her?

He claimed it was because of Ila's torture, but his explanation doesn't add up.

Syn barely showed any signs of torture—no bruises, no multiple cuts, no burn marks, no broken bones, nothing significant.

If Ila had truly tortured someone, even if she was just getting started, they'd be covered in scars, far more than the number of bones in their body.

Aster, with these doubts in her mind, slipped into the medic bay, the doors hissing shut behind her, the sterile air sharp with antiseptic.

Olivia lay on the bed, wires and tubes trailing from her bandaged form, her long black hair splayed across the pillow, her sharp features pale but composed.

The monitors beeped steadily, a rhythmic pulse that did little to calm Aster's racing heart.

She stormed to the bedside, her navy uniform creased, her muscular frame taut, her teal eyes blazing.

"Wake up!, whatever you are," Aster snapped, her voice cutting, rude, her hand gripping the bedrail, knuckles white.

The image of Syn's arms around Olivia, the imagined kiss that Vera had cut off, fueled her anger, her jealousy a live wire.

Syn was hers—hers to protect, to love, to hold—and this shapeshifter had no right to him, no claim to his heart.

Olivia's brown eyes fluttered open, her expression neutral, unshaken by Aster's venom.

She shifted slightly, wincing as a bandage tugged, her voice calm, almost detached. "What do you want, Aster?"

Aster leaned closer, her blonde ponytail falling over her shoulder, her teal eyes boring into Olivia's.

"I want to know what happened to Syn in the Kingdom," she said, voice low, trembling with barely contained rage. "Why's he so distant with me? Why's he shutting me out, letting you close, hugging you, kissing you, but not me?" Her words cracked, hurt bleeding through, her rejection a wound that wouldn't heal.

Olivia's brow furrowed, her brown eyes studying Aster, searching for something. "He didn't tell you yet?" she asked, her tone cautious, her shapeshifter instincts sensing the storm in Aster's heart.

"He told me some," Aster said, her voice sharp, her teal eyes narrowing. "But I want your side, Olivia. What really happened? Don't bullshit me, because I'm not in the mood." She gestured to the monitors, her hand hovering near a power switch, her threat clear. "Be honest, or I pull the plug."

Olivia's lips twitched, a flicker of amusement she quickly hid.

Pulling the plug wouldn't kill her—she was stable, and could breathe air normally without the ventilator, she was already doing it—but Aster's anger was a live grenade, and poking it would be stupid.

She sighed, her brown eyes steady, her voice even. "Fine. I'll tell you."

Aster crossed her arms, her navy uniform pulling tight, her teal eyes unyielding, waiting, her heart pounding, the truth a blade she both craved and feared.

Olivia shifted, her bandages crinkling, her long black hair catching the light as she spoke, her voice measured, recounting a nightmare.

"Even though we blended in perfectly, Syn was caught by Ila barely an hour after we entered the Kingdom. He vanished from the manufacturing biome's metro station, gone, like he'd never been there. I was supposed to tail him but before I could even hack into the cameras, I lost him, it happened so quick that no one could have expected. Ila moved too fast, snatched him before I could blink. I scoured every camera, every feed, but he was a ghost—until I traced all the in-service cameras and figured that they might be in the scenery biome. That's where I found him, where Ila was… torturing him."

Aster's breath hitched, her teal eyes widening, her voice cutting in, sharp with disbelief. "Wait. The scenery biome? That doesn't add up. Why there? It's just grasslands, built for leisurely walks, picnics, not… torture." Her mind raced, the Kingdom's lush, artificial plains a bizarre setting for cruelty, Ila's motives a puzzle that didn't fit.

Olivia hesitated, her brown eyes flickering, her shapeshifter instincts urging silence, the full truth too raw, too dangerous.

She licked her lips, voice low, evasive. "I'm not sure why there, Aster. But when I got to the biome, I saw Syn's blood on the grass, his clothes torn to shreds, scattered like confetti. He was in bad shape, barely holding on, I guessed."

Aster's jaw tightened, her teal eyes flashing, her voice a growl. "Keep going. What else?"

Olivia swallowed, her bandages shifting, her voice steady but strained, the memory heavy. "Once I knew it was Princess Ila, by her smell and hair, I tracked her to her base. Used my shapeshifter tricks, turned into one of her soldiers, slipped in. By the time I got to her inner secret lab, she was torturing Syn, had him cuffed, beaten, broken. I shifted into Ila's form to confuse her, threw her off balance. Syn and I took her down together, killed her—or thought we did. But she showed up later, at the metro, alive, claiming she was immortal, untouchable. We don't know how, Aster. She's… something else."

Aster's brow furrowed, her teal eyes searching Olivia's face, sensing holes, half-truths.

"Hmm," she muttered, leaning forward, her blonde ponytail brushing the bed, her voice dropping, dangerous. "You're holding back."

She pressed her hand to Olivia's shoulder wound, hard, grinding into the bandage.

"AAAAAaaaa!" Olivia yelped, pain flaring, blue blood seeping through the gauze, staining the bed.

"Tell me the truth," Aster snarled, her teal eyes blazing, her fingers digging deeper. Olivia's other hand shot up, nails slashing toward Aster's face, but Aster caught her wrist, twisting until it snapped with a sickening crack.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Olivia screamed, her brown eyes wide, agony tearing through her.

"I warned you," Aster said, voice cold, relentless, her hand still pressing the wound, blue blood pooling, the monitors beeping frantically, a wild alarm.

The doctor, a wiry man in a green robe, shouted from the corner, "Stop it, Aster! You'll kill her!" But Aster didn't flinch, her teal eyes locked on Olivia, her anger a storm, her hurt a blade. "What really happened? Spill it, or I don't stop."

Olivia gasped, her broken wrist limp, her shoulder wound screaming, blue blood dripping, her shapeshifter resilience no match for Aster's fury.

She couldn't hold back, not with Aster's hand crushing her wound, the truth a flood she couldn't dam. "Your sister, Ila raped him!" she yelled, voice raw, desperate, the words a grenade exploding in the sterile room.

Aster froze, her teal eyes widening, her heart pounding so loud it drowned out the monitors' wail.

The truth was a dagger, slicing through her, her breath catching, her mind reeling. Olivia's voice pushed on, frantic, pained, spilling everything.

"In the scenery biome, Ila… she forced herself on him, took his choice, his body, right there in the grass, under the fake sky. She lost her virginity to him, claimed him like a prize. And at her base, it was worse—she climbed on top of him, again and again, raping him while he fought. That's why he's distant, Aster. You remind him of that sick bitch."

Aster's hand fell from Olivia's shoulder, her grip on the broken wrist loosening, her body stumbling back, legs buckling.

She hit the floor hard, her navy uniform crumpling, her blonde ponytail splayed, her teal eyes glassy, shock and horror crashing through her.

The doctor rushed to Olivia, muttering curses, grabbing bandages to stem the blue blood, splinting her wrist, his hands shaking as the monitors screamed.

Aster's chest heaved, her scream ripping through the medic bay, raw, primal.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The sound echoed, a wail of rage, grief, and confusion, her hands clawing at the floor, her teal eyes streaming tears she didn't feel.

"Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why did this happen?"

Her voice broke, a sob choking her, her mind a storm of memories and questions.

Why Ila?

Aster's thoughts spiraled, her anger a furnace, her sadness a weight, her annoyance a sharp edge. Ila, her sister, the Kingdom's princess, had always been cruel, manipulative, sadistic, but this?

Raping Syn, the man Aster loved, the man who has nothing to do with Ila?

It was unthinkable, a betrayal that cut deeper than any blade.

She remembered the metro, Ila's desperate plea to leave Syn in exchange for anything, her eyes wild, possessive, pleading.

Aster had thought it was about torturing him for information, not… this.

The idea of Ila wanting Syn, claiming him in such a vile way, made her stomach churn, her fists clench.

Why him? Why Syn, of all people?

Was it to hurt her, to break him, or something sicker, something Aster couldn't grasp?

Her anger surged, a wildfire—she wanted to storm the Kingdom, confront Ila, tear her apart for what she'd done.

But sadness followed, a crushing wave, for Syn, for the pain he carried, the trauma that kept him distant, the walls he'd built to survive.

She was annoyed, too, at herself, for not seeing it, for not pushing harder, for letting her hurt over his rejection blind her to his suffering.

And Olivia—damn her—had known, had seen it, had saved him, while Aster was stuck on the sidelines, useless, unaware.

The thought of Syn's blood on the grass, his body violated, his spirit fractured, made her heart ache, her tears fall faster, her scream a vow to fix this, to reach him, to burn Ila's world to ash.