Abi... Abigail... Abi and me - or is it I? - anyway... can you even freaking believe it?

Abigail Shurn and I were dating. She was my girlfriend. I got excited just thinking those words. The day after we got together we left our room holding hands and I was nearly bouncing with glee. Not that I didn't normally hold Abi's hand but this was a different type of handholding. Well I guess it wasn't really any different. As giddy with happiness as I was, I guess I had to admit that our relationship wasn't all that different to when we'd been best friends. We were just as close and open with each other, and took care of each other, and we'd always held hands and cuddled and been physically close. I did know what kissing felt like now though. It was pretty sweet.

Things were pretty good. That probably sounds super dumb to say but like I'd gotten so used to the whole war situation that I would just forget and focus on the day to day stuff. And in terms of that, I mean, what could I complain about? I had Abigail, my best friend and amazing girlfriend, and I also had my best friends Mickey and Beth with me. In the past it had either been one or the other, but now everyone was in the same place, and new friends too! Our team worked together each day, alternating between the secret tech installing stuff and Alliance things.

The Weraynian ships had attacked a lot of places since the breakout, so luckily the Alliance brought plenty of rations and basic medical stuff for carbonoforms, cos we'd been busy coordinating aid to those most affected. I knew it brought Abi's spirits up to be able to tangibly do something to help people, so Mickey and I made sure that our team helped with the deliveries when we could. We'd gone back to one of the most vulnerable parts of the blockade, to an emergency medical station on the edge of the system, and a military outpost orbiting Halapatov.

It had all been fairly standard until there was an attack on Aandrigo. Apparently one of the military outposts attacked had been close to the settlement where plenty of Aandriggians still lived, and when Lexie found out she went into a frenzy.

Honestly I hadn't been paying attention during the meeting where this was disclosed and Abigail had to fill me in afterwards. Abi and Lexie had some weird sort of truce going on. I couldn't tell whether they were friends or not, but they always sought each other out to have serious conversations about Lexie's visions and about the Weraynians. Wait I'm not supposed to call her Lexie. See it's hard because that's what Jayken calls her so I forget that she wants most people to call her A-lex-a. Which isn't quite as snappy as Lexie. ANyway. Lexie wanted to go into the settlement when we delivered the supplies, but we'd been told we were just supposed to take them to the station on the outskirts, and so now Alexa was ranting about Aandrigo and how activists on Halapatov had been campaigning for decades because the conditions there were really bad, and here the government was yet again trying to prevent them from outside help. Abi and Alexa were discussing how to convince them to let us go to the settlement itself.

"Come on, we need to talk to Mickey." Alexa nodded and she and Abigail hurried off. A minute later they came back into the room in a heated discussion with my boy.

"Did they even give you a reason?" Alexa was saying, arms waving around.

Mickey was frowning. "Not really, just that it was protocol. I don't understand why they wouldn't want us to visit Aandrigo, surely we should be checking up on how everybody's coping there!"

Abigail nodded thoughtfully. "You should say that to them. From what Sophie said, it sounds like your team has lots of experience with supporting vulnerable populations so from the Alliance standpoint observing conditions in the settlement should be vital to delivering aid there."

Mickey nodded, but he looked uneasy. After a moment he spoke hesitantly, "I don't like how uncooperative the Staarus government is being with this; it makes helping people so much harder."

"It's always been hard to get in and out of Aandrigo," Alexa said darkly, arms crossed. "My grandparents were lucky to leave back in their day... it's hard to even get news about what's going on there. But nothing we actually do know is promising. This is too good an opportunity. We need to go there."

"We could always use the teleport watch." I spoke up as the thought popped into my head.

They all turned to look at me. I thought someone would say something but they just stared at me in silence awkwardly for a few moments. Abigail raised her eyebrows worriedly at me.

"What?" I said. "We could, right?"

"You mean the thing you brought me and Jayken here with?" Alexa asked skeptically. "Aren't they monitoring that?"

I glanced down at my wrist where the teleport watch had been dormant for months now. I had only used it for those few trips to get everyone here and before that I hadn't used it for three years, except for when it was used in evidence in this big trial where I almost got mega arrested. Not that that's relevant or anything. Just a fun fact. Anyway. That trial had proven more than anything that the teleport watch was hard to get readings on. It could be intercepted pretty easily but that didn't mean it could be tracked, depending on where we teleported to.

"I mean, they can't really." I said. "We couldn't teleport out of this space station - they'd definitely intercept that - but if they will only let us go to the entrance of the settlement, we could teleport from somewhere there to a part of Aandrigo that's not being monitored. If I remember right, they use a force field to enclose the settlement right?"

Abigail perked up, and her eyes swirled as she looked at me. "You're thinking about using a weak spot to teleport through unnoticed. Like on Flauraan." I nodded.

"Yeah, it would work for sure. We might not have to do it but if they don't agree to let us go in the settlement it's a good backup plan."

Alexa crossed her arms and frowned. "You guys would really do that? We could get in huge trouble if we got caught."

I caught Mickey's gaze and grinned. His eyes gleamed in a way I recognised as he spoke. "Well they might still let us go into the settlement. Come with me you two, and we'll appeal one more time. But one way or another we're going into Aandrigo."

Abigail nodded. Alexa looked between the three of us with a soft little smile. It was strange seeing her without a fierce look on her face. "Thank you guys."

"Alright let's go." Abigail urged. "They wanted the delivery to go out before the next cycle, so we need to get this sorted as soon as possible. Can you go let Jayken know we'll be going soon, Sophie?"

"Yeah, kay. Good luck guys." I said and then as they hurried off to talk to our supervisors I got up, realised I had no idea where Jayken was, and then set off to find him.

I thought he might be with Rojjel, who was arms deep in one of the new ship consoles, I think trying to figure out how to connect it remotely to our transmitter thingies we'd been building. I watched for a bit before the monitor flickered on, Rojjel probably using his Halapatovian telekinesis.

"You know where Jayken is?" I asked and he jumped and the monitor promptly fizzled off. He swung his head round to look at me and pulled his hands out of the gel matrix, sighing.

"Sophie, you ruined my concentration again." I smiled apologetically. "Uh, Jayken... I don't know, have you checked his room?"

"Good idea." I said and quickly turned around and headed for our quarters. I thought I heard Rojjel muttering and swearing before I was out of earshot. Oops.

I knocked on Jayken's door and heard him say 'come in', so I swung it open and walked into his room, looking around interestedly. I hadn't been in here before. It was the same size as me and Abi's room, with just a shelf with his stuff on it and a bed. He'd put up some photos on the wall as well. They looked like they were of Lexie's family. Some of them were selfies he'd taken with a big smile on his face, making sure everyone was in shot. Alexa smirked fondly in the background. There was another of Jayken with his arms around a chicken like bird, I think they had been there as pets when we'd gone to visit them? Anyway. Jayken was lying casually on his bed, typing on a handheld device. He looked up as I walked in.

"Hey Sophie! What's up?" he said, sitting up and grinning at me.

"We're going to Aandrigo soon, Abi sent me to get you. They're trying to convince the leaders to let us go into the settlement."

"Oh cool." He frowned and stood up. "I hope they let us."

"Don't worry." I wriggled my eyebrows at him. "We're gonna use the teleport watch to get in there even if they say no."

He laughed. "Hell yeah. Sounds fun." Suddenly his device beeped and he glanced at the screen. "Sorry, just chatting to Lexie's brother. Been checking up on how everything's going back on Halapatov. I'll just text him back and then we can go meet the others."

"Yeah no worries." I thought it was really nice, the connection he had with Alexa's family. He talked to them a lot, like they were his own family. I wondered about his family on Werayne. The words came out of my mouth before I could stop myself. "Do you have family back on Werayne?"

Jayken glanced sharply at me and I immediately felt awful. Jayken was one of the most chill people I'd ever met, it was the worst thing in the world to see that chillness drop away.

"Um," I sputtered awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I-"

"Nah it's okay." He managed a weak smile. I still felt pretty bad. "I uh, I know it's weird, cos Lexie's family have taken me in and they're my family now, but obviously I had family on Werayne too. It's weird for me too. When I first got to Halapatov my memory was all messed up by the rift and to be honest I didn't remember my family clearly, and Lexie and her parents and siblings and cousins they were all so good to me, and by the time my memory came back clearly it was just easier to pretend I didn't have family back home. Because there was no way I'd be able to see them again." I was startled to see tears in his eyes. He looked past me wistfully. "Even now, my memory still isn't entirely there, but I remember some details. I lived near the coast, with a group of guys from my neighbourhood. I would visit my mum whenever I could. My dad died when I was really young. If you don't join the military and get enhancements it's pretty common for my people to not live that long. I don't know why. I don't know if I'm ever gonna see my mum again. I'd love for her to meet Lexie, and everyone, and see Halapatov. She worked in a factory. She taught me how to surf. I miss home, Sophie, I really do."

I was speechless. What could you say to something like that? I felt so sorry for Jayken. I knew what it was like to lose family, and not know if I'd ever see them again. I got why he didn't want to talk or think about it. I'd spent years doing anything I could to avoid dealing with my grief. I was still in therapy for it. And Jayken's situation was worse than anything I'd experienced.

Jayken wiped his eyes. "Sorry for going on about it. I wasn't expecting to be asked about my family. It's just one of those things, ya know? It sucks but you keep going."

"Yeah." I said. I thought about all of Abi and Lexie's talks about Werayne and Aandrigo, and everything I'd learnt about their whole messed up situation since I'd first arrived on Flauraan years ago. "I wish we could just, end this war, and you could go home, and you and Lexie's families could live together and none of the crap stuff had happened. But we could all still be friends. And everyone could be treated the same you know?"

Jayken nodded. "I want that too Sophie. Come here." He wrapped me in a hug that I for sure did not deserve. Jayken really did wear his heart on his sleeve huh. He was pretty cool. Also really strong and big and a Weraynian. Weird how my whole worldview was being flipped by this guy. He pulled back from the hug and said, "We should probably go meet the others."

"Yeah, Aandrigo time."

When we reached the ship it was stocked with supplies and everyone was there ready to depart, Trista and Mickey and Abi and Lexie and Beth, the whole gang except Rojjel, probably because he was busy with the gel matrix thing. Had the leaders been convinced to let us go into Aandrigo? Maybe I shouldn't ask that in front of Trista, just in case. I looked at Abigail, knowing she'd know what I was thinking. She shook her head subtly and I wrapped my hand around my teleport watch instinctively. Now it was time for me to pull off a covert mission that might get us all arrested if we got found out. Hmm, maybe this was a bad idea.

But as we sat on that ship and headed for Aandrigo, I found myself looking at everyone's faces and I knew that we had to do this. Alexa's people were being basically kept prisoner on a moon and she needed to see them at least; help them in any way she could. Abigail needed this too, both as Lexie's friend and a compassionate person and because, like me, she was majorly rethinking what she'd been taught about Werayne and Aandrigo, and she needed answers. Jayken, though not visibly upset, was solemn in a way I'd never seen him. I hadn't been lying before, I wanted more than anything for him and Lexie and their people to be happy and safe and free, and maybe this was a small step but nonetheless it was a step towards that. Besides, if we aren't willing to ignore stupid rules so that we can help people what is even the point?

On approach to Aandrigo, a moon slightly bigger proportionally to Halapatov than Earth's, Mickey gathered the four of us up the back and went over the plan. He had put aside a crate of supplies to teleport with us so that we weren't showing up empty handed and we knew for sure that something got delivered to the Aandriggians. He showed me the map of the settlement he'd been given, and we assessed the best point for me to teleport to, the least monitored. On arrival to the base Abigail, Alexa and Jayken would move out some of the crates so that the authorities there wouldn't be suspicious of their complete absence on this mission, then they would return to the back with me and we'd teleport to a safe spot outside the boundary, look for a weak point to break through with using Abi's powers and whatnot, and make the trek through Aandrigo as discreetly as possible, with Lexie as our guide. Mickey and Beth would handle the delivery and stall for as long as they could, do a rudimentary survey of the camp conditions as best as they could from the ship with the head of the settlement. Then we'd teleport back to them whenever we were done, ideally while they were still on the planet or possibly while in flight by locking on to them. Easy peasy.

The first part of the plan went smoothly. Yeah we convinced that guy that we were delivering stuff by uh... delivering the stuff. Abi, Alexa and Jayken then joined me around our designated crate and I got them all to hold hands around it.

"I've just gotta expand the field..." I said nervously, typing some modifications into the watch. I'd never done anything like this before outside of a test situation. I was confident it would work, but still. When I was pleased with my calculations, I grabbed Abi's hand as well as Jayken's and we were zapped away.

We appeared on the other side of the settlement, on a bleak moony landscape where thankfully the oxygen field extended still a little. Some of the pillars supporting Aandrigo's force field loomed over us.

"Woah." Jayken breathed excitedly. "You did it Sophie!"

I grinned at him. "Yeah I did. Still gotta find a weak spot though. Abi?"

She shook her head, squinting at the border beside us. "This close to the pillars is never going to work. We'll need to get to a thinner point, and hopefully the teleport watch won't be detected if we hop through there."

I shrugged. "You're the boss."

She stuck her tongue out at me and I laughed happily as we started our trek.

Alexa moaned. "Is this really the time for flirting? We hear enough of that back at the base."

Jayken elbowed her. "Don't be such a downer Lexie, they're a cute couple."

"Sure." she drawled. "If Rojjel was here he'd complain with me.

"Lucky he's not." Jayken teased. "Otherwise I'd have to be disappointed in him. We support our friends in this team."

Lexie smirked amusedly at him. Abi and I looked at each other with small smiles. We chatted a bit more as we pushed our supply crate along with us, anxiously, to distract ourselves from our anticipated breaking and entering. Finally Abi stopped short and pointed me at a particular high point on the border. "That's where we need to go through."

"You sure?" I asked as I flipped open my watch, remembering how last time she'd had to stand and focus for a while with her eyes closed. She raised an eyebrow at me as if asking if I doubted her abilities.

"Completely."

"Okey then." I quickly tapped everything I needed into my watch, we joined hands again and teleported right through the weak spot in the border.

What's that you're asking? Did it hurt? Uh, yes, it was excruciatingly painful, to teleport through a force field with three other people and a crate. It was worse pain than I'd felt in a long time. We appeared on the other side of the border, maybe two or three metres from where we'd been before, and promptly collapsed in a heap. My head swam and I tried to remember whether I'd warned the others that this might happen. I could hear Alexa swearing from somewhere nearby. Yeah okay, maybe not my best trip. My vision slowly came back to normal and I sat up. Abigail was already up and alert and ready to go. Stupid Paladanian brain.

"Sorry guys." I said weakly and Lexie glared at me. Jayken groaned and raised his head, his eyes out of focus.

"We don't have much time." He said, struggling to stand. Alexa gripped him by the arm.

"Don't be stupid." she said and he sat down next to her again and just looked up and around us. He smiled.

"So this is Aandrigo huh?"

I looked around us. Where we currently were was just infrastructure for the force field dome barrier thing, and then beyond that a ring of trees, I assume for oxygen generation, and then beyond that the settlement itself, a big latticework of hallways connecting domed buildings, like an old moon base. I frowned. All the pictures of Aandrigo I'd seen had been from the other side, or from the top, where it looked more presentable. From here it looked like they'd quickly thrown together a habitable enough collection of buildings to host the refugees from Werayne all those years ago, and they hadn't really updated it since. I mean, I'd seen Halapatovian and Paladanian technology and this was... embarrassing. I couldn't believe that they'd poured so much work and resources into their new space stations and ships to fight a war, but hadn't done anything for Aandrigo. Not to mention that their population would've grown since they first arrived. I tried to catch Abi's gaze but her eyes were almost ablaze, her mouth set in a thin line as she surveyed the settlement. Finally she glanced at me and I could see the turmoil she felt. She'd told me about Aandrigo, what she'd learned as a kid, of the generosity of the Halapatovians and her people in providing a safe place for displaced Pecayens. She was disgusted at how shoddy this was. I reached out for her hand and squeezed it. She shook her head and helped Alexa up.

"Let's go." she said firmly.

So we went. We slyly entered in a maintenance door to the settlement and Alexa led us down overcrowded hallways until we reached a main hall. Everyone here looked exhausted, but some looked at us curiously and with a bit of fear as we passed by with our crate of supplies. I realised non-Aandriggians probably didn't come here for good reasons. Hmmmmm.

In the big hall, where a lot more people were piled wall to wall, cooking or sleeping or doing whatever, Alexa approached a young woman in the centre and told her quietly why we were here and not to make a big deal of it. Her eyes widened immediately and she leaped up and ushered us to follow her. We ended up in a supply closet, crammed in tight.

The lady, I think her name was Aretha, looked between us with a worried expression. "How did you get here? They don't let anyone but the officers enter Aandrigo."

"Our friend Sophie has a device that transported us through the force field." Alexa explained. "We were part of a team delivering supplies here, but they wouldn't let us come in and see anything. But we had to come."

"Of course you did." Aretha said gently. "Well I'm sure you have seen how things are here. There are so many of us, and not enough work to go around. Our health is declining, we feel hopeless, and we've heard that our cousins in Werayne are being engaged in war. We're not allowed much contact with the outside world but we have our sources." She smiled at this. Abi and I exchanged glances.

"There is some food and medicine in this crate we brought." Jayken said earnestly, and Aretha looked at him as if properly noticing him for the first time.

"You're Weraynian? And free?" she said in amazement.

"Free enough." he smiled warmly.

"This is very weird." she muttered. "I would like to have a long chat with you and Lexie about everything you have experienced, but she said you don't have much time. Thank you all for the supplies, and for coming to visit us in person. I will let people know and make sure everything gets given out to who needs it most."

She led us quickly back to the exit we'd come in through, said goodbye to us and we somberly began our journey to where we began so we could teleport back to the ship. Nobody spoke, we were all shaken I guess. We teleported through the weak spot to the outside of the settlement, and still had a bit of a walk ahead of us.

Abi stopped suddenly, and I raised an eyebrow curiously in her direction, but she didn't even notice me; she was frowning, her eyes darting around. I tried to follow her gaze. By now, the others had noticed and they all stopped too. Then I felt an odd tingling feeling and looked down to see the hairs on the back of my arm standing on end.

"What's happening?" I had barely uttered the words before the air around us was filled with tendrils of light branching from a bright centre out of which emerged a girl. She stepped forward, body rippling with electricity. The Protector. Even if the lightning powers hadn't been enough to tip me off, I'd read reports and seen footage of the Protector before. She had coils of sandy hair that curved round her head, atop alien features, smooth skin, pointed head, long fingers and dark eyes. Her form seemed to flicker and as the electricity abated she looked nonchalantly round at our faces.

Her calm expression didn't line up with her dramatic appearance in my mind. I thought back things I'd heard about her: how she'd saved her home planet from an oppressive government and gotten her people out of slavery, how since she had appeared in many dangerous places to rescue hostages, save people from wreckages, and take down criminals - a vigilante with mysterious powers and a force for good, as far as we all could tell. If the stories were true, she was awesome.

Not everyone here knew of the Protector as well as those in the Alliance, though, and the others drew into defensive positions.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Lexie pointed at her with one hand and used the other arm to shield Jayken behind her. Her eyes flashed.

"Hey, uh, I'm on your side," the Protector replied with an awkward smile. This whole thing was absurd. I gestured to the others that she was chill. Abigail frowned as she surveyed my face and then nodded and dropped her hands. "I'm, uh, actually it's pretty hard to explain but my name's Anise, people call me the Protector, and I learnt from the Alliance about what was going on here so I decided to come see what I could do to help. Sorry to drop in on you like this but I have something I need to talk to you about. It's really important."

We all stood there and stared, waiting. What could this crazy powerful alien chick want with us?

Anise, which I guess was the Protector's real name, took a deep breath and then looked at Jayken intently. "First things first, am I right in believing that you are Weraynian?"

He smiled, eyes a little wary. "That's me. What about it?"

"I heard that you were transported through the force field due to a spatial anomaly which affected your brain."

"That's right... I think." Jayken said, still smiling.

"So do you remember your life from before?"

"I do."

The Protector grinned a little bit gleefully and Lexie had had enough of it.

She stepped forward defiantly. "Hey, ma'am, no offense but why are you so interested in Jayken? You realise how shifty it seems to just appear here and start grilling him, right."

The Protector held up her hands defensively. "I'm- I'm sorry, I understand why you're concerned but I can explain- uh, better than I have. It's just you don't have much time. I'm lucky I caught you at all before you teleported away, they only just managed to get a hold of me."

Abigail spoke up, eyes alight with intrigue. "Who's they?"

"Oh, yes, sorry." It was very funny how awkward this big hero figure was turning out to be. "There's this Aandriggian activist group that I've been in contact with, called me when you visited the settlement. I'd heard about you guys, being ferried around by the government, fiddling in space stations, I assumed you were their minions but you're not are you? You broke into this settlement even though you were told not to, to help these people. I respect that. I knew I'd want to meet you, especially you- uh, sorry, I didn't ask your name, kinda rude of me."

"No worries." Jayken said goodnaturedly. "I'm Jayken, and this is Alexa, and Abigail and Sophie."

"Oh, uh, hi." Anise gave us a small wave. "Look, Jayken, when I first got to this system I thought it was really suspicious, the whole idea that your people were all evil brainwashed monsters. Everyone seemed to accept it as gospel so I poked around a bit to see what I could find out. I've been to Werayne, seen Weraynians, military, terrorist groups, but also ordinary people living their lives. One thing I noticed about everyone, though, and I'm quite good with neuro stuff because of like, the electricity, there's something different about their brains. But not yours."

"No?" Jayken's smile dropped. I remembered what he'd said, about how his brain used to feel foggy, and how he felt different to other Weraynians. I wonder if that's what the Protector meant. Hmm.

"I just need to check- can I, uh, feel your head?" She asked, holding her hands out to him. He nodded and she stepped forward and cupped a hand round each temple. She closed her eyes and concentrated, similar to how Abi sometimes did. I'd always found the Protector's people to be kind of ethereal looking, but looking at the chick herself I was stunned at how she seemed to ripple with electricity, with light, as she channelled her powers for whatever she was checking. It was very cool. After a moment she opened her eyes, stepped back and smiled. "You're so different to the others. No wonder. I'm almost certain now. I don't know how or why, but someone's messed with your people's minds. I mean, I never saw them while the force field was intact, but I can't imagine the conditions on Werayne would have been very good, and add to that a neurological screw up in everyone's brains; no wonder there's so much aggression. Not that the Weraynians don't deserve to be angry. From what I've seen they are victims in every way. Like I said, there's some extremist groups but for the most part they are just fighting to survive, struggling against years and years of oppression." She took a deep breath and surveyed her eyes between us. "You lot don't need to do this you know, this little government charade. You're not as trapped as you think you are."

"What do you mean?" I could hear the fear in Abigail's voice. My guess is her mind was racing right now, trying to make sense of what the Protector had said, especially about the Weraynians and their oppression.

"You've all been away from the outside world too long. As this war keeps going, people are becoming more disillusioned with the status quo. There's been protests on Halapatov. There are many people, not just Aandriggians either, who are calling to end this war, to elevate Aandriggian voices and make reparations to Werayne. It's controversial, sure, but this war is making it a bit more obvious to people that what they'd been taught their whole lives might be a bit embellished. Uh. What I'm trying to say is, I can tell you guys wanna help, and there's an activist movement that you could really help. But I get it, you've been given a role. You should probably get going now anyway, don't wanna be too suspicious. Just think about it."

She was right. We couldn't really afford to stay here any longer, as much as we were all reeling from this development, so I flipped open my watch and everyone stood around awkwardly as I typed in my things. We had been supposed to go a little bit further but here should be fine. It looked like the ship was in flight anyway. I locked on to it and then grabbed Abi and Jayken's hands, and they grabbed Alexa's.

"See you guys." The Protector waved at us.

"It's been lovely to meet you Anise." Jayken said.

Her eyes sparkled. "It's been very good to meet you too."

"Bye!" I said abruptly as I pressed the button and we were blasted away.

As we hurtled through space my mind was racing. I knew Mickey and Beth would be excited to hear that we'd met the Protector. The Protector. This was insane.

I wondered if we'd be seeing her again.

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