The Order Of Benders

29. They're Here

(Aidan's perspective)

Seven and a half hours later, they were boarding the spaceship with their suits on. Aidan was sitting on the edge of his seat on the couch, bent over with his chin in his hand.

'Alright, let's beat some fishies up! The only thing I have to be careful of is that Malaya doesn't get hurt and doesn't see something really bad.'

Malaya boarded the ship behind Irene, just then. Malaya smiled. "Your suit looks nice on you." She noticed. Then she walked over to him. Aidan could tell she was getting more and more nervous with every passing minute.

They prepared to phase through to the surface. Malaya sat down beside Aidan. She always got nerves before a fight. Besides, they had never fought another species before.

"It's gonna be fine." Aidan leaned back and took her hand. "I'll make sure none of those aliens hurt you."

She fidgeted and looked into his eyes. Those eyes, so fiery and determined, looked back at her with total confidence.

She smiled, still a bit nervous. "How do you do that? How do you stay confident, knowing this is probably going to be the worst battle we ever fought?"

Aidan shrugged and smiled down at her. "I've been confident all my life. I don't know if I've ever been anything else. The main issue I have is thinking about what could happen. I tend to stay over-hyped."

Malaya sighed. "It gives us such a disadvantage that we know basically nothing about them. And I can't help thinking that they have families and homes. What if they just need help? What if their planet is getting destroyed and they need assistance?" She squeezed Aidan's hand, stressing.

"Well, we'll know when they get here if they're hostile or not." Aidan turned her face up to him, gently. "And when we're done, as soon as we get back, we're getting ice cream." He said, seriously. Then they both laughed. "I don't knew how we survived in China back then without ice cream," Malaya giggled.

Aidan noticed everything become glitched-looking for a split second. Then he looked out the big window. "Hey, we're out." He checked his watch. "Quarter to twelve."

"There is the ship. To be honest, it looks cool. I love that, in space, you can see things so far away. They will still not be here for at least ten minutes." Malaya commented.

Al was pacing around. Apparently, he was anxious to begin. He never liked delaying things if they could get them over with. "Should I speed things up until they get here?" He looked at Aidan. "We're not getting anything else done."

Aidan nodded. "You'll slow it down again to fight, then?"

"Yeah." He looked at Edi and Irene. "You guys agree?"

They both gave their consent, so he did a slowing motion with his hands, bringing his hands down increasingly slowly.

"They should be here in..." Al threw up his hologram space map, " three minutes."

They sat for a minute in silence. Aidan could obviously see that Al had something to say.

"Malaya, I really am sorry for treating you that way. My feelings possibly ran away from me." Al stood up. He crossed his arms and looked earnestly at Malaya.

'And I'd be happy to beat you up if you try that again.' Aidan thought internally. He was careful to keep his composure calm.

"That's okay." Malaya smiled, trying to put aside her nerves and answer seriously. "I really don't know where China would be without you. We couldn't have done what we did without your help."

Then Malaya yelped a little. She had lost balance, tumbled off the couch, and slid across the now tilted floor. Aidan's temper immediately rose. 'A missile, they're hostile.'