Superstar

Chapter 20

"Go back to your romance movies! You don't have a right to write about this!"

Lance scanned the crowd that was gathering around the studio. "Um- Allura?"

"Ignore them," she said tiredly, "They're just- they don't like the idea of a movie about world war three."

"Coran was wrong, then?"

"I wouldn't say wrong. Just... perhaps a bit exaggerative. What happened with the window, by the way?"

"Protestors like these," Lotor grumbled, joining them, "Acxa tracked them down. They've got a little cult going or something."

"Lovely," Allura said faintly, "I hope this cult doesn't involve sacrifices?"

Lotor's nose wrinkled in amusement. "Not so far as I know."

Pidge yawned. "Don't envy you guys. You're the faces of the movie. I'm just a techie who no one knows about, and who no one will bother. Who got the worse end of the deal?"

Lotor chuckled. "Whoever has to babysit the actors, that's who."

Lance spotted blonde hair, and he ran after it. "Hey- Nyma! Have you seen the protestors?"

"They're hard to miss."

Lance chuckled. "Yeah, that's true."

"Maybe they're right."

"Huh?"

Nyma looked at the ground. "Well- I mean- maybe they're right that we shouldn't be making this movie. Not for the reasons that they're stating, but because of all the sabotage. Someone could really get hurt."

Rollo loomed over Nyma's shoulder. "Nyma?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh! Hello! We were just talking about the protestors and- and about the sabotage."

"That so? What was the conclusion?"

"That- that maybe we shouldn't be filming the movie."

Rollo put a hand on Nyma's shoulder. "Nyma, I know that neither of us wanted to start filming this movie—"

Nyma pushed his hand away. "But they made a good offer and we were out of options. I know. I'm the one who said that we should do this. I just need to chin up and finish the job. It's the last day of filming. It'll be fine."

Xxx

Lance sighed, stretching and moving off-set. Done. All of the setbacks, all of the sabotage and the filming was finally done. He went towards Allura's office, looking for his manager. She wasn't in the office.

"Allura?"

Lance frowned. Where was she? She was normally right there! He wandered the quickly-emptying studio, searching for his lost friend. Someone caught his eye.

"Nyma? That you?"

She whirled around. In her hands was the production of the film. "L-Lance?!"

"Nyma- what?!"

She started to run, shooting through the doors.

"Hey! No, wait, come back!"

Lance ran after her, reflecting bitterly on all of the times he'd chased after that same bit of blonde hair. He ran through one last doorway, and something smacked him in the back of the head. He fell forward, Rollo's feet hovering in his vision.

"You didn't kill him, did you?"

"Relax, Nyma. I know my own strength."

Lance woke up handcuffed to a chair, head throbbing. Nearby was a recent-looking picture of Nyma, Rollo, another girl, and some boy who looked vaguely familiar sitting in a picture frame.