Endless Sky ~New Beginning~

Chapter Seven

Lucerne and OStar rushed to the main room, slamming the door open in the process.
Avaro was in his partial dragon form, clothes tight around him with Mila in his talons as he trapped her forepaws to her chest. Afina was behind Rual and Charlotte was standing at the doorway OStar saw her at before.
Roxxan, on the other hand, was sprawled out on the ground, her eyes dark as if the power were abruptly shut off. Estella was at her side, eyes wide and tearing up as she shook her motionless partner.
"Whatever you did, UNDO IT!" Avaro roared, shaking Mila.
"What is going on?!" Lucerne yelled, waving his arms.
Mila, shockingly, managed to push apart Avaro's talons with some immense strength and escape to the ground, fur bristling.
Avaro growled and turned to his friend. "She did something to Roxxan! I don't know what, but she did!"
Mila shook her fur out, her eyes blazing. "Did you not hear me? I made her. Technically I own her," she hissed.
"YOU CAN'T OWN SOMEONE!!!" Avaro burst out, shaking the walls.
Lucerne and OStar exchanged glances.
"Mila, listen. Roxxan has her own personality and life, you can't 'own' her," the Celestial started.
Mila scoffed. "She wouldn't be like that if she hadn't stolen the Fei Essence from me," she growled in response.
Lucerne inhaled sharply, but Mila continued before he could speak.
"Why should you guys care? She shouldn't be anything more than just a service bot, meant to help you around the house and obey. Estella, I told you I was making something like her years ago!"
Estella looked up, tears in her eyes, and shook her head.
Mila did NOT like that response.
"Do you remember ANYTHING?! You said you were going to help me! And we were supposed to work together! As partners! WHAT HAPPENED?!" she yowled.
OStar's fur bristled, and she crouched down, every muscle in her body screaming at her to attack before Mila did it first.
Estella continued to shake her head, making her tears fall.
"I can't... Leave Roxxan like this... Please fix her..." she sobbed in a low voice.
Mila narrowed her eyes. "What do you even see in that hunk of scrap? I can make another one, with more enhanced technology,"
"But... I don't want another one, Roxxan is perfect..."
OStar couldn't remember what happened in the next few seconds. All she knew was that Mila let out a furious roar and she felt her haunches spring to tackle the yellow cat before she had a conscious thought to attack Estella. A device flew out into the air and clanked down somewhere on the ground.
"GET OFF ME!" Mila snapped, kicking OStar's chest with her hind legs.
OStar felt something crack as she was thrown off. With Mila's body being over half mechanical, she must have legs stronger than normal.
"OStar!" she heard more than one person scream as she landed hard on her side.
Avaro let out a roar and leaped after Mila while together, Charlotte, Rual, Lucerne, and Afina rushed over to OStar's side.
"Are you okay?" Afina squeaked.
OStar nodded, getting to her paws and shaking out her fur, ignoring the aching pain in her gut and chest.
There was a crash and she looked up to see Mila with one of Avaro's arms twisted and pinned to the ground, her sharp mechanical wings flapping like a shredder, preventing the dragon from grabbing her again with his other hand.
"Avaro!" Lucerne cried, suddenly shifting into a small dragon himself and jumping over to his friend's side.
"We have to get Roxxan out of here," Rual ordered, picking up Afina.
"But-!" Afina started to protest but Charlotte cut her off. "Avaro and Lucerne can deal with Mila, right now we need to get out of their way before one of them steps on us," she said. OStar nodded, agreeing.
"...Fine," Afina sighed. Rual dipped his head slightly and rushed off, taking the little cat to a safer place while OStar and Charlotte went over to where Roxxan laid.
"Estella can you help us?" Charlotte asked as she crouched down to grab the lifeless robot.
"W-What?" the princess stammered in reply.
"We're moving Roxxan," OStar explained.
Estella seemed hesitant at first, but she got to her paws and started to help get Roxxan to a more suitable position to be moved. To OStar's surprise, despite being a robot, Roxxan wasn't extremely heavy. Though she still was a similar weight to the other cats her size, making it difficult to simply pick her up.
With Charlotte at the front pulling and the other two pushing from behind, the trio managed to drag Roxxan to a safer room where Rual joined to help carry her the rest of the way.
"Is Roxxan okay?" Afina asked when they put the robot down.
"Does she look okay?" Charlotte unexpectedly snapped.
OStar blinked in surprise and looked at her friend. Charlotte's expression was dark, the usual relaxed look she has was long gone, as if it never existed.
"Charlotte I know what you're thinki- hey wait!!!" Rual yelled as she spun around and dashed back to the main room. OStar turned and followed along with Rual.
"Guys!!!" Afina cried out, but stayed behind.
Despite Avaro and Lucerne being twice the size of Mila, both were having trouble subduing the yellow feline.
The albino dragon had a gash on his shoulder and wrist while his friend had a deep scratch on his cheek.
"Mila, please stop!" Lucerne begged.
The cyborg cat only hissed in response, leaping at his face and kicking at his eyes, claws unsheathed.
Avaro roared again and grabbed Mila, wincing in pain as her wings dug into his palm. After ripping her off Lucerne's face, he chucked Mila as hard as he could at the ground.
OStar was half convinced Mila would be unconscious, or even dead upon hitting the ground. But to her horror Mila got back up, unfazed, with the ground damaged beneath her.
Charlotte suddenly rushed forward, a light green transparent sword forming in her bear hand.
"Charlotte wait!" Rual called out.
Mila's head shot up as she spotted her new attacker. She arched her back, letting her fangs show.
Charlotte stopped, everything seemingly slowing down as she stepped to the side and the sword abruptly swapped hands.
With a furious yell she stabbed down on Mila's side.
The cat let out a yowl of pain as Charlotte continued to surge forward and knock Mila to the ground.
"Charlotte?!" Avaro and Lucerne exclaimed in unison.
The teen did not reply, she just gritted her teeth and dug the blade deeper.
OStar heard the sound of wood splitting as it was pierced by the sword.
Charlotte then finally stopped, breathing heavily over the limp body of Mila.
No one said a word, nobody moved.
"Charlotte?" Rual finally said, breaking the silence.
His friend straightened up and looked over at Avaro and Lucerne.
"You two can't subdue a cat even in a dragon form?" She asked with a small shaky laugh.
OStar suppressed a shiver. "That laugh was clearly forced..."
"Did you just kill her??" Avaro exclaimed, shifting back into human form along with Lucerne. Who luckily still obtained his eyes, just bleeding cuts around them.
Charlotte glanced at the sword in Mila's side. "I don't know. Maybe."
"What happened?!" Lucerne then demanded. "I only left for a minute!"
Charlotte walked over to the sofa and sat down. "Well, shortly after you left, Roxxan and Estella showed up. Mila said something about how she made Roxxan and was surprised to see her here as well as going on about how much fun she had hanging out with Estella years ago. Obviously, Estella didn't remember." She explained. "And I'm guessing that Mila liked Estella and got super triggered when she found out Estella was already taken by Roxxan, who Mila referred to as her 'service bot'. So, she pulled out some device and shut Roxxan down. You know what happened after that," Charlotte finished while staring at the ceiling.
"This device?" Lucerne questioned, walking over to a dresser and going down on all fours to pull the odd remote from under it.
"How'd you know that was there?" OStar asked when Lucerne got back up.
"Mila dropped it when you attacked her and I instinctively kicked it under this dresser just as she threw you off," he answered, examining the device.
"You think that's the thing Mila used to shut Roxxan down?" Avaro said, peering over Lucerne's shoulder.
"Of course it is," Mila's voice rasped as there was a loud snap of wood.
Everyone whirled around to see the cat stagger to her feet, a sword still through her side and poking out of the other side. There was a pool of blood under her and a jagged hole where the sword pierced the wooden ground and was pulled out at an angle.
"You freaks understand nothing. NOTHING!" she screeched, tail lashing.
Charlotte got up, glaring at Mila.
The yellow cat noticed her hostile look and took a step back, growling.
"Don't forget me," Mila hissed before pressing a button on the mechanical neck band.
A portal appeared next to the feline and she quickly jumped through it, closing it before anyone could follow her or even realize what she was doing.
"Dammit! I should've stopped her and gotten her to explain that damn remote..." Charlotte cursed.
"Don't blame yourself, we can figure this out easily," Rual said, patting his friend's shoulder.
His friend only sighed.
"Come on guys, we should see how the others are doing while figuring out how to use this thing," Lucerne suggested, pointing to the door that OStar, Rual, and Charlotte had taken Roxxan through.
Everyone agreed and all filed through the door.
Afina was talking to Estella when they arrived, probably calming her down since the princess was no longer crying. Her ears pricked up when she saw them arriving.
"What happened with Mila?! Avaro! Lucerne! You guys are hurt!" she meowed loudly, her blue eyes wide.
"Never mind that," Lucerne said, wiping some glowing white blood from his cheek. "This is more important," he added and held up the remote.
Estella blinked at it in confusion.
"A TV remote?" Afina asked.
Avaro sputtered and coughed in an attempt to hide his laugh.
"...No. We think it's the device Mila used to shut Roxxan down," Lucerne said, dropping to his knees to get level with Estella and Roxxan.
"You hear that, Estella? Roxxan's going to be a-okay," he murmured to the princess and patted her head with a smile.
Estella only sniffed.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Avaro asked from behind. "Wake Roxxan up!"
His friend rolled his eyes and examined the device in his hands, frowning.
"Rual, read this," he abruptly said and tossed the object at the shifl.
Rual caught the remote quickly and scanned the odd symbols and markings that labeled the buttons and switches. After a few heartbeats he flicked a switch and pressed down on a button.
Roxxan suddenly jerked to life as her eyes began to glow once more.
"ROXXAN!" Estella squealed and snuggled up against her partner before she could even register what was happening around her.
"What happened? What's going on?" Roxxan demanded, sitting up.
"Long story," Rual replied before handing the remote back to Lucerne.
Roxxan frowned, "What fight did I miss?" she exclaimed upon spotting the wounds Avaro and Lucerne had.
"Well let's just say Mila is bad news and Charlotte made sure she isn't coming back soon," Avaro said.
Charlotte's reply was only a huff of air. "But you're okay!" Estella purred, hugging Roxxan closer.
OStar backed away from the group, her ear twitching as she felt the need to be somewhere else.
"They'll be fine, I'll just be in my room," she thought before turning around and jumping off. Luckily, no one noticed and stopped her, she didn't want to be questioned or worried over. OStar made it to her room, closing and locking the door. She winced as a spasm of pain jerked through her from Mila's kick.
"Alright what do you want?" She asked aloud.
A tiny head poked out from behind OStar's pillow. "Oh! You got my call!" the little cat exclaimed. OStar frowned, recognizing her from the dream she had about a week ago.
"What happened? There's something you're not telling me," OStar hissed, padding closer to the bed.
"A-Alright calm down! Maybe I do know some things, nothing useful though that's for sure!"
OStar rolled her eyes and forced her fur to lie flat, not knowing why she went so aggressive so quickly.
"How did you get here? Last time I saw you was in a dream," she meowed, sitting down.
"Who's to say you're not dreaming right now?" the small cat replied with wide eyes. OStar felt a chill go down her spine. "...What is your name?" she finally asked.
"I already told you, I don't know," the ball of fluff ruffled her wings and smiled sadly, "Never had one..."
OStar's ears drooped, feeling bad for the small silver cat. "I'll call you Silver then, until we find out a more interesting name," she decided.
"I like it!" Silver exclaimed, beaming.
"Great, now, again why did you call me?" OStar asked, not wanting to get too far off topic.
"Oh right, your locket! After lots of thinking I know how you can use it!"