Page 55 of The Alien Warrior's Vow

Neh. This had to be his world. This was the table he had grown up eating around.

See? There.The nick he had made when whittling his mother’s gift of a wooden rizera.

This was home. “I am home,” he said firmly. “You know nothing.”

“I do know, Lans.” She paused. Swallowed loudly. “I grew up with an alcoholic mother. She would leave me for days while she went on benders. I had to learn to fend for myself and I preferred being alone.” Eema inhaled deeply. “That’s why I find it so hard to trust people.”

“Lans, do not listen to this!” His father barked.

Tears glittered in Eema’s eyes. “Lans, I never met anyone who cared about me without expecting anything in return. All my life, I saw people using others for their own gain. I saw cruelty and selfishness. I didn’t just see it. I understood it. That was the only world I knew.” She stepped closer. “Then I met you.”

“Eema…” He remembered the dream again. Stealing Eema outside the beluda. Throwing her on the zapten.

He remembered their lips colliding for the first time.

The dream—

Or was it a dream?

Was he dreaming now?

The keening wail got louder.

He groaned in agony.

His side began to throb.

“I met you and you scared me more than anything. You snapped and growled and grunted at me, but you were never cruel; you were never mean; you never tore me down. You only lifted me up. It wasn’t my world. I didn’t understand it.”

A vein in his temple bulged.

He struggled to find the truth, but it was too painful.

Could he not rest?

Since his father’s death, he had been unable to find peace.Only when he was with Eema did he feel close to happiness.

“Believe me, Lans,” Eema stood in front of him, her eyes gleaming, “I wish this was your reality. I really do. You deserve that, but life isn’t perfect. Crazy things happen. Terrible things happen.” She smiled through her tears. “Sometimes you get kidnapped out of your bed and auctioned off to aliens.”

His fingers closed over her wrist. “Eema…”

“But life is also,” she moved so near that her chest brushed his, “beautifully flawed. And all the ugly, horrible pieces of our past and present can make beautiful things. Stronger things.” Her eyes darted to his lips. “It shapes people who are kind and proud and who love in spite of everything.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist. “I do not want to leave.”

“I know.” She pressed a palm into his cheek. “I know, Lans. But losing you is not an option. So even if it hurts, you need to come back. Okay? You need to come back with me because there’s still a mysterious evil spaceship roaming around the planet. We can’t figure out what’s coming without you. We can’t…” She shook her head. “Clavas, Pin and Zar need you. Chozo needs you. The other girls need you. I—I need you.”

“Lans.” His mother’s bottom lip quivered.

He glanced at Eema’s pleading eyes and then back at his mother.

A memory of the day she passed flew through his mind. Red skies. The screams of pain and mourning. A cold body in a cold bed.

His mother was gone.

This one wasn’t real.

It wasn’t real.