Enders

"And it never once occurred to you that Trikko might be lying? Like he always is?" Jade has her hands on her hips.

"I don't think you understand what happened." I say. "I was the one who approached him because I figured it out."

"You know that I trust you and support you," Xavier places a hand on my back. "But you are a bit- y'know- paranoid."

"You can't deny the evidence!" I grab his tablet and open his drawing app. "She's counting on us following Prodigy so she can kill us!"

"What's a fork have to do with this?" He asks, pointing.

"That's me!" I frown.

"Why would she create Prodigy to destroy him?" Maggie challenges.

"She didn't create Prodigy." I remind her. "Trikko was never meant to be a part of him. Her project was turned against her."

"Well, that certainly worked out, didn't it?" Jade snaps.

"We aren't talking about Prodigy right now!" I get everyone back on track. "We're talking about Claxia!" I open up the powerpoint I had created.

"That's it. He's finally lost it." Maggie throws her hands up.

"You haven't said much." Xavier turns to Milarde.

"I'm just thinking." He scratches his chin. "Because it might be true. It isn't really public knowledge, but the first Gorfonian emperor did have a wife named Claxia. I'm unsure of her maiden name, but when her husband killed the queen of Naico- that's what our planet was called before the Gorfona rule- Claxia employed her son. He later killed Claxia, but there is a bit of an urban legend that Lanlure Gorfona managed to keep her going beyond death."

"The son of Kalluri Forackeces." Trikko puts in. "She's been after my family ever since. It makes me a little glad that the Forackeces bloodline ended with me."

"What, so you believe this because of a thousands-of-years-old fairytale about the family that has constant misinformation around them?" Jade rolls her eye. 

"My father never paid attention, but my grandmother answered messages from a mysterious third party who had suspiciously detailed knowledge of the opposing sides." Milarde continues.

"But she was rooting for Astralis." Xavier frowns.

"She was always going to win if she played all the sides." Maggie concludes. "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, but I don't really want to break off. Astralis is all I have left. They took me when nobody else would."

"Then maybe we don't leave Astralis." Xavier furrows his brows.

"Sounds like a deathwish." I tell him.

"No, I don't mean the double-agent kind of thing. We just take over Astralis." He explains.

"You don't just take over Astralis." Maggie reminds him. "Astralis is basically the entire universe at this point. Its our word or theirs. Everyone loves Astralis. We'll be written off as delusional."

"Not like that." He clarifies. "We rebrand ourselves, and say that we're the real Astralis. We're nipping corruption in the bud, and we'll get to the bottom of the stuff the higher-ups ignore. Besides, more people recognize us than Claxia."

"I am not getting another tattoo." Milarde shudders.

"Fine. We stick with the rhombus-themed logo." I decide. 

"Even if we rearrange the setup, it'll look too similar." Maggie argues.

"You can add another rhombus to represent the leader." Trikko puts in.