First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 499: Domestic Confrontation

Reva didn’t even look at Arlen.

She stayed where she was, one hand resting on the edge of the transport, eyes fixed on Rin instead. Her gaze flicked back once, quick and sharp, then returned to him.

"Who’s she?" Reva asked.

Rin opened his mouth, then paused.

Before he could answer, Lyra stepped closer to Arlen. Too close. She tilted her head slightly, nostrils flaring as she took a slow breath, eyes narrowing with recognition instead of suspicion.

"You smell like him," Lyra said.

The words landed heavy.

Arlen stiffened, instinctively, not stepping back but not leaning in either. Rin let out a quiet curse.

Reva’s face changed immediately.

She straightened, eyes back on Arlen now, measuring her properly this time. Viola noticed it and scoffed before Reva could speak.

"Oh come on," Viola said dryly. "There is no way Xavier was busy fucking someone while we were stranded, broke, and getting hunted across Jupiter." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Arlen’s jaw tightened. "I—"

Reva lifted a hand, cutting her off without looking at her. Her eyes stayed on Rin. "You," she said. "Start talking."

Rin rubbed the back of his neck. "As you know we got arrested when we came to Jupiter."

"And she," Reva said, nodding toward Arlen.

"She was the supervisor," Rin continued. "Prison oversight."

Reva’s eyes flicked back to Arlen again. "So," she said slowly, "Xavier fucked the supervisor, did his usual magic, got you both released, and now she’s tagging along. Amirite?"

"That’s not—" Arlen started.

"That’s exactly how it sounds," Reva replied calmly, eyes sharp now. "You don’t just walk out of a Jupiter detention facility by accident."

Arlen held her ground. "I didn’t release him because of that."

Viola raised an eyebrow. "That’s not a denial."

Lyra looked between them, confused but curious, nose wrinkling again. "He really smells on you," she added. "Like he slept there."

Rin groaned. "Lyra."

Reva exhaled slowly, then finally turned fully toward Arlen. "What’s your name?"

"Arlen."

"And your relationship with him?" Reva said. "Right now. Not what it was. But what it is."

Arlen didn’t rush her answer. "It’s complicated."

Viola snorted. "That tracks."

Reva studied her for another second, then nodded once, as if she’d already slotted the information into place.

"Figures," she said. "He disappears, chaos follows, and somehow he still finds time to collect problems."

Arlen’s lips pressed together. "You don’t have to like me."

Reva met her gaze evenly. "I don’t even know you yet."

The transport engine idled behind them, the noise filling the pause. Rin glanced between the women, then cleared his throat.

"If it helps," he said, "she’s the reason we didn’t rot in a cell."

Reva looked back at him. "It doesn’t."

Lyra tugged lightly on Reva’s sleeve. "She doesn’t feel bad," she said quietly. "Just... tangled."

Reva didn’t respond right away. Then she sighed, rubbing her forehead once.

"Of course he did," she muttered. "Of course this is how it goes."

She dropped her hand and looked at Arlen again. "We’ll talk later," she said. "Right now, we move."

They packed into the vehicle, bodies close, gear shoved under seats and between legs. The door slid shut, and the transport pulled away from the bay, engine vibration settling that made talking easier than thinking.

The banter didn’t stop. It just shifted tone.

Rin leaned forward between the front seats. "Alright," he said, looking at Reva through the rearview reflection. "Where are we going? Because if we’re not moving toward Helior Prime right now, that’s a problem. Kylus isn’t going to wait."

Viola answered instead of Reva. "He already found us."

Rin frowned. "What?!"

"That’s why we’re not going straight in," Viola continued. "Glassreach wasn’t clean for more than a few minutes."

Arlen glanced over. "Explain."

Viola exhaled and rested her elbow on her knee. "We landed. Jareth’s people got us down where they promised. We started unloading, splitting gear, getting ready to move."

Reva picked it up from there. "Didn’t even get ten minutes."

Viola nodded. "One of Kylus’ teams made their move. They weren’t trying to grab us quietly. They even damaged Jareth’s ship."

Rin swore under his breath. "So that’s why—"

"Everyone scattered," Reva said. "No coordination. No rally point. Just run and don’t look back."

"And somehow you all found each other again?" Arlen said.

"Not somehow," Requiem replied calmly. "We moved toward noise, not silence. Kylus’ people don’t blend in."

Rin glanced back at him. "How did he find you?"

"Yes," Requiem said. "There’s a leak. Someone on Jareth’s ship was feeding him information. Routes. Timing. Drop points. Everything."

Arlen’s jaw tightened. "Or maybe Jareth himself?"

Requiem shook his head. "Possible. But the data Kylus had wasn’t complete. That suggests a lower-level source, not command."

Reva stared out the side window, jaw set. "Either way, he knows our patterns now. That means Helior Prime isn’t a straight shot anymore."

Rin leaned back into his seat. "So we’re staying low?"

"For now," Viola said. "We move when the noise shifts somewhere else."

Lyra looked between them, then toward Arlen again, sniffed once, and wrinkled her nose. "You really do smell like him."

Arlen shot her a look. "You’ve mentioned that."

Reva didn’t turn, but her voice carried anyway. "We’ll deal with that later."

The vehicle kept moving, cutting deeper into Glassreach’s service lanes, away from main routes and toward places where traffic slowed and attention thinned.

Then, suddenly, Rin caught it before anyone else, leaning forward and tapping the frame. "We’ve got company."

Reva didn’t ask how many. She looked at the side display and swore when the feed glitched, then stabilized just long enough to show headlights cutting in behind them where there shouldn’t have been any traffic.

Viola twisted in her seat. "That’s them."

The transport jolted as the driver punched acceleration, tires screaming against the surface as they cut left into a narrower lane. Containers loomed close on both sides, stacked high enough that the sky disappeared completely.

Arlen grabbed the handhold above her head. "They’re not trying to be quiet."

"They never do," Rin said. "They want us to run. They want us to feel hopeless."