( Hadrian pov)
 
   I was supposed to be very happy with the move, but I wasn't. Something was not right. I think am just too paranoid. It's a time like this, I tell myself to fight darkness one has to first be the light. So I'm pushing away all negative energy. For everything to work well, my mental state has to be fine.
  I got into my gear and got my hair up in a ponytail. Stepped out of my room as I teleported to the front assembly.
   After five minutes everyone was already gathered at the front assembly, I was told to charge the soldiers by dad. Public speaking was not my thing, although I was captain of the army, I only spoke when I ought to. This was different and I was nervous. If Luna was here, I could imagine her saying ' you'll be fine as simple as the words are, as long as it proceeds out of her mouth I was okay.
  She's not here, I have to be strong for her.
  I saw Darren and Zuka approaching with Storm behind them. Storm was as determined as I was, I could see it through his eyes behind those big glasses, that he was ready to risk anything to save Luna.
Same.
Zuka waved exasperatedly at me while dragging Darren by the hand, she was gonna make him her property.
  " How is our great prince Hadrian doing?" Darren asked sarcastically,
  " Well not exactly great" I answered honestly,
   " You're gonna do great little brother, just go with the flow" Zuka encouraged, just after she said that dad walked in, and everyone arose and gave him a bow. Dad walked over to us and kissed Zuka on the forehead, and patted me on my shoulder. That was my go signal. I gathered courage and then walked up the stage, I reminded myself that this was not for the title of a prince but an act of commitment to show the people that they could trust me, just as I trusted them. I cleared my throat, I watched the assembly and I could see the trust, fear, and excitement that lay within them. That was enough for me to smile.
   
  " Uhmmm.. greetings soldiers of our great astral society, we all know why we are here, and where we are going. No one fights what they don't know, my mother, Rhea has been eaten alive by her hate and deception of pure blood magic, so she has sworn not to rest until she kills everyone, this mission is to rescue King Killian's daughter l, who is also my mate. And put an end to her games, if we don't stand up now, then families will be separated, children will die, love will die and our generation, the future will not exist anymore. We have a reason to fight and that is the peace of all astralians. For peace and our future. Long live the astral world".
   " Long live the astral world" came the shouts from the soldiers and everyone else, I looked towards my family, including Darren and Storm and a smile crossed my lips. I was never alone, these people are my family. And I was going to bring back my soulmate.
  
   After my speech, I selected fifteen soldiers to come with us, the rest was instructed to guide the people. I walked over to my father,
  " Dad are you sure about meeting mom?" I asked, with worry,
  Dad smiled, patting my shoulder with both hands,
   " Before your mom became this way, I knew a better side of her, I know maybe she wouldn't wanna change but that doesn't mean I'll give up on her," I could see the pain and frustration he felt. He still loved mom, he always did, that's why he never said anything back when mom was acting vile, he thought he could change her, but he just didn't understand that mom was already set on being that way. I nodded at him and then wrapped my arms around him in a hug. Dad pulled out first,
" It's time," he said, everyone gathered around and we all mass teleported to the outskirts of the shadow realms. That was our limit, beyond here was surrounded by her force field.
****************
   
  " Darren, the portion !!," Dad called out,
   Darren walked forward towards the wall, he took my dad's sword,
" Can I borrow this?" He asked, not that he allowed dad to answer as he walked to the wall. He knelt and took out a little bottle, he dipped the tip of the sword into it, and then projected it through the wall, he did that muttering incoherent words that could not be understood. After a few minutes, the force field was brought down.
  " That was too easy," was Darren's first words as he stood up and walked back to us,
  " Something's not right" Storm and I said in sync. We looked at each other and I knew, I wasn't the only one thinking the same thing.
  " There's nothing right, right now, okay, so all we can do is go in there, kick butt and take names," Zuka chimed in,
   " We wouldn't know unless we try, we've come all the way, we can't just stop now because of a hunch" Dad encouraged, " Hades you're with Storm, Zuka you're with squad six, squad twelve will go with me, Darren you go with squad 4, each squad has five soldiers so that's an equal share, remember to stay alert, protect each other and don't die," dad instructed.
  We walked until we got to the mountain that stood before Rhea's empire, which was nothing like I expected, I expected it to be more vile and ugly, filled with evil antiques like every other villain's castle in the movies, but no. Rhea's was beautiful, more like a white castle, everything was white, and there was no other color. We couldn't hear anything. If we didn't know any better we'd say this was an abandoned building but it was too beautiful to be abandoned. Few guards walking around, not humans like us but Akutas.
  " She never ceases to amaze me," dad mumbled
   " Let's go in, there's no time, Luna's waiting," I said, whatever she was planning, I was up for it.
*******
What do you think could go wrong?
Leave a vote for Luna's rescue success.
Thank you so much for reading.