The Collector’s ship was the greatest thing Pandora had ever seen. From a distance, in the desert, the ship looked extremely out of place; it was too clean to be on GATE23. Its white hull shined extravagantly under the starry sky. Shaped like a giant “m”, the middle portion of the ship contained a gigantic sapphire crystal. In reality, that was the ship’s main deck. It was where The Collector sat, and it was probably where he contained all of his collections.

As the Collector carried Pandora towards the ship, she noticed that it was levitating ever so slightly off of the ground. It never touched GATE23. There were no thrusters or anything that forced the ship upwards. How is that even possible, Pandora questioned herself. It all looked totally alien to her. She was being taken into uncharted territory. Part of her was hoping that she’d get to see the stars in outer space she’d been dreaming about all her life. Mostly, however, she was afraid.

Still unable to move or say anything, The Collector approached a teal gravity beam emitting from the bottom of the ship. Small lines of light hit the sand slowly in a perfect circle. The Collector stood in the beam, and for a second he waited. Suddenly, Pandora felt herself and her captor begin to float. It didn’t feel like anything was pushing her upwards; the only tell for Pandora was the wind that grew colder the higher they got.

Finally, both of them were on the ship. It looked bigger on the inside than the outside. Pulsating green lights ran across the walls and illuminated a dark interior. The ship was primarily made out of metal. Pandora watched the bolts on the floor pass by as The Collector carried her across the room that they were now in. It didn’t take long for Pandora to realize that she was in a prison room. There were cells embedded into the walls with bars of red light blocking anyone from going in or coming out. Some of these cells contained people and creatures that Pandora had never seen before. Why are you keeping them prisoner? Pandora wanted to ask.

The Collector surprised Pandora when he opened a door and took her into an even more confined room. Pandora felt herself grow more fearful as the room had no windows and only one door. There were cells in the four corners of the room. Two of these cells were empty.

Walking to a block further away from the entrance to the room, The Collector finally talked again, “Open.” Some of the red bars disappeared, allowing The Collector to throw Pandora inside. The Collector kneeled down beside Pandora’s still frozen body. All Pandora wanted to do was scream. He reached out and grabbed the box with the star in it. Pandora had been holding it this whole time. He ripped the box away from Pandora and out of the stasis field. On top of that, The Collector snatched Pandora’s blaster and phone from her. How he was able to enter the stasis field without being subject to its force Pandora did not know. Stepping outside of the cell, The Collector said, “Close.” The red bars reappeared.

Suddenly, Pandora was able to move. The first thing she did was scream. “What are you doing?! Why am I here?!”

The Collector lifted the flap of the box and smiled. “Get some rest, sweetie. I’m not done with you just yet. Thank you for the star by the way. This will become the finest addition to my collection,” The Collector licked his chapped lips. “We will talk soon, okay?” he cackled as he left the room.

The green light emanating from the worm-like Star-Lite tubes that ran across the walls made Pandora’s cell feel smaller. There was a single bench attached to the wall in the cell, but there was nothing else for her to use to try escape. Pandora didn’t dare touch the red bars, for even as she neared it, she could feel the intense heat it gave off. The immense fear and anger that sat in Pandora’s stomach forced her to pace around the cell. Unable to think, unable to do anything, unable to speak, Pandora knew her chances of finding the other stars were long gone now. What is that creep even gonna do with me now, she thought to herself.

Her pacing stopped when she heard shifting in the shadows in the cell across from her. She forgot that not all the other cells were empty. A cold chill crept up her spine, for the person in the other cell said nothing. Pandora could feel a cold and ancient stare bore into her heart. The culmination of the fears that The Collector had instilled into Pandora had transferred to a new fear: that of the figure behind the red shadow across the room. Apart from the physical jail she was locked in, the figure across the room encapsulated her into a new confinement made of terror.

The worst part was that the figure knew what he or she was doing to Pandora.

Slowly, she collected her stance. “H-Hello there,” she probed.

There was no response.

“My name is Pandora,” she tried to sound as natural and unafraid as possible, but the cracks in her voice were clear tells of her weakness.

“My grandfather owned a paper box. It was just like yours,” he finally spoke.

Pandora raised her eyebrows. The voice was of foreign origin. He had an accent that she had never heard before.

Deep and incalculable, he spoke again, “I was condemned from looking inside of it, but I know that The Collector tried his hardest to procure it from my family. I remember it mostly because of its peculiar glow, and today you reminded me of my grandfather.”

“D-Did The Collector take it from your grandfather?” Pandora asked.

Chuckling, the shadowed man responded with a hint of sarcasm, “Nothing is ever taken from my family without swift justice. Not even for the Collector.

“That must be why you were taken,” a finger shot out of the darkness, pointing at Pandora, “You had a box just like my grandfather did. Like the Collector said, it is quite the find... I presume that it is the reason he put you into this room… with me.”

Pandora’s heart beat faster, “And who exactly are you?”

The man shifted in his seat to lean forward. The light from the room and the bars made his face barely visible. With a face hard as stone and a black stubble, the man looked just like his voice sounded: unlike anything she’d ever seen before. Pandora knew that he had to be from some distant star system where people didn’t look much like her. His hair was tied back into a bun; it was black and glossy under the green light. Unable to see his body, the man wore what looked like a white robe. Pandora could see hints of a red undershirt, but his whole body was still covered by a mysterious shadow.

He looked straight into Pandora’s eyes and smiled, “I am Kodea, Son of Dehake, and the heir to the Blossomfall Throne.”

“That’s a mouthful,” Pandora joked.

Snickering, Kodea leaned back into the shadow.

Silence filled the room once again. Pandora decided to choose her next words more wisely, “What planet are you from?”

“It is called Senpou, and it is trillions of light-years away from here,” Kodea said with a hint of melancholy.

“So why were you taken by The Collector?”

Kodea paused longer than usual, “I do not know.” His uncertainty sounded genuine. “I do not believe it is for my grandfather’s box, though. Centuries ago, a horrible tsunami washed away my grandfather and his estate. The box washed away along with him and was never found. Regardless, The Collector says that I’m being held prisoner for a very special reason, only, I do not have the slightest of clues as to why.”

“Oh,” Pandora whispered. “What’s your planet like?”

“What’s your planet like,” Kodea firmly asked.

“Well, there’s a lot of sand everywhere. We have a mountain called Mount Past. I like to go up there once in a while and watch people in their homes. Oh, yeah, and then-” Pandora’s speech was perturbed when she saw Kodea lean over again hosting quite the confused look. “What? Did I say something?”

“You watch people? For fun?”

Pandora’s face reddened.

Kodea burst out into laughter. It filled the room's silence as tears streamed down his cheeks. “You absolute creep! What else do you do? Sneak into people’s homes and steal panties?!” Kodea laughed again.

Frowning, Pandora began laughing with Kodea, “Hey! At least I’m not the one acting all cool-like and mysterious while wearing what looks like bathrobes!”

“This is a tradition!” Kodea screamed.

He stood up from the shadow, and Pandora saw him fully for the first time. His robes were as white as a pale star across a horizon. With an outfit as simple as his, it was impossible not to notice the vibrant red undershirt. What surprised Pandora the most was the red streaks on his robe that would move every so often. Moving in no particular direction, the streaks made Kodea’s outfit look almost robotic.

Mimicking the use of binoculars, Kodea continued to mock Pandora, “Look at me! I’m Pandora! Oh, yeah, watching people go about their day… This is really fun. Watching people use the bathroom! Woo hoo!” He danced around the room until he tripped over himself and fell onto the red bars that imprisoned him. A red field suddenly appeared and violently sent Kodea flying backward onto his bench. Unknowing of what just happened, Kodea groaned from the pain.

Still laughing, Pandora commented on Kodea’s theatrics, “That was real slick, oh Noble Kodea.”

“Silence…” Kodea managed to say before he winced at the pain. Slowly, however, Kodea began to laugh at himself.

Both Pandora and Kodea laughed until the dead silence of the room reasserted itself as the dominant medium. Kodea asked another question, “So, what is in the box?”

“What do you mean?”

“My grandfather’s box. What’s in it?”

“A five-pointed star.”

Kodea looked puzzled, “You mean like an actual star?”

Smiling, Pandora’s eyes widened, “Yes, and it gives you a special power.”

“What kind of power?” Kodea asked, clearly awe-struck.

Pausing, Pandora couldn’t think of what to say until it hit her, “It gives you the power to wake up.”