The barrel of his rifle flared with every shot as Xaleyp aimed it down the shooting range and his CAM lit up new targets when they appeared. Bullets leapt from the mouth of the gun, leaving dings and dents on the metal of the targets. It wasn’t happening very often, but when one was hit, it fell backwards and was replaced by another somewhere else. Each of his shots was worse than the last, with some even flying off to hit the walls of the station.

After about a minute of the test, a buzzer sounded, prompting him to shoulder the gun and walk to the instructor. Captain Lenalt was a rather tall man, his midsection protruding in front of him. It had been years since the officer had last been on the front lines, and the lack of muscle on his body illustrated the fact. Some parts of his hair were patchy from age. He was, however, one of the more laid-back instructors on Vertyn.

With a thud, Xaleyp put the gun in the rack to the side of the range. He stopped in front of the captain and went to attention. The man said nothing for several seconds, instead he had his eyes closed.

“Cadet, it appears that your scores have dropped significantly over the last week,” the captain said, his eye twitching to access Xaleyp’s files. “It looks like by as much as forty percent in places.”

“Just following orders, sir.” Xaleyp kept his back straight and looked ahead. “Colonel Ire wished for me to show restraint.”

“Is that so?” Lenalt scratched his thick beard. “I wouldn’t think that would mean dropping to the bottom of Vertyn’s cadets. I’ll have to have a discussion with him.”

Xaleyp opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. The captain waved him away.

“Back in line, cadet.” He gestured for the next trainee. “Cadet Wemlyr, you’re up.”

“Yes, sir,” came a girl’s voice from behind Xaleyp.

He turned around to join the others but stopped in his tracks, stunned. The girl moving into position was the same he had seen sitting by herself in the mess hall with Lina. The girl who seemed to have mysteriously appeared on the space station.

With a prod from one of the other cadets in line, he broke out of the trance. Lina watched him as he walked, a look of worry on her face. A look that he tried to ignore.

Xaleyp reclaimed his spot in line, trying to think of where the girl came from. She wasn’t standing next to him before he went up, he knew that much. When he looked, there was a space for her at his side. A space as if she had been standing there the whole time.

Her test went much better than his. Almost a perfect score. Something Xaleyp used to achieve with ease before Ire’s threat. Now he struggled to pass.

“Outstanding work, cadet.” The captain looked at her files in his CAM. “That’s a fifty percent increase over the last month. Keep up the good work.”

How could it be possible that she had scores from last month? Xaleyp had never seen her before the other day in the mess.

“Thank you, sir,” she replied, bowing slightly. The mysterious girl returned to her spot in silence, keeping her eyes down and looking at Xaleyp for so brief a moment that he thought he imagined it.

“Cadet Zacharias, go on.” The captain gestured for the boy to move. “Last but certainly not least.”

After a minute of Kedric Zacharias shooting, they finished the test session, and the captain turned to them, looking each of them over.

“You all have improved greatly since you first came to this station.” Captain Lenalt took a deep breath and puffed out his chest. “Some of you more than others, but improvements nonetheless. I just want you to know that it makes me proud to know that Hyperia will be defended by soldiers such as you.”

A chorus of appreciation ran through the cadets. All except Xaleyp. He focused too much on trying to figure out where the girl had come from, why he was the only one that seemed to notice her mysterious appearance.

“You’re dismissed.” Lenalt turned and began to walk away. “You may use the remainder of this period for whatever you wish before heading to your next period.”

The cadets fell out of formation and starting heading for the door, talking to one another. Xaleyp found Lina and walked alongside her.

“It’s that girl again,” Xaleyp said, gesturing towards her. “From the mess hall.”

“Well, that’s kind of how it works, Xaleyp. You get brought here against your will, then you get put through training and sometimes eat and sleep.” She laughed, nudging him in the side with her elbow. They walked out of the armory and started heading towards the lifts. “How long have you been here? You’d think you would know how it goes around here by now.”

“Ha ha. I mean I don’t remember her coming in with us, and I don’t think she was standing next to me when I went up there for my test.”

“Speaking of which, are you feeling alright? I’ve never seen you so sloppy.”

“Thanks.” Xaleyp felt his cheeks reddening. He tried to look anywhere but at Lina, unsure of what to say. “It’s because of what Ire said. I don’t want to see anything bad happen to you, so I’m just following his orders.”

“He really got to you, huh?” There were a few others waiting in the small area. Two lifts came and other cadets quickly stepping in. The pair of them didn’t get on, choosing to wait for the next one. “What is it?”

“I don’t want—”

“Yeah, I know, you don’t want to talk about it.” She looked him in the eyes. “That’s what you told me all those years ago. You’re my best friend, and this is eating you up inside, so if there’s something I can do to help you with it, I want to do it.”

Xaleyp considered her for a moment, looking her in the eye. She was the one thing that made Vertyn bearable. She was his best friend. He trusted her with his life. Without hesitating for another second, he made his decision.

“Okay, but not here.” The lift door opened in front of them, letting them in. He pushed the button to bring them to the dormitories rather than the classrooms. “Let’s go to the dormitory, and I’ll tell you there.”

The lift dropped underneath them, the repulsor engines keeping it in a controlled fall to the next level below. After several seconds, the door hissed open. Two cadets were waiting there, far less than usual due to it being the middle of a training period. Lina and Xaleyp got off, moving briskly to their dormitory. The halls were nearly empty away from the lift, with them only passing the occasional younger cadet.

The door to the dormitory slid open with its familiar hiss, revealing an empty room. Someone had left the holoprojector on, the noise echoing in the area.

“Well, go on then.” Lina sat on the couch, almost dragging Xaleyp with her. “What’s the matter?”

“Do you remember when I told you that Ire kidnapped me, my parents, and my friend?” he asked. She nodded. His throat felt like it was being constricted as he tried to recount the story. “That day, when Ire called me to his office, he told me my parents were dead, that he had them killed, and that if I didn’t want to end up like them, I’d do whatever he said.”

“Oh, Xaleyp.” She put her hand on his, squeezing tightly. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not even just that. When he threatened both of us the other day, the only thing I could think of is if something happened to you. The last thing my dad said to me was to keep my mom safe. I failed, and I don’t want to fail again to keep someone I care about safe.”

“Xaleyp, you can’t blame yourself for what happened. You were just a kid.”

“But I was powerless, completely powerless.” He put his feet up on the couch and pulled his knees close to his body, hugging them. “And I was so scared watching them come in, my dad’s friend shooting at them while I just sat there doing nothing. I never want to feel that way again.”

“But what would you have done?” Lina asked. “You could’ve fought them, and you would’ve still ended up here or worse.”

“I don’t know. I just wish that I could’ve done something, anything, to try to protect them. Maybe then they would’ve been alive still.”

“Or you’d be dead too. Why did you never tell me this before?”

Before Xaleyp could reply, the door to the dormitory opened. The mysterious girl walked into the room, looking at them both for a moment before continuing to the far right door of bunks. It hissed open and closed.

“I’m telling you, there is something strange about her.” Thankful for the interruption, Xaleyp put his feet on the floor and looked back at the closed door. “She just appears out of nowhere, and it’s like I’m the only one who notices anything strange.”

“People appear out of nowhere all the time around here, Xaleyp.” She shrugged. “I guess I’m just used to it.”

“Yeah, I know, but she feels different. I swear she wasn’t there when we started the testing. There’s just something… odd about her.” Xaleyp stood and began to walk to the door the girl disappeared through. He stopped for a moment, turning back to Lina and wrapping his arms around her in a hug. “Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. It means a lot to me.”

“Of course.” She smiled wider than he had seen in years. It reminded him of the girl he had seen that first day on the space station, and he couldn’t help but grin back. “You’re my best friend. You’d do the same for me. Where are you going?”

“To talk to her, get to know her a little.” Xaleyp turned to her and shrugged, walking backwards. “Who knows? Maybe she’ll be pretty interesting. Definitely looks cute at least.”

“Here’s your daily reminder that you’re an ass.” Lina laughed as she walked to the door leading out of the dormitories. “I’ll see you in class. Let me know how it goes.”

As Xaleyp neared the door, a pain shot through his head, one that he had not experienced in seven years. The dark room returned to his mind, clearer than he remembered. It looked similar to Vertyn, the walls being the same metal and design. He was on some sort of bed with robots moving around him. The serrated arm of a blade was on his left, and a syringe was in his right arm. A tube of blood was slowly filling, then the voice came back louder and more forceful than he ever remembered.

“When you meet her, you must trust her.”

Xaleyp staggered when the memory faded again, his head pounding. It threatened to cleave his skull in two. He had never seen that room before, but somewhere deep inside him he knew that he’d been in there. What happened there, and why it was coming back to his memory so persistent and strong, he had no idea, but could it possibly have something to do with this mysterious girl?