The two soldiers seemed to have also left from the car, leaving me alone with Henry and Louisa Becke-Becka-whatever her stupid name was.

At least I was given a change of clothes, a simple black sweater, pants and shoes. They weren’t good clothes, and it was awkward to change into them in the car, but at least they, in combination with Mr Chris’s coat, were very warm.

As we rode in silence, I realised we were going to the airport. We didn’t speak at all, which was a bit awkward, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk, so it was fine by me. I knew we were going there based on the route we took, but I still didn’t know why we were going there.

“Where are we going?” I asked Henry in Greek, partly because I didn’t want to spend the brain power to translate my thoughts and I wanted to get on the nerves of the girl next to me. It was petty, but I smirked at the, probably nasty, German words that escaped her mouth.

“We’re going to the airport but you’ve probably figured that out already.” smiled Henry as he looked at me through the rearview mirror. “Next up is Berlin.”

“What?” I said, going as far forward as my seatbelt would allow. “Berlin? You can’t do that. I can barely speak three sentences in German! I-”

“Halt den Mund, Dummkopf.” said the girl next to me. “You’ll learn the language. I don’t get why you’re complaining so much. You should be honoured. Piloting the Progression Series is a great purpose.” she explained, switching to English. I was twelve years old, and I’d been around a lot of people my age. She didn’t sound like one of us when she was saying those things.

“I’m sure Jacob is just anxious to meet his father Louisa.” reassured Henry using the same language. At the girl’s questioning look he elaborated, “Jacob Lekkas is the son of Professor John Lekkas, the man who found you both as suitable pilots.”

“That explains a lot.” said the girl, looking at me up and down once more, but with much more disgust this time. “Must be nice.”

“Get along, you two. Our future depends on you.” said Henry without looking back at us. I was about to respond when he said that, have her know exactly what my father’s and my relationship was like, but the blonde man’s warning

“What training are we going to do?” asked Louisa, sounding genuinely interested.

And, in spite of my opinion on my father, I was interested as well. Piloting one of those things, it would be a dream come true normally. Even Mark Three, which scared me more than anything, had a power to it that I couldn’t help but want to feel what being in control of one was like.

“You are going to be living together and engaging in activities that will lead to you synchronizing with one another. When you are ready, and trust me when I say you will get ready, you will be able to act as one, singular being, inside the Mark Nine.” he said in English as we arrived at the airport. “Follow me and don’t talk.”

Louisa once again mumbled something in German and once again I was sure it wasn’t a good thing. I didn’t blame her. Being forced to live with her and do whatever it was that we needed to do in order to synchronize wasn’t my idea of a good time either.

Henry opened his phone, showing something to one of the women near the gates, and she allowed us to pass through without any words, besides a few pleasantries between them.

We entered the gate and reached the plane in complete silence. I tried to walk slowly, but Louisa’s natural pace, Henry’s clear hurry, forced me to be faster to catch up.

Once inside the plane, we sat in adjacent seats, with Louisa getting the window seat-after some heavy insistence. I was in the middle and Henry was next to me. The older man fell asleep soon after we took off, leaving me and Louisa in uncomfortable silence.

“So.” I began, trying to break said silence, “Tell me about yourself.” I said in English.

The girl chuckled instead of answering. “I don’t wanna.”

“Why don’t you like me?” I asked her, annoyed.

“Because I’m gonna be your copilot, Mr My-Dad-is-the-man-picking-the-pilots.” shot back the girl, making some people from behind shush us, although Henry fortunately didn’t wake.

“I don’t-” I sighed, realizing that it wouldn’t be easy to get her to change her mind. “Look. I don’t know my-”

“It's not just that.” said the girl before I had the chance to say anything. “I don’t-I don’t want to be a pilot. My mother says that it’s the best job there is but I don’t wanna do it. I want to be an artist!” she explained, getting excited when mentioning her dream job.

“Artist?”

“Yeah.” she nodded, looking out the window. From where I sat I could see it was snowing again. Looking at her like this, it managed to make me feel bad for this girl. And I didn’t even like her that much.

I’d always admired the Progression Series. What their pilots did. Heck, even now piloting one of those things seemed awesome to me. Was I terrified of them as well? Mark Three did its job there. Did I like that I was moving away from my home? I didn’t. Did I know how I felt about my father? Not at all. But to pilot one-it was, well, awesome.

“What do you like about drawing?” I asked, trying to make a conversation while also cheering her up. I might have been twelve years old, but I was ‘nothing if not polite’ as Mr Chris had said.

“Sketching.” smiled the girl warmly, not taking her eyes off the window.

Sighing with the realization that I wouldn’t get anything more out of the girl, I closed my eyes, trying to get myself to sleep one more time that day.

It didn’t work.

In a few short hours I’d see my father. Would I be seeing him every day? Did he pick me as a pilot because he somehow knew about my love for the giant robots? Mr Chris seemed to know Henry. He also said Vater. I didn’t know much German, but that word meant father. I knew that. Maybe my father would wait for me at the airport and explain everything. We’d run up to each other, and he’d hug me.

At least I’d get to see him.

“Vetternwirtschaft Kind.” mumbled Louisa. Opening my eyes I saw her staring at me with a weird smile on her face.

“I can also call you bad things you know.” I told her in Greek, which seemed to make her red in the face.

“Μην νόμιζες πως δεν ξέρει Ελληνικά εγώ.” responded the brunette in Greek worse than my German.

“You just said ‘Don’t you thought I doesn’t know Greek’.” I told her in English, which seemed to just make her even more mad. I laughed a little, which caused her to smack me lightly in the arm.

“Dummkopf.” she said as she turned away from me with her arms crossed. “What about you?”

“Me?”

“What do you want to do when you grow up?”

I was twelve years old. I couldn’t know that, could I? The only thing I could think of that I liked was, well, the Progression Series. Piloting one of them would be the best thing in the world. Other than that I enjoyed playing games and talking with my friends.

Then again, she was twelve as well. Thinking to my friends I realised that George liked swimming even if it was so cold and Michael played football.

Maybe my father would help me? Maybe he’d help me find something other than piloting a Progression Series with this girl.

A few minutes later I drifted to sleep.

I might have been only twelve years old, but I would consider myself smart for my age.

A few hours later we arrived at our destination.

Berlin. I was about to wake up now. This dream, or nightmare, would be over. Then I’d write about it in my journal, glad that it wasn’t the weird cloud thing again and everything would be back to normal.

That’d be nice.

Exiting the plane with the rest of the passengers we followed Henry out the gate. Waiting for us there was a bearded man with fair skin and dark brown hair similar to mine waiting for us. He looked very much like me, except my eyes were brown like my hair, while his were blue and he was wearing glasses. He was also sitting in a wheelchair.

“Henry. Is that him?” I whispered in Greek as we approached the man.

“No need to whisper, my son.” smiled the man as he also spoke in the language.

“Dad?” I said, feeling some wetness on my face.

He smiled at me once more, before turning to Henry and speaking in a language I didn’t understand.

“Du kannst nicht ernst sein!” said the man, drawing the attention of some people next to us.

He adjusted his glasses as he spoke in English. “Jacob Lekkas. Louisa Annelie Beckenbauer. I welcome you officially to the Union Defense Force as copilots of Progression Series Mark Nine. I’m deeply sorry but you must prepare yourselves.

“Your first fight is coming sooner than expected.”