Katelyn was not having a good day. First she had to fight against the council for better equipment for their mission, then she had to persuade the others to let them borrow the Pelican II and more soldiers to accomplish the mission. However, both of these occurrences were quite normal in her daily life. Ever since she accepted a seat in the council most of the other ‘Commanders’ at the council gave her a hard time on her solo mission, when she wasn’t leading a team of a hundred troops, their troops. Just that much wouldn’t have made her angry, but the continuous requests from Doctor Mozart, the head of science department, to take Shair off the mission and send him to the basement to assist them with experiments on the Fraz was what annoyed her and slightly angry.

It was clear the two loathed the other so that fact the Doctor willingly sought Shair’s company for Fraz research made no sense to her. She had long since made the assumption that the doctor was blackmailing Shair to help out with Fraz research. Why the doctor needed Shair’s help specifically and how did Shair help him, was what bugged her. She knew Shair well, so she knew that Shair would have to hide something very dark if he caved in to the blackmail. But…she knew Shair, and she trusted him greatly, so she had decided to wait for him to tell her about the secret.

Even though she had decided to trust Shair, she hated being kept in the dark and so today she finally couldn’t take it. The stress of their possible last mission, and the accumulated frustrations from the morning when she asked for the equipments to the time the doctor was listing reasons Shair needed to be in base and not with her, she finally confronted him about the real reason why he needed Shair. She never got an answer because like a coward Dr. Mozart just shut up and left the room with a ‘have a pleasant day’ angering Katelyn to no end. From that point on the fear of what Shair was hiding from her settled in, a bad thing before a suicide mission.

Katelyn also knew that this mission was set up by the council to kill off any of the soldiers that were nearing the end of their ‘reliability stage’ and were about to retire. The council thought that it would be counterproductive to continue to support the soldiers who were no longer any good in a fight. That thought was really narrow-minded, men of numbers although claimed to be greatest minds of their generations could still never predict the expiration date of the soldiers who fought for them. That was one thing they didn’t know that she did, she could tell at a glance the potential of the soldiers fighting with her and the people she fought with, her team, had the greatest potential off all the other troops in HQ.

She knew that their chances of surviving were slim and she knew that what she was doing was wrong, not dismissing Shair from the mission to help out in research with doctor Mozart only confirmed his death. She needed him by her side. Most likely all of them were going to die from this, but her team was everything to her and had been for a long time. Without them she had no actual friends on HQ, only allies and people who pretended to be for their greater benefit. She had lost people close to her before, back then she didn’t have any power to protect her people and even now she didn’t have any, even after all that time what got her cornered was not her lack of strength, but politics. So she had decided to go on with her team, die with her friends and that special someone instead of living on without anyone to trust in a world where humanity was clearly divided.

Katelyn’s day only got worse from then on, as she grappled with these thoughts convincing herself that it was the only option, the creature attacked and took away her only emotional support from her. She then had to grasp leadership as soon as she lost it, with force, treading down an old and hateful path once more. When she received the news that only one of the two survived she was ashamed at herself for hoping that Jon had died. He was part of her team, he willingly joined her knowing that he was going to be prejudiced against because of its ‘special’ members and she thanked him for his help by hoping he died over Shair. Everyone was equal in her team, each member treated the other like their own family, yet she hoped that Shair lived while Jon died. These thoughts really stressed her and made her hate herself. But nothing of the past could counter the dreadful situation that she was facing now which made today her really bad day.

After the Fraz had left the area, Katelyn had led her team out of hiding and towards the command center door just 50 meters away. The door had some sort of Fraz technology as its security, so when the team got there Daniel and Harry were left to deal with the lock while the others guarded them. Jon Bellamy was their technician who was experienced in dealing with Fraz technology, but since he was no longer with the team she made the calculated decision to let Daniel and Harry-who seemed to know more about the Fraz than them-deal with the lock. One could learn only so much about the Fraz when they were continuously fighting and hiding from them.

After a few agonizingly slow minutes Katelyn heard a small click behind them and Harry’s voice calling them over. Katelyn twisted around to face the half open door and silently signaled the team to fan out and search the room. Daniel opened the door completely and Harry, Mia, John, and Mustafa marched inside, securing the area before Katelyn walked in with Daniel following behind closing the door.

The command center was a very small room; a few large panels on electrical boxes were placed on the wall in front of them. The room was very dark, with the only light source being a blue bulb that hung over the panels. There was also a rectangular glass on the ground in the middle of the room, underneath the glass water could be seen flowing through. There were large screens placed on the wall above the panels displaying different symbols and graphs she had never seen before. To the sides of the room, stuck to the wall, were pulsating sacks made of black flesh-like membranes layered upon each other.

“Alright, Daniel and Harry. Get to work.” She ordered.

“Ummm…but Commander we don’t know how to work this tech.” Harry said.

“…What?” She was a little ticked off and thought that perhaps she misheard them “Repeat that.”

“Sorry Commander, we’ll get to it.” Daniel interjected and pulled Harry to the panels. They both bent over and started observing the station.

“We don’t have all day.” She snarled “Get to it. The rest of you, be alert and ready.”

“Yes, ma’am” Everyone answered.

Katelyn was angry but not at the one’s present. Her anger was mostly directed towards the one’s not present, or more specifically she was angry at Shair. Shair had promised her that he would meet her here and yet when she reached the command center she didn’t find Shair waiting for her.

“He’s late” Katelyn hissed out as the continued to look at the Mark II’s work on the panels.

John looked over at Katelyn and adopted his signature look, a mix between worry and pity. Katelyn hated how he made her feel better, she wanted to vent her anger not have it dissipate.

“He’s coming. Don’t worry.” John, having said his piece, looked away. He couldn’t bear to lie to her face, because even he had his doubts that Shair survived so long and after hearing about the conversation between the Fraz he wasn’t optimistic. John knew Katelyn was only hanging on by a thread of hope. That was the only thing keeping her going right now and John knew he had to pretend for her sake or else the whole team would fall apart. Katelyn’s strong leadership was the only thing stopping this team from abandoning the mission and getting out of this base.

“He better.” Katelyn scowled at the floor; losing herself in her thoughts.

The whole room became silent, everyone focusing on their tasks and leaving their commander to her thoughts. John, Mustafa, and Mia were keeping a watch on the door and the pulsating sacks on the side walls, while Harry and Daniel fiddled with the controls obviously scared of upsetting Katelyn.

Mia walked towards one of the sacks on the side wall that was pulsating at a different rhythm than the others and focused her small gun at it.

“Hey, John. Does this look weird to you?” John came by her side and saw what she meant. Aiming his gun at the sack he shot it with a couple of rounds, stopping its movements.

“Nope. Looks normal to me.” John turned back around to watch his side of the room when he suddenly heard a loud shout escape Mia. Twisting around he saw a large Fraz drenched in a transparent liquid holding Mia by her throat. John took aim with his gun as the Fraz threw Mia towards him knocking him into the floor. Harry and Daniel turned around and also took aim at the thing.

They never stood a chance.

The Fraz ran towards them ducking under their fire and tackling them into the shocked Mustafa. By this time Katelyn was brought out of her thoughts and had started firing at the Fraz as it brought down Mustafa. The Fraz reacted to the sound of fire and brought his arms to block the incoming bullets. Then it ran towards Katelyn dodging the shots fired, when it got close it sent a punch towards Katelyn’s head to which she responding by jumping out of reach.

Suddenly shots were heard on the right but it blocked them as well with his arms. Lowering them to look at the offender it saw that John was standing over an unconscious Mia aiming his gun towards it, the barrel of the gun smoking from releasing bullets at high speed. Katelyn took advantage of the moment and started to fire at the back of the Fraz. To which it responded by jumping back and smacking Katelyn on the door, knocking her out. Using the momentum the Fraz jumped from the door straight into John, who was still firing at it. John ducked down to get out the Fraz’s trajectory but its outstretched arms dug into his shoulders dragging him across the floor as the Fraz landed on his chest. John was immediately knocked out a few feet left of Mia.

*Rat-tat-tatat-* The Fraz was knocked off John’s chest and sent flying into the sack he came from, getting drenched in its goop once again. Daniel and Harry were the only ones left conscious, everyone was knocked out by the Fraz. They kept up the heat on it, firing at it until they ran out of bullets. By then the Fraz was slumped on the wall riddled with bullets on its meat-wood body.

“Let’s check on the others.” Harry nudged Daniel before turning to his fallen teammates. Daniel shot once more at the Fraz on the head before turning and checking on Mia as Harry checked on John. Daniel squatted near Mia and started tapping her on her head.

“Hey, get up.” Daniel continued on like that for a few minutes but to no avail. So he changed tactics and started shaking her by the shoulders. Harry was having similar problems so he changed to the same tactics as Daniel.

“You gotta’ get up Mi-”*Blurgh* Daniel suddenly vomited as he felt being lifted from the ground.

“Daniel!” Harry shouted as he saw Daniel getting picked up off the ground by a large tendril in his shoulder. The tendril belonged to the Fraz they had recently taken down. The Fraz was clicking its teeth together, as it had no generic Fraz mask the mass of meat and wood just covered the rest of its face, leaving its mouth with the spiky teeth open to click and drool.

“Ahhh” Harry shouted as he grabbed his gun started shooting.

*Click-Click*

“Huh” Harry looked at his gun. He and Daniel had forgotten to reload their guns after taking that thing down so when he started firing at the Fraz, there was no ammo to be shot.

“HAAAAAAAH” The special shouted as it threw Daniel into Harry knocking them both down. Harry could feel the blood coming from Daniel’s shoulder wound, when he tried to get up and reach for his pistol he was met with the Fraz’s face only inches away from his. The only thing visible on the face was the mouth as it drooled on the unconscious Daniel, the rest of the face was hidden underneath the mass of wood and meat. Harry tried to reach for his pistol slowly without alerting the Fraz, but it was smarter. The Fraz grabbed Harry by the neck and head-butted him knocking him out like the rest of the group.

The single newly hatched Fraz had decimated the entire team in a matter of minutes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katelyn was having the best day of her life. She was currently in the mess hall of HQ sitting on one of the benches, facing the man kneeling in front of her. It wasn’t the man that her attention was on but the thing he was holding up and presenting to her. It had been wrapped up in a dirty piece of cloth but that did nothing to take away its shine.

The man was presenting it in both hands as if offering his soul, his face; hidden as he looked down awaiting her verdict which tickled her insides and made her feel all warm inside, knowing that even he could get nervous about doing this made him seem more caring. She had dreaded for days, thinking that he was never going to do it.

After their last mission when they had been excused from their duty as soldiers he had started to act differently. He had stopped ‘interrupting’ her during work, he had stopped hanging out with her, possible even avoiding her, and even stopped his late night ‘visits’. So for past few days she had been nervously sitting on this subject, afraid that if she gave it any thought she would legitimize the idea that he no longer wanted to be with her.

So when she was eating in the mess hall, imagine her surprise when she was eating in the mess hall and she overheard him ask for where she was. She was, of course, shocked to the events that unfolded afterwards; he walked straight towards her, kneeled in front of her and shouted “Will you marry me”. Gathering the attention of everyone around her.

She looked at the shining object in his hand, it wasn’t too ornate, rather it was very simple. A hollowed cylindrical object no more than an inch in diameter, it was made of silver and engraved with a peculiar design on the outside, shining brightly in her eyes. She reached out to pick it up and slowly turned it around in her fingers, looking at the engraving inside the object. The rough etching of the words suggested that he had to write it by hand instead of using an engraving machine. The thought and effort that he placed in it made her feel…secure, she was in her own world; thinking of the reasons for it and the possibilities it presented, until a light cough brought her down to Earth.

He was still nervously awaiting her response, it was cute, the way he was sweating during this moment. It showed how important it was to him and that made her feel secure. She placed the ring on her finger and inspected it from far away.

“I think it suits me well, don’t you?” She mischievously asked him enjoying the blank stares everyone gave her. She knew how she was presented in the HQ, an aggressive but cold commander who only cared about getting victory through the smallest effort. The councils influence stretched far and deep, it may have been a bad move to cross some of them but if she wanted to remain faithful to her ideals she would have it no way.

‘Let them think whatever they want. What do you think?’ she thought, smiling at how his head shot up and looked at her joyfully. This moment was by far the happiest moment of her life, her man proposing and asking to spend the rest of his life by her side.

She was happy…

That was until a large amount of saliva suddenly fell from the ceiling and unto her arm. She looked up at the source and saw only darkness; a chill ran down her spine as she suddenly looked down around her. Everyone, everything had disappeared leaving only blackness behind.

It was a dream.

When the realization hit her she spiraled into the abyss in despair until a white light pierced the darkness and blinded her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was in the command center of the Fraz headquarters; the Fraz was above her, drooling on her arms. She was feeling pain around her chest and once she looked down she knew why. She was tied up by a vine, and around her was the rest of her team. To her left was John and to her right was Mia, both already awake and glaring at the Fraz. The Fraz, upon noticing that she was awake, turned around and moved to the panels to fiddle with.

“You are very troublesome.” A deep voice reverberated through the room. It took her a few seconds before she found the source. The Fraz had just spoken English. Ever since the invasion there had never been any incident that the Fraz had spoken a human language. This was a new type of Fraz and judging by how easily it knocked out her team, it was very a dangerous new breed.

“Why keep us alive?” Katelyn asked gaining attention from both John and Mia.

“Need prisoners” The Fraz spoke “Our supply was running out” The Fraz looked towards Katelyn once more, a large gap appeared underneath the area where its eyes should be. The gap curved to the sides until it looked like a smile. “Of course one of you is going to be my…‘source’ so I can get stronger” The Fraz held up his hands to gesture to himself “a growing thing needs its nutrition, right?”

It then turned back and looked at the panels to fiddle with again.

“What are you doing?” Katelyn asked once more.

“Signaling comrade-” *Boom*was all that escaped his mouth when suddenly a large hole in the ceiling near the pulsating sacks was created. Dust and smoke suddenly filled the room; the Fraz immediately positioned himself in a leaping stance that had knocked Katelyn before. Two dark figures fell down from the dark hole in the ceiling and stood on the rubble.

Katelyn was paying close attention to the figures; one of the figures was short and rather fat, while the other was significantly taller but very thin. None of the shadows matched his, when the revelation dawned upon Katelyn it shook something inside her. All she heard was the ringing in her ears as her eyes became hazy and her face became numb, Katelyn’s senses started to close down. The only sense she still retained was her sight even after everything had become numb and filled with ringing. Her eyes saw through the dust and the smoke how the two figures raised their hands and started to fire at the Fraz.

The bullets barely scratched it, instead they ricochet of off the armor and damaged the machinery surrounding the Fraz. Even if they were bound to die Katelyn knew that blowing up the Fraz base with them was way better than being killed by the Fraz one by one.

“Hey, Idiots stop damaging the machinery we need it to blow this base up.” The thought of blowing the base up and killing thousands of Fraz at the same time brought her out of her sorrowful state, allowing her to shout at the two humans’ about to mess up her genocide plan.

The new type of Fraz was most definitely made to imitate human nature as it adopted a boxer’s defensive pose while moving towards the two shooting at it. None of the Fraz had ever been as powerful as this one and they had never been so human like too. This new creature was definitely dangerous and even a greater threat to humanity than the others of its kind, Katelyn knew it all too well.

The Fraz rushed into the barrage of fire that the dark figures lay out and tackled the taller one, slamming it into the wall out of the smoke. The thin old man spurted blood as his ribs broke and fell over in a coughing fit, while the Fraz used its momentum like it did when slamming Katelyn and jumped back into the potbellied figure still in the smoke. The figure wasn’t as agile as John so it felt the full force of the Fraz’s tackle when the creature speared the figure, sending it skidding on the floor out the smoke as well. When the Fraz stood over the figure, it grabbed the figure by the neck and lifted it off the floor, Katelyn saw that it was Jon.

“Hey, mud face. Let him go.” John yelled at the Fraz angrily as he twisted next to Katelyn to get out of his strong binds. Mustafa also started to move about trying to loosen the rope tied around them. The groups focus was so much on the thing tying them and Jon being strangled by the Fraz that they completely missed a third figure hope down in the dissipating dust.

*Bang* The sound of loud gun fire in the room momentarily stopped everyone’s motion, except for the Fraz’s movement who stumbled forwards throwing Jon against the other wall, the back of its neck hissing smoke. The Fraz looked back and snarled at the figure appearing out of the smoke, his colt directed at the Fraz and its barrel hissing smoke.

Katelyn was the first to break from the stillness that encompassed the room and looked at the figure appearing out of the smoke. A wide grin grew on her face when she saw that the shadow belonged to Shair, appearing out of the smoke. He was bruised, limping, and bleeding from different places on his body, but he was alive and that was all she cared about. However that large smile disappeared as soon as it came when she saw that the Fraz was running towards Shair. Before she had a chance to warn him the Fraz had already reached him.

It was a few feet away from Shair when it jumped in the air like a feral creature aiming for his head. Shair ducked to the side under the swing of its arm, as the Fraz landed behind him he twisted around and shot the creature on its chest thrice more. The impact of the colt’s bullets caught the Fraz off guard and it stumbled backwards. However that’s all it did, the Fraz still had no visible wound on its body, and still seemed to be advancing at Shair. The Fraz reached out for Shair head once more and once again Shair ducked away from it, but it had been expecting that. When Shair ducked under its claw the Fraz sent a punch from his other hand aimed for his chest where his shirt was soaked in blood. Knowing what was about to happen Shair brought up his left hand to absorb the punch while with his right he aimed at the Fraz’s chest.

*Squench* *Crack* The sound of bones breaking and blood spurting out could be heard as Shair was sent flying to the closed door, slamming in it with such force that a loud ‘slap’ sound could be heard. However, as Shair sailed through the air his right hand on instinct started firing wildly at the dark creature, some bullet struck it while the others struck the control panels behind it. The Fraz seemingly unfazed started to saunter towards Shair. When the Fraz came into range Shair sent a kick flying towards the creature’s head, but it never connected as the Fraz ducked down and punched Shair straight in the bloody spot of his Kevlar.

*Crack* sounds of ribs breaking could be heard as Shair spat blood straight at the creatures face. The Fraz just smiled and wiped the blood off its face before grabbing him by the neck and bringing him closer towards its face. Shair was bleeding from the sides of his mouth and had multiple bruises and cuts on his face, but despite being in close proximity to the Fraz’s face Shair still kept an expressionless face, refusing to even grunt in pain as he was lifted upwards.

“Hmmmm” The Fraz hummed as a gap appeared on its face, where its mouth was “Why don’t you get me coffee this time…Lion.”

Everyone in room was shocked at the creature’s actions; they all had a face of astonishment and disbelief but not Katelyn. Katelyn wasn’t shocked like the rest of the humans present; she was utterly horrified at the voice that came out of the Fraz’s mouth. The voice was not one it had used a moment ago when he was talking to her, no, this voice was much more feminine and what horrified her so much was that she knew who that voice belonged to.

That was her voice.

The Fraz was repeating what she told Shair two days ago. The Fraz was using her voice and calling him by their nickname. She knew that the perfect imitation of her voice and the nickname that only they knew meant that…it had been in her mind.

It seemed like Shair also knew that because he was staring at her with a shocked expression, he looked back at the Fraz when it spoke once more.

“Do you think a life together would be worth it?” This time the voice was much calmer and softer than before. The Fraz seemed to enjoy being a schadenfreude because its smile grew as it watched Shair’s reaction. Shair’s previous shock was replaced by a look of pure anger and hate as he clenched his teeth and glared at the Fraz angrily. The Fraz was really enjoying this as it drooled onto Shair’s Kevlar, its tongue hanging off on the side.

While Katelyn was completely immersed in what the Fraz was going to say next, Jon was already moving forwards to help Shair unbeknownst to the man himself. Jon carefully located the bullets Shair fired off into the panels and started to dig them out without making a noise. Wezzil was watching this and when their eyes met, a silent nod was passed between the two as Wezzil also joined in locating and digging the bullets. The Fraz was too busy enjoying Shair’s reactions to pay attention to them silently working in the back. Shair was glaring at the Fraz with hate and anger boiling up inside him, his mouth was slightly foaming but not a single voice escaped him mouth, it was all being stored inside him, waiting to explode, waiting to escape.

Even though it had no eyes to see from the Fraz looked away from Shair to admire Katelyn’s reaction as she was tied up with the rest of her squad. Upon her face was no longer a look of horror but instead a look similar to Shair’s was present, both had eyes glaring at the creature with hatred, both had clenched teeth but only she was releasing a dangerous aura around her while Shair had bottled it up. The anger and threat that Katelyn was releasing could be felt by those tied up around her, so they had leaned away from her in case she tried to break free and accidently hurt those around her. The Fraz turned back to look at Shair and opened his mouth to speak out.

“Yeah, But you know?” The Fraz widened his grin “I wouldn’t mind saying it…I…love-”

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Shair screamed. All the anger and hate stored inside him suddenly erupted. It all came out in once long rage filled scream. Everyone in the room was caught off guard, even Katelyn lost her previous anger as she looked at Shair worriedly.

“AHHHHHHH!” Shair continued to yell as he forcefully grabbed the creature’s wrists and used it to pull himself upwards and kicked the Fraz into the chest with all his might. The Fraz’s grip loosened and it stumbled backwards quickly regaining its balance as it readied itself to charge forwards but what Shair said next stopped it in its tracks.

“Moshni vishru” Shair brought his colt near his head for the Fraz to see and slowly cocked the hammer of his gun back “Stiffa Virna Mashira”. Jon at this moment with Wezzil threw the bullets they had collected from the panels towards the Fraz.

*Click**Boom* as the familiar sound of his gun activating the explosive bullets rung in the room it was filled with a loud explosion as the bullets embedded in the Fraz and the ones thrown towards it, blew up.

Smoke rose from the explosion and, a dark figure could be seen illuminated in the smoke from the one light source in the room. Shair didn’t wait for the figure to act as he ran into the smoke, yelling as he went by. Katelyn couldn’t see his face as he went but she knew that he had finally snapped once again.

Katelyn looked at Shair figure disappearing into the smoke and she swore she saw tears leaking from his eyes. When the two figures confronted in the smoke it was mostly one-sided offense on Shair’s side. The Fraz held his ground as he received punches and kicks from the angry Shair. Katelyn could see his figure picking up more speed, the more he punched or kicked and his attacks seemed to be getting more focused on the chest area of the Fraz. Finally Shair grabbed the Fraz by the head and ran to ram him into the wall on the left outside of Katelyn’s field of view.

*Crunch* the sound of wood and bone breaking could be heard as he brought the creatures head into the wall. Shair let go of the Fraz once he heard it breaking and the body fell on the floor with no resistance, but Shair didn’t stop there. He got on top of the creature, straddling him on his chest and started to punch the broken head.

Neither Jon, nor Daniel, nor Harry had a clear view of what was happening to the Fraz but both of them could clearly see the damage previously done on the body and they could hear the crunching sound as Shair pummeled the Fraz’s head. The Fraz’s body was still hissing as it lay there, still smoking, and Shair was sitting on it, punching like it was a cushion. Large holes could be seen exposing the insides of the Fraz, the result of Shair’s colt.

“Haaaa….Haaaa….Haaaa,” Harry could see Shair getting tired as the pain of the bruises and cuts finally took their toll on him. Shair quickly changed tactics and instead of punching the Fraz he started to rip the body apart. He grabbed the twisted branches and vines and started to pull them apart, exposing the creature’s insides. Shair started with the head and moved downwards onto this chest, his breathing had gotten shorter and louder, as if the more air he took it the more it was forced out by the pain.

He finally stopped ripping and breaking away at the wood when he couldn’t feel his arms anymore; the searing hot pain in them numbed his control his own body. It was like the arms had been completely shut off from the rest of the body, stuck to his shoulders like extra baggage. He could still feel his fingers, bending them was easy, but he couldn’t bend his arms without shaking in exhaustion.

Tired, Shair grabbed his colt from the side and unsteadily stood up, his breathing was much harder and he was sweating greatly. By which time Jon and Wezzil had untied and freed the rest of the group and they all stood a few feet away watching Shair breath over the motionless body of the Fraz. Shair aimed for the creature’s chest, the fleshy insides exposed and shot one last bullet.

‘Bang!’ Moving off of the dead body Shair cupped his side, where the Fraz had attacked him and slowly stumbled towards the wall on the left leaning against the wall next to the steel door. By this time Wezzil and Jon were working on getting the rope tied around the rest of the group off. Shair’s armed was shaking as he moved his thumb over the hammer and pushed it down.

*Click* ‘Boom’ and so with a last willing effort, he exploded the final bullet stuck on the fallen Fraz new-breed.

Once the bang rung across the room Shair fell to the ground he slumped over and started to cough violently, the injuries finally taking their toll on him. Katelyn immediately appeared next to him and gave him a large hug as he coughed over her shoulder. She could feel his blood and spit going down her back, but, in this moment, she didn’t care what he did neither did she care what the others saw her do.

The HQ had strict rules on male and females soldiers getting too comfortable with each other, no, that was a right reserved to only the heads of departments, the staff member and … the retired (of which there weren’t any). Once a soldier felt too strongly for another it would hinder their results in the field, or so the council made the excuse. When they announced that her team was getting retirement, the first of the survivors associated with HQ to do so, she was really happy that it would no longer have to stay a secret; a bond hidden in the dark.

She had him in her arms, and this was her last mission on the field before retirement so she going to do damn well whatever she liked, despite what others thought or what they saw. Katelyn held him by the back of his head once Shair had stopped coughing up blood, his eyes were still a little hazy and in his dizzy state he smiled weakly at her, pressing his forehead against hers. Katelyn allowed herself to smile as well and proceeded to kiss the sides of his neck, where the marks from the Fraz’s fingers could still be seen; she then moved to kiss his check and then…despite the blood covering the sides of his mouth kissed him full on the lips. They both shared a moment of silence as they enjoyed their intimate moment.

*Sigh* “About damn time” John smiled at the two.

Despite the worrying situation a moment ago once Katelyn and Shair rekindled their fire all tension in the room seemed to be lifted, although they were all injured in some way, although they were all tired to some degree and although what they were doing was extremely reckless in their situation where enemies could be popping through the door any moment; the whole group enjoyed a moment of silence and peace.

Of course not everyone had the same reaction. The rescued general was still worried about their current situation and found the public display of love in their current situation extremely inappropriate, evident by his disgusted face. However, he did not voice his concerns to the others. It was because once he looked at the two’s expression he immediately understood that they both had experienced tragic and needed the other to keep them grounded. He was not a member of their team, nor was he a person of significance anymore, governments had fallen so there was obviously no need to keep dwelling on the past ranks which would no longer serve him at times like this. He had no right to interject of their ‘moment’ so he just let it go and awaited the next most appropriate time instead.

Mustafa was a little blind in the dark room so of course he couldn’t properly see what Katelyn was doing. He thought that she was checking his wounds and making sure he was alright, he doubted the two would reveal their relationship in front of the Mark IIs who could potentially report it. With the way everyone else was acting, it was evident to Mustafa that the trouble had passed and that they would have some time for a breather until the next wave.

Similarly Jon was pleased with how the situation turned out, he wasn’t part blind like Mustafa so when he saw the two go for it he felt content. He had some time for a breather for the next battle, from the beginning he had his doubts about the two’s relationship since the beginning and was satisfied at being proven correct. However the most content and happy about the situation were two individuals standing side by the side gleaming at their buddies.

John and Mia looked at each other and a small smile of satisfaction passed over the two’s faces. Mia and John had known the two for as long as Shair and Katelyn had known each other, so this public display of affection really made the two feel happy. They had been Shair and Katelyn’s confidants for some time now, whenever the two had bumps and hurdles to cross in their relationships they had been there to help them along, going so far as to even discuss the two’s relationship behind their backs. The HQ forbid deep relations between soldiers, even though they necessarily didn’t like those rules they still had to follow them due to a promise to a certain someone. Therefore they had to help keep Shair and Katelyn’s relationship a secret for their sakes and now that they were officially displaying it, no longer keeping it a secret, John and Mia felt a pang of satisfaction from seeing the curtain finally reveal the real Commander Katelyn and ‘Psycho’ Shair.

While Mia and John were feeling good about themselves the two other individuals felt rather awkward with what they were seeing. One could say that those two were the only one’s ‘grounded’ at the moment of peace, they fully grasped the stupidity and recklessness of the situation as it unfolded. One moment Shair had been on the verge of insanity with rage, thrashing the Fraz and now he was kissing their Commander who was most known for her serious and cold demeanor. This complete reversal from a few moments ago was too much for the soldiers to handle, they were so shocked that they couldn’t voice any concerns while the ‘session’ continued. One of them was bleeding out while the other grasped the situation they were truly facing. Harry looked towards his friend who was leaning upon him and saw that Daniel was still bleeding out. Looking across towards Shair, Harry saw a small pool of blood also pile up below him. Despite the intense bleeding nobody seemed to be noticing the pool of blood spreading below him, so Harry gave Mia a slight nudge getting her attention and pointed towards the blood spreading below Shair.

“Oh my!” Mia exclaimed as she whipped her head back to look at Daniel leaning against Harry with a hole of his own bleeding on the ground. “Uh…Katelyn move aside!”

Mia practically shoved the mesmerized Katelyn from an equally mesmerized Shair and opened up her small metal medic box. Ignoring the annoyed looks from both lovers she took out a bottle of alcohol while ordering the others what to do.

“All those who have serious injuries find a spot at the near the metal walls and wait your turn.” Mia looked at Katelyn apologetically “We’ll be depending on you, Commander”

Something about that sentence seemed to snap Katelyn back to her Commander self. She stood up and looked at her teammates; some were waddling to sit against the walls while the others helped them sit down.

“John! Harry!” She shouted gaining both of their attention as they struck a salute. “Get rid of the other’s on the wall…and make sure they don’t move again.”

Once the two were firing at the pulsating sacks on the wall she finally gave her attention to general Wezzil. Sensing what she wanted, Wezzil also struck a salute.

“General Wezzil... Ex-General, Ma’am”

“General Wezzil, I am Commander Katelyn with the human resistance against the Fraz. I believe one of my subordinates rescued you and brought you here. I am grateful for your assistance in getting them here. Thank you.” The Commander kept a serious tone as she gave her thanks and even proceeded to salute the man.

“No, No. Thank you for rescuing me.” Wezzil waved his hands as if to deny any thanks. Wezzil, upon noticing the wincing and smiling Shair as Mia applied bandaged and alcohol on him, leaned closer to Commander and said “I don’t believe that one is human, with all due respect Ma’am. He didn’t speak a single word since I met him and just walked into the fray of lasers from the creatures we encountered above. And the whispers? I believe those were the same words that monster of this base use as communica-”

“Thank you for worrying General Wezzil, but I will interrogate my subordinates if I feel it is necessary.” The Commander smiled, ending their conversation.

“Ah… Sorry for bothering Ma’am.” General Wezzil apologized. “What would you need me to do?”

“Um, Can you help patch up Daniel with Mustafa?” She pointed towards the slumped over Daniel near the far wall. Once he had gone over to help Harry and John approached her and asked for further instructions.

“Help with the injuries first, then reload all the weapons and check inventory. Report them at the end.”

Having finished giving orders Katelyn moved to squat beside the laughing Shair, whose laugh suddenly turned into a violent cough as he spurted blood from his mouth.

“Try to stop laughing so much, you’ll cause more damage that way.” Mia scolded him as she finished binding his leg, she then turned towards Katelyn.

“I swear next time he won’t be so lucky, Kate” Mia fussed.

“What happened?” Katelyn asked while glaring at Shair.

“Part of his thigh is missing, the thing itself is barely holding together with a sleeve.”

“Hey, now. How am I supposed to know what to do when my body parts go flying off during fights?” Shair glared at Mia.

“Shair…” Katelyn said threateningly “You are missing pieces of your thigh. Mind explaining that?”

“Uh… well the piece of thigh was ripped off by one of the Fraz’s guns. I tried to improvise and use my sleeves as bandages, Jon helped patch me up that time.” Shair nervously explained under the intense gaze of Katelyn. Shair knew he had done something wrong with the way Katelyn was glaring at him and didn’t want to feel her ire.

“Okay, any other wounds?” Mia asked uncomfortably as Katelyn stared at Shair with fire in her eyes.

“Um, nope. I’m golden. Thanks.” Shair told Mia.

Mia turned to close up her medical box so she could move onto someone else while Katelyn continued to observe Shair figure with a scowl. As Mia stood up to leave Katelyn’s hand shot up and held her in place by the arm.

“What is it?” Mia looked at Katelyn puzzlingly.

“He’s faking it.” She whispered.

“What?” Mia asked confusedly.

Katelyn shot a punch aimed for Shair’s side, once it connected Shair yelled in pain stunning Mia and causing others in the room to look at him.

“Take off the armor” Katleyn ordered as she opened Mia’s medical box and took out a tube and some bandages.

“Alright, alright.” Shair said gruffly as he started to take off his Kevlar. Katelyn, having taken out all she needed, turned to Mia.

“I’ll take it from here, go help Daniel. He needs immediate attention.”

“Al-Alright” Mia took her medical box and went to take care of Daniel who was groaning in pain.

Katelyn lifted up Shair’s shirt to examine the damage, his stomach and ribs had black and blue bruises and the heart area on his chest had a large drill wound as if the flesh was regenerating in steps. Katelyn looked up at Shair and held his eyes, Shair didn’t say a word.

“Why?” Katelyn broke the contact and looked at the ground.

“Had to get to you” Shair gloomily looked at Katelyn’s bowed head. “Is this…not good?”

Katelyn took out some paste from the tube and started to rub it over Shair’s stomach and chest. Once she was finished she then started to wrap bandages around him starting from his lowest pair of abs.

“What isn’t good is that you’ll get yourself killed if you keep going at this rate.” Katelyn focused on her task as she answered.

“If I didn’t do these kind of things where would I be now? I promised I’ll meet you here and I kept it, this was just what cost me my achievement. I small price to all the good things we are going to do once we get back if you ask me.” Shair grinned as he winced at the pain.

“Hmmmm” Katelyn blushed slightly thinking of what ‘good things’ meant. “It would be a nice change from all the fighting lately.”

“Retirement, huh. Hey Kate.” Shair placed his hand on her shoulder gaining her attention. “How many do you want?”

Katelyn just stared at Shair as she thought of what that statement meant. When it dawned on her what he was talking about she slightly blushed, her face fell and a hand shot out to punch his shoulder.

“Ow” Shair groaned slightly but didn’t protest anymore. Katelyn’s fist was still placed on his shoulder, they were shaking so much that she had to stop and take a breather and lean backwards.

“You’ll have to do some things before that, Lion.” She told him.

While Katelyn kept on looking down at the bandages Shair reached into the Kevlar on the side and opened up a pocket. Inside the pocket were two large cigars, he took one out and left the pocket open. Shair reached into his shirt and took out a small lighter. It wasn’t anything ornate but it held great sentimental value to him, evident by the polished and clean surface juxtaposing with the dirty man himself. Shair tapped Katelyn on the shoulder bringing her out of her thoughts, she looked at him and then the lighter he was holding in his hand.

“I know.” Shair tapped the lighter and showed her the underside of it, “I haven’t forgotten”. On the bottom of the lighter, crudely etched in italics ‘A promise till the end’ was written, the writing was so small it was wonder how he was able to write in down with his large fingers.

“Lion” Katelyn murmured as she leaned forward, her hands resting against his large chest feeling the steady heartbeat of his human heart. Katelyn smiled as she brought her face directly in front of his, their lips a few millimeters away from touching. She was looking at his eyes, waiting for him to take the lead for once. However like before he remained where he was, ever the gentleman, he refused to act until Katelyn gave him the okay.

“Yes, Kate?” Shair whispered.

“Don’t keep me waiting.” She purred as she grinned seductively.

“I won’t” Shair leaned forward, covering the distance of a few millimeters and placed his parched lips on hers. They enjoyed a moment of complete happiness as, like before, a steady warmth spread through their chests, electricity passed through their spines as they both felt excited. All other noises shut themselves out and soon only the two of them were there. Enjoying. Loving. And surviving.

Shair was the one to break the kiss as he leaned back and showed Katelyn the cigar, offering her the sensual relief that it provided. Katelyn, however, shook her head as she giggled and returned back to patching him up. Shair opened up the lighter and lit his cigar after a few swipes of the wheel, he took a long drag as he admired Katelyn’s face while she worked. After a few minutes of Katelyn working and Shair smoking, she finally finished and leaned back to look at him, smoke hid most of his face but a content smile was evident on his face. She moved over to the Kevlar and also took out a cigar before taking the lighter that hung around his neck and lighting her own. Shair opened his eyes and smiled as he bit into the cigar.

While Katelyn and Shair enjoyed themselves the rest of the group also took a relaxed position in their part of the room and discussed their own thing. They were still deep in the enemy territory and only six of them were in any condition to move around and fight the Fraz, but for a small moment it didn’t seem to matter. John and Jon were discussing what happened after they were separated from the group while Wezzil was telling the others of what he learned about the Fraz while he was tortured for the past decade or so.