Kara beamed at his confidence in her, turning back to the enemy Mage as the Colonel hit the count of three. She flexed her hands, balling them into fists as she breathed in, and opening them when she exhaled, smiling at the hostile Warrant Officer.

“One,” said the Colonel.

Kara’s eyes ignited into cascading wings of blue-orange flames, and she threw a spike of fire, dodging to the side with a grace and speed her size and build had zero business flaunting. A chunk of dirt was launched by her foot as she sprang away from Sam and Valeria milliseconds before a blade of hardened air sliced a deep gash into the ground where she’d been standing.

Sam grinned predatorily as he saw the faintest trace of the telltale brown veins in her hand and forearm, her opponent tripping as he dodged to maintain contact and avoid the next bolt of fire.

“It seems like your guy needs to work on his balance,” Sam teased Valeria, nonchalantly scrubbing his stubble with an idle hand, “As much as I’d love to see him eat some pavement.”

“So it would seem,” remarked the Colonel, “We all make mistakes, however. Your Mage got lucky.”

Chief Warrant Officer Jez growled through gritted teeth as a lance of fire carved through the outside of his right bicep, having been thrown underhanded by Kara after distracting him with a bright, flare-like ball of magic.

“Lucky indeed,” Sam chortled, realizing what Kara was doing. The more she dodged, harried, and otherwise annoyed Jez, the angrier he became, and the tunnel-vision of combat set deeper into his mind. The mage flung arcs and blades of hardened air in rapid succession, with Kara rolling and deftly dancing out of their way at inhuman speed.

“Just stand still and accept your fate, novice!” Jez screamed at the top of his lungs, overhand throwing several translucent spikes that narrowly avoided Kara’s throat. Kara spun one last time, and paused before a panting and angry Jez.

Now that they were still, at least for the moment, Sam noticed the wind that roiled and blew around the enemy Warrant Officer, despite the still morning air. It cast his long hair about his head, like a single-man tornado.

Kara grinned maliciously and raised a solitary chestnut brow.

“Last chance to surrender, windbag,” she teased.

Jez screamed wordlessly and hurled a massive blade of air over his head from behind his back. Kara’s toothy smile widened ferally as she raised her right arm across her face, stomping out with her right foot simultaneously.

A fifteen-foot-tall, four-foot-thick wall of stone leapt from the earth, stopping the mage’s lance of air dead. A cloud of dust rose from the impact, billowing around Kara and the opposing Mage. Kara dropped the wall back into the earth as stunned silence filled the open air.

A loud cheer shook the ground from the camp behind them as the platoon, at least those on the wall, celebrated. Sam glanced back and chuckled as he saw several downtrodden faces passing coins and rations to other members of the platoon.

“Impossible!” sneered Jez. “They wouldn’t spare an Earth-Mage for some no-name, no-power Lieutenant on the fringe!”

“Grind him to dust, Kara!” he heard Henfri shout from the wall.

“Break him!” yelled Mountainbreaker.

“Twist his dick!” he heard a voice he knew all too well shout.

“And it was going so well,” Sam sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. The cheering momentarily stopped as all eyes turned to Ellie, who grinned and continued cheering as if nothing was the matter. Within moments, the rest of the platoon returned to their exuberant encouragement of Kara as well.

“It would seem your platoon is… excitable,” remarked Valeria with a knowing smirk, passing a glance to the fortifications.

Kara stomped out, pushing forward with her hands just before the ground near a stump off to the side of the path buckled loudly, flinging the shattered tree base at blurring speeds with an ear-splitting crack. Valeria leaned back as a piece of the root was flung away from the flying wood, spinning through the air with a loud whir.

Sam wasn’t as quick on the draw, and even as he jumped to the side, he winced as the flailing root struck his shoulder with an audible thwack.

“Yeah,” he said through gritted teeth, rubbing the wound roughly as he tried to abate the sting of the impact. He passed a glance to the crater the stump had left a dozen yards away, realizing he’d probably been lucky to miss most of the force.

The enemy mage screeched at the top of his lungs, pressing his hand to a deep gash in his leg where a lucky root of the stump had caught him as he attempted to dodge. He grit his teeth, swirled his hand, and clamped a tourniquet of hardened air around his leg.

Sam opened his mouth wide as his brows crept skyward at the ingenious use of impromptu magic. Shrugging, he turned to the Colonel.

“I guess they don’t want to be captured or burned to a crisp either,” shrugged Sam noncommittally. “Got a lot riding on her.”

“I suppose you do,” stated Colonel Contressor through gritted teeth as Kara backhanded her mage with a fist of stone, sending him sprawling away from her. “Oh come on, Jez! Fight like a guardsman!”

“I’m trying!” growled the mage, wiping off his bloody face with an arm.

Kara stood several meters away, her veins a deep brown and bulging from her skin above the cables of muscle beneath. She grinned predatorily at the man as he stood up, hawking a wad of blood and mud in his direction.

“I remember you,” she growled, the muscles on her square jaw flexing, “You were at the DAM for the summer exchange program two cycles ago.”

“And your piddling instructors couldn’t even teach their craft right,” he spat back with a sneer. “It’s pure luck that you’ve managed to survive this far, even as a Dual-Mage, but I was trying to conserve Mana, so I guess it’s understandable.”

“Excuses,” chuckled Kara, flexing her hands into white-knuckled fists. “Your speeches mean nothing, so fight me like you mean it.”

“Kara!” shouted Sam from the sideline, as she turned her head slightly, angling an ear at him while keeping her eyes on the mage. “Don’t get cocky, just kill him.”

“Sound advice,” remarked Valeria. “Unfortunately, it will not help you much. Being that I understand loyalty to one’s nation, I will offer you one last chance to forfeit this bout, and have her spared.”

“Yeah, no,” shrugged Sam. “Look at my Mage versus yours.”

He waved a hand at Kara, who was dirty, but as of yet, unscathed. He moved his hand to Jez, bloody and unsteady as he hurled a massive air spell at Kara, who simply pulled a four-foot wide pillar from the ground in front of her, parting the blow around her.

“Wanna know what I think, Colonel?” Sam asked, turning slightly to face her.

“Hmm?” she asked, raising a brow in amusement.

“I think you’re here for intel,” Sam remarked, “That, or you don’t actually have the numbers to take and defend the pass.”

“Why is that?” she inquired, smirking at him.

“If you just wanted to steamroll over us, you would’ve incinerated the camp with your dragon over there,” Sam noted, internally shuddering at the memory of being incinerated. “You want us alive for some reason. Not sure what that is yet, but I’m digging.”

A brief flash of anger sparked in the Colonel’s eyes before her false pleasant expression returned.

“Interesting theory,” she stated, looking off into the distance, “Perhaps I wish to minimize casualties on both sides as much as possible, and the best way to do that is an overwhelming show of force. It is possible I feel some semblance of benevolence in this horrible war.”

“Why’d you try to spare Fourth Platoon’s officer and mage then?” asked Sam, remembering how none of her soldiers had shot at the pair, despite having the opportunity. Sam blinked once, wondering why he was giving her his supervillan monologue. Half of operational security was not letting your enemy know what information you have on them in the first place.

He passed a glance down to the officer’s hand, and found her gently rubbing a small, blue stone.

‘Hey Ellie,’ he said, beaming her a mental image of what he saw.

He looked back to the Colonel’s eyes, still focused on the fight before them. A soft rustle sounded behind him, and he turned to hazard a glance, paranoid of unseen soldiers. A grunt sounded from Valeria, and he turned back to her.

Ellie materialized from shadow, knife at the officer’s neck and a foot on the back of her knee, using her off hand to pull the Colonel off-balance. Valeria’s subtle rubbing of her stone increased to a frantic pace, and Ellie fixed Sam with a heated stare, her glowing red eyes alight.

“Sam, I love you!” she blurted, the words flying off her tongue at lightning speed as if uttering them a second later would be impossible. Sam furrowed his brows, drew his handgun from its holster, and reached out for Valeria's stone.

She tried to jerk it away, but Ellie pressed the dagger deeper into her throat, a small rivulet of blood flowing from beneath the blade. She relented and Sam took the stone, putting it in his pocket before he took her sidearm from her.

Tossing it to the side, he nodded at Ellie, who let the woman go with a shove. Valeria stumbled several feet forward, sapped of her previous grace briefly.

“Hey Ellie, you know what the fuck this is?” Sam asked, tossing her the small, glowing blue stone. She caught it in the air, smirking at him.

“Interrogation stone,” she remarked, rolling it around her palm. “It uses naturally-occurring Mana to bring thoughts to the forefront of your mind without realizing. They’re rare, and expensive.”

Sam raised his hand, anticipating her to throw the stone back as the Colonel coughed loudly to the side. She didn’t, instead starting rubbing it herself.

“So Sam, tell me, how do you feel about me, as a woman?” she asked, grinning maliciously.

Sam forced his mouth shut, unwilling to let the words that begged to spring forth from his lips exit. Ellie increased her pace and Sam sucked in a breath through gritted teeth, the weight on his psyche increasing with her pace. A flood of words and confessions he’d compartmentalized since meeting her pressed at the walls of his mind, begging, pleading to be loosed on the world.

A pleased smile spread across her lips as she clearly read his mind.

‘I know,’ she said in his mind, tossing him the stone in a fluid motion. Sam had to scramble to grab it from the air, his thoughts otherwise occupied by thoughts of Ellie. He caught it, but just barely, and turned to the officer who was now staring daggers at him.

“Why are you really here?” he asked, rubbing the stone.

Valeria set her jaw, her lips sealed tight. Sam rubbed the stone fervently, staring into her eyes as Kara launched a boulder at the mage to his left. He raised a brow, trying to focus on the Colonel, who was clearly under strain.

“What do you want from me?” he ordered.

“Dinner,” she blurted out rapidly.

Sam’s eyes widened, and he passed a nervous glance at Ellie, who was stifling laughter. She caught his pained and utterly lost expression and exhaled a shuddering giggle.

“It’s a tactic for resisting the stone’s magic,” she elucidated with a smirk. “Dig up your most embarrassing wants and desires in the moment, then try to fit them to the questions being asked. It’s a form of tactical-over-sharing. She satisfies the crystal’s orders, without fulfilling your desires.”

Sam nodded, remembering several anti-interrogation techniques from his old world that resembled what she was doing. He sighed, placed the stone in his pocket, and turned to watch the bout.

Kara smirked as the enemy mage just barely used a plane of hardened air to glance a flying boulder away from him. He breathed heavily as the air swirled around him.

“I am a Guardsman.” He seethed through clenched teeth, bleeding from several deep cuts in his body, “We do not lose!”

He hurled a blade of air at Kara, who dissipated it with a summoned chunk of hard earth.

“Finish her, Jez!” shouted Valeria, no longer the friendly Colonel he’d met before.

“Stop playing with your food, Kara!” Sam encouraged with a chuckle, seeing that she had been enjoying her own lively discussion between bouts of flung magic.

Kara nodded sagely, her brown veins pulsing up to her shoulders as her eyes ignited. A slew of pebbles rose into the air behind her like an angry swarm of bees as she grinned maliciously at Jez, who’s eyes widened in fear.

The slew of pebbles ignited behind her into a wall of fire as more and more rose skyward, hovering around her in a menacing half-circle. Sam gulped, seeing the attack as what it was. Kara had turned herself into a Claymore Mine on steroids.

“Surrender,” she growled, not breaking eye contact from the man. “You’re lucky I even give you the opportunity after what you did to me at the DAM.”

“Stuck up bit-“ Jez uttered, before the wall broke, and he was engulfed in fire and stone.

His screams were cut off after less than a second under the magical onslaught; the roaring flames, splattering magma, and sonic cracks of the earth accelerated faster than the speed of sound, drowning out all noise for several seconds.

Kara shifted, whirling her hands around with a feral grin before she pulled them back into her sides. The inferno dissipated with a snap of thunder, leaving behind a statue. Cooling red stone encased what remained of Jez, part of his skull and face removed, along with one of his arms, and several golf-ball sized holes in his chest.

The glowing obsidian statue showed him in his final moments, fear and anguish plain to see on the indent of what remained of his face. His stump of a right arm was raised before him, as if to shield himself from Kara’s fury.

He turned to his mage, who wore a satisfied smile on her face, her teeth bared ferally as she admired her handiwork.

“You’re a human Claymore, Kara,” he remarked with a proud smile. “Good job.”

She turned to him and nodded once, breathing heavily as the magical ramifications fled her body, the veins and fire fading quickly.

“Well, Colonel,” remarked Sam, “Looks like your guy lost.”

“So. It. Would. Seem.” She replied with clenched teeth, staring daggers at Kara.

“Enjoy the paperwork,” he chuckled, walking over to Kara, “See you in a week honorable Colonel.”

His teasing tone drew the ire of the officer, and she stomped towards him.

“Do you have any idea how this will aff-“ she screeched before cutting herself off. “I will have her head on a spike!”

She waved a hand wildly at Kara, incensed beyond reason. Sam instinctively allowed his hand to hover near his holster unassumingly, but ready to draw at the slightest reason.

“Try again in a week.” Sam retorted, meeting her glare levelly.

“I swear,” she growled quietly, stepping up to him and pointing a long finger at his face, “If you’re still here in a week, I’m impaling the Dwarf cunt, flaying that Drow bitch alive, and using you as a plaything for the rest of your days on the fetid world.”

“Nice to meet you, Traveler,” Sam stated, gambling on her gaff.

She screamed wordlessly at him, spun, and marched to the dragon, whose rider seemed discontented by what they’d seen. The dragon extended its wing down as a ramp for the Colonel to stride up to its back, seating herself between two spines.

Sam watched as the Colonel refused to look their way, seething in her seat as the dragon flapped its massive wings once, sending a gust of air their way as it lifted from the ground. He turned as the dragon flew overhead, disappearing into the distance.

A raucous cheer exploded from the camp, the soldiers celebrating on the walls. He smiled, their exuberance infectious despite his fears.

He turned to Kara and Ellie, who were eying each other with surprising intensity.

“Think she’ll keep her word?” Sam asked, more to himself than anyone else.

“Absolutely,” Kara replied, shock evident on her face, “An officer’s word is absolute. You took the oath, you should know this!”

“Oaths can be broken,” replied Sam, slightly confused.

“Not when you have a Psycher and a Priest of the Nine Divines enforcing your bond,” Kara elucidated with wide eyes. “Do you know what they’ll do to you if you break the vow?”

“She’s a traveler, Kara,” Sam stated. “Who says that she even took the oath?”

Kara blinked, looked down, and flicked her eyes back up as realization seemed to hit her.

“Thats…” she trailed, before she turned back to the gates of the FOB, and sprinted, barking orders to get the soldiers back to fighting positions.

Sam shrugged, looking at Ellie, who grinned at him.

“Back to it then,” he stated nonchalantly, walking after Kara before his arm was grabbed.

“Sam,” Ellie said softly, and he turned to face her.

“Ellie, now’s not the time,” he replied gently, unwilling to look her in the eyes. He didn’t have a good explanation why he felt the way he did about her, and really didn’t want to broach the subject he knew she wished to.

“Now is the time,” she replied firmly, but not unkindly. Sam sighed quietly, closed his eyes, and took a deep inhale.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked, opening his eyes and gazing into hers. “You’re the mind reader here. Half the time you know what I think before I even do.”

“There’s a difference between thinking it, and saying it,” she said, a warm smile teasing the edges of her full lips. “How many times have you felt something but just couldn’t say it?”

“Ellie,” he exhaled, “I died twice today. Twice. This might be normal for you, but dying, getting catapulted across the universe, and dying again is a bit of a big deal for me.”

“I know,” she replied with a small nod, “And that’s exactly why you need someone to share your life with. All your life.”

“A warzone isn’t the place to find love,” he said, once again feeling drawn into the maroon pools of her eyes.

“It isn’t?” she asked, raising a brow as he felt the familiar sensation of her dredging his memories. “What about James Tomlin and his wife? Didn’t he meet her on deployment, when she dragged him from his burning Humvee?”

“Yeah, but they didn’t start dating until they were back stateside,” he started to correct.

“Don’t lie to me, Sam.” She laughed softly. “Even you know that was just a lie they told people to avoid getting an article fifteen.”

He sighed, looking down as he licked his teeth. She was right. Everyone in the whole damn base knew the two were a thing long before the deployment ended, including the command staff. As they didn't let it cause problems, or ever be strictly seen, however, it was overlooked.

“Sneaking around just isn’t my thing,” he remarked, trying to get around his feelings, “I couldn’t do that.”

“I don’t think you have to,” she shrugged, “Given the overt flirtation from a couple of the Platoon, along with the gender norms of species being different, I think the only real rules for fraternization here is ‘make sure it’s consensual’ and ‘don’t get in the way of a firefight’.”

“Ellie,” he sucked in a breath of air before letting it out in a woosh. He ran his hand through his short hair once before he looked back up. “I won’t lie. I’ve got feelings for you, but…”

He exhaled once, trying to put the words together from the jumble of emotions in his head, his attempted compartmentalization failing.

“Everything happened so fast,” he continued, “and I’m still processing that it’s been only a couple of days since I left Earth. I’ve been thrown into a war on a world I know nothing about, with a big fucking task, I just-“

She cut him off with a finger to his lips.

“Sam, I’ve been around a long time. I’ve watched worlds burn themselves to ash, watched over generations of families that Senire favored.” She said with a sad smile, “I’ve even watched travelers she’d employed, and felt this way about none of them.”

“Then why me?”

“Because I’ve seen your soul, as I’ve seen hundreds of others.” She shrugged, “When I collected you from the Etherium, ours echoed and sang for each other, as if we were long-lost lovers. When you asked for me and my heart was tied to yours, I saw who you really were for the first time. The stillness you’ve brought me has been…”

She exhaled a shuddering breath as she closed her eyes.

“Exactly what I needed.”

“Stillness?” Sam asked.

“I was Senire’s oracle, Sam,” she said with a sad smile, “Senire is an old goddess of death, rebirth, and fate. I could see every fate, every horrible demise at the hands of another, and all the deaths someone was even halfway tied to.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Sam remarked, “Being able to see the future seems like it would come in handy at times.”

“For you, maybe,” she said, her eyes full of sorrow, “Except it can never be silenced. The ringing voice of fate in my ears, behind my eyes, and in the core of my soul. Living life, seeing all the futures that end in death, unable to look anyone in the eye without a deluge of horrid deeds done to and did by them? It…”

She exhaled, her lip quivering.

“Melted your brain a little?”

She closed her eyes, swallowed, and nodded once.

“And I’m guessing whatever happened with Senire letting you come here stopped all that?” he asked, understanding dawning on him as to why she always acted so strange.

“She didn’t just allow me to join you Sam,” she whispered with a sad smile, opening her eyes again. “She tied me to you, in some ways even tighter than I was to her. When she cast us into this world, I panicked, feeling like I’d lost a sense. But I realized that instead of carving off a chunk of me, she’d allowed me to finally see and hear the world around me as I should, as I haven’t in over a millennia.

“By giving me to you, she gave me back my life.” Ellie stated bluntly, “She gave me back my ability to live, to feel love, compassion, and fear.”

“Oh,” Sam replied, still mentally chewing on what she’d said.

She smiled, and waited patiently, evidently giving him time to process what she’d revealed. Her smile was soft and warm as her eyes unfocused, clearly watching his thoughts.

“You sure this is what you want?” he asked finally, allowing himself to be swallowed by her haunting eyes. “I’m… I’m not a good man.”

“I didn’t ask you to be,” she smiled, raising a hand to cup his cheek. “I want you to be you.”

Her hand snaked behind his head, putting gentle pressure as if asking, inviting him to her lips. This time, he didn’t fight her, and leaned down as his heart beat faster before their lips met and the world seemed to still around them.

Something clicked into place for Sam in that moment, the troubles of the world, his past, and his guilt fading, lifting their pressing weight off his shoulders as he embraced her. After what felt like a moment and a century, the kiss broke and he opened his eyes to hers.

He was dimly aware of a noise surrounding them, and turned to the camp wall. Several of the gate guards were cheering and whistling excitedly at their kiss, and he snorted, turning back to Ellie.

“Oops,” she said with a playful smile.

Sam laughed, unbothered for the first time in a long while.

“Lieutenant,” called Kara from the gate, breaking their moment. Ellie quickly stepped back, looking only mildly sheepish. “We need to debrief and plan!”

“Coming!” he called over his shoulder.

“Go,” Ellie smirked happily, “I’ve got patrol schedules to plan.”

“Okay,” he nodded, unhappy to leave, “I’ll see you in a bit.”