The fourteen year old sharpened her knife while their commander explained the plan. She'd already been over it ten times in her head, she knew everyone's part backwards and forward. So did the other eight members of her squad. They were to infiltrate the nearby GA outpost and silently kill everyone there, including the prisoners, then recover any intel they could find before retreating back into the tunnels.
"Ana."
Her name pulled her attention away from the whetstone. She glared up at the older man as he looked sternly at her.
"I know you have a grudge against the GA, but this is a clean mission. Do you understand? In and out, no survivors. Even if we know the POW's. We can't trust them anymore."
"I got it." She snapped. "It's not me you have to worry about."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Another teen two years older than her grumbled.
"Nothing." She sighed. "I understand the plan, sir."
"Good. Operation begins in six hours. Get some sleep, everyone. We likely won't see rack time for a few days." The commander said, folding his arms across his chest and closing his eyes.
Ana slid her knife into the sheathe on her boot and leaned against the tree trunk while everyone else made themselves comfortable. She didn't think she'd get to sleep as she ran the mission in her head over and over again, trying to account for every variable.
~
Screams ripped her out of sleep and she leapt to her feet, reaching for the rifle next to her to find it missing. A gleam caught her eye and she turned to see a figure darting up a tree several feet before launching itself into her commander with enough force to drive the older man into the ground.
His wild eyes found hers and as blood poured from his mouth he took a shuddering breath. "Run!"
The figure's head snapped in her direction and withdrew what she recognized to be a sword from the man's chest. It was a shorter blade, but nearly as long as he was tall. He advanced on her slowly, readying the weapon. She realized she was defenseless and there was no way for her to reach the knife in her boot before it attacked her.
Fear paralyzed her as the figure darted forward, a black blur skimming along the ground as the ebony blade glinted in the moonlight. She closed her eyes, but steel clashed against steel and the killing blow never came.
"What're you doing, Fuse!?" A child's voice cried.
Her eyes snapped open and just inches from her face, the tip of a sword shook as it tried to drive forward.
"These people weren't the mission." Another child's voice replied, far more steady and calm.
"Fuck the mission. Command ordered us to kill any enemy soldiers we came across."
The sword moved forward slightly, then was pushed away from her face entirely. The first figure took a few steps back. "You really want to try me? You weren't able to beat me during training."
"You hunted these people, Caspar." Fuse said, ignoring the threat.
Ana slowly knelt and pulled the knife from her boot as the two children faced off. She'd already made up her mind to stab the one called Fuse first, then take her chances with the one responsible for killing everyone else. But before she could put her plan in action, Caspar darted forward.
Fuse disappeared from her vision, reappearing several feet away while Caspar's torso fell away from his lower half and landed unceremoniously in front of her. She looked up to see him sling blood from his sword and turn to face her.
"I'm sorry about your friends." He said before disappearing again.
Ana sat up panting, a cold sweat sending a chill up her spine. Since they arrived on Albion, she'd had the same dream every night. If it had been literally anyone else, she would've felt bad for them. Their ship was little more than a shuttle with a sublight drive and they'd been drifting until a supply freighter acted as a tug, pulling it to the station.
It looked like it had been attacked by pirates at first glance. She'd learned that that hadn't been too far off from the truth, if the woman's story was true. All three of them looked worse for the wear, but the one that had fared the worst was the same one who'd been haunting her dreams.
He was older, but the seventeen year old was undeniably Kurokawa Fuse, the hero of Keystone and the murderer of her people that the survivors only knew as the Wolf of Wardham. She almost couldn't believe it when she'd seen him as Winston, the chief medical officer, escorted the group to the infirmary.
That had been a month ago.
"Can't sleep?" A voice whispered from the bunk next to hers.
She lay back without responding and stared at the ceiling.
"You had the dream again, didn't you?" The voice asked and she finally looked over.
He was a kid, not much younger than she'd been during Keystone. His family had been part of a group heading out to establish a colony when they were set upon by pirates. They left him and one other child alive and set the navigation coordinates to bring them here as a message to Albion.
The girl who'd been with him killed herself almost immediately, leaving him alone in space for two weeks until the ship docked at the station. The pirates never came to follow through on their threat and without a family to send him back to, the security force unofficially recruited him. He took an instant liking to Ana and was always at her side.
"Shut up, Red." She muttered.
He shifted and sat up on his bunk. "You'd feel better if you just went to talk to him."
She rolled her eyes. "If you knew the history, you'd realize how stupid you sound right now."
"I know nearly everyone's been on edge since they got here." He said defiantly. "And I think it's pretty stupid that none of you will at least go and talk to him."
"You wanna go talk to him, be my guest." She said, rolling to face away from him. "Good luck getting through that Cruz woman, though. She'll eat you alive."
She heard him lay back down and cover up. Within minutes he was snoring again and she closed her eyes despite knowing sleep would be impossible the rest of the night. He'd had a point about going to talk to him, but she doubted it'd help. So many of the security force on Albion were veterans of Keystone, and not on the GA's side and they were all painfully aware that the tipping point of the battle had been when HQ unleashed the twelve child soldiers into the forest.
There had been a mixture of fear and relief when the POW's had heard that only one of those monsters had survived, but that he was being redeployed to handle a situation at the small border town of Wardham. Nearly two hundred of their soldiers had fled Keystone and made Wardham their home, slaughtering every resident and building it into a makeshift fortress as a last stand.
Nobody she spoke to knew what happened there, not for sure. But the Wolf of Wardham had been born and Ana never could figure out if the GA meant it as a term of endearment or as a way to control their fear of the seven year old. But she did know what it meant for them. Total defeat and the loss of their home so that The Five could gain more land, expanding their empire further and further.
The overhead lights came on, signaling the start of the day and she reluctantly rolled off her bunk, doing her best to shake the thoughts out of her head as she pulled on her uniform.
~
Yolanda grit her teeth as she tightened the bandage on the stump of her arm. Winston, the chief doctor on the station opted to have her heal naturally, which meant even after a month the wound was still just barely closed.
"Need a ha-" Fuse started to say, then winced.
She looked up at the door and coughed a laugh. "I've got it, thanks."
"Lin's already at work. Delivery day." He said, walking into the room and examining the bandage. "Since you're up, I figured instead of eating alone, you and I could have a hot breakfast."
"I don't quite have an appetite, but I'll keep you company."
He adjusted the bandage and nodded thoughtfully. "I wish we'd known how bad the infection was."
She pulled on her jacket as he stepped back and studied him. "You both did everything you could."
There was a sour look on the teen's face as he tried to think of an argument. But she knew he wouldn't find one. It wasn't his place to find guilt, though. They were in the situation they were in because of what happened on Earth.
Sighing, she walked over to him and thumped his chest. "Let's go eat."
~
"I don't believe you!" She laughed.
Fuse swallowed the bite he took and nodded, raising his arm. "Hand to God! Tristan had to step in and stop Petra from killing the poor bastard."
"I mean, he had to know, right?" She asked, leaning over the table and holding her side. "It's common knowledge that we outrank all field soldiers and commanders."
"Oh, he knew. He just didn't care."
"God, I wish I could've been there to see that." She moaned.
Fuse chuckled and picked up his coffee mug. "I don't think he made it off the line that day."
"Petra?"
"Rebel sniper." Fuse said, taking a sip. "Horace wouldn't put on field gear, so his uniform stood out like a sore thumb. But, if it weren't for him, we'd've been there three more days waiting it out."
"I guess even people like him have uses." She muttered.
"His ego and pride got in the way of common sense. If we hadn't been there, he would've likely gotten his whole platoon killed." He sighed. "His death was avoidable, but he was determined to prove a point. So we let him. Never did figure out what point he was trying to prove, though."
She chuckled bitterly. "Did it ever bother you?"
"Every time." He said, setting the cup down. "But people make their decisions. Whether it's to swing a sword, pull a trigger, or disregard an order. Each of those things can cost lives, and it's only by pure dumb luck that it's not yours."
"I think we've just about used up all the luck we've got for a lifetime." She mumbled.
They sat silently for a few minutes, their waitress refilled their coffee and Fuse paid for their meal after ordering something to go for Lin. They stood up and took the paper box from the waitress when she returned with Lin's food.
"I think this is the most I've ever talked to any soldier, let alone someone from Vanguard." Yolanda said as they walked to the door.
"This was probably the most I've ever talked to anyone other than Lin in one sitting." He said, then slowed his pace, narrowing his eyes at the window.
"Who do you think she's here for?" Yolanda asked sarcastically as he pushed open the door and held it open for her to step through.
"Wolf of Wardham." The woman glowered, her hand resting on the firearm at her hip.
Fuse sighed and handed Yolanda the paper box. "Go ahead and take this to Lin while it's hot. I'll catch up."
"Oh, like hell." She said defensively, but Fuse shook his head. With a grunt of annoyance, she took the box and stormed away.
Fuse watched her until she stepped into the lift that would take her to the market levels of the station before returning his attention to the woman in front of him, who hadn't moved or looked away from him once. "Keystone?"
She nodded once.
"You probably won't get the satisfaction you're looking for." He said solemnly, tapping his temple. "It's a bit of a scramble up here."
Her eyes narrowed. "Doesn't change what happened or what you did."
"It's not an excuse, just an explanation." He replied, his eyes drifting down to her hand, which was now gripping the gun. "But you're not here for a conversation, are you?"
"I'm not one of these idiots who'd try to go hand to hand with you. And you're still recovering from whatever happened to you in space."
He nodded. "This is probably your last chance, then."
The gun was drawn and leveled at him quick as a blink, but Fuse only crossed his arms over his chest and waited, watching her thumb the safety as her index finger tightened slightly on the trigger. Then her expression shifted from firm to strained and the gun started to tremble slightly.
"Why did you save me?" She asked, taking a step forward. "I heard him say it plain as day, you were ordered to kill all resistance members. But you didn't kill me, you killed him."
His brow furrowed as he searched his broken memories for an answer, but no incident like what she described floated to the surface. Shaking his head and spread his arms in a shrug. "I'm sorry, I wish I could give you an answer."
Another step and her finger tightened more on the trigger. "You don't remember. The bloodiest battle in modern history and you don't remember."
"Sorry."
She took a final step and pressed the barrel of the gun under his chin. "Well, I remember. I remember everything about that night. And since you've been on this station, it's all I dream about."
"He remembered everything, too. It tortured him." Fuse said quietly, not breaking eye contact with her.
"Who's 'he'?"
"The man everyone is so afraid of." He whispered. "The Wolf."
She drew closer and dug the gun into his jaw harder. "But that's you! You're Kurokawa Fuse!"
"I could explain it to you, but you're not looking for explanations. You're looking for a reason to put just a little more pressure on that trigger."
"KURO!" Lin's voice echoed across the food court.
On instinct, Ana turned in the direction of the voice, her eyes widening as her finger clenched around the trigger and she saw the small explosion at the end of the barrel. Time slowed down for her as the bullet flew out the end and toward the small, childlike teen and her one-armed companion.
A blink later, she was staring blankly at Fuse, who was holding a metal tray in front of him. There was a hole in it, but he gave his coat a shake and the projectile fell uselessly to the floor. He was pale and breathing heavily, but unhurt.
Lin and Yolanda rushed over to him, where he assured them that he'd be fine, he just needed to sit down. They helped him over to a chair where he dropped down instantly while the purple haired teen worried over him.
"Trigger happy rebels." Yolanda spat in Ana's direction.
"Leave it." Fuse wheezed. "Nobody got hurt."
"You might be able to just write it off, Fuse, but I can't." She snapped.
"You and Kuro are still recovering and we have nowhere else to go. Don't start a fight here." Lin said firmly as she wiped Fuse's face with a rag from her smock.
Ana holstered the weapon with a shaking hand as the two women bickered. When she had come to confront Fuse, she didn't have a plan, but pulling her gun and firing it had been far from her mind. She'd let her emotions get the better of her, and seeing how those two cared about him had shaken the image she'd had of him for the last decade.
"I-I'm sorry." She stammered.
"You fuckin' should be!" Yolanda snapped loudly, the emotion in her voice a desperate one. "If Fuse hadn't recovered enough to stop that bullet-"
"Cruz." Fuse said firmly, rising from the chair.
His color was better, but he kept a hand on Lin for stability. The woman rounded on him, but the tension left her body before she could say anything. He smiled at her and nodded before looking back to Ana.
"I remembered something just now. You were part of that squad that Caspar slaughtered."
"Kuro-" Lin started, but he kept speaking.
"There was no greater reason behind it other than your squad simply wasn't the mission we were assigned. He was disregarding our orders and his actions could've jeopardized the entire operation. I just did what I had to do to ensure its success."
"Story of your life." Yolanda muttered darkly.
"Just following orders." Ana said numbly.
He nodded. "Like every soldier in the war."
Without another word, she staggered away, stumbling slightly as she stepped into the lift. He sunk back into the chair as the door slid shut and let out a heavy breath. It'd taken more out of him to stand up than he'd let on, but the bruise forming on Lin's shoulder would be proof of his struggle to face Ana on his feet.
"Did you remember anything else?" She asked as Yolanda sat down in another chair, still glowering at the lift doors.
He shook his head. "I barely remembered that. And it was really just the part about killing Caspar. I didn't remember her at all. But she must've been there."
"We should get back to the hotel." Yolanda said. "You still need to rest."
"So do you." Lin countered.
"Right now, I'm in better shape than he is." She shot back, getting to her feet. "But we're both still falling apart. Probably set us back a few weeks with that stunt she pulled."
"She just wanted answers. Or confirmation, maybe." Fuse said, pushing himself back to his feet with a groan. "Either way, I don't think she'll be a threat to us anymore."
"The rest of the security force, however..." Yolanda muttered. "They're all veterans of the Border."