‘Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm!’

My mind raced past the hundreds of combat lessons once implanted into my brain. Combat used to be...easy. The only thing I had to do was pretend to be in control. The only thing that happened was a dream going by in milliseconds. I lost control, or rather, gave it up. I lost my regular vision, instead, flicking from top-down views, as well as the perspectives of other units, like the channels on TV. I seized becoming an individual and served the greater purpose of winning whatever conflict was upon us.

So now, as bullet casings rattled from Luis’ gun, down a hallway of bursting concrete and flashing sparks, and bright shots flew past me, I failed to command my body to tear this grating off of the door. I was too late, we should have been out of that building ten seconds before the shooters showed up. I barely had space to fit my arm through the gap I created and already, my scales peel off of my hand. It hurt, the pain was real, the pain kept me in the moment. Adrenaline dulled it slightly but served more to enforce the tingling sensation in my body.

Luis emptied his clip behind me, doing his best to draw all the attention. Rubble sprayed me in the back and tail but I didn’t flinch away. The hissing of the bullets reverberated off of the tight walls. Then it went quiet, far too quickly. The last few, now bent and crushed, bullet casings clattered to the group in hundreds of tiny pings, bouncing once or twice before rolling across the ground.

I turned back in expectant horror, doing so before my imagination could paint a picture of Luis, riddled with bullets. But I found no such thing, at least not to the horrible sight I had feared. Luis was in a crouched position still, his flanks rising rapidly and shoulders swaying in the movement. Without moving anything but one hand, he disengaged the magazine and put the last remaining one in the empty space. I heard the slide pull back and he stayed still once more, guarding me.

“It’s open!” I yelled out and he immediately squatted upward, all without shifting his sights from the stairway, where I heard groaning exertions of pain and confused yelling.

The door was of solid steel, the locking mechanism must have been made of good material, as it held steadfast against any pressure. So the only way past it was through one of the two windows, one reinforced by a tight grating of metal, which once supported glass. I got almost all of it to the side, creating a hole both of us should fit through. I wasn’t that much thicker than his torso at most places and had experience squeezing through tight ventilation shafts.

Luis went first, quickly vaulting over it and crouching down at the opposite side. I flung my tail through the gap, found halt on the frame of the door, and began pulling myself through. I felt a little bit of resistance as it got to my middle tail but nothing that wouldn’t disappear after a shed or two, at least that’s what I thought. When I got to the opposite side, however, I found a coldly stinging pain in my body, yellow blood beginning to seep into the contours of my scales.

I quickly slipped into cover behind the door, calming my breath with deep inhales. With one of those inhales, the scent of blood entered my sensory organs, human blood beneath all the heated, magnetic, and metallic-tasting air. My vision immediately snapped to Luis and I found what I had been dreading since the start of the entire shootout.

“Luis, you’re bleeding,” I slithered to him and put my hand on his lower right stomach. He looked down, appearing almost surprised by the injury.

“It’s fine,” he shook his head adamantly but I really wasn’t buying it.

"No, it's not fine ," I shut him down, again, he was trying to downplay his own wellbeing.

"You cover me," I said and reached for the grey rifle. I partly expected him to resist and try to hold on to it but he didn't, simply handing it over and complacently taking the gun I pressed into his hands.

Taking the front, I chose to be the advancing force as we walked up the singular remaining stairway. I took a small moment to smell the air, trying to compel my senses to pay attention to anything other than Luis’ injury. Plasma, elerium fuel, and gunpowder all impacted my tongue with suffocating intensity. They were close but the stairs weren’t visible from the top, as they lead past ventilation units. Luis and I knew about them since we had explored and, since we hadn’t been shot as soon as we stepped out meant we were either in a position to flank or walk into an ambush.

It was more than a little likely, that the first thing to greet me atop those stairs could have been a gun. But I knew if it wasn’t me, Luis would have taken that role in my stead. I at least had the necessary reflexes to potentially dodge. Hmm, dodging bullets. It always comes up as something impossible but it feels much more like momentarily losing your mind in the place of thought. I react, that’s why it works, I don’t think about it and let my mind go.

The electric tension in the air of a charged-up magnetic rifle, one of high-caliber, a shotgun was the first thing my brain recognized. A neurological jolt tore my eyes open wide, a shockingly sudden shudder ran through my muscles and my senses went wild. I hear the click as if it’s a thunderbolt across the constant storms of a distant world, the flash of light, the glint of the pellets.

My body lashed back, pulling my upper torso out of the way, downward, and to the left. A man yells out, some swearword, and screams for help. I heard frantic footsteps backward, but not him cocking the shotgun again. I decided to trust the momentary realization, hoping my understanding of pump-shotguns and combat-shotguns wasn’t outdated yet.

Hastily, I pushed up the stairs again, bringing my sights into the direction I heard the running over gravel in. I saw him sprinting, not even looking at me. I caught the glimpse of three, no, five more human shapes but they weren’t my concern. I squeezed the trigger, once the painted iron-sights swayed over his back. One, two, three, he stumbled and fell, letting out a scream in the process.

The ventilation unit blocked my vision to the front but acted as cover, too. Luis was close behind, shifting from snapping at the door behind us and trying to peek over the edge. The rest of the men on the roof began to bark orders at one another and I heard the stomping of many feet, skidding over gravel.

We had to act quickly, get out of the tight angle of the stairs, now that they knew for sure we were there. I darted up the last few meters and took cover behind the long-dead vents, peeking around the top by raising myself above it. Luis rushed next to me and waited for me to assess the situation.

The grey, sleek frame of their sky ranger came into view, sitting square overtop our flickering campfire. Three of them out in the open, dashing for some sort of protection, another two I caught a glimpse of as they pressed themselves against the landing gear of the hovercraft. I recognized two, Emir being the furthest back and hiding behind the steel foot of the vehicle, while the large man with a rotating machine gun, who we had encountered in the forest previously, made a half-hearted attempt at crouching behind a metal bench.

"Five I can see, the ranger is here," I pulled back down and faced Luis.

"Then we have to kill those five and fly out before the rest can make it up here," he replied.

I nodded as confirmation and brought my rifle up. But before I could peek out, a hailstorm of suppressing fire began rattling away, sparks and metal debris chipped off of our cover and concrete sprayed up around the corner. Luis cursed beneath the resounding gunfire, almost getting a splinter of metal to the face and being forced to pull back.

"We're pinned, what do we do?" Again, I looked to the human for orders, hoping he could keep a calmer mind than me. I felt pathetic for it afterward, yes, but at the moment I needed his help.

“We both go, you left, I right. Focus on the ones shooting or ready to shoot, keep moving, and stay low. Isra, we can do this,” he sounded of confidence, despite the increasingly winded tone of his breathing.

I stared into his eyes, finding comfort in the deep gaze he returned. I wanted to give him back the rifle, it would be more useful to him than the pistol but he already got low to the ground and turned his attention to his next piece of cover. I turned to the other side and waited for his signal. The raging fire of the belt-fed machine gun finally finished and I heard empty barrels spinning. “Now!” Luis called out and I took one last breath.

He was right, everyone not covered by the landing gear of the sky ranger was out in the open, exposed and visible as soon as I rounded the corner. Two had chosen to focus on me, while the rest appeared to look toward Luis, who was also taking a shot while running. I aimed to the one furthest left and pulled the trigger back three or four times. Blood sprayed the gravel beneath and he rocked backward, just as the man to his side fired at me. He was far away and the salvo would perhaps not even have hit me but I dodged away regardless. I was now behind the walls of an electrical-storage building and looked back to Luis.

Two more had fallen along his way. He hadn’t gone to the side like me, instead, he was advancing forwards. Two bodies lay in front of him and he was walking toward them at a fast step. I could see him turn to the side and shoot at something, hearing someone yell out in pain. Then his gun clicked empty and he threw it to the side, running to reach one of the dropped rifles. He simply moved so fearlessly, not worrying about what would happen if he missed a shot, disregarding the bullets flying around him.

He needed my help. So, with a quick boost of my tail, I climbed atop the blocky building, from which ran sagging electrical wires. Luis slid to one of the rifles and tried to aim at a person below me. But I had already gotten an angle on the man and pulled the trigger. His body fell limp, as his helmet burst forth alongside bone fragments and red slush.

Luis appeared to give me a thankful glance and immediately spun around on his knee to face the large man who had just rounded the corner behind the sky ranger. I heard the winding tubes of the turret-like weapon, as it drowned out the comparatively quiet sound of Luis’ fire.

Luis shot back in the direction of the bright stream of bullets but was severely outgunned. So instead, he dove to the side and rushed beneath the hollow, metallic ventilation shafts. It blocked the line of sight but served as almost no resistance for the bullets, which tore the thin sheets into shreds, sending shrapnel and sparks overtop Luis, who pulled his head down and tried to shuffle further away. It was bad, the spray was close, too close to the man, barely missing his body by inches. I had to act. But the aggressing man was out of my sight, steadily advancing behind the cover of the ship.

But I had another way of helping. It was dangerous and potentially very bad but, making the momentary comparison of risk, I chose regardless of what would happen to me. I reared back then shot my head forth, releasing my tongue at high speed, using the spring-loaded way it was winded in the back of my head. I didn’t taste anything but cold air as it crossed the distance in a split second. I felt and saw it hit, then wrap around Luis’ torso. He looked at me in surprise but I already engaged my muscles to pull before he could express concern. He was pulled from the ground and slung through the air, up the small concrete building. I let him go when he was within reach and grabbed ahold of him, then threw us both back behind cover. I inadvertently tasted his scent and aroma, that of dirt and pheromones indicating stress.

“Only three more, thanks for the safe,” Luis gathered himself and checked the magazine of his newly acquired assault rifle.

Still, he was so focused on winning this engagement. It strangely reminded me of myself, losing anything except the desire to end a conflict victoriously.

Then I heard it, smelled it. The burning of elerium fuel, the shifting of air into heated plasma, accompanied by the sound of jet burners, coming from across the city skyline. I snapped toward the direction of these sensations and my eyes went wide; another sky ranger. But this one was of solid black, the logo of Xcom, a representation of the earth, a cross going through the middle of it. The words ‘Terra Invicta,’ written in bold and obvious letters along the hovercraft’s snout. The ship came barreling toward us, thrusters at full tilt and blue flames shooting from the three engines. It blasted from outside the city limits, like a bird of prey diving toward an unsuspecting animal.

“Luis, they’re here!” I pointed to the incoming ship.

Luis turned and stood still for a second, presumably also shocked that this was how the conflict was going to go. He spun back around to me, his eyes shifting wildly, trying to come up with a solution to our increasingly bad situation.

“We have to get out of here,” he settled in a hurried tone.

Yeah, that was obvious. I was scared of Xcom because I didn’t know if I was going to become a war prisoner, while Luis had the fear as to how they would react to his past. Neither wanted this confrontation nor did we want to have to explain ourselves.

“Their sky ranger, I can fly it but I don’t know if I can outmaneuver them. Luis, what do we do?” I made no attempt to hide the fact that I was terrified beyond rationale. I needed his advice, I needed guidance in a moment I couldn’t bring my mind in order.

“We go, one chance, let’s go. Isra, look at me,” he demanded and I followed his command, lowering my vision onto his emerald eyes. It calmed me, seeing him stare intensely, knowing that he was going to direct me in a way I couldn’t have myself. “Whatever happens here, I…I want you to be safe. Alright?” His features softened slightly, the world disappeared around me and all I could hear were his words, all I could see was his face. What was he planning?

“A-alright, Luis. I’m with you,” I assured and he flashed a smile.

Without another word, as time began to run short, we pushed out from the same side. The remaining men had backed off and one of them was missing, Emir. Then, their hovercraft roared its engines - they were going to take off. The man armed with a turret-like machine gun stood in the center of the rooftop, his gun already spinning in preparation. As soon as we rounded the corner it rattled away once more. But we had made a dash far out into the open, forcing him to try and adjust the erratic spray in our direction.

I slithered low and pulled across in winding patterns, then brought my rifle level with his chest. There was no reason to try and conserve ammo anymore, we would either end this conflict now or die trying. I let my gun shoot out on full auto. Blood sprayed out, a moment later, Luis shot too but at another man, hiding behind a ventilation unit. My target screamed out, blood splattering from his chest and stomach, then fell to the ground. I don’t know if Luis’ fire had landed.

But the outside threats were gone, our path cleared. The parked hovercraft was whining its engines, trying to start quickly, Emir must have been inside and starting the ship. But the ramp was still down. I, and Luis too, assumed the man had expected his compatriots to join him inside the ship, so we believed we had an opportunity to get into the ship and take it over. We sprinted to the lowered ramp, I was at the front after overtaking Luis.

“Stop,” he yelled out from behind, however. I stopped in my tracks and looked back, as the winded human caught up to me. “Let me go first.”

I didn’t like this idea from the very start. But I also didn’t have the mental fortitude to question him. So I nodded and let him take the lead in stepping into the spacious interior with his gun raised. “Cover my back,” he instructed and made his way to the cockpit door. I turned back and swayed over the ramp entranceway, as I heard Luis step to the door. I glanced over my shoulder and gave Luis one more look.

I let my tongue drift out and back inside. There, my senses went feral with danger. I smelled it all over the interior, on every particle of air, the tingling, electrically charged scent of instable elerium. Someone had overcharged the fuel storage with too much energy in a too short amount of time. This ship wasn’t trying to take off, it was rigged to explode.

“Luis, no!” I yelled out and dropped my gun, trying to spin around at extreme speed.

But he had just activated the door, it slid open. The world stood still for a second and moved in slow motion in the next. A man sat in the pilot’s chair, his hand on the start button, holding down the fuse that charged the fuel with electricity. Luis fired immediately but the damage had been done.

I smelled the spark that did the trick, I heard the sudden bust of a solid being ionized in an instant. The ship’s storage cracked and crackled, then I felt the shockwave.

I didn’t have time to yell out, no chance to grab at the man deeper in the ship. My eyes were locked on him as a burst of white flame shot out from the bottom of the floor. The combustion of destabilized fuel sent an explosion of force out from the flooring, throwing Luis’ body up and out of my sight, as everything was encompassed in a torrent of flame and kinetic energy. I was whirled around as if weighing nothing, thrown back out of the ship, expelled into the air, and coming to a hard landing on gravel.

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I skidded across, tearing a few scales on the rough ground, my tail twisting in on itself to stop my slide. My head hurt from all angles, I felt the warm pain of something - shrapnel - lodged all over my body, my vision took seconds to adjust into a field that still swam minutes after. My ears rang in a sharp, whistling tone that only seemed to increase in intensity. I brought myself up using my arms, my eyes opened only reluctantly as if I had just awoken from a deep sleep.

But it wasn’t sleep that had me disorientated, it wasn’t a dream I would wake up from soon. I eventually came to a coherent enough mind to look at the burning wreck of the sky ranger. Its flames a mix of bright blue and roaring orange. The windows had burst and the shockwave had turned the vehicle sideways, as the paint began to peel off. The heat, even from a distance, was immense and signaled my brain to avert my gaze. But I held steady, I needed to find Luis.

I pushed off of the ground and weakly slithered over to the burning wreckage, my body protesting every centimeter, every contraction of my muscles caused a new high of pain to shoot through my entire being. Adrenaline couldn’t suppress the immense agony in my head, which I must have hit on something on the way out, my tail bled from many cuts and abrasions, while a sprinkle of metal was lodged in my stomach and armor. The alloy on my armor had bent inward, constricting my ability to take air in, it was also peppered with shrapnel and showed many dents and fissures.

I slithered to the inflamed ship, no noise other than the high-pitched screeching reached my ears as I approached. The heat tried to persuade my body to stay away but I pushed without care.

“Luuuiiiisss!” I cried out, loud but still unable to surpass the volume of the ringing, nor the roaring, crackling fire. “Luis, where are you?” I yelled again, trying to get a look into the flaming cockpit from the busted windows. Even if he had responded, I likely wouldn’t have heard. I couldn’t smell anything besides the flaming elerium and burning metal.

Dust and rubble whirled up, the flames were pushed to the side and I spun around to see the Xcom ranger setting down to land quickly. Its doors opened and five humans, plasma rifles in hand, rushed out of the ramp. Their faces were covered by metallic masks and tight suits of flexible plate armor adorned their form, obscuring which gender they belonged to.

Three made quick pace toward me but I was busy searching for Luis. I believe one of them yelled at me but it was obscured by roaring flame and the insistent ringing. If they were going to shoot me, if Luis wasn’t alive anymore, then I would rather have that than the alternative of living without the human. The thought crossed my mind. I hadn’t smelled the trap, I hadn’t been able to get him out. I survived but he was dead.

I turned back around to one of the agents and faced their drawn weapon with an empty expression.

Finally, the clinging tone in my ears began to subside, slowly. I heard the creaking of metal and the sizzling of fire. The agents talked into a radio.

“There’s two alive here!” A man called out and I immediately snapped to the origins of the noise. Laying just a few meters from the cockpit’s shattered cabin, lay two human figures. Their clothes had melted in some parts, fusing with their flesh. Bubbling parts along their skin, lined with charred surface and smelling of burnt hair and meat. But the man was right, slowly, the chest of both Emir and Luis sank and rose, though nothing else moved.

Disregarding the weapons pointed at me, I slithered as fast as I could over to the taller figure. I heard one of them yell an order at me but I couldn’t have cared less. I arrived at Luis’ charred and burned body, his face had deep burns on one side, reaching over his left eye and having singed away his hair. His breath came out as raspy and sucking, his throat had sustained harsh burns on the side. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t dead yet. But there was no way he’d recover from this. His body had too much damage, his blood already pooled beneath him.

“You have to help him!” I shot up toward the man to my side. He recoiled, took a step back, and drew his gun. The weapon looked like a crossbow made of solid metal, a power cell at the bottom and the barrel wide.

“What happened here?” He responded instead.

“Does that really matter? There is a man dying here and you are just sitting and doing nothing! Help him!” I felt the rush of adrenaline tingle in my body. But this wouldn’t work. They had no reason to help, and threatening them was not going to do Luis any favors. My voice and stature softened. “Please. I can’t lose him. You are the good guys, right? You freed the world. These people wanted me dead, they killed dozens of aliens, and this man,” I pointed down,” has saved my life many times. He deserves to live. So please, I beg of you, help him.” I focused on the slit of his mask where I knew his eyes were.

He remained still for a second, looking me in the eyes. With every second that passed and no one moved, I grew more anxious that Luis was dying on the ground next to me. Then he finally spoke.

“Alright, collect the survivors, get them stable, and secure the perimeter. And you,” he addressed me, “will tell us everything.” He spoke firmly and assertively.

“There are more of these people, all around the city,” I informed the agents and he acknowledged the info.

Two of the agents walked past me and grabbed Luis by the feet and shoulder, lifting him away. Then one of them approached Emir and began to lift the half-dead man.

“No, just leave him, he’s the one that did all this.” I slithered over to him.

“He is still alive, order is to take anyone alive. Now back off,” a woman’s voice threatened and I saw her reach toward her weapon. I glared at the man who had tried to murder us, who had initiated this entire thing, and I swore that I would see his death, even if not today. But I had better to do.

Quickly, I rushed after the agents carrying Luis and went aboard the aircraft without another word. They placed him down onto a stretcher and immediately, a man in a white uniform, a red cross on his arm beneath the Xcom logo, approached and used a pair of scissors to cut away at Luis’ clothing. He pulled out a syringe and stuck the needle into Luis’ chest, emptying a clear liquid into him. Luis still breathed in a suppressed manner and a respirator device was soon placed over his mouth. With incredible efficiency, he was hooked up to multiple machines, only some of which I recognized. A steady, if concerningly flat, line and beeping signaled that one of these was a heart rate monitor.

“Will he be alright? Can you save him?” I stood at a distance but never let my eyes wander as the doctor prepared needle after needle, some containing thicker fluids and strange, glowing colors. A man behind me had lowered his weapon but his posture indicated that he had been assigned to watch over me, and probably shoot if I tried anything.

“That depends if I can stop internal bleeding. And he needs to get a stem cell bath as soon as we get to the base,” the doctor spoke without looking at me, hurriedly and while injecting Luis with all sorts of medical chemicals. “It’s just very hard to tell where the bleeding comes from, with all these burns,” he muttered beneath his breath.

“I know where he was shot, I can help,” I offered.

The doctor paused, eyed the man behind me, and then looked at me. “Then come here,” he ushered.

I didn’t wait for even a second and leaned over the table. “He was shot in the lower flank, here” I pointed to the wound sustained inside the hallway. “This one is older but I don’t know if there are fragments still inside it, I couldn’t clean it properly. I know he had trouble breathing, I believe this rib here is broken and pressing against his lungs,” I hovered a claw below his right chest.

The man, with a gloved hand, pressed lightly against the spot and tentatively pressed inward. “You’re right about it being broken. And I believe I have just found the troublemaker,” he announced confidently.

“And what about the burns. Will he be able to see from his eye?” I was scared of the potential answer.

“That depends how much of the nerve is damaged. But I can’t say until he’s been treated properly, this is just to make sure he doesn’t bleed out until we get there.” The man finished by taking out a machine reminiscent of a blocky rifle then aimed its short barrel against the bullet wound at Luis’ flank. I saw a slight orange glow emerge from its power cell, along with a low winding noise. He pulled a trigger and, with a bright flash of light, something gooey shot out onto Luis’ exposed, burned skin. It clung to him, blue in color, and appeared to pull his tissue tighter. The blood flow stopped immediately though Luis’ body arched reflexively.

The doctor put the medical gun away and began to turn away. “Where are you going?” I went after him but caught the man behind me make a move and halted my intention of grabbing the doctor.

“I have to take care of the others, he’ll survive. Probably,” he added quietly.

“They don’t deserve to live! Take care of Luis, he’s in pain,” I pleaded and motioned to the roughly wheezing man.

“I am surprised they even let you walk around here without restraints. Don’t touch me and let me do my job, don’t get in my way. I am not here to judge who’s worthy of life and who ‘deserves’ to die, I help people, I don’t just let them die cause someone tells me to. Now calm down before I have to anesthetize you.”

“I-” I reconsidered talking. I wasn’t amongst friends, I wasn’t in a position to make myself an enemy.

It had slipped my mind for a while but the shocking realization that I had just…gone with it because I believed they could help Luis. I was now in their ship, surrounded by guards, on the way to their base. And I had absolutely nothing to say. This was exactly what I had feared, landing with a group that would decide my fate regardless of my own choice or wants.

The door was still wide open, some agents carrying wounded combatants in, while others had thick, metallic shackles around their hands and wrists. I could have tried to run, sure. Not that it would have realistically ended in any possibly good way. But not really. I could not have left Luis here. I had messed up by letting Emir lure us into a trap, now we both had to face the consequences.

“Take a seat, we’re taking off,” the man behind me grunted and motioned to the lined walls.

I looked to Luis, back at the seats and reluctantly left his side. I made sure to choose the spot closest, clear view. The man simply reached up to grab a handle with one hand, while keeping the other on his weapon, eyes never leaving me.

The ramp blinked with blue lights and pulled upward, connecting to the upper side of the back. There were still agents outside on the rooftop, my ears picked up the end of their conversation. “...and inform the camps the situation is handled.” The ramp shut finally and natural light was replaced by a whitish hue from artificial light.

I still wasn’t being restrained, nor did I feel like a prisoner, but maybe that was simply because everyone here knew I could not really be a threat. My eyes still trained on Luis, the adrenaline in my veins began to slowly subside and made way for pain. I glanced down onto my long tail, finding that my blood had seeped in between my scales all along the upper part, along with another bullet wound in my abdomen. I put a little bit of pressure on the latter but it was already partway shut.

“Do you need the doctor to take a look at you now or will you be fine until we get there?” The man guarding me asked. His voice didn’t sound concerned, rather matter-of-factly.

“I will be fine. What will happen to us, how long will the flight take?” I asked back.

“About an hour and we should be there. And as for what happens to you two,” he motioned over to Luis with a nod, then shrugged as he turned back to me. “Not in my authority to decide.”

Not very comforting, but maybe I could get a little more out of him, he seemed willing to talk. “Why did you even come here, how did you know?”

He eyed me carefully as if observing an intricate artwork. “Camps in the area are in steady contact with us. They reported hearing shots and saw a hovercraft without logos. These people, we have been after them for a while now.”

“Then you should know better than to keep them alive,” I snarled and shot a glare to the other burnt body, which had now also been hooked up to machinery, one of which I recognized as a respirator.

“They’re of no threat to us.” He scoffed, “especially after what you did to ‘em. Say, were you alone in doing this? Seems like a lot of work for two.”

“Yes, we lured them to that building and took them out along the way. You’ll find corpses all over the town.”

“And you two, you’re…partners? Allies?” He raised his voice, indicating amusement.

“Luis and I are…allies, yes,” I didn’t want to say companions, perhaps that would have painted a strange picture.

“How long have you been working together?” He asked, curiosity seeping into his tone.

“About a week,” I estimated.

“How’d that happen? He seems old enough to have been around during the invasion, not part of us either; how is it that he fought with you?”

I paused for a moment, debating what I should and shouldn’t say. “He helped me survive these humans trying to slaughter me and my squad. I helped him in return and…we wanted to get somewhere safe. But that couldn’t have worked if we were being hunted. So we tried to fight,” I recounted.

“What happened to the rest of your squad, you say slaughtered?” The man followed up.

“They…they’re all dead. I’m the only one alive,” I said somberly.

“I am sorry for that. When did it happen, before or after the ceasefire was ordered?” He inquired.

“Within the day. Do you see how we are in the right, now?” I returned an intense gaze.

The man remained silent for a while, glancing over to Luis for a moment. “It’s not my place to judge. But if they broke the standstill, I am sure they will be treated accordingly.”

“Then who judges? Who will we talk to?”

“Well, for one, I doubt he’ll talk to anyone any time soon. But you will be taken to our specialist, Marschal Fetra. She’ll listen to your story, alongside the statements of the people arrested here today.”

“Specialist,” I repeated and tried to build an image in my head.

“Don’t worry. If you have nothing to hide, she’s rather nice,” he tried to assure.

A voice emerged from his chest radio and his attention shifted. Another agent walked over and whispered something that the motors oversounded. I caught the bright purple eyes of a man…

No, not a man, I saw a woman with bright white hair - how had I not noticed her.

No, wait-

What?

‘What is’

‘Get out of my head’

‘This feels wrong’

‘It feels like I am…there again’

‘Why are you doing this?’

I finally shake my head, eyes are still locked into the endless void of purple. But feeling is back. I can feel my body again, I can see the room around me again. I can feel how breath enters my lungs and my muscles seize their painful contractions.

I blink and finally find the mental fortitude to look away - or maybe I was let out.

“Calm down.” A voice, so very familiar, so very powerful, impossible to ignore. In a crowd of people, she could have whispered and I would still have heard it more clearly than anything else.

My head snaps at attention back up to her. Her purple irises are still glowing and I am once again forced into her gaze. I feel my mind being tugged, prodded at a very deliberate, very familiar spot. It felt like an opening in my thoughts, a gap in my defense, on this person abused and entered my head.

It had caused me to… remember it all. I had just sat here and gone over my memories like…like telling a story, but I felt it so very deeply. I felt the emotions again, as I believed Luis dead. I hurt and screamed when shot; I talked how I had spoken in my memories. It was so real, so unquestionable in its logic.

Like a dream.

And again, the room grew dimmer, sounds disappear, feeling disappears. I can’t stop it, my mind has a weak point and this woman is powerful in the mind.

I feel a cold sting in my mind and my ability to close my eyes fails to respond to my desperate attempts at averting my gaze.

But I didn’t want this. ‘I. Don’t. Want. This. Get out.’

“We are done here, Central.” Her voice again.

I close my eyes tightly, my body flinches and instinctually recoils from the woman sitting in a chair across from me. The black, sleek walls are illuminated in a dark green light from an unknown light source. A tight room without discernible features, a table and two chairs stuffed inside.

I don’t want to look at the woman in front of me, sitting with her back facing the door, which has a tightly sealed fissure separating it from the black walls. Her legs are wrapped in a tight, black cloth, which in turn covered segments of armored plates, purple lines running along it like openly displayed veins. She has one draped over her other and is holding onto one of her knees, her posture is straight as a stick.

“Isra, breathe,” she speaks again. Her voice is still authoritarian, clearly and firmly spoken. But I am not forced to obey, just to test this out I refuse to inhale for a moment. When I breathe it in again, it is…so very familiar. Thicker than the mixture of oxygen my lungs had been mutated to adapt to, like on Advent ships. I don’t know why it was there, perhaps something to do with space travel.

“Stop this,” I demand, again without looking at her directly.

“Don’t worry, that was the last conversation I needed to take a look at, James claimed some details - and we hardly want to leave anything out of it. Plus, I wanted to see how you would have told this story willingly,” She just spoke so nonchalantly, like she hadn’t just held me here for…

“How long have I been here? Where’s Luis?” I burst forth almost in the same sentence.

“Time of interview end: 11:29,” she looks onto a small tablet on the table. “We started at about midnight, I understand the confusion with time.”

“And where is Luis?” I immediately repeat.

“You are very concerned for that man. Honestly, I don’t blame you. Traumatic experiences tend to form bonds between involved people. If anything, it just adds another support to your stance, your entire species, that is.”

“What do you mean?” I decide to put the question to the side, as my mind begins to attempt to build a coherent timeline in my head.

I remember landing, staying close to Luis. Armed guards greeted us, as the hangar to a massive, hovering ship opened up in front of me. I was directed away from Luis and protested. But it was of no use, they threatened with their plasma weapons and I thought better of it. I was led to a doctor and my wounds were nursed with high-tech medical equipment, which stitched wounds and pulled fragments from my scales.

I remember the stares as I was escorted, still without restraints. I felt their hatred in the pheromones, their discomfort, and the spite that they were not allowed to shoot me on the spot. Next came a long hallway, that’s where it cuts out, my memory becomes a series of disconnected pictures. I remember sitting down on a chair, the door sliding open. And nothing after that, until I returned seconds ago here.

“Well, as the neural network has been remotely disconnected in certain control points, we are now attempting to establish which of the freed species is capable of empathy and the willingness to cooperate with humanity. Vipers are showing very high qualities in many departments that make everyone here hopeful for a future without war.” She begins rambling passionately.

“Wh-what do you mean ‘cooperate’?” I tried to follow.

“The war is not over, Isra. When we attacked the ethereals in America, we destroyed the source only for America. The department of Xcom had split into branches that were supposed to destroy every other stronghold at the same time, shut it all down. It worked in Russia, Africa, and Antarctica, those parts of the world are no longer controlled. The problem is. Europe is still up and we don’t know where the ethereal’s base is located. They pulled their forces tightly and we are spread thinly at the moment in the area,” she explained as if giving a caroling speech.

“And what do you think I can do about it?” I was locked in this room, Luis was somewhere else, I need to establish myself.

She knew about Luis’ past, what he didn’t want them to know so desperately. She had just lived through my memories of the past week, perhaps even the years, decades before that. She knows everything about me.

She uncrosses her legs and leans forward. With an inhale, she proposes, “I believe that you two can serve as an example. You have worked together closely and many of your interactions prove that humans can form healthy bonds with aliens, it also goes to show that you are a conscious being, which supports the angle we are trying to approach.”

“Why do you need that?” I dared to look up at her, seeing the spiked up, silvern hair emerging out of a metallic cover at the top of her forehead. A long scar runs across her nose, leaving it slightly crocked to one side.

“Because they’ve hunkered down so tightly around Germany that our specialists doubt our ability to overcome them without the assistance of aliens,” she says and leans her head to the side while relaxing her posture.

“I want to know what will happen to Luis and me,” I demand firmly.

She smirks slightly, looks me up and down, then closes her eyes for a second and sighs. “He’ll be interviewed when he is capable of doing so. For now, he is regenerating. It will take a few more days as far as I am aware but you will be allowed to see him soon enough,” she affirms.

“How soon?” I immediately follow up.

She scoffs,” Soon, Isra. I like your name, by the way. And, while I can’t say what Central or even the Commander will decide, but I am on your side. I empathize with you. And I would like to see what the future of alien and human cooperation will have in store.”

“Why couldn’t you just have asked me what happened? Why force my mind back into…that disgusting place?” Needles to say, I hold a grudge for how she had made me feel.

“Because I hate when people lie to me. And, as mean as it sounds, you are very susceptible to psionic interrogation. Trust me, this was easier than having you decide which parts to be honest about and which you might want to try to cover. And now, I am able to completely vouch for your complete honesty.” She smiles in a friendly manner.

I stare back, as her eyes turn a dull silvern shade. “Then I want to see Luis, if you are on my side.”