"You're late."

"Yeah, by like five minutes." Rosa rolled her eyes. "Fucking bite me, would you? I hit a little traffic on my way over. Are you gonna let me in or not?"

Eric scowled at her, but did as she asked, stepping aside so she could enter his home. She looked around, lowering the hood of her raincoat as she did so.

"Where is she?"

"In her room," Eric reported. "I told her we needed to discuss some private things regarding my service record for a bit. She won't be bothering us."

"You're certain of that?"

"Positive. She follows me around like a lost puppy."

Rosa let out a short exhale. "Alright… the kitchen, then?"

"Works for me."

The two of them stepped over to Eric's kitchen table. He pulled Rosa's seat out for her, and she sat down, though he hesitated.

"Can I get you anything?" he offered. "Breakfast? Coffee? Bourbon, maybe?"

"You're being awfully hospitable," she noted.

"Is that a no?"

Rosa let out a sigh. "...Bourbon. It's early, but I suspect we're going to need it."

Eric nodded, then stepped over to the countertop and retrieved the nearest opened bottle of bourbon. He poured two fingers of it and passed one over to Rosa, then sat down across from her. She raised her glass to him and took a sip, only for her eyes to bug out from behind her sunglasses. She managed to set the glass down before coughing, one hand going to her chest.

"Fuck me…" she breathed between gasps of air. "That stuff is like-"

"Turpentine, I know."

"Drinking it neat was a mistake…"

"Lightweight. Should I get you some ice cubes? Maybe you'd like a water, or perhaps a Shirley Temple?"

Rosa glared at him as her coughing fit died down. "Asshole…" she muttered as she settled down into her seat. To Eric's surprise, she went back for more liquor, this time managing to brace herself enough that it went down with little more than a shudder.

"That bad, huh?" he asked.

"You asked me last night if I knew," Rosa said. "Officially, I didn't. But unofficially…"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that I have a working brain, dumbass. Think about it – she's twenty-four now. The Angels first started appearing on the battlefield nine years ago. You do the math."

Eric's eyes widened. "Shit…" he breathed.

Rosa cocked an eyebrow. "You're seriously just now realizing this?"

"Fuck right off, okay? It's been kind of a crazy week, I haven't had time to really think about some of the more horrifying implications." Eric sighed tiredly, running a hand through his hair. "Okay… so she's been on the battlefield since she was around fifteen. Despite her young age, she got herself quite the kill count very rapidly. Last I checked, the published numbers were in the thousands, but I suspect that the actual numbers are much higher than that." He looked over to Rosa. "What else do you know?"

In response, she reached into her bag and pulled out a file, placing it on the table. It was another of those large manila envelopes. Eric gave her a wary look before tentatively reaching for it and opening it. The moment he did so, his brow furrowed in frustration.

"More black ink…" he muttered. "Are they ever going to fully declassify what these girls went through?"

"The government never fully declassifies anything," Rosa growled. "You of all people should know that."

"I know, I know. I was just… hoping you'd tell me I was wrong." He sighed, then brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "What am I looking at?"

"Her medical records," Rosa reported. "Don't ask how I got them – it wasn't easy, and I've got to give them back before the work day ends, otherwise it's my ass. I've bookmarked the most relevant parts for you."

Eric gave her a funny look, but turned to the bookmarked page regardless. The moment he did, he turned back to her, his expression stone-faced.

"It's just more black ink. Is this some kind of joke?"

"Look closer, idiot. What do you see?"

Eric looked down at the page, squinting as he did so. "...All I can see that isn't blacked out is her height and weight."

"Exactly. Compare it to the next bookmark."

Eric did as she asked, flipping to the next page. Again, it was her height and weight, but curiously, there was a large discrepancy between the two. He raised an eyebrow, then looked back to Rosa.

"How far apart were these?"

"A few months," Rosa told him. "From what I can tell, the first one was when she was thirteen years old."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"And that's supposed to be weird? She was going through puberty at that time."

Rosa sighed tiredly. "Look, I know you don't know much about female anatomy-"

"Fuck you."

"-But most women don't put on that many inches and that many pounds in that short a time. Especially not since, from what I suspect, it was all lean muscle."

"So what are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm telling you that the government did something to her besides just train her up," Rosa insisted. "They've been experimenting with chemical cocktails and surgeries for years, trying to perfect them to the point that a standard human could go toe-to-toe with an eight-foot-tall Iprenian warlord and win. I guess they finally perfected it."

"I'm not surprised, but what does this mean?"

Rosa was silent for a moment. She turned and looked out the window, watching the raindrops as they fell.

"They experimented on her," she said softly. "Her and the other Angels. Used them as lab rats for all kinds of crazy shit. Then, the moment they were ready to be set loose, the government set them loose and had them start killing. Christ's sake, Eric, they were just kids."

"You think that's bad? She told me how the government found her."

Rosa immediately whipped around to face him. Eric sighed, then reached into his pocket for his pack of cigarettes and his lighter.

Normally, he had rules against smoking in the house, but this was an exception.

He lit up the cigarette and took a drag. "Iprenians bombed her home planet. Reduced most of the surface to ash. Not an unusual story, I'm aware, but it's what happened afterwards that explains so much."

Rosa stared at him. He took another drag. "Her whole family died, of course. She was the only one of them left by the end of it. And so, when the government found her, they offered her a choice. They told her that if she wanted, they would let her hurt the Iprenians the same way they'd hurt her. I don't think it'll take too much for you to imagine what she said in response."

Rosa fell silent once more, again turning to watch the rain as it fell outside. Eric stared at her for a moment, then sighed, reaching into his pocket and retrieving his cigarettes and lighter. He slid them both over to her, and she stared at them for a moment before picking them up.

"I was supposed to have quit these fucking things years ago…" she muttered as she put the smoke in her mouth and lit it.

"Desperate times," Eric mused. He took a sip from his glass of bourbon, then turned back to her. "So, the question is… what do we do with this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Rosa, you know how unethical this was. I understand why they did it, but that doesn't change the fact that it was wrong. I mean, child soldiers are one thing, but using them as experimental test beds for dangerous drugs? Sending them out into the field and telling them to commit atrocities? Cutting them loose like this and just expecting them to integrate back into society like everything is fine afterwards?" Eric shook his head. "We need to tell someone about this, Rosa. We need to-"

"We can't," she said mournfully, interrupting him.

Eric paused, staring at her in shock. "What? What do you-"

"Think about what you're asking," she implored. "First off, if the government found out we blew the whistle on this, there's no telling what they'd do to us. I mean, they're keeping it hush-hush for a reason – clearly, they don't want anyone to learn about this, otherwise they would have declassified at least some of it. The fact that they haven't is telling, at least to me." She took another puff from the cigarette. "And for another… what good would it do, really?"

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Eric growled. "The people have a right to know-"

"I don't disagree, but think about what you're asking. We just got out of a galaxy-wide war with a hostile alien species, and it only barely ended with both sides throwing in the towel." She tapped the file lying in front of him. "This information right here? If this got out, there's no telling what would happen. I mean, the Angels are heroes to basically every human out there. They're completely larger-than-life. If it weren't for them, we would've lost the war instead of fighting to a draw." She leaned in, enough that she could stare at him from over her sunglasses.

"What do you think will happen if all of those people collectively learn the truth about their heroes? That they're nothing more than traumatized girls pumped full of experimental drugs, stuffed into a suit of power armor, given deadly weapons, and pointed at the enemy with orders to inflict as much destruction as possible?"

Eric stared at her hesitantly. "...I don't know."

"Right, and that's the problem. Maybe nothing happens. But if something did happen… I don't think we'd all come out of it in one piece." She pointed to the file again. "This shit right here? This is the kind of thing that splits a government apart. We have to be very fucking careful with how we handle it, otherwise we'll be causing more problems than we're solving."

Eric swallowed nervously. "So what do you suggest?"

Rosa went silent once more. After a moment, she leaned back in her seat, a sigh escaping her. "...We do what we can, for now," she insisted. "If we ever get the opportunity to safely blow the whistle about this, then we'll take it. But we can't risk dragging our own people into what could be a civil fucking war, not this soon after getting out of a different war."

"And what can we do?"

"Help her," Rosa pleaded. "Eric, I'm begging you… please help her have a somewhat normal life at this point. Her war's over, but that's all she's ever known. She doesn't know what it's like to be able to live without fighting. You do."

Again, Eric hesitated. "I don't know if I can-"

"Eric," she interrupted. "Do you really think it was random that they chose you?" She shook her head. "Maybe it was someone higher-up having a guilty conscience about it all, or maybe they truly do want to give her a normal life now that her service has ended. I don't know. But whatever the case is, you were their first choice for this. If anyone can help her learn what it means to live like a regular person, it's you. So, please… do whatever you can to help her out."

Eric blinked. He went to take another drag from his cigarette, only to find it had burned down to a stub. With a grunt of frustration, he pulled the stub out of his mouth and placed it in a nearby ashtray, then reached for his glass of bourbon instead. He drained what was left in the glass, then placed it down before turning back to Rosa.

"She's a Marine," he declared. "I know that much about her time in the service. Well, guess what? I was a Marine, too. Maybe not as elite as her, certainly not SOCOM material like she was, but a Marine is a Marine, and we take care of our own. Nobody gets left behind."

He turned to look out the window once more. Outside, the rain had stopped, though the clouds were still gathered overhead. He let out a small breath, then looked back to Rosa and gave her a nod.

"I'll do my best," he declared. "Whatever it takes. She deserves at least that much from me."

Rosa stared at him for a moment before a smile crossed her face. "Good… that's good. And of course, if either of you two need anything, you know where to find me."

To Eric's surprise, she stood up, and for the first time, she did something unexpected.

She offered him a hand.

Eric was stunned for a moment, but it passed as soon as it came. Slowly, he rose to his feet, then accepted her offered handshake.

"For her," he said. "As well as the others who didn't make it back."

Rosa gave a nod of agreement, and in that moment, Eric knew everything had changed between the three of them.

The only question was to what extent.