For as long as I could remember, I hated blood. It didn't made me queasy or anything like that, but I still hated it. The way it looked, splattering everywhere or trickling from a corpse. The way it smelled so strongly of iron, which would itch my senses in the wrong way. The way it felt and how it slowly solidifies.

That's why I became a scout for the IUP. It was easy for me to look for things with my senses. Almost too easy. And from my perspective, everyone else seemed slow, as if they weren't really trying.

Only my brother seemed to meet my standards. Well, only when he was fighting. Honestly, it was beautiful. Even I wasn't able to mimic his skills, despite my advantages.

While I was also a Runner, I didn't have to do any fighting, which gave me a lot of opportunities to watch them in action. No one really cares that I didn't fight since I did my job well.

One thing I found my self enjoying was watching the wildlife. Animals were much now fun to watch. They move quicker and all function the same. The babies also grow up faster and can pretty much take care of themselves.

My little brother, Monzu, really took his time. He's cute sometimes but I'm worried he won't grow up properly if he takes too long. It's been a long time since I've seen him. Hopefully, he's big now.

We finally returned to camp after an infiltration mission that took 4 months to complete. My older brother, Tahan, got really angry and ran off into the jungle. He probably went to vent but didn't come back for a few weeks. I think he might have figured out the truth.

I noticed it a while ago but telling him would only jeopardize our survival. Our clan would never submit to the enemy. They'd rather die fighting to their last breaths, so I wasn't really worried. The Taos definitely would have though. A bunch of blind fools.

While Tahan was gone, I found out that the camp sold off Kasia to the IUP. They didn't tell me at first, so I had to do a bit of digging. Apparently some IUP agents gave away a stockpile of rations and supplies, saying that they would bring Kasia to the Great States to study medicine. I doubt they could teach her anything though.

She probably knew more about the human body than most doctors. She dealt with thousands of patients and basically resurrected them back from the dead.

The first time I saw it, I was baffled. I've seen my fair share of death and I'm quite confident in my perception, but by some miracle Kasia slapped the death away like it was some bug. I'm exaggerating a bit but considering what she had to work with, it wasn't too far off.

Anyways, when I returned to camp, Monzu was left all alone. He recognized me right away and ran over, with his face stuffed with rations. He tried to recount what happened while bawling like a baby. Apparently he's been having to steal food to survive for the past few months after Kasia was taken.

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I spent some time looking after Monzu and waiting for Tahan to return. That kid was a bottomless pit, so I was very busy.

I learned that the other refugees would hit Monzu whenever they caught him poking around their food supplies. That's why he had marks all over his body. Fighting isn't really my thing but I was quite good at swiping a few of their things. Monzu seemed like he was fine so I didn't really care to do anything too crazy about it.

After weeks of entertainment, Tahan came back with a subtle scar on his lip and a solemn face. He probably had a lot on his mind.

When he came back, I told him about Kasia and Monzu and his eyes shifted from hazy to unfiltered rage.

If he could run through mountains and on the surface of water, he probably would have ran all the way to the States to get Kasia back. Unfortunately, he was just a guy.

He instead focused on the resources that the IUP left behind. Using his status as a Runner, a legendary one at that, he confiscated them all and forced the people to beg for them back.

He redistributed the food to the ones who actually needed it and those who did not side with the group of leaders that sold Kasia off.

By the end of it, Monzu had enough food to satisfy himself for quite some time.

Watching over Monzu was a big help for Tahan. Monzu was what tied us together, even now. Better yet, he had mom's eyes. I could tell how much he reminded Tahan of her.

As I watched my brother pick up the pieces of himself that he lost, I felt something inside of me change too. I always treated everything like a game, holding myself back from what I was truly capable of, only going through the motions.

I thought that the world did not deserve my effort. But I was wrong. Tahan showed me that I should, instead, force the world to function at my pace.

My brother was special. When he is lost, he would become a pitiful creature. But when he finds the courage and belief in himself, each step he takes creates a ripple that spreads to others.

And it's because of these ripples that I started trying a little harder, using my senses to its full potential instead of just to fulfill a role.

Not long after, we received a letter that was smuggled in by someone named Laurel, claiming to be from the HRA but if they were here, that meant they fi ally realized the ploy that the IUP and LSP were trying to cook up.

Although she had to leave quickly, the contents of the letter was clear enough for us.

It was Kasia's handwriting and had a small cloth with our clan's emblem on it. She wrote about how the HRA saved her and was working to get enough evidence against the IUP and LSP for starting a secret artificial war for their own benefit.

She also asked us how we are doing and if Monzu was eating well. At the bottom of the letter, she said that she was coming back to pick us up.

It only took another week for us to be reunited. On our way to the HRA base, we talked and shared our stories. The silence from before was washed away.

Apparently, the HRA are the good guys, I'm wasn'treally convinced but whatever. When we arrived, Tahan and I worked with a few teams to figure out a way to expose the secret war in a way that would have the most global impact.

It only took a few months, but we had everything we needed in place.

It wasn't really that hard to hack the command centers of the IUP and LSP using the HRA's tech, but getting through enemy territory to get close enough to make a connection was the main issue. Luckily, we were willing to take this heavy risk, and were the most up to the task.

With my senses, Tahan and I could avoid more confrontations and bypass most defenses. Frankly, it was easy to slip in between the cracks.

I felt ashamed. If I was still holding my senses back, we would never have succeeded. But in the end, we finished our part and the HRA swooped in and pulled the rug from under the IUP and LSP.

A bunch of stuff happened in quick succession after our infiltration. The IUP and LSP were forced to undergo a full body reorganization, which uncovered thousands of different cases of unlawful activity.

Slowly, they would be purged of corruption and resume their roles. I guess such powerful groups were too important to get rid of, it would be easier to just assign different people at the top positions.

In addition, a treaty was signed and many impacted ethnic groups and other war victims received reparations and were allowed to choose to be relocated or go back to their original homes.

We moved around a lot while helping out with postwar clean up and providing information for documentation. Did a few interviews. Rode the war hero wave.

But after all that, the four of us agreed to go back home and start a project to help resettle people into their homes, especially the remote villages that were essentially razed into nothing.

Since the war had ended... Everything was changing.