Terra roughly shut the door behind her, still perturbed by her exchange with the boys. Seriously, what was their problem? She looked down at her oversized suit and wondered if there was a button that would shrink the suit to fit her body as she’d done before. Well, like she’d done before in that other world. Considering the odd stares she was getting from the others in the room with her as she ran her hands over the fabric of her suit searching for the button, she suspected there wasn’t and continued on her path to what she suspected was ‘the cage’.

This entire situation was strange. From what she could recall in her last moments of consciousness before she woke up, she’d practically torn a steel door off its hinges. What exactly happened between then and now that these people were giving the asylum? Even stranger was that they were being put through training. For all these people knew Terra was an assassin sent to kill every single one of them, and they simply gave her a set of clothes and told her to go to where all the weapons were stored. Did they have any common sense? If anything, they should all be kept in a cell under heavy observation considering they were intruders. She shifted uncomfortably as she realized all eyes were on her as she reached the opposite side of the area.

She leaned up against a grated wall and stared back at all of those who were eyeing her, challenging them to do something about her being there. Only three of the twenty or so that were in the room looked like a legitimate threat to her considering their body size. Then again, she was practically indestructible, so what did it matter that these people were suspicious of her? What could they do to her that was worse than what she’d already been through? Speaking of awful things that had recently happened to her, where had the clear crystal gone? She’d gotten swept up in the new environment that she’d completely forgotten about the very fact that could end this charade of a year. Wait, didn’t she also have a black crystal as well?

“Hmmm.”

Terra turned her head to her right, pretending that she hadn’t nearly jumped out of her skin by the sudden appearance of this stranger.

He was taller than her by at least a foot and had a scar that cut through his dark skin from his left temple down to his jaw. His eyes were an electric blue that bored a hole straight through her. She guessed this was the officer she was supposed to be meeting with as he was dressed in a cargo jumper made to fit him, much opposed to her own.

“I’m disappointed.” He stated as he looked down at her.

Terra already hated him and had to fight the urge to rip his throat out. She calmly took a breath and could picture Alter’s smug face as Terra felt the rage filter through her body.

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” She said through gritted teeth. “Good thing I don’t really care what you think.”

His eyes narrowed and he took a step forward, towering over her. If she was supposed to feel intimidated, it backfired as Terra squared herself up in front of him and crossed her arms, a smirk growing on her face as she pictured herself strangling the large man. First, she would kick his legs out from beneath him, then break his wrists if he tried grabbing her, finally pinning him to the ground as she used the collar of his uniform to cut his air off.

Terra blinked the images of torturing him away, wondering where they came from. She didn’t recall having such a dark imagination, but the urges to hit something or kill something was incredibly strong. What was wrong with her? Did it have something to do with her new environment, or perhaps her new body?

Just then Regal and Eimose appeared, dressed in their own jumpsuits. Regal opened his mouth to speak but the officer cut him off.

“You will refer to me as Colonel. Before we begin with anything else, it seems like some of you have difficulties dealing with authority, so you will be picking up discarded casings and cleaning weapons for the remainder of your day. You will receive two bathroom breaks. Begin.”

Regal and Eimose looked at each other in confusion and Terra raised her eyebrows, not budging from her spot.

“So...if I use my bathroom break now, will it count as one of my breaks?” Regal quipped. “Because I haven’t gone in ages and I have no idea where a bathroom is.” Colonel shifted his gaze from Terra to Regal but Eimose was the one who shrunk back. “See, you’re not responding but this is a legitimate bathroom concern. These uniforms aren’t waterproof are they because we’re a few minutes from finding out.”

“Amir!” Colonel cried out.

A skinny man in his early twenties dropped his weapon in surprise but quickly picked it up and placed it on a stand at his shooting station before running over to the Colonel’s side.

“One of these men can’t control his bladder and needs to be escorted to the bathroom.”

Amir nodded and ushered Regal to his side. Eimose sheepishly slunk to Amir’s side as well and Terra could see a vein popping out of the Colonel’s temple. She crushed down the urge to smile as she joined the other three on their quest to the bathroom. Honestly, she did need to go, which was an odd feeling after spending so much time in a body that didn’t require food, sleep, or sanitary needs to be met to function. It wasn’t until they were all out in the hallway with the door shut firmly behind them that anyone decided to speak.

“Who are you?” Regal asked no one in particular.

“I’m a soldier in the U--” Amir began but was interrupted.

“No, you.” Regal stopped and faced Terra. “Are you and Eimose a thing or something? Where the hell did you pop out of and what’s wrong with you that you prefer this,” he pointed at Eimose, “over this.” He swept his arm down his body.

“Excuse me?” Terra started.

“No, she’s not ‘with’ me.” Eimose groaned. “Believe me or not, but this is Terra.”

“You named your robot after this girl?” Regal asked, aghast. “Dude, that’s a little creepy.”

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“No, I mean this girl is Terra, the robot.” Eimose clarified, but the contorting in Regal’s face indicated that he still didn’t get it. I took several minutes for Eimoise to get through the incidents that led up to Terra’s changing of bodies, including how his arm got to its current state. He lied about how they got away from the city, omitting the fact that they had somehow ended up in a black void and the stuff about Terra turning rocks into clear crystals. When he was done, he wasn’t entirely sure Regal fully understood, but to his surprise, the other man nodded in thought.

“So you guys were at the same place we were. That place with the blue sky.” Regal stated and went on to explain how the three had successfully gotten Eimose’s bag when Jer had somehow transformed into a female after a large black mass sucked something out of them, nearly killing Jer in the process.

Terra and Eimose exchanged glances, realizing that they were the ones at the center of that mass. Where they the ones that created that catastrophe? Eimose felt his spirits lift when he learned that his bag was nearby, though he did feel bad that it was probably him and Terra’s fault that Jer was in their current state.

“Who the hell are you guys?” Amir asked in a thick accent. “None of what you say makes sense, but it’s so cool!” The three glanced at their audience, completely having forgotten he was there. “Oh, and we’ve been at the bathroom for the past ten minutes.”

Amir continued to berate them with questions about who they were while they went, his eyes lighting up when they answered. Regal ended up making up a bunch of stuff, including how he had single-handedly destroyed the Piranha headquarters and taken down several raider groups before they reached this location. By the time they got back to the weapons training center, Amir’s head was filled with mostly fallacies created by Regal.

“I thought you’d forgotten how to use the facilities by the time spent at the bathroom.” The Colonel’s voice boomed across the room. “Did one of you fall in?”

Terra rolled her eyes but Regal and Eimose shut up while Amir practically sprinted back to his training station and picked his firearm back up. The Colonel strolled to them, well aware of everyone shrinking against his stature as he made his way across. Terra regretted not questioning Amir about the place they were in and why the Colonel was such an asshole.

“Small one.” The Colonel said to Terra. “You will be coming with me. The other two will begin with their tasks. The bags are over there.”

The two sulked off to the corner and grabbed two canvas bags and began picking up the discarded shell casings. Terra wondered why they didn’t simply refuse, but the Colonel was departing from the room and she didn’t want to get stuck with the job presented to the other two. Maybe she was going to get to fight something? She hoped she was going to get pitted against the Colonel in a no-holds-barred battle.

They walked up two flights of stairs and then entered a large room with a white linoleum floor and stainless steel walls. Immediately she could tell this was not a combat arena nor a weapons center; it was an empty cafeteria.

“This is where you will be working for the duration of your stay. Report to Kera in the kitchen for your duties. Your dorm will remain in the weapons sanctuary.” He turned on his heels and opened the door to leave, looking back to see that Terra hadn’t moved. “Oh, did I forget to mention this is not a request, but an order?”

Terra watched as he drew something out of his pocket and swiped at the screen. All of a sudden she felt a course of electricity rush through her body, paralyzing her muscles and causing her to drop to the cold floor. She lost control of her lungs and she saw double as the Colonel smiled widely and left the room, after pointing to several locations in the room she could see from her position. It took a few minutes before the effects of what had just happened faded and she could pull herself to her feet, flitting her eyes to the locations the Colonel had pointed out. They were cameras.

She wiped the grit from her cheeks and uniform, then flipped her middle finger up to one of the cameras. She hoped he saw it.

Gritting her teeth, she vowed she was going to kill him. Wait, no. Terra wasn’t going to kill anyone, no matter how annoyingly stupid and petty they were. She managed to calm herself down completely by the time she pushed the doors of the kitchen open.

There were about fifteen women there, some washing dishes, some coated in flour, others busy chopping up something that looked like a dark red brick. Only about five of them looked up to see her, but they simply went back to whatever task they had been doing. There was a mixture of smells in this room, of savory meat and sweet bread, and Terra found herself breathing in deeply. How long had it been since she’d had a meal? Her stomach growled in response.

“You must be the new girl. What’s your name dear?” A woman Terra suspected was Kera asked.

She was large in stature and was about twice as wide as Terra. Her hair was dark brown and curly, bouncing every time she took a step, and Terra was relieved to see her eyes were a warm brown rather than a piercing blue. Kera wore a blue jumper that flared at the ends of her feet, making it appear as if she were wearing a dress, and a grey apron covered in bits of dough and flour.

“Terra,” she replied, taking another deep whiff of the aromas.

Once she’d been introduced to everyone and immediately forgot all their names, she was given a quick tour of the kitchen, the walk-in freezer, walk-in fridge, ovens, and water converter, she was put to work cleaning the floors of the cafeteria as it was a couple of hours away from mealtime. She went back to the kitchen just as mealtime began and she watched in horror as dirty shoes and food dirtied what she’d spent hours cleaning. Kera had her wash dishes afterward.

Terra as in hell. She wished she had been locked up in a cell after all, not put to work in such menial labor. There should be a sword in her hand, not a scrubber.

After an eternity, Kera served the staff their meals and Terra felt a relief from the pangs of hunger that threatened to make her lose her barely bottled anger. When all the plates had been cleared and cleaned again, Kera dismissed everyone but Terra for the day. When they were alone in the kitchen, she led Terra into the walk-in-freezer after bundling themselves both up against the cold.

“I saw you when you tore open the door,” Kera spoke. “I know that Colonel can lose his temper, but I can see that you are not meant for this life and he’s made a mistake confining you here. Believe it or not, I was just like you. I was a soldier, not a cook, but I spoke out against Colonel one time and he sent me here. I refuse to let that stubborn man control how your life turns out as he did with mine.” Kera turned and moved several boxes from the shelves in search for something. “I was one of the people up front when you came through and I managed to swipe this. I believe it’s yours?”

Kera held up a black rock and Terra’s heart soared. She quickly took off her gloves and grabbed the stone in her palm, feeling its weight in her hand. It felt as if she’d gotten a piece of her back despite the fact she’d only had the stone for a full twenty-four hours. She wanted to morph it into something, but there was no reason to change it into a weapon, so she let it melt around her hands and up her elbows, letting them rest on her upper arms; this way there was no way anyone could take it away from her.

“This is one of the only places that doesn’t have cameras,” Kera explained after she wiped the look of awe off her face. “That and the bathrooms. This is where me and the other women train since the Colonel doesn’t want us to receive proper training. Because you’ll be staying in the weapons center, I want you to swipe equipment if you see the opportunity to do so without getting caught on camera. Do you think that’s possible?” Terra nodded and grinned at the thought of stealing weapons under the nose of the Colonel. “Good. Don’t start immediately since that man will be keeping a close eye on your for a while.”

Kera led Terra out of the freezer and shrugged off her coat.

“Oh, and if it hasn’t been said yet, welcome to the Uncorrupted Coalition,” Kera added, her eyes matching her smile.

Maybe this place wasn’t going to be completely awful.