While Hope and Inghild were carrying Ava to a black military truck parked outside, their confrères along with members from the Second Squad pushed on into the outpost's main building, an inordinate stone tower.

The leader of the Second Squad—Vlad Finnerty—a burly man with scruffy grey beard and mustache. His unkempt hair was tied in a ponytail, paired with a black bulletproof vest and military pants. He had an austere and callous air about him. When combined with his penchant to give sharp glares at strangers, he was not someone that people could warm up with easily. 

"I'll be our vanguard. The rest follow my lead," he said to those under him, the members of the Second Squad.

Two soldiers in black with military-issued assault rifles turned their heads around when Vlad popped out from a spiral staircase. These soldiers aimed their weapons at him immediately. While their response was quick, Vlad had positioned his assault rifle with his left eye looking through its Picatinny rail aluminum red dot sight. The moment he emerged from the metal staircase and into the dark hallway, Vlad had already prepared to shoot down his enemies.

He pulled the trigger until his right index finger touched his tactical-gloved hand, discharging bullets in full auto-fire. 

"Urkh!"

"Gaah!"

The two soldiers fell down and stopped moving. Their bodies were riddled with bullets.

"The First Squad is joining us, Sir!" said a friendly soldier from behind. 

"That old man is finally getting it together. Hm. Tell those weaklings to flank the hallway from the staircase on the right. Let them break through the commander's office first."

"Oh. So, they're a decoy?"

"...Those people are equipped with rifle launchers, yes?"

"Er, yes."

"Then they can destroy the office's door with it. No surprise will be left unturned if the office is wide open, isn't it? Tell them this quick."

"U-Understood."

Beatrice and Jeremy who were at the forefront of the First Squad stopped and motioned for the members behind them to halt. They heard the Second Squad's proposal and agreed.

"I see... Then the First Squad will flank the commander," said Beatrice with a hand over her mic. 

"Break inside the office and capture the commander. Don't open fire unless you have to," said the leader of the First Squad through their mics.

"Understood."

With that objective in mind, Jeremy charged into a marble-floored hallway upstairs and aimed his rifle left and right without any wasted movement. Two soldiers on his right side had their backs facing him. Acknowledging this, he put up a peace sign at his comrades climbing the staircase and motioned for an ambush.

"Go, Jeremy," whispered Beatrice through her mic.

Jeremy's rifle clinked as he aimed through its metal scope, and in the next second, gunshots echoed throughout the hallway. Instinctively, he swung around, pivoting on his heel.

Another fusillade of bullets rang out and an enemy soldier at the end of the hallway collapsed. Jeremy switched out his empty magazine to a new one as he nodded at Beatrice jogging past him.

"I'll take the lead," said Beatrice, climbing the staircase at the hallway's right. 

When she reached the top floor, three enemy soldiers had their rifles pointed at her and opened fire. She flitted to a corner just before sparks streaked across the marble floor. After a few seconds behind cover, the girl narrowed her eyes and popped her head out.

"Get out of there, scum!"

The soldiers fired again and she shrunk further into the corner. 

"...Three just in front of the commander's office," Beatrice whispered to herself.

"Jeremy, blast the door open! I'll take on those who survived," she ordered through her mic.

"I got you."

With a 50mm rifle launcher equipped to his assault rifle, Jeremy, who had been hiding at the staircase, leaped out of hiding and into the hallway, aimed, and fired his launcher.

Boom!

"Argggh!"

Clouds of grey smoke repleted the entire space after Jeremy bombarded the commander's office a few times. Beatrice waited for the smoke to clear just enough for her to see an enemy, wandering about with his assault rifle, and then the girl rushed forward bare-handed.

The lone soldier caught Beatrice's silhouette within the smoke and immediately angled his weapon to shoot. And an instant later, a roundhouse kick from his left dashed the soldier's head against the wall.

"Graggh!"

He didn't fell down. The soldier swung his right arm at Beatrice and before it could connect, Beatrice sent a quick jab to his face, halting his movement. He countered with a left vertical swing and Beatrice leaned her body backward to avoid it, at the same time, gathering momentum for another move. 

The girl planted her right foot further in front and then her left arm moved. A straight punch in the gut.

"Gukh!"

The soldier's body arched forward due to the force before he hastily swung again with his arm. The counter missed Beatrice and she took a quick step back, jumped, and twisted her body to land a hard kick at the soldier's head, sending him flying before he crashed against the wall, unconscious.

Her eyes closed, Beatrice sighed softly. Her right hand brushed away strands of hair obstructing her vision.

"Good work," said Jeremy as he led the rest of the First Squad past the blasted office's door.

"Eeek!"

Two soldiers in black raised their arms above their head and kneeled down. The First Squad pointed their assault rifles at them, voiced out a "The office's secured" command and then waited for their leader's order.

"...Who's in charge here?" asked Jeremy with his rifle aimed at one of the soldiers.

"O-Officer Senosha Vreneall."

"A woman? Where is she?"

"..."

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"I said, where is she?"

The two soldiers looked at each other briefly before they both answered. 

"S-She was killed. By someone from your side."

"...Huh?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow and swept a gaze at his fellow comrades. They shook their heads, denying any involvement with this Officer Senosha Vreneall.

"Is it someone from the Second Squad?" asked one of them.

"I don't think so. We were here before them..."

"A stray member must have fought her en route here. As he or she climbed the staircase. I think that's the only explanation," said Beatrice as she approached Jeremy, "Isn't that right?"

The enemies lowered their heads when Beatrice cast a glare at them.

"That's not it... If the Second Squad did meet this Vreneall, then what's the purpose of Vlad, their leader, asking us to breach the office? It doesn't make sense to me. They must've not met her," said Jeremy.

"...Then who did kill this Senosha Vreneall?" asked Beatrice.

Their heads turned to the enemies kneeling on the floor. After a few moments, one of the soldiers gave Beatrice and Jeremy the answer.

"...It was a kid. We lost contact with Officer Vreneall after she decided to head over to where this kid was supposed to be. The others kept saying that this kid, somehow, killed a few of us, s-so..."

"That little girl, huh."

Beatrice bit her nail and squinted, somewhat focused. She was beginning to imagine what Ava could've done to kill a high-rank soldier like Senosha Vreneall. More precisely, she was thinking of what form of torture Ava's 'blades' did to the enemy.

"Hey, what about your General? We received intel that he was here," said Jeremy as he continued pulling out questions.

"..." 

"Hmm." Their silence proved what Jeremy had in mind.

He put a finger at his mic and spoke out a question, and his Boss responded.

"I see. Since he's not here, this General must be at the other base then. I guess our mission ends here," said Jeremy after ceasing contact with the person on the other end of his mic.

"That girl... Boss is bringing her in, huh?" asked Beatrice.

"From the looks of it, anyway. I mean, Hope and Inghild are on their way back to the base with her in tow as we speak. Still, it's the Boss, so he must have something up his sleeve. Let's not worry about that and wrap things up on our end here quick."

"Yeah."

Looking at the boy not that much older than the little girl—Hope—his forehead bandaged, Ava could tell he was nervous. Perhaps he did not like sitting next to her in that black truck, presumably. The dense forest concealed the vehicle quite well, and Ava found herself looking out the window every now and then.

In front, at the driver's seat driving the truck along a dirt road was a tall, bald man called Inghild. Dark-skinned, with a thin vertical scar across the left side of his lips, and a prominent muscular physique. His intimidating presence made Ava shrink at her seat.

"...We've arrived," said Inghild, his voice came out hoarse.

"F-Finally."

Hope sighed and glanced at Ava. He had not said a word since she woke up. Inghild was the one who informed her of their destination, which was Ava's Grandpa's base.

Located deep inside the forest, a large dome-like building overarched the little group's small truck as they drove through a dark tunnel. The building appeared to be made of medallion-colored metal in its entirety, with the exception of dark windows built sturdy. 

Their truck parked next to a large van inside the building. It looked like a moving van from the first glance, but the metal, rugged, oversized bumper proved to Ava it was a vehicle meant for something else. 

"Hope, take the kid to her room. I'll go report to Boss in the control room if he's there," said Inghild after the three of them exited their truck.

"Her room...?"

"Yes, her room. The Boss just mentioned this before. Were you not listening?"

"A-Ah, her room! I remember now."

"...What are you looking so nervous about? Go on. Take the kid's hand and bring her to her room."

Hope, as he bit his lip, reached a hand towards Ava. She took a step back and brought her hands to her chest.

"Let's go, Ava," said Hope, "I'm sure your Grandpa is waiting for you."

"..."

Ava remembered seeing her Daddy before she fell asleep. Was it just a dream? 

Inghild went inside first through a metal, sliding door hewn out at a wall at her right side. Sweeping her eyes across the place, rows of vehicles had lined up the left side of this hemispheric space, lit only by fluorescent lights.

"Ava?" Hope's hand floated in the air as the little girl distanced herself from him.

"...Um, follow behind me, okay?"

Hope smiled at her and sauntered towards the sliding door. When his figure disappeared into a medallion-colored corridor, Ava, afraid of being left alone, hastily followed the blonde boy.

"The Boss said Ava will be using that empty room... Hmm, I think it's just around this corner."

Hope turned to his left and he was met with three metal doors. Each one was at the left, front, and right walls environing him. Ava glanced at each, and then followed Hope after he entered the room at their right.

"Ava, you're here."

Aside from Ava's Grandpa, there were two other people in that room. A man and a woman flanking his right and left side respectively greeted her and Hope.

The old man smiled at his granddaughter, but she only stood still, not taking even a step towards him.

"Richarde, so that's her, huh?" asked a man wearing a lab coat next to Ava's Grandpa.

His white lab coat covered most of his deep red collared shirt and dark slack pants.

"I told you to call me Sir, or Boss like the others... How many times do I have to tell you, Ludwig?" said Richarde.

"Haha." Ludwig ruffled his curly dark hair and smiled. The man then focused his green eyes on Ava through his round glasses, and she looked away. 

Richarde crouched and motioned for Ava to come to him, but she didn't budge. Instead, tears started to fill her eyes. 

"Ava, I'm really sorry about everything... It must've been too much for you. As long as you're here, you're safe. Grandpa will protect you from those evil guys, alright? Come here."

Again, Ava didn't move. She shook her head a few times from her spot. Seeing this, Richarde drew his eyebrows together and then stood up. His hand tried to reach her but she shied away with a veritable frightened look.

"Ava, you need to take a bath. Grandpa will take you to the bathroom, okay?" said Richarde softly.

"N-No!"

Ava stepped back and shrunk behind Hope when her grandfather approached her. Clearly, she didn't want to be near him. Hope who was watching from the side decided to encourage Ava to walk towards her grandfather, but she lowered her head as she shook her head, drops of tears fell to the floor.

"Ludwig and I can take care of her, Za'im," said Ayesha, a dark-skinned girl about 16 years old, with an ivory hand-woven shawl over her head.

"...I'll entrust you and Ludwig to take very good care of her while she's here. I'll come again later."

"Her sojourn here will not be anything other than pleasant, my Za'im," said Ayesha as she bowed slightly.

"She might prefer someone around her age to talk with. Hope, I want you to be her guardian for the time being. She seems to have taken a liking to you..."

"O-Okay, Boss!" 

"It's going to get busier from now on and I'm afraid I don't have much free time in my hand to visit her," continued Richarde.

The sliding door opened and Richarde walked out. Just before the door closed, he took a look at his granddaughter, whose stare did not leave the floor.

"A-Ava, um, Ayesha will take you to the bathroom, okay? You really need a new set of clothes... and a bath," said Hope as he crouched to her eye level.

"..."

Ava merely looked at him, no response whatsoever.

"Then, I'll go prepare the bath. I think I have some old clothes for our ʼānisa here," said Ayesha before she walked out of the room.

With only Ludwig and Hope left, they discussed Ava, tried to talk to her, cajoled her to sit down, but whatever those two tried yielded nothing in return. Ava hadn't moved from her spot as she stared at them with teary eyes. 

"A-Ava, don't cry... Here's your bed. You can sleep whenever you want. It's quite comfy. A-And there's a table for you to read, and look at this rainbow chair! Colorful, isn't it?"

Hope pointed at a framed picture of a grey kitten hung at the medallion-colored wall, and then at a small mirror screwed onto a cute pink tripod stand propped up on a table. Though try as he might, nothing fazed Ava as tears continued to streak her cheeks.

"Ava, it's not good for you to cry," Ludwig said this and kneeled on one knee in front of Ava. He then wiped her tears with a clean tissue. "Hope, stay here with the little miss."

"Eh? W-Where are you going, Gray!?"

Ludwig left the room post-haste. With only Hope to assuage Ava's emotions, he tried to come up with more ideas. The blonde boy had thought that Ava was devastated when her 'blades' had hurt and killed people, however, he did not know what he should be doing to calm her down. How could he understand her? 

They lived in two different worlds and experienced different things until that point in their lives, and Hope knew this all too well. Even so, he did not have any intention to give up. The boy wanted to understand the little girl and helped her however he could.

If the Boss entrusted the role of Ava's guardian to him, then he should do his best to meet his expectations. Hope held onto this statement and breathed a sigh. 

"I promised that nothing bad will ever come to you after this, so... to make that happen, I'll be your guardian, Ava. This is something I've decided. But, there is still this fact that I don't understand you, no matter how much I thought about it. Not now at least. So..."

"...I'm sorry," these were the two words that moved Ava, prompting her to move towards him.

Hope patted Ava on the head, and then gently, he hugged her. His right hand stroked down along the girl's long dark hair and then he closed his eyes.

"It's going to be alright... You are safe here."

To Hope's surprise, Ava didn't resist nor struggle. Her small hands tugged at his arms, and she cried. 

"It's going to be alright. You are safe now..."

Hope kept repeating these two sentences for a while until soft sobs were the only sound that floated in the air. For the boy, this was good enough right then.