Ha.... I had a bit too much time on my Hand again.

Aaaaaanyways.

enjoy the chap again ^^

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I turn towards the person in a flash almost losing my balance in the process. The speaker was a man of undefinable age with short brown hair almost hidden under a military cap and an honest face. He wore his uniform with confidence. I did not know how he had gotten inside of the room and prepared myself to fight against him. But as I started to use my power he raised his hands as a sign to calm down.

"You're the new one right? I can imagine why my cousin recruited you. You're power is the real deal. I'll deactivate the jammer, you might want to get rid of those eyes or it will be hard on you."

As soon as he finished talking my mechanical eyes start working again. Everything around me felt normal once more and I got rid of the newly created organic parts of my body, assimilating them back into the pool of cells I had.

Still suspicious I didn't let my guard down.

"Who are you exactly if I may ask?"

"Hmm?"

Looking at me kindly he smiles.

"My name is Girand Ithild, I'm your Captain's cousin. Everyone around me calls me Commander Ithild though."

Confused I tilt my head.

"I thought nobody in A3 had any relatives left?"

He shakes to answer my question.

"That's not exactly true. Nobody has any relatives left outside the military. Everyone else is pretty much dead. I'm not going to ask you about your power or anything. I trust Karen and if she thinks you're worthy then it's fine with me."

He points at the General still kneeling in front of us.

"Want me to get rid of him? He clearly overstepped by doing what he did. And there are enough that can replace him."

Still confused I can only respond by nodding. I didn't really care about the general since my entire rage had disappeared.

"SIR!?! What is this, you cannot be serious. I'm still a General in command, yo-"

Before he can finish his sentence his entire body deforms as if we were looking at him through a distorting mirror. And then... he disappears. Even his aura dissolved and it was almost as if he had never existed in the first place. The same thing quickly happened with the corpses surrounding me and the scene returned to normal. Only small stains of blood where the woman had been disturbed the picture. Girand sighed once.

"Ah well, you don't have to worry about anything that happened here. I will deal with everything now that your loyalty has been confirmed and your report has been listened to. You are free to leave now, one of my men will accompany you outside."

I had too many questions concerning what had happened but like a good soldier facing a superior I simply saluted once and nodded. I would speak with Karen about this and be done with it.

"One last think before I go Alexis, please tell Karen about what the General tried. She needs to know and I won't have the time to really talk with her in the near future, so inform her about this."

"Yes sir, I was going to inform her anyways. This is not a small matter I can just forget."

"Good good. Now then, if you'll excuse me."

With those words he simply disappeared. I shook my head in confusion. He truly seemed awkward. As I tried to move the door it did not budge due to my influence beforehand. In the end I had to destroy the hinges and kick it to get out. After freeing myself I was greeted by a person in full combat gear ranging from a bullet proof vest to a ski mask and goggles covering his eyes. He salutes and I can hear his muffled voice asked politely.

"Miss Mercer?"

It was definitely a man I noticed as I returned his salute.

"Yes that would be me, are you the one in charge of walking me out?"

I too returned his kindness and sounded as nice as I could.

"Yes Ma'm. The Commander has told me to see you out with your comrades. A chopper is already waiting outside to take you back to your compound. Follow me please."

We both walked in silence only interrupted by the sound of our heavy boots hitting the ground. The different people we encounter seem to try to desperately avoid the soldier in front of me.

Interested I tap him on the shoulder.

"May I ask who exactly you are? If it's not impolite."

A chuckle resounds from under his mask as he answers.

"It's not, don't worry. I'm just a special operative under Commander Ithild. The reason why they're avoiding me is because they think I'm contaminated."

He sneers pretty loudly as we walk past a door guarded by two soldiers avoiding his gaze.

"It's pretty stupid if you ask me. The only ones that die are the ones that I want to die. But nobody believes it."

Confused I tilt my head.

"Why is that?"

He turns around to take a better look at me.

"Oh, I forgot you probably don't know. I'm called and I can control radioactive particles. The sad part is that I can only control them, and not create them. If you were carrying the things I have on me right now you'd die in a matter of mere minutes. But as long as I have them nothing will happen. Like I said though, nobody believes me."

I was quite surprised. Didn't think they'd let anyone THAT dangerous roam around freely. I crack a small smile, I didn't worry about that, getting rid of cancer was one of the easiest things I could do.

"Humans can be weird sometimes. Nobody truly knows about the control an esper has over their power, not even themselves."

"Indeed" was his only answer and we kept going in silence.

Walking out of the compound I can finally freely look around and notice multiple helipads and a big fenced area all around us. It was also already quite dark... Which meant I had remained here almost for the entire day. Radical salutes once and points towards one of the helicopters in front of us.

"Ma'm, that's your way home, your comrades are already inside."

I return the salute. I knew I could get along with this guy.

"Thank you."

With that we go separate ways, him walking back to base and me heading inside of the air vehicle. I instantly notice Chris and Ignar already seated against one wall. Christian seemed seriously pissed off while Ignar simply had a stoic expression.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Both of them quickly faced me.

"In the end everything was for nothing. We gave them our report and they treated us like some fucking prisoner."

Yea... Chris was mad and he didn't even know the half of it. I wanted to talk with them about what had happened but I decided against it, it wouldn't be good to bother them with this yet. I'd wait until I had talked it over with Karen. One thing bothered me though.

"Did you guys know that the Captain had a cousin?"

I asked the both of them. Ignar sighed once while Chris just seemed to ignore the question. The first one was the one to answer me.

"Karen doesn't consider Commander Ithild to be part of the Ithild family. We do not really talk about this within A3. I apologize for not telling you and if you want to know you will have to ask Karen directly, I have promised not to talk about this without her condolences."

With that he went silent again and closed his eyes. Then I noticed it, his hands were shaking, it was only by a small amount but it was enough to indicate that he was not as calm as he seemed. As such I decided to just drop the whole thing.

I leaned against the cold back of the wall and sighed. I don't care anymore, I just want to sleep again.

I felt nothing of the flight, in fact I only knew that we touched down because Christian hit my shoulder motioning me to get out. We were greeted by Rose who hugged Chris tightly once. The others seemed to have already gone to sleep. Walking inside I started to ask Rose.

"Is Karen still up? I need to talk to her, it's quite important."

She gives me a surprised look but doesn't pry any further and simply answers me.

"Karen doesn't really need sleep. Just go to her office you should find her there."

I nod thankfully and head towards the said room while the others walk towards what I think would be the cafeteria. Quickly arriving in front of the door labeled "Captain Ithild" I breath in once then knock on it to announce myself. I wanted to tell her everything as soon as possible so I could calmly go to sleep afterwards. My Captain muffled voice calls out from inside.

"Just come in."

As I walk through the doorframe I instantly notice the emptiness of the room. Barely anything was inside save a desk with a laptop on top and one cabinet with multiple books. The walls showed the same white except on one spot where a painting hung showing a small riverside.

I didn't keep looking through it and saluted in front of Karen sitting in front of me. Mid motion she raises her hand telling me to stop.

"Alex, I had to put up the professional front to give Ostrid a better impression of us and now that the whole thing is half way covered up you don't have to worry about this for now. I'm glad you guys made it back."

She leans back making a welcoming motion with her hands.

"So what can I do for you? It's kinda late if you ask me."

I put down my hand and get straight to the topic that was bothering me.

"While we were taken in there was a General trying to force me into acting as a spy in A3. He even wanted to use some kind of chemical on me after I refused."

Her facial expression quickly changed through multiple feelings ranging from surprise through worry and finally arriving at rage.

"What was that fuckers name?!"

Her fist hit the table with a loud bang breaking the top layer while she glared at me. I simply answered her with what had taken place during the whole time. After I had finished she seemed to calm down and lean back.

"Fine. Well, the whole thing is settled now. Girand isn't someone to underestimate and command isn't as united as you might think. Some of them really don't trust the entire situation I have build up here in A3. They've noticed that the loyalty of you guys doesn't belong with the military but with me."

I had already guessed as much but there were some questions I had postponed until now. So I just asked.

"Karen? I have delayed this far enough but I actually want to know now. Ignar once told me in the context of family that you had no more relatives, now I found out about the Commander... and they once said you had a sister and that if I wanted to know anything else I had to ask you in person. So now I want to ask, what happened within your family?"

Her gaze went sharp though her eyes itself remained warm. Then she relaxed and pointed at the chair in front of her desk.

"Sit down. I can't have you stand here while I tell you everything."

I do as I'm told though still looking at her. She seems nervous and is fidgeting around before opening and closing her mouth a few times.

"I have already told this story multiple times but it's always hard to find an entry, I guess the best thing would be to start with my family. We are not something as simple as a group of people bound by blood. The Clan is one of the most powerful institutions in the US military, government and economy. Ithild is just the side branch located in the military.

And this is where A3 originally came from. The original 8 members of us were all members of the Clan. The first true modified humans. It was meant as a prototype project and I was in charge.

First came our limbs, the easiest thing to remove and remake."

She gestured at her arms.

"Not everyone survived the first few tries but that was to be expected. Second came our senses, completely removing them and remaking them. Granting new abilities in the process. Your eyes are currently top tier concerning military equipment, but the things I have right now."

She sneers while explaining it to me.

"If I had to make an comparison yours would be a water gun while mine is a fully equipped tank. The same goes for my ears and vocal cords. This was even worse than the first one, you have to remember, this was at a time where me and my colleagues were barely at the age of fourteen. The Clan had to find out whether modifications could still be removed and remade to fit the new body. In the end we survived once more."

Another deep breath interrupted her.

"The third one was the absolute worst. The operation for this was not a thing of hours, it took full days to finish."

She nodded towards me and pointed at her head.

"When operating on the nervous system, everything has to be removed once and then reinstalled. While being in full anesthesia your muscles might accidentally twitch. This is too dangerous for this operation. It was gruesome but we made it through that one as well. In the end we got a tag and a number and were tested. This is what A3 originally was. The ."

I had listened to her in silence and decided to ask her something.

"It is truly impossible to imagine but what does this have to do with your sister, I remember Ignar telling me she lived here on the compound and wasn't really involved with the military."

She seemed to struggle to talk which was absolutely uncommon for her from what I had known about her until now.

Then she opened her mouth again.

"The Clan's engineers aren't FOUND....."

She hesitated again. Then I realized what kind of feeling she was giving off, it wasn't hatred, regret or even pain... It was sheer disgust.

"They are bred Alexis."