Commander could understand Anis’ exasperation with him. With the way he was acting, he’d likely have gotten himself killed multiple times already if it weren’t for his insanely good luck. But he just wanted to keep everyone alive, and if that involved putting himself in harm's way then so be it. They were a team, and teammates looked out for one another. And speaking of looking out for teammates, Commander immediately noticed that Marian wasn’t looking so good. She was panting heavily and seemed to only be standing thanks to the aid of a truck she was leaning against.
“Are you okay, Marian?” He asked after moving closer to her.
Raising her head to look at him for a moment and then looking back down at the ground, Marian shook her head gently. “Honestly, no. I don’t know why but I feel wrong. Sluggish.”
In order to make up for her past indiscretions and to hopefully repair her frayed relationship with Marian, Rapi volunteered to perform maintenance on the injured Nikke. The last thing Rapi wanted was a brewing conflict between Nikke when they had a mission to complete. When Marian looked shyly at Commander, her cheeks flushing red, the young man got the message and turned his back to her. He didn’t quite know what maintenance was but it was plausible that it included clothes being taken off. Marian’s internals needed to be looked at and there was only one way for that to happen. Their brains were that of humans, so of course a woman would be embarrassed to be seen naked by a man.
“Unbelievable.” Anis had moved to stand beside Commander, peering up at the man’s face that’d turned a faint shade of crimson. “You actually see us in that way?”
“I’m a man and you’re all good-looking women, what do you expect?” He chuckled lightly while the sound of clothes rustled a few feet behind him, Rapi and Marian having taken cover inside the nearest building. Commander supposed it was because Nikke were used to being treated as weapons and nothing more, so they’d given up on being seen in such a manner. But he couldn’t lie to them. Flower had smiled at his joke, Marian was worried about him, Anis usually had an amusing comeback. When they expressed such emotions, how could he not see them as human? How could he not be attracted to them? The fact that Marian was embarrassed to be seen naked by Commander made him happy, in a totally normal way. She was acknowledging that they saw each other as equals. She saw him as a man and he saw her as a woman.
“Hmm…” Anis trailed off in an attempt to sound bored and uninterested, but her face couldn’t lie. For a brief moment a genuine smile crept onto her face. Anis was always trying to be funny because she didn’t want to engage with the horrible situation Nikke found themselves in, so her smile was usually forced to match her fake persona. She’d given up on people, on finding love, many years ago. She just got on with her job and thought of trying to relieve stress through humour. But now she’d encountered someone that cared about Nikke and even saw them as people. If more people were like this man then perhaps Nikke would live better, more fulfilling lives.
Commander was about to continue the topic, curious about Nikke, but was interrupted when he heard an unfamiliar voice in his ear.
“...Do you… copy? Does… anyone read me?” A high-pitched voice came through over the radio, interrupted by regular static. “Ark Control to surface. Do you copy? Rapi, Anis?”
“This is Rapi. Shifty, do you copy?” The girl in red and black responded while continuing to look Marian over. Rapi was progressing smoothly with the injured Nikke’s maintenance. Rapi was hellbent on making sure she did a thorough job to ensure there wouldn’t be any problems later on for Marian. While Rapi worked, her handler, Shifty, spoke to her over the radio.
“It’s about time we got through! Give me a sitrep, what’s going on Rapi?”
Rapi relayed any information she believed to be relevant while poking and prodding Marian’s open back. Not long after a transport ship was shot down both herself and Anis had transferred themselves to the command of the last human survivor. Commander believed his team was still capable of completing the mission, so they were currently following coordinates provided by Marian. Along the way they encountered some members from the missing patrol. Counters, Rapi’s squad, was going to keep moving North in an attempt to find the last missing Nikke.
As Rapi and Shifty spoke to each other, Anis tapped the side of her head and activated a hologram projector in her eye similar to what Marian could do with a map. Projected in front of Commander was what looked like a young girl. He had to assume this was Shifty the Handler. Atop her long blue hair was a pair of white headphones decorated with devil horns and a badge of a demon face in a cartoony style. Stretched across her cheek was a microphone. Commander could hear the girl’s fingers tapping a screen he couldn’t see. She typed furiously on a glass panel keyboard that functioned similarly to any phone or tablet touchscreen.
“Excellent. We started to panic when we lost contact with the transport ship. So it was shot down? And there was only one surviving commander?”
“That’s what happens when you send a transport ship straight into the middle of an enemy camp. Seriously, what were you thinking, Shifty?” Anis wasn’t good with death in any form, against anyone. She wouldn’t even wish death upon her worst enemy if said enemy was a human. But even so, Anis was surprised by her own ability to bad mouth a handler she had a strong working relationship with, to the point where Anis considered Shifty a friend. There was something else going on, an emotion swirling around within Anis that she thought to be long dormant. There was only one reason Anis could come up with. Commander. Was she still riding the high of Commander being a decent person so she was getting angry on his behalf? She could feel herself becoming like Marian, overprotective of one of the few people willing to show her any respect.
“No, that’s not right. I’m looking at reconnaissance reports now, Raptures in that area don’t have anti-air weaponry. The transport ship should’ve been fine.”
“Shifty, can you send me the black box data when you have it?” Rapi asked after finishing upkeep on Marian. She was beyond curious about the situation. Observational data is provided constantly from roaming Nikke squads and recon units. It would be outdated by no more than three days. Raptures move fast, but not that fast. On top of that, Raptures aren’t exactly smart. They wouldn’t even consider cycling different Raptures through different areas to keep humans and Nikke on their toes.
Rapi wanted that black box data to confirm a few things. She was expecting to see missiles fired from such a close range that BA-01’s pilot couldn’t react in time. Within every vehicle created by the Ark is a black box. It’s a device so tough that it would survive most explosions and impacts. Bullets that strike the black box would crumple into a flat chunk of lead, not even leaving a scratch on the excessively tough material. Inside that impenetrable cube is data from the systems of whatever vehicle the box was plugged into. Any and all information generated by the vehicle is saved into the black box. This would include any objects detected on radar.
“Sure, I’ll look into it now.” Acknowledging Rapi’s thanks, Shifty finally turned her attention to Commander and spoke to him personally. “Hello there, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Shifty, an operator from the Ark Intelligence Department. I will do my best to provide oversight during the rest of the operation.”
“I’m happy to have more support so thanks in advance.”
Flashing a big smile at her camera, Shifty’s visuals shut off and she went quiet as she presumably worked on what Rapi had asked for. She probably didn’t know whether anyone was projecting her image so she just automatically smiled to cover her bases. As for why there was a camera pointed at an operator, Commander couldn’t say for sure. His assumption was that it boosted morale for both sides. The squad in the field were happy to see their support and the operator felt like part of the team and the need to help them achieve their goal.
The team continued through the city, eventually stopping at a miraculously still standing skyscraper. Out of the hundreds of buildings they’d seen so far, this was by far the tallest. After a quick debate, it was decided that they would ascend this skyscraper until they were above their surroundings. This was to get a lay of the land and for Marian to point out exactly where they needed to go.
Moving into the building, Commander noticed an elevator and pushed the button as his squad walked on by. He shrugged. Of course it didn’t work. This city probably lost power decades ago. “Worth a try, right?”
“I didn’t take you for the lazy type, Commander.” Marian joked, the corners of her lips twisting into that gentle smile she always showed others. It was the type of look that calmed his heart and made him want to try extra hard. To push himself to his limits and pull through on this dangerous mission.
“I can handle stairs just fine. In fact, I could carry you up to the twentieth floor. No problem.” Commander boldly declared as they all reached the first set of stairs. And he was serious. He put an arm around Marian’s back, crouched down to put an arm under the inside of her knees and he lifted with all his might. He knew Nikke weighed a lot due to being androids made of metal and other equally heavy materials, but he was still surprised now that Marian was in his arms. Nikke really had some heft to them.
But the young man was strong. His military uniform betrayed his physical body’s appearance. It didn’t highlight or show off his muscular body. Ignoring Marian’s protests, Commander steeled himself and began climbing one step at a time. Seeing that her boss wasn’t going to listen, Marian offloaded as much as she could, items like her weapon and spare magazine, to the rest of her team. With every step, Commander felt like his face became more strained and his knees were going to buckle, but in an amazing feat of strength he did what he said he would. He carried Marian up twenty flights of stairs. By the end he was drenched in sweat and panting heavily with his hands on his knees.
Marian reached a hand out to him with a nervous look once she was standing on her own two feet. “A- Are you okay, Commander?”
Through heavy breathing he managed to speak. “Perfectly… fine…”
That was one hell of a workout. Both Rapi and Anis were surprised and impressed by how strong he was, although it was clear it took every ounce of strength for Commander to pull off this stunt. Anis was also feeling a little bit of something else. If she were to be treated like this for the rest of her life, how would she feel? Happy, no doubt. To finally be seen as an equal and to be treated with respect, it was hard not to want such a thing. Was Anis jealous? Not of Marian, but of the relationship forming between the two. Now that she was seeing a Nikke and a human quickly forming a bond with each other, Anis couldn’t help but want that too. It didn’t have to be with this man. Anis just wanted someone, anyone, to sweep her off her feet both figuratively and literally.
“Well here we are.” Rapi said, putting a hand on Anis’ shoulder and squeezed softly as if she understood. “Time to survey the area.”
So that was what the group of Nikke did. Commander sat this one out, still recovering from his strenuous walk up twenty floors of stairs. It would be bad manners to not listen though, he didn’t want his squad to have to repeat themselves to him, so as Fay used her riot shield as a fan to cool Commander down the young man listened to his team. Off in the distance, past a rusty, worn-down yellow crane was their objective. It was roughly three miles away. They would be heading North-East for a time until they reached a building slumped over and resting atop another structure. From there they would turn left and reach their objective after a bit of walking. Marian’s coordinates would eventually lead Counters out of the main city and into the suburbs where a sea of homes lie in wait for new residents one day.
While looking out over the city from up high, Anis inched closer to Marian and put an arm around her shoulders to bring her in close. With a cheeky grin, Anis began teasing Marian about her love life. “So hey, relations between a commander and Nikke aren’t exactly forbidden.”
“I- It’s not like that, we just met a few hours ago…” Marian said, blushing slightly. Marian couldn’t say for certain whether she wanted that kind of relationship right now, but she felt that one day she’d like to be romantically involved with someone. Love lives are all but non-existent for Nikke though. Nikke are not seen as human anymore and they’re never able to find a partner. Marian was one of the many Nikke that had resigned themselves to the fact that they’d never experience love. And yet despite that, she now had the ability to hope. There was a man treating her well. Marian thought it’d be a bad idea to let this chance go. “...But, do you think it’s possible?”
The grin on Anis’ face grew larger. “If you wait too long, someone’s gonna steal him from you. You might as well, right? There’s no harm in it.” Anis then released Marian so she could stand upright and Marian was left to her own thoughts. To burrow deep within herself and see what her emotions told her.
Oblivious to the girl’s love talk going on nearby, Commander eventually stood up and approached the heavily damaged windows once he’d rested enough. He at least wanted to get a look at the view before they went all the way back down the skyscraper and started walking through the streets. Back in the Ark he could only imagine that seeing the world from up high gives a completely unique experience compared to seeing the world from below. Commander’s breath caught in his throat as he looked through a glassless window. He was expecting a half-decent landscape, but he wasn’t expecting this. There was something serene about the view reflected in his eyes, probably due to all the florae. A sea of green-topped roofs stretched as far as the eye could see. Moss and vines covered every object in sight, from billboards and signs to a train atop an elevated track. In the distance was an exceptionally large tree piercing the roof of a skyscraper and acting as a landmark for cartographers. The contrast between mostly grey structures and bright green nature made him sigh and smile, realising he’d been holding his breath. The world was a messed up, rough place, but life still found a way to persist.
When he saw something glinting in the distance, Commander squinted and put a hand over his eyes to block out the sunlight above. Then his eyes widened and he shouted for everyone to get down. It appeared Commander’s squad had figured out what was going on just before he had because his vision shifted even though he wasn’t moving. Fay grabbed the back of Commander’s clothes and threw him down while raising her shield in front of him, protecting him from a burst of bullets. This was a long-range fight, causing Fay to be all but useless considering she had a shotgun. The only thing she could do was stand guard and protect Commander. As everyone started firing at flying Raptures as per Commander’s orders, Fay kept her shield propped up in front of her leader just in case. For now the building’s walls would protect him, but if bullets made it through concrete then they would meet resistance in the form of a thick riot shield.
Commander rushed to take his phone out to observe the battlefield using Samantha’s helmet camera. He saw various shapes and sizes flying towards them, the sun struggling to bounce off their dull metal bodies. Raptures that’d been shot down collided with billboards and corners of buildings, exploding on impact and risking setting fire to the nature that’d overtaken this city.
Likely hearing the battle overhead, more Raptures appeared, but they were ground-based enemies. They simply jumped from rooftop to rooftop until they were standing as close to the twentieth floor of the skyscraper as they could. Once they began firing miniguns and lasers, Commander’s squad were in danger. Their cover, walls of an already weakened building, were not going to last long.
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“Cover’s not going to last, Commander!” Marian shouted. She said what Commander was thinking. He needed to take lessons from her. Say things as he sees them, even if they’re obvious observations.
The young man looked back at his phone. Seeing the distance between the skyscraper and the nearest building’s rooftop, he was struck by a really bad idea. Jump. He was certain they could make it. Nikke weighed a lot, they would probably crash through the roof and maybe a floor or two, but that was actually a good thing. It meant they automatically had cover again. They’d have new walls to hide behind.
Commander put a hand to his ear and barked orders over the radio as more flying Raptures were shot out of the air and a few ground-based Raptures went limp thanks to Marian and Rapi being crack shots. Anis looked at him and began frantically shaking her head until more bullets hit her cover and chipped massive chunks out of it. A bullet grazed her cheek and she coughed after inhaling dust. This changed her mind somewhat.
“This is a really bad idea, Commander!”
Samantha was to hang back as long as she could and keep dealing with flying Raptures while everyone slowly leapt over to a different building. Fay and Commander were first, much to Commander’s surprise. She wrapped an arm around the young man’s waist and tucked him under her arm, held her shield in front of herself and charged at the building’s wall. Fay broke through said wall and hurtled shield first into a rooftop five-storeys below with rubble raining down around her. From his admittedly comfy and secure position, Commander winced as he saw the Rapture in the way. Fay didn’t seem to care though as she crashed into the ground-based Rapture with her shield, crushing it and causing the roof to cave in under the pressure. They went down another two storeys as multiple floors failed to hold their weight.
Once they stopped moving thanks to structural integrity, Fay let go of Commander and pushed him aside, causing him to roll down the side of the Rapture and onto a carpeted floor. Fay tossed her shield to her back and brought her shotgun forward, pointing the barrel at the still functioning Rapture she’d thrown herself at. Applying pressure to her shotgun’s trigger caused a shell to fire and the Rapture to go limp. Just another kill to add to the count.
The new commander got to his feet and brushed himself off as Fay moved to cover him and Rapi jumped into the hole after them. She hit the ground rolling and surveyed the area with her rifle pointing at what she was looking at. Satisfied with what she was seeing, a dead Rapture and an unharmed commander, Rapi went to the window to keep fighting. Since the skyscraper was the highest structure around, the apparent office building Rapi found herself in now was the same height as all the other buildings in sight. She honestly preferred it this way. She was on the same level as the Raptures that approached.
A terrified Anis followed moments later, screaming as she jumped. However, once she landed and realised she was okay, she grew more confident, a proud smile crossing her face. She’d never been on a mission that generated so much adrenaline before. She was starting to think she could do anything.
Marian and Samantha made the jump just fine too, and with the whole squad here Raptures were being destroyed as fast as a glutton ate food at an eating contest. It grew quiet for a brief moment and Commander heaved a sigh of relief as the last few Raptures sitting atop nearby rooftops were destroyed.
Not even ten seconds later the sound of destruction drew Commander in. Samantha shouted that a large Rapture was ploughing up through nearby buildings in order to reach the team. It was another Perennial, a flying menace. It had been lower to the ground, hovering around doing nothing in particular, when it heard the gunfight and detected a human. Now it was carving a path straight to Commander’s squad and it didn’t care how many buildings it had to tear through to reach its target. Everyone went to the wall on the right and began firing their weapons at Perennial the split-second it was exposed, with Anis landing a good hit with a grenade to its sensor atop its body. Their enemy unleashed a torrent of blue homing lasers which tore through concrete and made Commander worry his squad may need to relocate by jumping to another building.
Once Perennial’s barrage was over and everyone seemed to be okay, Rapi leaned out of a window further away from the fight and aimed her rifle above Perennial. Once she had the angle she wanted she fired her underbarrel grenade launcher up high and, when it was ten feet above Perennial, it detonated. To Commander’s surprise, Rapi’s strongest weapon was a cluster grenade. A dozen bombs battered Perennial, the last remaining Rapture in the fight. Perennial was unable to withstand such an assault and burst into flames while crashing into the ground below. Looking out of the glassless window just to be sure, Commander saw it explode.
“Another success, team.” He said proudly, turning back to the people he was talking to. He was about to ask if anyone was hurt and his feelings never changed so drastically so fast. He saw Marian leaning heavily against a wall, barely able to keep herself standing upright.
Rushing to Marian and helping her sit down to rest, Commander got a close-up view of her wound. The space between her left shoulder and neck was practically non-existent now. It’d gone completely unnoticed at the time, but one of Perennial’s homing laser orbs had struck Marian, removing her from the end of the fight. The young man could see inside Marian’s body because of her new injury. As expected, there were a lot of intricate parts. Some moved every now and then, they were probably lungs and the heart. He could see the tube that was her throat and the sturdy metal frame that made up her skeleton. The main object that caught his attention was a metal rod split in half and missing a huge chunk from its centre. That must be her collar bone. Yellow sparks came from the metal rod as it housed an array of wires that were now also ruined.
“Today just isn’t your day, huh?” Anis said, leaning over and observing the wound.
“Ha, tell me about it…” Marian panted. Her collar bone was done for until she received repairs back at the Ark. She was now going to have to use her submachine gun one-handed. That wasn’t too much of a problem, she could handle the recoil, but her accuracy would likely be affected because using her gun with one hand wasn’t something she had to do often. She just wasn’t trained for it.
Alongside Marian’s increasing number of wounds, there was another problem. She was becoming more exhausted as time progressed. Nikke were practically immune to being tired, yet Marian was feeling fatigue in a way she shouldn’t. It was unusual, to say the least. She’d need a serious check-up back at the Ark.
“Come on.” Commander crouched down beside Marian and put her unusable arm over his shoulders, using himself to support her. “We need to keep moving. The faster we find our missing Nikke, the faster we can go home and get you fixed up.”
Everyone in the squad was sombre faced as they made their way downstairs and back out onto the street, knowing that at any moment someone in the squad could die. Marian was still upfront, but with the addition of Commander supporting her now. She refused to transfer coordinates over to someone else. That was like admitting she was a burden. The least she could do was lead the squad to their destination, where they were likely to find what they were looking for. More than anything else, she didn’t want to seem useless to Commander.
Rounding a corner, Shifty popped back up on the radio. “How’s everyone doing? Good, I hope. Because I’ve got some bad news. I just received a new report, there’s a Lord class Rapture in the sector of the city you’re heading to.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Anis complained. “What’s some big shot doing around here?”
“Commander, I suggest we retreat.” Rapi said, nodding in agreement with Anis and recommending a new course of action. It was a reasonable option, given the circumstances. One of them was so badly injured she was struggling to keep walking and they were lower on resources than they would like.
“It isn’t weird for us to fail our mission, you know? Less than one percent of missing Nikke are ever recovered. This is just turning into a suicide mission.” Anis added justification for Rapi’s suggested retreat.
Something still wasn’t adding up for the fresh-faced leader of Counters. Shifty was acting like this Lord class Rapture was new news, but then why had the Central Government sent so many commanders and Nikke in the transport ship? They must be hiding something because to anyone with a brain it was obvious to see why they sent so many people on a search and rescue mission. There was a powerful enemy roaming around that was too big of a threat for a single squad to handle. The Government absolutely knew this beforehand. Were they hoping the team they sent out would encounter it and potentially destroy it? Why hadn’t they told Shifty until now?
Ultimately this was something he could think about later. For now both Commander and Marian denied Rapi’s proposal to retreat. They were so close to saving the third and final missing Nikke. They were no more than thirty minutes away from their objective. Marian could hang on for that long at least.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to continue this mission? Lord class Raptures are the ones that lead high-level, elite Raptures. Their combat capabilities are well above anything you’ve seen or fought so far. You have a decent shot at winning, but you’re likely going to incur heavy losses.” Shifty wanted to try and convince Commander to leave it alone. He did what he could but going any further would just be reckless. Shifty wasn’t a fan of losing Counters, she’d known Rapi and Anis for a few months and quite enjoyed their company over the radio. They were both competent and fun. Or, well, one of them was fun.
“I don’t want to pretend missing Nikke don’t exist.” Marian proclaimed.
“Marian is right. I’m giving you all the order. We will find this missing Nikke and complete our mission. If we get killed then by all means, curse me forever in the afterlife. But I’m not giving up when there’s still a chance.”
Not able to disobey their leader, Rapi and Anis fell in line without saying another word. In secret, they were happy their commander was so engrossed in his mission to find some random Nikke he didn’t even know. They were concerned this could end badly for him, but that just spurred them on to try extra hard to keep him safe. If, on their final day, they died protecting such a chivalrous man then Rapi and Anis could at least say they didn’t regret their decision. Commander was a rare breed, it was imperative that he stay alive as long as possible. The Nikke of this world needed him.
Shifty suggested resupplying at a nearby ammunition cache if Counters was serious about continuing with the mission. Such things were necessary for the mass-produced Nikke that patrolled these streets. No one knew when a fight would break out and an emergency resupply was needed. Of course, these ammunition caches were open to the public. Commander’s squad were free to take whatever they needed in order to complete their mission. With her opinion given, Shifty said goodbye as she continued to work on BA-01’s black box.
Reaching the ammunition cache without issue some minutes after communications with Shifty ended, everyone grabbed whatever they needed for their potential fight against a powerful Rapture. With Marian having a bit more of a unique weapon, there wasn’t an exact match for the magazine of her gun so Commander sat with her and slot loose bullets into her submachine gun’s drum mag.
Once everyone was ready to go, Commander and Marian led the way. Marian still needed support so Commander was by her side, her arm over his shoulders. Everyone else walked close behind, no more than a few feet distance separating them all. As they crossed a street where two roads intersected, everyone saw something coming except Commander. But even if everyone saw it, the only one with the ability to act fast enough and save Commander was Marian. She yanked her damaged arm off Commander’s shoulder, then turned and bashed him behind a nearby building as she raised her gun and pointed it down the street to their right.
Then a splatter of red liquid left Marian’s head.
Commander’s eyes widened in shock as he expected his Nikke to go limp and drop to the ground. But instead of dropping dead, Marian began firing her gun as she sidestepped behind the building and out of her enemy’s line of sight while a hail of bullets, likely from a minigun, struck asphalt and concrete around them. Marian turned to Commander, worried for his safety, and that was when the young man saw her face. One of her lovely, bright blue eyes had been scrubbed from existence. There was a massive wound channel across Marian’s face where her right eye used to be.
“Are you okay, Commander?!” Marian screamed, mimicking what she said and how she said it when she resuscitated him at BA-01’s wreck.
Dripping down her face and onto her chest, staining her white shirt, was a liquid no human could live without. Blood. Or something similar to it at least. Commander had a rough idea that Nikke needed to think they were as human as possible in order to avoid a mental breakdown, so some kind of liquid being housed in their android bodies and appearing when they were injured was a must. But how could she be so concerned about Commander when she was in such a state? Bullets rippled through air and struck concrete as the rest of his team joined their commander taking cover behind a brick structure.
Gritting his teeth, Commander nodded. He would save his anger for when this fight was over. And it was over surprisingly quickly compared to their other battles. Samantha peeked around the corner with her sniper, took a couple of shots at the lone Rapture and eventually dropped it after hitting its lens and its core buried deep within its metal body.
Everyone slowly exhaled their held breath after one Rapture was defeated and they realised that was it. Sometimes a lone Rapture was just lying in wait for a Nikke or human to kill. That’s all there was to it.
With the threat eliminated, Commander finally spoke his mind, rising to stand above Marian. “Worry about yourself for once! What if that had hit your brain, Marian?!” He spat. He got it, he understood that if she hadn’t done what she’d done then he probably would’ve taken a bullet to the lungs or heart and he’d be dead, but that didn’t mean Marian had to throw away her own life. He was starting to hate the rule that Nikke protect their Commander no matter what. It was just another way for Nikke to die en masse.
“I will never apologise for doing my duty and protecting you, Commander.” Marian replied with a fierce fire in her remaining eye. Her tiredness was temporarily suppressed so she could confidently stand her ground. And it worked.
“...Sit down.” Commander said after exhaling heavily to calm himself.
Marian, with her back to a wall, slid down roughly until her rear hit the ground. Commander crouched beside her and delicately brushed her long brown hair aside. The wound across Marian’s face was a nasty one, the worst Commander had seen so far. Something was still working, evident by the fact that there was a red glow coming from what remained of her eye socket. Likely a bulb covered in blood now. He recalled the first time he saw Marian’s bright blue eyes. The colour of the sky suited her more than this nasty red colour.
“Let's get you patched up.” Commander said softly, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out bandages again. He carefully dressed Marian’s head at an angle to cover the massive wound on her face. Blood soaked into the first two layers, staining the bandages red. Commander carried on, wrapping one more layer around Marian’s head to stop blood from being visible. Now her face was covered in pristine white bandages.
Just before Commander could pull his hand away, Marian placed her hand over his, pushing his hand onto her cheek. She enjoyed the warmth of Commander. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she didn’t have the courage to. She wanted to continue experiencing life with Commander. She wanted to continue feeling his touch. She loved the way he looked out for her and worried about her. Just the thought of losing this man hurt Marian. “I told you I would protect you and I mean it. I’m not going to lose you.”
Even Marian was surprised by how she was acting and what she was thinking. She’d never done something like this before. She’d never felt like this before. She had really taken what Anis said to heart. If Marian wasn’t going to appeal to Commander and try to become his partner now, then when was she going to do it? She understood that she hadn’t known the man long and that she might be going too fast, but so what? Commanders have a high death rate due to their job. Marian might not see this man again. In that case the romance needed to be fast or it would never happen. The last thing Marian wanted was to regret not acting now.
“And how do you think I feel? Do you think I’m okay with you dying? Because I’m not. I want to continue to be here for you just like you’re there for me. I want you to live, Marian.”
They stayed like that for a moment that felt like a lifetime, staring into each other’s eyes with Commander’s hand on Marian’s cheek. That was until Anis leant over and brought her face close. Plastered across her face was the most smug look imaginable. “Check out you two lovebirds.”
Commander coughed and stood up, withdrawing his hand from Marian’s cheek because she let him go out of embarrassment. Commander then put a hand out to Marian to help her stand. He didn’t know how he felt about Marian. It seemed a bit too soon for love, although he could’ve been the victim of love at first sight. All he knew right now was that he wanted to spend more time with Marian, which would prove to be difficult due to a rule all commanders and Nikke have to follow. They are not allowed to team up multiple missions in a row. Over time he would see her again, likely in a month or so, but he would have to deal with constant separation from Marian. He was going to need to make the most out of his encounters with her.
“Our objective is no more than a mile away.” The injured Nikke confirmed as her arm went over Commander’s shoulders again. She seemed to purposely keep her head low to avoid showing her face to Commander. “We should get going.”