December 13, 2041

"Hey. Hey! Wake up." Smith awakens to a female voice calling to him.

He had dozed off in his chair for a couple of minutes without realizing it. He sits up straight and rubs his face before looking up at the woman.

"What is it, Julia?" He asks, still half asleep.

"It's almost time. I figured I would wake you up so you can spend some more time with her."

"Oh... Right." Smith had almost forgotten the deal he had made with Atlis. "I guess that makes sense..." He looks up to Julia and notices the expression on her face. Something about it tells him she's upset about something.

"Is everything alright?" He asks.

"Yeah, of course! It's just... I don't know about this Smith." She finally explains. "Are we sure we're making the best decision?"

Smith gets up from his chair and walks over to her. He stands a bit taller than her and looks right into her dark brown eyes. BY the looks of it, she's already been crying.

"We've talked about this. With the way things are going, Atlis is the safest bet we can make. It was good while it lasted but we knew what we were getting ourselves into. It was only a matter of time. Do you understand?" He says gently to her.

She nods, holding back the tears while resting her head on his chest. They stay like that for a minute or two before Smith pulls away and starts looking around.

"Now, where is Luna anyways?" He says cheerfully, ready to spend as much time as possible with her.

As if on cue, a little head peeks over from a doorway. She stares at the two adults through her hazel eyes before stepping into view.

"Ah. There you are!" Smith exclaims and opens his arms to catch the joyful girl.

The two hug each other immensely as Julia joins in only to notice Luna's drenched jacket.

"Luna, why are your clothes wet? Did you go outside? How many times have I told you not to go outside without permission?" She states, raising her voice.

"Now calm down Julia. A little snow never hurt anyone." Smith reassures her while comforting Luna.

"We made these rules for a reason Smith. Do you not remember the long talk we had about this?" She asks.

"All I remember was the session we had after that." Smith says with a wink.

"Wha-"

"Anyways. How about we get something to eat? How's that sound Luna?" Smith asks.

The girl nods with a smile and the two start making their way to the cafeteria.

Julia sighs and curses under her breath before following close behind them. Outside of all this, contractors patrol the set buildings, keeping tight security on the valuable girl they possess. For she is on the radar of many people.

They called themselves The Moon's Light, a PMC that, like most others, operated on the behalf of Rambell's government, tasked with handling insurgents and tackling assignments that might be deemed too minor or politically sensitive for official government forces to engage in directly. Two years ago, while conducting a sweep up of insurgents, they came across a little girl chained up inside a locked room. At that time, she was no more than four years of age.

Upon further inspection, they came to find that she was in no way neglected as she was well fed and showed no signs of abuse or trauma. When questioned, all she could manage was a nod or a shake of the head. She had no name, no recollection of her time in the room, nor about anything at that. It was almost as if this the first time the girl awakened her consciousness.

Without any other choice, the group decided to take her, unwilling to leave a small child alone. A few days later, the name Renee Luna was given to her as Luna was symbolic for their PMC name and Renee would give her the title Queen of The Moon.

It was Smith's idea.

Throughout the year, the members of the PMC raised Luna, giving her basic knowledge of the world, how to cook, proper language (since they often cursed a lot and didn't want to give a bad influence on her) and even taught her how to shoot a gun. For such a young girl, she picked up on things rather quickly and efficiently.

It was only a year after, did they discover she was a Shard when she was getting her annual checkup. Not only that, but the Divinity yield recorded was off the charts, way more than anyone had ever seen in someone so young. She was on par with some soldiers in the Shard Korps...

As expected, all of this was a shock to both the examiners and contractors. Some could barely contain their excitement to the discovery while others, such as Smith, feared what could happen if Nations around the world came know about this. Unfortunately for him, it only took a few days after the checkup for news to start circulating around the world about a potent shard within Rambell. Sure enough, it didn't take long for a target to be placed on the PMC group after refusing to hand over Luna.

Skipping a year ahead, after having to be constantly on the run from other contractors, it was decided that TML would offer up Luna to Atlis where she would have the best chance at a decent life.

"Luna, please try to eat more slowly." Julia sighs as Luna gobbles down her food.

She looks up and swallows. "But it's so good!"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Pay no attention to her Luna," Smith says, coming back from washing himself clean. "She's just jealous that you like my cooking better then hers." He snorts before taking a seat.

Julia comes up and punches him in the shoulder.

"Smith! That's not funny or true!" She shouts.

"Really now? The last time you cooked for me I had stomach aches for days." He states.

"Ugh. You over-exaggerate things way too much." She rolls her eyes.

Smith ignores her and watches as Luna finishes her plate. When she looks up at him, he's suddenly hit with a reel of memories he's had with her which makes him choke up. He knows this the right choice, but he can't help but to feel guilty about all of this. Pushing away his emotions, he leans in and cleans the side of her mouth with a rag.

"So, Luna," He begins. "Excited to go to Atlis?" He asks.

"Mhmm! Is it true that there's more Shards like me there?" She asks, her eyes filled with joy.

"Yup! Very true. There are millions just like you, and who knows, maybe you'll make friends with some your age!" Smith says.

"That'd be nice! And when I do, I'll introduce them to you and everyone!" She says with a warm smile.

"Uh... no Luna, we're not-"

<>

The urgent voice from the radio interrupts Smith and makes him jump from his seat.

"Excuse me for a second." He says as he pardons himself away. Julia watches with a worried expression as he answers the radio.

"What is it?" He says.

<>

The persons words make Smith's heart sink as the situation starts to form in his head. He was sure this was a secluded spot away from anyone else. How did they find them? For the past year he's even had to make the tough decision of letting go his fellow contractors in fear that a few of them had been acting suspicious. Some of them were his friends... Everything he's done was for the sake of Luna and now it all seems like it was for nothing.

Atlis is still fifty minutes out, and there's no way he'd be able to keep them at bay for that long, not with so few men now. He runs back and informs Julia of the news; her eyes widen as she can't believe what she's hearing.

"Wha- what do we do now?" She stutters her words, her mind not being able to think properly.

"I'm going out there to meet them. Chances are that they won't leave, and we'll be forced to fight," He continues, "In the meantime, take Luna and few of the guys to car parked in the back. I'll buy you as much time as possible so make use of every second."

She regains her thoughts and nods and goes to pick up the clueless and now frightened Luna.

Smith turns to run off but Julia calls out to him before he can leave.

He turns back around just as Julia's lips finds his. They stay that way for a few seconds before pulling away from each other.

"Try not get yourself killed. For her sake and mine." She says to him, her eyes sparkling. He nods and runs off to meet with the visitors.

Outside, the wind is howling fiercely, thrashing the leaf-less bushes and shaking the buildings around. Continuing, he joins his men who have positioned themselves in front of the PMCs standing outside their black SUVs. He's heavily outnumbered, and by the looks of it, the men in front of him are a multitude of different PMCs as well.

"Keep your composure, I'll do the talking. Stand fast but don't engage first." Smith announces to the men around him.

The PMCs nod as Smith take a step forward to introduce himself. All he had to do was waste enough for Luna and Julia to get away.

"Good morning, gentlemen. As you all probably know, I am-"

"Don't care." A man suddenly cuts him off as Smith turns his attention to the individual.

"...And who, if I may ask, might you be sir?"

The man takes a puff of his cigarette before answering. "Doesn't matter."

"On the contrast, I think it does." He counters. "Are you by chance the leader of this coalition?"

"Hand the girl over."

No bullshit, straight to the point huh?

"Now look. I'm willing to cooperate with you but can I at least have a name? We're both contractors, aren't we?"

"Grey. That's all you'll get."

Whether it was a fake name or not, Smith now knows that he's willing to converse even if it's just a little. He has to be careful however, if he pushes back to hard there's no stopping them from just gunning him and his men down.

"Okay, Grey. Now that I know who I'm talking to, it'll be easier for me to address you."

"Where is the shard?"

"She's inside. As you can see, it's not the best of conditions out here so I wouldn't want her catching a cold you see. I'm sure the few of you who are fathers would understand right?" To his surprise he notices one of the men visibly twitch. At least not all of them were as cold blooded as they seemed.

"Bring her out here. Now."

"Absolutely, but that'll take some time for someone to fetch her, is that alright with you Grey?"

"Five minutes."

Smith snaps his fingers as two men behind him begin to head back towards the compound. The two of course have no intention in bringing back Luna but at least this solidified five minutes. It also acted as way to ease the other PMCs tensions as they had less resistance in front of them now. Make them feel confident and in control, that was Smith's goal.

"So... if I may ask again, how did you come to know about our whereabouts? I was fairly certain this abandoned Ram base was only known to us."

"That's something you don't need to worry about. Stop asking questions."

"Right. No more questions... but what about offers?"

Grey chuckles at his comment as so do the men behind him. "What can you offer?"

"Well for starters, name your price. Or anything for that matter."

"Money won't get you out of this. Especially money you don't have."

"Are you sure about that? Just tell me the price, I won't bite."

"...Four Million."

"Wow, that's certainly a lot, isn't it? Looks like you got me beat."

Smith takes a moment to recollect his thoughts as the time ticks down. It was starting to dawn on him that there was no way out of this. These were the worst types of PMCs as well. No matter what he says, they won't budge. All that matters to them is that the job gets done and they get paid.

It was times like this that he wished Julia was at his side. She could keep talking on and on about the most useless things without taking a break. It would also be the first time Smith would willingly let her keep talking.

As the last minute begins counting down, Grey starts to become impatient as he drops his cigarette and crushes it beneath his boot.

"What is taking so long?" His voice grows more serious.

"We just set up base here and don't know the layout yet. Maybe they got lost."

"Bullshit. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Of course not! Would you like to come inside so we can get out of the snow?"

Moving this to indoors will actually even the odds as numbers will hinder the others in the tight spot in the compound. Smith's guys also have good knowledge of the layout could easily set traps and ambushes.

"You know what... yes actually. But you can stay right there." Grey motions for a few of men to move forward which causes he TML members to twitch and tighten their grips on their weapons.

"I would advise your men to stand down."

"...I can't do that."

"Imbecile. I'm offering you and your men a chance to walk away with your lives, yet you still persist on protecting a frac."

"And what wrong with that?"

Grey sighs at his question, "You're starting to piss me off. You call yourself a contractor but you're far from it. The difference between us lies in the fact that I maintain a clear separation between my emotions and my task at hand. Our primary focus is ensuring we get paid and meeting the customer's demands. And to please my client, I need that frac of yours. So, what's it going to be? Contractor."

Fighting would only lead to their deaths... but surrendering Luna wasn't an option Smith can contemplate. She had become like a daughter in their short time together and he wasn't ready to let go of her just yet. What he did know was that he had already made his decision a long time ago. There was no need to continue this game of charades any longer.

With a smug expression now on his face, he looks up one more time at the group of men before raising his hand to flick them off.

"If you want her, come and get her mother fuckers!"