"Cai, tell me that there's not going to be some sort of shouting match this time." I begged my Cyber.

"I cannot lie to you about this," he answered. I sighed, for the last two weeks since Sarah had woken up, she and Carrie been arguing and fighting about having Sarah continue as a fighting member of the Nephilim. I was leaving the choice entirely up to Sarah, which would make Carrie angry at me, but I didn't try to force Carrie out of the fighting when she lost her eye or when she lost a limb. I just made her talk to someone and if she stayed then I did my best to accommodate any changes she wanted to her assignments. I couldn't agree with what Carrie wanted for Sarah without accepting Sarah's decisions anymore; Carrie was no longer the adult older sister with an underage kid sister, unilateral decisions made with knowledge that was considered beyond a teenager's ability was no longer something that I could accept.

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"Silent treatment and not talking to one another," he answered. That meant that I'd have both of them speaking to me and asking me to relay what they said to the other, despite being in the same room. Like children. I'd like to retract previous statements about the both of them being adults.

"Well, they need to eat, so I guess there's no avoiding this," I sighed before nodding to have him open the door.

"Hey, you two," I said, trying to be more positive and cut the tension that filled the room. "I brought pizza for you. Pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and jalapenos for Carrie, and pepperoni, bacon, bell peppers, banana peppers, and olives for Sarah. Where do you want it?"

Neither of them answered me, too busy glaring at one another. Sarah was looking like her old self now that her organs weren't trying to jump out of her and her arms were back. Carrie had dyed her hair to series of acid green, crimson red, and neon electric blue; she made a point of telling me there was a difference but I didn't see it. Seeing them sitting together only highlighted their similarities; they had the same eye shape, the same nose, and the same angry scowl as they stared each other down.

"If you keep making those faces, they'll stick," I warned them as I set the containers in front of them and pulled out a slice of one for myself. That got them to both turn their glares on me, maybe that was progress but I wasn't so sure.

"Rickshaw," Carrie said forcing a grin, "would you tell my baby sister that she's not going back to the front lines on this or any other planet."

It wasn't a request. Thankfully, I didn't have to answer before Sarah also spoke.

"Rickshaw," she said, forcing a similar grin as her sister, "would you tell my sister that she doesn't control my life."

Things must be serious if they were both using my name like that. Sarah usually maintained a respectful distance in our interactions given that I was the superior officer; she did that with everyone else that outranked her except Carrie, and usually it wasn't a problem. Carrie never said my name the way she had, so that was also concerning.

"She's not going," Carrie said, still looking at me, the smile gone. "That's final."

"She's not making this decision," Sarah said, her smile also gone. "She's not my parent and I am an adult."

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"You are my sister and I won't let you keep putting yourself in danger," Carrie said, now looking at Sarah. "I will pull all kinds of rank for this; you aren't going back into live combat zones!"

"I won't listen to you when you give me such stupid orders!" Sarah answered, shouting at Carrie. "I have made my decision! I will not be treated like an invalid or some sort of crippled puppy! I'm going back into the fight! It's why I signed up!"

"I allowed that because I knew it would get you away from that man," Carrie shouted. "One way or the other, you were leaving Earth and we were never seeing that damn drunk again! Letting you play pretend soldier up to now was a way to keep you from making a mess or a fuss when you got bored! The way you always do!"

"I make a mess when I'm bored?" Sarah asked. "Why don't you look in a mirror, Carrie? You're always making messes for others to clean up wherever you go!"

"Ladies," I said, "Let's try to calm down and discuss this like adults."

That was dumb to say, I knew it right away when they both turned to glare at me. Oh well, I didn't come here to listen to another fight between them; the doctors wanted to know if they should listen to Carrie or Sarah when it came to Sarah's physical therapy sessions. I was here to tell them what would done for Sarah and the type of therapy that would be focused on in the coming weeks.

"Why are you here?" Carrie asked me angrily. "Don't give me the bullshit about getting us food; you're here for a bigger reason than that."

"I am here because my second in command is acting like a child over her sister's injuries," I told her. "I am here because the doctors are all too afraid to come back into this room while both of you are in here together. I am here because Sarah needs to have been prepped by doctors for her therapy sessions that start tomorrow."

"So here's what's going to happen," I said, ignoring Carrie's attempt to begin speaking. "You're both going to get something from this that the other doesn't want and you're both going to deal with it."

"Sarah," I said, pointing to her, "will be returning to combat duties at the end of her physical therapy sessions. This is not up for debate."

"Carrie," I pointed to her while turning to Sarah, "will be your squadmate in the field since, from this moment on, you are now one of my personal squad members."

"Both of you will find a middle ground to deal with this or I will put some sort of electro-shock therapy to use whenever you fight," I told them both. "What happened could have happened to anyone, Carrie. It happened to Sarah and, just like with anyone else, I've left the decision to continue as a combatant up to the one who was injured, not a commanding officer or a family member. She says that she wants to keep fighting then fine, she'll keep fighting. You're too worried about her being hurt in a fight so fine, you'll both be in the same squad and neither of you will be in command. As the only officer that outranks both of you that means that you're both under my command now."

"I'm sure you have concerns, comments, and questions," I said, standing and grabbing another slice of pizza from one theirs. "Sarah, Cai's sent your Cyber the schedule for the therapy sessions. Carrie, try to wait until the door's shut before you throw something at me. Tah."

I left the room and had turned to close the door when I saw the bed pan flying at me. The door shut before it could hit me, and it made a loud clattering noise as I turned to continue on my way.

"Shall Horseman Applewood be disciplined?" Cai asked.

"No, I'd have done the same with that news," I told him. "Just tell Touka that the next time she does something like that I'll see her in the sparring ring so we can work it all out."

"Very well," he said. "Are you sure that you made the correct decision? It seems that you have only given yourself a larger problem down the line."

"Maybe, maybe not," I shrugged. "Carrie's always been a little emotional, but she's never been physical in her anger when it comes to Sarah. And both Cybers have standing orders to alert me if that ever changes. I can't be having my second in command letting her emotions for her sister distract her from her duties. This was the best way I could think of."

"And Wing Applewood's promotion?" he asked.

"It's coming," I told him. "I want her out in the field again before we move forward with it, but it's coming."

Now I just had to hope that Carrie returned to her duties without any complaints tomorrow.