Mari was back at the Fadeno military base for her second month of training. She was relieved to be back among her peers, but now almost everyone in the barracks avoided her except for Tiffany and Seraphina. Mari tried her hardest to ensure that nothing had changed, and pretended that everything was the same before she returned but it never worked.

During lunch, now her least favorite meal of the day, she entered the mess hall, was given her standard green tray and grey nutrition sludge, and sat where she usually did. The girls' laughter and gossip ceased when she sat at the table. The tension was thick, but Mari persisted.

"I heard of this show called Cromulon and Sons, do any of you know if it's good," Mari asked innocently.

No one said anything for a few moments until Tiffany arrived.

Suddenly it was now legal to speak, and another unwritten social rule that Mari did not understand occurred. Confused, Mari didn't say anything else for the remainder of her meal. Tiffany noticed how sad she was and checked in on her.

"Is everything okay Mari," Tiffany asked.

"I'm fine."

"Look at her suddenly speaking," said one of the recruits. "Completely silent the entire time until another Kuraga like Tiffany came to the table."

Snide laughter danced in the air and Mari got up to leave until Tiffany placed her hand on hers, making her sit down.

"I'm not a Kuraga. I look like one but I'm not. At best, I am a Mezo. But does any of that matter," Tiffany told the table.

"I mean yeah it does," one of them said. "Stop lying Tiffany! You can tell by just looking at someone if they're.....y'know."

"No. You don't. I was in the system, and then left when I saw some horrid shit," Tiffany replied. "I was on the streets until recently."

Mari looked at her incredulously. The girl who always knew what to say and how to say it was....a nobody.

"Is that true," Mari asked.

"Yes," Tiffany nodded. "Maybe my mom or dad was a Kuraga, but that doesn't matter. I'll never know. What matters is now."

"But how do we know what kind of person you are," the girl next to her asked. "You can't have no status."

Tiffany gave her a death glare, right into her eyes, and the other girl's face turned red. She looked away and went back to drinking her water.

"If we have spent six weeks in here and almost died in a shitty van together, and you still don't trust me, then that is a personal, issue," Tiffany said. "Mari's been through it just as I. Isn't that enough for you idiots?"

A few mumbles and whispers went among the table, and eventually they came to a consensus that Tiffany was right. Mari was happy again that Tiffany was her guardian but was tired that it took the power of someone who looked like they were of higher-status to convince them.

It was as if everything and nothing had changed at the same time.

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The next day everyone was sent to different parts of the training grounds and put into more specific groups. Mari lit up like a lightbulb when she arrived at the filthy obstacle course because she saw Eric.

Eric was sitting on a tire, playing a mini-game on his left-palm while everyone else was standing to attention. Mari got in line with the others and looked up and down at her new group.

A large humanoid with animalistic features stood next to her. He was covered in white fur, and had orange, brown, and yellow spots all over him as if someone accidentally dropped a paint bucket over his clean fur. Mari stared a little longer at him than she should have and it didn't take very long to notice.

"Do you need something," he asked her.

"No!"

She looked away for a few moments and then tried to be friendly.

"When is Lt. Orro going to be here," Mari asked.

"We're not meant to talk right now," the feline replied.

She broke formation and pointed at Eric. The once stoic feline now was upset, and his whiskers started twitching at just the sight of Eric.

"Tin-Man over there thinks he can see how far he can push the system! Since he's a Kuraga, they're letting him get away with so much. Just... so much."

The bitterness was apparent and everyone glared at Eric. It was the most any of his comrades had complained about his behavior lately because none of them wanted to speak ill of their betters.

Mari did not think twice about it.

"Eric, stand up!"

He looked up at her with a wicked grin and decided to join the formation.

"Now you join," the feline asked.

" I can't say no to the hero of Fadeno," Eric replied. "You should really speak to her with more respect, Bahram."

Bahram said nothing, not because he didn't want to, but because Lt. Orro had arrived. He was always punctual, he just told the recruits a different time to make them work a little harder. He arrived pulling a hi-tech display of various weapons at different stages of completion, and at different mastery levels. A few other officers had come as well to watch the routine test, which confused the recruits.

"Today we will be having fun at the shooting range," Lt. Orro said. "But first, it's time to see how far you can make it through this playground set made for toddlers."

The 'playground set' was a full obstacle course, the hardest part being the barbed wire near the end. It was easier to crawl under it when the ground was soft and filled with mud, but it got in your mouth. But when the ground was dry it was easier to tear your skin with the hazards above you.

Mari and the others did not react to his yelling, his harassment, as they made their way through the course. It wasn't the first time she had done an obstacle course, but this one felt much...easier....in a weird way. While they were nearing the end of the course, Lt. Orro was eyeing the display of weapons until he finally settled on what he wanted.

"You're beautiful," Lt. Orro told the WDMKR-890.

He took a plasma vial, loaded it into the purple and black handgun, and took aim.

While running to the last part of the course, Mari was pushed down to the ground by Bahram. She shrieked, and he pushed her down again and again, no matter how hard she tried to get up.

"Let go of me," Mari shouted.

"No!"

A bullet whizzed by and then sizzled about a few inches from her face. She looked up from the dry grass and saw that Lt. Orro and the other officers were already at the "shooting range".

"Run when you see them reload," Bahram instructed her. "Do not hesitate."

They crawled along the grass, towards the barbed wire, hoping that it would be a reprieve from the slew of bullets coming at them. When four of them started reloading, Mari and Bahram made a dash to the last part of the course, but a bullet struck Bahram. He fell to the ground and screamed in agony. Mari leaned over him, protecting him, and tried to stop the bleeding.

"He's hit," she screamed. "Stop! Stop, please!"

"He's not dead," one of the officers said while he reloaded. "He can get up."

Mari's heart beat fast from the adrenaline, and her chest started to ache. It was an intense pain she had never experienced in her life. She was sure she was going to have a heart attack. Her hands were shaking as she bit onto the sleeve of her shirt and tried to tear it off to wrap it around Bahram's arm and stop the bleeding.

It did not work and all she did was hurt her teeth.

"This isn't the movies, Mari. I can do this."

Mari slowed down to stay with him as they finally got to the barbed wire. The officers circled around different parts of the obstacle course, trying to get a good aim at them, but thankfully there were fewer vantage points to shoot from. The only clear view was from a platform above. Mari's brief reprieve was over when she saw Lt. Orro making his way up the stairs to the top of the platform.

Mari tried to go faster but it was impossible with Bahram slowing her down. But she was never going to leave a comrade behind. She thought of all the people she could not save at the train platform and vowed to never leave anyone behind. As they were near the end of the barbed wire, Mari felt a searing pain in her back, and grunted. She assumed that part of her shirt had been torn off from the wire, but soon the pain started to grow, and radiated across her entire back.

She had been hit.

Instinctively she stopped and tried to turn over to stop the bleeding, but she shredded the skin on her arm on the wire. Mari was positive she was going to die from the pain pushing out from her chest. She screamed in agony as now Bahram was the one leading her towards the end of the course, dragging her by the left arm.

"Almost there. You are the hero of Fadeno. You can make it," he told her. "Almost there."

Bahram could no longer move her when her chest started to push upwards and the sound of something wet was coming from the left side of her chest. Lt. Orro was about to take aim when a bright blue light faintly glowed all around Mari.

She pulled away from Bahram and grabbed the left side of her chest in which the bright light was emanating from. Slowly she put her hand to her chest, and pulled out a long, metallic hilt with a blue gem embedded in it. Next came the rest of the sword, sleek and magnificent, and with one giant swipe she cut through the barbed wire. An electric wave pulsed through the entirety of and then pulsed into the ground.

Lt. Orro withdrew his gun and made his way down the platform and to the end of the obstacle course. He saw Mari supporting a limping Bahram while cutting through the wire with her sword and when she got to the end, covered in blood and fur, she threw up.

Groans of disgust came from the others but Bahram rubbed her back as she threw up the weird nutritional sludge given to them daily, which weirdly had more color coming out than going in.

When she was done she stood up and pointed her sword at Lt. Orro. All the other officers pointed their guns at her and the recruits didn't know what to do. Mari and Bahram were not the only ones who were shot, but what Mari was doing was mutiny.

"Do not shoot me," Mari said quietly. "Do not touch me."

Her sword shook in her right hand and she struggled to hold it because she heard the beating of her heart coming from it. She wanted more than anything to cut up Lt. Orro in front of everyone, but when she looked at the sword one more time, the feeling passed. She lowered her sword but her glare never ended.

"Never mind. I don't want to hurt my heart with your wickedness."

Everyone thought it was a metaphor except for Mari, Eric, and Bahram who understood what she held in her hand truly was.

Mari's heart was the most beautiful sword any of them had laid their eyes on, and Eric finally believed Mari was truly The Stormweaver, the first of their kind.