A monument of steel. Tall as the towers she had just fled; though much, much more dire. The sands of the old desert wore and moulded the fortress into something dark and wrong. The crystal towers of Elysium were gone. Adeladia descended upon what remained, We'illa.
She had heard tell of this place. Of the marble sphynx that marked it's main gate. Of the teenage army, better equipped and trained than the Spartans of old. Her mother told her bed time stories of the ruler of this land. The Bidu. Both a king, and headmaster. She imagined something beyond a man, though seeing the rust and dirt infecting the steel perimeter walls had stripped her of any expectation of inhuman perfection.
A pain shot through her cheek, though she refused to flinch. It focused her on her goals. It reminded her of her loss. She wouldn't hide from the throbbing sear, but she would hide it from the others.
They all sat in silence as the shuttle rounded the city. Iris sat nearest, though she was Iris no longer. The natural red of her hair had began to seep from her roots to stain the perfect blonde mask. Her golden blush had been buried beneath dust and blood. A cut on her cheek looked as though it was soon to scar over. Her black sleeveless jacket with it's elegantly golden trims had been sullied by battle and sodden in other men's blood. A gash along the back exposed her shoulders, though no cut parted her flesh. The privilege of special forces and their bullet proof skin.
She felt her own hand, the little cut and littler drop of blood that they wouldn't have to suffer. All the battles she had been subjected to, every cut and graze suffered, it seemed silly. This group of bullet proof warriors and the little girl with her little paper cut.
The man named for the son of Zeus lay uneasily. She could almost hear the shards of metal rattle around him with every breath he struggled down. Shards he had taken on her behalf.
He wore a strange cotton sack that looked to be fashioned into a well worn cap. It drifted from atop of him, falling down as he slumped to his shoulder.
"Commander Garrison?" Ade whispered. His lips smiled, though his eyes forgot to do the same. He coughed, masking it as a laugh, before sitting straight again.
"I am alright, Doctor Tempish." He lied. His eyes darted from her, refusing her gaze and avoiding her silent inquest. He turned and dragged his shoulders along with him. "How far are we, Sergeant?" He weakly asked.
"A minute out, sir." She answered. Her eyes flicked up to the small shards that remained of the cockpit's old mirror. They examined Bernard's posture, and filled with dread. Then they flicked over to Ade and fell when they met the brown of her eyes. The worry didn't dissipate once she looked out to the horizon, but it was out of Ade's view.
Ade looked at what she could still see of Lara. The tangled mess of remaining hair, the sleeveless hoodie beneath her combat carrier vest, the perfect blue of her eyes flittering gold as she squinted off at the distant landing zone.
"The Bidu's there." Lara chuckled as her eyes returned to blue.
"Sit up straight, cadet. Don't want him thinking we've let you slack off." Reese mocked. Lara didn't reply though she did seem to slowly rise in her seat.
They lowered. The little army ants growing and growing as they neared. She caught herself in the mirror and flinched. In the split second of eye contact with herself, she was almost frightened. Her mind hadn't realised it was her. For an instant, a stranger looked back at her with the intensity of a murderer. The dusty old glass didn't portray her properly but that wasn't the issue. It was her eye, hollow and angry. Faded to a wintery brown. It was her face, sunken and scarred. White as the ghosts she held in her dreams. Blood drenched and wearing borrowed clothes. Every part of the girl she had been was stolen away from her, or given up gladly. She saw, in that brief glimpse, the woman she would grow to be. The woman who would die in battle. The woman of vengeance.
But that would be the future. When she held her gaze upon herself, and looked past the haze of glass, she could see the remnants of youth. She could see the flit of light that still persisted in her eye. She saw the tears she constantly fought back. The stray hairs that hadn't been doused in viscera. She saw the hoodie Lara had given her, and the comfort she still found within.
The girl yet lived, though the woman clawed her way to daylight.
The air seal broke and the door opened. The dry heat tore the breath from her lungs and the cruel sun began beating her down before she could even dismount. Reese hopped down first. His boots found the sand nearly noiselessly. He didn't even seem to leave bootprints as he walked. Garrison was next. He slumped down the half meter gap between the shuttle and ground. He, unlike Reese, made a great crash. His own weight proved too much for his legs and he landed on his kneed. The Lieutenant dashed to his side, raising what little of the Titan he could.
"Bernie?" A thick white beard called from across the landing zone. The man beneath it rushed across to aid Reese in his struggle.
"Hello, my old friend." Garrison feebly whispered.
"Lets get you some help." The beard said warmly as the man beneath it signalled for a group of medics. Garrison chuckled at the fear in the group of undersized nurses faces at the prospect of carrying him though he kindly took more of his own weight from them as he was carted off.
Ade finally dismounted. It was only her step by the time her canvas shoes filled with sand. Her hoodie became a sauna beneath the direct sunlight so she quickly tore it off, revealing a simple white button up shirt with a crimson dog embroidered on the left sleeve. There was no helping the sweaty denim pants she wore, though she had the suspicion a lifetime of Russian winters meant no clothing would be able to keep her cool.
"Bidu." Reese saluted. "Allow me to introduce, Adeladia Tempish - Raptor's scientific specialist." Both men turned to her. "Ade, this is the Bidu. He's the boss." Reese said.
"Yes." The Bidu politely laughed. "That would be me... 'The boss'."
"It's... An honour, sir." Ade meekly bowed her head, never making eye contact. She looked at his shoes while her head was lowered. They were immaculately polished formal shoes. If this man had ever been a soldier, that time had clearly passed and a time of office work and bureaucracy had taken its place in his life. Her eyes rose with her head and she scanned over his attire. He wore formal clothes, those of a general. A pure black suit jacket was adorned with enough medals to supply an army of war heroes. Beneath it was a black shirt with buttons spiralling from the right of his collar, all the way down and around his body. The shirt had a very visible stitch near the belly where it must have been repaired. Ade wondered why he hadn't simply had it replaced.
"The honour is all mine, Doctor Tempish." He replied, bowing even deeper than she had. "I admit, I am unfamiliar with your work. You will have to requisition any equipment required though we will be more than glad to aid you in whatever way we can."
"Thank you, sir." She simply replied. His eyes lingered on her, warm and calm. A great grin shone from beneath the hairy mask as sun kissed skin wrinkled and broadened his lips into a wide smile. Then his eyes jumped over her, back to the shuttle.
"I don't believe it." He cackled. "If it isn't corporal Black!" The stoutly built, though clearly past his prime, old man nearly skipped over to the shuttle before catching Lara is a loving hug as she jumped into his grasp.
"It's good to see you sir!" She excitedly laughed. The two parted from their embrace and stepped apart. "Though its Sergeant now."
"Heavens." The old man chuckled. "Every time I see you, you've got some new fancy title. I am glad to see you are doing so well." He patted her on the back before turning to Serah.
"Mrs. Commons, a pleasure at last. It is a shame we never crossed paths during Lara's education." He said formally, openly eyeing her with a strange suspicion. His inspection rose from her beautiful green eyes to the eruption of scarlet hair atop of her head. A subtle grin caught him, though he hid it quickly. "Though I must say... You are exactly as I imagined, if a little blonder."
"I assure you, Bidu. It was never my intention to spurn you," She replied, just as formally, only strangely mimicking Reese's undercity accent. "And it's Doctor... Not Mrs."
"Ah, my apologies. I was unsure whether you were the doctor... Or the other woman." He slyly suggested.
"Sir." Reese interrupted. "Its been a long day. If you wouldn't mind pointing us to our bunks?" He asked, poorly masking his annoyance.
The Bidu sighed and nodded at the Lieutenant before turning back to Serah and giving her a final knowing look.
"I forget myself." The Bidu said in an apologetic tone. "Raptor squad. Welcome to We'illa."
They passed sandstone structures, granite gardens and ornate stone houses. A woman beat a dusty old rug from the third storey window of a beautiful red and yellow mud brick house. Children danced through the cobbled streets. Vendors sold scented goods beneath cotton tarps. It reminded her of the food court in Elysium, a thousand dancing and laughing people rushing to nowhere in particular. A thousand perfect scents pouring from perfumed fabrics and freshly made soaps. They walked the least efficient but the most tread paths. They could have taken a transport straight to the fort but instead the Bidu passed adoring civilians on the long path. A child offered him a toy, and received a pat on the head, seeming happy with the transaction.
They all kept a wide berth from the blood drenched Ade and the patchy haired Mack. They must have looked quite the sight, either rabid and diseased or simply psychotic. The two walked along together, silently admiring the sights though allowing the Bidu to tend to his flock without their presence sullying his almost divine aura.
They wound through potter alleys and greeted seamstress as they passed. They walked a bridge over a man made river which flowed inwards, towards the fortress. The town was something almost medieval and yet guard towers lined the streets and ATVs roamed the dunes. Power cables were hidden underground but were occasionally exposed while men maintained them.
"You came here a lot?" Ade asked as they passed a bar, and the drunkard marines within.
"Well, never officially." Lara laughed as she stepped over a passed out soldier. "Students aren't allowed out of the fortress unsupervised."
"Unofficially then?" Ade whispered. Lara turned to her, overexaggerating her whisper but making sure it was loud enough for all to hear.
"Nah, this place was crap. They don't check IDs in the Bells, so we all went there." She said. The Bidu laughed and turned to them.
"Ah yes... The Bells. I remember the Bells." He chuckled lightly, eyeing Lara and Reese. "Tell me, you wouldn't happen to know why it exploded all those years ago?" He asked, his tone suggesting he knew full well the answer.
"Lara! You didn't?" Serah gasped. "You were sixteen!"
"Hey, don't blame me." Lara denied, her voice reaching a higher pitch than Ade had ever heard it. The white haired woman turned to Reese with accusation in her eyes.
"Yeah... That was my bad, honestly." He said, as though admitting to stealing the last of the cookies.
"Specialist?" The Bidu gasped, turning to Reese with shock evident in his eyes. "All these years and you've let me blame your own sister?"
"Well, she was there." He defended himself though he didn't seem to care too much about the accusation.
"And what were you doing with your sixteen year old sister at a bar that would lead to an explosion?" The Bidu inquired.
"Probably getting drunk. It's a little fuzzy." He gladly admitted.
"Reese!" Serah shouted in an appalling tone, still masking her accent. He all but ignored her, turning to Lara instead.
"What actually happened, kid?" Reese asked, only semi interested. Lara grinned as she recalled the day.
"Well, I- err..." She hesitated, her eyes darting awkwardly between the morbidly curios Bidu and the absolutely horrified Serah. She swallowed her nerves and continued, her eyes fixing on Reese as she fidgeted with her mask. "I- dumped my boyfriend and snuck off to the Bells. I was pretty pissed off at the time so I had a drink. Then that old prick found me. I thought he'd drag me back to the barracks, but instead he ordered a drink and sat next to me." She recalled.
"What a responsible influence." The Bidu groaned. His face fell into his hands as he shook his head in disappointed. "I let you teach classes, Reese." He regretted from beneath his callused and wrinkled hands.
"Continue... Darling." Serah insisted through gritted teeth as she bore a hole through Reese's head with her gaze.
"Well... We, erm, mostly just bitched about our ex's. It was nice, being able to actually talk as adults for once. We kept drinking until some old guy came over and tried to hit on me. Reese told him to fuck off, and he didn't, so I broke his wrist." Lara timidly continued. She seemed a younger woman now than she ever had before. She seemed to shrink beneath Serah's angered gaze but she also seemed steadied beneath Reese's.
"Shoulda snapped his neck." Reese spat.
"I still don't see how this lead to the explosion?" The Bidu pressed. "And you should have reported whoever this man was."
"I was getting to the explosion." Lara insisted. "And reporting wouldn't have been as satisfying." She admitted, her face turning an embarrassed red. "It turned out the man who's wrist I had just snapped was a well respected commander." She continued.
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"Oh yeah... Commander Cameron!" Reese recalled.
"Cameron?" The Bidu questioned. "I don't recall a Cameron?"
"Yeah... I pulled a favour and had him sent to the frontline." Reese admitted with a slight grin. "He was arrested for desertion a week later."
"I didn't know that?" Lara said.
"Don't worry about it. You're getting to the good bit of the story." Reese dismissed.
"Yes, I too would like to hear this." Serah seethed.
"Well... His squad was nearby. They saw what I did and tried to pick a fight with Reese over it. He just laughed at them and told them to walk away. They didn't so he sicced me on them, 'as training'. He just went back to drinking while I beat their asses." She laughed.
"He did what?" Serah shouted, diving over to slap Reese on the back of the head.
"She was safe!" He insisted. "And I didn't just sit there drinking. I gave her like... Bottles and shit."
"Bottles?" Serah spat back in utter disappointment.
"Yeah, like weapons. You know?"
"I don't know, no."
"I'm being harsh on him!" Lara interrupted. "Whenever I got even slightly overwhelmed, he stepped in. He even funnelled them all in to attack me one at a time. It was really no different from the training drills I had to do anyway. He was completely in control of the situation. Looking back, I know why he made me fight them." She said, turning to him with a strangely warm though hesitant look. "You knew I needed to blow off some steam, and didn't want that to involve alcohol. You were trying to keep me from being like you." She laughed a little but looked almost sadly at her brother.
"Who wouldn't wanna be like me?" Reese forced a convincing laugh.
"But the explosion... That came later on. After the fighting, we let them leave the bar and carried on drinking. It was maybe four hours before they came back. It was definitely dark out. Reese noticed them first. Seven... Maybe eight of them? He pushed me behind him as he stumbled towards them. There was a big scuffle, but to be honest, I didn't see it. I was ducking behind the bar stealing shots. They caught my attention again when one started shouting that he had a grenade. Naturally, I popped my head over the bar to watch and lo' and behold... There he was, grenade in hand." Lara recounted with a dumb grin plastered beneath her combat mask.
"And what did you do upon seeing this grenade wielding man?" Reese smiled with wicked intent blatantly worn.
"I..." Lara giggled at the memory. "I burst out laughing. I think I made a couple of small dick jokes."
"Lara!" Serah scolded, clearly trying to appear the prim and proper mother figure before the Bidu. A small crack in her lips betrayed her façade, however.
"Get this, though. The guy got so angry he threw the grenade at her head." Reese laughed. "Bonked right off her!"
"What?" The Bidu shouted. "One of my men? How have I never heard of this?" He questioned in an apparent rage.
"That's the thing... It wasn't activated. The pin was still in." Lara explained. "We didn't realise, of course, so Reese dove right onto it. Looked pretty dumb lying there for like twenty seconds of nothingness."
"So, how did it explode?" Ade quietly chimed in. Lara scruffed her hand over the younger girl's head before answering.
"Well... I'd just been doing shots beneath the bar, so I was pretty hammered." She subtly laughed. "When we all realised the grenade wasn't armed, I crawled over the bar. Still have a scar on my back from rolling off of it and onto a broken bottle." She raised her shirt to show a small white line on her lower back masked by the dozens of much more impressive scars around it. "I made a joke about the guy who threw the grenade and he charged, so Reese 'bonked' him with the grenade too. Everyone was unconscious, it was just the two of us left in the bar so we opened another bottle."
"I pulled the pin." Reese calmly interrupted.
"What... Why?" Serah shouted, slapping him up the back of the head yet again. He flinched away with a smirk.
"I was very drunk and thought to myself: who throws an inert grenade? So in my infinite wisdom, I decided it must be a dummy grenade. I made a bet with Lara... I lost a bet with Lara. Then after like... An hour of dragging soldiers out of the bar, we fled into the night. The fire boys got there and stopped the blaze but had no idea how it started." He and Lara shared a little laugh but both were cut off by a synchronised head smack by Serah.
"You are both in so much trouble, I don't even know where to begin." Serah raged, forgetting to hide her accent and letting her true Irish drawl overcome her.
The Bidu simply cleared his throat and let his gaze fall on Lara with a mix of confusion and maybe admiration?
"I am sure this... Discrepancy, won't be repeated. As Sergeant Black was a minor at the time of the incident, I will be glad to overlook it. The Lieutenant, however, should have known better. I do have a means to make amends in mind... Should he be so inclined." The Bidu suggested.
"Yeah... I don't do anal." Reese dryly joked. "I could be convinced to swallow though." It seemed he and Lara were about the only ones to find his comments funny. Serah turned some shade bright red only accessible to an overwhelmingly embarrassed Irishwoman in the desert while Ade could only gag slightly at the thought.
"I meant returning to your old position, Lieutenant." The Bidu sighed, regretting his offer before it was even made.
"What about that story says I should be allowed to teach kids again?" Reese laughed.
"I am certain the mistakes of the past will remain in the past." The Bidu coldly said. "At least consider it, Reese." He earnestly pled. "You were a great teacher. The kids loved you."
"I wasn't a Lieutenant back then. I've got too much to do here... But, okay. I'll consider it." Reese acquiesced.
"Very well. Honestly, Reese, had you not been Raptor; I'd force some kind of penance. Unfortunately for me, you are too valuable to punish. That does not mean I will not try." The old man seemed stern for a moment but it quickly dissipated as they arrived, at last, within the fortress.
"And this would be your quarters, Raptor." The Bidu said. He motioned through a steel door which gave way to the corridor within. Not nearly as homely as Elysium, though much more defensible. There were machine guns nested within the kitchen counters. There was a pistol strapped beneath a table. Each weapon and defence was introduced before even the bedrooms.
They entered a common area. A sturdy old couch lay stained and alone in the middle of a vast open area. Where a coffee table or screen ought to have been, only a whiteboard stood. A hanging fluorescent light fixture was the only source of light within the room until Reese smacked open the steel barrier over the only window. A jet of light illuminated every speck of dust that danced and dangled in the stale air. The sunlight bounced from the crème coloured walls and seemed to diffuse completely against the abyssal black table around which they were seemingly supposed to eat. A row of green aluminium cupboards were affixed to the walls above the simple kitchen set. The black wooden floorboards were broken only by what looked like an old training mat that had been used as a rug beneath the couch.
"Horrific." Serah dryly sighed as she ran a finger along the kitchen counter, drawing up enough dust to completely coat her hand.
Next came the bedrooms. Ten separate rooms each identically bland. Two black single beds lay at opposite ends and it took Lara seconds before she tagged the first room and dragged the beds together. It seemed like everyone would follow suit, only Reese and Serah seemed at something of an impasse. Did they take a single room together, or a separate room each like they had at Elysium. Ade didn't wish to get in the middle of the situation and as such, disappeared into her own room.
She was alone; completely and utterly alone. So why did her shadow dance like madman? Why did the mirrors all speak to one another? Why did the bed posts judge her, call her terrible things through the mouthless words? Why was her father standing there, and why was he so disappointed?
She moved to the shower though she forgot a towel. The water was cool at first, calming. Then it quickly got hotter than she could handle, though she was too exhausted to react. She stood there and scorched. Her skin prickled and reddened as the dead man's blood slipped from her and rushed down the drain. She imagined his face, or what might remain of it. He had been several hours dead. Would it be enough to begin rotting? Did the rats have at him yet?
He was there too, aside her mother and father. Aside the mocking bedposts and gossiping mirrors. They all hated her. The faceless man hated her for killing him; the mother hated her for forgetting her voice; the father hated her for changing from the sweet little girl; the bedposts hated her for being human and she hated the mirrors for being her. The shadow cared for none of it. The shadow didn't judge, it just danced and twirled through the magical night.
The silent room, so loud with insults. The pattering shower, so thick with blood. The scared child, brimming with change. If the woman were here, she'd smash the bedposts for mocking her. She love the mirror for being her. The faceless man would have to wait in queue to seek his impossible vengeance. Her parents would be proud, or at least alive. The shadow would still be mad, however. She would always dance beneath the daytime moon. Her final fellow, always carefree.
Three solid bangs on the dusty barrack door.
"Ade? You in there babes?" The Mack called through the door.
"Oh- Yeah, I'm in the shower!" She answered.
"Okay, get dressed and meet us in the common room as soon as you can." Lara kindly called.
She had no clothes or towels spare. She dried off using the cotton curtain covering the crème casement and wrapped her hair high with a pen just like Iris had shown her, though water dripped down into her face without a towel to collect it. She routed through the room, hoping beyond hope that she wouldn't need to don the bloodied clothes she had just peeled from her finally clean skin.
A draw beneath a wardrobe held her hope, within was a set of infantry uniforms in various sizes; all too large for her. She took the smallest and fastened it back as best she could, though it was still of little use.
She walked the few steps to the common area and saw Raptor in its remaining glory. Lara sat in a child sized plastic chair with a towel wrapped around her neck as Serah cut away at the side of her head with a pair of scissors in some valiant attempt to salvage her deeply damaged snowy mane. Reese lay back on the couch, his feet kicked up on an ammo box while he threw small pieces of popcorn at Serah. He clearly hoped to distract her and make her slip up as she cut Lara's hair.
"Ah, sweetie!" Serah said as Ade rounded the corner. "The uniform becomes you, darling." She grinned at the undersized girl in her oversized uniform. The black and green fatigues had something lacking in the fashion world, possibly an assault rifle.
"Steal some of my clothes later." Lara offered. She tried to pull her head away from Serah's less than gentle trimming though Serah firmly repositioned her head and held her at the angle.
"Take a seat, kiddo." Reese offered, patting the couch beside him. He must have span it ninety degrees to get a better view of Serah and Lara. Ade climbed up next to him and sat rigidly upwards next to the lazily slinking man. He held out a bowl of popcorn to her and she politely took one. He loosed a little chortle and threw his own at Serah.
"Feck off." Serah grunted as she swatted the kernel away.
He entered heavily. His slow clumsy footfalls sounding out across the entire barrack. Reese stood to attention straight away, but the old man waved him down without a word. Bernard Garrison lumbered towards the couch where Reese and Ade both moved aside to let him sit. He looked a foot shorter than usual, and half as muscular. It was the first time she had thought of the old man as an old man. The wisps of hair looked thinner, his cheeks looked gaunter, his eyes looked greyer.
"Sir." Reese saluted. "Are you okay?" He spoke warmly. His words oozed with worry and his fresh beard didn't manage to mask the equal look on his face.
"No, son." Garrison coughed. "I have the worst affliction of all..." He bemoaned, letting the words settle in the air.
"Sir?" Reese urged. A smile broke Garrison's silence.
"I... am old." Garrison said. A breath of relief sounded around him.
"Don't scare me like that Bern." Serah scolded.
"I apologise for my theatrics." Bernie laughed in a tone fit for no apology.
"We know you're old, Commander. Its why we put up with you, really adds to furniture when there's a napping old man in it." Lara laughed, and he shared in it.
"What's this about, sir? Why did you call us to brief?" Reese questioned.
"Because I am old, Son." Garrison simply answered. He gathered some thoughts and planned some speech, but it seemed as great a struggle to him as any war he had ever fought. He seemed almost at tears.
"I am old, and my time has passed. I was already a man grown, a husband and a warrior by the time the Martians returned to Earth. I was effectively a father by the time the war ended, and a grandfather by the time this one began." He said, his eyes falling to Reese. "My war was the old war. I was the best then; the unstoppable Herakles. I forged Raptor into a weapon of the old war. I created tactics that worked in the old war. Precision strikes, hit and runs. Guerrilla warfare. This is not the old war. This is your war. This is the war of your prime, of your strategies." He paused, looking at each of the Raptors before him and even to Ade.
"Boy... how many times, since you took up the role as my Lieutenant, have I been forced to turn to you to complete our objective. How many times have I deferred strategy and command over to you?" Reese tried to say something, deny the truth or defend his commander's capabilities, but Garrison cut him off as he rose to his feet.
The man who usually would have dwarfed Reese stood nearly at eye level with him. He placed a massive hand on the younger's shoulder.
"It is time you take up the mantle. Forge Raptor into a tool of this war, and prepare the next generation," He looked past Reese, to Lara and Ade with a calming wink. "For their war, the next war. When the sky barrier breaks, and the hordes of darkness descend upon us all... It won't be you or I who fends them off. It will be her." Garrison nodded to Lara. "So teach her well, my boy." He took Reese's hand and pressed something into it.
"Serah Malthines, The easterly sun." He began, dropping Reese's hand and shuffling slowly up to the welling woman. "Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn to do right, and it be no longer a curse of thy father's blood." She took him for a hug and he embraced her whole, even in his reduced state.
"Bet you made up Shakespeare for the girls back in your day." She laughed through her tears. Her face buried itself within his vast shoulders before they parted the hug. It was only then that Ade could see that he had shed a tear of his own.
"Lara Black..." He began moving to her but she was too quick for him, jumping with half a haircut into his open arms. He whispered something into her ear which made her face light up.
"Does it hurt?" She asked.
"More than he will admit." He laughed. "Child I have seen how far you have come since joining Raptor. I do believe you will be the greatest of us all one day, though there will be many losses and 'ass beating' before then. I believe your brother was right in your youth. You are the little Firestarter. One of these days, the world will bend to you; or you will burn it to ash and make a better one in its place." He said, placing a hand to her masked cheek. She nuzzled into it for a moment before breaking off.
"Well... This is the Raptor I leave." He laughed. "An alcoholic, a Firestarter, an heiress and a teenager. I couldn't be more honoured." He said with complete sincerity.
He rose to salute them, uncoiling for a moment to his true height.
"Raptor squad. I do believe I have found my Paradise in you all."