His seat was far from comfy. A mound of rubble and detritus. The cool bottle lay gently in his hand as he rested it against his aching thigh. He looked over the flame, through the smoke and saw his world. She sat drinking beneath the starlight.

They bantered and he watched. Garrison, who sat close at his side was making some sort of concession under the pleadings of Lara and Iris. He thought to himself that he should have brought the guitar, have Lara sing for them. Too late now though.

He pulled out a beer and handed it to Garrison who passed it along to Adeladia. She struggled with the twist off cap for a moment before finally getting it open. She looked as distant as ever, even amongst the small revelries. Her long dark hair had been held back in a scrunchy, it somehow made her look even younger. A dread filled within him, his mistake; his hesitance - had put her in harms-way. Had he captured Yua when he beat her, had he simply acted faster and had her arrested...

There would be time to capture Yua later, time to make up for lost time. Tonight, he simply wanted to smile.

"That is..." Ade whispered before taking her second gulp. "Horrific." She nearly spat. He saw, even under the fires red glow, that her face had turned some shade of green. He thought back to his own first beer and the ten that followed it, the dizziness of a first hangover and stupidity of his first drunken scrap.

"It is." He laughed as he finished off his bottle. He shifted to pull another from the case when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He jolted to track whatever it was as he pulled his rifle free. He saw it again, a shade dancing between shadows. He raised his rifle as he heard footsteps march his way.

"Ah well, your lo-"

He fired off three rounds into the night, then three more and a full magazine after that. He charged headfirst to where the shadows played but was quickly knocked back by a massive explosion.

His daze wasn't enough to distract him. He darted his eyes to Iris and Lara, both uninjured. Then he noticed Garrison atop of Ade.

The standing corpse didn't register for a few seconds, he may not have noticed it at all had it not blown up in his face. It sent him back again, but - again - he rose to his feet and scanned for the threat.

"Kid?" He shouted.

"I'm good!" She replied. He saw her eyes change to a deep red as she scanned the rubble around her. Beside her, Iris had grabbed a rifle and took cover beside Garrison. Reese knew he had to act fast.

"Kid, on me!" He ordered. She threw her sniper to Iris as she drew a much shorter weapon from her hip. The two clambered atop of the mound where Lara found a set of footprints and followed them along.

They chased the assassin across the entire hangar, never catching more than a glimpse of them - though there could be no doubt who it was. In the end, they made it to the very edge of the hangar bay, where naught but a hundred meter drop presented itself. They searched the area for a moment.

"Sir!" Lara called, pointing to a small - one man - stealth craft skirting along the fields before turning hard and escaping off into the moonrise.

"Fuck. Fuck!" Lara shouted. "It was her, Reese." She shouted again, she made no attempt to hide her rage.

"I know." Reese whispered, his gaze fixed on where she had fled through. He didn't speak beyond that, turning to head back to the squad.

"You know?" Lara spat. "That's it? She could have killed Ade, or Sash... or-" The realisation hit her slowly, it took Reese a moment longer than her to realise.

"Arch..." She breathlessly whispered. She didn't wait, instead she disappeared back to the camp faster than Reese could track with his eyes.

"What have you done...?" He whispered to himself in complete disbelief.

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He returned to the camp where Ade lay, unconscious in Iris' arms. He looked around for Lara and Archi but found neither. He knelt beside Iris, placing a hand to Ade's bloody head. "Is she okay?" He tentatively asked.

"No." Iris answered quietly. She didn't move, she didn't look at him, she just sat; cradling the broken child in her arms.

"Sash..." Reese tried to start.

"Go find the others." She nearly silently ordered. He looked into her vacant eyes and placed a hand to her shoulder as he stood.

"It was her, Sash." He shamefully whispered.

"I don't care."

Aricci Mason, the best pilot in the Alliance - his friend - now a puddle and a stain. Reese was so focused on the attack he didn't even see him die. Did he have final words? Did he look scared?

Lara moved a small chunk aside and dug out his tags. She wrapped their chains around her fist as she sat helplessly aside the corpse. She didn't shift as blood and viscera began to saturate her clothes, nor did she look up to Reese as he knelt behind his friend.

He placed his palm flat against the floor as he rested on a single knee.

"Adavashi'Advalar, find Paradise Archi." He whispered as he sank his head to his knee.

"Somebody needs to tell Ceeci." said Lara. Her voice held an anger but she seemed to suppress it. She was right, Ceeci was Archi's sister and easily the person closest to him.

"We will, after." Reese answered. He stood and placed a hand on Lara's shoulder. He half expected her to shrink away from him but she didn't. She grabbed his hand and held it open, placing Archi's tag into his palm.

"She has to die, Reese."

He choked on what he knew he would have to say next. He looked into her eyes, the little girl that bawled her eyes out when she as much as scraped her shin was gone. The woman before him held back no tears, her eyes didn't sparkle like they did back then. She was, in this moment, a vessel of rage and vengeance.

"She's my sister." He whispered, nearly choking again.

"And I'm not?" She questioned. She didn't truly doubt him, he knew she was hurting and he couldn't tell her the one thing that she thought would bring her comfort.

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He placed a gentle hand beneath her ear as he knelt back down beside her. His eyes never travelled from her own.

"I-" She stuttered as her eyes dropped down to what was left of Archi's corpse. "I'm sorry, I don't mean that." She admitted.

"I don't know that I can kill her any more than I could kill you," he whispered. "But... But she needs to be stopped. I won't stop you, but I won't pull the trigger on her." He stood yet again and started away from her.

"I'm on her list too, Reese." Lara called out despite never turning to face him. "It was me, then Arch, then you... Who next?" She questioned.

"She'll come after me next, then. She'll lose." He answered before walking on.

"I know." She mumbled to herself as she steeled her grip and her eyes lit aflame.

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"Bernie?" Reese called out upon finding the old titan hunched behind the scraps of Daphi.

"Boy, give me some disinfectant." He ordered. The man leant against the charred and still somewhat smokey remnants of Daphi, he looked about ready to keel over.

"What are you doing? Let's get Iris." He answered. Reese moved past the old man but was stopped by a massive hand pulling him back.

"No." He groaned. Reese turned and looked him up and down. It was clear he had been injured, badly. He had taken the brunt of both explosions and a piece of shrapnel had been embedded within his chest. Reese moved closer and helped him remove his armour. It was worse than he had thought, the old man was riddles in tiny fragments of molten steel. His back had taken the brunt of the force, a massive slash had torn out a chuck dangerously close to his spine.

"Let me get Iris." Reese insisted.

"No." Garrison protested again. He Reese close by the seam of his shirt and whispered into his ear "It was Yua, wasn't it?"

Reese responded quickly while he got to work cleaning out Garrison's wounds. "Yes, sir. It was."

"They cannot know how bad it is." Garrison groaned. "They will kill her."

"Archi's dead sir, they'll kill her anyway." Reese explained. He noticed Garrison wasn't entirely with him, he seemed to slur his words and float a little too lightly. He must have self administered some morphine.

He mumbled. "Fourteen when she enlisted. A child. Too young and yet forced to be a woman. I would have torn the sky apart to keep her safe, we nearly did together." He continued. He didn't react as Reese packed his wounds and stitched him up.

"Who, sir?" Reese asked as he disinfected a patch of burnt flesh.

"Trained as a sniper. A waste. She was silent, walked like a jaguar." He continued, completely unaware Reese knelt before him.

"Then she was grown, truly a woman. She fought for the wrong side, but for the right reason. A son in the dirt. She taught him well, but she couldn't love him the way he needed. She told me time and again how much it killed her that he loved her. 'A broken woman' she called herself. A fool I knew her to be. She loved him with all she was, the boy and his boyish eyes scared her more than a thousand Martian warships ever did." His head dipped and he seemed to fall asleep but the words kept flowing. Reese caught him and propped his limp body against Daphi. Two fingers pressed against the old man's neck and a glance at his vitals monitor told Reese he would be fine.

"After all that, she spoke only of him... Of her son. She was so proud. She was so ashamed. She begged me to take him once he would have me. Of course I did, I loved her and her son seemed a good man. I protected her, I protected her son... Now, it seems I must protect her daughter." His words trailed off into German and then into gibberish Reese could no longer make them out. With a great and pained effort, he dragged the old tank over his shoulder and carried him back to the camp.

Reese thought on what the commander's inebriated ramblings where about. Akemi.

The old war, the Martian war... Akemi had been fourteen years old when it started. Did she sign on straight away? The age limit had always been seventeen but it was expected for a few younger lads to sneak in, but a fourteen year old who would grow to be five-foot-one in boots as a grown woman? They must have been desperate from the time the first shot was fired. Her first war, over by the time she was eighteen. Why hadn't she ever told him that and what did Garrison mean by she couldn't love him, or that he scared her so much?

It seemed every time his mother came into the picture, a thousand new questions would stand unanswered.

"Bernie?" Iris shouted upon seeing Reese dragging him over to the fire. She layout an impromptu cot for him to lie in and Reese gently placed him within it.

"He's going to be okay. He's got a few fragments imbedded deep, we will have to deal with it once we get back."

"Should I call for an Evac?" Lara questioned as she made her way to the main group.

A sigh slipped him, Archi was dead; Garrison and Ade were out of action and Daphi was a smouldering carcass. Normally he would have jumped at the suggestion but now?

"No." He ordered.

"No?" Iris repeated.

"The mission isn't complete." He simply stated. The two women looked at him in disgust, he could hear their arguments before they even voiced them. He simply let his eyes fall to the distant horizon before he could steel himself.

"Bullshit. We need to get Ade help, Garrison too." Iris insisted. She turned to Lara, expecting support but received only a conflicted look.

"Not you too?" Iris groaned.

"He's right, Sash." The shame filled her voice and forced a crack in her words.

"They could die!" Iris insisted. "As medical officer, I outrank you both in this decision. The mission is over." She declared. Reese forced a false smile, he knew that technically she was right but that she would change her mind once she was given a moment to think.

"Okay." Reese said. He moved to pack his bag and dig out the radio.

"Reese?" Lara protested.

"I know." He answered. "But she outranks us, it's her choice. Follow your orders sergeant." She did as she was told and began packing. Reese noticed Iris stood still and knew her to be thinking it through. Her tongue slipped the corner of her mouth and her nose scrunched into a ball, she would acquiesce soon enough.

He found the communicator at the bottom of Garrison's pack. He typed his authorisation codes into it and stuck it out towards Iris.

"Ma'am." He nodded as he offered it out to her.

"Fuck you." She whispered as her shoulders raised higher.

"We don't have a choice. They're stable. If we leave, Oblivion fails and the war is lost..." He urged, stepping closer to her. He pressed the comm firmly into her hand while keeping her eyes locked into her own.

"We either do the right thing, and get her to the hospital... Or we do our jobs, and stay." He insisted, now inches from her. She took the comm into her hands and Reese stepped away from her. She looked into it, considering her options. Her eyes flicked over to Ade, bloody and broken; to Garrison, riddled with shrapnel and to the tower in the distance through the hangar bay door.

The falling comm device raced a tear down to the floor before Iris marched over to Garrison to check his wounds.

"I'm sorry." Reese whispered. He walked over to the device and slid it on to his own wrist.

"We can't even get them a medivac?" Iris questioned as she opened Garrison's shirt.

"They won't come this far into the frontline anymore. I'm sorry but this really is the only way." He finished. She nodded, a sign that she would abdicate her authority and allow Reese to do as he needed.

"Kid, Set up a new camp. Iris, make sure Oblivion wasn't damaged." He ordered, climbing atop of the rubble mounds. "I'm setting up security, permanent shifts." He ordered.