The following day came as the beginning of the week’s training for the incoming capturing games. Everyone woke up as early as even before the sun would rise up. From inside Keisha’s tent, she could hear the jogs of the men on training, syncing with their trainer’s counting. The one who was counting had a familiar voice that Keisha could easily recognize.

“Zhackary Veras…”

The young lady muttered his name as she hovered towards the counter where a coffee maker sat. Although she was not into caffeine and that she was also intolerant, she thought of having the necessity to at least have a cup of it. Throughout the night, she couldn’t seem to make herself sleep about what she felt that time after hearing Zhackary’s cold reply.

Having the difficulty to understand her own feelings made her slam her head against the concrete surface in front of her. It annoyed her a lot all evening that she needs to head to their training restless. She did not feel any pain at all, as if her head was as much tougher than the concrete where her head collided to.

“Why do I feel like something has been pricking on my chest? Am I nervous?” she said as she faced a shattered mirror, seeing her restless self, her hair all messed up and also the bags under her eyes. “I should not feel any fright at all. It’s only Iyaz who I am after… I am not even terrified of his likes.”

It startled her when a knock on a door came filling her auricles. She faced where the knocks came from. The barrier between her and that person opened up, revealing a man she was talking about all this time.

“I’m glad you’re now awake”, Zhackary came in greeting. 

“I’ve been awake the entire night”, Keisha yawned as she remembered what happened last night. It still bothered her that she felt a weird prickle on her chest. “Would you mind stopping by for some coffee?”

“Damn…”, Zhackary replied, staring at while sipping coffee. 

“Hm?”

“I mean…” Zhackary stuttered and cleared his throat. “Of course, a cup of coffee will somehow boost our minds. By the way, what is the reason you haven’t slept?”

“I am not sure. I feel nervous for no apparent reason”, Keisha answered unsurely. 

“Anxieties?”

Both of the youngsters sat down facing each other with their coffees and grilled cheese sandwiches on the side. The aroma filled the room and that it gave them tranquility as they began their meaningful morning conversation.

“Probably, but not a chance to even explain my current feeling right now.”

Out of nowhere, the lad let out a question to finally confront Keisha and helped to release her emotions. It was obvious that he was aware of what she really feels but still wanted to hear her speak for herself. “Do… you like someone?”

“If it is to just liking people, I can say that I like everyone”, Keisha replied practically. 

“What I mean, is there a specific person you admire the most? That person you often get comfortable with and you’re afraid of losing him?”, Zhackary added, “… or her”

She sipped her latte and took an enormous bite out of her scorching hot bread. Her hands were shaking but something still kept her from stating what’s inside her heart. “Jaden?”

Zhackary almost spilled his Cappuccino, wheezed after hearing her weird answer. The petite woman in front of her just gave a glare of confusion, more like a child who is still discovering her own curiosities. “You know what? Let’s just finish our breakfast. We might talk about that next time.”

“Sure. I might need to check on Jaden after this and head to the bootcamp to practice melee combats”, Keisha sighed as they finished their coffee. 

“I might also need you in my office to settle in the copies of the treaty later. We need to communicate with two of the Southern factions”, Zhackary requested while he took a last sip on his Cappuccino. 

“Names and their chiefs?” Readily, she pulled out a tickler and a pen from the pockets of her sweatpants, and wrote what her boss would dictate. The pad was on her left hand, she relaxed her body, then focused on every word she would hear.

“Southern Base 1, Anthropophagites, led by the Batalyon twins namely Inicah and Jacques. Southern Base 4, Hades’ Inferno, led by Rico Federico. The coordinates and the frequency signals are already given in the documents on my desk.” Zhackary said while he took their mugs and washed them to the nearest sink. 

“On it, sir. Are they the only ones who are willing to join our party?”

“As of now, yes. There aren’t anymore factions who are willing to build an alliance with Cipher yet except for Utopians, of course. They are famous for attracting people with money.” Zhackary explained while watching the people who are training for the upcoming games. 

“Then I guess, I have a lot of duties for today.”

“Can you handle them all in just one day? If not, you can finish half of them then rest.” Zhackary got worried because Keisha looked so tired. 

“I’ll see what I can do.” Keisha assured and smiled at him sweetly. 

Wrapping up the conversation, both of them headed out to their respective businesses. Firstly, our protagonist headed to the biotechnology facility where her brother was working. She suddenly felt that uneasiness as the eyes of everyone fixated at her. Majority were women who scowl at her as she entered the room to approach her brother.

“Why is she here?”

“I don’t know, she must be into seducing the biotech trainer now.”

“Really? How bitchy of her after getting that secretarial position that easily.”

“Shut your mouth, she can hear you.”

“So what? As if she’s gonna kick us out of here.”

“She’s sir Jaden’s older sister.”

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“Eh? She doesn’t seem like one though”, the girl in heavy makeup scoffed with her other two friends.

Out of all those pernicious words Keisha heard from them; all she did was smile kindly. In her hands were bags of packed breakfast for her brother. She poked him and immediately, Jaden stopped from being a busybody. Jaden’s eyes glistened after seeing his sister once again. He hugged her tightly that everyone noticed.

“Hey, I brought your breakfast. I’m sorry if it is not that as good as mama’s cooking.” Keisha said, handing a paper bag. 

“Oooooh! Grilled cheese sandwich? And you even prepared a lot of these. These are too much”, replied Jaden with his eyes shining because of good food. 

“You can share it with your team. I think I am going to give you guys an hour for a break. You all deserve it”, calmly, she smiled at him as she handed his brother’s food. She caressed his head that filled him with serenity. Jaden then faced his subordinates nicely, inviting all of them to have breakfast with him.

“Everyone, let’s all take our breakfast first, okay? My sister made a lot of grilled cheese and latte enough for all of us. Join us in”, he invited them with a smile on his face that almost reached his ears. “Hey ate, have you eaten yet?”

“I already had my breakfast, thank you. I just dropped by to send you these. You should come to our office later during lunch time. What do you want me to prepare?”

“Please cook your creamy adobo for me, pretty please?”, Jaden requested with puppy eyes. 

“Anything for my brother”, Keisha replied with a wink. “I’ll be heading out for the training now, okay?”

“Copy that!”

The mutterings of the envious women still went on to the point it made her stop from completely leaving the place. Jaden also heard about it and saw how it affected his sister’s emotions.

“What a show off.”

“I know right? She pretends to be nice to everyone just to gain our trust.”

“Yeah! And take advantage of it. I can’t even see what Zhackary saw in her.”

Jaden walked in towards the door where the muttering came from and to where his sister froze. Keisha’s eyes were filled with anxiety on how she would deal with the false accusations against her. She only meant to fulfill her duty as Zhackary’s trusted companion and couldn’t understand why she received so many complaints.

“I have been ignoring the likes of you ever since I’ve handled this department. You heard nothing from me about it. Are you not taught to respect other people? Or you are just a bunch of insecure individuals who can’t even prove yourselves greater than the one you are insulting”, Jaden cutted in to protect his sister. 

“Hey, Jaden. It’s fine. I understand how these people hated me. I will just inform Zhackary of my resignation and give the others the chance to have the position.” Keisha spoke and laughed hysterically. “IF and only if, they can beat me on a challenge tomorrow. All the likes of them versus… ME.”

Her merciless gawking gave terror among the people surrounding her. Although not a little while, at a fast pace, she smiled sweetly again as if nothing had happened. “I’ve already done a proposal regarding that issue and am going to submit it to our chief later. Don’t worry, I am just the lowly type of person that everyone thinks, especially these excellent ladies here.”

“Let’s just see about that”, whispered one of the three girls. 

“A lot of people hate her; don’t think she can stand a chance”, said the boy that is underestimating her. 

Clearly, Keisha heard what the people just told her. Her abilities made her do so.

“Then don’t be overly confident. I can’t even buy all your empty talking, do more work rather than be the total showoff”, the little brother said while staring at people who insulted her. 

“I will go easy… but only in the first round.” Keisha grinned and smiled softly, “Toodle-oo!”

She left the facility and headed to her next task; the training grounds where Zhackary does his chiefly obligations. She geared up but differently compared to the usual suit that the soldiers wear. She only wore a black tank top and her usual camo sweatpants, her hair cleanly braided to one side. Keisha didn’t even want to wear the heavy combat boots because it would just drag her down.

“Right on time. You should compete with the others to be fair, you know”, Zhackary said, welcoming her. 

“I had no problem with that at all. I am always prepared”, Keisha then replied with a grin to her leader. 

As expected, she heard the same mumbling of belittlement towards her appearance and abilities. Those people hadn’t got any idea of what she was capable of. Her proposal was the key for her to be respected.

The close combat began in a circle of troops to challenge each other. One female soldier confidently threw down the gauntlet against Keisha. Keisha did nothing but to grin in excitement of having another shot of bone breaking session.

“I see Geneva, you hastily picked another contender once again”, said Zhackary who was grinning as well. 

“Sire, I wasn’t being hasty at all. In fact, her appearance says it all… My 23rd reign”, Geneva said confidently. With all the scars on her face, you could see that she’s been through a lot of battles already. 

“How confident of you, though. I am not going to hinder the hell out of you. But I did warn ya.” Zhackary jokingly said but predicted what was about to happen. 

“Pffft! How funny it is to think that I’m fighting a little child right now.” The overly proud lady fixed her bandage around her fists while Keisha did nothing but to watch her pitifully.

"I never knew there are people who celebrate too early", Keisha declared proudly. 

Zhackary signaled both of them to commence the combat. Geneva shrieked as she charged a blow towards Keisha and missed. Blow after blow, were easily dodged by Keisha effortlessly. Geneva annoyingly shouted, “You, motherfucker! Can you not fight? You keep on dodging.”

“Tut tut tut! Language, language…”, Keisha sniggered. “Okay then.”

At an odd speed, Keisha shutted her down on her back. She fell unconscious at one strike that everyone gasped in shock. She laughed similarly to where Zhack found her through the minefields. However, her eyes do not light up red as before. It showed how she could control her anger bit by bit.

Even men who dared challenging her ended up the same way as Geneva. It brought terror to everyone in the circle.

“I enjoyed the training with everyone today. I hope to work with you all soon”, Keisha smiled sweetly and face Zhackary. “I’ll be heading to the office now.”

Zhackary, whose face filled with astonishment couldn’t ever utter a word. Her peculiarity made her so special and that he never regretted giving her the highest position.

“Earth to Veras!”

“Oh, y-yeah. I’ll be checking out the progress after I check all the departments’ activities”, Zhackary got startled by her words and replied stuttering. 

*Hours later*

Zhackary finally completed his field work so he now pondered towards their office. He entered in, spotting Keisha with her head laying on the wooden desk beside a pile of documents.

“She can still follow my orders, how adorable”, he mumbled as he covered her with a cotton blanket and lifted her towards the sofa inside the office so that she stays comfortable while dozing off. Noticing Keisha’s arm, he was pleased after seeing the bracelet he gave to her before – specially made with sapphire stones.

He is quite surprised realizing how responsible and productive she was because she already fulfilled her tasks before lunch. A medium sized written note was placed on the envelope on top of the other organized documents.

‘The two factions confirmed their collaboration with Cipher. I also got five of the other leading factions from the East and West. I just told them that we are not into colonizing them but to help them strengthen our home bases. They agreed and told me that they will deliver their contributions for the Biotech and food production. I’ve also communicated with Nix about the alliance we are building, and he accepts our proposal. He even told me that he will sponsor our games for us not to worry about the arena at all.

I also wanted to inform you about my request for tomorrow’s Cipher deathmatch. I know you are aware of how most of our members are against my secretarial position. Never worry about me getting into a bloodbath at all, I can somehow control it now. I just wanted to prove to everyone that I am capable of the position you gave me. Because if I lose, I will be stepping down.

Thank you’