Pulling away from Raikidan, I peered around the corner of the building. Rylan hadn’t been joking. Tanks were pulling in at a rapid pace, and were shooting out rounds after rounds at any enemy target they could find. Ryoko rushed at a tank and did her best to dispose of it, and I tossed a grenade in hopes it would give her a hand, but it did little to help our situation.
“Assassins, fall back.”
“Commander, don’t you dare.”
“I will not lose any more to your stubborn pride, General. A good leader would know when to fall back and regroup. Our past general knew that, and it’s best you learn that fast or you’ll be eaten alive.”
“You will listen to my order!”
“I do not answer to you.”
This was going from bad to worse. There was only one thing left to do. “Fall back!”
“Commander, are you crazy?” someone cried.
“It’s best to retreat to live another day than to die for nothing,” I replied. “A true fighter uses the wisdom of their better judgment to guide them. You must pick and choose your battles, and this battle is lost.”
“I outrank you,” Raynn sneered. “And I order for everyone to keep fighting. The more we take out now, the better chance we have of finishing this war in the future.”
“And I rank as high, Raynn,” another officer called through. “And I side with Commander Eira. Her judgment has never led us astray, unlike yours, Raynn. Team Five will fall back immediately.”
“Agreed,” another officer stated. “Raynn’s judgment is the whole reason we are in this situation in the first place. I can’t afford to lose any more members to his fuckup. Team Two will fall back as well.”
“Let’s go,” I told Raikidan as I ran from the safety of the alley.
Ryoko closed the gap between us quickly, and Blaze and Argus flanked us soon after. Another building collapsed as a tank shot out more destructive rounds. Rylan jumped off the building as it fell.
“You okay?” Ryoko asked him.
He nodded and gasped for breath. I had to admit that was too close of a call. The tanks continued their assault, forcing us to continue our retreat. Raynn, being the coward he was, fell in line with us, and his team was soon to follow his lead.
A tank shot for us and missed, but the shrapnel was a different story. Raikidan shot out a blast of fire, creating a small shield, but it wasn’t big enough to help those in front or behind us. Another tank shot at us and missed, its fire coming up short.
“Fall back! Everyone fall back! This area is lost.”
A man fell to the ground as they retreated, screaming out in pain. “Someone help me! Please!”
I stopped dead when a male voice cried out in pain. I turned and watched in horror as one of Raynn’s teammates dragged himself across the ground, his leg trailing lamely behind him and blood pooling everywhere. It wasn’t hard to imagine what happened.
I stopped retreating to turn at his plea. He was dragging himself in a desperate attempt to flee.
“Please, don’t leave me behind!”
“Watch my back.”
“Commander, are you crazy?”
“Watch my back!”
I tried to move closer to the man, but a strong hand gripped my shoulder.
“Leave him,” Raynn ordered. “He’s a dead man.”
I yanked my shoulder out of his grip. “How dare you call yourself a leader? Team, watch my back!”
I sprinted toward the man without a second’s hesitation, with Raikidan and Rylan close behind. Mocha screeched in protest, which left me confused until rockets flew past us. Rylan chucked a grenade and a few smoke bombs, giving us a small window of cover. Reaching the man, I knelt down and hoisted him onto my back.
“Why… why didn’t you leave me… behind?” the man managed.
“We entered this battle together, and now we leave together. Dead or alive,” I told him. “I never leave a comrade behind, even if it kills me.”
“Thank you. Thank you for coming back for me.”
He chuckled. “Thank… you.”
“What’s your name?”
“Zen… Zenmar.”
“Well, Zenmar, don’t thank me. It’s what a real team does. We look out for each other.”
He chuckled again, but it cut short. I glanced back at him in worry. His eyes were closed and his breath was shallow. He had passed out, and his life was fading fast. I needed to get him out of here and treated immediately.
The heat of Raikidan’s flames bore down on my back as I carried Zenmar. Ryoko dropped the rocket launcher once she emptied the small clip and rushed over to help me. Argus and Blaze shot out blindly through the smoke and fire barrier. All of us were going to make it out together, or die trying.
“You’re welcome.”
I paced in agitation. I hated waiting. Zane and the boys were downstairs with Azriel in our hidden infirmary, trying their best to keep Zenmar’s vitals from falling, while we waited for Azriel to come upstairs with the news of Zenmar’s condition.
“Will you stop that pacing?” Raynn barked. “It’s irritating the hell out of me!”
I rounded on him. “I wouldn’t be pacing if you hadn’t put us in this situation!”
“Don’t blame me for this. I had nothing to do with this.”
“Oh, really? It’s because of your bad leadership that your team fucked up a simple assignment. It’s because of your shitty leadership three other teams had to be dragged into your mess to clean it up. It’s because of you there were unnecessary deaths and a man dying down in my infirmary below us!”
“No one told you to save him. I told you to leave him behind. You had your chance to avoid this burden.”
I had Raynn by the throat and pinned to the wall within seconds. “How dare you stand here and say such a thing? How dare you have no loyalties to those who put their lives on the line beside you? You have no right to call yourself a man, let alone a general. It should be you in his place. It should be you who would have been left to die!”
Raynn didn’t respond, not that he could. He fought to breathe, and he fought to get me to let him go. Although I was smaller than him, I wasn’t much weaker.
“Laz, let him go,” Rylan insisted. “This isn’t going to solve anything.”
I continued to squeeze Raynn’s throat instead of listening. “You have no loyalty in your body.”
A firm grip pulled me away from Raynn.
“Stop, Eira,” Raikidan said. “Killing him won’t solve anything. Besides, he isn’t worth your time.”
Raynn slid to the floor and coughed. I growled and went back to pacing. What is taking Azriel so long? My comrades moved to other portions of the room to avoid my anxiety. I could tell many wanted to tell me to stop moving, but they were too afraid to say anything. I wanted to be able to calm down, but couldn’t.
I stopped pacing when the sound of footsteps came down the hall. I waited patiently as Azriel made it around the corner. He was cleaning his hands with a small white rag, and his face was devoid of its usual cheerful light. He stopped moving when he made it into the living room, but he didn’t utter a sound. He only stared at the floor.
“Well?” I asked.
He looked up at me slowly. “He’s stable, but…”
“But?” Ryoko leaned over the couch. “What’s the but?”
Azriel sighed. “We have to amputate his leg.”
The room grew still.
“Are you sure, Az?” I asked.
He nodded solemnly. “If there were any other way, you know I’d do it. Whatever hit him took off his foot and tore everything else up to the middle of his thigh. There’s no saving it past there.”
I slammed my fist into the wall. “Son of a bitch!”
“We can either take
off what’s gone or we can take it off completely,” Azriel told me. “The call is yours, Laz.”
“No, it’s my call,” Raynn protested.
“Like hell it is!” I snapped. “You gave up your right when you chose to abandon him. Az, save what you can. In the meantime, Ryoko, I want you to get on the horn with Aurora and see what kind of prosthetics you can find on the black market.”
“The black market? Are you sure?” Ryoko asked. “That could take some time.”
I nodded. “It may take longer, but it won’t leave a paper trail, keeping this a secret from the military.”
Ryoko nodded. “All right, what are you going to do in the meantime?”
I sighed. “Figure out a good physical therapy regimen for him. He’s going to need to learn how to use the new leg after he’s healed up if he has any hope of returning back to the field.”
“And what about us?” One of Raynn’s teammates questioned.
“Everyone else who doesn’t live here, or isn’t directly helping Zenmar, leave,” I ordered.
No one protested and the room emptied, leaving what part of my team that wasn’t downstairs alone, except for one woman who remained sitting the couch. As Zenmar’s girlfriend, she wouldn’t move from that spot until she’d be allowed to see him.
With a quiet sigh, I entered my room and slammed it behind me. Rummaging through my dresser, I found a small metal octagonal object and grabbed it. Sitting down on my bed, I pressed the top of the object and watched as a hologram appeared. I lifted my finger and went to work.
My door opened without a knock and I figured it was Raikidan, but as I looked up, I was surprised to see Zenmar’s girlfriend. “Commander?”
“Yes?” I asked.
“Will Zenmar ever be able to fight again?” she asked, her voice low.
I looked back at my planner. “I don’t know. I hope, with a good therapy plan, he’ll be as close to normal again as possible.”
“But you can’t be sure.”
I sighed and looked her in the eye. “Look, I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Zenmar. Even with a successful surgery, great healing, and therapy, he may never be able to walk without some sort of crutch. Only time will tell what will happen.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I asked.
“For being honest. Most would lie or sugarcoat the situation, but you came outright and said what has to be said.”
I worked with my planner again. “I see no reason to lie. If I lied, it would get your hopes up, and if it didn’t turn out the way you expected, you’d be hurt worse than if I had told the truth. The truth may hurt, but in the end it doesn’t hurt as bad.”
“Only someone who had been lied to could say such wise words,” she commented. “No one has ever mentioned you being hurt by someone, Commander.”
“Nor will they ever,” I said. “I do not discuss my personal life with others. It’s pointless and wastes time.”
“I think you do it to protect yourself.” I looked up at her as she left. “Zenmar always said he wanted to be a part of your team, and I now can see why. You’re a great commander, and those who are privileged to serve under you are very lucky.”
I wanted to say something in reply to her words. I really did, but nothing came to mind. Instead, I thought of something else. “You may stay here as long as needed. You can have one of the spare rooms or stay with Zenmar in the infirmary. It’s up to you.”
She smiled and left. She squeaked when she ran into Raikidan. “Oops, sorry.”
Raikidan only nodded and moved aside to allow her to pass. He shut the door behind him when he finally entered my room. “She didn’t react like the other women I run into.”
“That’s because she’s Zenmar’s girlfriend,” I said.
“Girlfriend. That’s that test-phase term, right, like boyfriend?”
I nodded and moved objects around on the hologram. “Yes.”
He came over and sat down on the bed. “Would you explain to me why you humans have this test phase?”
My brow furrowed and I looked at him. “Well, I’m not sure how else you’d find out if you’re compatible with someone in that way if you don’t date.”
“So you just guess and try it out?”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s all we can do. Humans base their choices off of a few factors, like sexual attraction, common interests, life goals, and even emotional connection. If enough factors match, then we see if it’ll work. If it doesn’t, then we go our separate ways.”
Raikidan studied me for a moment. “You mentioned emotional connection just now. Is your difficulty with emotions why you chose to be alone?”
I focused on my planner. “Leave me out of this.”
His eyes softened as he spoke as if he were trying to connect with me on a personal level. “I’m being serious here.”
“And so am I. My personal life isn’t going to be dragged into this. My reasons are my own.”
“Is it because you don’t want someone that close, or is it because you don’t think you can feel anything close enough to that connection?”
“How about we go with both so you can shut up? I have work to do here and I don’t want to talk about it, so drop it!”
Raikidan held up his hands. “All right, all right. What are you working on?”
I looked at my planner. “It’s a training planner. I can use images to set up a training schedule for Zenmar to help him get back up in the saddle, so to speak. Once I’m done, I can send it to Aurora to take a look at and for her to store it away until Zenmar is ready to use it.”
“He’s not your teammate and yet you’re doing this for him. Why?”
“Who else will show him loyalty? Raynn doesn’t know what loyalty is. He only thinks of himself. Zenmar didn’t deserve what he got. He shouldn’t be the one down there having his leg removed. It’s not fair to him. If Raynn wasn’t such an arrogant, self-preserving prick, then this wouldn’t have happened. People wouldn’t have died without a reason.”
“Why are you so different, Eira? Why do you show so much loyalty to others when they can’t?”
I shrugged. “What is there to life when you have no loyalty?” Raikidan watched me and waited until I sighed. “My loyalty is rooted deep. It’s not something I can ignore. If anything, it’s the only good quality I have going for me anymore.”
Raikidan slid off the bed. “You should see yourself better. You have quite a few good qualities you enjoy overlooking.”
I snorted as he shifted to his dragon shape. “Right, and I can sprout wings and fly.”
He’ll learn in time. They all do in the end.
Chapter 14
Asigh escaped my lips as I opened my eyes. I give up. Sleep was not on my side tonight. I had tossed and turned all night, and now I wasn’t the least bit tired. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes. I tilted my head when I saw Raikidan.
He was fidgeting and growling as he slept. A nightmare? It was possible. I had never seen him have a nightmare before, but no one was immune to them if they slept. I held on to my blankets as tight as I could when Raikidan thrashed suddenly. I exhaled and released my grip as he calmed down, but grabbed onto them again when his thrashing came back, and this time it lasted longer than the last. He smacked his head into my bed and then into the wall. This repeated several times before he calmed down.
His thrashing concerned me. Not only would it wake the whole house, but he could hurt himself. I slid off my bed and inched closer to him. I needed to wake him up before his thrashing became worse.
“Raikidan? Raikidan, wake up.” I rested my hand on his nose. His scales were warm and I was glad he didn’t jolt awake. “Raikidan, wake up.”
Raikidan moved his head and I figured I had stirre
d him, so I pulled my hand away. My heart stopped when he began thrashing again and came at me. Before I could even blink, I was on my back and pinned down by his giant claws. His teeth were bared and a long growl escaped his throat. I tried to wiggle free, but he was too heavy. I looked up at him in hopes to see his eyes open, but they weren’t. He was still asleep.
“Raikidan, wake up!”
Finally managing to pull my arm free, I reached up. I need to wake him up somehow. Resting my hand on his nose, I hoped for the best. Raikidan didn’t stop growling, nor did his grip loosen, but his thrashing stopped.
“Raikidan, wake up.” I was glad the pressure he was putting on me was light enough to allow me to breathe. “Raikidan, please, wake up.”
Raikidan pulled his head away and began growling again. I was at a loss on what to do. He couldn’t hear me, and I was too weak to get him off me. My eyes widened and my breath caught as Raikidan shifted forms and wrapped his hands tightly around my neck. His eyes were open now, but they were empty. He was still asleep. I grabbed his wrists in an attempt to loosen his grip.
“Rai… wake… up… p…please…”
I couldn’t even wiggle away. He was sitting on top of me. Why wasn’t he waking up? I let go of one of his wrists and reached out to him. My hand lightly grazed his arm in the process. I had to try this one last way. I could feel my life slipping away as he hindered my ability to breathe.
“Rai…ki…dan…”
My hands shook as I reached for his face. My reach fell short. My fingertips could only graze his cheek lightly, but I wasn’t about to give up as long as I still had an ounce of breath in me.
“Rai…ki…dan… please…”
I continued to reach for him, and my fingertips grazed his cheek again. Raikidan froze and a flicker of hope flared in my chest. I grazed his cheek one more time.
“Rai…ki…dan… wake… up…”
Raikidan blinked and let go suddenly. I gasped and my back arched as air flooded into my lungs. Raikidan jumped to his feet and backed away, allowing me to roll onto my side and coughed. I pulled myself up on my knees and took as many deep breaths as I could to ease the pain in my lungs.
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