WWF

Twelve

Silence fall over the entire camp once Ethan finishes his story.

"How do you think she found you?" Gwen asks.

"If I had to guess I'd say that she probably has a contact inside our own armies. More than likely something triggered on her end when I registered. And since our files have a picture of us it wouldn't have been difficult for her to recognise me." Ethan responds.

"Why would she be looking for you. Can't she just leave you alone or something?" Jules asks.

"Either she wants my bugs or she believes that I'm a threat. But considering the fact that she's looking for others like me as well, I'd wager a guess that it's the former." Ethan says.

"What are you going to do now?" Alice asks. She sounds worried.

"I don't know. I obviously can't go on like nothing happened, I'd be dead in a month. But I don't want to go into hiding either." He replies, lost in thought.

"What about you two? If you go back empty handed she will kill you." Ethan asks Gwen and Veera.

"Don't know." They respond.

A long time goes by before either of them says anything.

"What if we go on the offensive?" Grease asks.

Everyone looks up at her, shocked.

"If she's that dangerous then we should get rid of her shouldn't we?" She adds.

"That's not a bad idea. In fact, it's a great idea." Veera agrees.

When the others give her a questioning look she goes on.

"My father is a high ranking general in our army. According to him, the King is heavily considering negotiating peace with humans. However, the leader of the Nightcrawlers keeps convincing him otherwise. My father believes that this has something to do with the King's baby daughter disappearing." Veera explains.

"So if we stop Cier we have a legitimate chance at stopping the war." Grease adds.

"Okay. But we can't just attack her. She's most likely half way across the country. Added, she's probably behind metric shit ton of defences. If we do this, we'll need help. A lot of help." Gray points out.

"I'll call my father. He may be able to help us out." Veera says.

"In that case, I'll make a few calls too." Ace adds.

"You're all forgetting something. We can't call anyone from here. We need to reach a town first. And since every town in the area is filled with human soldiers, our new friends here are in trouble." Keegan explains.

"True. What if we disguise them as our prisoners. We can say they are being transported to one of the larger bases further back behind our lines." Ethan says.

"Let's do it. Then we call for help. Afterwards we go to Cier to discuss a few things." Gwen agrees.

"In that case, let's get some shut eye. We'll head out tomorrow." Ace says, standing up.

"I'll bring our vehicle closer." Veera says.

A few hours later and almost everyone is asleep under the night sky.

With and unreadable expression, Ethan sits, staring at the stars.

"Can't sleep." Gwen asks, walking up to him.

"It's difficult to sleep when you're being haunted by old ghosts." He replies.

"Understandable." She comments as she sits down next to him.

"Why can't you sleep?" He asks her.

"Everytime I close my eyes I see Kyle's face." She says.

"Where you two close?" Ethan asks her.

"Not particularly. But he was still my teammate." She responds.

"Can I join you two?" Alice asks from behind them.

"Feel free." Ethan says.

Without saying anything Alice sits down next to Ethan. She then lays her head on his shoulder. A few minutes later they can tell from her breathing that she's fallen asleep.

"She seems to care about you a lot." Gwen comments.

"We're similar. She's the product of a now shutdown military project. She was supposed to be the perfect soldier. She ended up being the only survivor." He explains.

"If that's the case, why would she enlist? I'd think she'd prefer to avoid war." Gwen asks.

"I'm not sure. But maybe she's drawn to it. Like me. You can't help but go back to the thing you were made for." Ethan says.

As the moon reaches it's zenith, Ethan and Gwen too fall asleep.