When Rachel Carpenter was transferred to XCOM to aid in the alien invasion, she had never expected her life to change so dramatically.
Actually, rephrase that. Duh, she had expected it to change her life, but there was fighting aliens, and then there was discovering you could kill people with your mind. Psionic abilities - as Dr Vahlen called them - were on a whole new level of life-changing.
She and Colonel 'Hotshot' Ryan were the only two in their squad to be found possessing the ability. It had been exciting at first; she was a Star Wars fan, and her first thought was admittedly something along the lines of 'Holy shit, I have the Force'. Then there was the week of training down in the labs with Ryan, testing out their abilities. There was a lot of downtime, standing around with Ryan while the scientists set up tests. He was a great guy, brave, kind, a little philosophical at times. He had this theory that the aliens didn't really know what they were doing; maybe they were being enslaved by some mysterious commander and forced to kill humans.
He was on the right track, as it turned out, but those discussions always ended with Rachel laughing and tell him not to go hugging some Floaters, now. It went on like this, until they downed a UFO over North America and she went on her first mission after discovering those abilities.
There'd been a fairly consistent squad of six soldiers sent out on tough missions, and she and Ryan were but two in it. There was 'Bull' Dogovitch, the assault guy who was built like a tank; he liked to lead the charge back in his greener days, until an ambushing Berserker left him bleeding out on the ground. Corporal Jane was a support along with Rachel, the newest regular assigned to replace the brutal, unforgivable murder of Lieutenant Pearson. 'Janitor' Jackson was their heavy, who used to take bets back at base on what random items she could turn into explosives until Command got word of it. Finally, there was the other sniper who worked with Ryan, a pale, quiet guy they called 'Vampire'.
They were fire-forged friends, the six of them. Each of them trusted the others with their life, and on more than one occasion, had that trust tested and reaffirmed. The rare disagreement was handled maturely and resolved quickly; there was no room for grudges on the battlefield.
But the first time Rachel used her Psionic powers on that mission, everything became that bit different. The way Dogovitch flinched away with an oath at the sight of it, or the following radio silence broken by Ryan's, 'Target down. Nice one, Carpenter!'
In the coming missions, she tried her best not to use it unless it was absolutely necessary. Psionic abilities did, admittedly, look a little creepy, and it did probably remind her squad a little too closely of the aliens they hated so much. It wasn't too bad; she still had Ryan to talk to about those abilities. Besides, between a terror attack and clearing out an Overseer crash site, everyone had their hands full.
And then the scientists got the Ethereal Device working, and Ryan just had to volunteer. The rest is history – literal history, as his memorial service was broadcasted worldwide, forever remembered as the man who sacrificed himself to save the world.
To say Rachel missed him would be a huge understatement. It wasn't like it came out of the blue; the threat of death hung over them every day at XCOM, as much as they tried not to think about it. But Ryan's actual death? It shook her to the core, and this time, she didn't have a war effort to throw herself into like she did when Pearson died. No, the war was over, and XCOM had promised to keep her involvement confidential so she could lead a normal life again.
That was an empty promise. After such an experience, there was no returning to normal. Normal didn't exist anymore. Everything had changed, and she wasn't sure it was for the better.