Until the War Is Over

Chapter 1: Change

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."
-George Bernard Shaw

Elijah Bright took in a deep breath as he signed his name, for perhaps the hundredth time that day, across the death certificate. The name stared back at him: Amanda James. It was hard to see a person, an entire life, condensed down to just a certificate and a letter of gratitude to her family. As one of her commanding officers, he wished there was something more do. He wished there was something more he could've done.

He set his pen down at looked out the window. The rain was falling hard, making Shuggazoom City seem only like an outline. It was a day truly fit for a funeral service. Eli checked his watch as he stood. With the rain as bad as it was, he needed to leave in order to make it on time.

Services seemed to happen more frequently in the last few weeks than ever before. Everytime Eli went to one, he felt like he was burying a piece of himself with the deceased. Many of them were kids (and that's what they were, kids) he had personally got to know. It crushed him to see so many lives lost. For no reason.

The HyperForce had been doing a lot of traveling in the last year, causing the need for more commanding officers to be selected to oversee training, one of those being John Akon. John Akon was a tall, dark haired man that was selected by city officials to help with the training of new recruits. But nine times out of ten, he couldn't be bothered to come out of his office, leaving the training to those who were barely passed the new recruits.

Eli was also in charge of training, but he also served as one of the officers that would make the decisions in place of the HyperForce, the other being the current Alchemist: Brynn Cameron. When he wasn't helping with training, he was at ground control or imputing information into the matrix. But he knew that wasn't an excuse. Not for him. Not for anyone.

The service went on in a daze for Eli. He didn't feel fully there. He spoke a few words in memory of the fallen soldier and watch as their body was committed into the ground, becoming one with Shuggazoom. He stayed long after the other soldiers and officers had left. He stared at the temporary grave marker as the rain continued to pour on him.

After saying his silent goodbyes, he made his way back to the barracks. His mind still foggy as he walked into the air conditioned building, the cool air chilling him. When he looked up, the chill was suddenly gone and replaced with rage.

"John Akon!"

The tall man stopped walking down the hall and turned back to Eli. "Elijah Bright." He responded. "What can I help you with?"

Eli closed the distance between them. "There was a service today. The fourth one just this week that you've blown off!"

"And?" John asked, his eyes casting down to the tablet in his hand.

"Hey!" Eli grabbed the tablet from John. "I'm talking to you!"

"You're talking at me Elijah." John responded, taking the tablet back calmly. "Maybe you should go cool down before we continue this conversation."

"You want me to cool down?" Eli repeated. "How can I cool down when you are sending kids with unfinished training into the front lines to die?

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"You know exactly what I mean! Instead of finishing their training, you stayed holed up in your office."

"This is a war Elijah, lives will be lost, that is a given. And I'm sure that the casualty rate has nothing to do with how I train my soldiers."

"They are soldiers, they're kids!" Eli shouted. "And how the hell would you know what the casualty rate is when you don't sign ANY of the death certificates?"

"What's going on here?"

Eli turned to the new voice. Brynn Cameron was staring at the two of them, eyes wide. Eli let go of Akon's jacket. "Nothing." He said as he pushed past the man.

Eli made it down the hall before Brynn caught up with him. "Eli, wait." She grabbed his arm and stopped him. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." He repeated as he pulled away from her grasp and waved his key card in front of the scanner to his office. The door slid open when the light on the scanner flashed green.

"I wasn't born yesterday, Eli." Brynn said as she stepped into his office.

"Brynn." Eli sighed. "Just leave it alone, I'll handle it."

"You don't have to handle it alone." Brynn said. "Tell me what's going on."

Eli sunk into his chair. "He just doesn't seem to care, and it makes me so mad. There are lives being lost at incredible rates, lives that he is responsible, and he doesn't give a damn."

Brynn sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "I'm sure it just seems like that. You know wars affect everyone differently-"

"It's not like that." Eli interrupted her. "There's a difference between being emotionally scarred and being neglectful."

Brynn nodded, considering his words. "And you believe that Mr. Akon has been neglectful in his duties?"

"I do."

Brynn stood from the chair and moved behind the desk, placing a gentle hand on Eli's shoulder. "I'm going to go look into to something." She paused. "Don't stress. I'll take care of this."

Eli didn't say anything, only nodding in reply. He watched as Brynn cross the room and exited, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Brynn has always been a curious person to Eli. She was always a person who was a quiet thinker, standing behind the group, contemplating. Brynn was Eli's longest friend that he could remember, she was the one that led him to Chiro and the HyperForce. She was the last puzzle piece that brought everything together, and when she had something on her mind, he knew that he would be hearing from her very soon.

And for as long as he could remember, she had always been the Alchemist. She had the ability to merge science and magic together, like her predecessor before her. Brynn never talked much about her past, or the Alchemist that came before her. Eli knew that Chiro and Antauri had the whole story about Brynn, but no one else. He knew that she liked to keep herself as removed from the ordinary world as she could.

They were both only twenty when Chiro and the HyperForce offered them positions in commander their army. Brynn took the position of the right hand of the HyperForce, an advisor and defender of the city, which made the most sense due to her status as the Alchemist. Eli was given the position of advisor over the soldiers.

He sighed as he looked down at this desk. He didn't want to anymore work, not when it involved seeing the names of every deceased soldier. He cleared his desk and put all the files away. He just needed to clear his head. He left his office and traveled to the other side of the compound, where his quarters were.

When he reached his room, he shed his soaked suit and replaced it with his uniform: a matching grey pants and jacket set with a black shirt. He folded his jacket and set it on his chair as he laid back in his bed. WIth the light humming above him and his head swimming with sadness and anger, Eli easily was able to fall asleep.

Eli was jostled from his sleep when his communicator beeped. He rubbed his eyes as he answered. "Bright, here."

"Commander Cameron has called a meeting."

"On my way."

Eli got up and straightened his jacket as he left his room. When he got to the conference room, other officers and commanders were already there, talking amongst themselves. Eli took a seat next to chair that was at the head of the table.

After a few minutes, Brynn came in and laid out several files on the table in front of her as she took the seat at the head of the table. She stared at her watch until Akon came in, taking his seat toward the end of the table. Brynn stood.

"Quiet." Brynn said. The entire room fell silent. Brynn cleared her throat. "John Akon, something has been recently brought to my attention. I've looked over the recorded casualty rate since your hiring. It's increase by forty-seven percent. This is completely unacceptable."

Brynn shuffled

"John Akon, you're fired-"

"You can't fire me, only the HyperForce can."

"I think you forget who the HyperForce left in charge while they're gone." Brynn shot back. "In their absence on this planet, I am responsible for the safety of this planet, so I have every authority to fire you, and I am. John Akon, you're fired, please have your things packed and removed from you office immediately."

John shoved his chair back and stormed out of the room. Brynn let out a deep breath. "Thank you all for meeting this late at night, you're dismissed."

Eli didn't move as the other officers around him stood from their chairs and filed out of the meeting room. Eli's gaze moved to the large windows. Brynn sat down next to him.

"What do we do?" He asked, speaking after a few moments of silence.

"What do you mean?"

"What do we do about all of this?" He contin

ued. "Are we fighting a pointless war? Should we even be risking more lives if we don't even have a chance at winning?"

Brynn was silent for a moment before she spoke. "It's easy to lose hope in times like this, but I know that we are capable of so much. And countless amounts of lives will be lost if we just give up. We can't allow ourselves to do that. We must have confidence in our mission."

"That's easy for you to say, you're the Alchemist."

"I haven't always been." Brynn reminded him. "Before, I led a very different life, one with no hope. I know first hand that it gets worse before it gets better, we just have to persevere through the hard time."

Eli knew that Brynn was right, but he couldn't shake the feeling of dread. He had a feeling that something was coming, but in a war, that could mean anything.

"Go." Brynn stood, collecting her files. "Get some rest. We're going to have a busy day tomorrow."

It came across as an order, but Eli knew that Brynn was worried. He nodded and stood. "Goodnight Brynn."

"Goodnight Elijah."
Brynn waited until Eli had left the conference room before sitting back down. She still had to find the files for Chiro. She pulled out her tablet and scrolled through the documents that she pulled from the matrix. She finally stopped at the document that Chiro had wanted.

Executive Order 45

Codename: Alphas

Brynn sighed to herself. She remembered writing the orders with the HyperForce a few years after the war began. She had hoped that none of them would ever have to be used. She downloaded the order and went to her personal files. As the Alchemist, there were some things that she knew that not even the HyperForce could know. There were choices she had to make for the greater good, and this was one of the moments where she had to.

She pulled up a message to Chiro: Here's the order you wanted, first few candidates attached.'-Brynn

Brynn uploaded twenty profiles, but her finger hovered above the send button. She knew exactly which individuals they would chose, and she felt bad for essentially rigging the selection, but she didn't have a choice. She knew the outcome if she sent twenty completely random profiles.

Brynn sighed as she hit send.

A/N: This is a story that was previously on my account that I was very unhappy with. I took it down and started rewritting it. Now that I have a better understanding about where this story is going, I've put it back up. Enjoy! -Crescendo