Clumsy

by Koriat Cyredanthem

Training days for the Spartans get even harder as they are put through puberty in the span of a few months.

Note: This story features all named canon Spartan-IIs who made it through augmentations, and a couple who didn't.

~~James-005~~

James shook his head slightly in the negative to the doctor's probing questions as the man asked about any soreness, tightness, or pain. "Just the usual," he said quietly. "Growth pains."

"Good." The doctor gently massaged James's arms, feeling for abnormalities. "And your coordination?"

"It's off," the child admitted reluctantly.

"How so?"

"I overreach all the time," James reported. "I've been knocking over water bottles mostly."

The doctor nodded. "That is to be expected. We'll be through this stage in another month. Your brain will learn quickly how to judge distances with your newly-longer arms. Any trouble breathing?"

"No, doctor."

"Good. Well, you check out. Do you have any concerns." The older man smiled in a friendly way, and James returned the smile slightly. He liked this doctor, and hoped that, next time, he could get the same one. The others were colder, like he was a science experiment.

"No, sir," the child responded. All the aches and pains had causes – either his rapid rate of growth or Chief Mendez's latest sadistic training exercise, which hadn't gotten any easier with such gangly bodies.

The doctor nodded and shooed him away gently. James made an effort to remember the man's name – Dr. Edwards. Perhaps he could request a permanent reassignment.

James rejoined his group, who were silent, lined up in a double-row along the side of the hallway. They would be retrieved by a trainer any minute – James had been the last one out of the office, even though others seemed to be having more problems than he did accepting their rapidly-changing bodies. He recognized Kelly at the front of the line, standing next to John, as usual, and waved at both before standing next to Naomi.

"How'd it go?" she murmured.

"Good," James replied. "You?"

Naomi sighed, smacking at her budding chest – and then wincing. "They're just so damn painful," she replied. "And the docs won't cut 'em off."

"Why not?" James asked, puzzled. He couldn't see how breasts – apparently another side-effect of puberty, at least for the girls – would help them become soldiers.

"I dunno, they just won't," Naomi inhaled sharply, turning back to the front, as their trainer arrived and barked at them. James let the topic go – it was clearly a sore one – and said a short personal prayer to thank whatever God or gods were out there that he had been born male and stayed that way through the past few months. He knew Kirk was having an adverse reaction to the HGH that made him grow "manboobs" as the trainers so called them.

~~Jai-006~~

Adrianna and Mike, his fellow Gray Team members, were losing. Jai gritted his teeth as John's Blue Team ran right over them, literally – Kelly pushed Mike off of the rope ladder and he barely managed to grab back on five feet below her, but she was already at the top. Adrianna and Sam were sparring, hand-to-hand. Sam had responded much more favorably to the HGH than the girl, and was a block-like ball of muscle, though Adrianna was nearly four inches taller.

"Come on," Jai yelled, angry at both of his teammates, their opponents, and John. For his part, Jai's fellow team leader watched the scene calmly, his eyes tracking every movement.

The cage surrounding Jai was impenetrable, and even if he tried breaking out, the slightest motion would drop the cage onto the stun-mines below. He and John weighed about the same, which was why they had been locked up and their teams told to rescue them. The first to release their team leader would get dessert – and the equal-distribution cage would drop the other team leader onto the mines.

Adrianna, Mike, Sam, and Kelly had started at the other end of the obstacle course, nearly three hundred meters to the east. The first part had been easy, and the pairs had avoided each other, but with a pit of acid – at least, that's what Jai supposed it was, though it could have been green water for all they knew, but Chief Mendez's tests always had a twist like that to them – they had been funneled onto the same ladder-and-pulley system and now fought over who got to cross first. Barring a disaster, whoever crossed first would likely win.

Kelly shoved Mike as he topped the ladder. She was holding the bucket which would carry over two kids – barely – for herself and Sam, who was still at the bottom of the ladder, tussling with Adrianna.

"Sam, let's go," Kelly yelled, ducking Mike's meaty fists. Her teammate abandoned his task of beating the snot out of Adrianna and scrambled up the ladder.

Two against one, Mike lost almost as soon as Sam gained a foothold. Jai's teammate retreated part-way down the ladder and Blue Team took the bucket across the pool of acidic liquid.

Blue Team scampered easily across the remaining obstacles, including through a deep pond of muck covered in barbed wire, reminiscent of World War II trenches. Grey Team fell farther behind and Jai prepared himself for a drop into the stun mines as Kelly and Sam reached the platforms that would allow them to release their team leader.

"Ready?"

Jai blinked in confusion when John looked over at him, speaking. Blue-One's cage was already opening and Kelly was moving towards Gray One's cage.

"Drop me," Jai said gruffly.

"Don't be absurd," Kelly scolded, inserting the key into the lock and releasing the door. "We never leave a man behind, even if he is technically on the other team. Those stun rounds could seriously injure you."

"On three," John ordered. Jai looked over the course – Mike and Adrianna were still struggling towards him, unwilling to admit defeat. Frowning, Jai shook his head.

"I'd rather 'die' than be captured by the enemy," he snarled, sitting down in the cage. He did so without care for the disturbance he caused and the bottom of his stomach suddenly dropped out as the cage fell. Kelly's hand snapped out, but for once, she was too late.

John leapt from his cage as it, too, began to follow its brother towards the mines after a brief jolt upwards. Jai had a brief hope that the Blue Team leader would fall with him – it would show the prick right, he figured – but Sam caught his friend at the last second and Jai closed his eyes as the cage impacted on the mine-sown ground.

Explosions ripped through the ground, throwing Jai and his cage upwards slightly. The stun-mines generally came with lots of noise and light, and didn't fail to deliver this time. Jai spat out blood from where he had bitten his tongue, his ears ringing, his eyes seeing nothing but bright fuzzy spots.

He had lost – again. Of course he had lost. Mike and Adrianna hadn't really wanted to save him, after all. They didn't accept his position as Grey Leader. Besides, no one beat John, Kelly, and Sam when they were on a team – they were inseparable on and off the field.

Chief Mendez suddenly appeared. The only reason Jai knew it was him was because of the man's boots. He yelled something – Jai made out the words "walk" and "trainee," and assumed he was being given an order to walk it off, so he tottered to his feet and started jogging.

Mike and Adrianna joined him silently. He didn't speak to them, and they didn't acknowledge him.

~~Li-008~~

Weightless. It was Li's favorite way to spend time. The pains and aches caused by his rapid growth just seemed to melt away, though he couldn't stay in the microgravity chamber for long.

"Your time is up, trainee."

Li sighed quietly but pushed off of the wall, floating to the access hatch. "Trainee 008, reporting."

The door opened and he cycled into the hatch, where gravity began coming back slowly with the atmosphere. His hair floated back down to brush slightly against the back of his neck. With the HGH, it was growing too fast to be cut down to his usual buzz cut daily, so he had to settled for a haircut once a week.

The martial arts overseer, Algoski, met him outside the facility. "Ready?" he asked, though he knew Li was eager to resume martial arts training. While they had been growing so much, so quickly, Algoski had refused to continue teaching his protégé the more advanced techniques until he re-learned all the basics.

Li followed Algoski into the training facility. "We will begin with breathing and meditation exercises." This came as no surprise – it was the usual warm-up now. They sat facing each other on the exercise mats. A few pairs of children were sparring on the mats, but they avoided the pair on the floor. Kelly and a few other Spartans were practicing their sprints. It was peaceful in the gym – everyone was working out hard, and it smelled like teenagers, sweat, blood, and cleaning solution.

The child centered himself and breathed steadily, matching the natural rhythm of his body and the people around him. He knew them as well as he could know anyone. They were his brothers and sisters, more so than the people fading from his memories with each new day.

~~Naomi-010~~

Naomi sat down, breathing heavily. All of her team was wiped out, but there was food, so they made themselves sit up straighter as they inhaled their allotted food. The one thing they had plenty of was food and water – their bodies growing at such a rate meant they burned tons of calories on top of the fuel they needed to keep up with training. So the trainers didn't restrict how much they ate, though no one was in danger of getting fat on the super-nutritious diet.

"Fall in!"

Naomi jerked upright. She had been half-asleep and still mechanically chewing. Everyone around her was jumping upright as well; they lined up against the wall as they had been taught.

"We're going for a nice little jog, soldiers." Chief Mendez sounded positively cheerful, for him. Naomi groaned to herself, but she didn't utter a sound. The Chief would be on her like a ton of bricks.

They started out on the road that led out of the training base. Soon, they were in the woods, and Naomi was starting to regret her third helpings. Her stomach seemed weighted. She concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, not tripping over her overlong legs, and following the back in front of her. She knew who it was, but was too tired to think of his name, and simply set her eyesight on his heels, matching her rhythm to his.

She may have slept on the run – Naomi couldn't tell. She stumbled to a halt when the boy in front of her did, and found herself back in the training camp at the barracks.

"Shower," Chief Mendez ordered, waving them inside. They saluted and broke for the blessed showers, shoving to get first. Naomi slipped around a pair of grabbling children and made it inside just after Kelly, who was always first. She took a corner shower. They were the best because the water came to them first, so it was hottest.

They only had two minutes to soap up, scrub, and wash their hair. Naomi scrubbed at her scalp, her silver-blonde hair showing dirt more easily than her comrades' brown or black hair. She was one of the only blondes in the outfit.

Naomi hurried through the body scrubbing to give herself ten seconds of simple soaking at the end of her shower before the water shut off without warning. The naked girls left their showers and headed into their barracks to get dressed into their fatigues and fall into bed. On the other side of the building, the boys would be doing the same.

"Hey, Naomi." It was Kelly; Naomi leaned out over the bunk and found Kelly looking up at her. "Do your breasts hurt?" she asked.

"Yeah," Naomi sighed, rubbing at her chest. "But the doc said it's normal."

Grace joined in from her bed, which was on top of Naomi's. "But he said we need to watch for lumps," she reminded the other two. Naomi hadn't done so in the shower, so she lay on her back and gently probed along her budding chest.

"Clear," she reported with a yawn.

"Same here," Kelly replied. "G'night."

"Night."

"Sleep deep." Naomi rolled over onto her side and then onto her belly, trying to find a comfortable position in which to sleep. She hadn't found one before it claimed her, though, and her eyes closed.

~~Daisy-023~~

"Maroon-Two, this is M-One do you copy?"

"Copy," Daisy replied, smiling tightly as Joshua called her in again. He was constantly on the radio.

"Move up five meters," Joshua ordered. He was still wavering between liking "Josh" and "Joshua," but Daisy would always call him by his full name. She hated being called "Dai" by the other kids, and she liked the way the second syllable in her team leader's name sounded.

Focus, Daisy, she scolded herself. She moved forward the prescribed number of meters.

"Enemy contact!" Maroon-Three, Solomon this time, suddenly yelled into the radio. There was the staccato report of stun-round guns. At least, Daisy hoped they were stun rounds this time, and not live ammo.

"Three's down," Joshua panted. He was running. "Returning to base."

Daisy retreated back to her former position. Joshua had jumped the gun – again – in ordering her to leave the base. Now she wouldn't be able to cover his retreat.

Joshua burst out of the brush into the clearing with the Maroon Team's flag and zigged to the left, towards Daisy's position. He didn't get half-way there before Blue Team – John, Kelly, and Sam – appeared at the edge of the clearing and brought him down with their stun guns. He lay in the grass, silent, though he was only stunned. He couldn't move until the exercise was over.

Daisy waited for her opportunity. She had a sniper rifle, loaded with stun rounds, but she wasn't all that good at sniping, so she waited for Kelly to move. Kelly always went for the flag, because she was the fastest.

Sure enough, Kelly broke cover within seconds of Joshua's fall. Daisy pulled the trigger, but missed – and John and Sam immediately fired on her position. The sting of a stun round his Daisy on the shoulder and her arm went numb almost immediately. The numbness started spreading – it would soon paralyze her – and Daisy tried once more to hit Kelly.

But Kelly running through an open field was a tiny, moving target. She reached the flag and paused just long enough to grab it and turn around, barely a microsecond, but it was all the time Daisy needed. She fired again and saw Kelly curse aloud, though she couldn't hear it, as the round impacted her side. The numbness would take her down.

Maroon Team had lost, but at least Daisy had taken one Blue with her. She lay in her perch, waiting for the stun round to wear off, as Chief Mendez took the field and sent Blue Team – including Kelly, supported by Sam – back to the barracks to clean up and rotate back into the gym.

He then came over to stand under Daisy's tree. "Not your best shot," he said gruffly. Daisy climbed down, carefully and slowly, and struck a salute with her numb hand.

"Sir, yes, sir," Daisy agreed.

"Get your teammates off the field," he ordered, marching away. Daisy went first to Joshua, who could hardly move because everything was numb, and hauled him to his feet. Then they found Solomon, whose helmet had taken the round meant for the back of his head and transferred a numbing shock to his brain. They carried him out and reported to the gym.

~~Joshua-029~~

"Alright, what about if we blindfold you and tie a hand behind your back?" Kelly said challengingly.

"I need both hands to solder with," Joshua argued.

"Okay… What if we scramble all the parts?"

"Doesn't matter," John said quietly. "He can feel them. Let's try this for real."

Joshua blinked. "On a real car?" he asked, tilting his head.

"Guys, remember how much trouble we got into last time we ran off?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, I don't want to give the Chief any reason to make our lives any more difficult," Fred added.

"Come on," Kelly said excitedly. "We could go for a joyride. We'll be back before they know we're gone. Promise."

"See, that's what scares me," Sam muttered unhappily.

Josh grinned. "Well, I am going to go hotwire a Warthog. Anyone who's not a chicken can join me." He dashed out of the barracks through the already-open window. He had been practicing on a replica of a Warthog dashboard they'd made, gearing up for the next big training mission the Chief sent them on.

John and Kelly followed him on a silent sprint through the compound. The vehicles and Pelicans were all locked down, but that meant nothing. Kelly picked the lock to the vehicle lot easily, and John picked one out. Josh went to work.

It was surprisingly easy. Josh kept expecting something to go wrong – for them to be spotted, or the car not to start. But it roared to life without a hitch.

"Keep it down," John hissed.

"I got it," Josh murmured back, sliding into the driver's seat. "Let's go!"

Kelly climbed into the back and John got into the passenger seat. "Move out," John said importantly.

"Aye, sir!" Josh gunned the engine and they shot out of the open yard. The guards on the perimeter definitely heard it, but they were gone before the adults could get to the lot.

Josh drove them out of the compound, straight towards the outer gate. They had already been made, so he didn't wait to let Kelly open it, bouncing straight through.

As soon as they were out of sight of the compound, Josh slowed down slightly and turned on the headlights. They cruised down the road. "Where to?" Josh asked John.

"Get off the road," Kelly suggested. "There's lights behind us."

"Towards the old lookout," John ordered. Josh waited for a break in the brush at the side of the road and then drove through it, heading to the south and west. It was a very short drive, though it took longer to hike there.

Josh slid to a halt in a move he'd always wanted to try, fish-tailing the back end around so they faced back the way they'd come. Kelly was out as soon as it was safe to dive from the Warthog, laughing. John followed suit quickly, and Josh shut the engine down before following.

They returned some hours later. Josh lay down on his cot, exhausted but content. It was nice to spend time with his siblings outside of the rigorous demands of training. And he had finally hotwired his first real vehicle.

~~Vinh-030~~

"Ready."

Vinh focused on her goal. One hundred meters away was a supply depot. All seventy-five kids were lined up around the pile, equidistant from it.

Kelly would get there first. She was the fastest. But Vinh was no slouch herself. Fred would likely come in second, if he started fast enough and could keep from tripping. The Human Growth Hormone injections had been bumped up to make all the boys catch up to the girls' height, and as a result, everyone was having trouble with coordination and moving quickly.

"First one to the pile gets first pick of weapons. Simulation starts in thirty seconds." Chief Mendez was yelling through a bullhorn form his position in the sky above them, holding onto the open hatch of a Pelican.

Vinh spied what she wanted – a rifle, probably loaded with stun rounds, sitting next to a backpack stuffed full of something, or several somethings. Grabbing both would be easy.

Chief Mendez gave the starting signal and Vinh launched herself towards the pile. Kelly made it first, of course, but Vinh was third to the pile, and first on her side. She grabbed the rifle and dashed back to the treeline. She had to make it before the thirty seconds were up – she had to be in position before the simulation started.

She shinnied up a tree as quickly as possible and wedged herself in the densest patch she could find, looking out between the branches. The slowest of the children were just making the treeline when the supply depot vanished in a large explosion. Vinh covered her eyes and looked down.

They were almost fifty kilometers from the compound, she estimated. The Pelicans that had flown the children out to this remote location were all gone; only Chief Mendez's Pelican remained in the air above them.

Vinh covered their retreat, along with several other children. John had marked their rendezvous in the Pelican. They would have to regroup, examine what supplies everyone had managed to snatch, and then start back towards the compound. Chances were, they would be harassed by the trainers all the way back to the compound. Vinh concentrated on her goal – she'd let John, Fred, and Serin figure out how to return them all the compound in one piece. She would concentrate on keeping their six safe.

~~Samuel-034~~

Sam chucked the discus out across the field. His form was perfect and it sailed into the distance. When it landed, Kelly dashed out with the measuring line. She came back smirking. "Eighty three meters and change."

He grinned. "Beat that," the boy challenged, looking at Fred.

"You know I can't," Fred answered with a shake of his head.

"Oh, come on, the ladies are watchin'!" Kelly, Vinh, Linda, and Grace simultaneously jumped Sam. They hated being called ladies, especially in that context. They were soldiers and demanded the respect from Sam any comrade would. And they would beat it into him if necessary.

"Take it back," Kelly ordered, sitting on Sam's chest. Linda was holding his arms above his head and Grace had his feet pinned. It had taken them a matter of seconds.

"Alright, I take it back," Sam growled good-naturedly. "Fred's still a chicken, but you aren't ladies." He grinned. "You're hell spawn if anything."

Kelly nodded. "Fair enough." She got up and gave Sam a hand to lever him to his feet. "Come on, try again. Maybe you can break your record."

Sam shook his head. "I dunno, just not feelin' it today. Ninety meters was better than I've ever thrown, then or since, even with a perfect form. Maybe it's a record."

"Now who's chicken?" Fred asked, punching his brother gently in the arm. "Come on, go for it. You won't get better without practice."

"Trainees, fall in!"

Chief Mendez's bark could make the dead rise, Sam thought as he ran to his assigned position. Well, at least we know his bark means we aren't getting bitten – yet. He grinned slightly at his own joke and lined up with Isaac and Douglas.

~~Isaac-039~~

The ground was hard under his back. Isaac reached for a nearby bottle of water, but managed instead to knock it over, spilling its contents. "Damn it," he swore listlessly. He had no energy, it felt like – his limbs weighed a ton. He put his arm back on the ground – it felt like InstaCrete.

"Oh, you're awake." Isaac looked to the left and saw steel bars and a tallish guard standing outside them.

His mind swam for a moment and then he remembered – he had been captured on a training mission. Fred had sent him to scout out the trainers' base, but he had been ambushed fifty meters from the fence and clubbed over the head. He had lost consciousness quickly, and apparently, woken up in the brig, as it were.

"Good. Then you can start talking." The guard smirked. The trainers had learned to fear the Spartan children, and were becoming ruthless to the point of actual injury in the training simulations, now that the "children" looked like full-grown adults. The HGH had pushed them all through puberty in the past few months, and Isaac had been one of the last to finish the growth spurt phase, and he was still getting used to his body.

Isaac had been taught techniques to withstand torture, so he wasn't afraid, but he hoped Fred would bust him out soon. It couldn't take long. They wouldn't leave him – he knew that. He would use that to withstand the trainers' idea of "gathering intel" until Fred came for him.

~~Douglas-042~~

Déjà was sitting on her pedestal, overseeing the game. Douglas frowned down at the board. "Knight to E5," he ordered. The holographic piece moved accordingly.

Chess was an ancient game but still viable in teaching tactics and strategy, force deployment, and other lessons necessary for the UNSC's future soldiers.

"King to A8," Doug's opponent, Serin, said calmly. She almost always won chess games, but Doug was giving her a good run for her money. He had his knights, a bishop, and three pawns left. She had hoarded her higher-ranking pieces, trading away her pawns and rooks to save her queen and bishops.

The pair continued trading moves, as serious as though they were truly commanding troops.

"Pawn to C3," Doug ordered.

"Bishop to C3," Serin countered. The bishop figure approached the pawn and the smaller piece disappeared in a puff of holographic smoke. Doug had succeeded in drawing Serin's second-best piece away from guarding her king, but had given up his last pawn to do so.

"Knight to B4," he continued. "Check."

"Queen to G7." Serin, with five more moves, took down Douglas' last knight and then cornered his king in checkmate.

"I yield," Douglas said good-heartedly.

"And I win." Serin smiled toothily.

"Good game."

"Thanks, Doug. You, too." Serin shook his hand when he offered it.

"Both of you were brilliant," Déjà said quietly. "Now, let us examine the following moves made by both sides."

The entire class were separated into pairs, with the odd child out – this time, it was John's "privilege" – playing against a fragment of Déjà's processing power. Déjà worked with Doug and Serin, showing them a better way to have taken pieces without giving up their own, while simultaneously offering suggestions to the near-forty other pairs of students.

~~William-043~~

"Ow." Will sighed and stared into the mirror. He was bleeding slightly from several cuts on his chin, neck, and cheeks. "This is fun."

"It's part of growin' up, kid," the trainer sniggered.

"Yeah, well, 'least I make this look good." He smirked over at John, who looked downright scruffy.

"Don't start," John growled, picking up a razor. He carefully scraped it along his jawline. It caught a couple times and Will snorted as their "fearless leader" scowled.

This new daily hygiene routine involved shaving every morning after showers. Keeping clean-shaven was one of the expectations of the boys. It was a pain in the ass, for everyone, and the doctors were working on a way to keep the boys permanently clean-shaven.

"Alright, ladies, let's go!" The trainers' bark made everyone jump towards the door. They filed out quickly and silently. Some of Will's brothers still had shaving cream stuck to their faces; they quickly wiped it away.

"'Nother day in paradise," Will joked, nudging Josh, who was closest, with a grin. Josh just rolled his eyes in agreement and laughter.

~~Anton-044~~ (Written in first-person POV)

It's something they never tell you to expect. Pain, death, mistakes that get you or your team "killed" – you expect those. But the mundane things, like sitting in a tree while your bladder tries to break your concentration, those are what make it hard.

I've broken bones. It hurts, but it's a good kind of hurt – it's a hurt that tells you you've screwed up somehow, and to get your act together. I've bled. That's just messy. I've even cried, sometimes. Not recently. No one does anymore. There's nothing to cry about; we're soldiers.

But the worst thing I have ever experienced is the little things.

It's like when you get back to the barracks and the roof has leaked, but only on your bunk. Or someone reheated the MREs inconsistently and half your portion is ice-cold while the other half is Kelly's-temper-hot. It's not a disaster. It won't really hurt you. But God damn it.

Sometimes I think about some of those old proverbs Déjà, the Chief, and Dr. Halsey sometimes use. My personal favorite is about a straw breaking a camel's back. Apparently, straw stalks are kind of like golden, long grass. Anyway, the point is that they hardly weigh anything, so how could a straw break a camel's back?

Let me explain. That camel can carry hundreds of pounds of supplies (we watched a documentary about the ancient nomadic herders of Earth, and their "copycats" today). They're doing it in heat that can kill a human, with hardly any water, because they store energy in their fatty humps. Two for Bactrian, one for Dromedary. But it's the little things – like a single straw – that can break its back.

I'm kind of like a camel, except I'd be surprised if I was carrying around more than eight or nine percent body fat, due to our rigorous training program. Though with how much we've been eating recently – growing boys and all that – I might have a little flab on me. I doubt it.

But I'm like a camel in that I'll carry huge, heavy loads – by which I mean physical or long, arduous, boring, and/or dangerous missions – but it's the little things that get me into a grumpy mood. My personal straw? Full bladders.

It can be below freezing and I could sit in a tree naked for all I care. But once I have to pee, things get bad real quick.

Maybe it's biological, or evolutionary. We can't run as fast if our bladders are loaded down. It makes a difference. Kelly's always faster after a trip to the lady's room. And we're concentrating on our predicament, so we aren't as alert. Not to mention, it's a nasty feeling. You just wanna let it go.

Needless to say, this is one of those times.

John told me to watch the camp. I've been doing so for seven and a half hours now, lying in this tree – a pine, and it smells wonderful – without moving since Linda last crept by with some warm mush, the last of our "real" supplies.

My replacement will be here in half an hour. Until then, my bladder can wait… John is counting on me, all of Blue Team is. I'll never abandon my post. I'll just think about beaches and sunshine. I don't have to go as badly in warm weather, probably because in the warmth, everything in our bodies expands slightly to release more heat, whereas in the cold, our bodies – especially our blood vessels – constrict to retain it.

~~Keiichi-047~~

Boom.

"That's a loud boom," Keiichi murmured.

"Shut up," Jorge growled, holding a bandage to his head. The wound was still bleeding sluggishly. "They'll hear you."

"Bite me," the slightly shorted boy snapped back.

"Boys." Rene's voice had a touch of waspish authority to it.

Keiichi returned to looking out of the cave mouth. They had retreated here after being ambushed by the trainers – a scouting party, and small, but they had had too many advantages and the children had retreated. That was how Jorge had managed to get cut up, falling into the cave. At least he had found it. They had managed to lose the pursuit.

Keiichi, Jorge, and Rene had been assigned to a section of the forest and told to scout it out. There were half a dozen other three-man teams doing the same thing.

John, Serin, and Fred were back at base, planning their assault. This was the biggest, toughest nut yet. The trainers were tired of being kicked around by kids. They had live ammunition. The kids had body armor, but it wouldn't save them from a headshot.

The trainers had had a week to learn the terrain, whereas the kids had just been dumped here hours ago, all in a jumble thanks to the Pelican's "malfunction" and their required drop into the hot zone. Keiichi still hurt from the two-hundred-meter fall, even though he had been lucky enough not to land on rock like a couple of the "dead" kids already out of the game.

I just hope that boom was John and not the trainers, Keiichi thought silently to himself, trying to see if there were still any trainers lurking about. It had been half an hour. It's probably safe to climb a tree, he decided. He signaled his intention to Rene, who was examining the pistol she'd grabbed from one of the adults, and she nodded. Technically, she was in charge of the scouting party, but she never liked being in charge.

Keiichi crept from the cave's mouth, moving immediately into a patch of brush to conceal himself. He zig-zagged from bush to bush until he reached the base of a thick pine and scrambled up it quickly.

Once near the top, the child peeked out from his hiding point and oriented himself. He could see the huge mountains off to his right, the sun over his left shoulder. One of the moons was rising; the other would be out soon. It was bright, despite the clouds drifting lazily to the east. The light glinted off a lake to the north; the trainers' base was near there.

Keiichi could see smoke rising from where the compound was supposed to be. He frowned slightly. He hadn't known they were planning an attack, and his team was too far away to be of any use in the short term, especially with Jorge injured.

Keiichi climbed back into the cave. "Something in the compound's been blown up," he reported. "We're farther away than I thought. It'll take a couple hours to get back if we do it stealthily."

"Alright, let's get moving." Rene hoisted Jorge onto her shoulder and he let her help him out of the cave before disdaining the assistance and walking on his own. They headed north as quickly as possible, keeping alert for more trainer patrols, though Keiichi would have been willing to bet the explosion had called all of them back to the compound quicker than pups to their bitch. It was their stronghold, after all. They didn't stand a chance without it.

They don't stand a chance with it, John would have said if he could have heard Keiichi's thoughts. He – and Serin – both had gotten more… sinister… in their leadership. Fred still empathized with his fellows, but those two… Keiichi shuddered.

Glad they're on my team, he thought to himself.

~~Kurt-051~~

They climbed up the face of the cliff nimbly and then sat at the top. In the distance, about ten kilometers out, they could see the lights of the compound. Someone was probably searching for them. The pine forests around them gave off a subtle scent, one they had lived around for so long they had to consciously search for it to smell it.

"This is nice," Kelly sighed, wrapping an arm around John and Kurt's shoulders and giving them a one-armed hug. "We should do this more often."

"We shouldn't run away from base too much," John warned. "They'll catch us and we'll be in a lot of trouble."

Kurt snorted. "We've never been told explicitly not to. Think of it as night-time operations training."

"Or we're practicing how to escape an enemy compound," Kelly laughed.

John just shook his head slightly. "Come on, John, get that stick outta your ass," Kurt scolded. "It's a beautiful night, we're all alone for once, and no one knows where we are."

Kelly stood up, restless, and stretched her arms above her head. She smirked softly.

"So, what do you want to do?" she asked, bouncing on her toes.

"I'm enjoying this," John replied, lying back and letting his legs dangle over the edge of the cliff. He looked up at the stars. It wasn't cloudy, which was rare.

Kurt was in agreement. He lay back, copying John. Kelly looked at both of them with disgust but flopped down with her legs over John's thighs, her head on Kurt's shoulder. "Fine, we'll just lie here like boring saps."

"We move all day," John told her, closing his eyes. "Just let us have some down time. Then we'll play tag or something you want to do."

Kurt wrapped an arm around Kelly and she grinned, tilting her head back to look at him. "Don't make any moves," she said teasingly. "I'll break your arm faster than you could cop a feel."

John and Kurt both rolled their eyes. "We know better, Kelly," Josh assured her. "And we respect you."

They were silent for a while, thinking their own thoughts. Kurt smiled slightly, looking at the stars and inventing constellations and backstories.

Jeffrey the rabbit. He was in the stars because he had saved his mate from an evil mountain lion, and the gods honored his sacrifice by putting him in the stars where he could forever watch over his kind.

Magnolia, a six-legged horse. He had been the mount for one of the gods' chosen warriors. He had died on a battlefield in a great war, and taken many enemies with him, and his horse had done the same until a spear through the side killed him.

Kurt invented stories for several other constellations by the time Kelly was too restless to lie still any more. They chased each other for a while, playing a game of tag, and then climbed back down the cliff to the waiting Warthog and drove back to the compound. They managed to stash the vehicle in the forest and hid it from casual searching and then climbed over the fence and sneaked back into the barracks without being detected.

~~Jorge-052~~

"Shhhh, they'll hear you," Cassandra hissed. Jorge just rolled his eyes. He was quiet – more so than her.

They slipped over the fence and into the grassy field beyond, dropping to their bellies and crawling away from the compound. No high-profile Warthog stealing for them. They left that the John, Josh, Kurt, and Kelly. The pair preferred to sneak out with emphasis on sneak.

Cass got to the cover of the treeline first and dashed off without waiting for Jorge. With an annoyed huff, the boy chased after her. Their destination was a hidden little patch of heaven, protected by a fallen pine tree that had rotted underneath and was covered in soft moss and grass. They had a small stash of things there – a few small knives, some food, water. It was their go-to place when they sneaked out.

Cass, of course, got there first, and she slid into the depression beneath the tree with a faint giggle. Jorge followed eagerly, but didn't get far before she grabbed him and pulled him into the space, locking their lips.

"We would be in so much trouble if they knew this is what we're doing," Jorge breathed quietly when Cass had released him.

Cass snorted softly. "Yeah, well, I don't care. Besides, it's not like we're having sex. We're just… fooling around. Like any good teenager does."

"They're going to figure it out soon," Jorge insisted.

"So?"

"So, I don't particularly fancy a lecture from Chief Mendez about fraternization between soldiers."

"Ugh, you always get like this. Go home, then. I'll kiss myself."

"That's stupid." Jorge leaned in slightly, brushing his lips across Cass's nose. He'd gotten good at it; she turned a faint pink with both embarrassment and enjoyment. "I like kissing you. But we still shouldn't be doing this."

"I bet that's what Kelly's doing," Cass said thoughtfully, digging through their stored rations. "Practicing on John, or Fred, or Kurt. Who do you think?"

"I don't really care," Jorge answered truthfully.

"Alright. But we can't be the only pair trying this out. I mean, we're all going through puberty now – the others have to be feeling the same, right?" Cass actually sounded a little insecure.

Jorge had been having the same thoughts. Perhaps he and Cass were a little older than the others – he didn't know his birthdate, and neither did anyone else – and that was why they were responding so… hormonally… to the induced puberty. He didn't like the idea that he was simply more… horny… than his brothers.

"Maybe," Jorge temporized. "I don't care, Cass. What've got tonight?"

"A little new-fashioned candlelight," she said, lighting a lantern and setting it to the side, "and some super romantic crackers."

Jorge grinned and lay down so his head was in her lap. "Depends on how you feed them to me," he told her cheekily.

"You pig," she teased, dropping a salty cracker into his open mouth and following it with a short kiss. Jorge just grinned.

Life is good, he thought.

That's when Chief Mendez roared into their "sanctuary" and both children saw their lives pass before their eyes.

~~Linda-058~~

"Concentrate, trainee!"

Linda didn't allow herself to frown. She lay on her stomach, controlling her breathing. The two budding breasts that had seemed to grow overnight – and practically had, thanks to the growth hormones everyone was taking – put her chest higher than she wanted it, throwing off her aim.

"You'll have to relearn how to shoot," Chief Mendez had told her without sympathy.

To herself, Linda wondered why the doctors didn't just remove the breasts from all the female Spartans. Breasts were completely useless – and a hindrance, it seemed to Linda – to a soldier.

Linda concentrated on her target, a human silhouette nearly eight hundred meters down range. There was a faint breeze coming from the west, into her face. The sun was bright in her face.

"Take the shot, worm," the trainer barked. Linda didn't jump, though he was practically standing on top of her – she was used to the man's harsh voice and tuned it out.

Breathe in, breathe out. The familiar aching in her body, caused by the accelerated growth, spiked in her chest as she forced a deep breath into her lungs. Let the reticule float. She hadn't needed to think so consciously about a shot for a long time. Everyone agreed that Linda was the best sniper.

She caressed the trigger once and then gently squeezed it with just the tip of her finger. It had taken almost an hour to re-learn how to do that, even. With the growth of her body came muscles, ones that amplified every movement.

The target shivered, indicating she had at least hit it, but Linda frowned. "Three o'clock," she told the trainer. The shot had swung to the right at the very last second – though she couldn't see the hole punched through her target, she felt it in her core.

He nodded, frowning. "Again, trainee."

Linda took another deep breath. She could sit out here all day, sniping away at targets her teammates couldn't hope to hit, perfecting every tiny action that went into the million dollar shots. Knowing that sniping was Linda's talent – the only thing she seemed good at, next to the other children – Mendez had ordered her and several other promising snipers to spend the day re-learning the trade. The trainer in charge was a former sniper himself, ruthless with mistakes, and not gentle, but certainly preferable to – Linda shuddered mentally – running laps against Kelly.

So Linda refocused.

~~Malcolm-059~~

Malcolm steadied his breathing, concentrating. With the growth spurts he – and everyone else – was going through, basic tasks became more difficult. The kid in front of him leapt for the monkey-bar-style swinging ropes and barely managed to grab it, hauling himself up and leaping for the next rope.

Chief Mendez had made this obstacle course, but this time, he'd added what the Chief called "incentive." Said incentive came in the form of powerful stun mines sown throughout the course. It was a real game of "the ground is lava."

It was Malcolm's turn; he saw the rope coming towards him and timed his jump almost perfectly.

It wasn't perfect, though. His body had grown even since last night. The extra weight threw his jump off, and he started dropping faster than he thought he would. The rope swung by and he snapped out a hand to grab it. His arms, though, were longer than he remembered, and he ended up grasping the air beyond the rope. He fell.

He hit the dirt just as Rufus, who had been behind him, yelled, "Duck and cover!"

Malcolm curled into a tight ball as the first mine went off to his left. It deafened him, which was great, because he could see – just before the rounds flung so much dirt up everything went dark and he closed his eyes again. The ground shook for thirty seconds as mines were set off across the obstacle course.

Malcolm sat up when it was all over, his head throbbing painfully. He couldn't even hear any ringing – a bad sign, he knew from experience. Fred's face suddenly swam into view; it looked like he was yelling something, but Malcolm couldn't make it out and just shook his head, pointing to his ears.

Fred touched them and his hand came away bloody. Someone behind Malcolm picked him up, setting him on his feet – it had to be one of the adult trainers. Fred carefully steadied him as he stumbled forward.

Malcolm recognized Chief Mendez; the taller man leaned over slightly and waved a hand in the trainee's face. He spoke, but Malcolm couldn't hear anything; he made the hand-signal for silent communications only.

"Medic," Chief Mendez ordered with hand-signals, pointing towards the infirmary farther inside the compound. Fred and Arthur supported him on the way over. The doctors quickly repaired both eardrums and a bad bruise to the ankle. They told him to take the rest of the day off, but he ignored their advice – as usual – and went instead back to the obstacle course.

Everyone else was at dinner, so he had to place to himself. He looked around just to be sure, and then climbed the first portion quickly. He went more slowly than usual, making sure to concentrate on just how much power he had to put into every leap, how far he could reach.

He came to the portion where he had fallen and took a moment to orient himself. He jumped onto the first rope – it wasn't swinging any more – and moved quickly onto the second.

Malcolm finished more slowly than he would have liked, but he finished. And when he came to the rope marking the boundaries of the course, Chief Mendez was waiting for him.

"Sir!" Malcolm came to attention. Chief Mendez waved at him to stand at ease.

"You got your entire team killed," he said without preamble.

"Yes, sir," Malcolm answered without hesitation.

"Good men and women would have been dead if those hadn't been stun mines. In battle, you can't miss your target – no matter what that target it. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Why did you come out here tonight?"

Malcolm glanced over Chief Mendez's shoulder at the lights of the compound.

"I needed to prove to myself I could do it, sir, that if I needed to do it again, I could do it. That I'm not a failure, sir."

Chief Mendez stared at him quietly for a minute before simply nodding and turning on his heel, heading towards the dining hall. After a moment, Malcolm followed. He was hungry – and proud. He'd done the course. Late, after screwing up badly, but he'd done it.

His teammates greeted him with various jokes about being dead.

"Food's better than I thought, for Hell," William snickered. "Wait, no, I'm so precious I'd go to Heaven, of course, but the rest of you cretins… Maybe I'll go to Hell just to stay with you all." He smiled winningly at Kelly, who socked him in the shoulder. Hard.

Malcolm got a tray of food – the usual glop – and sat down with Fred, Solomon, Arthur, Kelly, John, and Sam around him. They talked quietly about the training exercise.

~~Maria-062~~

"Alriiiiight," Maria whooped, standing in a slight crouch to keep her balance. Beneath her feet, the board – admittedly splintery, but she didn't mind – surfed along the wave beautifully. The sunlight glinted off the water like off the edges of thousands of sniper rifles. In the depths, she sometimes caught glimpses of giant swimming creatures that could, likely, swallow her whole, but they never surfaced and were extremely shy.

"You go, girl!" Fhajad yelled, laughing, from the beach. The others in the group were in various states of relaxation, swimming, and surfing. A few were in the woods, gathering supplies, as always.

Since ditching Mendez after he sabotaged their air tanks, they had been living on this island, and it was going well. They set watches every night, slept lightly, explored their island, set up supply caches for when the Chief came to get them, but mostly, they played and trained and sparred.

It was a whole new environment. Balancing on a surfboard used different muscles and techniques than balancing on a beam. Cooking one's own clams, small wild game, and other – mostly experimental – foodstuffs was a novel experience. They'd done some cooking in the woods, during training exercises back on Reach, but this was wholly new.

Maria reveled in all the activities, but surfing was, by far, her favorite. Every kid was graceful, but on a surfboard, even a hand-made one, Maria found herself. Just as much as soldiering, planning and then carrying out attacks, this was something she was born to do.

So she did it. For hours on end, Maria surfed in the beautiful waves of green, blue, and gold.

~~Solomon-069~~

Déjà appeared on her pedestal as per her usual, smiling gently at everyone. Solomon dropped into his seat – the one closest to the snack jar, though he knew Kelly, right behind him, would beat him there as she always did.

"Today's lesson will be about music from the early twenty-first century," Déjà told everyone. They had covered twentieth century music the day before, during this first part of the day's schooling, and it seemed the AI was willing to follow in that direction for a while. "Does anyone know of any songs from this era?"

No one did, of course. They didn't have time to listen to music. "Very well. I will play a sample of several genres of music for your enjoyment. If anyone falls asleep again, I will assign a song for you to memorize and sing for us tomorrow." It wasn't an idle threat, but she said it gently. She did everything gently.

Solomon didn't like the first sample – it was someone screaming curse words in a raw voice, referencing something about another singer, he guessed. Déjà called it "heavy metal."

He kind of liked the second one, in which a girl sang in a peppy voice about some boy. The chorus was catchy – "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number, so call me maybe." Solomon didn't know what a number was, but apparently it facilitated communication. Déjà said it had been, at one point, one of the most popular "pop" songs of the era.

"This one has a music video to go with it," Déjà said by way of introduction. A middle-aged man appeared on the hologram. It was a 2D rendering, as was everything back in those days, and the man was clearly of Asian descent, though his whiter skin and rounder face made Solomon think he was likely from one of the Koreas – they had been split at that time, right?

Solomon couldn't follow what the music was saying – it was in another language, one he didn't recognize – and the music video made no sense. The sample Déjà played for them had the middle-aged man dancing, whom she called "Sy," in a kind of horsey gallop, yelling "Oh pah kahng nahm style" over and over. Solomen had no idea what he was trying to say, but again, it was catchy, and he murmured it to himself between samples.

The next one was just stupid. A boy – dressed in weird pants that made it look like he was wearing a diaper – danced on stage, crying "Baby, baby, baby, ohhhh" over and over. His hair was blond-brown and swept back in perfectly-manicured waves from his baby face. Solomon rolled his eyes. Déjà caught the movement and smiled slightly.

They explored samples of country western music, more pop hits like Lady Gaga and Beyonce and Julianne, several "parodies" of popular songs, and other genres. Solomon found that he liked all of the songs that told stories, and would have listened to the full song – several times – to get all the lyrics if Déjà had let him.

However, the lesson was soon over, and they moved on to mathematics. Solomon disliked math – the logical sense was untrustworthy. The only things that followed math were things he couldn't control, like a ship's trajectory or the gravity well of a planet. Humans were unpredictable, and as soldiers, they'd be fighting humans.

But Solomon knew he had to do well. He did well in lessons because he didn't do so well out on the training course. He had to be good at something. Everyone else had talents. Kelly was fast; Linda could shoot the wings off a fly. Will was a jokester. It might not help on the battlefield, but at least it was a talent. Solomon didn't know what his talent was, but he was hoping Déjà might help him find it in the classroom, since he hadn't found it on the training field with the Chief.

~~Arthur-079~~

"Are we ready for this?" John murmured quietly.

Arthur nodded with everyone else. There were three in the group who wouldn't be going in – they was staying back to direct the distraction part of the "grand plan."

Fred would be leading Kelly and Grace into the base. They would extract their target – Isaac had been captured – and get out safely while the rest of them led the trainers around the forest in a game of tag.

"Move out," John ordered.

Arthur found his target, one of the trainers on a scouting patrol, and turned him from the route he'd been following with a well-placed pebble sent skittering off a tree as though a kid had brushed against it. Not that any of the kids could possibly be that clumsy – well, normally. The HGH program was making everyone kind of… clumsy. No one liked it.

The trainer turned towards the noise and stalked the bush Arthur rattled with a long piece of string tied to a branch in it. He'd done that before the trainer had come through this area.

The trainer led with his gun, of course. Which meant that Arthur snatched it on his way running out of the bush, causing the trainer to yelp and then roar in anger.

The adult ran after Arthur, but the kid knew his route already and led the man on a wild goose chase and then into an ambush, much like the one that had captured Isaac. Except the kids took no prisoners – they knocked the trainer out and stored him in a cave, bound and gagged, with the others they had managed to capture in the "round up."

Then Arthur reported to their base camp, far from the trainer's base, and found he was one of the last back, since his target had been a little slower than the rest. Isaac was resting near the fire – one eye blackened badly, his left arm in a sling, several bruises on his neck and face. Arthur gave his report to John, who sent him off to get some grub from the fire. It tasted horrible, like someone had regurgitated last night's dinner, recooked it in vinegar, and served it unevenly heated. But it was better than nothing. He gobbled it down and went to sit with Isaac for a while; they spoke quietly.

~~Kelly-087~~

The doctor looked her over critically, frowning. "Unfortunately, this was a foreseeable consequence of the growth hormones," he told the surly girl. At twelve, Kelly-087 had the body of a mid-teens athlete, but was still growing into it.

Kelly shook her head stubbornly. "I can't be bouncing around the track, doctor," she told the man. "Cut the hormones off or do something, but no one takes a jiggly soldier seriously."

Kelly had swollen up with the HGH – Human Growth Hormones – noticeably, gaining twelve pounds that could not be attributed to muscle or physical growth. Certain parts of her body – her thighs and upper torso especially – had been the most heavily affected, causing her to slow down considerably as she tried to readjust with a constantly-changing body.

"We'll add a diuretic," the doctor promised, motioning for her to dress. "That should help shed the water weight. Remember, your body is adjusting within the span of months what should take years. Expect to get a little uncomfortable."

Kelly nodded and dressed quickly. Her shoulders and hips were filling out, she noted, even more so than yesterday's morning examination had shown. She reached for her pants, folded neatly on the table, and missed, overcompensating for her longer limbs and grabbing the air next to them. Blushing slightly – the doctor mutely handed them to her – the child got dressed and left the room quickly, eager to rejoin her teammates.

She was, despite the additional concern, one of the first out of the doctors' offices. They took it in rotation to visit daily, since their progress needed to be documented and followed carefully, so there were only fifteen other children there with her. Kelly waited in the lobby for her group. They were to stay together, Mendez had told them, so she would slow down for them, though what she wanted to do was get out on the track and try to run some of the extra weight off, even if the doctors had all said it wasn't fat but water, and running wouldn't help.

"Kelly." Fred and John walked towards her from their separate rooms, tugging their shirts on over their heads. Kelly was jealous for a moment – they could still walk around without shirts on, but now she and the other girls had to spend an extra breath every morning pulling on skin-tight bras.

"What'd the doctor say?" John asked, noting the displeasure in her expression.

"He's giving me a diuretic," she replied, huffing. "It's 'water weight.' A side effect of the HGH."

Fred nodded, smiling in sympathy. "At least your voice isn't cracking constantly." His own voice cracked as he said it, finishing on a high note, and both Kelly and John chuckled at the boy's expense.

"Let's go running," Kelly suggested – almost begged – as more children joined them.

John shook his head thoughtfully. "We ran laps this morning," he said. "The Chief wants us to work on unit cohesion. We have orders to report to the ropes course."

"Oh, goody, more coordination tests," Will muttered, grinning. He had grown like a weed, easily making him the tallest among the boys, though most of the girls still topped him. Unfortunately, with all the energy his body spent on growing up, it didn't leave much for growing muscles, so he was a gangly-looking stick boy.

John led them to the ropes course. Kelly tried to ignore the up-down motions from the breasts on her chest. She'd compare again with Linda and Grace tonight.

~~Jerome-092~~

"I really, truly, deeply hate this exercise," Jerome muttered. Victor, next to him, laughed with agreement. They were hanging by their legs, ropes around their ankles, over a fifteen-foot-deep pool of water. Chief Mendez had left them there after capturing them from their watch.

"John will find us," Victor said courageously. "And they'll get us down from here."

"Before or after my head implodes?" Jerome examined the bindings. They were kid-proof, definitely; even if the trainers hadn't taken the extra precaution of giving both a mild paralyzing agent, the "ropes" tying him were actually FlexiCable, which was used to hold light aerial vehicles together.

Sure enough, just as dawn started peaking, the rest of the kids started waking – and noted that their two brothers were missing. Jerome could see their barracks from his spot and saw a team of five kids – including Kelly – jump out of the barracks' back window to do some scouting. Another team probably left by the other window in the boys' shower room, but that was on the side not facing him, so Jerome couldn't say for certain.

The original five-man team found the pair, spotting them from a few yards off. They didn't close, however – Chief Mendez always had a trick up his sleeve for training sessions like this.

"Traps?" Fred signed.

Jerome managed to shake his head slightly; the paralytic agent was wearing off slightly. He hadn't seen any, at least. Fred nodded.

There hadn't yet been any sign of any of the trainers, which was odd since they usually delighted in storming the barracks to wake the children – which resulted in the keeping of watches – and usually with a nasty surprise. One time, it had been tear gas – another, flash bombs.

The rest of the kids were moving out already. They treated the compound like an enemy one – which meant they stormed all of the buildings and trussed up anyone they found. The cooks, unaware of what the trainers had done, were pulled kicking from the kitchen, which two of the kids secured. Chief Mendez and his trainers, however, were all gone.

Finally, about fifteen kids gathered in a one-hundred-meter-wide circle around the pair of trapped teammates. The rest were securing buildings, vehicles, and the perimeter.

Starting farthest from the pool over which Jerome and Victor were hung, their rescuers started throwing fairly large rocks randomly, hoping to set off whatever trap was set – likely mines. They didn't set anything off, however, and a sweep by one of the vehicles' anti-mine radars found nothing, either.

Kelly, of course, volunteered to run through the "dead zone" and release Victor and Jerome. After a moment of thought, John agreed.

She dashed through but didn't seem to trigger anything; she arrived at the base of the pole holding her brothers up without incident. She climbed up it and cut the pair loose; they landed in the deep pool and quickly surfaced, sputtering.

"Alright, what's the game?" John asked everyone an hour later, when they had thoroughly re-scoured the camp and found nothing in the way of directions. Jerome and Victor, after finally working through the pins and needles in their legs, gave a description of their capture.

Chief Mendez had approached them and next thing they knew, they had felt the stings of darts in their necks and the Chief had clapped big hands over their mouths before they could yell a warning to their sleeping siblings.

"All the trainers and the Chief are gone," Kelly reported. "The cooks and several "support staff" were left – apparently they have no knowledge of where everyone is, only that they all bugged out sometime before dawn but after midnight."

"Well, they know where we are. So, let's pack some bags and head out." John assigned teams to get supplies together and then split the remaining kids into different parties. They would go into the woods in several different ways – three teams would take Warthogs, another two would take the heavier truck-like Cobras, and the rest would go by foot. By splitting up, they hoped to have a better chance of arriving at the rendezvous, which was a place known to everyone but not to the Chief, they thought.

~~Grace-093~~

"Is it really that important?" Kelly's voice had never grated on Grace's nerves like that. Everyone was more temperamental with all of the hormones the doctors were giving them – and Grace had started what the doctors called "the curse" last night – but there was no reason for her to be so mad at her pseudo-sister. But she was.

"Yes," Grace snapped, peering at her eyes and hair in the mirror. "You dyed your hair. Why can't I?"

"But just because you don't like brown hair with brown eyes?" There was a certain smugness to Kelly's tone that made Grace want to claw her eyes out. She checked her emotions. Chief Mendez had said that the accelerated puberty would make them all aggressive, ill-tempered, and petty. She didn't want to be petty. She wasn't petty. But she didn't like brown hair and brown eyes. It was boring.

"What about black hair?" Serin suggested from where she was field-stripping her pistol on the floor. "It's easier to dye something darker than lighter, and then when your roots grow out again tomorrow, it won't be so obvious."

"Thanks, Serin." Grace knew the other girl understood, or at least was trying to be helpful.

"Why do you care anyway? It's just hair." Kelly scoffed.

"You dye yours," Grace replied.

"Well, yeah, I like it blue. Who else has blue hair here? I stand out." The pompous girl puffed herself up, grinning. "Not like I need it, though. I am the fastest here."

Grace huffed. "Shut up," she snarled. Kelly had beaten her in a footrace this morning, again, and what really made Grace mad was that it had been clear the other girl had hardly been trying.

No one could beat Grace when it came to explosives, but there were few opportunities for her talent to show itself – they rarely got to use real explosives for now. The other kids were mostly brute-force types, who thought overrunning an enemy compound meant literally stomping it into the ground. Grace, though, knew the value that stealth operations had, and knew that sneaking into a base and setting up the charges before retreating and then blowing everything to Hell from a safe distance was much more satisfying – and harder to do, which made it an excellent challenge.

~~Victor-101~~

"The females are receiving the same discussion in the next room," Déjà told the boys as they filed into the classroom. "You have been administered the Human Growth Hormone for three months now, and have reached the point where you bodies are beginning to go through puberty at an accelerated rate. As such, you will experience feelings, towards your fellow soldiers, that may be difficult to control or explain. It is our wish – Dr. Halsey's and Chief Mendez's – that this day's classes will give you an explanation and reason to avoid acting on those impulses."

Déjà called up the main holoprojector at the front of the class and showed a diagram of the human genitals. Everyone knew which was male and female – it was fairly obvious – but seeing the inner workings was somewhat new, and there were a few snickers out of embarrassment and pure amusement.

The teacher AI moved on through the physical portion to the emotional, describing the feelings of lust as impersonally as though she was describing how nanotechnology had been developed in the twenty-first century.

Victor stared at the diagram with equal parts revulsion and fascination. "So, this is why soldiers aren't allowed to fraternize?" he asked Déjà. "Because the females will get pregnant?"

"In our time and age," Déjà answered with a slight smile, "there are myriad ways a woman can prevent pregnancy in case of sexual contact. If there is a mistake, or an accident, or in the case of rape or incest, a woman can also pursue abortion."

The screen changed to a timeline, showing the progression of both a typical female body and the thing growing inside her – a fetus, Déjà said it was called. "From conception, a fetus takes approximately nine months to develop. Many births are early, however, and we can usually keep those that are up to seven months early alive without the need for constant external care after one to two years of age.

"With our technology today, we could theoretically grow humans from egg and sperm in mechanical uteruses, but for mostly moral reasons, there are laws in place to restrict such uses. The only licit reasons for using mechanical births is if the female in question would be placed in mortal danger by becoming pregnant herself or if a pair of males wish to produce genetic children together.

"Now, in order to drive home just how this process works, we will watch a short video of a live birth." Déjà called up the appropriate clip. "While you will never experience this yourself, as genetic males – unless you should choose, upon reaching adulthood, to go through transgender operations – it is important for you to understand the consequences of your actions, if you choose to have sexual relations with a woman."

All of the boys glanced between themselves with disgust. None of them wanted that kind of relationship. Their fellow soldiers were just that – comrades. Victor couldn't see himself doing anything like what Déjà had showed them with any of the females. Even if they wanted to, the whole process was just… silly. But, he had seen the way the girls were starting to act, giggling and glancing at the boys out of the corners of their eyes, paying more attention to their personal hygiene. Never during training, of course, but it was obvious in the mess hall. Even Kelly was getting a little too touchy-feely for Victor's comfort.

The video confirmed everyone's feelings, and even turned a few of the battle-hardened kids green. "I'll die for any of you," William declared loudly when it was over, "but I'll be damned if I get pregnant."

"Well, then, it is fortunate you are biologically male," Déjà said humorously.

Victor put his hand up. "Why are we getting this discussion now?" he asked. "I don't know about you guys, but I haven't wanted to… do any of that." He glared at the picture still on the screen of a bloody baby, screaming its lungs out, where Déjà had paused the video feed.

"The females are progressing more rapidly than the males," Déjà answered smoothly. "This is normal – girls generally go through puberty first, and males of the same age go through it two or three years later. Because we have been administering HGH, along with other hormones, you are all going through it at the same time, which is why your voices are cracking and other physical changes are becoming apparent. Sexuality is one of those things that is generally developed during this time, though there are exceptions."

"How will this help us be better soldiers?" John asked, a frown on his ruggedly stubbled face.

"It will not help you win a battle," the AI answered. "We do not use rape as a weapon of war or torture – there are severe consequences for any soldiers who engage in such barbarism. But there will be times, even on the battlefield, in which these urges may come up. Most teenagers control and appease their urges through the use of a technique called masturbation…"

Victor, over the next hour, decided quite simply that he would not fall prey to such base instincts. Most of the other boys seemed to come to same conclusion, especially after Déjà showed them pictures of the different types of sexually-transmitted diseases that hadn't yet been eradicated or were untreatable.

When the two groups, separated by gender, met again for lunch, all of the girls had calmed down their recent "whisper-and-glance-and-giggle" routine and seemed much more in control of themselves. Kelly made it well known to anyone within earshot that sex and love was for civilians and they were soldiers. Victor, and most everyone else, he noted, agreed with her. Soldiers like they were, despite what Déjà had said, had no room in their lives for love lives.

"If I never see another live birth, I'll be happy," Alice groaned, dropping into a seat next to Victor. He grinned slightly in agreement, but she took exception and socked him – hard.

"Ow!" he protested. "I was agreeing with you."

"Shut up."

"Yes, ma'am." Victor dug into his food. "What's on our list for this afternoon?" he asked John, turning to his left and calling down the table. John, who had been in the middle of a quiet conversation with Fred and Carris, turned to answer.

"Chief Mendez wants us to run the obstacle course again," he answered neutrally. Victor groaned – he had fallen off several times yesterday. "Until everyone can make it through without falling off."

"Right-O, mini Chief." William snickered as John glared half-heartedly at his brother. It was a common nickname for the boy, whose admiration of the Chief was well-known. It wasn't brownnosing, more like the way a son looks up to his father, but everyone teased him about it relentlessly as though they didn't have the same feelings towards the hard older man.

~~Frederic-104~~

"Fred. Fred. Fred. Wake up. Fred." Fred growled as Kelly poked him relentlessly.

"I'll skin you," he muttered in as threatening a way as possible.

"You'd have to wake up first," Kelly reminded him. "Come on, John wants everyone up. Kurt's got a bad feeling."

That woke Fred right up. Kurt's "bad feelings" had been responsible for his team's wins more times than anyone could count.

The cave they had chosen as HQ was three kilometers from the trainers' base of operations, which was dug into the side of a mountain. It was closer than usual for them to camp, but John had figured the trainers would expect the kids to play by the books and be at least five kilometers away, so he had sent out three parties to make a couple caves look lived-in before setting up a permanent base closer in.

Fred had been catching some shut-eye after last night's patrol, which he had led. He sat up and waved Kelly off, who was still hovering to make sure he actually woke up fully.

John brought over two bowls of stew and handed one to Fred, along with a spoon. "Kurt's got a bad feeling, and our morning patrol reports a decided lack of activity in the enemy base. We think they're going to head out sometime this morning."

"What time is it?"

"One hour until sunrise. We'll move out at dawn."

"Got it. Where do you want me?"

"You'll take twenty to the east. Serin will take ten others to the west. Kelly's going to lead twenty to the north, and I'll circle around to the base's south with the rest, except Alice, Malcolm, and Anton, who will stay here on guard, and a set of ten will head southwest to draw off some of the trainers."

"Got it. And the actual plan is to divide and conquer?"

"Something like that," John answered with a smirk. "We're going to dig in underneath them."

"They've got to have vibration sensors," Fred protested.

"Which I've been dismantling for the past two hours," Josh said with a smug grin, tapping John on the shoulder. "All that I could find are dead, and they don't even know it."

"Where did you get this idea?"

"Honestly?" John grinned. "One of Déjà's old movies. Dig in under the enemy, pop out like those old gopher animals, take everyone by surprise."

"So, just dig towards the barracks?"

"Your team is targeting the eastern buildings. One of them is definitely a vehicle bay – see if you can commandeer at least a couple Warthogs. If not, destroy them. Josh will be going with you."

"Sounds good," Fred answered, scooping up his stew. It was really hot but tasty. "Who made the soup?"

"Alice," John answered, grinning.

"She does have that gift."

"I heard that!" Alice yelled from across the cave.

"It was a compliment," Fred assured her quickly, holding up the soup bowl in explanation.

"Oh, well, then, thank you." She grinned and turned back to stripping a small sapling of its branches.

"We've got a few more shovels to make," John explained when Fred raised an eyebrow in question. "We figured everyone should have at least two, in case one – or more – break."

"Sounds like a good plan," Fred answered. "What's your team doing?"

John smirked. "I've got Grace. We're going to plant some charges around, leave a few tokens of our… respect." The kids within earshot sniggered. "Serin and Kelly have their own missions."

"Sounds like fun. And our target?"

"He's Kelly's," John answered. They had been given a specific set of orders from Chief Mendez: capture the target, a supposed Innie leader on an Innie base of operations, and return him to the main compound without serious injury for processing. They had just under twenty-four hours remaining in the operation.

"Well, time to get moving," John said after a few moments of companionable silence. "Let's move, everyone."

Fred stood and gathered his team, including Josh, and their shovels. He led them from the cave, checking in with the outer patrols before moving on to their target.

~~Adrianna-111~~

"No, what I'm saying is: we don't know everything about this mission," Adrianna said, remaining calm. John just wasn't seeing that.

"We've been given an objective," John answered. "We will see the mission through as per our usual. Chief Mendez would never give us a bad order."

"Yes, he would, if he was given a bad order."

John rubbed a hand through his hair, shaking his head slightly. "We obey the chain of command. That's what a soldier does."

"Tell that to our 'dead' friends," the girl snapped. She knew the immediate change of mood was a side-effect of puberty and that John wouldn't hold it against her, though his own mood swings were starting to affect his leadership, she felt.

He partially blamed himself for the team of twelve who had been ambushed and "killed" by stun rounds an hour ago. John always did. But many of them had been Adrianna's friends. She'd found their "bodies" – they'd been paralyzed with an injection to keep them out of the fight and left scattered by the trainers.

None of the others ever thought about questioning their orders. Capturing fake Innie leaders was getting old. The Chief always threw a twist in, especially when a mission seemed straight forward. It was his way. But no one else seemed to be bothered that, aside from the team that had been ambushed, the op was going almost textbook-perfect.

"Maybe that's the catch," she murmured thoughtfully to herself. John raised an eyebrow. "Maybe the catch is that there is no catch," she explained. "Maybe this is supposed to be a cut-and-dry milk run for us."

It turned out not to be true. Adrianna felt the impact of the stun round from the hidden chain guns that had been disguised – rather well – in the buildings. They hadn't been spotted by the scouting teams, which meant John had opted for a straight run through the base.

The trainers had, of course, started mowing them down, prompting those who had held back – even John didn't trust the apparent milk run – to retreat, but Adrianna had been on the front lines and went down first.

Her body slowly went numb as she lay in the dirt. A few more stun rounds impacted on her; she heard someone cursing softly beside her and rolled her head over to look. William was down next to her, awkwardly lying on the ground in a very uncomfortable position, and it looked like he'd be stuck that way until the exercise was over. Adrianna was suddenly grateful that she'd twisted in her fall, landing her rather comfortably with her face in the dirt, guarding it from further fire.

I'm going to kick John's ass for this, she thought to herself.

~~John-117~~

"Alright, um… Favorite color?" Kelly asked loudly to the assembled group of kids.

"Green," John answered immediately. He was on her right; he went first in answering.

"What kind of green?"

"A… gentle green. Like soft grass that's been cut recently."

"That's just poetic," Grace giggled from nearby. "I'll have to find 'gentle green' paint for something of yours."

"Shut up," John snapped teasingly. "Who's next?"

"Me. My favorite color is, hmmm, yellow. But not an in-your-face yellow, more a subtle, muted color, you know?" Everyone hummed in agreement with Adrianna's statement.

"Mine's red," Linda answered.

"Like, what, blood?" Victor asked from where he was letting Alice comb twigs from his short hair.

"Nah, more like… A deeper, richer red, yanno? Blood's got a watery red."

"Well, it is a liquid," Joseph said grumpily. "Mine's black. Like black. Next."

"Geez, grump," Keiichi muttered, grinning nonetheless. "I like green, but I like the dark green like when you get a grass stain on your green pants."

Everyone answered in their turn. It was a common game for them; it helped center everyone after a tough day. No one had been in a good mood this evening, but the outing was starting to change that, at least for most of everyone. Joseph, and a few of his close friends, was resisting the general good-will now within the group. It was a problem John saw getting worse every day – Joseph tended to ostracize himself from the group, putting very little effort into understanding his siblings.

It was a puzzle John had yet to put together. He was worried for his brother – Joseph fell more and more into a dangerous silence that told John he was retreating from his fellow soldiers. They needed each other to stand against the trainers, and later, the Insurrectionists. Their bond was part of the reason why they would be among the best soldiers – Dr. Halsey had told him so. And if John was going to lead a team, he needed everyone, including Joseph, to be 100% there with him.

"Joseph," he called during a lull in the conversation. "Come walk with me."

Kelly glanced at John with a raised brow. He knew her thoughts on the matter; she believed Joseph would simply hold everyone else back. But John felt differently. Even if he didn't particularly like Joseph, the boy was his brother. And he had to know everyone under his command if he was going to lead them.

However, with a sarcastic eye-roll, Joseph levered himself to his feet and followed the slightly-taller boy away from the group. They walked into the darkness with confidence – they knew the forest around here like it was a second home, which it kind of was.

On their silent walk, John tried to think about what Chief Mendez would say to a soldier of his in this situation. Joseph was an excellent soldier – very little creativity with his orders, but he'd follow them or die trying. He took orders well, never questioned them, unlike some people. But there was something in the way he fought, how he acted around his siblings, that just didn't click with anyone else.

His closest friends were Daisy and a few others who seemed to cling to their pasts. John saw no need for it – he hardly remembered his family, but he had a new one, one which understood him. And Dr. Halsey was giving him a purpose – he was going to be the future of the UNSC, a soldier, protecting Earth and the colonies from terrorist Insurrectionists.

But this didn't seem like enough for Joseph, John guessed. He didn't know why his brother was so… He didn't even have the skills to describe it. Most of John's siblings had the same basic needs, emotions, and requests when it came to interacting with the others. But Joseph, and to a lesser extent, Daisy and a couple others, had different needs, needs he didn't see himself fulfilling as their leader.

"What do you want, John?" Joseph asked as they stopped by a fallen log and sat down.

"I'd like to know what is going on with you," John answered. He didn't know how else to put it, but they were a blunt bunch anyway.

Joseph snorted. "Nothing's 'going on' with me," he insisted. "I just don't want to get all cuddly-feely, alright?"

John frowned slightly. "You mean, you don't want to play 20 Questions anymore?"

"No, it's not just that." Joseph sounded frustrated. "Look, you all love each other and shit and it's great. I'm happy for you, really. But I can't – I won't – forget my family like so many of you. You're not my family, and I won't act like it. I'll take your orders, John, and I'll do my best to kill those Innies and anyone else Chief says needs it, but I don't want to get all fuzzy with you."

"Sharing who we are with each other is not 'getting fuzzy,'" John pointed out. "Understanding your siblings-" Joseph sneered, and John changed his wording – "fellow soldiers can only make for better team cohesion. Chief Mendez, Dr. Halsey, and everyone else here – they're all training us to be the very best soldiers the UNSC, humanity, has ever produced. Part of our power will come from being able to work more seamlessly than any Innie team. To do that, we all need to know each other better than we know ourselves."

"I know you, John," Joseph said. "I could tell you things about yourself you don't like to remember."

John nodded slightly. "So can anyone in this outfit. But most of us don't know you as well as you do us. Even for one of us, you're closed. Linda's a loner, and that makes her a great sniper, but she still knows we will be, and what we'll be doing, when we charge a compound and she's acting as sniper. But she can't predict you. That makes you dangerous – to her, to us, to the mission. To everyone but the enemy."

"It's not been a problem yet."

"No, not yet. But it will be. How can I depend on a man I don't know?" John winced internally – that wasn't what he'd meant, but it got the message across.

"You know me, John. Jesus. I'm sullen, angry, and just want to be left along. If I'm not left alone, I'll get unhappy. Maybe I'm more of a loner than Linda."

John held his hands up slightly, shaking his head. "What makes it so difficult to just talk to us?"

"I don't wanna talk to you."

"Alright, Joseph, have it your way. We don't need drama in the team. If you won't participate in bonding activities, can you at least try not to ruin it for everyone else?" John told himself to calm down, knowing the hackles-raised approach would not help in this situation, as much as he wanted to respond that way.

"Sure, John, sorry if my bad attitude is just making a mess out of your stargazing party." Joseph stomped off back towards the main compound; Daisy would probably go with him.

John shook his head slightly. The boy would be a problem in the future, he knew – John didn't know how the man might react, if his feelings as a boy were so strong. But he also didn't know how to solve it now, and he had a bad feeling it would come back to bite all of them.

~~Joseph-122~~

The memories were fading more each day. He couldn't remember her eyes anymore, what color they were. He knew they lit up when she was happy, like when he brought her flowers or a pretty thing he'd made in school.

But that was before they'd taken him. Before Dr. Halsey had told him that he'd never go back to his family, that he'd never see them again. He'd cried. Others had, too, but he'd cried more often since then. While everyone else was concentrating mostly on training – and he did so, too – he also thought about the family he'd left behind.

Careful questioning had let Joseph ascertain that no one else remembered much about their family, nor did they really care. They had a new family. He'd made friends, but no one came close to replacing the two sisters he'd left behind. Dr. Halsey was no replacement for his kind, loving mother – he still remembered the way she smelled when she picked him up and hugged him tightly.

Now, lying in his bunk, Joseph frowned lightly as he felt the memories fading. The training session today had been relatively easy, leaving him a few minutes before he fell asleep to recall his family's images, their scents, their laughter, their tears. But it was no longer easy – he had to dig, and even then, his best efforts produced faded play-backs as though he was watching a badly-made 2D video. He clung to the memories and refused to let them fade any more.

~~Alice-130~~

"Snug, dammit," Alice snarled as Victor pulled her harness sloppily. "I'm not gonna be fallin' out of this for you, ya bastard." Victor just smirked and braced his foot against his sister's stomach and tugging on the straps until there was no more give.

"Alright, asshole, you're good to go." Victor smacked Alice on the rear and moved onto the next kid. Alice grinned – no one else understood the rough-and-tumble friendship she and Victor shared, but they were being nice to each other today. She shook herself to test her gear.

"Today, you're going to drop out of a moving Pelican," the Chief had told them, rather calmly for the big man. "Those of you who survive will be moving on. Those who don't, will do it again." It was a running joke. Nothing had killed the kids yet, at least to the point a doctor on scene couldn't revive them, but they'd come close a few times, and this was gearing up to be another big trial.

Alice was near the door and would be one of the first ones out. She wasn't afraid of heights, but she definitely didn't like them. Kelly and Linda, though, were jostling for first, but John quickly parted them and took first himself, leaving Kelly for second and Linda for third. Alice lined up around the fifth position just as the Pelican's hatch opened. The howling wind was annoying but Alice grinned as the familiar adrenaline rush pumped through her veins.

"We rendezvous back at the camp," John ordered calmly. "Land in pairs and stick with your partner."

It was standard procedure and everyone simply nodded. Victor came to take sixth place behind Alice; they would try to land closely together, if possible.

"Go," the pilot ordered over the Pelican's PA system.

John fell out of the plane without noticeable hesitation. They'd all grown a lot – physically, mentally, emotionally – since the first time the Chief had told them to jump out of a Pelican. He was immediately out of sight and Kelly followed him, sticking close to her partner.

It was Alice's turn quickly; she let the necessary seconds pass to allow the fourth person out – Lily – the time to get away from the craft and then jump, flicking her heels with a giggle as gravity dragged her down immediately.

Victor was right beside her within seconds, and they angled to the west, away from the plane. The next team would go south.

Alice could see several other Pelicans dropping her siblings. They all fell quickly; the ground was coming up fast. Alice deployed her chute and it jerked her into an "upright" position. Victor did the same. They stayed fairly far from each other to keep from fouling their parachutes.

The pair landed easily and smoothly in a small clearing. Their descent hadn't been troubled by any sort of problem, but both kids were very alert as they untangled themselves and then headed back towards the camp.

They came across a couple straggling teams, including Adrianna and Keiichi. Keiichi was limping pretty badly and Adrianna was trying to help him over the overgrown game trails. Alice slung Keiichi's left arm over her should and Victor scouted ahead while the two girls helped the fourth member of the newly-augmented team back to camp.

~~Carris-137~~

"As part of your new curriculum, Dr. Halsey has ordered that everyone here learn to play an instrument." Déjà's announcement caused a slight stirring among the seventy-five students. They never paused in their munching on crackers, their mid-day snack, but there was a wary look in all of them. Déjà's avatar smiled.

"We will begin by learning about the various classes of hand-held instruments and then each of you will choose – yes, choose, not 'be assigned' – an instrument and spend the rest of the period learning simple exercises on it."

They covered woodwinds first and Carris immediately fell in love with an old instrument, hardly used anymore, called a bass clarinet. Its cousin the clarinet was too reedy-sounding, too high-pitched, for her to enjoy, but she liked the way the bass clarinet could be as loud or quiet as anyone wanted it to be. The drums were just annoying, and she disliked the brass instruments' noise.

Once they picked out instruments, Déjà set the printers to making one for each student. Carris was one of the last to get hers, but she grinned when she finally laid her hands on the simulated wood and steel buttons. "Woodwinds will report to Classroom 3C," Déjà instructed. Carris found herself in the largest group, therefore, as they filed into their assigned classroom.

The instrument was beautiful and produced an amazing sound. They learned first how to breathe, which closely resembled the breathing exercises everyone learned while practicing being snipers. Linda was best at it, and could hold her breath longer than anyone else. But her tiny flute required large lungs, Déjà said, so it was for the best.

"We will first learn the different keys and notes you can play," Déjà ordered.

Carris listened intently, excited to be learning something other than war games, history, science, math, and everything else Déjà had taught them so far. It was different and lots of fun, and everyone looked like a fool at one point or another.

Carris simply played her notes on the bass clarinet with no thought for making it sound good for a while. Then, when she had the tune, she played a simple marching tune like the one they chanted while running. It took a few – dozen – tries to get it correct, but once the others noticed what she was doing, they all pitched in and by the end of the period, had written their own marching tune.

"I will share this with Dr. Halsey," Déjà said with a chuckle when they managed to finally play through the ten verses without making a mistake.

Carris grinned. It would be fun to continue playing, if they were allowed to – she raised her hand to ask.

"Yes, trainee 137?"

"Will we continue with this training?" she asked.

Déjà smiled. "You will be receiving music lessons at least once every three days, for a period of no less than three standard hours, in order to develop certain traits that we find will be conducive to your future as soldiers in the UNSC."

"How's playin' gonna help us kill Innies?" William asked, tilting his head. "I don't know if I could play a lullaby on this thing that'd put guards to sleep before they'd question what a kid with a clarinet is doing in their super-secure base."

"It will develop, for one thing, more creativity. As you have already seen, music encourages collaborative works as well as several other desirable traits. It is our hope that your knowledge of music, while not directly necessary for most missions, will nonetheless avail you in your future."

"And it's fun," William pointed out.

"Yes," Déjà agreed. "It is fun, and 'fun' is an integral part of every person's childhood."

Carris almost snickered at that. The Chief's idea of fun included running them around a 'playground' of obstacle courses, gym equipment, and training tracks at full speed all day. It was enjoyable, to a point, and she loved the promised outcome, but this was pure fun. Déjà herself had said there was no ulterior motive to learning how to play music. This was just pure, childish fun.

~~Cal-141~~

"What do you think love is?"

Cal turned to look at Linda in surprise. The young woman hadn't spoken much so far this evening – the girls were enjoying a night away from the boys. Kelly had been doing most of the speaking as they traded snippets of information, thing they'd noticed recently, gossip, speculation about the next day's training event… It was a time-honored tradition.

Everyone turned to look at Linda with curious looks on their faces.

"Well," she explained, still gazing at the stars and meeting no one's glance, "it's something that seems very important to the trainers. And in some of those old movies we watch, romance is a big part of the plot."

"It's trust," Kelly said after a moment, sure of herself.

Cal, however, wasn't quite sure. She thought about all the movies in which they had seen romance. Love seemed to be mostly about lust; having sex seemed to be the ultimate goal between partners of any orientation. There was a bond of friendship there, and trust was a big part of it, but she didn't know if the apparently wishy-washy relationship trainers discussed when they thought they weren't overheard was really all about trusting someone.

"I love all of you," Cal said quietly. "I trust you with my life, with my teammate's lives. But I think the love you're talking about is different. Like, more like lust. Like what Henderson was saying to Mackleroy about his new girlfriend. He claims to love her, but he's just in it for the sex, and her companionship. And she seems to be, too."

"Sex is disgusting." This sentiment, voiced by Adrianna, was shared throughout the group.

"Can we not discuss this?" Kelly asked, snorting. "It's stupid."

"What do you want to talk about?" Cal asked.

"I dunno. Let's just head back. It's no fun if the boys aren't here to tease."

Though Cal privately disagreed – looking up at the stars and simply thinking was plenty fun for her – she got up when everyone else did and they trooped over to where the boys had set up camp at the base of a short cliff, tucked back into a cave.

"Hey, pookie!" Victor called when Cal came into the cave. In a very well-done imitation of a dancing dip, he grabbed her around the waist and bent her backwards gently, rotating so that he was holding her back to keep them both from falling over.

"Quit manhandling my girl!" Alice snapped, grabbing Cal with one arm and pushing Victor aside. "Mine!"

Cal giggled. Victor and Alice enjoyed their spats, and usually involved whoever was closest – which, tonight, seemed to be her. She extracted herself from Alice's grip and avoided Victor's grab to finally reach the fire's circle of warmth, rubbing her hands together against the late autumn chill.

"You're all dorks," William declared from across the cave. "Everyone knows Cal's only got eyes for me, right, darlin'?" He affected an odd drawl reminiscent of a gun-slinging American Westerner from the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

"Why is it my turn to be picked on?" Cal groaned. Nonetheless, she did sit next to Will, and he slung his arm over her shoulder, once her hands were unfrozen. They were good friends – and Will's jokes made everyone laugh, even if they were in bad taste occasionally.

"Remember what Chief Mendez said about fraternizing," John reminded everyone.

"Stick in the mud," Will muttered so that only Cal could hear. She snickered in agreement – John was being uptight. It was natural to joke around and play about being in love. Besides, no one took it seriously. Cal certainly didn't, anyway, even when the apparent source of a fake love triangle.

"Y'all are so sweet I'm gonna puke," Jerome drawled from his spot across the fire from Cal and Will. "Now, come on, kissy kissy."

"Bite me," Cal laughed, throwing a nearby rock at her brother's head.

"Oooo, is that an invitation?" Will asked, baring his teeth.

"You're sick in the head."

"Kisses fix everything!" Cal rolled her eyes at Will's puppy-dog look.

"No, they get you a hearing with the Chief." Cal turned to roll her eyes very clearly at John, who was still being a stick in the mud.

"What's up your ass, mini-Chief?" Joseph asked before anyone else could.

"Nothin'," he muttered, looking back into the fire. "We should head back to the base. It'll be an early morning."

"It always is," Cal told him.

"The Chief's been quiet a few days," John clarified. "I think we might be seeing something new tomorrow. He rarely has more than a couple days between big lessons."

"Or he realizes we needed a kind of break," Alice said calmly, though she was sitting on Victor's head to keep him from fussing while Kelly and Grace, apparently on her side, held the rest of him down. "We've been running on fairly low batteries recently."

"And staying out late isn't going to help," John pointed out.

"Let's head out. Mommy wants us to get to bed." Joseph's tone wasn't exactly joking, but Will – and Cal, with a nudge from her brother – took it that way.

"Will you tuck me in?" Will asked John innocently. John flipped him off and headed out; Alice let Victor up and he ran ahead to catch up to his brother – and keep away from the three girls. Cal and Will stood simultaneously.

"Will you tuck me in?" Will asked Cal, batting his eyelashes.

"Right," Cal answered with a snort.

"Yay."

The walk back was quiet; they slipped through the security without really thinking about it anymore, ran into their barracks, and crawled into their bunks. Cal, after being so pestered by Will, finally agreed to tuck the blankets in around Will's body and then patted his head good night. She climbed into her bunk after leaving the male's wing and settled into place quickly, eager to rest after a long day.