The Danaan finally hit port and Tyler was the first to rush out. He dashed out of the doorway onto the metal gangplank. He slowed down and took his time to observe his surroundings. The dock they pulled into was massive and two times larger than a football field. It was built into a costal cavern. The top was reinforced with a concrete ceiling and metal beams. Two gigantic walkways were on parallel sides of the submarine, with an amazing view to the vast ocean. Tyler walked down the gangplank and turned and looked at the vessel. Even with the unbelievable magnitude of its size, it was just as elegant in the design. It almost resembled a dolphin in its elegance. The black painted steal also added to the mystery of it. Tyler truly started to believe he was in another world. His reality had nothing even remotely close to something of this. It was like the gods themselves had blessed its design and even as it idled in the water, its power was unmistakable.
He turned back around and started to move towards the front of the port and look out towards the sea. He could tell they had arrived early in the afternoon and the weather indicated a late spring or early summer as the sea breeze graced his skin and the smell of salt filled his lungs. The whole thing seemed peaceful. It was fitting considering where he had come from. The turmoil and chaotic waves of his mind contrasted heavily to the peaceful and gentle undulating of the water before him. Its bright clear blue hue glittered in the sun like diamonds were floating just under the surface. All of this peace brought about calm in the air.
He heard someone step behind him and turned to see Melissa with a beer in her hand and a wicked scowl on her face. Either Kurz had been caught ogling another female crew member or she was about to teach him the meaning of Hell. Tyler walked over to her. His footsteps were muffled by the sounds of the water gently splashing against the concrete walkway. He swallowed hard as he approached and they made eye contact. The sister he saw in Melissa was gone and now he saw his worst nightmare.
"This is Mithril's newest base of operations. Thankfully the Japanese government sold it to us cheap, since our old one got nuked." Tyler's eyes flew open. Where he came from, anyone using a nuke would incite a world war and the end of life. The fact she said it so casually made it worse. "You are on Solheim Island. This where we train our new recruits and that means you maggot." That word stuck in his ear. He knew she was going to start breaking him down by calling him derogatory names and insults and rebuild him into a fighting machine. "Unlike other recruits, you don't have as much time to get into shape and I expect far more out of you." He saw the sisterly side of her for a faint second. "From this point you are not human." Tyler sighed as the drill instructor started to come out of Melissa. "You will eat, shit and breathe military. If you leave my island, if you survive the training, you will be a weapon." Tyler could feel a nervous sweat begin to break out. He wondered how fast he could run back on the boat and ask to be a janitor. "But until that day, you are a puke. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even a human fucking being. You are nothing more than an unorganized grabastic piece of amphibian shit!" Tyler froze at attention as she began to yell for everyone on the pier to hear her. "You will from now, your first and last words will be ma'am and no ma'am. Do you understand that maggot?"
Tyler swallowed as Melissa had turned into a full on tyrant of a woman. He felt his stomach bottom out and his manhood reseeded in a heartbeat. He yelled " Ma'am, yes ma'am." He popped a quick salute.
She roared back. "Not loud enough numb nuts!" Tyler inhaled as much air as he could. Every ounce of his lungs rapidly filled to their bursting point and he let it out in one resounding yell.
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" His yell reverberated throughout the entire dock. The few crew members that had come out, turned and stared at him as his voice bounced about, slowly fading away. Melissa stepped back, not expecting him to roar to a feral animal. It was as if the hound of hell itself barked back in response. She at first was worried this would break him but she noticed he was responding well. His posture was already becoming straighter and tighter. He was the clay and she would slap him silly until he looked like a true soldier. Yet, even though her work was cut out for her, she could see the potential warrior begging to get out.
The first day was ungodly. Melissa had dragged him through a full day march, with fifty pounds of gear stuffed into a rucksack. He didn't even get time to take more notice of the facility he was in. She just threw him on a bus and drove him through the facility and out on to the wilderness with nothing but lush green trees, an orchestra of animals chirping and howling, an unpaved dirt road and the sun baking anyone out in its gaze. He would have been admiring the nature that surrounded him but Melissa was right behind him calling him even more foul terms and using insults that didn't even make sense. She even asked him how tall he was just so she could act surprise that they stacked fecal matter that high.
He continued his excruciating jog. Every muscle soon began to ache in the sun. The humidity was becoming unbearable as his sweat made his uniform stick to his damp skin. Even in his discomfort he couldn't stop. The twisted cocktail of Melissa cussing at him and his own pride kept him going with the only thing in front of him was more dirt road. It seemed to go on infinitely and would never bring an end to the hike from Hell. The only evidence Tyler made progress was the trees moved by and he would come to a slight incline, where Melissa would scream at him to go over it faster than the last one. Somehow his body managed to comply and he would almost end up sprinting with all he had. Each footstep protesting in pain but his spirit even joined in Melissa's goading and verbal shoving forward.
Tyler took notice of his footsteps and their rhythm to keep his mind from wondering too far off or him stumbling and falling on his face. Each one landed and lifted at a constant tempo. Despite his fatigue, he was able to push himself at a constant pace. He started to think of these as him continuing his steps forward. Each step could bring him closer to realizing his goal of being something in this reality. He owed it to so many people to keep going. He owed it to himself to become better in any way and be happy with the life he forged with his bare hands and blistered feet. He owed to Melissa for her faith in him and her willingness to reach out to him when he felt there was no one in the world that would. He owed to his future teammates and crew to show he was worthy of trudging forward with them as a comrade and as a brother. He owed to the whole organization that gave him a second chance on an unknown complete stranger. He owed it to Tessa. For all those he owed, he marched forward and then he began to jog forward and with a well-placed "Move maggot" from Melissa, he began to sprint once more towards his future. He was going towards a better tomorrow. He was still a bit in the darkness and away from the sun of his future but he would struggle and fight until he came to that horizon of promise and a meaningful life that only he could reach.
The sun was slowly setting as he continued his frantic pace. Melissa couldn't help but admire the conviction of the young man before her. Despite being in an unfamiliar place, he marched forward without hesitation. She could feel pride well up as she gazed upon a man with nothing but his will and a hope for tomorrow fight forward with all that he had. She could almost see him sweating off the darkness that plagued him and she could slowly see sparks of determination begin to go off in him as he battled and moved unrelenting towards a goal and a dream. She swore at him some more to help kindle those flames. One day, she knew Tyler would be an amazing person. She was even starting to be a bit envious of Tessa.
Tyler could feel his pace slow. He roared mentally at himself to not slow and not to falter as he kept running. The rucksack started to become heavier but he once again took in Melissa's harsh words and pushed forward and made himself never slow or yield. He protested against his body to keep moving forward. Even as he felt his legs trying to give out, he forced them to continue as they burned and ached to stop. He forced himself to ignore their cries and kept each foot moving in front of the other. His drive to become part of Mithril was bordering on an obsession as he dragged himself and demanded himself to keep up the tempo Melissa had set. With another push, he felt a leg grow too weak to comply. Like a piece of paper, it began to crumble and his entire body was sent into free fall. Tyler swore as he felt the ground quickly coming up to him and then with a resounding thud, he fell on the ground. He swore at his weak physique for not doing what was needed. He tried to get his arms back under him but they moved at a snail's pace. Once he had them solidly planted he started to stand but in his peripheral vision he saw a hand.
Standing in front of him, Melissa had that sisterly smile on her face once. Tyler could feel the pity weighing on him. Was this the best he could put forward? Was he just deluding himself into believing he could even be among the elite he was striving to be? This hand before him was an open invitation to accept his weakness. He couldn't accept that. He had to do this on his own. Any help would only diminish all that he was working towards.
Melissa looked down at Tyler. She didn't tell him, he had ran twice the normal distance the average recruit. She couldn't help feeling so prideful in him. She wouldn't tell him but he was already showing an unreasonable amount of potential. She held out her hand, expecting him to take and they walk together towards the training camp but what she actually got made her almost come to respect Tyler as a complete equal.
Tyler growled with a low, soft tone as he slowly forced his body up on its own. The fifty pounds of gear tried to force him down but through pure will, he refused. His mouth was torn open in a snarl from the pain his body was in as he resisted its cries to go back down. He wasn't trying to be rude but prove to Melissa he could do what he had too on his own. She wouldn't have to come save him because of his own weakness. He finally forced every part of his body to stand. His eyes glazed over as nothing but his will remained. He started off walking past Melissa. Each step ached and pained as he moved it but he demanded they move. He demanded every muscle and bone and cell to keep moving forward. He had already made the first step; he just needed to keep going.
"Ma'am, I have this ma'am." Tyler growled through his teeth as he started to pick up the pace. Her jaw fell in shock as Tyler began to pick up the pace once more. It was as if he had just started the run once more. She wondered what drove him to such lengths. She quickly followed in behind to make sure he didn't hurt himself.
Every footstep was as if he was strapped down with lead shoes and his body felt ten times heavier than normal. Even with that, all he had going was his will at that point. The full length promises turned just into faces as his mind tried to conserve energy. He saw Melissa, and he took another step for her. He saw Kaname being nice to him and bringing him tea. He forced another step. He saw Kurz helping him understand basic Arm Slave mechanics. He took another step forward. He saw Sousuke at the party help him understand what it would be like to pilot. He even took a step forward for that weirdo. He saw Tessa hugging him as he had been told about his scores. He began another mad sprint towards wherever he was going.
After collapsing three more times, Tyler and Melissa finally jogged twenty miles. They came onto a small campsite with two log barracks and a fire pit in between them. There was a cliff with a stunning view of the sea. Tyler would have been admiring it if he had already not turned off his brain and shifted everything to keeping up his pace. Palm trees danced around the perimeter to the sea breeze as it sung its beautiful and raspy song. Tyler was doing really well not to fall on his face as the breeze made him sway.
"Take off the rucksack maggot." Melissa replied wearily. Tyler's rucksack landed with a resounding thud on the ground. Even she was worn out as Tyler had jogged twenty miles across the entirety of the island. Most recruits are dropped off at the halfway point and they marched there but Tyler never even slowed to a brisk walk. He jogged twenty miles with almost no rest. She started to think even Tyler had freak traits. She sighed in relief as none of them seemed to affect his personality. "We are staying the barrack on the left. Dinner will be ready in two hours. Dismissed maggot."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am" Tyler slowly began to drag himself and his rucksack towards the left building but he stopped as Melissa had to test him one more time.
"I can't hear you!" She barked. Tyler started to suck in as much air as he could. The last strands of energy went into one last resounding roar. Melissa braced herself as the bark of a hound out of hell started come from Tyler.
"Ma'am, yes ma'am." Tyler roared. The entire island echoed from his voice. Sleeping birds took to the sky. The very earth shook as his voice boomed like a heavenly decree and the world felt it at the very core. Melissa blinked and cleaned her ears. Even after all he had gone through in a day, he still was able to muster up the loudest thing she had heard come from a human being. She looked over and saw it was all he had left. He had now passed out asleep on the ground. She smiled as the brother she never had slept on the dirt.
Tessa sat in her office quietly, as she impatiently waited for a call from Melissa's report. She worried she was pushing him to the brink of death. Scenes of him being chased by Arm Slaves and fighting off wild animals played her mind. She quickly calmed herself down. She continued to wait for that one call. She didn't know why but it seemed the whole world was just crawling at an unbearably slow pace as each tick of the clock further drover her patience over the edge. What was worse was she didn't know why she was fussing over Tyler as much as she was. She had faith he would succeed but it didn't stop her from worrying at all.
The door slid open and Tessa jumped as she was startled from her own thoughts. She looked up and saw Kaname in her pink pajamas. She looked down and she was still stuck in her stuffy officer's uniform and looked at the clock to see it was almost ten at night. She suddenly felt weary.
Tessa saw the concerned look on Kaname's face and could almost hear the following conversation before it even happened.
"I guess you are worried about Tyler?" Kaname asked. Tessa knew she was an open book and held no mystery on where her thoughts were.
"Melissa was supposed to call and tell me how he was doing. I am worried she is pushing him too far." Tessa began to nervously play with the end of her braided pony tail. Kaname took an opposite chair of the desk and looked worriedly at Tessa. Tessa began to nervously twiddle his thumbs.
"I'm sure he is fine." Kaname tried to cheer up Tessa with a smile but it didn't work. She would almost have to hear Tyler confirming his own safety to be reassured of that. "The guy is tough. He could even give Sousuke a run for his money." They both laughed at the thought. Tessa knew Tyler was constantly proving his resolve. He had stopped himself from going insane and was now undertaking grueling training to be of service. This, however, made her worry more. "Do you like him?" The question had no lead in. It came completely from nothing but it made Tessa wonder. She use to worry like this about Sousuke but now it seemed she was even more concerned about Tyler. She first rationalized it was because he was a civilian in difficult circumstances that would even be taxing on her best crew but there was something deeper than that. She didn't know at the conscious level but her concern for Tyler was beyond friendly or professional. "He is pretty cute and I saw the way you two looked at each other during his celebration."
"I know it isn't right but there is something about him." Tessa admitted before she could restrain herself. "You know he is handling it but deep down you want to hold him and tell him it will alright."
"Like Sousuke." Kaname started to smile with that face that was getting to the heart of the situation.
"Exactly but Tyler isn't Sargent Sagara." Tessa could hear the duress in her voice. Kaname was surprised. She thought Tessa would have noticed her hint that she only liked Tyler because he was like Sousuke but she completely went over it. Kaname began to wonder if there was something genuine there. "He is used to it but I am worried Tyler's mental state won't handle it." Tyler was impressive but he wasn't a superhuman. He had to have his limits and she worried he would push himself beyond them and end up destroying himself. She had seen many fires of passion and ambition consume those that had them. Tessa laid her head down on her desk as her concern persisted. "What do you think of him?" Kaname scratched her head at the question. She had only talked to him once and nothing but concealed sadness was marked upon his face. He had been polite and seemed like a half-decent human being but there wasn't any more she could pull from to gauge Tyler's character. Kaname shrugged as she couldn't form a definitive opinion.
"He seemed sad when I talked to him. I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I was the one that had helped make the machine that dragged him here." As Kaname said those words, she realized a guilty feeling that had been lingering ever since Tyler came aboard. "It's not like we need to give him further reason to not trust us." Tessa nodded in agreement with that statement. She also felt the guilt of not being strong enough to stop her brother in time. If she had, Tyler would have never walked through that rift. An immense weight began to pile in her chest as she began to realize that they all had contributed to Tyler's torment in some way.
"I haven't even told him that we are 'Whispered' or even what that is." Tessa was starting to realize how much Tyler really didn't know. She wondered if he would come to hate her if he found out how much of a hand she had in his circumstances. "I didn't even tell him Mithril had to be rebuilt after that whole mess." Kaname leaned back and thought about it seemed fate had given her Sousuke back but in return it demanded that poor guy to lose everything in one crashing wave of destiny. His only luck was that he had safely landed on the submarine. The circumstances were against him but fate smiled on him and put him with the people that understood what happened.
"He'll probably laugh." Kaname replied. "The funny thing is Leonard was trying to get our histories to align with Tyler's old reality. From what I hear, we wouldn't have been that much better off." Tessa was puzzled by this. Tyler had never once mentioned his past to anyone and now apparently the only one he told too was Kaname. She started to feel jealous that Tyler divulged that to her.
"What did he say it was like?" Tessa asked trying to mask the swelling envy towards Kaname.
"He said the cold war was over, and the Soviet Union collapsed." Tessa started to see maybe she should have let the Tartaros take effect. The great arms race had come to a closing in the parallel reality. "Unfortunately, all the nukes the Soviet's had were stolen and now they can be found on the black market and the Middle East is still at war and America is deep in debt." Tessa gasped. She started to realize how bad things were without black technology. She started to wonder who had it worse and what Tyler had been through in his old reality. "So when is he coming back?"
"Melissa will have him out there for about a week and then he will be given his rank and sent out on an assignment, if he survives." Tess a sighed. Melissa was infamous for her tendency to overdo it when training recruits and she doubted she would take it easy on Tyler.
"You make it out like Melissa will try to kill him." Kaname joked. She didn't realize the truth behind that statement. Tessa just smiled nervously as she began to remember the number of lawsuits and sexual harassment cases Melissa racked up as a drill instructor.
"She may." Tessa laughed nervously. She fumbled some papers around as she regrouped her thoughts.
"I know Mithril is quickly rebuilding but will Tyler have his own AS when he gets back?" Kaname asked. Tessa knew they had some M9D-Falkes and Tyler would probably enjoy the black paint job but their parts were hard to get since they were limited in number. They had M9s with more parts but all of them were taken and the mechanics hated having a machine go through more operations with different pilots. She was more concerned with him coming back alive first.
"He will probably get into the Falk." Tessa replied. She knew the people that maintained wouldn't be happy with a complete rookie piloting their machine but the circumstances were strange. Mithril had been disbanded and rebuilt from the ground up with the backing of multiple nations and corporations but that still made getting resources hard to find.
"That is the black one, right?" Kaname asked. Tessa was constantly reminded that Kaname was still a fairly average Japanese high school graduate. She almost envied that life as she was constantly stuck in military affairs and Kaname got to enjoy her boyfriend without the worry that came with being a captain. She wondered if her concern was just a sad attempt at worrying over a boy like a normal adolescent female had the chance to do.
"Yes." The phone began to rang. Melissa's cell phone popped up on the caller I.D. and Tessa scrambled to pick up the line but missed and hit the speaker phone.
"Melissa reporting in with your lover boy." The indifferent voice said over the speaker. Tessa blushed and took the phone off the hook as Kaname held back from laughing.
"He is not my lover boy Sargent Commander. I am just worried about him being a civilian." Tess hissed into the phone. She was doing a horrible job of convincing everyone that heard, especially herself. "How is he?"
"He is asleep. He hiked all the way from the dock to the training camp." Tessa's jaw dropped in befuddlement. Kaname turned her face in confusion like a dog hearing a strange noise. That hike was just under twenty miles and most recruits she knew only had to do ten miles. Either Tyler pushed himself or Melissa tortured him all the way there.
"Why did you make him do that?!" Tessa screamed. Kaname fell over in her seat at the sudden burst in her voice volume.
"I didn't. We were going to take it easy after he reached fifteen miles but he kept going and I didn't want to break that kind of determination." Melissa replied after the ear splitting shriek which was still reverberating around the small white walled office. "He is fine and asleep in his barracks. Poor guy had to be woken up for dinner and he passed out the moment he hit his bed."
"If you feel bad, why aren't you taking it easy?" Tessa shrieked back angrily.
"Calm down Tessa, Melissa knows what she is doing." Kaname whispered. Tessa turned and glared at her. The eyes screamed for her to butt out.
"We don't have room for those that can't handle it." Melissa roared back over the phone. Tessa was taken aback by the ferocity. "He showed he had the potential to be an AS pilot. If you didn't want him doing this then you should had him be a mechanic." Tessa lowered her head as she started to doubt putting him on a path of war. "Plus you are not the only one looking out for his safety. I got an eye on the kid." Tessa lowered her head further. She didn't know why she was acting so protective. "Well I need to sleep. Melissa out." The phone clicked and she put it down on the desk and turned back towards Kaname.
"How is he?"
"Tyler is asleep after a jog across the island." Tessa sighed at what relief she could get. She tapped the phone impatiently as if she was already waiting for the next report on Tyler's status.
"At least he is doing well. "
"For now…" Tessa sat looking at her lap and continued to worry. Even she could imagine Tyler peacefully asleep on a bed somewhere she still imagined the trials after tonight. There was a significant chance he would never be the same and it would be her fault.
Every part of Tyler ached. If he wasn't being stuffed in a tiny cockpit of an Arm Slave, he was running an ungodly obstacle course with a heavy rucksack strapped to his spine and trying to pull him over. His only friend was yelling obscenities at him as he forced himself over a tall wooden wall. His hands had more blisters than he could count. He had received cuts on his face from the barbwire he was forced to crawl under on his back. Yet something pushed him. He had no reason to be doing this but he was and he was forcing every cell he could into it.
The days passed and the Hell didn't relent. Live fire drills and more Arm Slave simulations continued until Tyler vomited or passed out or both. He felt lucky to get three hours of sleep for the nightmare he was going through but he never lost the will to fight. He couldn't. He wouldn't allow it.
Tyler found himself on his final day, in his final hour. He was in a training arm slave sparring against Melissa. She was in a Gernsback but he had been forced into a hulking Rk-92 savage and he thought it looked like a beige monkey with a freaky head with two eyes and no other facial features.
Tyler fidgeted in the cramped cockpit as his black pilot suit sucked in the heat and blocked any comfort and cool air he could get in the cramped space full of controls. He had learned them quickly but their mastery was proving difficult and Melissa decided it would be a wonderful idea to allow his survival instincts to learn them for him.
"I think this is your worse idea yet, ma'am." Tyler sighed over the radio. He could tell he was in the less capable model and by the feel of it, he could tell that it was far slower.
"If you can't handle an opponent with a better weapon then why did you even bother?" her words were daggers trying to pierce his pride but over the few days, he had grown thick skinned and her insults only made him chuckle.
"Because I want to wipe that smug look off your face." Tyler retorted back laughing cockily. Tyler activated his hydraulics and the fight was on.
Tyler had his Arm Slave charge but Melissa's mech was too fast for such straight forward attacks. Tyler spun around looking for where Melissa had ducked off too. He started to place his mech's hand on the anti-tank dagger. He was shocked when he heard they made such a weapon but it soon became his favorite in training. He was decent with a rifle but he preferred up close and very personal.
His Arm Slave shuttered violently, disorienting and making the cockpit around him spin. Tyler quickly turned and saw Melissa had stepped back from a straight jab to the back of his mech. She hadn't even pulled out a single weapon yet, displaying how confident she was and how far Tyler was off in skill. He had to close the gap but he would only serve to get hit again and she would dance off in her faster machine. He had a little plan in mind to use that against her.
He charged wildly once more. As expected Melissa navigated her machine flawlessly out of the way and began to counter but Tyler had already pulled out his anti-tank dagger and spun around to where he knew she moved off too. A sick shredding of metal screeched out from the practice field.
Tyler looked with a smile as he had forced his teacher to draw her own knife. After so many sessions of just being mindlessly beaten back, he had finally made ground.
"Since I can't see into your cockpit serge, are you still smiling?" Tyler taunted as their daggers continued to tightly clinch together.
"You are good kid." Melissa said with a hidden sense of pride in her little maggot. "Don't get cocky though. I am still going to kick your ass!" She roared as she began to shove Tyler with her Arm Slave's superior hydraulics. Tyler's cockpit violently shuttered as the force shoved him back.
Tyler took a page out of his hand-to-hand combat practice and side stepped. Melissa almost tripped as she didn't expect the gigantic lumbering heap of scrap metal to move like Tyler was making it do. She didn't admit it out loud but she would have serious issues if they were piloting the same Arm Slave. Tyler wasn't a master but his ability to learn and adapt made his just as scary since his moves were unpredictable but all she had to do was wait for him to over commit to something. She just needed to wait for when his aggression got the better of him. She just needed to be patient.
Tyler decided to strike just as she began to fall forward. Tyler drove his Arm Slave into a full lunge but as he did, Melissa masterfully repositioned herself and threw her anti-tank dagger. Tyler's cockpit quaked and he could feel it falling apart as alert messages popped up on his screen. He checked his diagnostics and saw his left arm had been taken clean off. He swore as he got taken advantage of due to his over aggression. He flicked his back just as quickly.
"Damn you, Roberts!" Melissa cussed as his anti-tank dagger cleaved her Arm Slave's leg. Even as he had sustained damage, he still managed to launch a counter attack. He would become an amazing pilot at the pace he was going.
"I told you I would wipe that smile off your face." Tyler panted. He felt exhausted as that fight, while short, absorbed everything he had.
"Draw?" Melissa asked. He honestly would have won due to him being still standing but she didn't want him getting a big head.
"Yeah." Tyler figured she would find a way to beat him so he took what he could and called it a day.
Tessa eagerly waited on the deck as the hum and beeps of the computers agitated her patience as she waited for Tyler to come on deck and be officially sworn into Mithril. She began to fantasize about Melissa killing him on his last day of training but she tried reassuring herself Melissa wouldn't do such a thing.
"Madam Captain, we just received word Tyler and Melissa are aboard." Mardukas replied sternly. Word on the ship was Tyler had done very well and would be soon joining Urzu. The mechanics were already prepping an M9D-Falke for him.
Tessa continued to worry about Tyler as time seemed to stretch on to a painful infinity and the noises of the ship weren't helping alongside the awkward silence as everyone on the command deck waited. The door to the room opened. Tessa spun around wildly as she laid her eyes on a young man with wildly, messy black hair and a cocky expression. She sighed in relief as Tyler had survived. He even seemed to be a bit happier which she found a bit worrisome but she was still ecstatic for his return. She had to restrain herself from leaping up and hugging him.
Tyler walked into the room. All eyes were on him. Each one held a prideful smile as they were welcoming a new crew member among them. In this moment, Tyler's life was reforming once more. Everyone in this room had given their trust in him to prove himself worthy of being among them. He had done so and more. He now felt every one of them no longer looked upon him with pity but joy as he had passed his trials and gained a new brother-in-arms and he was more than happy to get the chance to serve. He had learned the meaning of Hell and he had now walked back into heaven. He turned his gaze towards the center of the room. Mardukas was even smiling at his accomplishment and Tessa was trying her hardest to keep it in but she was failing miserably and adorably. Tessa stood up and saluted. Tyler saluted back. The rest of the room joined in.
"Tyler Roberts as of now, you are now part of Mithril." Mardukas started. "You will now serve to preserve the balance of the world, protect the common good and give your life every day for your comrades. Are you ready for such a commitment?" The ceremony and granger of his voice added to epic atmosphere. Tyler felt like the hero that had just returned from training and was ready to begin his adventure.
"Yes sir!" Tyler barked. Mardukas turned with a fatherly smile and nodded towards Tessa. Tessa stood up trying to hide her joy and excitement over Tyler's success.
"Sergeant Roberts, it is my pleasure to welcome you aboard. May you serve us well." Tessa said. Tyler nodded and saluted once more.
Crew broke rank, ran up to him and overwhelmed him with congratulations and pats on the back. He couldn't keep up with how many thank you's he was saying. At this moment his life all made sense.
Tessa coughed and the crew went back to their posts and her voice chimed. "May I speak to you in private about your upcoming mission?" Tyler nodded and they both walked out into the hallway.
Before Tyler could do anything, he felt a warm embrace around him. He looked down and saw Tessa tightly holding him. Before he could do anything he held her back. He wanted tell her that all those days she would occasionally run through his mind and give him encouragement to push through. He wanted to tell her he owed her his life and he would be forever indebted to her.
She pulled back but still held him and squealed "I'm so proud. I know you could do it." Tyler laughed at how cute she was despite being an officer.
"What did you expect? I'm not about to let the captain down." Tyler replied. He saw Tessa smile but he caught a twinge of pain in her eye. She had hoped he would see her more than just a captain but maybe that training had changed him. Just as she was about pull away she felt his lips get close to her ears. His breath warming her neck and sending chills down her spine. "Thank you for everything Tessa." Just the way he said her name made her realize she was more than just his captain but he continued just in case she didn't catch it. "I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for you." He smiled at her like she had never seen before. It was illuminating and warm. It was if the sun itself had come a bit closer and began to light up the room. "I will owe you more than I could ever give." His words were a small camp fire on a winter night. Their warmth was comforting and she actually felt safe around him. She couldn't explain it at the moment but she just didn't want that single second in time to end.
She blushed and did something she thought she would never do. She quickly puckered her lips and delicately pecked him on the cheek. As soon as she realized at what she did she quickly scurried back into the command room. Tyler stood as he was still flustered. He couldn't believe what had just happened. He then realized she never talked about his upcoming mission.