In Another Life

He woke with a start at three o'clock that morning. It was happening more often now that he kept having those dreams. To be accurate, they were less like dreams and more of a recurrence of snippets of scenes involving the same two people. They almost seemed to be memories as they felt too detailed, too intimate to be anything else but, while some of them seemed to occur in a similar chronology, others seemed to be of a completely different time and circumstance. Understandably, this was quite fascinating, but the part that created the most unease in his mind, the part that had him waking in the early hours of the morning in a cold sweat was that one of those two people was him and the other was… her.

She had a different name than the ones he called her in his dreams. Then again, so did he, but he always knew it was her. She could change her hair, her eyes, and even the way she walked and he would always know it was her. His recent bout of nightly visions were beginning to convince him that they were somehow drawn to each other by some invisible tether of fate. If they really were memories of different times and places then did that mean they were always destined to meet?

Her smile seemed so radiant when he would see it in his sleep that he wondered what it would look like on her real-life counterpart in his waking hours. The woman he knew of rarely ever smiled; not that he saw her all that often. Then again, these were not times in which smiles would be prevalent. Smiling in times of war took a remarkable strength of will; one he knew for sure he did not have.

He knew about her long before they officially met. Being the youngest decorated Commander still in active duty made her something of a celebrity. She was a force to be reckoned with both on and off the battlefield. The dreams had not started by that point and he only had a passing curiosity about her when he was accepted into the Officer program. It was not until they wound up sheltering together in a long-abandoned farm shed during a mission that the restless nights began.

They were not alone, of course. Several others had retreated to the same location and they all set up camp as quietly as possible, keeping an ear out for the muted mechanical whirring of their extraterrestrial enemies. She was civil enough to everyone and kept mostly to herself but, on occasion, he would catch her looking at him with the oddest expression. It was almost as if she had forgotten something very important and was wracking her brain to remember what it was. Then, she would look away abruptly and go back to cleaning her blades or organizing the ammunition in her pack.

His fellow squad members shared excited whispers over her late at night. Understandably so as her beauty was rivaled only by her skill. They all knew better than to try approaching her as anything other than a fellow soldier as there were enough stories of the many men who were shut down with ruthless precision. Most blamed her consummate professionalism as the reason why she never took on a lover—despite the fraternization regulations, it was not uncommon—but there were also rumors of past heartbreak. None of that mattered to him, however. All he wanted to do was complete the mission successfully and return to base where he could have a hot shower, a real bed, and some decent food.

When he did return, having a real bed did not do him much good as he barely slept in it. Somehow, being in close proximity to her must have triggered the dreams. And he had not had a good night's sleep since. Today was just like every other day since then.

He hauled himself out of his bed, knowing it would be impossible to get any more sleep. Instead, he decided to physically exert himself into tiredness to see if that would work. Throwing on workout gear, he grabbed his keys and ran out the door and jogged at a steady pace towards the training center. The light being on in the practice room at such an early hour should have tipped him off that he was not alone but he nearly jumped out of his skin when he walked through the door only to see her in the far corner of the room.

She stopped toweling at the sweat around her neck when she saw him enter. He froze for a moment before mumbling a brief greeting and shrugging off his jacket. Absorbed in his own warm-up stretching, he never noticed her approach him silently until her hand shot forward to grab at the tags hanging from his neck.

"So that's what you're calling yourself this time around," she smirked letting the tags drop to his chest after she examined them.

"What?" he looked down at her quizzically, keenly aware of their difference in height for the first time. She always seemed larger than life until she was right next to him.

"I knew it was you," she said with a nod. "You've been having them too, haven't you?"

"Been having what?" he narrowed his eyes at her in confusion.

"The dreams," she looked at him pointedly and he found he was having difficulty averting his gaze from hers.

"… Yes," he gave in with a sigh.

"You must be the one who has the stone this time," the young Commander raised an eyebrow at him. "Since it seems you barely know anything."

"Stone?"

"I'm sure it won't be long now," she assured in a patronizing tone and rolled her eyes. "Come find me when you know about the stone, Major."

With that, she swept out of the room while he stared, dumbfounded, after her. He was still frozen mid-stretch as his mind whirled, trying to process what had just occurred. She knew about him and she knew about the dreams. In fact, she seemed to know a lot more about this than he did. But, for some reason, all she left him with was some cryptic instruction about a stone. He made a disgruntled noise in the general direction of the door through which she left and went back to stretching.

It was not until a full week later that he had any dreams regarding a stone. The majority of his dreams were scenes of arguments and misunderstandings. It seemed as if they did not know each other well yet and sometimes she hated him, sometimes he, her and, sometimes, they both hated each other. Often, they would say things to the other that they did not mean. And, just when he was starting to tire of the melodrama every night, he dreamt of a blue stone with chipped edges that would turn amber when held at just the right angle in the light. The stone, somehow, seemed to facilitate a marked improvement. Nothing was completely fixed, but it was better; they argued less and communicated more.

He woke with a pained groan. She was correct in her assumption that he was in possession of the stone. He had found that exact stone as a child playing by a river near his house. It was clearly different from all the other river rocks he normally saw that he immediately gravitated towards it. He called it his 'thinking stone' and would hold on to it whenever he felt he needed to seriously think something over; a habit he never really outgrew as he aged. As such, the stone was sitting in a small box on the shelf in his room, along with a few other mementos he kept with him.

Another week went by until he decided to make contact with her again. He wanted to see more memories—and they were memories, he knew that now. The other incarnations of himself apparently had similar dreams. There were now a myriad of questions in his brain waiting to be answered. Why were they somehow destined to keep meeting? What was the endgame for all of this? Surely, there must be a reason as to why they both have memories of each other, of their other lives. Either that, or the universe was playing a rather cruel joke on the both of them.

The next early morning, he returned to the training center to find her. She was exactly where she said she would be. The side of her mouth quirked when she saw him enter and look directly at her.

"You know about the stone now, don't you?"

"Yes," he pulled it from the pocket of his shorts and closed it tightly into his fist. "I also have questions."

"I'm sure you do," she folded her arms. "That doesn't mean I have all the answers for you."

"Then why did you tell me to come back when I knew about this?" he held up the stone, it blinked at her in blue and amber in the light.

"Because, I already saw the memories of what we're like before the stone. I figured it best to cut through the crap until we could have a logical conversation."

"What are we supposed to do with this thing anyway?" he eyed it dubiously. "Is there something magical about it in any way?"

"I honestly don't know," she conceded, her voice softening. "All I can tell from my dreams is that whoever has it is usually the one who has the least memory of what has happened. I think it's meant to be a trigger mechanic of some sort."

"How?"

"Well, think about it," she pondered openly. "You probably thought I was a lunatic for accusing you out of the blue of having those dreams, even though it was true, right?"

"I was thrown off by it, yes," he admitted.

"But once you found out about the stone I mentioned to you, it all made sense—well, as much as this whole thing can make sense, at least."

"So it's some sort of proof that we have a random connection?"

"I suppose so," she shrugged.

"What's the point to all this?" he sighed in frustration. "This is clearly not the first time and I doubt it will be the last. Why do we keep getting thrown together?"

She snorted derisively, "The Fates apparently thinks we're meant for each other."

"As in… we're supposed to be soulmates or something?" he scratched his head in confusion.

"Yea, isn't that a hoot?" she laughed ruefully for a second. "Didn't your memories tell you we've got this whole unrequited love thing going on?"

He considered her question for a moment before answering, "I do recall something like that, but how does that apply to the present? I can't love you. I barely know you."

"Hey, the feeling's mutual, Major" she held up her hands in mock surrender. "Let's just be war buddies this time around and, maybe, the next versions of ourselves can get it right."

"Works for me," he said with a lopsided smile. "I guess that's it then."

"Yea, see you around," she nodded and offered her hand, which he shook awkwardly. "And watch your back out there. I've see you fight and you're pretty good, but you keep leaving your side open."

"I'll take it under advisement, Commander." he smirked and she rolled her eyes before turning to leave the room.

Months went by and they would share the occasional acknowledging nod when they saw one another until he was sent out on another mission. This one seemed to drag on endlessly, filled with minor skirmishes that only advanced them so far before they had to retreat again. He was exhausted and the weariness ran deep into his bones as he trudged from his last reconnaissance post to the next rendezvous along a tree line surrounding an open field, just out of sight of the enemy sentries patrolling there. Noticing out of the corner of his eye that they seemed to be interested in something in the distance, he turned to look fully at what was going on. Eight of them had circled around an individual who stood with two gleaming blades pointed at them, their back flush against the remains of a sentry they took out earlier.

The voice behind the loud battle cry he heard was unmistakeable to him and his stomach dropped in fear and recognition. His rifle was suddenly unslung from his shoulder as he ran towards her. He managed to take two of them out from a distance before getting closer and unsheathing his own sword. A robotic claw managed to grab her by the midsection and hoist her off the ground, her helmet fell off her head and her face was twisted in pain. She struggled against the restraint and slashed at the front of the machine with her swords. Dodging one of the sentries that turned to rush him after his bullets took down two of its comrades, he closed in on the outstretched claw and managed to lop it off in one blow.

He faced off alone against the remaining sentries while she wriggled out of the now-detached claw. Finally free of its grasp, she doubled over at the sharp pain in her torso. However, now was not the time to lick her wounds. She heaved herself up to a standing position, ready to face her foes again.

Luring them away from her so she had time to free herself, he continued to try increasing the distance between himself and their attackers. There were still four of them left and he was rapidly running out of steam as his adrenaline could only push him so far. Dodging to one side, he went on the offensive and managed to severely cripple one of them before realizing another approaching from the side. Unable to block he was about to accept his fate when she stepped in between them to fend it off. Concentrating back on his own opponent, an appendage lashed out at him, cutting deeply into his side. He managed to remain standing until it successfully attacked again and bit into his upper thigh, severing the artery there. Down, but not out, he grabbed at where his rifle fell and managed to shoot one in the eyestalk, taking it out for good. He got the one he had slowed down earlier as well before the rifle was knocked out of his hands.

He saw her covered in gashes, one arm was clearly broken and hanging limply at her side, only the other one still held a blade. Admirably enough, she had weakened it considerably. All of its ranged weapons were damaged and inoperable and it was barely standing on its remaining legs. They charged each other in one final attack. They both fell to the ground; the sentry sparked and fizzled sporadically before it went silent and she lay on her back coughing as blood seeped from a large wound in her torso.

She turned to look at him when she noticed he was prone and dragging himself along the charred grass, dirt and rubble towards her. He activated a distress beacon when he ran to help her but he knew there was no way anyone would reach them before it was too late. As he got closer, he could hear the rasping of each shaky inhale she took. The feeling in his leg had long since disappeared and his vision was blurring, yet he still fought to keep his eyes open.

"Maybe next time… you won't leave your side open," she said between labored breaths.

"Maybe next time you won't take on eight sentries by yourself," he paused in his advance to take a brief rest.

"No one ordered you to help me."

"No one ordered me not to," he continued to inch closer to her.

"This is… where it ends for us, huh?" her lighthearted tone suddenly turned somber.

When he reached her side, he slowly turned over on his back and looked up at the sky, "Seems like it."

"Well, Major… it's been a pleasure."

"Likewise, Commander," he could no longer hold his drooping eyelids open and let them fall closed, then briefly snapped them back open when he felt her hand on his.

Her body was wracked with a bout of coughs that sounded terrifyingly liquid to him. He flipped his hand over to cup around hers as he felt tremors reach the tips of her fingers. His grip on consciousness was rapidly failing and he felt the inevitable pull into the darkness that awaited him. He barely heard her one last time; it was not quite a whisper, not quite a mumble, but he managed to hear it all the same.

"See you next lifetime."

Ren lurched forward from his pillow with a start. He ran a hand errantly through his hair, as if to clear the fogginess of sleep from his mind. Getting back to sleep after a dream such as that would be no easy task, so he got up from his bed and wandered to the kitchen. After pouring himself a glass of water, he stood by the living room window and stared blankly out at the city below him, his brow furrowed as he thought about the woman in his dream.

In another part of the city, Kyoko—roused from a fitful sleep by her own nightmare—held the small blue stone in her hand, her thumb rubbing small circles along the smooth side as she murmured quiet reassurances to herself. Her other hand held her phone as she squinted at the time on the bright screen; three o'clock in the morning.

ON THE RUN FROM RESPONSIBILITIES: So, I had this story mostly written in my archived files and decided to take a break and clean it up today. I figured it was the least I could do since I don't have an update for Fates Interwoven yet. I do still plan to have a new chapter for that story by next week but here is something different in the meantime. It was sad and kinda heartbreaking to write so I held off on publishing it but I still like the story overall. Hopefully you all appreciate it as well.

I should get going before my responsibilities find out where I've been hiding.

AUTHOR OUT!