A/N Hey all. Sorry this is as late as it is, but I do have to work to afford things. [Being an adult isn't that awesome as it turns out.]

Anyway, this is William's chapter. Something very interesting happens in this, if I do say so myself. I hope everyone enjoys!

Leave a review please!

CHAPTER 10

So, here's the thing. There are no sedatives to be had when in the field. We get pain killers, antibiotics and bandages. All the basic things you need to take care of injuries. If you're close enough to the main lines, you can get medevac'd out and taken to a hospital.

When you're this far out, you're out of luck.

Jeremy was recovering fairly well. Apparently their pet telekine was good for more than using up the rations and sleeping. But that did bring one other issue up.

Ulrich and Odd set up a perimeter. They were now using the blown out restaurant for shelter, staying out of the immediate area around the tower, but managing to keep an eye on it all the same.

Odd and Aelita were at the moment, doing what they could to clean and dress Yumi's wounds. That the young woman had managed to survive the explosion was probably down to sheer luck more so than anything else.

Ulrich and Jeremy were huddled in a corner on the other side of the room, more to preserve what remained of her modesty than for convenience. Which was of course, absolutely hilarious. They had all been out here far to long for that sort of thing.

The sniper was recovering, but her shoulder was a vicious bruise that ran from her upper arm all over her back. She had a thick bandage wrapped around her head and another one around her side. The armor that was designed to allow her to crouch down and settle in with her rifle comfortably lacked any of the rigidity of the heavy ceramic plates the rest of them wore, making the laser weapons of Xana's monsters far more dangerous.

Twice now he had stripped and cleaned his gun, making sure all of the components were still functional and properly oiled and clean. It was make work, and he knew that. As hard as he wanted to, William couldn't shake the feeling that running back to rescue Yumi was the same as running back to save Sissi. The only real difference being that there was still an entire team coming to her aide, as opposed to just him.

He idly kicked at a rock, sending it skittering across the floor. The others all dropped what they were doing and looked up, reaching for weapons and furtively scanning for a threat. He shook his head and the relaxed, or at least, most of them did.

But then again, he could never tell if the telekine was relaxed or not. She always seemed on edge, expecting something to happen somewhere.

That probably came from invading everyone's thoughts all the time.

William gazed back out, still trying to ignore how fresh the loss of his team was; he had already put a lot of effort into burying those feelings. It figured that Yumi would somehow manage to dredge them back up with her instability.

That stubbornness reminded him too much of Milly.

He didn't notice Aelita approach behind him.

"Was it really that similar? Coming to help?"

He jumped. She spoke softly, not letting her voice carry beyond anyone immediately nearby.

He glared at her unhappily.

"I told you I don't like you in my mind"

"Who ever said I want to be there? You're mired in your past, letting it poison your future."

William shifted uncomfortably. "what do you care?"

"I have to deal with it William! Everyone one of us has to! If you hadn't deigned to help us, Yumi wouldn't be alive right now. I get that coming to this building like we did was starkly similar to your attempt at saving Sissi, but you need to move on. If only because it's the one thing that is keeping you from being accepted in our team. "

He scoffed.

"You mean besides the fact that not one of you wants me here?"

"I can't deny you weren't the first choice, I know Jeremy and Odd don't have a problem with you unless your being an idiot. but if you give them a chance, because you are being an idiot."

"Of course it's because I'm an idiot. Of course it's entirely because of me. It would have nothing to do with any of you being even a little willing to let me into your little club. It's like children."

"That's uncalled for. No one here had a childhood. This war took that away from them. From all of us. You aren't the only one that lost things. Most telekines that serve in the field only survive for a few months. People that I knew more intimately than anyone else, more than half are gone now."

"I don't really care." His voice was harsh, and made her cringe.

"And that is the entire problem. That you don't care. Why should any of us care about you? You can't just demand that we do this and then have no give on your side. I know you don't want to hear this, and that your trying to block me out."

He glared at her, but she knew she was making headway against his stubbornness. It scared him how well she knew him.

"What have you done every time someone makes a mistake?"

He pointedly didn't answer, but she knew what he was thinking anyway.

She was standing yet closer to him. "It's not easy to face your own mistakes. People just don't like to have to do that sort of thing. I know that you don't think of me as human, and maybe I'm not. But don't think that I would wish these powers on my worst enemy."

That finally drew a response from him.

"Is it really that bad? I saw you crush an entire krabe like it was nothing. And you threw both me and Yumi into a block of cement and pinned us there."

She sat next to him, slipping her rifle into her lap. "You only see the most blatant aspect of what it is to be like me. What happened to you when Jeremy was shot?"

William shrugged. "I don't know. Not much of anything really."

"You know what it was like for me? I thought that I had been shot. It felt exactly the same for me as it did him. When you and Yumi are needling each other? I feel just how much it hurts and I feel the sick satisfaction that you guys feel, at the same exact time. Half of us go insane within five years of leaving the academy. One in three don't make it out of the academy, we have the highest suicide rate among every branch of people in the entire world."

William was silent. She knew he was trying to digest everything she had told him.

"Is it really that bad? Does anyone else know about this?"

She shook her head.

"Why not?"

"I thought you didn't care William?"

He frowned, and she cut him off before he could speak; "You don't want to be here anymore than Ulrich wants you here."

"And you don't either. You do a better job of hiding it though."

Aelita was silent. She had to ask herself, how had he found out about that?