I wake up to the sound of faint buzzing and distant murmurs. My eyes feel like lead, but I manage them open to take in my strange environment despite the extremely blurry vision. Where is the yelling asshole or Plum? Have I been knocked out? Oh god! I didn't miss the war, did I? I try to look around. The buzzing comes from the florescent lights and the murmurs come from beyond the double doors on the other side of the room. However, right to the side of me is what worries me the most. Two blood packets and an IV hang from a hospital stand. This can't be. I eye the length of the tubes and jolt fully awake when they stop at my right arm which has been bound to the cot. In fact, my whole form has been tied down. I pull and yank my arm as if that could get the blood away from me. A nurse walks over from somewhere to take out the needles and un-teather me from anything else I was hooked up to.

"What have you done?" My voice is so soft. Despite my brain being wide awake, my body is still trying to catch up. I look up at the woman, but all she does is look at me like I'm trash. "What have you done?" I repeat.

"You'll be fine." That's all she says. And the way she said it. It was like she didn't want to be anywhere near me. "You just needed blood."

I can't help but pause. It really happened. "You don't know what you've just done."

She rips off the medical tape on my arm. "I'm not allowed to talk to you."

"Then it's over," I say to myself. I can feel it now. It's like I have a hole in my mental being. The power that I was just getting used to. Gone. There's no way I can stop the war now. The war hero! "Bog King," I say to the nurse. "Is he alive? Bog King." She ignores me as she continues patching me up, but I violently shift to catch her attention. "Please, just tell me that?" She finished with her task without another word. "Please?" I plead as she takes off her gloves.

"Sorry," she says as she walks out of the double doors.

That's all I get? God fucking damn it. And I saw that armed soldier when the door opened. I'm being watched. I lay my head on the cot, thinking of what to do next. I haven't had to think like this in a while. My life was becoming a task of memorization to get the right path. Now I can't 'foresee' what my actions will cause anymore. I take one look around the room before I try to slip free of the binds. Step one: get free. Step two... I don't know.

I pull, tug, and yank on the restraints. I throw all my weight to one side hoping to break the links. I do a weird worm-like wiggle in a manic panic. I toss my weight again, but the bed wasn't bolted to the ground and I flip over barely missing the ground with my face. Nice hindsight, Mari. I lay my forehead on the ground in silent defeat when I hear something going on just outside the double doors. There's an alarm blaring and people yelling far in the distance. Then, the doors open. I glance over to see two military boots speed-walking to me and stop just before my cot. The soldier must have heard me flip over. I lay my head on the ground again with a silent curse.

"Ah was out of those things in three minutes flat, Fae. What's wrong with ye?" I turn to see Bog laying on the ground looking a bit worse for wear, but man, am I happy to see him.

"I thought you were dead," I murmur, still not at one hundred percent vocally.

He just shakes his head. "Not yet." He gets back to his feet and flips my cot right side up and bends down. "Sorry, Fae." I hadn't noticed at first the knife in his hand. I freak out.

"Wait, wait. I'm out." He pauses, giving me a look of horror. "I'm out. They gave me blood." He looks over to the medical stand then back at me. I calm down a bit. "I lost the power. I feel it. I can't reset the day anymore."

He doesn't do anything for a breath's moment. God, I feel like I've failed him. He, then, takes the knife to the restraints and helps me out of the cot. My legs feel weak, but we have to get out of here if the alarms have anything to do with Bog's disappearing act. He carries my weight as we walk side by side on our way out of this place. By the grace of whoever is looking down upon us, we made it far away. Bog wants to go back to the base. No one at Whitehall would expect us there. By the time we get there, it's night and the rain has begun, right on schedule. We shadow hop between two cargo containers on the edge of the base. A military vehicle is coming up on the road. I jump to Bog's side, pushing him back again the metal as we barely miss the headlights catching us as the vehicle continues on. What we need is a plan and we need it now because this is our last chance.

"We need to kill the Omega," I say. "Before the invasion starts. That gives us less than three hours."

Bog thinks for a moment. I think he, like me, doesn't like that we have such a limited time slot. "We need a dropship to get to Paris in time."

I can't reset either, so knowing every movement of the Mimics from the beach won't get us far. "We'll need more soldiers, too."

Bog raises a brow. "Now, who's crazy enough to follow us to Paris."

Crazy people, huh? I tell Bog to follow me. I know exactly where to find two of them at this time. When we get close to the area, I tell Bog to shadow me and to stay out of sight. Then, I limp out of the darkness since the bullet wound hasn't fully healing in a day's time. Not long after, I hear an angry voice.

"Fae!" I take a few mores steps. "Fae!"

"Guys," I say, but Fang is ignoring me.

"We've been looking everywhere for you."

"Guys, just listen."

"Plum almost strung us up by our toes for losing track of you."

I hold out a hand to him and Brutus. "Just listen. You're gonna want to hear this story. Now this is gonna sound ridiculous at first, but the longer I talk the more rational it's going to appear."

Fang pauses for a moment. "Yea?" He says with a challenge.

}{

"She named the school I went to," Fang says to his peers. "And then she tells me my second grade teacher was called Miss Polio."

Brutus adds on to that. "Wouldn't let him go to the bathroom. Made him wet his pants."

Someone laughs as Fang looks betrayed at Brutus. "Shut up. Look," Fang continues pointing at me standing off to the side, "I'm telling you, she knows everything about all of us."

Sunny rubs at his chin. "Bullshit."

Brutus leans over to him. "Yea? She says your last name ain't really Day. Says 'Day' was your friend who died in combat on his first day." Sunny stands up, astounded. "You took his place and sends the check to his family."

Stuff stares at Sunny from her high point on the top bunk. "You slippery bitch."

Fang continues. "Fae says she knows the enemy, too. That they're waiting for us on the beach and we all die. The whole invasion is a slaughter."

Stuff shakes her head. "Well, this is great. Really good confidence boost for tomorrow. Thanks, Fae."

Thang voices up. "But we can change it, right? I mean, there has to be something we can do. There has to be a way that we can win."

I walk up to the group, having quietly enjoyed freaking everyone out with my personal knowledge of each of them. "There is a chance. It's a slim one, but it means coming with me, right now."

Stuff speaks up. "Listen, pal. I don't really care what you think you know about us. We just met you." She looks around her peers. "Come on. Why would we follow him into combat?"

I glance around the crestfallen group then to the shadows. I stand a little straighter. "I don't expect you to follow me. I expect you to follow him." At that, Bog walk up and the group on the ground and lower bunks slowly get to their feet with looks of shock apparent.

Fang, fully standing up in his frog green bathrobe. "That's the Full Metal-."

"G-Squad," I interrupt. "This is Bog King. Otherwise known as-."

"Yea, yea," a deep voice says. I look to see Pare talking. "The Goblin of Verdun."

Bog examines each one of them. My guess is that he's gauging their willingness and readiness to go into combat under his order. Each one kind of shifts when his eyes graze over them. He looks at me and softly nods. "Okay."

Right away, he asks if any of them are a pilot. Thang jumps up and says that he knows the perfect one to wake up. Bog gives him permission to find the person. Everyone else Bog orders to get battle ready fifteen minutes ago. We all rush to the exosuit building. Bog, on the other hand, goes to where his suit is hooked up. We're careful not to attract too much attention from others still awake on the base. I make sure that everyone is as geared as I can possibly get them. And they're listening. Is it only because I brought Bog? Probably. I pay it no mind as I get myself ready. This will be the first time in a while that I have no idea what to expect so I don't know what I might need. This is also the appearance of a true fear of death, not for myself, but for the entire world if we all die on this mission. I feel like Atlas. Humanity rests on our shoulders.

It doesn't take long to find Bog and the pilot after we're all suited up and soon, we're flying above the base towards France. As we pass over the Cliffs of Dover, I check the time. By now, Plum will be waking up the soldiers for the coming battle. I'd love to see the look on her face when she sees that not just me, but the entire G-Squad is missing.

}{

"It's a new day, people. Destiny calls. The world only expects one thing from us: that we will win. Rest assured that the enemy will thank you for not giving one hundred percent today. Squad!" Plum calls. She enters the empty area and glances around then looks to the others. "Where's G-Squad?!"

}{

We fly over the toppled Eiffel Tower and the flooded streets on Paris. I watch the world pass us by as I stand behind the pilot. This is it. I step back and down to oversee the others. I hear Brutus talking.

"Right, okay. So this Omega controls time." He's just trying to make sense of everything both Bog and I have told them during the flight there.

Fang gives a vicious snarl. "Let's just blow the New Age piece of dung back where it came from. And then we go home."

"Right," Brutus murmurs. "But it's guarded by an Alpha-."

Pare butts in. "Just kill it, okay?"

Thang speaks up. "No! You heard what Fae said. Do not kill an Alpha. If we kill an Alpha, the Omega resets this whole day. We'll never even remember we had this conversation. They're gonna know we're coming." He looks to me and Bog to see if he got it right. I nod, but Bog checks his magazine.

"So what am I supposed to do if one of those Alphas is about to kill me?" Sunny asks.

I slow my walking pace when I pass him. "You take a hit for the team." I continue on to Bog. "When we're on the ground, there's not gonna be a lot of time before they know we're there. We're gonna need eyes up here."

Bog stares down at me for a while before speaking. "Ah'm going in, Fae." He activates the suit harness with resolve. I can't help but think that I can't keep him away from a good fight, even if it means his death. Together then.

"Thirty seconds til contact," the pilot announces.

G-Squad turns on their flashlights and collectively exhales. I adjust my helmet as I focus on Bog across from me rather than the coming battle. Bog matches my gaze. Suddenly, the ship's hull explodes into a shower of sparks and debris. I'm knocked out of my suit's harness. I hear Fang call out for Brutus, but there's no answer. People are shouting in pain and worry. The ship is taking multiple fire balls from the Mimics. The ship gunner's mow down all that they can, but it's not helping ease the onslaught. Alarms ring throughout the ship. I'm tossed around like a rag doll as the pilot tries to maneuver around enemy fire. I manage to get to my feet in front of Bog.

"We gotta go," Fang yells gruffly.

"You gotta drop," I tell Bog. I turn to the others. "Drop! Drop!" The soldiers activate their harnesses and fall to the ground. "Drop." I say to Bog who hasn't moved.

"Yer not hooked in," he points out.

I want to reply, but that's a waste of time. Instead, I give an apologetic look and hit his emergency release. I watch him fall away from the ship. One of the gunner's is taken out, the impact of the sudden explosion nearly topples me off the ship's walkway. Now the ship is spiraling out of control and I seem to be the only one left. Before I can react, the ship hits the water sending a wave to push me against the hull. Then, the pressure is gone, but I'm also falling into deeper waters. The suit is too heavy to swim in. Oh god. I hit the bottom of the Seine river and quickly unhook myself from the suit. With what little air I have left, I push off from the ground and swim to the surface. Blissful air. I refill my lungs several times as I note where I should go. I pull myself over the stone railing, but I fall instantly. The bullet wound from earlier today is bleeding again. I take a moment to survey my surroundings. There's a column of smoke not too far away. I find a street pole and limp my way over, being careful not to make too much noise as I walk along the barren buildings. When I turn the corner, a graveyard of waterlogged and smashed cars lays before me. In the middle of it, the smoking dropship. I quietly inch my way over. There aren't a lot of cars near it, so when I reach the open area, I put the pole in my dominant hand, ready to defend myself. I take this trek relatively slow and as quietly as I am able with the road being flooded.

I hear a single beeping noise from the ship. I check the cabin, but there's nothing and no one. Am I the only one alive? This can't be... Noise startles me. I turn, brandishing my pole. Behind me is Bog with a gun held up. He gives a sigh of relief to which I lower my makeshift weapon.

"What took you so long?" He asks me.

I smile at the attempted humor. "Any others?"

He takes me to where he's gathered everyone he's found. Just as we get back, Bog asks for a report. I take a moment to see who is left. I note a battered Thang, a solemn Fang, and a bruised Sunny. Everyone else didn't make it most likely. Damn. I listen to Fang.

"We're low on ammo. I've got one claymore. Sunny, you're out. Thang's only got half a magazine left and he can hardly move."

Thang panics a little. "I thought you could see the future."

"I haven't lived this day," I say softly. "I don't know what's going to happen."

Bog speaks up as he checks his own weapon and shoulders his sword and staff. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that we finish this."

Sunny scoffs. "What. I mean, Thang can't even walk, we're three men down. Come on."

Bog growls. "Look, we're running out of time. Collect yer ammo." I think about what we can do. What do we have that can help.

Fang hisses. "There must be a thousand Mimics between us and that pyramid. So what we gonna do? Just walk up to the front door, is that it?"

Bog hisses back. "If we stay here, we die."

"Yea? We'll never get through." I think I know what might help.

"We could," I say, looking back to the small group, then I motion my head to the remains of the dropship. "In that."

Fang sighs. "That ship will never fly."

"It doesn't need to fly. It just needs to get us across there," I point towards the museum, "with speed. If the engines are still running, we can steer with the power levers." I watch Bog ponder on this. "Fang, clear a path." Bog nods and walks to the ship to see what still works. Fang starts moving the nearest cars out of the way while Thang and Sunny sits to the side, nursing his leg injury. Sunny eventually joins us on the ship to hook himself to the ship's guns. I help Bog with the ship's controls.

"Try it again now."

"No, it's not reading," I say after flipping a switch.

"Condition lever lowered," he announces as he fiddles with the controls some more. "Master power on."

I hear Thang attempt to walk and turn to look, but he falls flat on his face. Fang rushes to him. "Thang, we gotta go. Come on!" Fang pulls Thang on his knees just as an unearthly howl starts rising in the distance. The smaller man shakes his head.

"I'm not gonna be of any good in there, mate. Let me buy you some time." I follow where Thang's gaze is pointed at. There's an intact fuel truck not far from us. I watch the men give an understanding look at one another, though Thang's is calmer while Fang's is upset.

I turn away from them, noting the console's readings. "The power's on." Bog looks up from what's left of a manual. "This is gonna work."

"Hey," I hear Sunny call out. "Hey, come on, man. We gotta go."

"Don't wait for us," Fang yells back.

"Fang! Thang, come on!"

Bog turns back to Sunny. "We're good to go. Where are they?"

Sunny hesitantly finds the words. "They're not coming."

I glance at Bog, there's a minute shadow of sorrow that darkens his face, but the mission is still at hand. I pull the switch to turn on the engines. The entire ship rumbles and groans slowly back to life. It has to warm up still.

}{

"Go, brother," Thang says.

Fang grabs the man at the neck. "I'll see you in the next life." He starts to walk away when he sees a wall of Mimics coming at them. "Oh for goblin's sake! Move over," he says to Thang. "Move over!"

Thang guns down the fast approaching Mimics.

}{

Sunny yells out. "We gotta go. No, we gotta go now!"

Bog and I face the source of Sunny's worry. Bog turns to me. "They're coming, Fae." I nod and push on the power levers. We're starting to move forward. I can still hear Thang's gun fire over the thunderous hum of the ship.

}{

"Come on!" Fang yells. "Come on, you bastards! Come on."

"Reload," says Thang's suit on repeat.

The men glance at the gun, then to each other. Thang nods and Fang huffs a bit. He slides his thumbs in the pins and waits for the opportune moment. With a battle cry, he pulls them. A large explosion, fueled by the gas truck, takes everything within meters out.