Hi everyone it's time for another chapter! Thank you again to those that have reviewed, favourite and followed the story, again I appreciate it, I hope to hear more from the readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter, see you again soon.

Louise aimed carefully at the target as she adjusted her position as she slowed her breathing down before pulling the trigger. The bullet went through the target as she checked to see if she hit it accurately as she smiled when she saw that she had hit the target dead on, it wasn't exactly a fatal shot but it would take down an enemy soldier no problem, "Good job private that was nicely done," the instructor praised.

"Thank you sir," Louise said feeling quite pleased with herself. She had spent a lot of time since her decision to join squad 13 re-training herself and getting used to having only one eye. The doctor wasn't joking when he said it would be hard as she found even walking to be slightly difficult as her left side was completely blocked off and in the beginning she kept bumping into things because she didn't 'see' it forcing her to always look around constantly when she's walking. She even did some training running with obstacles in her path to train herself to continually look around her since she would also be running while under enemy fire, which is also simulated, and the first few times she had crashed into obstacles because she forgot to watch herself.

She also found it hard to judge distances as she her hand often missed things and she grabbed on empty air, like for example trying to grab a cup of water and while she thought she had grabbed onto it she found she just missed it. Therefore her rehabilitation also included on regaining her perception of how to judge objects at a distance so she could actually hold things and function normally.

"Well you've been here for a while and I've never seen a more dedicated soldier then you especially with your condition," the instructor said, "I think I can safely say that you're more then capable now to go back on the field."

"R-really?" Louise asked as the instructor nodded.

"Just make sure to come back to the doc every time you come back to the capital and speaking of the doc she wants to see you now before you go back to your squad," the instructor said.

"Yes sir thank you sir," Louise said as she ran to the hospital as she fluidly dodged the crowd as by now looking all around her had become second nature to her before she arrived in front of Dr. Marina's office. Dr Marina was her doctor in charge of Louise's health, she took an interest in her after hearing that she still wanted to go back on the field despite her injury citing that she had never been more inspired by a patient before.

"Ah Louise how was the test?" Dr Marina asked, she was a tall woman with long black hair and green eyes that hid behind a glasses with a loving personality making her popular with the male patients.

"It went well, I'm ready to return back to duty," Louise said.

"Excellent, excellent let's just do a few more exercises before you go okay?" Dr Marina said as Louise nodded. They then went through their rehabilitation exercises that aimed to improve Louise's depth perception, today it was catching a ball since it was simple and easy to do, at first Louise had great difficulty from either misjudging the distance or simply going at it too early. But now she was able to catch it with only 1 miss per 10 throws depending on the situation, she also did exercises that used balance and she remembered countless time falling down because of it. However she was able to pass that test and now thanks to Dr Marina's constant support Louise's functionality was back to at least 90-92% making her almost like she didn't lose her left eye.

"That's enough for today, let me just do some checks on your eye," Dr Marina said as Louise took off her eyepatch, a simple black eyepatch with squad 13's insignia on it etched by Adriana herself, "is it still itching?" she asked.

"Sometimes, it feels really itchy that I just want to scratch it, but it just makes it worse," Louise said.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do to help you with that," Dr Marina said, "you'll just have to be careful with it and make sure to keep the eyepatch on. It should help with keeping dirt and other things out of it, any other problems?"

"Other then the phantom problem we talked about? Not really," Louise said, in the beginning of her treatment she would sometimes feel as though her 'eye' was still there despite to the contrary. Dr Marina had called this phantom pain and usually go away in time though it is a stark reminder to Louise of what she lost on the battlefield.

"Ok, well I want you to come back here after every mission or when you have the chance, no excuses. I want to check up on you to make sure you're in top shape," Dr Marina said as Louise nodded.

"I will," she replied, "thank you Dr Marina for everything you've done. I couldn't have made it without you."

"It was all you Louise, you're quite a fighter to continue on with the treatment despite what happened. I'm sure many people will look favourably on that," Dr Marina said with a soft smile as Louise grinned before parting from her and going to squad 13. Luckily they were here at the moment and they were just getting ready to leave so she had to hurry to catch them, despite her initial thoughts nothing much happened to squad 13. Everyone was still safe and sound though there were many transfers within the squad itself though neither Suzie, Alicia, Alexander or anyone else Louise knew personally got transferred and they all visited her time and time again.

As she walked towards the barracks she thought back about her re-training and rehabilitation and the times that she doubted her ability and her future. The beginning was the hardest as she had to live with such a shocking injury that sometimes she thought that it was just a nightmare and she would wake up with both eyes intact. At night she would cry quietly to herself because she didn't believe that she would be able to get over this, that her career as a soldier was over and she would be unable to cope with this, she didn't want that to happen...she wanted to be an independent person not someone to be pitied.

That thought was enough to encourage her that she shouldn't give up and doubt herself, even when she failed an exercise or didn't get a good mark in her re-training she never gave up. She knew that if she gave up then she would not be able to recover her motivation again and therefore she kept on going. Now after all these time she managed to make it, she was finally a soldier again and the injury would be part of her, she had accepted that and she hoped that others would be able to accept that as well.

Arriving at squad 13's barracks Louise couldn't see anyone around so that usually meant that they were in the briefing room getting briefed about an upcoming mission as she went through the maze of corridors before arriving at the briefing room just as everyone else was coming out as Alicia was the first to see her, "Louise! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed.

"What do you think I'm here for? I'm back on duty," Louise said.

"They discharged you?" Alexander asked his head poking out the door.

"Yep got the paperwork and all to prove it," Louise said showing them the document as Mason came out and took it.

"Yep it's all in order, you're back in business Louise, good to see you again. Shame that you miss the briefing though."

"That's fine, I can be filled in on it, when are we moving out?" Louise asked.

"Actually the mission requires only a small group so not everyone's going," Mason said as Louise looked surprised.

"Oh? Well then I suppose that's a good thing I missed it then, who's going on the mission?" Louise asked.

"Luna, Johnson, Jack and a couple others. Luna's leading of course," Mason said, "rest of the squad got time off until we get called for another mission. So lucky you I suppose," Mason said as Louise nodded though truthfully she just wanted to go out and actually do something rather then sitting around doing nothing. Maybe she would go out and shoot some targets to practice her accuracy as she walked with Alicia and Alexander as they filled her in with the mission: basically it was a prisoner rescue since several members of the militia got captured during a retreat, it was a night operation and squad 13 was tasked with rescuing all of them. Louise couldn't imagine what the prisoners must be going through and she hoped that it never happened to anyone else as a brown-haired girl, probably no more then 19 years old, approached the trio.

"Hi there, you must be the famous Louise Valliere right?" the girl asked, she had blue eyes and a sparkle in them that Louise had never seen before in a person. "The one that blew up that heavy tank and got an eye taken out cause of that?"

"Yes that would be me," Louise said as she didn't like being reminded of her losing the eye, "and you are?"

"Claudia Clement. Transferred from the 3rd squad to here, you can consider me your rival," Claudia said as Louise looked at her in confusion.

"Rival?" she questioned.

"Yep, ya see when I heard about what you did at Barton, in fact I saw it since I was at the frontlines when you damaged that tank. I have to say that was some gutsy movement at your part, of course I would've helped you out if it wasn't for the fact I was pinned down by some enemy fire. However I wanna see more of you to be honest, I want to see if you really do live up to your reputation as a brave soldier," Claudia clarified.

"I didn't know I had such a reputation," Louise admitted, she hadn't been in many battles and she certainly didn't feel that she did anything special prior to her damaging that heavy tank. She wondered who had been spreading these rumours about her?

"Well nonetheless I look forward to working with you, but I'm gonna be the top soldier by the end of this war," Claudia said with a grin before walking away from them.

"Uh...is she serious?" Louise asked.

"Probably, it's not rare to see soldiers competing against one another simply for bragging rights. There is even an unofficial competition between the militia squad," Alexander said, "though I am surprised that a person like Claudia would transfer here."

"Why's that?" Louise asked.

"Well I suppose she's like you back in the 3rd squad," Alexander said as Louise looked at him before he clarified, "she's sort of like a squad hero. She received the Medal of Gallantry when several of her squad members were pinned down by enemy fire, she then charged head on to the position before throwing a grenade to kill them all, that saved them and she was awarded that medal as recognition of that achievement. Of course you received two medals because you got injured when you played the hero, speaking of which where's your medal?"

"With me," Louise said patting her pocket, she had received the Medal of Gallantry and the Medal of Distinguished Service for her achievements at Barton. She didn't know if she should give it to someone for safekeeping or if she's expected to carry it throughout the war. That would be a pain to carry, but she would have to deal with it somehow, "well I suppose that means I have the lead at the moment," she remarked, "so what are you two going to do while we wait for Luna to finish her mission?"

"I was thinking of going shopping," Alicia said, "haven't seen the latest fashion yet and an aspiring movie star should always be up to date with the latest fashion."

"Typical," Louise sighed, "you know you're gonna go broke one day if you keep that up."

"Well...I could always charm a man to give me money, maybe Robert would be able to lend me some," Alicia said.

"Fat chance, that guys' practically married to his money," Louise said, "the chances of him giving you any is as good as the moon coming out during the daytime."

"Boo...well I suppose I could talk to Mason, though he's probably too lazy to even give me the money," Alicia said.

"Besides you just need to look at the latest trend right? You don't need to actually buy it, where do you keep all your shopping anyways?" Louise asked.

"Oh I have the folks here to give it to them," Alicia said, "we live in the capital before the war so we have a house here. I'm quite lucky to be honest," as Louise forgot that the capital was also the biggest city so there were bound to have soldiers who lived in the capital before the war.

"Well that's your decision," Louise said as she turned to Alexander, "how about you? What are you going to do?"

"I think I might drop by the military seamstress, I have to get my patch," he replied.

"Patch?" Louise asked.

"Oh right you weren't here when they gave the news, since we've been in the militia for more then 6 months all of us get promoted to Private First Class. It's not much of a promotion then more of a congratulation that you've survived this long," Alexander said.

"That sounds...depressing when you think about it," Louise replied.

"It does, but it just means we need to end this war as fast as possible," Alexander said, "though i still can't believe it's been more then 6 months since the war began...how time flies."

"Stop it you two are depressing me," Alicia said, "maybe Louise should accompany you. I'm sure you two lovebirds have a lot to catch up on," she said with a wink before leaving them as Louise pouted.

"Mou~ she always does that to us...though I have to agree that I probably do need to get my patch updated," Louise said as Alexander smiled. They walked to the military seamstress chatting about trivial things such as the weather and the various missions that Louise missed out on while she was incapacitated. It seemed that with the Confederacy continuing their advance through Belfast the military had switched to a more conservative method of attack: attacking convoys of supplies, taking out outposts and doing covert missions to disrupt enemy movements and communication. The war was now a defensive one and all units were expected to move out at a moment's notice, it made Louise aware that perhaps things would be more dangerous then it already was and no doubt there would be times where she would doubt the decision she made. But what was done was done and she would see through it to the end whether for good or ill.

After getting their patches updated Louise felt a little...proud that she had made it to Private First Class after all this time, a sign that she had survived and endured everything that this world had thrown at her. Now if only she survived for real without losing any other limbs...that would suck big time. There was then a loud explosion from the garage as Louise looked to see the Falcon smoking, "W-what happened?" she asked as Alexander didn't seem to concerned about it, though then again he probably was like this everyday and being so indifferent about things unless it occurred to his friends.

"Ah that would probably Elise," Alexander said as Louise looked at him, "Elise Walden, she's a genius engineer that transferred around the same time as Claudia. She's from the 2nd squad," he clarified.

"A genius huh?" Louise said, "Is that true?"

"Supposedly," Alexander said, "she fixed up several tanks once while under fire and she was able to build ingenious inventions on the fly. She's quite the mechanic and you could say she and Alice are sort of rivals though...her 'inventions' tend to blow up at the most inopportune time. She's also young, quite young in fact only 14."

"14! I thought the minimum age of conscription was 15," Louise exclaimed, that would make Elise the youngest militiaman in history.

"Yeah I was surprised too, but her marks in engineering and combat training were off the charts...she really is a genius," Alexander said scratching his head as a small girl around the same height as Louise came out coughing followed by Alice as the two of the seemed to be arguing about something as Louise sighed.

"Then why did she move out of the 2nd squad if she was such a genius?" Louise asked, "It doesn't make sense that they would lose someone that valuable."

"That's because..." Alexander said sadly, "the 2nd squad was wiped out," as Louise gasped, "Elise was the only survivor of that massacre and she saw everything..."

"Everything?" Louise exclaimed as she looked back at Elise and saw her laughing, how could a girl who had seen all of her friends die in front of her be so...so carefree? If it was Louise she would probably be in complete shock and be unable to do anything...it was unimaginable losing everyone at once.

"Well I suppose in a way she's lucky and cursed at the same time," Alexander said, "I suppose that's why Alice's taken her under her wing despite how much she hates the exploding inventions. Much like you and Suzie," as Alexander smirked as Louise shyly looked away, "she never stops talking about you know? I think she's really into you."

"That sounds kind of wrong," Louise said, "but she is the reason I decided to go back to the field so I suppose I'll allow that...it would be fun to have a fan following after me."

"I suppose so, though you're going to make Alicia jealous" Alexander said with a grin as Louise groaned knowing how much the starlet wanted her own fan following though so far that had flopped pretty quickly. They then saw Luna and the other squad members getting on a truck as Mason was talking to his sister, "looks like they're off now...I hope it all goes well," Luna hugged her brother before getting on the truck before it sped off to its destination.

"Yeah me too, but this is Luna I'm talking about, I'm sure everything will be alright," Louise said as Alexander nodded. After all Luna was their second-in-command and one of the bravest, though that perception changed depend on who you ask, soldiers in squad 13 so nothing should go wrong on their mission right?