My oh my two chapters in one day! I must be on something. So yeah, i felt bad for not having Bunnie or sonic in the story, so i threw them in, don't expect that very often.

BTW, make sure to read the bottom annotations.

This chapter was weird to write, i hope it doesn't suck.

The camp was buzzing with news. Everyone was glad not to be the first casualty. That honor went to 68w1O David Fisher, he was KIA. Antoine had to sit through the memorial. Since it was early in the conflict, they had time to do individual services; later on, it would be mass burials. Xander and Ben got the Acorn cross for being wounded in battle. Benoit accepted the medal in a wheelchair, his face was scarred, and he wore an eye patch. Xander had some shrapnel in the ass, but he was ready for more service. Ant got a service medal for getting his men out of there. He was the talk of the camp.

Antoine loathed the whole process, he had survived the night, but he only had six days until his mission at the Refinery. They said he'd get a few days of rest, but he didn't believe them. The first thing he did after dropping Ben at the infirmary was cleaning his sword. It took a while, on the way back the blood coagulated and formed a thick crust. Now it was good as new. His uniform was still stained, he decided to keep it that way, and he was used to the stench.

He had a few minutes to himself; he stepped out of the limelight and tried to write to Bunnie. A few hours later, the page was still blank. He crumpled the paper, and threw it away. There was no way he could tell her about what had just happened. He just gave up. It pained him to keep her in the dark, but it was better this way.

News usually reached Knothole fast, but when the news comes from a few hundred miles away, and all news is controlled by the King, not much gets back. The roles were reversed; Bunnie sat alone at home, waiting for news about her husband. She counted the minutes, the hours and the days, that he was gone. She didn't receive letters, and she didn't know where to send hers. A lot of the men in the town had been drafted, but they didn't know where they went. Even Prince Elias was gone, supposedly leading a small force.

She recollected some names. Ash fled to Downunda to skip the draft, Sonic was exempt (of course), Tails refused to even TALK about the royal government, and Antoine was gone. She sighed, the house was empty, and she finally knew what Ant used to go through. But she didn't have his patience, so Bunnie decided to DO something.

Sonic was chatting with Mina, she was worried about Ash, his best friend Xander was drafted, and Ash ran to Downunda to avoid his fate. Sonic was oblivious, as usual. He kept changing the conversation to his manly heroics. Bunnie cut in.

"Sugah-hog?" The blue hedgehog turned to face her. He couldn't see the pain in her eyes. She didn't deal well with Separation.

"Yeah, Buns?"

"We gotta find out where they took 'Twan." The desperation in her voice was obvious to most people.

Sonic was not one of those people. He dug in one of his ears. "I'm sure he's fine, probably just sitting pretty away from the front lines."

She resented that comment. "He's changed! And besides, 'Twan always writes to me, something is wrong."

Mina stepped in. "We should ask King Max, he IS in charge of the Royal Army."

Sonic was unsure, he didn't want to strain his relationship with the King any further. "I dunno, I trust the Royal family."

"I do too, but we have the right to know what's going on!" Bunnie shoved Sonic out of the way, and she made her way towards the castle. Mina followed closely behind, and Sonic was left with his words hanging in the air.

She had never been inside the castle; Mrs. D'Coolette had seen the outside many times, but never the interior. She wouldn't get that far. The guards stopped her at the gate, and even when she pointed out her Freedom Fighter status, they would not let her pass. Mina was turned back too. When Sonic finally showed up, he too was denied access.

"Ah don't understand!" Bunnie was confused. Mina had given up, and was on her way home. Sonic was already eating chilidogs. The Rabbot was left to her own devices, and she decided to have a little one on one with a certain princess.

Ant's blinds were drawn, he had taken up the habit of meditating, surprisingly the only time he could ignore his inner voice was when he was completely alone. His room was still a mess; the holes in his wall weren't repaired. Antoine didn't mind, he didn't care about such things anymore.

There was a knock at his door. He slowly got up, and strolled to the door. Upon opening it, he was face to face with Elias. The prince was smiling.

"Ah, Antoine! Glad to see that you made it!"

"Sure…" Ant answered nonchalantly. He knew full well that part of Elias wanted something unfortunate to happen.

The future king chuckled, annoyingly. "Come on, you know that it was a random pick for that mission." The fact that he stressed that word gave away his lie.

Antoine was in no mood for pleasantries. If he really wanted to, he could just reach out and strangle that royal pain in the ass. But he had to wait. "Why are you here sir?" It had only been one day since the night recon.

"Really Lieutenant? I can't visit you just to congratulate your successful return?"

"Cut the crap, sir." A short verbal jab.

Elias was about to reprimand him, but he decided against it. "Well, I need you to train some recruits." He motioned to Ant's uniform. "You have experience with the enemy, you can show them the ropes."

"And how would I do that?"

"Well, the best teacher is experience, so…" Antoine could see where this was going.

"Are you serious?"

"Completely."

"No, fuck that." He didn't restrain himself, he didn't care. His inner voice was eerily silent, the choice was his to make. "You can't send me out there again."

"Why not?"

"I'll resign. I'm not going through that again."

"Hmmm." Elias put his chin into his hand. As a Lieutenant, Ant could resign; it was an unfortunate part of the system. He couldn't afford to lose such a valuable soldier. His answer shocked Antoine. "You're right, I can't."

"Wait, what?"

"No, you've been through so much, I think you should get some time off of the front." The General's tone went from contemplative to diabolical. "I think we should find some less taxing combat duties."

"Um… Ok" Ant was caught off guard.

"What are you good at?" He revealed a pen and paper. Elias went down the list. "Combat engineer?"

"Nope." Ant hated machines, let the grease monkeys do that stuff.

"Combat medic?"

Ant shuddered. He didn't want to end up like Fisher. "No, sir."

Elias stopped, and grinned. "Are you a good shot?"

Antoine answered quickly, before he could stop himself. "The best, sir."

"Well, I think we've found your new job." Elias lifted his eyes from the notepad. "Sniper."

"What?"

"Yes, sit in one spot and take pot shots at the enemy." He twirled his pen. "Quite… relaxing."

"I don't want to be a sniper!"

"It's either that or another night recon with greenhorns."

A long pause. Antoine excused himself, and went inside; he had a choice to make.

does Antoine go on another perilous mission? Or does he switch roles, and become the sociopathic sniper guy with no remorse! (Imagine the possibilities!)

If you have any ideas for Bunnies side of the story, PM me!