Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I don't own OP.

A/N: Alright, have loads of free time so here's the next segment of the fic. I'm also thinking about doing a Pingu fic. Did you know there is a show called Pingu, and it's about a penguin! I did not know that until I was babysitting my neighbors' kids one morning. I think people have been reading kilnorc's fics and been taking some of the ideas. –shrugs- Who knows?

People crowded all around as they gathered the wounded. "MEDIC! Someone get a medic here!" One cadet cried, going from person to person. "Oh no! Someone help!" Sadie, who was holding Niri's hand, looked up at the cadet. "You, put pressure on her shoulder. She's been hit."

As medics came rushing in the chaotic hallway, once the gun had finally quit firing off at everyone, they went around, some shouting, others murmuring hushed words to others, either to calm them down or to keep them calm as they worked on the wounded. "He's going in shock! Take him to the ward, STAT!" A medic flew to Niri's side, removing the bloodied rags that a cadet and Sadie held. "Another's been shot! Two grazed wounds!" Looking up at Sadie and the other cadet, the medic nodded. "We'll take her to the ward."

As a male medic picked up the bleeding girl, Niri, still very conscious, tried her hardest not to scream as she grit her teeth, trying to move her left hand. With her eyes closed tightly, she could tell that there were people working their damndest to try and save some that had been shot. There were many, like her, that were just grazed but then, there were the other cases, the more serious ones.

Two cadets, from what she heard, had been fatally wounded and were fading fast. A needle was stuck in her arm, a mixture of morphine and water dripped into her blood stream. Starting to feel relaxed, she opened up her eyes to see someone stitching up her leg. "Hey. You were one of the lucky ones. How do you feel?" the medic asked, looking up from his work.

"Like I'm on a cloud. I'm stoned, aren't I?" As he laughed, she took that as a yes as she blinked up at the ceiling. "How bad?"

"If you don't pick at it, your leg won't scar. Can't say the same for your shoulder. That one is pretty deep but you'll still have all functions, you just can't go through any activities for a few weeks," he said, pulling at the needle. She groaned and put a hand to her eyes. "Don't worry, this just means that you'll be working on other things rather than survival. From what we've all heard, you're top dog in the range so I guess that you'll be working on paper work."

"I have to do a tracking test tomorrow. I failed it three times," she groaned, smelling the alcohol. He parted her legs with his hands, quickly wrapping gauze around the wound. "That's a little tight."

"Sorry but it has to be or it'll fall down, possibly ripping a few stitches. We can cut them in a week so until then, you'll have to push the test back." Tying the gauze quickly, he rotated to the other side and began to work on her shoulder. "Good thing you're right handed, huh?"

Nodding, she looked over at the needle before looking back up. "I wish I wasn't though." Looking up at him, she grinned. "I wouldn't be able to do paperwork then." He chuckled, his eyes concentrated on her wound. "How long will this heal?"

"A week and a half, maybe two weeks. Then again, you have more stitched in here so same rules apply." He heard his name called and looked up. "We lost two already and another just came in D.O.A. He was holding the gun."

"D.O.A.?"

"Dead On Arrival." He looked back at the wound before looking at her. "Working on the epidermis now, shouldn't take too long." She raised an eyebrow. "Your skin." She nodded and put a hand back on her eyes, trying to ignore the wavy vision. It suddenly felt like her head imploded; like her brain was suddenly missing and she could walk around inside her head.

Deciding that having her eyes closed was a bad idea, she opened them back up and looked over to her shoulder. Already wrapped up in gauze, she looked around. "Hey, she's up!" Tashigi went to her side and patted her good arm. "How do you feel?"

Sadie held her hand and rubbed the rough knuckles. "You okay?"

"I fell asleep." The two giggled. "They gave me morphine, felt really relaxed. I guess it wore off."

"Nah, they took it out," Tashigi said, smiling at her friend. "You okay?" Niri nodded and motioned to her leg. "Oh, don't worry. Everyone was told and as soon as you can twist and bend again, you're back on the field."

Sadie nodded and looked down at her friend, rubbing her friend's head gently. "Lieutenant Nedry isn't happy that you won't make up the test so soon."

"Nerdy? Oh, the tracking officer. He HATES me."

Tashigi just laughed. "Well, you can leave and start on paperwork if you want." Niri groaned. "But it's late so maybe you should sleep before you start on it," she suggested. "Oh, we took the last parfait for you."

Laughing, Niri nodded. "Oh yeah, Prelude should be happy about that."

Sadie smiled and looked at her friend. "You should get some sleep. We'll be back tomorrow to help you go wherever they still you."

"I'm not the only one. A lot of paperwork is going to get done, especially since there are going to be three reports about the cadets."

Tashigi nodded, her eyes on the floor. "The funeral arrangements are two days from now. Until then," she said, wrapping a black ribbon around Niri's good shoulder. "We as the Marine must be in mourning." Looking back at Sadie, she gave her friend a hug as best as she could. "We'll come back to pick your ass up tomorrow. Until then, sleep."

"Shut up, Tash, or I'll kick your ass."

-.-.-

Looking at the tower of paperwork, Niri's eye twitched. "You have got to be kidding me."

Tashigi laughed, watching her friend sit in a wheeled chair. "I know it looks a lot but in all honesty, it's only a few pages." Grabbing the crutches, she set them against the desk before picking up a file and handing it to her. "Just fill out this, this and this," she said, pointing to the blank lines on the report. "But you have to read the description first. Basically, you're evaluating the other cadets based on their records so the commanding officers can update the scores, giving a further review on the cadets."

Picking up a pen, Niri read the description. Good thing daddy taught me how to read and write. "Do you do this, Tash?"

"When not in training, yeah." Niri's jaw dropped, causing her to laugh. "Don't worry, I didn't look through you file. Friends don't do that to friends."

"Thanks Tash." Sighing, she looked back at the tower of files. Looking though the file, she quickly came up for some assessments about a few cadets, only stopping to fully read if someone caught her eye.

Stopping at her own file, she grew curious. What did they say about me? Opening up, she nearly ripped up the paper. "Niri 'Princess Sniper' Zolaro," I'm going to kill whoever wrote that! Better yet, ERASE THIS! Okay, now everything else sounds a bit right but, huh? "Has a tendency to lose temper and snap at commanding officers. Best scores of the shooting range, keeps calm in a survival test, poor in tracking, has a record of a shooting contest in the mess hall." ARGH! I thought that, you know what, forget it, I'll let one of the other cadets fill this out.

Setting it off to the side, she grabbed another file, rubbing her knuckles before she looked at them. I need to quit popping punching things. Face it, Niri, you're helpless when unarmed. There's no way in hell that I'd be able to defend myself without my guns. Snowball's chance in hell. She leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. I wonder what everyone is doing right now.

-.-.-

Stretching her arms as much as she could, Niri looked out the window to see the golden hues of sunset. A few stars came into view, breaking the rift between night and day. In the background, outside of the world of the written word, she could hear others move around. Other cadets were getting ready for whatever they did after dinner and in all honesty, even though she had missed her dinner, she wasn't really hungry. No doubt that her friends would bring her the last parfait that she had grown attached to.

Grinning, she remembered. She did enjoy it, the first few weeks but it was out of pure habit that she got it now, never minding that it upset the other best marksman. Prelude was going to have to suffer a little bit longer. Maybe she can eat all the parfait she wants once Niri gets transferred to Tristram. Closing her eyes, she put a hand to her bandaged shoulder, beginning to imagine the muscles fixing themselves. She was pretty sure that it would take long for it to heal. Maybe a month or so?

"You're still here?" Looking in the doorway, she saw Tashigi holding up a parfait. "Got you this."

"You can have it; I'm starting to get sick of it." Slowly standing, using the desk in front of her as a brace, Niri reached over and grabbed her crutches. Letting her weight fall on them, she looked back up at Tashigi. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Tashigi nodding, taking a bite of the chocolaty dessert. "Hey, Niri, can I ask you something?"

"Fire away. Oh wait, let me hide somewhere before you do," she teased, wincing as she landed on her wounded leg a little too hard.

Laughing, Tashigi poked her friend's side. "Karma. Um, I was kind of wondering about something. You told us once that you wanted to see your friend again. What happened, did he get transferred somewhere?"

Niri chewed on her bottom lip. "Actually, he's on a sightseeing…thing. He um…he wants to see other places and the difference between cultures and…things…like that," she lied, hoping that Tashigi wouldn't see through the fib.

"He's not a pirate is he?"

"No, no." He's a "treasure hunter". BIG difference. "He's just curious about the world," Niri said. Looking up at the half moon, she grinned up at it. Tilted so the curve was facing the ground, it looked like his smile. That mischief filled grin, one that also preceded mayhem and chaos, no matter how small. "I'm reminded of him a lot though. He's everywhere to me and though it's aggravating, it's comforting, you know?"

Always around to protect me, aren't you? Smiling, she looked back at her friend. "Come on, let's go find Sadie, I'm tired of offices."

-.-.-

Leaning on her crutches, Niri saluted the three caskets that lay in the training grounds.

"The Marine is all about serving Justice to the world, making sure to protect those that need protecting, to be a service. These three cadets were unfortunate enough to be a full Marine, to know the duty and honor of going around, serving the world as a member of the World Government's Marine. But today, we do not grieve for three people, no, we grieve for three Marines. Cadets that have enlisted, trained hard, and died while in the Marine."

"We, the commanding officers, the cadets, members of the World Government's Marine, bury these three soldiers. May their strength be known as their memories live on!" Saluting at the three caskets again, the Academy rang out in silence as the caskets were taken away. "Burial party, dismissed."