Author: Well I'm not going to be able to update this weekend since I'm currently caught up in torrent of homework and tests. I'll update the final battle next week when I have the time. Until then all I had time to write was this extremely short drabble about Alex's past. I kinda like it because it makes Alex less of a 2D character and more of a real person.
Sunlight filtered into the room through the window and Alex eyes flickered open as he awoke. Groaning he lifted himself from the bed on to his elbows to get up. Snuggled on top of his chest Cattleya moaned in protest as he did so and he relented. Stroking his hand in her hair for a few more moments, he sat back into the bed and stared at the ceiling in contemplation.
He had that dream again, the unforgettable memory from when he was still a Ranger for the U.S Army. During his tour in the Middle East he was stationed at a forward operating base in the Panjwaii District. Funnily enough this ordinary tour of duty would never have really been a memorable event for Alex if it haddn't been the place where he had the privilege of meeting a young private by the name of Will Lowry.
After several months in that awful place, Alex and his buddies developed the habit of scaring the new recruits by throwing a dummy grenade into their midst on their first day of deployment. It was a habit created from months of battle stress, one he would later come to disdain, but until then he was ashamed to admit that he enjoyed laughing at every new batch of rookies and watching them scrabble for cover in fear. The prank quickly caught on within the Ranger battalion and soon even some of the former victems began taking part in it as well.
It was a hot summer evening when Alex, Scott and some of the new arrivals sat around the mortar pit. Like usual, Alex and Scott were chatting them up in the pretense of getting to know them better, all a part of the plan to get them to lower their guards. Now Alex had a fairly good eye of recognizing the recruits from the veterans, one of his traits that allowed this prank to become so successful, and while most of the soldiers he had been talking to were obviously all rookies, Will Lowry, a teenager barely past the age of eighteen, was the greenest of them all. The rookie of all rookies.
"You know my ma was pretty scared about me coming here." The boy had admitted with a little embarrassment as they lounged around the mortar pit. "She heard some awful stuff about this place."
"Is that right?" asked Alex, smiling on the inside.
"Yeah," Will admitted, while grinning sheepishly. "Even got me a little nervous too."
"Oh come on." Scott said as he leaned forward. "You have every right to be."
That sure wiped the grin form his face.
"What… What do you mean?" the kid asked nervously.
Scott laughed and slapped Will's back. "This place is hell on earth, dude! Don't tell me you haven't heard all the stories. Aint that right Alex?"
Alex hid his grin. From the corner of his eye he could see Mitchell sneaking around the housing containers, Special Forces style, with the dummy grenade in hand.
"Scotts right, rookie." Alex said. "Rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, and especially IEDs. You gotta watch yourself around these parts or else you'll get fucked up." Will had turned pale as Alex went down the list, and it was then that Mitchell decided to throw the dummy.
"Grenade!"
Scott was the first one to dive for cover, a ploy to ensure that the rookies would believe the grenade was indeed real. As one, the rest of the guys around the pit followed suit and Alex smiled as he watched the scene unfold before him. He allowed himself a heart beat longer to enjoy the moment before he too got up in order to scramble to 'safety'. But as he got up, he tripped on a sandbag and fell only a few feet away from the dummy grenade
"Shit." Alex thought. He thought quickly, knowing that how he acted would decide the success of their practical joke. In a split second decision he decided to feign terror, screaming and trying to kick sand on the dummy grenade. But inwardly he had smiled, because from his peripheral vision he could see every recruit running for cover without even bothering to look back. At least he thought he did.
A shadow fell over Alex as an object was thrown on top of the dummy. For an absurd split second Alex thought someone had thrown a sandbag. A split second later Alex realized that it had been a person. Will Lowry had thrown himself on top of the grenade. For several moments shocked silence enveloped the camp and Alex could not force himself to tear his gaze away from the trembling body in front of him. Even Scott didn't even bother trying to pretend panic anymore. Will kept himself on the grenade for several moments, bracing himself for the explosion that would rip his torso in two, an explosion that never came. Eventually, he reached a shaking hand under his stomach and pulled out the grenade holding it out for them to see.
"I guess it was just a dud." Will said nervously. He was still trembling from the small scare and even his knees were shaking.
"Yeah man…. It was a joke." Alex said as he got up and took the grenade from his hands.
It took several seconds for Will register what he had said before he breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, not noticing the odd looks the rest of the Rangers were giving him. No one ever played that prank again; at least not while he was there. Alex himself had seen to that personally. Alex doubted that anyone who was there that day could ever forget what that kid had done. How he was willing sacrifice himself, willing to take the blow for them; guys he had hardly even knew; who were all set to laugh at his fear.
To this very day, Alex still wasn't really sure how to define bravery, or explain where it comes from. But he sure as hell could recognize it when he saw it. And that kid, that new recruit, showed him one of the purest acts of bravery he had ever seen.