I was so surprised and happy to see others enjoying this story! I honestly didn't think it'd get much attention, so thank you all who left me feedback! Here is another chapter for you :)

Songs that I listened to while writing this chapter:

My Angel by Prince Royce

Ultraviolence by Cliff Lin

Unbroken by Really Slow Motion

Un Dia (One Day) by J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, and Tainy

Le Voyage De Mots by Really Slow Motion

2020

Heathrow Airport Base

Reset 24

Luke woke up with the usual jolt to his body. It took his brain less than five seconds to recall the events of "yesterday." He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and got up. He was a little earlier than usual because this time, he skipped breakfast, but he didn't mind. It wasn't hard to find her. He knew where she'd be. He knew her very well, after all. He pushed into the entrance of the building where everyone trained, knowing she'd be there bright and early before doing anything else that day, and he walked quietly to the battle arena.

"That's it," her voice was saying. "You're doing great." His skin prickled slightly. Who was she talking to? He slowly came into view of them.

"This is so hard," Mei was saying from the floor. She was attempting the same type of push up that Rita did all the time. The one Luke had taught her.

"It gets easier," Rita promised.

"What the hell is this?" Luke asked, making Rita whirl around to see him and Mei lose her balance and fall on her face on the floor.

"Luke?" Rita said, her tone one of both shock and anger. He ignored her as he walked over to Mei, who was struggling to get to her feet now. He was pissed. When Rita had asked who Mei was to him, clearly she'd already known.

"It's not what it looks like," Mei tried.

"It looks like you're training for battle, not being just a mechanic," Luke cut her off, stopping about a foot away from her. "It looks like you've been lying to me for a while now."

Mei hung her head. She was wearing the same style of outfit as Rita, but her vest reached her pants unlike Rita's. Luke was still trying not to get hung up on that at times. He felt certain she wore it that way on purpose just to mess with his head.

"I had to do something!" Mei cried, clenching her fists. "I couldn't just stay home and watch the world end!"

"That's why I'm here," Luke said fiercely, jabbing a finger into his own chest. "Me. I'm here to help. You are supposed to be back home safe."

"I hate to break up this reunion, but I have somewhere to be," Rita said stiffly. "Mei, I'll speak with you later."

"No, you won't," Luke snapped, pointing his finger at her now. "And I'm not finished with you. You lied to me too."

"Excuse me?" Rita asked, outraged.

"How did you even know I was here?" Mei asked, confused. Rita's face changed in that moment, and Luke knew that she had put it together.

"You reset the day," she said.

"What?" Mei asked.

"Get on the first plane out of here," Luke commanded, ignoring Rita. "That's an order."

"No," Mei said defiantly, crossing her arms. "You can't make me. I'm good at this. You're not the only one who can help over here."

"I'm the only one who doesn't want your corpse to rot in some field somewhere," Luke said aggressively. "I need you to be safe. You don't understand how having you unsafe affects me."

"I don't want to end up in a field rotting either," Mei said, "but sometimes we have to make sacrifices."

"Were you going to tell me?" Rita demanded, stepping closer to him. "Or were you just going to try and figure shit out on your own like always?"

"You lied to me," Luke said, rounding on her. "You acted like you had no idea who Mei was."

"Obviously I have no idea what you're talking about," Rita snapped, "so then you must have told me, and we're probably working together."

"Not anymore," Luke said, taking a step back and going to walk away. He was done with this. Mei wasn't listening to him. He couldn't make her go home. He had no control over what happened to her. He turned his back on both of them and stormed out, not caring about anything in that moment.

Rita caught up to him moments later. The soldier she always talked to was approaching, and he looked puzzled until Rita signaled she'd come back to talk to him.

"Luke," she said, grabbing his arm to stop him.

"Leave me alone!" he snarled, yanking his arm away and squaring off with her now. "You have no idea what you're doing, what you've done..."

"Mei is an adult," Rita said matter-of-factly, "and a damn good fighter. We need her."

"No, you don't," Luke said, shaking his head at her. "You have me now. You don't need her."

"How many resets?" Rita asked, searching his eyes. "Have you had the vision yet?"

"24," he answered. "And no."

"Then we're still training," she said.

"I need to be away from you right now," he retorted, starting to walk away again. She jogged after him.

"Look, obviously you care a great deal about her..."

"She's like my damn kid, okay?" Luke shot back, interrupting her. He stopped walking, making Rita catch herself and stop as well. "I've looked after her since she was 11 years old, and I'm not gonna let her get killed over here and disappear. She deserves more than that."

"We all do!" Rita exclaimed, getting angry now. "You think any one of us wants to be here? Newsflash, we don't! None of us deserves to die like this, but it's war! We do what we have to for the greater good, or did you forget that?"

She was looking at him and breathing hard. For a moment, Luke saw a shadow of vulnerability, and he knew it was an incredibly rare sighting in a public setting, especially since she was 19.

"I gave up that life," he told her. "I atoned for what I did as best as I could. I have regrets."

"Good for you, but that doesn't matter here," she snapped. "We're here to win this because if we don't, then we're failing all of mankind."

"No pressure," he retorted.

"Get over it, Luke," Rita said. "Mei is here whether you like it or not. She's good, she's fast, and she's bloody brilliant. We need her. I need her."

"You never needed anybody," Luke said back. "Especially me, even after everything we'd been through together. You made that abundantly clear." He started walking away once more.

"I did need you," she called after him when he'd gotten about eight feet away from her. He slowed to a stop and turned to look at her. She had her arms crossed, and she was grinding her jaw.

"When?" he asked. "Before or after you disappeared from my life without a trace or a reason why?" When she didn't answer, he shook his head and turned away from her to continue walking. She didn't chase after him this time.

...

Rita finished putting her hair up and tugged her jacket on later that evening. Mei had voiced her worry over Luke finding her here, and Rita had assured her she'd handled it. She wasn't sure if her conversation with Luke had done any good. He'd gone off the radar, and she couldn't find him anywhere. Seeing him again had brought back so many memories. They flashed through her mind like a movie, all the good ones and bad ones. She wished Mei had told her that her best friend was Luke bloody Wright. It would have prepped her a little better for what was happening now, for all those feelings that came back like a freight train.

Luke had said she hadn't needed anyone. That wasn't true. She'd needed her father. She'd needed her mother. She'd needed him. She'd needed Willow. She'd needed Hendricks. She needed people, but they either broke her trust in them by hurting her or abandoned her altogether by dying. She blinked away her tears as she thought about the ones she'd lost, sniffing hard. She'd had to harden up from all the loss she'd experienced in her life. She'd cried enough damn tears in her past to last a lifetime.

Evening was falling, and she reached to tuck a stray hair behind her ear as she walked across the gravel towards the mess hall. She needed to find Luke. She followed the sounds of cheering and shouting and found him standing with members of the J-Squad and throwing knives at a board with a target crudely drawn on it.

"Whoo!" one of the men was shouting as Luke hit the board right above his knife that was already in the bull's eye. Rita crossed her arms and raised a brow, leaning back on her left foot and feeling it sink into the dirt a little. It was starting to rain.

"You da man!" another shouted. Luke wasn't laughing or smirking. He was stone cold serious. Rita recognized that look very well. He held up his last knife, and she decided to make her move. She walked towards him and caught his wrist just before he threw it, and he spun to face her, their noses about two inches apart.

"Ohhhh shit! It's the Full Metal Bitch!" someone said.

"Angel of Verdun," another corrected.

"What is she doing here?" another asked.

Without a word, she took his knife from him and slid it into her own hand. Luke said nothing as she fingered the blade briefly before turning her head to look at the board. She let the knife fly, and it landed right next to his on the bull's eye.

"Holy shit!"

"Whoo wee!"

"Damn!"

"Luke, you just got owned, mate."

Rita stood there looking at Luke, and he still didn't say anything. She hated to admit that she still felt the tension between them, the desire. She was pretty sure that if she felt it, then he did too.

"It's time to reset," she said to him. She worked hard to stop thinking about past memories of his lips on hers, his hands on her skin, or the way he was incredibly gentle and caring when intimate with her because he knew what a gift it was to have her bare her soul to him in that way, that she'd never done that with anyone but him. She didn't want to hear him say he loved her in her mind, and she didn't want to think about how they'd almost had their forever together. She didn't want to admit that even though he'd shattered her trust all those years ago, she still trusted him with her life if it came down to it. She didn't want to think about any of it, didn't want it, and yet standing this close to him was making her realize she did want it just a little bit...if not more. That younger version of herself was still in there wanting him. That version trusted him to still be the person she thought he was. That version wanted her to put the past behind them and move forward together. That version told her she still loved him. That version was the one she'd been wrestling with for some time now and even more so in this moment with him staring at her.

"It's time to reset," she said again, a bit more forcefully.

"Not yet," he answered.

...

Luke had no idea what was happening right now. Rita was on her back underneath him, pulling him against her as tight as possible. Her kiss was driving him mad, and her free hand was gripping his face hard. How they got here, he couldn't remember.

He was, however, remembering vividly all the other times they'd been in this position with each other, and it felt like the last 17 years without her hadn't existed. He remembered all the things she liked and didn't like. He remembered the feeling of being so in love that he forgot his own name.

She stopped kissing him and rested her head back. He pressed his face into her neck, feeling her pulse under his cheek. The gold chain around her neck glistened in the low light. He remembered giving it to her. The fact she still wore it said something to him, especially since she'd lost the letter "R" pendant not long before she'd left him.

All the bullshit and pain and loss just melted away. The fact they were facing a potentially un-winnable war was long forgotten. The concept that Mei was putting herself in danger seemed less anxiety provoking.

Rita said his name with a groan, and he found her fingers with his and pressed her hands down above her head as he caught her lips with his again.

Who knew why she was doing this with him? Who knew what her motive was? He didn't care. He just wanted her. He'd wanted her for years. He'd hated himself for losing her, and he still didn't even know why he'd lost her, what he'd done to make her up and leave. He just knew that he'd missed the love of his life. He'd missed his best friend.

Her lips were on his neck now as he let go of her hands. This was real. This was as intense as it used to be. He was as careful and attentive with her as he always was when they did this. He only ever wanted her to feel loved and safe. It also never lasted as long as he wished it would, and soon they were both still and listening to the sound of the other breathing. He kissed the corner of her mouth, tasting her sweat, before nipping the space between her shoulder and neck affectionately.

"That must never happen again," she directed, not looking at him.

"Fine by me," he replied. He didn't mean it, and he knew she didn't either, but he'd remember this and she wouldn't, so there was that.

"And don't tell me about it," she added, reading his mind. "I'm already regretting it."

"I wouldn't dare ruin your day with this news."

She reached for her gun, and he put his hand over hers to stop her from shooting him in the head.

"Five minutes," he said. "Then you can do it."

"What are you going to do in the next five minutes that can't possibly wait?" she asked.

"This," he answered, kissing her softly and slowly before moving to hold her from behind, resting his face against her shoulder.

"Do you really regret it?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"No," she answered softly. He felt her relax in his arms, and for the next four minutes and thirty seconds, they just had each other.

Then he reset.

Reset 25

Luke jerked awake, and his hand reflexively stretched out, searching for her. His brain caught up to him, and he realized he was alone again. He fell back onto his pillow, rubbing his temples with his fingers before pinching the bridge of his nose. His mind went over the events of "yesterday" slowly.

He'd been angry at Rita for training Mei and angry at Mei for sneaking over here and doing it. He'd been furious that neither of them seemed to care what he thought about it. He hadn't planned on speaking to Rita, and he certainly hadn't planned on being intimate with her. He wasn't even sure how that had happened, if he was honest. One moment he was mad and could barely talk to her and the next, she was standing in front of him and giving him the full signals the way she'd always used to when she wanted intimacy. The weak part of himself had gone along with it because he'd spent the last 17 years aching from missing her. She'd been the one to kiss him first too.

"Sleeping Beauty today?" Kuntz asked, bending down to look in at Luke. He turned his head, not realizing that his daydreaming had made him later than usual getting up.

"Not at all," Luke answered, moving to get up. Kuntz was chuckling as he walked out of the room. He never usually talked, but he did speak to Luke on occasion. Ford and Skinner were bickering over something. Nance was already gone. Kimmel was still snoring. Griff was smirking as he got ready to wake him up. Luke just shook his head and smiled as he got ready for the day. He heard Kimmel shrieking and swearing as he walked out and down the hall.

After breakfast, he went to find Rita. He decided to leave Mei alone, that he couldn't fight with her every single reset. It would get exhausting. If he won this war, she wouldn't ever see battle, and he could live with that.

Luke stopped upon approaching Rita quietly. Her eyes were closed as she concentrated on her push up. He took all of her in and felt a flush inside at remembering what they'd done in his last reset.

"Whoever is standing there can bugger off," Rita said, not opening her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Luke said. "Am I ruining your concentration?" Her eyes snapped open, and her head jerked up to look at him. She lost her balance and toppled over, making her swear. He couldn't help but smirk.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" she snapped, getting to her feet and trying not to look embarrassed.

"Reporting for training," he answered logically.

"What?"

"You know, after 25 times of you snapping and snarling at me, I'm amazed I keep coming back," he said, tilting his head a little. There was confusion in her eyes at first until it hit her.

"You have the power to reset the day?" she asked.

"That's me," he answered, holding up his hand.

"Oh God," she groaned, gripping her head.

"That's new," he commented, stepping past her and looking over his shoulder at her. "But thanks for not calling me a wanker this time."

She followed him as he went to the arena and suited up.

"No vision yet?"

"Nope."

He picked up his melee and balanced it in his hands, looking at her. She was watching him warily. He knew it was impossible for her to remember, but it felt like a part of her did.

"What?" she asked, annoyed.

"Nothing." He turned back and walked out onto the arena. She started the machines, and he got to work.

...

There was something off about him. Rita watched Luke fight and train, and she had a feeling there was something he wasn't telling her. It had something to do with the way he kept looking at her when he thought she wouldn't notice. A thought kept niggling at her, but she continually dismissed it.

There was no way she'd sleep with him...was there?

She cringed as he got slammed and sent flying. She turned off the machines as he skidded across the ground. He groaned and rested the back of his head on the floor as she walked over to him, pulling out her gun.

"I'm not dead yet," he retorted, seeing it.

"If you can't get up, it's over."

He sat up slowly, wincing. She knelt down in front of him, resting the tip of the pistol on the ground. He looked at her. Her stomach tumbled involuntarily, taking her by surprise. She hadn't seen him in years, and this was her reaction to him? She hardened her resolve. He'd hurt her 17 years ago and broke her trust. There also had been fear, which kept her from going back to him. Well, there was the time she had risked it all and went to see him only to find him with someone else. That had hurt even worse.

But in the last while, she'd struggled with thoughts of him and her feelings about him. And now, here he was...back in her life. Maybe it was a sign.

"I can sense that you greatly enjoy murdering me in cold blood every day," Luke commented.

"What gave it away?" she asked.

"That glint you get in your eye," he answered, "and how eager you are to do it even when I'm fine."

"You don't look fine to me," she said, gesturing. He made a face and worked to get on his feet. She looked up at him from her position, and he was clearly trying to hide his pain.

"No, no, no," he said, holding out his hand as she stood up straight and aimed her gun at him. "Rita!"

Reset 26

Luke jerked awake and growled in frustration. She was so bloody trigger happy. It drove him crazy. He got out of bed and decided he was going to train without her today. He dodged Farell, who seemed more grumpy than usual. He waited for Mei to leave with Rita before slipping inside. He knew he at least had an hour before Rita came back or anyone else came along. Then he'd go somewhere else to continue. She was the one who cleared out the arena from others since she had rank.

He kept his focus on what he was doing, pushing all thoughts of Rita from his mind.

...

Rita frowned as she walked into the arena. She stopped at the edge, watching Luke Wright train. Why he was in there training was beyond her. She knew he was a Private. She knew he'd joined two months ago. She hadn't done well not thinking about him these past few years, but she'd done well to avoid him when he arrived.

Until today.

It was pointless to yell at him over all the noise. She simply watched him until he finished taking down all the machines. Then she reached to turn it off, making him spin in surprise and see her there.

"Shit," he said.

"What're you doing?" she demanded.

"Just lost track of time is all," he answered. "I'll get out of your hair." He started to take off the mech suit when it suddenly hit her.

"You can reset the day," she said. Frustration was soon replaced with excitement. As much as it annoyed her that it was him, she also knew they could win this war if they used him right.

"Nope," he answered. "I just wanted some practice time before going to battle tomorrow morning."

"You're lying," she said. She recognized one of his tells when he lied. He wouldn't look her in the eye.

"I'm not," he replied, looking her full on in the eye now. She stared at him. It was hard to tell. It also had been 17 years since she'd last seen him face to face (she didn't count the from a distance visit she did 11 years ago), so perhaps he'd gotten better at lying. Then again, she'd thought he was honest before in the past and had been shown that he'd lied, so maybe she didn't know the difference after all.

"Luke," she started, but he was already walking away from her. She watched him go, feeling mixed emotions. Luke Wright was back in her life. How the hell was she going to deal with that?

...

Luke felt a little bad for not telling her, but it gave him a freedom for the rest of the evening that he'd been missing. He slipped away from the base, just needing to be alone with his thoughts. He stayed away from Mei. He stayed away from J-Squad. He didn't want to get into any arguments. He just wanted peace.

He found a quiet spot a ways from the base where he could sit on a flat rock and overlook a field. He pulled his knees to his chest once he sat down, and he breathed.

Don't ever let them see you weak.

His mother's voice took him by surprise, and his breath caught in his throat. He hadn't thought of her in a very long time.

"I sure could use your help now, Mum," he said out loud. She was the toughest woman he'd known aside from Rita, and he felt a lot of guilt for helping Rita become as tough as she was, even though she was the one who'd asked him to do it, to train her. He knew why she'd asked. She'd never wanted to be caught off guard ever again. He knew very little about what happened to her before he'd come into her life, but he knew enough. He just wished he had kept some of the things she had wanted to train in to himself.

But...it was paying off now. She was using those skills to win this war, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized something.

"That's how you won Verdun," he murmured. He jumped to his feet and started to run back to the base just as it started to rain.

...

Rita was nursing a glass of whiskey while sitting in her barrack alone. She could hear her two other teammates' muffled talking on the other side of the wall. The empty bed that was Hendricks's glared back at her. They hadn't given her a new roommate yet, and she was glad for it (and glad she wasn't a Private sharing space with multiple soldiers). He'd stashed the secret whiskey with a wink and a smile, and she only had a drink when she really needed it. Like now. She closed her eyes.

She was having some memories, but some didn't hurt her as much as they used to, not since she'd done all the work to heal from it. She remembered the days where the pain had been so bad she couldn't breathe, the days where she had punched a bag and screamed as hard as she could, the moments where she hadn't wanted to get out of bed, but she was stronger now. She hadn't been defeated in the end...hadn't let him or the pain of loss win. She hadn't allowed herself to think about Simon for a while, but now, she was thinking about how she hoped he was dead somewhere. He deserved it. Her mind flashed from the worst memory of Simon to the second worst memory she still had, and for a second, she was back there, trapped under the water again, trapped under his hands. Her eyes snapped open, and she gasped, trying to breathe. She twisted the glass in her hand slowly before reaching to loop her fingers around the chain on her neck, grounding herself and associating herself with something that made her feel safe. It wasn't the chain itself...it was the person who'd given it to her that she associated being safe with despite everything. Old habits die hard.

"Just a flashback," she murmured. "That's all it is. You've got control over it, it does not have control over you. You're in this moment right now. You're okay. You're safe."

It had been a while since she'd said this mantra to herself, but every now and then she had to. Her heart started to slow down as she kept running her fingers back and forth over the chain, and her breathing was regular again before long. Her mind then started thinking about Luke, even though she tried to stop it. Almost as if summoned, Luke Wright himself burst into her barrack.

"Bloody hell!" she yelped, jerking backwards in shock and splashing her drink on herself. She jumped to her feet, wiping herself off and glaring at him. "What do you think you're doing? You can't just barge in here..." She could hear the other soldiers stop talking to listen.

"You had the power," he interrupted, pointing a finger at her.

"Excuse me?"

"You could reset the day. That's how you won Verdun," he said. She stared at him. Why was he even talking about this unless...

"You did lie to me," she said, outraged.

"How did you lose it?" he asked. "The power?" She twisted her head at the sound of her teammates moving to come see what was going on, so she grabbed him and hauled him somewhere quieter, stuffing her pistol into the back of her pants as she went.

"Why did you lie to me?" she demanded when they were properly alone, not letting it go.

"Damn it, Rita, just answer the question!" he exclaimed. "How did you lose the power?"

"I got badly wounded and passed out before I could kill myself. I woke up in a hospital after having a blood transfusion. It was gone."

"How do you know for sure?"

"I felt it gone. You notice that, trust me."

"Why didn't you tell me that you had it?"

She opened and closed her mouth. Why hadn't she told him? She couldn't remember, not that she expected to.

"How many resets?" she asked him.

"Don't change the subject."

"How many?!"

"26. Now tell me why you didn't tell me."

"I have no idea," she said. "And you know that."

"No, you have a very good idea," he countered, stepping closer to her. "You didn't want to look weak. You didn't want to admit failure to me. Did you think I'd care? Shit, Rita, we all fail at stuff in life it doesn't make us failures as people. And you've never been a failure to me, ever. You know that."

"I don't know why I didn't tell you, and I never will," Rita said dismissively. "I don't remember it. You know that."

He growled in frustration and gripped his head briefly before looking at her again. She was standing there in her grey tank top and navy cargo pants, her hair messy and falling out of its bun. She noticed something in his eyes.

"We did something," she noted. "Didn't we?"

"No," he answered quickly. She was taken aback. His tone said otherwise. How could this be? How could she have done that? What had she been thinking?

You were probably thinking that you still love him and miss him something terrible, her inner voice said. She shut it down quickly.

"Luke," she warned. "Tell me."

"You said to not to."

"Oh my God," she groaned, pressing a hand to her face. "So we did?!"

"You started it," he said childishly.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, no, no, no..."

"Keep saying no, but it happened, and you asked me to do it," he said with a slight smirk.

"Get away from me," she ordered, pointing towards the exit.

"Still doesn't change it," he said, moving to leave. She pulled out her gun and aimed it at him. He scoffed and shook his head a little.

"Obviously you wasted the day, so we need to reset," she said.

"You'll do anything to avoid talking about us, won't you?"

"You're damn right," she said. Then she pulled the trigger.