Reason to Live

Chapter 3: Good Times

April 10th
Social Welfare Agency Firing Range
0800 hrs

(Frederick's P.O.V)

"Morning, Angelica! Back on the range again, eh?" she nods in reply to my early morning greeting.

"Yes. It's been quite sometime, so I need to get use to firing my gun before I forget how! What are you doing?"

"Me?" I chuckle for a second….I don't know why, but I did. "I'm here to test this H&K G3A2 I got from Koch early this morning. He said I should replace my outdated primary weapon into something more advance, so he handed me this rifle."

She giggles as she assembles her weapon, the Steyr Aug and replies "Well, that's great! I heard from Triela that you're using twin MP40s on your first action! She also told me that she saved you from getting hammered due to your clumsiness"

"She did?" I twitch an eyebrow, lower my rifle, and turn my attention to her.

"Yeah, she did."

"Pay attention to your training, Angelica!" Marco, Angelica's handler, is here supervising her training. She got drafted talking to me, so he's here to remind her what she's supposed to do.

"Yes sir! Sorry sir!"

"…I'll… talk to you later then, Angelica…."

Different from the other junior operatives (which are all girls), I visit the firing range on my own free time. My handler left me with a list of what I should do if it comes to basic weapons training and familiarization. The only time he'll be supervising is when we're going for a run on the Obstacle Course. But usually, he would drop me off here and go off to the agency's cafeteria, drinking coffee probably. He knows I'll be here for quite some time, so he'll come looking for me later at nine or ten probably

Angelica….it suits her well…A perfect name, for a little angel. I met her yesterday after my first action. She was with her handler, Marco, in the cafeteria drinking coffee. I tend to ignore her at first, but Marco approaches my handler and greeted himself, and that's how I get to meet Angelica. I got to know her more during our free time. All of us, I mean, the junior operatives, gather at Claes' room at around 3:00 – or 3:30 to have tea and cakes, as well as a little talk about bits and pieces. This 'tradition' came out into Claes' mind after she read a book about some English traditions….and found it interesting. Although, I'm just there to have a little chat since sweets aren't really what I favor. Angelica told us that; after her return to the field, Marco eventually became much more patient and nicer around her. Claes and Henrietta told me after that Marco was rough around Angelica not long ago because she had forgotten most important things Marco had taught her. Angelica is the first cyborg the Social Welfare Agency owns. Her dad tried to kill her; or so I was told by Claes.

"Good. That's it for today, Angelica. You've improved."

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir!" Her training's done. Marco does seem to take her lightly.

"You're done, Frederick?" She asks as she packs her AUG, disassembling it before fitting it in the case. Disassembling, re-assembling and all that stuff isn't really my thing so I rather carry them back to my room and put it somewhere in the corner with the rest of my weapons.

"I'll be done soon…"

-Five minutes later-

Just for today I'm going to take a break from all the smell of gunpowder and gun oil, which I love. José has a plan to take all of us for a little walk around the Piazza di Spagna. Koch knows about this, but decided not to come on this trip. Some of the handlers such as Rico's and Angelica's can't come since they've got more work to do. Hillshire, Triela's handler, is coming with us since his desk job is done due to Triela's assistance. Of course, we didn't go for a walk unarmed. A sidearm always fit in times like this….incase some stupid Padania came up and decided to play fire with us.

April 10th,
Piazza di Spagna
1700 hrs

The Piazza….one of the many tourist traps located in Rome. This place brings back sudden memories. My head started spinning when we arrived at the location, and I remember almost everything that happened that day. The explosion….the gunshots….and all the bodies that decorated the Piazza that day…..I could almost remember where they're located perfectly. I stop my pace when I reach the spot. Yes, MY spot. The spot where I was founded….alive. Henrietta is the first person who found me. Triela is the one who search through my pockets for passports.

"Frederick? You ok?" I turn around and found Triela, staring at me from top to bottom wondering what in the world happened to me.

"Uh…yeah, yeah…..I'm fine. Just…uh….got blanked out suddenly." I lied to her, hoping she'll take it and believe it.

"Oh? Are you sure? You seem pale…" She pauses, "Don't lie to me….you remember SOMETHING that happened here, did you?"

"W-what? How'd you….."

"Oh please….your face tells," She pauses again "Frederick, I know it's hard for you to take the truth of what really happened to you, but time flows Frederick. There's nothing you can do about it. What you can do right now, Frederick, is to live on," She's right. She's always right about things all around her.

"Yeah…..you're right."

"Frederick, Triela! What are you guys doing? Come on!" Henrietta calls. Well, its best not to make the rest of them wait for us for too long.

(Triela's P.O.V)

We catch up with Henrietta a minute later. They did ask us what was going on, so in reply I told them that Frederick's blacken out and dazed off. They bought it like kids and candies. Spending our free time in the Piazza isn't bad after all. We bought ice creams, have lots of talk about the air and all of those. Then we go feed the birds with the crumbs our ice cream cone left for us. Though there isn't much we can do, it's great spending time here with my comrades and not because of duty, it's because we want to really give us a whole lot of breathing space from all the intense firefight we always have.

"I brought my camera! Let's take a picture!" Henrietta begs as she pulls out her camera José gave her.

So we agree on taking some pictures. We all sat on the steps, our backs facing the Piazza. The handlers decided not to be included, so the camera will be handed over to them. Frederick sat behind the rest of us; almost like the leader of the pack of girls. Kinda reminds of the movie I watch with Hillshire once with the title 'Charlie's Angels'. Now it's like 'Frederick's Angel's'.

We print the pictures the next day and framed it. Each of the operatives has it in their room. One misfortunate thing is, one of the photo got a little blurry after print, covering Frederick's face. He decided to keep that one so the rest of us could have the clean versions. José and Hillshire are the only two handlers who have the pictures we took at the Piazza. A day like this goes on for another two more days, before it was wiped by upcoming missions that lasted for the rest of our days….