It had been a very long time since they had last seen so many pilots and co-pilots gathered in one single place. The entirety of the manpower deployed for the training exercise was in one room, all standing in a clear and ordered way. But Fifty and Eighty-Three, standing side by side behind One-Ten and Three-Aught-Five, were far from being comfortable. The wheelchair was standing out in the middle of the formation. Even if all the pilots were keeping their heads straight towards the front, both of them could feel the looks coming towards them.

The ceremony hall had been designed with this kind of events in mind. It was large enough to fit an important number of people in front of a stage. High on the walls were stands to give the adults living in the facility a chance to witness important events. On this day, the stage was completely empty. But behind it, all over the wall, a large screen had been displaying the emblem of the Human Protection Entity.

After a long wait that felt like it would never end, a small group of important staff members of the Entity entered the stage. Due to the nature of the facility, they were mainly highly ranked members of the research division and officers participating in the organization of the exercise. Among them was an extremely distinctive figure. With his short height and messy grey hair, Doctor Frank stood out from the rest. It was a strange feeling for all the pilots to stand in front of the man behind the FRANV, but Eighty-Three could not think about anything other than the fact this man, along with all the other on the stage, had lived for more than a hundred years.

None of them said anything. Instead, all focus turned towards the screen as the emblem disappeared. It was replaced by a large figure that needed no introduction. Like a single person, all the pilots raised their right fist near their heart to salute their masked leader.

"My daughters, my sons," started a heavy voice through the many loudspeakers placed all over the room, "I welcome you back to your home. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen events, I cannot have the pleasure to greet you here myself. It truly saddens me. However, through my screen, I can see all of you gathered, and it fills my heart with pride. I can see your dedication and the will to better yourselves, for our mission will never be easy and our enemy is constantly evolving. Only your sacrifice will allow humanity to raise itself out of these dark times and into a golden age of prosperity. You must be prepared to face all the situations and to fight all the foes. This is why you have been called for this important training exercise. Our next objective, if it is a success, will result in the most important turnaround of our struggle. You will be all asked to accomplish a precise mission, and you shall train thoroughly to be sure of your success. But do not do it for me nor for your officers. Do it for all of humanity. But words will not have any effects if they are not followed by actions. I will leave you between the hands of all the staff present on this stage. Do as they say, and things will go as planned. For humanity…"

"We shall fight, we shall protect and we shall win."

The crowd completed the words of their leader with a single voice. This motto revolved around the main three pillars on which the Entity had been built on. Or at least that was what they had been told.

The more he paid attention, the more Eighty-Three could see the evidence that they had all been lied to during their entire lives. All members of the board of the Entity had always appeared while wearing complex masks, meaning that their identity had always remained a well-guarded secret. But most importantly, nobody had ever seen Papa directly.

It was only through those kinds of broadcasted messages that he communicated with his so-called children, always telling morals about struggle, sacrifice and how they all were the greatest heroes humanity had ever known. But with his new knowledge, everything was more and more suspicious. All around him, people were looking up to him as a benevolent leader that leads Humanity in its fight for survival. Eighty-Three's eyes were seeing something completely different.

In the Garden, there was a large outdoor area for pilots to get a breath of fresh air. And between the bushes, the trees and the ponds sat a sculpture. From its huge base rose four spires, like trails following a standard formation for a group of four aircrafts. However, the trail directly to the right of the would-be flight lead suddenly broke away from the group and faded away while the other continued. And on the base was engraved a sentence in large letters.

As the fight goes on, may the missing always be remembered

It was followed by a list. A list of numbers. A list of all the pilots that never came back to their settlements.

The fact that Fifty's code, and even his own, could have been engraved on that monument had sent shivers down his spine. But what was more chilling was that, due to its isolated location within the park, hardly anyone passed by the monument. And in the end, nobody knew the numbers engraved in the stone. The position of the memorial was defeating its own purpose, and those that had decided to put it there were probably fully aware.

What it meant to Eighty-Three was that despite every speech in which their heroism was mentioned, in the end they would all be forgotten. All the pilots of the Entity were disposable heroes that replaced the pilots from the past and would be replaced by the pilots of the future.

One of the officers on stage made a step forward and started his own speech to all the pilots. Thanks to concealed microphones, Eighty-Three had no trouble hearing him. However, what he actually understood was vastly different from all the other pilots. The words only were a façade, and he could perfectly see what was behind.

Back to the front!
You will do what I say, when I say,
Back to the front!
You will die when I say, you must die.
Back to the front!
You coward.
You servant.
You blind man.

Like Maria had said, FRANV crews were just pieces of hardware that did not have more value than the machines they piloted in the eyes of those high up in the command chain. Eighty-Three still remembered some of the very first lessons he was taught when he was still very young. All life is important and worth protecting. And it was only now that he noticed the irony. Not only was the objective of the Entity the complete eradication of an entire species, it was also ready to artificially produce human beings and sacrifice them on the battlefield with no remorse.

Life planned out before my birth, nothing could I say.
Had no chance to see myself, molded day by day.
Looking back I realize, nothing have I done.
Left to die with only friend,
Alone I clench my gun.

But as he silently questioned the authority and the motives of the Entity, a strange feeling started to build up in his heart. It was making him question himself. What was he in reality? Were all the moments spent with his squadmates worthless? How similar was his life to one of the pilots from other Settlements? So many questions and so many answers he did not have.

Soldier boy, made of clay,
Now an empty shell.
Twenty one, only son,
But he served us well.
Bred to kill, not to care.
Do just as we say.
Finished here, greetings death.
He's yours to take away.

And while Eighty-Three was lost in his thoughts, the officer finished his speech.

"We will start training tomorrow with small scale sorties to train squad-to-squad cooperation. The scope will be progressively widened so that, by the end of this exercise, you will all be able to perform a full scale simulation of our upcoming operation. I have nothing to add. You are all dismissed."

At those words, the large group of pilots started to leave the ceremony hall in an orderly fashion, each squadron waiting for its turn. Now, Eighty-Three needed some time alone to think. Oh he sure knew he was going to do something.

He just needed to know what.

AUDIO FILE ID WF-205907301458

"Start recording. Date is July thirtieth, twenty fifty-nine. Fifteen hundred hours. Human Protection Entity Research Center, observation deck of hangar five. I am currently waiting for Officer Emidova. She has been transferred to the newly formed experimental squadron and she will be involved with testing of all upcoming prototypes. And the sooner we manage to get one in the air, the better. Project Moses is a race against time as I doubt that mounting Magma bombs on old pieces of kerosene-burning junk will remain effective for very long. For now, all in lab tests for the engines and the airframe have yielded positive results and we are clearly ahead of schedule. But weapon development would not be weapon development if there wasn't a big issue hiding somewhere, waiting to blow in everyone's faces at the worst possible time. I just hope, for her sake as well as for mine, that the test pilots she is going to bring me will be up to the task for what they will have to do."

[Door opening]

"Doctor Frank?"

"Ah! Officer Emidova. You are finally here. I am Doctor Werner Frank, head of Project Moses. You have been assigned to this project to command the test pilots. If I am correct, you have not been briefed yet on the project."

"Yes, sir."

"Then come over here by the window. The shutters might be closed, but you must see what is behind it. Also, before we start, do you have any issues with being recorded?"

"Uh… No, sir."

"Good. Now, behold."

[Shutters opening]

"Officer Emidova, this is the first prototype to come out of Project Moses. For now, it is only equipped with the systems needed for flight."

"It's enormous."

"It has a wingspan equivalent to three Raptors put side by side and each of the engines mounted at the tip of each wing are twice as powerful as engines of a B-2 bomber. However, as impressive as those numbers are, they are not the point. Each part has already been thoroughly tested. You and your men are here for something different which is thousands of times more important. The mind-link."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Mind-link. I'll explain more simply. You were a fighter pilot, right?"

"Yes, sir. In the Russian Aerospace Forces."

"So you know the tasks handled by a Weapon Systems Officer."

"Yes, sir. Mainly handling weapons of the aircraft as well as its detection systems."

"Exactly. However, between the moment an event happens and the moment the information reaches the brain, there are delays due to conversions by sensors, calculations, displays and human reaction time. With the mind-link, we are hoping to cut this delay by linking the Weapon Systems Officer's brain to the onboard computer. CPUs and motherboards can do things better than the human brain and vice versa. By combining the two directly, we are expecting a sharp increase in combat effectiveness."

"Is this really possible? With all due respect, sir, I don't think…"

"This has been worked on for much longer than you might think, Officer. Millions of dollars had already been spent by the US Department of Defense and Lockheed before any of the scientists linked to this project joined the Entity. During the last few years, we went through extensive testing on mice and monkeys. You would not have been called here if we were not sure about starting tests on human subjects. You must also understand that each pair of pilots that will undergo testing must have great synergy to make sure everything functions correctly. Do you think you can find people that fit this description?"

"There are, sir. Captain Kubawashi and Lieutenant Kanawara. Both are former Japanese Air Self-Defense Force and they have been working together for a very long time. The Captain is clearly the best pilot of the two, but the Lieutenant's way of analyzing situations make it so they complete each other in combat. They have more kills than the rest of the squadron combined. I have no doubt they will be able to accomplish whatever task you ask them to do."

"Great. All the additional details you need to be aware of have been put down in the file on the table. I also want to have a few words with the two pilots you mentioned as soon as possible to assess their capability of handling such a project."

"Understood, sir."

"And one last thing, Officer."

"Yes, sir?"

"You really need to understand how important Project Moses is for the survival of human kind. Failure will never be a possibility. Got it?"

"Understood, sir."

"Well I will not keep you here any longer. Goodbye, Officer."

"Sir."

[Door opening]

[Sigh]

"It might be foolish, but let's pray that everything goes smoothly from now on."

The door silently slid out of the way, revealing the office of one of the most important members of the Human Protection Entity. Compared to her own in Settlement Twenty, everything was larger. The space, the furniture, the windows and the view on the outside world. As if there were no glass, one could see most of the facilities of the Research Center. It was one of the few locations on the planet that allowed for permanent human habitat thanks to the thick defense network of Settlements patrolling all around the facility. And the Entity really made the most out of the dozen of buildable square kilometers it had access to. With buildings, roads, factories and warehouses, it looked like the miniature version of a city from the old times.

"Oh, Officer Emidova. Please come in."

She was greeted by a small man, standing up from behind his desk to welcome her.

"Doctor," she coldly replied, snapping into a salute while he approached.

"Oh don't bother with all of this. We've worked together before, so call me Werner. I hope you won't feel uncomfortable if I call you Maria."

She was definitively not expecting that level of friendliness. From her memories and what Naomi had told her, she had prepared to see a cold man deep in his work to keep his current position.

"Uh… No, sir… Uh I mean…"

Werner chuckled before inviting her to sit in one of the large sofas that surrounded a small table.

"Do you want anything to drink?" he asked as she sat down.

"Is coffee an option?"

"Of course."

As Werner started to open up some cabinets and drawers, Maria looked back through the window. In the distance, there was a flight of four FRANVs heading back towards one of the runways. Because of the sedentary nature of the location, the Research Facility could actually host permanent runways which made landing procedures simpler for everybody involved.

Each ship changed its trajectory to fit its assigned hold pattern. And when the wheels of the first one touched the black tarmac, the Doctor finally put down a tray with two cups of coffee on the table.

"So, Maria, what brings you to me? It has been such a long time since I last had a real conversation."

She reached for her cup and brought it to her lips. After a quick blow to dissipate the heat, she took a sip. The moment the liquid touched her tongue, she knew that this coffee was actually made from real beans and not the synthesized drink had access to in the Settlement.

"I have questions, Werner."

"Questions, eh? Usually, people come here with orders."

"Aircraft number One Three X-Ray," she simply stated as she put down the cup on the table.

"Oh… Already going towards the hot topic I see," laughed Werner as he drank from his own cup.

"What is it?"

The doctor took his time to finish his drink before answering Maria's simple but meaningful question.

"Just the dawn of a new generation of FRANVs," he simply stated, leaning back into his comfortable seat. "We have been relying on the current generation of aircrafts for over ninety years and a thorough redesign was seriously needed. I mean the last upgrade packages for the current FRANVs are almost three decades old."

"And you are going back to small scale fighters to do it?"

This was the most obvious detail. The size was so different from the regular fighting vehicles that without an explanation, this decision seemed completely crazy.

"I received some of the data regarding how one of your craft got shot down a week ago. Do you know what allowed the Klaxosaurs to bring that plane down? Maneuverability and speed. Code Zero Eight Three could not get this projectile off their tail and they were hit. This is what we are trying to solve with the Mark Two."

Of course, he did not say anything related to the complete mind-link Naomi had talked about. But asking him directly would not have gotten her nay results. In fact, she was not even supposed to know a single detail about this new fighter. For now, she could only keep asking questions and hope for him to slip a word that could get her on the topic.

"Is having an agile machine really worth reducing the payload?"

"You would be surprised if I told you how much damage we can make with miniaturized missiles if we strike at the right location. In a way, it's the same thing for fuel. A Mark Two might carry a lot less fuel, but the new engines are also way more efficient. We have increased the energy output from a single liter of refined Magma by more than twenty percent."

He continued like that for several minutes, explaining in detail the advantages of the design choices that had been made. The inverted wings, the variable geometry, the canards, the flat profile at high speeds, the CATOBAR system for launches from Settlements… Everything but the mind-link. At least, Maria could be sure of one thing. Werner was passionate about this entire project and had invested a lot of himself in it.

"But won't such drastic changes require completely different training for the pilots that are so used to the FRANVs?"

She had laid down the perfect bait. Now she only needed the fish to catch it.

"Well we are actually not planning to transition any of the pilots of the current models to the Mark Two. Many of our test pilots completely failed to adapt and only a few could manage to fly it in a relatively consistent way."

"From what I've seen, I can only guess that you have found the perfect duo then."

Werner chuckled again before downing what remained of his drink. At the corner of his mouth had appeared a smile, uncanny for someone supposedly desperate to impress his hierarchy.

"Oh yes we indeed have. They really are capable of making the most of what we give them. And in a way this is what I asked you to come here. How were they?"

Maria was a bit confused by the question. She finished her coffee, trying to understand the meaning, before replying to Werner.

"What do you mean?"

"I have all the data recorded during this engagement available in the computer network. But there is something else that I want to know and that no sensor could have recorded: your impressions. How did you react yourself when you watched them?"

She was a bit at a loss for words on this one. It was the kind of open question where she could answer everything and its opposite. So she started to describe how helpless she had started to feel when she was watching the engagement from her monitor. It was too fast, too agile. In comparison, her FRANVs were just sitting ducks.

His smile grew larger and larger as he silently listened to her testimony.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she asked. It was making her feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Well I am proud… Proud of what has been accomplished by all the teams that worked on the project… And proud of those two. They might have caused some trouble, but now they are accomplishing their missions better than how I could have ever imagined."

That one word was probably the best shot she could have.

"Trouble? Did something bad happen?"

Between the moment she finished her question and the moment he started to answer, she prayed to all the gods she knew about that he would give more explanations.

"Well nothing… Or at least nothing you should worry about anyway. They just have strong personalities, nothing more. For now, we are all knees deep into the preparation of the next operations. But when we get a few more resources, this project will quickly swing into full production." He then remained silent for a few long seconds, probably expecting another questions. "Maria, are there any more topics you wish to talk about?"

She too kept silent for a short while. She had a lot of questions on her mind, and she was wondering if she should ask them or not.

"I do actually."

"Well perfect then. What is it?"

She could clearly not bring the mind-link on the table, that was for sure. However, there was something else a bit unrelated she wanted to know more about.

"How is Officer Kanawara doing?"

Back in the days when countries were still a thing, defecting to join the Human Protection Entity was a very dangerous journey. The danger of being caught by their fellow countrymen that remained loyal to their flags or being intercepted during transit by roaming Klaxosaurs made it that only a few dared trying to make it alone. When Naomi's Viper Zero touched down on the runway of the first Entity facility, there was another Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fighter with her. It was piloted by her wingman, Lieutenant Hachi Kanawara. The two remained together on land and in the skies at almost all times, always working in tandem and watching each other's backs. And so, when testing for Project Moses began, the pair proved to be perfect test pilots. With her in the front handling the controls and him in the back providing data, they spearheaded the first years of FRANV combat operations with great success.

At least until the immortality serum started eating everyone's brains out.

Side effects had started to appear but so slowly that nobody had really noticed them until Hachi passed out during an important bombing run. He only woke up after several days of intense surgery, and what was discovered immediately lead to the immediate grounding of the entire fleet. His brain had suffered heavy damage in large areas that contained high amounts of chemicals linked to the serum. And when he woke up, he was simply not the same man. Some of his most distant memories had disappeared from his memory and he could not express any emotion.

And so, as the Board scrambled to find a solution and as the Klaxosaurs took advantage of the crisis to regain lost terrain, Werner took Hachi under his wing as his direct assistant. After all, why let everything go to waste when the actual useful parts are still perfectly fine?

"He is doing great. Sometimes I wonder how I would do without him helping me out. Lately, he acts as a liaison between my development teams and the staff of the Settlement that is currently carrying out testing of the Mark Two. He is here for the exercise, so you might come across him in the next few days."

Maria nodded, but she knew that such a meeting would not bring anything, especially if they end up meeting while one or the other has something important to do. They would just exchange pointless small talk before going on their way and nothing of importance would happen.

"I see. Thank you, Werner. It was a pleasure to have this conversation, but now I must go. Simulator sessions for Code Zero Eight Three and Code Zero Five Zero require much more paperwork than I expected."

She stood up and formally saluted Doctor Frank before turning around and walking back through the door in which she had come in. When she finally was alone in the elevator, she started to put together the information she had learned. And once again, the answers she got to most of her questions only lead to even more interrogations. Why was a man so afraid to lose his position acting in such a friendly way? Why was he hiding the mind-link if it was supposed to replace the current hardware relatively soon? Why had she not been called in on this project with her work experience with Werner and his teams?

But there was one question that felt like it was the most important of all.

Who the hell were those two test pilots?

AUDIO FILE ID WF-206712082335

"Start recording. Date is December twelfth, twenty sixty-seven. Current time is… Ah fuck this. Everything is fucked anyway. Humanity is condemned. We have all been promised immortality through those injections, but the only thing they are bringing is the complete failure to the FRANV program. And how are we going to fight against the Klaxosaurs if our weapons are completely unusable by anyone? The vast majority of the old fighters in the Entity stocks have been torn down for scraps years ago and those that remain are not even close to be ready for combat. We are doomed.

How the hell were we even supposed to know that it would fry our brain in such a way? All tests, all the data, all the experiments hinted only at minor impacts on very localized areas of the brain. We've been monitoring everything regularly and for every pilot. But this… This… And of fucking course, everything had to come crashing down during an important operation. Lieutenant Kanawara returned to his home settlement completely unconscious and was immediately thrown into a MRI unit to see what had happened. The fact that they immediately sent out a request for a medical transfer due to a lack of adapted equipment was the first hint I got towards how bad it was. But I wasn't expecting anything like I've seen.

The pictures taken during the operation were… gruesome to say the least. I am no medical doctor, but I can say with assurance that brains are not supposed to look like this. There was this yellowish goo covering so most of the cerebral tissue and compressing the brain inside the skull. The operation to get everything out without damaging too much of the brain was apparently the longest chirurgical procedure recorded by the surgeons of the Entity. And the worst part is that it's still impossible to tell if he is going to make it. The operation is over and is vitals are apparently stable, but will he wake up? And even if he does, how long will he last?

That wouldn't change the fact that all FRANVs are grounded until further notice. I fear that I will have to appear in front of the Board, alongside whoever is currently in charge of the serum program, to explain myself and put ideas on the table to fix this. If I come and tell that there is no more hope left, I would lose my position before the meeting ends.

Now I'm just waiting for updates coming from Officer Emidova. We already spoke together today after the operation, and I could see how desperate she was. I mean she knew him for far longer than I did, of course it was going to affect her. But from what she told me, Captain Kubawashi was in a state of emotional shock when she barely landed the plane at their settlement. She is now closely monitored by a team of psychologists, but I doubt their task will be easy.

A pilot on the brink of depression, a co-pilot with a foot in his coffin, the entire fleet of combat aircraft grounded and everyone's brain being eaten by yellow goo. Everything is crashing down on us, and I am among those directly responsible. If humanity ever comes through this, I don't think I'll have a choice but to atone for all my sins."

"Hey Eighty-Three."

It was no surprise that when Three-Aught-Five finally found him, he had his two headphones deep inside his ears, slowly bobbing his head back and forth. He was sitting under a lone tree, facing directly towards the isolated memorial, ignoring the cold wind with his simple uniform.

At first, he did not react. She could not really tell if it was because he was not hearing her or if he was trying to ignore her. So she stepped forward and sat down to her squadmate's side, looking towards the statue. After all, it was her responsibility to assure everyone in the group was fine.

"Why do you come here so often?" He remained silent, but a small shift in his position clearly shown that she had his attention. "Almost every time you go alone, someone find you under this tree. What is so special about this place?"

Slowly, he took off the two buds and stuffed them into one of his pocket.

"I can be alone here. Nobody ever comes to this part of the park and I can be alone with my thoughts."

"And what are those thoughts exactly? You always look so closed to others when we are together. Are you still feeling guilty?"

"It's… It's just… Look, you see the monument?" Three-Aught-Five turned her look towards the sculpture and nodded. "You know what is engraved on its basis, right?"

She gave another nod.

"The identification numbers of all the pilots that have been killed in action."

"Well Fifty and I came so close to have our numbers put in this stone that I just cannot think of anything else. I feel like we would not have left any trace behind us apart from an engraved stones nobody ever sees."

"Hey, you don't have to worry about that. You are here, Fifty is here, we are all here and you are certainly far from being forgotten. But I see what you mean. Too bad we are almost told about those that fell in combat. Maybe you should talk to Maria about this, she might be able to do something about this."

"I doubt that Maria could do anything, but thanks for the idea anyway."

Three-Aught-Five stood back up and placed herself just in front of the boy, blocking his view of the monument.

"You should probably stand up and do stuff instead of just being miserable and all alone. I mean there are quite a lot of things you could do on your free time."

Eighty-Three nodded before putting himself back on his leg.

"Yeah… I guess you are right. Maybe I could go to the library and read some books. That'll change my mind for a bit."

His look suddenly felt less empty, and this success made Three-Aught-Five smile. Or at least it made her smile until a gust of chilly wind suddenly made her shiver.

"It's getting pretty cold out here. We should probably go back inside before you catch a cold."

And so the two headed towards the sliding doors that led into the building. It was only when he stepped inside that he realized how cold it actually was outside. They continued to walk along the large corridors as their conversation became small talk about what they were doing during their own training. While Three-Aught-Five described training sorties and kill house drills that were in every way similar to what they were used back in Settlement Twenty, things were a bit different with Eighty-Three and Fifty's sessions in the simulator.

The simulators of the Garden were much larger in scope and in performance than what was at the Settlement. And it was something he himself had to get used to. But they were still making progress. Under the watch of a lot of specialists, they had reached a point where Fifty could support the mind-link during standard flight. Of course, the moment a small variable changed, everything would start to fail, but that was better than nothing.

After a few minutes, they ended up inside the main hall. It was the main area open to pilots during their free time. From here, they could access almost every area of the Garden they wanted, at least with the correct security clearances. And as usual, the hall was not empty. Between the pilots simply catching a break between exercises or those waiting for their first sortie of the day, it was not really a dense crowd, but Eighty-Three and Three-Aught-Five were far from being alone.

The conversation continued until the girl noticed that his look had changed focus from her to something else behind her. So she turned her head around, interrupting her sentence to try to find out what caused this change. And the moment her eyes laid upon the answer, the reason for why it had distracted Eighty-Three became obvious.

Two pilots escorted by guards.

"What?"

She was legitimately confused. The two looked like regular pilots, their uniforms were clean, their looks were innocent and yet, there were two armed soldiers fully covered in body armor walking alongside them.

"Hey! Look at me." Eighty-Three only whispered, but it was largely enough to get her to turn her head back towards him. "Try to stay discreet if you want to look at them."

"Why are you saying that?"

In reality, he did not really know himself and was just as confused. It just felt that the right thing to do was to keep low and observe without making it too obvious.

"Something is not right… And I want to know what. Keep talking, we need to look like we're having a real conversation while I watch."

"Well, huh… Ok," she replied before going back to her original subject. But seeing Eighty-Three's eye constantly going back and forth between her and whatever was happening was simply too distracting. "Come on, what it actually happening?"

"Looks like they have joined a group. I guess they are part of their squadron. Can't really tell, though. The guards are in the way."

However, he could still get a few glimpses of the faces of those that were in this group. And the disparity seemed even more confusing. Some were happy, others looked relieved while the rest of those he could see were showing signs of concern.

Something was definitively not right.

So he kept watching, detailing as much information as he could to Three-Aught-Five. And the more he observed them, he strangely started to feel close to them. It seemed that they were not in very friendly terms with their higher ups. It might not have been on his scale, but he could still to make some allies for his upcoming actions. This continued for several long minutes. Long minutes during which he wished he could just hear what they were saying.

Suddenly, the two armed guards turned their backs and walked away towards a nearby elevator, leaving the group all alone. During a split second, he finally had the opportunity to clearly see the faces of those two pilots. And during that split second, he made eye contact with the boy.

His green eyes seemed empty, lost and confused, like he was discovering everything that he was seeing. Those were not the eyes of a normal pilot, even after long and tiresome combat missions. There was really only one thing, or one person, that he could think as being the reason behind all of this.

Quickly, Eighty-Three snapped his look back towards Three-Aught-Five, hoping that the boy would not tell his group that they were being watched.

"What is it? What did you see?"

Of course, she was eager to know more about the situation, but he just could not find any words that could describe what he had seen.

"I… I am not really sure myself."

And in a way, he felt like it was for the better. If he was going to do something, it was probably better not to get Three-Aught-Five, or any other squadron member for that matter, involved.

"Come on! Stop being so vague for five minutes!"

Three-Aught-Five was clearly starting to get upset about this situation, but she was not yelling. Instead, she turned her head towards the group. And by reflex, Eighty-Three did the same.

But they were not there anymore.

"Oh no," he whispered, starting to scan the room to see where they had gone. They had like vanished, gone from sight. However, in the corner of his eye, he saw silhouettes walking away into one of the corridors. "Sorry Three-Aught-Five, but I got to go. See you at dinner."

"Eighty-Three! Wait!"

But he did not hear her as he dashed to try to keep the group into his field of view. Problem is, when everyone is simultaneously wearing the same clothes, it is pretty hard to find one particular person among all the others. With the direction that group had taken, he could make several theories as to where they were headed. The gym and simulators room did not quite fit their attitude, leaving only the barracks as a possible destination.

But if they were heading towards the barracks, it meant that they had to use the elevators that were at the end of the corridor. And elevators were a gamble. If someone else decided to use it, they could slow down himself or his target.

When he reached the pair of elevators, he was quick to press the button to call one of them. Immediately, a light chime rung and the light placed above one of the set of doors lit up, indicating that a lift was already ready to be used at this level. While the door opened, he turned his head around, trying to check if anyone was suspicious of his behavior while waiting for the doors to open.

At a first glance, he looked like nobody was paying any kind of attention to him. Or at least that is what he thought he had seen before something violently dragged him inside the elevator.

Everything happened so fast that he started to realize what had happened only when the doors of the cage closed down on him. Someone was holding him from behind with one hand pressed against his torso while the other was tightly covering his mouth. But his arms were still free to move.

With all the force he could gather, Eighty-Three threw back his elbow into his aggressor's flank. Upon impact, he felt the grasp on his body loosening up for a split second. But this was only a small gasp of air as he was thrown into the wall. The attacker was now locking his arms behind his back while applying pressure, preventing him from moving at all.

At this point, the only thing Eighty-Three could do was look around. And he could only vaguely see a silhouette getting closer to his ear. He tried to break free, but that only caused the increase of pressure. He stopped when he started to hear and feel the slow breath directly next to his face, but still out of his field of view.

And then, a question.

"Why are you following me and my Darling?"

Welcome and thank you for reading the fifth chapter of Discoveries.

A bit of a shorter one this time around because I already had found the perfect way to end it and I did not really want to try too hard to stuff content into this chapter. It would have been unnecessary. And on top of it I get a bit of time off to enjoy my summer vacation without writing.

Now I imagine that you have already guessed who is going to be featured in the future. They will indeed play an important role in the story I want to tell, so those that said I replaced the characters from the source material with my own are lying. Looking at you, guy who posted three times the same review as guest. I also took the time to get a bit deeper in the backstory of some characters. It might not be much right now, but other elements will be built upon this foundation later on in the story.

Anyway, thank you all for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.