Years Ago

This was a town, but one never meant for the eyes of children. And especially not for her. It wasn't a nice place, and the sun, while it shone down on this town, it sometimes never penetrated through the smoke clouds that the mortars left behind. Explosions after explosions, death after death, and destruction with no end. That's what she was always seeing around her. The consequences, the hatred, and the eyes of all the men she'd ever seen. Those eyes, lifeless pairs of them with nothing in it but hatred. Those were the definition of killers' eyes.

And to make it worse, in this broken town composed of much of the rathole buildings were decimated by grenades, mortars and rockets, Laika watched her own mother go down into that darkness, and ebentually, she became witness to seeing her become a guerilla who branded an AK and went off to fight the senseless war of no winners.

Rebekka Letenko left Laika away from the battlefields, much to her concern and worry. The probability that she wouldn't ever come back was never lost on them both. But Rebekka, being so far down, lost and gone into the black infernal abyss, could never say that she loved her. Could never hug her to reassure that she would, in fact, return to her only daughter. And she couldn't ever say it before she upped and flung herself into the war zones.

Rebekka had already been in it, but Laika hadn't known this was the case. The five year old Russian girl was left at the place she called a home, which downgraded to become a devastated home with half of its roof missing.

One day passed. Two days. Then three. Her mother never took this long. Never. Laika held out hope, lr she would lose it and have nothing in the end. And, she did hold it out, until a stranger had come on the morning of the fourth day. And Laika was not actually in denial. She accepted it the moment she had been told a land mine had blown Rebekka up into millions of pieces. Not even fingers were left in the end.

Five years old. That's how young Laika was when she jumped into the fighting. And, her age was a huge advantage, but not always. She planted many explosives between then and at nine years old, having collected a body rack of ninety-two of the scum who had freelance ideas. It was them, for years. Those wiseguys who wanted to establish some military power or something over the broken mess of the nation. Laika and her mother were two of a great many who wanted none of it. War.

Life wasn't easy or kind, so Laika had led her own life to be a fighter in those particular frontlines, just so kids could sleep better and never worry for dead parents. Never worry that their loved ones would be lost just for someone's selfish desires and ideas. No. None of that then, and none of that now.

Laika, who had gotten well over three hundred maggots in all her time total ever since joining in. And amidst all those times she received bullets lodged into her flesh, all over her body, along with other critical wounds, she had never decided to stop. She had no reason to continue fighting, yet she had no reason to keep fighting at the same time. It wouldn't stop, but she used her mother's death as the excuse to continue the bloody fight. A reason for no reason at all.

Now

Laika was dug into a spider-hole that was perfectly concealed under a tarp covered in leaves and dirt. Hit-and-run tactics were being used today. She had an RPG with only two rockets, and an AK with six magazines, two of them taped around back to back to act as three, with one already inserted into the gun, locked and loaded for bear.

She had dug the hole earlier that morning, knowing a patrol of enemy soldiers were coming in a convoy. And the intel, which she didn't feel was completely solid, had turned out to be right on the money. Three trucks carrying about a dozen of well-armed hostiles were due in to provide aid against several insurgents, some of which Laika had been working with, to stop them for good.

Laika said otherwise, objecting to their agendas by peeking out of her hole when they were close enough to be impossible a target to miss. "DASVEEDANYA!"

She fired her rocket away at the lead truck, instantly destroying it and the foot-mobiles it carried. The say began right when she heard the fearful screaming from a few of the men who wandered about on fire. The rocket was a one-time trick now that the other trucks were alerted, and she had no target as the other two were directly lined up behind the downed on.

She switched to her AK just as the rest of the enemy soldiers dispersed and spread out all over the place. Laika gad a challenge of double tapping the trigger and switching over to the next target. She was fast, but was not too fast to get them all. She put down six, and when going for the seventh, her killstreak had ended abruptly due to a bullet from the opposition having hit her on the shoulder. It knocked her back and sent her falling backwards into the ground.

"NYET!" Laika lost grip of her rifle, getting her camo set of jacket and pants all dirtied up. She reached back for the rifle and aimed it upwards, shooting two other enemies who reached the hole, too slow to fire. The bodies fell on either side of her, and Laika rolled the body on the right over her, using it as a shield. She was pretty sure she would die right here and right now.

Damn that Russian girl. She didn't know what she was thinking by staying in a trapped hole, and not at all being able to move fast out of there. She cursed in her language, ready for a few frags to be thrown into the pit. Maybe if she was extremely lucky, she'd come out unharmed. But that was a pretty big if at that, no guarantee that the cruelty of life would cut her some slack.

She took a deep breath and pictured her mother one last time. Her mother, of short red hair, and a real skinny body with a scrawny build, due to the mall-nourishment and sometimes the lack of sunlight. Her mother, who did everything to make sure Laika had it better than her, always putting her daughter before her. Her mother, whom she knew she was going to meet at the end of the finish line.

And then, Laika closed her eyes. Closed them lightly, ready to die. Ready since forever.

Just above her, multiple voices overlapped all over the place. Then, loud gunfire all at once had broken the calm silence that the air brought upon, too afraid to even move. Laika flinched, believing the bullets would turn her into Swiss cheese. One second to let the pain take place. Two seconds. Three seconds. Nothing sank.

She opened her eyes again, but the firing had stopped only for intense seconds later. No one was looking down on her, but a couple of new voices filled the air. Girl voices. Strange voices. Other threats?

Laika moved upwards, taking the rifle and throwing it over the hole before she climbed back up. And when her head leveled to the ground, Gloom showed her face with a nice hiss, and spooked the Russian girl with her pair of red eyes. "PEEKABOO!"

Laika was alarmed, moving to grab Gloom by her black dress, dragging her down into the pit. Gloom shrieked on her way down, and Laika wasted no second in trying to get up. Only, Linda came in and kicked her in the face, sending Laika falling right over Gloom.

"Oh, sorry, Gloom!" Linda apologetically called from above.

Laika rolled away from Gloom and went for one of the rifles from the fallen enemies. She let out a battle cry and unloaded all the rounds from the magazine into Gloom as she got up. The poor vampire took the hailstorm of the bullets, having her body get graphically pierced through. Her dress had been more damaged, and the holes were clean and transparent. Gloom then went on her knees, bleeding away on the dirt.

"Shit!" Linda jumped in and engaged into a fight with the merciless redhead. Laika used the rifle to strike it against her, but Linda was short and fast enough to avoid Laika's attacks. A few face punches were made, up until Laika delivered a headbutt, stunning Linda long enough for Laika to give her a nice knee to her gut, making her bend over. Linda groaned in pain, holding her stomach right before Laika ended it with an elbow strike to the back of her head.

Liena and Lois watched from ground level, with Liena cowering in fear and yelping when her lover had just gotten her ass handed to her by one of the local fighters they've been dispatched to aid. "Hey-"

"That's a real live Russian, alright!"

Laika centered her attention to the two girls, and went to reload the rifle, when she witnessed Gloom getting back up much to her surprise. "Shhhto za-?"

"Ow, you shot up my intestines!" Gloom raced her fingers around and through the holes, feeling ridiculous. "And- My favorite dress! You're gonna pay-"

Liena and Louise jumped into the pit, with Liena striking right over Laika's head, and wrapped herself around it. "I got her! Calm her down!"

Louise brought her blood-stained kitchen knife to the party, ominously laughing as she arranged the knife to Laika's chest.

"Hey, no! We're here to help her!" Liena jumped off after a couple of harsh scratches from Leia's long fingernails, moving to block Louise's intent. "Stop!"

"Oh, come on! I need me a redhead on my kill count!" Louise whined, lowering the knife.

Liena immediately turned around and raised her hands at Laika. "No one make any rash move."

Gloom grabbed Louise and took the knife from her. "Yeah, that's enough out of you for now, Louise," Gloom stated. "You've gotten more than enough up there, as did I,"

Louise stepped back, rendered neutral. "Fine, fine yeah."

Laika didn't know what to really do. The short girl with the odd white hair was trying to ease the tension for some reason, and was calling both parties, not at all trying to get her to surrender. Then, there was the language they were speaking. It wasn't Russian, or the other dialects she briefly knew. No, they sounded like- "A-are you Americans?"

Louise was the only one to gasp, but she did out of comical relief. "Oh, she knows who we are! Well, ain't that something?"

Liena lowered her tiny hand carefully. "Do you know English?"

Laika gave a slow nod. With a broken accent that made her undoubtedly a foreigner, she continued to talk. "I learn little American, from book. What doing here?"

Liena went over to Linda and picked her up. For someone who was several inches taller, Linda was damn heavy. "Ugh- Well-" She grunted. "Agh! Why are you so heavy?"

Gloom, still oozing with blood, went over to Liena to help her. "Up and at em!" She squealed while picking Linda up.

Liena rose back up again and went on. "We've come to help your people in the fight. You know, this fight with these guys here."

Laika raised an eyebrow. "American help?"

"Yeah, we're all aware of what these guys are doing around here, and in case you haven't noticed-"

"Oh, boy! This is gonna be so much fun! Running around and stabbing faggots with actual weapons! Why, I'd never have the honor to go head-to-head with police officers!" Louise was basically fangirling about her own skills, touching her face with pure content and excitement. "So much fun, I tell you!"

"And I thought I was sick," Gloom snorted, crossing her arms.

"Don't mind them," Liena told the redhead. "They're basically clowns."

"Uhhh..." Laika looked closely again at Gloom's Swiss cheese of a body. "Why she not dead? Look, shot with weapon! Not kill!"

"Oh, ummm..." How could Liena explain that to her? Could she even? "Sh-she's a..."

Gloom walked up to the redhead guerrilla and opened her mouth, revealing her demonic teeth. "Now, you owe me a new dress, you urchin."

Laika ran her fingers through the holes in her body. "This no hurt? Monster, you are? I think yes."

"Wow, she's quick to catch on," Gloom thought, still carrying Linda. She turned, and Laika moved back to avoid Linda's legs hitting her.

"Come on, let's get out of here before reinforcements come. We'll talk more."

Laika and the group of weird, maybe even supernatural girls, left the wide hole and retreated to the outskirts of a ruined town, taking refuge inside an old building that was missing most of a roof and a full wall.

Linda came conscious again, waking up with a stinging feeling on the back of her head. "Why, that motherfucking-" She looked up to find she was no longer on the inside of a man-made hole, but rather in a new place. "What the fuck did I miss?"

Liena was there to greet her with a warm hug and a nice kiss on her cheek. "Welcome back, silly," came that cute tone Linda loved.

"Welcome back? I got fucking wrecked by one of the rebels! Is this the thanks I get for providing them my help? No, that's dumb, and they're dumb."

"But Linda, it's not like they knew we were coming, so there's no reason to-"

Linda let out a cry of anger. "No, I know, but shit-"

"Comrade, me sorry!" Laika apologized, offering her one of two rifles they took from the dead foes. "Defend!"

"Oh, some extra protection, huh?" Linda was offended, standing up to kick the gun away. "I don't need a weapon when I've got these babies!" She raised her fists.

Liena let out a groan.

"And these babies will best you soon enough, my foreign friend!" Linda promised.

"Girl challenge Laika? Laika accept!"

Louise was running her knife across one of the walls, minding her own business which was just listening to the scraping sound she loved. "Oooh, la la! Stab stab!"

Gloom was sitting in one of the corners, being gloomy and dark again. "Knock it off, killy."

"Eat my pussy, baby," Louise seductively replied.

Gloom blushed, looking away. She let out a weak moan in response. "If we were alone-"

"Stow that shit for later," Linda barked at them. "Anyways, you, whatever your name is-"

"Da?" Laika wasn't going to kiss up to this shorty of a leader. And Linda didn't seem too fit to be in charge. Not since she was knocked out of commission in one fight. "Is Laika, little gerrrl."

"What was that?" Linda did not hesitate to have a rematch.

"Linda, please don't," Liena pleaded with a cinnamon-flavored tone. "She's not our enemy."

"Hey, redhead," Gloom cut in. "Tell us all about how these fuckers operate and move. The four of us were sent by an agency to stop the threat, which was secretly a request from your government. They're too afraid to declare war themselves, I think."

Linda brushed it off. "The officials said Russian authorities can't touch these guys because that would mean World War fucking Three in their own backyard. Government sent me and icy hair here to meet up with the local resistance fighters to provide back-up, and these two girls here happen to be our back-up."

"Girls foooor? What four girls do against army?" Laika was not amused, finding it skeptical and a waste of resources. "Why not American troops?"

Linda exhaled. "You wanna play that game, do you?"

Liena scratched the back of her neck. "We've been told there was a base or something?"

"Base?" Then Laika was laughing intensely. She muttered something in her language, going fully red.

"Hey, no subtitles?" Louise looked around for words that weren't there. "That's gay."

"What, you think we're in a movie? Quit being a dumbass."

Louise finally stopped with her racket from the knife. "No, you."

Linda scoffed. "As I was saying-"

Laika still laughed.

"What the fuck is so funny? We can do this... Can't we?" Linda has an overflow of great confidence, believing the four could plow through anything. And, in addition to this being the last mission on the list of missions, there was no way they could fuck up or be killed.

Gloom was already in the process of healing, shown as when her skin was appearing over the bullet holes. "Goddamnit, look at this! I got this in the eighties! A man named Patrick gave this to me, but I killed him when he threw me away."

"Yeah, okay, we don't need to hear your shit stories," Linda aggressively told Gloom. "You'll get new threads. In the meantime-"

Laika had ceased her laughter and removed her camo jacket and threw it at Gloom. "You, put on."

Gloom held it in her hands. "Ew, it fucking smells!"

"Put that on! Your tits are basically showing!" Linda shouted.

Gloom turned a worse red and looked back at Louise, who winked when they made eye contact. "Ugh..." Gloom placed it on. "I don't even like, what is it, cameo?"

"It's camo, and get over it," Linda urged. "So, this base-"

Laika howled one last time, leaning far back to the point she ended up falling.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS SO FUNNY?! DO YOU NOT THINK WE CAN OVERTAKE THIS BASE?!"

"NYET, NYET- HAHAHAHAHA!" Laika went as red as the shade of her hair, losing it completely.

Linda growled. "Just you wait, I'll prove to you that this will be easy!"

Two Days Later

"Oh, so I guess it might not be easy after all."

Laika had shown them a gulag from a three-mile distance, far behind the treeline that effectively concealed them at the right spot. The old gulag, an impenetrable fortress that was once filled with many violent war criminals, now recruited to be a part of the ever-growing force of reckoning Laika declared war with. Two watch towers on either side of the front edges faced their way, with mounted machine guns pointed upwards until they were needed. The building was either concrete or at one, which the four girls knew not what it was. But Laika did. Oh yes, Laika did.

The doors were made to withstand multiple explosions, be they C4 or rockets, and would not be penetrable. Well, if you were going through the front entrance, that is. Laika had only one more rocket left, and no other real explosive, apart from some few grenades she acquired from scavenging the many bodies. Just a few.

"Da, evil men took gulag over since long years ago. Many criminals executed, refuse join. Bodies spread all over. Wake up, find outside. Bad."

"Jesus Christ, that's fucking hardcore," Linda shivered. "There are things I know I would never handle to see if I were a kid."

"If? What mean if?" Laika was confused. "No childhood like me?"

"Umm... I guess you can say that, dude," Linda fairly answered.

Laika let out a chuckle. "Blood Sisters, I think yes." She gave Linda a nice bump on the shoulder.

Liena and Gloom were still assessing the situation, figuring out how to break into the gulag and wipe everyone out. "How many are we looking at?"

"Hundreds," Laika revealed, sending shock into Liena's soul. "Many soldiers go missing weekly, I less number."

"You and the fucking resistance, right?" Linda wondered. "Well, by that logic, there must surely be less than you think there are."

"Possble, comrade. Possible."

They didn't count on Louise to go in charging with her knife. "SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS! I'M COMING TO KILL ALL OF YOU!"

"L-LOUISE-!" Linda angrily yelled, running after her. "NO, YOU IDIOT!"

"FOOLISH COMRADE WILL GIVE US AWAY!" Laika shouted, still keeping her distance.

One of the two guards at the towers had caught sight of Louise, and without any hesitation, the guard whistled to the other one before manning the mounted machine gun. Then, both of them aimed the big guns and began spraying to Louise's direction.

Laika had come with a rocket as well as her rifle, which she didn't feel necessary, but now she was relieved to have done so. She aimed at the left guard tower and let her final rocket be fired just to save the idiot psychopath. "FOCK!"

"Linda! Louise! No!" Liena covered her mouth, in absolute gear for them, just as the left tower had been blown up, sending the guard straight to kingdom come. That made one of the machine guns were down, but Linda and Louise, now halfway through the empty field of dirt and rocks, were encountering bullets striking against the very ground they were stepping on.

"FUCK, HOLY FUCK! LOUISE, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

"HAHAHAHA!" Louise reached the safe end of the entrance, while Linda was trying to dodge and leap around the incoming bullets aimed for her. "YOU CAN DO IT, LINDA! DON'T STOP, NEVER STOP!"

"I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A FUCKING-" Finally, she was shot on the leg, taking two strays in right above her left foot. "OW, FUCK!"

Laika raced to to the right of the treeline, arranging for herself a perfect shot while the guard was distracted with Linda. She fired three times, and successfully downed another of the enemy's ranks. "Got dead!"

"Gloom!" Liena pointed her finger at both Linda and Louise. "Go help them!"

"I thought you'd never ask!" The goth fully sprinted her way towards the gulag, with Laika following close behind diagonally.

"Watch back!" Laika yelled.

The reinforced set of tough steel doors began creaking heavily as they opened up inwards. Now, things really got interesting. Linda was limping her way to the wall, in a desperate effort to hug it for cover. "Aw, shit!"

Louise was closest to the entrance, ready to go around and cutting some motherfuckers up. "Come on, come on!"

Laika stopped, crouched, and centered her weapon to the entrance. "STUPID GIRL, MOVE OR I SHOOT YOU!"

Louise gripped the handle of her knife tightly, holding it across her chest. "NO CAN DO-"

A group of five hairy, buff men with close-range autos and pistols, screaming in their own language. Louise made a pounce on the first one that had emerged, greeting him with beautifully painful knife strikes. He screamed right into her face, which urged her to land a strike into his face. Of course, she was pulled away by another of the beefy goons, and dropped hard on her ass. "Ow, what, is this date not working out for you, baby?"

Laika found clearer shots while the crazy idiot was downed, taking out the four. "YOU WATCH!"

Linda and Gloom rejoined Louise, with Linda using her functioning leg to kick Louise in the stomach before stumbling over awkwardly. "You are a fucking idiot!"

"Hey, I'm just eager to go around and stab everyone to death," Louise sassed.

Gloom looked inside, witnessing a huge crowd of angry Russian men assembling, moving their way. "Oh, wow. Uh, guys?"

"Well, we have to plan this shit out! We can't go around making noise that'll complicate this for us! Look at me, I've just been shot because you couldn't hold it in your pants!"

"Ha, jokes on you! I have no dick, therefore I'm not a futa!" Louise exclaimed.

"A what? What is-?" Linda then groaned. "Never mind that! Go back Laika and Gloom, I can't help under this condition. I'll stay here and keep watch-" She then noticed Liena wasn't with them.

"Oh, Liena states behind within the trees," Gloom notified her. "She doesn't really strike me as a fighter all too much, if I'm to be honest here."

Laika handed Linda two handguns before tucking a third one under the back of her shirt. "Trust take."

"Yeah," Linda agreed, gazing around the trees as she leaned against the wall. "Go, fight on..."

Gloom felt slight nervousness; no way she could take these many men all at once. She backed away, only for Laika to push her right into the gulag. "Hey-"!

Laika crouched behind the immortal goth, using her as a human shield. She sprayed the rounds of her rifle. She brought down many while Gloom was taking a shitload of bullets all over her body. This girl was more useful than she could think of uses with her. Louise came running in, throwing her knife by edge at one of the many enemies the three were encountering, effectively striking one's chest. "Ha, got em!"

Gloom was horribly disfigured by much of the gunfire, and Laika retreated back out with an smpty rifle. "GIRL KNIFE, BACK!"

Louise had no time to retrieve her knife, so she followed Laika back outside. "CRAP, MY TOY!"

Linda had her guns held high, aimed at the entrance. "Back so soon?"

"Too many of them-" The gunfire continued on, even while Laika and Louise were already backed behind cover. Laika dropped Gloom, whose face was gone, replaced with red, meaty flesh in its place, and much of her own body was riddled away in such a horrible manner. Gloom was twitchy violently and disturbingly while she healed.

"Ow, that's gonna leave a mark!" Louise bent down and picked around Gloom's loose flesh. "I'm more in love with you, baby."

"Girl dying?" Laika wondered.

"No, but it might take hours for her to heal, maybe," Linda thought.

Just then, Liena was running her way towards them, shouting and pointing behind her.

"Oh, now she comes!"

"The more the merrier!" Louise happily exclaimed.

Laika squinted her eyes, looking past her. Someone was moving within the trees. No, she looked again, actually discovering that many mysterious figures vastly approached as a collective. "Nyet..."

"Hey, what- Are there more of them?!" Linda groaned irritably. "Son of a fucking bitch, how many are there?"

Liena came running up into Linda's arms. "Linda! Y-you're hurt-"

"Tis but a flesh wound, icy hair. No need to concern yourself-" Linda let out a cry again. "Ah, damn it."

"You three were lucky to escape back out, considering all the gunfire and screaming I can still here from inside!" Laika took Linda's handguns, which stopped her from talking, and raced to the other side of the entranceway, firing blindly into the gulag. Two more were picked off before her, making her a little more at peace. If only they bothered to bring grenades. Why, that fucking idiot Louise. "STUPID GIRL!"

Louise didn't understand why they were mad at her, seeing as how they were going to do this regardless. Well, maybe she rushed them in before they could come up with a battle plan. Now, they were likely to end up dead. "Oops."

"Really? Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

"What? Oh, I'm not gonna apologize. I'm your responsibility."

"What was that?" Linda growled in question.

"Forgive yourself," Louise suggested with sarcasm. "It's gonna be alright."

Linda was hugged by Louise, with Liena being part of the package deal, only provoked to push her off. "Can you not?"

"Oh, so feisty-"

"We might as well surrender..." Linda made Liena shiver from head to toe.

"N-no... We have to run-"

"We have nowhere to go, icy hair. Look-" The new army of many other goons, these ones in ragged clothing, not like they had seen these who held the gulag, were all charging at them.

Laika gasped. "Oh!" Then, she was laughing heartily. "Comrades! Girls, comrades!"

"Wait, what?" On instant, a rocket came flying at them. Linda tucked to the ground, taking her shorter lover with her, while Laika went crouching away. Louise didn't budge, welcoming death, but the fired rocket was intended for the inside of the gulag.

"WHOA, HOT DIGGITY DOG!" Louise cheered. "THOSE ARE THE RESISTANCE FIGHTERS!"

"Friends of yours?" Linda wondered.

"Allies, comrades!" Laika threw a fist into the air.

"How come the guys inside haven't stormed out and killed us already?" Linda asked.

"Probably scared shitless of me and my knife which I'll get back soon enough!"

Laika did another round run, firing all the bullets from her guns this time. She hit no one this time, as the rocket had wiped countless of the enemy. There were only scattered body parts and burning corpses. "Oh, looks like-"

Gunfire made her retreat back outside. Still more of them to go.

"Louise, take Gloom away, I think it's safe to say these guys can take it from here."

"Roger that," Louise accepted, dragging the temporarily-dead goth by her feet. "Time to go."

Laika was met with her many pals she had come to know during her insurgent years, saluting the five main leaders who had come to personally oversee the defeat of the ravaging militia. She gave them the sitrep of the recent events, having been blessed with a really odd team of strange girls. Strange girls who hailed from America, a nation not really favored by these fighters. But Laika had shown them her gratitude just the same, by punching Louise when she was dismissed by her superiors.

"Hey, no fair!" Louise whimpered, "You didn't warn me!"

"Oh, just! You deserved that!" Linda retorted. "We were real close to dying, worse than all our past missions."

Liena was cuddling away with her, losing herself in the warmth of the cold Linda Loud. "Don't you ever endanger my Linda again."

Louise was wordlessly silenced. Laika pointed to Gloom, wondering about her. "She really monster?"

"We're all monsters here," Linda corrected. "Monsters in human skin."

"Uhhh..." Laika scratched her head. "I thank for help, is good help."

Gloom was still wearing Laika's large jacket, which was now ruined completely, nearly dangling in threads. "So, you want that back?" Linda asked her.

"Have more, she keep."

Linda snickered. "She might. So, I guess we'll be out of your hair, dude."

"What?" Laika had no experience with English expressions, so of course Linda sighed and laughed. "Nothing, but we'll be leaving. Just pretend that we were never here at all, is that fine?"

"Okay," Laika flatly said. "Goodbye, comrades."

When Laika turned around to see her peoples again, she got quite a funny feeling. She wasn't close to these fine folk to the point of calling them a family. Sure, the terms brother and sister were thrown around, but it was more of a honorary title, and not of emotionally close reasons.

Linda and company, they were something entirely new that Laika would never have imagined. They were awfully close to the point of establishing a sisterhood. And Laika, the adult fighter of a war that, with no break, with no end, and always with replacements of many good people who fell, and those replacements fell as well, marking an unforeseeable end to her own war.

But now, with everything over just like that, after all the time and resources spent and wasted to gather up a sizeable army, and having done enough raids to make a difference, the war was over. It had... Ended.

Laika was then crying for that reason. It was... Over. Just like that. And not just because she had been trapped in the hell of this particular war, but also because now...

...She didn't know. She didn't know what to do now. She didn't have a lover, or a child to carry onward. She didn't even have any happiness. And... Could she be able to be at peace with herself? Could she be able to relax while all these troublesome memories of death and despair lingered onto her soul?

Time to make her decision. And she made a decision.

Wiping her eyes again, she went up to them. "Girls-"

Linda, Liena and Louise looked to her way and gave her a smile. "Say no more, you're in," Linda agreed. "But only for my one benefit. You still need to be defeated."

Laika laughed with amusement. "Very good!"