Chapter twelve: Cody's last mission II

With Andr's help, Cody, Yaebi and the girls were teleported back to the base. Once there, Andr vanished once more and reappeared with Cody's sidearm in her hands. She was holding it carefully, not wanting to shoot anyone. Fortunately, Cody noticed that her fingers weren't anywhere near the trigger.

"I'm going to need that," Cody said. "Then we'll go back to the crime scene. From there we can track them via their footprints."

He proceeded to grab his gun but Andr took a step back, taking the weapon with her. Cody frowned. He knew that they still didn't fully trust him with that thing, and he understood that. But now it was an emergency.

"Andr…" he softly spoke up. "I know that you don't like it to give me my gun, but now it's necessary. I wouldn't stand a chance against my fellow soldiers without it." He took a step in her direction. "You can trust me," he said.

Andr looked down. Then, she looked at her friends and was met with reassuring looks. Cupa gave her a nod, silently telling her to listen to the soldier.

Then, the girl in black turned back to Cody and slowly, hesitantly gave him his weapon back.

The sergeant calmly took it, examined it and then holstered it. That last action caused a wave of relief to go through the group.

"Thank you," he said to Andr, before proceeding to address the whole group. "Now, I know that you're not going to like what I have to say next." Upon saying that, he received worried looks. Cody swallowed a bit.

"You see…" he continued, "…to prevent any more killings by my colleagues, I'm going alone."

Immediately, a burst of protests was thrown at him. He heard several reasons as to why they disagreed, mostly about his safety. Cody tried to shout over it, but to no avail.

If only Skelly was here to silence the group, he thought.

It took a while for the group to grow quiet once more. Then, he explained.

"If they see me, they won't kill me. Maybe they'll lock me up, but I have experience with getting out of prisons." He thought back to the few times when he was captured by the Enlightened. "If they see one of you, they'll shoot on sight. Losing Skelly and Spidey was hard enough already. Even if they're still alive, who knows in what state they find themselves in." He briefly looked at the ground before looking up again.

"My mother died in an ambush during a mission when I was ten," he said. "I've lost her to the Enlightened. I will not allow anybody to die like that on my watch. That includes you all, and Skelly and Spidey if they're still alive."

The group was silent. They didn't know about his mother's death. He never talked about his parents that much. During the whole time they had known him, he had always avoided conversations about his past and his family as much as possible.

This changed their minds.


Cody was following his fellow soldiers' footprints with an unbelievable speed and seemingly limitless stamina. The two soldiers who attacked his friends hadn't really been focusing on their speed.

The story about his mother's death had managed to convince his friends to let him go on his own. They were still reluctant and worried, and wished him good luck on his mission. They were obviously scared that they would never see him again, and he felt the same way.

It was sort of like… those moments right before his suicide mission.

He shook those memories out of his head as he continued running. The footprints were leading him to what appeared to be a village in the distance.

Cody slowed down his pace a bit as he approached the small town. He decided to stick to the shadows. He already knew that he would be outnumbered, so stealth was his only advantage.

When he got close, he saw a group of people standing in the middle of the town, surrounding something. He could hear an argument between two rather familiar voices coming from beyond the wall of humans. He quickly hid behind a house on the border of the village.

"-if you already hadn't crossed the line by cursing Cody's memory, you old drunk." That had to be Harry.

A silence fell with an extremely tense atmosphere. Then, a few soft footsteps could be heard, followed by a dark voice.

"If all you can do is insult me…" that was most certainly Cody's father, general Boone. "You. Should. Leave."

Shit, Cody thought. I never experienced Harry that angry before. Something must be going on.

He was used to his father's anger, but Harry? He would rarely lose his cool. And although Cody couldn't see him, he imagined his friend glaring back at the general with no fear in his eyes.

Suddenly, a yell from his father could be heard. A yell… of fear?

"Corporal! Come Back!"

Harry had left the group and was walking to the edge of the town. Towards the house Cody was hiding behind.

Then, a woman's voice.

"Harry!"

Harry ignored her. He just kept walking.

When he was near the house, one thought went through Cody's head as he drew his gun.

Now or never!

He emerged from his hiding spot, grabbed the corporal by the collar and held his pistol at his hostage's head.

"Nobody move!" he yelled. "Or I'll splatter his brains all over the place!"

He looked at the group. The wall of people between him and his father had opened once Harry had passed through it. Next to the general lay two girls who Cody recognized all too well.

Spidey and Skelly were laying on the ground, barely conscious. They had cuts and bruises on their bodies and small tears in their clothing. Their legs were injured the worst: they had definitely been shot with the weapons the Resistance always used.

Filled with rage, he threw Harry on the ground and stepped into the light, still aiming his gun at the younger man and glaring daggers at the older one.

"…Cody?" his father whispered. His voice was raspy, most likely due to the shock. Cody didn't reply, as he was too busy directing his rage towards the group.

After a long silence, Scott spoke up.

"I… it's so good to see you again!" he said, his voice still raspy. This only darkened his son's mood. Evidently, he had abducted, tortured and threatened his friends, only to be all soft and friendly when Cody came along.

"I can't say the same," the sergeant replied icily. He usually seemed cold, but now he was absolute zero.

"I didn't know you were a racist," the 23-year-old continued. "You shot and tortured the innocent, like they did in the dark ages of our world. Torture until they 'admitted' their 'guilt'." He briefly looked at the corporal on the ground and his voice became darker. "Did you know they usually did that to prevent the pain that was coming to them?"

Then, without warning, he aimed the gun at Harry's kneecap and pulled the trigger. The younger male screamed out in pain as a result. Cody looked up at Scott and aimed the gun in his direction.

"Give me the girls…" he began, "or you're about to enter a world of hurt."

The general stood frozen. He certainly didn't expect to hear this from his youngest son. Sure, the boy always seemed emotionless and even vengeful at times, but he never threatened his father like that. It took about fifteen seconds until he shook his head.

"No…" he said. "If I die, those things will still be kept prisoner by these people." He gestured to the villagers surrounding him. "Surely, you should know that if you were to kill them all, you would never be able to live with yourself."

Cody smirked darkly.

"Of course I wouldn't be able to live. At all. Who told you this was about physical hurt?"

And with that, he quickly put the barrel of his gun against his chin.

"Everyone froze. The two girls on the ground looked at him with wide eyes, shaking their heads to try to tell him not to do it. The villagers looked scared and backed off. Harry, who still lay on the ground was frozen and had wide eyes as well. Scott managed to keep his cool, but fear could still be seen on his face.

The general was the first one to speak.

"You wouldn't do that," he said. "You wouldn't commit suicide for these monsters."

"Is that so?" Cody replied. "I've done it before, remember? The suicide mission… I never expected that I'd be saved or resurrected by some paranormal force, but it happened." His finger inched closer to the trigger. "I feel like I should've died anyway, so I might as well let that happen now."

"WAIT!" a female voice said. Everyone flinched as Freya spoke up.

"We'll hand over the prisoners. Just do not harm anybody – yourself included," the priestess said in a worried voice. "But we cannot simply let you go right now. They will need shelter and medication, first. The sun is about to rise, and I am aware that one of these will not survive that."

"Freya…" Scott said. She ignored him and looked at Cody again.

"When they are at full health, you have my word you can bring them back," she reasoned.

"Enough!" Scott yelled. He started walking towards the priestess with a glare that could kill. However, his advance was cut short when Stephen suddenly stepped between him and his target.

Scott was just about to take a fighting stance when Cody spoke up again.

"Why do you think they're monsters?" he asked. Scott lowered his fists and turned to his son.

"From what we've heard, they have the urge to kill," he said. "It's in their nature."

Cody blinked. He thought his father would've been more skeptic than to simply take someone else's word for something like that. He holstered his gun and proceeded to walk to his wounded friends.

"If they have an urge to kill…," he began as he helped them stand up. "… then why did they save my life?"

Several gasps could be heard. Scott was frozen. Was his son telling the truth?

"Sergeant…" he said in a calmer tone. "Is this true? Do you really owe them your life?"

Cody looked at him. "Yes, general," he responded. "I was transported here after my suicide mission. I had lost consciousness and suffered severe injuries that would've killed me if it weren't for them nursing me back to health to the best of their abilities."

He looked at the mobs, who had to lean on him in order to keep their balance.

"You alright?" he softly asked. It was a stupid question, really, and one of which he already knew the answer.

Spidey let out a chuckle. "What do you think, idiot…" she mumbled.

He turned to Skelly, who said: "I've been better… but I'm glad to see you here."

"I'm glad to see you two alive," he softly said. "We thought you were dead."

Spidey scoffed. "Ya really thought we were that fragile? I never thought you were a sexist, Sergeant. Just so ya know now, we don't die that easily."

Cody smirked. Yup, she's going to be alright, he thought.

"But Sergeant…" Skelly began. "You really shouldn't have threatened to kill yourself. It pains me to see you in danger because of us."

Cody calmly looked her in the eye. "First of all, you can call me Cody," he said. "'Sergeant' isn't really a name. It's my rank in the military. As for the thing with the gun, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I let you suffer just 'cause I wanted to live."

Skelly looked back at him, her expression serious.

"You're not the only one who wants you to live…" she whispered.

The villagers, Scott and Harry were still shocked over what Cody just revealed. They saved his life? They're his friends?

The silence was broken when Freya approached the three.

"Come with me," she said. "I will take you to the infirmary."

"I will provide you with the necessary medication," Lambert suddenly said. "I believe the girl-in-gray's anatomy differs most from ours. Harming potions serve as a cure for her." He looked at the girl in question. "Is that correct?"

Skelly slowly nodded. "Yes," she said. Her voice was still soft and raspy, likely due to the terrible treatment she was given. "Harming potions have a healing effect on me."

Rachel stepped forward. "If you ever need food, just ask me," she said. "I have plenty of bread."

"You can ask me too, if you want some meat," Diana, the butcher, said.

Cody could barely follow what was happening at the moment. This village, the same village that let Scott torture the mobs for answers, was ready to help save those very mobs' lives. Things really took a turn when he revealed what they did when they found him injured.

Scott said nothing. He looked ashamed, and Cody could understand that. That didn't mean he forgave him for what he did a few minutes ago. Also, he needed to ask the old man about why Harry called him a drunk before.

The sergeant followed Freya and Lambert to the infirmary.