(March 12, 2015) Officially rewritten.

I own Rebecca.

Chapter 3

Rebecca was in a defensive crouch, circling her sparring partner cautiously. He threw a punch; she leaned on her heel and dodged it. He threw another punch and Rebecca dodged it again. In a blur of movement, she swiftly spun around and caught his extended arm. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the shock in his eyes. She pulled on his arm and swung her upper body downward, efficiently hurling him over her back and slamming him onto the mat. His breath rushed out of him on impact.

She reached down to help her partner back up. He grasped her hand and rose up, tugging at his crooked armor. After the dust settled and he slowly caught his breath, he grinned at Rebecca ruefully and laughed,
"Why did they have to put me up against the marine?"

Rebecca smirked and said,

"I never got your name, soldier."

"Pointer, Samuel Pointer." At that moment Alicia yelled out at them from across the training field,

"Miles, Pointer, again!"

They dropped back into crouches and slowly circled around each other again. This time Rebecca took the offensive start and feinted a jab to Pointer's right. Anticipating his block, she twisted around to hit him in his now exposed side. As he flinched down to the right, she twisted again, this time planting her palm forcefully into his chest. He cried out and staggered back. The flurry of movements only lasted for a few seconds, but embarrassment managed to flush Samuel's face as he was quick to realize all of the other sparing groups had stopped to watch them.

His face burned red and he desperately charged Rebecca with a yell. Easily, she dodged and blocked every attack that Sam threw at her. When he finally stopped swinging wildly at her, he stood there panting and dripping with sweat. Rebecca suddenly dropped to the ground and kicked her leg out in an arc, sweeping Sam clear off of his feet and slamming back down onto the mat again. She rose up to walk over to Sam, who was still on the ground. She placed her foot onto his chest until he relaxed and shouted his yield. As Sam lay there, still trying to catch his breath, applause broke out from all around them. Rebecca reached down to Sam again and helped him up, a grin crossing his face once more. She smacked him on the back, making him stagger, and she started to walk away. Just as she reached the edge of the mat a voice rang out over the clapping, effectively silencing it.

"Now just where do you think you're going, Miles? No one said that you were done here." Commander Taylor walked through the small audience with Guzman by his side. Taylor stopped a few feet away from Rebecca and looked straight into her eyes. She tried not to show her discomfort, so she stared right back, unflinching. Taylor held the gaze and raised his arm, gesturing across the training field to summon Alicia.

Alicia started to walk up to Taylor, and as she neared him he tore his eyes from Rebecca's and walked over to the wooden rack of sparring weapons. He grabbed two wooden staffs and tossed them into the air. Alicia plucked one out of the air and glared at Taylor. Rebecca smiled as she grabbed the second staff and she continued the motion to flourish it a few times. Now that she had paused, she was starting to feel a slight burn in her muscles and in her lungs. She took a few slow deep breaths to help soothe her lungs. Alicia moved onto the mat and stood at the ready as Rebecca moved to face her. Rebecca spun the staff nervously once, then twice, but just as they each took a step towards each other, a horrible noise made them freeze.

A loud screeching roar rang out from the trees far outside of the fence. Shortly after the first screech ended another started, but it sounded out a few hundred yards to the right of the first. Everyone snapped their heads in the direction of the noise and Taylor's radio started receiving multiple transmissions at once. He took it off of his belt and started ordering his men while he rushed towards the racket.

"It's a pack of Allosaurs. Ready the sonic blasters. Just keep them away from the fence!"

Alicia dropped her staff, glanced at Rebecca, and took off after Taylor. Rebecca stared after them for a moment and suddenly dropped her staff to follow Alicia. As she neared the perimeter fence, the ground started to shake slightly under her feet, but she kept running until she caught up with the others. At the fence she was shocked to see three massive scaly creatures on a rampage heading straight towards the fence. She assumed that those were the Allosaurs. The men posted on top of the fence started firing blasts of sonic propulsion that pummeled the Allosaurs. They slowed and eventually stood their ground a few hundred feet away from the fence, bellowing and shrieking at it defiantly. After a few more blasts hit them, the Allosaurs turned and trotted back into the forest.

"Crisis averted people, good work. But keep a look out, they'll be back to try at least one more time," Taylor started up to the gate. He turned to nod at Alicia and Rebecca,

"Next time ladies. Guzman, Wash, with me."

Eventually the crowd cleared and Rebecca was left standing alone in front of the gate, looking out into the forest that seemed to go on forever. Sam, her sparring partner, walked up behind her rubbing his shoulder with a grimace.

"It's o.k. Rebecca," he smirked, "I'll protect you from the scary dinosaurs. You have nothing to worry about." Obviously pretending to mistake her wonder for fear, he reached up to put his arm around Rebecca's shoulders. She moved quickly, twisting his arm behind his back and pushing her thumb under his shoulder blade. He froze and whimpered in pain. She leaned over next to his ear and whispered,

"Don't touch me, Pointer. Understand?"

He nodded quickly. Rebecca released her hold on him and walked back to her quarters. On the walk back Rebecca thought about her future in Terra Nova. The only way for her to be on the front lines was to gain Taylor's trust, and she was willing to do whatever it took to impress him.

Months later, Rebecca was flourishing in Terra Nova. Her breathing was practically normal, she had not had a single asthma attack since she stepped through the portal, and she was quickly rising in command and in popularity. As time flew by, Taylor started taking Rebecca along for more missions, eventually she was a part of every one, no matter how menial one would seem. He included her in a small group of soldiers that he himself taught once a week, to be groomed for greater responsibility in the colony. Rebecca craved these opportunities to work with Taylor, and eventually she found that she could hardly bare to be away from him. On the one year anniversary of her pilgrimage she recognized her feelings, and everything changed.

Rebecca leaned over the sink and splashed her face with water again and again. Her thoughts were consumed by Commander Taylor and she hated herself for it. Rebecca had refused to let anyone in since she had her heart broken so many years ago. She couldn't ruin everything over a silly crush, and most importantly, she couldn't let Taylor even suspect that she was in a moment of weakness.

She donned her light armor and walked down to the training field. The fifth pilgrimage had just arrived two days before and quite a few new recruits had come through the portal. Rebecca and Alicia were in charge of training them in combat and survival skills, respectively.

Thirty minutes into Rebecca's lesson, Guzman walked up to her with an officer in tow and said,

"Miles, come with me. Walker will replace you for today."

Rebecca excused herself from her class and walked with Guzman.

"What's going on?" She asked. Guzman looked at her sideways and said,

"A situation has presented itself. Taylor will brief you on the details." They walked the rest of the way in silence. Taylor was loading his bag into a waiting rover when Rebecca and Guzman arrived. He looked up and said,

"It took you long enough. Miles, you're driving me, let's go." She jumped into the first rover with Taylor and took off with Guzman driving more men in the rover behind her. Taylor called out over the racket,

"The northern scientific research outpost sent out a distress call. One of the researchers has been injured. They're reporting abnormal Slasher activity as the cause. Our objective is to neutralize the threat and bring the injured man back for medical attention." He looked at Rebecca, "This is going to be your first Slasher encounter Miles. Remember, keep away from their tails and aim at their underbellies."

Rebecca kept her eyes on the terrain in front of her and responded, "yes sir." She couldn't bear to be alone with Taylor right now; she didn't have complete control over her feelings yet. The rest of the ride was silent. No words were spoken between Rebecca and Taylor, although the radio kept squawking between them with updates from the men. Taylor kept his gaze on Rebecca for most of the ride. He knew that she had been acting differently over the past few weeks. He recognized that this silence was an awkward silence and that Rebecca was too uncomfortable to say anything to him. It was too late to break it so he just kept studying her face, trying to understand what was bothering her. He had an idea but he pushed it to the back of his mind. As they neared the outpost he turned from her and reached into the back of the rover to grab a couple of guns.

Rebecca came to a stop and Taylor passed one of the guns to her. They both jumped out of the rover and started surveying the area. Guzman pulled up behind Rebecca's rover more than a few seconds later.

"Almost lost you back there Guzman," Rebecca said with a small smirk, constantly surveying the forest in front of her with her gun at the ready.

"Focus Miles," he growled in response. She glanced over to him to smile again, but instead she yelled out,

"Guzman, get down!" He dropped and rolled away from the Slasher that had appeared behind his back. Rebecca opened fire on the beast, keeping her eyes on its dancing tail. Another soldier added to Rebecca's attack and everyone else kept moving to search for the researcher and find the other Slashers. Snapping its jaws and growling miserably, the Slasher disappeared back into the bushes as quickly as it had appeared. Guzman got up off of the ground and didn't appear to be shaken.

Rebecca heard a soft moan from the bushes somewhere in front of her position. She called out,

"I found something!" Rebecca walked into the bushes, gun first and started surveying the ground to find the source of the noises. After a few paces she found the researcher, cut up and bleeding in multiple places. She bent down and placed her fingers on his clammy neck to feel for a pulse. It flickered lightly under her fingers in response.

"I found him, he's alive!" Taylor and another man came up behind her creating a protective circle. Rebecca reported to him, "his pulse is very weak, sir."

Rebecca stood up out of her crouch as two more of their men came and picked the researcher up. She smiled wearily at Taylor and suddenly frowned when she saw movement in a large bush behind him.

"No!" she yelled. Another Slasher came charging out of the barbed branches and towards Taylor. Without thinking, Rebecca hurled herself at Taylor, but as she collided with him, she heard a whistling sound. Like something thin being hurled through the air by her head. They both landed on the ground hard and she heard guns firing above her position, along with the screeches of the Slasher. But something was wrong. The world around Rebecca moved in slow motion as her face started to burn, the feeling turning wet the farther it crept down her neck. Within seconds she become disoriented and the last thing that she saw was Taylor's face leaning over hers, mouthing something over and over again. And everything went dark.

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