Days later all the recruits were ready for the final exam:
The S-E-R-E
The recruits had been divided in 22 teams of 6 membres. Bravo would be evaluating two teams each week. Next other two the week after and so until the last group, the teams should go deep in the woods where Bravo would be waiting for them. But they couldn't say anything to the next group about the test.
"Sitka I need to talk to you"Denahi
"What is it?"
The two brothers were walking by the lake.
"Well, remember when I wanted to ask Chayo to be my girlfriend?"
"Yes, you guys have been together like a month"
"Exactly, but you haven't told anyone anything, right?"
"No, neither Kenai or Koda know about your thing"
"That's good, 'cause she told me they can't have love relationships between work partners. But I love her so much and I would do anything for her"
But suddenly Sitka realized that voice tone, the one his brother used when he needed to do a tough choice. Then Sitka got in front of him.
"What's your point?"
"Well...after seeing her memories and her record..."
"Her what?"
"I'll tell you later, the point is that when all of this is over she will have to retur to her time and she will be alone again. She doesn't have anybody else and if something could happen I don't want her to do something stupid. I wanna be there for her."
"...WAIT!...Are you trying to tell me that you're thinking of MOVING IN WITH HER?"
He haited to admit it but...he nodded.
Sitka just looked away with a sight.
"Sitka I-I"
"Finaly I found you!"said Kenai comming from the trees"Your turn"
Sitka and Denahi went to put on their uniforms to next meet with their team. Both brothers were in the same team wich was leaded by Sitka. When everyone was ready they leaved to the woods. They didn't have any weapons or equipment, what got the recruits a little nervous.
Wile they were walking through the forest Denahi approached to Sitka.
"Look, I know what you're thinking"Denahi
"What are you talking about?"
"Our talk in the lake, I know what you're thinking, but-"
"Denahi this is not the time"
"But Sitka I need to know-"
"GRENADE!"
The cylinder released a cloud of smoke, then another grenade appeared from the trees and landed in front of the brothers. Then another and another until all the group was trapped in the cloud of smoke. The recruits were coughing, they were disoriented, the smoke was making impossible to see what was going on. When all the sudden from the cloud of smoke came out some armed men: they were all dressed in black, they had black caps, sunglasses and scarves with a white scull that covered their faces.
"ON YOUR KNEES! GET ON YOUR KNEES! HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM! IF YOU LOOK AT ME I'LL KILL ALL YOUR TEAM!"
Those voices were from Bravo.
The recruits couldn't do more than obey and get on their knees with their hands up.
"Tie them up"ordered Jason's voice.
Bravo started to tie up their hands behind their backs with cable tie and then put black bags over their heads.
"Is anybody here who wants to play the big hero?"asked the mocking voice of Sonny"Nobody? Seriously?"
"Forget it Quinn"Clay"They're just a bunch of cowards pretending to play Call of Duty"
"They made a huge mistake if they thought they could be more than what they are: Nothing"Full-Metal
Suddenly they were put on their feet abruptly and forced to start walking.
"¡Levántate pinche cabrón!"said Chayo's voice as she kicked Sitka on the stomach and lifted him from his shirt. She then pushed him and Sitka was grabbed by Brock who lead him to a vehicle.
"You too! Get off your ass!"she said as she grabbed Denahi"Be strong Denahi, whatever happens don't say anything"she whispered to his ear and then pushed him forward "Move!"
...
The moment the bag was taken from his head, Denahi saw he was tied up to a tree as the rest of the group. Sitka was in front of him, tied up as well and Blackburn, now with his face exposed, was in the middle of the scene.
"Welcome to advanced S-E-R-E, this is the final test of Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. You will now be submitting to a major difficulty than your normal training. You shall not face or fight any of your superiors, each day will increase the difficulty in each one of the test. If you have physical troubles call the medic, if you have psychological troubles, call for your mama. The training begins now."
...
After few hours two Bravo members were bringing back Sitka from interrogation. His hands were tied up behind his back and he had a black bag covering his head. The moment they tied him up to the tree they took off the bag, Denahi saw his brother with horror: Sitka had a black eye, an eyebrow open and the inner lip cut.
"Sitka..."
"Quiet" Ray
Both members of Bravo approached Denahi. They still had their faces hidden behind the sunglasses and the scarves.
"Your turn braidy boy" Sonny
They put the bag on his head, set him free from the tree and dragged him away. After few moments Denahi was sit on a chair and the bag was removed from his head. He saw he was inside a tent, Mandy was standing in front of him, by her side two other men. She approached to him, analyzing him and then she started to walk around him.
"You saw what happened to your partner, you can avoid that, answering a simple question."
Then Mandy faced Denahi.
"What is your mission here?"
Denahi made eye contact with her, but he didn't say a word.
"You don't wanna talk?"
Silence
Mandy smiled and did a sign to the man behind her, this one approached to the young man and gave him a punch on the face. Denahi felt the blood on his nose, but he stood quiet just as Chayo told him.
"I think you need some motivation."
Suddenly his legs were lifted and his feet stripped, another man approached slowly to him with a stick on his hands. He was about to hit him in the sole of the feet when a young voice stopped him:
"Wait"
The man saw at the direction where the voice came from. Denahi immediately recognized his girlfriend's voice.
"I'll do it"
He heard footsteps approaching, the man gave the tiny stick to Chayo, as Mandy nodded with the head the girl hit Denahi's feet with the stick. The young man held a scream at the pain on his feet, Chayo then hit him again and again and again.
"Enough"
Denahi had the soles of his feet soaked in blood, he had to hold a scream of pain when they unleashed his legs and his wounded feet impacted against the ground. Denahi didn't have the time to recover from the pain because he was immediately hit on the ears by some hand palms. Becoming badly stunned by the impact. Then he was hit on the stomach, the face, his sides, but due to the daze he didn't realize that it was Chayo who was hitting him.
...
It was S-E-R-E's sixth day, none of the recruits had give any info about anything, despite the interrogations or tortures they had to improve. All the recruits received the same treatment, but Bravo noticed that every time it was Denahi's turn to be interrogated Chayo was always the one who took care of him. Even her ways were softer with him than with the other recruits, what started to awake some suspicious on Bravo.
It was Denahi's turn to be interrogated, perfect moment to confirm Bravo's suspicious. Sonny and Jason went to unleash him and take him to the tent, Chayo was reading with Saya's head on her leg when she saw the three men passing by her. She got on her feet and started to follow them, Jason, Sonny and Denahi entered first, but when Chayo was about to come in she was stopped by Ray and Brock.
"Hey where do you think you're going rookie?"asked Ray
"It's my turn"
"Change of plans kiddo, if you're gonna walk in this time you won't do than watch."Brock
"Now Sonny and Metal will take care of him"
Oh no, Chayo had seen already how were Sonny and Metal with the other recruits, however they all received the same treatment...sometimes the duo crossed the line.
Chayo didn't have more options, so she, Ray and Brock entered the tent. There was Denahi, tied up to a chair in the middle of the room. His look was awful and everyday was worse, Chayo couldn't do more than go to a corner and watch how the love of her life was brutally interrogated.
"Don't worry"Sonny told him" I won't do anything that I haven't done with your teammates. Of course, unless...you tell us what your mission is here."
Denahi lifted slowly his head and sent his look to the corner where was Chayo. She seemed worried so Denahi sent her a soft smile like saying "It's okay" . Then he looked back at Sonny ready to say his first word from days:
"Screw you"
He didn't see Full Metal behind him, the older man had a taser on his hand which he used on Denahi's left side making the boy screaming of pain. Chayo just closed her eyes and turned her look away, she couldn't handle hearing her boyfriend scream and less watching him going through all that pain. It wasn't even five minutes when Chayo had enough and stormed out of the tent with wet eyes. Even if she had gone pretty far from the campsite, Denahi's screams could be heard from miles. Chayo sat on a fallen tree and started to cry at hearing her boyfriend's screams, lucky for her Saya had follow her and tried to give her some confort. The girl saw her dog and wrapped her arms around her dog, when all the sudden she felt a hand on her shoulder, Chayo looked up with red puffy eyes and tears on her cheeks just to face Brock. But he wasn't mad or dissapointed, he was empathic.
"You okay kiddo?"
Chayo shook her head.
"Come here"
Brock and Chayo shared a tight hug, the girl cried all her tears out as her mentor was trying his best to confort her. Anyone else from Bravo would have ask her why she was crying, but Brock knew already the answer since he knew about the relationship between his little girl and the young hunter.
"You really love him, don't you?"he gently asked her as he caressed her head.
Chayo nodded with the head.
"That's why I picked him, 'cause I didn't want him to suffer that much. But now that Sonny is..."
"Hey hey, it's okay kiddo. It's okay"Brock kissed her head"But you know is part of the training. Imagine if he got captured and he didn't got the training. He would have more struggles to endure the pain."
"Still he's being tortured"
"But better us than someone else"
...
Next morning the recruits were expecting another therapy, but that day happened something unexpected: Bravo was freeing the recruits, they brought them water, a hot meal and some blankets. Trent was doing a quick med check to each one of the recruits.
"How do you feel?"he asked Denahi now that they were face to face"Nothing apart muscular pain?"
Denahi shook his head a little confused.
"Trent, what's going on?"
"You passed the test, congratulations"
Trent smiled warmly and patted his upper arm.
Hours after the brake, the two teams were in two straight lines before the big tent. In front of them were Havoc and Bravo.
"Ladies and gentlemen"Blackburn"The field has being free. Congratulations. Now you will be the teams Phoenix and Pegasus. The range of the Bravo who will give you the trident will be your range from now on."
Jason was the first to come forward.
"Congratulations Phoenix one"he said as he delivered the trident to Sitka. Full Metal did the same with the leader of the Pegasus team.
The next to pass was Ray who hand over two tridents, Sonny and Trent did the same. Then it was Denahi's turn to receive his trident, and he got lucky because the one who would give it to him, was no one else than Chayo while Brock would give the trident to the other recruit.
"Congratulations Phoenix five, you made it"she said proud of her boyfriend as she gave him the trident.
Denahi looked at it and then to his girlfriend who was proudly smiling. Then Denahi saluted her and went out of formation.
...
That afternoon Denahi and Chayo arranged a meeting on the forest not far from the village. Denahi was already at the meeting point waiting for Chayo.
"Denahi"a voice called him from behind a tree"Over here"
Denahi went directly to the place the voice came from, he saw Chayo leaning her back against the tree. He couldn't hold the smile and launched himself against his girlfriend to give her a passionate kiss.
"Flaquito I'm so sorry for everything. But I didn't want them to cross the line with you."
"No Precious, don't apologize. You just did your job, that's all."
"Sorry, am I ruining the moment?"
Denahi gasped at hearing Brock's voice, he turned around and saw the Navy Seal with arms crossed.
"Brock I...we-"
"Flaquito"Chayo told him taking his hand"It's okay. He knows, I told him."
"I just came to tell you that...I told Jason about you kids."
Their faces turned into worry.
"Wha...What did he said?"
"Well, I told him about your record and...he agrees that you have someone to count on"
Chayo smiled big and saw her boyfriend.
"But in one thing I have to agree with him. At the moment of the battle, emotions fall apart-"
"And the mission goes first" they both said in unison.
Brock smiled and hugged his little girl, then he placed his arm around Denahi's shoulders and lead him a bit far so they could talk in private.
"Look Denahi, I know I'm not her father but I love Chayo as if she was my daughter. Even if she doesn't like the nicknames, she's my little princess, my baby, my sweet little girl. And if you ever think about braking her heart-"
"I know, you're gonna gouge out my eyes and rip out my balls, right?"
"...No. SHE will gouge out your eyes and rip out your balls. So, be careful with her young man."
And he finished by patting his back.