RADICAL > ᴄʟᴏɴᴇ ᴡᴀʀꜱ <

🪐𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔽𝕠𝕣 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕖𝕖𝕜𝕖𝕟𝕕🪐

𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕤𝕚𝕩𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟

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"Chelsea." Cameron said as he entered the barracks where the cadet sat on her bunk, reading a book that had belonged to Kira. She looked up to see the captain in the door way. "You have a visitor." He said and a young woman, younger then both of them but not younger then a high schooler, stepped out from behind him and into the room. "Sam." Chelsea said before running to the girl and wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug. "Sam I'm so sorry." She said and the girl hugged her back timidly. "It's- just don't." Sam replied. "Does Mel know?" Chelsea asked as she let the girl out of the hug. Sam slowly shook her head. "No. I'm trying to keep it from mom as long as possible. She doesn't need to worry about anything else right now." Chelsea nodded. "I came to find out everything before she knows anything." Sam added. "So," Sam said as she sat on Chelsea and Kira's bunk. "Tell me everything about the death of my sister."

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Kira's eyes widened at Echo's question. Her body tensed and her skin paled. It was obvious her dad was not something she liked to talk about. "I don't think that's a conversation we should be having in a bar, Echo." Kira said, her voice low and she was obviously uncomfortable. The men went silent. They didn't want to push her to share something she was uncomfortable about. "However, I'm afraid if I don't tell you now, I'll never have the courage to." She admitted. "You don't have to." Echo said, keeping his eyes on the girl. "I don't want you to push yourself." "It's fine." Kira replied. "It will help to talk about it anyways." Kira took a deep breath and looked down at her hands in her lap which had become oddly interesting. "My mom and dad were never exactly happy when I was younger." Memories of a time she swore she would forget rushed her mind as the words spilled from her mouth. "My dad... my dad was a bad guy." She added. "He would hurt my mom if she didn't do what he said. Sometimes he would hurt her even if she did what he said. There was a lot of yelling. Many times I would lock me and my little sister in my room and hide until the yelling was over." She bit her lip as she remembered the way her dad would treat her mother. "And when my mom wasn't enough for him... he'd come after me." She said and her voice shook ever so slightly. "But I always thought better me then my sister." "Kira..." Echo said softly. He reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You are so strong." The words broke her. A tear fell down her cheek as she shuddered. "One day it got to be too much. He had a gun... he was gonna hurt my mom, worse then he ever had. And I-" she paused for a moment. "I snapped. I had always slept with a gun under my pillow and I finally used it. I shot him. I shot him three times in the chest. I killed him and I was only seventeen." "Kriff." Fives said as they listened to her. "I'm so sorry." He said. "Yeah... that sounds terrible. I'm real sorry about that." Echo added. "But you're not there anymore. You're with us now." Echo said and kira's watery brown eyes looked up at the men. "Yeah, and the past is in the past. You're with us and you're one of us Vodika." Kira raised a brow. "Vod-what?" "Vodika." Fives replied. "It means sister."

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A noise broke the sensitive chatter of the conversation between the three. A high pitch ring caused Kira to freeze. "What is that? Do you hear it too?" Echo asked. Kira's eyes widened as she instantly reached down to her pants for the source of the sound. "Holy shit." She hissed as she brought a small black box to the table. "What the- what is that?" Fives asked. "And can you please make it stop?" Echo added as its loud ringing had grown incredibly loud. "It's my pager. I completely forgot that I brought it with me into the plane." She said as she pressed a button causing it to fall silent. "A what?" Fives asked. "You have com links, we have pagers. They're similar in function." She said as she flipped the pager over to look at its small screen to reveal the message someone was trying to send her. The message was very confusing. It took her several times to read over it before she finally grasped it. "What are you reading?" Echo asked. "There's a message on here." She explained. "And what does it say?" Fives asked. "It says, 'DEAD OR ALIVE? PLEASE RESPOND. CHELS."

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"What was that all about? Dead or alive?" Fives asked with a raised brow. Kira stared down at the small box, dumbfounded by the message that came through. A strange feeling washed over her, like she could sense the emotions of someone else. "It's Chelsea." She replied. "Wasnt she one of the voices we heard on Rex's com in the gunship?" Echo asked and Kira nodded. "Yeah... she's looking for me." She replied. The emotions she could sense were Chelsea's. "The authorities told her I was dead." She added, putting the puzzle pieces together. "But she doesn't Believe them." She added with a small smile. "Way to go Chels." She muttered under her breath. Fives and Echo shared a look. "Well," Fives said, speaking up through the strange occurrence. "I think you've had enough to drink tonight." He said. "I think it's time we head back to the barracks anyways. It's getting late and we've all had a long day."