Cleo's Game

24. Perspectives

"Hi," Cleo greeted, unenthusiastically. "Hey!" Drew answered, happy to see the two of them. It was almost like they were his friends and not Cleo's. Tranquility got down and sat beside Cleo, while Mince stayed on his feet. "How's the wound? You feeling okay?" Tranquility asked, peppering her with questions. Cleo was sat with her head resting against her hands, looking like she didn't have a care in the world.

"I don't feel anything down there," she responded. "It feels numb and stiff. The medical tent was a waste of time," she ranted. "No, it wasn't, Cleo. You were seriously injured back there, and they did a great job patching you up," Drew corrected, with an impatient tone that suggested he had been dealing with this all day.

"We had a bunch of rookies come up to us. They were all excited, asking about the three of us." Mince started, trying to catch Cleo's attention. "They even asked about Francis. Seems like because that guy doesn't have any powers, he's somewhat of a superhero to rank 9. I didn't have the heart to tell them," he continued. Cleo gave a tiny chuckle. "Heart."

"The heart to tell them what?" Drew asked, with the mention of Francis grabbing the wrong person's attention in Mince's eyes. "That he was... you know... useless, that mission." "Oh?" Drew raised an eyebrow. "We didn't see the guy for ninety five fuckin' percent of the mission. He wanted to split up to cover more ground, the fuckin' moron." "You shouldn't-" Drew stopped himself mid-sentence.

"Shouldn't what? Disrespect a higher officer?" Cleo asked, sarcastically. "Muscle memory," Drew chuckled. "I won't lie, I've been in your shoes. I was your rank once." "Yeah, for like 5 minutes when you were 13," Cleo chirped in, jokingly. "What can I say? I showed my promise fast. And during my '5 minutes' as a soldier, I came across some hapless leadership figures," empathised Drew. "Maybe I still do," he shrugged, seasoning his sentence.

"I'm not far divorced from those rookies, to be honest. I'm rank 8 and I only figured things out like a week ago. Yet, I feel so different about everything. There's nothing honourable or cool about a mission. I got hurt and my friend died. I just..." Cleo had tears welling up, and she noticed that she killed the conversation. "Fuck this."

She got up quickly from the tree, much to the dismay of Drew, who thought she should be taking it easy right now. Tranquility, and even Mince, were her friends, but she didn't want to look at them. After Cleo was out of earshot, Drew apologised to the two of them, before going to follow her.

Cleo kept walking further and further until there was nobody around, ending up a significant distance from the camp. "How do you do it?" she asked, while continuing to walk. "How do I do what?" "You just... I'm sure you've lost friends too, haven't you?" Cleo asked, stopping walking. "I have." "How do you just stay the same afterwards? I don't want to laugh, I don't want to smile, I don't want to do anything that I did before! I'm just... done."

"I'm sure you've seen how serious-faced I am around my peers. I felt the same way as you after my first mission. Some guys that I knew from my first training session, people that I made promises to make it to the end with. People I had to watch die. I never wanted to crack a smile again. You know what, though? I think a life without laughter would kill me. Can you remember a time in our lives when things weren't tough?"

"Not really." "We've adapted to surroundings where many would crumble. I've had both negative and positive outlooks, but neither of them changed reality. We're gonna be stuck here until the war ends, sis." Cleo turned to face Drew, with her previous tears dried up. "When will that happen?" she asked. "Either when Blewrythe and Endt agree, or when one of them dies. Considering how diametrically opposed they are, I think we're waiting for the latter."

"What's the war even about?" Cleo asked. "Even I don't know all of the answers. From what I do know, Endt appreciates the people of the island in a different light to Blewrythe; he wants to use the strength of the hybrids and elementals to establish himself atop of all nations. Blewrythe disagrees, calling it useless imperialism. Perhaps there's more to the story, but from a glance, we're fighting to prevent their side from violently establishing an empire."

"You'd think that a cause like that wouldn't be kept secret," Cleo responded. "Again, I don't have the whole story. You're better off asking some like Blake; she actually reads up on this sort of stuff." Cleo visibly recoiled at the mention of her name. "That dumb brute reads more than you?" Cleo spat in an irritated tone. "Oh, you and Blake have fallen out?"

"I hate that bitch. She bullies everyone and gets away with it. We only ever trained together, and that's it," Cleo ranted. "Oh, that's odd. She speaks quite highly of you to me," Drew replied. Cleo went bright red, feeling strong embarrassment and stronger confusion. "Forget her. Regardless, I'm not asking her about anything. There is no help I need from the likes of her," Cleo rattled on, making it clear she has very strong feelings about Blake. Drew couldn't be bothered to continue on the topic of Blake; it seemed like Cleo had an opinion on her and endless amounts of energy to defend it.

"Alright, no Blake then," Drew laughed. "You ready to go back?" "I don't know if I ever can go back to normal; you made it sound so easy when you explained your experience, but I just really hate everything that I'm putting my life on the line and working for. Unless I forget that entire mission, the mission that was driven by incompetence and ended in despair, I don't think I can go back."

"I meant back to camp." "Oh. Yeah, okay."