Terminal

Chapter 16

The nightmares came back.

"What are you waiting for?"

"I don't know, sir." I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. I was back as a recruit, the old red coat enveloping me. The officer slaps me across the face, and I resist the urge to bring my hand up.

"The enemy won't be as nice as these holograms. A moment's hesitation will cost you." He yanks the rifle out of my hands, and looks down its sights, quickly firing afterwards. The hologram in front of us dissipates. He starts walking away.

"What are you doing?" The officer sets the rifle down, and throws me a pistol.

"If you can't shoot a rifle, then you might as well start with the most pathetic of guns." He stands impatiently, staring at me. "Well?" I throw my hands up.

"Geesh, give me a break."

"You're not gonna have that break out there." He continues ranting at me and I ignore him. I start firing, dead on, bullet after bullet. I count the shots. Figure I could do something fancy to show that son-of-a-bitch what I can do. I reach my last bullet, spinning the pistol around, and brought it back up to fire. I pull the trigger, and time seems to slow. When the bullet was about a foot away from the hologram, it morphs into Hattori. My hand shakes, and it feels like the bullet entered my head instead of his-

My eyes snap open, and I'm greeted by the floor. I groan, picking myself off the ground. I'd somehow fallen out of bed. It's been a week since Hattori's death. Shaking my head, I change out of my pajamas into my uniform. Glancing at the mirror, I straighten myself out, and grabbed a dagger, cutting some of my hair. It was returning to its usual charcoal black, the ends still platinum. I could cut the rest of it off, but it kinda looks nice, so I left it alone. I boot up my laptop. Recently, I've started a new program on there. I was looking for someone, though it was literally the same as looking for a needle in a haystack. I sigh, pulling the program up. "Anything new..." I murmur, looking for progress. The search radius was lowered considerably. Must had found something new. I set the laptop on my bed, closing the lid, and walked out. For once, I've overslept. I don't know why, nor did I care. I start heading towards the training center when an officer greets me in the hallway.

"Ma'am, the Commander wishes to speak to you," he says.

"Yeah, yeah." I wave him off, heading to Ren's office. He doesn't deserve that Commander rank. A few minutes later, I push open his doors, walking through. Ren raises a glass to me.

"Akira." He takes a sip of his drink. "How have you been?"

"I'm fine," I say rather quickly. His eyebrow raises.

"Care for a drink yourself?"

"No, I'm fine." He pours me a cup anyways, handing it to me. I take a sip, and almost immediately spit it out. "The hell is this? I've never tasted anything so damn sweet..."

"It's tea. Probably put too much sugar in it." He shrugs, taking another sip. "Anyways, I wanted to say that for your loss, you'll be excused from your duties for a week." I choke, and start going of into a coughing fit. After a few seconds, I look up at him.

"What do you mean, 'excused'? I don't need a break."

"According to other people, you do. My god, I've never seen anyone say no to a vacation so quickly." I down the rest of the drink, Ren watching me with- was that sadness?- some confusion and a bit of amusement.

"Look here. I don-"

"Are you questioning me?" I shut up immediately. "You are to take a break. That's an order. Don't make me force you to do this. I don't know how anyone would anyways..." he mutters. I set my glass down on his desk, rather hard too. Ren smiles at me. "You'll soon be wondering why you even doubted me in the first place Akira." I don't answer him. Why was he suddenly being nice? Has he finally gotten over blaming me for everything? I sigh, heading for the door. Ren takes another sip.

"Have a nice break," he calls out after me.