Xen winced as an iodine pad got pressed against his blood gashed cheek. He kept gulping down the blood that kept pooling inside. His right ear was still ringing and he could not feel his lower jaw. But at the moment, the stench of phenol and disinfectant felt more abusive to him than the whole experience altogether.

He loathed infirmaries or anything remotely related to that pungent stench but didn't have the heart of uttering that at the moment. Just across the room, Rayo was standing against the wall with her arms crossed like some bad news. She was making some serious talks with Jane occasionally glancing between him and the rest. Apparently, not a promising setting for voicing his thoughts.

Beside him Derek was answering all the questions about his allergies and whatnot to the nurse charting down his details and right beside him on an empty tool sat Claire, glaring at him. If she could shoot laser with her eyes, she would have fried him and revived him again for repeating all over. He groaned at the thought of all the melodies Claire would be wailing down his ears as soon as she got some sweet me time with him.

Not a tempting site either

Claire's all-time quoted wise words rang in his ears

It could have been handled differently

Xen had no plan of changing his forever master plan of deflecting her accusations but this time, Xen could not even deflect himself. Even though a bare whisper, his right brain was in conflict with his left. He was tired of listening to the murderous hymn playing beside his ears about oh how lucky they were that they did not die and whatnot in the past few days. It was killing him. He was not a person to mourn a future that never existed in the present that he lived. What did not happen simply did not happen. End of the story for him.

But after they came out of that freaky person's chamber that day, the weight of what Claire warned him of suddenly started dawning on him. Xen suddenly felt like he made sure that they got the fair share of bad luck that they were evading all along. He didn't care much about what happened to him but he dragged Derek and Claire through the mud with him and the thought was biting his head.

Xen scowled internally. The way that Colonel only mentioned his assault on the Major of House 8 seemed like such a low move.

Yeah and what I've on my body are Halloween make-ups!

He gulped again. He had never heard of such a ridiculous punishment for getting into a fight and his experience in that field was plenty.

The elderly nurse attending him noticed his scrunched-up expression and parted his lips with a spatula. She quickly placed a dish in front of him as blood rushed out of his mouth, rubbing his back. Derek and Claire got panicky seeing him cough out blood.

"Oh dear! You younglings really should know what to swallow and what to spittle, " she said warmly like she was scolding one of her grandkids and gently dabbed off the blood from his lips. Her warmth made his ears red. He suddenly felt like a bad little kid for trying to hide it. He coughed off in the dish again. But his blush soon got replaced by panic as she started lying him on his back. She inserted a sucker and endoscopy tube in his mouth to pump out the extra blood and fix the laceration at its origin.

There goes my ticket of getting out of here

A loud bang reverberated in the whole room stopping everyone on their tracks.

"AAAAOUCH!!! What the fuck was that for?" Lynx cried out in pain. He was getting tended on the bed across Xen.

"Why the Hell did you beat him like that?!!! Look at all the blood he just puked" Jennifer hurled at Lynx jabbing him once again. She and Liam just came back after paying the fines.

"Hey! I'm not the only one who beat someone!"

" Don't. Justify your action Ly. You're a frigging trained Nix. And he. Just got here. How dare you try to justify your action you punk?!?! " Jennifer jabbed him, this time louder and harder.

Man! DAMN!!! This. Looks like the job of some newbie to ya? The dude broke my 3 ribs, smashed my forehead and I'll be called the crooked-nosed stud for the next week thanks to his little artwork on my nose, what am I gonna do about that huh?!!! " Lynx retorted in a nasal tone as the nurse stuffed his nostrils with a new set of cotton to soak the dripping blood. But that earned him the least of her pity.

"Awww!!! You and Xen are made for each other. Are you guys gonna kiss next? Should we give you guys room? " Liam said, sarcasm oozing from each word.

"Not funny man, hey watch it lady" Lynx snapped at both Liam and his nurse as she sealed the stitch on his forehead.

Liam just scoffed at him and walked to the middle of the room. "Alright guys," Liam clapped his hands drawing their attention," since some you are alphabetically challenged, " he said looking at the three,

" and some mentally," this time looking at Lynx,

" I'm gonna sum up the official DOCB (Decree for Correctional Behavior) so that none of you run around like some mentally deranged baboons smacking their heads everywhere."

We gotta remove 13 mines from the Harlin forest. No machinery or technical support is going to be provided by the facility. We are allowed to carry nothing exceeding 5 kg. individually. Scouts will take us to the Lover's Point sharp at 6 in the morning. Everyone's to be ready accordingly. So...any questions fellas?"

-

"No? Alright. Now keep your brains and hands to yourselves. You'll be needing them tomorrow," Liam finished, glancing between Lynx and Xen.

Derek and Claire looked at Xen anxiously. He didn't seem like in any shape to even move. The old lady looked at them with lively eyes. "Oh don't! this lad here will be hopping and running in just an hour, " she said as she turned some knobs
and took off her black hospital gear. "I'm here al'right?"

They nodded, sighing.

It was almost midnight when Xen was in a manageable enough state to go back to their quarters. He had no idea what it was that he chewed in the dinner table or did he chew anything at all. The moment his back touched his bed, his whole world fell into darkness in one swift motion.

Rayo jolted up on her bed gasping for air. Her throat was drought dry, scuffling against any air trying to get in. She fumbled around for her water jar on the nightstand and gulped it down hastily trying to fill up the hallowing hollow.

After downing the whole jar, Rayo finally calmed down a little. Her head was throbbing due to suddenly jolting up from her deep slumber. The remnants of the nightmare kept raving in her mind like some broken record. Always ending with blinding lights.

Stupid brain and its lousy connection!

Rayo heaved a heavy sigh and looked at the watch blinking red. It was 3 in the morning. She knew better from experience that sleep was not going to visit her for the time being.

Rayo groggily got up from her bed and walked to the window. She cracked it open, letting in a splash of night air.

Rayo inhaled the earthly scent and looked outside. A colossal blood moon was brooched on the velvet sky, bathing Harlin with its unending expanse of shimmering red. She rested her palms on the window still and closed her eyes trying to completely wash away any remnant of the ghoulish nightmare. The putrid fog in her mind started lifting gradually as a soothing sense of serenity kept sipping in its place instead with each breath she took. Soon her mind was in tune with her body again bringing her back to the present.

She could not believe they got their first strike within just 72 hours of becoming Corporals. No Corporals since the establishment of Phoenix ever got strike this early.

Pfft! Us making history left and right

She scowled. Down, far away a strong wind blew over the tall redwood trees, rustling their tops with others.

Tomorrow we'd be going down there, amidst an unearthed depth of chaos

Rayo thought. That forest was a maze on its own. Not even the most skilled souls could get through all of it in any less than a month. Rayo was not comfortable taking the three in that vast an expanse just like that. Someone who could walk in anywhere without any restrains could walk out of it too.

There is just no barricade there

Rayo clicked her tongue. She watched them today. Other than the head smashing and red stain on their clean slates, her deduction was right to its core. She, of course, always considers a 5% deviation beforehand due to the unpredictability of the human mind. She had been curious till then as to why send three people instead of one and today she got her answer.

Rayo purposefully left them just at the prime time in the facility to observe their actions. Liam and Rayo kept a watch on them today in turns and they did not fail to impress her.

As they tackled a completely foreign situation, Rayo realized they were complimentary of each other. Each of them had a piece that the other lacked and in turns, nourished each other with their own boons.

In her mind, Rayo marked Xen as the pawn, the seemingly compromised piece in chess but a force to reckon if wielded right.  Xen had raw stamina strong enough to take on the enemy by storm. But what he lacked was the genius to chanel it.

That's where Claire came in, their bishop. The one to direct her will seemingly any number of squares in any diagonal direction and improve their defense while improvising their offense.

But  Derek here...

Rayo frowned. There was something about him that Rayo could feel but couldn't quite put see. The energy that he exhumed was meek. He was not the most reliable one when it came to physical brawls and neither was he the fastest in strategic combat. But there was something about him that put the rest two in their best shape and it wasn't just her feeling in the gut. Rayo saw their brain activity Lynx sent when they were separately placed and also saw those readings today when they were together. The only one whose wave signature did not change was Derek's. While the other two showed completely different signatures, today their signature became almost a straight line the moment they united with him. Derek was like their rock, the rook of the board.

But there was this knot in her gut telling her that she was missing something. Jacob's words ringed in her ears as she went over the whole thing in her mind.

It's all the view Magpie

Jacob was the one who taught her to think this way. One day Jacob was teaching chess to Liam one on one while Liam was going on and on about how cool it would have been if the pieces could turn into each other like those Transformer Autobots that he saw on TV, then the game would have been so blood curdlingly cool. Jacob kept on teaching the rules with his everlasting grin, making sure to not ebb Liam's excitement one bit. He was an enabler. He never restrained them from dreaming of anything, no matter how weird it sounded.

While Jacob was explaining the moves piece by piece Rayo frowned.

" Which one of them is the most powerful one then?" she asked not being able to find a pattern in them.

Jacob smiled. " There isn't one Magpie. That's the beauty of it. It's all and none at the same time."

"I don't get it," she whispered in her tiny voice,"  who charges them to victory when everything falls apart?"

"This, Magpie, is the best strategy, not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Mounting all your strength on just one piece is the equivalent of losing all your strength with the loss of that one piece. Dividing it on the other hand is genius!"

Rayo looked at him, her lips a straight line.

"You see each piece has a specialty of its own. You see this," Jacob said pointing at a pawn," seemingly they are pointless. Can move only one 
square at a time, that also in one direction mostly. But their strength is in their number. They are the most abundant piece here. And given they get to the last square, they can resurrect anyone. Even the queen. Like this, every piece has its own unique trait which separately is almost pointless but together, they are a force reckon with."

Rayo pouted. She was more of a fan of brute force strategy like Tori back then. Smashing enemy on the way till there was no one standing. She hated setting out traps of loopholes and strategy and waiting around like a hungry spider till its prey lost its way and settled on it.

"You got a question bud?"

"Well, then how do I tell where my powers are spreading out on a battlefield? I can't keep an eye on all of them," she said standing on her toes, her eyes on level with the chessboard.

Jacob chuckled and took her on his lap. "It's all in the view Magpie. Change your view and you'll miss none."

Rayo sighed reminiscing those days.

What am I missing Jacob? Tell me