September 12th, 2030, 12:09 pm

This morning, I was eating my breakfast when Sergeant Rory approached my table. She informed me that the Captain wants to speak with me on my lunch break. I asked her what for and she only described it as a "debriefing" for tomorrow's battle. What I have to debrief with him, I don't know, but at least it gets me out of combat training.

My sneakers patter on the tile floor of the hallway on the upper south end of Imperial Guard headquarters. With my practice shorts and gray tee, the rest of the officers around outdress me by miles. I didn't notice it during training earlier, but even Rory snuck off to change into her formal attire. I wish I was given that opportunity, because now I get stares from the officers that pass us on the bench outside the Captain's office.

Rory adjusts her braid to fall over her shoulder and cover her Queen's City eagle. She glances at me, scanning my slumped body. "How are you feeling?"

"Stressed," I say without a thought. "You?"

She faces the door and leans against the wall behind us. "Yeah, same here. This week flew by. By this time tomorrow, we'll be in position, waiting for the beast to strike." She observes as two women in pantsuits discussing tomorrow's plans pass our seat. "If you told me three years ago that this is what I would be signing up for, I probably wouldn't be here."

"I don't blame you. If I had any choice, I wouldn't be here either. But obviously," I snicker, "that wasn't what happened."

"I have no idea how you're not freaking out right now."

"Trust me, I am," I admit. "I just do a poor job of showing it."

The door labeled Captain teeters open before us. Brian stands in the entrance frame and grins at the Sergeant. She rises to her feet as if on cue, and I mimic.

"Thank you, Sergeant. If you wouldn't mind staying another twenty minutes or so, I can give him right back to you." The Captain waves me toward him. "I promise this won't be long."

I enter his office and he closes the door behind me. I lumber to the seat in front of his desk and collapse into it. He sits on his desk, stretching his legs out between us.

"Is everything okay?" I inquire. "Rory told me it was urgent."

"Not necessarily. I just wanted to talk to you once this week before tomorrow's events." He crosses his arms and ankles. "How are you doing? Everything okay so far?"

I lay back, my body unproportionate on a downward slope in the chair. "For the most part, yeah. I'm trying to stay as confident as possible so that everyone else feels confident too."

"That's good to hear. I'm glad you're taking this seriously." He presses off the desk and walks over to his collection of medals. "James told me you paid him a surprise visit on Monday night. He wasn't expecting it but he says it was quite productive."

I close my hands over my chest. "Yeah, I did. He almost didn't want to teach me how to sword fight but eventually caved. I basically cried on his doorstep until he let me in."

"Well, if there's any way to get James to do something, it's that."

"I didn't actually cry, just so you know."

"I figured. You're not really the crying type."

I straighten my back and sit back in the chair. "He only taught me the basics but I think it's enough to be effective. It's better than nothing."

He turns back to me with a point of his finger. "That's true; not to mention you have your powers and all. Combine that with your sword and you become our secret weapon."

The morning duel with the Colonel pokes in my memory like a thorn. My powers are going to have a definite impact, I can say that now, but I fear their extent. I have no comprehension as to how they will come out when the time comes. A part of me doesn't want to see their potential, but I know that I will have to if I want to save the Empire. It's a sacrifice I will have to make.

"How about you? I haven't heard from you all week. Been busy?" I place my foot on my opposite knee.

"God, yeah," he sighs, pacing to his desk chair. "We've been working around the clock. Meetings at two am on a whim, plans that have to be completed in a five-hour span, it's been crazy around here, not just me. This is the first break I've had since Tuesday."

"You're the one making orders?"

"All of us, actually. They just happen to always pick mine." The Captain plops into his chair and kicks his feet up onto his desk. He twirls so I can see his face. "It's a lot of work, but it pays off. I don't think I've heard General Hamilton congratulate me so many times. Even James admitted he was impressed; I was shocked."

I smile, giving rhythm to the arms of my chair. "That's good. Those orders come out tonight, right?"

He nods. "Yep, seven sharp. Petry is preparing them to be sent out as we speak."

"I'm excited to see them. I'll be sure to tear you a new one if I don't like it." My laugh twists into a nerve twitching my teeth against each other. "Are we all together? You didn't separate our class, did you?"

"Nope. You guys are stationed together. I couldn't bring myself to separate anyone, no matter how badly some officers from the other regions wanted me to. I figured it was for the best."

I loosen my chest and lay back in the chair. Craig was terrified of that; if we were separated, we could be massacred or stripped from this world and no one would ever be able to help us. I want to fight alongside my class because I care about them and I want to have the ability to protect them from the supernatural they do not understand. I wish I could help everyone all the same.

But if we run into trouble, we are there for each other. That's the most important thing. We may not be the most prepared as far as Imperial Guard training goes, but at least we have strength in numbers. It also helps that one of us has an unfair advantage and knowledge base.

"Thank you," I utter with a soft grin. "That's what I wanted from the start. Us being able to fight together was our biggest worry."

"I'm glad you feel that way." He draws his legs off his desk surface and hangs them under his desk. He stares at his feet, biting the inside of his lip. "That kind of brings me to the main reason I brought you up here."

"What's up?"

The Captain peers at me and tightens his jaw. His fingernails click against his desk. "Listen, the essential thing is that we kill this beast. We make sure it doesn't harm anyone and it doesn't come back. In the end, the ultimate goal is to suffocate the Medo and ensure that they don't retaliate and we eventually drive them out of Oltima. But that only happens if you remain safe and alive."

One of my eyebrows rises. "I promise I'll be safe, Brian. I know what's at stake."

"I believe you; I know you can defend yourself, but there's more to it than that." He clears his throat and finds his shoes again. "This isn't easy for me to express, Slater, believe me, but the possibility may arise for you to escape a dangerous situation and... leave your friends behind."

The room freezes around me. I grip the ends of the armrests.

If there was one thing I forgot in all this confusion, it was every facet of my deal with the Medo. I've been too hung up on killing this mysterious beast that I forgot that my survival is paramount in the effort to drive the Medo out of the Empire. If the future of Oltima depended on a single human life, it's mine. In the event of my death, the Medo will torment the world I left behind until it's nothing but a lifeless shell.

It's a struggle that I understand, but one that I cannot fully embrace. How could I see my class come face-to-face with the beast and flee because I'm the chosen one? I cannot place my safety over the safety of my closest friends just because of some stupid deal.

Of every hard-nosed, war-mongering officer in the Imperial Guard, Captain Brian Manchester is the one who tells me that I must be willing to abandon my fellow guards if we run into trouble. This is the man who doesn't care about much else in his occupation outside of the welfare of young guards, yet he discovered enough audacity to tell me to leave my classmates to die as long as I live.

I can't help but consider that he's saying this out of his care for me. He dreads having to see me suffer at the Medo's hands. It makes sense that all he wants out of this battle is for me to stay safe, but to go as far as to say that I come before my friends is ludicrous.

I will not become a victim nor will I allow my classmates to perish for my own sake. To even suggest such an action is a defiance of everything I uphold as both a person and a reluctant Imperial Guard. They are not sacrifices for the Empire's future, they are my friends, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure they survive this debacle.

And at this point, if it's my life or theirs, I will gladly take the fall as long as they are not harmed.

"No," I snarl with a glare. "I won't do that."

"I figured you would say that," the Captain confesses. He returns the stinging gaze. "But you have to understand that this battle is much more than just a beast. On a grand scale, this is about eliminating the Medo from Oltima. This is the first step of many, and if we want them gone, you have to do whatever it takes to survive."

I squeeze the armrests and swing my body forward. "I'm not going to do something that could get my friends killed. I don't give a shit about the Medo right now. All I care about is my friends surviving, not that stupid deal. I'll worry about it later, but right now, we have to make sure we can at least kill a beast."

"Slater, the interests of the many outweigh the interests of the few. The entire Empire is at stake."

I charge from the chair and stand in front of his nameplate. "How the fuck can you sit here and say stupid shit like that? I thought you cared about shit like this, but you sound really fucking selfish. My friends could die because of my negligence and all you care about is me getting out okay. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I understand how bad it sounds," he declares, towering over me on the other side of his desk. "But you have to be realistic. When faced with danger, your first instinct isn't to run right into it, is it? No, you're going to escape with your life. You'll be too preoccupied with your own fears that you will abandon your morals. Believe me, it happens."

"Even if it does, I won't do it. I have to lead nine terrified kids, myself included, to victory over something we have never experienced before. We have never been in a battle situation before and you want me to step aside if things go wrong when I'm the only one who knows anything about what we're up against? That's fucking pathetic. I thought being in the Imperial Guard meant I have to defend my fellow guards with my life, not to mention civilians."

"I know how it sounds, Slater, but this is the reality of the situation. If the need arises, you need to be willing to flee for your life. You can't think of it like you're abandoning your friends; they are in the Imperial Guard, too, and they will understand that you're doing this for the good of the Empire."

"I don't give a fuck if I'm the next Beauregard; I'm not leaving my friends behind," I spit, moments from leaping over the desk. "Craig wants me to stand by him tomorrow and help him kill this beast. That goes for the rest of my class, too. I made a fucking promise and I'm not going back on it."

The Captain sighs and lowers his voice. "But if things start to go downhill, could you please consider-"

"No," I bark as I press off the desk, "I'm not a fucking coward. Not like you." I slam past the chairs and tear the office door open. It takes all of my energy to close it softly behind me.

Sergeant Rory springs to her feet, brushing off her black uniform. We stand on opposite sides of the hallway, enough room for a young officer to excuse himself by. She does not look me in my eyes, but down at my arm instead.

The tangerine glow blinds me through my blurred vision.

She gulps, peeling her gaze from my mark. "Is everything okay?"

I twist to my right, facing the open hallway away from the offices. My vision clears as my nose starts to tickle. "Can we go?"