"William, pay attention!" The commander snapped, and he looked up, staring tiredly at the display projected onto a wall. There were maybe forty of them in here, supposedly learning important tidbits for the mission ahead- as far as he was concerned, this didn't make any difference though.
"William," The commander asked, angling his head. "Do you have some kind of a problem? Because if you do, I can assign you to bathroom duty for a-"
"No, sir." William cut him off, making his stance clear under the mask of respect. For a moment, the commander stared, jaw twitching before he scowled and returned to the presentation.
"Angels and demons follow a scale; lesser, standard, greater, arch and God. We don't know if Gods are real- if they are, they're the most elusive bastards we've ever heard of. Now, as far as archangels, archdemons; rumor has it there are less than five hundred in the world, and less than forty documented. Of those, all are in positions of power or heavy influence."
The slide flicked to a castle in the mountains, and a few pictures of assorted people.
"This is Wolfpack; the Mirian Queen's go to, right hand, private military, you name it. It is comprised of several powerful archdemons, and will be a major force we must contend with and kill. The King states that there is a plan in motion to take care of them, but we cannot trust that on its own; the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
"Lif," He began, as the slide flicked. "He's an archdemon with regenerative abilities and the strength to remove a building from its very foundation, but aside from that, he's not something to be afraid of."
The presentation continued; Haru, Fox, Cecil, Alexander, Aerendyl, the names began to blur together, and William found his attention wandering once again.
Aurelia, when she appeared on the screen; he recognized her. From the fair, and the announcement of the summoning… she'd been drinking. He hadn't seen any of her non-human traits then, sure, but… he recognized the eyes, one green and one blue. He was sure of it, and suddenly, William wasn't in that intel room to be briefed. Suddenly, he was standing in a place far away; not necessarily in distance, but in years.
"We have to turn her in," His mother snapped, vehement, spittle flying from her lips as William stood before a young angel in the barn.
"She's a girl same age as me!!" William screamed, stamping his foot. "I thought adults were supposed to protect children!!"
"You don't understand what they'll do to us, if they find her!!" His mother snarled, already dialing on her phone. "Hello? I need to report an angel-"
"MAMA I HATE YOU!!!" WIlliam had screamed with everything in him. "SHE'S IN DANGER- SHE WAS BLEEDING!!!!"
William snapped himself out of it, frowning as tears pricked the backs of his eyes. He hadn't seen his mother in a long, long time- some days he wished he had the strength to reach out and call her before the chance was gone forever, but… for what?
He had become just what she always wanted; a good man with no ties to angels, or demons.
William steeled himself and dragged his attention back to the presentation. It was better this way, he tried to convince himself. Better without giving them a chance to prove him wrong.
If they attacked him- then it was easy. Then it was just defending himself. What would I do though, if I ran into another kid? Sniveling and bleeding in the hay- could I shoot that just because it doesn't look like me? I don't think I could. I think I'd probably… probably bite the bullet myself.
"Any questions?" The commander asked, and William blinked rapidly, swallowing. Nobody spoke.
"Dismissed. William, see me in my office," The commander added, turning and walking away- exhausted, the dark-haired soldier followed, clearing his throat.
"In your previous field exploration you lurked at the back of the crowd," He, the boss, the commander, spoke bluntly, sitting down at his desk as WIlliam closed the door. "They say you seem less than enthusiastic about this war. My fear is that you're going to turn your weapons on your fellow men."
"I'm enthusiastic," William stated flatly, staring.
"Don't lie to me William, I didn't get put in leadership because I can't read through a simple lie."
"We're murderers," William set his jaw, trying and failing to sound casual about it and finally meeting his commander's eyes. "We go in there and kill them because one might be bad-"
"Quiet," The commander whispered, holding up a hand. For a long, tense moment, they only stared at each other. Commander Staffington was the next to speak.
"I'm going to be kind, and pretend that you didn't say that. We aren't fighting to murder innocent lives, William."
"We started this war," He whispered. "We started it, and if you think that we aren't the ones encroaching on innocent lives, then-"
"Soldier," Staffington snapped, rising to his feet. "They entered our home, fucked up OUR summoning-"
"WE wanted to summon those supposed HEROES for MURDER!!" William snapped back, and the commander suddenly drew a taser, firing it into William's chest. His world exploded in a flash of color, and he hit his knees, head swimming; people were shouting, hands were grabbing at him… and soon, he went under, falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.
-
Haru could hardly breathe; forget making it to base, they barely crashed into a cheap hotel room before she had Fox against the wall; and then yelped as her back hit a desk.
"Careful," Fox exhaled desperately, chest heaving. "Wouldn't want any noise complaints would we?" She laughed, and there was a snarl in her voice.
Time melted; Haru's voice broke at some point, somewhere between noticing that her nipples felt raw from scraping against the sheets and that her legs were going numb. She tried to give as good as she got, but Fox's voice calling her adorable, pathetic, and asking if it was her first time made her head burn hotter until her entire face felt like nothing more than boiling iron in a forge.
At some point, Haru passed out, moaning about how the bed was ruined, and how this was so fucked up, or whatever else badger girls mumble about when they're broken; Fox only smiled at her job well done- so to say- before nodding off as well.
Downstairs, meanwhile, a very disgruntled Lily was paying for the rooms of the guests leaving, pleading with the innkeeper not to kick her big sister out.
When Haru woke, the next morning, she groaned, feeling quite as though she'd been hit by a train; one knee bent, panties hanging uselessly from her left thigh, otherwise naked, breasts flattened against her chest under their own weight. Fox snored softly beside her, similarly naked, eyes closed blissfully, ears twitching in her sleep.
Somehow… it wasn't embarrassing. Haru winced as she sat up though, looking down; she felt as though her back was bruised, and it didn't take long to figure out why- the massive crack in the middle of the desk told her a bit, anyway.
Standing up slowly and fully kicking her panties off, Haru wandered to the bathroom after finding her phone, texting the rest of Wolfpack.
Haru: [Where are we all at? There was a small attack in the capitol just to scare; Charlotte and I handled it.]
Charlotte: [True! Handled it like Fox handled your ass last night, jesus christ you made half the inn flee outside. And you're supposed to report after something happens, not after you sit on your local foxgirl's face, moron. :P]
Aurelia: [Indeed, Haru, try to update more promptly next time. And let's keep the discussions about our chosen methods of stress relief… offline]
Aurelia: [Honestly forget the formal leader talk for a second. I'm glad we're all okay. Cobalt let me know Alexander is waking up, too, so I hope he's doing okay. Haru, please try not to make Wolfpack look like a joke, but, you and Fox have been holding back a while, glad you finally snapped. Or whatever.]
Lif: [Gay women Party…? :)]
Ica: [Hella gay women party. My kinda jam.]
Charlotte: [Liar, you wouldn't touch a woman with a ten foot pole- you'd take the ten foot pole and, well, you know]
Aurelia: [Guys…]
-Lif, Ica, Charlotte reacted to Aurelia's message with '?'
Aurelia: [Come on guys, this is serious. War is brewing.]
Charlotte: [We're taking it seriously. But war or no war, the sun is gonna rise and set, and we're going to be here until we're not. Nothing wrong with cracking a few jokes, is there?]
Aurelia: [Fair. Sorry.]
Haru: [Nothing to be sorry for. I'm going to get in the shower, see y'all back at base this afternoon?]
Aurelia: [Cobalt will come get you and Fox at Noon, just meet her at the local plaza where you were dropped off, Queenie is fine with it.]
Haru: [Alright, thanks.]
Smiling quietly to herself, Haru tossed her phone aside and stepped under the spray; which, by now, was warm and comfortable, melting the fog that seemed to have settled into her sore muscles slowly.
After a while, Fox poked her head into the bathroom, groaning, and looked at the shower and its glass door.
"Haru…? I feel so hungover," the shortstack groaned, walking closer.
"Water," Haru mumbled back, nodding to herself and still working on getting her hair clean. "We both need a lot of it, after last night, all the fighting and moving and-"
"Yeah," Fox agreed, yawning. "Charlotte texted me that she already headed back, said she wants to join us next time though. Can't tell if she was joking. If she wasn't, I'm still number one, right?"
"Uh, yeah," Haru snorted, rolling her eyes. "Chill, I'm not some kind of harem protagonist."
"Just saying, if she's serious, she's our pet, I'm above her," Fox laughed quietly, tugging at the door. "Come on, lemme in, I wanna get clean too, no weird motives, I'm too tired…"
"Yeah yeah," Haru rolled her eyes, noticing only then that the shower had latched itself shut- maybe a safety feature? Seemed dumb on a glass door- but either way, she unlatched it, and Fox yanked the door open, nimbly stepping in.
"Guess you're going to jail," Fox hummed, wrapping her arms around Haru's waist, shivering.
"Why is that?"
"You made fun of me for being short and said to let you know when I reach highschool," Fox smirked, snorting. "Criminal old lady out here~"
"Oh fuck off," Haru laughed quietly, splashing water onto the shorter girl's face. "I said you're shorter than the average thirteen year old to bully you, not because I meant it."
"So mean to me," Fox sighed, nodding. "Always making fun of me for being vertically challenged. I hate you, I really do."
"Yeah, yeah, I hate you too," Haru mumbled calmly, closing her eyes. Sure, a war was brewing. Sure, lots of people might die- but people always die in droves, it's how being mortal works. Right now, there's just this shower- just us.
-
When William woke, it felt like hell- like swimming through layers of molasses with a thousand quilts on the surface trying to hold him down. Everything in his body screamed for mercy, like he'd been run through a meat grinder, and it took him a great deal of difficulty to open one eye.
The first thing he registered was the sound of dripping water from… somewhere. The second was the coarse cloth under his cheek; he lay, it seemed, on some sort of poorly-sewn cot. What was more confusing; he wasn't tied down.
"Ah…" The young man groaned, looking up; there were strong metal bars, and he lay in a cell. Wincing, he slowly stood up.
No use fighting it- I should have bitten my tongue. I should have made it a grand story; where I turn the tide of battle at a crucial moment with my betrayal, like some sort of heroic soldier of destiny from a novel- but no, this isn't a novel. There's just me, and I can't… I just can't.
"Anybody there? I'm waiting on the dramatic monologue about what a traitor I am!" William called, wandering to the bars and leaning on them, arms outside the cell, looking around. He was in some sort of hallway, but that was all that he could tell from here; there were other cells, and one across from him, but that one was empty. I can't be alone here, can I?
"Ah…" Another voice, down the hall. "New guy, yeah?" It sounded like a man, and William pressed himself against the bars, straining to see; but if the speaker was in his line of sight, they hadn't come to the bars.
"Yeah, where am I?"
"This is where they keep all the soldiers discontent to make a murderer of themselves," The voice called back, drily laughing. "I'm Mark. Most of us don't talk much; but lots are asleep. S'night time."
"Got it. William, by the way," He added, nodding. "What are they going to do with us?"
"Leave us to rot, I don't know," Mark called back, laughing tiredly. "I'm hoping someone will break us out."
"Like who?" William called back, curiously angling his head and glancing over himself; he still had his jeans and the undershirt he usually wore, but his gear was, of course, gone- as were his shoes.
"I don't know," Mark admitted, sighing. "I will say though; wouldn't a gang of betrayed soldiers be a good thing to break free in the middle of a battle? Who knows, maybe Pempan assassins will save us," He added with a tired laugh.
"We may starve and die down here," William called back, laughing tiredly. "But if we do, we'll do it as good men."
"Aye. That's what my wife would have wanted from me," Mark responded softly, sighing.
"She waiting for you out there?" William called back, angling his head.
"She may be waiting for me in hell. She was a demon."
"Ah…"
"Aye. Well, William, I'm fixing to get some rest. Night, lad."
"Night, Mark."