"Hit!" a muffled voice called out, as Eliza kept her shoulders straight. “Miss!" Eliza took in a deep breath, aiming down the sights… Miss.

  “You can do better.” Lilly scoffed as Kaz watched on. The pair of eyes made her nervous, unsteadying her aim as her drones and pistol muzzles aimed awry. “How about this…” Stepping forward, Lilly flicked a lever, changing the target to… a combatant?

  They had a holographic pistol raised at Eliza.

  Slowly, Lilly nudged Kazuki next to Eliza. “Hmm?” Kazuki seemed just as confused as Eliza.

  ”Kazuki’s on death’s doorstep, you know?” Lilly blurted out.

  Instantly, Kazuki’s eyes dashed at Lilly, and for a moment, Eliza thought Kazuki would discipline his own disciplinarian.

  However, Lilly continued, “That target’s gunning for him, muzzle primed to tear Kaz to shreds.”

  “I’d just overclock, you know?” Kazuki’s face calmed.

  Lilly glared. “Shut.”

  Eliza slowly nodded, glaring at the gunman's target. Sounds of gunfire whizzed past her, slamming into the steel shields and plasma gates.

  Eliza felt the whole galaxy slow down as adrenaline-filled oxygen filled her muscles with a deep breath. With a single release, she opened fire.

  A modicum of stress permeated through Eliza’s mind… And with Kazuki under fire… a string of bolts crashed into the target, sending the projection screeching downwards.

  A smile rose on Eliza’s face as she gently placed the drones and pistol down. Liz then scrambled to turn the safety on.

  “Whoops… Sorry, nearly missed that…”

  Lilly chuckled. "Half a year ago, I didn’t think I’d be the one to train you to survive," she said.

  "Well, I don't believe you even wanted me here half a year ago.”

  "True, true," Lilly said. ”Kazuki?” "Amateur," he remarked, even as the smell of plasma and gunpowder filled the three’s noses. Eliza grumbled, gently bonking him across the head. "I'm not lying. Better an amateur than nothing. You’ll survive… some firefights… You’ve made progress.”

  Eliza took that as a decisive victory, high-fiving Kazuki. "Well, I’ve survived so far!” Eliza remarked. “What’s next?”

  "Nothing," Kazuki said. "Keep practising. A hundred metres out with pinpoint accuracy – at least.”

  "If you're trying to shoot with a pistol beyond that range, then you're insane," Lilly remarked. "But, if you could… you’ll probably be half as sharp a sharpshooter that Quinn is.”

  Eliza merely smiled and nodded, turning back out to the hit targets.

  Then, Lilly raised an eyebrow. "You better not be misunderstanding me," she said. "I'm here to train you. If you were one of my normal recruits, I'd scream at you to stop fucking shaking your hands; maybe go replace them or something. Hell, maybe that’d help Kaz shoot straight too.”

  Eliza nervously grunted and nodded. "Sorry," she said. "I’ve made quite enough progress, right, Kaz?”

  "We’ll make you a marksman yet,” replied Kazuki.

  Her eyes narrowed when she asked, “Was that sarcasm?”

  Staring back, the golden eyes shifted to the side as Kazuki grunted, “No.”

  A lie?! "You were being sarcastic, weren't you?!"

  Eliza got close. As she raised her hand, a tug came to Kazuki’s ear. Then, he pretended to not notice, humming away.

  "Stop humming the Nebuta banzai…"

  ”It’s Kanpai, not banzai,” he replied.

  ”Ugh… why do I put up with you…” Eliza moaned before gently hitting Kaz on his vest-plate.

  Slowly, both of them turned to Lilly, arms crossed and with a non-amused glare. A vein on her forehead was bulging...

  "Oh..."

  "Ahem," Lilly started, taking a step forward before tugging at the collar of her combat jacket, then Eliza’s. "Kazuki, you didn't get taught that professionalism thing back in Clandestine, right?”

  ”I was sixteen. No,” said Kazuki plainly.

  Lilly sighed. "Ugh... I was right about our bet then, Kazuki.”

  "Bet?" inquired Eliza, rather curious about what was lost by Kazuki.

  "Don't worry about it," Kazuki said. "It's nothing important." With that, he got a notification on his phone. ’What?’ He then paused… ‘What.’

  Was it good news? Eliza bounced around, trying to peer at Kazuki’s face to get a good read, yet he kept turning. "Kaz?" 'Alright...' Kazuki said, cutting off the call. He turned to the rest of them, a fire burning within the golden eyes. "Archius has found her. Deadzone. Imperial-Era Citadel. Sato’s order for tetanus shots has already been sent out.”

  "We found the bastards?" Lilly inquired. "Finally, about time to get some shots in!”

  Kazuki shook his head. "That's a negative, Lilly. Deltastring’s in reserve; you'll be tasked with protecting Eliza. She still has one day left in the semester. After that, you'll be freed to join the preparations."

  Half expecting some retort, Eliza waited for it – but Lilly replied simply, "Sure. Make sure you don’t launch the operation too soon.”

  "There'll be leftovers," Kazuki added. "Don't worry." With that, he turned and made his way to the exit. "I will bring news of this to Kelina and Hamzarhi. The sooner this is organized, the sooner you can all sleep well at night.”

  He left the room cleanly and without another word. Eliza’s uplink then buzzed.

  'Hey, Eliza! Are you at uni yet? I'm bored,' Chloé messaged her. 'Please...'

  Eliza jumped up. "I have places to go!’

  Lilly grumbled. "Something important?”

  "No?"

  "Then stay!" Lilly beckoned. "Getting the basics hammered home will make everything else easy. Whatever you have can wait, alright?” She crossed her arms once more.

  "But... I was requested, some stuff with the Student Exec," Eliza equivocated, believing that to be why Chloé called for her. "I'm... the President."

  Lilly stared at Eliza before closing her eyes with a sigh. "Fine..." she said. "Tch... Go ahead, I’ll be coming as well, since it seemed Kaz wanted his bodyguards with him. I’ll take Quinn over as well, see whatever this… uni life is all about.”

  "You don't know?" asked Eliza.

  "Never went," Lilly said. "Never had many opportunities. I trained people in the past, it’s how I got to where I am.” It was spoken with an air of melancholy.

  "Well, we're still living," Eliza mumbled. "We always have time to make changes, you know! Why don't you? I mean, you're free from Clandestine's grasp..."

  Then, they left the firing range. Eliza pretended to not notice Lilly sighing beneath her breath, as they passed through halls and guarded chambers to reach the hangar bay.

  ”We can’t just change, you know?” Lilly murmured. Then, she raised her voice. “Let’s get you down planet-side safely, then.” ? ? ?

  Rocking a comfy short top jacket and jeans, Eliza’s university gates were waltzed straight passed by Eliza and her allies, Osmond might not be included directly, but he seemed like a swell chap! Quinn was eyeing everything up, from the large floating islands across the campus to the hovering trains running across invisible tram lines.

  Lilly, on the other hand, simply grunted and continued to walk beside them, her arms crossed over her thick, canvas-fabric combat coat. It looked really out of place, considering most students wore thin summer attire, where even ceremonial or intelligencia capes were considered a bit too clothed.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "This... you people go here for education?" Osmond asked, in both amazement and disgust at his surroundings.

  "Well, yes." Eliza then paused, looking over at Osmond's frown. She heard of some whispers here and there of what happened, and she knows that the Narisans had it hard. ”Wait a minute…” Eliza murmured to herself. "Why don't I show you around the place? I'll pay for the condensed expressos we always drink.”

  Quinn nodded. "Free coffee, sure, why not, saves me the time for stealing it."

  Lilly whacked Quinn over the head. "Don't steal shit here, this place probably is much different from the regular run-of-the-mill shit hole we raid.”

  "Yeah..." Osmond started. "I'd prefer if you’d just stop stealing all our stuff, till I die at least.”

  "Boring," Quinn said, rolling his eyes. "Lizzie, let's get on with the tour!"

  With them in tow, Eliza showed them all around the university! First was the refectory, one of them at least. It was a large, bustling food court, in the shape of a large oval with many restaurants stacked on top of each other in layers.

  Glancing at Osmond, Eliza quickly realized how he was salivating at the sheer quantity og choice…

  "You mean... there's nothing they don't serve here?!" quirked Osmond.

  Eliza nodded. "Sorry, but we don't have time to really stay here; it gets REALLY busy right before the final exams," she said. "If you’d like, I can recommend places around the district. I’ve lived here for quite a few years, after all.”

  Osmond's head nodded up and down before Eliza could even finish. "Absolutely!” The idea of having so much food at a dial’s away must have gotten Osmond rather excited, thought Eliza, though it did make sense, with him coming from a place where they were in a constant nuclear blizzard…

  "Ey, wait up," Quinn cut in. "Don't fatten up for summer, the food gets much better around Irismas”

  "Quiet down, you two," Lilly said, acting like an annoying mother as she stepped in between the two, Quinn being eyed up by Lilly, as if he was her favourite child, before the gaze shifted to Osmond, the runt of the litter, Eliza supposed. “We’re here for protection first, remember that.

  Then, an accidental bump knocked Eliza back slightly. “Huh?” Eliza turned, seeing one of her peers.

  ”Agh, shit, sorry… Oh, Eliza?” They called out, "Who are they, Prez?"

  "Ah, just a few visitors," Eliza explained. "I'm showing them around the university."

  Clicking his fingers, he slid them to point at Lilly. "What's your name? I remember seeing you come around when Lizzie was giving her presentation."

  "Oh?" Lilly raised an eyebrow. "My name is Drill Sergeant because if you keep distracting me, I’ll drill you into the ground.”

  The student paused, then placed his hand to his chin.

  Quinn then broke the silence. “I can work with that…”

  Instantly, Lilly slapped Quinn across the back… Eliza dragged the trio out of the refractory, all the while apologizing to her peer… They won’t tell anyone, hoped Eliza. Moving onwards, Eliza got them up to one of the large observation decks at the zenith of the university's campus. "Sorry, we can't go any higher," Eliza said. "The station campus might have a better view, but we need to wait for the shuttle-bus.”

  “You guys even have a station campus?” Osmond seemed amazed at the sheer amount of money that the university had at their disposal.

  Eliza shrugged and weirdly smiled. “It must feel rather weird, right, Osmond?”

  A nod came as Osmond’s reply. “Yes, it’s… Why didn’t the Republic give even a scrap to us?” he asked, frowning as the trio stared into the stars.

  Slowly, Lilly took out a small camera from within her jacket and snapped a few photos of the view - a mess of neon and dark lights blotting the surface. Floating islands and numerous skyways darted across the skies.

  “I don’t know,” Eliza murmured back… She knew, but dared not say the words. Greed, corruption, the vice of stability and good government… Eliza had seen its tendrils firsthand during the Solar Dassant, but a part of her refused to utter the words, as if saying them would make them true.

  Osmond sighed, gritting his jagged teeth in annoyance before looking to the ground. “We’d be in a much better place if they had even spent a single Standardi down there… Narisa’s so close to Anagora, too… And we bled so much to delay the Imperial Advance.”

  It was well known to historians that Narisa was carpet bombed into oblivion… Yet its suffering was drowned out by Anagora’s blood letting during the siege… But one tragedy does not wipe away another, Eliza knew that too well.

  Clenching her fists in second-hand frustration, Eliza thought of the P-1 incident… Yet at the same time, Archius’ homeworld was, too, bombarded by unknown forces…

  Lilly kept taking photos, ignoring the conversations going around as her eyes glistened slightly with the stars of the galaxy.

  Quinn caught a glance at Lilly, peering around to see her probe camera. "Oh, interested in taking some pictures?" Quinn asked. Eliza watched as Lilly's face slowly churned towards anger but halted... Quinn was showing genuine interest, and not in some mocking manner that Eliza had expected of him! "Mind if you can take a picture of Osmond and me? We haven't had one in years!"

  "Yeah," said Osmond. "Reminds me of that old film we used to watch. Dusty and ruddy... But I guess it worked. Does new photography equipment look better?”

  Lilly hesitated. But Eliza nudged her slightly.

  "It doesn’t hurt you, does it? Photos store memories, shouldn’t they store some memories too?”

  Eventually, Lilly acquiesced to the idea.

  Snapping a photo, she took one of Quinn and Osmond, who were in goofy positions beside the observation window. "Great! Let us have it!" Quinn gestured towards the camera probe. “We’ll take one of you! No filters, that’s a promise!”

  Somehow, Eliza had a hard time believing that they wouldn’t use filters… A perfect chance to get goofy and humiliating photos of Lilly? Well, Eliza knew that Quinn would steal and sell the galaxy twice over to get a chance like that!

  "Hell no, get your own damn camera," Lilly retorted, walking off and away. Eliza chuckled slightly at the disagreements, but someone tapped her on the back. Huh? Lilly? Eliza turned, seeing a peach blonde-haired woman, along with her paler blonde highlights near the ends of her hair. Her eyes glowed a royal green, sparkling like gems, unlike Archius’ darker Máwti green eyes…

  "Hey..." Chloé said, lightly slapping Eliza on the arm. "Did you totally fucking forget about my message, Lizzie?”

  "HUH?!" Eliza raised her hands up in defence. "No! I was just... giving a few of my friends a tour around the place… well… they’re my guards, but that doesn’t really matter?” Eliza mumbled on and on.

  Chloé's eyes peered over to the guards. "Isn't that one..." Chloé pointed at Lilly, who immediately turned upon feeling the ire of someone's finger pointed against her. Her pissed-off face calmed. "Ah yeah, the one..."

  "Lilly... that's her name," Eliza whispered over. "We also have—"

  Quinn and Osmond butted their heads in, gently shoving Eliza out of the way as the two, arms wrapped around each other's necks, slid in front of Chloé. "Hey, hey, I didn't know Eliza was friends with—"

  "I'm taken—" Chloé cut them off.

  Quinn collapsed in defeat. "Defeated before I even had the chance to win," he murmured.

  "Dude, get up," Osmond said, patting Quinn on the back. "Plus, I don’t think mercs living paycheque-to-cheque are… on the list to win to begin with.”

  Chloé said, "We've got a massive backlog of paperwork, Liz. Rodrick and Hania already completed their semesters… lucky bastards. We’re on our own for this.”

  "Wait..." Lilly dragged Quinn up from the floor with one hand. "Eliza, you sped ran all your paperwork for Kaz to finally get to training... only to go back to paperwork for university?!” Several veins bulged on her forehead as her beady eyes thinned at Eliza.

  Eliza shrugged and placed her hands out to try to calm Lilly down. "Hey, hey, it's good for my resume, alright, plus I am the president so—"

  "No, it's the damn principle of it," she interjected. "Ugh... You stopped your training, lifesaving training... for this?" Lilly turned around in disappointment. ”You know well that this isn’t that important!”

  “HEY!” Chloé snorted back. “I’m not doing this all by myself, free-muzzle!”

  Instantly, Lilly’s rage was set upon Chloé. It was as if a demon had reared its ugly head… Eliza jumped in between them. “Why the fuck did you say that?!” Eliza grunted quietly at Chloé.

  She shrugged. “Just another word for them mercs, right?”

  Oh no… “You do know that free muzzle comes from… free mouths…”

  Instantly, the fear and instant regret blanketed Chloé’s expression.

  Calming everyone down, Eliza dragged everyone over to the office. Eliza and Chloé were finalizing a few pieces of paperwork. Surprisingly light, perhaps Chloé overstated the issue.

  The trio were drinking high-quality coffee served by the drones, basking in the glory of caffeine and more caffeine.

  Osmond and Quinn were chatting away whilst Lilly looked over her camera. "Tch..." Eliza noticed from across the room that she was pissed. No, Eliza paused in that thought.

  Elizabeth knew very little of those around her, sadly, even Kazuki, whom she believed and trusted entirely.

  Even Archius! Though… Eliza did have her creeping, ice-cold doubts about whether he truly trusted her as much as she trusted him.

  Eliza’s life was amazing, even compared to others around her! Even her own troubles are minor compared to theirs. Still, Eliza shook her head, trying to focus on finishing the paperwork. Then, the drone serving tea and coffee paused.

  It reeled itself around Chloé's small desk and towards Eliza's main desk. Eliza peered up. "Hmm? Is something the matter?" she asked the drone. "Oh! You’re the one who needed repairs, right!? I can help you right away after this, sorry about… leaving you in a bit of a mess, buddy.” She spoke to the drone as if it were a pet.

  'NEGATIVE. THANK YOU FOR... REPAIRS. PRIOR.' The drone gently placed down its tray on top of Eliza’s work, causing her to furrow her brow in confusion.

  "You fix these things up as well?" Lilly asked. "No wonder Kaz likes you.”

  Eliza thought it was a compliment, but a part of her believed it to be a jab at how reliant Kaz may have become on her… how… potentially weak he had become, all because of her… Kazuki’s pressure point.

  "I just did it on a whim, nothing special - really!"

  'ELIZABETH CELESTE-DELMARA,' the drone started again, its robotic eye twitching as it attracted everyone’s attention.

  Slowly, Lilly and Quinn placed their hands on their holsters. Chloé awaited in eager anticipation… excitement, whilst Osmond held a level of fear in his eyes at the drone’s name-calling…

  “Do you… " What’s up?” inquired Eliza.

  It was like a fundamental shift in everything just happened, as Eliza suddenly noticed that everything around her had slowed down. One glance out the window showed the pigeons slow in their flight - almost hovering. Was Kazuki's hoodie—wait, no, Eliza thought, she wasn't wearing that...

  'DEAN-PROFESSOR CRANKENHART WISHES TO SPEAK WITH YOU.'

  Like that, everything went back to normal. Eliza felt her heartbeat return to normal, as everything seemed to run like clockwork after the words. Did… no one feel anything strange?

  Did… what happened? Eliza felt as if the Professor herself was present, for but a moment, exposing whatever secrets Miss Crankenhart may hold to her heart…

  "Who's Crankenhart?" asked Quinn, "Sounds like a stupid fucking name!"

  Eliza grunted, feeling a slight headache.

  Eliza blinked several times before arising to her feet. Chloé spoke across the room, "She's got like twenty PhDs! Still, not as many as Dáwidiek but... she's much younger.”

  Quinn’s eyes lit up slightly.

  “But… I don’t think she’s in the market for deadbeat mercs…” Chloé continued.