War

Raelle Collar woke up holding Abigail’s hand in the middle of a field covered in mushrooms. They were surrounded by a huge black weird fog which was made of the same texture than the black substance Raelle took off Kalhida’s body when she cured her mysterious illness.

They both stood up still hand in hand. As they started to walk, the fog became clearer and clearer which allowed them to see where they stepped their feet on.

“Where are we going?” Raelle broke the heavy silence.

“There’s a military base up north" Abigail said pointing with her finger the direction they have been heading since they started to walk. "Adil mentioned it to me once, it’s worth a try”.

“So… You and Adil?” Raelle began to tease the high Atlantic.

Abigail stopped in her track to glare at Raelle which caused the young medic to stop too “I’m sorry shitbird but I really think this isn’t the right time to talk about my relationships with guys right now” she glanced at their joined hands “Do you think we can break the link?” She changed the subject.

“Sincerely, I have no idea” the blonde answered followed by an awkward silence before she added
“What do you want to talk about it then? Because I’m gonna need some distraction if I have to walk across an entire desert”

Bellweather though on a good subject they could talk about “You haven’t told us what happened the last time you saw Scylla” Abigail asked.

“Oh… I though you said ‘no relationship related questions’?” Abigail didn’t say anything, she was just waiting for an answer so Raelle started telling Abigail what happened “okay… Well, I uh I royally messed this up, All I felt was pain and I wanted to hurt her like she did to me but it was so fucking unfair.” Tears began to stream down Raelle’s cheeks “I lied to her, I hurt her even more than what they did to her, I saw it in her face”

Abigail turned to face a sobbing Raelle “hey, Rae, listen to me” she began with a soft reassuring smile “I’m sure she knows that what you said to her wasn’t true. I mean if we get back fast enough perhaps you could tell her yourself”

The healer shook her head “It must be too late, they probably already sent her to her new cell. Can you believe that when she told me that they were shipping her off to die all I did was looking right into her eyes and said ‘well, we all go sometimes’?” Raelle shook her head even more in disbelief of what she had said to her lover.

“I fucked up real bad, Abigail” Raelle repeated.

It broke the high Atlantic’s heart to see her sister like that, she wanted to find a way to comfort her, even though she never really liked Scylla. “Do you remember, when she disappeared , you said she sent you messages, can’t you do the same?”

Raelle’s face light up at the idea but she suddenly looked sad “I can’t try” she pouted.

“why?” Abigail asked wondering why her friend was so defeatist.

Raelle rolled her eyes “Because you’re holding my hand” she said raising their interlaced hands in front of Abigail’s face.

“Oh!” was all the high Atlantic let out after she realised her mistake, which made Raelle laugh for the first time since graduation then Abigail joined the medic in her laughter for a bit but Raelle couldn’t stop laughing.

At one point it began to annoy Abigail. “Shut up shit bird” she finally said playfully pushing Raelle arm with hers which caused Raelle to trip on a rock which made her loose her balance and she fell, taking Abigail down with her.

“Shit, Abi, are you okay?” Raelle asked first as she helped her to get back on her two feet.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry by the way”

“It’s okay” Raelle said as she pushed the dirt out of her uniform with both of her hands.

Abigail looked panicked “Rae, our hands. Do you feel anything? Is your wound still closed?” the brunette was clearly worried.

“I’m-I'm okay” was all Raelle said then she stared at her hand trying to trace a R but she didn’t know what seed to use. Scylla hadn’t explained to her how her canon work worked.

“Raelle, we have to keep going” Abigail interrupted her though but she knew that the blaster was right so she started to walk back heading north. She just walked a few stepped and she felt a little pain in her palm, she looked at it, it was a ‘S’. Scylla was still alive and said hi to her.

Raelle showed her palm to Abigail “See you didn’t had to worry about her, she’s a big girl” the brunette said.

Scylla’s messages gave a big boost for Raelle who walked faster, Abigail had trouble to follow the young medic but it was worth it, in a little less than 7 hours of walk they arrived in front of the American military base Adil told the Bellweather about.

They presented themselves at the gate but they were surprised to learn that Alder declared them dead because they left fort Salem less than 48h ago. And that they have been deployed for less than half of a day. The general Alder haven’t even sent anyone to look for the bodies but she still dared to say to everyone that they died.

Therefore, to prove their identity, Raelle and Abigail showed the two guards standing in the front doors their medals, Abigail was shocked to see a ‘D’ on it but what strike Raelle the most wasn’t the ‘d’ itself as she was used to have demerits due to her late rendez-vous with Scylla but the colour of the medals, they weren’t goldish anymore but dark.

The guards were taken aback because there are no procedure on if we should let a dead officer enter the base or not so they escorted them to their higher up.

“Ladies, I’ve never seen you around the base, present yourself” a tall sergeant asked.

As the unit leader, Abigail talked for them both “I am private Abigail Bellweather and this one is part of my unit, private Raelle Collar, we were sent on mission with General Alder-” she got cut off by Raelle.

“Alder abandoned us as war meat for the camarilla and declared us dead, but we’re not and we’d like to go home” she let out without any tact. In her defence, she was tired, she had been stabbed, she exploded, she walked through a desert, all she wanted now was a warm shower, a comfy bed and Scylla.

“Alright ladies, you’ll leave tomorrow morning for Fort Salem, in the meantime you may rest, Sarah will want a debrief as soon as you step on her base. Good luck.”

Abigail and Raelle found it surprising how close the sergeant seemed to the general Alder, but most of it they were relieved to know that they could go back at fort Salem.