Trust between comrades is not freely given, it is earned.

  - UWO Sergeant First Class Yuma -

  My stomach churns as I feel the vibrations of reality around me. It’s a good feeling though, it means that the System is actually sending me back to Earth. I hear the baby fox whimpering, unaccustomed to the System’s travel. My broken arm and leg throb horribly, my side aches, and my head is spinning. Fuck this is uncomfortable. But it’s not all bad… I can feel the inscribed bow still in my finger's grasp. Then suddenly, everything stops, and I’m back. Right where I was before. Gravity slaps me as I fall to the ground from a meter up. Shit… shit… shit that hurt.

  “You moved me through space and did the whole bending reality thingy, but you couldn’t set me down nicely?” I groan, looking around, “Prick.”

  Breathing in the air, and looking at the sky. I'm definitely back on Earth.

  In the corner of my vision, I see Ulana and Red fighting over something.

  [ Petitioning to upgrade Respec on Death Quest Rewards… ]

  [ Denying… Success ]

  [ Requesting exception based on special quest completion… ]

  [ Denying again… Success ]

  [ Petitioning for you to stop being an asshole… ]

  [ Denying yet again… Success ]

  Great, so I’m going to be waiting on those quest rewards too. Seems like their banter is becoming more heated as well. Honestly though, I thought that I wasn’t getting any rewards. I guess trading previous rewards just meant for the Gathering Quest. Whatever, my head's killing me. Some of my bones are definitely turned in ways they shouldn’t be, and I have a seeping wound on my side. Good news though, it’s pretty warm here. The baby fox looks around curiously for a moment before burrowing in my arm. Sadness written all over it.

  A series of notifications pop up in my vision. Something about pending Titles no longer pending and level-up rolls. I swipe them away for now. More notifications show up. Messages are finally pinging my interface. From Staff Sergeant Mwangi, Tran, Barlow, and Cortez.

  I’ll get through them later. Right now, I’m out in the open, covered in blood and gore, holding what’s probably an endangered species, and a crazy woman’s allegedly overpowered bow. If anyone I don’t know finds me like this, well. I’ll probably be fucked. Who should I message? My eyes are drooping again. Who would actually come through? Tran and Barlow, yeah, but looking at the sun, they’re already on extra duty. Shit. I’m definitely getting in trouble for missing it. That just leaves… Cortez. I need a healer though too. There’s only one I can trust… kind of.

  I trust Cortez, but the healer I’m thinking about… no way. I don’t trust them with the fox or the bow. It would end up as blackmail. But saving my ass? Yeah, they’d probably do that for a favor. Wait, I think they still owe me one. The droop in my eyes tells me to hurry up. Opening up the messages from Cortez, I skim them.

  [ SPC Cortez: Tran and Barlow are looking for you.

  Guess you don’t mind getting another article for skipping extra duty.

  For fucks sake Novak. You’re a hot mess lately. I’m dropping off the shit you left in my room.

  Not going to answer for me?

  I know you’re in there.

  Such a tool.

  Jimmy?

  Fine, fuck you. ]

  Letting out a wheeze that was supposed to be a sigh, I send a reply.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  [ SPC Novak: I need your help. Pineapple. ]

  She should realize it's serious, that’s the safe word she gave me when… well. Doesn’t matter. Looking around, I see a dumpster behind a chain link gate.

  Army crawling, it takes me a long time to get to it. But I do. With my foot, I pull the gate closed to hide me. Waiting for her. Opening up my messaging again. I send a message to 1st Lieutenant Dorliac. The one who owes me a favor.

  [ SPC Novak: Ma’am, I’m calling in that favor. ]

  Right as my hand falls down, I get a reply from her. That was ridiculously quick. Then a series of messages flow in after it.

  [ 1LT Dorliac: Hello Kiwi, I’ve missed you. What favor?

  Last I checked, you owed me for skipping out on plans.

  It’s not nice to leave a woman hanging when she’s all dressed up.

  Especially when she had just bought new lingerie for you.

  I didn’t think it would be six months later that you finally messaged back...

  But I knew you’d come around eventually though.

  Black or Red lace?

  Your place or mine? ]

  Fuck. Squinting at the screen, I try to rack my brain for someone else who can help me. Letting out a long wheeze, she’s the only one skilled enough that will also keep it to herself. My hand swipes a quick reply.

  [ SPC Novak: Your place, this isn’t a social call. I need a healer. I’ll be there in hopefully less than an hour. ]

  She replies instantly.

  [ 1LT Dorliac: Red then. See you soon, Kiwi. ]

  Shaking my sore neck, I move back to the chat with Cortez. Sending her another message.

  [ SPC Novak: Cleo… I know I fucked up. But I seriously need you right now. You’re the only one I can trust. Please, for old time's sake. ]

  Leaning my head back against the dumpster, I pet the baby fox. I shouldn’t complain, it just lost its parents. Hell, it just lost its world too. I don’t know how I’m going to take care of it, but I will. That much I can figure out. A notification pops up. A message from Cortez.

  [ SPC Cortez: Fine. Where are you? ]

  Relief…

  ***

  It’s been ten or fifteen minutes I think, I don’t know, kind of loopy. I managed to staunch the bleeding from my side by tying crude strips of my torn shirt on it. I asked her to bring a bag and some clothes I left in her room. She’ll come through, she always does. The sound of footsteps coming from the other side of the chain-link fence draws my focus.

  “Jimmy?” she says, opening the fence, “There… what the fuck happened to you?”

  She slides to her knees, pulling at my shirt, eyes wide as she sees my wounds.

  “We need to get you to the hospital,” she says, opening up her interface, “You should have called for them not me, what the fuck Jimmy.”

  I grab her hand, shaking my head. Motioning to the baby fox nuzzled against my chest.

  “No hospitals, too many questions,” I plead.

  “Jimmy what the fuck happened?” she asks, pulling at my shirt again, “Why are you covered in blood and… and your arm, it’s bent the wrong way.”

  “Cleo, I’ll explain later, right now though, I need you.”

  “Jimmy, you need…”

  “Cleo, please, just trust me,” I say, wheezing, “I already have a healer lined up.”

  “Who?”

  “Lieutenant Dorliac, she’s one of the best around here.”

  Cortez blinking fast, looks back and forth at the wounds on my body, then at the baby fox. She moves her hand to pick up the tail, three tails to be exact, bundled tightly together, just like the parents had.

  “What is it?” she asks, “Where did you get it? And why do you have different colors of blood on you?”

  “Look, if they find it. They’ll probably take it, study it, put it in some kind of lab, I don’t know. But I can’t let that happen.”

  “I don’t understand, Jimmy you’re not making any sense.”

  “You’re the only person I have Cleo, please help me.”

  She grits her teeth, shaking her head.

  “Jimmy, I don’t know.”

  “Cleo…” I say, grabbing her chin softly, “Please.”

  Her jaw tenses, eyes closing before breathing deeply as I let her go.

  “If you start passing out, I’m taking you straight to a hospital.”

  “Deal.”

  “You promise that you can actually make it to this Dorliac person?”

  I nod. Though, in truth, I’m just hoping. If she takes me to a hospital, I won’t be able to answer any questions. I still don’t know the penalty for talking about Respec on Death. It might kill me, what if it doesn’t activate on Earth? I literally know fuck all about it.

  “Okay, okay, um, let’s get you changed and put the fox in the bag,” she says, nodding to herself, pulling out my left-behind clothes, “I can hide it and whatever that is in my room,” she says, pointing to the glowing bow.

  “Good, thank you, Cleo,” I wheeze, giving her as much of a smile as I can.

  She nods.

  ***

  After Cortez dropped off the baby fox and the bow at her barracks room, she called a cabby to take us to Lieutenant Dorliac’s place.

  “Did he get into a bar fight?” the taxi driver asks, looking at my swollen ass face in the rearview mirror.

  “Something like that,” Cortez replies. Giving me a glance. There’s worry on the edge of her eyes.

  “Sure you don’t want to bring him to a Doctor, or something?” the nosy cab driver asks.

  “We are,” she says sharply, the driver almost flinches at her tone.

  She’s not called the ice queen for nothing. Part of why I started falling for her though. She just knows how to say things in a way that makes you… I don’t know, think about stuff. Like really take a hard look.

  Twenty-five grueling minutes later and we’re here. Just off-post. In an upscale apartment complex. Officers really do get paid better than us. Whatever.

  Cortez half carries me to the elevator. After another few minutes, I’m standing outside a familiar door. One I didn’t think I’d ever visit again. Taking a deep breath, I begrudgingly knock, knowing that awkwardness is inbound.

  The door cracks almost instantly, like she’s been waiting.

  “Kiwi, there you…” she begins, the smile on her face fading. Her hand falls to her bare side.

  Bright red hair, with a temper to match, and baby blue eyes. She’s nearly butt-ass naked, wearing red lace around her ample curves. Swallowing, she blinks at me, then looks me up and down, before her eyes come to rest on Cortez. As though she’s more alarming than my injuries.

  Cortez turns to me now, a look on her face that I’ve never seen before.

  “Well, I guess you weren’t joking,” Dorliac says. Motioning us inside.

  As I limp past the doorway with Cortez holding me up, she leans in, almost in a growl she asks “Kiwi?”

  Fuck.

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