A/N: So... I'm trying out something new here so I hope it works. Please donate your tears to the LiNafied foundation if you're kind enough to do so. And happy birthday, Irene, I hope you never discover me and see all the torture I put you through. 

 

Her eyes fluttered open slowly.

 

“Oh god, it worked!”

 

What happened?

 

“Hurry, pull her out of the water!”

 

There was a splash and then a brush of wind on her face.

 

“She’s not breathing.”

 

She wasn’t breathing?

 

It seemed like she didn’t need to breathe.

 

“But she’s alive. Look, she’s looking at us.”

 

Focus.

 

Focus.

 

Irene blinked once, twice- And found herself staring at the relieved faces of her team, each of them smiling at her with tears in their eyes and blood on their cheeks, with bruising around their necks, wrists-

 

What exactly happened?

 

She opened to speak, only to find gravel at the back of . Coughing, she spat out what seems to be gravel and tried again, her mind finally catching up to her reality.

 

“What happened? Why am I...”

 

She trailed off, furrowing her brow.

 

Her last memory was of fire and brimstone, of walls falling around her and a goodbye that was meant to last.

 

She could only remember Wendy’s scream and Seulgi’s panic, could only see Yeri struggling against her soldiers, Joy fighting to get to her.

 

Run!

 

Her last memory was an explosion that should have killed her.

 

Irene glanced down at her hands and stared at porcelain skin, one that should have been riffed with scars and tragedy and she looked up again, this time questioning with stronger conviction.

 

“What happened?”

 

There was a pause as the four of them looked at each other, each of their faces frozen in fear and relief and question, with unshed tears that held answers and tight lips that betrayed nothing.

 

And then finally, Seulgi spoke up, chosen in their silence for she was their second in command, the leader should Irene fall.

 

(And she had fallen.

 

Deep into an abyss of darkness and pain, where her soul should have been ripped apart and burned for the sins she had committed.)

 

“Do you remember the explosion?”

 

Irene nodded stiffly, her neck cracking in ways that it did not before.

 

“It had buried you under a pile of rock.”

 

Irene looked at her flawless hands once again and found no trace of death.

 

“We dragged your body from the rubble but it was too late. You were already-”

 

Seulgi cut herself off, teeth clamping onto her bottom lip as she struggled to keep her emotions in check. She took a deep breath and reached over to Irene’s hand, her fingers skimming at cold skin in an almost reverent manner.

 

“We brought you back to camp but there was no response- We couldn’t-”

 

Irene waited for Seulgi to continue, watching the younger woman struggle with her words before she looked over to Wendy. There was silence before Wendy continued where Seulgi left off, eyes cast towards the ground while words fell from bloodied lips, worn down by teeth and time.

 

“We couldn’t lose you.”

 

Irene blinked once, twice-

 

“But you didn’t. I’m right here.”

 

(But...

 

She just realised.)

 

Wendy stifled a sob and pressed a hand over her eyes.

 

“We- You-”

 

Irene’s back straightened and she leant towards them almost desperately, her mind running amok as she clutched at straws for answers.

 

“I’m right here.”

 

(But-

 

She wasn’t breathing.)

 

Wendy was openly sobbing now, her cries syncing in harmony with the sniffles and tears of the rest of her teammates.

 

“I’m so sorry. We need you so we-”

 

Irene finally turned her attention towards the rest of the room and she saw a pentagram drawn on the ground around the bed she was resting on. Around it were candles and what looked like specks of blood and rocks, the arrangement something that she had only seen in books.

 

There was something in her chest, something dark and heavy and Irene looked back towards her subordinates.

 

“What did you do?”

 

She didn’t actually need to them to answer for her to realise why her body was the way it was, why it creaked when she moved or why her joints felt like it has been fused together with iron. There was only one reason why she was alive; yet required not one ounce of breath.

 

Yeri spoke up softly, her words wrapped in tears and pain, falling mid air like heavy bullets failing to reach its target.

 

“We brought you back to life.”

 

(It was a forbidden art.

 

Dark magic; silenced and kept away from people-

 

And for her-)

 

Irene inhaled sharply, her chest barely moving with the action.

 

“What medium did you use?”

 

Joy held out her hand wordlessly and presented a lump of clay. Behind her, stood a kiln, still hot from use.

 

“So I’m made of clay right now.”

 

The four of them nodded wordlessly.

 

Irene closed her eyes and turned her face away from them, silently dismissing them.

 

Though they did not leave, they sat there quietly, not even a hint of tears escaping past chapped lips in the face of their commander’s fury.

 

And in their silence, Irene was left to sort herself out.

 

Her body, stiff and flawless, was just a vessel. Despite being very well made, Irene could feel nothing, not the sheets that was wrapped around her body, nor the air around her, supposedly cold on her wet skin; stifling as she spied sweat on her friends’ foreheads. Her reflexes were dull, though she can’t tell if it was because of how her body was made or that she had just been born.

 

But the most disturbing thing was that her soul was unsettled.

 

She could feel it in the hollow of her chest, a rough imitation of a heart that could no longer beat.

 

And with it, there was a edge of something.

 

Something foreign.

 

She opened to speak, her eyes still closed.

 

(She can’t face them right now.

 

She shouldn’t be here.

 

She should have died.)

 

“There’s something. Here. In my chest.”

 

A shuffle.

 

And yet, no answer.

 

She took in another breath, a habit she would soon have to break, and opened her eyes, facing her teammates calmly.

 

“There’s something else in here. It’s not just my soul you called back. What did you put in here?”

 

They looked at each other again, a silent conversation that Irene was no longer a part of, before Seulgi spoke, low and tired, as though someone had taken the air from her lungs and replaced it with mud.

 

“Something went wrong, during the ritual.”

 

Irene nodded.

 

“And?”

 

Seulgi looked at the ground, where the bloodstains were and shuffled her feet.

 

“A pocket of your soul was torn. We had to replace it.”

 

There was a beat, a sense of foreboding tingling down Irene’s artificially made spine and she prompted Seulgi carefully.

 

“With what?”

 

Still refusing to look at her in the eyes, Seulgi answered softly, her fingers twisting at her shirt so tightly, it was breaking at the seams.

 

“We had to replace it with a part of a soul of equal size.”

 

Her shoulder slumped and Seulgi finally looked up and into Irene’s eyes.

 

“And it had to be a piece belonging to someone you loved.”

 

Irene swallowed tightly, the back of gritty and rough.

 

“And whose soul took to mine?”

 

There was no answer.

 

But there wasn’t a need for one.

 

Three pair of eyes darted towards Wendy.

 

Wendy, whose hands were bloody, whose clothes were stained red.

 

Without an answer, Irene already knew.

 

They had taken a piece of Wendy’s soul.

 

*

 

Irene spent the next few days not talking to them.

 

Instead, she tried (tries) to get used to her new body, foreign and familiar at the same time.

 

Her face was set in cold, dead lines; her arms were loose beside her torso, fingers tight and stubborn in ways a human body couldn’t possibly be. Her legs, powerful in her past life, barely listened to her and she could hardly lift a bad over her shoulder; her body as delicate as a porcelain doll.

 

Her life was tethered to a body that doesn’t want it and she wanted nothing more than to slip through the cracks that were barely seen.

 

But she doesn’t.

 

Mostly because she doesn’t feel like it.

 

But she barely felt anything anymore.

 

Grief, anger, emotions in general, were no longer a part of her life.

 

The vulnerable parts of her that her teacher had desperately wanted her to shed were lost in between dragging her soul from hell and into this prison of a body.

 

But despite that, she held her stance against her younger teammates.

 

She was physically incapable of feeling. But her head was heavy, her mind replaying her death and her rebirth on a loop, her invisible heart tied up in strings of cotton and smoke, her existence now a huge cosmic joke where she was the only one not laughing.

 

She shouldn’t be here.

 

And yet, she was.

 

(Here she was.

 

With a love in her chest that she can’t feel.)

 

*

 

She threw a pair of gloves at Joy, hard and fast enough to startle the younger woman.

 

“Get up.”

 

Joy picked up the gloves from the ground and stood up slowly, wary in a way that should have Irene hurting.

 

(But it didn’t.)

 

“What’s up?”

 

Irene gestured for her to put on the gloves.

 

“I need to get used to this body. Fight me.”

 

Joy hesitated.

 

“Are you sure? You should rest for a couple of days-”

 

Irene threw a punch at Joy’s face, one that she easily countered.

 

(There was a lot of work to be done.)

 

“You brought me back because you needed me to win a war. So, stop coddling me.”

 

Joy’s lips were pulled tight, as though fighting back words that she can’t say and she nodded, pulling on the gloves in one swift motion. Irene put her fists in front of her and lowered her stance, ignoring the subtle snaps of her joints.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

She ducked just as a fist flew at her face.

 

Her reflexes were better now but she was still lacking.

 

Before, it wasn’t difficult to beat Joy in a fist fight.

 

Now, with her body barely able to respond to her thoughts, it was a challenge.

 

She went under Joy’s guard and swept at her feet, her attack just slow enough for Joy to jump backwards. The heel of the taller woman’s foot caught on Irene’s chin, sending her flying onto dirt.

 

She brushed sand from her eyes and got back to her feet.

 

And noticed that she didn’t feel anything.

 

Not the sand clinging to her eyelashes or the throbbing that usually came when someone kicked you in the face.

 

And she realised she wasn’t even tired.

 

*

 

“Come on, it’s not that hard, just hit me.”

 

Irene cajoled the young women standing in front of her with raised fists, a grin plastered on her face. Joy stared at her suspiciously and shook her head, hopping on both feet in an effort to stay warm.

 

“Nu-uh. If we do that, you’re going to pull rank on us and I’d end up cleaning the toilets for a week.”

 

Her grin grew wider.

 

“I could pull rank now and make you clean toilets for disobeying an order.”

 

Joy opened to argue, closed it and then opened it again before she gave up, rolling her eyes to high heavens.

 

“See! It’s completely unfair!”

 

Irene tilted her head to one side and noted a movement in the corner of her eyes. She moved away discreetly, all while teasing Joy.

 

“Make rank then.”

 

“Like you’d let me overtake you.”

 

Irene’s teeth shone in the sunlight as she turned around to catch Yeri’s kick.

 

“An ambush! How nice!”

 

Yeri fell to the ground and pouted outrageously.

 

“It was supposed to work!”

 

Irene laughed at her childishness.

 

“In what way?”

 

She noticed the glint in Yeri’s eyes a little too late, turning just a fraction in time for Joy to tackle her.

 

“Got you!”

 

She continued to laugh when Yeri climbed on top of them, crowing her victory at the top of the voice, even as Joy’s happiness turned into annoyance at Yeri’s foot digging into her back.

 

She kept the sounds in the corner of her heart, arms folded around them carefully.

 

(And she thought-

 

“I’ll protect this with my life.”)

 

*

 

She catalogued the ways her new body worked now.

 

She doesn’t eat or sleep.

 

When Joy punched her or when Yeri caught her in the shoulder with an arrow, she doesn’t feel pain nor does she bleed. She doesn’t flinch when Seulgi threw fire at her feet in an attempt to stop her from capturing the flag nor does she back away when Wendy headed her off with a motorcycle.

 

She felt nothing.

 

And what should concern her most was the fact that she barely thought of her teammates anymore.

 

Irene should be aghast at how her thoughts had changed, when once she lived and breathed her friends’ survival, was now only a passing thought in her head.

 

(She thought more on how they could be used; rather than how useful they were.)

 

But she wasn’t.

 

In this empty husk, there was nothing.

 

She was the perfect soldier.

 

(But deep within, in a corner where her soul had finally settled, there was a pull.

 

A tug where a piece of the puzzle was slightly out of place.

 

The piece of Wendy’s soul that was given to her.)

 

*

 

The looks that they gave her should settle heavy on her shoulders.

 

(She was different.

 

She came back wrong.

 

She wasn’t Irene.)

 

But it doesn’t.

 

*

 

Leaning back against the wall, Irene looked up to the sky, blue as it ever was, despite the carnage they were involved with on the ground, one that left green meadows streaked red and their air clouded with dust. A war that had been waging on forever, a war that took children and adults alike.

 

A war that they needed to win in order to survive.

 

A war that Irene was brought back to fight for.

 

And Irene wondered if she could leave.

 

In theory, in this new body of hers, she could just walk in any direction until she reached a dead end; a mountain cliff, an ocean; but even then, she could probably just continue. She doesn’t breathe, she doesn’t sleep; if she was truly hardheaded enough to try, it doesn’t seem like she would die.

 

All she had to do was start by putting one foot in front of the other.

 

*

 

But she doesn’t.

 

*

 

There was a part of her, the part she suspected had to do with the piece of soul merged with hers, stayed because it was where she belonged.

 

Even though she can no longer look fondly upon the four women she had once called family, that part of her - perhaps a sentimental part that has yet to die - that rooted her to this community.

 

Glued her to these people who brought her back with blood and tears; these people who loved her.

 

*

 

So, she stayed.

 

*

 

“Irene?”

 

She looked up from the doll she was decimating, set up by a kind Seulgi in order to polish her rusty sword skills, noting that Wendy was hovering near the periphery, the soldier in her waiting for Irene’s permission to come forward. Irene sheathed her sword and beckoned for Wendy to come closer.

 

“Is there something you need me for?”

 

Wendy walked over slowly, fingers wrapping around Irene’s wrist and tugging her forwards, her eyes looking back at the doll.

 

“Let’s sit down for this.”

 

Irene would have argued that she wasn’t tired but she kept silent, allowing Wendy to pull her towards a shaded area near their tents. Folding her legs neatly, her sword laying across her lap, Irene waited for Wendy to sit beside her before repeating her question.

 

“What was it that you needed?”

 

Wendy shook her head, quiet in ways that Irene haven’t seen. She wrapped her arms around her legs and stared at Irene, eyes really boring into Irene’s face as though she was trying to unravel a secret.

 

“It’s not that. I just-”

 

She sighed and tore her eyes away, looking at the scorched ground listlessly.

 

“You’ve been distant.”

 

Irene blinked owlishly and tilted her head to one side. She gave nothing away, merely observing Wendy’s reaction to her words.

 

“How so?”

 

Wendy pressed her fingers into ground, digging a small hole as she spoke.

 

“Just- It’s different now. You seem so... far away.”

 

Irene echoed the answer she gave them when she had first woken up.

 

“I’m right here though.”

 

There was something in Wendy’s eyes, a drop of red in an ocean of black, a dark swirl of emotions that Irene could no longer decipher. But her lips were pulled into a smile, tired and small, nonetheless betraying none of the emotions that she held behind gold speckled eyes.

 

“But we- I can no longer reach where you are.”

 

Irene continued to look at her, debating whether she should tell Wendy; this woman who had willingly given up a piece of herself to bring Irene back.

 

“It’s better if you don’t. I’m no longer the Irene from before.”

 

Wendy’s fingers stopped, her skin pale against the burnt ground, a sense of purity long lost on troubled waters.

 

“What are you saying?”

 

Irene answered her easily, as though giving a report.

 

“My body is no longer how it used to be. I don’t get tired. I don’t need to eat or sleep. And-”

 

She scanned Wendy’s face, watching the changes that were barely noticeable.

 

A flash of heartbreak behind a carefully painted mask.

 

“I can’t feel anything. Not pain, not cold or heat-”

 

And she tapped her chest, where her heart used to lay, where love used to call a home and where dreams were once born in.

 

“The love that brought me back? I don’t feel it. I don’t feel anything.”

 

Wendy looked at her with eyes filled with a sunset that has melted into a golden eclipse, a story that has Irene wondering before the lines on the side turned upwards, a smile on Wendy’s face.

 

(Sad, uneven, there.)

 

“But you’re still Irene.”

 

She reached out and took Irene’s hand, folding their fingers together like they used to. There was warmth beneath Irene’s icy skin, blooming across it like lilies on water and Irene gave into the touch, leaning closer towards a passion she would never have again.

 

“And for me, that’s enough.”

 

(But Wendy’s eyes were shattered, pieces of glass floating aimlessly, without any guidance to put them back together.

 

A glass house that has been broken.)

 

*

 

“What if the world as we know it disappears?”

 

Wendy peeked out from beneath her blankets, eyes wide with fear, even as the world stormed outside the room. Irene sat by her hand, her fingers reaching out for warmth and she wrapped them around Wendy’s wrist, pressing her thumb gently into the pulse thrumming strong beneath silken skin.

 

“The we will just make a new one.”

 

Wendy looked up at her, a shadow in her eyes that covered the storm that mirrored the outside world.

 

“And what if we can’t survive the new world?”

 

Irene folded her other hand around Wendy’s shivering palms, drawing small shapes in order to soothe her.

 

“Even if it’s the new world, you’ll always have me. You can always count on me to be there.”

 

The blanket lowered slightly and Irene was greeted with the full force of Wendy’s gaze, shimmering with molten anguish washed away by a breath of a promise.

 

“Really?”

 

Irene laughed and brought Wendy’s fingers to , breathing her promise straight into her palms and up her veins, travelling fast paced to her heart.

 

“I promise.”

 

*

 

“After a long journey, we’re finally back home!”

 

Seulgi stuck her head out of the window, barely noticing the dust the wheels of the vehicle was kicking up. Irene turned her head towards the excited girl, opened to say something, before closing it again when Seulgi caught her eye. The younger woman smiled at her sheepishly and pulled her head back in, winding up the window quickly.

 

“Sorry, I got a little excited.”

 

Irene shook her head and focused her attention back on the road.

 

Beside her, Wendy was giving her a look, one filled with hope and wishes, a constant after Irene’s confession just the other day.

 

(It was just a habit.

 

She kept her honest opinion to herself, knowing it would hurt more than anything, even if she won’t be able to feel guilty.

 

There was a difference between apathy and being cruel.)

 

The gates in front of them opened slowly, their home receiving them with open arms, warm and welcoming after their fate on the battlefield.

 

And right at the front of the soldiers welcoming them-

 

“Welcome back.”

 

SeoHyun looked them with hard eyes, dark hair falling past them and obscuring most of the turbulent emotions that she usually kept under wraps. In unison, the team placed their hands over their hearts (or lack thereof) and lowered their head in respect. SeoHyun gave them a moment before gesturing for them to follow her, her back ramrod straight even as she walked, her head held high, calm despite the weight she carried on her shoulders.

 

It was behind closed doors of the command room that SeoHyun turned towards them furiously, brown eyes speckled with golden anger.

 

“What happened out there, Lieutenant?”

 

Irene shook her head and put her hand out, motioning towards her subordinates.

 

“I think they can explain it better that I will. Considering I wasn’t conscious for most of the process.”

 

SeoHyun turned her attention towards the four of them.

 

Unlike when Irene had first woken up, they gave SeoHyun a concise explanation to their current predicament, a possibly rehearsed version of the events that had led up to Irene being made of clay.

 

SeoHyun, predictably, had pressed her fingers to her temple in exasperation, concern and displeasure mixed lines on her elegant face.

 

“You did dark magic.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“The kind of magic we are fighting against.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Even if it was punishable by death.”

 

“Yes.”

 

SeoHyun huffed through her nose loudly and trained her gaze on them, piercing through them in ways that made them feel .

 

“Can I know what exactly was in your minds to have made that decision?”

 

Wendy spoke up softly.

 

“We needed her.”

 

SeoHyun leveled a glare at them.

 

“There are other commanders in this-”

 

“But they aren’t Irene.”

 

SeoHyun’s teeth clicked loudly, her words swallowed up by frown that seemed more sad than angry. Letting out a sigh, SeoHyun turned towards her chair and she sat down, her shoulders now slumping heavily, as though Wendy’s words had added onto the weight she carried as the leader of the rebellion.

 

“So it was personal.”

 

Yeri answered carefully.

 

“We need her. She’s our Irene. She’s our leader.”

 

SeoHyun sighed again, her gaze flat as she regarded them. There was a pause, an uncomfortable moment where she stared at Irene before she waved the others away, her back straightening once again as she pulled herself together.

 

“Leave us. I want to speak to Irene alone.”

 

The team nodded reluctantly and filed out of the room, Wendy reaching out to catch Irene’s wrist. Her fingers pressed into her skin, the heat seeping through like a warm blanket on a cold night. Irene did not react, choosing to stare at SeoHyun, leaving Wendy to walk out the door, her gaze heavy on the back of Irene’s neck.

 

(There was much between them that Irene could never understand, even before when she was still Irene.

 

And now-

 

Now, even if there was something between them, it wouldn’t be possible with her current state.)

 

SeoHyun waited for them to close the door before she addressed Irene, demure in a way that she wasn’t in front of other soldiers.

 

“How are you feeling?”

 

Irene blinked at the appearance of her friend, rather than her commander.

 

“I don’t.”

 

SeoHyun’s eyebrows met in the middle, clearly confused by Irene’s answer (or lack thereof).

 

“You don’t?”

 

Scratching the back of her head, Irene moved forward, reaching out to grab SeoHyun’s hand. She pressed SeoHyun’s palm to her neck, letting her feel what it was that Irene was missing.

 

“I don’t feel anymore.”

 

SeoHyun’s eyes widened at the missing pulse and she sighed again, this time with sorrow, enough to make up for Irene’s part.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Irene shook her head and let SeoHyun’s hand go.

 

“Don’t be. Wouldn’t this make me the perfect soldier?”

 

SeoHyun looked almost pained at the thought and she voiced it out firmly, the lines in her face set with concern for her old friend.

 

“Not like this. Anything but this.”

 

*

 

“No, that’s not right... If we do that, then there’s a chance that we’d be cut off from the water supply.”

 

Irene flipped the map over, turning her head to one side to squint at another terrain.

 

“But it’s safer than moving past here where the monsters are.”

 

She frowned and tapped a finger on her chin before moving her hand to her hair, ruffling furiously.

 

“Ah! It’s no use! We’re completely trapped!”

 

“You’re still stressing over this?”

 

Her hands stopped, looking up to see Wendy laughing silently at her. Smiling bashfully, Irene lowered her hands to her side, a sigh escaping her lips as she stared forlornly at the maps.

 

“Yeah. No matter what I do, there’s always an obstacle.”

 

Wendy walked up to her, her arm pressing lightly into Irene’s side.

 

“Well, then, let’s go get some sleep!”

 

Wendy reached out and pulled on Irene’s arm, leaving the older woman to stumble slightly. Irene opened to protest, her fingers pulling on Wendy’s sleeve in an attempt to stay where she was.

 

“I still need to find a way-”

 

Wendy looked up at her with wide eyes, the depths of them all encompassing as she spoke with a gentle voice.

 

“And you can find one tomorrow. Right now, you’re exhausted and it’s hindering your judgement. You can look at it again with fresh eyes tomorrow.”

 

Irene could feel her resolve slackening with every reasonable explanation Wendy was giving her.

 

(Mostly, it was the look in her eyes.

 

The kind of look someone gives when they think they are about to lose someone.

 

Dark.

 

Frightening.

 

Lonely.)

 

“You’re human too. You can’t be a soldier the entire time.”

 

Irene let out another sigh, but this one was light, filled with a laughter she thought she had lost the moment she was expected to keep everyone alive.

 

“You’re right. As always.”

 

Wendy grinned at her and rubbed their shoulders together, the depths of her eyes giving way to a light rainbow that spoke of hope.

 

“I am. That’s why you should always listen to me.”

 

Irene mirrored the grin with a soft smile.

 

“I will. For all the times you will lecture me.”

 

*

 

“Are you back to where you were before the explosion?”

 

SeoHyun had been very delicate in regards to the incident, choosing to make as though she was severely injured by the sneak attack; most people wouldn’t know how to react to one of their leaders being an undead. However, there were whispers, hushed conversations about her changed personality, one that spread like wildfire despite SeoHyun’s attempts to sweep it under the rug.

 

But it didn’t bother Irene.

 

(Nothing does, these days.)

 

Irene nodded, pulling the sword from her hip and facing SeoHyun.

 

“Would you like to spar?”

 

SeoHyun drew her own sword in reply.

 

And lunged.

 

Irene parried the move easily, her limbs now fluid after weeks of training.

 

(A perk that came with the insomnia.)

 

There was a glint in SeoHyun’s eyes, previously masked by worry, and SeoHyun shifted into a more offensive stance. Shedding the careful tread she had adopted around Irene, she went at the other woman with full force, her smile widening when Irene matched her blow for blow. The screech of metal coming together drew the attention of the soldiers around them, whispers coming to a slow as they watched their commander in chief and a platoon leader cross swords.

 

Without the crutch of fatigue, Irene soon started to overpower SeoHyun, adding more weight behind her blows.

 

SeoHyun’s face changed, from delight to grudging awe, as she was forced back into a defensive position.

 

“You’re moving better than before.”

 

Irene’s arm shot out, missing SeoHyun’s upper arm by mere breaths.

 

“It comes with the body.”

 

SeoHyun spun towards her gracefully, the swords clashing together in a rain of sparks.

 

“As does unlimited stamina, I suppose.”

 

Merely grinning, Irene pushed SeoHyun off, her shoulders creaking from the effort. Ignoring it, Irene ran forwards, switching her sword from her left to her right, trying to catch the ever observant SeoHyun off guard.

 

It proved to be a fatal mistake.

 

SeoHyun, not one to fall for tricks, had raised her sword in response to Irene’s feint, the blade aiming for Irene’s face.

 

Without thinking, Irene raised her right arm to block the blow, catching SeoHyun’s blade right at the wrist. The sword cut right through her arm and lodged itself into her shoulder.

 

It barely phased her.

 

Using SeoHyun’s surprise to her advantage, Irene used her other shoulder to slam SeoHyun on the ground, placing the tip of her sword at her chin. Her other hand hung limply, dangling off a sliver of skin, her commander’s sword sliding off her body like hot knife through butter.

 

“Yield.”

 

SeoHyun pointed at her arm.

 

“Don’t bother- Your arm!”

 

Irene glanced down at it disinterestedly.

 

“It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt-”

 

A loud scream pierced the air.

 

She turned around quickly, her weapon leaving SeoHyun and towards the sound, her eyes widening at the sight of Wendy collapsing on the ground, blood splattered everywhere.

 

SeoHyun shouted from behind her, the black haired woman already on her feet and walking towards Wendy.

 

“What happened to Wendy?!”

 

Seulgi shook her head frantically.

 

“I don’t know! We were watching you guys spar and she suddenly said it hurts- Then she-”

 

Irene’s eyes tracked from Wendy’s pale face and downwards.

 

And saw that Wendy’s right arm was bleeding.

 

She took in the injured arm and then at her own severed limb-

 

Inside, something pulsed almost painfully, echoing through her shell of a body like a pulse.

 

As though it was a signal, Seulgi gasped loudly, pointing a shaky finger at Irene.

 

“I think it’s because of-”

 

SeoHyun cut her off roughly, mindful of the prying eyes around them.

 

“Let’s get her to the infirmary.”

 

*

 

“There you are, I was looking everywhere for you.”

 

Irene turned around to see Wendy smiling softly at her, one hand holding the door to the roof open. She waved for Wendy to come closer; shifting to one side to accommodate Wendy’s presence in the tight space. She breathed out a puff of cold air and tilted her head to one side, her eyes never leaving the sunset in front of her.

 

(The remnants of a life that was good.

 

A life before the war.)

 

“What is it? Did something happen?”

 

Wendy shook her head, her arm pressing against Irene, warmth seeping through the material of their uniforms.

 

“Just... wanted to see you, I guess.”

 

Irene chuckled and turned her head, her eyes focusing on the sunset present in brown eyes instead.

 

“You just saw me earlier during the meeting.”

 

The sunset in Wendy’s eyes dived below to make way for a night, dark and turbulent.

 

“Yeah, the meeting...”

 

Because she was always attuned to Wendy's mood, it didn’t take Irene long to figure out what the issue was. She lifted her arm and slid her fingers across Wendy’s forearm, hoping to ease the light back into her eyes and grasped the younger woman’s fingers tightly.

 

“You shouldn’t worry. At the very least, we’re all in a unit together.”

 

But the storm was still present in Wendy’s expression, her lower lip bruising under the abuse of her teeth.

 

“But what if we can’t-”

 

Irene tightened her grip, her tone forceful.

 

“We can. We will. I will.”

 

She pressed her forehead to Wendy’s, her eyes slipping shut as she continued to speak with conviction.

 

“As long as each of our souls remain on this earth, we will be together.”

 

Wendy stayed silent, her fingers trembling in Irene’s grasp.