Chapter 37– Unpleasant Reunion.

  A skin tight dress, high heel footwear, hair put into a messy bun and eyes confident. A woman walked across a hallway with eyes darting in her direction. Her face unmoved by the attention she was getting only focused on her destination.

  *Where is Aurelian’s room..?* The woman thought to herself.

  She walked to the end of the hallway, in front of her being a glass window overviewing the outside of the Military Headquarters. To her right side, a dorm room. She knocked on the door.

  *knock knock!* She slightly tapped the door with a bit of aggression.

  “It’s like everyday somebody needs something from me…” Aurelian muttered as he got up from a rocking chair, walking to the door. He had been wearing a tank top with a pair of black sweatpants.

  He twisted the door knob open to see a woman dressed in high fashion.

  “Uhm, hello.” Aurelian said unimpressed.

  “Jasmine Urame. I’m apart of the Royal Attack Squadron now.” The woman— Jasmine now said with a hint of arrogance.

  “I see— and why don’t you have the uniform for the RAS on?” Aurelian looked up and down. In his thought process and experience, her choice of outfit was more so for clubbing and perhaps promiscuous activities.

  “I was told to come to you for details about the RAS and what not. So let me in..” She looked at Aurelian.

  Aurelian sighed and side stepped to give her walking space.

  *I bet it was that damn Romulus who redirected her to me. That fucking drunk..! How is he still a general?* Aurelian was in his head for a moment, being sent back to reality as Jasmine said a few words.

  “This dorm is as big as an apartment..”

  Aurelian looked at her while yawning. “Yeah, High Command does that to you.”

  “So, two questions. First being, who am I alongside with? Second being, is there any missions or operations I should know of in the past tense and future tense?” Jasmine sat down on his rocking chair.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Aurelian circled around the room answering her questions.

  “One, you are the replacement for Special Officer Cupiditas, whom is no longer with us. Your squad mates are— Hughman Janaden, Adam Octavian, Vinast Bere.”

  “Two, we had one operation in the past. Operation Exterminate which did succeed but with great cost. We lost two RAS members due to the ‘Deathslingers.’” Aurelian looked at her. “Does that answer your questions?”

  *Deathslingers, so they’re the ones who wrote that name where Guri died.* Jasmine got up and walked to the door.

  “That is all, I expect my uniform and other necessities delivered to Dormitory 127 by tonight.” She twisted the knob and left the room.

  Aurelian looked at the door with a blank expression.

  “House of Urame. First name Jasmine. There’s only one other person I can think of with that name.”

  “The Wind Queen’s first name was Jasmine.”

  …

  A hospital room was silent. Everybody’s gaze was focused onto Imaez— his eyes focused on one person. Kera.

  Lloyd, Naomi, and Marie had walked into the room.

  “He’s awake!…” Marie’s ecstatic expression soon died down. Everything in the room felt solemn and quiet. As if emotion itself was ceasing to exact.

  The melancholy of it all, a reunion— not the one they would hope.

  Kera’s mouth opened with no words. Imaez’s eyes stared at his hands with great concentration.

  Something felt off.

  “Imaez-“ Kera said his name but her attention was diverted to his hand. Imaez pointed his arm towards a vase near the end of the room. He concentrated energy into his hands.

  “Let’s see.” He whispered to himself. The vase was pulled in by his hand. Imaez’s hand was emitting something. It didn’t have an aura nor anything visible about it, it was something naked to human eyes. The vase bent inward, as if an invisible gravity well had formed in Imaez’s palm. The porcelain stretched, compacting on itself, collapsing until it became a dense point and then, it vanished.

  Where upon entering Imaez’s grasps, it ceased to exist.

  The room filled with unease and confusion. Not of Imaez’s power— but of what he could do.

  Imaez looked at his hands and mumbled. “That’s right, I have to destroy them. The empire..” He had remembered his resolve. Why he wasn’t going to cling onto his sins.

  Kera overheard his mumbling.

  “Destroy..? You’re going to challenge the empire? You just woke up from a coma and you’re serious this?” Kera scoffed.

  “What do you know about me? You don’t know the slightest thing about what I’ve done or how I have to live, so please don’t butt in.” Imaez said to her, feeling a bit insulted.

  “I might not know why you have to be The Reaper, or why you have to go after the empire, but one thing I can tell you is that you can’t be reckless!” Kera’s quick rebuttal made Imaez’s eyebrows lower, his nose flared a bit as his lips frowned.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?! My mother? Don’t tell me what to do or what I should do because what I need is to get out of here and kill those bastards!” Imaez ripped the IV tube out his arm.

  “I don’t care, Imaez! I really don’t care about what you have to do! But what I do care about is your wellbeing, stop trying to play this role of the Reaper when you can just be YOU.”

  Lloyd, Falcon, Marie, and Naomi watched the argument.

  “Just be me?! Who do you think I am. I’M A NO-BOD-Y.” Imaez laughed. “All I can be is the Reaper, Kera. We talk for an hour and suddenly you become this nagging bitch in my ear..holy-“

  “Okay, fine, I won’t do anything. I really did care about you— and I know you had fun too, Reaper.” Kera grabbed her purse, stomping out the room. A drip of water fell onto the ground.

  No, it wasn’t water. It was a tear.

  The room went silent once again.

  … Nobody dared to speak.

  Imaez turned away from everyone.

  He said solemnly. “Can someone get me.. a change of clothes?”

  His face wasn’t angry anymore, rather, a wave of sadness hit him.