StarCraft 1. Pre-Reading

Pre-Prologue

Notes to take in **before **you begin reading even my prologue. Main character which this story will be using will be adopted over from my previous story (Nova Terra turning a new leaf), namely the protagonist (Will) who isn't often mentioned by name in that story. I'll be taking a few key aspects of his life which was mostly detailed in the first chapter, namely to make him appear to be an average-joe type of character.

You'll also have to forgive me as my sense of imagination is lacking enough that I can't even come up with a way to detail exactly how or why Nova wound up 400 years in the past, if you can play along with that idea then your set. I thought of a bunch of ways this potentially could have happened and why, but none of them sounded very feasible or realistic; and I know that's not the idea of fanfiction but I still wanted to remain "within reason", particularly with this story as it occurs at the present day.

This story goes straight into it, so this "prologue" I've made here is more of a reading material prior to starting the story, just so you get an understanding of what's going on before you read the first chapter.


	2. Chapter 1

You live your life somewhat carefree, life as you know it up to this point all came down to finishing school and getting a job. You are in your early twenties, society dictated that at this age you should begin to decide your future career path more seriously and take up a part time job as well. However, circumstances being what they are ended up drawing you jobless and in your final semester at college. You didn't have outstanding grades by any means, enough to barely pass and nothing more; grades weren't exactly your most talked about characteristic.

You kept in contact with a few of your high school friends, but as they separated into different universities, different career paths, even your closest friends were now distant. That wasn't to say you weren't still friends with them, just that circumstances drew you apart from them.

Your schedule was rather odd and unusual, the final day of the week was a Thursday for you and also with it came the latest class which had you coming home usually after dark, particularly during the winter months. The air was cool and cold as you exited the bus at your stop, it was still a fairly long walk until you reached home however. You stood idly by at the pedestrian crossing waiting for the light to flash green in order to allow you to walk across the busy 4 lane road. It was dark out, about 7pm and a fairly strong breeze was present which dropped the wind-chill factor quite dramatically, it wasn't freezing by any means but it was still cold enough that it made your teeth begin to rattle. The inside of the bus didn't feel particularly all too warm but it was a heck of a lot better than outside now you thought to yourself as you began rapidly pacing across the road, with the car lights shining brightly into your face which somewhat blinded you.

It was about a 5 minute walk or so home from here, home stretch you thought to yourself as your work week came to a close. The local council had made a particular effort in planting an abundance of local trees and shrubbery along the various sidewalks and footpaths which were often blanketed with a very light cover of ice in the early morning which was a sight to behold. As you walk home you had to pass a football oval, which in was large enough to accommodate various other sports such as archery and track events. It was often unusual to find anybody out of their houses this late at night, particularly with how chilly it was; it was a quiet neighbourhood and nothing in particular happened very often even though you were confident some of the families were anything but innocent.

As you were walking down one of the foot paths which was paved around the perimeter of the field's grounds. A bright light shimmered fairly brightly in the distance in the direction of the oval, it was off the path of your normal route home. At first you figured that perhaps one of the Oval's lights must have malfunctioned or perhaps it was switched on and off rapidly as there often times the local football team training late into the evening, but they weren't there tonight. As that thought was quickly put aside, you figured that perhaps it was a car something in the distance shining it's fog lights and reflected off a surface in the distance to give the impression something gave off that light, but there wasn't anything reflective in the distance, it was simply large chunks to boulder sized granite and bauxite formations. Huh, you thought to yourself, well now or never as you began turning the corner away from the oval and towards your house.

You stopped and pause for a moment, at the corner of the street; the object you thought you had seen was at the end of the street but away from line of sight, particularly because wherever it was, was now in the darkness and out of view of the street lights which lined the street. You thought nothing of it, perhaps it was just your imagination; but something told you to turn around and give it another chance as you were about to reach your door step. Something at the back of your mind told you to turn around and head back the way you came, something your mind didn't often do as being so close to home it often was determined to just head inside and get away from the squalling winds.

You sighed and realized the back of your mind had won the argument, upon reaching your doorstep you decided to drop off your bag as it had been weighing you down quite drastically before turning back the way you had just came. The footpath which linked your cluster of four streets together wasn't very well lit with the streetlights, and in some parts were completely blackened out as the tall bushes and shrubs completely blocked the path of the light emitted from the lights. You began pacing back down the foot path towards the direction of the oval, it was about 50 meters away at most. If anything and even if nothing came of it you thought to yourself at the very least you were contributing to your cardio regime which you hardly followed at all.

You left your Ipod with your bag back at the house, giving you a clear sense of clarity around you which you often took for granted and generally saw as bleak, dull and boring. You were now about 10 meters or so away from the street corner, which would have given you a direct line of sight down the street that you saw the burst of light emanate from. You looked left and right before crossing one of the side streets before reaching the street corner, assuring that there weren't any cars when you noted that something or someone was present across the street, in the patch of darkness created from the tall bush and shrubs that was present alongside the footpath.

As you began crossing the road your feelings began more and more apparent, and only when you got substantially closer did you note that nothing was immediately there, nobody. Your sense of judgement kicked in, and took over from your sense of logic which told you to turn back home at this point. Your arms shot out in front of you and started to wave slowly out in front of you, you could easily make outlines of a person at this point but still had not yet seen anyone. You could hear faint but definitely made out breaths and pants as well as steps, even though you were certain none of the neighbours was just playing a prank on you in their backyards.

Suddenly the same flash of light happened again, this time substantially closer to you, almost right in front of your face which blinded you to some extent in the complete darkness. It revealed a tall and slender young woman who was clearly in need of help, but she was cautious and she began backing up and away from you, down the street towards the corner which you had first seen the shimmer. "Wait!" you whispered out with caution, not wanting to alert the neighbours. She had her arm tucked across her mid-section and clasped against her left arm as she began rearing up back down the foot path into the light which revealed to you more of her body.

She was wearing something you had never seen before, what appeared to be metal plating fashioned into armour on top of a greyish white skin tight suit. Her long blonde hair drooped across her face as her facial expression became clearer, she was panting heavily as if out of breath and weak. Upon seeing her condition, a part of your subconscious lifted your arms out and to your sides to signal that you didn't mean her any harm. You stopped dead in your tracks and at the same time so did she, which made you realize that she was only moving backwards because you were moving towards her. "Hey, are you okay?" you said in a reassuring tone towards her, she gave no response other than clenching her waist tighter with one arm and an expression of crippling pain on her face. "Do you need to see a doctor? I can call an ambulance if you need it" you said, this time with more intensity as her situation became more apparent to you. You slowly paced towards her, one step at a time with your arms held high and to your sides, seeing if she began taking paces backwards to which she didn't.

She began appearing weaker and weaker, with her legs barely holding her up and her knees quivering. Her neck began to droop forwards and her whole body looked as if she was going to fall forwards flat onto her face, you were a few meters away now and sprinted forward to catch her as she began falling forwards. She collapsed into your arms with her head landing just on top of your shoulder blade, her weight was surprisingly heavy causing you to slightly lose your balance even with the momentum you had.

You flipped her over onto your backside, only now did it become apparent to you that she had a massive rifle on her back side; your eyes widened at the thought of taking her in now, but regardless your adrenaline was now in full flight as you began to carry her in your arms quickly towards your house. Upon reaching the door to your house, as you frantically rushed to find your keys, you began to hear a faint voice coming from her "D-Don't call an ambulance…" as she slowly passed out. You freaked out, thinking that she was dying at first but you could still see her breath in the cold air coming out of her mouth along with a slight shiver. You rapidly picked up your bag and brought her inside, at first placing her down on your couch in your living room. It was only now that you began realizing that she wasn't any ordinary person, nor was she wearing any ordinary armour or clothing.

You had a particular interest in firearms, and couldn't identify the firearm nor the cartridge or any which part of the rifle she had slung on her back. You removed the rifle from her back and placed it carefully down on the side of the couch, keeping your hand well away from the trigger housing. You thought it was rude to stare at her, much so as she was sleeping so you attempted to try and keep your mind busy and attention away from her as you began your normal daily routine upon returning home, checking up on her once every now and then to make sure she was still in a stable condition.

Hours had passed, and it was now becoming fairly late into the evening and you had just finished your shower in preparation for bed. Coming downstairs to once again check up on her, to your surprise she was awake however her eyes were only barely open. "Hey, are you okay?" you decided to ask again to which she clutched her arm across her waist and had a general look of pain and discomfort on her face as she tilted her head to get a better view of you. "Are you sure you don't want me to call an ambulance?" you asked but once again, she shook her head. Suddenly she tried to force herself up which you were certain she wasn't in any position to do, launching yourself down to her side to prevent her from doing so. "W-Where am I? Where are we? What year …" she mumbled out of her mouth in disarray, almost sounding as if she was hallucinating. Upon answering her questions her eyes widened, revealing dilated pupils and very light emerald green iris in her eyes.

"It's what? Earth? As in old earth?" She asked in utter confusion, you followed up with the year which only shocked her further. She began breathing heavily, in a state of shock and almost horror at where she was, beginning to wonder how she managed to get here. It was only now did she begin to cringe her face in discomfort, placing her hands on her head she let out a loud groan. "Wha-What is it?" It was apparent that the year and where she was wasn't the only thing on her mind. It was the thoughts of the neighbours filling her head, the roar of all their thoughts filled her head, blaring into her head. "So many people" she muttered out in discomfort as her face remained cringed, you looked up and around even though you knew there wasn't anyone around let alone anyone talking or making sound. You noted that she placed her hands on her head and not directly on her ears, which confused you and left you with even more questions than answers about who or what this girl was.

"I-Is there anything I can do?" you asked after a brief moment of uncertainty, her face still filled with discomfort before she suddenly relaxed and tilted her head back. "What year did you say it was again?" she asked again, wanting to confirm it once again with you "2014" you said with reassurance, she stared directly into your eyes as you said it, seemingly to see if you were lying. "So here I am on old Earth, huh" she said as she panned her head from left to right around the room. "You live by yourself?" she asked in a curious tone to which you replied affirmatively, "I can't sense the presence of another person in this house, and you have a pretty big house just to yourself, do all people of old earth live like this?" It was only now that you had begun realizing that she was saying "old earth" as if she was from the future or something you thought to yourself. "Yes actually, I am from "the future"" she said with a grin which made you at first surprised but then immediately alarmed that she had read your thoughts.

You began wondering if you should communicate to her in thoughts rather than say anything, "it's okay, I won't read everything" she said reassuringly as she began to get up off of the couch and began pacing back and forth. This whole time you noted that she had her arm clutched up against her waist, you decided to ask "Are you sure you're okay, you look like you're a little worse for wear" to which she turned around and with a reassuring tone replied "Yeah, I'm okay" with a smile. She began pacing around the rest of the house, looking around and taking in the scenery even though it was completely pitch black as she had not turned the lights on. "I like my house too, but tell you what it looks even better when you turn the lights on" as you followed her through the house. She was sure to check every room in the house, allowing time for you to describe details of the room.

Part of you wondered if it was out of curiosity that she was essentially touring your house, or making sure that the house didn't contain anything she wasn't expecting. "It's difficult for me to build trust with people, so you're going to have to have to bear with me for just a little longer" Not knowing a way to respond you blurted out a generic "Oh, okay" which made her turn around and smile.

Upon finishing the tour of your fairly large and spacious house, she had decided upon your room being the ideal place to begin taking off her armour plating. You weren't certain why but something urged you that you shouldn't be looking at her during the process, giving her privacy and exiting the room, to which she closed the door behind you whilst being in the centre of it, alarming you in the process. She poked her head out soon after in the brilliant two toned white and grey under suit she wore underneath, "I'm tired" she said sheepishly before yawning. "You're not going to wash or clean up before doing that?" you asked out of curiosity but also with the underlying thoughts of giving her the opportunity to take a shower if she needed one. Oh well in that case she said as she quickly proceeded towards the bathroom, grabbing what appeared to be a spare towel on the way in.

You began thinking how much of a handful she was setting herself up to be, but something about her was enchanting. You figured that she was making herself feel at home, after all you seemed more than happy to let her into your house in the first place, she was just taking up on your initial offer. You opened the door of your bedroom to note her neatly sorted pile of armour placed in one corner of the room with her rifle placed against the wall alongside it. Well she seems like a nice girl I guess you thought to yourself, if anything a little bit too nice you thought, but then quickly remembered she could probably be reading your thoughts as you were thinking them. There were a lot of things you hadn't quite figured out about her just yet, and sooner rather than later you hoped they could become apparent.

It was also now that you began realizing what her abilities meant, and who else might have an interest in her should other people find out about her. Things like the Military would express a great degree of interest in her, government agencies, FBI, CIA, the list continued which had you mortified as to what her future prospects could turn into. She was essentially an alien, in the form of a human, a very very beautiful human you began thinking to yourself. At that moment she came through the door and reassured you that she only caught the tail end of your thoughts, which made you thoroughly embarrassed in not knowing where she began reading your mind. As you lay down in bed Nova was sure to ask for permission before going into bed with you, it just so happens that you only had 1 bed in the entire house as you don't expect many visitors at all, let alone ones that stay overnight. At first you thought it was awkward, especially since you two had practically only met a matter of hours ago, but she unleashed a pair of puppy dog eyes on you which caved you into letting her sleep on your bed.

She was sure to maintain her distance, placing herself onto one side of the bed and rapidly fell asleep. It was now that the thoughts of other people displaying an interest in her turned into research about her, thinking about how government agencies from around the world might want to conduct scientific research on her, you swore that you would never let that happen to her, as she lay fast asleep by your side. Quickly wanting to change your mind about the whole topic, you quickly turned out the lights and fell asleep as well.


	3. Chapter 2

It was still dark out, and the air was particularly cold when you were awoken to the tossing and turning next to you. You ducked your head out from under your sheets and realized she was squirming and rolling in discomfort, it was only now that you had realized that you didn't even know her name. You wanted to call out to her, but didn't quite know how to address her, instead you leaned up and turned on the night light to your left. Hey are you okay? You asked but she remained unresponsive, continuing to toss and turn in discomfort and rolling up the blanket around her in the process.

She had her arms clasped tightly against her waist with her fists tightly clenched, her long blonde hair which she had intentionally left untied now entangled her loosely, her eyes were closed tightly and her face showed an expression of pain and agony. She let out small whimpers and cries as she began curling up into a ball onto her side, forming into a foetal position. You weren't quite sure what to do, she had exclusively told you earlier that she did not want you to call an ambulance, and now you kind of knew the reasons as to why she didn't want to be looked at medically but now she was in serious pain and discomfort.

Not knowing what else to do, and after trying to get her attention failed you decided to reach out and physically touch her, perhaps she was in a really bad nightmare or something you thought to yourself. Maybe she was just having a really bad dream you thought, you reached out to her shoulder and once again but this time with more emphasis "Hey are you okay?" Upon placing your hand on her shoulder she lashed out, both physically and mentally and it sent you flying back across the room. Your back slammed against the wall with enough force that it knocked you immediately unconscious, largely unharmed with nothing more than a few bumps and bruises which might cause you discomfort later on, but nothing life threatening.

Nova continued to writhe and squirm in pain, all the while relatively unconscious until early dawn. Nova woke up to the sheets encasing her, her hair was all over the place and much of the furniture in the room had not only become displaced but some others had completely flipped over. Her gear had been sporadically spread across the room in a relative arc but her heavy rifle had hardly moved, toppling over at most. As she slowly raised her head further and further up her attention suddenly veered from the contents around the room to what was directly in front of her. You lay on your side with arms and legs sporadically spread which lead her to believe that maybe the house had been ransacked overnight. Nova immediately leapt up and screamed at the top of her lungs "Will!" and sprinted towards you. She placed her cold hands against your face before checking for a pulse, to her relief you were still breathing.

You didn't come around for several hours after, upon waking up you found yourself lying down in bed with the sheets and blanket neatly done and tucked in. Moments later the pain and confusion struck as you began attempting to recall the events which had transpired last night. You noted that the bedroom door had been left open wide, even though you were sure to have closed it last night. You began to wonder where the girl from last night was, as your memories of last night came rushing back to you vaguely. You struggled but managed to get into an upright position before trying to get out of bed. Exiting the room you were about to call out but began hearing sobbing emanating from the bathroom, the door was closed shut firmly.

She was sat in a hunched position, with her head in her arms. She had pieced together what had happened last night, and she wasn't too particularly proud or happy with herself to say the least. "I can go if you want" she muttered out while lifting her head up, holding back tears and refusing to look in your general direction as you opened the door. You were surprisingly relaxed, so much so that you were disconcerted enough to go and wash your face before making any attempts to acknowledge her regret and sorrow. "Well?" she cried out, semi expecting a confirmation to her fears. Much to her surprise you sat down beside her and calmly placed an arm around her shoulder and asked if she was okay which made her touched as to how you remained so carefree about what had happened the night before.

"Will, I'm sorry about wha-"you cut her off, "Y'know, I didn't manage to quite catch your name yesterday". Her eyes widened and her cheeks became slightly pink, she had forgotten that you weren't a teep to be able to determine what her name was. Nova she said with a slightly hesitant tone, "Is that short for something or?" which made her veer her vision off to the side, before returning back to eye contact and quickly followed up with "Well, I guess it's short for something, but I don't particularly like my whole name". With that she shrugged your arm off her shoulders and leaned you forward, she clasped her hands together and closed her eyes and had a blank expression on her face. You were mystified by the dull green light which seemed to glow, it made your back muscles twitch at first but then a great sense of relaxation took over. She pressed down upon the site of your first bruise that was a deep purple and how now turned a more normal tone of skin colour. "Do you feel anything?" she asked as she poked and prodded away at the site, you smiled and shook your head which made her move onto the next site, slowly working her way down your backside.

Six months passed, despite your best efforts they managed to not only find but then secured Nova. She did her best to qualm your fears, insisting that she voluntarily agreed to undergo their research. But that didn't mean she didn't go down without a fight, she had managed to convince them that you remain at her side. They came at you with a small army, once they had heard about what she was supposedly capable of. They listed her as a "priority one" scientific specimen, with a great deal of importance to every possible field imaginable. She was literally a treasure trove of knowledge and innovation which their government agency wasn't all too keen on potentially slipping away from them. You noted that they had never once addressed who they are or anything at all about their organization, but you had been reassured by Nova herself that their intent was true, and that their reasons were justified.

You two sat alone in bed with one another, not quite sure where you were now; but one thing was certain, that you both were going to try your best to cooperate as much as you could to get out of there. Tomorrow was the day they intended to conduct a biopsy on Nova's brain, after much abnormalities were present with her MRI. They did their best to keep the two of you informed about exactly what they were doing at each phase, after all Nova could tell if they were lying or with-holding something regardless.

Nova had strictly requested that she be kept awake, and not under the influence of any anaesthesia of any sort. Her request was met with unease amongst the medical staff who would have much rather preferred her to be unconscious while they dug into her skull. By now she was fully aware, with all the illustrations and vast amounts of paperwork displayed to the two of you to describe what the operation was going to achieve and what it meant in the grand scheme of things. An air of unease still remained in you about it all, and Nova could tell but she remained strong and was adamant that they meant her no harm, even though deep down she was secretly harbouring thoughts of overwhelming fear and uneasiness. She shuddered at the thought of what happened to her the last time someone tried to cut her open while she was awake, this time she was sure to demand that you remain by her side all throughout the operation, more so than other times.

Nova's heard perked up, her ears seemed to tingle as her body shot upright from a relaxed lying down position in the hospital style bed she was placed in. "What is it Nova?" you asked as you too immediately shot up into an upright position. The doors of the room swung open, they had a barber who was clearly not one of the medical staff with them. Nova let out an audible hiss as she learned in which frightened everyone who had just walked into the room. The barber wasn't alone, they had predicted that Nova wouldn't exactly happily agree to shaving large portions of her head and as a precaution sent in 4 very large, burly men who were clearly assigned to hold her down during the extensive haircut.

They moved quickly upon entering the room, realizing this had to be done with force, they tried to get the jump on Nova. She clenched her fists tightly and with a firm glare she let out a psionic blast which left you untouched in the midst. Nova had made it very clear that nobody wasn't going anywhere near her without her permission, she proceeded to step out of bed and went up against the glass. "Nobody touches me or him, without MY permission, YOU GOT THAT?" she screamed at the top of her lungs, knowing that there was bound to be people on the other side watching. She turned around and just as the men were regaining their footing, Nova teeked the doors open from the inside and swept the men off their feet and out the door before slamming them shut.

There she stood, tall and strong in her suit and breathed heavily. "N-Nova are you okay?" you managed to mutter out, which had an immediate effect in Nova, her focused and tense demeanour shifted quickly into one which you were more familiar with. Her cheeks became slightly flustered and a slight grin formed across her lips, "Sorry did I scare you Will?" she asked with a genuine tone before following up shortly after with "Nobody touches my hair" and locked into a gaze before laughing and embracing you, she whispered "But really, nobody" before giggling.

"Nova, they want to remove a part of your brain, are you sure you're okay with that?" you asked as the two of you lay back down in bed. She remained emotionless, staring off into a corner of the room as you embraced her tightly, you could tell she was concerned about it which made you all the more curious as to why she would still be so cooperative with the biopsy. Nova closed her eyes, and took a deep breath in before managing enough strength to say "I just want you, I mean, us to go back to normal again, to live normal lives again, and if that means that I need to do a few things for these guys in order to get that then I'll make the sacrifice for both of us". Her head drooped low, and you placed your head on top of hers and embraced her even tighter than before, holding her tightly in your arms.

Nova choked back tears, as a deep throbbing sensation began building up in her throat making it hard to breathe. She managed to force out "I'm sorry, Will, I'm sorry for getting you into this, maybe I should have just lef" before you cut in, abruptly ending her apology short with a passionate kiss. She struggled at first, trying to comprehend why a kiss of all things was your response but then she slowly relaxed as she began your thought process. When you released, she leaned in and bumped her forehead against yours, you didn't need to have the ability to read her mind in order to determine that it was her way of intimately saying thank you.

As Nova began to fall asleep in your arms, you began wondering what life would be like after all this was over, committing to a relationship with someone who hardly knew but were now forced to become attached to. That wasn't to say you didn't love her, or care for her wellbeing, but you knew that simply after partaking in all their experiments, they wouldn't simply have you walk on out of there no questions asked. A relationship with Nova would be undertaking a commitment to a life style far more different than you could have ever imagined, but there was no turning back now, your involvement with her as it is would already place you in a position which would forbid you from leading a normal "innocent" life style.

Your eyes turned to look down at her, she was already soundly asleep and it was getting late. There was a big day ahead of you tomorrow, for the both of you that is. You undid her hair tie which amongst all the commotion, she had forgotten to release which spread her long hair flat out across the bed. She hadn't had much of an opportunity to give a substantial amount of attention to her hair, the facility didn't rate it very highly on their priority list that every intricate detail was attended to, and after all it wasn't exactly a hotel you were staying at by any means. Which made you wonder even further into exactly where this facility was located.

Nova's eyebrows suddenly perked up and clenched together, "Your thinking too loudly again" she groaned and grovelled before she rolled onto her backside and pulling at the white hospital style sheets. The blanket was barely enough to keep the two of you warm, luckily the facility wasn't too cold nor warm, and you suspected that they at the very least air conditioned your room. Your eyes wandered around the ceiling before drawing attention onto the black screens along the perimeter of the room. "Relax, nobodies watching, now could you please go to sleep Will?" she said reassuringly before she wriggled her way across the bed and closer to you, pressing you up against the side of the bed. You gently kiss her on the cheek before placing your head up against her shoulder, subsequently falling asleep soon after.


	4. Chapter 3

Your eyes slowly opened to an empty bedside in front of you. It didn't quite settle in very quickly, but Nova was missing and you weren't exactly in the same position you were in upon falling asleep last night either. There wasn't any apparent signs of struggle, nor were there any signs of damage or things overturned. They gassed the two of you while you were sleeping, figuring that it would be much much simpler to do things that way than have you both be awake at the time of surgery. A little unethical on their part, but they acted upon the best interests of the government, so it wasn't exactly your time and place to call them out on any degree of malpractice.

Your head felt unusually heavy, your mouth particularly parched and unable to talk. You groaned deeply as your head tried to swerve around the room in order to look for signs of what had happened while you were asleep. A note was left on the far wall of the room, positioned in a way that it wouldn't obstruct the black screens along the walls but obvious enough that you were sure to see it. The message didn't contain much if not anything that you hadn't already pieced together, as by now it was fairly obvious that they had opted to anaesthetise the both of you as they separated the two of you from each other.

As it had become apparent to whoever was monitoring you, the PA system began to pitch up "Nova was taken away to the OR in the early hours of this morning" before abruptly being cut short. It was apparent that they displayed a greater deal of interest in her over you, you weren't very certain if that was a comforting fact or one that should concern you. Nevertheless, you were rather peeved that they had decided to deny you an opportunity to farewell each other considering that under normal conditions you would be able to do so.

Nova had displayed a great deal of interest in old earth's history, she seemed to enjoy herself while she dug through the various textbooks you had left lying around, spread across the house. From history textbooks to science and mathematics textbooks, she often skimmed through them in her spare time. She stated that they gave her a very close perspective on things, especially when she spent a lot of time learning about it back in school. Her mind, and what she knew was tapped into, almost as if it was a resource, a fountain of knowledge from which further advancements in technology of the future could be made.

Of course she was no scientist or anything, it was just off the top of her head that she was listing things off of. What was considered general knowledge for her was looked at as deep insight into the future, but of course certain things were off limits and she would make it very clear when she wasn't at liberty to discuss certain topics such as the intricate workings of the "Ghost" program. They held very open and candid meetings with various departmental heads of various fields of academics with her, to which they compiled question upon question for her to answer. Some days she would be more cooperative than others, at specific times of the month she wouldn't say anything at all. They were both very courteous and pressing at the same time, they weren't in any particular hurry to tap into the information, so they took things slowly and drew out the time they had with her so long as she agreed.

It was a few hours until the room's doors swung open, they wheeled an unconscious Nova in on another hospital bed. You stood up as they wheeled her in but they motioned you to sit back down, they wheeled her in and slowly moved her across into your bed with the greatest deal of care, careful so as to not prematurely wake her. You found it unusual that they took such care in doing so, you figured that perhaps she was expected to wake from the coma rather soon. What appeared to be the lead or head doctor walked in as well soon after they wheeled away the other bed and the surgical staff left as well.

He was a man of an average stature, his face was genuine and so was his tone. You could tell that this man didn't seem to be as cold or straight forward as the others, he seemed as if he was a genuine medical practitioner, understandable as it would probably be out of their reach to have their own private neurosurgeon. As he began to ask questions about her personality, characteristics and traits you began to build up a mental image of this man. He appeared genuine and heartfelt in his responses, appearing to have a genuine degree of concern for the wellbeing of his patient who was Nova. He expressed a particular interest in Nova, noting that she was something he had never seen before. Nevertheless he remained tight lipped on his personal details and any attempts you made to find out anything about him.

He left the room rather briskly when the PA system had announced that he had over welcomed his stay. Soon enough your room was quiet again, Nova was still asleep with her hair untied it covered much of her face. As you reached in to brush her hair to the sides of her face, her eyebrows perked up rapidly. "Nova?" she groaned as a response before cringing her face in discomfort, she wasn't particularly fond of being sedated, much less without her consent but she seemed surprisingly calm considering what had transpired. You leaned in as she began to settle down, you were mindful of her own personal space, particularly when she was annoyed or dazed and confused. She made it apparent that you were just about the only person she let get that close and intimate with her, you figured it was best not to try and push those boundaries for what they are remembering what she was capable of at practically any given moment.

"Will? Where are w- never mind, I remember" She was visibly annoyed, her forehead cringed making it even more apparent that she was very peeved. "Are you okay Nova?" you asked as you cautiously placed your hand on her shoulder. She placed both her hands over her face and then began to move them, noting the points at which they used to secure her head, and in particular the point they used to gain entry to her brain. Her face of annoyance quickly turned to one of concern, not quite fear but you could tell she was visibly concerned at not knowing the results of the biopsy. She could tell that nobody in the immediate vicinity knew the results of the biopsy either, but as far as she could tell everything was normal, movement in both sides of her body and being able to recall memories both recent and old. Nova groaned, before seemingly growling out "How long was I out?" To be honest, you weren't exactly keeping track of time, nor did you exactly know how long the surgery lasted either. "Just a few hours, I think but I'm not quite sure on specifics" her attention drew to you all of a sudden, "Wait, did they do something to you? They did haven't they" her voice rose as she became slightly flustered in annoyance. "Relax Nova, I think they gassed us both at the same time, don't worry" even though that sentence in itself didn't seem very reassuring at all.

Static rang out across the room as the PA system fired up "Be advised, a practical applications examination will be carried out in ETA 30 minutes" before abruptly cutting out. By now the both of you knew full well what a "Practical Applications Exam" meant, the last time they pushed Nova to her psionic limits in an attempt to see what she was capable of. In the previous examinations they had conducted a variety of tests, primarily what seemed to centre on militaristic applications of her abilities, which deeply concerned you but Nova understood why it was necessary and reassured you that it was okay. Soon enough the doors swung open, on the dot at thirty minutes passed midday. A single man walked in, Nova maintained a focused and intent stare at the man as she began picking apart what he wanted and his background. He came in with a simple notepad rather than any fancy charades or pictures and diagrams, his intention was clear while Nova breathed a sigh of relief realizing that he wasn't asking for very much at all.

"I'd tell you what I have in mind for today's examination, but I take it you've already figured that out" By now you were rather used to having things metaphorically blown right over your head, you turned your head across and over to Nova who sat idly by with her arms folded across her chest. Nova caught whiff of the concern you had as to what they had planned, "It's okay, I'll explain to him what's happening in a bit" which signalled to the suited man that it was his opportunity to leave, after all it was fairly apparent that he had said all he needed to say. Nova hopped off the bed and retrieved her armour plating from the corner of the room, placing it in a fairly neat pile on the bed. She began to lock her plating into place piece by piece "They want me to show them my cloaking, test me under some conditions and stuff" she said with a smile on her face, as she knew that it wasn't anything near as drastic as what previous examinations warranted from her.

By now they had made it fairly apparent that they had militaristic applications for Nova, going so far as to label her unofficially as a biological weapon. But Nova reassured you that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and that they did indeed to hold up to their word so far as she could tell to eventually let the two of you to live relatively free and normal lives. Exactly how long that eventually key word would be was anyone's guess, even they had ceased trying to reassure you that the end was near.

They walked you out of the room, single file into the darkened corridors which seemed to maze the various rooms on either side. The windows to the side rooms were all covered with sheets of plastic material so as to not allow a clear view to what was inside them, but Nova didn't sense anything in them and if there were, they weren't alive. It began setting in how massive of a facility this was in order to contain the vast series of interconnected room and walkways. Eventually reaching what was apparently one of the side exits of the facility which also doubled as a maintenance entry point designed to take in the various supplies needed to maintain the facility.

It was the first time either of you had seen daylight in several months, the sun was high in the sky and it was now early summer as you walked outside and experienced the harsh dry heat. It was a change of scenery at least and the fresh air was very comforting to breathe in, but they had once made it clear again that there was business to be competed. A line of men who appeared to be soldiers, judging by their attire stood in a relative line near the back wall of the range. It was apparent that this was no ordinary range, especially considering the row of weapon racks with various sealed metal cartons.

"Before we test your err, "cloaking" capabilities, we decided that while we're outside we might as well see how tight of a shot you are'" To which Nova smirked as she brushed her hair away from her face, the hot summer air was gusting across the range and it was apparent that you were in a very secluded and cordoned off area. Nova didn't need any explanations to know what they wanted, she began moving towards the first rack of weapons. As she did so the men in uniforms seemed to get closer, as if trying to pay closer attention to what she was doing. Nova picked up and caressed the rifle into her arms and resting against her shoulder carefully, she began piecing together the details of the weapon by reading the minds of the various people around her who obviously had much more experience with it than she was. Nova changed her grip, placing her hand over the hand guard which covered the barrel, extending her arm over the side of the gun which seemed to distribute her weight much more evenly over the rifle.

Nova calmed her breathing, keeping both eyes open and took a deep breath in before gently but surely pressing down upon the trigger. The round hit centre mass, dead on target which seemed to impress everyone who was watching intently. Nova then did the unexpected and rapidly slammed her finger down on the trigger, sending shot after shot in quick succession this time with her teeking slightly at each bullet to reach the furthest target on the range. The man sized metal plate that was 500 meters down range rang out as each round after the other hit the targets head area one after the other in quick succession.

Nova clearly made an impression with everyone who saw relatively quickly, and in particular caught the eye of one of the representatives from the Secretary of Defence who seemed to be equally frightened as he was intrigued and filled with curiosity about her. You saw him turn to one of his colleagues, seeming to nod before turning his back away from you and walked away from the range towards a series of awaiting vehicles. They handed Nova her rifle which they hadn't exactly quite confiscated from her, but rather safe kept it out of her hands; Nova's face immediately lit up with joy and glee upon getting her rifle back before quickly turning back to the range.

"My FN92 here has a maximum effective range of 1,800 meters, you range here wouldn't do my rifle any justice, but I can teek it a lot further than just that" Nova said with an arrogant smile across her face, but they once again made it apparent that they weren't ready to take you out of the facility anytime soon particularly with her rifle that they now had just learned could apparently reach out and touch someone on par with the current world record for the longest confirmed kills. Nova caught air of their fears and smirked before sending two rounds down range in quick succession which rendered both of the targets at the end of the range completely decimated. The plates peeled back into the ground, seemingly severed in the middle with charring occurring on the surface of the white inch thick steel plates. Not only did it destroy the plates themselves, but also lit the wooden barricades which held the targets into place on fire as the incendiary components had ignited the dry wood in the field.

You turned around to notice that the representative had gotten out of the car and had begun pacing towards the two of you. After handing over some documents over to the members of the facility he quickly turned around and led the two of you off into the waiting unmarked black SUV's with tinted windows. "I assume the two of you have all your belongings?" You looked at Nova quickly who had to think for a second before nodding in agreement "Perfect, then we're all set" he slammed the door shut behind him and signalled to the driver. He seemed very straight forward about things, leaving nothing to the imagination, a trait which Nova particularly liked as it made things a lot simpler when she wanted to read minds and thoughts.

"They want me to kill someone" Nova turned her head away from you and looked out the window, expecting you to have a degree of concern but was surprised when you weren't. After her display of her talents with weapons, it was fairly apparent that you shouldn't be holding her back from what she is capable of, you began feeling like you were holding her back from all she could be. You still loved her for who she was though, which reassured Nova greatly as she was concerned about not managing to find a balance between the two without sacrificing the other. "You're okay with that?" She asked as if she didn't believe your thought response "Of course I am Nova" you said reassuringly with a smile. Nova breathed a sigh of relief before placing herself against you and resting her head on your shoulder. With her hair now covering most of your face you began thinking back at what she did on the range, "So, basically they want you to be an assassin" Nova's eyebrows raised, her voice perked up "I'll still be me though" she said reassuringly as she began pulling out her hair tie which kept her hair back in place.

Nova's attention drew to what was outside the vehicle, realizing that it was still the first time she had been outdoors in a relatively long time. Realizing that the windows were automated windows which only the driver could wind down, she took matters into her own hands and briefly teeped at the gears to wind down the windows just enough to let the breeze flow into the cabin as it was awfully stuffy. Nova took a deep breath of fresh air in before a broad grin began to form across her face as she kept lowering the window down until it came down just enough to be able to peek her head up above the window when she straightened her back and leaned up against it. For now her mind was distracted away from the irony of how the present still managed to mirror her past as a political weapon for hire.

Soon enough the picturesque dry and harsh landscape outside turned into yet another modern, metallic facility with huge metal gates which seemed to take forever and a half to even open. A series of Guard Posts and drop down barricades were present before and after the gate before finally reaching a maze of what appeared to be reinforced concrete barricades. Unlike the other facility however, this one lacked a huge warehouse-metallic building structure in the middle of it, this base was significantly more open and lacked one thing in particular which allowed Nova to breathe easily, Doctors and various scientists. As the Car slowed down to a stop at the relative centre of the base it became more apparent that it was a more traditional military base with what seemed like all the bangs and whistles in terms of security. Nova peered out of her window with relative interest as she began redoing her hair with your assistance.

As the car came a complete stop, the driver quickly got out of his seat and came around to open your door. To his surprise and relative annoyance he realized your window had been wound down, he opened your door to let the two of you out. A hot breeze was blowing across the base, carrying with it fine grains of sand occasionally which caused the sand dunes on the outside of the base to move and shift constantly. The both of you stretched and groaned loudly as the rest of the convoy of SUVs began to come to a halt inside the base, inside one of them was the man from earlier who quickly swept the two of you off your feet and into the cars. He began to approach the two of you, you decided to ask the obvious question first "So, where are we?" which he grinned "Can't tell you, classified, but I can tell you why you're here though" Nova already knew where this (Not that it mattered all too much to her) was, and why she was here so she began to take in the sights and scenery of the base and the surrounds.

"This is the HQ of TAG EAST, one of two such bases located across the country which can at a moment's notice deploy a whole host of different tactical solutions to whatever may come up" You knew by now exactly what they meant by "tactical solutions" You began to get the notion that he was being intentionally vague with his responses, he seemed more of a politician than a person of military importance. "I thought we had an agreement that once the tests were done we'd be able to go home" he turned his head back towards you but continued walking away "Hah, that was an agreement you had with them, not me, things change kid, deal with it" You were fairly disgruntled by how he brushed you off like that, but you noticed that Nova seemed to be substantially more interested in the sights and scenery.

For what it was, the base wasn't exactly the epitome of a maximum security base by any means, in fact the only thing between the base and the outside was a simple 2 meter tall wire fence with a loop of barbed wire atop. A much finer material, a metallic see-through black coloured mesh was placed on either side of the fence however, possibly to further fortify the structure of the barrier. Inside the base however was relatively sparse, only containing the bare minimums required of a base which included a wall of barricades which were in simple means just bastions filled with surrounding dirt and sand. Inside the fairly spacious base was a simple medical bay, a main barracks area which also doubled as the quarters as well as several cylindrical tents which filled multi-purpose roles ranging from food and supplies to munitions. At the back of the base was a make shift helipad with enough space for what seemed to be three helicopters at any one time. At the corners of the base stood four simple watch towers which seemed to be manned infrequently.

Precursor chapter to what I intend to be detailing back to Nova and who she is etc, took a long pause between this and the last chapter to rethink the story line, plot and generally where I wanted to take this story as it was becoming apparent that I should bring Nova back into the spotlight for what she is, not trying to mask or depict her in such a way that was/is drastically different from how she is in the lore, leaning back to the idea that she's a weapon, political tool etc. That being said, once again reviews positive or negative are always taken into consideration, if you have positive or negative feedback drop a line c:


	5. Chapter 4

As the Sun rose at the horizon it brought with it the hot and arid heat of the day. Most work around here was done during the early hours of the day and latter hours of the night when the temperature was substantially cooler, with the daylight hours spend primarily being on call for any events which might unfold, there apparently weren't many at all but it was nice to know that they remained vigilant, not that it would be a good thing if they were called out anywhere anyway.

Nova's hair covered most of your face, she insisted on being on top in the crowded simple beds that were present at the base. Sleeping quarters were finite, and crowded already as they are before you arrived, on some nights some of them would fray the dunes and sleep on the soft sands around the base, that didn't quite appeal to either of you, especially Nova who wasn't very fond of the sand getting everywhere. You woke up first, Nova was still fast asleep with her chin rested up against your shoulder for seemingly what would have been the whole night in the same position. As such most of your body from the neck down was pressed down against the crude bed and somewhat still asleep.

"Nova?" you whispered in her ear gently so as to not rudely wake her up, but if neither of you got up soon, you'd apparently have the less desirable options for breakfast as you had been informed by the cafeteria staff at last night's dinner. You noted around you that most if not everyone else was already awake and the sound of distant gunfire at the ranges were already ringing across the base. You rubbed your cheek softly against hers and once again whispered "Nova wake up" this time you got a response as she cringed her face in dismay at waking up this early. Nova groaned before rolling off of you, forgetting how small the bed was and rolling straight onto the ground, she landed with a thud on the ground. If she wasn't awake yet, she was definitely awake now, and definitely a lot more annoyed now that she was a moment ago.

You suppressed the urge to giggle before leaning in and giving her a hand and getting up off of the ground. Nova was visibly peeved at how her morning had started, reaching for her brush underneath the bed to comb her hair which was visibly unkempt as the base didn't exactly expect to need female washrooms or showers, as the predominate if not only gender at the base was male for a long period of time before Nova's arrival. This factor in particular annoyed her, but they promised to have it ready for her within the next few days which still didn't sit right with her. Nova wanted off of this base, as soon as possible and she was about to present her case with the Officer in charge of the base.

Nova figured that for what they now want her to do, there was no legitimate reason for them to feel the need to hold either of you on the base as it was apparent that by now the officials had trusted them enough to not treat either of you like aliens or as a biological weapon of mass destruction. If they wanted to get rid of the two of you it would have been a simple task, but instead they chose to keep Nova as an asset to the government, but either way she was still a liability for what she was and what she was capable of. Her documents state that even during the multiple practical examinations, it appeared as if she was holding back substantially on what she was capable of, which was relatively true for some examinations but others not so much. What she hadn't told them yet either was her psionic outbursts which potentially could virtually flatten a neighborhood at a moment's notice. She figured it was within her best interests to not tell them that however, if she ever wanted out of the loop.

As the two of you proceeded towards the corner of the base which held the administration areas, the base's alarms wailed out which signaled for the boarding of two helicopters by the response teams who were on roster at the time. It was such a regular occurrence that it didn't seem to faze anyone at all surprisingly enough, everyone just kept about their business, even the people who were simply relaxing didn't even bother to batter an eye.

Nova skipped the pleasantries, opting to essentially kick the door in rather than politely knock and wait for a response by the administration areas. She wasn't normally this brash about things, but when something worked her up enough she would be rather assertive with her gestures about things, if plan A failed with negotiations there was always plan B which more often than not always got physical. Nova immediately gave the impression that she was not to be toyed with, she managed to scare the living daylights out of the Colonel on the base rather quickly and as such made the call relatively soon after the "negotiations" which according to Nova's words "May or may not have involved a controlled and contained psionic blast"

Nova wanted to go home, and she knew just as well that you wanted the same, even if "normal" life was never going to be quite a reality ever again; Nova wanted it to be as close to it as she could physically obtain. "Nova, I still want us to be together though" you said, knowing that she was still going to have to fill her role of an assassin for hire on behalf of the government. She could tell the amount of concern you had, reassuringly she said "Don't worry Will, I'll still be home a lot with you" placing her hand on your shoulder and leaning in for a nuzzle.

It wasn't long before it was apparent that they had once again no intentions of sending either of you home, at this point you weren't even quite sure yourself as to why you had to tag along but accepted it probably fells under the terms and conditions of the various wavers that they made you sign on both your own and her behalf. Both of you sat flat on the ground at the end of a runway in seemingly the middle of nowhere, it was unmarked which meant no lights, aircraft control tower or anything else that would otherwise make it a conventional air strip. Literally just a line of cement seemingly surrounded in bleak desert, the sun was high in the sky and pounded down heavily on the two of you with sweltering heat.

The unconventional airstrip meant that normal, conventional planes couldn't exactly land with ease; perfect for unconventional aircraft such as military planes. Off in the distance rumbled the propellers of a rather unusual looking aircraft, as it drew closer the rotor blades began tilting upwards causing the plane to come in at a much slower speed as it drew closer. As it came significantly closer, you noted the markings on the side of the aircraft, "MARINES" followed by a star and markings appeared on the side of the aircraft. As it landed it kicked up a lot of dirt and sand which forced the two of you to shield your eyes, moments later the loading ramp at the rear of the plane dropped and out came a handful of Marines with their service rifles slung across their chest. As the others fixated their attention onto the surrounding rocky outcrops on the cliffs surrounding the airfield, what appeared to be a sergeant held out a provided image of the two of you and compared before saluting Nova.

Nova was confused as to why she was saluted by the sergeant, she began wondering if she should return the favor but it was clear he wanted the two of you on board relatively sharpish. "Right this way Ma'am" he nodded his head and held out his arm to the cargo area of the plane. Nova noted that he spoke in the same accent she did, a change from the accent you had and virtually everyone she had come across thus far. Nova was covered virtually top to toe in sand and grit which caused her a rather great deal of annoyance, opting to make her suit shake off the excess while you helped her get most of it out of her hair, it wasn't too long before most of it was out.

The cabin howled with squalling winds as they passed through the small insets and windows lining the hull of the aircraft. Nova calmly sat by your side with a book open, she had been spending the last few days going through a history textbook about World War Two she found back at the base. At first she said she was simply borrowing it but she had doubts that they needed it anyway. She had spent the morning up until now with the nuclear bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, she was amazed at the sheer scale and magnitude of the blasts, as well as the destruction that ensued.

You asked whether or not she thought it was the right course of action, as even today amongst the general public a great deal of opinions differ as to whether or not the use of nuclear weapons in that situation was needed. Nova was silent at first, thinking through her response as she kept flipping through page after page of the book. You intently leaned in, briefly getting a glimpse at each page she was flipping through, it was apparent she was more interested in pictures and diagrams rather than huge slabs of text that was present. "Well?" you asked expecting a response, the page turned to one with a series of images describing the effects of nuclear fallout and how they plagued the victims and survivors of the blast.

Nova's eyes drew onto pictures of a young girl being cradled in the arms of a severely burned man amidst a nuclear fueled firestorm engulfing surrounding buildings, this would surely result in a response you thought. "I think it was a necessary course of action, I suppose" she said intently, she could tell that it wasn't exactly the response you had thought she would have but knew that even you shared the same opinion. Part of you was surprised, but also knew that her response was probably going to be what it was. "But the blast radius, and how big it was and all, they're a lot stronger than what we use" she said with her eyebrows raised, giving a surprised expression on her face which was fairly rare to see.

Nova closed the book and tilted her head onto your shoulder, placing the book onto the seat beside her. Your attention drew to the blue ocean below as the aircraft was flying over water to reach it's carrier, the cabin filled with a fresh gust of sea breeze that was salty but refreshing from the harsh dry air that was present for the last few days back at the base. By now it was apparent that once again there was a change in plans, it had become somewhat obvious that they weren't flying you to an aircraft carrier to bring you home unless they were taking the scenic route of taking you there. Nova didn't quite know what they were up to either, as she teeped into the minds of the few marines that were in the cabin she could tell that they weren't informed of the specifics or outcomes of the mission, theirs was to simply ensure the retrieve the two of you from the middle of nowhere.

It wasn't long after when the aircraft began to suddenly experience a dip in speed before climbing vertically slightly as the propeller blades began rotating into an upright, vertical position preparing for a landing on an amphibious assault ship. Nova's eyes was fixated out of the window as the ship drew closer to view. Moments later her view drew back to you, with a rather concerned look on her face which confused you. "What's wrong?" you asked tilting your head, "There's a lot of people on that ship" It took you a moment to realize what that meant for her, a lot of people in a small compact space made things very difficult for her for obvious reasons. "Well, let's hope we won't have to be on the ship for very long then I guess" you tried to sound hopeful and positive despite it being unlikely. Nova sunk back down into her seat with very little of the same enthusiasm that she had initially leaving her seat.

As the ramp dropped down onto the deck of the assault ship's flight deck, the smell of jet fuel and petroleum filled the air as a jet took off seemingly a few meters away, deafening you in the process. The Sergeant signaled the two of you to follow him, as the sights and sounds of the deck was completely overwhelming. You were motioned in towards the main tower on the deck, where a large metal door was placed on the side, it was bolted secure and very thick but you were hurriedly moved along, not allowing you to get in the sights and scenery. "There'll be plenty of time later for you to check things out" the Sergeant said as you moved through the metal corridors of the ship towards the tower of the ship, where the Captain was apparently waiting for the two of you.

A series of flights of stairs awaited you, thin and bare bone they stood and spiraled their way up the tower, at each flight there was a separate floor with various machinery and equipment stowed away. As you reached the top floor of the tower, the glass screens shined in the bright light of the sun, blinding your eyes at first but it quickly settled. Nova stood tall and confident in front of the captain, she was trying to make an impression you felt, but she was still clutching your hand tightly which seemed contradictory to the impression she was trying to give, one that was independent and strong but she felt strong about it being a part of who she is.

The captain gave a very stern look towards the two of you, his voice was low and seemingly intentionally "Look, listen here missy I don't know what you can do and frankly I don't care, but if I hear one word that either of you are up to something, I will shoot you and your boyfriend myself, understood?" You gulped, but Nova was more determined than ever. Nova's sassy side started to appear, as she took steps towards him, meeting him eye to eye with barely any distance between her nose and his. Nova towered over the Captain in height and she used it to her advantage to get the moral high ground over him, she didn't need to teep at this point to know that she was having at least an impression with him.

His hand slowly slid down to his waist to the grip of his pistol, Nova's gaze fixed into a glare, she wasn't done with him and she wasn't willing to let him end the confrontation so easily just yet, failure was not an option at this point for her. Nova teeked at the pistol, pulling the slide back and ejected the chambered round while ejecting the magazine at the same time. His stare didn't waver either, despite the fact that the chambered round and magazine of his side arm fell audibly onto the ground. He gulped, "Understood?" Nova's blank facial expression suddenly lifted, she had instilled her point and gained what she wanted from this encounter. Her lips formed a broad smile across her face, you tugged away at her arm trying to separate the two of them from each other.

As the two of you moved back towards the stairs, Nova turned around to match the Captain's gaze upon her and blew him a kiss before promptly turning away to the stairs. By now you knew that Nova had her own way of showing her respect to authority, nobody was special and nobody was different from anybody else as far as she was concerned. She was carefree, you figured that she was so relaxed because she was brought into this timeline suddenly rather than being born into it. You were lead away to your quarters below deck, towards the front of the ship and away from the hangars.

"You two don't mind sharing a bed do you? Things are a little tight around here" A sailor said as she led you to the bow of the ship, Nova shyly blushed and nodded that it would be more than sufficient. Nova had hoped that your stay aboard the ship wouldn't be too long, but it was slowly becoming apparent that that may not be the case, as she began piecing together parts of what she had gathered from teeping into the mind of the Captain.

Nova spent the majority of what was left of the day pacing around the ship, she had particular interest during the night training exercises and live fire training on the deck of the ship when things were substantially quieter. It was a hot night out as the ship was moving through the tropical waters near the equator, the seas were calm and the air was humid and had a tinge of gunpowder through it. Towards the rear of the deck Nova watched on as she saw a group of Marines squared away and taking shots at hung up targets, she wanted to join in too but wasn't sure if she was exactly welcome to. Her presence on board the ship was met with mixed views, Sailors and crew were vaguely informed of who she is and why she was there, but that wasn't to say that they were very accepting of her. Of course amongst many of the younger men that was very different but that was for a completely different reason.

Towards the tower and upper levels of it externally were a small teams who were practicing breaches and clearing of ships, albeit quietly which was very different to how vocal they were during the day. It was very much so an active ship both day and night, with things happening concurrently throughout the day and night with planes and helicopters going out for patrols and pilot test flights and landings, there were also once again fewer flights taking place during the night as opposed to the day. It was quieter up here for Nova than it was down in the quarters area, but she was not fond of the excruciatingly hot and humid air of the night which made her sweat rather profusely. She finished up running her laps around the tower before heading back down into the galley of the ship where she intended to pick up dinner for the both of you.

Nova headed back into the tower met with the cool and fresh air that was provided from the extensive air conditioning throughout the ship. She headed towards the galley which was a little ways past through the ship towards the bow of the ship but not quite all the way where the accommodations were. Nova smelled where it was long before she saw it, it was only now that she realized she hadn't eaten in quite some time either. She made her way steadily and courteously towards the galley, as the seas pulled and pushed at the ship causing it to sway seemingly in every which way imaginable.

Nova tried to blend in as she walked into the galley but it wasn't working as intended right from the start. She tried to not attract attention, wanting to come during the peak hour traffic that was usually present during the dinner time rush hour so as to not draw too much attention to herself. As she walked in it clearly wasn't working right from the start, getting attention from almost everyone in the gurney as their heads slowly scanned across the hall and fixating upon her. Nova tried to ignore it at first but as she gained the attention of more people she knew that she best just try to hurry things along and keep moving.

Eventually the entire hall was at a standstill as Nova hurriedly packed things onto two trays, she was careful to not make eye contact but the silence was deafening. The once bright and cheerful atmosphere that was the dining hall and galley had now all but turned silent as if the Captain himself had come down and ordered silence. Nova was getting the sense that she wasn't exactly welcome here, mostly because of outright sheer curiosity they had for her, but it was also had to do with what the briefing detailed about her. The sailor from earlier suddenly stood up and made her way over to Nova and assisted her piling up the trays with various items from the food trays before rapidly pacing out of the hall back towards the dorms with a lot of attention drawn towards her rear.

"T-Thanks for bailing me out of there" Nova muttered out as the two of them rapidly paced towards your dorm. The door was open, so you could hear them come from a fair distance away, as Nova walked in the door you could tell that she was a little distressed, further reinforced by the fact that the sailor from earlier was in tow. "I'll just uhh, leave you two alone I guess" The sailor said as she began rearing out the door, Nova once again was sure to thank her for how much she helped. "I'm Alexis by the way" she said with a smile as she left the room, Nova had already gathered that but was careful not to freak people out just yet.

Nova looked a mess, her blonde hair had formed into streaks on her head, covered in sweat which had been dried off giving it a crimped look which was in stark contrast to how it normally looked. Her hair drooped across her face as she silently piled the various items on her tray into her mouth, she didn't look up very often which was unusual as she normally was very social while eating, taking her time with things and the like, but she was visibly distressed. "Nova?" you asked expecting her to bring up a conversation but instead she remained silent. You placed your tray down onto a nightstand next to the bed and shuffled over on the bed closer to Nova, wrapping an arm around her shoulder you leaned in resting your head lightly on her shoulder.

Nova was still bumbed out about people not taking her for a human, or at least treating her like anyone else, it was clear now that nobody on this ship would give her a fair go for who she really was. She lost her appetite soon after, opting into wanting to take a shower now before the roommates finished the shifts. She undid her hair tie revealing a sweat soaked mangled bundle of hair which normally was very well kept but she hadn't properly bathed or showered in the last few days so she looked a little rough around the edges.

Nova began slipping out of her suit in the small bathroom that was located in the corner of the room near the entrance. As her suit peeled back around her back it revealed the deep gash wound across her back, it intrigued you every time you saw it even though you have seen numerous times now. It dug fairly deep into her skin and muscle, it appeared horizontal across her middle back section, and strangely enough she also suffered a similar gash towards the back of her neck as well. She had told you the jist of the story behind it, but you remembered how bitter it made her feel every time she thought about it so you tried your best to work around it.

Nova was still facing her back towards you as you slid your hand softly across the groove of the gash. She found it unusual that you seemed to display such a great deal of interest towards it, often times thinking that you were poking fun at it but in reality it was a loving gesture. "I love you Nova, for all the perfections and imperfections" you wrapped your arms around her waist and lifted her up and towards the shower which made her yelp in joy and lifted the mood greatly. As the shower water began to heat up slightly Nova turned around in your arms and wrapped her arms around your neck and pressed her nose against yours, "Thanks, Will" with a broad smile across her face. The two of you crammed into the rather small shower that clearly wasn't designed for two people to use at once for a well-deserved shower that neither one of you had for a few days.

Notes: This chapter probably took me the longest to write, issues with both writers block and just general IRL keeping my hands tied down. I would like to state that I am no expert with ships, ships quarters, or the like (Navy in general actually) so my descriptions of a Amphibious Assault Ship may be inaccurate, so you'll have to excuse that (I tried largely going off of some cross-section images of ones in construction namely HMAS Canberra). I wanted to try to remain vague and intentionally ambiguous about detailed specifics about countries, settings and nationalities but realized that it couldn't quite be avoided this chapter, also if you really look into it you could also probably imagine what country this takes place in (Hint desert, but also close to a beach, but is also primarily English speaking and is not America) if not then it'll probably get a bit clearer next chapter when I actually have to name names. I also have something intriguing planned as to why Nova's being transported somewhere by ship, has a real life (Made headlines a month or two ago) story behind it, so you'll just have to wait and see what it is I suppose c:

Once again as always, if you have any positive or negative feedback please leave a review or you can message me personally. I would also like to reiterate it again that I know now (more so than before) that this story almost has nothing to do with Starcraft at all (well, you know what I mean) other than just borrowing a character from their lore. My stories (both this one and the other) weren't ever truly fundamentally to be taken as lore, I've mentioned it previously but I would like to state it again that I only take concepts or in this case a character and most of the lore behind the Character and throw it out into the deep end. For those of you who also wonder, yes I have read Nova's books and Comics, but if you find a flaw (other than one with her personality as it has been pointed out on several occasions now) please do point it out to me.


	6. Chapter 5

Pre reading: This chapter is more or less a pilot chapter for a different take of perspective to writing, it has come to my attention that the Reader as the protagonist style of writing wasn't exactly being looked upon favourably. So in turn I've decided to give a go at writing the next chapter in third person as things are still early with this story, and there is still plenty of time to create wriggle room if need be. So, without further ado here's my piece in third person, enjoy.

The ship rocked gently from side to side, the air was warm as typically air conditioning wasn't run through the cabin areas of the ship overnight so as to reduce power consumption. Nova had decided to sleep in just her underwear last night as her suit was still rather foul smelling from not showering the last few days, not to mention how hot it was below deck. By the time the two of them woke up they realized that it was almost midday, and both of the room mates had commenced their shift work.

The way the ship swayed from side to side wasn't something you were particularly used to, moving towards the upper levels of the ship only exacerbated the on-coming feelings of sea sickness. Will always thought that a ship of this size was immune from the tumbling and churning waves of open ocean, but boy was he mistaken because not only did he have to contend with motion of the waves and ocean, but also the fact that the ship was essentially barrelling towards its destination across the ocean. The experience was one which was less desirable than most journeys across open water, not only that but the sweltering heat of the midday sun made Nova all the more wanting to remain below deck as the ship was moving across the equator.

So, the two of them simply just sat around in bed for most of the day. The air conditioning was on below deck, bringing the temperature down to much more reasonable conditions but that was just about the only thing going for the two of them. Nova took the opportunity to go and wash out her gear while the room mates were away while Will decided to pace up towards the galley of the ship to fetch breakfast.

The ship was sailing at a steady rate through the Indian Ocean, on its way towards the Middle East whereby it was expected to deliver its "cargo" to intelligence services in the area. In light of the loss of a fairly important commander in the region due to a security breach, it was decided amongst that Nova be moved towards the region. At this point after how often they were being thrown around, Nova had all but lost hope of managing to just go home and live a normal life style; she concluded that it be best for almost everyone involved that she just cooperate from this point on, even if it was unwilling cooperation on her part. The both of them still retained the slightest amount of hope that one day, eventually anyway the two of them could go back to relative normalities.

The galley was serving a fairly limited selection of food for lunch today, but apparently that was the normal on board this ship that lunch was fairly limited in options. Platters of various breads and sandwiches of sorts lined the metal trays, categorized meticulously by the contents inside them ranging from vegetarian options like grilled vegetables and potato sandwiches to more beefy varieties like roast beef which was more often than not comprised of leftovers roast from the night before. Will's stomach grumbled at the sight of the platters available, he shuffled his way across the floor of the cafeteria towards where the trays were, trying to not bump into or impede people's paths in the process.

"Decisions, decisions" Will thought to himself quietly as he needed to get what he wanted but also what Nova would want. There wasn't a lot of detail regarding what she liked, as meals she's had so far have generally been fairly lacklustre in terms of variety and quality, this was going to be one of the better meals either of you had un-including the hurried dinner from the night before. Undecided, and with a fairly large line of people forming behind him, he decided to quickly nab a little bit of everything in terms of fillings, he wasn't so picky either and from what he had gathered, neither was Nova.

As he placed the last sandwich on his tray, one of the sailors behind him "Wish a fine piece of ass dropped out of the sky for me". Will thought twice about turning around, he did not need the extra attention that would have brought him right now, instead opting for the tongue in cheek approach and took it as a compliment as he paced away towards the napkins and away to the cabins.

Nova was alone in the room, in the process of putting on her chest rig which was rather surprisingly difficult to actually put on considering how bare bone it was. It was a rather tricky sequence of actions which had to be done in order to prevent general chaos, but normally she didn't wear all of the plating unless she actually needed to, which meant no shoulder guards and leg covers in order to have better flexibility and general lightening of the load on her shoulders. Her head perked up as Will came through the doors holding two small luncheon trays with a platter of various sandwiches on them with a variety of toppings and breads.

Nova's eyes quickly glanced over what was on offer, darting from tray to tray before quickly reaching out to grab a cranberry and turkey sandwich which contained cheese and lettuce along with the aforementioned in a fairly thickly cut white loaf which gave the appearance that the whole sandwich itself was more wholesome based off of visual inspection. Will opted to get the much more simpler corned beef and mustard in rye which perplexed Nova as she couldn't quite understand why anybody would be drawn towards the strong salty taste of the corned beef, much less the pairing of that with an even stronger taste of the mustard that was seemingly decadently smeared on the bread slices. Her face cringed as she looked at Will bite into his sandwich and appeared joyful after the first bite, Will leaned his sandwich in towards the direction of the clearly cringing Nova which made her shuffle to the other side of the bed.

Not much else out of the usual happened throughout the day, neither of them wanted to go outside during daylight hours as the sun's rays shone directly onto the deck, and the absence of clouds made the two of them all the more unwilling to duck their heads above deck. However, the night brought with it a change for the worse. Will had opted into a run around above deck with the sun slowly going down over the horizon, with that brought much cooler temperatures which was more favourable among the two of them, but Nova wasn't there. She wasn't feeling her best she told will shortly before he left for the stroll, but the reality was that she wasn't feeling very well at all and it was more than just the sea sickness which was making her a little queasy.

As Will was finishing up his laps above deck, an announcement was made over the PR system "Could the boyfriend report to the medical bay on level 3" before abruptly cutting short. Will found it strange that they still referred to the two of you as objects rather than people, but it was fairly apparent that for simplicity purposes it worked better that way. Perplexed Will made his way down the flight of stairs, still with sweat forming on his brow and covering most of his body because of the high humidity that was present in the air above deck. Below deck the air was much cooler, bringing a chill down his back as he went below deck and towards the medical bay. Figuring that perhaps Nova checked herself into the med bay on her own while he was away but as he went down a floor it was apparent that it was otherwise.

As he slowly walked down the hall towards the medical bay, her screams filled the air and echoed across the cold metal walls and doorways, further amplified by the fact that the hallways and corridors were by design small and tight in nature, barely being able to fit two of three people up or down at any one time. As he got closer he realized and connected the dots that it was Nova's screams which made him sprint towards the room with purpose, screaming out her name in the process. Will hadn't heard Nova scream before, she was normally very quiet and would rarely ever even admit that she was in discomfort let alone pain.

Will rapidly turned the corner to see a bed ridden Nova who was lapsing in and out of a state of pain and extreme discomfort, her body writhing and stretching as pain flowed through her body. A face of terrible pain covered her face, eyes clenched tightly and her mouth was wide open as she depleted her lungs screaming between deep gasps for air. "Nova! What's wrong?" Will shouted as he got inside the room and made his hasty approach to her bedside in an attempt to give her solace both physically and emotionally. How violently her body was lashing out made it difficult to get near, and as such the medical staff stood their distance until you arrived unwilling to get much closer than an arm's reach, also with the knowledge of roughly what she was capable of also further adding to their unwillingness to get any closer.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Will screamed at the medical staff, trying to make himself audible over her screams. "We need you to take off her suit so we can sedate her and find out what's wrong with her" one of the nurses said getting next to Will's ear in order for everything to register. Will cautiously approached Nova, placing his palm on Nova's forehead in an attempt to calm her down but it had no effect.

Will began trying to carefully remove her chest piece, luckily it was the only plating she had on which made it all the more easier to access her suit. It was a confusing thing to do with her remaining perfectly still let alone now while she's squirming and being difficult. Will had only seen her put it on and take it off, only on a small number of occasions did he need to do it for her so it was more of a learning experience trying to take it off rather than a more rapid removal. With her chest piece removed came the relatively simple matter of removing her suit which had a tab located on her backside which would otherwise be covered by the plating.

Will began pulling away enough of her suit to pull out her left arm in order to reveal an ideal point to inject her with a needle to put her into an induced coma. It didn't sit right very well with Will as he remembered her firmly telling him that she did not like being anaesthetized let alone being put to sleep. Ideally they would have preferred her to remain awake but it was apparent that because they didn't know the source of the pain a local anaesthesia wasn't going to cut it, nor was she being cooperative enough to tell those details either.

Nova lay on her bed with her arms flung across the bed and her body contorted into a strange stretched out position with her back being arched back. With relative silence now setting in as Nova's screams had been silenced, it was now the medical teams opportunity to find out what was causing the great deal of pain she was experiencing. But even that was short lived as the Captain himself had gone down to the medical bay to find out what all the fuss was about as the ship was about to reach its destination point, the coast of Jordan and Iraq where the two of you were once again supposed to be picked up and delivered by military aircraft.

The Captain made his contention clear, and he wanted the two off his ship as soon as possible after being briefed about Nova's condition. But it was also in the best interests of everyone involved that the medical staff first find what the issue was in the first place before they hand Will and Nova over, fearing a potential outbreak of whatever may have could be the worst case scenario. As such a broad range of tests was conducted, but as Nova's medical proxy Will had to sign off and approve each and every test conducted on her, which he was more than willing to as he was even more concerned over her condition by her bedside.

So, over the next few hours they poked and prodded away at Nova's comatose body in search of finding what was wrong with her. Ranging from tapping into her spine for fluid to drugs and urine tests but all of which had one thing in common, the results of which if they wanted to be conclusive needed at least 24 to 48 hours to be conclusive, that was assuming that they even proved anything at all in the very first try which made the Captain all the more restless, at this point he seemed as if he was willing to throw her off his ship himself if he had to, he was infuriated but knew it was out of his hands at this point. He stormed out of the meeting room and headed towards the bridge as he knew they would be a sitting duck if they had to be anchored for the next day or two at the very least.

Will stayed by Nova's bedside throughout the night as medical staff went in and out drawing samples of blood and conducting different tests, alongside doctors who were monitoring her condition banging their heads against a wall trying to connect the dots. They asked thorough questions into what she was doing for the last few days, what she had been eating, what she had been doing and such trying to build up a patient history. But that didn't exactly work out because there was a huge chunk of patient history which they couldn't gather, which was of her past before she wound up in this timeline. Instead they had opted into trying to get clues out of Will, asking what she had told him about her past but even that was inconclusive because she wasn't very fond of talking about her past either, even to her partner.

Even in a coma, Nova looked uncomfortable which was strange. It was more the fact that she appeared completely blank, emotionless and still. Will tried to help out the doctors as best he could, but all he could provide was a very patchy history of her past and even that managed to provide more questions than answers. The doctors seemed to leave for the night soon after asking all the questions they could think of at hand, they walked away with a few theories but none of which were conclusive and even fewer could be reliably tested for with the patient being unconscious making things difficult. With the lights dimming down in the medical ward Will figured about now would be the best time to get some shut eye, instead of going back to his quarters he lay down beside Nova.

Nova wasn't completely out of it however, her brain and mind was still active and she was still there but physically she was incapable of reacting to anything because of the comatose. She wasn't however in any pain because of it and was thankful of that, but she could still have limited ability to Teek and Teep but not that any of those things proved useful as she couldn't quite use them very effectively as she was powerless to act on the goings around her. As Will fell asleep Nova began to experiment on him per say, she theorized that she could influence his thought patterns in his dreams provided that she teeped into him in a sleeping state, but that would prove to be much more difficult that it sounds as Will needed to be asleep and remain asleep for the connection to remain active, breaking it would be simple and that was not what she wanted to do as she was feeling powerless and rather lonely despite having the attention of others.

As will began to enter deep sleep, Nova was still awake and pounced at this opportunity. She herself didn't feel tired because her entire body was completely relaxed apart from her mind which was still wide awake and functioning. "Don't wake up!" Nova teeped, and she found this paramount that this was the first message she sent to him in his sleep. "Nova? Is that you?" even in his sleep Will could determine Nova's voice flooding his thought process. Soon enough she manifested a dreamt physical form in his dream and smiled at him as he himself was not present in a physical form inside the dream. Nova nodded with a smile across her face, knowing that it had worked; an intense sensed of relief passed over her head as hours of waiting until he got to this point of sleep was spent planning on ways to keep the link active.

Will asked away all the obvious questions, but at this point it became apparent that not even Nova knew what or why she was in so much pain. She seemed saddened, but the thought that now she could talk and communicate with you again lifted the mood, the only real drawback it seemed at the moment was that she had to wait several hours before she could talk to Will while he entered REM sleep. Nova was already devising some sort of way of making a connection between the two of them other than while Will was in deep sleep. But for now she remained joyous and continued to converse with him until inevitably he would have to wake up.

Notes: once again this was a trial chapter for me writing in third person, I kinda struggle with it and to be honest I'm not so sure if I'm just generally a very good writer in third person nor for first either, I kinda like my style but if it's genuinely what you guys want and if you find that this style is more enjoyable to read then so be it, I'll write the rest of this in third person (Other story is coming to an end and I will be keeping that in original format).

Once again IRL, etc etc taking it's toll and pushing the punch out dates for new chapters further and further apart. This chapter I genuinely took a long time to write out though, genuinely didn't know how I wanted to approach it. Wasn't so sure what I wanted to get out of this chapter either towards the start but I did want some sort of filler to take place while they're on the ship. I don't specifically mention the time frame but it's implied it goes across 2-3 days which doesn't sound too unreasonable.

Next chapter has obviously been hinted upon as to what it's going to be about, and I do intend for Nova to get out of a Coma state shortly (Even I didn't perfectly like the idea, but I thought having her mind still be awake a clever loophole). As always if you have a positive or a negative response (especially for this chapter as I want feedback about original vs new style) please PM or leave a review c:


	7. Chapter 6

Nova tossed and turned in discomfort as she began to come around, after being in an induced coma by the medical staff who were watching attentively throughout the night. The ship was still positioned in the gulf, a fair ways distance away from the coast overnight, much to the annoyance of the Captain who'd rather get the two of you off his ship as soon as possible.

Her restlessness and frolicking had woken you up, whether it was intended or not you weren't quite sure. Nova groaned as she sluggishly brushed away her long hair from the front of her face, the bright blonde streaks of her hair spread across the bed, stark contrast against the cashmere and white hospital style sheets present on the beds in the medical bay of the ship.

"We think you've had Tetanus" One of the nurses said standing at the edge of the bed who had come over noting you were both awake now. Nova shook her head in disagreement, despite not quite knowing what Tetanus even entailed which prompted her to begin teeping into her to find out further details.

"No, I haven't been in contact with any surfaces of metal on an open wound, and the 12th checkbox on your list is yes but the rest is no" The nurse stood aback surprised by what Nova said, as her eyes drew further and further down her checklist she had attached to a clip board. "You two have had" "Yes, that is all, thank you" Nova cut her off sharply and motioned her hand to move on, and preferably leave you two in peace.

The two of you spent the better part of the next week on board the ship as it did it's course and path around the gulf before returning back around to drop the two of you off at the first intended location. You were greeted swiftly and quickly swept further inland and fast under the cover of darkness, being moved to the "Green Zone" which did not encompass most of the ground covered flying overhead.

Tensions were higher in the last few months, which came about after a high ranking general was killed giving a speech to media and journalists. Shot dead by one of the security personnel who was native to the country, which was where Nova and her abilities came into play. The hope was that she would be able to and prevent an event like that from ever unfolding again while the war came to an end.

The end was near, but damage control and public hearts and minds were still put at a forefront now more than ever. Which meant high exposure of high ranking officials in peace talks and agreements, often in front of cameras and public journalists eager to get in on the story, trying to cover every detail from cover to cover.

Armed guards that flanked high ranking officials were no longer a direct option unless moving from place to place. It was thought to have been seen as a gesture towards the wrong direction given that the general idea which was trying to be portrayed was one of peace and confidence in the local police and defence forces to gain back the upper hand on insurgents in the country and neighbouring states.

No longer were private security details used or paid for by high ranking officials, now using detachments of the military themselves as operations had begun winding down throughout the country. Resources were being allocated primarily towards humanitarian relief efforts throughout, and assuring the peace while finishing training operations with local police and military resources.

It was Nova's job to ensure their safety with her abilities but that in itself came with a whole load of issues and factors nobody had quite taken into account beforehand. Nevertheless her services were going to be utilized despite setbacks, particularly with the language barriers that were present.

"What do you mean you can't understand them?" The colonel yelled but Nova was feisty more than ever, spitting back "I can't understand a word they're saying, You think they'd think to themselves in English?" She raised a good point, there was no direct way that even if she was reading someone's mind, it would be under the assumption that she could understand their thoughts.

In her past, you remembered briefly about how she could read the minds of animals, an in particular a cat she had met while being in the slums, a dark part of her past. It was all assumed knowledge, where she would read the minds and determines based off of the actions of what they were doing or going to do, that she could then translate and extrapolate in her head to form words, phrases and meanings.

It made her job a lot more difficult to do, but nevertheless she was an asset who had a particular skill set which could prove very useful in this particular situation. Also given her equipment she could remain in a state of perfect invisibility to almost all forms of modern technologies, apart from direct physical contact with her.

As the weeks passed and she spent countless days spent bored, sitting in base unable to exit without almost a textbook worth of paperwork. Not only was she a security risk off base, but also she was still partly or completely for that matter under the direct guidance and control of the commanding officer, who reported directly to his superiors and then their superiors and well, it was a long chain of command but even Nova lost interest after it went on for too long.

You spent most days following her around and making sure she didn't get herself into any trouble, or start any fights by saying a few things she probably shouldn't have. Nova knew and saw the end in sight, so she sort of took it for granted and let her emotions flow freely knowing there wasn't all too much they could do. On other days she spent the days quietly tucked away in the more quiet areas on base, outside of your quarters but inside and away from the hot desert heat and sandy air which she particularly despised.

On other days she would request permission the visit the medical wards on base, that weren't quite on base at the same time. Instead they were sort of on a separate area of the base, cordoned off and away from armed forces but still close and nearby enough that should anything happen an armed response would still be nearby, particularly important due to how frequently the base came under attack.

Nova was allowed to carry her rifle and generally bear arms for the better part of the day, as did most of the personnel. Nova refused to use the standard issue the military had, and it felt like even more paperwork had to be filled out to even have access to her own rifle, despite being in her own possession.

One day while the two of you spent some time around and about the book store located in a particular corner of the base, she came across a series of books about the Korean war. A war which to this day had not technically ended, "So what happened to North Korea?" She asked with a serious face and paused as she teeped into you. Her eyes widened, she couldn't fathom why a war that could end with a single man's death couldn't be simply resolved.

She thought things through very laterally, she didn't quite take into account the whole picture or the fallout of such actions, only immediate consequences and maybe in things which unfold in the coming hours and days. The further she dug into it, the more it angered her and soon enough she became infuriated. "This dictator needs to be stopped, he's causing suffering to countless of people, and not a single person is doing a thing to stop him!" She got up and began to angrily stomp away but you quickly followed up behind her trying to calm her down.

Nova went out on an outburst, "Why do you guys sit there all day when millions of people face tyranny every day!" she snarled out of anger. They stared at her, not quite sure what to say which she followed up with "Your motto is to free the oppressed, but yet there's millions of people here who are, and none of you are doing a single thing about it!"

It was apparent fairly quickly that she had overstayed her welcome on the base, but as the two of you returned to your bunk you were approached by the base's chaplain. You'd seen him around on base and in the chapel every now and then, but rarely out and about and especially not during the middle of the day. He had overheard Nova's outburst and wanted to further gain an understanding and insight into Nova's mind, what made her tick and how she went about things mentally which allowed her to do the things she does with seemingly very little remorse or regret.

You immediately noticed he spoke with an accent, British, Scottish or something or rather; you weren't quite certain about the specifics but his tone and sincerity of his words quickly reminded you who he was and what he had to say. He was of a shorter build, a fairly aged man who seemingly drew the perfect line between tactically viable clothing and traditional dress and attire for his part. As such he had to look up at Nova, he immediately came off as a very humble man, one true to his word and had clearly influenced and touched many people.

You weren't quite sure how Nova was going to react to him, as she clearly knew that there was no such thing as a higher being, and no guarantee of life beyond death and even if there were it clearly wasn't on top of her priorities and to do list. You noticed her immediately lose her uptight stance and favoured a more relaxed and humble posture when he began to talk. Even though she may not have agreed with quite a few of his beliefs, she still showed him the amount of her own respect that he deserved despite not needing his services.

Nova turned away for a brief moment from her conversation with the Chaplain, raised her and hand and sort of signalled you to return to the bunk. It was clear whatever she was talking about with the Chaplain had not only interested her, but it also meant something to her as usually she wouldn't pass second thought on most things.

Nova walked slowly and treaded carefully as she paced towards the hallowed grounds that were the steps towards the morgue located off to the side of the base. Regularly, and almost too frequently were bodies, caskets being moved towards the building which stood eerily off in one corner of the base. Located somewhat close to the airstrip to allow for bodies to be quickly loaded aboard large cargo planes to bring them home, wherever that may be as it was a large multi-national base, with people from multiple countries and backgrounds.

It was one of the larger buildings on the base she noted as she stepped towards it and walked quietly inside the doors. It was definitely one of the more build up buildings on the base, and one of the few which were kept at such a low temperature, needless to say for good reason. In her timeline, this would have never been seen. War casualties of the far future would often times not have many remains at all left to bury, and even if there were far too many bodies were had to be effectively buried. The dead only lived on in memory and where they died in place, often times with little more than a solemn session in which dog tags were collected from the fallen being the very last time the bodies were interacted with, letting time and decomposition take its place further added by the eventual self-destructing suits of armour which cladded them.

On the sides of the walls were what seemed to be metal cabinets or drawers, with only the door or the front face of it exposed. It didn't take very long at all for her to realize what was in the closed ones juxtaposed to ones which were open and extended. Each steely cabinet door which was closed had some basic details written on them, a name and countries flag. Most of them were grouped together, and it wasn't by coincidence either as typically these people often died in the same operation or day of activity, as she noted with the dates inscribed below the name and flags of the fallen.

The Chaplain left her be, and let her walk around the room at her own pace. He wanted to try to humble her, and make her realize that life is precious and is vigorously taken care of before and after death. He noted her views and her traumatic past in which he was told she hardly ever opened up to anyone about let alone someone she just met.

"There's a ceremony tonight that I think you should attend November" Nova's eyes slowly moved back towards him after she tilted her head back towards him. Her head tilted slightly signalling that she wanted to know more, she didn't quite want to teep into the man anymore. Nova now respected him to a point where she no longer wanted to teep into him, a sign of respect and respected his privacy.

Later that night while standing by her side and albeit standing off to the side of where the ceremony was held you two stood in solemn silence as a candle light vigil was held amongst a fairly small contingent of soldiers, who weren't standing in any particular order or form. They crowded around what appeared to have been a small alter or shrine with a picture of obviously someone who had fallen. Someone started shouting which immediately garnered your attention, it was the name of the fallen soldier and shortly after all the soldiers who were grouped around the chapel shouted at the top of their lungs "Hooah!" followed by the soldiers rank and name.

All throughout that night until early morning you watched on as the honour guard stood guard over the morgue building, where his body lay; Changing turns every hourly interval. The two of you sat on a small mound of sand while Nova leaned in against you, resting her head on your shoulder as she quietly watched on until sunrise. It didn't take you very long to fall asleep but Nova watched on in silence.

As dawn broke over the horizon she picked you up trying very carefully to not wake you in the process, with intent to carry you back to the tent where in turn she would also fall asleep. As she lay in bed, sort of tucked up against you but not at the same time as it had already started to heat up, she lay on her back faced up against the ceiling of the tent, eyes wide open and deep in thought. What had transpired last night had shaken her to her core, her conversation about humility and preciousness of life, how fragile people really were and one of the older phrases that were passed around in texts "memento mori" Together the words meant nothing to her at the time but throughout the night as she watched on from a distance it began to really sink in.

Nova began to relook at her past, looking back at the countless lives she had taken and the countless lives that she had saved, whether intentional or not. At the time, it was all presented to her as all justified kills, they had to be done and orders were orders and the fellows she had lost were all mere losses. Friends, classmates of her very own, the people she spent months and years with during her training at the academy she had killed with her very own hands, never once questioning what it was she was doing and why she was doing it. Never once thinking whether or not someone's task out there was to end her own life. Perhaps they were cutting off loose ends she thought, people that weren't trusted anymore or who weren't following orders as keen as they should be, "traitors to the dominion" they were called which was justifiable enough to warrant the immediate death penalty by her very own hand.

Suddenly she was snapped out of her daze by a knock on the door, it was one of the team leaders from one of the units on base. He wanted to talk to her privately, "Blondie" he called out into the room which at first didn't quite grab her attention. He opened the door wider to the tent, and called out louder "Blondie!" this time getting a response. Nova visibly shook herself out of it and her attention immediately drew towards him. He raised his finger and motioned her to come outside, but by this time he had already gotten accustom to her reading minds.

Nova slowly but surely lazily got out of bed trying once again to not wake you up in the process and slowly walked on over to the door. "We need you for an op, but you probably already know that by now so all I need to know is whether you're in or you're out" One of the team members who you shared your bunk with awoke from the commotion and sarcastically cried out "Sweet! We get the invisible woman!" neither of them were impressed. Before Nova could open her mouth "I'll take that as a yes then, I'll see you in tonight outside my tent" Nova rolled her eyes and went back to bed.

It was going to be the first offensive oriented operation she was going to take part in. It was to avenge the death of their fallen comrade the night before, she could tell the anger and frustration he had not only in his voice but in his mind. In the meantime though, with an hour to herself and some much needed rest she fell backwards onto the bed with a thump and fell asleep for what would turn out to be a long and well-drawn out sleep for the rest of the day.

Long time since I last updated this story, changed the direction of where I wanted to go with it after being unhappy with it (hence the long pause between this and the last chapter) and the direction it was taking. Taking another fresh breath at the story, aiming away from where it was going (hence the time lapse during this chapter as well) and fast tracked it down a path I was a bit more happy with.


End file.
