38th of Baratus, 3000
3726 days to The Cataclysm

Just before the red eyes in front of Elric faded into the darkness of his own diminishing sight, he forced them wide open and glared right into them. Mustering all his strength, he broke his hands-free and reached for the glowing red eyes. What he caught in his grasp was nothing more than the face of another person. Immediately the shadows retracted, he saw the eyes belonged to the girl in the picture, Alexandria Chase. She was a fair girl, rather tall, with lips and nails colored to match her long black hair tapering into a red just like that of her eyes. This time, unaffected by her beauty, Elric flung her through the walls. Alexandria quickly recuperated, only to see Elric towering right above her. He clenched his fists, ready to continue.

"Okay that's enough," she said;

Unsure of her motives, Elric didn't flinch.

"Yeah, sure. Why did you attack me" he said

"I was just assessing your strength."

"I see," he replied.

He loosened his stance and walked towards her.

"I hope I didn't disappoint," he said as he offered his hand to help her up.

She grabbed his hand, and hastily got up.

"Not at all. You are just as strong as I thought you would be. I didn't expect you to be this serious, though," she said.

"I'm only serious when it matters. Why me though? Why not Gerard? He's stronger than me."

"I wanted to test your strength, not get killed."

"Fair enough. Let's get back to the ship" Elric said as he walked away.

Alexandria briskly followed him. Elric confidently walked through the streets of Zilevo, without uttering a word. After a few minutes of walking, he stopped for a moment. He turned around and faced Alexandria, looking right into her eyes, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

"Yeah, I have no fucking clue how to get back to the landing zone," he said.

"That's exactly what I thought. You seemed so confident. I was kinda into you for a moment there," she chuckled.

"Well, in that case, follow me, I know exactly where we have to go."

"Wow, that's hella lame," mocked Alexandria.

"No it isn't!" snapped back Elric.

Alexandria mockingly raised her right eyebrow with a smirk that dug deep into Elric's ego.

"Fuck off," he said, following her to the landing zone.

In a few minutes, the duo reached the jet and was greeted by the impatient squad.

"What the fuck took you so long. You two hooked up or what? " asked Zeke, annoyed.

"Nah. She got fucked though," said Elric, pointing at Alexandria.

"WHAT?!" exclaimed the squad, staring at Elric.

Instantly, Elric realized how that sounded.

"No no, I meant I fucked her up. Kicked her ass basically."

"Oh please, it was just one blow, stop acting like you won that," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever, loser," said Elric as he strapped himself into his seat.

Alexandria chose to sit beside Alexa. In a few minutes, the jet was in the air and on its way back to Eirini. The squad took a few minutes to have a good look at the newcomers.

"I have a proposition here," said Elric.

The squad turned their attention towards Elric.

"See, we have an Alexa, Alexandria and an Alexander. Like the names are way too similar. I was thinking of a few names that would make communication easier. Alexa could be Lex, Alexandria could be Chase and Alexander could be Alex, cool?"

"Lex is fine by me," said Alexa.

"Alex seems fair enough," said Alexander.

"Well, I'm conflicted between Chase and Kurokami," said Alexandria.

"Why would you call yourself Kurokami?" said Elric, confused.

"You do know my full name is Alexandria Kurokami Chase."

"WHAT THE FUCK?! Are you Gerard's cousin or what?"

"It's possible we are very distant relatives, but nothing too significant. I thought your father would have told you about the two royal families."

"My father died before I could even remember him."

"What? Your father died when you were five. Surely you must remember som-"

In an instant, Gerard bolted from his seat and lande a chop to the side of Elric's neck that made him lose consciousness.

"Listen up all of you," said Gerard. "Under no circumstance are you allowed to talk about Elric's past. When our families were murdered, Elric and I... changed. I found a way to cope with this change, but Elric didn't. Which is why his brother, Tadashi, chose to erase his memory, but memory isn't such a simple concept that can be erased completely. Do not remind him of his past."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do something like that. But in retrospect, that makes sense," said Alexandria.

"And why is that?" asked Gerard.

"Well, I called him to assess his strength. In the beginning, he was easily trapped by my shadows like a novice, but the moment he was about to lose, he changed. He broke out of my shadows and fought back. As much as I hate to admit it, if the fight continued, he probably would have killed me."

"That does make sense. Our parents trained us ever since we could walk to face an impending threat they never told us about. Though my regimen was also very brutal, Elric had it worse. That's because my father, Erebus, was young and in his prime, he wasn't too worried about anybody harming me. Elric's father, Takashi, on the other hand, was old so he knew he wouldn't be around to protect him. Tadashi, his brother, was also just a child at the time, he couldn't rely on him, so he made Elric the strongest he could possibly be. I would imagine when in a dangerous situation, the memories of his training would come back to him as a reflex."

"Wow, you guys had it tough," exclaimed Alexa.

"Yeah we did," said Gerard as he sunk back into his seat. "We had good times, though, we grew up together. The Shirozou's were supposed to be at my younger brother Alberich's first birthday, but they never made it, neither did my family."

"Where is your brother now?" asked Vanessa.

"Dead," chimed in Alexander.

"Yeah, my brother is dead. Murdered in cold blood."

For the next few moments, the only sound heard was the whirring of the jet. Everyone contemplated their motives in silence. Some wanted revenge, some wanted to protect, some wanted to prove, nevertheless, all of them were willing to give up their lives for their cause.

"Listen," said Zeke, breaking the silence. 

"I know what's going on in your minds. All of us have lost someone or something. Whether it's a family member, a friend, or anything else. These losses have us all conflicted; To protect what is left or to avenge what was lost. The inability of little children like ourselves to decide between the two has sent us down very different paths. But if there's anything loss has taught us, is that the path doesn't matter, the endgame does. And right now, the endgame is the usurper in the south, Johann Kenton Zark. As long as Zark sits at the Vasilian throne, everything you thought had meaning, doesn't. So let's put our differences aside and work together for now, okay?"

"Wow, who would have known the professional asshole would be giving inspirational speeches," said Gerard, shaking his head.

"Fuck off Kurokami," said Zeke as he sat back down.

"I agree with Zeke here," said Carleton

"We must work toge-"

"Let me cut you off there," interrupted Zeke. "I already gave my speech, there's no need to repeat what I just said"

Carleton wanted to say something, but he couldn't form the words out of embarrassment.

"Nice speech there Zeke," said Vanessa as she gave him a friendly pat.

"You would actually make a pretty good emperor," said Alexander.

"Yeah, I would. Anyways, what's your story? If we're going to be a squad, we should know about each other"

"Mind your own goddamn business," said Alexandria angrily.

"It's an okay sister. I find that sharing your story with other's helps in deepening the bond, and as Ezekiel said, we must work together now. So here's where it all beg-"

"WAIT," said Alexa. "Shouldn't we wake up Elric for this?"

"Nah, I'll just tell him about it later," said Gerard.

"Okay, you know want to know why I'm like this? It began all those years ago," said Alexander.