Disclaimer: There will be lots of stuff/info that either contributes to Twisted Choices or the book that comes after this. ^^
Read Twisted Choices and Inherited for extra angst HAHA
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"Please notify me on every single status change, minor or major, just... Update me."

The medic ducked her head, "Of course, sir."

Steve sighed, took one last look at the medics tending to his general then left. He quickly headed to the scene of the crime, Hero's room. The general's name was one of the changes made when he took the general role again. People had gotten used to his murderer name 'Herobrine', which he did not favor all that much for obvious reasons. It started slow, really. Hero had asked Steve to refer to him as Hero in private. One time, while addressing his soldiers, Steve had slipped up and called him General Hero instead of General Persson.

It was informal, which was why it was embarrassing at first. Luckily, said general was not around, so Steve did his best to cover up. Afterwards, the soldiers asked him about it, and the lieutenant explained the general's wishes. Slowly, when the soldiers were relaxing on a break, they called the Swede passing by 'Hero'. It shocked the general at first, but he adapted to it and greeted them back. Outside of the military, they were not required to call him 'sir' or 'general' or 'general Persson'. The name 'Hero' stuck only inside the castle, so no one outside knew.

Grinning proudly at how united his military was, Steve held a fond smile on his face as he walked towards Hero's room. His smile dropped to a straight-faced military persona when he saw the group of officers from the Northern Police Department assigned to Hero's case. He approached, and they halted their investigation to salute him. He saluted them back and asked, "Any progress? Leads? Evidence?"

The head of the team sighed. He stood from the bloodied floor and wiped sweat off his forehead. He reported, "Nothing at all, sir. We even got some ward specialists to dismantle the wards to see what triggered them, but nothing came up."

Steve started getting anxious. He pressed, "Witnesses?"

The officer shook his head, "We interviewed nearby workers or soldiers heavily. Even put them under a lie detecting spell, nothing."

The lieutenant asked, "The hybrids? Anything going on in their species? Grudges, fights? Anything that could be an alibi?"

Another officer spoke up from his corner, "Still nothing, sir. All creatures are at peace."

Steve frowned, "Not for long if we don't find the culprit soon."

The officers looked at each other strangely, but resumed their hopeless investigation. The lieutenant watched them for a bit, observed the room one last time before leaving to take care of his military duties.

-

It was another slow day in the South. Commandant Adam Dahlberg got up early for once. He went by his morning routine before heading out in a fresh new uniform, lazily yawning down the hallway. That day, he had no missions or outside shifts, but he needed to run around a lot in the base to collect data to send to the North. Every month, he had to report everything and anything to the general, his former mentor, Herobrine. It was a monthly hassle, but he had nothing better to do on that day.

He always started with Seto first, as he was the Southern Military's genius. He could cover almost half of Sky's report, as he took care of a lot of things. He provided casualty reports, medicine and first aid supplies as Head Medic. He also covered brewing equipment, potions and brewing data as he worked closely with brewery and potions. He was required to give magic folk data too, but he was 'closely tied with Herobrine in other specialties' so the Swede already knew everything.

Now that Sky thought about it, Seto left often (with Brice always) to head to the North. Whenever the commander would ask, the sorcerer (now graduated to a warlock) would sheepishly reply, "Oh, I have something important to discuss with the king and the general."

Sky was very nosy, and pressed Herobrine for answers. The Swede just did not reply, or crankily snapped at him to leave him alone as he was busy. Sky hummed down the hallway. His check board and pen were in his hands, and he was fiddling with the pen. He started writing what he knew, then walked towards Seto and Brice's shared bunk. Both soldiers had their break day that day, and they always spent in either in their rooms alone, or in the military library.

He made it to the door, and knocked. The first odd thing he noticed was how he could hear things shuffling around in the room. No doubt that Brice and Seto's rooms were heavily warded and charmed. The reason why they did so was open remained undisclosed as the pair always avoided answering such a insinuated question.

All in all, both of them enjoy privacy, most preferably together, no matter how odd it seemed. Seto was a warlock, so he had access to lots of advanced and old spell books. He was pretty good at warding, and Sky could not dismantle them at all. The commandant waited patiently, but grew more worried as the shuffling became louder. Something was going on inside, and Sky did not like it.

Sucking in a deep breath, Sky yelled that he was barging in, then kicked the door. He was right as the door swung wildly. The wards were gone. He expected something else, really, not Brice and Seto staring at each other heatedly from opposite ends of the room. The air around Brice was eerie, while Seto was giving out unfamiliar vibes of hostility. It was unusual to catch the both of them angry, more so if they were pissed at each other.

Brice snapped his head to Sky and spat, "What is it?"

His words were full of malice and Sky felt offended. It seemed that the blond had forgotten his superior position so the commander decided to give him a warning. He straightened his back, standing to his full height as he stared Brice in the eye. He started off slowly, "Have you forgotten who you were speaking to, Purton?"

The blond looked ashamed for a second before he ducked his head. He muttered under his breath, "No, sir. Sorry, sir."

He still looked angry, but it was obviously not directed at Sky. It was directed at his supposed best friend, Seto. Cocking his head, Sky asked, "Did I intrude on something?"

Seto finally spoke. Sky's attention went to him, and he noticed how the usually pleasant warlock stood stiff and wary. He ignored Brice's presence and spoke smoothly, tension clear in the air, "Not at all, sir. You want those reports, right?"

Sky nodded and approached the resident warlock. The brunet started listing off status reports on various things, and Sky noticed Brice's absence. The blond had left right after Seto spoke, and he had slammed the door behind him angrily. Ducking his head, Sky whispered, "Did something happen between you two, Foster?"

The soldier stared at him with wide eyes before he shook his head. He forced a clear fake smile and reassured him, "Don't worry too much about it, commander. Things will be alright."

Sky gave him a look, "Are you okay though? I want to know whether my soldiers are alright."

Seto shot him another forced smile, "We'll be okay. Trust me, sir."

The commander blinked, "Alright then..."

-

Sky had left Seto's room, and right before he left, the warlock went out to the balcony. Before he shut the door, he saw Seto's shoulders tremble. He had cried, and Sky tried to keep a look out for Brice. If anyone could help the warlock, it would be him. He had no idea what happened between them, but he hoped they work it out quickly, they were one of the best duos in the military. Alongside Jerome and Mitch, who bested them at combat.

Speaking of the other power pair, Sky had to approach them for weapon and battle equipment information for his report. Sky silently thanked the Sisters when the duo he was looking for came right to him. He cocked his head when it was only one half of the duo, and he looked pretty worried. Mitch rushed over to him and ignored the greeting conduct. He did not salute and just rushed to speak, "Sir! Have you seen Jerome? He's not in his bed."

Sky raised an eyebrow, "Have you checked the dining hall?"

Mitch's face fell, "No sign of him, sir."

"Kitchens? Pantry?"

"No, sir."

"Training hall?"

"No, sir."

"Weaponry room? He's gotta be there."

"No!"

Sky looked taken aback when Mitch shouted in frustration. The soldier was usually extremely cheerful and outgoing, especially in the morning. To see him extremely distressed was phenomenal. Apparently the soldier himself was surprised too, judging by the look on his face. He immediately followed with, "I'm so sorry, sir. I just... I-"

Sky soothed him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay, man. I understand. Ask around, maybe he left to hunt by himself or something. If he isn't back by tonight, we'll get a search party organized."

Mitch breathed in deeply, and sighed. He nodded shakily, then saluted his commandant. Sky saluted back, and Mitch was running down the hallway again.

-

Mitch's best friend had gone missing, and Sky did not want to pressure the guy with his report. He decided to find either his captain or lieutenant. He had everything else done, and all he had to do was track either of them down. He knocked on Ty's door, and waited. He heard a rather angry grumble from the other side of the door.

"Come in."

Sky pushed open the door and stepped in his captain's room and office. The desk was as organized as always, despite the claw and chewing marks on the edge. The room had adjusted to accommodate Ty's hybrid side. Seto had gladly charmed everything for him, making the room bigger than what the outside tells. The ceilings were high for the dragon to fly around. There were some perching platforms, and Ty called them personal.

The dragon had a nest up there, while his normal bed was charmed bigger to fit his bulging tail and huge wingspan. Rive, having grown to be fucking massive, could fit the bed. He was actually taking a nap on it. Sky had been a little jealous at first. The only charms he got were fireproof and blastproof, in case he went overboard with his powers. Sky looked around the heavily charmed room, and found a black tail hanging from the blanket nest on one of the perching platforms.

He called him, "Ty! Get down here. The report needs to be sent out by tomorrow night."

He heard a couple of grumpy growls, then watched a figure rise from the nest. Ty was in half-uniform. He had the military pants and boots on, but he only wore he training shirt. The training shirt was light brown, and had the Southern Military emblem over the left breast. Their names were printed in small letters underneath the emblem. On the back, the words 'SOUTHERN MILITARY' rested with the motto underneath in smaller letters.

Uniforms were adjusted, again by Seto, if soldiers had extra limbs. The changes to the military began once Herobrine joined as general once again. They now had a Non-Human Unit, where hybrids and basically those who were not fully 100% human stayed. Ty was one of those, along with Sky, Jason and a couple of other hybrids.

Ty's uniform was changed to fit his tail and wings comfortably. Sky saw black leathery wings stretch wide, and he could not help but be in awe. Ty stood, scratching his head lazily, before he pushed against the platform. His wings stretched out to slow his glide down to the ground. Sky waited patiently until the soldier properly saluted him in greeting.

"Good morning to you too, Ty."

He was met with a grumble. Sky raised his head to see a disgruntled Ty. His arms were folded, and the commandant watched those sharp nails just daring him to provoke the hybrid. He said instead, "Bad nest day?"

The hybrid let out a low growl as he snapped, "More like everyday. What do you want?"

Sky knew that Ty had his grumpy days, but it was never this bad. Sky just hummed, sometimes days are worse than usual. He just hoped it would pass soon. Seto and Brice were obviously not on good terms, Jerome have seemed to wander off, Mitch was distraught and Ty was pissed for no apparent reason. The commandant just quietly asked for his report, and his captain listed things off of his head, while thumping his tail on the ground.

Sky got to know Ty's hybrid side, and he was obviously pissed.

Sky missed the odd and angry look the hybrid gave him as he left. The commandant was on the search for Jason. He was the person he could talk to if Ty was not in the best mood for consultation. Jason was 90% of the military's impulse control, really. The lieutenant was not stationed in the training camp, nor was he given an off day. The only place he could be was with his squad in the training hall. Probably in the shooting range, since he talked about sharpening his rifle skills a lot lately.

Sky did not know whether he should be surprised when everyone except Jason was at the shooting range. His entire squad was there, and he was ready to approach until they answered his question early, "Afternoon, sir. Lieutenant Probst is in his room."

The commandant cocked his head questionably. A squad member answered the unspoken inquiry, "Uh... He insisted on staying, and he sounded pretty horrible."

She looked around for anyone listening on before dropping her voice low, "We think his anxiety's spiking up, so we did not dwell on it too much."

The commandant gaped, "Jason's anxiety has never acted up ever since General Persson came back."

A squad member shrugged, "Maybe he got nervous and anxious over Jerome, Seto and Brice."

Sky narrowed his eyes, "You know about that?"

They nodded and the member explained, "Mitch has been flying everywhere to get an answer. Also, everyone's getting a little agitated over Seto and Brice's falling out. It was never this bad. Their last argument was last Tuesday over chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Brice is back to his recruit self while Seto's quiet again."

"Just like before they went on their assessment mission and went missing," said one member.

Sky spoke up, "When they came back they were good friends."

"Yeah, and their arguments only last for a couple of hours. The night shift said their room wards were down and that they've been arguing all night. That or maybe they're having really kinky se-"

"Too much, cadet," Sky groaned.

The squad laughed, until it went silent. Before Sky left in pursuit of Jason's bunk, one of the squad members spoke, "Be gentle with him. He seemed really spooked and we don't want to make it worse."

Sky grinned softly, "Of course."