I opened the window, a smile breaking my tired face as I saw the wild red hair and soft brown eyes of my girlfriend.

"Hey- oh god, Sylver, you look like shit." She said, climbing into the house and shutting the window behind her.

"Thanks." I smiled weakly, dragging her downstairs and flopping on the sofa, wincing as my arm hit the side of it.

"No, seriously, do you need a paracetamol?" She asked, pulling a strip of them out and offering it to me.

I looked from the tablets to her, smile widening. "I could marry you right now." I said as I took it, grabbing the hip flask on the table and taking a sip, swallowing a couple of the paracetamol with it.

"About that..." she said, and I looked up at her quizzically, mouth slightly puffed out with water.

I swallowed, tilting my head as she pulled out a little black box. "This took a weeks worth of wages for me to buy for you. I'm not gonna eat properly for a week now but it was worth it."

I smiled at her. "I get too much money any way and me and AJ don't need too much, and we also get it from the job if we're on shift when we need to eat so we'll give you food."

"Open it." She nodded at the black box, which I opened, accidentally moving my left shoulder and wincing again.

A shiny ring met my eyes. A chain was attached to it, most of it shoved beneath a beautiful black cushion. The ring was plain silver, with an intricate black band through the middle of it. Inside the ring was the carved words 'I gcónaí agus go deo' in a light cursive.

"It's an ancient language called Irish, I learned that you and AJ come from the place formerly known as Ireland. It means Always and Forever." Cat explained. "Here." She took it out the box, gesturing me to lean forwards as she put it on.

Once the clip at the back was fastened, she leaned back, patting my shoulders, sending a burst of pain through the left side of my body.

I yelped, flinching backwards involuntarily.

"Oh, shit, are you alright?!" Cat asked, reaching her hand forwards and cupping my face in it. I kissed the inside of it, sighing.

"Uh, how do I tell my girlfriend I got shot without telling her I got shot." I mumbled, running my hand through my hair.

"Go to bed." She sighed, standing up and walking across the room. "I'll tell you a bit of history I learned if it'll help."

I sighed, laying down and staring at the ceiling, looking at the intricate cracks in the concrete and wood that could only be carved by the passage of time.

"So picture the Kiaran south-ish in the 9320s. Violence, gambling, guns everywhere you look. The average city nowadays but lile 11,000 years ago." Lizzie began, sitting down in a chair beside her. "Now picture this one mild-mannered guy who decided to devote his life to Arkinna in the midst of such chaos. His name was Urkinda North."

"Snazzy name not gonna lie." I said.

"Shush, I'm telling a history." Cat chuckles. "So when news of the Great War of the old Atlantic slowly got to the ancient city of Cleveland and he was stuck in the draft of 9322 he specifically wrote he didn't want to fight. The Governers went "well that's too fucking bad" and stuck him in the 192nd division, or the "all-Kiarian" division. Basically all the people who were too un-sensible to be anywhere else."

I smiled as I listened to her, starting to feel the old and petrifying sensation of sleep coming over me. I let it this time, however, because I know Cat would kill me of I didn't.

"Somewhere in 9323 in the Argokke forest around that time rumors were spreading of a lost battalion. So as people were fighting in places I dunno where they got hit... a lot... by Girana artillery from Hill 923. The plan was for North's division to stay behind a but while some other people went up the hill but the Girana hit with a counter attack blah blah blah someone homeboy is stood on top of Hill 923 with dead and dying people all over it.

"Blah blah blah lost battalion got found blah blah fighting time blah blah blah and suddenly the whole division was sliced in half by a Girana mage gun.

My breathing slowed and I felt sleep on the corners of my mind.

"They tried to run away but the forest was a damn maze and everyone lost their sense of direction, soon coming across a couple of Girana medical people I dunno. Disbelief happens, more running away happens, they come across another group of Girana soldiers in a clearing, having a meal or whatnot, not prepared to fight at all. Keep in mind these Kiarian soldiers were massively outnumbered by this group of Germans.
Just as the Americans are about to take their prisoners, they're spotted by another mage gun."

Cat's voice was fading away now as I was falling into the spindly hands of face.

"North's best friend in the battalion was shot and died next to him. Now take that mild personality, all the nonviolence and..."

And those where the last things I heard before I curled up and gave into sleep.

"Ooh, never underestimate short teenagers with dyed hair and a pistol." -Lizzie being entirely correct

TYSM TO LIZZIE FOR GIVING ME HER INFODUMP TO TURN INTO A HALF FAKE BATTLE!!!

<part three out soon>