ASANTE

First thing in the morning I am sitting down infront of Octavias in his disorganised tent.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?", he asked politely

"No thank you. I already had a cup for breakfast."

He rubbed his hands together. "Well then, lets get striaight to it."

I sighed, "It's bad Octavias."

After I said that his face visibly dropped and I knew he caught on to what I meant.

"My mission was to confirm whether the intel we received from our spies was indeed true. The intel we received was that the recent disappearances of elves in our bases was because of kidnappings conducted by turned rebellion operatives who now work for the human forces undercover. The intel was determined to be entirely factual. Not only that but this but I found out the reason for their kidnapping operations."

I continued looking striaght head at Octavias taking in his reactions. Till now he gave nothing away but I am certain what I am about to say will cause his composure to slip.

"The humans want to find away to make themselves stop aging. They are experimenting on their elven captives. They have elves of all ages and sex, they change their test subjects regularly. Another thing is that parallel to their stagnated aging experiment they call, "The Paradox of death" they are biotechnologically engineering a weapon that can mass destroy all elves. I don't have any intel in that regards but all I know is that whatever it is, its going to bad news."

He rubbed his temples and sighed, "I see. The worst case scenario..."

I sat stifly on my chair waiting to hear what he says next.

He let out a breath.

"We have to get rid of the defectors to cut of the human's supply of test subjects. We already have the list of affected bases. I would contact them and ask for them to take care of it but we don't know who the rats are it would just be too risky.", he then focused his eyes on me and looked me straight in the eyes.

I sensed that he was about to say something I wasn't going to like.

"In light of the situation I'm going to have dispatch elite Squad JAE along with three other elite squads to these locations. You guys are my most trusted operatives. I need you guys to leave first thing in the morning.", he sounded apologetic.

"Don't worry I understand. I'll let my squad members know.", I got up and saluted him.

He got up and followed suit.

I walked away from him heading for the exit when remembered something very crucial, "Oh by the way, the transformation concoction had a shorter affectiveness than you told me. It blew my cover and I had to run for my life being chased by fucking dogs. Don't make the same mistake again, it could cost more lives."

I sensed him stifen behind me, "I deeply apologise R.O Saint, it won't happen again."

I nodded acknowledging his words. I'll hold that to him. He knows very well that minor inaccurary could have resulted in my death. If it were an insufficently experienced operative given my mission, they would have been dead.

I opened the tent door and paused as Octavias spoke.

"I will see you later for the mission briefing.", he said as I left the tent.

.....

I walked to the training grounds and saw Jaun and Elara gearing up. I jogged up to them, "Morning guys."

They both replied with a 'good morning' with their usual attitudes.

"Lets go to the shooting range.", I suggested.

We headed to the shooting ranges and wore the sound cancelling headphones. I grabbed a Striker-fired hand gun while the others choose their guns.

We took our positions and we watched the light on the ceiling. It turned red, yellow and then finally green like a traffic light. We fired multiple shots that sounded extremely muffled because of the headphones. We didn't aim because we knew in a real life situation the time to aim seldom came.

We each pressed a button in our stations to bring or targets closer to inspect the accurary of our shots. We started with checking out Jaun's target.

There was only one hole, Elara and I's eyes met. The one question in our minds is, "Where the hell are the rest of the bullets holes?"

He cleared his throat and chuckled,"I know what you guys are thinking. No, I didn't miss. I just fired all my shots in the exact same position. My opponent would definitely be dead after that."

He is right though target status: dead.

"What?", was the only thing Elara could manage to say.

I just laughed.

"What? Why are you laughing?", he asked us genuninely confused, which made it even funnier.

Elara and I were both laughing at this point. Jaun's face was turning pink probably due to embarassment. Eventually we stopped laughing and I wiped fake tears from the corner of my eye.

"What's so funny?", he asked angrily this time.

He doesn't like not being kept in the loop; Jaun despises secrets.

"That was incredible, not very pragmatic but incredible nontheless. We were just laughing at your unorthodox way of thinking. I mean who would think of that?", I responded.

"Jokes aside though, that was very impressive but Asante is right, its not very practical.", Elara added

"Okay, then next time I'll aim for the heart.", he said determined.

I don't think he gets the point.

We just shook our heads and moved on to Elara's target. Her speciality is snipping but she is fairly good in close range shooting. She had a few shots to the heart and also some shots to the stomach. Target status: dead.

"You actually improved, well done El.", I complimented.

"You used to only manage to srike non-fatal shots to the shoulders and chin.", he said jokingly.

Jaun and I  laughed as Elara turned as bright red as a tomatoe.

"Hahaha very funny.", she said sarcastically. "You guys do know making fun of other people is mean right? So stop being meanies."

"What do you mean El, you're speaking as if you don't know that we make fun of you every chance we get. Frankly you make it way too easy.", Jaun chuckled.

"Plus its not making fun if it's just facts.", I shrugged

"Know what I think? I think-", Elara was cut off by Jaun.

"I think you're supposed to wait for us to answer since you asked a question, not respond to yourself."

She rolled her eyes, actually that was an understatment, her eyes couldn't possibly look back any further into her skull. Her palm made contact with her forehead, "Jaun, you idiot, it was a rhetorical question."

He looked at her with a bored expression, "Exactly its a question. A question by definition is, 'a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information'."

"Well a rhetorical question by definition is a-", the redhead was cut off once again by the raven haired boy.

He held up his palm,"Ah shhh... I get the last say, period."

Elara stomped her foot and crossed her arms opting not to further argue knowning its futility. She mumbled something other her breath.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch it.", he asked smugly with his deep voice.

"Nothing.", Elara practically squeaked.

I watched silently as this unfolded. Both amused and saddened. I don't like it when we get dispatched. There is always that possiblity that one or all of us may not make it back alive. I shake the daek thoughts away not wanting to dwell on the topic of death.

"Let's go to my target.", I smirk.

I hold up my target and they narrow their eyes. Jaun's eyebrow crease, which is something he does unconsciously when he is confused. Elara just looks blank.

They turn towards me looking away from the target and Elara is the first to speak up,"Umm so.... What happened? Your shots look so random."

Jaun inspects the target once again and he it dawns on him. His mouth is now wide open,"You stupid smart fucking bitch. You're evil."

At this point Elara was lost as to what was happening, "Um I think I skipped a chapter. What are you guys talking about."

"Those shots that look random are actually calculated shots fired to specifically the major blood vessels in the body. The Superior Vena Cava, and Hepatic Portal Vein, the Superior Mesenteric and the abdominal aorta." He pointed to  each bullet hole while explaining.

"What about this one?", she pointed at a bullet hole right above the heart."I think you missed here though."

"Oh no honey, I didn't", I retort.

"She hit the Aorta, the most crucial artery in the body.", he deadpanned.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that.", she turned to me. 

"Remember that advanced Human anatomy course I took and you guys said that it was too much work so you quit? Yeah, these are the benefits.", I boasted.

"That is actually pretty cool.", Elara commented and Jaun nodded impressived. Its not everyday Jaun is impressed so it made me happy.

Target status: Fucking eliminated.

.........

We were eating lunch, which were grilled cheese sandwiches, in the cabin. We had showered and freshened up after our intense training session. Every second I spent with them not telling them about our dispatch later on, the more guilt I felt. On the other hand I wanted enjoy speading time with them without the anxiety clawing at us. I'm just being selfish.

I have to tell them.

"I have something I need to tell you.", I said seriously when we finished eating.

They nodded and waited for me to continue.

"I went to Octavias this morning and briefed him about my mission. You guys already knew what it entailed. The intel was confirmed to be true. Octavias is still going to call us for a briefing with three other elite squads- we're going to be dispatched to one of the bases and put down renegade operatives working with the humans.", I summarised the situation to them and I was disheartened by the gradual fall of their smiles.

We were silent. The silence was deafening.

Elara stood up abruptly violently pushing her chair back in the process, "Fine, let's do it. Its our duty to fight for our freedom and overcome the filthy humans that oppress us. Nothing in our lives have ever been easy. We have always fought for what we wanted; it is all we know."

I looked up at her determined attitude with awe and adirmation.

Jaun stood up as well,"You're right! We are a badass elite squad fighting for the elven cause, that shouldn't bring us fear but only pride. As long as I am beside you I will always fight."

My eyes welled up with tears at their words. 

I stood up as well, "Lets go there and kickass!"

We had an akward group hug over the small square table. We pulled back and I faced Elara.

"Are you crying?", she asked suprised

"No! My eyes are just sweating.", I denied ridiculously

"Really thats all you could come with. That was lame 'sante.", he feigned disappointment.

"Denial is a river in Egypt my friend.", Elara said obnoxiously loud.

I rolled my eyes and wiped the fallen tears.

"I hate you guys.", I said smiling widely.

"We hate you too.", they replied happily.