I started to have the same dream live every night. The day I lost Somers, a good friend affected me. There was a point I asked myself why I ignored him. I ignored my feelings and cared only about survival. I had this weird feeling in my chest and my gut, when I thought about him.

I regret ignoring him and how I felt. He offered me comfort and sometimes protected me. It was all my fault leaving the commander and Somers. If I wouldn't have sliced my own leg and nearly got killed, I would have been able to save both of them.

Now the Colonel is going to scold me for leaving them behind. But a part of me said it was Doctor Weis's fault. She shut the gates before they had a chance to escape. They could have had that chance to escape!

Why didn't I show Somers I cared, even a little. Maybe I was just too fooled. I wish he would just come back. I'd be able to tell him everything. I wanted to start everything over. I carried that burden for three years.

I was in a deep sleep for three years straight, a coma.

The dreams were endless and I couldn't pull myself out of the dream.

I dreamt about the same moment. The same moment my family was killed. I joined the army at Twenty-four. I came back from my tour, before I joined Echo Squad.

I remember having the black duffel bag over my shoulder. I walked down the sidewalk to the front porch of my home. Then when I reached the front porch. The door was swinging open and closed. That was extremely suspicious. I walked past the wind chime over the porch door.

"Mom? Dad? Alex? You guys left the front door open..." I called them out, then placed my bag down. I nearly walked past the living room. But the corner of my eye saw multiple blurry figures.

I swiftly took my gun out from my hip holster. And pointed it at the eight men, who had my family sitting together. They all had scared faces, except my brother. I could tell he was furious.

My brother was eighteen, had black hair. Almost a blue colour to his hair. And he had brown eyes. My father and mother sat on the couch, while my brother sat on the floor, arms crossed.

I recognised the style of clothing the men wore. They were Iraqi gang members. How did they cross the U.S Border?

"Sweetie, put the gun down. So we can work out a deal with these gentlemen."

"No, I'm not putting my gun down until they do so. Get the heck out of my family's home!" I growled, gritting my teeth. The man in the suite had jet black hair, a bit of a beard, and sunglasses on.

"Your father made the deal, 90 grand in exchange for my services. He didn't pay hit det-"

"You said it was nine-thousand. I gave you the money and you switched the number!" Suddenly he got hit in the face for talking. My fist curled while the man walked over to me.

"So you are the famous Ronin. Your family talks a lot about you, I can see you're trained in the military. They should have taught you this." He lowers my gun and grabs my wrist to follow.

"You're going to choose one family member to live."

"WHAT NO!" Mom begged the men to stop this.

"Choose your brother, Ronin. We have lived our lives. Your brother hasn't lived yet. Take good care of him." My father said holding mom close to him.

"Why can't I choose my whole family?!" I yelled in fury, there was something off about this situation, I could feel it.

"Because you have to pay your family's det." He answered, I had to do what mom and dad wanted. But why did this have to happen!

"I choose, Alex." I whispered.

BAM!

A gunshot went off in the room. All three of my family members were on the floor lifelessly.

"YOU MONSTER!" I yelled, I started to break down into tears.

"Not a monster, it's just business." The man corrected me. I knelt down to my brother and held him in my arms. I pretended that he was still here. I was in denial. Then everything faded, I always tried to go after the men who did this. But, it seems like it never works.

I suddenly jerked up. I was blinded by bright lights. I started to cough extremely hard.

"Ronin! You're finally awake!" Doctor Weis said excitedly.

"Where's Somers, I want to see him." She was suddenly silent. She rubbed her arm, then answered.

"Ronin...You have been in a coma for three years. Somers is gone for good." My heart suddenly ached. The heart monitor started to rise. The beeps got louder and louder. I knew I was in the base's medical tent.

I slumped back onto my back in sadness.

"Three damn years. Three years I never knew until now? I wish I could go back and fix everything." I closed my eyes and regretted leaving him.

"The Colonel wanted me to pull the machine cord on your life. But I took it into my hands to keep you alive. It turns out Xenos cells live inside your veins. You are immune to it, Ronin. Do you know what this means?"

"This means I want to die. I could of joined them, along with my family-"

"Snap out of it Ronin! They are promoting you to a higher ranking. Imagine if they were here and they heard you saying this nonsense." Doctor Weis replied. She started to write something down on a clipboard.

"I'm sorry, Ronin. For the loss of your friend." She said, keeping her eyes on her work.

"I'd do anything to see him again, just for one minute. Which is very unlikely, but I'll make my life count to be with him in another life, along with my family." I mumbled. The doctor suddenly stood up out of her chair and walked over to me.

"You may want to die. But if you die, everyone else does. You're the cure to what has happened." She says, then I jerk my head up fast.

"Wait, what has happened?" I questioned in confusion. I kept my eyes on the doctor until she answered.

"It started when you blacked out. The Xenos got out of the bunker, but they started to mutate. Some of them are worm-like, like a bug, and some even mutated from dead soldiers." Suddenly my ears started to ring. I placed my palms over my ears. I cringed at the sound, it hurt my ears. It sounded like loud screeching. The sword started to glow. The sword was placed in the corner, next to my bed.

"Ronin." I heard someone whisper in my head.

I started to clench my skull when the screeching got louder. Then it suddenly stopped.

"I've been calling you, what happened?!" The doctor asked in a concerned matter.

I shook my head and didn't know what it was. "Nothing..." I lied, making her raise an eyebrow.

"Well, if anything strange happens: Please report back here." She says, while I scan the room for my clothing.

I gave her a nod and pushed the blankets to the side. "Wait, your not fully recovered to walk!" Doctor Weis tried to reason with me. But even though it would be impossible for me to stand. The cells made me stronger. I was able to stand. She suddenly started to record things on her clipboard.

"Can you feel your nerves in your legs?" She questioned, I gave her a brief nod. I noticed my hair was longer and I needed to clean myself up.

"Look, I am perfectly fine. I will monitor everything myself." I snapped at her, but I felt like it was wrong to do so.

I grabbed my stacked clothing, it was folded perfectly on the table on the side. It was next to some dead flowers. My stomach suddenly growled. I noticed how skinny I was in the first place, but I still had my muscles. I quickly changed out of the hospital gown and into my clothing that I wore from the day I left.

My left arm started to sting. I ignored the pain and picked up the sword and placed it on my back. I sat down then tied up my combat boots. I walked over to the exit while the doctor was searching something. But then I thought about how I looked. I made a 'U' turn and went to the washroom. My hair was extremely long and I wanted it back to how I had it before. I noticed one of the guys left their electric razor on the sink. I started to make quick work of my hair. To how it used to look.

But something stunned me. After I fixed it to how I wanted it. I noticed tiny, gold veins, glowed on the sides of the shaved parts of my hair.

My face looked pale and under my eyes were a charcoal colour. It didn't really matter, but I hoped no one would notice.

I exited the washroom and out the exit of the lab. I nearly ran into Cody, but his face was in such shock.

"RONIN!" He nearly screamed like a girl for a moment, and embraced me into a hug.

"We thought you were gone for good." He let go of me.

"I kinda wish I was...But now I have to focus on fighting again." He laughed at my reply and started walking. I followed him, I wanted to find out things that I have missed.

"You look kinda pale, though I am glad you're up and going. You missed a lot!" He said expressing it with hand motions while he talked. The sun was harsh that afternoon. I managed to find out where Peirs and Somers given graves were. The Xenos have been attacking every city, recruiting the humans, experiments and so on.

We both stood in the shade and watched the others go by with work.

"Our next mission is to rescue the soldiers in The Rachel Court. They weren't trained for defeating the Xenos. But we were, Commander." I turned my head in confusion.

"Commander?" I repeated what he said, I must be hearing things.

"Yep, Colonel Greens promoted you. Though he didn't have much of a choice. It's time to step up and be The Ronin. You are not being bossed around by no one. Since Peirs is gone, we have no master to follow. But you would make a good one." My eyes widened to what he was telling me.

"Can I just be called by my name. But the title can come in at the appropriate times-"

"Sure, but this isn't a position you think. You can access anything you want here. Even the armoury." I gave him a nod and looked down for a moment.

"Peirs and Somers are gone...But what is suspicious is that their body's were not found. Which means two things, they could be M.I.A or turned into those things. Though I can't say the same for you, your veins on the side of your head glows. I find it damn cool!" Grayson added awkwardly. Mentioning the name of Somers hurt my heart. I was unsure why. Why wasn't I able to let him go?

I felt a hand on my shoulder, I turned my head left.

"I know it's hard for you. We all knew Somers meant someone to you. Sometimes we have to just let things go, Ronin." I bit my lip and held back the tears.

"I'll make sure their lives were not wasted." I growled, quickly wiping the tears so it will be unnoticeable.

"That's the spirit! And besides, if we do find people who are infected with Xenos virus. You'll be able to cure them, hopefully." He said, I gave him an awkward nod.

"When do we leave?" I questioned out of the blue, making him wheeze.

"I was hoping you were ready, like now." I widened my eyes for a moment there. All so soon? Well I guess that's my job now.

"Alright, sounds good. I'll meet you and Ambros in the truck." He gave me a grin, ear to ear and turned his hat backwards like usual.

He made his way over to the truck. My arm started to sting again, in the center. I rolled up my sleeve, but didn't see anything. It was strange how it would sting at random times.

I started to walk to the truck, remembering my gun was in the back seat. Thankfully someone cleaned it and changed the clip.

"Evening! Ronin! I can see you are up and running." Ambros said sitting in the front seat. He was reading a newspaper as it seemed.

"Good evening to you as well." I responded opening the backseat door. After I slammed the door shut Ambros started to make a friendly conversation.

"Are you feeling up to the task? You look like something out of this world."

"Shut up, I don't look that bad." I said playfully, making us two laugh.

We waited for Grayson as the sun started to set. The dusted pinks and golds started to fade.

"I heard the news that you had a really good relationship with Somers, Commander?"

"Just Ronin." I avoided his question, but then he changed the question.

"So, if there was a chance you get to see him again...What would you do?"

"I'd give him a big hug and start bawling my eyes out. Or kick one of your guys asses for lying to me, if that's the case." Ambros let out a chuckle and turned to look over his shoulder.

"If that is the case, lets just hope it's not me." I smirked and gave him a fist bump. Gravel scrapes could be heard. Indicating that Grayson is making his way to the driver's seat.

"Hold it, Grayson. You're not going to make the wrong turn like last time?" Ambros joked making Grayson growl.

"Ya, ya, I made sure to look at the maps twice this time-"

"And the GPS?" Ambros questioned making Grayson go off guard.

"Alright, Ambros. He gets it, we can trust him with his driving." I said making Ambros salute me in the dash mirror.

"Roger that Commander."

I slapped my forehead making an echo. I regret doing that because it did hurt.

The sun was fully down and the sky started to become cloudy. Grayson started up the engine and shifted the gears. He suddenly turned on the headlights.

"Wait, keep them off. Yes the vehicle may make sound, but if those things are planning to ambush us. They won't be able to without seeing their target."

"Neither will us, Ronin. We are going to be driving blind." Ambros said, I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, drive with the lights on. Just watch carefully what happens." I replied then leaned my head against the ice, cool, glass, window.

"I know that you just woke up today, but you're acting strange. You're acting more aggressive towards us, can we ask why?" Ambros asks. My response was a growl that sounded not human like.

Then I realised how I really was acting towards everyone. I was being stubborn and was ignoring their ideas. I shouldn't be doing this to them.

"Look, I'm sorry. It's been a rough few years and I apologise for my actions." They were silent then exchanged a look.

"Apologies accepted, we both know that you have lost everything. Your family, Peirs, Somers."

"You don't know shit about them." I mumbled under my breath. I was doing the aggression again and it made me feel sick to my stomach.

"SHIT! Your eyes are glowing gold! Calm down, Ronin." My head started to ache again. Grayson tried to keep me calm. I closed my eyes and held my head. I clenched my scalp with both hands.

I could hear the voices again. It was not English, more advanced way of speaking. Symbols started to flood my mind. I started to see the DNA strands, and my focus went in a spiral. Then I suddenly saw a more terrifying version of Peirs. He had long bangs, over one of his eyes. A golden vein was on the side of his eyelid, all the way back into his hair. The vein was small. Then he gave me an evil smile, his teeth were stained red. Blood dripped from his mouth. He had a malicious smile.

The smile was ear to ear, and then his eyes glowed bright red. Then a flash came and I quickly opened my eyes with a yelp.