Altered: Chapter 46

---

 
Author's Note: Here's chapter 46 of Altered. This is the last chapter of Book One, and Book Two will pick up as they're starting school. The story will be going on a bit of a break as I try flesh out book 2 and start writing chapters, but it should be back around the end of August. As always, a big thanks to my readers and Big Closet for your continued support. ~Amethyst.
 

---

 Chapter 46: Looking Forward

Soon Poppy and I were alone with Vice-Commander Carpenter and Commander-General Kline in the latter’s office and once Poppy was seated somewhat comfortably atop the desk, Vice-Commander Carpenter placed a single fingertip atop Poppy’s head. There was this look of concentration on her face as she delved carefully through Poppy’s memories, trying not to cause her any more discomfort than necessary. Poppy still looked like she had a massive migraine, going by the pained expression on her face, but I’d seen earlier just how painful it could be if the person was fighting against the VC’s mental intrusion and she didn’t care about being gentle.

Thankfully, Poppy wasn’t screaming in pain, so I was guessing that her not fighting it and Vice-Commander Carpenter trying to be as gentle as possible were helping a lot. She was probably going to have a headache for a little while after this was done, but we both knew for a fact that it could have gone a lot worse. Another thing that helped was that Poppy was consciously bringing up the memories from that day herself to make things easier and so the Vice-Commander wouldn’t have to dig as deeply.

When the VC finally removed her finger from atop Poppy’s head and they both opened their eyes, our superior officer sighed and said, “The events of that day have obviously had a profound effect on your psyche, Cadet Lancaster. Even though it has been a couple of months from your perspective, I see no sign of memory degradation or that you are viewing these memories through the lens of hindsight. The clarity of those memories and how deeply you have ingrained them in your mind is quite telling. You also seem to believe her to be a true Oracle, or at least you do now that you’ve seen her predictions come to pass.”

The Commander-General gave both my girlfriend and his right-hand woman an appraising look before asking, “So, what do you think, Lia?”

The Vice-Commander looked pensive for a moment before nodding her head toward my girlfriend. “Well, Poppy here certainly believes it, and even when she didn’t fully believe, she thought that it was important enough to embed the events of that day firmly in her memory. I am inclined to believe as well. Some of the things that she predicted were too specific and that Oracle… had a certain presence… a certainty to her that makes her difficult to doubt. She seemed very insistent that what she was saying would come to pass and that Poppy needed to remember her words.”

She paused for a moment before adding in a serious tone, “I believe that we need to take this seriously, Sir. We should prepare for an Incursion at Rust Ridge Australia at 16:37 on Saturday, October 26th, 2041, local time. If there is even a remote possibility that the Oracle was right, it could give us an opportunity we’ve never had before. We can evacuate the town well beforehand, be in striking range when that Breach opens, and finally take the fight to them.”

The Commander-General nodded grimly. “Record that date, time, and location then, and let’s put it on the calendar. We’ll start making the arrangements tomorrow. I want to intensify training and push our R&D people to finish some of that new gear they’ve been boasting about before that date. I want us ready to move on this intel in force a week before that date. Cadet Lancaster and Cadet-Major Pierce, thank you for bringing this to our attention. If this pans out, you may have just changed the course of this war. You’re both dismissed, go get some R&R in, you deserve it.”

After leaving Commander-General Kline’s office and finding the others, who were waiting in the mess hall for us with Lilac, I teleported all of us back to our campsite on the shore of Lake Superior. When we arrived, you wouldn’t have even known there was a battle there earlier that night unless you were there for it. Lilac and Thom’s teams had cleared up all the damaged stuff and righted the tent, and they had left the mana lamps in place so we would have some light to see by when we returned.

Unfortunately, there was nothing even remotely useful left of my house or the contents. I liked that house too. -Your house can be replaced, my Maiden, you cannot. It is very fortunate that you and Poppy were not inside,- Moonlight offered in response to my mental complaints while I waited for Poppy to form a large stone into a temporary and sturdy shelter for us.

“You’re right, of course,” I thought back to her somberly. “We’re all still alive and healthy, and after tonight that’s probably as much as we can ask for. I’m just glad that Lilac thought to suggest we requisition some Fairy-sized sleeping bags and sleeping pads before we left the tower and that someone was still on duty to help sign them out for us, or our night would be a lot more uncomfortable.”

Our overwatch teams had already drifted back into the woods to head to their hidden campsites for the night, so now it was only me and my team as we all prepared for bed. Once Poppy had finished making our temporary stone shelter, Ainslee put it inside the tent for us so we would all be close together in case something else happened on this trip. I asked her to place it near the entrance, not only so we could leave the tent quickly if needed, but also so none of the other girls would whack their heads on the stone or something if they moved around in their sleep.

Despite our exhausting day, and how very late it was, we all seemed to have trouble falling asleep. For a while, the only sound I could hear was Poppy’s breathing as she held me close, but then Karen’s voice asked tentatively, “Is… anyone else still awake?”

“Yeah,” my sister’s hushed voice followed almost immediately.

“Me too,” Ainslee added after letting out a sigh that carried through the quiet tent.

I felt Poppy’s head nodding against my chest, not in sleep but in affirmation, so I turned on my voice projection app to say, “We’re still awake too. I guess none of us can sleep right now.”

“Not really surprising after the night we’ve had,” Ainslee agreed.

“I… just wanted to say thank you… to all of you again.” Karen’s voice sounded choked as she spoke as if she was holding back tears. “I’ve been… such a bitch to you all, trying to push you away… like everyone else in my life since… Mexico. You have all probably been… better than I deserve, and tonight you had my back… just like you said you would, and I…”

Kelly interjected as the now-emotional Dark Elf began to ramble. “We’ve all been through pain, Karen, and we’ve all lost people we care about. I can probably understand what you’ve been going through better than you think, and I meant what I said earlier. If you ever need to talk to someone about things or a shoulder to cry on, I’ll be there for you. Friends do that for each other, and I’m pretty sure the others feel the same way.”

There was a chorus of agreement from me, Poppy, and Ainslee, and even Moonlight said the same, though I had to speak up for her. There was another brief, pregnant silence, barely prodded by soft breathing and what I thought might be Karen’s muffled sniffling before the Dark Elf finally spoke again. “I… haven’t had real friends… people who actually gave a shit about me… since Mexico. I’m not sure if I’ll be as good a friend as you all probably deserve… I’ve gotten too used to the act… to pushing people away… but I’ll try.”

“That’s all any of us can do,” Poppy said through her voice amplification amp as she held me close. “All we can do is our best and hope it’s enough. I… killed someone tonight. I didn’t mean to, and the thought of it horrified me at first, but I’ve been thinking. Yeah, killing someone… it’s awful, but if it ever comes down to someone else who is trying to hurt one of us or one of you, then I’d do it again. Every time. Because I’ve lost people I cared about before, and I will do anything to keep that from happening again.”

Before we all tried to sleep again, Poppy told the others about Lindsey, what the two of them went through in the Leeds Incursion, and her prophecy. We figured that they deserved to know, and it wasn’t like we were ordered to keep it all top-secret or anything. They all took the news as well as I expected them to.

Kelly was like me. With her new determination to make the Titans pay and keep anyone else from suffering what she had, she wanted to be there when the Incursion happened and to try to get inside the Breach to save our mom. Ainslee was just as determined to be there to cover our backs and protect us. Karen and Poppy were more doubtful and unsure whether we could be ready to do something so dangerous in just under three months, but Poppy knew how important this was to me and both she and Karen promised to do their best to be there for us, as a team. Moonlight was worried that what we were planning was reckless, but she was also determined to keep me safe and refused to be anywhere but at my side, especially if I was doing something reckless.

It was a while before we fell asleep and almost noon when we were all finally awake and moving about the next morning. Since Karen had the most experience camping out of all of us, I let her take the lead on making meals and planning what we would do for the next two days. I thought that it would be good for her too, to get her thinking about others again after getting so used to pushing people away and being on her own.

She did well, suggesting things like short hikes, and swimming, and she even taught us which plants and berries were safe to eat. She also started to open up a little more with us, not all at once but gradually, in stages as she became more comfortable with us. She could still be cold, distant, and downright bitchy sometimes, but I think that was more habit and a learned reaction than anything truly malicious.

None of us expected her to change completely overnight, and we tried to be understanding. We all knew that it was going to probably be a while before she felt safe and secure enough with us to truly relax and drop the walls that she had been keeping up for years now. It was a start though, she was trying, and that was the most important thing.

Mostly though, we all just tried to relax and have some fun together that weekend. We all knew that it might be the last chance we would have to truly relax for quite some time after all. In three weeks, we would be moving into the dorms and starting classes at the university and until then we would be training hard to prepare for the Incursion to come in October. Even when we started school, we would still be training and going through more official Vanguard training too, though we would be balancing classes as well.

It was going to be a lot of work for all of us, but I had a goal, I had a team, and now I knew when we needed to be ready to make our move. On October 26th, when the Breach appears in Australia, we were going to be there waiting. My sister and I were going to enter that Breach and get our mom back, and with our friends at our side, nothing was going to stop us.