• "Right, that should do it."
    It was morning of the next day, and Saint had just finished removing the bullets from Seth's shoulder. Seth thought that Saint seemed like a good man. He seemed older than anyone else in the base and his thick Irish brogue took Seth a second to understand sometime, but Saint still looked like a valuable member of the resistance. According to Ryan, "Saint is the best damn doctor you'll find within a thousand miles. Though his bedside manner could use some work." Since Ryan told him that Dawn showed potential as a medic, Saint allowed her to observe the operation.
    "I'd have used morphine, but we're running low. Besides, you're one of them Chimeras, right? This should be nothing to you.", Saint commented.
    "It still hurt like hell.", Seth thought.
    "I must say, blondie, you did a damn fine job on this one.", Saint said to Dawn.
    "Oh! Um.. thank you.", said Dawn, who had been completely silent until now.

    "Your welcome. Now you, off with the eye patch.", Saint commanded.
    Seth drew back a bit. "What? No!", he yelled.
    "Quit acting like a child and take the damn thing off! I can't give a proper examination otherwise!", Saint yelled back. Seth sighed. He grabbed the eye patch covering his right eye and slowly took it off his face. After taking a moment to adjust to the light, his right eye opened fully. Dawn gasped in surprise when she saw it. It's golden hue was exactly like the eyes of the two Chimeras who killed her parents the day before. Dawn had tried to ignore the fact that Seth was one of them, but upon seeing this, all her fear came rushing back into her. Seth looked up at Dawn and -seeing how scared she was- looked away in shame. Saint began shining a light in Seth's eyes.
    "Interesting... Blondie, you might wanna leave the room for the physical.", Saint said. Dawn came back to her senses, blushed slightly, and then left.

    About 15 minutes later, Seth walked out of the infirmary. "Saint wants to talk to you. Something about medical training.", Seth said, trying not to look at Dawn. Dawn noticed that Seth was no longer wearing the eye patch. She assumed that Saint had disposed of it. After Dawn went in to talk to Saint, Seth decided he would take a look around the base. After turning a corner, he heard very tiny footsteps running behind him. The next thing he knew, he felt something jump up and climb onto his shoulders.
    "FORWARD, SLAVE!", a young girl's voice yelled.
    "Oh, you again. Banshee, right?", Seth asked as he began to walk with the child on his shoulders.
    "That'd be right! Oh... I guess Saint didn't hack off your arm, huh?", Banshee commented.
    "No, he didn't. Out of curiosity, what's a kid doing in a dangerous resistance base, anyway?", Seth asked with an annoyed tone in his voice.
    "What the ******** it matter to you?", Banshee replied.
    "You've got quite a mouth for someone who looks like they're eight.", Seth replied snidely.
    "I'll have you know I'm ten and a half, you d**k!", Banshee yelled. Seth sighed before stopping. He just realized he had no idea where she was leading him.
    "Just where am I taking you, anyway?", Seth asked. He then received a sharp kick in his ribs.
    "I SAID FORWARD, SLAVE! I want you to keep walking until we find... LYNX!", Banshee exclaimed, leaping off of Seth's shoulders and running up to the woman ahead of them. Banshee began to run circles around the woman and yell how happy she was that the woman had returned.

    As Banshee celebrated, Seth couldn't help but notice that this woman was striking beautiful. She looked slightly shorter than Seth, was dark skinned and has short brown hair. Seth tried to keep his mind off the fact that her body was built in just the right places. The woman looked up and noticed Seth staring.
    "You should take a picture, tiger. It'll last longer.", she said in a seductive tone. Seth swallowed, trying his best not to blush. Apparently, his best wasn't enough, as the woman started giggling. "I'm only kidding, tiger. You need to relax a little. I'm Lynx. Judging by that eye, you must be the new guy that Ryan mentioned. Seth, right? You should tell your girlfriend to thank me for saving her life.", Lynx said. Now that he really thought about it, Seth recognized her as the sniper that killed the Talon lieutenant.
    "Thanks. Um... girlfriend? Oh, Dawn! No, uh... she's not... uh...", Seth said, trying to put his thoughts together.
    "Still can't talk to pretty girls, huh? You'll grow out of that soon enough. Banshee, be a dear and run along now, ok?", Lynx asked. Banshee nodded and ran down the hallway her and Seth just came down. Lynx looked behind Seth and smirked. As she turned to leave, she decided warned Seth. "Brace yourself, tiger. Nine is behind you."

    Seth suddenly found himself spinning around and receiving a punch right to the face. Seth reeled back from the force, and looked at his attacker once his vision refocused. He looked about the same age as Ryan. Scars riddled his face. Almost immediately filling with rage, Seth attempted to return the favor with a punch of his own. With some effort, the man was able to stop Seth's punch with his bare hand. As Seth stared at the man's hand in disbelief, he felt himself being lifted off the ground and slammed into the nearby wall. As he slid to the ground, Seth heard his attacker speak up.

    "Yeah. You need some work.", the man said.
    "Geez, Nine. You couldn't have gone a little easier on him?", Ryder asked, stepping out from behind Nine.
    "Ain't no such thing as easy.", Nine replied, picking Seth up off the ground. "Besides, this kid's supposed to be a Chimera and I was still able to stop his punch without so much as breaking my hand. Any of them Chimeras out there would have turned my entire arm to Jello.", Nine commented.
    "You know, I'm getting really tired of being referred to as a Chimera. I have a name you know.", Seth complained.
    "Yeah, yeah, Seth Thompson, HERO OF THE PEOPLE. Well, who you were out there don't amount to dirt in here, boy. Hell, I'm surprised that you're still using your original name."
    "What do you mean?", Seth asked.
    "Are you that stupid? Nine, Ryder, Torch, Lynx. You think our parents would name us stuff like that? No, we use our handles because some of us have people we love. People we want to protect. Hell, some of us just want to forget our past. All except for Ryan. You see, our leader's got nothing left to lose. Unlike Carson... God damn Carson...", Nine said.
    "Who's Carson?", Seth asked.
    "Jacob Carson was a resistance member who was compromised. He didn't like the idea of a handle, and it ended up being his doom. He underestimated just how much information the Talons could get just by hearing even one syllable of your real name. He was executed along with his wife... I think you and the girl both know who he was.", Ryder explained.

    Seth gasped slightly in disbelief. He didn't really know anything about Dawn's parents, other than the fact that they lived in Inner Telios. For the longest time, he had thought that everyone in Inner Telios were more or less blindly followed Nikolai's every word. It never occurred to him that there could've been someone who disagreed with him living there. As Seth allowed himself to be lost in his thoughts, he felt a forceful kick to his stomach.
    "Ain't no time for grieving now boy.", Nine said harshly. "What happened to Carson happened on the outside. But you're on the inside now, so there's no more memories. No more reminiscing. Just war. Now come on. Training starts today."