Chapter 8(Sam): A Not So Welcoming Greeting

The car ride for the most part was silent, it was really off-putting, the only people talking were me, Lee, and Matt

"Hey, Lee? You seem off today...you doing alright?" Kenneth cut our conversation short

"What do you mean?" Lee looked in the rear view mirror to look at Ken.

"You paused for some reason back there, and you seem different now, like you've changed" Lee tapped the steering wheel for a little bit

"I'm just paranoid, after all, that message I sent you represents that right?" Kenneth leaned on Lee's seat after he said that

"You have a point, but where'd you get the ring? It looks expensive!" Kenneth was looking down at Lee's right hand, it had a white-ish rose color with a few engravings, it looked cool, but kinda unfitting for him. Lee was never the type to wear jewelry, unless you count his headband.

"I got it for myself, there are shops in Eaxura you know" In a way, he dodged the question, not only that, but the timing doesn't match up, for the most part, we were all together so there was no time to buy it

"Huh, well, I guess there's no sense in pushing it any longer" Kenneth sat back down, I could tell he was still skeptical, and to be fair I was as well.

"Hey, Lee, how's the eye?" I wanted to make sure of something

"Hmm?" He turned over to me, while still looking at the road

"Back during the trials, you got hurt by one of those corruptors, Kai said it was contagious and extremely harmful, but I haven't seen it do anything to you" I looked at the eye that was infected, its purple glow was just barely brighter than it was before, it was doing something, just incredibly slowly. Even though Matt was in the turret hole at the type, he could tell something was wrong as well.

"What about when you blacked out? Anything happen?" Matt peeked down. Lee only continued tapping the steering wheel as he started to only focus on the road.

"Nothing really, just had a thought, and it wasn't a happy one either." His mood dropped, I didn't know whether to believe him or not, it was clear he was hiding something, and so I decided, if it's serious enough to warrant not telling us, then I couldn't push any further.

"Huh, alright then" Matt went back up in his turret hole, he also started tapping on the top of the car causing a rhythm with the wheel tapping. Soon I heard Kenneth tapping a part of his uniform, which caused a quieter drum-like noise. Eventually, Lee also began to hum, it was like a little improv band, it sounded a bit off sure, but it felt great knowing none of us forgot our roots. I started to play along as well, closing and opening the glove box while slamming my hand against the car door, soon everyone found some unique noise to make.

After a few minutes, we arrived at New Min and everyone stopped making noise

"Heha" Kenneth both, sounded, and looked like he was about to laugh, and soon he did, along with everyone else laughing, even Kayla and Kyle laughed with us.

"Alright, let's get going, we don't wanna look like weird villains laughing outside New Min do we?" Lee got out of the car while trying his best to stop laughing.

"It was fun!" I got out of the car "Next time we need to do a festival in New Min and sing to everyone!" Lee jumped at that idea, not in agreement, more in fear

"In front of millions? Sam, we've never even finished a song at school"

"Exactly! Our band still needs a name, it still needs improvements and what better way to improve than to show everyone how we've grown! We'll be underdogs in music at first, then! We'll push our way to the top!" Some would call my dream childish, but hey, it's just who I am.

"There Sam goes again, although, this time I agree" Nicholai got out of the car next "You may not agree Lee, but it is a good idea, let out all our emotions in front of millions, we'll show them what we humans can do!" Nicholai was unusual hyper

"Heh...Fine, don't get mad at me if one of you get stage fright" Lee began to walk towards New Min as everyone got out of the car

"Huh? Why would we get stage fright? Only me and you usual sing" I caught up to him, facing him while I walked backward

"Well, if we're really singing in front of millions, then we're all singing together, every single one of us!"

"Well, if it'll get you to do it, then I don't see an issue" Kenneth joined us, as the others only stayed just a few paces behind us

"What's with them" Lee, with his head, motioned towards them

"They're being their usual selves, don't worry about it, they're all for joining, well, Nicholai needed a bit of convincing, but in the end, everyone agreed" Kenneth motioned for the others to join us, and while Kyle and Kayla stayed behind the rest joined us.

After some random banter we arrived at what looked like the main entrance to New Min, we were greeted by 4 soldiers.

"Who're you seven?" One of the soldiers asked

"Couldn't you have just said who're you guys? seven just makes it sound weird" Lee, being his grammar nazi self, corrected the soldier

"..." The soldier ignored him, he hadn't even looked at him, soon Kenneth went in front of him

"We're Bravo team, we're some of the people who happened to survive the incident at the DT Trials" Kenneth gave a short explanation.

"I see, you know you all are oddly mismatched right" I assumed he was talking about our looks and personality, we all stood very differently "Two blondes, with one acting serious, and the other acting nonchalant, two black hairs, both of which look passive, a girl with a pink ponytail, who seems a bit over hyper and..." When he got to Lee, he paused, for some reason he raised his gun and aimed it at Lee

"The hell? What's your problem!?" Lee summoned his sword as we all joined him, summoning our weapons

"We were told to come here! What's your deal!?" Nicholai aimed at the guard in the back, the guards didn't back down, to them we must look unorganized.

"Lieutenant Lee! Stand down!" Lieutenant?

"Lieutenant? You high or something! I only just got here, and I only just joined the DTs!" It really seemed like we were going to fight

"Don't give us that! You were a day ago! You wreaked havoc!" The guard's finger was getting closer to the trigger

"There's no way that's true" While I talked Matt got closer to them, his axe was long enough to take them all out if he's doing what I think he's doing "He was with us! There's literally no possible way he could've been here!"

"Then let us check" The guards stood down "We'll see for ourselves"

"Huh?" Matt stopped moving towards them "What do you mean by that?"

"You have to have been told already by now, the program that allows you to see into people's minds, the dream thing or whatever." RIght, I remember being told that now. "We can check his alibi for ourselves" Lee was the only one who hadn't stood down yet, why?

"Lee? What's your problem? Stand down!" Kayla shouted at Lee, for a few seconds he didn't listen, but in the end, Lee stood down. Lee didn't want his memories searched, I had my suspicions but, going into someone's mind by force to prove their innocence was beyond insane, I made my choice. I took a few steps forward

"I'll-

"H-

"You can't!" Kenneth interrupted me and someone else who tried, the guards looked at Ken

"Why not? It's harmless for normal DTs, if you're here then your test went well, what's the issue?" The guards looked ready to shoot at us again if needed.

"His eye, it's corrupted you see, we were told it could have issues when using magic, therefore you can't!" Kenneth!? They're already accusing Lee of something bad, and now you're telling them that!?

"..." The guards relaxed and looked at Lee, more specifically his eye "I see, alright then, who'll take his place then? If supposedly you all were with him at all times"

"I'll do it!" I intended to take his place at the start, but with Kenneth's support and risky idea, it made me asking to do it less suspicious, not to mention, Kenneth, Nicholai, and Kayla weren't with Lee at all times, I had sniper overwatch over him the entire time!

"Alright then, let's get it over with then" Two guards moved back to their post, while the other two escorted us.

When we entered, I immediately understood what they meant by havoc. Some parts of the place were heavily damaged, from the looks of it, there was no blood or anything of the sort, so at least from what I see, no one died.

"Here" One of the guards stayed at the entrance as the other opened the door and lead us inside. "Sit down here" The room didn't look all that special, just a screen with a chair in front of it, Then again, if we're going by what was said, they just got it. I sat down on the chair, someone else entered the room, they were covered with a robe, you couldn't even see their face

"So how does this work exactly" Lee had his arms crossed as he landed against the wall beside me.

"It just goes into her memories, we haven't been able to exactly enter the mind yet, so the memories can only be viewed, not changed" The person in the robe spoke, from their voice they sounded young, but I really couldn't tell what gender they were.

"Hold on! So if we came here later you could change her memories?" Matt, from the looks of it, was highly suspicious of these people, then again, I could feel my heart pounding, the room was very cold after all.

"Wait! that's why we have the screen, it shows what we're doing" The person in the robe held their hand out, trying to reassure everyone. "Now, let's begin" The robe person got behind me, and I began to hear tapping, I guess you could use the program from your hud, ha-. My thoughts were interrupted with what felt like something going into my skull, I didn't know if the others noticed the tremendous pain I just experienced, but I did my best to not scream in agony

"Is it meant to be painful!" Lee was the first to notice my pain "Seems to me like she's ready to faint"

"It is only this painful the first few times" Nicholai didn't like the answer the guy gave

"That's for everything you moron! The only reason she had to do this in the first place was because you're all too paranoid!" After Nicholai finished yelling, well, from what I heard, my ears only heard ringing, but soon I felt that whatever had entered my skull exited, and my hearing came back

"Fine, if you really think so, then we won't go through with it" The guard looked at Lee "But if he does something, then we're opening fire immediately

"Good, I felt like I wanted to bash in your skull anyways" Both Lee and the guard began to taunt each other

"You hear how cocky you are? All I have to do is get m-

"On my nerves?" Lee made sure the guard couldn't finish "Sorry, I had to make that joke, you set it up perfectly" Lee exited the building giving a nonchalant wave.

"You did kinda set it up for him" Matt looked like he wanted to taunt the guy as well, but we all left before he could.

"I swear Lee, you always have to try and get on someone's bad side" Nicholai now started taunting Lee, and he retaliated, he put his hands in his hair, like those movies or shows where someone gives a dramatic exposition

"Sorry madam, you seem to not understand the whole picture, they accused me of such atrocity, and I could not bear to witness the pain of my fellow squad member" Lee put his hand down, his hair was a bit of a mess, as he took off his headband to do what he did earlier. Lee began to fix his hair as the rest of us continued talking.

"So, the government of New Min thinks of Lee like a terrorist, should we just leave?" Matt crossed his arms, as we all started walking around

"Naw, we already came here, not to mention, if we were told to come here, I'm assuming there's something or someone we need to find" Lee put his headband back in

"I've always wondered, with how pointy your headband is, have you ever used it as a weapon?" Matt had a point, the front of it looked sharp, yet I haven't seen it cut his hair whatsoever.

"Once maybe? The points are really sharp, but it's the type of blade that you have to try and stab someone to make a cut, so my hair doesn't get cut at all"

To Bravo Team
Recipients: Lee, Sam, Kenneth, Matt, Nicholai, Kyle, Kayla, Madoka

I know this is out of the blue,
but I am the person you're meant to
meet-Madoka

Hold on! Who are you?-Nicholai

Ah, that makes sense, Obviously
As the name at the end of my texts suggest
I am Madoka-Madoka

Smart ass-Nicholai

ahh, I understand now, I'm
an informant for the DTs
Every team gets an informant just
like every team gets a handler-Madoka

I get it, alright, let's go with the idea
that you're not lying, where do we meet
you?-Lee

Do you see the building with a White,
pink, yellow, and blue flag?-Madoka

We all began to look around

"There it is" I pointed over to it, it was on one of the tallest buildings, and everyone went back to the message board

Yeah, we see it-Matt

What's with the colors anyway?
It's like the colors are all of us-Sam

Cause it is, obviously I didn't put black,
cause it's such a bland color, not to mention
it's late enough, so seeing it would be hard-Madoka

I hadn't even realized that it was so dark out, I was more focused on talking with everyone

So what? You just want us to go over there?-Kyle

Pretty much yeah-Madoka

Hold on, I know you're an informant and all
But how'd you know our colors?-Sam

Showed you?-Kayla

Yeah, I got pics of every one of ya-Madoka

That...feels weird-Lee

It's fine, I can burn them in front
of you, if you want-Madoka

Regardless, we'll meet up with you
see you then-Lee

Don't take too long, I'm not exactly patient-Madoka

"for someone who's meant to be an informant, she really can't wait huh?" Kayla put away her hud and began walking towards the building

"What do you mean?" Nicholai was fixing her uniform, thinking about it now, we should really get these clean, I don't know about Kenneth's mission, but we took out a lot of soldiers, and blood doesn't smell great. Kayla put her arms on the back of her head and relaxed

"Well, Informants have to wait for their intel don't they? After all, they get it from other people"

"oh, I get it now, yeah, that's a fair point actually" Nicholai patted herself down and began walking with the rest of us. I didn't know why, but everything just felt off, maybe it was the weird stares we were getting, or how Lee acted weird earlier, but things just felt off.

"Are you okay?" Kenneth stood beside me "Lee and I messaged each other during the whole thing they did to you, we both came to the conclusion that, if they hated Lee to the point where they were ready to shoot us, then they might have done something to you" What he said made me worry, but his theory made sense

"Yeah, I doubt they'd just let us go like that" The pain in my head came back, it got to the point where I had to hold it.

"Tsk, I knew it!" Lee came over "Are you alright?" I wanted to speak, but my head just hurt so badly "Nicholai, it may be a lot to ask, but can you do something to check her brain?" Everyone stopped walking and Nicholai came over

"I can try, no promises though, Sam, you can sit down, One of you send Madoka a message"

"Got it" Matt got to sending the message, I sat down and Nicholai placed her hand on my head, kneeling down to my level.

"You don't have to talk, you don't even have to move, I'll try to help you" I was going to nod to tell Nicholai 'alright' But then what she said registered, wait...why did it take so long for it to register, I felt my body going limp and Kenneth had to support me

"Lee!" Kenneth looked at Lee...I...think he did anyway "You mind finding those guys?" Lee gave off a smirk

"Matt, Kyle, you're with me, let's go hunt them down!" The three ran off and the rest stayed with me

"Sam I know what I said earlier, but just respond with one-word answers" Nicholai straightened me "How many fingers am I holding up" Everything blurred, it felt like everything was doubled...no, tripled!

"I...don't feel okay..." I...think I mustered out those words, everything felt like it was blurring together, I saw a figure approaching, I pointed at the figure and everyone besides Kenneth stood up and summoned their weapons. That was all I saw before I passed out.

???

"What the..." Everything around me felt bright, but, I wasn't dying

"How's it going so far" I heard a voice behind me, and in the far distance, I saw...Lee? Two Lees? There were blocks around the place, yet when I looked into them, it looked like things we've already experienced, I hid behind it and listened"I'm assuming it's going fine so far, considering you're talking to me, and hunting down the people who did that to Sam"

"I practiced in the car" Was that was Lee was doing? When he was tapping the wheel?

"Right, that makes sense, although, I'm curious on how you knew that's what did it, well, the talking way I mean"

"It's draining, so I asked Kyle to support me"

"They don't know right?"

"No, they don't, yet, they're starting to suspect something" The Lee I know, the one that looks younger began to look around, the other one looked directly at me, like he knew exactly where I was, he moved his head a bit to motion me back, which I followed, hiding better than I originally was. "Are those really my memories?

"How else would we time travel?"

"How else would you time travel, honestly, I still don't understand why it had to be my time" The older Lee put his arms on our Lee's shoulders

"You don't need to know, after all, you can back out anytime" Our Lee sighed, as the other Lee began walking away "Go now, you'll need your energy from the looks of it"

"Right" Our Lee ran in the opposite direction, and another headache washed over me and I passed out again.

???

"Come on!" I was on something, it felt like a stretcher, but I wasn't moved by anyone, instead, it was like I was flying, I looked to my left and saw the figure from earlier firing towards where we were before "Where's those three you were talking about!?"

"No time for that! We're going now!" The person's voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't make it out.

"Neal! We need an evac now! New Min has turned against us! Huh? No! I'm using the only magic I have to float up Sam!...Damn it! Alright, Kenneth, Nicholai, support Sam, Kayla assist me!" I saw a light smash down onto the floor, The figure bit their thumb, and from the looks of it, their blood circled around and formed into a throwing spear, launching itself at what I couldn't see.

"Your magic involves your blood?" I muttered, my fascination and curiosity wanting an answer.

"Sam? You're awake? Can you stand!?" I heard Kenneth call out behind me, he was probably carrying the part of the stretcher that was behind my head.

"I...dunno" I could move, but just barely "Y-Yeah, I can stand just...some help would be nice." Suddenly the stretcher was put down, so fast that it hurt a bit.

"Come on!" Nicholai heard what I said and extended her hand out to me "Let's get going!" I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up, putting my arm around her shoulder.

"Where's...Matt and the others?" I didn't see them anywhere.

"We don't know, the three of them haven't come back yet, hopefully, they'll be fine." Even though I've been able to hear them, I haven't let it register in my head yet, 'they'll be fine, we have to go' We were leaving them!

"Hold on!" I stopped walking with Nicholai "We're not just leaving them are we!?"

"Of course we are! Sam, those three were the main fighters during the apocalypse, all three of them were put into the trials on the first day they became DTs, I think they'd be fine!" Kayla was practically forcing me to move. My mind continued to clear, Madoka, the woman was Madoka

"How about this" She went in front of me, putting her hands on her knees while leaning at me "We leave, let the area clear, then come back, I'll even teach you some magic so we can come back even stronger, who about that" Of course I didn't want to leave them, no matter what was being given to me, but I had no choice, I'd die if I tried to fight. I reluctantly walked with them

"We're heading towards the mountain, Neal is going to give us an Evac" Nicholai whispered to me as she pulled out her pistol and began firing.

"Why is New Min fighting us?" My head was still burning, I continued to hold it.

"They keep spewing some nonsense about Lee being here before and causing chaos, although, you heard that when we were first here." Nicholai used both of her arms to raise me back up "Of course, I don't believe any of it, Lee can be stupid sometimes, but killing people for no reason isn't something he'd do, even if it's a bad one, there's always a reason" A part of me was wondering, how haven't they hit us yet? And while Nicholai shot at them, it was only once. I did my best to turn around and saw something resembling a shield. "Like it? It was hard to learn it so fast, and really painful, but Madoka taught me." Everyone was learning magic, slowly but surely, everyone was going past me...

"Yeah! I like it! It's so cool" I got to the point where I could stand by myself with no problems, yet, for some reason, I still trembled, not enough to fall, but it was still obvious. I took a deep breath and began running "Let's go! The faster we leave the faster we can come back right!?"

"Hey!" I heard Kenneth and the others chase after me

"Even in danger, you're still reckless!" Nicholai was the first to catch up to me, I don't know what it was, but it made me happy, of course, it wasn't because we were running away from people who want us dead, but the real reason, I couldn't figure out.

We made it to the mountain, and were greeted by Neal

"Come on! Let's get going" It was like a dropship, the one that has the back open up. We all ran inside it "Madoka, what happened?"

"I'll tell you later, for now, I think we need to go back and mark New Min as a hazard, and to only enter it as a last resort when it comes to supplies." Neal looked at Madoka full of regret

"Yeah, I'll do that" Neal looked over at us "And we'll get back the others as well!"

15 Minutes later

I didn't know why it was taking so long, considering we can go through dimensions, so I tried to get a conversation going.

"Hey Neal, I wanted to know, what month is it?" I never really asked before, or, I didn't remember what they said, regardless, I didn't exactly know what time of the year it was

"December, I think, about the 17th?" Right, it made sense, I remember Crystal mentioning it after we got everyone back

During the apocalypse

"..."Crystal sat there, looking at a calendar

"What's the matter?" I crouched down to her level and she began to look at me

"I know this'll sound stupid considering our situation, but, will we still celebrate Christmas?" I hadn't even realized it then, but it was already December, and Christmas was only a few weeks away. I looked over at the others, they were in a bad mood, I couldn't blame them

"Yeah!" Crystal jumped back at my sudden outburst, even the others heard me "We'll celebrate Christmas for sure! Just you wait!"

"Why not" I didn't expect it, but Nicholai agreed with me "I know it's still a few weeks away, but why not set things up now? Maybe it'll boost our moods?" And that's exactly what we did, we set everything that we could find in the bunker, and the school that resembled Christmas. That day, it felt like we were all some weird extended family preparing for Christmas, it truly was the best thing to come out of that nightmare.

Back to the original point in time

"Why'd you ask?" Neal brought me back to reality

"Ah, I just didn't know what day or month it was, after all, my memory is still a bit hazy" It wasn't really a lie, most of what happened when I was human was still unknown to me, it was like it was hidden behind some sort of lock in my brain...but that most likely means it was traumatic, after all, it wasn't the first time I lost my mind and memory due to something traumatic.

"Alright...Makes sense, when people first become a DT they tend to lose their memories for a little while, you'll get it back sooner or later so don't worry." I looked out one of the windows the dropship had, we finally arrived at Eaxura, even in my iffy mood, it still looked amazing.

"Wanna take a picture?" Madoka leaned on the walls of the ship beside me, it startled me at first, but I soon settled down "If you want, I can open the dropship and you can snap a quick photo"

"That seems like it'd get me in trouble" I felt as though Madoka was weird, I couldn't put my finger on it, but she seemed off.

"Fine, suit yourself, still, the city is even more beautiful when the "sun" is setting, I forget the term, but, it tends to happen a lot in Eaxura" I was almost sure I knew the term

"Rayleigh scattering! That's what you're talking about!" I was excited, I didn't know why though, it was most likely because I got to show off my photographer knowledge.

"Really? Huh, alright then" Madoka went back to leaning against the walls, looking out the window, and immediately my mood died, I thought I'd be able to talk about photography, but I guess not.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity of waiting in silence, well, Kenneth programming or fixing or whatever with Dave made noise, the door to the dropship opened and we all exited it. The minute I exited the dropship I was met with Raymond

"Raymond? What is it?" Considering he was the ruler and whatnot, I didn't exactly expect to be greeted by him

"Sam, Kenneth, can you come with me for a second?" No one responded to Raymond's request for a while

"What for?" Kenneth broke the silence

"It's something I found, I'm choosing you two because you most likely know what it is, of course, that's not 100 percent though" I looked back at Nicholai, she nodded, and so Kenneth and I listened to his request and followed him.

Raymond led us into his office where he laid out a book, no, it was a journal

"I barely even read it and I feel like I know it belongs to Lee or someone you know, yet, something seems off about it, it talks about stuff that not even I know of" He handed it to use, just read it, the first chapter should give you a general idea of what I mean." Kenneth grabbed it, it was wide enough for both of us to read, but he still moved it enough for me to see it.

We began reading it, and after a few paragraphs, we began to see what Raymond meant, the Journal's handwriting showed panic throughout all of the pages, some writing was also entirely unreadable, it mentioned Corruptors, the Reunion, Me, Kenneth, Raymond, Nicholai, it scared me, to be honest.

"Do you understand what I mean now?" Raymond was sitting in his chair, his legs were crossed as he kept leaning back and forth, moving with the chair.

"Yeah, I do" I had a feeling I knew who wrote it, the only person who could've written this was Lee, yet he's oblivious just like us when it comes to DT stuff, and yet, in this, he knows so much and is way more panicked, that the only conclusion I could think of, is that other Lee I saw, he looked drained after all, like he's just given up on existing.

"You all can keep it, I don't have a use for it" Raymond sat up, as Kenneth handed the Journal to me to hold

"Here Sam, you can have it, if it really is Lee's then you'd understand it better than I would" I already understood it, and yet, I didn't say anything, if both Lees don't want us to know about time travel, then I shouldn't mention anything about it, and yet, why did the other Lee not say anything? Maybe I didn't understand. All of us heard a knock on the door as Madoka came in

"Hey Sam, you remember what I said? Magic training" I remembered, but a part of me wanted to read the rest of the Journal.

"Yeah! I remember" I turned around and looked at her, I put the Journal in my bag for later, I was sure I'd find the answer to this.

"Alright, I'll mark where we'll train on the map, continue" Madoka walked out, and just like she said, a waypoint was placed on my map, and so I ran over to it, ready to train and use some magic!