Phasing Through 12

“Hey pipsqueak, did you miss me?” Sam said trying as hard she could not to just hug the girl. Vi would be very confused; she had to work things out a bit first.
“Luna?” Vi called not turning her gaze from Sam. “Am I the only one seeing this? Cause I may have been alone a bit too long.”
“Completely real.” Luna smiled.
“Sooo, real?” She asked pointing at Sam. Luna nodded. “Real?” She asked again pointing at the two Kazumis. “Ah.” Vi scratched her head, pouting. “You sure?”
“Even if I’m not, does it change anything?”
“Not really.” She grinned and tackled Sam. Sam hugged the girl as tightly as she could. “I thought you were dead.” Vi said.
“Walk-and-talk girls, come on.” Luna ordered but her smile remained.
“What no time for a touching reunion? Give them a break Luna.”
“Bane!” Vi broke away from Sam and rushed at the figure at the end of the hallway. She hugged him quickly before the chatter began. “Bane, Sam’s alive! She’s been alive this whole time can you believe it? I told you she couldn’t be dead.” Luna interrupted.
“So, how was the welcoming party?”
“Them? Oh yeah, great hosts, real hospitable. Managed to break through the ruckus, I thought you’d like an armed guard. Ladies.” He gestured towards the next stair well. Vi ran back to Sam’s side, any injuries received earlier forgotten. The group began towards the next level.
“So did they keep you here the whole time?” Vi asked.
“Err… No.” Sam looked at Vi, puzzled. Had she not realised the age difference yet? Should Sam explain it to her? How would she go about it? Bane looked back and saw the apprehension on Sam’s face.
“Hey kiddo, your kerchiefs worked a treat.” He directed at Vi, she was immediately distracted.
“Really?” She gasped. “I’m glad. Were they good, or only kinda good?”
“Vi, I think you owe someone an apology.” Luna tapped her on the shoulder.  Vi looked around and noticed Divert and her ears sunk.
“I’m sorry, Divert. I should have listened to you. But this was fun right? We found Sam!” She clung to Sam’s arm excitedly. The sounds of a battle drew nearer and nearer.
“The strangest thing.” Bane said as they got closer. “They just keep getting back up, blue eyes too. Oh and nearly forgot.” He chucked a gun at Sandra. She caught it and looked up with a giant grin on her face.
“Lock-on.” Her whole demeanour changed, as though she was more confident.
“Also,” He chucked a pair of gloves to Vi and two guns to the Kazumis. “No presents for you Luna, sorry.”
“Where’s mine?” Sam pouted.  Bane feigned surprise.
“Ah, of course. Guess who it’s from.” He chucked her something red. She turned it over, a small strawberry lolly. “She said she’s been saving it for the last four years. It’s yours now.”
“Thanks.”
“If I were you I’d eat it. Seriously. That stuff will eventually go off. Nothing against the sentiment but what’s the point in candy if you don’t eat it? Now are we all ready? Yeah? Then let’s join the party.”
The scene was a jumble at first but soon Sam could make out the grey-armoured soldiers from the mismatched rebels. Bane ran immediately into the crowd and Vi sprinted after him after pulling on her gloves. Sam glanced at Luna.
“Go on then.” Luna shooed her onwards. “Don’t stay out too long and remember to be nice to the other kiddies.” Sam ran forward and kicked a soldier away from a rebel who was reloading. The Kazumis and Divert remained on the outside, backing up anyone who needed help. She roundhouse kicked a child who attempted to bite her, Sam had seen what had happened when she went easy on them. Taking a step back to avoid a flaming whip Sam bumped into someone.
“Pleasant morning, isn’t Samantha?” Without having to turn around Sam knew it was Romeo.
“Is it only the morning? God, it’s been a long day.” She turned slightly to see Romeo stunning each child that approached. Some jumped back up immediately but the others stayed down.
“How’s the future been treating-“ He stopped to kick away some spiders crawling out from a boy’s mouth. “you?”
“Oh. Real great.” The spiders were focusing on her now. “I do have to say one thing though.”
“What’s that?” With a crackle of electricity all the spiders approaching Sam curled up. He nodded for her to continue.
“Spoilers. Everywhere.” She laughed, seeing Vi swing a powered plasma glove into someone’s face. “Never in a million years-“
“Did you expect any of this?” He completed. “Neither, if you had of told the me of your time what would happen I would not believe a word.” Romeo beamed at her as the last child fell then clapped his hands together happily. “Right. That’s done. Now we should organise different groups to explore the facilities and gather information on-“ He turned around to see Luna. “Orrr, we could wait for Luna’s orders.” Luna heard this and smiled.
“It was a good plan of action Romeo, you may continue.” She gestured to him before returning to chatting with Relion. When did he get there? Sam would have to watch him carefully from now on, she wanted to know how he did it. There was a twinkle in Romeo’s eye as he began organising rebels. Sam left to find Vi, she was standing amongst the children inspecting armour.
“I forgot to ask, why are there two Kazumis?” She questioned as she began taking armour plates.
“Errr” Sam had no idea how to answer. “That because of…the place with the thing.” She mumbled incoherently.
“What?”
“What?”
“What?”  Vi looked at her, confused. Before she could ask any more Sam interrupted.
“So anything new with the armour?”
“Not really but these helmets are new” She slid one off a soldier and froze. Her eyes widened.
“Sam, it’s Asha.”
“Who?”
“You know, lived in our apartment block for like a year. She was kidnapped a little while into the war.”
“Oh, right her.” Sam smacked her forehead.
“But that’s weird, wasn’t she in her 40’s?” Vi studied the child’s face more closely. “It’s definitely her but…not? I’m so confused.”
“Well we have to bring someone back, why not her?” Sam suggested and Vi immediately agreed, she ran off to find something to bind the girl up with. Bane called Sam outside the building where multiple rebels were lying injured from the attack. While they talked Sam was lightly checked for injuries but it was quickly worked out that there were people in more urgent need.
“So is this it? Have we won?” Sam asked while they walked amongst the wounded rebels, Bane chuckled at her question.
“What? No. Of course not. First of all, while we were busy breaking in and fighting of hoards of zombie-children-soldiers most of the ‘government employees’ evacuated, even if we had of captured them; this is just a single building. They have heaps of them, most are almost completely empty. This was one of the emptier ones. Still this is a triumph and a first.”
“Are you kidding? It’s taken six years for you to take one empty building?” She punched his shoulder and he shot her a withering glare.
“It’s harder than it seems ‘Mrs-I’m-from-the-past-and-will-do-nothing-but-criticize-you”
“I feel like that lost the comedic effect after the fifth syllable.”   Bane stopped.
“Oh no.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Chrome” He said pointing to someone talking to Luna, it looked like an argument.
“You don’t like him?”
“Him? Oh he’s fine. It’s just…Pacifists.” He shuddered. “I’m all for the ‘peace for everyone’ thing but violence can’t be stopped with love and hugs….Hey, you wanna see what they’re arguing about?” Bane smiled like a small child about to see his Christmas presents early. The feeling spread to Sam and she nodded eagerly. They slid behind one of the building’s tall columns and strained to hear.
“Hear me out Luna, they’re children!”
“I’ve told you, we don’t have the facilities to contain such a number.”
“But we do, we have so many spare rooms-“
“Can those spare rooms hold powerful enemy soldiers? Who will watch them? What if they injure someone?”
“But we can’t leave them, what if they’re injured?”
“Chrome, this discussion is over. I’m sorry but the answer is no and will remain no.” There was no response and Bane and Sam leaned closer in, just in case there was more. “Bane. Sam.” They looked up to see Luna leaning through the column above them. They jumped back.
“We were just inspecting the columns for…” Bane floundered.
“Traps.” Sam insisted. “Like mines and stuff that I’m sure still exist in the future.” Luna stepped out of the column, crossed her arms and stared at them.
“Bane, I believe there are tasks that you should be completing.”
“Yes, Luna-sir-I mean-mam.” He shuffled off as quickly as he could, leaving Sam behind. Traitor.
“There are tasks I should be doing too, right?” Sam tried to step away but Luna’s glare froze her in her place. Why hadn’t she realised how scary Luna could be?
“Sam, you need to tell Vi.”
“Why? She’s happy believing that I’m her Sam, why change that? I know you think it’s wrong to lie to her, but you lied to her about me being dead for years. Can’t we negate that? Please?”
“It’s not that. If we could continue this little fantasy then yes, I would do that until we retrieved our Sam. But even though she’s not the quickest witted person we know, she’ll put two and two together eventually. Then it’ll just be hurt. For you and her.” Before Sam could even ask Luna continued. “You can wait until we return to base first if you want.”
“Yeah.” Sam sighed. “Can’t wait.”