-Ze-

"Take this, and this, and this. Ohh, you liked this one too," Chilled says, throwing books in my direction, all which I just walk by and follow him as he walks along the bookshelves. Even in the middle of what used to be enemy territory, Chilled is just freely walking around like he owns the place and looking through the things we aren't assigned to look at. Although supposedly this place was active only until recently, it looks completely abandoned with dust already layering the floor and shelves with dry blood staining many of the walls and floors. With Chilled as the "leader" according to Francis I have to follow him but he doesn't seem to be making any progress at all with the mission and he's already strayed from the original objective. Making him the leader was probably a poor choice by Francis, but I guess he didn't trust me considering I've never even been on a real mission before. Chilled suddenly stops talking and stops his movements, alerting me momentarily but when he looks back to me with a shocked but silly expression I'm immediately relieved it's just him being him, as I've discovered.

"You dick! You didn't pick up any of the books? Come on, I specially handpicked all of them for you, you used to love that stuff!" When all he gets in return is silence he pouts and stomps passed me and picks up one of the books I had let him throw to the ground behind him and slightly towards me. His fingers expertly flip though the pages before he points at a certain page and raises the book with narrowed eyes. A few moments pass with nothing happening causing me to nudge around feeling a bit awkward before he suddenly holds up the open book in front of me. "Look at this and tell me it doesn't spark something in you! C'mon, Ze, this shit used to excite you more than me. Go on, tell me it doesn't speak to you and make you excited!" I accept the book from him and glance over the words and small pictures with the man in front of me watching me with wide and excited eyes, just waiting to see my reaction to the simple words.

"...I don't get it. Am I supposed to be excited by a couple of words?" Chilled immediately groans and steps away from me in extreme disappointment. I frown at his reaction and turn back down to the book, flipping through the pages slowly. It's a book focusing around chemicals, mainly the metals and reactions they can have along with the stronger metals. I move one page at a time, skimming the words and taking in the pictures and slowly follow Chilled's steps as he drags his feet away from our spot and continues his way to the library exit. My eyes are glued to the book, the several subjects and strange unfamiliar terms all seeming interesting. I've never seen anything like this, I wonder if Leo kept this away from me as well? But... it's just entertainment pretty much. Lots of facts that are nice to know.

"Hey, did Diction seem a bit off today when he talked to us?" An unfamiliar voice echoes from somewhere and immediately Chilled and I freeze.

"Yeah! I noticed that too! I wonder if something's wrong. If our captain is worried we should be really worried." Chilled rips the book out of my hands without a word and sets it down on a nearby empty shelf before grabbing my wrist and pulling me behind a book shelf covering us just as the doors to the library opens and two seemingly human soldiers walk inside, both wearing IRIS patches on their chest. Chilled's arm in front of me shows me to not move one inch as Chilled is the one to evaluate the situation.

"Plus, he randomly sent us here. It's completely dead here. I doubt there's be anything worth anything here. I wonder if the others have found anything." Chilled slowly steps back causing him to bump into me and I quickly also take small and slow steps back before he turns around and keeps an arm behind him, making sure I'm following closely behind him as he migrates to the other side of the book shelf and gets a view to the soldiers again.

"Damn, there are a lot of books on the ground." The two soldiers are standing and scratching their heads as they investigate the trail of books that Chilled had left when we were wandering. Now would be the best chance we have. Slowly drawing my knife Chilled suddenly stops me, forcing the knife back into the holster and takes my hand, escaping from the library letting the humans live. I look to him very confused but he doesn't say a word as he looks around carefully.

"Did you hear Gassy lives with a girl now?" Chilled hesitates and glances back at me momentarily for some reason before making another disappointed sigh and pulls me with him again and ducks me behind a wall as more soldiers are wandering the open area with more small talk. It seems like they're all just gossiping about the base, but Chilled noticed. He noticed the other soldiers mentions others being here when I didn't give it much attention. I'm really not cut out for this mission stuff like Chilled is, and it worries me a bit because I absolutely have to be good at this stuff if I want to be of any use for Leo and them. Chilled noticed my insecurity as my hand is beginning to shake a bit he has in his grasp and quickly ducks behind me and very slowly slides a door open close to us and pulls me inside. Now in the enclosed and extremely dark room I sigh in relief we're no longer in the same door and glance back at Chilled who is locking the door and also sighing in relief. Suddenly he looks to me and I avoid his gaze, already feeling that he's going to tell me I'm an incompetent soldier, like most of my previous trainers. But instead he just sighs and pats my shoulder before passing me.

"Even now, huh? Man and I was secretly hoping you'd toughen up and go on more adventures with me after becoming a Hidden. Oh well, I guess you can just stick to your science," Chilled mutters and looks around seeming extremely lost in the darkness of the room. I dig through my things before I find what I was given before coming here. Switching on the flashlight Chilled thanks me and continues to look through the tiny room... only there's not much to explore. Half of the room looks like it was blown to smithereens, the side with all of the files that should seem like something that would be worth scavenging. Chilled kneels by the burnt up files all just ashes that crumbles as soon as he tried to pick anything up and leaving his hand with a black stain. Digging in through the ashes he flinches at something and waves his hand off trying to get the ashes off.

"Nothing?" I ask and he shakes his head, standing up and staring at the burnt ashes all in a pile on the side there. "Looks like it was incinerated. So it had to be a human destroying the evidence," I note and Chilled nods in confirmation before turning around and digging through the desk as well.

"Looks like they took all the stuff out of the desk too. Fuck, someone thought ahead," Chilled complains, shutting the desk and looks to the computer but steps back and motions for me to look at it. I lay the flashlight on the desk pointing towards the keyboard and power on the computer to look through it. Suddenly the door handle to the room makes quite a bit of noise and both Chilled and I jump as we both look up towards the door. Chilled sighs and walks around the desk and stand by the door. "Duck under the desk. Don't get your knife or blindfold out, I can handle this." I raise an eyebrow at his request but nod, ducking under the desk and immediately a second afterwards the door is burst open. Shouts come out immediately and bullets before they get further and further until I can poke my head up and find that everyone is gone, including Chilled. He led them away. Now a bit relieved I open up the computer.

The files on the computer are all the same as the ones that were put into that flash drive but the interesting thing is the emails the captain still had either saved or run through the internet. They do include some pretty good information that I can definitely use, or at least the Hidden can use. Sending it to the other computer at the Hidden base I shut off the computer afterwards and look up to the open doorway with a bit of worry. I can't even hear them anymore, I wonder if Chilled is okay. Taking a deep breath I shake my head and push myself away from the desk and slowly approach the doorway. Glancing all around I suddenly see Chilled quite a bit down the hallway walking towards me as if nothing happened. He smiles when he sees me and holds his arms out as if he has some pretty impressive muscles to begin with.

"Hey Ze, I lost 'em. Anyways, we get anything?" he asks as if there isn't any danger in speaking out loud. I nod and he smiles widely and wraps an arm around my shoulders.

"Yeah, and they thought they were sending us on a mission with nothing to find. C'mon lets get the hell out of here," Chilled says with a strong sense of accomplishment but I pull him back before he drags me back to base.

"Actually, I wanted to maybe look at some of those books you were showing me earlier." Chilled stares at me for a few moments silently before laughing, seeming a lot happier than he should just because I want to look at some books. He pats my back and leads the way to the library I don't even remember the way to. Chilled gains this shine to him I haven't seen before, having only seen him really angry and really sad before now. He seems relieved and extremely happy it makes me feel a bit special for seeing it.

"That's the good ol' Ze I know. It's this way. I'll sneak one back to base for you, since we're technically not supposed to take anything besides the objective," Chilled explains and I immediately tense up at the discovery. We're not supposed to?

"No, then, nevermind. I don't need it-"

"No! We're getting one, it's the first thing like the old Ze that you've said. Maybe it'll help you remember some stuff," Chilled says, pulling my hand with new found enthusiasm. I open my mouth but I can't find any words to bring down his enthusiasm after seeing him like this. I can't tell him that I don't want to remember but he seems to want me to remember and I feel really bad. Chilled opens the door to the library and smiles with excitement as he lets go of my hand and begins to investigate every single book without me. His finger slides on the spine of every book and tossing down the ones that he seemed to find interesting. "Choose one from the ones I'm pointing out. And don't worry about any humans, I got rid of them," Chilled says, turning back to me with a mysterious smile. I just shake my head and glance down at the books he's letting fall onto the ground. I watch the book covers ranging from a bit variety of science related topics.

"Hey Chilled, was I a human before? When we were friends?" Chilled stops walking and glances back at me, seeming surprised I'd ask a question like that. Hell, I'm surprising myself, I usually retrain any questions about my past but I just felt like I have to know. After getting to know Chilled and hanging out with him for the past couple of days I feel like I should know. For the first time I feel like I'm missing something very important after meeting Chilled and slowly rekindling my memories and interests from back then.

"I mean, yeah, all Hidden were at some point. We've been friends for... what, over ten years for sure," Chilled mutters and goes into a thoughtful stare directed at nothing. Over ten years? That was a lot more than I expected for some reason, so we were together for so long, it's understandable why he is so friendly to me. "We were soldiers for a bit of time for the humans, then we strayed and started getting into some science related adventures. Our last job was as scientists at IRIS, so that's the place to look if you, you know, want to get your memories back anytime in the future. I dunno, just saying, I know you're completely uninterested and all but you could go visit IRIS at any time." Chilled shrugs, obviously hinting he wants me to go to IRIS despite knowing I'd get shot the moment I go there. But this is also hinting that he wants me to go to the humans and start betraying the Hidden. I'm certain now that Chilled is not loyal to the Hidden from the countless amount of hints he's given me, but only to me. Around everyone else he's always "fuck those humans" and "those bastards" no one else would even guess.

"I want to take this one," I say suddenly, picking up a random book off the ground just to get out of this depressing place. Chilled looks at the book in my hands and takes a hold of the book while I keep my grip on the book stranely and slowly glances back up at me, seeming uncharacteristically serious.

"A little over three years ago Tom hired us to be researchers in IRIS where we got lost the first day and Gassy was the one to help you back and you were pretty friendly with him the first few days. They had a trip to some snowy mountains in celebration for the new employees and you were a part of Gassy's group where during the trip I was injured and so were you when you strayed from your group and found me nearly dead. There you met Alice who later became constantly involved in your life and there you discovered Gassy and Nanners, a guy I had become extremely close to, were traitors. We went back to the base and Nanners went missing and after that-"

"Chilled!" I shout and throw the book to him and turn away from him, shutting my eyes closed and covering my ears with my hands. "Knock it off! I already told you I didn't want to remember shit," I shout, annoyed at the man I had become close with. When I peek over to him finding him simply bending over and picking up the book I threw at him with his mouth thankfully shut. Slowly sliding my hands down and off my ears I notice a glimpse of a hurt expression before he turns away and stashes the book away inside of his jacket.

"Yeah, yeah, just seeing if it'd trigger something if I tell you your story from the last few years. C'mon, lets get back to base before that old man gets mad at us," Chilled says with the same smile in his voice but his back stays directed towards me. Despite believing I've done nothing wrong I feel like I hurt him and did do something terrible to him. Slowly I follow behind him, a bit slower than before but my mind goes back and processes what he said even though I didn't want to remember. IRIS, if I recall correctly that was the file Leo was against me opening and looking through and more than that the research files. Was it because some of my work could have been in there from being a researcher? Quickly shaking my head I dismiss the thought and continue to follow Chilled. I need to forget about it, or else I'll start actually getting real memories back. Right now I just know a bit about my past, I just have to be careful that knowledge doesn't turn to memories.

-Gassy-

"Do you have to go back?" Elaine complains, leaning on the couch's back and watching me as I slide my shoes on. Although I feel like I can just stay here forever and sleep I actually do have a job to do, so... no. As much fun it is just hanging with Elaine, helping her with her homework, playing games, and eating food that isn't cafeteria food, I have to go back.

"Sorry, I'll try to be back tonight though. Maybe nothing will come up-"

"Something always comes up though..." Elaine groans and lays on the couch with a disappointed look in her eyes as she watches me grab my keys off the small hooks holding up a few pairs of keys. "It's Saturday, there isn't even school today. What am I going to do?" she complains, holding her hands up to the sky and I just sigh as I watch her. She's a strange kid, as much as she's beautiful, clearly better looking than other girls in her school, she hardly hangs out with any other students and stays at home for a majority of her spare time. Being a transfer student may be something to do with it, but even then, she's in her senior year and she's still yet to make a friend that I've seen her bring home. At first I was worried about her possibly starting parties here with me gone all of the time but the house is perfectly clean every time I come back home. I guess she's not your average teen, but it does worry me a bit. Suddenly my phone vibrates and I pull it out of my pocket and when I see the 'Yes' I sigh in relief and glance back at Elaine.

"Hey, come with me. I'm gonna drop you off at Alice's work before going to work," I say and immediately she shoots up, her eyes shining as she gets back up to her knees and looks at me.

"Really?! She said yes? Nice, I'll go get ready!" she shouts out before dashing off into the hallway to get her stuff and take an hour getting ready just like usual. I stare after her before the phone in my hand vibrates again as Alice sends me another text message. 'You okay?' She's surprisingly worried about my well being often nowadays. Ignoring the text I stuff the phone back into my pocket and glance out the window, the sun now decently high in the sky. I wake up at dawn every day at least to watch the last seconds of dawn, but I'm not as bad as back then when I used to watch through the entire sun rise every single day. It became a task that I didn't have time for, and it depresses me a bit it's a promise I believe I've broken with Ze now. I doubt he'd ever be mad at me, considering some of the crazy shit he's already forgiven me for, but I feel like I'm more mad at myself despite everyone saying I shouldn't anyways.

"Do you want me to introduce you to someone?" I blink in surprise and glance back at Elaine who is looking to me with a serious and sad expression. Rolling my eyes I motion for her to follow me out the house, carefully locking the door behind me. "Seriously, my mom knows some pretty Italian girls that would like you. One of my teachers is kind of cute, a guy. Having someone new will help you get over Ze, I know having you helped me get past it," Elaine comments but I just roll my eyes again and pass her on the way downstairs. "I mean, I know it's completely different from me but I think it'll help! And I'll support you, no matter what. Since I made a promise with Ze that I'll protect you."

"When'd you do something like that?" I ask, a bit amused this high school girl is going to want to protect me, a sergeant who is fully capable of protecting himself. Despite that she seems confident that she can help protect me. But it is a bit refreshing, knowing I have someone who is intent on protecting me and helping me out. No matter how shitty a guardian I am she still acts like this to me.

"Well, I didn't actually but I made it up in my mind. Since the day I met you, I knew that Ze would want me to protect you," she says with a sweet smile as she climbs into the passenger side of my car. She's... way too optimistic for more teens, I'd think someone like her would be really popular in school. Her personality must change in front of others, one of those types to become shy in front of others she's not accustomed to. But usually those types manage to make at least one friend, but I guess she has Alice she has a strangely large amount of affection for.

"Yeah? Well don't worry, I'll try not to be too much work to protect. As soon as this Ze's innocence petition stuff blows over, I promise I'll try looking for someone else," I promise and Elaine practically squeals with excitement despite me just promising momentarily to make her feel better. Immediately her mouth goes off listing off different people she had thought was perfect for me but I ignore most of it and focus on driving and getting her out of here. When she gets like this I begin to see the similarities between her and Alice, both like this when it comes to a topic they enjoy. I still think Alice was the better choice for her to stay with but she was against it despite blushing the entire time and seeming like she secretly wanted to.

"Try not to make any trouble," I order and she just giggles and nods, saluting me as if she's a soldier before running off towards the decently big building Alice managed to buy off. She's really making her company big through all of those connections. Some people are becoming upset with her making these connections through their rich families apparently but she's really working hard to make it big on her own as well. When I see Elaine enter the building I pull out and start heading to work with a sigh in the lonely car now. Those soldiers should be out in BRIN right now looking for any clues I doubt they will find. Diction is out of the office right as he informed me so I'm currently in charge of the base while he's out dealing with the political stuff with Tom. When I think he has to deal with stuff like that I get a bit glad that I didn't end up becoming the captain.

The moment I enter the base I notice today does seem like a pretty calm day with the soldiers moving along with their own tasks. Maybe I will get to finish up with everything while Diction's out and get home for two days in a row hopefully. Then again usually when I hope for these things I jinx myself and work comes up to fill the next week before I can get home. Entering Diction's office with the key he gave me I realize it's been a while since he's put me in charge, since he didn't at all during the time he suspected me for begin a traitor. Now that I think about it, the mystery traitor on base is still a thing as well. My suspect right now that I'm growing to suspect is Ohm but other than him no one else acts too suspicious at all. Looking through the files on Diction's desk I suddenly realize all of the paperwork to complete as captain and groan in anticipation, falling onto the chair when there's a knock on the door. Already? I call them to enter and a lower ranked soldier comes into the room.

"H-Hey, Sergeant," the soldier says and salutes me but I just nod and lean forward.

"You're from the group that went to BRIN, right? That was quick, did you find something already or did you half ass your work?" He tenses up at the harsh language but shakes his head with a nervous expression. This must be the first time he's led a group investigation judging by his nerves, and possibly why he's back early and half assed his work.

"We encountered the spy, Chilled there," he explains and instantly grabs my attention. Chilled, at BRIN? I was certain the Hidden were absolutely done with that place after I destroyed anything they could use to get information, besides the flash drive at least. It was the only thing they could use if they tortured a human into using the computer, they can't do anything more. "He was with another Hidden. He led us away from the Hidden though, he said not to hurt the other Hidden at all and to stay away from him. He also told us the location of where he's stationed, and he told me to inform you of the coordinates and requests to plan an attack before Monday when they're planning to attack KRIM with the new Hidden." I nod slowly. Chilled is protecting the new soldiers, otherwise he wouldn't mind bullshitting a story about his Hidden friend dying on the mission. The new Hidden must be powerful for him to lead the other guys away from him, or her.

"Alright, thanks for the work. Anything else?"

"U-Uh, Chilled said he apologizes for failing to give updates. He believes the Hidden are onto him for being a spy but he says it'll be definitely worth it. Especially attacking them, and he specifically said you'd like it." I raise an eyebrow but he shrugs obviously as confused as I am.

"Alright, you can go.... Can you call the researcher, Mark, here?" The soldier nods and quickly makes his escape leaving me to my own thoughts. Chilled is up to something, and while that's nothing new I feel a bit off about it this time and why he's go out to single out my happiness.... Well, while Diction is gone for a couple of days I'll do this, knowing Diction would never set out a possible suicide mission. Chilled didn't even tell us about the manpower, but hopefully he'll leave another notice or something like that. But if he's scared of the Hidden finding out he's a spy he'll probably be a lot more careful from now on. It's a good thing he's being cautious for once though, and especially now if they are actually testing him like I was predicting.

"You... you called me?" the small voice comes from the doorway and I quickly glance up to find Mark opening the door slowly before entering. "Uh... I thought you hated me after that last time."

"Don't be flattered, it's just because you're the only researcher I know the name of," I explain and he immediately frowns but sits in front of me, seeming nervous. It is true that he's the only researcher I've encountered since Chilled and Ze, but I am more familiar with him and feel like I can read him a bit more than others. I guess I'd feel comfortable for someone who is a fan of Ze, who definitely deserves all the fans he can get in the afterlife after what he pulled off. "Did you ever find anything about what they can possibly do to increase the manpower of a Hidden? What kind of tricks they can have up their sleeves with the new Hidden?"

"No, any sort of improvement would be impossible to collide with the reflective protein. Including the stereotypical drugs like steroids will have no affect on them." I frown at the lack of any sort of insight I can get into this Hidden Chilled was leading away. "But, there may be some sort of reactions with the Hidden formula and certain cases. Like Ze, who had a special blood condition, he could have-"

"Are you still intent on finding some stupid possibility that he's alive?" I complain and he flinches but keeps eye contact with me despite seeming a bit scared of me.

"I'm saying if we can get special human samples with different blood conditions I'll be able to look into it more." Slowly I look away from him and towards the computer Diction uses everyday before sighing and looking through the files.

"Fine, I'll talk to some people and try to get you some special blood samples if that'll get you to get over your favorite idol. Also, I'm going to have you come with us on our raid we're going on tomorrow."

"What?! Tomorrow? Where's my time to get ready? I need to get some things to be ale to collect samples," he freaks out and stands up, looking around. Not quite the reaction I was expecting from a researcher who shouldn't be on the battlefield on the first place. I want to test it out, see how having a researcher at the battlefield onsite studying. It's just an experiment. I watch him as he moves around and escapes the office in a hurry. I guess he isn't that bad, he's just clumsy and new at his job but he does have motivation for studying and science. If it's him I suppose he can temporarily replace Ze in the meantime.