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[right][hr][color=gray][b]Smith's Rest, New Anchorage | Outside HQ[/b]
March 27th, 2677[/color][hr][/right]
[indent]It was the morning and Madison was nestled within the soft snow as she watched the beams of radiant light stretch out over the horizon. They were gentle, warm, and filled with a subtle sense of joy that tried so desperately to fight off the sorrows and tears which had fallen down her right cheek; an unfortunate scene of a girl with the inability to completely release her emotions thanks to the cybernetics implants on the left side of her face. They were crystal speckled droplets, frozen on the surface, and the tears scorched down Madison's face like tiny, serrated diamonds that left highways of red, irritated skin. The girl watched the horizon from her secluded lookout, eyeing off the various mountains and ravines as she buried her chin between her knees. It was only the sounds of a transport leaving the facility that caused her attention to finally shift.

The vehicle left the perimeter, carving its way across the lands as it headed off to Falcon's Reach. If Madison's assumptions were correct it was the same transport that bought her to the base the previous year, a moment when she officially signed up to become a part of this dysfunctional family of pilots and mechanics. Through the snow it travelled as it left the safety of the compound; through the snow it travelled leaving its mark as the first official expedition since the reigns of Graham and Celina; through the snow it travelled... carrying three, New Anchorage, pilots

[color=ffd1dc]"COWARD!!!"[/color]

A scream of frustration escaped the young girl's mouth, aimed at a certain parental figure for his actions the previous night, but instead the echoes of the mountains chose to respond with earnest might. They reflected back her words, they cut their way through her weakened defences, and they hit her inner spirit like a ballistic mortar shot. Madison felt her heart sink to depths she had not felt before, questioning her own self value as she mulled over the reactions from the audience at the press conference, and opinions of the other pilots.

[color=ffd1dc]"I'm not... a coward."[/color] Words mumbled with hurt as she subconsciously allowed her own words of anger to enter into her thoughts, a harsh reality of how she viewed her own self value. [color=ffd1dc]"I am not... a coward."[/color]

Cautiously the girl reached into her lap, placing her hands around a wooden handle, a utensil of Duncan's toolbox that slept silently and safely within its leather home. She hadn't slept, and the growing insomnia plagued her mind with ideas and thoughts with what she had to do. The steel blade began to sing as she cautiously drew it from a deep slumber. A sheet of metal that glistened with the sunlight from the morning sun, cleanly polished and razor sharp. She eyed the blade, seeing herself reflected straight back at her, a sight of a pink haired woman with a bloodshot eye from the emotional tears; such a horrifying sight to behold.

[color=ffd1dc]"I am not a coward,"[/color] a gentle whisper.

The hand reached around to her hair, grasping the long strands that flowed down over her shoulders as she pulled them back to expose her naked neck. Then, as if by invitation, Duncan's blade was lifted into position and rested carefully upon her soft skin. The stone cold edge rocked back and forth as she consciously positioned it, ready to choose the resolve that she desperately needed for herself... and for everyone else.

[color=ffd1dc]"I am Madison Cole..."[/color]

Final words of courage, a set of eyes that closed, the final gulp, and the ear piercing sound of a harrowing slice echoed across the snow.

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One by one strands of baby pink began to fall, dancing in the breeze as they slowly fell towards the snow. The girl never before had hair that flowed so beautifully down her back, but ever since she had awoken, ever since she had appeared as a different person in a different body, she had been treated as the child, a baby, that girl who needed the protection of every other pilot. For Madison, enough was enough and she was ready to return to the old Madi and fight whatever it was that had been brewing up inside her since the accident.

Standing up from the snow and turning back towards the outpost entrance, Madison made the long, arduous walk back into the base, stomach growling from hunger, and ready to prove everyone... fucking... wrong.[/indent]