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[sub][color=Silver][i]The Siege of Amone, September 9th - [b]Flashback[/b][/i][/color][/sub]
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[color=Silver]	It was a wonderful feeling; knowing that she had to [i]nurture[/i] her highly received friend, known for his courage and satisfactory results on the field of battle, it filled her with a great sense of superiority. She almost felt pity for her taller friend, sat in the corner with his shoulder and arms clenched with stab-holes and the odd bullet wound. In reality though, she was simply glad that Thomas had made it out alive, still unable to be killed by the very Imperial bastards that set out to destroy the Europan landscape. Well, that was what she was told by the recruiters on the day of her enlistment. They would tell her to come and fight for the good cause, to protect the Kingdom back home, showing great monarchist royalty and a democratic sense of duty. Naive, wasn't she? Back then, having sacrificed her very human rights, her existence and morality for the sake of a dictator's plaything. War was a nightmare, an absolute atrocity that she wanted to escape from. Yet despite that, she'd become nullified to the effects of battle, writing off most of the sufferings she'd see around her as natural. Whilst deep down Freya felt the immense pain and baggage that came with seeing both friend and foe be slaughtered, much like that of the Cavalry charge, she would try her hardest to maintain that golden smile she was known for. People needed the pick-me-ups from their darkest moments, but at the same time who was there for Freya?

	She continued to tend to Thomas' wounds, noticing that the first layer of field dressing had already been soaked through. At this rate, Thomas wouldn't bleed out but he would indeed feel faint from blood loss. It didn't take a doctor to know that Thomas, or [i]Marathon[/i], needed to find a suitable place to rest and recover, still having the dangerous potential to faint or collapse from exhaustion in the middle of a firefight. That would be disastrous. Freya didn't want, nor need, to lose Thomas. She'd already lost [i]her[/i], and she didn't want to go through that pain again.

	Jean had already given the order, though in a tremolo tone, to prepare the rendezvous with Isaac's group. She never called the Lance Corporal by his rank (except for the time where she called him Corporal Dog-Shagger, to her enjoyment). Isaac was one of the group members that she knew, but at the same time she didn't know too well. He was a soldier, and a good one by what she'd heard and seen. Effective, strong-willed and prepared to lay down that suppressive fire like it was Lucia's face on a bedroom escapade with Michael. Though, even by thinking of the little sweet angel, Freya couldn't help but smile at how adorably innocent she was. Lucia had been the real victim of the war, one that did remind Freya of [i]her[/i], as they spoke similarly and wandered around in a fashion she could almost consider the same. Lucia was indeed a wonderful girl. Well, Freya was guilty of admitting to herself that she had a lustful eye on the darling Asseni angel, but Freya knew that there'd be more happiness in pulling the strings for the Daunte hookup. Plus, she found amusement in it.

	Freya had also been guilty of having a few lustful thoughts over many of the members of the squad. Britta was who she thought was a female version of Isaac, and she'd even poked a few glances at Franz during the train journey to Amone. It wasn't uncommon for her to look towards her squadmates in such flirtatious mannerisms but she couldn't help it. Despite how bad it felt to go against that deep lust for the girl she once loved, Freya was still determined to find that same happiness that she once felt those months ago. Freya looked down at her hands, her smile fading slowly as she saw their bloody stature. They were covered in...someone's blood. It wasn't hers, but it was likely Thomas' or those of her enemies. And from looking at the blood, it triggered a vision she wished she never had to relive ever again.[/color]

[hr][centre][sub][color=Silver][i]May 15th, 1913EC - [b]The Retreat from the Southern Frontier[/b][/i][/color][/sub][/centre][hr]

[color=Silver]	She felt the hand clutch around hers, tighter than before. The whistles blew and the shells from above hailed down upon them with violent insurgence. Freya was exhausted and rifled with fatigue, but she had to keep going. It was a matter of life and death, and not just for her. The retreat was brutal. No one dared to turn around and fire back, only the endless waves of retreating Oceanic and Federation troops faced forwards. It was strange. Months ago, when the Operation of the Southern Frontier first began, Freya and her friends had stridden across these beaches before, taking the land and using it as a foothold for the invasion. They were promised to be the saving grace of the war, the ones who would turn the entire conflict in the favour of this apparent democracy, yet all they faced were garrisons of both newly trained, colonial and veteran divisions awaiting their arrival. Even their Trojan-Horse, the abandoned freighter used to transport many of the troops into the territory undetected. But now, they were falling back. Not by trenches or by a few metres, but now they were being pushed back by the mile without the chance to take a break. The Imperials, the damned bastards, had unleashed their heaviest assault yet, driving them on a constant disorganised retreat.

	With every step in the sand, Freya's breath would become shorter and shorter as she ran out of oxygen to breathe. Bullets continued to fly left, right and centre, towards and away from them. Oceanic brothers and sisters all around her fell face first into the sand when one clipped them in the back or head, splitting their skulls into two. Screams of those they ran past, still crawling through the sand with blood spewing from their chapped lips. Freya wished that in her free arm she could just sweep them from the sand and back onto their feet. Some thought it was the final stretch, the endless plains of sand before them leading to the shoreline where crooked wooden boats awaited their arrival. The scramble was violent, and the blood was now drawing its own lines in the sand.

	In her hand not obscured by the rifle she clutched, she desperately held onto [i]her[/i] hand. With heavy breathing coming from the two, they couldn't help but feel the rush frighten them. Never before, in their entire two years of loving and embracing one another, had they seen such horrific demonstrations of brutalised warfare, not where they were the victims on the run, without any means of defending themselves. Freya looked back at her sweetened cheeks, still blossoming in the bloody sunlight of that fateful day. Even then, she still tried her hardest to provide the most positive and enlightening smile humanly possible, even when her eyes were streaming full of tears leaking from those passionate aqua eyes. Nothing could ever be the same. Each pant she made was graceful, light and almost calming to say the least. Even with the barrages of bullets chasing after them, nothing stopped her from shining in the sunlight. Quickly, they dove behind one of the few pieces of cover that was left on the beach, a small metallic plate that had been dropped on the retreat back, clearly from the logistics team. No one was currently behind it, especially due to its small size, but it seemed just enough for both Freya and the beautiful damsel to follow through. They dove down, quickly forcing themselves to huddle together as tightly as possible, bullets splashing against the sand dunes around them and kicking up a storm of dust.[/color]

[color=FF0202][b]"J-Just give it a second, [url=https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/498628320745750528/545336654152335361/OWG27KG.png?width=623&height=664]Naomi[/url]!"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Freya begged to her loyal ally with intense pressure, pressing her body against hers only to minimise the amount of exposure their bodies had to the repeating gunfire. All around them, bodies of both male and female dropped in large numbers, soldiers still making the scramble for the boats. They were only around thirty metres away now, and it was only a chance of awaiting the right moment. Freya knew that heading straight towards the boats would delay them, keeping them standing around for a few precious seconds as they attempted to find desperate space aboard one of the boats that would take them back to the dreadnoughts. The timing needed to be perfect. Freya locked her eyes on to Naomi's intensely, wiping away one of her tears as she placed the palm of her free hand against the soft cheeks she carried. Her silvery hair had been dampened by the sand they'd dove into, yet there were clearly more pressing matters at hand. Freya held onto her closely, making sure she wasn't hit at all.[/color] [color=FF0202][b]"Keep your...keep that beautiful chin of yours up, o-okay? We're nearly there, and we're nearly home. Remember home? You wanted me to meet your parents, to take you to a place where we would be together, back in Oceania? R-Remember, Naomi?!"[/b][/color]

[color=Silver]	As they continued to stare into one another's eyes, Naomi's smile finally broke. She broke into silent tears, her whimpers were overshadowed by the enormous and continuous uproar of the Imperial gunfire. There were still hundreds, no...thousands of Oceanic and Federation troops still making the desperate run across the beach for the boats. Some who were closer to the Imperial lines were yet to be shot, as many Imperial riflemen were specifically ordered to target the middle and front escapees, making sure the others behind could see the end of the line. Freya's face dropped and she hysterically began to pat the cheek of Naomi, feeling tears of her own swell up and begin to dribble out.[/color]

[color=FF0202][b]"W-Why are you crying? D-Don't cry, please!"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Their hands desperately locked, another bullet or two skimming the tiny cover they hid behind. They were running out of time, but soon enough that chance to escape and board a free boat would be near. It was an insane balance. Finally, Naomi spoke words of the broken, yet innocent, mind she always carried.[/color]

[color=FFB6C1][b]"I...I...I'm scared. They're...they're hundreds...hundreds and thousands of our friends being...s-slaughtered, like animals behind us. Why? Why Freya? Why is this happening to us?! Why [i]us[/i]?! What did we do to deserve this? I don't want to leave the injured behind but they keep ordering us to le-leave them! I'm..."[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Naomi's trembling voice was cut off when Freya, for the first time in a long while, pressed her soft lips against hers with passion and determination to protect her. They held one another's embrace for a minute, a long and drawn out minute. The dangers around them continued to rain upon them in horrific hellfire, dropping bodies all around them, but the two lovers continued to just embrace and hold that amazing kiss. Once they're faces slowly separated from one another, Freya pressed her forehead against hers and whispered just loud enough for them to hear one another.[/color]

[color=FF0202][b]"Naomi, I love you. Don't...don't cry, we're going home. Together. And if one of us falls, then we'll do what's best for one another to live the greatest lives of all. If one of us must fall, the other will go on and live another life, free of our eternal struggle to...to...to love. Go, get on the next boat. I'll take the next. Just...Just know I love you, Naomi...Know I love you with all my heart and soul, and that I want you to find someone to settle down with if...if..."[/b][/color] [color=silver]Naomi kissed Freya again, this time even quicker than before. They were running out of time. The nearest boat that was currently positioned to leave was close to their cowardly hiding spot. Freya looked to the boat, still crowded but with enough space for one of them to join. Naomi shook her head when Freya turned back to her, but Freya helped stand her up, shielding her own body in front of hers so that in the event of a bullet striking one of them, it'd hit Freya first.

	By ushering her aboard the wooden craft, Naomi began to shout things back at Freya, tears streaming from her eyes. The words of love and passion kept shooting straight at Freya, hurting the notion to send her first with the possibility that Freya herself may not return home or escape these bloody beaches. Quickly, she fired a shot or two into the distance, hoping that by luck it could strike an Imperial setting his sights on the group, but instead they seemed to veer off into the unknown chaos of the retreat. The whistle blew, and Freya assisted in giving a huge push on the wooden boat back into the water. As Naomi looked towards her, crying her eyes out desperately in the fear that they would never meet again, Freya shouted her final promise.[/color]

[color=FF0202][b]"I love you Naomi! I'll take the next boat...and...we'll go ho-"[/b][/color]

[color=orange][b]"FIELD GUN SHELL INCOMING. HIT THE DECK!"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]From the distance, the bright and flaming shell of a field gun started to dart towards them. Freya saw it for a split-second, before turning around to see the one who shouted it. From within the boat, a Federation officer, quite young himself, tried to get his comrades down onto the floor of the boat, but it made no difference. Freya saw Naomi's eyes stare back at her. The shell hit in slow motion, the flames slowly beginning to cover Naomi's body as they held their stare. Freya tried to scream, but the force of the impact let out a large blast, throwing Freya aside. Blood and fire spread in all directions, tossing some of the soldiers around her onto the ground again. A painful ring quickly took over all noise around her.

	The world became muffled and her vision was blurry. All around her, the struggles of more soldiers, either in Federation or Oceanic attire kept struggling. Behind her, further up the beach, she could barely make out the few soldiers willing enough to assist the injured, picking them up and dragging them, only for either an Imperial bullet to strike them or an unfriendly Federation officer to draw his own handgun and execute them on the spot for disobeying direct orders. Screams became muffled, as if they were being heard from beneath the surface of a great body of water. Aches and pains filled her body as she slowly tried to rise to her feet, staggering as the pain of shrapnel and other unearthly metals had struck her forearm in the explosion. But it was when she turned back to where she saw the shell hit was where her eyes blew out of their sockets.

	In the water, without any emotion in her eyes, Naomi was there, laid in the shallowest of depths with half of her body missing. Below the hips, there was nothing. No legs, or her gorgeous little feet that she always paraded around triumphantly on the summer days of 1912. Her eyes were rolled back into her head, revealing only the bloodshot whites of her vision, signifying the true emptiness that she now had left in death. Freya crawled up towards her, feeling her hands latch onto the blood-spewing corpse that had been ruthlessly thrusted aside from the shell. Her eyes were clouded once again with tears, tears that she never felt she could ever replicate again. Her face buried itself into her soggy chest, soaked in both her own blood and the water she was cradled within. Freya screamed, unable to feel the pain. It was only a matter of time before Thomas found her again, forcing her onto another boat and expressing the true intentions of escaping. Yet for that minute, she let her face rest against the torn bosom of Naomi's tattered corpse, scarcely resembling the once beautiful mistress she was.[/color]

[hr][centre][sub][color=Silver][i]September 9th, 1914EC - [b]Atonement[/b][/i][/color][/sub][/centre][hr]

[color=Aqua][b]"Freya? Freya?"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]With her deathly glare into the thousand mile-distance ahead, his voice was lost in the muffled trails of her own nightmare. However, the more he said it, the clearer it got.[/color] [color=Aqua][b]"Freya? Are...are you okay?"[/b][/color]

[color=FF0202][b]"H-Huh? What?"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Without much thought, Freya snapped out of her trance, noticing that a tear or two had fallen down her cheek in the process of time she'd spent sat alone. Thomas has already being held onto by one of the nearby soldiers, assisting him in walking. How long had she really blanked out for? Why was the terrible memory still haunting her to that day?[/color]

[color=Aqua][b]"You were staring...like...out at the wall for five minutes...Are...Are you okay?"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Finally meeting his face, Freya realised it was Jean talking to her. Oh god, how long had she been sat there reminiscing of a past best left in the forever expanding yonder that was history.

	Whilst she contemplated opening up immediately, completely sure that Jean had seen her two tears trickling down her face in her uncharacteristic manner, she decided to quickly shake her head and stutter out a usual response, trying to show meek confidence and happiness still in her tone. She knew that Jean had been through some equally as terrible shit in the past ten minutes, as well as weeks, and so she couldn't help but feel her anxieties and uncharacteristic horrors were best left unopened from their pandora's box. She stood up quickly, adjusting her uniform and trying to brush out a quick joke.[/color]

[color=FF0202][b]"U-Uhh...Yeah...right as rain! Didn't your school ever teach you not to stare at ladies when they are daydreaming...They might feel uncomfortable, right?"[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Trying to flirt her way out of the situation, just as she always did, Freya could see that her attempts weren't resonating well with Jean. There was a strange glare in his eye that didn't speak of anger, however, and instead was showing the trauma that he continued to weigh down upon his chest. Without question, Freya stood up and quickly apologised, shaking her head and informing him to forget it. Whilst Jean was likely reminding her that it was a minute or two before they left this scene of battle, she couldn't help but feel that the pledge to Naomi to constantly help others and stay positive was harder than she could ever imagine. What's more, she promised for Naomi to love someone else, even in death...But Freya could only think of short-term lust to satisfy the feelings she'd lost on May 15th, 1912EC.[/color]