“Its easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend."
~ William Blake

James sighed.

Nothing to do but to stair at the same four walls for almost hours on end. The only breaks from his cell was when he went to the mess hall for his two meals and out into the “yard" for his daily exercises, which was join the other cadets with their morning and afternoon calisthenics. However, even them breaks were getting mundane. Not to mention the looks that he kept getting.

After two months, one would think that they'd get used to seeing him in his orange outfit. Then again, after two months, he wasn't used to wearing the prisoner uniform either. He'd remember seeing a few wearing the garments before, but they were volunteers who wore the standout cloths to give the cadets experience in guarding prisoners. Though he never thought that there be an actual prisoner in these cells, let alone that the person would be HIM.

Damn that Martin to hell. If that was his real name anyway.

He growled as he got off the small shelf like cot of the cell and walked over to the sink that had a small mirror over it. He washed his face and looked up. He growled in anger as he punched the wall, just missing the mirror.

“Crack that mirror, and it will be seven years bad luck." A familiar voice said.

He turned to see a familiar snow leopard Caushae standing at the reinforced glass wall. “Lynnette." He walked over to the reinforced glass wall and came face to face with her. “Are you here to get me out?" He asked with a slight smile. The snow leopard just glared through the glass at him with her arms crossed, the only movement she made was her long fluffy tail that swung in a slight irritated motions. His smile faded when she didn't respond. “Aren't you even going to respond or even say hi?" The look in her eye made him feel like some prey that was staring down a predator that was debating on pouncing. The silence was almost defining to him. “If all you're going to do is stand there, why don't you just watch a monitor or some movie." He growled as he walked away.

“Why?..."

James stopped in his tracks it was so low that he barely heard it, it was almost a kitten mewing it was so low. He turned to face her again. “Huh?"

“Why?" She said louder.

“Why what?" His voice sounded like he was sneering when he was just frustrated.

“Why did you betray us?"

“Betray you?"

“Yes, Why did you do it?"

James snorted. “You wouldn't understand." He walked over and flopped on the bed.

The glass vibrated when Lynnette slapped it with her hand. “Was it for money? To feed your human Greed? Is that why you helped that son of a bitch?"

James growled as he sat up, slapping his hands hard against the mattress and stared strait into her accusing eyes. “You want to know why I helped that stupid bastard?" He snapped. “I'll tell you why I did what I did." He got back up and crossed back over to the glass where she was standing. “Go look in the mirror."

Lynnette frowned. “How will looking in a mirror going to tell me anything?"

James let out a growl in frustration. “Really?" He stormed away. “And they said that you were the top of the class?" Coming back fast, he slammed his fist against the glass wall. “Think about it! You're standing here now aren't you? I could of easily of shot you in the back and killed you in that room, but I didn't." He rested his head against the wall, his voice dropping in pitch. “I... I couldn't..."

When his fist hit the reinforced glass, Lynnette didn't even flinch. She barely reacted with a flick of her tail from the sound of the impact, her stance never betraying her emotions.

“Bullshit." She hissed in a way he never heard her do before. “Your full such... utter... Bull... SHIT!" She hammed her fist against the glass with each word, causing James to flinch and stumbled back. “Do you even know how many were injured? Were Killed? They were our fellow cadets, our friends, My..." Her voice left her before she could finish. It was obvious to see what she was going to say stung her that for the first time since facing him, she showed another emotion if the tears that started to roll down her face was any indication.

“Listen," All the spite and frustration left his voice, leaving to sound like a whimper. “You got to believe me, I just wanted to try and protect you and keep you out of it. I made the agreement to keep you as far away from him as I could. Martin, if that's even his name, he wanted to simply invade this place with troops, over run this facility just to get to you and grab whatever data was in that facility."

“Why?" She interrupted. “Why go after me?"

“I don't know..." The frustration seeping back into his voice. “Something about your file, something that I happened to of over heard. Something about the fact that there are classified top level security information in you records. He wanted that information from you and wanted to torture you to find out. I couldn't let that happen to you."

“Aren't you forgetting the fact that he tried to put a bullet in my skull?"

“That was because I had convinced him to concentrate his efforts on getting the data from the facility. I don't know what it was he was looking for or who had hired him to get it, but it was worth a lot of money to who ever hired Martin to get it."

“So you figured you could cash in."

“No!" He snapped. “God... Why are you being so dense? I didn't do it for the money."

“Then why? Strait answer."

He looked her in the eye. “I.. I did it for you... Cause, I... love you..."

Lynnette's eyes grew wide in stunned silence, her tail hung limply behind her for the first time since she came in. did he seriously just say that he loved her? It took her a few moments to find her voice again. “Y-you love... Me?..." She started to shake her head, backing away from the glass.

“Yes..." James sighed, looking down at the floor as he rested his head . “I had a crush on you since the first time I've seen you," He turned around and rested his back against the glass wall. “But I also knew that Reg took a liking to you and I didn't stand a chance with him around. I just wanted to have him out of the picture for a while... I didn't think anyone would get hurt. Least of all you..."

He heard an almost primal growl coming from behind him, he looked back only to nearly jump out of his skin and scream in panic as Lynnette charged the glass wall with teeth bared and claws out. She was roaring, her claw like nails left scratches in the glass as she assaulted the glass wall. “Bastard!" She screamed through the wall. “What The Fuck Where You Thinking!" The glass wall rattled and reverberated with every hit she made. “You Son Of A Bitch!" James's face turned pail seeing the wrath that Lynnette was displaying, she wasn't the girl that he had develop a crush on, but an enrage beast that was trying to get to its pray and kill it without remorse. The glass held its ground as she slammed everything she had against it, and to James, she was winning.

As the glass started to form cracks, four people rushed in. The two cadets rushed passed the other two and tried to tackle the furious Caushae only to be elbowed or flat out struck in a feat of strength that was not commonly associated with the feline race as she continued to beat on the glass. While the older trainer quickly tended to the cadets, a white Lykain that was with them quickly approached the failing Caushae. Instead of tackling her, he grabbed her by the back collar of her uniform and the scruff of her neck, lifting her off the floor and backed away from the once reinforced glass. Lynnette flailed in his grasp trying to free herself from the wolf's hold.

“Cadet! Calm yourself, NOW!" He growled. Slowly, she stopped thrashing in his grasp, looking very much like a kitten that was dangling from their mother's mouth. “I'm going to let you down now, I expect to see you walk out of this room. Understand?" Her only reply was a feral growl. “UNDERSTAND CADET!"

“Y-yes sir..."

The wolf let her down so that her feet was touching, but as soon as the pressure was released from her neck, she immediately charged the cell. The Lykain was quicker to react than she was, grabbing her collar and scruff again before pinning her to the floor.

“Sedative, NOW!"

The trainer quickly got up and joined the wolf as they got out a hypo-spray and injected it into the pinned feline. It took a few moments with the Lykain holding the Caushae down before her thrashing slowed down to a stop and the wolf got off of her.

“Shall we put her in another cell sir?" The trainer offered.

The Lykain thought for a moment. Before he shook his head. “No, take her up to medical, its best that we keep her as far away from this dumb ass as possible." The trainer nodded and went back to the two trainees and helped the two to their feet. Both looked worse for ware, one with a rather nasty looking black eye and the other with a split lip and a bloody nose. “When you are there, make sure to get thoroughly checked out. She probably done more damage that you realize." The three humans looked at each other before giving a slight nod and carried the unconscious feline out of the room.

“Wh... What the HELL just happened??" James asked the Lykain that had stayed behind.

The Lykain ignored the question and walked over to the glass, inspecting it for a few moments in silences before taking a finger and pressing the tip to where the center of Lynnette's furry had been. With no effort, the glass gave way and not only his finger, but his fist was able to pass through the jagged hole. James was dumb struck.

“The Hell! I thought that was reinforced glass, not even a Lykain could punch through it from what I was told."

The Lykain walked away from the hole and stood in a spot that was relatively untouched. James nearly jumped when the glass reverberated from the Lykain striking it with his fist. Shards of glass vibrated from the hole that was made but otherwise the wall remained intact.

“That's going to be a pretty penny to fix. Better let Ash and Penny know..."

“Who are you?"

The white wolf looked up as if noticing James for the first time. “Oh sorry." He mocked. “We've never been introduced have we?" His eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms. “I am D Frost, one of your bosses. Simple as that. Though if I told you my full name I'd have to kill you." He glanced over to the hole. “Then again it looks like you already have someone who wants you dead."

“Why? How was she even able to damage the glass when you couldn't even break it?"

The Lykain blue hair seemed to cast a darker shadow than normal as he tilted his head to glare down at James with a toothy grin. “Who says I couldn't break it?" He shivered when he noticed the wolf's eyes giving off an eerie, evil red glow. Frost gave an almost evil chuckle as he started to turn to leave.

“Wait!" James said as he slapped the glass, “Answer my question, why does she want me dead?"

“Now who's the clueless." Frost said as he turned back to James. “To spell it out to you, when a Caushae truly bonds with someone, they bond on a psychic level for life. They basically connect to a love one to the point where they can pick up on the other's emotions even beyond vast distance of space. I don't know the full details of it, but I do know one thing." He pointed to the hole in the glass wall. “I have seen a similar incident a few years ago, only that time, the girl panicked and created a nasty maelstrom when she experienced some sort of deja vu of her mate getting killed by a stray plasma shot. The place was torn to shambles and very nearly killed everyone present if her mate wasn't there to calm her down."

“Are you kidding?" James said in disbelief “I never heard of such things involving Caushae."

“There are things in this universe that can't be simply explained away by science or faith. The Caushae are just but one example. And now, you have one that wants you dead."

“But why was Lynnette trying to break the wall down to kill me though? I was trying to help her."

Frost scoffed. “Some help you were. Let me count the ways... You betrayed her and everyone's trust in you, you conspired to separate her and Cadet Rossetti after they apparently had bonded, you admitted to shooting her in the back... Need I continue?"

“But I did all of that for her..."

“And they say that 'The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.' Congratulations, you paved it all right, strait to Ares."

“WHAT!?!"

“Yep, you now have a one way ticket to the penal colony of Ares. I really hope you enjoy your stay."

“But what about a trial? What about my rights? The SSG regulations?"

“Leviathan Corporation operates outside of the SSG jurisdiction. As far as your rights and trial, well, you should of read your contract better and thought of that when you decided to help Martin instead of turning him in." Frost turned and started to walk away as James pounded on the glass wall.

“You guys can't do this! I didn't know what was going to happen! You got to believe me! Some one Please listen to me! Lynnette! Let me Talk to Lynnette! Please, Somebody..."

---

“Are you sure, doctor?" The human asked the buff colored Mauluse that was standing before him.

“I am fairly certain in my findings." The mouse nodded as she pushed her glasses back up her short muzzle. “The signs do point to the development of a unique form of PTSD usually associated with similar cases that I found. While yes, the disorder didn't manifest directly after the actual incident, but it still seems to of slowly form during the following months since then. I was hoping that this wouldn't happen, but my research shows that such things can manifest in a subject up to a year after such a devastating loss has occurred."

“... I see" Ash threw the tablet on the desk. “Will she be a danger to others?" The Mauluse shook her head.

“No, or at least I do not believe so. The only person that would be in any danger from her would be the one that she feels betrayed her."

“Even though I was tempted to stand back and let her at him and that I feel that he did deserves it, letting her near Mister James Mendez was a mistake nearly a costly one at that. Last thing I want to see added to anyone's record is Man Slaughter."

“Indeed."

“So," The Director said as he leaned back in his chair. “How do you think her PTSD will develop?"

“I believe it will develop into Self Sacrificial tendencies."

“So, instead of possible being harmful to the people around her... She'll purposely put herself into harms way to get herself killed?"

“Yes," The mouse nodded. “That is more than likely the case according to the data files I've gathered from the Caushae documents that I've been able to access." She sighed as she took her glasses off. “According to what I've read, sometimes them completing their bond vendetta will help alleviate such disorders and in rare cases, allow them to move on. I'm not sure if it would be the case with Ms Wilkes though."

“Why?"

“Because, in Ms Wilkes case, the only person that she has left is her father. There's no other family."

Ash face twisted into a frown. “That's not good, from what I have gathered, he's been hospitalized and its only a matter of time, perhaps in the next year or so if he's lucky."

“Oh dear..."

“What about her new squad?"

The doctor shook her head “While its been six months since the indecent that caused Mister... Rossetti's death... She has partly been keeping her distance and not creating any new connections or bonds of friendships that will help her heal. With two of her original squad deceased, and two more betrayed her trust..."

“And the last one having left the academy to deal with his own trauma."

“Correct..." She sighed. “I have already sent word to a colleague informing him to possibly expect Mister Justin O'Connor soon after he arrives home."

Ash nodded at the news. “Good, at least there's that, but that still leaves us with Ms Wilkes."

“I'm afraid it seems that the incident in question has left quite an impact on her psyche and has made her quite frail. Add to that that two of her own squad mates had not only betrayed her, but this entire company. Then factor in her recurring nightmare..."

“Recurring nightmare?"

“Something that has been noted in her record since she was a child, I speculate that they're from a repressed event in her psyche that tends to manifest during times of great stress in her life." The Mauluse noticed not only the frown on the human's face, but the noticeable slouch. “I do not know what your interest is in her," she continued. “Perhaps I don't want to know. But know that Caushae do form lifelong bonds with others that they get close to. Though any Caushae that had lost someone they had closely bonded with will eventually become almost like an empty shell and very rarely will they truly recover from it and that will start to effect others..."

“You're preaching to the choir, Doctor." Ash snapped, making her visibly flinch at the sudden interruption. He sighed as he slouched in his chair again. “Sorry Dr Talyna." He said meekly. “I believe I got the gist of your report now, sorry for taking up so much of your time. Thank you..." He said dismissing her. The brown Maluse nodded and picked up her tablet that she had brought off the desk and walked for the door. She stopped to regard the human for a moment before continuing on, letting the door swing shut with a soft click.

Ash sighed as he gently spun his char around, a habit that he had started to develop when he wanted to get lost in his thoughts. When he circled back to the desk, he typed a command in the integrated keyboard and a holographic image of five people standing in the frame of the image appeared. Ash looked at it remembering when they had took the picture. In someways even with the turmoil that they had found themselves in, it felt like it was a simpler time despite feeling that the whole galaxy was hunting them.

“Has it really been twelve years?" Ash didn't even flinch as the new voice spoke, he was pretty used to his friend appearing at random.

“Yeah... twelve years since we've took the picture back on the Eclipse. Twelve years since..." Ash never finished his statement. Instead he looked at the two girls that was standing next to him in the picture. The one that had hugged him from behind and looked rather energetic looked like a human mechanic that had her left arm replaced with a bulky robotic one. In truth, she was an android, built by humans and quite skilled with machines. She was perhaps his closest friend for a good five years when it was just him and her aboard the Lunar Eclipse. His gaze focused on the girl that he was holding in the picture. A white furred Caushae with orange-ish blond hair with a few light tan-ish markings on her body that the picture barely showed. He reached out and touched her image, tracing a line along her cheek. Sometimes he could almost feel her grab hold of his hand and nuzzle her cheeks against his hands when he did.

“I... I'm sorry Ash..."

“I know Frost." The human said.

The white Lykain sighed. “Still miss her, don't you."

“Don't you?"

Frost had to think for a moment to understand what he meant. “Yes. There isn't a day that has gone by where I don't think of my mate. Even after a thousand years, and I will keep thinking of her for another thousand." The room fell silent for a while before Frost spoke again. “That reminds me, I got to go visit Lykaios soon. I probably will visit Rei-li's grave. Been a while since I've been able to..."

“At least you have a grave to visit..." Ash said rather melancholy. Looking over, Frost could see the longing in the human eyes as he looked at the two girls that had posed next to him in the picture.

“You can't save everyone."

“No..." Ash said as he withdrew his hand and turned off the image, replacing it with a few other screens with various information on them. “But I can at least try and help those who are still here."

Frost leaned behind Ash to see what the human was doing before shaking his head. “You are not going to be playing match maker are you?"

---

One Year Later...

The knocking at the door almost felt like it was thundering despite the soft rapping that it was.

“Enter." Came a commanding voice from behind the closed threshold. Marus took a deep breath as he reached for the handle and pulled the door open.

Looking inside he found that there were 5 other people in the room. Commandant Hickman sat in the middle of the table in front of the room, in his usual blue dress uniform that was well maintain in a normal military fashion.“Cadet Marus'Cal, Reporting sir." The Lykain said as he made a crisp salute.

Commandant Hickman returned the wolf's salute before speaking. “Thank you for coming Cadet, please have a seat."

Marus gave the room a quick scan before choosing a seat in the room, it was still set up for orientation or teaching a class with its typical set up of 8 tables set up and a longer ninth table at the far end of the room where the Commandant and the other four that was flanking him. As soon as he had his seat, he quickly scanned the other occupants in the room.

To the left of the older gentleman, was the training coordinator of the LeviCorp Fleet, who was also wearing a version of a navy dress uniform. At the moment, their eyes were gazing over a tablet that Marus assume were reports that would also explain why he was here in the first place. Next to the LeviCorp Fleet Instructor sat a brown Mauluse that where going through her own tablet with of information. The other two humans Marus didn't recognize, but they were also humans, the first one to the right of the director was a younger looking man, he was certainly dressed down compared to the Commandant and the fleet coordinator, wearing a black trench coat, black denim jeans, and a dark blue t-shirt. He looked like someone who he could of sworn that he had seen before but couldn't place him. Next to him was another Human, this time he could recognize the standard jumpsuit of the ground forces and he took note of the Major bars on his shoulders.

After a minute of everyone settling in for what was to come, the Commandant started. “I know normally after a ship's training tour of duty, it is typical for all the cadets of a department to gather and discuss what had happen during their six month space flight. However, due to the indecent that has happened during the final week of the LCS Mimosa voyage, what should have been a simple review has now become an investigation." The Commandant glanced at the people gathered in the room. “Now, is there any questions before we get started?"

Marus spoke up. “Sir." he waited for the Commandant to acknowledge him before asking his question. “May I ask who is sitting on the board?" The Commandant looked at the first human who was on his right, who in turned nodded for the Commander to continue.

“I am sure that you recognize Commander Scott Carver, the training coordinator who over sees our training fleet operations. Next to him is Ms. Talyna, a physiologist who is currently under contract by LeviCorp." The Commandant turned to his right. “This on my right is Director Ash Solus, and sitting next to him is Major Tomas Burch, acting as our current JAG officer should such need arise."

The Commander gave a friendly nod to the cadet when he was introduced, while the brown Mauluse barely looked looked up when she was mentioned. But... Not just a director of Leviathan Corporation, but THE director of the corporation? Then an acting JAG officer? A Lawyer? What the hell is going on?

The silence was soon broken by the Director. “I know typically after the year training cruse, the various departments are gathered into a room and their performance are assessed and graded. However due to the nature of the indecent during the final week of you training, we are conducting individual interviews with the survivors. With the rise of these such incidents in the last three years we need to go over the details with everyone as I know that sometimes, things can be easily overlooked while making a written report." Ash sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “It is sad to think that others resorts to such loss of life to get what they want in this day of age. Which is why we have to resort to such things as this to try and find out exactly what has happened and how our security has been breached."

“I understand." Marus said.

“Let us begin then." Everyone nodded to each other as the sat up straighter. “Cadet Marus'Cal, during your training voyage on the LCS Mimosa, you were assign to the Executive Officer, with all assigned duties expected, am I correct?"

“Yes sir."

“However, due to the death of Captain Lenard Davis that was overseeing your training you were not promoted to acting captain."

Marus visibly flinched at the reminder of what happened. “No sir."

The director crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair. “Why?"

“Because Captain Davis promoted Cadet Lynnette Wilkes instead of me."

Marus noticed how everyone looked at each other at the revelation. “Did the captain explain why?"

The Lykain sook his head. “Not that I understood at the time sir."

“I see."

“Before we continue," Marus said to the surprise to most of them. “If I may, I would like to add something to the record first."

The Commandant Hickman glanced over at the director who nodded in approval. “Go ahead cadet."

Marus took a deep breath before he continued. “The actions made by the Acting Captain Wilkes were reckless, foolish, risky, desperate, and in the end saved all our lives..."

---

Marus stood in the control room for the hanger watching as the final shuttle came in on final approach. The LCS Mimosa was about ready to depart and they were just waiting on the final shuttle to arrive back from the surface. He wasn't sure what they were doing at a “Grupo" (*Ground Pounders- nickname for Marines and other Army foot solders) training facility but they had just taken aboard several new recruits from the facility on the planet below. Information said that they were picking up eleven cadets that were switching from being Marines and switching over to Fleet Navy.

Marus looked up and watch with a small frown as the shuttle pod came inside the hanger rather fast and then smartly turned to land in its designated area.

'Great' Marus thought to himself with a sigh. 'Another hot shot shuttle pilot that thinks that they can fly anything.'

Everyone waited as the doors closed and sealed the compartment, allowing air to back fill the small space of the hanger of the ship. The glowing blue eyes of the wolf watched as the doors to the shuttle open and the five remaining personnel started to come out. He mentally noted the two humans that had come out of the shuttle and was surprised when he seen a hybrid walked out. Not only was she a human hybrid, but also showed features of a fennec and a goat. He couldn't help but wonder if she was a first gen. Hybrid or a later one that was an offspring of someone that was a product of having their DNA spliced with animal DNA.

Next one to come out was a white Lykain in a pilot uniform, Marus noted the smug look on the vixen's face as she brushed her brown locks out of her face. 'Wait...' He thought to himself. The more he looked the more his mind started to correct itself and the more his mind did, the more he wondered 'What is a Lykune doing here?' He was left wondering when she turned around and spoke to the last occupant of the shuttle. He stood there and studied the interactions that the fox was having with the last member and seen her frowned before turning away and headed out of the hanger with the rest of the cadets.

Finally he seen the last one come out and was more stunned that before. The snow leopard Caushae came out and stood, taking in her surroundings. It was hard to judge the size of the alien feline, but he could tell that she was better built than most of the Caushae he had met, though he didn't meet that many. However, something bothered him, something about this new cadet seemed... off.

“Hey," He said to a nearby tech. “Who is that Caushae in the hanger?"

The tech looked up from his terminal to see who Marus was referring to before bringing up some data on his terminal.

“That is Cadet Lynnette Wilkes. Call-sign, Valkyrie..."