There was something on her head, her thought crossed to smack it away but her arms refused to heed her. Damned crow. She mustered all her strength but her arms were dead.

A sharp pain on the side of her head, The crow had pecked her, Bastard.

"Beholder." Her eyes panned to the voice and a dark silhouette towered over her, a faceless hanged man. "Come." She woke as sweat poured all over her, her heart beating rapidly as she got up to sit on her bed.

"Are you okay?" It was Nana, her new team leader sitting on her own bed as she grinds her blade with a whetstone. It was something that Cassandra often did in the academy. "Having nightmares about killing people?"

"No." Alice pulled her blanket up to her chest, "Just a weird dream." She turned her face away, "Did you see the murdered civilians?" it was not a sight she would forget anytime soon, "It was cruel, what the barbarians did to them."

"It's war." she turned to look at Nana, "A lot of bad things happen in war, That's why we joined the military, to prevent bad things from happening." Nana smiled.

"But you abandoned them."

"It was either the whole of Ivalice or just..." Nana lowered her head, "Cruel I know, but we saved who we could, it was not possible to save everyone."

Nana looked out the window, "There was no way of knowing reinforcement would show up, we had to make do with what we had, we had to survive." she turned to look at Alice. "To think they would send fresh cadets and recruits as reinforcements."

"Who else could they possibly send?"

"The Royal Army?"

"It's not their duty..."

"Of course." Nana shrugged, "Their duty is to protect the Royal family, they who are so far removed from battle." she turned her face away, "Unaffected by the consequence of a war of their making." her tone low and sad.

"I am sorry, I do not mean to ramble." Nana chuckled, "It just doesn't sit right with me, the fact that we have to suffer and fight their battles for them, I am rambling again." 

Nana rose, "You should get ready, the commander is going to brief us on the next mission."

---

Alice entered the hall and found that everyone had already assembled, she joined the crowd. "We're going to the abandoned fortress huh?" She turned to an excited voice, it was the man at the funeral, she did not ask his name last night. Did not even thank him.

"I am Arthur, Leader of team seven." At his side was a slightly younger man who merely smiled but did not say anything, "This is my friend, Ethan." his dark grey eyes seemingly glued at her and she simply lowered her head as she smiled at them.

"And just who made you leader?" A large man approached, his muscular arms supported by broad shoulders, he could probably tear a bear's head off with that enormous hands of his.

"I am Jon by the way, we should get to know each other." his voice was rough, she shook her head as she focused on the briefing. Did the commander mention the misty forest? The very forest where three regiments of the imperial army were felled?

"I am Peter." Peter approached, "This is Alice." He motioned towards her, "She's a bit...shy." he winked at her.

"Why bother with pleasantries?" They all turned to Damian, "It'll just make things harder." He walked up to them, "This is not the line of work you want to be attached with people." 

He could not be attached to anyone even if he wanted to, he had always been callous as far as she knew. Am I the only one trying to listen here?

"A leader must know the people he leads, did you not learn that in the academy?" Peter smirked as he acted like he ever listened in class.

"We're all soldiers here, just be professional and respect the chain of command, it's not that complicated." Damian dismissed him.

Damian turned to Arthur, "Leader of team seven huh? Isn't that Rowan's team? How can a draftee be ranked above an officer?" He scoffed, "You think too highly of yourself."

"Don't you have a veteran Death Corp as team leader?" Everyone turned to her, it would be odd if they didn't.

She refocused her attention to the briefing. It was already over.

"You're in the first squad?" Arthur placed a hand on his chin, "How interesting."

"Might be because she's the only girl." Jon winked, it felt odd, it did not feel like he did it out of friendliness.

"What do you think you're doing?" Peter pointed at Jon.

"What? I saw you winked at her too." Jon crossed his arms.

"That." Peter clenched his hand into a fist, "That was different! I didn't mean anything with it."

"Are you saying I meant anything?"

"What's all this noise?" 

It was Nana, how long had she been standing there? "This would be our first mission together, so don't do anything reckless and follow my lead, make sense?" She smiled, a charming smile.

"Make sense!" Rowan salutes, when did he get here? She turned to look at the Gallery, the Commander was still discussing with his team, the oldest and most elite members of the Death Corps.

She turned to walk away as it was her chance to check his office for clues, "Where are you going?" she did not turn to look at Rowan.

"I have...girl things to attend to." She walked away.

Alice knocked at the commander's door, "Commander?" she had to pretend that she didn't know he was not in, She knocked again and there was nothing.

She pushed the door open and found the room empty, Perfect. The door closed behind her as she went over to his desk and pulled out his drawers. There was nothing.

She moved to his bookshelf and flipped through the pages of his books one after the other but found nothing, Of course, why would he leave anything important in an unguarded office?

The doorknob turned.