VR WARS Volume II - Coalition Army

MAKING AMENDS

That same night,

UC dorms housing the UAT,

Ongoing celebration

The party which lifted the students' spirits kept going past the established curfew to turn in, and for a good reason, after countless defeats at the hands of the combined UC and UL, they had prevailed. Sitting at one of the tables with the coffee he so loathed until he finally acquired the taste for it, Angelo listened in silence to his friends' cheers, and their talks about the tactics and how they had influenced the outcome brought a sense of proudness to the man responsible for their development. They’ve finally begun to see the bigger picture.

It took the UAT students merely two months to accomplish a transformation that usually required soldiers to undergo intensive training for six to eight months. Naturally, having experienced several battles that could turn into lessons increased their growth rate as a unit. According to this, it went without saying that the UAT's entirety could very well be considered an elite fighting force, not just the Phoenix Unit under Marco. Should I rearrange the units again? Angelo’s mind drifted for a moment on the idea, then realized that it wouldn't be necessary. They were excellent as they were, except for a few individuals and officers he had already purged for incompetence, his rule over the University had gone from fragile to ironclad. But…She’s still glaring at me with discontent. A couple of tables from where he stood, gleaming sharp eyes, viewed him as a target to take down, the one person to haunt his dreams and that still opposed his unjust coup, not due to his competencies, but for moral reasons, Vera stared at him with a menacing aura. Sensing that powerful killing instinct of hers gradually creeping in closer, Angelo, the coward that he was IRL, concluded that it was time to turn in.

“Oi, Angie, whachadoing?” Before he could quietly exit the party, an inebriated Katherine took firm hold of him with one of her deadly hugs that nearly severed the air reaching his lungs. “Whereyagoing…? Take me witcha…hic.”

“Gosh woman, you reek of booze!” He retorted, putting one hand on her mouth and the other covering his nose. Oh god, did someone pour alcohol on her?! She stinks!

“Mmn–hme,” she voiced muffled words that made no sense until Angelo took his hand from her mouth, “What was that?”

“Kiiss meee!”

Oh, hell, no! Although he said no such thing, his expression revealed what his mouth dared not speak, something that Kat quickly precepted even in her intoxicated state. “No?…Meanie! Why are you so meantome?!? Agh!” Kat broke down, sobbing; her silver bangs did the best they could to hide the tears dripping from her beautiful yet fake purple eyes. All the while, Angelo’s perplexed look brought more laughs from the other tables; everyone else appeared to be enjoying the scene. Their interaction quickly became the amusement center of the party.

“Hey, look. The commander’s bullying Kat, ha-ha-ha!”

“Hm, no… I think it’s the other way around.”

In some strange way, the pair had latched themselves deep into the hearts and minds of everyone in the UAT. Oblivious to Angelo, a wager had developed and spread throughout the ranks staking whether or not the duo would actually get together or not. Katherine’s jolly eccentricity and Angelo’s dysfunctional personality seemed to work well in the eyes of everyone who saw them, to the point where most people were already rooting for their relationship to grow past friendship.

In truth, unknown to all, Angelo had discarded the option; for him, he saw her as the sister he never had. One of his saviors, a valued comrade, and the most unorthodox tactician he had ever met. Her childlike plays always drew him closer to the spotlight he so carefully tried to avoid, hence why his reputation skyrocketed from nobody to what he was now. So, in spite of all the pestering she threw at him, he couldn’t avoid smiling on the inside and outside.

“I think it's time for bed, Kat,” he spat, not realizing he had thrown more wood on the fire. Amidst the constant hiccups, she looked with sparkling eyes full of embarrassment and desire, “Eh?... I mean, if it’s witcha, then I guess…If ya really want to…then we could—”

“That’s not what I mean, woman!”

“Meanie!” Kat declared once again, finally trading Angelo’s arms for the comfort of her best friend, lost in thought as she contemplated them from afar. “Vera! Hic…Angie touched my boobies, hic!”

What the f**k are you saying?! What kind of lies are these?! Don’t say something like that! Not to her! Especially not to that woman! Not surprisingly, her stare was broken by her friends’ sudden and false accusations, making Angelo swallow hard in anticipation of her punishment. Meanwhile, the laughter continued to escalate, with everyone backing up Kat to see where that would lead. Most likely to some physical harm.

“We all saw it, you sly dog, ha-ha-ha!” “Looks like someone can’t keep it in his pants!” “Get him, Vera, ha-ha-ha!”

Lying bastards, every last one of you! I’ll feed you to Rui and Pedro’s lackeys tomorrow!

However, Vera did nothing of the sort, to everyone’s astonishment, including Angelo and Katherine, who looked at her even more perplexed because of her lack of reaction. For a moment, she seemed lost, not knowing what had happened, woken up from her daydreaming to see the pitiful state her friend was in, “Wow! How did you get this drunk again, Kat?”

“Not you too…big meanie, hic.”

“Alright, I’ll help you, let’s go,” she said, shouldering Kat under her tender brace, and as both women walked out of the cafeteria, Angelo gazed at them conflicted. He wanted to help them, but that was Vera, the woman that had hurt him in the past and the one he wounded the most during the ambush.

After they dissipated from sight, he summoned the courage to chase. Firmly decided to try and appease things between them, Katherine’s deplorable state was the perfect excuse for an undercover approach.

Carefully moving among the crowd while dodging anyone that might cut him off for some friendly chitchat, he reached the exit with care not to arouse too many prying eyes. When he felt he had successfully achieved his evasion, he began to pick up the pace.

Along the corridors that looked like a well-crafted maze, he searched, turning his head in all directions, unequivocally lost. He had forgotten where the women’s hall was located. Sensing the distance between them increasing with each step, his lousy sense of direction misguided him at every turn. Each failed attempt to find them worsened Angelo’s hope to a point where he contemplated giving up when, at last, he climbed the stairs to the next floor, where their presence flourished before his eyes.

Almost dragging a now unconscious Katherine, Vera walked carefully not to disturb her friend’s sleep, whereas her concentration was focused on other things, her commanding officer for one. The conflict within herself that was Angelo had grown exponentially, and she was facing having a hard time choosing whether to embrace or despise him.

She hated how he gained control so quickly, especially the way he had done it; how he had humiliated her beloved faction and snatched the people she admired in the blink of an eye. But more than that, she hated him for physically wounding her. Yet, Vera could not find the heart to blame him for his actions on that day entirely, not when he fought so desperately for his life, even if the fight he exhibited was unbelievably inferior to what he always accomplished while plugged into the Virtual World. In essence, she was ashamed of taking an active part in that ambush, and she was sure the others felt the same way. “I deserved this, didn’t I, Kat?” She asked, mildly rubbing the almost invisible scar on the bridge of her nose.

“Mnumn…uhhm,” her friend merely mumbled mechanically.

All it took was Katherine’s unequal cuteness to wash away those despicable memories and bring a smile to Vera, something she rarely did.

“Do you need help?” The voice she almost dreaded to hear alerted her to the presence of the man stuck in her thoughts.

Every time they interacted, something about Angelo made Vera instinctively raise her guard to its utmost, and what happened most of the time in response was him doing the same. Almost inevitably, the two always gave off such an amount of pressure; it felt hard to breathe. She could feel ulterior motives darkening his aura, threatening to engulf her. That feeling that was always there made her believe everything he did was part of some elaborate scheme to get what he wanted. And that was the contradiction within herself that consumed every fiber of her being. Even if her heart wanted to be cured by closure, her instincts warned her otherwise.

“I want to talk, that’s all,” his words could do nothing to appease her, as he also felt threatened by her defensive measures; even so, she complied, curious to see where that interaction would lead. “Help me put her to bed. Then we’ll talk.”

Angelo nodded and took one of Katherine’s arms upon his shoulder to ease the load she had been carrying alone so far. To his surprise, they were already at the finish line, with Katherine’s room being one door away, so it only took a moment for them to end that matter and begin tying up the loose ends they had been disregarding for months.

By all accounts, the UC had some of the best dorms in the country, with single and double-bedded rooms fully furnished, and the prodigy residence housing the UAT was no exception. Each room had the right amount of furniture a student needed, including a desk to study with a table lamp, a wardrobe with several smaller shelves nailed along the brown wooden walls of the room, a larger bookshelf case to hold studying materials, a small table in the middle of the room and a few couches. Regardless of all of this, there was still space for more if the students wanted to customize a little. Sitting on top of the only bed present where Katherine rested was a double-hung horizontal window providing a very thin layer of light. Telepathically reacting to it, both agreed not to open the lights as not to disturb Kat; they were guests in her room after all, even if the hostess was sloppy and unavailable.

Despite the constant mumblings and occasionally snoring from their friend, the pair kept quiet, with Vera’s back facing the window and Angelo gracelessly scratching the back of his head, trying to pick the right words to start. Come to think of it, this is the first time we’re alone, the two of us. She knew he wasn’t a man of words, so to make it easier for him, she took the initiative and proposed that they first be seated on the velvet couches in the middle of the room to be more at ease. He complied with a modest nod.

It was then when facing one another that her blue-grey eyes met Angelo’s immensely hypnotizing oak-brown ones that combined rather well with his dark hair. She penetrated deeply into his sight, a black hole that openly welcomed her into the depths of his mind for the first time. And in turn, he did the same to her, analyzing her subconsciously from top to bottom without breaking eye contact. Such was the intensity of his stare, the urge she thought he was conveying as no other had done before; it made her heart unexpectedly skip a beat. All her defenses suddenly began cracking down, and confusion took hold of her feelings.

“Uh…what did you want to talk about?” Vera once more took the first step, this time to distract herself from a bombardment of mixed thoughts.

“R-right! I think we should fix things between us…try, at least.”

“Okay, you start.”

As soon as he moved his eyes away, the animosity in her overtook the confusion generated by his stare. Crist, he must’ve wanted to talk to me for a while now, so how come he doesn’t know what to say?! Just say you are sorry…sorry about breaking my nose! Is that too hard? It sounded so simple in her head, and then she started to consider his feelings, and things turned confusing once more.

“I want you to take over Valadão´s place as the first lieutenant of the Phoenixes. With Marco’s promotion to captain, I feel you could be his right-hand…woman. You deserve it if nothing else…”

Are you f*****g serious?! How is that solving things between us?! The fury was leaking out of her faster than the patronizing words coming out of Angelo’s mouth; her face was taking a reddish tone, and her fists pressed and closed, waiting eagerly to strike. No matter how Vera saw it, she took that condescending proposition with a grain of salt because she knew well what he intended to accomplish. The more people close to his inner circle, the closer he can keep his eyes on them. You’re not the only one who's smart around here!

“That was the excuse I gave myself to find the courage to come to you,” he suddenly changed gears and derailed her anger yet again. This time he let go of the relaxing posture he was in and put himself in a more assertive position with his upper body forward, closer to her, almost getting up from the couch altogether. “I am sorry for doing that to you. I wish I could tell you that I didn’t aim at you, but that would’ve been a lie; you were the closest person.”

From his tone, she realized he had gathered up the resolve needed to put an end to the inner war between them, a real heartfelt apology. She would never forgive herself if she didn’t reciprocate him, so she too moved a little closer, abandoning the carefree posture she also had been forcing to put on. “That really hurt…I won’t lie about that…imagine explaining the situation to my parents once I got home in that state…But when I think about that, what we did to you must’ve hurt more. I will never forgive myself or forget. I’m not that type of person…so I'm sorry as well, I really am.”

“There’s no need for–”

“Do-don't give me that…you have no idea how much that night has haunted me,” Vera’s closed fists had opened up to a tremble, not having realized herself, this was the first time she had talked about the night she almost killed the unkillable ‘Angel of Death.’ Ever since that dark episode of her life, she lived in fear of the repercussions that could potentially threaten her existence and possibly end her future. But worse, the thing she feared the most was herself, what she had become. How could I be so stupid?! It made her sick to her stomach, knowing that his blood was on her hands literally, and hers was on him.

Her apprehensive heart was finally opening up, and with its emergence came some deepest regrets. She wanted to be sincere, but she didn’t want him to see her upset like that; Angelo’s charming bravado and formidable power to draw people to him didn’t cope well with Vera’s distrusting nature.

“There’s nothing I can do if you can’t let it go. No matter what I say, you have to find it in yourself…find peace and let what happened in the past stay in the past.”

For a man who always pointed out how weak he was with words, the ones he spurted out hit Vera like a meteor shower. One that illuminated a new path for her to take, a way out from the madness that frightened her.

Vzzzztt.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said when a muffled sound of his phone vibrating system broke the mood that had set in place. “Shit.”

Being perceptive as Vera was, she knew something had occurred, and their conversation would probably have to be interrupted. Dammit, I wanted to keep going… the thought made her blush, which immediately made her lean back again on the couch to hide her face from the light. With that, no matter how much her preferences tried to dictate her opinion on the matter, the fact was, that her frustration was an indicator that Angelo had already steered its way into her heart. Her resolve to resist him had been crushed, but she didn’t want to let him realize the change growing in her, so she had to keep up with appearances. “Did something happen?”

“I got a message from the academic board,” he reacted to her question almost immediately, still looking mesmerized over his phone. “An event is going to happen before the next matches begin.”

Vera picked up his sense of unease on the spot; the news he received looked significant, “What kind of an event?”

“…A prom.”