We explore your past today, my darling child.
"Hold on, I never agreed to this! How do you know about my past? I've lived through my past, I don't want to be there again! Answer my questions god damnit!"
I know of everything, little one. I know of what has happened, what is happening, what will happen. I may not interfere... But I may guide.
"... What are you? Why have you chosen me? I only just got here. Can't I just live with my boyfriend in peace?"
Sadly not, little one. That is not a question I can answer... You are simply... Chosen. Whether by will or not. You are fated to save us all. I cannot speak much on this manner. Now go. Reconcile with your past, my child. Be seeing you.
"Wait! God damnit come back! I have questions! I need some answers, I can't keep doing this without knowing what I'm supposed to be looking for! ¡Maldito bastardo! You can't just leave me here!" Natalie yelled up at the sky, but if this mysterious voice heard, they did not reply. Sighing, she shook her head and gazed around her, resting her hands on her hips.
"Now what."
Her answer was shortly answered by an ear shattering explosion, the woman startling so bad she practically leapt out of her skin. Almost immediately, her heart sank into her stomach as her vision cleared, allowing her to see the scene she had dreaded seeing again for years.
A battle field. People crying. People screaming. Bloodshed, murder without any real cause. People running around with the pride of their countries beating in their hearts as if it was a potion of immortality.
Poor, narcissistic fools.
This was nothing other than genocide. Of people drunken on power sending out the weak minded to fight their battles for them. She hated being their sheep, every second she was in the military. She always told herself that if she got back in that field, she'd do navy or air force.
Never again will she put herself through the grueling training of marines. Going to bed every night with every bone in your body aching for a permanent rest, only to have to get up the next day and do it all again.
The actual fighting wasn't any better. Screaming, crying. Gunshots, yelling, explosions. By the time she joined, it was full out civil war. Farm side towns weren't affected much. They could carry on with their daily lives as long as they made a contribution for the military food supplies.
The war of love and hate, was what many called it. One side of the country wished for love, for peace, for free education, free medicine, for a trading system instead of money.
The other wished for the exact opposite. People who found peace boring, hungering for blood and fights like hungry pack animals. They wanted people to fight for what they earned, to truly deserve what they received.
Their slogan was, "A battle of the fittest. Weak must perish."
What a load of bull.
Why can't we all just get along?
Rather obviously, Natalie was on the side of love. She'd seen enough fighting growing up, she didn't want to have to grow up and do more of it. Yet, despite being a pacifist, she found herself in the military. Something about immigrants having to participate to show that love and peace was an effort from everyone.
For a war titled something so poetic, you'd think it not to be very gruesome, right? Wrong. That war was anything but poetic. It took five horrible years of her life, fighting in that damned war. She saw things she wished she never had to see ever again... No verdict was reached. Soldiers got tired fighting in a war for no real purpose.
In the end, the history books called it The Lost War. No winners, and no real losers. Just wasted time, wasted lives, wasted resources. Life carried on as usual...
Natalie had spent a few years in a support group after it all before she had heard of Fae Valley. A small countryside town, untouched by the war, untouched by the cruel hand of mans weapons. A few of her platoon had retired there, so she decided why not go there too?
Ended up that they had gone to a completely different place called Fae Valley. Some or other retirement village for old recruits.
She'd been the only immigrant in her platoon. Bunch of racists, if you asked her opinion on it. Treated her different, made mexican jokes.
Natalie isn't mexican. She's spanish. A lot of the time she'd wanted to break their noses in and correct them, but she had to grin and bear it.
Plus, her mother was Spanish. Her dad was an American. So what if she spent her first four years of life in a different country? As far as Natalie was concerned in the matter, she was just as American as the rest of them.
Dumbasses.
"Okay... I think this was the siege on the Zetto capital... Why am I here?" She muttered to herself, stepping over a dead body as she looked around, pausing and sighing as she saw a younger version of herself, trying to reload her gun with shaking hands, eyes wide like a scared rabbit and just as jittery. Going over, Natalie carefully guided the younger woman's hands, helping her load the gun and fixing her helmet.
She knew later the younger version of her would completely block out this memory as some or other piece of war time hysteria. I mean, would you believe it if an older ghost-like version of yourself helped you?
I thought not.
Natalie watched on as she saw the form of her younger body sprinting out into the fight, soon being obscured by a cloud of dust... Sweeping through, this dust storm took this memory of war with it... Bringing her back to her home town.
"... I barely remember this place... Mama always said she wanted to take us back here on vacations, but she never ended up getting that right" she murmured, walking through the old town. It was a bit run down, but still homely. Running her hands over the wooden board that stated the towns name, she let out a deep breath.
"Pueblo de Corazones... Town of Hearts. How ironic."
Smacking it as hard as she could, she walked on past, letting it spin on its post as she gazed around, pausing for a second as something shiny caught her eye. Shading her eyes a bit from the warm sun, she walked over to it and bent down, picking it up. She recognised this ring... It was Missy's wedding ring... What was this doing here?...
A howl shook her from her thoughts, Natalie springing to her feet and looking around for the source before her eyes landed on the beast. It stood snarling, head narrow like a fox, body of a wolf, disgustingly sharp spikes running down its hunched back. It looked as if it hadn't eaten in years.
"El Chupacabra. My childhood nightmare. How fucking fun."
Quick to grab the nearest wooden post, she broke it off with relative ease due to the rotting wood, readying herself as the beast ran to her; teeth bared in a wicked snarl, aiming its sharp teeth at her leg. Slamming the bottom of the post on its head, she winced as its teeth grazed her leg, slicing through her pants and skin like butter.
Taking a step back, she paused as she stared at the creature trying to wobbily stand up, holding her free hand pressed over the wound. "This is spain. Why was I scared of a mexican based myth?... And what is this thing doing here?"
She didn't have time to process that much longer. It lunged for the second attack, this time Natalie managing to slam the sharp end of the post through its mouth, piercing the back of its head. It struggled for a second before going limp, Natalie standing there for an awkward second with this creature on the post before dropping it, kicking a bit of dust up onto it before whistling as she limped away, not sure how to feel about anything that just happened.
"N-Nat? Natalie w-wake up, you're b-bleeding!"
"H-Huh? Brandy?"
Stirring out of her sleep, she rubbed her eyes for a second before she was hit with the sharp pain in her leg, gritting her teeth as she sat up, glancing at her leg. Blood was soaking through her pajama pants, Brandy staring at her in pure concern before getting up, racing to get the first aid kit and a spare pair of pants. Practically falling down the stairs on his way back, he then dropped to sit infront of her on the floor.
Carefully, he helped her get her pants off so he could look at the wound properly, hissing a bit at the sight of the deep slash in her leg. "Yeowch... L-Looks like something jagged went d-down here... What h-happened?" He murmured, softly cleaning up the wound.
As fate would have it, Chuck and his perfect sense of timing finally came down the stairs, pausing for a second. Not bothering to even think about any other situation, he clapped his hands over his eyes, blushing in embarrassment. "I-I didn't see anything! I'm sorry, you two can continue!"
"What?... Chuck what do you think we're?-... OH SHIT, NO CHUCK I SWEAR THATS NOT WHAT WE'RE DOING! I-I got hurt and Brandy was just trying to patch me up!" Natalie quickly replied, her and Brandy now both blushing aswell as Brandy quietly stitched the cuts closed. Didn't help much that Natalie was gripping onto his hair this hard.
Chuck let out a sigh of relief before pausing and tilting his head a bit, walking over. "Okay, but then what hurt ya? No offense but ya look like ya just fell out of bed."
Natalie sighed some and shrugged, rubbing the back of her neck a bit. "None taken...Uhm... Well... A chupacabra?" She said awkwardly, Brandy pausing for a moment before feeling her forehead to check if she had a fever.
"Y-You alright s-sugar? You've b-been with me all m-morning, that's not p-possible-"
"Hun relax, please... I... I dreamt it. In my dream, I fought a chupacabra and this happened."
The room was quiet for a bit as Chuck and Brandy stared at Natalie before Chuck shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck a bit. "Stranger things have happened here. After World War 4, theorists say that a lot of the nuclear energy fused with the magic here, which leads to some... Weird shit. Anyways, hope that heals up soon. I'm getting breakfast."
Natalie stared at Chuck in disbelief before sighing, rubbing her eyes a bit, quietly glad she had fallen in love with the older of the two Leroy brothers. Sure, she found Chuck sweet, funny and adorable to a sense but sometimes his bluntness made her head hurt.
Despite this fact, she couldn't help but think over what he had said, pondering over this fact... World War 4 had almost been a complete reset for humanity. By now, this has been nearly 200 years ago, but it was a very important event. Old New York was burnt down, many important monuments lost.
A lot of things over time became myth. Was there really a boat that crashed into an iceberg?
Did an orange man with weird hair really become the American president?
Did AI almost take over the world?
Who know. Even historians puzzle over many of the event's before World War 3. World War 4 however, had been incredibly important. Society in desperate need for saving finally turned to nature for help... There was an old term that people used to use to describe how cities looked now. What was it again?
Oh yes, Eco-Brutalism. Whatever that means.
Life sounds as if it was really weird back then. These days, it's incredibly common to see someone with some or other mutation. Four eyes, six toes, hell even six arms these days was considered normal. Back then, apparently you'd get stared at and called a freak if you had any of these traits.
Sounds odd if you ask me. I wouldn't trade today's living for that any day... Anyone you met now, if you asked them about it, would say they'd never trade their living now for living back then. Would say it sounds like hell, and I agree.
Of course, important names made it through history. Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Adele. The immortal Tom Cruise. Rihanna.
People seemed to really favour women with odd names back then.
The amount of exposure to nuclear substances over time lead to a peculiar immunity to any such substances. Mutations in all living things were normal now a days... Maybe too normal.
"Sugar?"
Natalie was startled out of her thoughts as she heard her boyfriend and looked over at him, blinking a bit. "Hm? Sorry, I was just deep on thought."
"T-Thats okay, y-you were just... S-Scaring me a little... Y-You were mumbling weird t-things to yourself..."
"I was?"
"Y-Yeah... N-Not any language I-I have ever h-heard... "
Both stared at one another for a moment before Natalie chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck a bit. "I'm sure it's fine, right? Maybe I was just speaking gibberish. I'm sorry for scaring you, my love."
Wroooooong~
What are you doing here?
Oh please, you think I'd let you have all the fun N'Mphir? I want a piece of the action too!
None of this concerns you, L'Ael.... Go away. The elders said that this was my case to deal with.
Well you're doing a shit job at it. Where's the chaos? The screams? The fun? You're so boring. Lucky for me, I have my own pawns in this game.
... We shall see who wins this fight, dear cousin... We shall see...
For better or for worse...
The fate of this town now rests in her hands.