KAMSI'S WATCH

Ash didn't sleep.

Technically he did, but in short sessions of mental shutdown. He was up from bed early before daybreak, and left the house.

Kamsi came out after the sun rose. She was busy cleaning when she looked outside.

She saw him. Outside, watching the sun rise. He had probably been there for very long, and was still going to be for a long time too.

Kamsi wondered what it meant to be an Ashborn. Trained from childhood, warriors by birth, made to obey command.

Somehow they didn't have the rights that even animals had, and it was pitiable.

She remembered what the specialists told her about Ash; he respond abnormally faster to changes, compared to other Ashborn.

Ashborn would go through some physiological enhancements after almost every mission.

It was a way of getting better from experiences in previous missions, to make them adapt easily to almost all situations.

The faster an Ashborn responded postively to such enhancements, the faster he or she would engage in another mission.

But Ash's case was different. In one day, he was ready for a new mission. Normally, it should take almost three days of complete rest.

What she didn't know was that Ash didn't even rest much, yet his body was ready for another mission.

Kamsi knew it was a case. A serious one. This meant she would gain a lot from being the handler of such Ashborn.

But she didn't want to use him for personal gain. Or she didn't want to see it that way. She had decided to keep him and study him more to understand.

And she knew government would do something funny if they found out.

She didn't want to lose him. At least not yet.

He wasn't her or the government's asset, even though they raised him.

She needed to observe him other than through missions. He needed to do his own thing, not what he was commanded to.

And now that he was free from government custody, he could do whatever he wanted as long as he was not in a mission.

She noticed she had been thinking about him for too long and decided to resume her business.

But it was beautiful watching him do anything besides what he was told and the missions he was given, and she wanted to see him like that more often.

She knew what she had to do.

She would make sure he wasn't engaged in too much missions, not like before. Only if necessary.

This was his chance at a normal life, and she felt like the only one who could help him have one.

It was settled.

This was her own personal mission. At this point, she felt like his mother.

Of course not the one that sold her seed to the lab for money.

After all, no matter what genetic breakthrough they made, they would always need the seed of two individuals to produce an Ashborn embryo.

Ash watched the sun for almost another hour. Then he heard the door open. It was Kamsi.

He wondered what she wanted to tell him. He wondered what he would do if she told him to go back inside.

He would want to disobey, but he wasn't sure he had a choice.

After what seemed like an hour of thinking on his decisions, he finally heard what she wanted to tell him.

"I made breakfast." She waited for his reaction. He stared at her for a long time, until she felt uneasy and went inside.

He acknowledged that he was hungry, and went inside.

When he reached the dining room, she was already up in her room. He sat down in silence, suddenly unsure of whether he had to eat or not.

The silence was broken by a whisper of static as the comm in his ear blinked to life.

"Ash, you have a new mission. I'll brief you on the coordinates."

MISSION CODE: SP-014

LOCATION: Outer Run-District 7 Wastelands.

STATUS: Nutrient Transport Escort.

PROXIMITY: Hostile entity/ies suspected in area.

COMMAND: Protect transport. Neutralize hostile entity/ies if any.

Ash stood without hesitation. His mind, sharpened by design and discipline, processed the information in seconds.

District 7 was located right before the Edge, towards the south this time. A hot zone for mutated incursions. No civilain traffic. No second chances.

He suited up.

Armor slid into place over his undersuit-lightweight, reactive plating engineered for speed and durability. Not the heavy, lumbering shells of Surface Reapers.

Ashborn gear was silent, fast and lethal. The kind of suit that became an extension of your nervous system.

Vital readouts appeared in his vision, pulsing faintly at the edges. Heart rate steady, cortisol levels low. He was calm. Always calm.

He left the house and went to the aircraft that was assigned to take him to the destination.

Kamsi came out of her room, now dressed in black uniform. She looked at the dining table.

"He didn't eat?" She put on an angry face, but it soon changed to curiousity, and a little bit of worry.

"Why didn't he eat?" But now was not the time to think about it. She packed it up and left the house.

Ash was almost inside when he had footsteps behind him. Familiar now. Civilian. Soft.

Kamsi.

"Did you see the dispatch?" She asked, catching pace beside him.

"I don't need a handler for this."

"I'm not here to handle you." Her voice was even, but edged with quiet urgency.

Ash didn't respond. She scanned a retinal panel and keyed in her override.

The aircraft took off as the entrance hummed shut. After about three seconds of being airborne, it zoomed off with a simple and steady pace.

It was time for action.