Purple Eyes, Purple Hearts

Saffron practically skid out of her room, hopping on one foot a couple times as she finished pulling her other boot on and nearly colliding into one of her comrades in the process. The barracks of the Bosco Defense Force weren’t in a complete state of disarray -- after all, very few of Bosco’s soldiers were ever deployed outside the country’s borders. However, a select few elite soldiers had been called in for an immediate emergency, and it had left the halls of the compound buzzing with whispers and activity. The military members scurried about the place at a brisk walk as they either gossiped or hurried to their work stations. Save, of course, for those who had been called for deployment. Those soldiers, such as Saffron and the man she’d almost stumbled into, were dashing at a full run toward the hanger with the rest of their squads.

“What’s going on?” she asked as she quickly set herself in line with Roy’s pace, mindlessly fiddling with the mechanical bracers around her wrists to make sure they were snug and secure.

“You haven’t heard?”

“Oh yeah, I definitely heard. I just wanted to make sure you knew.” Saffron rolled her eyes as they sprinted side by side, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Roy either missed her tone completely or simply was too focused on the matter at hand to care about commenting on it. “Things finally came to a head between Pergrande and Bellum. Skirmishes are breaking out all along their border as we speak.”

She blinked at him, violet eyes ripe with earnest surprise. “Well shit, that’s not good.” It had always only ever been a matter of time before the cold war between the two enemy nations and the fragile excuse for peace between them would come crumbling down, but that didn’t make it any less of a surprise that it had happened so soon. “Do we know what sparked it? Who started it?”

“Not that I know of, but I’m sure we’ll get briefed very quickly.”

As they got closer to their destination, several other members of the defense force caught up with them from different directions, and soon they were slowing down as they piled into the hanger bay where a small crowd of soldiers had gathered to await further instruction. She and Roy hurried over to where the rest of their squad had collected, but before she could meld into the group and try to get up to speed, her lieutenant stopped her. “Remington!”

“Yes, sir?” the blonde asked, not bothering to snap to attention as everything was clearly far too chaotic for them to care about the formalities.

“You’re on a special assignment for this one. Report to Major Kesslaw.”

“Got it.” She didn’t waste any time waving goodbye to Roy or the rest of her usual comrades, turning on her heels to hurry her way over to where the major was gathered with a few members of the Magia division. Saffron didn’t have to ask why she was being separated from her squadmates. The Magia officers had been eyeing her for a little while as a possible recruit, and had brought her along on a few smaller missions to test her abilities. Though Saffron had not shown any signs of obvious magical talent, there were a few oddities about her that no one had been able to explain, things that others suspected were of magical origin even if they hadn’t been able to prove or identify it yet.

As she trotted up to the small group of mage soldiers, they turned toward her and broke out in various levels of grins. “Boy, they just let anyone into Magia these days, don’t they?” one of them teased.

Saffron grinned back. “It’s not like their standards were that high to begin with with you people around. What’s up, losers?” The group chuckled lightly, much more at ease and relaxed than the rest of the militia in the hanger. Considering the Magia squad was the most highly trained division of the army, the elite of the elite, its members weren’t as excitable as the general defense populace. In fact, a lot of the Magia were a bit cocky, their rare status as powerful mages giving them an extra level of confidence that had resulted in what was almost a sense of boredom at the situation around them. Not all of the Magia were like that, of course, but many were and Saffron had fit in with that atmosphere ever since her first trial with them.

“What do you think, rook? You gonna give us a little bit of a light show today, or you gonna keep holding out on us?”

“Listen, I can’t just put all of my talents on display for you guys. That would just make me look desperate.”

“How is that any different from how you made yourself look back in Minstrel?”

Saffron punched that soldier in the shoulder, causing another laugh to ripple among everyone, herself included. “Shut up! You’re such a jerk!”

“Alright, everyone on the ship! Let’s go!” The light hearted moment was cut off by the major calling attention to himself and ushering everyone onto the drop ship that had been allocated to them. “There’s no time to waste. You’ll be briefed on the way.” The group moved at once onto the ship with Saffron in tow, piling into the belly of the vessel and either taking one of the many seats along the walls or standing in the space between and holding onto one of the many bars or leather straps fixed to the ceiling to help them keep their balance. Once everyone was on board, the door shut and the aircraft lifted up into the air, taking off toward their destination, which Saffron could only assume was somewhere in the midst of the ongoing battles. She still didn’t fully understand why they were getting involved in skirmishes that had nothing to do with Bosco…

...but she was sure she’d have that answer soon enough.

Well, there certainly wasn’t a lot to go on. The major had certainly given them a run down, but it really hadn’t been a very in depth briefing. There really was next to nothing known about what exactly was happening at the border, though Bellum was claiming that Pergrande was mobilizing a massive portion of its army in the snowy mountains that bordered the two countries and marching them toward the enemy nation. Because of this, they had called upon the Magic Council for aid from those who allied against the persecution of mages, and Bosco had elected to respond to that call, if unofficially. Small, elite forces only, operating out of unmarked ships and fighting in civilian attire rather than their uniforms. While it wasn’t exactly within the nation’s desire to get involved in any sort of war between Bellum and Pergrande, there was no denying that if Bellum fell, Pergrande would only be further emboldened in their campaign, and soon every other mage friendly nation, including Bosco, would be at risk. If they didn’t take a stand now, it would only be a matter of time before their hand was forced.

So, better to get involved now while there was still a chance, however slim, at nipping the rising conflict in the bud. Bellum’s hope seemed to be that getting other people to fight on their behalf, rather than being directly involved in skirmishes, would help curb the conflict so that Pergrande wouldn’t have a reason to claim that Bellum had started the conflict. Saffron supposed it was a decent strategy, but… honestly, she couldn’t see how it would do any good. Whether they were fighting each other directly, or enlisting aid from otherwise uninvolved allies, the conflict between both sides was there. As far as she was concerned, this was just a stopgap to delay the inevitable, something that frankly was putting more lives at risk than was really necessary. Then again, she still couldn’t deny that whatever happened between these two feuding nations would affect the rest of Ishgar. It was complicated, and Saffron didn’t like when things got complicated.

The ship was racing through the sky over the mountain ridge, when the pilot picked up something on the radar: a small squad of Pergrande soldiers that had broken from the main skirmishes and appeared to be moving southwest to sneak across the border into Bellum. Everyone looked to the major to see what he would say, the look on his face a mixture of annoyance and calculation. “We don’t have time to land and deal with it. The active battle needs us more. Reeds, Remington.”

“Yes, sir!”
“Yes, sir!”

“Take them out before they reach the border. When you’re done, meet back up with us in the main fight.”

Saffron and her assigned partner nodded their acknowledgement and hustled toward the back of the ship, where one of the others was already opening the bay door. The frigid winter air blasted its way loudly into the plane, sending a wave of freezing wind over them, chilling them to the bone. The soldier at the controls grinned at Reeds. “Have fun babysitting!”

Reeds laughed. “Please. Me and Saff here are gonna make quick work of these guys. We’ll be back and showing the rest of you up in no time, ain’t that right, rook?”

“You bet your ass! Let’s go, old man!” With that, she threw herself from the ship and out into the open air, where she began to plummet toward the surface.

“Hey, that’s lieutenant old man, to you,” he called after her, shaking his head. “No respect, I swear.” With a grin, he saluted his comrade and leaped out after her.

Saffron was smirking the entire way down to the ground, enjoying the rush of adrenaline that was crashing through her veins from the drop. She couldn’t fly, nor did she have a parachute, but she didn’t need either. Utilizing the mechanical bracers on her wrists, she waited until she was starting to get close to the ground before firing off round after round of explosive energy that kicked back against the momentum of her fall, pushing against gravity to slow her down until she could slam into the snow covered ground in a controlled crash landing that caused a thick white cloud of snowy powder to burst into the air dozens of meters around her. By the time the dust settled and she could see the area again, there were a couple rows of Pergrande soldiers lined up with their rifles drawn and aimed at her, holding their fire until they could determine if she was friend or foe.

“Hey there!” was her friendly greeting, as though she wasn’t aware of the fact that she had about thirty odd guns targeted on her. “Don’t suppose you guys are lost and just trying to find your way back home? Cause Pergrande is the other direction."

Before any of them could answer her, or even react to her sudden and wildly off putting entrance, a small vortex of wind took root in the center of their ranks, quickly growing until there was a small but fully realized tornado ripping most of them off their feet and sending them flying in every direction. “Less talking, more fighting, private,” Reeds called from where he hovered in the sky, already building up his next air spell.

Saffron rolled her eyes. “I was distracting them for you, but sure thing, LT.” With nothing more to be done except to follow orders, she cracked her knuckles and took a quick scan of the battlefield to pinpoint her first target. “Alright, magic, whatever you are… give me something to work with.”

There certainly were a lot of people to share between Reeds and herself, but Saffron wasn’t too worried. She didn’t know what her magic was or how to control it, but that didn’t make her any less of an exemplary soldier. Or well, a fighter at least. Anyone who knew Saffron understood that she certainly wasn’t great about following formalities, always getting her work done on time and efficiently but often skirting the line of insubordination with her playful, carefree attitude. At the end of the day, though, Saffron was good at one thing: fighting. And she loved doing it.

So it didn’t take her long to scan around the area and start moving, though that was partially because the Pergrande soldiers had started firing at her again. “Oop..!” Saffron ducked to the side as the dirt beside her was tossed into the air in a spray of ammunition, using her bracers to give herself a little extra boost in speed to get out of the way. The speed was more than enough to get her in front of the line of fire that now trailed behind her, as well as give her a slight boost in hitting power from the momentum. Like a freight train bearing down on an unsuspecting pedestrian, the last thing the poor Pergrande recruit would see was a subtle wink from Saffron before she practically clotheslined him with her fist, punching through his face hard enough to shatter the mask he wore and send him flying back into a tree where he appeared to be knocked out cold.

Careful not to lose the advantage of her inertia, Saffron kept moving toward the other two recruits that the first one seemed to be paired off with. She zipped and zagged as she ran at them, doing her best to make them work to land any shots on her, the snow and dirt on either side of her bursting into sprays of debris with each missed shot. As she got closer, Saffron shifted her body weight into a lower stance, sliding across the ground like a runner in baseball trying to reach a base, blaster fire spraying narrowly over her head until she popped up between the two recruits on her feet once more. Without actually punching the first soldier, she threw her fists several times at the space before him, her bracers launching off several energized bullets of their own that slammed into his chest. The man stumbled back but surprisingly didn’t fall, a fact Saffron processed without really thinking about as she shifted her weight to look behind her at the third recruit who was trying to back up a bit and find a good angle to shoot Saffron without accidentally firing on their comrade. Utilizing the moment of hesitance, the blonde kicked out her foot at the weapon in the soldier’s hand, knocking them off balance and screwing up their aim for a critical moment so she could return to the second soldier and finish him off with another couple energized blasts from the devices on her wrist.

Once he had fallen, she started turning back to the third recruit only to get stopped part way by the feel of ammo lighting up her back. Saffron growled as her mysterious magical aura kicked into high gear, soaking up the worst of the damage and funneling its kinetic force into her core. The attack still stung like a bitch, of course, but it didn’t seem to do as much damage as the recruit had been hoping for. With a growl, Saffron whipped around and grabbed hold of the side of the rifle, gripping it tight and using it to pull the recruit closer toward her even as she hurled her fist into the recruit’s face mask. It wasn’t enough to take them down, but the subsequent punches were, particularly as she boosted their damage potential with the blasts from her bracer.

After the first three were down, she tore off again, looking for new targets. Reeds seems to be attracting most of the attention as the more obvious of the mages, floating up in the air and utilizing his wind magic to redirect rifle fire and toss Pergrande soldiers around. Recognizing the openings that made for her, she timed her own attacks to start picking off soldiers one or two at a time, leaping to intercept more recruits as they got tossed around or were distracted by her partner. It wasn’t as easy as she had hoped. Despite having no magical power of their own, the Pergrandians were very well armed and armored, and she quickly found that punching them wasn’t going to do a whole lot of damage without the enhancements of her bracers. Plus, the sheer number of soldiers was becoming a bit overwhelming, particularly as they started realizing that she was proving to be a more subtle threat than they had given her credit for in comparison to her partner.

One recruit went flying and she snatched them from the air, hurling them full force into a large boulder that was poking out of the snow. The next she assaulted with her own spray of bracer fire, doing her best to aim around the thick protective vest on their shirt to the less well guarded extremities, though the vests seemed to be less effective against the energy of her wristlets. Blaster fire lit her up once more, her magic soaking up the energy without necessarily taking the pain away. She could feel the energy brewing inside of her that indicated the mysterious force was hard at work storing up the kinetic potential from the damage she was taking and compacting it inside of her. A line of three recruits caught her eye as she was sprinting through the battleground and Saffron charged them, the explosive power of her bracers shooting behind her to propel her more quickly through the air as she bulldozed her way through all three in a swift motion, knocking them down like dominos.

Rearing an arm back over the small pile of bodies, she charged up a single, high powered blast in her bracer before slamming her fist down on the three prone recruits, punching them into a small crater in the ground that hit with such impact that the ground itself split and burst apart, sending several large rocks from the ground up into the air. Saffron leapt up and kicked the biggest of the rocks, sending it hurtling several meters away until it smashed into two more recruits, pinning them to the ground and crushing them beneath its weight. As she landed on her feet, Saffron dropped to a knee in pain as an intense amount of bullets started raining down on her faster than she could escape, seemingly coming from all directions. Five recruits had surrounded her and were pinning her down with suppressive fire, doing their best to slaughter her like a pig in a pen. The pain was agonizing even as her aura took in the power at an alarming rate, the kinetic energy swelling within her until it quite literally burst from her body in an explosive wave, yellow energy crackling through the air like a mixture of lightning and fire as all five Pergrandian soldiers were wiped out in an instant.

Saffron stood to her feet, staggering briefly as she shook the pain from her body, her now crimson colored eyes laser focused on the battlefield from the intense, palpable ire that consumed her.

Well, she certainly had some attention on her now. The explosion of her magic and the small bubble of destruction it had wrought upon the recruits that had been harrying her turned several pairs of hidden eyes in her direction. Even Reeds paused for a moment to glance at her in curiosity, as this was the largest display of magical power she had yet to show. Later, Saffron would probably have a bit more excitement over the phenomenon and the revelation that would come with it -- that maybe now she would finally have a place within the Magia unit. But for now, there was still a battle to fight, and she was far too angry to think about what was happening to her.

Reeds picked his own assault back up even as Saffron darted through the snow, targeting a pair of officers that were descending upon her with a set of rifles that looked different from what the recruits had been carrying. It became apparent very quickly that these guns were much more accurate, and much more lethal, as they were much harder to dodge and outrun. In fact, the blonde was certain the only reason she didn’t wind up getting ripped to shreds and killed was because of her aura, which let her withstand a great deal of damage more than the average person, mage or otherwise. Trying to keep in as irregular a path as possible in order to make it harder to hit her, she shot blast after blast of energy from her bracers at them from afar only to realize that these soldiers were more protected than the others were. She was going to have to hit them harder to put them down.

And of course, reinforcements were showing up. Four more Pergrande officers in similar garb were closing in quickly in the sides, and Saffron realized she was going to need some kind of advantage as not even her aura was going to be able to protect her from the kind of fire power these guys were shooting. Thinking fast, she charged up the energy in her bracers, clasped her hands together, and slammed her fists down into the snow at her feet, unleashing a wave of power and heat that caused the powdery substance to explode into a thick mist that permeated the entire area, making it hard for all of them to see. It wasn’t a perfect strategy, as even her vision was impacted, but at least it meant that she wasn’t going to get gunned down as quickly. Closing her eyes, she concentrated, hoping and praying that she could tap into some of the latent abilities that she had experienced before on accident but never really managed to do on purpose, specifically the one that let her feel like she was able to sense the physical world in a full radius around her.

There.

Without hesitating, she shot through the fog and leaped out one at a time at each officer, catching them by surprise and loading them with blasts from her gauntlets, the high powered charges beating past their armor better than her bare fists would have done. By the time the fog had dispersed, all six of the officers were down and Saffron was standing amidst their unconscious bodies. Her breathing was starting to become labored as the length of the fighting, as well as the exercise to her magic was starting to take its toll on her. But, the scrimmage wasn’t over yet.

Letting her guard down too soon, Saffron was caught off guard by something flying through the air and smacking her with such force that it knocked the wind out of her lungs completely. When she shook her head to clear it, clawing her way back up onto her feet, she was several dozens of meters away from where she had been standing last, her entire body aching like crazy as she looked around to try and locate what had struck her. Before she could find it, she found another large projectile in the form of a tree having been fully ripped from ground streaking across the sky toward her. With no time to dodge it, Saffron reached back with a charged shot and put all her strength behind a single punch, breaking the trunk in two on either side of her, resulting in a spray of wooden shrapnel in every direction. What she saw at the source of the attack perplexed her: two Pergrande soldiers in specialized garb that she didn’t recognize, one wielding a large sword and the other dressed in a dark cloak that was covered in metal plates. Even as she watched, the one in the dark cloak stretched out a hand, causing a nearby boulder to lift from the ground.

“Ex-fucking-scuse me?” Saffron asked, her voice ripe with annoyance. “Magic? Really?! Isn’t the persecution of any and all magic users like… your whole schtick?” Well, this was beyond hypocritical, but there was no time to analyze it. Not with a giant rock heading her way. Racing toward the boulder as it was hurled in her direction, Saffron used it as a shield to mask her advancement, using the high pressure blasts from her bracers to launch her up into the air and over the massive rock. As she landed on the other side, she rained energy bullets down upon them, only to watch in horror as it seemed to do nothing at all, their armor practically absorbing just about all the fire power behind it. “Oh you have got to be kidding me!”

Her heightened senses alerted her just in time to a shift in the air around her and she stumbled backward, just barely scrambling out of the way in time as the large sword of the first soldier carved in half the space where Saffron had just been standing, the other woman having moved so fast it was like she had teleported. Saffron snarled and instinctively reacted with a series of energized punches, hoping that the closer range would give the attacks more power. Not only was it not effective, but the Pergrandian soldier almost effortlessly deflected each blast with the flat of her blade. Then, the other woman disappeared again. Saffron thought she would be repositioning to get at her back, but as a hail of fist sized pebbles came down upon her head she realized it was a temporary retreat to give her partner a chance to strike while Saffron had been distracted.

The blonde was pelted hard by several of the projectiles before she found some partial cover behind a tree, whose branches and thick trunk took the brunt of the assault. “This is such bullshit…! She had to change tactics. These two were on a completely different level from the others she had fought so far.

“Saff!”

She didn’t need to stop to think about why Reeds was calling her name. The spirited Magia recruit threw herself away from the tree just in time for it to explode behind her as the sword wielding woman thrust the blade with enough power to pierce it completely through from the other side. If Reeds hadn’t have said anything, Saffron would have been skewered. Noticing that Reeds had busied himself with the weaponless soldier, Saffron decided to use the opportunity he was giving her to not be ganged up on. Wheeling on the other woman, she made a show out of firing energy blasts at the Pergrandian from afar, knowing the blasts were useless but in truth she was merely biding her time. If she had to hazard a guess, these were the equivalent of mage killers, highly trained soldiers that specialized specifically in combating against magic. With any luck, that might mean…

Another shift in the air, but this time Saffron was more prepared for it. Stepping to the side just enough to throw off the other woman’s aim, she sacrificed a deep gash on her leg for the opportunity to smash her bare fist into the Pergrandian’s face, the bracers shooting out the back side of the wristlets to enhance the strength of the punch enough to make the other woman reel back in pain and shock. The hit was followed up with a swift round house kick that hooked over the soldier’s sword arm, pinning the limb between her calf and thigh before Saffron snatched the woman by the collar and pulled her off balance, dropping to a knee with her sword arm pinned by her leg. A swirl of fog rushed from the Pergrandian’s mouth as her breath was forced from her lungs, and Saff quickly let loose a barrage of mundane punches at the woman’s face. Cartilage gave way beneath her fists as the woman’s nose broke, then there was a sickening crack as the jaw quickly followed suit. By the time Saffron was done, the guard’s face was a bloody, swollen pulp, and frankly she wasn’t entirely sure she hadn’t killed the woman.

Her labored breathing was like fire in her lungs as she once more stood shakily to her feet, kicking the sword far out of reach just in case her enemy wasn’t as knocked our or dead as she suspected. Saffron had been in a lot of fights before that had taken their tolls on her body, but this was something else. Thankfully, it seemed to be winding down. Or at least, she hoped it was. Nearly the entire Pergrandian force looked as though it had been wiped out, but the biggest threat that remained was the cowled soldier that was able to move things with their mind, who appeared to be tanking Reeds’ wind magic with next to no effort. Her partner was starting to look worried, which in turned sent a chill of anxiety and uncertainty through her.

Sucking it up and shoving those feelings deep down inside of her where she wouldn’t have to face them for the time being, Saffron raced toward the private, hoping that he would be equally as susceptible to physical attacks as his fallen comrade had been. Right when she thought she was about to get the drop on him, he ducked to the side and evaded the blow, dancing around her with the expert grace of a man who was a master at more than just telekinesis. Saffron’s foot slammed into the ground hard to compensate for the unexpected shift in her momentum, which reminded her that she had a rather large gouge in her thigh that was actively bleeding. Gasping in pain, her aura feeding on the damage she was sustaining, she turned just in time to sloppily block a series of punches from the Pergrandian, lessening their impact without evading them completely. While fighting her, he flicked his wrist and lifted a number of dropped rifles from the ground into the air, pointing them all at Reeds and lighting off the ammo that was left in them.

With her partner no longer able to back her up as he was dealing with lethal bullets firing at him from nearly every angle, Saffron was left to tango one on one with the remaining target that was proving to be just as efficient at hand to hand as he was at tanking magical strikes. In fact, she was loathe to admit it, but he was a better fighter than she was. She could feel that he was toying with her and all that did was make her angrier, her magic building up more and more pressure with each blow he landed on her body. She had to find a weak spot. She had to land a fucking hit. The sense that she was extremely outmatched was starting to dawn on her to such an extent that it was weighing her down and making her clumsy.

And unfortunately for her, he noticed. Sensing the shift in the air far too late, Saffron gasped in shock as the sword that she had kicked away from her last fallen enemy came out of nowhere, cleaning slicing through the bicep of her right arm and severing it completely from the rest of her body. White hot pain shot through her with such intensity that it was damn near blinding, her body once more sending out a shockwave of built up kinetic energy that was easily ten times larger than the last one, practically obliterating the forest around her. A few seconds of her life were lost to her then, the pain and trauma jarring enough that she wouldn’t remember anything between the explosive wave and looking up to find the private looming over her, barely even touched by the magical attack.

Her body was lifted up as if gripped by a magical force and she was hurled easily a hundred meters across the battleground, landing in a thick pile of snow that did little to lessen the impact of her fall. The pure white, crystalline flakes of water quickly began to turn crimson from the blood that was pouring out of her arm. Panic was threatening to overwhelm her as the shock started to set in. With the only arm she had left, Saffron desperately started trying to crawl away from the impending doom as the private carefully made his way over to her, the sword spinning gently in the air beside him as he descended upon a prey that was clearly in the desperate throes of death. He was saying something to her, but Saffron was so far gone that she couldn’t even hear it, his words passing over her like a river through a valley. She was kicked ruthlessly knocking her onto her side as she cried out in further agony.

The sword hovered above her, the promise of the demise to come as the soldier took one moment to aim his shot true. Still doing her best to fight -- or, more likely, still deeply in denial -- Saffron managed to turn back onto her stomach, still trying to crawl away. It was by pure, unadulterated luck that her hand fell on something hard and man made that had been covered in the snow. As her fingers found purchase on it, a single moment of miraculous clarity dawned on her: It was a rifle. A pure, non magical, high powered rifle. In a last ditch effort to protect herself, praying to any gods that may or may not exist, she ripped the weapon from beneath the snow and rolled out of the way of the sword just as it embedded itself into the ground where she had been sprawled. Aiming the rifle practically point blank at him, he barely had time to widen his eyes in surprise before she unloaded the entire magazine into his body, the armor much less effective against the mundane bullets than it had been against their magic. He still had a look of surprise on his face as he dropped to the ground, dead.

And that was it. The battle was over. The guns he had been controlling dropped to the ground, leaving Reeds free to move once more, and the last thing she remembered before she passed out was her partner rushing down to the ground beside her.