Mikhail stepped outside, the fresh warm air invading his nostrils.
He took a deep breath, getting used to this new feeling.
"Feels a little weird after those years in the cold."
"Cold?"
Mikhail's calm blue eyes went to the side where Modric stood.
The latter tilted his head slightly, his golden eyes curious on what he had just said.
Mikhail didn't panic at his sudden appearance though, he already knew he was there.
"Nothing, I was talking about the dream that I saw."
"Oh, so it was cold in the dream?" Modric further asked and Mikhail nodded, walking past him.
Modric automatically started to follow behind him from his right side, following the protocol.
"Must have been quite a nightmare. It isn't normal to see you freak out this bad."
Mikhail simply nodded.
"It was."
He felt Modric's eyes linger on him for a moment.
"Anyways, I was coming here to get you. You are the only one missing now."
"Yeah, I'm out now."
Modric automatically turned silent at his response, now following Mikhail.
As they walked silently to the grounds, Mikhail looked around him.
It brought him a little nostalgia to see these walls and buildings again after years.
Despite being the walls that chained him in, this place was also where he spent his young years.
It all felt like just yesterday when he was here. He remembered everything right on point.
Finally, he saw the grounds in front, with every squadron already in position for the roll call.
The command for the fall in had already been given and Mikhail was almost 20 minutes late.
He could see that all of them had been waiting for just Squadron 21 to assemble.
Mikhail ignored the furious and surprised stares that he was getting from the ground and turned to Modric.
"You go on ahead and stand, I'll report to the head."
Modric gave him a simple nod and turned to leave while Mikhail fixated his gaze on the 4 people standing in the middle of the ground.
Walking up, he saw the one standing at the foremost turn his head.
Standing tall and high in his brown military uniform, his muscular build betrayed the white hair and wrinkles on his face.
Mikhail knew him well.
Daniel Blake.
He was the Head Staff out of the 4 in front of him assigned for the physical drills.
He was also Mikhail's most trusted friend in the academy. His mentor.
As Mikhail's eyes met his, he saw a surprised reaction on the old man's face.
"Good morning Commander Mikhail. Reporting late for duty, do you have a reasonable excuse?" He asked.
In public, Mikhail had to talk and address him with respect despite it being known that he was close to the head.
He shook his head lightly, looking him right in the eyes.
"No sir, I don't."
Saying that he had woken up late would cause more problems.
Mikhail saw Daniel's face morph into one of anger but he saw signs of concern in his eyes.
It was expected since Mikhail's squadron was mostly the first to arrive at the grounds.
He was never late. Never.
"Go now, I'll see you later." Daniel told Mikhail in anger and the latter nodded, saluting and walking off to his squadron.
As he walked toward them, Mikhail's eyes landed on the 2 remaining members of his family.
The two girls that had died alongside Modric and Icarus.
"I honestly believed in the afterlife more than Mika waking up late one day." He heard a light, soft voice.
A woman poked her face from behind Icarus, a surprised look on her face accompanied by a light smile.
Her crimson long hair fell like a curtain across her back.
Mikhail felt going back in time just by looking into her violet eyes.
He knew her.
Raviel Ivanova.
"I'm also surprised but a person can mess up their schedule at least once by mistake. It's normal Ravi."
He heard another stern but soft voice come from behind.
At the same time, a hand came from behind Modric, pulling Raviel's ears.
"Ouch, I know Amy! I didn't mean it like that."
Mikhail's eyes trembled as they went to the second woman behind Raviel.
Amariel Ivanova.
Her violet eyes starkly resembled Raviel's, making one think they were twins despite the difference in their facial features.
However, they were.
Both of them were twins that had been a part of Mikhail's family since all of them were homeless kids.
"It wasn't anything much, just a deep nightmare." Mikhail explained himself to the two, trying to calm his heart.
'It still feels like a dream to be able to see them all again.'
"Nightmare? So something can scare you as well Mika?"
"Stop teasing him." Amariel pulled Raviel's ear again.
"It's a genuine question!"
"Let's talk about it later, we need to get going for the drills." Modric interrupted.
Mikhail saw Icarus nod as well, following to give a sigh towards the other teams that were still staring at them.
"Yeah, otherwise those pissy pampers might just leak."
"Modric is right, we'll talk later. We need to discuss the plans for today."
At Mikhail's words, all of them straightened up by instinct and turned silent
It was their natural respect and acknowledgement for him as their leader.
A tinge of nostalgia ran through him as he found himself doing this again after years.
But it was still all ingrained into him like muscle memory.
He turned to Modric.
"The map Modric."
With a nod, Modric retrieved a map from his cloak, handing it over to Mikhail.
The way morning drills worked were simple.
There were 75 squadrons inside of the academy.
The members in each varied according to the strength.
Weak squadrons had a lot of members in them to give them enough of a chance of survival.
Mikhail's squadron having 5 members was enough proof for their strength.
Moving on, each squadron had a map handed to them for the terrain outside of the academy.
The map spanned to quite a large area outside the academy walls though it wasn't perfectly accurate.
Every morning, squadron leaders would choose routes from the map to check outside of the academy for any signs of wormhole leakages.
And to also clear up any monsters that could have run away from previous ones.
After choosing the routes, they had to confirm it to the staff who made a record of it later.
Only the squadron leader could choose the routes, hence why the whole ground was waiting for Mikhail to come.
They couldn't proceed until he chose the routes.
Opening the map, Mikhail saw 4 routes available for him to choose.
The rest had already been marked.
'This is different.'
There was a little problem.
Most of the time, there was already a specific set of routes that his squadron chose.
It was once in a blue moon that they had to change since they always arrived so early.
And since in his previous life, there was no change in schedules for Mikhail and his team…
They had picked their usual routes.
But this time, it had all changed.
'Wait a minute…isn't this..'
His eyes widened for a split moment.
If his memory served him well, right on the route to his farthest right or the routes near that had an accident that day.
A whole squadron had been killed that day.
Though deaths were not uncommon in the academy, it was very rare in drills.
Much rarer for a whole squadron to die.
Mikhail's eyes went to any special areas near it and instantly, he could partly understand the reason for their death.
"We need to hurry up Mikhail." Modric brought him out of his thoughts.
'Hmmm, I can't let anything happen to them again.'
Confirming his decision, he turned back to his squadron.
"This is how we'll go…"