• The Generation: Warrior Maid

    ~-~-~

    How long has it been? Ten days, ten months, ten years? The War was beginning to pass like an almost timeless quality, becoming part of the landscape for the youth of the world, just existing there. Many people were beginning to take the recent raids of different clans, the bombings of city buildings, or even the massacres on the well-worn trails as just daily news.

    "Did you hear about the massacre at Rouma?" a man asked another, staring into his tankard as he spoke.

    "Yes," his fellow answered, talking a deep gulp from his tankard. "Horrible, just horrible. Not a single Roma spared."

    "Not even the women and children?"

    "Not even them."

    A collective sigh was shared by the other men happening to be listening.

    "This war is beginning to take its toll on everyone," one man said.

    "The Roma are peaceful," another said disbelievingly. "how can anyone bear to murder an entire clan so heartlessly?"

    "Turks."

    The men of the small pub turned around to face the newcomer.

    The newcomer took a seat next to the man who had first spoken. The newcomer was a young woman, with almost snow white hair done up in a terra-twist and ice blue eyes. She was dressed in a black traveller top, black traveller shawl, black pants, one of which legs had a huge hole in it, encompassing the knee and an inch below, black boots, and black gloves. A katana was strapped to her back, and a utility belt was strapped around her waist.

    "Turks are the only ones who murder so ruthlessly," she clarified as she ordered one of the only non-alcoholic drinks that the pub offered. "I know."

    "How does a young lass like you know so much about death and killing?" the man who had defended the Roma asked. "Shouldn't you be worrying about other things?"

    "I have no other things to worry about," the woman said quietly, sipping her drink. "The War has robbed me of everything that I ever held dear to me."

    "You're not the only one." the man who had first spoken said. "Everyone in this pub has suffered in some way due to this hellish war."

    "I'm not wallowing in my self pity like some of you old coots are," the woman shot back. "I'm choosing to do something about it." She stood up and bowed her head to the bartender. "Thank you for the drink."

    The woman left without another word.

    "Did you happen to notice her features?" a young man, with the same snow white hair and blue eyes asked quietly from the corner of the pub.

    "So what?" the man who had first spoken asked. "She has white hair and blue..." he looked at the man with realization.

    "Yes, she is one of the Generation."

    The Generation was not uttered without a tone of awe or hatred. They were a small unit of young men and women under the age of fourteen to sixteen. They were augmented at the middle age of fifteen, to never age beyond the appearance of a sixteen year old, becoming immortal. The augmentations increased speed, agility, and strength. A side affect of the Generation was there white hair and blue eyes, a side affect of the augmentations.

    "But she is not your average Generation." the young man continued. "You obviously haven't seen the scar across her right eye."

    A spark of realization surged through the room.

    "You mean that she was..."

    "Yes," the young man said, getting up and turning to the door. "She was the Warrior Maid, Aife Tekana."

    ~-~-~

    It was ten years ago that Aife became a Generation trainee. She was the youngest child of a wealthy couple in Bartonville, a small town in the Vena countryside, outside the control of any clans, or officials.

    However, that neutrality was shattered when ten years ago, the Turk clan set fire to Bartonville. Aife was the only survivor of the town. The rest were either killed or imprisoned.

    Afterwards, six-year-old Aife Tekana drifted from town to town, never settling into the many families who reached out to the 'poor unfortunate soul'. Six months after, she met the developer of Project: Generation, Dr. Rachel Penn. Dr. Penn offered to help her seek her revenge on the Turks who murdered her family, and, naturally, Aife agreed.

    After eight long years of training in the secluded Gamma base deep in the countryside, she was subjected to the augmentations that would make her what she is today. However, the augmentations turned her beautiful auburn hair snow white, and her hazel green eyes ice blue, nor could they heal the scar stretching from the corner of her eyebrow down across her eye, a symbol of her resolve to destroy the Turk clan, as the last surviving member of the ancient Tekana clan.