Takes place right after the ending of Champion (Epilogue).

DAY

June Iparis.

It happens in an instant. Whatever lingering doubts I had are gone. I know her last name without having to hear it. This is June. The "something" I was looking for. My June.

"You understand me? You call me first, you scream for Lucy, you..." I hesitate. "You call for June Iparis."

"Your Princeps-Elect?"

The memory surprises me. I've gotten used to living my life in the present, not dwelling on whatever past memories I've left behind. But I can remember, Eden's mischievous face, teasing me as I tried to keep him safe. The Republic who needed his blood to find the cure for the plague. The plague that they themselves had spun out of control.

My first year in Ross City included rumors flying everywhere about the Republic-Colonies mysterious war trials. Eden helped me safely separate fact from fiction. I can now recall it pretty clearly, I began to remember more as I heard more. And yet, I remember nothing on June.

Well, almost nothing.

When I was twenty-four, I had a fling with a girl named Lily. I was still in school, catching up on all the classes I missed when the Republic had deemed me "not good enough." She was a lean red-head with dark, sexy, green eyes and a smirk to match mine. I was the older guy–the handsome older guy, might I add. It was all over in about a week, when she woke up to me whispering another girl's name in my sleep.

June.

I can't remember those dreams, no matter how much I've tried. And my love life didn't go much further from there either.

I look up at June, the June who survives in my memory somehow, somewhere. Her eyes are brown. Amidst the brown are golden flecks. And though they can hardly compare to the green of Lily's, they have an intelligence in them that I have seen nowhere else. They are locked with mine. Now would be a good time to say something, Daniel. But I have nothing to say. Instead, I clear my throat and let go of her sweaty palm, only then realizing that I have lingered longer than I intended. I wonder if my face is as red as it feels.

Luckily, Eden breaks the silence. "Would you like to come with us, June?" he says. The name rolls off his tongue naturally; he's familiar with her. And she's familiar with him. For this reason, I don't bother to introduce him. I wonder why he neglected to mention that to me. Who is this girl? Who was this girl? I ask myself, not for the first time, and certainly not for the last. Another memory stirs in the back of my mind. Sprinting through the crowd with June supported at my side. And then...my lips on hers. Perhaps a better question is Who was she to me? Acquaintances? Friends?

Lovers?

"Sure," June responds, jolting me back to reality. Her voice is quavering ever so slightly, but Eden doesn't seem to notice. He mounts the train happily, her trailing behind, and me following ever so cautiously.

We slide into one of the booths, me and Eden across from June. We sit in polite silence until the train starts up, a short ride from Batalla to Ruby. I keep my mind focused on the destination, and not the girl whose place in my life I am unsure of. It brings my thoughts to Tess. I am grateful to break the silence. "How do you know Tess?" I ask. Though we have not spoken in quite some time, I am certain she never mentioned a June Iparis.

She speaks precisely. "She bandaged me up after a pretty bad stab wound. Had to lie low for a few days and we became friends."

"So, you're a soldier, yeah?" I ask playfully. I could see her fighting. I...did see her fighting.

When I try to catch her by surprise, she slips from my grasp like water between rocks, fluid and constantly moving, and if I blink, she's behind me and twisting my arm up behind my back.

Finally, June trips me and pins me to the floor. Her hands push my wrists down. "See?" she says. "Tricked you."

"Commander, actually," she states proudly.

And then something comes over me. It's the memories again. But this time, they are not only thinking for me, they are acting for me. And just like that, I blurt out: "Well, you were always the Republic's prodigy."

June looks at me with a puzzled and almost satisfied look. "Well, I could say the same about you."

I'm about to tell her that's not true, that I failed my test, that they took me away to "labor camps" and that I barely made it out alive...until I remember someone telling me I didn't fail the test, that I passed with a perfect score.

It is June. June again and again and again, haunting all of my memories with her gold flecked eyes and long dark brown ponytail.

I avert my eyes down towards my lap and say nothing more. June, instead, turns to Eden and asks about his latest engineering project. They start an animated conversation. I stare out the window, hoping that we'll approach the Ruby sector soon. My fingers move unconsciously to the paper clip ring and I feel eyes on me. And they are not the blue, constantly improving eyes of my brother, but the intelligent eyes of the woman sitting across from me.

"Nice ring," she comments. "Where'd you get it?"

The truth is, I don't know where I got it. Eden told me I fashioned it for myself as a good luck charm, but something in his tone set me off. All I know is that it was on my finger when I woke up from the war and two years of memory loss. And I did not want to take it off. Gradually, I grew more accustomed to rubbing the ring than to grabbing for my pendant, my quarter dollar from the United States of America, from my father, from my mother, from my family. But the tone in June's voice makes me wonder if she know something I don't.

"Maybe you should tell me," I say, staring her down.

She returns it, but without malice. And then, without blinking, "I think it was a gift from a–" she pauses, then her mouth twists into a smirk, "very special friend."

She twisted these paper clips into a ring for me. Her dexterous fingers crafted a gift for me. She gave it to me at a restaurant when I first told her I was dying. (Granted, she already knew; I could never keep anything from June.) (I was dying? That's new. I guess I'm lucky they only took my memories.)

And now she's flirting with me about it. Well, two can play at that game.

I grab her hands from across the table and I hear her sharply exhale. It feels so right, to have hers in mine. (As long as I ignore Eden's eye roll.) My tone is mischievous. "I'm sure she was very special."