Chapter 3.

Now this is what I call an afterlife. Even though I just died, I found myself in a bar surrounded by my brothers and sisters in arms sharing drinks getting drunk and just plainly having a kick ass time. We got some rock-n-roll playing in the background and some of the guys are getting drinks for the girls.

Hoping to get lucky of course.

"Floreal what the hell are you doing here man? I just sent you out there with Mary to kill those asshole Koreans!" I looked turned away from my current conversation with Gunney an old instructor of mine back when I began training, to be face to face with a friend I made back in those days.

Heh, Jackson was right, he knew he wasn't going to make it back there. Hell at least I got another friend here in the afterlife.

"Jackson how's it going brother!? When did you get here? Hell I just got here myself after that damn tank blew the shit out of me." We gave each other a fist bump before I handed him a beer.

"Hell after you took Mary I was just gone... Sad too really. I wanted to know how many you killed using Mary."

I gave a big laugh and gave him a playful smack to his arm. "A few dozen Korean dumb asses won't be going home to jerk off to their anime porn tonight!"

Wth that said we laughed, talked and reminisced about the good ol' days. Many of our friends joining in on the fun as things went on. Time didn't really seem to matter here, only the joy of friends having a good time. And the beer! My god was the beer good!

"So these damn gooks started running down the hill trying to flee from the incoming soldiers from behind right! When they all came over they stopped in their tracks when they happen to come upon us, waiting by a dirt road with seven Humvess all equipped with M134 Miniguns. Oh hell we tore through those cross eyed basterds ranks like wet tissue paper!" The lot of us laughed hard as Johnson spoke of an engagement he went through few days prior to his own death.

I looked around the room again and most of the people there were near our group telling stories. I kept looking and found a strange sight. A beautiful strange sight. There at the corner of the bar sat a woman all alone stirring a drink in her hands. She was... Really hot actually.

"Yo Floreal what you look-in at bro?" I heard the familiar voice of Jackson speak next to me but it wasn't enough for me to brake my gaze from the pretty woman sitting there at the end of the bar. "Well, well, well. Looks like you got your eyes on that pretty little lady over there." I didn't say a word as I took a swig of my beer. " I gotta say you have good taste in women my friend."

"Yeah." I simply said back to him. "Here hold my beer, I'm gonna go talk to her." I handed Jackson my beer and took my first step to the lonely woman.

"Ask her if she has a friend!" Jackson yelled out to me. I raised up my hand and gave him a thumbs up in recognition.

The closer I walked to the lonely woman, the closer I could see her features. You know that is something I have never seen before? Her hair was two diffrent colors. Her pink hair was dominant than the streaks of white she had in between them. Kind of reminds me of those people who dress up for those convention things.

"Hello." I said sitting on the stool next to her. "What's a pretty girl like you sitting all alone in a place like this?" She turned to me, a smile on her face. I looked straight into her eyes and almost felt hypnotized by them. They were the color of pink diamonds that sparkled in the luminescent light.

"Oh nothing I'm just waiting here for someone." I shook my heading after hearing her voice making my sight brake away from her diamond eyes. Her voice was a mix of French and American, more sexiness for her I guess.

"A friend huh? Boyfriend?" I asked her. She giggled and shook her head making her two-tone hair to sway.

"No, no boyfriend. Actually I'm looking for a Marine, I have a gift for him." She fully turned to me. I was able to take a quick glimpse at her body before turning back to her eyes. When I first said she was hot I was damn right!

She leaned forward giving me a good view of her perky breasts. They looked no smaller than a D cup I'm sure. Below I spotted a nice curvy hour glass figure and those lovely longlegs'. 'Now if only I could see that ass.' The glimpse may have been short but at least I got a good view.

"A Marine huh?" I smiled. Making her blush a tad bit. "Well lucky for you I know most of the Marines here! By the way my name is Floreal." I said raising my hand for a small shake.

"Oh!" She said in surprise. "How rude of me. My name Fleur, Fleur de Lis." The moment she said that I chuckled. "What's so funny?" She asked.

"It's funny really. Both of our names mean Flower in the French language. Mine is the male form where yours is the female." She understood now on why I chuckled and she herself began to giggle. Damn that was a sexy giggle.

"Yes, that does seam rather..." She trailed off a bit before looking to me again. "Wait, Floreal? As in Sergeant, Floreal Emilio Guadiana of Marine Recon?" I gave a smile as I nod my head. Her face lights up in a smile as she bounced in her seat. "Oh this is fantastic! You're the Marine I have been searching for!" She said clapping her hands together.

"Really?" she shook her head yes. "Why?" I was kinda curious why a gorgeous woman wanted to see me here in the afterlife.

"Why to give you your gift of course."

'Hmmm? Pretty woman wants to give me gift after I die. I wonder what it is?' "So this gift..." I trailed off a bit. "What is it if I may ask?"

"Oh." Fleur said, her happy tone vanishing as she looked down. "I can't really say. My bosses said that I'm only to give you the gift and nothing else... I'm sorry."

I looked into her eyes and I could see that they were becoming teary. "Hey, hey! It's okay. No reason for a pretty girl like you to cry. Now come on cheer up okay?" She looked up to me again and smiled showing me her pristine white smile.

"T-thank you. I'm sorry about that I usually don't get so emotional." She said wiping a few stray tears away with her handkerchief.

"That's alright. Emotions are what make us human. Heh, you would think that a guy like me, or men like us." I said waiving my hand out to the many Marines in the bar. "Wouldn't feel any emotion after the things we've done. But truth is..." I said turning away to look the mirror in front of me. "Truth is sometimes even we cry. Actually. Knowing that I cry tells me I didn't become a monster from my own actions in life."

The cheers and laughter around us began to slowly die down till the only thing I could hear was the woman next to me. I could hear her sniffle a bit. Hearing that told me she began to cry from my words.

I looked to her to see that she looked away from me, tears running down her cheeks. "Hey." I said cupping her chin in my hand. "No more tears now." I said wiping a few of her tears away with my thumb. We looked into each others eyes and before I could say anything she bounces on me. Her lips pushing against mine.

The suddenness of her actions caused the two of us to topple over from the stools we sat on. I closed my eyes waiting for the impact of the hard wood floor but the thing was... It never came.

When I opened my eyes again I found myself falling in some sort of... Abyss. Alone. The woman that was with me, that kissed me, Fleur. She was gone. I shook my head as i felt the air rush past me. "Ok, I'm not sure what's going on here but I'm gonna need an explanation to all this." I said crossing my arms as I fell into nothingness'.

"Hellllloooo?" I heard a voice say that echoed all around me. 'The hell?' I thought. "Hello, hello? Is this thing on?" I heard a tapping noise like someone tapping the head of a microphone.

"Hello?" I said about to whoever was talking around me.

"Oh good it works!" The voice said before clearing their voice. "Hello Sergeant Floreal, my name Syn. I was the woman you met at the bar. Well no you met Fleur there, but I was Fleur. Oh damn it!"

I was confused this lady Syn or Fleur or whoever is the woman that met me at the bar? What is she babbling about? "Okay calm down, deep breaths." I said aloud. I could her Inhaling which was kinda gross even for me. "Now breath out." She did as I said and exhaled leaving a happy sigh at the end. "Better?"

"Better." She said in return. "Alright, let me continue. Yes I was the woman you met at the bar. Fleur was..." She paused. "Okay how can I put this delicately. My bosses, the big guys that control you know heaven and hell and all that jazz.

Well every year or so they choose one person for every world out of the infinite number of living being's all through out the infinite number of universes and place them into a diffrent reality. So ipso facto that is where you're heading to now! Just one little complication..."

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold up..." I interrupted her. "Let me get this straight. I died, then sent to the afterlife where I could hangout, drink beer and laugh to my hearts content with my brothers and sisters. Then I find you or Fleur or whoever you are where you guilt trip me into accepting your gift not knowing what it was. Some boring talk later, you kiss me or Fleur kisses me causing me to fall back from my stool to where I am now falling through nothingness, having a pleasant conversation with the very being that did this to me in the first place... Did I leave anything out?"

"Well no, that's everything in a nutshell Sergeant. Look I'm sorry, it was not my choice to trick you into doing this, you see you are a special case. And from what I have to say next I know you are not going to like, and I should hurry. You are reaching your new reality soon."

It was at that moment I witnessed a flash of light flicker under me. I looked down to see that I was stark naked! And the tip of my toes began to be encompassed by a pink light.

"Syn, what the hell is going on!?" I yelled to her. I didn't really care being naked but the light encompassing my toes was actually scaring the hell out of me.

"It has begun... Your transformation."

"What the fuck!? What do you mean transformation!?" I yelled back to her. The light began to creep up my foot and to my ankles. My eyes were as wide as they could be as I watch the light creep up my body.

"This is were it becomes difficult..." She said. "Every decade my bosses tend to screw with one of the inhabitants from every universe that they send to a new reality. It's there way of having fun for having to do the same work over and over again for... I'm not really sure how long."

By now the light was beginning to quicken it's pace as as it past my chest encompassing every part of my body even my arms in the unforgiving pink light

"With the individual my bosses tend to screw with, he or she is transformed into a new being from the reality they are being sent too... And um... The light that is on you is pink right?"

"FOR FUCK SAKES YES! NOW HURRY UP AND TELL ME! THIS SHIT IS BEGINNING TO PASS MY DAMN NECK!!!"

"Pinkmeansyou'returningintoafemale!!!" Syn said quickly revealing the answer to Floreal question. Like ripping a Band-Aid off or so how the saying goes.

"W-what?" I said in a stupor. 'No... What she said couldn't be right.'

"Yes you, Floreal Emilio Guadiana Sergeant for United States Marine Recon are being turned into a female of the new reality. But not just any female though... No you are being transformed into the woman you met earlier this evening. A Ms. Fleur de Lis."

The pink light now passed Floreal's trembling lips. He was scared, frightened, he's been through many things in his days in the Marines but this... 'No! This can't be right! This can't happen to me!' He tried to thrash around to get the pink light from moving any further. But it was all for not... His limbs wouldn't move! His arms, his legs, fingers and toes not even his nose.

As he tried to move he felt himself growing weaker not in strength but in mind. He felt tired like his days back in training. He could not see anything but the pink light in his eyes. He could not speak a single word.

The light was finishing it's completion. Floreal's entire body was encompassed the last was to be his ears a gift from Syn so she could say her final good-byes to the now 'Woman' Falling to sleep in the falling expanse.

"Flor-... Fleur. I'm sorry this had to happen to you. You were a good man back on earth... Please move on, I know it will be hard for you but please there is nothing anyone not even the big boss up top can do now.

I'm so very sorry Fleur..."

Author's Note

Dark tag will be removed... Once I get a computer.