Omega [REDUX]

Chapter 38

She fiddled with the gift Hans had left her on the table. In light of recent events he had been reassigned; now that the academy was a pile of rubble they'd taken him out of active duty for consultation. They were going to rebuild it, and he was happy to offer his input.

Or at least, that was what he said in the piece of paper left on top of the box.

She smiled. He'd left her the note only so she wouldn't worry. She knew he didn't really like the arrangement, based on the scrawls in his handwriting, the pressure he'd been applying on his pen and the haste in which he had written it. It was expected; Hans never really liked the administrative side of things despite being the head of the academy, preferring to leave logistical issues to other staff members.

She held the pistol in her right hand, marveling at how well it fit her. The gun was a working replica of the one she had designed in the academy and used for her training simulations, and was identical in almost every way, from its grip to its shape to the signature white finish she had painted it with. Evidently Hans had done some digging; she wasn't sure that data had survived the shelling of the academy, despite having personally overseen the offshoring of the data.

If she was never going to see him again, this would be a good thing to remember him by.

The door behind her opened. Charles walked in, nodding to her as he took his seat on the other side of the desk. "I'm going to assume you completely forgot, and or didn't bother, reading the datapad I gave you."

Elsa tried not to look too nervous about the fact that he was correct. "Sorry," she began, "I've been so, so busy—"

"It's okay," Charles said from behind his chair, looking over his table to where she sat in his office. "I know that Anna's issues, which make them your issues, are a lot to handle, and I don't blame you for forgetting. In fact I won't even pretend to try to understand what you two have been through the past two days." His expression lightened, a wry smile creeping across his face. "Besides, I've been young before, and I know two young people can get up to a lot of things when they're left alone."

She gave him a rueful smile and said nothing.

"In any case, I'm going to have to get you up to speed, since you clearly forgot to do your reading." Charles swiveled around in his chair to activate the display board behind him, punching in a few commands on his tableside console. "What I intended for you to read was a series of documents involving your posting and the relevant accommodations."

"Why does that need a datapad?" Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Protocol states that non-essential information should not be wasting space on a physical device."

Charles turned around in his chair to stare at her. "There's a protocol for that?"

She nodded slowly. "As far as I recall from the seven times I memorized the full series of protocols dictated by UIF HQ, yes. It exists."

He shrugged. "Never heard of it," he went on, as the familiar sounds of the screen initialization reaching their ears just as Elsa proceeded to facepalm herself. "I could make the argument that your deployment logistics are very important, so there's that."

"What's so important about it?"

Project: Cradle Alpha flashed upon the screen, alongside a single bar for authentication. Charles punched in an alpha-numeric code and bypassed the login. "When we took you in was agreed that your deployment as an asset would be entirely different from our other units. When we were testing you initially we feared a lack of military training would compromise your combat effectiveness, but your hunger to learn, coupled with exceptional ability, dealt with that problem." Two more tiers of authentication materialized, and Charles turned back to his console to bypass them. "Our psychological analysis however, indicated you indeed required separate arrangements."

"HQ doesn't think I'm prepared to fight Empyrean as much as the other soldiers?"

"Your loyalty was one of the things that was never in question, and if anything your recent actions have further proved that point." The safeguards disappeared upon authentication and the display revealed a series of files. With a sweep of his hand Charles transferred the files to the holographic display instead. "No, our concern was that you could only, and would only, reach the height of your powers when you weren't emotionally and mentally compromised. So instead of conditioning you by numbing your response to adverse conditions, we decided to do the reverse: to maintain an optimal psychological state where possible.

"Cradle Alpha is our attempt to reach that goal." He flicked his finger; a single digital file floated its way to Elsa, trailing blue light as it did. "We added some minor changes after we recovered Anna in the state that she is now, but the plans should still work."

"I don't understand," Elsa said, somewhat unwilling to open the file until Charles had finished. "You assigned me and Anna to the same unit prior to her augmentation. How could you have prepared it this early?"

"Anna would have gone with you into Cradle Alpha even before her augmentation."

Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because we quickly established that you were emotionally attached to her."

She could literally feel the blood rushing to her face. "Hans."

"No, HQ knew even before you told Hans about it. Hans knew even before you told him, too. All this was established before I was assigned to be your unit's handler. Did I mention that? I'm actually your unit's handler right now."

"How in the hell—?"

"We roped in your teammates to give us updates."

Her mouth fell open.

"The day you ran down the hallway before passing out was the day we noticed that Anna and you might have shared a mutual affection; we contacted your other teammates to request that they observe you, and your relationship with Anna, if there indeed was such a relationship. Our deductions were correct; they've been providing us with updates whenever they could."

She buried her face in her hands, not bothering to look at Charles grin. "I hate all you right now," she said, her voice coming out muffled.

"Frankly I was more surprised you weren't angry; a lot of people would point out that what we did was a breach of privacy."

"It is a breach of privacy."

"Frankly I doubt you'd mind Anna going with you to a base where it's only just the two of you. Would you? Because I could call HQ right now and tell them you violently object—"

"Get on it with it," Elsa glared at him, prompting a laugh out of Charles. "Otherwise, I swear to god—"

"Okay, okay," he said, failing to wipe the smile off his face. "Just open the file. I think you'll like what we have in store."

Anna was busy with target practice by the time Elsa found her at the base's range. She'd been discharged a while ago; since then she'd been eager to explore her body's true physical and combat capabilities. No amount of persuasion could put her down, aside from routine testing and checkups; she refused to spend time doing anything else.

Except Elsa. She'd definitely spend time doing Elsa; Elsa herself found that out a few days ago.

Around the range there were a few other soldiers doing practice, but the majority were focused on Anna herself. Her body was in full combat form; metal plates formed a layer of powered armor around her, her metal helmet enveloping her in with a golden faceplate, and a streak of red running down the middle of the black headpiece. Yesterday she'd watched Anna personally design the form that she would take shape, and happily provided her input.

Murmurs echoed through the groups of soldiers scattered around the range's perimeter. Her enhanced hearing picked up the majority of them, most of them in admiration or curiosity, some of them remarking how good she looked. How good she looked in all the right places. She smirked; she'd be the only one to enjoy that benefit.

She saw Anna raise her right hand, morphing from a smoking plasma cannon to a sniper rifle; with her left hand she now cradled her "weapon arm" to raise it into position, checking that her aim was true. Then she reached to the table to retrieve a single sniper round, loading it into her arm's weapon chamber, and taking aim again.

It was the same scene all over again when they had just met in the academy, when they'd been part of Omega-Valkyrie. Her sitting at the side, watching Anna take aim and open fire in the distance, the familiar sound of weapon discharges reaching her ears as she glanced at her datapad. She leaned back on the wall the bench was fixed to, twirling a small snowflake between her fingers. Elsa took a quick glance at the scoreboard. Perfect scores on Anna's lane, as usual.

How far they had come, she realized, as she recalled the days where the scores on the board teetered on failure grades. The days when they were innocently occupied with each other, the days before the kidnap, the days before Anna's augmentation. Things were different now. Very different.

With any luck, Elsa would be able to say that it was a "good different".

Anna fired off her last round in stunning fashion, pulling off a classic "360 no scope" as she spun, angled her weapon arm and opened fire, the round still landing dead center. She deactivated her helmet and retracted her visor, walking off to brief applause from the now dispersing crowd.

"You're quite the attraction here," Elsa remarked as her lover walked up to her, deweaponising her right arm. "Heard a bunch of the other soldiers wanting to have a go at you."

Anna laughed. "You know I'd beat them."

"I didn't mean go at you in that sense."

She watched Anna's rosy cheeks take on a blush as Anna realized she meant. "You're kidding."

"Dead serious."

"Well then," Anna said, regarding Elsa with a glint in her eye and a smile on her face. "Looks like I have to get that thought out of their minds. Wouldn't do you any good, would it?"

And she pulled Elsa in for a long, tender kiss.

Elsa giggled halfway through it, prompting Anna to smile as well, because she heard wolf-whistling from the other side of the firing range. She felt Anna's soft lips press deeper into hers, her tongue running hot trails along them. For that moment there was no Elsa or Anna, but only them. Them as a collective whole.

When they broke away Elsa planted a light kiss on Anna's forehead. "No, it definitely wouldn't."

"I'm tireeddddd."

"I know," Elsa replied. "The trip won't be long."

"But we could have rested in the base barracks," Anna whined from behind her. "Or in my quarantine room."

"Then you shouldn't have insisted on training for as long as you did. I told you we were going, and you insisted on 2 full hours of additional training." Elsa tapped her feet lightly on the ground as she leaned into the pilot's seat. "You really need to get your priorities straight, princess."

"Admit it," her lover teased, "you love watching me."

"No comment."

Anna giggled. Elsa failed to hide the smile that appeared on her face.

"You know," Anna said after a brief pause, "you still haven't told me where we're going."

"I did. Cradle Alpha."

Anna pouted at her from her passenger seat. "That doesn't really say anything, you know."

"I don't want to spoil the surprise." Elsa pulled gently on the controls to take the Hummingbird into a gradual turn, the same tiny grin still gracing her features. Blue skies and white fluffy clouds floated by as they cruised through the air, leaving the main city behind them. "I've seen the files, and I think you'll love seeing it for yourself."

"I don't even know why they need a special facility for us to be 'psychologically prepared' to exercise our augmentations."

"Hey, if that's what HQ's psychologists decide, I'm certainly not complaining after reading the files."

Anna squirmed and whined in her seat. "Now you're just teasing me."

"I'm sure it'll be worth it. As with all other times when I tease you, if you get my drift."

That got a laugh out of both of them.

"Well it must mean something big if they allowed us to take the dropship with us. Permanently. And demanded we proc stealth mode after a certain point."

"Speaking of which—" Elsa reached over to trigger the dropship's stealth drive. "Cradle Alpha is top secret, Anna, mainly because we're its only inhabitants." The familiar whirring came over her ears as the exterior began to fade from the visible spectrum of light. "We're both technically top secret too."

She could hear Anna almost spit out the grape juice she was drinking. "Fuck! You tell me this after I walk into the range while fully weaponised?"

"You're no longer top secret to military personnel because they felt it'd be a morale booster to let our forces know we brought back someone alive, and that you're basically all ready to get back at them," Elsa went on. "You won't have to worry. The decision was a political maneuver on HQ's part. Though the public still doesn't, and for the foreseeable future, won't know we exist."

"How about Merida, Rapunzel and Belle?"

"They're cleared."

"Wow. So aside from the military wing, we technically can't interact with a lot of people, can we?"

"It's the price we pay to keep people safe." Elsa sighed. "The less people know about our powers the better, because like it or not I guarantee Empyrean is going to try to make a grab for us again."

Anna visibly quieted down. "Sorry," Elsa mumbled. "Shouldn't have said it that way."

"It isn't your fault if it's the truth."

Elsa pursed her lips. "It is my fault. I dredged up part of our lives that we both wanted to move on from—"

"It's okay, really. It's just…" Anna's voice trailed off, blotted out temporarily by the whirring of the dropship's air conditioning. "Our lives will never quite be the same again, will they?"

"Ever since I escaped, I knew they'd come for me eventually." Elsa flipped a few switches to do a brief diagnostics run on the dropship's systems just before they landed. Her console indicated they were a little while out from Cradle Alpha. "I was literally their best candidate because I adapted to the augmentations more seamlessly than the others, and they could never seem to replicate it."

"Thought you always professed the augmentations hurt like hell."

"They did. They were, however, nothing compared to what the others went through, and if I'm read the reports correctly, your augmentations were arguably less painful as well." Through the small mirror mounted on the console side she watched Anna cringe as she tried to fully imagine the pain. "There were days upon days where they were writhing and crying in agony next to me, and I could do nothing about it. Not something you can forget easily."

Anna shook her head. "I can't imagine what it must feel like. Not just the pain they went through, but…" Her voice trailed off again. "I can't imagine living with the knowledge that you can't run away from them, no matter what you do and what you try. It must be so… suffocating."

"You get used to it." Her eyes reddened. "I just never thought I'd end up dragging you into this mess."

"Hey…" Anna stood up and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. You need to let that go."

"You're right." Elsa sighed, flexing her fingers along the joystick she held. "It's just… hard to forgive myself sometimes. A lot of times, in fact"

Anna bent her head and pecked Elsa's cheek gently. "No matter what happens, I'm here with you now to face it. Together."

Elsa forced back tears and tried to continue flying.

"Oh. My. God."

Elsa let a smile cross her face as she pulled the dropship into one last spin, but Anna had already seen everything she needed to see about Cradle Alpha. She angled the dropship to fall in line with the landing pad, deactivating the stealth drive at the same time. The chorus of whirring and hissing reached her ears as she touched the craft down, the landing jolting her back into her seat. She disengaged the controls and deployed the ramp.

"Are you kidding me?!" She could hear Anna bounding down the metal ramp, squealing as she did and sprinting onto the landing pad even as she pushed herself out of the pilot seat, shutting down the engines and powering down the ship. "Are you freaking kidding me?!"

"You haven't even see what's inside yet." Elsa stepped into the sun, feeling its rays bathe her skin in warmth, her icy outfit keeping her decently cool at the same time. She glanced at the facility, which was really more of a castle than anything, having been abandoned before the UIF retrofits. She allowed herself another smile; she wasn't about to complain about how much was being splurged on them.

Anna literally bounced her way back to her, and crashed into her arms. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod ELSAAAA!" She squealed as Elsa wrapped her arms around her torso, only to pick her up and spin her around, laughing through it all. Eventually Elsa managed to set her down again, letting her tear into the castle to explore.

Now that Anna was gone, Elsa walked over to the edge of the landing pad, entering a series of commands into the tiny console that stood on its edge. The pad descended into the tower it was built on, thick metal plates slowly closing behind the dropship, concealing it from view. She glanced back at her datapad, then back at the console, keying in the lockdown phrase to prevent unauthorized access.

Then she took the stairs down the battlements, past the door Anna had clearly hacked open with her new abilities and closing it, and into the heart of the castle.

Why they commissioned a castle as the site for Cradle Alpha was something she couldn't wrap her head around. But she found herself having to admit that whoever did commission the project had done a bloody good job. When she'd first looked at the details she feared structural weaknesses would compromise the defences of the facility.

Now that she saw Anna running around, exploring her way through the vast spaces, she saw the genius of it all. Everything non-essential, while aesthetically pleasing, was situated near the ancient exterior of the castle. All other critical facilities and machinery were located inside the heart of the mountain the castle was built on. She stopped to admire the detailed carvings adorning the massive structural pillars, the engravings along the medieval coat of arms in the hall she now stood in. Below her was the ballroom, behind her was the courtyard, and underneath it was all their critical facilities.

It was genius and beautiful at the same time.

"This place is AMAZING!" Anna's voice came ringing through the castle's audio system, undeniably having been compromised by her lover's advanced hacking protocols. "And we get this all to ourselves?"

"HQ sanctioned some experts to drop by to give us check-ups every now and then," she replied to no one in particular, knowing that the microphones embedded in the walls would pick up her voice. She trudged down the stairs; Anna was bound to be inside the main compound. "They've scheduled the first group of them to arrive about a week from now."

"They better not take very long." She could hear Anna's voice emanating from a few doorways down, not just from the speakers anymore. "I wouldn't want them intruding on our privacy."

Elsa smirked as she strolled towards Anna's voice. "I wouldn't know why that could possibly be a concern."

"What a coincidence," Anna said as Elsa rounded the corner. "Neither would I."

Elsa's heart leapt to her throat as her eyes fell upon her lover's bodice. Anna's clothes lay in a pile next to the chair she sat in, but she wasn't quite naked; her body was partially covered in metal plates, just enough to leave enough skin showing yet stimulate the imagination at the same time.

"You've been looking at way too many video game characters with non-functional armor designs," she chuckled.

"Maybe," Anna responded, pushing herself to her feet and taking slow, deliberate steps towards Elsa. "The difference is that I'm just as sexy, but one hundred percent more functional."

Elsa failed to hide a smile as she raised an eyebrow, Anna's hands reaching behind her to place them on either side of the wall, trapping her against it. They were all too close now; she could feel Anna's breath on her cheek. "How much more functional?"

"In… a lot of ways, you could say," Anna smirked back, noticing Elsa's gaze dipping involuntarily to her semi-covered breasts. "I'd say you're quite impressed."

"Not quite yet." Elsa regained her composure and looked straight back at Anna, a lustful glint in her eye. "Think I'll need a live demonstration."

"I think that can be arranged," her lover replied, as she closed the distance to press their lips into a kiss.