EDIT 05/25/17: Hello everyone! I've decided (yes, two years later) to finally do some revision on A Frozen Flower. I'll be re-uploading chapters as I revise them, so some chapters might be the old version and some might be the new version until I finish. Chapters will also be uploaded on Wattpad, AO3, and Tumblr all under the pen name elysianoriel. I'll leave the old A/Ns up for comic relief. Thanks!
A/N: This story is set in the same "world" as Agent Olive: Before and After. So, Olive, Oz, Oren, and Octavia's backstories are the same. However, there is a slight change regarding Olive's last partner: her old partner was Todd, but when Todd was away for a few months Olive got Orchid as a temporary partner and mentor, since Orchid was new to the squad.
I
FROST
~ Orchid ~
Orchid jumped in front of the passing agents and pointed to the floor. "STOP!" she shouted. "Dinosaurs crossing."
"We don't have all day, Orchid," Olive sighed.
"Seriously? Come on," her partner added. "Is that all of them?"
Orchid gave one last sigh, then jumped up from the floor. "Now you can go."
She turned to her dinosaurs. "All right, you three. You've been so badly behaved during our walk, we're going straight home." She picked up the dinosaurs and began to march down the corridor to the dinosaur room.
Stupid Otto, always thinking I'm a child. The thought slipped out before she could contain it. Horrified, she stopped in her tracks and clapped her hand over her mouth. Such thoughts were dangerous. Please, please, don't come…
But Orchid's pleas went unanswered. Blinding pain shot into her temples. Reeling, she fell to the ground.
Fight it, fight it! She repeated Ms. O's words in her mind.
Tears streaming down her face, Orchid scrambled to her feet. But the world was already swaying—a sign she was about to lose control.
I need to get to the dinosaur room!
She began to sprint towards the door. She wrenched it open and caught a glimpse of her forgotten dinosaurs, lying in a lonely heap on the floor. I'll get you as soon as this is over, she promised before slamming the heavy door shut.
The colors of the dinosaur room swam into Orchid's eyes. Trees turned electric blue and pulsed like the lights in a nightclub. A dragonfly's wings grew to ten times their normal size. Then the creature flopped to the ground, brown and lifeless.
Fight it, fight it, her dinosaurs chanted in Ms. O's voice.
"I'M TRYING!" she shouted, even though she knew Ms. O couldn't hear her. "I'm… trying…"
She slumped against a wall, her energy sapped. The room flashed with a blinding light, then turned black and white. The world finally spun and twirled out of her reach, and Orchid was whirled into darkness. That was all she remembered.
Orchid opened her eyes. The skylight filtered in a cool yellow light, illuminating the dust particles floating downward. It was the calm after the storm. She was half-content to stay like that, lying on her back and watching the dusty sunrise. But she forced herself to get up and take in her surroundings.
Trees were scattered on the ground, plastic branches torn from their trunks. The wallpaper had been ripped from the walls, revealing stained whitewash underneath. A dinosaur lay on the ground, its neck severed by all but one wire.
Orchid collapsed back onto the ground and started to sob. She had failed again.
~ Olive ~
"What are you staring at?" Olive followed Otto's gaze. "Orchid?"
"I'm not staring at her," he mumbled. "I'm just looking at her for a really long time."
"Well then, why are you looking at her for a really long time?"
Otto turned to Olive. "Is Orchid's partner invisible like Oz?"
Olive was taken aback. "Um, no. She doesn't have a partner."
"Why not? Everybody else does."
You are not to tell anyone, ever, what happened that day. Ms. O's words echoed in Olive's head.
"Um, there… isn't anyone available."
Otto looked at her skeptically. "But she's been partnerless since I joined the squad. And we've had new recruits. Why doesn't Ms. O give her a partner?"
Olive shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "I don't know. I guess Ms. O has her reasons."
"But why would Ms. O keep someone alone for that long? Maybe she forgot about her. You know what? Let me go up to her office and remind her. Nobody should have to be partnerless." He got up from his desk and started to walk towards the staircase.
"NO!" The word came out louder than Olive meant it to. She winced as the whole squad turned to look at her.
"Otto, you don't want to do that. Orchid—she just likes to work alone, okay? And I don't think she'd want you interfering with her personal business."
Otto sat back down slowly. "Okay," he said. "I won't ask. But there's something about Orchid you're not telling me, isn't there?"
"No! No, nothing at all."
She was suddenly very interested in filing her paperwork in the right drawers. Other than Ms. O, Olive was the only agent at the squad who knew Orchid's secret. Ms. O didn't like to talk about it, or how the training was going.
"Orchid's not your partner, so stop interrogating me!" she'd snapped the last time Olive had asked about her. "Now go away! There are some laser chickens in the town square! What are you waiting for?" She had hurried away with Ms. O's final "GO!" following her.
"Olive!" Otto waved a hand in front of her face. "Earth to Olive, your badge is ringing."
Disoriented, Olive looked down and saw that her badge was indeed ringing. "Go for Olive," she said, holding it to her ear.
"WHY DID YOU NOT PICK UP?!" Ms. O shouted into Olive's ear. "I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THE LAST TEN SECONDS!"
"Sorry, Ms. O. What's happening?"
"Get to the park! NOW! And don't bring Otto!"
"Why shouldn't I bring Otto?"
"Just GO!"
Feeling uneasy, Olive rushed out of the room.
~ Oprah ~
"WHERE WERE YOU?" Oprah growled at her best agent. "This is urgent! I don't want you treating this like a case."
"It's—not a case?" she said, confused. "Then what's the problem?"
"What's the problem?" Oprah repeated incredulously. "For odd's sake, look around you!"
She sighed inwardly. Olive could be so wrapped up in something that she couldn't see what was right under her nose. She needed to fix that if Olive was ever going to become Ms. O.
"Whoa! Was it a tornado?" said Olive, looking around at the destroyed park.
"No, Olive," sighed Oprah. "It was Orchid."
"So I'm guessing her training isn't going too well?"
She sighed again, for the second time in five minutes. She really was getting too young for this.
"Don't tell her this, Olive, but Orchid isn't going to get any better. All she's going to get is stronger. She destroyed this park without ever touching it. She was in her dinosaur room the whole time—I was watching on the security cameras."
Olive didn't seem to know what to say. She just nodded. "That's unfortunate."
The two agents sat there on the bench for a while, together with their thoughts. Oprah loved Orchid like she loved all her agents. She wanted the best for her, yet she feared what would happen once she became untrainable. She remembered that moonless night five years ago, when she had found Orchid standing over a dead body. Oz had been with her then. He had whispered to kill her, and Oprah had been about to… but she had been too softhearted. Could one life saved justify a world lost? That was the kind of question Oz would have known the answer to, before he had had his soul death. But now, Oprah had no idea how much Oz remembered anymore, if he still remembered anything at all.
"What did you bring me here for?" Olive finally said.
She snapped back into business mode at once. "I thought you could give me advice. I guess I was wrong." She stood up and began to stride toward the tube entrance. "Call Agent O'Hara. I want a juice box ready for me the moment I step foot in headquarters!"
~ Otto ~
When Olive was gone and he didn't have any work to do, Otto liked to wander around headquarters. This happened often enough that Otto could truthfully say he knew where all the important parts of Odd Squad were. That is, he knew the quickest paths to the doughnut room, the cookie room, the cupcake room, and the break room.
Since Olive had left without notice, Otto made a beeline straight to the doughnut room. He was about to pull the door open when he noticed Orchid disappearing around a corner.
Remembering his conversation with Olive, curiosity overcame him. Otto looked mournfully at the doughnut room, then started following Orchid. He could get a snack later, but this couldn't wait. Soon Orchid would be too far away to follow.
Why are you snooping? Olive's voice trickled into his head. It's wrong to snoop. Don't you have work to be done?
Work can wait, he rebutted. Orchid can't.
Why are you so obsessed about Orchid? Do you want to be her partner? Are you putting her over me?
Otto picked up his pace, infuriated. I don't know what's deluded you. You were never first to me, Olive. I have a family, you know!
Of course. A family who you lie to, every day. A family that doesn't know the real you, the Otto who pretends to go to school each day but really comes to headquarters to work with—guess who? Me!
Otto swiped at the air, then slapped himself in the head.
By the time you decide to leave, I'll mean more to you than your little family ever did. Just wait and see. When agents leave the squad, they leave changed. They're never truly part of their family again, because this is their home. We are their family. They'll be filled with an intense longing for Odd Squad. But they can't come back, because they took an oath. The longing infects their minds and poisons their hearts. It eventually drives them insane—
Otto clapped his hands over his ears. "STOP IT! STOP IT!"
"Otto? Um, are you okay?"
A few yards away, Oscar was frowning at him.
"Oscar! I need to find Orchid."
"Orchid? She just passed by. I think she was headed for the break room. Why are you looking for her?"
"Oh, um, no reason."
He raised an eyebrow. "Tell the truth, Otto."
"Why are you interested in what I'm doing?"
He shrugged. "I'm bored."
"I wanted to figure out why she doesn't have a partner."
"Wow! That's a great idea!" Oscar pulled a Sherlock Holmes-esque cap from inside his lab coat.
Otto sighed. There was no getting out of this one.
~ Orchid ~
As soon as she entered the break room, every agent in the room suddenly collapsed and covered their ears.
"What's going on?" she said.
The door to the break room suddenly flung open. Ms. O stood in the doorway.
"Orchid! In my office! Now! And close the door behind you!"
She walked away without another word. Orchid thought it best to follow her.
Ms. O collapsed into her office chair, holding her temples. "No, O'Donahue, no," she muttered. In her normal voice, she shouted, "Orchid! Six juice boxes! Stat!"
Orchid hurried to the juice bar. When she got back, her arms full of juice, Ms. O was still murmuring to herself.
"Over a century together, O'Donahue. That's more than any agent here today can say. How could you turn on me like this?" A pause. "I loved you, O'Donahue. And you're telling me that after all those years, I meant nothing to you? Nothing?"
"Ms.… Ms. O?"
That seemed to snap Ms. O back to her senses. "Shut up, O'Donahue! You're not real!"
She turned to Orchid. "I don't want you working in the office anymore. From now on you're confined to the dinosaur room unless I call for you. No exceptions."
Orchid was shocked. "But why? What have I done?"
"Nothing, Orchid. You've just grown, and there's nothing you can do to stop that. But your presence is making people hear voices. Fabricating heartbreaks. I can't let this happen, or everybody who's hearing my voice in their heads is going to burn down headquarters. It's for your own good, Orchid. Now go. I'll bring your dinner down in two hours."
"Not Oksana?"
"Definitely not Oksana. Go."
The tears that hung in her eyes finally spilled over, and Orchid ran to the newly repaired dinosaur room, leaving a trail of anger in her wake.
A/N: I'm juggling several stories right now, and these chapters are a bit longer than I usually do, so expect an update every 3-4 weeks.