Author's Note:

Hopefully this bit stands alone, but it is intended as backstory for Many Verses, One Song.

We'll get back to Quetzal shortly. She's waited a year, she can wait a little longer.

Now to the story

Victor Creed sat at the bar, drinking. He was vaguely aware of someone sliding into the seat next to him. He lifted his head with a growl, intending on scaring the company away.

The young woman met his eyes without flinching. With her mouse-brown hair and brown eyes everything about her was forgettable. Even her scent was forgettable.

"Mr. Creed," she smiled. It was a sincere smile. "My name is Anna. I would like to hire you for a piece of work." Her soft voice had a trace of a French accent. At least she had the courtesy to get right to the goddamned point.

"Sorry, all booked up." He wasn't going to bother with asking who she was or how she'd found him, much less what the job was. Someone who was that unremarkable had to be a government agent. He very much doubted she was French. At any rate he had a limited amount of time before he got recalled to Team X.

She reached into her jacket and pulled out a stack of bills. She set them in front of him. "This is just for hearing me out." The sincere smiled continued but there wasn't much warmth in her eyes.

He pocketed the cash. "Okay, I'm listening." He looked around to find her backup. She seemed to have none. If she had backup then they were very, very good. "You here by yourself? He asked.

At that point Anna's eyes warmed up and she chuckled. "Concerned for my safety? No, I do not think so." She waved at the bartender and ordered a vodka and soda before turning back to Victor. "I am certain you can tell, I did not bring anyone else here. It is just you and me." She took a sip of her drink. "I believe you are familiar with the Chimeras?"

"We're done," he said. "Whatever you want, the answer is no." The first run-in he'd had with the Soviet gen-weapons was bad. A phantom smell of blood, gunpowder, and the non-scent of reptiles drifted through his mind.

Victor ran to the sounds of snarling. One he knew well; it was Jimmy. In a fight his brother could go into a red rage. It amused Victor because the rest of the time the runt presented himself as so civilized and above the violence their world was steeped in.

The other snarling voice was alien. It went against some deep, primal survival instinct to run towards the sound. Victor was used to ignoring that instinct. He could survive anything.

The reptile was the size of a large mastiff. It had a snub-nosed crocodilian head on a thick neck. There were too many teeth to fit in its mouth. It was covered in heavy plate scales except for its dull gold eye (Jimmy had scratched out the other eye). It was limping, putting no weight on its right front paw. But it had half of Jimmy's left arm in its mouth, having snapped it off just above the elbow. Thick, foamy, pink ropes of drool hung from its mouth.

But it was injured and half blind so Victor moved in through the trees for an easy kill.

It was not an easy kill.

He emptied an entire clip of his handgun into the creature. Many of the shots were deflected by the thick scales. A few found their mark when he pressed his weapon point blank into its relatively soft belly. But the reptile kept coming.

The thick tail slammed into him with enough force to crack three ribs and knocked him back. Victor cracked his head on a rock and he went into a blind rage.

The fight was a blur. He didn't remember much, just fleeting impressions. The taste of mingled blood, the smell of flesh already beginning to go necrotic, the unearthly roar that threatened to draw panic out of the primitive parts of his mind, warm entrails spilling into his hands. Blind and gutted, the creature didn't seem to notice its injuries and pressed the attack.

There was one crystal clear moment etched into Victor's memories. He was sitting in the dirt, pressing against the gaping wound in his thigh. The creature had torn a mouthful of flesh away and he was trying to stem the bleeding while his healing factor kicked in. The wound smelled like infection and death, a note of sweet-bitter underneath the nearly overwhelming scent of blood clogging his nostrils. Jimmy lay flat on his back, trying to pull air into his smashed ribcage. The only other sound came from the creature. Its head lay separated from the rest of its body by a good three feet, but the talons were still scrabbling dumbly against the ground. The quiet scratching of a monster that even death could not stop.

In the morning Victor might admire that dogged brutality, but for the moment he could only laugh maniacally in relief.

"Packs," Jimmy gasped, staring straight up. "God help us Victor, they hunt in packs!"

There was growling in the trees above. Victor looked up to see two hale and healthy creatures looking down from the trees.

No. There wasn't a large enough payoff to make him seek out Chimeras. The first encounter had been bad. Three times after that he'd encountered Chimeras and each fight was a harder won victory. They hunted in packs of three and displayed terrifying cunning. It didn't matter that each time he didn't leave a single one alive, somehow they learned, never making the same mistakes as their predecessors. He was unashamed of the fact that he fled from the last encounter with them. It got several people killed and he had to listen to Jimmy bitch about innocent lives for weeks.

Anna rested her hand on his arm as he got up to leave, unaware of the danger she was putting herself in.

"Hear me out," she said. "I know where they are manufactured. I know the security codes. I know how to destroy the facility without a being attacked. I know how to kill every single one of them. And I know a man who will pay very, very well for us to do just that." She removed her hand. Her voice was quiet but intent. "Chimeras are very cheap to produce and train. It takes only four years for them to attain full growth and lethality. Small packs were sent out at the beginning to test their effectiveness as a weapon. Think about how long it has been since you first encountered them and how many they could have ready to field now: hunting packs now have at least a dozen members. Multiple hunting packs can be deployed simultaneously. Mr. Creed it is not a matter of if you will fight one of these large packs, it is a matter of when. And you and Team X are a very high priority target. You can hide in the ground and hope that is enough, or you can take the fight to them and be paid well for it."

After a moment Victor settled back into his seat. She was right, however much it irked him. "How well?"

"A few hundred thousand at least," Anna shrugged and took another drink. "You will have to ask him, I am not doing this for money."

"So you'll be going in as well then?"

"You do not want to do this alone," she said. "I certainly do not. Besides that, I can get unlimited access to the lab."

"And why are you risking your life?" She didn't sound like a patriot.

She sighed and stared at her drink. "Because I have no choice." She finished her drink. "The lab must be destroyed with all of the research. Chimeras are getting far more refined. I do not just mean their training, but their physical model as well."

"What if I say 'no' to your offer? You going to try to kill me?"

"I will not threaten to kill you. You do not really know anything you did not know before. I am certain that it had occurred to you that there were people who wanted the Chimera project destroyed and would spend many resources to do it. That you can now put a face to one of those people is of less use to you than you might expect," Anna smiled. "But why would you say 'no?' You will have money, you will have our resources to help you slip the leash of Team X for a while, and you will be doing you patriotic duty by eliminating a very large cache of Soviet gen-weapons."

"Who are you working for? You're not French."

Her smile widened just a bit. "I am something between KGB and Spetznatz. Even Mother Russia is not immune to inter-family squabbles."

Anna was irritatingly good at piquing his interest. He could give a shit about his 'patriotic duty,' but getting off the reservation for a week or so was very appealing. The money was also appealing. And now she had him curious. If there was even half a chance she was right about being able to "Alright, let's go see your handler then. You get the tab."

The ride to the hotel had been uneventful. Anna didn't comment as he snooped through the glove box. There wasn't anything but rental papers, a gun, and a wallet with an alternate identity for her.

"You're not a very good spy," Victor said. "I had you pegged right away." She was leaving fingerprints all over the car. Strands of hair too.

"You are a dangerous man to sneak up on. I wanted to be spotted." She had dropped the French accent in favor of a presumably native Russian one. "I do have a way of disappearing into a crowd when I need to."

"Is that what your mutation is? Disappearing?"

"Please, Mr. Creed, even if you take this job we are still on opposing sides. Professional courtesy is not too much to ask for I hope? Or at least disguising the fact that you think I am a drooling idiot."

"Prove yourself competent then."

Anna parked and smiled. It was impossible to get any sort of rise out of her. "I was told to engage your interest and your services. I have not screwed anything up yet. If you will follow me upstairs at least?"

"Just when I was warming up to you."

"I have enjoyed basking in the warmth of your company as well," her voice was just as dry as his. "You may keep the weapon if you like."

Victor followed her to the elevator. "So what can you tell me about this little meet and greet?"

Anna pushed the elevator call button. "If you want to walk away, this is probably your best opportunity. Andrei will share much more information with you. At that point you will be committed."

"I'm not a drooling idiot either, sweetheart."

She smiled. "Of course not. But I have been told long silences are uncomfortable and that I would do well to fill it with friendly talk."

"I'm perfectly fine with you shutting the hell up around me."

Anna nodded. They rode up to the top floor in silence. She seemed very comfortable in the small space and silence. It left him with plenty of opportunity to think about her last statement. Team X was frequently supplemented with lab projects and frankensteins. They usually did one job really well and were spectacular failures beyond that. Small talk was usually bred out pretty quickly.

On the top floor Anna led him down the hall. She knocked quietly on the door before opening it. Her handler was waiting inside. He was a large but soft and his dark hair was combed to hide a bald spot.

"Andrei, this is Victor Creed," Anna said.

"You know Russian?" Andrei asked.

"I do," Victor said in Russian.

"So did Anna tell you she was a Chimera?" Andrei asked.

"I told him very little," Anna snapped. She stiffened as soon as Andrei started speaking about her.

Scowling, Andrei turned to her and hissed something Victor couldn't make out. Anna frowned and fell silent and still. Her eyes were locked in the middle-disance, staring at nothing. It was like she had been shut down.

"Like she said," Victor hid his surprise at Andrei's reveal. "She didn't tell me too much."

Andrei chuckled and turned to Anna. "And why is that my pet, hmm?"

"If he wasn't interested in the money then it would make no sense to give him more details." Her voice was flat.

Andrei ran his hand down her back and over her ass. It was a possessive gesture, like he was feeling a horse's flank. "You think too much. It will get you in trouble."

Anna stiffened again under his touch. Her eyes went dark with loathing.

Andrei continued. "Chimeras are constructs, just organic machines. But Anna here is something special, isn't she?"

"I've never seen anything like her," Victor admitted. He wasn't surprised that she was a frankenstein. "She certainly doesn't look anything like the Chimeras I've seen before."

"Machines get upgraded. Anna here is the upgrade of the Cerberus units you're familiar with."

"Some upgrade," Victor walked around Anna, examining her. "She seems completely human." Her comment about silence made complete sense. She wasn't even a mammal, a lizard certainly wouldn't have a concept of small talk.

"Her beauty is only skin deep. Underneath she is all weapon."

Anna stood silently, but her eyes weren't dull. She was listening, and she was hating.

"So how much money are we talking about?" Victor said. He wasn't interested in Andrei's bragging. Anna was a frankenstein and a gen-weapon. He didn't need to know more than that.

"A quarter of a million. This is a very dangerous job. Half the money up front as a gesture of . . . goodwill."

"What's your interest in this?" Victor asked. Andrei was definitely less circumspect than Anna.

"Capitalism!" Andrei laughed uproariously as if he had made an actual joke. "Supply and demand. Anna is one of a kind for now. And I am the only one with the know-how to make more of her. Many governments will be demanding a Anna of their own. Here," he turned to Anna. "Show him my pet. Run a test cycle."

Anna's hair cycled through every natural shade and a few only seen on mutants. It changed texture as well. Then her skin tone cycled from pale to ebony and was followed by a palette of rainbow hues. After her skin it was her eyes that changed color. The bones in her face rearranged then in a fairly sickening display after that.

"End cycle," Andrei said.

Anna had gone from an average-looking brunette to a Chinese woman with deep blue hair and bright pink eyes.

"Not enough to make her resemble a specific individual but certainly enough to make her the perfect assassin and a spy. If I let her continue she can revert to the more primitive Cerberus model."

"You already mentioned she was a lizard." Victor was still uninterested in the glorified science fair project.

"Oh much more primitive than a lizard. The core of the Chimera project is saurian."

It was hard to take Anna's subsequent hate-filled glare seriously when her eyes were bubblegum pink.

"And that's what you need me to get rid of." A bunch of jacked-up dinosaurs that were nearly immune to small arms fire. How hard could that be?

Andrei scowled a little at Victor's insistence on keeping the conversation heading back to the job at hand. "Anna will be doing most of the work. She knows the layout of the station and the security access codes as well as the destruction sequences. You will make sure she stays alive."
"And provide you with a scapegoat."

Andrei didn't deny it. Anna might be able to do the job herself or she might not, but if it looked like an inside job she and Andrei would have targets on their backs.

"We will be leaving tonight," Andrei said. "If Anna has done her job properly."

She nodded. "There is a private jet ready to go whenever we are. The rest of the arrangements are on standby and waiting for word."

The travel arrangements Anna made were comfortable and flawless. They weren't held up or searched at any borders and whenever possible she flew the plane herself. Victor went out of his way to compliment her on it when Andrei wasn't around. She smiled slightly. "I know some people. They do good work."

When they reached their destination Anna handed him a small stack of currency and identification papers. "You should not need this. But better to have it than not."

Victor saw Andrei frowning deeply. It had not been his idea and he clearly didn't like the idea of increasing Victor's ability to move. It was heartening to see that Anna had some free will and thoughts of her own.

Anna produced a key ring and a badge, not looking at Andrei. "This is an identification badge for the labs. It is genuine. And will get you through any doors. Everything else you need will be in your room."

"I hope you included a coat," Victor grumbled. They were in the middle-of-nowhere Russia and he was already freezing his ass off.

"Of course," Anna said.

Andrei turned to her. "Back to the lab Anna. Hop up little hop-frog."

Her eyes went vacant for a second and then filled with resentment. But wordlessly she turned and left.

If everything went well he would be out of the country again in seventy-two hours. It was not an overly complicated plan. Anna had nearly free range of the facility and Andrei had freed her from enough commands that she could break the locks and kill the men who had built her and trained her. If Anna had any qualms about this it didn't show at all. But she was just a gen-weapon after all.

It was a very slight sound that woke Victor up, but he woke up ready to fight anyway.

Anna stood in the darkness, watching him. Her hair was blonde now.

"How did you get in here?" he growled.

She smiled. "I told you, I am very good. Besides that, I am the one who made the arrangements."

"Damn creepy iguana," he muttered. "What do you want?"

She handed him a piece of paper with a phonetically written phrase on it. "I need you to read this out loud first."

"You woke me up to read you a goddamned bedtime story in greek?"

"Read it," she insisted.

Reluctantly humoring her, Victor read the nonsense sounds off the paper. "Now tell me why you snuck in here."

"After the facility is destroyed Andrei intends to kill you. "

"No shit," Victor said. If the facility and the Chimeras were killed then he wasn't in any real danger from Andrei. Anna had played things close to her chest. It certainly wasn't out of any concern for Victor however. As soon as Andrei revealed that Anna was the new face of the Chimeras, Victor knew that the plan did not include him being able to walk away.

Anna frowned at his flippant attitude. "I was given parameters when I was told to pick up a subject."

A surge of anger ran up Victor's spine at the way she used the word "subject."

"The primary parameter was to find a superhealer," Anna continued, heedless of how close she was to getting her neck snapped. "Bellaphon has developed a toxin. According to all the computer models it should be very effective at killing superhealers." She leaned against the wall. "So many wheels within wheels. Bellaphon wanted a superhealer to test their toxin on. They concocted a plan to get one of the best into the facility without a fight. If the toxin failed there would be a hundred fully grown Cerberus to bring him down." She paused. "Andrei developed the toxin. He is fully confident that it will work. Enough so that instead of the destruction of the facility being a ruse to bait you in, he will help you destroy it utterly. Then he will kill you. Then he will sell my genetic code and all the rest of the Chimera research to the Chinese."

"Why are you telling me this?" The rage was replaced with a sudden unease. The situation had shifted very rapidly under his feet.

"Because I can now that you said the words," Anna said. "I can be very easily controlled with the command phrases. Because of that, people think I am stupid. I am not stupid. I have my own plans." She smiled broadly. There was a manic light in her eyes. "In my plan, you do not get the toxin tested on you. In my plan, we kill them all. Humans and Chimeras alike. You get the money. I get my freedom.

"Andrei needed a fall man, what do you need?"

"Fall man? I do not understand."

"Someone to take the blame."

She nodded. "I need someone to kill Andrei. James would help me as it is the noble thing to do, but I can not trust that he will kill everyone that needs to be killed. Wade might work, he is mercenary enough. But even he does not have the spectacularly violent overreaction to being double crossed that you do. I admire that about you."

"Everyone else wants me dead at the end of this, how do I know you won't try the same with the toxin? Or be commanded to?"

"Why would I have reason to? You do not know the command protocol. It would take considerable effort and hazard to make a serious attempt to kill you. You are a bad man, but I do not care." Anna produced another sheet of notebook paper. "These are some of my commands. However, there is a command protocol that cannot be circumvented. So you will need this code," she tapped one at the top of the list. "It is the override code. The idea is that it is to prevent me from being used to assassinate high level officials. Nobody at the lab knows it. I am not even supposed to know it. This command will eliminate the command protocol and restore my free will, and for the next three hours the only commands I will obey are the ones from the person who gave me the override code. There are enough commands there that even when I am ordered to kill you, you can stop me."

Victor looked over the command sheet. "You trust me with these?"

She wasn't smiling anymore. "I trust you with these or I remain one of Andrei's organic machines." She paused for a moment. "I am not stupid. I did not give you all of my commands."

"It seems I don't have a choice but to go along with you."

"You have a choice. It is just not a very good one."

Slowly, Victor stood up. Anna watched without comment as he picked up his handgun and walked over to her. He pressed the muzzle against her temple. "There's a few more choices. I could drag you back to Andrei and tell him what you've told me. Or I could just just kill you now."

Her expression was still neutral. "Take me back to Andrei and give him the paper I gave you and they will still test the toxin on you. You will never leave the facility alive. They will not kill me, just tighten my leash. I am a valuable prototype. If you kill me," she shrugged. "You may make it a day or two before the Cerberus packs catch up to you. Survive that and they will still test the toxin on you. It will inconvenience Andrei but they already have enough of my genetic material on file that it will be easy to grow a replacement."

"You goddamned iguana," he snarled.

She stared quietly at him. "Are you going to kill me?" she asked with mild interest. She truly seemed to not care about the prospect.

Victor looked at the paper and lowered the weapon. "What if I just gave you the override command now?"

She blinked in confusion. "I beg your pardon?"

"I could give you the command. You'll have your free will back." He took some pleasure that he had managed to visibly stun her. "We can both walk away."

Anna moved to the foot of the bed and sat down. "I had not considered that." Her head tilted while she thought. After a minute she shook her head. "No. It would not be a long term solution. The override only works for so long. I cannot allow anyone who knows the protocol to live. And they cannot allow anyone who knows the override code to live. They will throw everything they have at you. Cerberus packs, the arsenal of toxins they've developed, even Omega Red would be taken out of storage."

"So that's it then. We need to kill everyone who knows of my involvement or your existence." Victor framed it as reasonable and accommodating. Once he was clear and he wouldn't need her help anymore, she was dead. "It seems we are on the same side after all."

Anna laughed and smiled the wide, genuine smile that made her eyes light up. "I can be easily controlled, but I am not stupid. I know that you hate me for this. You may very well try to kill me."

Honestly he didn't hate her as much as some of the people who were supposed to be his teammates (Zero being the insufferable prick that he was). She was in a tight trap and doing whatever she could to get out of it. She would chew her own leg off if she had too, she'd certainly chew him up. Victor could relate to that.

For a moment, Victor looked over her, thinking he might suggest ways she could improve the relationship between them. If she thought it would improve her chances for freedom she might even do it willingly, even enthusiastically. And there was always the override command.

The line of thought abruptly stopped and left a taste like sour milk in Victor's mouth. It had nothing to do with a sudden pang of conscience about turning her over the dresser and having his way with her whether she wanted it or not. It was the codes. Anna was a moderately pleasant and lively individual, the commands stripped that away from her.

If Stryker got wind of what the Soviets could do with their new mutants; if his superiors heard about Andrei's organic machines, then Victor might find himself shackled the same way. The Bellaphon facility would have to be destroyed and all the research with it. No need to let Anna know he now had a personal stake in it too.

"How does this change the plan?" Victor asked.

Anna shook her head. "From your end it does not. I will make sure you are better armed than they expect you to be." She handed him another badge. "And this badge will open every door. But it is important that you stay with the plan until they send me to kill you with the venom."

"Why would they use you? You're a valuable prototype you said."

"Because the nature of Chimeras is to be disposable. They are fire and forget weapons. A Demeter takes longer to get field ready, but not much. And this will be my field test. Now it is important that you wait for the second time I an sent with the venom. The first time it will be Bellaphon that sends me. Andrei will recall me. If you use the override we will lose the opportunity to kill him. The second time it will be Andrei who sends me. Use the override then."

"What if you're wrong?"

"That's why I gave you more commands than the override. I hope that Andrei will assume you picked them up from elsewhere in the lab."

"I could just give you the override code as soon as we meet up."

Anna shook her head. "No. I do not have the self control to hold myself in check. If we do it this way then no one will know that anything is wrong until it is too late." For a moment she fell silent. "I have not done anything like this before. I have been used exclusively for information gathering. Is there anything I am not seeing?"

"It never goes to plan anyway. Are you going to be able to kill everyone who needs to be dead?" It was a very real concern. These were people that had raised her, however twisted they were.

"Yes," there was no doubt in her voice. "I am a weapon after all." She walked to the door. "I will see you tomorrow."

Victor locked the door behind her and laid back down. Everyone had their own intentions for the outcome of the next day. Anna was lucky that his goal aligned with hers. To a point at least. The organic machine's existence alone might be enough to start giving the wrong people some very bad ideas. He looked over the list of commands Anna gave him. It was fairly straightforward. Nonsense phrases to make her halt, attack, heel, and recall.

At the top of the page was the all-important override code. Victor laughed when he read it. "Goddamned iguana. She's got to be kidding."

With the list committed to memory Victor quickly fell asleep.