Prologue-

She threw candy at the parade of men marching in seas of green as they passed her. She loved sharing her candy with the elves. They sang for her often and some would even smile at her amusingly. Sometimes they did neat tricks with the large black misshaped sticks that they carried.

Suddenly a pair of large, burly arms grabbed her from behind and tossed her in the air. She squealed with delight as her father Captain Mitteer played with her. He smiled as his little girl showed him how to feed elves or as most would call it throwing candy at soldiers marching.

Just as he was about to ask her what she wanted for lunch, an alarm went off in a building nearby. He glanced at a friend standing near him and then at his daughter.

"I will watch her." said the friend.

With having heard those words, the captain rushed toward the building that was currently being under attack. As soon as he entered the building, it was engulfed in bursts of red, yellow and orange.

All the little girl knew was things were no longer going to be about throwing candy to the elves.

Twelve Years Later-

Walking down the street, I heard the best thing in the world. Silence. It helps me clear my head. I had just endured a long and stressful day at school. I was downright miserable and nursing a migraine that only the combination of silence, darkness, ice and sleep could cure. Luckily it was quiet, the sun was going down, I had a cold bottle of water to my head and I was headed home to my lonely overpriced apartment.

I thought about what my friend Gina had said at the beginning of the day. I had been complaining about my sleazy boss at my dead end part-time job and she was trying to convince me to enlist with her because the pay was better than what I made currently, and it would be nice to have someone on the inside with her.

My father had been an officer. And he gave his life for the Army. I was supposed to have received a check from the insurance company once I was pronounced legally adult for his death but technically I won't receive it till I turn eighteen and till then all my money goes towards rent, food, and clothes. I don't even have a car. My uncle, Uncle Kerr as I called him died a couple years ago. He had promised to take care of me when my father had died, and he did. But now I was on my own. And slowly failing at adulthood.

I slumped down on my couch in the tiny one bed, one bath, one kitchen apartment. I didn't even have a bed. I had a couch, a chair and a desk, a TV and dresser. And then I had a tiny closet for my nice clothes. That was all my furniture in a nutshell.

I laid down after made sure the curtains closed and any light that would normally shine in my room was blacked out by tape. I was so serious about sleep that I even silenced my phone and reinforced the lock on my door by putting a chair under the door knob and duct taping the corners of the door shut.

Sleep fell easy and the dream of my father's death began playing on a loop.

A drive by in time-

I squatted down and laid in prone unsupported, hoisting a M-16 up with the butt stock to my shoulder and my face mere inches from the sights. I had enlisted a year ago and now I was out in the field pulling security while my platoon cleared an area. We were on high alert. The enemy was reported to have been in the area as recent as half an hour ago with us right on their tails. This was no training exercise. This had been my third mission but my first one where I was to interact and if necessary engage the enemy.

The enemy were armed with at least three automatics, two small arms, and any degree of unconfirmed explosives and possible lethal non-firing weapons. We had been tracking them for two weeks, and the mission report said that they had already wiped out to villages in Africa and slaughtered and entire medical unit that was supposed to be giving medical relief to the natives.

The leaves crackled behind me and I immediately knew without looking that it was my battle Gina or Specialist Klefmore as I had to call her. Just like I was PV2 or Private Mitteer to her. She couldn't call me my first name either. My first name was Sonya.

In the beginning she was better at being in the army then me. She had gotten promoted quicker than me because she had recruited me, and she knew when not to smart off at a sergeant. But I was getting better in the sense I knew my weaponry, and my regulations.

"Any motion?"

"No, all is quiet. But what can you expect. They are just as professional at hiding and killing as we are at tracking and fighting. We knew we weren't going to get them easily nor quickly. This isn't a bag and tag mission. It's a nuke fire mission.

"Shh... Mitteer. You don't have to go through the whole textbook. Hell. I am the one who showed you the mission file. Which was supposed to be need to know to you and the others but I let you read the entire thing. So don't make me pay for it later. K?"

"Roger that."

She sighed. She hated it when I went into full soldier mode. Even she didn't put her entire personality into a military blender, turn it on, and the absorb what the result was every morning. Nope. Only I did that. I didn't really have a choice either. In my civilian life I was miserable, and I sucked at being a civilian. Here I am happy, and I am good at shooting bad things that have a die switch on their foreheads.

OK, so I was a little trigger happy, but you try being normal after basic training and then a year in and out of the field where you literally sleep in thirty-minute shifts. Oh, and meals are dehydrated MRE's. Bathrooms are little holes that you dig behind a bush not even thirty meters from men. My unit is Coed. Luckily because they were at least taught manners at basic and this is a combat zone, they don't try anything.

I don't really think much of men. Probably why I have never had a boyfriend.

Gina didn't say much for the rest of the afternoon, but I knew what she was thinking. She had been thinking about it for the past month. Her wedding. Her love of her life, Jason Montrealo had proposed to her when we graduate from high school. He told her he would give her the first year of their engagement, so she could adjust to her new Army life but then he wanted to share that life with her. That one year was coming to a draw and she was running out of time. I, being who I was, found the whole ordeal hilarious and made a point to snicker whenever she knew that I knew what she was thinking. She in turn would glare at me till my snickers turned into pure innocent laughter and then she would join in. Unfortunately, since we were out in the field, I couldn't snicker. I could only smile.

"Shots fired. 60 enemy 300 meters. Frag out" I called. We were under attack. I had just been relieved, and a sniper took out our far guard. And I thought I was going to get a nap in. Ha. Fat chance. I could see in the distance, and I knew the rough figures. I also knew what we had at stake if we lost.

The grenade I threw made a loud pop and then the big bang that made everyone bite the dirt. Then more bullet whizzed past my head. I didn't do much damage. I only took out like a fourth of their front.

Just as I began to move, a private fresh out of training dropped right in front of me. I froze.

"That could have been me." I thought.

"Mitteer! Move! Damn it!" I heard Gina call.

At that I started to haul ass. I ran with a new sense of purpose. To take these bastards down.

Bang! A white light flashed before me blinding me and wham! I was out cold.

Frozen in Chains-

I was always careful at what assignments I accepted, but for some reason I just couldn't turn this one down. According to the file that Sharah gave me, a human experiment was imprisoned in a government facility in Africa. One that the client wanted to see free due to the competition between her and the company that ran that facility. The client didn't really care about the prisoner per say, just that taking the prisoner would shake up her competition. She didn't care what happened to the guy if he was freed, and she didn't have to meet in advanced. She payed me up front and I was on my merry way.

Best part of being a ninja, all paperwork can be forged to get you first class everything which means flights are faster. I looked over the schematics of the facility and I liked what I saw in the sense of it was easy to get into.

I slipped past security no problem. I went through every room but other than a couple night guards the place seemed abandoned. I was beginning to wonder if I was sent on a wild goose chase when I came across a big, metal door similar- no scratch that- exactly like a giant freezer. I opened and could not believe what I saw.

In chains, hanging from the ceiling was a woman, naked. The room was literally a freezer. I noticed that there were nozzles with hoses attached and timers built into the nozzles that were pointed at her. Three, two, I watched the nozzles count down to zero. Splash... They were spraying her with water.

I saw her eyelids flicker only enough to register that she could still feel the torture that they were making her endure. I felt furious. What kind of monster would do this to a woman? I slashed the hoses with one of my swords, and I sliced at the chains that held her to the ceiling and caught her before she hit the ground. If she hit the ground, with her skin cloaked in ice, I was afraid she would shatter. I couldn't help but notice she was beautiful. I shook my head quickly. Such thoughts were inappropriate not only due to circumstance, but also due to honor.

While carrying the bundle of ice and flesh in a fireman's carry, scoured the rest of the facility, but she was the only one whom I could see was a prisoner. I rushed out and sent an encoded mission confirmation to the agency, and then took her to an old friend with technology for situations such as these.

Loke Naviir was a scientist with heating technologies use to help frostbite victims. In this woman's circumstances, it was perfect. I laid her out on a lab table, while Loke pulled out a machine.

"I'm telling you it isn't ready for human trial. If this woman dies it isn't on my hands.", he warned me. I pointed at her and motioned "If you don't she will die anyway. She is barely alive as is."

He sighed and flipped a switch. Almost instantly it started to hum, and you could almost see the waves of heat that it put off. Within mere seconds, the ice around her body start to melt, and it revealed that she wore a set of metal tags around her neck.

He switched it off when she was completely ice free and almost entirely dry and warm. She was starting to shiver as the room temperature started to accept her once frozen body.

"I'll go find her some clothes. You can wrap her in this sheet until I get back." Loke handed me a hospital blanket and took off running to his office where he pretty much lived and stayed when he wasn't working.

I wrapped her, so she would be warm, and regain any dignity and modesty she had lost as a prisoner, but before I could pull away she wrapped her cold body around me trying to secure heat. I let her. The poor girl was probably half delusional and hallucinating.

Luke walked in carrying a pair pants, a shirt and a hoodie. "I don't her any undergarments for her. You will have to get her those. I am assuming you're going to take care of her? I can't take any more wards. People think I am kidnapping people off the streets."

I nodded. I would take this one in. I liked her fighting spirit. According to what little information I was given, she had no identity. So why did she have dog tags? I had to know who she was. It was important.

Her eyelids would flutter here and there as she got warmer. Without looking too closely I dressed her. I could help but stare at the tattoo on lower back. It was the same as the one on her left arm. Which could mean trouble for me.

Silence is deafening-

I felt warmer than I had all month. I think I finally did it. I gave up and died.

"I don't her any undergarments for her. You will have to get her those. I am assuming you're going to take care of her? I can't take any more wards. People think I am kidnapping people off the streets." I heard.

I felt movement and someone dressing me. OK... so I wasn't dead yet and I was being dressed. So maybe they decided I didn't have the information they wanted, and they were letting me go. But what information was I being tortured for? I couldn't remember.

Wait a minute. He was talking as if there was someone else. And as if I was safe. 'Wards' he said. I tried to open my eyes, but they were still frozen, and I was just too tired.

I fell back to sleep and dreamed about green elves and a man dressed in black carrying me through the woods while I threw candy at the elves.

Then I was surrounded by knives on a wall and I was laying on a white bear that was mushed flat.

And then all was dark.

I woke up to the clattering of pans and birds chirping. I felt malnourished and I could tell I was dehydrated from the intense desire to drink salt water. I opened my eyes. OK. So, the knives, and the white bear wasn't quite a dream. I slept on a bear rug and the room was decorated in cross between a dojo and a home.

What's a dojo? I thought to myself. Somehow I knew what it was without actually knowing.

I saw out of the corner of my eye... Breakfast was being made. I hoped that the man making it was going to feed me. Without thinking I decided I wasn't waiting for an invitation.

As I started to stand all my joints cracked and I collapsed but I didn't hit the floor. Instead a pair of soft, muscular arms caught me and gently laid me back down on the bear rug. I was panting in pain. I guess my body was just not ready for standing yet, but I didn't care because I smelled food.

"I'm sorry. I smelled food." I said quickly, trying to figure out how he got to me so fast.

His body started too spasm and he made this weird choking noise. I then realized he was laughing. I wondered why his laugh was like that. Then it hit me, what if he couldn't talk. Luckily, I knew sign language.

Wait. What? I know sign? This is so weird.

He made motions that meant food would ready soon (or so I assumed), and he asked if I liked biscuits and gravy. At that I almost jumped up and ran to the stove. Hell... I tried, and he had to hold me down. I nodded and grinned ear to ear at the smell of biscuits and gravy. He understood. I was hungry, and he said my favorite food. Wait a minute! How did I know that was my favorite food? Ah, hell. Who cares.

He went back to the stove and scooped some food into a bowl and brought it to me. I tried to hold it, but he wouldn't let me. Instead he spoons fed me. Literally. All I could do was admire the taste of food and in between bites admire the muscles he was showing in the tank he was wearing. My savior was hot. Or at I least I think he was. He had blue eyes and long blonde hair pulled back by a leather band. He had a large dagger hanging from his pants and he was barefoot.

Suddenly I didn't think men were so bad. Why did I think men were bad? Where was this guy when I had been tortured for the past five years? Hell… had it been five years? I couldn't even remember my own name or where I was from. I didn't dwell on it too much or else I would have started crying. Instead I enjoyed every bite this hot man shoved in my mouth. I couldn't tell which was yummier. The food or the man. Probably the food because I was hungry.

When I was done eating, I sat there and watched him devour his own food. He ate each bite individually in deep thought as if each bite held a little piece of wisdom. For all I knew it did. Food was love. Food was life. In my opinion, this guy had the right idea.

I looked around more closely at my surroundings. Swords, knives, and targets on the walls. A tiny table and a stove were at one end and the bear rug and fire place were at another. I saw a couple of doors, but they were closed so I didn't know where they led.

When he was finished eating, he walked into a room behind one of the doors. I heard water running. He came back out and sat down next to me.

Are you, all right?

I stared at him. He didn't ask anything else. He merely waited for me to formulate a response.

I nodded slowly.

She was scared and unaware of my intentions. She did not know whether I meant her harm or not. She knew the food was good though. The way she ate, it was almost animalistic. I had to guess that she hadn't eaten in a while. Even the few times she had eaten, there probably wasn't a lot to eat.

There had to be something. Something I could do. Something to make her realize that this was safe, that this place could be her new home.

Suddenly it hit me. There was a wolf family that just had a litter of cubs nearby in the woods. When she was strong enough, we could go by and see them. Baby animals seem to be every woman's thing.

Babies. The thought of a child of my own made my heart lurch. I was still young, but the thought of a family. A family to love, to fight for, and to provide for was something I wanted.

Shaking that thought away, I set to tidying up the dojo. Wasn't much to tidy up considering I had the place spotless but I had to find something to do besides hover over her.

I heard him sigh and watched him putter around the house.

Watching him clean was very interesting. The room wasn't dirty, but it was a nice show. Watching his muscles flex and move was hot.

I groaned inwardly. Why was I admiring this guy? Yes, he was hot, but I needed to do stuff. I had to find out who I was, but before that I had a more pressing matter to attend to. I had to pee.

Looking around I stared at the two doors, and then remembered I couldn't walk. Something told me that crawling would be easy. I rolled onto my front and used my stiff weak arms to drag the rest of me towards the door.

I had made it about six feet when I was suddenly flipped into the air and then carried bridal style back to the bear rug.

"I have to pee!"

I hadn't thought about that when I had brought her home. Being a guy using the bathroom in the woods was no problem, but the dojo didn't have a bathroom for guests. Sure, I had had a couple female students, but they knew ahead of time about the woods.

I sighed and took her outside. I wasn't sure how to break it to her.

"If you are trying to tell me the bathroom is the outdoors, just take me to a secure area, and I can do my thing. Please don't stick around till I call. I have no problem with using the outdoors."

My dilemma had solved itself.

While she was using the bathroom, I decided that maybe a bathroom of some sort would be an excellent addition to the dojo. At least then I could have an indoor tub for the winter, instead of risking frostbite at the falls.

"Hello?", came her voice. I smacked my forehead. I forgot to tell my name. How in the hell was she supposed to trust me if she didn't even have a name to put to my face?

I ran to her, scooped her into my arms and walked back to the dojo.