Chapter Three: Cold, Cold Heart
It had been weeks since the interview that West had conducted with her, but Anna was still on edge. Agent West hadn't trained with her a single time since then and Kris wouldn't speak a word about what he thought West might do about their spat. In fact he told her annoyingly little about what her fate might be if a poor report were turned in, making Anna all the more anxious about today.
"It's just an evaluation of your overall performance, don't get your panties in a bundle."
"Easy for you to say, you've got a job already." Anna was irritated, but she needed his help. She took a moment to calm down and softened her tone, "So what happens? Do I need to go to them or-"
But Anna's inquiry would be answered before it had even been fully spoken. A small mechanism above the television flashed brightly before projecting an image of the ever-smiling Felix into their living area. Unnerved by the floating torso and head of Felix, Anna squirmed on the couch uncomfortably. Presumably this was a new technology being used in S.N.O., Anna hadn't seen anything quite like it before.
"Well hello you two. I see our Agent West hasn't made it back yet. No problem though, I can issue the results of our report to you two." Felix paused and phantom papers could be seen as he shuffled through them, clearly looking for a specific page. "Now most of our reports are pretty positive! Agent Bjorgman here has plenty of notes indicating upward trends in physical performance and mental fitness, but there is one teeny tiny little thing I wanted to address..."
She stiffened on the couch as the memory of her spat with West crept back into her mind. Surely West wouldn't have given a biased report just because of that, would she? Anna had done all the laps, done all the exercising, all without throwing up or complaining. There was no way that West would be so cruel as to cut short a budding career over a single disagreement.
Anna couldn't help herself, "Listen Felix if this is about-"
Felix made a series of little staccato sounds to stop Anna from speaking any further, and like a scolded animal she fell into silence again.
"It seems that Agent West has input a report that seems, well...out of line with the remainder of the reports that I have received, including those submitted by Agent Bjorgman after her report. Negative attitude, reacts poorly to overly challenging situations, easily flustered..." Felix paused to drop his papers back to his desk with a frustrated chuckle, still smiling despite the clear strain and irritation on his face, "I couldn't just ignore her, her opinion is incredibly valuable to us. I can assure you that I will certainly be having a talk with her about it. I'm afraid that for now I'll have to put a pin in the issue of your status as an agent. I need to know what Agent West really feels, she is a tough nut to crack after all. Isn't that right Agent Borgman?"
Kris laughed as Felix signed off, but Anna began to fume the moment his projection disappeared. "How can she have said that about me? She made me do all this exercise and then tacked on a five mile jog at the end? How am I supposed to survive that and not be a little testy afterward? Where the hell is she? I'm confronting her about this right now."
"Calm down, firecracker. She was sent out on an emergency assignment late last night, even Felix said that she hadn't made it back yet, weren't you listening?"
"Well when is she going to be back? If she wants a poor attitude I'll be more than happy to give her one."
"Lunch time maybe?"
Lunch came and went with Anna's ire ebbing the longer she waited for West to return. By dinner she had calmed down almost entirely, but retained just enough anger to prepare herself for the eventual interaction with West. As the minutes continued to creep by and Kris stuffed his face, she began to wonder exactly what could be taking West so long to return. Anna had hardly touched her plate, what she did eat she ate in a more violent manner than necessary. Kris finished in a hurry and was preparing to get up when Anna finally cracked.
"What, she's too good to come eat with us?" Anna spat the words before shoving a piece of bread into her mouth, glaring at the empty place setting at the table. She swallowed, "Don't tell me the she's avoiding us because she's too delicate to take a verbal scolding?"
Halfway between standing and sitting, Kris slowly lowered himself back into his seat. Judging by how wide his eyes were, Anna guessed that he was unsure of what he should do in the wake of her outburst. Anna watched his throat bob as he swallowed, as though he were preparing himself to handle whatever she might dish out.
His sustained silence in the face of her question only made her more angry, more willing to do and say what it took to get an answer, "Well? Why isn't she here? You said lunch time but it's hours later and she's still not bothered to grace us with her presence."
"Listen, Anna, you don't have clearance to know where she is yet. I have to respect her wishes and keep her work private, since that's what she's asked of me. And..." Kris looked hesitant, but his resolve apparently firmed as he finished his thought, "...you really shouldn't talk about her like you have been lately. She's not a bad person you know."
Whether he meant his words to sound that way or not, Anna found them patronizing. They were only fuel for the embers of rage that were being fanned back up into a vicious flame. "Or what, one of you will eat me? Is that part of the contract too? If I get too out of hand you guys get to split me however you want? For all I know neither of you are human and -"
Kris' fists hit the table and a loud resounding 'bang' echoed in the quiet room, even the plates at West's setting clinked against one another from the force. His eyes smoldered with either hurt or anger, Anna couldn't tell which, as he stared across the table at her. "You're acting like an ass. You shouldn't-"
But loud slam interrupted his words and brought Kris hurtling over the table. In seconds he had put himself between Anna and the front door. It was as if they hadn't just been arguing, he had leaped into action without a second thought. Anna looked on in astonishment as he seemed to be getting into a fighting position, ready to handle some threat, be it real or imagined. She hadn't seen him move like that during any of their training at all, there was something much different about the way that he reacted to a potential threat than what she had imagined the reaction to be. For a second she wavered in her certainty, maybe she wasn't ready to be an agent after all.
"Just me."
The voice that she heard was raspy, but identifiably female. It wasn't until the woman rounded the corner that Anna realized it was West. Anna rolled her eyes and turned back to the table, suddenly very intent on eating the meal that she had nearly ignored up to this point. She couldn't very well take on West immediately after she arrived home. After all, even a witch like her deserved to shower after a mission. The pair whispered behind her, but Anna refused on principle to turn and give them the satisfaction of knowing that she had had any interest in what West had been up to until now.
"Anna, I'll clean up later. I've got to...er..." Kris fumbled his words, but West was quick to give an answer in his stead.
"He'll be with me for a while."
There was something unusual about West's voice, while she had been curt as she always was with Anna, there was some strain in the words as she covered for Kris' slip up. Anna did notice that they were walking a little more slowly than seemed appropriate, and that for whatever reason Kris seemed to glance back at West frequently on the trip to her room. Her suspicions only grew as she processed what was said. West had just gotten back from some unspoken mission and all of a sudden she was inviting Kris back to her room? That didn't seem at all likely given that she rarely saw the two of them together.
Anna sulked for a moment when the door was shut, left alone with her waning anger and her growing curiosity. "Clearance." she spat, rising from her seat and dropping her plate into the sink. "I don't have the fucking clearance to know where someone who is supposed to be training me is? It's not like I'm asking for all the details, just a general idea of what's going on would be fine! This is almost worse than being back at home. At least then I knew what was going to be expected, I didn't have to..."
Anna's monologue ceased the moment she heard a faint groan. She felt her face heat as she heard a second groan, then a sharp intake of breath. There weren't too many things that came to mind that could cause those sounds, and Anna immediately shook her head at the idea. They wouldn't be together so obviously, would they? Something about the sounds turned Anna's stomach, though whether Anna was disgusted or concerned she couldn't decide. Carefully, Anna approached the door, hesitating for only a moment before she pressed her palm and her ear to the surface.
"-it hurts that way. Here, let me." West hissed, sounding much less formal than she did when speaking with Anna.
"Hold still, I just need a second and it'll be over."
Hand over her mouth Anna backed away from the door, her eyes wide in horror. Shit, are they really fucking?! A single shiver shot through her as she made her way back to the kitchen, intending to begin the dishes so the sound might drown out anything else she might hear from the room. Before she could even make much progress, however, Kris exited the room looking a little pale with sweat shining on his brow.
Anna scooted over as he joined her at the sink, and in silence they worked together. At least, they might have if Anna could have controlled herself for more than a moment or two. She still hadn't managed to put aside her anger at West's late appearance, or for her poor report on Anna's progress. And the sounds that she had heard from the room had only exacerbated her confusion and inability to cope with the current situation.
"So, how long have you two been going at it?"
The reaction wasn't at all what Anna expected. Rather than embarrassment, Kris looked irritated with her. His brows were knitted together as he struggled to maintain a relatively neutral expression. Strangely, he never raised his eyes from the sink to look at her.
"You're unbelievable."
Anna winced, he had all but growled the words at her as he scrubbed the same plate that he had been scrubbing for nearly a full minute. "Wait, so, you're not sleeping with her?"
Kris passed her the plate at last, and while Anna rinsed and dried it he gripped the sides of the sink and leaned forward over it. His eyes were closed, she saw, and he looked much more tired than he had just a short while earlier. Certainly this wasn't the face of a satisfied man, but just what did this expression mean?
"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm not even close to being her type. Why are you so interested in what's going on with her anyway? Aren't you still mad over that lackluster report she sent in on you? I thought you were going to give her a piece of your mind?"
Anna scoffed, stacking the now dry plate on the others, "I'm not interested in her or anything to do with her. In fact I think I might hate her. She's stuffy and obnoxious and stupidly rude, especially during interviews. Why would I be interested in anything to do with her?"
"So that must mean you're interested in me then."
"Absolutely not!" Anna threw her wet towel at his face and began to walk off. The very nerve of Kris thinking he had any right to assume that she was interested in either of them was enough for her to decide that she was done talking for the night.
"It's okay if you are, you know. You ladies fall so quickly I wouldn't doubt it if you fell for my striking good looks the moment you saw me!" Kris called the words after Anna, who responded with a single finger raised into the air. "Oh real classy! It's not my fault I'm pretty! "
Anna slammed her door shut behind her, never had she been more thankful to be shut away and alone in her entire life. Living with this unusual pair, seeing their faces day in and day out, had finally begun to take an emotional toll on her. Flopping on her bed, Anna screamed loudly into her pillow for what felt like the millionth time since she had arrived here. She would have to confront West tomorrow morning, when she was better prepared.
XXX
Elsa groaned as she lay on her bed, awaiting Kris' return. He had promised to bring her something to eat once Anna had cleared the area but that had been nearly ten minutes ago. Her hand was settled on her side, pale skin resting atop a strips of medical tape holding a beige gauze pads in place over her wound.
As diligent as she always was during side missions, she had been distracted today. Today was the meeting with Felix after all, and she knew the moment that she realized she had sustained a wound that she wouldn't be back in time to verbally speak on her report. She knew it was out of line with the rest of the reports, but how Felix would take that she couldn't guess. He could have doubted her sincerity, or simply labeled it something it wasn't and passed Ms. Fields into being an agent without a second thought. Elsa wished she had asked the moment she got in the door, but her mind was on her pain and preventing Ms. Fields from seeing the blood seeping through her clothing.
Since the appearance of her 'condition' Elsa had learned that scrapes and bruises would heal quickly, and that larger cuts could take a few hours to a night to heal. A wound this deep though... Elsa wiggled, gently pushing herself into a seated position despite the burning pain in her side. It wouldn't be long before the flesh healed, perhaps a day or two, but it was still quite irritating to know that she had been blindsided so easily.
"Sorry it took so long-"
Elsa hungrily snatched the plate that he offered her, her manners thrown out the window as the hunger in her belly guided her actions. Kris hardly seemed to notice, or at least he pretended not to notice, and he continued his little speech as though he hadn't even seen her wolf down an entire roll in two bites.
"She was absolutely ridiculous." He paused, as though the words jogged something in his memory. "Speaking of ridiculous, she actually suggested that she thought we might be hooking up. Can you believe that? As if either of us would ever have to stoop so low. What the hell happened while I was gone? She's been kind of obnoxious since you had to do her training and the interview, and the review with Felix today was disastrous. He wouldn't recommend her, based on your review. He's going to talk to you about it soon I assume. I swear, I've never seen someone so furious."
So Ms. Fields had been given an stay, of sorts. An unusual move, one that Elsa hadn't heard of happening before, but likely one brought on by Felix's knowledge of Elsa's past. He had placed Anna into Elsa's care, knowing what it might do to her.
"I'm just doing my job." Elsa shrugged, licking her fingers and shoving the plate aside. "I'm not here to make friends, so why bother sugar coating things? She didn't handle herself well at all in that interview."
Elsa raised a brow at Kris as he very animatedly rolled his eyes. "No wonder she hates you, that explains so much. I thought maybe she was jealous of you since we're close, or that she wanted to get with you. Clearly she just is irate because you're being ridiculous, as usual."
"Me? Ridiculous? How is it that I'm being ridiculous exactly?" Elsa winced as she tried to leer at him, reigniting the pain in her side.
"You can't keep acting like this is an okay way to be with her. You know that eventually you'll have to be her friend, or at the very least friendly enough with her to work together. S.N.O. clearly wants her here, and they obviously wanted her trained by the best. Whatever this is, you've got to get over it and treat her like a friend, or at the very least a trusted teammate."
"Kris, you don't get it and I don't expect you to. Please just let me handle this the way that I have to, alright? Not connecting with her won't stop me from doing my job. She's not ready yet, and she might not ever be."
Kris wasn't about to let up, however, and he began digging into Elsa again with hardly a second to rest. "So you're never going to chill around her? What if she turns out to be cool?"
"Cool?" Elsa chuckled, dumbfounded, "What are you, a teenager? I can't say that I won't ever relax around her, but as far as I'm concerned the job is clear. Train her and if she makes it as an agent she does, if not she goes home and gets to forget all about this place."
"Whatever you say, Els." Kris hesitated, "This isn't because, well, of how she looks is it? I know she looks similar, but obviously-"
"Don't." Elsa barked, groaning and doubling over in pain from the force of the response, "Don't you dare mention her, no one will ever be her. Especially not someone like that puny, rude, loud mouthed woman."
Kris held his hands up in the air, Elsa assumed by his expression that he had realized the line that he crossed. He took her empty plate, avoiding her angry gaze the whole time. It wasn't until he left and closed her door once more that Elsa relaxed into the pillows piled up behind her. The emotions crept up on her all at once, and in a moment of weakness tears began to pool and fall from her eyes.
From the moment that Elsa had laid eyes upon Anna Fields in the flesh she had been thrown into a constant maelstrom of nightmares and painful memories. Memories that burned at her chest and made her head feel as if it were in a fog. The short report Felix had given her had contained a black and white photo of the woman, a fact Elsa hadn't thought odd at the time. Upon entering his office, however, Elsa realized exactly why it had been done. Red, why did her hair have to be red? Why did she have to be freckled and look so much like...
Elsa pushed the thought aside, feeling anger build in her stomach. The emotion was misplaced, she was sure, but she could not just set it aside. Felix had a detailed record of her past cases, her past partners. He had been there that day and still assigned not only herself, but also Kris to train this girl?
There was a tentative knock at the door that sent Elsa struggling to tug a blanket up over her wound, but as it began to open unbidden she knew that it had to be Kris, not even Fields would be so brazen as to enter her room without permission. She could see part of his face as he peered through the crack he had made in the door, seeming to keep it between himself and her as though perhaps she might throw something at him.
"Get in here, you idiot."
"Listen Els, I'm sorry, so sorry. I'm an ass. I know it's a sore subject and I just...I don't know. I think she can do this. She's strong and she's smart, not terribly well educated on the monster species but honestly what human off the street is? She can learn it all, I know it. You just have to see her for what she is and not, well, what she looks like."
"I can't tell you that it's fine, because it's not. But I forgive you."
Kris appeared visibly relieved, as always his submission to her strength and mood soothed her troubled mind. "So, you going to tell me what happened out there?"
Elsa's hand instinctively moved to her wound, "Some idiot let an experiment escape. Thunder shrike they're calling it. Some kind of strange new hybrid, the guy was going on about how they could produce some kind of 'clean energy' if they got enough of these birds bred appropriately. Apparently they still have some work to do to breed out the kinks with the hunting instincts. This generation acts just like normal shrikes do." Elsa paused, shaking her head and trying not to smirk at the absurdity of it all, "Fun fact – normal shrikes impale their prey on sticks! The thing took one look at me and decided I'd be worthy of a meal. They had me testing their new morph fabric, too. And now they know that it's not nearly as impenetrable as they thought it was."
Kris hesitated, seeming to realize that he had best tread carefully or risk not hearing more of the tale. "Were you...you know, on all fours?"
The question hung in the air for a moment before she nodded, "You know that's the easiest way to hunt down unnatural things..."
"Did you finish the mission at least?"
"Of course, you know I don't come back unless I do. I subdued the damn thing and the men came to get it. I refused medical attention afterwards, I didn't realize how badly I'd been wounded until I was already heading back."
Kris appeared visibly impressed, taking a seat as gingerly as he could manage at the edge of her bed. His arms crossed over his chest, but not before he gently touched one of her knees. "I'll never understand you, if that had been me I'd have brought the thing back to roast for a meal."
"You can't just eat something for punishment, especially something S.N.O has paid good money to develop and study. Besides, everything has it's place. Even if it's place is jamming branches into unsuspecting creatures so that it can eat them." Elsa laughed quietly, but sucked air in through her teeth as she realized the motion caused her pain. More than anything else, she hated being injured. "At least they're trying to improve things for people like me. It's nice knowing every time I change my clothes won't be ripped to shreds."
"Well, I'm glad you're not a West-kebab. Seems like maybe it was a young one if it wasn't able to properly kill you." Kris laughed heartily at his own joke, but Elsa could only roll her eyes.
"And for that we can all be eternally grateful. Could you imagine how quickly you'd be fired if you didn't have me pulling your weight?"
"Sure, sure. Get some sleep, Els." Kris made it all the way to the door of her room again before pausing and turning back to look at her, "And...try to go easier on Anna. She really is improving, she survived your minimal training day after all. I know that wasn't the worst of what you can offer, but at least try to attend some sessions. She's a nice girl."
Once Kris had left her with her thoughts, Elsa began to wonder if she had been behaving as ridiculously as he suggested she was. True, she had been more harsh with Fields than she ever had been with Kris, but was that really such a terrible thing? It was preparing her for the realities of the job, the harshness of the work involved. The organization was vastly different now than it had been once, but the work involved had hardly changed at all. It was dangerous and difficult, not anything meant for someone who couldn't take a little bit of verbal jostling. Surely he could see, at least on some level, that Elsa was preparing Fields for the inevitability of a difficult situation arising?
His suggestion that he might be treating Fields differently because of her appearance stuck out in her mind, making her a little angry at what she perceived as a rather spiteful comment. Could he really see her as that shallow, that single minded in her actions? But the longer the idea remained in her mind, the more a feeling of guilt washed over her. Merida would have hated to see what she had become, despised the rigorous training with little to no interaction. She would have lectured Elsa endlessly if she could have seen the way that she pointedly avoided interaction with Fields.
"I'll try." Elsa whispered to herself.
Even with her realization in mind, sleep was difficult to attain. She lay in bed for what felt like an eternity, tossing and turning. When sleep finally did come Elsa's mind brought forth images that she had pressed to the back into the darkest recesses of her mind. She woke the next morning far after her alarm should have sounded, and drenched in sweat. Elsa leaned up and hissed in pain, apparently a night's rest hadn't been enough for her to fully heal, but she wasn't surprised. She never healed well when her mind was troubled.
Eight Years Ago
Nearly two years ago the men had come, all dressed in black, to the small apartment that Elsa had called home. She cowered like a child at their unsettling and silent approach, fearful of what they might do to her if they were to realize what she was. She recalled that none of them spoke as they broke into her home, nor did they even utter a word of concern as the distinct 'puff' of a dart gun sounded and she slumped to the floor in a panic as the drugs took effect. After that, things were fuzzy. She remembered that they had brought her to her barracks, a single small room almost like a cell. She remembered that they explained her situation, she could either participate in their little program or there would be some sort of consequence. What was a young, impressionable adult to do?
Yet whether out of despair at the loss of her former life, or simply disgust with what she was, Elsa couldn't find a way to feel happy about what should have been a celebration of her salvation. Left to the human world she would have died, that was a certainty in her mind, but here the cost of living was a high price to pay. Training and drills day in and day out, living alone until you were chosen for a team...
Yes, that was the highlight of today. Living alone had at first taken a mental toll on the already unstable Elsa, but as she had time to reflect she began to see the good in it. She had no control of her powers when she came, she was a loose cannon, and so she remained for a long while. It took months of practice before she had been able to grasp some semblance of control over her changes. Now, she was a prodigy among the scant few of her kind that lived here on the compound.
"Ah, the woman of the hour. Which team are you hoping for?"
Hans. He had been brought in only a few months ago, but for some reason she had seen him far more frequently than any other recruits. It was almost as if he went out of his way to stick his nose into her business, to make himself a presence in her life. She suspected that he was human, though she never spent enough time with him to know with any grain of certainty. "I don't care, just so long as I get out of the single barracks."
"Poor, lonely Elsa. You should hear the things that some people say about you. That you've got monstrous claws and fangs, that even your-"
"While I appreciate the sentiment, I've got business to attend to." she lied, turning her back on the red-headed menace and fleeing into the crowd.
And so the night went on, Elsa skillfully managed to avoid all further interaction until finally, finally the choosing began. The silence that stretched across the room was overbearing, and almost more intolerable than the anxiety of waiting to see what sort of people she would be working with for the remainder of the foreseeable future.
She watched a few of the newer recruits go first, and as their numbers thinned a concern began to grow within her – what if she wasn't chosen at all? Would she become an individual agent? Or would she be forced upon a team that had no interest in her at all? It only took a few more rounds of choosing for her to realize that not only would she be left out, but a few others would as well. Surely they couldn't afford to put so many in cells when they could train them instead?
"-as for the rest of you, pair up. You'll comprise the beginnings of new teams. When you've learned sufficient tactics and proven yourselves then we will allow you to bring new members onto your team."
A fate worse than a cell Elsa thought as she looked around, trying to appear calm. Hardly any of the other recruits looked as seasoned as she was, most of them were fairly new faces in the camps and yet they were brought here for the choosing just the same as she was. Was she really that far behind?
"Aye, you and me will be a pair."
Elsa started as someone behind her grabbed her shoulder. She turned and came face to face with a red-headed woman she had only seen once or twice, always far from the training fields. The woman's accent was heavy, but not difficult to understand. Her hair was much more wild up close than Elsa had thought it might have been from a distance, her eyes were blue and yet the color was so different than the color of Elsa's eyes. This woman's eyes were full of excitement and hope, and accented by an array of faint freckles on her cheeks.
"E-excuse me?"
"You're a better option than these lanky looking lads, have a good look around if you don't believe me though."
Caught off guard and flustered, Elsa laughed for the first time in recent memory. The sound was foreign to her ears, almost grating. Instinctively Elsa wanted to look around just in case, but something in the woman's eyes made that urge seem too faint to bother listening to. This woman was calming, in her own way. Calm was something that Elsa hadn't felt in quite some time. "I suppose I should trust you if we're going to be a team."
"Name's Merida. I know who you are, of course."
"What?" Elsa stiffened, both in tone and bodily, as she recalled the horrible things that Hans had begun to spew earlier in the evening. Had rumors about her truly been spread, or was he just being his usual, hateful self?
"Oh, you don't know? I've been watching you since I arrived, you and I are fairly similar after all. Come on, let's get our dorm assignment, I'm ready to get out of the single barracks!"
And just like that, Elsa was being dragged by the hand toward the front of the room. For the first time in a long while, she felt the tingling of excitement in her chest. She wasn't entirely sure who this Merida was, or what exactly she meant by the 'similar' comment, but Elsa found herself at ease in the care of her new companion. Choosing day hadn't been so bad after all.
a/n: I hope that everyone has had a pleasant holiday season so far, see you all next month!
