Omega [REDUX]
Chapter 13
Kristoff lay on his bunker, eyes closed, mind wandering. The air was cool from the air-conditioning unit, the sensation pricking the skin on his face, his eyelids twitching ever so slightly.
There was a "beep" from his gauntlet-mounted datapad before the message played. "Sir. You're requested in the control room. We're going to be deployed."
"Roger that," Kristoff replied, body unmoving, desiring just a few more seconds of rest before he was forced to get up. "Did they mention why?"
"There's an Ascendant in Ashton City."
He bolted to his feet, now fully awake. "I'll be there ASAP."
Fully equipped in his PHANTOM-IV suit, helmet in in hand and rifle on his back, Kristoff hurried towards the control center. His heart could feel the familiar pounding again. His mind was racing, cold sweat trickling down his neck, his eyes almost seeing the ghostly image of the woman in the blue dress.
No. Not again. Never again.
Flynn and Nemo's grinning faces resurfaced in his mind, two unnecessary and costly deaths that he had caused. Grief he had placed upon their families, because he had gotten complacent, because he'd forgotten to do a routine scan. Because he'd forgotten how to keep them safe.
He stopped for just a minute, his breath catching in his throat as he desperately tried to find a way to calm down. Breathe slowly, Kristoff. Breathe. You need to breathe.
He thought that he'd gotten over his PTSD. Evidently not. But he was still able to keep his mental state in check, better than the miserable wreck that he'd been almost a year ago. It had taken him that long to recover.
Kristoff shook his head to clear it, exhaled sharply, and carried on walking down the dim corridor. At the end he hit the button to allow the doors to slide open with a hiss, squinting as the outpouring of light hit his eyes. Amidst the buzzing of the command center his squad turned to look, and immediately stood at attention.
He waved them away as he joined them at the main holographic display and saluted the commander. "At ease, soldier," came the reply. "You're just in time for the briefing."
"What's the situation, sir?" Kristoff asked. "How bad is it?"
"As of right now, we've lost all communications with the security control in SunTec," the commander responded grimly. "We've been unable to gather any intel on what's going on inside. For now, the police force have cordoned the area off, and have surrounded the premises."
"What do our forces at the scene comprise of?"
"Mainly enforcement officers in their basic gear, which are unlikely going to be able to control the chaos should it spread out of the convention center. The only things we can count on reliably is a mobile artillery squad that was on patrol nearby, and has now be rerouted to that location. That's why we're calling you in."
"You mentioned there was an Ascendant, sir?"
The commander drew his lips into a thin line and let the silence hang in the air for a while. Kristoff felt another bead of sweat on his forehead. If the commander was doing this deliberately, there was absolutely no need for that.
His superior moved his hand over the display console and keyed in a few commands. A new display materialized, fizzing with static just before it stabilized to give a clear view of its contents.
"This is security footage of the perimeter, just as our assailants entered."
His squad turned with him towards the display projection, the feed decently unclear, as if some unknown force was interfering with the transmission. Kristoff narrowed his eyes as he watched the black, semi-armoured van pull up to the back alley of the convention center, the doors sliding open to reveal the mass of black-suited soldiers that poured out, all armed to the teeth with automatic rifles and sidearms clinging to the holsters. The only striking exception was the last figure that emerged, stepping out of the van in only a leather jacket, a shirt and jeans, gloved hands outstretched, electric bolts encircling his palms. With dark sunglasses masking his eyes and a sinister grin on his face, he turned to look straight at the camera, and lifted his outstretched arm. A bright flash of light emerged from the center of his palm, and the footage went to static.
"That's all we were able to get. I'd decided to delay crucial response time just so you know what you're up against," the commander finished. "Otherwise—"
"Bad things would happen," Kristoff finished. Then he recovered, realizing his disrespect to his commanding officer. "Sorry sir," he said meekly.
"Relax, soldier. Right now you all have to get down and secure the area. There are still civilians in the area."
There was an audible gasp from his squad. Kristoff clenched his teeth. "No intel on that either?"
The commander shook his head. "You're on your own from now on, Strike-One. Let's get moving."
"Get down!"
Elsa tackled Anna behind cover just before a lightning bolt razed the space they had previously occupied only seconds ago. Mentally she interfaced with the suit she still bore on her bodice, scanning through its available functions, desperately trying to find something to work with. "Move! Get to better cover!"
She felt hard pounding all over her suit. Bullets. Elsa forced herself to duck and weave between the products on display, attempting to evade the fire they were attracting. She watched a group of civilians nearby get cut down by deadly lead hailstorms. Anna stifled a panicked sob.
With any luck, their black suits would provide them cover as the lights began to flicker. Bolts of electricity crackled in a sphere around their latest adversary, in addition to the group of soldiers firing down upon them. Elsa pushed Anna towards one of the exits: a corridor which they had entered from, just as a lightning bolt cut off their path, almost razing Anna in the process. She pulled Anna back behind a product stand, bullet trails flying overhead.
She could hear Anna's panicked screams and irregularly fast breathing. "Keep moving," Elsa warned, despite being fully aware of how terrified her friend was, "otherwise none of us are going to get out alive."
She saw the flash, heard the crackle. In a split second she turned to her right, bringing up the energy shield just as the lightning reached her, the bright blue surface of the shield flaring sharply as she was knocked back. Elsa felt her feet lift the ground just as the scenery around her blurred out, and her bodice connected with something hard. She didn't stop; she kept flying until she hit the ground again.
Anna yelled her name as she struggled to get up, the sound mixing with the sinister laughter that was ringing in her ears. Her adversary. She knew the voice.
Empyrean.
Elsa lay face down amongst the equipment she had crashed into, planting one hand onto the ground in an attempt to get up.
EMPYREAN.
Mind-numbing pain cut into her head and she collapsed back onto the floor. A vision cut into her mind's eye, memory from a time gone by, the time where she'd still been bred in their captivity, the other Ascendants that were being trained with her. She knew now; her new adversary had been one of them, one of the weakest that had been growing up with her. She had excelled in the training despite the torture, but he had crumbled.
Now his laughter sounded creepily… broken. Horribly so. He couldn't stand it. They broke him…
Elsa forced her eyes open. Where her hands were planted on the floor were now surrounded by an icy snowflake formation.
She realized she had no choice. No matter where she went, her past would come to haunt her. Now Elsa needed to accept her past, not for her own sake, but for the others in her life.
"Elsa!"
She tensed and tried to push herself up upon hearing Anna's cries. A bolt of lightning sailed overhead, and she ducked back down instinctively.
"Run!" she called out to Anna, watching her figure dart into the exit frantically the moment there was a lull in the firing. Elsa pushed herself to her feet, bringing up the shield in front of her as she ran for the exit, lightning and bullets alike slamming into the energy surface, but she managed to make it.
"Don't stop," she panted to Anna, who had been crouching behind the wall, a look of pure terror on her face. Elsa understood why; the corridor was lined with the bodies of dead security guards. As she grabbed Anna's hand she kicked up one of the assault rifles lying on the floor, grabbed in midair with her other hand, and kept running, pulling her friend along with her.
She lost track of how long she ran for, simply bobbing and weaving through maintenance corridors and narrow ducts, gun in one hand and Anna's fingers in the other, her eyes constantly flicking from side to side, looking for the slightest sign of danger. The whole time they could hear the gunfire raging on, and the sinister crackling continued to fill the air.
Elsa found a dimly lit, concrete room protecting by an old wooden door, which she promptly kicked open, bringing up the rifle to bear. It was empty. More importantly, there was nothing metal inside, which reduced the chance of electrocution. The suits could probably take the voltage anyway, but she wasn't about to take chances.
"All right," she said as they walked in, "we need to—"
Anna crumpled to the ground and began to sob openly.
Under any other circumstances Elsa might have told Anna to shut up, for fear of giving away her position, but as she looked at Anna and the absolutely petrified look on her face, tears rolling freely down her cheeks, she couldn't bring herself to do that. Instead, she checked both sides of the corridor to ensure they were secure, and then silently closed the door behind, locking it with a click
The room was dim. Elsa triggered the flashlight on her suit so that they could see better. Anna kept sobbing.
It was by far the most heart-rending sound she had ever heard. She'd cried herself before, and heard the traumatizing cries of innocent civilians as they were massacred.
"Hey," she said, her own heart pounding in her chest as she knelt down beside Anna, dropping the gun with a clatter. "We're going to be alright."
Anna didn't say anything, but her sobbing quieted to a whimper.
Acting completely on instinct, Elsa removed her helmet, and shook her hair loose, then took Anna's helmet off too. She had no idea what compelled her to do so, but she felt that she needed to look into Anna's green eyes. Almost as if she was scared that she'd never see them again.
Anna's sobbing increased in volume. "Shh." Elsa reached up to cradle Anna's face, wiping a stray tear of the freckled cheeks, and tried her best to give her friend a reassuring smile. "It's going to be alright. I promise you that."
"How?" came the helpless, sobbing, soft plea.
"We'll get out of here. But first I have to go and help the civilians."
Anna grabbed onto her wrist. "No, no no. Don't. We need to get out of here."
"Anna, I need you to be brave for me." Elsa shifted to take Anna's hands into hers, caressing her skin and savouring the warmth that emanated from them. "I have to help them. I know who these people are. I can't let them die here. Can you?"
She let the silence pass between them. Then Anna shook her head.
Elsa drew in a breath, her heart in her throat, and then spoke: "I promise you that when we get out of here, I'll tell you anything you want about me."
"Anything?"
Anna's voice was still timid, but she sensed that her friend had calmed down a bit. So Elsa nodded. "Yes. Anything. Even my past. And who I used to be."
"Why?"
"Because I think you deserve to know." Elsa raised her hand for Anna to see, and from her palm materialized a pure, icy snowflake that levitated in mid-air, glowing blue in the dim light.
She could see Anna recoil visibly, and her heart died a little inside. But she shut her eyes, exhaled deeply, and opened them again. "I'll explain once we get out of here. But right now—"
Her helmet crackled. "Hello? Hello?"
Belle. "Belle? It's Elsa. I'm with Anna, where are the rest of you guys?"
"What's left of the delegation is with the remaining survivors; we've locked ourselves in another convention hall." Belle sounded mortified as well. "But they're coming."
"Which hall?"
"Hall… 2."
"Roger that. Stay there, and do not move. Whatever happens, stay there at all costs." Elsa cut the COM.
"What are you going to do?" Anna asked.
Elsa picked up the assault rifle and placed it into Anna's hands. "You're going to need this more than me. Do you still remember all your training?"
Anna nodded.
"Every single thing that I taught you?"
"I… guess."
"Good. You're going to need it more than ever now. We can't count on backup coming anytime soon, so we're going to kill them all."
"I don't think… I can do that." Elsa watched Anna's hands tremble, her face visibly horrified. "I mean… I—"
"Anna. Look at me."
She watched the green orbs shimmer as they stared back at her.
"This isn't a simulation anymore. This is life and death." Elsa clenched a fist. "I know it's hard, but right now, if we don't kill them, we're going to die right here. They've killed everyone in that hall. Killing them is the only way to save the rest."
"Elsa—"
"Anna, I need you to do this for me."
"Elsa, I can't—"
Elsa placed a single finger on Anna's lips, and then, acting completely on impulse, drew Anna into a tight embrace. Their figures intertwined, and Elsa could feel every tremor of Anna's body, now seemingly so small and frail, terrified of the horrors of war.
Possibly terrified of Elsa.
But the gesture comforted them both; Anna's sobbing began to die down into sniffling, and Elsa's own heart rate began to slow. Gingerly, Elsa broke the embrace, pushing Anna back by the shoulders to look her in the eye again, brushing back a stray curl of red hair from Anna's face.
"I promise we'll get out of here," she went on, "if we work this out together. Okay?"
Anna barely managed a nod.
"Okay. Here's what we need to do."
Somewhere down the dark corridor her COM unit crackled to life. It was Elsa. "How many rifles do you have?"
"Five, including mine," Anna replied. "It's all I can carry for now." She could feel the weapons weighing down her shoulder. But Elsa had given her enough strength conditioning to take it. Now her main challenge was procuring the mental conditioning necessary to take her through this ordeal.
"You know the plan?"
"Yeah."
"We're counting on you."
She knelt near the corridor they had run down, at the exit, scanning the area and waiting silently for Elsa to get into position. But the whole time her mind ran amok with thoughts; first was the entire ordeal in its entirety, and how freaking scary it was. A simulation was one thing, she realized, but to see people literally get cut down right next to you was a separate thing entirely. Now she was drawn into something that she was almost completely unprepared for, had it not been for Elsa's coaching.
The second, perhaps most shocking of all, was Elsa's own revelation of her affinity for ice.
Everything made sense now. Why Elsa had used ice blocks specifically for her training. Why her skin always seemed to feel cold. The pieces fell in place in her mind. The question was why she needed to keep a secret, and if it changed anything about their relationship.
I don't want it to change, Anna said, but I don't have the full picture yet, and I really need answers and if I don't get out of here I'll never get those answers and I'll die not knowing Elsa well and—
"Anna? I'm in position," came the crackling in her helmet's COM unit. "Is your invisibility module ready?"
Anna took a deep breath, shaking away the train of doubt that was ravaging her, and brought up the diagnostic scan. "The suit says yes," she replied. "Let's see if it actually means it."
"Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."
"On my count. 3."
Anna tightened her grip around her rifle.
"2."
She shook a leg to relieve herself of a building cramp.
"1."
Wordlessly, Anna triggered the invisibility module. She'd never seen anything like it prior, and was mildly taken aback when she began to literally fade into the background, the nano-weave turning into what looked like thin air. She could barely see herself.
"Go!"
She heard a whine, and saw the first bolt of ice strike one soldier near to her position. Anna didn't even hear the cry of pain, only the sound of the corpse hitting the floor. Clutching the weapon in her hands she darted out, bringing the weapon up to bear to check if she had been spotted.
Not yet. Even as she aimed down the rifle's sights she could see that the soldiers were preoccupied with the glowing blue figure that ducked and wove between cover, firing potent icy blasts at them. Anna shook herself, forcing herself to concentrate, and broke into a sprint.
She watched as her camouflage began to shimmer as she ran.
"There!" she heard one of the soldiers yell. Hailstorms of lead followed, peppering the wall that Anna ran along, forcing her to dive for better cover. Bullet trails rained down over her, and she braced to be hit.
Multiple whines. Panicked screams, and the firing ceased. "Go!" she heard Elsa yell. "Don't stop, I've got you covered."
Anna took a deep breath, her mind running over the line running makes me show up over and over again, before she pushed herself into a hunched position, and began to walk slowly. The whole time, she kept her eyes on the nano-weave that covered the arm clutching her rifle, watching for excessive shimmering.
None. Her current speed was satisfactory. She turned her head, watching as Elsa conjured up a thick shield just as a sniper round collided with her. Elsa's grunt was audible through her own COM unit. A pang of fear cascaded through her.
"I'm okay," she heard, sending relief flooding her body, causing Anna to let up a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Go! They won't survive if you don't get there in time!"
Adrenaline rushed through her veins once more as she picked up her pace, staying low amongst the remaining exhibits, quietly sneaking past the firefight that raged on.