February 4, 2035

07:45 Moscow Time Zone

Resistance HQ

"Hey Jane, I got something I need you to see," Worley said uneasily.

Jane looked up from the notes she had worked up for the first training session for the Commander. More than a little warily she asked, "You haven't been poking around in senior command's files again, have you?"

His expression said it all.

"Christ Almighty, Worley, you know better than that!" At least the others hadn't gotten to the training room yet, but she expected them at any moment.

The hangdog look on his face didn't help matters. As she considered what level of violence would be acceptable, he held up his hand. "Look, Jane, I know we were all wondering about those consent forms that went around about experimental treatment."

Jane actually hadn't wondered, but then again she had the advantage of knowing how the original XCOM worked. If they found something useful they could adapt from the ETs, they did. Which included medical treatments. There'd been zero pressure for them to agree, If anything there had been a subtle pressure to say no.

Since he wasn't saying anything else, she prompted him. "And?"

"It was the Commander's idea."

"Your point is?"

The big man fidgeted from foot to foot like a small child. "It's why she wanted the release form. Seems the doc thinks he can come up with ways to speed up healing based off whatever the aliens did to her."

She thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. "You weren't there when he dug that shit out of her skull."

"Wait, you were there for that?"

"Yeah, thought everyone knew that. Central and I were the only ones from the team to survive the extraction. I was one of the pair of hands to help with moving equipment. What they did was bad. Really bad. When she was up and moving like she was in just a few days is what got me suspicious."

"But now you're not."

"Nope. Like I said a few days ago. She could've screwed us badly on that retrieval. Could've gotten us really fucking badly on that train raid." He nodded, but didn't seem to listen.

The soldier knew she was going to regret it, but she ended up asking anyway. "So what else did you find out?"

"There was one chip in her head. They were using it to run combat simulations in her head."

That was something she didn't need to hear about. She shook her head. "All right, Jimmy. Listen up. No more digging. You do that and I will break your fingers, no matter what kind of trouble that gets me into." She smoothed back her ponytail. "Hell, I should be reporting you right now."

"So why aren't you?"

"Because you're actually competent at what you do and we can't afford to lose anyone right now. Anyway the person I'd have to report this to would be Central and you don't want to piss off the old man."

Worley paled at the thought. The one thing no one wanted to do was upset Central over the Commander. That was before the extraction. Now that she was actually here, moving and easily resuming her duties, quietly changing things for the better, Jane didn't want to do anything to upset things with regards to Commander McKenzie. Hell, they had two successful ops with no injuries or causalities. It was a frigging miracle the way their previous ops had gone.

Even if Harks almost fucked that one up with her lack of understanding of "flash and bang with no damage".

"All right, Jane. No more digging. I promise." Jimmy finally said with a sigh.

She scowled at him. It wasn't like the hacker to give up on something like this so easily. He held up both hands palm up. "Even I can see the change in attitude around here. I don't wanna fuck it up."

"Good." Hearing the voices of the rest of the troopers in the hall, she semi-growled. "Then forget this stupidity and go get ready for today's training."

"Christ Almighty," Jane muttered to herself, standing arms akimbo as the hacker ambled off. A burst of laughter drew her attention to the door. Where the rest of the troops were around the Commander who was gesturing with one hand, the other at her side with a small carryall, as she was telling them some sort of story. There was another burst of laughter from the soldiers that drew a broad smile from the woman telling the story.

Their distraction gave the soldier time to eyeball the Commander a bit and was a little worried about what she saw. From the way the jumpsuits hung on her frame, Jane had figured the Commander to be slender. However, seeing her in a plain t-shirt and shorts she saw just how thin the woman was. If Doc Tygan hadn't given his okay for the training, she'd've refused thinking the erstwhile trainee needed more time to recover from her ordeals.

Except there was that whole gene therapy thing going on if Worley was right.

She also wondered how the Commander wasn't freezing her ass off. The complex overall was generally kept well heated, but the gym used by the soldiers tended to be on the chilly side. In fact, everyone else was wearing sweats, including shirts. Some would probably shed the heavier tops at some point, but it wasn't likely.

Yet there was the skinny redhead who looked comfortable.

There were cheerful greetings to her and farewells to the Commander from the troopers as they headed off to the locker room for their daily training routine. Once it was just the two of them, Jane said, "Good morning, Commander."

"Morning, Kelly. What's the plan for today?"

"If you'll come with me, ma'am, I'll show you where you can stow your gear. As for the plans, first I'm going to see what kind of physical shape you're in before I decide on a regimen."

"Fair enough." She made a comical grimace. "Though I'm in decidedly flabby shape, even for me."

It didn't take long to get the Commander's carryall put away in the officers' locker room, then it was time to start her evaluations. More than a little reluctantly she pulled out the small container of sensor pads. "This on the orders of the Doc, Commander. He wanted you to be monitored during this part."

A faint smile curved up one corner of the Commander's mouth and those sharp grey eyes laughed, even if she didn't give voice to it. "It's quite all right, Kelly, I half expected something like this."

The next half hour went by quickly as the Commander was put through her paces. Under the rest of Tygan's directions, she kept the results to herself until the testing was done. If Vanessa McKenzie wasn't who she was, Jane would have pushed to make her one of the soldiers. If this was "flabby" she wondered what "fit" was like. The woman was able to lift almost her own weight in a variety of ways. She ran a mile in a little over 6 minutes.

The Commander was sitting on an exercise bench drinking from a bottle of water, soaked in sweat, but hardly out of breath when she said a little sardonically. "Told you I'm flabby, even for my sedentary ways."

Rubbing the back of her neck, Jane tried to figure out how to say what she was going to say.

The other woman's expression fell for a moment, then went carefully neutral. "Ah. That bad then. Well, thank you for the thought. Maybe in a few weeks we can try again."

"It's nothing like that, Commander. The opposite actually. Here, take a look." She handed over her tablet where she had the results displayed. The Commander read it over a few moments, then returned the tablet with a look of confusion. "I don't understand. I've never been in that kind of shape, even ten years ago when I was working full time while going to college."

Jane had a good idea of what the cause was, but since she wasn't supposed to know the details, she had to hedge what she said. "You know I was there when Tygan removed those implants."

That got a nod.

She licked her lips nervously. "No one expected you to be up and moving as quickly as you were, ma'am. Honestly, the Doc thought you probably wouldn't return to consciousness for at least a week. But there you were, up and moving two days later. Not only that, but walking all over the whole damn ship then directing our combat op?"

The Commander looked over Jane's shoulder as she thought something over then refocused her attention on the soldier. "I'm sure this will get out eventually, but I'd appreciate it if you don't spread it around. There was apparently a good bit of gene therapy performed on me. It seemed that it was just to clean up my genetic code, but I guess it was more than that. Which is probably why the doctor wanted the additional monitoring."

Jane thought everything over, then slowly grinned. "Well, this should be exciting then."

"In what way?"

Her grin turned a little evil. "For one thing, the guys have no idea what I'm about to set on them in training."

There was a quiet laugh. "I suspect there's more than that."

"Sure, it'll be interesting to see what it'll be like to train a super human."

This time the laugh was a little uneasy. "I don't know if I would go that far."

Jane was willing to go that far. She bet the woman didn't realize that she'd already stopped sweating. "I guess we'll see then. C'mon, Commander, let's go surprise some people."

"All right." McKenzie capped her bottled and got to her feet easily with no sign of any strain.

That was some good signs. She hadn't really pushed to see what the Commander could do, but she did push her a bit. They made their way to the mats that were laid out for unarmed combat training. "Well, ma'am, you said you have some self-defense and pistol training?"

"Yes. I'm probably at the self-defense against humans. I'm probably barely qualified on the pistol."

Mike Brandt was waiting with Harkes and Hause as she'd requested when she'd set this whole thing up. He had come in board the day before when they had settled in at HQ. She'd already gotten a feel for her fellow ranger's skills. While Jane preferred to move as stealthily as possible, Brandt was the up close and personal type, preferably with his sword. So he seemed like a good fit for this exercise.

"Okay, Commander, I'm going to start you off with someone your own size. Harkes, if you will?"

The grenadier nodded and moved into a crouch. Interestingly, the Commander didn't move into the traditional martial arts stance of one foot forward with the other behind to brace and neither did she go into a similar crouch as Harkes. Instead she seemed to bounce slightly on the balls of her feet with a loose and easy posture.

When Harkes charged, the Commander slid to her left, hooked a foot around the other woman's ankle to trip her. The next few minutes went by similarly, Harkes would attack and the Commander would do some sort of evasive maneuver.

After the Commander ended up with her back to Jane, she nodded to Brandt to join the fray to see how well their trainee could handle multiple people. The man might not have been big on stealth in general, but he proved to be light on his feet as he went for the Commander's back.

Showing either amazing hearing or situational awareness, McKenzie dodged Brandt's attack and shoved him from behind into Harkes. The move was all brute force and none of the grace seen from a practitioner of Aikido, but hey, whatever worked. "Okay, that's enough for now."

Brandt grinned. "Nice move there, Boss."

"Thank you. Though depending on the situation they don't always work."

Jane had a feeling she knew what the Commander was referring to, but decided to see how Brandt would handle this.

He clapped the slender woman on a shoulder. Despite the fact that she looked like a strong wind could knock her over, she didn't even twitch at the motion. "That's why you're here, isn't it Bosslady? You've got a good foundation to build on." He tilted his head and looked at her thoughtfully. "Ever try a sword?"

The Commander gave him a wide eyed look. "No. I didn't exactly have the opportunity for that. And until now, wasn't exactly practical."

Brandt looked questioningly over at her and Jane shrugged. "If the Commander is willing, you can give her a demo."

"I have the time since I dedicated the morning to this session. So as long as I'm not keeping you from your training or duties..."

Jane shook her head. "This morning you are our duty. I'll let Brandt help pick out a training sword."

The Commander looked at her questioningly as Brandt gave her a broad smile. She shrugged. "It can't hurt and if you do learn it, it's a good weapon to have on hand just in case. And you don't have to worry about an accidental discharge."

"All right. Let's see how this goes then." Brandt was almost bouncing in eagerness as he led the boss off to get a practice blade.

Harkes smirked. "This should be amusing. You know you just made his day, right?"

"Yeah. I know he's really big on the swordwork, though he's almost as good with a gun."

Hause sauntered up. "Sure this is a good idea, Shield?"

"The worst that'll happen are a few bruises and we'll move on to see how she is with guns. And before you worry too much, she's a grown woman who knows that training will result in sweat and bruises, maybe a little blood."

"And that's why you've got me on this?" Hause asked. "The Commander is capable at using a computer, but she doesn't sound like she's really keen trying to learn how to hack."

"She didn't ask about it, though she's more likely to ask Chief Shen about anything tech related. I have you here just in case someone does get hurt."

"Then here's hoping that Brandt has half a clue on how to train someone," Harkes commented sardonically. "Somehow I don't think he'd appreciate you kicking him off this particular bit of training."

"Probably, let's not get ahead of ourselves, here they come now."

She could see the two were already deep in conversation as Brandt was carefully gesturing with one of the foam covered batons they used for practice while the Commander nodded every so often. The other two faded behind her as Brandt and his would be trainee took up their place in the practice area.

Wanting to see how this would go without interference, Jane folded her arms across her chest in silence to watch. She had to admit she was impressed as Brandt began to show the Commander the very basics of wielding a sword. Jane wasn't sure which impressed her more, Brandt's patience or how quickly the Commander was catching on.

She thought back on the gene therapy and wondered how much of this was natural or the aliens' meddling.

Not that the Commander was perfect from the start, but it only took a couple of corrections for her to get each move down correctly.

"Not bad," Harkes commented, watching the pair thoughtfully. From the corner of her eye Jane could see that the soldiers not involved in the training were finding excuses to go by to watch. There was respect in all of their eyes, but some of them seemed almost on the verge of hero worship. She wasn't surprised, like herself they'd grown up as part of the Resistance and there'd always been talk about Commander Vanessa McKenzie.

Now she was beginning to understand Central's obsession in finding her. There was something about Vanessa McKenzie that grew on a person the more they got to know the Commander. Seeing how she treated all the soldiers would have been enough to make her overcome her doubts. And now seeing how she paid full attention to Brandt's instructions without any kind of condescension seemed like a kind of marvel.

"Yeah, there's some real potential there."

"Yep, and with those long arms of hers, she'll have decent reach against a lot of opponents, even some of the aliens. Going to go full out and teach her how to be a Ranger?"

"Depends on how she does with the guns. Though truthfully, even if she can't hit the broad side of the barn, just teaching her how to use a sword to defend herself would be enough for someone to get to her if the Avenger gets overrun. She's got the strength now to crack open the armor your average ADVENT trooper wears."

The blue haired woman pursed her mouth slightly as she regarded the two sparring on the mats before them. The pleased look of concentration on the Commander's face matched Brandt's. "She looks half-starved to have that kind of strength."

"I know, but she's got it. We give the proper strength and endurance training, I think she'll be quite the sight with a blade in her hands."

"Combat training is going to be tough."

Jane thought about it and shrugged. "Not really, it'll be the same as the rookies. Only a bit more respectful."

Kay snorted in amusement. "As in not calling her a maggot brained idiot?"

"Yeah, yeah that would be bad. If only because she's hardly an idiot."

A soft beep from her tablet got her attention. Seeing the time, she called out to the two fighters as they paused for Brand to explain something. "All right, time's up."

They backed up and the Commander grinned. "Thank you, Brandt, that was actually fun. I hope you won't mind if I ask if you and Kelly can fit this into my training schedule."

He beamed at her. "Not at all, ma'am. It'll be my pleasure. Let's go put these away and you can cool off on your way to the firing range."

"Fun," Harkes commented in disbelief.

"It can be."

Hause wisely remained quiet as Kay shook her head as they headed for the range. Seeing the small crowd that was slowly following them caused Jane to smile a bit. It was a good thing she'd accounted for the troops' curiosity and knew they'd settle down after the first few times the Commander joined them. At least they better do so. She really didn't feel like dropping on them like a ton of bricks, but would do so if needed.

At least they took up various guns to practice, including Hause and Harkes, while Jane and Brandt tested the Commander on the pistol.

That was the first time they ran into a situation where she was just barely competent. It seemed so strange that the coordination she showed with the sword was so completely lacking with a gun. Not that it was automatic, but there was generally some sort of crossover.

Jane studied the Commander from different angles then saw the problem. Or rather problems. It wasn't any one thing, but a variety of factors. Small things like how she was holding the gun, the way she stood and similar things. For a moment Jane saw red. The instructor she had should have picked up on something. And if that person had been a part of XCOM…

Dismissing her anger at a person likely to be dead, Jane approached the Commander at an angle so the other woman could see her. After enabling the safety and properly putting the gun away, the boss gave her a wry smile. "Guess I'm worse than I remembered."

"Well, there's a few adjustments you can make that might help."

It was a true pleasure to have a trainee who really paid attention to the instruction they were getting and seeing even a small improvement from those instructions. The smile that lit up said trainee's face just made it perfect.

"I knew there was something off, but I never could figure out just what it was. I'm sorry I never took up any of the troops on their offers to help me practice in the past."

"It was a different time, Commander, and I don't think anyone expected the attack that happened."

"You're right about that. Thank you again for your time."

She smiled. "Oh, you're quite welcome, Commander. You're going to spoil me with the fact that you're listening to me."

The Commander grinned slightly. "Well, you're an expert in your field, so I am going to listen to you."

"You have a point there, ma'am."

Brandt made a gesture to get her attention. "Why don't you go through another clip? I'm going to see what kind of trouble someone has gotten themselves into."

"I'm not in trouble or causing trouble, I'll have you know," he said when Jane walked over to him.

"All right, what is it you wanted to talk about so urgently then?"

"I think we should see how the Commander handles a shotgun."

"You want to train her as one of us."

"Yeah. Look how she worked with the sword and unarmed combat. She's a natural for our close combat style. Don't bother with an assault rifle, but keep up the pistol training because they're easier to conceal."

"All right. Let's see how this goes."

She grabbed one of the nearby shotguns racked for practice and went to see what the Commander thought of the idea. Brandt trailed behind her. Jane could practically feel the hope pouring off him.

The new weapon got a confused look. She explained. "Brandt here thought you might take to the shotgun better than the pistol or an assault rifle."

Confusion turned to wariness. "I'm not so sure about that, Kelly. The pistol is almost too much."

"It can't hurt to try, can it?"

"You're right," the Commander replied before putting the safety on the gun, ejecting the spent clip, checking to make sure that a round wasn't still in the firing chamber before putting the weapon away. "Okay, let's see how this goes."

It didn't take long to explain the shotgun or to adjust the target for the gun. The moment that the Commander started to practice she knew that Brandt was right. She looked over at the broadly grinning man. "Looks like she is yours then."

"Excuse me?"

"You seem to do better with close quarter work so I'm putting him in charge of your training."

She eyed him. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

He shook his head. "Nah. You're not an idiot, just be ready to work hard."

"That's one thing I'm not afraid of doing. Though it looks like it's time for me to get moving."

She put away the gear before heading to the locker room and Jane went to check on her people to see how they were doing.

It was when the Commander was leaving, freshly showered and changed into a jumpsuit, that a new complication came up.

Jane was working with Worley when Central arrived, a thing he never did unless it was time for him to work out, which it wasn't. While he politely greeted those that called out to him, she could see he had eyes for only one person.

Vanessa, and that was the only way she could think of the woman at the moment, smiled warmly at Central. "Came to make sure I didn't get broken?"

Central smiled back at her. "Something like that."

Jane marveled once again that the man's face didn't shatter from that since in all the time she'd known the man, he wasn't known for being lighthearted.

"Oh shit," Worley breathed.

"The fingers deal applies to this too, Jimmy."

The two officers said the last of their goodbyes and headed off. Worley shook his head. "I won't say anything, because when a woman like the Commander looks at a man the way she did with Central, you don't want to mess with that."

Shaking her head, she set him to enough reps to make him too tired to gab about what he saw, but suspected that he wasn't the only one to see the exchange for what it was.

That's okay, enough push ups would get that out of anyone's mind.