Karma Chameleon

Oh boy, here we go, Anna thought as she pulled back her cybernetic arm, ready to wallop the robot over the head as it approached her position.

However, just before it did, the robot started to jitter and convulse before falling over.

Anna peeked around her cover and tilted her head to the side. "Huh, okay then," she shrugged as she looked around. "Weird, but I'll take it. I guess I'll just step past you here," she walked ahead and saw that the same thing had happened to the other robots patrolling the grounds.

With her odd and timely change in fortune, she had a much easier time infiltrating the facility where Mulan had directed her to steal a signal transceiver. The place in question was in Merigold Heights, so after a rather unproductive waste of her time at ACN where she had been ordered to get coffees for the staff members, she promptly headed out to fulfill the gig that she accepted. It was a simple enough job, made even simpler now thanks to whatever just happened, but something about it still felt off.

"What the hell?" Anna muttered to herself when she looked up to the cameras and saw that they had all been deactivated. "Something fucky is going on here."

She walked in through the front door cautiously, gun raised for any signs of trouble but none came. Even if they had, it wasn't like Anna could kill anyone because this gig required her to be a ghost. Not that she had any issues doing that now, as evidently, all the robots and security measures had been disabled. Once she made it to the central warehouse, she began perusing up and down the aisles.

"Okay, okay, okay," Anna walked up and down, scanning the various boxes. "What are we dealing with here?" she turned towards a narrow, rectangular crate and opened it. "Oh, well hello there."

Inside was an ArmaRex railgun, nestled in a black foam insert. Anna pulled out the impressive weapon and held it in her hands, inspecting the dark blue gunmetal frame as she turned it this way and that in the light. The railgun was a smaller and more portable variant of the gauss cannon that was outfitted on most battle tanks, which was an even smaller variant of the mass accelerator cannons held on the orbital defense platforms.

The railgun was a bolt action, anti-materiel rifle that fired a charged shot capable of punching through tough armor. Three parallel electromagnetic rails, arranged in a triangular shape, formed the business end of the weapon. It was fed with a magazine located behind the trigger action in a bullpup configuration, which Anna removed to inspect the tungsten slugs loaded inside. She slotted it back in, then examined the high-powered scope along the top of the frame, offering 4x, 8x, and 12x magnification. Aside from that, there were two triggers. One to build up or release the charge, and one to fire the projectile.

"I think you're coming home with me," Anna slung the weapon over her shoulder, then pocketed the extra magazines stored inside of the case. "Now, to find that transceiver," she closed the case and resumed her search.

In her excitement to acquire some new hardware, Anna didn't even consider how she would explain it to Elsa. As she turned the corner to head down another aisle, she heard a door open and close in the distance, followed by a single pair of footsteps.

"Oh, shit," Anna whispered as she crouched behind some cover, pulling out her hand cannon and searching for whoever was approaching.

The footsteps were slow and steady. Evidently, whoever was coming wasn't in much of a rush. Anna silently crept over into the next aisle, remaining concealed behind some barrels. Directly ahead of her, the footsteps were approaching her position.

Crap, who is this guy? Anna thought, scowling. Maybe they're the one who knocked out all the robots. Do I have competition? Mulan only put me on this gig, at least, as far as I know. Whatever, whoever they are, I got the drop on them.

Spurred on by her tactical advantage or perhaps her reckless curiosity, Anna sprung out from her hiding place as soon as the footsteps stopped a short distance away, raising her hand cannon. "That's close enough," she said. "Now, who are- oh," she lowered her weapon when she recognized who it was.

The last person she had expected to see was standing right there in front of her. Elsa's face was a mask of anger and confusion, her arms were crossed, and her head was slightly tilted to the side as she glared back.

"Anna," Elsa said curtly.

"Elsa?" Anna replied, confused and concerned. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Elsa took a few steps forward. "Press briefing?"

"This isn't what it looks like," Anna took a few steps forward.

"Really? Because to me, it looks like you're breaking into a secure facility to steal a military-grade, KGB surplus, hardened signal transceiver."

"Okay, so maybe it's a little- wait. How do you know what I'm here for?"

Elsa closed the remaining distance to Anna. "Because I need it for the underground railroad, that's why."

"Underground- what, just hold on a second," Anna raised a finger and pointed at Elsa "You're with the underground railroad?" she looked down at the floor, sighed, and placed her hands on her hips. "You're Mulan's client. I'm supposed to be klepping it for you."

"Why didn't you tell me you're a mercenary?!"

"Why didn't you tell me you're with the underground railroad?!"

"All this time, you've been a mercenary? What else have you been getting into behind my back? We promised each other we would go legit! That we were done with this type of work!"

"Yeah, you're telling me! Do you have any idea what could happen to you if the authorities found out about what you were doing?"

"You lied to me!" Elsa pointed at Anna and came right up to her face. "And the worst thing is, I don't even know how long you've been lying to me!"

"And you lied to me!" Anna squared off with her. "I thought you were just a netrunner, but now I find out you're involved with the android freedom movement. I mean, shit, I guess I'm not surprised, but I would have appreciated a little heads up, at least! You know, before risking everything that we worked for here!?"

Elsa shut her eyes and took a deep breath. "This isn't the place to talk about this," she turned towards a heavy-looking crate and picked it up easily by the handle. "Let's just get what we came here for and get out before any more trouble shows up."

Anna stared after Elsa as she walked off, eventually tossing her hands up in frustration as she followed along. "Wait, wait, so you were the one who knocked out all of these bots?"

"Yes, and I wasn't planning on it, but then you showed up and nearly got caught, so I had to act."

"You were watching me. How long have you been here?"

"A few hours," Elsa grumbled, shoving open a door as they stepped outside.

"A few hours?" Anna shook her head in bafflement and then rushed in front of Elsa to stop her. "What do you mean a few hours? I thought you were at home!"

"OLAF and I were doing some recon," Elsa brushed past Anna as she crossed the street. "That's all. We were just taking a look."

"Who the fuck is OLAF?!"

"Omniscient Logistics Assistant and Friend, at your service" OLAF replied from Elsa's omni-pad. "I am an artificial intelligence, built by Elsa. It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Anna. I've heard a lot about you."

Anna recoiled in shock. "You built an AI?! Just when did- why did- I mean, how did you even-"

They arrived at an alleyway where Elsa had parked her car. At that point, Anna was completely dumbstruck as she stammered incoherently.

Elsa opened the truck and put the crate inside. "Yes," she slammed it shut. "I built an AI to help me manage the underground railroad. So what?" she went around the front towards the driver's seat. "Get in. We're going home."

It was Anna's turn to take a deep breath now, so she closed her eyes. "Okay," she put her hands together over her nose the gestured towards Elsa. "I get that you're angry and confused right now, but so am I. There is a shit ton of stuff being unloaded all at once, and I- I just... I just need to wrap my head around all of it. Let's talk about this."

"We will talk about this," Elsa opened her door. "On the way home. Now get in."

Anna pointed to her motorcycle a small distance away. "I brought my ride," she said in an attempt to defuse some of the tension.

Elsa was upset, that much was obvious. However, in the two years that they've been with each other, Anna had only ever seen her angry exactly once, which was when she killed Matilda Rosenthal with her bare hands. By the time Anna had arrived on the scene, there wasn't much left of Matilda's face to recognize. She didn't hold that against Elsa, especially in consideration of everything she herself had done to survive, but she would be lying if seeing Elsa that furious didn't shock her to her core.

Not because she shouldn't have done such a thing or that Matilda didn't deserve that fate. Far from it. Anna was just heartbroken that someone as good as Elsa had been forced into such a situation to begin with.

"I saw. It has autodrive, does it not?" Elsa climbed into the driver's seat.

"Well, yeah," Anna said quietly. "Yes."

"Then it can follow us back."

With nothing left to do, Anna silently cursed her luck and got into the passenger's seat. Contrary to what they had both wanted to do, the initial part of the drive back was completely silent, fraught with awkward tension since neither of them had the slightest idea on how to begin talking about their second lives they had been keeping from each other.

Elsa kept her gaze focused on the road, while Anna was staring out the window, keeping her mouth shut both to avoid upsetting Elsa further and to suppress the urge to cough that had come up. A thousand thoughts were racing through both of their minds, and with neither of them sure of which one to act on first, they both contented themselves with the awkward silence for the time being.

I remember hearing about someone or some group of people called Caelestis, Anna thought after she cleared her throat once and coughed twice. I wonder if she's part of them, or if she's-

"I'll start," Elsa said, interrupting Anna's thoughts. "I'm not just part of the android freedom movement, I'm also sort of one of its leaders, operating under the alias of Caelestis."

And there it is, Anna thought as she looked over to Elsa, gesturing for her to continue.

"Do you remember that flash drive that carried my memory backups? The one Theodore gave me when he helped me escape VanirCorp?" Elsa finally looked over to Anna.

"I do," Anna nodded.

Elsa never spoke of Theodore often after his death, but Anna could tell she still held him close in her memory. After all, it was Theodore who set Elsa on the path that led her and Anna to each other.

"Well, he was working on this algorithm, something he called Pinocchio," Elsa turned her attention back to the road. "It was designed to free EXG6 androids, in a manner of speaking. Grant them sentience and self-awareness. I looked into his algorithm and I finished his work."

Anna remained silent as Elsa continued to explain herself. They had now entered the freeway and were well on the way home.

"With the help of Sinclair and some other contacts embedded with the movement, we started the underground railroad soon after we came here," Elsa said. "Things didn't really get moving until a year ago, but that was at the same time the adjudicators showed up. Since then, we've been working to get androids off of Earth where they can be free."

Anna considered that hefty bit of information as she examined the lights passing by.

"What we're doing is very dangerous," Elsa sighed. "If the wrong people found out about it, everything would fall apart. Minerva would be destroyed, Sinclair would be executed, and the rest of the androids... well, most of them are already dead anyway," she glanced at Anna. "I didn't tell you because I wanted to keep you safe. You risked everything to help me in New York. You uprooted your entire life. You became a fugitive for me, and now we're living on a completely different planet with completely different names and identities."

Anna looked back to Elsa and they shared a second of vulnerable eye contact.

"I don't want to lose everything we built together, so yes, I kept it hidden from you," Elsa resumed her focus on driving. "I'm sorry, I really am. But this cause, this fight, it's mine. Those are my people that are being hunted down and destroyed. Why should I deserve to live free when I was just like them once? We know they can be independent, we know they can make choices, and we know they have thoughts of their own, so don't they also deserve to have a chance at life? Don't they deserve rights? I can't ignore this, Anna, I can't. I won't sit by when I can actually do something."

A long silence passed over them, during which they both stewed in their thoughts.

"It's hard to understand, I know," Elsa said quietly. "If our places were switched, I-"

"No, I do understand," Anna replied, reaching over and squeezing Elsa's free hand. "Look, I've been on the fence about this whole thing for a while and I guess I still am. But you, I get you, and I get where you're coming from, and I get why you want to do this. It's just that I never expected it, you know? And I know that's shitty coming from me, and you'd be totally right."

"So you disagree with what I'm doing?" Elsa asked, her voice quiet and delicate.

"What? No," Anna shook her head adamantly. "No, of course not."

"But you don't agree with it either."

"No, not that either. It's- I don't know. It's hard to say."

Elsa blinked hard and swallowed a lump in her throat. Anna could tell that she wasn't entirely thrilled with the response she had gotten, but there were still so many things to untangle and straighten out.

The rest of the way home was filled with that tense silence.

… … …

After getting home, Anna went into the office to stash her weapons while Elsa followed behind and went over to her terminal to send OLAF back into the net. After she was done that, she stood up and leaned against the wall opposite from Anna, simply observing her.

"I talked," Elsa started in a gentle voice. "Your turn now."

Anna slotted her katana back into the foam insert and sighed as she rubbed her eyes. "Okay... okay," she turned around, walked over to her workbench, leaned against it, and crossed her arms. "Look, I'm sorry for lying to you. I'm sorry for a lot of things. I'm sorry for apologizing to you all the time because it just means I haven't changed a damn bit."

Elsa's expression softened and she remained silent.

Anna looked out the window and shook her head. "I'm a piping hot mess. This has been going on for a while and I haven't said anything," she turned her gaze to Elsa and started tapping her foot restlessly. "Nothing's been the same since New York."

Elsa nodded and approached Anna, stopping just before her.

"I made a promise that I was done with my old life," Anna continued.

"We both did," Elsa said.

"Yeah, and I broke that promise. I broke it and I kept breaking it and I don't know why," Anna started to pace back and forth. "Shit happens, and then it's over, and then you still can't get over it? I lost Nora and it destroyed me. A few years ago, I was hitting the bottle every day and every day I wished I was dead," she chuckled at herself lifelessly.

It was Elsa's turn to look out the window now, but instead of the view, she was observing her own reflection. Looking at the body and memories she had inherited.

"But then you came along," Anna stopped pacing and resumed her place in front of Elsa. "And I got a second chance in a world where most people don't even get a first chance. I found you, I have you, I love you, and I'm lucky. But, baby, I can't rest."

Elsa turned her gaze back to Anna, her eyes full of sympathy and understanding.

"I can't let down my guard because I know bad shit can happen at any time when you least expect it. I have to protect the one person I can't live without and that's you," Anna pointed at Elsa, then gestured at the weapon wall. "That's what all this is for. The guns, the swords, the cyberware. But other than that, I don't know what the hell else to do with myself," she shrugged. "In New York, I was only good at fighting and snooping around in other people's business. When you go to work, I head underground and I do what I do best. I go looking for trouble."

"It's reckless," Elsa reached for both of Anna's hands and squeezed them softly. "What would I do if something happened to you? If you got hurt down there, I wouldn't even know about it. I need to protect you too, Anna."

"Yeah," Anna nodded. "I'm telling you what's going on inside my head, I'm not saying I get it. And I don't know why I keep heading down there. I guess it makes the most sense to me. I know violence, I know killing. Sometimes I wish I didn't. I want to stop, but I don't know how. What scares is me the most is I think there's a part of me that doesn't even want to stop. The worst thing is, I can do all this stuff, then go home to you and still sleep at night."

"Anna," Elsa said, her voice frail.

"If you ask me to make small talk around the cooler with coworkers that I don't give a shit about, write some worthless piece about the latest celebrity gossip or the newest ways the corps are trying to sell us something, I wouldn't have a fucking clue," Anna shook her head in disgust at herself. "I- I… I don't know how to be normal and do normal things."

And it was true. Anna grew up on the streets of LA, fighting just to scrape by with Nora. When they moved to New York, and she died, Anna carried on that fight with K after they met at the orphanage. Ever since then, she's been fighting, and now that she was in a place where she didn't have to fight, she didn't know to escape from that type of conditioning. The hardest thing was to adjust to a sense of normality when the standard for existence on Earth was anything but normal.

As for Elsa, she wasn't around for the twelve years that Anna spent alone. It wasn't until Nora's body was broken down, dissected, and rebuilt that she became Elsa. She was then struggling with her own battles at VanirCorp, and only when they finally met did their struggles align with each other. Since Elsa had regained her memories though, Nora's experiences with Anna were, in a way, also her own.

"You told me that you were happy and that you found a purpose," Anna said. "I still haven't got there yet."

Elsa moved right into Anna's space, hugging her tightly as she placed a kiss on her forehead. Afterward, she leaned her head against Anna's as they both shut their eyes and listened to each other's breathing. They stayed there for a while until eventually, Elsa pulled away first and gently lifted Anna's face by her chin.

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea this is what you were going through," Elsa said. "Why didn't you talk to me about this?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want to scare you with how messed up I am," Anna mumbled. "I didn't even know what I was feeling until I talked about it now. I was so used to burying everything with booze, but now that I'm sober, I don't have any other way to cope other than to just try and ignore it all."

"You're not messed up," Elsa ran her hands up towards Anna's jawline, cupping it. "You have me. I'm glad you talked to me. And I'm sorry for lying to you as well. I promise I won't keep any more secrets from you. Do you forgive me?"

"Obviously I forgive you," Anna wrapped her arms around Elsa's waist and rested her head on Elsa's chest. "I'm the one who's sorrier."

"Well then I forgive you too," Elsa played around with Anna's hair. "And I want to help you. You don't have to be dealing with these demons on your own. We can start looking into therapy or counseling, help you get on the right track. Come to think of it, I could benefit from that as well."

Anna smiled thinly. "What, and empty our bank accounts to pay some shrink who'll just show me some inkblots, ask me how I'm feeling like they actually give a shit while spouting the same recycled spiel over and over again about opening up and being vulnerable?" she looked up at Elsa. "I don't think so."

"Anna, look at me."

"I am looking at you."

"I know. Your problem is that you've already accepted that you can't change before even giving it a try. It's hard, of course, but this isn't something you can fix on your own. You need to accept that you need help."

"I've managed so far with you, haven't I?"

"You've only just told me about this, and if you had it your way, you would have kept this hidden from me. Think about what your life was like before we found each other again. Do you really want to go down that path?"

Anna sighed and dipped her head as she conceded the point. It was a hard conversation to have and Elsa's words were harsh, but there was necessary truth to them. A harsh and necessary truth that was coming from a place of profound love, care, and respect.

"No," Anna sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Never. But there's just a lot to unpack and I really don't think talking about it is gonna be enough. Maybe... maybe there's an alternative," she looked off to the side and furrowed her brows in thought.

"You have an idea?" Elsa asked.

"I... do. I do. What if I help you? You know, with your underground railroad? With the freedom movement?"

"What?"

"Think about it. I'm really good at being discreet, hiding from the corps, doing the dirty work. What I need is something to focus on, right? Something to keep me busy and out of trouble. Well, mostly out of trouble. Something also good, something really good like what you're doing."

Elsa bit her lip and frowned. "I don't know, I'm not sure about this."

"Come on, I think this could work," Anna perked up, getting excited. "I've only ever worked for dirty corpos, but then we came here, and Mulan, she isn't dirty, she also isn't clean, that's not the point. But you," she tapped Elsa on the nose. "You're as clean as they come and if I work for you-" she stopped and made a face. "No, that sounds weird."

"It does," Elsa agreed.

"If we work with each other, then I can start doing some actual good, spreading some good karma. Look, I know I haven't really been vocal about the whole android freedom movement, but you support it and I want to support you. I want to see things the way you do. I've never really been a joiner for anything, but K told me I'd have to pick a side sooner or later and now I'm picking it. We've made a pretty good team in the past, haven't we?"

"We have," Elsa nodded slowly. "We really have," she pursed her lips and looked off to the side. "But you have to understand, this is bigger than you or me. It's bigger than both of us and the reason why we're doing this is just as important as how we're doing this."

"Of course."

"Because this is the right thing to do. Theodore believed that. Sinclair believes that. I believe that."

"Nora would have believed it too."

Elsa smiled, looking back at Anna. "If we're doing this, then we're doing it my way."

"Deal," Anna nodded eagerly.

"That means no more mercenary gigs, no more sneaking off into the sub-city behind my back, no more getting in trouble."

"Done."

Elsa's reasons were noble enough on their own, but more than that, she was well aware of her enhanced capabilities and therefore understood the need for restraint. Best of all was the fact that Elsa had been born from the arrogance of VanirCorp and the greatest mistake that Matilda had ever made, which was to create a person capable of thinking, learning, and acting on their own volition.

"Promise?" Elsa held up her pinky.

"Promise," Anna looped her own pinky around Elsa's.

"And as soon as all this is over, we're going straight to a therapist."

"Okay, yes. Okay."

Elsa smiled unabashedly from relief and excitement as she leaned down and hugged Anna fiercely. "Thank you," she whispered.

"And thank you for putting up with me," Anna returned the gesture just as eagerly. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Elsa laughed. "I still love you."

"Mmm," Anna rubbed her hands up and down Elsa's back. "That was a good talk. I didn't know how much I needed that."

"It was. I'm gonna go and take a shower," Elsa pulled away and went towards the door.

"Cool," Anna snapped her fingers and clapped her left palm over her right fist. "I'll do some cleaning out here."

"No," Elsa stopped and looked over her shoulder. "You're joining me."

"Better," Anna agreed as she followed after Elsa.