Showdown at the House of Gold Leaves

Elsa pulled up outside the House of Gold Leaves, the restaurant located in the district of Chinatown within the borough of Onyx Hill. Through the tinted windows of her car, she observed the exterior of the restaurant, finding that there were no bouncers or lineups of any kind. Clearly, it was an upper-end establishment closed to the general public.

I don't want a repeat of what happened at the mansion, Elsa thought as she activated her cybernetic eyes and scanned the surrounding area. Need to make sure there are no surprises for me before I head inside.

She sat there in her car, hacking into the local network and searching for any security measures in place. From what she could tell, there were no cameras or any other recording devices. In fact, the whole building's net was quite rudimentary with basic access points and little to no remote-control centers. Given the nature of the business that was usually conducted at this establishment, what with it being a common meeting ground for the top gangs of Arcadia, it came as no surprise that the proprietors wanted to leave as little traces of their activities as possible.

Fortunately for Elsa, this meant that no netrunners were on-site to interfere with her intrusion. Security was provided the old-fashioned way with bodyguards and the like. Additionally, while she couldn't manipulate the building's electrical systems to her advantage, she could still launch quick-hacks at individual targets with netware installed in their bodies. Even so, as subtle and discreet as she often liked to play things, sometimes, certain matters required a forceful hand.

Still, she wasn't in the sub-city. Law enforcement response times would be fast, especially in this upscale location of Arcadia. If it came to blows, Elsa would have to move quickly.

Lizzie's in there, Elsa thought as she looked over to the passenger seat and examined her cryo katana. Lizzie's in there and I'll get her back. I'll find a way to restore her memories. If I could do it for myself, I could do it for her.

Finding her resolve, Elsa grabbed her katana and stepped out of the car, strapping it to her waist. She crossed the street, heading towards the front entrance of the House of Gold Leaves and sought cover by a perimeter wall. It surrounded a courtyard that led towards the restaurant. The building itself was designed in the style of ancient Chinese architecture.

Enough waiting. No more games. I don't know what I'm walking into, but it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is getting Lizzie back and getting those codes.

She shook off the last of her doubt then went right up to the front doors, finding them to be quite locked. The lights were on inside and from the volume of voices that could be heard even outside, the restaurant was obviously open. So, Elsa would have to find another way inside.

Elsa walked around the grounds, eyeing the walls and roof. The windows were set high off the ground but it was a trivial matter for her to jump up and reach one. When she found one that was open, Elsa leaped up, caught the ledge, then pulled herself up. She straddled the wall as she squeezed through the gap and when she looked down, she saw that she was in the ladies washroom.

It was currently unoccupied, so Elsa silently dropped in. She went over to the mirror to fix her hair and adjust her jacket, then after that, she headed out. After she walked down a hallway and turned a corner, she entered a large and open dining space. At the center was a dance floor. At the far end was a bar. To one side was another hallway that led towards the front entrance. To the other side were a set of stairs that led up to a second-floor landing where private dining rooms were located.

The meeting between the Verenkovs, the Yakuza, and the Triad gang bosses was likely being held in one of those rooms. Elsa wasn't here for any of them. Elsa was only here for Alexei. Deciding to toss subtlety out the window, she went to the center of the dining floor, catching a few curious glances from wealthy citizens and executive corpos alike.

"Alexei Verenkov!" Elsa yelled at the top of her lungs, calling him out. "You and I have unfinished business!"

Steadily, a hush fell over the entire restaurant.

On the second-floor landing, straight ahead of where Elsa was standing, a sliding door opened. Alexei walked out, followed by the Yakuza boss – a man named Katsumoto – and the Triad boss – a woman named Madame Hao. Alexei's eyes widened with surprise when he saw Elsa, then narrowed in fury. Finally, Natalya came up to his side, holding onto his arm. She was dressed in a distinctive red coat.

Other doors began to open up as well, and out stepped a score of gangers. Verenkovs in red suits. Yakuza in white suits. Triads in black suits.

"You," Alexei pointed at Elsa. "You should not be here. I was generous to you by allowing you to keep your life. Now, I see I should have had you killed."

"Yeah, I'm all kinds of stubborn," Elsa replied.

"Tsk," Madame Hao clicked her tongue and looked at Alexei. "Who is this? Why does she walk into this establishment bearing steel? You have invited violence to a meeting of peace, Mister Verenkov."

Alexei scoffed. "I assure you, I meant no ill will," he gestured vaguely in Elsa's direction. "She is just a single woman. A little problem that will soon be resolved."

"A problem you seem content to hoist onto us," Katsumoto growled, staring at Elsa with a mixture of curiosity and offense.

"I have no quarrel with any of you. Just him," Elsa pointed directly at Alexei. "This is your only chance to do the right thing. Return Lizzie to me and those codes. Otherwise, you will die along with anyone else who stands in my way."

Alexei tensed his jaw, then turned towards Natalya. "Papa has some business to take care of now, zaychik," he said, ushering her away. "Go to the gardens and wait for your mother. She will be along shortly."

Natalya did as she was told, holding her little book close to her chest as she wandered off to the gardens.

Then, Alexei turned his attention back towards Elsa. "Yegor," he snapped his fingers. "Deal with her."

Yegor was a large man, an absolute unit of synthetic muscles and cyberware. He hopped down from the second story and landed in front of Elsa. In his hands, he held a massive sledgehammer.

"I don't want to do this," Elsa said loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Lay down your arms and walk away. All of you," she reached down and laid her hands on her katana.

"I must break you," Yegor said.

"Have it your way," Elsa sighed.

Using her left thumb, she pushed it against the guard of her katana, popping it an inch out of the sheath. Using her right hand, she rested it on the hilt, ready to draw and cut at a moment's notice. She shifted into a ready stance, keeping her gaze solely focused on Yegor who continued to advance on her.

When Yegor roared and rushed at Elsa, he raised his hammer high above his head. At that moment, Elsa struck first. She sidestepped the attack and in the same fluid motion, she drew her katana out of its sheath along an upward arc, slicing open Yegor's neck.

Blood spurted out of his wound and he stumbled past Elsa, eyes wide with shock. He fell to his knees, clutched at his neck a moment longer, then fell on his face, dead.

A few of the diners audibly gasped and some of them even ran out of the restaurant, sensing what came next. When Madame Hao uttered a single order in Cantonese, the rest of them followed suit, emptying the restaurant.

Elsa said nothing more and let her actions speak for herself as she returned her cold stare to Alexei. She raised her left hand and made a fist, then she drew the flat of her katana blade against her sleeve, cleaning off the blood.

"Hmph," Alexei drummed his fingers on the railing and turned towards the other mob bosses. "Might I suggest unifying as our forefathers once did to destroy our common enemy? Let us do to her what we did to her country."

Katsumoto glared at Elsa, speaking to her in Japanese. "Silly American girl likes to play with samurai swords," he laughed. "You are no real samurai, but at least you may have the honor of dying like one."

Madame Hao nodded once.

At that, the combined gangers of the Verenkovs, Yakuza, and Triads converged on Elsa. They swarmed down from the second floor, drawing their own weapons. Verenkovs carried machetes and baseball bats. The Yakuza carried tantos and wakizashi. The Triads carried knives and electric stun batons. Once they all swarmed onto the dance floor, they formed a tight circle around Elsa, surrounding her on all sides.

Elsa looked around at her opposition. She had given them plenty of chances to avoid a fight and they still chose violence, so she would respond in kind. Raising her katana in front of her face, she held it perpendicular to her body, pointing the blade out to the side. Reflected on the steel were her own blue eyes, still and silent and steady like the mirrored surface of a pond.

The gangers tensed up in anticipation but had yet to make a move. They were still waiting on orders from their masters.

Elsa then activated the cryo edge of her katana and immediately, the entire blade frosted over with a layer of hypothermic ice. Her reflection vanished and all that was left was ripping cold steel. It exhaled a fine mist, falling in tune with the calm and even pattern of her own breathing.

The gangers had numbers on their side, but Elsa was detecting plenty of netware among them as she scanned the crowds. She would be able to use that to her advantage.

Alexei pointed at Elsa. "Kill her."

All the gangers shouted at once as they charged at Elsa. Just before they reached her and just before she was eviscerated, she crouched low and jumped high into the air, doing a somersault above the gangers to reposition herself in a more strategic spot. As she landed on her feet, she blocked two incoming strikes, then responded in kind by cutting both the gangers in half at the waist.

Instead of hot blood spraying everywhere, it froze, and their entrails that spilled out turned into frozen icicles.

The other gangers started to rush over while three more came at Elsa. She parried the first one and swiftly decapitated him. She ducked beneath the second and promptly cut off both of his legs. She grabbed the wrist of the third, twisted it behind his back, then used him as a meat shield. He caught a baseball bat to the face for Elsa, then a knife was embedded in his eye while he was screaming for them to stop.

Elsa kicked the lifeless body away, tripping up two more gangers, then she started to backpedal towards the bar. She had to keep moving to avoid being surrounded again. Along the way, she rapidly deflected a flurry of attacks from multiple angles, fending them off by hacking and slashing, slicing and dicing, stabbing and impaling. Gangers who fell by her blade were left bloodied and broken on the ground, screaming in pain as they were cut down one by one.

Arms were removed, legs were removed, heads were removed. There was yelling, screaming, wailing, cursing. Still, through all the chaos, the gangers kept coming at Elsa.

When she reached the bar, Elsa felt her back come up against the counter. Now cornered, she ducked beneath the swipe of a ganger's machete before springing up, driving her knee into his groin, grabbing a bottle of alcohol off the counter, and smashing it into the back of his head. Then, as they continued to pour in, Elsa jumped onto the counter to gain the high ground.

There, a ganger lunged towards her legs with his weapon. Elsa raised her foot to avoid it, then stomped down, keeping it pressed against the counter. Then, she dragged her foot backward, pulling the ganger in and smashing his face against the hard edge. More rushed at Elsa and from her higher angle, she cut off their hands, or slashed open their faces, or carved their skulls in two.

At one point, the bodies were beginning to pile up so high that the other gangers were walking up the ramp of meat that had been formed. Having lost her advantage, Elsa ran to the far end of the bar, kicked a glass tumbler into a ganger's face, and leaped off. As she landed and while he was stunned, she cleaved downward with a mighty blow, completely splitting him in half from the top of his head down to his groin. She picked up one half of his body and tossed it into the crowd of gangers chasing her.

By now, bodies were strewn all over the restaurant and their frozen blood was beginning to thaw, turning the floor into slick, gruesome, red slushies of gore. The gangers had also realized that Elsa was a serious threat now that most of their numbers were culled. She must have slain dozens by this point.

Alexei, Katsumoto, and Madame Hao were watching all the carnage, stupefied by Elsa's deadly prowess with a blade.

All the while, Elsa continued to move like a sword dancer, bend like an acrobat, and crash like a tsunami. She was graceful, fluid, and lethal. Above all else, she was as cold as her blade. Killing without remorse, without mercy, and without emotion.

At this point, Elsa had killed half of the gangers. The other half were cautiously keeping their distance. They knew what Elsa was capable of doing with a sword, so they were now acting more conservatively, hesitating to strike. They didn't know what she was capable of doing as a netrunner, so to play her strongest card, she launched a contagion quick-hack that began to infect their netware.

It wasn't a lethal countermeasure, but what it did do was cause confusion and disorientation. To compound the effect, the contagion spread rapidly from one ganger to the next, causing them to clutch their heads and stumble about. Once it reached critical mass among the gangers, Elsa layered on the hurt by launching a short circuit and overload quick-hack. The contagion ensured that the effects of those would be spread to all the gangers, but the rest of the RAM on her cyberdeck was depleted.

One by one, the gangers began to burst into flame, screaming in agony as their cyberware betrayed them. Others swung their weapons around as their systems were overwhelmed, striking their own comrades. Finally, for those who remained standing so far, their heads exploded with an ultraviolet shower of gore to finish them all off.

Elsa had killed the rest of them without even so much as laying a finger on them. When she looked up to the second-floor landing, the three gang bosses were speechless.

Madame Hao looked at Alexei and Katsumoto, then she looked at Elsa, acknowledging her with a single nod. "I see fighting you can only end in one way," she said. "I will not fight you. Will you do me the courtesy of allowing me to leave with my life? You have my word that the Triads will leave you to your business."

Elsa tilted her head towards the exit. It wasn't in her way to kill a surrendering foe.

Madame Hao bowed to Elsa, then started making her way out.

"Cowardly bitch!" Katsumoto yelled after Madame Hao in Japanese. "You shame us! I'll deal with the American myself!" he drew a two-handed nodachi sword and leaped over the railing down to the dance floor.

At the same moment, Katsumoto's personal bodyguards arrived on the scene, emerging from a side entrance. They were robotic samurai warriors, plated in ballistic armor that resembled their namesake, and there were four in total. One wielded a naginata, a polearm. One wielded a kanabo, a massive club. One dual-wielded a pair of katanas. One wielded a large masakari, an executioner's axe.

Elsa raised her katana to ready herself.

"Come, white-haired warrior," Katsumoto flourished his nodachi around. "Let us test our steel."

With that, he gave a war cry and charged at Elsa alongside his warriors. What happened next was a blur of steel and movement. Elsa dodged or deflected a flurry of incoming blows, counterattacking where she could.

The naginata warrior came at her, keeping the sharp end of its weapon pointed at her as it sprinted forward. Elsa dodged to the side, and delivered a flurry of rapid blows which glanced off its armor. Just as quickly, the warrior repositioned its weapon and struck Elsa in the side of the head with the blunt end, knocking her backward.

Next, the kanabo warrior and the dual katana warrior came at her from two different sides. Before she was crushed by the massive club, she did a backflip and landed behind dual katana warrior, letting it be crushed in her place. The kanabo warrior slammed his weapon down, firmly wedging it into the floor. While it was busy, Elsa ran forward and jumped off the weapon as extra leverage, then while she was in mid-air, she reversed her katana in her grip and stabbed the warrior through the top of its head.

The pair came tumbling down and Elsa rolled to the side to avoid being halved by the masakari axe. She cut off the legs of that warrior and followed up by stepping aside just in time to redirect the naginata being thrust at her heart to finish it off.

With only one warrior left, Elsa cleared the lethal range of the naginata and closed the distance. Then, she stabbed the last warrior through the neck, wrenching her blade around until the head popped off. Just as soon as she had done that, Katsumoto came rushing in, forcing her on the defensive once more.

He and Elsa backed up a few steps and circled each other. From the way Katsumoto moved and adjusted his guard to match Elsa's positioning, she knew he was a seasoned swordsman.

So, to start the fight, Elsa came in towards his side, feinting her attack. Katsumoto repositioned his weapon to respond, then quickly reversed the direction when he saw that Elsa had changed her angle of approach. He succeeded in blocking Elsa's katana with his nodachi, and then the pair rapidly traded blows against one another.

Elsa parried and replied with a riposte of her own. Katsumoto deftly maneuvered out of the way and recovered with a counterattack. Elsa dodged and repositioned herself behind him. Katsumoto shielded his back with his nodachi and turned to deliver another swift strike. Elsa deflected, then feinted another attack. Katsumoto didn't fall for the bait and switched his guard in time to block the follow-up move, but the strength and ferocity of the attack snapped his sword in half.

Katsumoto stared in shock at his destroyed weapon, then his eyes widened when a katana was plunged into his gut. Elsa ripped it out and he fell to his knees, staring down at his wound. She then raised her katana high above her head and struck downwards, removing Katsumoto's head from his body.

All told, the duel had only lasted a few seconds.

Elsa thrust her katana out to the side and flicked her wrist, shaking off the blood. She looked up at Alexei, who was shaking his head in disbelief. Without another word, he turned around and left the restaurant, heading for the gardens. He didn't appear to be in any hurry, so Elsa followed along. After ascending the staircase and passing by a few empty dining rooms, she turned down a hallway that led towards the exterior of the restaurant.

There, Elsa was greeted by a bizarre wintry scene. She stood before a path that led to a large pond with a stone bridge that spanned the width. At the other end of the bridge was an archway with a circular door; the entrance to the gardens. Bamboo stalks lined the path, and cherry blossom trees lined the edges of the pond, along with shrubs and other greenery. Their rosy pink petals drifted down slowly to the shiny surface of the water, falling in slow motion alongside fluffy snowflakes.

Artificial snow blanketed the ground, coming down from the sky, which was to say that it was coming down from snow machines hidden in the treetops.

Alexei was standing before the bridge in front of a burning firepit. He was doing the same thing as Elsa, watching the snowflakes tumble and roll and dance through the air.

Elsa looked down at her katana, noting how it was dripping with blood that stained the snow red. She remembered her purpose then.

"What is she worth to you?" Alexei asked, turning to face Elsa. "The girl?"

"More than you know," Elsa replied, walking slowly towards him and dragging the tip of her katana through the snow. "Where is she?"

Alexei gestured to the entrance to the gardens. "In there."

"You know what I'm here for."

"I'm not going to fight you," Alexei reached behind his neck and pulled out the data shard that held the IFF codes. "Not after I've seen what you can do. Here, take it," he tossed it over.

Elsa caught it easily, then slotted it into the chip slot behind her ear for safekeeping. "Now, Lizzie."

"Go," Alexei stepped aside. "Before my wife gets here and wonders what happened to her precious little girl."

Elsa walked up to the other side of the firepit, cautiously eyeing Alexei. She then tracked her gaze over to the entrance to the gardens.

"Of course," Alexei started. "You'll need this."

"Need what?" Elsa turned back to face him.

"This," Alexei held out a flash drive, something eerily familiar to Elsa for she possessed something similar. "Her memory backups. If you want to restore her to the Lizzie you knew, you'll need this."

Elsa tensed up and scowled at the powerful bargaining chip he still had. "Give it to me or I'll take it from you."

"No, no," Alexei shook his head. "The deal was, you walk out of here with the codes and your friend. You never said anything about this."

It didn't come as a surprise to Elsa that Alexei would withhold that critical information. It didn't come as a surprise to her that he would try and extort her one last time. What did surprise her was how, after everything she had done to get to this point, he could still be infuriatingly vexatious, even in the face of certain death.

"This, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to this," Alexei said. "You want it? Let's work out a new deal."

Elsa reached behind her back for her sidearm.

"Not so fast," Alexei squeezed the flash drive between his fingers, cracking the casing, threatening to destroy the precious contents it contained. "You try to reach that gun and I'll destroy it."

"Give it to me," Elsa said, glaring hatefully at him. "I'm in no mood for this."

"Neither am I. This is the only thing keeping me alive now. If you're here, then I imagine you must have already taken care of Alyosha and Svetlana. These are Lizzie's only memory backups. We took everything else from her, including those books she had. You lose this, you lose her forever."

The two glared at each other for a few seconds. Elsa stared at Alexei, burning a hole through him from the iciness of her fury alone. Alexei's eyes were cloudy with uncertainty as if he himself were weighing his options.

Eventually, he seemed to make a decision as he sneered. Next, he crushed the flash drive in his hands, then tossed it into the fire.

"No!" Elsa rushed forward, pulling out her sidearm.

Alexei ripped it out of her hands and tossed it away with a surprising amount of strength for someone his age. He then kicked her away, knocking her on her back. Then, while she was down, he took off his suit jacket and tossed it away before thrusting his arms out to the sides, extending raptor blades from his cybernetic limbs that crackled with arcs of electricity.

"We could have struck a deal!" Alexei raised his blades and made an X, dragging them against each other repeatedly to create a shower of sparks. "You disappoint me!"

Elsa crawled back to her feet and tried to reach the firepit, hoping to salvage the flash drive but Alexei cut her off. He then started swinging his blades around, forcing Elsa to backpedal further away as she mounted a desperate defense.

She had been taken off guard by the turn of events, so she gathered her scattered thoughts and sharpened them back into focus. Blocking here and there, Elsa continued to backpedal while Alexei advanced her, swiping his two raptor blades around. In response, Elsa dug in her heels and rushed forward, locking their blades together and locking their eyes on each other.

"Looks like you were too late to save Lizzie," Alexei taunted, inching his blades towards Elsa's face.

Elsa screamed in rage and pushed down on her katana with both hands, using all of her enhanced strength. Still, Alexei stood firm, bolstered by his own strength implants. He then headbutted Elsa and knocked her back. While she was briefly stunned, he pulled his blades back and brought them in from two different directions.

Before she was sliced apart, she dodged backward to put some distance between herself and her foe. As Alexei rushed at her, she leaped off the ground and landed behind him. Just as she was about to run her sword through his back, he spun around, dragging his blades along the ground and throwing snow into Elsa's face, momentarily blinding her.

Elsa stumbled back and wiped her eyes clean just in time to see a flash of metal. She was able to deflect one of the blades, breaking it in half in the process. However, the other one sliced the outer edge of her right thigh, sending painful electric shocks up her body, causing her to fall to one knee.

"You can fight, but this is beyond you!" Alexei taunted. "All the strength and power in the world, and you still couldn't save her!" he laughed.

He thrust his remaining blade into Elsa's left shoulder, again, channeling disabling shocks into her body. Elsa cried out in agony. In the worst possible way at the worst possible time, the electric currents made her recall her years of torture under the hands of Matilda Rosenthal at VanirCorp.

In a dizzying flash, she remembered being clamped down into a chair. She remembered diodes being placed around her head and all sorts of machinery poking into her. She remembered the impassive, heartless look in Matilda's eyes. And finally, she remembered having her mind torn apart and her memories erased over and over and over.

Elsa squeezed her eyes shut, tears spilling out because of the traumatic experiences she was being made to relive. She felt the collective force of every time she was placed into the FMR machine crash into her. She felt the endless pain she endured over years and years of torture bury her beneath the tide. In that tunnel, there was only darkness that swallowed her whole. However, at the end of it all was one thing she was certain of.

Anna. Her crimson hair. Her teal eyes. She was always there, even in Elsa's darkest and loneliest moments. Even when she didn't know who or what she was. Even when she doubted her very own humanity. Anna was there before. She was there now.

The trauma and the anguish and the torture Elsa had suffered paled in comparison to the love and hope and light that Anna filled her with. At the end of pain, there was profound release, realization, and rejuvenation.

Elsa snapped her eyes open and looked up at Alexei, feeling strength and adrenaline rush through her veins. She reached and grabbed the blade embedded in her shoulder with both hands, ignoring the electricity that was coursing through her body and ignoring how the flesh of her hands and fingers were sliced open. As she slowly rose to her feet, teeth gritted from exertion, she pulled the blade out of her shoulder.

Alexei's face was a mask of bewilderment, which turned into complete horror when Elsa snapped his arm in half and ripped it right out of his body. Then, using the blade on his detached limb, she jammed it into his chest. Afterward, while he gasped and sputtered, Elsa picked him up, held him above her head, and threw him into the fire pit, knocking out most of the burning logs and embers.

He tumbled and rolled over, coming to a stop on the snowy ground. There, he ripped out his own arm that he had been stabbed with and came up to his knees.

Elsa panted heavily as she bent down and picked up her katana. She limped over to Alexei and stood above him, staring down with utter contempt.

Alexei coughed and hacked up blood, throwing one last defiant glare at Elsa. "You... lose."

Elsa cried out for vengeance as she sliced off the top half of Alexei's head, exposing the pink brain matter inside his skull. Next, still overcome with rage, she cleaved downward with her katana using both hands. The first blow caught Alexei by his left shoulder, breaking through his collarbone. The second blow carved down diagonally across his torso, splitting his rib cage in half. The third blow sliced through his entire body and the blade exited out from the right side of his waist.

Alexei slumped over, finally dead.

When it was done, Elsa dropped her katana and fell to her knees, breathing in and out with heavy gasps of air. She then crawled over to the firepit which had now been extinguished, picking through the bits and pieces that remained.

It was useless and too late. The flash drive that contained Lizzie's memory backups was the only one of its kind, and now, it had been melted and destroyed. There was no hope for recovery. Elsa cursed her luck, she cursed herself, but most of all, she cursed Alexei.

With nothing else to do but see to her friend, she gathered her weapons, got back on her feet, and limped into the garden.

There, Elsa found Natalya, the android girl once called Lizzie. She was sitting on a bench, swinging her legs back and forth, making tracks in the snow. Her red coat made her stand out from the white scenery she was surrounded by. A book was in her lap – The Velveteen Rabbit – and she was reading, somehow having ignored all the chaos that had gone on outside of the gardens. Elsa could see why. Everything was silent, still, and serene.

Elsa limped over to Natalya, keeping a respectful distance away. She had not yet taken notice of Elsa's presence, wrapped up in her reading as she was.

"Lizzie?" Elsa said, her voice strained and quiet.

"Mama?" Natalya looked up with bright eyes. "Oh, you're not mama," her face visibly dimmed when she saw that it was not her mother.

"Lizzie, it's me," Elsa smiled. "It's Elsa. Do you remember me?"

She realized how she must have looked, covered in blood and all. Most of it wasn't hers. Still, she tried to put on a friendly and approachable face.

"Where's my mama?" Natalya stood up, taking a few steps away from Elsa. "Papa!?" she called out.

"Lizzie, please," Elsa pressed, her voice beginning to break. "We met in New York. You helped me. I gave you five books. Five paper books, like the one you're holding now. Please, try and remember."

"I don't know you," Natalya continued backing away, looking around the gardens for her fake parents. "I don't know who you are. Where are my parents?"

I can't restore her memories, Elsa thought as she desperately searched for any other options. But maybe I can show her my own from when we met. It might be enough. I just need to get her and take her to the right equipment... which I don't have.

Elsa had once shown Anna and K her own memories using the special technology present at the Memory Palace, a place specifically intended for that purpose. Of course, that was all the way back in New York, so that wasn't a feasible option. It also wasn't feasible to bring Natalya to any other location like that in Arcadia because to her and anyone else, it would essentially be a kidnapping. Doing such a thing was a sure way to attract the wrong attention, even if Elsa's intentions were pure.

"Papa! Mama?!" Natalya called out again.

Elsa's eyes started to water, but she pressed on, hoping beyond hope to stir Lizzie's old memories. "You know me, Lizzie," she said, her voice turning shaky. "And I know you. We met each other before," she reached out with a trembling hand.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Natalya asked. "That's not my name!"

"Please," Elsa pleaded. "Look at me. Just try to remember who I am. My name is Elsa. I'm Elsa."

"Leave me alone!"

"Your name is Lizzie. You lived in New York. You know me."

"No, I don't!"

In the distance, police sirens were heard converging on the House of Gold Leaves. Evidently, word of the carnage that had unfolded was beginning to spread. The police could have been called by any one of the diners when Elsa made her entrance.

She was running out of time.

"I don't know you, just go away!" Natalya continued backing up, her voice nervous and fearful.

Everything about her body language suggested there was no familiarity or recognition when she looked upon Elsa. Her eyes were confused, yet clear and unclouded. In them, Elsa saw her own reflection staring back.

It was then she knew that Lizzie was gone. The little street kid, the kleptomaniac, the scrap runner, and the android freedom fighter were gone. She was gone. The person who helped Elsa find Minerva two years ago, who set her on the path to finding Anna was gone.

The only reason Elsa had ever been able to recover Nora's original memories was that she was human from the very beginning. VanirCorp had taken her body and used it as blueprint to design an organic prototype android, meaning that Elsa was the first and last of her kind. On the other hand, Lizzie was still fully synthetic. Lifelike perhaps, but synthetic. For androids, wiping their memories was a permanent action and as easy as deleting a few files from a computer. Just the same, those files could be copied and replaced, but copies and backups had to exist in the first place.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. Lizzie had helped Elsa, but Elsa could not help Lizzie. Elsa had failed. Now, she had to make a choice.

Elsa could have walked away and left Natalya to a life of peace and luxury. She would live in a big mansion with all the books she could read, doted over by a mother that probably would have cared for her. She would never have to struggle for anything, not like she had to when she lived in New York. She would be safe and probably even happy, but it would be a lie.

Alternatively, since Elsa knew how awful it was to live with fabricated memories, and since there was no hope for recovering Lizzie to the person she was, perhaps it would be better if she didn't have to endure that fate. She could rest, never to wake again.

Elsa battled within herself to reach a decision until eventually, she made her terrible, awful, final choice. If faced with dying as who she was or living a lie, she preferred the former. She decided to grant Lizzie the mercy she deserved.

The police sirens were still closing in. The snow was still steadily falling. It didn't matter to Elsa. For just a little bit longer, the gardens were peaceful.

"Okay," Elsa put on a brave smile, despite the fact that she was barely keeping it together. "Okay, Liz-" she cleared her throat. "Natalya. I can find your parents and bring them here. Is that what you want?"

Natalya eyed Elsa cautiously and nodded.

"I can find them, but first, you have to do something," Elsa said. "You need to do something important while I go and find your parents, okay?"

"Do what?" Natalya asked.

Elsa looked up at the sky, her face lit up by the moonlight to hide her tears. "Look at the snowflakes," she pointed. "Aren't they pretty?"

Natalya tracked her gaze and shrugged. "I guess."

"Now, what you need to do is turn around. Just turn around and look at the snowflakes."

"And then you'll bring my parents here?"

"I will," Elsa stood up. "Look at the snowflakes. Keep looking at them, count them up to a hundred, and don't turn around. It's very… very important that you don't turn around too soon. When you reach one hundred, your parents will be here."

Natalya did as she was asked, turning around and counting the snowflakes in Russian.

"Just look at the snowflakes," Elsa reached for her sidearm, weeping softly. "I'm sorry, Lizzie. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm so sorry I failed you," she whispered to herself.

Natalya continued counting, blissfully unaware.

"Just- just look… just look at the snowflakes," Elsa whimpered as she took aim with a shaky hand. "It'll be over soon," she shut her eyes.

A trigger was pulled. A single gunshot echoed through the trees. A body slumped over.

For just a little bit longer, the gardens were peaceful.