Omega [REDUX]

Chapter 6

After she was done Anna just let her legs give way and crumpled to the floor, in a somewhat undignified fashion, letting the exhaustion from her torturous exercise take over her. God! How did Elsa even get all of these here in the first place?

Her breath came out in quick, sharp intakes, her hands way too tired to even support her in a sitting position. So instead Anna decided to simply lie down on the floor, completely spread-eagled. She didn't even care how Elsa must have thought of her at that point. I am so, so, so unfit. I'm never gonna pass the tests at this rate. Anna let her head loll to one side, her eyes half-drooping from the exhaustion, desperately hoping that Elsa wouldn't have anything else for her right now.

What the heck have I gotten myself into?

Elsa, who had been standing silently at the side watching her carry the slabs per her previous instructions, now came over and sat on the floor behind her, cupping her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. It was potentially the only dry spot left for them; the rest was pretty wet from melting as Anna moved them from one side to the other. Anna felt miserable; her clothes, previously drenched from running, were now pretty much soaked from all the ice.

They remained like that for an untold length of time, Anna's breathing slowly returning to normal, feeling the sun's rays caress her skin and bring much needed warmth to the rest of her body. Silence loomed over the circle, with only Anna's raspy breathing puncturing the quiet.

"You should go change, you know," Elsa spoke up after a while, eyes still closed.

"Oh." Anna pushed herself into a sitting position, inwardly kicking herself for not thinking of that earlier. "Oops, I guess. I just thought you might have other things planned out after this."

"Nah, you're not doing anything intensive in this state, especially if you're still soaked. Get changed before you catch a cold. Tell me when you're done."

That was… nice, I guess? Anna got to her feet, realizing she had absolutely no idea what to expect from this "training", walking off back to her room. She decided that she needed a shower, a hot one for that matter, and desperately so. Glad for a break, she grabbed a spare change of clothes without even bothering to look if they matched, and rushed back out to the showers.

When she came out, feeling somewhat more refreshed, Elsa was sitting cross-legged upon the floor, eyes closed, breathing shallow and even. Anna cocked an eyebrow. This was the part where she would awkwardly wait around for Elsa to give her more instructions, she decided. Elsa was so quiet, it made her scared to move across the floor just to put her clothes back for fear of disturbing the meditative stance she had assumed. You're only walking, she reasoned to herself. It shouldn't affect her that much.

But what if she gets mad at me—

She caught herself on that thought, and then, taking a deep breath, walked across the compound towards her room. Anna had no idea why she felt it was important not to anger Elsa, but something was gnawing at her, as if perpetually warning her to be on her toes. She's the one training you, Anna thought. It's probably not good to anger her, else this entire week is going to suck. And a bunch of other reasons I suppose…

What those reasons were, she could not possibly fathom.

She dumped her used-clothes in the laundry chute connected to her room, then stepped outside, cringing as the door slid closed a little louder than she would have liked. Luckily, Elsa didn't stir.

Her heart rate sped up a little; it did that when she was nervous, or had no particular idea what course of action she should be taking next. She stood there awkwardly, trying to figure out something.

So eventually, after standing there watching the sun dry the water on floor (though she realized that counted as generally doing absolutely nothing), she decided to plop herself right next to Elsa. She leaned forward to glance at Elsa's face; it remained motionless and unchanged, seemingly oblivious to her movements. Was she asleep? Anna couldn't tell, so she exhaled deeply but silently, and attempted to imitate the position Elsa had assumed: cross-legged on the floor, palms flat upon her knees, eyes closed.

She got about five seconds into that position before Elsa spoke up. "What are you doing?"

"I'm… I'm meditating, like… like you are." Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit, this is so awkward…

A pause. "Not really," Elsa said, not having moved a single inch. "Your breathing is far too quick, and you're still fidgeting a lot. You appear to have something troubling you."

How the—? "N…nah," Anna attempted to cover for herself, astounded at how Elsa knew so much about her, "I'm just… tired from the exertion, I guess." She let out a nervous laugh. Is there anything this… girl… doesn't know?

Elsa shrugged, and her eyes opened. "You feeling better?"

"I guess," Anna replied.

"Good. That was just a warm-up."

Anna eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"Yes. There's no way we're done yet. What did you expect?" Elsa pushed herself to her feet as she spoke. "Rise. Turn to face me, and assume your fighting stance."

Anna stood up with Elsa, falling silent, once again confused. "I don't quite know what that is…"

She watched Elsa consider this. "You're right," came the response, "you really don't know what a fighting stance is. Forget it; I need you to play along."

"Okay… and how should I do this?"

"Block every attack I deliver."

She gulped. "Doesn't this seem a little too… you know… fast?"

Anna didn't even register Elsa's leg lashing out and catching her straight in the chest, knocking her a good few feet away. She crashed into the ground, sliding along the smooth marble floor of the compound on her back, gasping for air. She looked back at Elsa, who stood on one leg, curling the other one upwards, hands in a defensive position.

God she looks good like that.

Wait.

What?!

"You let your guard down," Elsa noted, maintaining her pose with ease and relatively little sway. Anna's eyes trailed over Elsa's slim, toned figure, watching the ways her muscles clenched and tightened to keep her balanced, how tight fabric trailed over Elsa's bodily curves. "Never let your guard down."

Heck, this training just got a whole lot more worth it. Anna found herself blushing as she rose to her feet. Dammit, Anna, you need to focus. Don't be… distracted, as good and appealing as that distraction might be. Wincing at the pain on her back, she assumed the best possible fighting stance she could muster: both hands in a boxer-like position, shifting her weight from left to right somewhat pretentiously. She still had no idea what she was supposed to do, but right now, looking at Elsa seemed a tad more appealing.

"As much as your guard isn't down right now," Elsa said, now lowering her leg to the floor and assuming her fighting stance, "I doubt that stance will help much."

I think I could live with that, Anna thought, smiling even as her vision was engulfed by a blur of movement.

This "regime" carried on for the next few days. The break was a week long, and had started on the Saturday on which the other recruits had left. Elsa had a full nine days to, in her own words, "get her into shape", though Anna wasn't sure she was going to be in shape to do anything after Elsa was done with her.

And it wasn't just because Elsa was pushing her to the absolute limits of her physical capacity, leaving her bruised, battered and beaten after every day. Anna found herself becoming increasingly obsessed with her companion, in more ways than one. Particularly during the physical training; Anna loved to ask Elsa to demonstrate how to carry out a specific exercise under the pretense of "getting it as right as possible", when in reality she was just attracted to watching Elsa, clad in a potentially revealing singlet and training pants, execute the required exercise with ease and elegance. Eventually Anna realized she was pushing it, because Elsa grew ever more irritated with that.

"Sorry," she would meekly reply, "I'm not really good at this."

She received a stare in reply, but Anna would smile to herself as she got on with whatever exercise she was expected to be doing.

What Anna didn't anticipate from the training was the level of intensity. Elsa would coach Anna for hours on end, particularly on her hand-to-hand combat. "In the face of battle," Elsa would tell her incessantly every time Anna complained about the training she was receiving, "the last thing you can rely on is not your updated intelligence, nor your top-of-the-line weapon, but only yourself." Those were the times when her feelings about her 'trainer' bordered on resentment; Elsa would force her to fight with her bare hands, clearly to let her feel overwhelmed in the presence of a much superior opponent.

It would be an understatement for Anna to say that she was beginning to feel annoyed. Her hands eventually began to ache from all the exertion, especially since Elsa threw her way a long series of drills consisting of push- and pull-ups, "weight" lifting where she kept lifting ice blocks over and over again, and hand-to-to hand combat. With bruises for trophies and aching muscles for rewards, Anna could not have been happier when their training sessions ended in the evening; although the next day Elsa would not go easy on her just because the previous day had been tiring. The physical strain took its toll on Anna every day the training progressed, but the mental toll was something Anna was even more unprepared for.

After prolonged duration, Anna actually started to get angry; and she hardly got angry. She'd expected to get something better out of the break time that she'd had, to spend time with somewhat she had begun to be interested in, but they were now a full halfway into the lull of curriculum, and Elsa had let her slog away unrelentingly at physical exercise. She could sense it herself; her tone became more resentful, and her words were overflowing with spite and sarcasm.

"Why don't you try carrying these things for a change?" she blurted out once before she could stop herself while she was lifting the ice slabs again.

Wordlessly, Elsa walked over to the pile of ice slabs, picked up three at one go, and deposited them to the other side of the circle. Then she walked back to where she had previously been standing, and motioned for Anna to continue.

Anna realized that she was being an asshole, but the training made it hard for her to act otherwise, as much as she didn't like to be one. Perhaps worse of all, when she went back to whatever exercise she was supposed to be doing, the hurt was evident on Elsa's face.

And every day she'd go to sleep hating herself just a little bit more.

Wednesday. Their break ended on the coming Sunday, and Anna woke up with the feeling that she wasn't going to have much of a "break" once again. She wanted to catch a few more minutes of sleep, given her heavy eyelids and aching body, but she was sure that Elsa was going to wake her up soon. There was no point delaying the inevitable.

Screw this, she thought. She'll wake me up. Anna grabbed a fistful of her blanket and draped it over her head, leaving an opening for her to breathe the cool air of her room, and let the sensation drift her back to sleep.

Her dreams were fuzzy. It was likely due to her exhaustion from the previous few days, and she didn't even realise she was dreaming. Through the haze she sighted a serenely beautiful figure, standing motionless in the darkness that engulfed her, a white aura emanating from her body. Anna's gaze remained transfixed upon the image, mesmerized by the beauty of the sight. Her limbs felt like lead and she couldn't move, try as she might to advance towards the image.

What the hell?

She tried to discern additional details; platinum blonde hair, intense blue eyes, slim and toned physique, but that was all she could tell. The figure was adorned in a bluish gown, almost like it was made of ice entirely, but even in her dream-state Anna dismissed the notion as ludicrous. Most strikingly of all, she seemed to recognize the figure—

The image faded. The darkness engulfed her. Her eyelids stirred.

She was still in her room.

Anna relaxed, stretching out on her bed, relishing in the sensation of the pillow on her head.

Wait, how long have I been asleep—

Frantically she sprang from her bed, dread gripping at her as she slid into her clothing; sleeping naked did nothing to improve the time she took to get up. Her mind ran the words shit shit shit over and over as she practically flew over to the door, hit the release and stumbled outside.

Elsa was sitting in the circle outside their rooms, back in her meditative stance. Beside her was the datapad she'd been using for the past few days, on top of a pile of papers and other materials Anna couldn't make out from where she stood. Fuck, she is so gonna kill me for being late—

"You're up?" came Elsa's voice, her body not moving.

"Y..yeah.."

Elsa's eyes opened, revealing the intense blue irises that lay within. Anna felt a sense of déjà vu strike her as Elsa rose: is she the figure… in my dream? Can it really be—

"Fighting stance."

"Wha… what?" Anna snapped out of her reverie, now somewhat flushed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention—"

"Fighting stance. Assume your fighting stance."

Inwardly she groaned; this would be no different from all the previous days of training, albeit the minor concession Elsa was willing to make about Anna's dearth of punctuality. Silently she put one foot forward, one foot back, both hands raised vertically to anticipate a coming attack.

"Deflect my attacks."

Elsa's first blow was swift, but manageable; the blow came straight for her, which Anna deflected by swinging her left hand. She watched Elsa move with the force of being deflected, her other fist swinging in a wide arc. They'd rehearsed this so many times, Anna could even predict Elsa's next move.

So she put her right hand up to take the brunt of the blow, then ducked in anticipation of Elsa's overhead kick. It worked; Anna dodged under the swing entirely, and in a moment of genius and stupidity combined, Anna attempted to restrain Elsa by grabbing at the back of her white T-shirt. She grabbed the fabric, but failed to follow up, and the momentum carried Elsa's body forward. A ripping sound resounded through the air as Elsa braced her fall to the ground, throwing one hand over the front of her shirt to preserve her modesty.

Oh.

Fuck.

Anna stood stock still for a few seconds as Elsa gasped from the unexpected turn of events, pushing herself up with one hand. Then her neural pathways lit up again after a period of inactivity, and she felt the dread rush back to her. "Oh my god," she blurted out, "I am so, so sorry for that! I didn't… I didn't know what I was thinking, I just thought maybe I could attempt to try a restraining maneuver, and that really didn't work out, gosh I am so sorry I am so—"

She stopped abruptly when she caught a smile widening on Elsa's face. For a moment she thought she heard a giggle. "It's okay," came the reply, the blonde ponytail draped over her head as Elsa regained her composure. "It's probably one of the best things I've seen you do thus far."

Anna pouted as she walked over to help Elsa up. Elsa shook her head, somewhat vigorously motioning for her to stay back. Anna didn't register the gesture, so she ended up walking towards Elsa anyway, but understood why almost immediately.

"Oh."

"…yeah," came Elsa's voice, now noticeably smaller and more timid. "No one's really seen that. Pretty much just you."

The pristine white skin that covered her back was now clearly visible, with one glaring exception; a patch of burned, scarred skin, bizarrely, in the pattern of what appeared to be a snowflake. Anna's gut twisted as she noted the charred areas, where the skin had attempted to heal repeatedly before being damaged again. That must have hurt…

"You get a good look?"

"Sorry!" she said, backing away quickly, not realizing she had been staring for quite a while. Anna berated herself as she watched Elsa get up, walking back towards her room, presumably to change. She cast another uncertain glance at the scar on Elsa's back, and questions flooded through her mind, even though she wasn't going to like the answers.

Anna didn't exactly consider that a good start to the day.