Omega [REDUX]

Chapter 33

"What the bloody hell is that?"

Kristoff smirked as they approached the launch bay, the greyish frame standing in the middle of it now coming into view. It was marked with yellow lines and white numbers, the prototype development colours, showing that there had been no time for refurbishment before this mainframe was to be put to use. Tear drop pods adorned the central column, secured by more machinery than Kristoff could really care for.

"That," he said to his awed squadmates, "is a prototype deployment rocket, codenamed SPORE. Just passed final testing and administrative regulations; we're literally the first people to use it."

"And how the hell does that work?" Elsa asked.

It had been 24 hours since he'd passed Elsa the datapad. In those hours he'd given himself a physical workout and a good rest to keep his body in peak condition, ready to handle whatever was thrown his way on this mission. Elsa on the other hand had thrown herself into training, physically exerting herself to perfect every combat technique she knew. He couldn't blame her, or pretend to understand her situation. Anna must have meant a lot to her.

He turned to Elsa as they continued walking down the metal floor, eventually reaching the embarking platform. "We load up in individual drop pods attached to the main rocket frame," she continued for him as the platform hissed and began to rise. "SPORE will bring us into the exosphere and then our pods will disengage. We burn in, and our target velocity will be too quick to be detected by long range scanners. SPORE also gives off a standard satellite signature; long range scanners won't suspect a thing."

They were now fully outfitted with all the gear they could possibly need. Kristoff reached to his thigh to secure the T2 pistol in its holster, and ran a systems scan of his warsuit in the same instance. As they the embarking platform continued to ascend he ran a scan of his vital signs, checked for anomalies, and then he ran a weapons check. Sufficient ammunition, grenades, all systems were go.

The platform came to a halt with another hiss. Armoured boots clanked upon metal as his squad proceeded towards the rocket. The first pod opened, and the first soldier embarked within, the cover sliding shut behind him. Then the mainframe rotated to expose the second pod, and the cycle repeated.

"You feeling okay?" he asked Elsa as his squadmates continued the boarding procedure.

The young woman stopped, her head tilting downwards a tad, shifting her weight from her left leg to her right. "As ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

"Scared?"

He heard her scoff behind the gleaming silver visor. "You don't say. SPORE just came out of development." He watched her run her own scans of her suit. "I literally have never trained for this."

"Neither have I."

"Well at least you've actually had firsthand experience of what it's like to literally fall out of a deployment drone."

"Yeah…" Kristoff said, his voice trailing off as he recalled the incident at the academy. "You're quite right."

He watched as Elsa pulled out her rifle and went to check for something. "What's up?"

"Checking to ensure I brought stun rounds." She cocked the rifle and slid it back over her shoulder to secure it, and brought up her arm-mounted datapad.

"We all did, remember?"

"Yeah, but I just need to make sure."

He turned as he watched the few remaining soldiers board SPORE. "You know we might have to kill the Ascendants, right?"

She shut off the device and turned back to him. "I know. But there's going to be stray rounds everywhere. If we find Anna there, I don't want her getting hit."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Why do you think that you're going to use your rifle instead of your… you know… whatever you call it?"

"After what happened at the academy," she replied, "I know what I can and can't do better. I can't afford to faint, or black out, or fail in any way right now. I can't risk that just to use my powers."

Kristoff stepped over to the edge as the mainframe rotated. The pod opened. He turned.

"You know you're going to have to."

She turned her head away.

Kristoff let her stay there, and climbed in the pod. The lid closed. He secured his weapons in their respective compartments, synced his suit systems to SPORE's and laid back.

Elsa had custom selected her weapon and suit detail for maximum efficiency. Her T2 sidearm was mounted with a silencer and carried three clips of stun rounds and lead rounds each. X5 autosniper was similarly equipped, attuned for full auto, burst firing and single shots. Her warsuit was a modified PHANTOM-IV, further equipped for mobility and recon, improved cloaking modules and limb-mounted mini-thrusters, alongside durable titanium plates and an energy shield to boot.

In almost every way, Elsa was prepared. Her senses were on high alert; no fatigue or distress clogged her mind, her muscles were tensed and ready for action, her vision pulsed blue with every passing second, power coursing through her veins. As the pod opened for her Elsa retrieved her weapons and secured them, synced her suit to SPORE and let the pod hiss as the lid closed over her.

She was as prepared as she possibly could be.

But she wasn't ready in any way to do what she was about to do. She had to muster all the courage she had to face her past. To face down her past. To kill her past if necessary.

And then she had to rescue Anna as well.

She thumbed the pod joystick as she waited, her mind drifting back to the academy, the explosion, the screams she heard as Anna was carried away, her heart throbbing with hurt as she did. She'd couldn't screw this up now. She'd fought her way out of the heavily occupied campus to find a way to get Anna back. Now that opportunity was right in front of her. Failure was not an option.

"Blue Rose," the operator said over the intercom, "this is UIF Launch. Please ensure your valuables are secured and seatbelts are fasted." The humor-laden voice was audible even as magnetic grips secured her suit to her pod's backrest; she felt the grips' suction on her back, and her movement became considerably restrained.

"We good?" Kristoff said over the intercom. A chorus of blinking status lights gave him the answer he needed, Elsa's included.

"Great," another voice said as a video feed popped up on her visor, "cause since the Challenger and Colombia space shuttle incidents everyone's been particularly jumpy about space deployments, especially since we started reconsidering them for military usage."

Charles. "How's the face?" she asked, a wry smile on her face that failed to assuage her fear.

She watched Charles scowl over the feed. "Aching like hell," he replied, "thanks of course to your superhuman strength. I'm surprised my neck isn't snapped."

"He's changed pretty fast," came Kristoff over a private channel. "I've never known him to do that."

"If I'd used superhuman strength," she replied to him, "it wouldn't just be his neck that would've been snapped."

"UIF Launch, SPORE is cleared for take off."

"Yes sir."

"Blue Rose, your target vector will take you over Empyrean territory within ten or so minutes, thanks to our new and improve propulsion systems. From there your pods will be released and burn in quick. Your pods are equipped with jamming tech that should allow you to circumvent anti-air defenses, but you should have maneuverability in case things get dicey."

She felt her palms tingle as her gloves synced the controls. "Should be synced to your suit right now," Charles went on.

"What's the plan of action?" a soldier asked. "We get up, burn in, and then what?"

"Your priority objective is Anna Faust." Anna's face was displayed across their synced visors, and Elsa felt a pang of longing and fear for her. "You are to retrieve her and secure an extraction, which we will provide with high-speed Hummingbird dropships. You are also cleared to neutralize enemy Ascendants in whatever means you deem necessary."

"Any intel on our target?"

"Anna Faust is an 18 year old female, a student of the military academy. She was captured during the Empyrean attack on the academy, and our intel suggests she was taken to where you all are going."

"And where exactly are we going?"

"The place where I was born," Elsa spoke up.

Machinery began to whirr; Elsa felt her pod shift and rotate as the aircraft prepped for launch. A countdown began in the top left of her visor.

"Born?" Kristoff asked incredulously as he cut into the conversation. "In the middle of goddamn nowhere?"

"Where we're going is their main facility for us Ascendants," Elsa continued, thumbing the sniper rifle next to her right hand. "They bred the few of us in tanks till birth maturity and then they put us on life support. They hit us and kicked us and tortured us there. They forced us to hone our powers and use them indiscriminately there. Everything you know and fear about the Ascendants has originated from there."

"So it's a lab?"

"Albeit a decrepit, poorly maintained and ugly one, yes. Sort of."

"So you know the place inside out?"

"Pretty much."

"All right people," Charles said. The plan is to stick together. Elsa, you'll have to direct them to the most likely location Anna will be held."

"Negative sir," she responded. "There's no such place. She could really be anywhere."

"In either case, stick together. Land together, search together, and get out of there together. Clear?"

"Understood sir," they chorused.

The timer read 30 seconds to launch. Elsa sucked in a breath and pressed her head back against the pod. She could hear the rockets thrumming with explosive energy. She clenched her fists and grit her teeth, her heart hammering in her chest. She set her eyes on the timer with a steely determination. She would not be denied now. Not from Anna.

"T-minus ten seconds, Blue Rose."

I'm coming for you Anna. Hang tight.

"Launch, launch, launch—"

The humming increased dramatically. As did the shaking. She could hear almost everything through her enhanced senses, feel every vibration jar her bones and—

The force that slammed into her was immense. She felt the g-forces making her head tight and eyes hurt. She could almost feel her ears pop as they ascended rapidly, but she was too busy clenching her teeth to clear it. She shut her eyes tight and held on to dear life as they kept rising and rising and the shaking seemed to carry on forever. Her guts seemed to dislocate from her body, and she resisted the immense urge to throw up.

You can do this, Elsa. You have to. For Anna.

"Just passed the stratosphere," Kristoff radioed.

Just the stratosphere? That felt like an eternity—!

The shaking intensified again, and it was all she could do to keep herself from screaming. It didn't help that everything she experienced was amplified by her enhanced senses. She tried to open her eyes, but she was shuddering so much everything was blurred, her irises desperately trying to compensate for the movement and focusing on the inside of her visor. The display brought up an altitude meter that continued to rise dramatically.

She shut her eyes again, and thought of Anna. She shut out everything else, and concentrated on a single image of Anna, when they'd met on the rooftop gardens of the academy. She could see her hair flying in the breeze. She could see her freckles, her gleaming green eyes and her radiant smile. She could almost hear her whispering sweet nothings in her ear, her warm breath sending shivers down her spine. She forced herself to focus entirely on that image, and for a moment everything else seemed to fade away into the recesses of her mind.

"…lsa?"

She blinked, confused. Elsa shook her head, finally able to clear her mind. Everything seemed quiet. No shaking. No roaring of engines. Her body almost felt light—?

"Wake up, princess," came a voice in her ear. "We've reached the exosphere."

Elsa shifted her head. Her visor was clear again, or rather, her vision was clear. She inhaled, trying to calm her nerves and soothe the pounding of her heart. She moved her hand to light up the pod display, her fingers skimming the stimuli pads even while she wasn't looking. A flicker. The cameras on the pod exterior activated, projecting the image toward her.

The view that greeted her was stunning. She rotated the cameras as she gazed at the planet that lay below her. The curve of Earth's horizon glinted with sunlight as clouds drifted beneath them, the silvery continents reflecting the same light up towards them as they passed over the megacities surrounded with protected walls. The names of the continents had been forgotten over history, and came to Elsa's mind faintly. But they were irrelevant as compared to more important things at hand, and she pushed the thoughts out of her mind.

"That's one hell of a view," she said over the comm.

"Take in as much of it as you can," said Charles, his voice now significantly more garbled than before. "You won't be seeing much of it when you drop."

Elsa reached over and attached her sidearm back to her suit, her other hand sliding over the X5, almost to assure herself. She could hear similar noises over the comm channels as the other soldiers prepped for drop. "How long to our drop point?"

"30 seconds, since we've prepped for a drive-by drop," Charles replied, just as the engines began to hum, then slowly climbed into a roar. "SPORE is going to accelerate, and then release your pods just before the drop point. The momentum should deliver you on target."

More shaking. Great. "How safe are these things again?"

"The pods are pretty tough, so unless the heat shield fails," Kristoff chuckled, "we should be good."

"Has the heat shield been known to fail?" Elsa asked. The roar of the engines had only increased in volume, and a timer had begun to countdown on the inside of her visor.

She could almost imagine Kristoff smirking. "During developmental cycles, yes."

"How reassuring."

The timer closed in on zero. "Have fun, boys and girls," Charles commented. "It's a fast ride down."

She heard a hiss as the pods detached, and then an even louder roar as her pod's own thrusters activated.

Momentum overcame her as she was pushed towards Earth at alarming speeds, and she grasped her joystick ever tighter as she continued to plummet. The pod display triggered the heat-resistant cameras mounted on the bottom of the pod, the feed tinged with re-entry fire and heatwaves. Already the attitude meter had materialized again, decreasing rapidly, numbers flickering by in a flash. It was all she could do to prevent her arms from jerking left and right, throwing her pod completely off course.

"Something's not right," Kristoff's static garbled voice came over the comm.

Her already pounding heart filled with dread. "What?"

"Something's popping up on long range scanners."

"At least the heat shield isn't failing." She glanced at her display as she continued to fall, the flames around the pod intensifying. Then, amidst all the jarring and shaking, she spotted something. Small pockets of flame had begun to blossom across the display. At first she dismissed it as camera glitch, but that was before she noticed them begin to expand.

"Blue Rose, run a diagnostic scan on our planetside scanners," Kristoff said, his voice calm despite the hazardous conditions of pod drop. "We might have a system-wide problem—"

Elsa's eyes widened as she grabbed the joystick. "Incoming!" she yelled. "Evasive maneuvers!"

Kristoff saw what Elsa saw a split-second later. Almost a split-second too late. Sucking in a breath he wrestled the joystick to steer his pod out of harm's way.

Burning lumps of rock sailed upward to meet them. He watched wide-eyed as one piece sailed past his pod display, wisps of flame scattering across his camera as the thrusters pushed his pod away from the deadly trajectory. He quickly recalibrated the pod sensors and synced the data to all SPORE pods; red targets popped up across his descent display. "What in the name of hell—?"

"They're firing at us," Elsa replied, speech garbled. "They know we're here."

"Who?"

"The other three Ascendants."

"How?"

He heard Elsa grunt before her reply came through. "I have no idea."

More fiery rock sailed ever upward, ever more quickly. Kristoff triggered emergency thrusters to increase maneuverability; g-forces slammed into him as he yanked his pod to the side as it continued to drop, dodging ever increasing bouts of brimstone. The ground surged to meet him, but he could not focus on landing just yet; his main aim was dodging fire as much as he could. "All units, abandon landing formation. Get to the ground safely."

Then a rock struck his pod.

It wasn't a direct hit, but it was severe. Metal sheared off his pod, and hot air rushed through, extinguishing the fire that had arose as soon as the rock had struck. Panic seized him as the pod began to tumble; quick thinking spared his life as he triggered the necessary thrusters to stabilize his descent. By then, he'd evaded the main arcs of fire, and his pod slammed into the ground, spitting up dirt and dust with the impact, the clang of metal ringing in his ears.

Kristoff slammed his hand on the pod release. Explosive bolts popped and hissed, but the lid did not budge. Damaged, I suppose. With a heave Kristoff lashed out with his leg, kicking out the pod's lid, grabbing his weapon in the same motion and surveyed his surroundings, aiming through the sights of his weapon.

Nothing. The landscape was black. The skies were darkened with grey clouds. He scanned the area around him, feeling the ash crunch beneath his feet as he slowly moved up the dark mounds.

Wait. Ash?

He checked his corners once more, securing his drop zone to the best of his ability. Then he reached down with one hand and let the black grains sift through the gaps between his fingers, his suit analyzing the chemical makeup as it did. It was ash, to a certain extent. He gazed at the ruins that lay scattered around him, the blackened shapes that adorned the horizon. This had once been a war zone, a battlefield, a grave for untold numbers that never saw the light of day again. The evidence of a conflict fought a long time ago.

He was brought back to reality by a number of pods slamming into the ground nearby. For now, the significance of where he stood would not reach him. Grabbing his weapon, he brought up the comm-link and tried to raise them. "Kristoff to Blue Rose, do you copy?"

A series of radio responses and status lights greeted him. The majority of his squad had made planetfall, and they were decently nearby. Kristoff highlighted a rendezvous point with his HUD and signaled for everyone to assemble. In the distance, he spotted the facility that had been their original objective.

It was only when he was halfway to the rendezvous and the first signs of static crackled through his HUD that he noted the missing individuals. Of the 16 people who had boarded SPORE, only 12 others were with him. 3 soldiers were missing.

Elsa was one of them.

Her pod slammed into the concrete ground in near-pristine condition; superior reflexes had allowed her to navigate her descent without taking hits. The bolts fired perfectly and blew the lid off. Elsa grabbed her rifle and leapt out of the pod, taking a knee and scanning the area, aiming through the rifle scope.

The area was clear. For now.

Her heart hammered in her chest. She switched her X5 to lethal rounds, and scanned the area once again. Her eyes darted across the courtyard. The blackened, flaking walls greeted her back with silence. Not even the wind whistled in this forsaken place. The only sound she heard was her armor creaking gently as she rose to a half-crouch.

She knew every feature, every detail of this place; nothing had changed since she'd been gone. Every corner and wall served as a painful memory for her. No space had been left unsoiled in her mind's eye. But she suppressed her emotions deep within her as she'd trained to do her whole life, and steadied her aim.

"Elsa to Blue Rose, do you copy?"

Static. Fuzz crackled through her ears, and she shut off the comm. Her visor's HUD flickered inconsistently, the graphics becoming distracting to her eye. In one swift motion she ditched the helmet, the light metal frame clattering to the floor as she transferred control of her suit to her neural interface and glove stimuli.

I am so, so fucked.

She was alone. She had no way of contacting everyone else, and no other pod seemed to have landed in her vicinity. The facility was as huge as she'd remembered, so it was going to take her a long time to locate her squadmates. At least two Ascendants were roaming the facility; Edmund and Edward were the ones behind the anti-air assault. Elaine was probably around here somewhere as well. Discounting the possibility of other armed guards around the facility, she was already outnumbered and outgunned.

Hesitantly she swallowed, raising the rifle and beginning to walk. Her main priority was finding Anna.

Her main concern was staying alive to do it.

"We lost Jones during the drop," one of the soldiers reported. "Anders' and Elsa's pods dropped within the facility itself."

"Try to raise them," Kristoff said, surveying the facility with his visor's magnification. "See if they can tell us how to get in."

For the next five minutes their squad reconned the area, trying to find obvious signs of an entrance. They didn't get far; the facility was massive, and they didn't know if there were multiple levels either. Their missing squadmates, and their objective, could literally be anywhere inside.

"Can't raise them, sir."

Kristoff shook his head. "Alright people, we're going in the hard way. Grapple over the wall, and be ready for anything."

She reached the other courtyard. The one she'd almost died in. The one where Edison had revived her instead of mercifully sending her off to the underworld. It was almost certainly better off; Elsa couldn't think of a place worse than where she was now.

And now Anna was somewhere in here.

There was a pod here. Steam continued to emanate from its surface; Elsa approached it cautiously, looking at the pod cover that had ejected successfully. Footprints were visible amongst the dust covered floor. There were two sets of them, in addition to her own.

Both converged where the main pool of blood was.

Elsa aimed the rifle toward the place where the trail of blood vanished into the waiting darkness. It was the genius of the courtyard; darkness surrounded it where walls did not. Wherever this soldier had gone to, it was not good.

Something shifted inside. Without hesitation Elsa pulled the trigger.

The three round burst squeezed off without a hitch, the trails vanishing into the darkness. The figure moved, the shadows seeming to part as she stepped into the courtyard, the dim grey light allowing Elsa to recognize her.

"Elaine."

Her hand was outstretched, and Elsa could see the rounds she fired embedded in her palm. The composition of her skin changed into a silvery grey; the rounds melted and immersed themselves within, absorbed into her body.

"Elsa," she said. "Welcome home."

Behind her, fire ignited, dispersing the darkness with blazing orange light. Another figure materialized, his light illuminating Elaine's silhouette, and a black figure who seemed to be covered in rocks.

"Edward. Edmund." Elaine didn't even look as the other two Ascendants made their presence known. "She's here."

"You came back," Edward said, his flames flaring in accordance with his disbelief as he set his eyes upon Elsa. "You actually came back."

"But you betrayed us," Edmund said, the rocks across his body shifting and crunching. "Why?"

"I didn't betray you," Elsa said, keeping her rifle up. "I never did." They were gone. Long gone. Too far gone for her to convince them they'd been tricked. Been brainwashed. Been corrupted into a part of Empyrean. But this was no time for pity or pain.

"Where's the soldier?" she said. It wasn't a question, but she was at their mercy to answer.

Elaine let out the hand she'd been holding behind her back. A helmet clattered to the ground and rolled towards Elsa. Its base trailed blood the whole way.

Elsa didn't bother glancing at the decapitated head; she couldn't afford to, because any mistake could see Elaine lunge at her, or rocks rising from beneath her to crush her, or a fiery lance collide with her bodice. She tightened her finger on the trigger, but couldn't find it in her to pull it just yet.

"Why are you three here, then?" she went on. "You can kill me, but you haven't chosen to yet. What game are you playing at?"

Elaine spoke: "We're here to deliver a message." From her other hand she tossed a small metal ball to the ground that rolled to the floor. Elsa kept the rifle trained on them, but tracked the ball's progress as it rolled to a stop, and flickered green.

A hologram sprang from its circumference, the new figure materializing in an instant.

Her eyes narrowed as she recognized the face. "Weselton."

"Elsa." The voice hadn't changed a bit. Still as condescending, still as evil. "I haven't seen you for a while."

"Spare me the pleasantries, Weselton," she spat, courage she didn't know she had rising from the depths of her heart. "What do you want?"

"My my, how feisty you've become." The flickering green figure shifted before her. "And here I thought there was some part of you I could still salvage."

She lowered the rifle a tad. "I don't belong to you, Weselton, and I never will."

"But you see, I was the root of your genesis. Without me, you would never have come into existence."

"Filial piety isn't an argument that's going to win me over. I have no parents."

She watched his features jump with anger, and felt a tinge of pride. "I wanted to offer you a chance to rejoin us. To fulfil the aims we wished to propagate. Together."

"Our aims?" Elsa questioned vehemently, staring directly into the green display. "Or yours? Your dreams of power and conquest—?"

"Our goal," Weselton cut in, "was always to allow humanity to become better than what it already is. The world refuses to accept this change. You were created to bring that change."

"And enslave humanity under our special powers? You're both deluded and cruel."

"It's merely a necessary part of the process, a means to an end. The five of you were meant to spearhead that revolution."

"Enough talk," Elsa cut him off. "Where's Anna?"

"Anna is quite safe here," Weselton replied.

"I'm taking her back."

"You're like a spoiled child, Elsa. Coming here and believing that you can do whatever you want, just because you've left us and somehow believe us to be in the wrong." He shook his head. "That isn't how this works."

"Then I'm done talking to you." She shifted the rifle, firing off a burst into the ball beneath her. The display flickered and died.

Humming reached her ears. She whipped around; the Ascendants in front of her hadn't moved, but now a shuttle had materialized above them. They each gave her one last stare before they leapt into the passenger bay with superhuman agility.

They're... leaving? What the fuck?

"But you see…" a voice crackled from the crushed orb beneath her as she tried to process what in the world was going on, "I'm not done with you. Or Anna."

Heavy footfalls slammed into the ground behind her. She turned around, bringing up the rifle in the same motion, squeezing off a burst of fire. The lead rounds leapt out and clattered harmlessly off the figure that stood before her.

What the bloody hell?

It was humanoid in every way, and seemed to be wearing a silver suit of armor, but it was not so. Elsa noted the way the metal clung to the natural body contours, maintaining a petite, slim figure, the joints more complex than any normal robot's. The head was obscured by a gleaming gold visor mounted upon a metal frame, the neck shrouded with what appeared to be some sort of nano-fabric. She was confused. She didn't know what the hell it was.

"You sent a robot after me, Weselton? Instead of the other three Ascendants at your disposal."

"You were always the best of the Ascendants, Elsa," came the fuzzy, crackling reply. "Unlike the other three, I'm sure she will be more than a match for your abilities."

She?

Without warning the figure's arm came up, hand suddenly morphing into a long metal barrel. Her eyes widened. She barely had time to trigger her suit's thrusters to propel her out of the way as an explosive round shredded the ground she had been standing in, leaving a crater in its wake. She rolled as she hit the ground, scarcely conjuring an icy shield to ward of the next round. It impacted upon the ice and shattered it, the shockwave sending Elsa flying backward.

The figure lunged at an unnatural speed. Elsa pushed herself up, enhanced vision catching the hand-cannon morphing back into a fist as it lashed out towards her. Its speed was impressively fast; Elsa dodged the first punch only to have a metal fist slam into her gut. As she reeled another slammed into a forehead, knocking her to the ground.

The figure pounced on her, sturdy metal fingers quickly clamping around Elsa's neck. She felt the air rush out of her, pain blossoming across her chest as she was swiftly deprived of air. She grappled at the metal hand, but its strength was uncompromisingly powerful, and she was powerless beneath this metal abomination. She felt all energy sapped out of her, not even enough for her to draw on her icy powers to defend herself. The fact of the matter was simple: she was going to die.

Then, abruptly, the golden visor retracted back. The helmet seemed to fold, revealing the face beneath it.

Horror overcame her as she took in the view: strangely altered teal eyes, now glowing in characteristic Ascendant style, yet accompanied with a familiar complexion of skin, identically braided red hair, and unmistakable freckles adorning the cheeks. As she struggled to take in what was most likely her final breath the full extent of the realization hit her.

Weselton hadn't sent a robot after her.

Weselton had sent Anna.