"I… wuh?" 16 gasped as she came to.
It was dark, really dark. Switching between spectrum did nothing to penetrate the abyss, even thermals provided little more than a very faint glow radiating off her body.
However, she didn't need to see to figure out her situation, she could feel that. To start, she was in perhaps the most critical condition she'd been in for years. Aches and pains radiated from every part of her, system's response was poor, and her head was foggy.
And then there was the fact that she was hanging upside down.
She could feel her foot was caught, and was what the rest of her weight hung on.
"M4, you there?" She called, her voice reverberating in an odd way.
No response.
16 flailed around, trying in vain to wriggle free, but she couldn't seem to get whatever was pinning her to budge.
She needed to see, and as she considered how to make that possible a thought occurred.
"Come here you," she grunted, twisted around to fish up her stolen rifle still hanging from its sling on her shoulder.
On retrieving it, she noted that the poor weapon was about as bad off as her. She ran a hand up and down its length, and noted that the muzzle device had been sheared off, along with about half an inch of barrel, and the receiver felt like a toddler had taken a hammer to it.
But it's peq-15 was somehow intact, which is what she'd really been hoping for.
She flicked on the IR spotlight, and finally was able to cast a little light on the situation.
"Well shit."
Her foot was well pinned between a hunk of concrete and a steel beam, neither of which seemed all that eager to budge. Still, she tried again to wriggle out of the trap, though again she was unsuccessful.
"Damn it," she hissed, then turned the illuminator around to scan the rest of the room.
She was in a tunnel of some kind, and was hanging about four feet off the floor. Given that the space was only about ten feet tall, that put her foot near the ceiling. The rubble had punched down into the tunnel and spilled everywhere, and she could see a little further down the tunnel that there was another partial cave in.
Outside the cave-ins though, the tunnel seemed solidly built. It was lined with concrete and had regular supports. Small, long dead lights ran along the walls as well.
"O-kay, spooky," she mused. There didn't seem to be any sign of recent occupation, but the design screamed Soviet. For a moment she wondered if she was back beneath Paldiski.
Probably not though, given that she wasn't currently being crushed by the Baltic Sea. Not that there wasn't water, but it was a thin, foul smelling stream trickling down from above, not the icy salt water of that frigid ocean.
Still, if given time that stream would likely fill this tunnel. Water levels had been rising when M4 and her had gone back into the sewer, so the little trickle it was now would only grow.
16 returned her attention to the snare she found herself in, and began looking around.
Above her, another steel beam had partially broken through the ceiling. This one appeared to have been smashed, its length bent and warped near the end as if stuck with a gargantuan hammer.
She quickly ran a few calculations, and determined that if it was secure, the physics may just work in her favor. If not, the whole structure would collapse and it wouldn't be her problem anymore, so a win-win?
Her next move was to loosen her rifle strap to its limits, then try and loop the now much longer length around the beam above her. It took a few attempts, and it required her to put a lot of pressure on her pinned foot, but she eventually managed to get it up and over.
A couple firm tugs confirmed its stability. The busted rifle was now dangling from the beam, and she gripped it with both hands and pulled herself up.
Now with something to support her, 16 returned her attention back to the beam pinning her foot. She placed her free foot up against the beam, carefully trying to find the best angle she could get.
When she felt she had a good angle, she grit her teeth and pushed. She contorted her body as she did, levering off of the beam above via the rifle strap.
"Ah, C'mon," she grunted.
The beam pinning her groaned, and she strained against its weight. It was stubborn, but she was moreso. After a minute of constant effort she had managed to lift the beam up about half an inch, enough that she could just about wriggle her trapped foot out.
The ankle was damaged, she already knew that but revealing it showed her that it was pretty bad. Endoskeleton was exposed and visibly deformed, and cautiously wiggling her foot showed a major drop in mobility.
"Well, that sucks," she muttered, letting some of the tension out of her body.
Now free, 16 clambered up to the beam above her and unhooked the rifle strap from it, then tossed the weapon to the ground below.
She followed it a little more carefully, climbing down the rubble pile.
"M4!" she hissed.
No reply.
Frowning, 16 picked the rifle back up and began searching the rubble for any sign of her sister. Her concern mounting.
M4 had been right behind her, she shouldn't have been very far from her. Increasingly her fear was that her sister had been crushed beneath the rubble. If M4 was, M16 knew she was in no shape to recover her, if there was anything to recover in the first place.
As best she could, 16 crawled around through the near total darkness in her search, squeezing through the sides of the tunnel to try and access further back, and constantly calling M4's name.
Then her chest seized up. Her last breath caught in her throat.
She'd found her.
M4 was only partially visible, concealed beneath a hunk of reinforced concrete. She wasn't moving and wasn't responsive, but seemingly still clinging to life.
M16 set to work immediately, her body finding strength she hadn't thought she still had as she set to work clearing the lesser debris around M4. The space was cramped, wedged between the tunnel wall and debris pile, but it was enough.
Then she began work on the concrete pinning M4. This she simply gripped and lifted, pushing her already battered body once again to its limits as the debris began to shift and stir.
She managed to raise it slightly, groaning against the weight, then slowly let pressure go from one hand. Her body held up as her right arm was relieved, though she was sure it wouldn't last, and so quickly snuck underneath the concrete and gripped M4 by the shirt.
With a furious yank, she ripped her sister free. Too easily.
16 let the concrete down slowly, heat rising in her body as her systems began to cook. Yet, as she finally was able to release the debris and collapse onto the floor, huffing, a sickening feeling was washing over her. M4 had been far to light, and had come out too easily.
Training the IR light over her sister's slumped form confirmed her fear. M4 was very, very badly damaged. Two limbs had been severed, each on M4's right side. The leg was high, up near the hip, and the arm a bit lower, just above the elbow. Both injuries showed serious compression around the ends, impling that something heavy had snapped both off. M4's equipment was nowhere to be found either, likely buried along with both limbs in the pile of rubble.
16 unconsciously tensed her ankle. She herself may have only narrowly escaped the same fate.
"M-M4?" Her body was still recovering, her arms shaky as she tried to crawl over to her sister.
No reply.
16 crawled right up to M4 and placed a hand over her sister's core. She was greeted by a dull, weak thrumming beneath her skin, and she sighed in relief.
The core was still active, M4 was alive.
"Thank god…" she muttered.
Her body gave out, and she collapsed atop the nearly lifeless M4. Exhaustion and pain finally caught up to her, her body growing heavy and aching all over. She couldn't fight it, each movement only served to increase the sense of burden on her body.
She lay there for a long time, staring into the darkness of the tunnel as her body slowly regained some strength.
When it did, 16 began moving M4 back out of the rubble pile. Easier said than done, as it happened, as her sister seemed to catch on just about every object in the narrow confines as 16 struggled to pull her through. But with some persistent effort, and a lot of cursing, she eventually got M4 back out of the rubble and into the relatively more open part of the tunnel.
Now finally free of the collapsed rubble, 16 cast the IR illuminator down the long dark hall.
The pale light was almost immediately consumed by the darkness, disappearing a few meters away while revealing nothing but more tunnel. Still, the light was some comfort, and it would keep her from bumping into anything.
Next 16 turned back to M4, still slumped against the tunnel wall. She carefully placed her damaged rifle down so that the PEQ would illuminate M4 while on the ground, then she knelt down and tenderly hefted her limp sister up off the ground.
She placed her on one shoulder, carefully adjusting the weight and feeling out how her own body handled the new added weight before kneeling down and snatching up the rifle once again. Once more she cast the IR beam down the tunnel, to the same result as before.
"Okay, C'mon," she grunted, taking her first painful step forward into the poorly lit darkness.
She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking, each step was an effort that took a good portion of her concentration and so she hadn't been keeping track. According to her clock, it had only been about an hour, though she was personally unconvinced by that as it felt much, much longer.
It didn't help that, despite being down two limbs, M4 was heavy. It wasn't just that she was weaker than normal either, though that was also definitely a factor, but her sister was a high end tactical doll. From the titanium and steel endoskeleton, armor plating, synth muscles and the miles upon miles of wiring and circuitry, M4 was an awkward, floppy near two hundred pounds.
16 grunted as she took a step, feeling her strength begin to leave her again. Her leg shook as she tried to struggle forward.
But it was in vain. With gritted teeth she fought to stand but couldn't find the strength.
Thinking quickly, she rotated her body and offloaded M4 against the tunnel wall, taking a moment to seat her upright before falling back against the opposite wall. Finally, she set the rifle on the ground, illuminating M4.
"Shit…" she gasped between ragged breaths.
Her body was burning up and weak, and exhaustion was playing at the edges of her mind more and more.
She wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Her head leaned back until it touched the tunnel wall, and her mind wandered.
She wondered if this was all some cosmic joke, or maybe a rather cruel simulation. Perhaps she was really strapped to some chair, hooked up to a computer in some lab. Some researcher on their phone nearby.
At least that would probably mean M4 was okay.
M16 gazed sadly at her sister. That was a nice thought.
"What D'ya think, eh sis? This all real?" she muttered, not expecting an answer.
And yet…
"-ixteen?" M4's voice suddenly asked on comms.
M16 almost jumped at the transmission. M4 hadn't moved at all so it seemed to come from literally nowhere. Yet, on checking the source, she confirmed that it was coming from M4, despite the horrific quality of the transmission.
"M4?" she replied.
"I… not…asia. Where ar… ou?"
16 furrowed her brow, "What do you mean? I'm right next to you."
She extended a shaky foot and poked M4's. To no apparent reaction.
"I…ou, wh… a…ou?"
16 pursed her lips. The transmissions were too garbled, perhaps from damage to M4's internal radio, or maybe even her own receiver.
"M4, I can't make you out. Are you awake? Can you hear me?" she spoke aloud.
"Ye… …..ou, wh… happened to…. asia?"
Sounded like she could hear her, so that was a good sign at least.
"The building collapsed on us, you're pretty banged up…. It isn't good. We're in a tunnel of some kind, looks old and Soviet. I'm trying to find a way out."
"...at….diski?"
Diski? As in Paldiski? That was where her head went first.
"No. I think we're still in Tarkov."
"...is..Tarkov?"
"What? I couldn't make that out."
"Whe… is Tark…"
"Still couldn't hear that. Look, your radio's probably busted so just take it easy. I'll get us out of here."
Silence. For a while 16 kept staring at M4, expecting her to twitch or react in some way, but her face remained placid. The almost unnatural quiet began making 16's ears ring. Now deprived again of company, it was somehow worse than before.
16 very quickly grew sick of it.
Getting back to her feet, though not without difficulty, 16 resolved herself to the continuation of the trek. She recovered the rifle, and pulled M4 up and onto her shoulder once again. She strained against the burden, but found herself able to handle it better now.
Light in hand, she pressed on.
As she went, she took notice of changes in the tunnel floor. The formerly ancient, yet clean tunnel had begun to slowly accumulate debris along the ground, some old items, and some more contemporary to the era, implying human presence.
It was an idea that gave rise to a hint of anxiety now. She wasn't sure what kind of person would go into such tunnels willingly, but she suspected in her current state encountering one would not end well. It wasn't helped that as they'd gone on, the tunnel had become twisting and almost writhing, meaning she could easily turn a corner and have a sudden, unwelcome encounter. Though on the other hand, if someone had gotten into this part of the tunnel, it meant that an exit was likely somewhere not too far off.
What's more, she'd also started to notice that they were going up.
It was a small gradient, barely noticeable if one wasn't focussed on it, but it was another sign that they may actually be getting somewhere.
In fact, about an hour after her last break, M16 came across a sight looming in the gloom that made her metaphorical heart skip a beat.
A door, steel in construction and brutalist in its design, stood embedded in a slightly larger section of tunnel. Above it was labeled: 'Defense Bunker 1020'.
After M4 down as gently as she could manage, 16 moved to inspect the door. Her first instinct was to check for any traps, though considering the age of it it was no surprise that there were none apparent. Once she was satisfied of that, she cautiously wrapped two fists around the four pronged door locking wheel and applied some pressure.
No movement. Throwing more and more effort into it 16 torqued the wheel, groaning with the exertion as she did, but it would not budge.
"Damn," she gasped, releasing the wheel.
That wasn't gonna work, clearly.
For a moment she considered using her already busted rifle as extra leverage, however considering just how unyielding that wheel had been she suspected that it wouldn't do much good.
So, with a great cloud of disappointment now hanging over her, she gave up.
It was not the last bunker she would encounter however. Soon enough she came upon ZB's 1019 and 1018. The former proved as stubborn as 1020, however the latter actually budged. Not just that, it turned so smoothly that 16 nearly toppled over from throwing too much force into her initial attempt at the door.
Likewise, the door swung open easily.
Leaving M4 outside for now, 16 carefully entered and began scanning the bunker. It was small, about ten meters in length and shaped like a big rectangle. At the far end, the bunker had partially collapsed, and was both empty and seemingly without an exit.
Once more defeated, 16 retreated back to the tunnel and carried on with M4.
Another few hundred meters of solemn, quiet marching passed, and she came upon another new development: a branch point.
It was a four way branch, and naturally, there were no labels anywhere to be found. In hindsight, it was odd that despite the rather winding and twisting nature of the tunnel, she'd had no choices to make on directions until now.
As she began to debate a direction, she froze. Her ears pricked, and slowly she turned to face the tunnel to her left.
There was noise emanating from that direction, soft and rhythmic, though with peaks that sounded human.
Her brow furrowed as she stared into the darkness, cautiously flashing the tunnel, though revealing nothing. She tried thermals, but the system failed when she tried to boot it.
So, she took a step in that direction, and then another.
If there was a human here, they may know a way out. It was a risk however, if they had night vision she was currently giving herself away to them.
But if they didn't, so long as she was quiet, they wouldn't know she was there.
As she approached, the noises became more distinct. There was seemingly more than one, and oddly, they seemed to be sobbing.
Then, just as she seemed to be a few meters away, it stopped.
Pausing for a moment, 16 listened, though no noises came.
She crept forward, until her IR light revealed a figure huddled against the tunnel floor. They weren't armed, no nvgs, and seemed to appear fairly normal save one thing: they were staring directly at her.
And they could track her too, 16 swayed side to side and their eyes followed lightly reflective in the IR spotlight. However, they appeared glassed over, and their bodies were otherwise non-responsive.
That said, there appeared to be a half dozen present and their behavior was putting a chill in 16's core. So, she began backing up.
Step by step, for nearly fifty meters until at last their echoing sobs returned. The noises didn't seem to have moved from where she'd seen them, but regardless 16 moved cautiously and stopped often to listen until she at last made it back to the junction.
"What the fuck," she hissed under her breath, "Where the fuck are we."
No answer, not that she expected one.
Whatever that was, she wanted no part in it. 16 decided to take a different path, pressing on along the same direction she'd been heading along previously.
By now, her body was beginning to slow once more, but considering what she'd just seen she forced it onward for a while longer.
The next section of tunnel was even more littered than before, and was showing clearer signs of recent use. She also came upon a few more junctions, and wound up needing to pick a few arbitrarily to progress.
Her legs were starting to shake with each step, and she began to fear she would soon give out once more under her sister's weight.
However, up ahead a surface glinted in the wall.
Another bunker door stood there, and the door, she noticed, was ajar.
Carefully, 16 set M4 down then crept up to the open door, labeled ZB-015.
Eyes narrowed, she poked inside, only to be greeted by a ferocious stench of decay.
Turns out, the room within was already occupied, or was at least not too long ago. A body lay rotting at the far end, at least a week dead and apparently all alone. The rest of the room was bland. Rectangular with some pipes running along the ceilings, running from the tunnel to the far wall and seemingly past it.
16 crept a little closer to the body, quickly checking around and underneath it for traps or cameras, before cautiously investigating the corpse. However, beyond a long dead flashlight and an empty water bottle, there was nothing of interest on the body.
However, as she returned to her feet 16 noticed something that was of interest.
The wall the corpse lay beside was different from the rest. The walls of every other bunker she'd seen had been concrete, but this one was white painted brick.
Curious, she began scanning around, and then noticed once again the pips along the ceiling. Unlike when going in or out of the tunnel, the holes for them were irregular and much larger than the pipe themselves.
16 glanced back down at the dead man, then to the wall, and then got a very bad idea.
First, she dragged the body out into the tunnel, quickly ensuring that M4 was still there and that no one else was, then setting the body a ways away from M4.
Next, she slipped a hand into one of her pockets and produced a small, spherical object that was soft on one end and had a pin in the other. A gift from the USEC boss.
She then carefully moved up to the door way into the bunker, shut the door much of the way, then pulled the pin.
She took two deep breaths, then tossed the grenade towards the wall before slamming the door shut.
The impact grenade struck the wall just as the bunker door slammed shut, but the impact still rattled the earth. Luckily though, there was no sign of a cave in from the action, so that was a win in her book.
16 peeked in once more, and grinned as she spied a small hole in the brick where the grenade had struck. She crept closer once more, and on flashing her light through the new hole found not earth or concrete, but a room on the far side.
16 quickly got to widening the hole. Now able to get purchase on the bricks, she reached into the hole and gripped their far side, ripping backwards with all her strength. They came off surprisingly easy, perhaps the mortar had been weakened by the explosion, or simply was low quality. Either way, after a few minutes of continuous effort she had a decent size hole she could just about squeeze through.
On the far side was another bunker, though this was larger than the previous one she'd seen inside. Exploring revealed it to be L-shaped, with one side fairly short and about the full size of the other bunker she'd seen, while the other was nearly twice as long.
At the crux of the L however, was the most interesting part. A doorway with the door nowhere to be found. It led into a tight passage, narrower than even the tunnel had been, but at the end was a staircase upwards.
Suddenly very excited, M16 rushed back to the hole and quickly began widening it further, ripping bricks out with reckless abandon until the passage was easily walked through. She shen quickly rushed into the tunnel, cleared it briefly, and scooped M4 up once more.
She didn't even feel the weight, instead moving quickly back into the bunker, into the doorway, up the winding stair until she came upon real, natural light.
She shut off her IR systems, dropped the broken rifle, and stepped out into a green, wide forest and took her first breath of fresh air in so long.
The cool morning air felt like heaven on her burning skin. The rustling of trees and bushes around her sounded almost foreign to her ears, and yet they brought a smile to her face as she listened.
Woods surrounded them, and they seemed to be well off the beaten path as the foliage and grass was very dense, coming up well past 16's knees. They were in a depression of some kind, with a small set of hills surrounding them on all sides.
16 gently set M4 down in the grass, beside the little concrete hole they'd just emerged from, and scrambled up the nearby hill for a better look at the area.
The trees went on for miles, stretching out in all directions with a few mountains dotting the skyline. Further, as she circled around the area she also spotted buildings in the distance, with some smoke rising from amongst them.
Her rangefinder gave her a distance of over ten kilometers to those buildings, though she wasn't too sure how much to trust any of her sensors given how damaged she was.
Still, if the reading was accurate and that was indeed Tarkov over there, that meant she'd walked ten or so kilometers underground. Though given how winding the tunnel had been it was likely more.
Under those conditions, having fought a battle prior, and not even going into that at a full charge, she ought to be running low on power by now. Systems showed she was still near half, but she realized with a tinge of horror that the percentage hadn't shifted since she last checked.
She'd lost her bag, M4 didn't have any kit whatsoever, and she doubted she'd find an outlet nearby. All she had left was the busted rifle, two frag grenades, a loaded magazine, and somehow, her obrez and its handful of rounds.
Which meant it was far too early to celebrate their survival.
She'd decided to leave M4 in the bunker, she just couldn't afford to carry her around anymore, and in any case she was probably safer there than with her. The entrance was already hard to spot, and she'd piled a few fallen branches and foliage atop the entrance. She had also done what she could to block the tunnel entrance to the bunker, piling some bricks and bits of trash that had been in the bunker, jamming up the wheel and making it harder to open.
That done, she left most of her gear, taking only the mosin and its rounds, reset her inertial navigation so that she could find the bunker again, and set off.
The woods were surprisingly peaceful, no gunshots rang out in the distance and the trees were filled with chirping birds.
It was weird, but kinda nice as well. Peaceful.
16 decided to search for a vantage point, hoping for some clue as to where she ought to be headed. She decided on a nearby hill, one which overlooked the surrounding area.
Once at the top, she plopped down onto the ground and began scanning the area. From her perch she could see quite a ways. Off in the distance was the city and suburbs, hidden partially behind a rather large mountain but still peeking out. Between her and that mountain was what appeared to be a river of some kind with a few brown houses at its bank.
That last detail caught her attention at first, she figured if food was to be found, it'd be there. However, it appeared to still be a ways off, and she couldn't be too sure how long she'd last.
Then, a little dash of blue in the trees below caught her eye. It was much closer, apparently unmoving. She only had a slight view of it, concealed as it was in the trees.
"Well, let's see," she muttered.
16 then descended the hill, carefully minding her sound and the sightlines on her as she approached the approximate location she'd seen the blue.
She found it soon enough, discovering it to be part of a tent pitched in a small clearing. For a while she stood crouched in the brush, listening carefully and scanning the treeline, before making her move.
She crept up to the tent, still listening for any sign of movement, and then peeked in through the front flap.
No one was inside, but there was kit. It appeared to be mostly commercial stuff, like what one would get at a hunting or camping store. All colorful and well made, even a half unpacked backpack which on rifling through 16 discovered contained about four premade meal packs.
Out of the corner of her eye she spied a folded up camping pot and stove kit. The pot still held some food, but it was molded over quite badly and smelled awful.
Who had left this here, why? Were they coming back soon?
It didn't matter, she decided, and instead began to methodically pack up the random items scattered around the tent into the backpack as neatly as she could. She suspected she would need them all.
Then, just a little ways away, she heard something. Soft, measured footsteps approaching her.
For a while, she waited and listened, well aware of her vulnerability and gripping at the Mosin tucked into her jacket.
Just as whoever was approaching was reaching the edge of the campsite, they stopped.
"Hello?" a man called, "Dimitri, are you there?"
She didn't reply, and slipped her hand into her jacket as the unknown approached.
"Dimitri, is that you in there?" He asked again.
Shit. 16 silently cursed her own complacency. As quietly as she could manage, she tried to go for her Mosin. But as the figure stepped forward, she heard a very distinctive sound as a shotgun pump slide racked a slug.
"Come out, now," the man ordered, his tone now very different, "I won't shoot if you don't try anything."
She could tell roughly how close the man was, maybe four meters or so, and almost certainly watched the only exit of the tent very closely with his shotgun. At best, she'd have one shot with her weapon, and she had little confidence she could make it land.
So, she complied. Carefully tucking the mosin into her jacket and emerging from the tent, hands first.
Sure enough, she wasn't blown away, but as she met the eyes of the man, she could tell he was willing to do it. He was older, grizzled, with eyes set back into his skull a bit and face hidden behind a long graying beard. He wore a hunter's rig and a backpack to match.
As she met his eyes though, his features softened.
"Hello young lady, Who are you?"
"Anna," she answered tersely.
"Hello Anna. Do you know where Dimitri is?"
"I assume this was his campsite?"
He nodded, "Yes. I was coming by to check in on him."
"I haven't met him. His stuff is all here though, but it appears to not have been used for a while."
The man lowered his shotgun a little, but his eyes narrowed, "How can you tell?"
She nodded back to the tent, "his last meal is molded over."
"I see…" he sighed, "So why are you here?"
She pursed her lips, "I need supplies."
The man nodded, "Of what kind?"
"All kinds."
A smile crept across the man's face, "I see, not the trusting type are you? Let me set you at ease then."
He dropped the shotgun, and fished a card out from his breast pocket of his rig and showed it to her.
"I am Ivan, though most call me Jaeger or Hunter, your preference."
NOTES:
Welcome to Tarkov, do enjoy your stay~
So, couple quick things. First, thank you all for reading! This fic has been something of a brain worm for a long time and I'm glad that you all are enjoying as much as I've enjoyed finally making it. I do hope you continue to, and if you want more of a similar theme, though exclusively GFL focused, check out my other fic "lost time". Its been running longer and is currently in the process of both being updated and rewritten in some of the rougher places too.
Next, back to this fic. This is the start of Escape from Tarkov as we all know and love(?) it. However, we're not quite in the same place as our pmcs start in. Of course, 16 has found a bunker very similar to our hideout, and will indeed be using that for a similar purpose. We'll see progression similar to that in game, though it'll be a bit more complex than her simply finding six nails and some spark plugs and a dream to build a generator. Also, we're starting off with Jaeger, very different from the game but I felt like it fit best. We likely won't be getting too much interaction with every single trader in the game, simply due to it not being all that realistic (*cough cough* Lightkeeper *cough*), and while I do know that both the games in question take some liberities with reality, 16 is gonna have to play by more realistic rules. She can't teleport around Tarkov, and if she wants to meet someone, she'll have to physically go to them.
Finally, there's M4. Again, I originally wasn't gonna include her this early, but I feel it'll work better for 16's journey if she's present in some capacity. However, she's also OP asf, even more so than 16 to some extent, so we'll work up to her full, glorious return to the battlefield. To the one reader who wanted the pair to tear the city up, fear not...
Till next time~