Levina walked out of her tent, stretching her arms for a moment before ensuring all her equipment was ready.

Her dagger was kept securely in a scabbard on her waist; easily accessible by hand or by her Arts. Supplies were kept with her on a light pack; fortunately, Ben did most of the heavy transport for the team.

Speaking of supplies, while they were sufficient for now, a long negotiation with Frostnova could easily deplete them of enough to return to the nearest town. Civilization was a long way from here, after all.

Of course, the more pressing risk was the girl regaining her strength and simply breaking herself out. Best to check on her now, had she snuck out during the night.

As she approached the tent, Levina noticed two faint trails of footprints leading away from the tent. They stood out amongst the otherwise-even snow; hard to miss, at least for now.

"Frostnova?" No response. She gently parted the barrier and peeked into the tent.

Empty.

Great. Well, there went any chance of returning with anything of research value. And Levina had a sinking feeling it would get worse… Frostnova had been under guard the entire night.

The footprints! Two trails…

Someone was gone.


It was about at this time that Ben woke up. Whistling a cheery tune, he quickly packed all the miscellaneous items within his tent back into his bag. Always paid to be ready. Moving onto all the supplies set in durable, insulated containers outside the tent, he slowly opened the lid of where their dehydrated rations were kept, fishing a bag out and inspecting it.

A quick look told him it was fine, and he dropped it back into the case. Ensuring his small, motorized cart was still tied securely to his tent, he walked up to the machine, opening the lid to inspect the Originium inside. It looked fine, still glowing with energy.

The displays had been destroyed in a poorly-fated trip to Sargon, and the maintenance guys couldn't be bothered with fixing it. Something about "expensive components." It still worked perfectly fine, however.

Onto the next thing.

Something niggled at the back of his mind. He was in exceedingly good spirits today; far better than when he usually had to take night shift.

He was about to pat himself on the back before he noticed the conspicuous lack of any memories pertaining to said night shift.

Well, he wasn't the type to get drunk on the job. He turned to find Levina –

–only for Levina to find him instead. She almost skidded on the snow as she stopped in front of him. Two words escaped from behind her armored mask.

"Fredrich's gone."


"So you just decided to leave?" Andrey questioned.

"Yes. You're dying."

Taken aback by the sudden response, Andrey paused for a moment. Deciding not to dwell on his impending doom for too long, he decided to change the subject.

"What about the Yetis?"

"Petrova can handle them."

"They'll be worried about you." Andrey countered.

"They'll be fine."

"Sure… it's not like I can stop you." Andrey sighed. "You're the one who can walk, after all."

Well, he wasn't stopping the two of them anytime soon. In the time he was asleep, they had apparently decided that now was the time to cast away all their attachments and make a beeline for Leithanien.

A very poorly though-out decision, in his opinion.

Anyways, Leithanien. By Fredrich's reckoning, it would be two weeks to travel to the nearest town, then another month travelling through various smuggler networks until they could reach Leithanien. Then, with some "communication" with local cells, they would form a force to take the Mausoleum, and hopefully succeed.

Both Frostnova and Fredrich looked willing to die trying.

In his idleness, Andrey contemplated the prospect of having a body for the first time. It would be a strange experience, being bound to a single point of view, and having to sacrifice half of the day to simply sustain himself.

Then again, truly feeling the world around him probably make up for it.

He was not particularly interested in the idea, but then again nothing seemed particularly interesting nowadays. Yes, he was "dying." He had been dying for his entire existence, thank you very much. Dying was business as usual.

For a moment, Andrey wondered if this was how his past self thought. He concluded that his past self was probably too swamped by work to care. Being a spymaster had to be tough.

He wondered what he could do with a body, aside from the usual "walking around and being able to interact with the world." He could ki–

Well, that was a strange thought on Frostnova.

Giving up on this increasingly strange thought experiment, Andrey decided to simply sit back and watch the scenery for a while. Being a disembodied soul stuck in a rock did have its perks; not needing to drag yourself everywhere was very convenient.


The trail of footprints continued into the distance, Petrova keeping his eyes firmly fixed upon the snow to spot those minute disturbances. The blizzard had made them harder to find, but they were nonetheless still visible.

Frostnova had been gone for three days now, much to the Yetis' dismay. Given she hadn't taken much more than a day's food and water, Petrova was inclined to believe that she had hit some snags along the way.

He refused to believe she was dead, however. The shallow trail of footprints tracing the first trail were unmistakably hers. And even without that evidence… he refused to believe that their Sister could die so easily.

Not that he was going to let any of that concern show.

"Come on, keep the pace up! Frostnova's probably found them already!" Petrova called to some of the Yetis who were lagging behind, encouraging them to pick up the pace. With grunts of effort, some did; others still plodding along at their usual pace.

He was pushing them to their fastest speed, but they were still too slow. Frostnova could reach this speed walking. Perhaps that explained why he hadn't seen a hint of her form yet.

Or perhaps –

He purged that thought, turning back to tracing the trail of footprints ahead of him.

Suddenly, his feet touched slippery ice, and he fell forward –

– The ground rushed towards him, and for a moment he felt weightless –

– Extending out his arms, he just barely caught himself, the shock slowly traveling through his body before disappearing.

Quickly, he lifted himself back up, shaking off the snow that had gotten stuck to his gloves.

"Well, that could have been a lot worse. You sure you're okay, Petrova?" A Yeti asked from behind him.

"Relax, I'm fine." Petrova chuckled. "Slipped on some ice."

"Sure you are." The Yeti didn't sound very certain.

"Come on, let's keep going." Noticing the other Yetis had passed them by, Petrova broke into a slow jog, soon returning to his position leading the group.

A group which had dwindled to not even a dozen. Remembering that disastrous, bloody engagement at the valley, Petrova sighed.

It had been necessary, he reminded himself.

Slowly, the ground inclined up, as the Yetis began trekking up yet another snow-covered hill. Petrova's boots crushed snow underfoot as he walked, the snow like a layer of soft sand underneath them.

Though far colder.

What Petrova wouldn't give for a peaceful life by the beachside…

Step by step, Petrova walked forward, Yetis in tow. Bored, he started counting the steps.

A hundred…

Two hundred…

Three hundred…

Four…

And then he reached the top, looking at the ground below…

A speck of badly camouflaged shapes stood out amongst the landscape. Petrova strained his eyes to look, a small camp slowly taking form amongst the snow.

"Oh."


Frostnova's gaze slowly scanned the landscape as she walked, searching for any disturbances in the scenery. Her gaze lingered on Fredrich for a moment as she evaluated the researcher.

He was well-equipped, she would give him that – comfortable-looking heavy winter coat, wand kept at the ready and myriad other tools attached to the pack he was carrying.

Frostnova didn't need such crutches to perform Arts, for better or for worse. Casting her Arts worsened her Oripathy, or so Patriot said, but at least she didn't need such a glut of technology to make them work.

She turned back to staring at the snow around them. While capable, Fredrich was nothing special. An accomplished caster, yes, with some peculiar loyalties, but thoroughly unimpressive.

"How do you pass the time, just walking through the same stuff over and over again?" Andrey suddenly asked.

"Bored?"

"Yeah."

"I was too, once." Frostnova recalled. "In those first few marches with Buldrokkas'tee, all of the children from the mines were."

"Buldrokkas'tee… Patriot?"

"We know Patriot by his real name… 'Patriot' was a name his enemies gave him." Frostnova was unsure why she was explaining this, but it felt like the right time.

"And the children?"

"Some of them are Yetis now."

"And the rest are dead." Andrey finished for her.

"You don't need to be so blunt. But you are right."

"Well, I suppose that was to be expected."

"I could have saved more." Frostnova sighed.

"Well, I know you did your best. Either way, best to focus on the future rather than agonize over the past."

"I know."

Frostnova walked forward in silence for a while, neither Andrey nor Fredrich disturbing the silence. Every once in a while, she felt a weak pulse of Andrey's Arts pass her by; he was scanning the tundra for dangers, no doubt.

There was not much she could not handle. But if her Oripathy paralyzed her or knocked her out, things got far dicier. She could trust Andrey, but Fredrich was an unknown.

There was one more thing. She had almost forgotten amidst the chaos of the past week.

"Andrey?"

"Yes?"

"Let's stop using the codename. Just call me Yelena."

"…Huh. Sure. Why the sudden change?"

"It's about time."


Day slowly shifted to night, and the researchers returned to their camp, dejected. They had spent the day searching around the nearby snowdrifts in the vain hope that Fredrich was hiding somewhere, to no avail.

In hindsight, that had been a horrible decision. It was certain now; Frostnova had captured Fredrich for some purpose in her escape.

Maybe he was threatening her with destroying the crystal, so she had to take him with her; maybe she simply needed someone with a better grasp of the environment.

Whatever the cause, Levina should have expected it. Frostnova had been dangerous from the moment they met; she should have expected her to simply break out.

Well, they would start pursuing that trail of footprints tomorrow. The two of them couldn't be far, and Levina had a good idea where they were going.

Laying down in her tent, she calmed herself down and went to sleep.


She woke up suddenly to the feeling of cold steel pressing against her throat. She made an abortive attempt to reach for her dagger, only for her hand to be stopped in its tracks. Cautiously, she opened her eyes.

A smiling Ursus looked down on her.

"Sorry, it's just to be safe; we saw that you were armed. Have you seen a white-haired Cautus pass by?"

AN: Alright, that's another arc done. Sorta. I'm not sure how these are delineated at this point; the events just blend together. Either way, this is the start of the researchers and Yetis chasing Fredrich and Frostnova halfway across Terra.

This chapter spent a bit more time than usual, mostly because I spent around an hour reading Frostnova's long-ass monologue in 6-13 to try and understand her character a bit better. Oh, the joys of writing…

Speaking of which, there seems to be a slight grammar error (at least on the Arknights Fandom version). "I did indeed thought," when Frostnova is discussing Patriot.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!