"Guys and girls, we've got a problem." Ben walked back into their base as night fell, a ripped piece of paper – was that a poster? – gripped in his hands. "I was going for a walk and found this."
"Wouldn't that be –" Levina cut herself off. It wasn't as if the troops were searching for him, after all.
"Dangerous? For you two –" Ben spread the poster out on the ground – "definitely."
Levina's eyes quickly flicked over to it, recognizing three familiar faces – Frostnova, Fredrich, and her.
Beneath it, written in large, blocky characters, read three simple lines of text. Levina's eyes grew wide.
Fredrich closed his eyes and sighed.
"You're wanted, on charges of treason and terrorism." Ben summed it up. "And for a lot of LMD too, enough to make anybody in these slums betray you. The posters are everywhere; there's no missing them."
"This was to be expected." Fredrich said calmly.
Levina glared at him. "For you, yes. The rest of us are researchers!"
"You gave up on that role the moment you followed us here. You fought and killed for us, if I may remind you. Well, not all is lost. Your two compatriots here –" he gestured to Anne and Ben – "are not implicated."
Levina's glare fell, soon replaced by despair. "I… yes, you're right. What now?"
She felt faint. All that she had worked for, this proper position in society she had created for herself… and all it took was a few poor decisions for it to come crashing down.
She couldn't go back now. That lie to herself that this could all end well, with everyone only the better for it… well, now she knew the truth. A good week or two too late.
She had failed herself, but more so, she had failed Ben and Anne, too – taking them all the way here on a fool's errand…
"We fight." Fredrich said. The words weren't comforting. "As to Ben and Anne, their choices are their own. They wouldn't be of much use if they stayed, however."
Levina nodded in assent.
"It would be best if you left." She said, ignoring the moisture at the corners of her eyes. "You are still innocent. You could claim that we coerced you here; Fredrich's background as a spy should be revealed soon enough, which will be enough evidence."
"I agree." Fredrich nodded. "Our former team is as good as dead. We all need to understand that."
"This isn't fair. You two go die, and we get off scot-free." Ben said, voice subdued.
"We should help you!" Anne protested.
"You shouldn't." Levina replied, voice flat.
That would only get them killed.
Levina stood up and walked to sit down beside Fredrich instead. He was her best ally now in convincing these two to back down.
The two duos, now on opposite sides of the room, waited; waited for one side to make a choice.
Anne glared at Fredrich, trembling as she sat cross-legged on the floor.
Ben fixed his eyes on a nearby wall, apparently unwilling to meet their eyes.
Levina herself stared at the floor, fighting to keep tears out of her eyes. It wouldn't help them.
Fredrich just looked bored, as if he wasn't willing to be here.
"How dare he…" Levina thought.
Then again, Fredrich was a spy. It was expected for him to be cold and callous. She smothered the sparks of fury threatening to burst free and kept waiting.
Ben gave first. "You guys are right. We are useless here, and leaving gets us out of here. Anne, we've got enough money to make it back to Rim Billiton. Although we've failed our mission, we have a good reason for it. We'll probably just be reassigned. Demoted at worst, back to some grunt job."
"But –" Anne began.
Fredrich that cut her off with a piercing stare. "Do you want to die?"
"No, but I will if I –"
"If I have to?" Levina finished for her. "If I had followed those words, I wouldn't be here now."
"What do you mean?"
"It was something in my past. Not important now." Levina winced at the memory. Though painful, it had been the right choice. "What is important is that you two can go back to your normal lives."
"Even if we're not a team anymore –" Anne's voice cracked – "Aren't we still colleagues? We're supposed to stick together."
"I happen to be a spy, if you haven't noticed. Our interests coincide, but only for now." Fredrich coldly said. "I can't remain with your lot. I will be reassigned soon, to infiltrate some other unfortunate organization."
"We'll find a way!" Anne protested.
"You're in denial." Fredrich raised his wand. Levina let out a shout of alarm, but was unable to do anything as a wave of needles struck Anne.
Unable to react, Anne slumped to the ground – though Levina noticed none of the needles actually pierced flesh.
Ben turned to Fredrich, mortified. "Did you just –"
"Kill her?" Fredrich snorted. "No. I just forced her unconscious. I know more Arts than you would think. I just never needed to reveal them."
"He's been holding out on us, all this time…" Levina realized. "So have I, I suppose. I never told them about my past."
"We are a very dysfunctional team, aren't we?" She let out a short bark of laughter. There was no humor in it.
"So this is it, then?" Ben asked.
"We have half a day until she wakes up, at least. Four hours will be enough for you to get out of the slums." Fredrich replied, standing up. "Would you like a drink?"
"We really should get this over with…" She thought. Nonetheless, perhaps due to some sense of attachment, she nodded. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt."
"One last time, sure." Ben chuckled, trying to inject some levity into the situation. It sounded forced.
Fredrich soon came back, with a bottle and three small shot glasses. He laid them down beside each of them, placing the bottle at their center.
"Whose stuff is it?" Ben asked.
"A Yeti named Voya. He and I shared drinks, once." Fredrich said, pouring each of them a shot. "He didn't like the glasses, however. Preferred to drink straight from the bottle."
It went unsaid that he was dead now, like the rest of the Yetis.
"A toast to the future?" Fredrich proposed.
Ben nodded, and Levina did too.
The three of them clinked their glasses together and tipped them back.
"To the future."
"To the future, if we make it beyond the week…"
As usual, Fredrich was the first to get drunk. Levina was beginning to feel tipsy, too – an hour of drinks and reminiscing making her drink more shots than she could count.
Ben, of course, seemed wholly unaffected, and he gave them a nod as he hefted Anne up into a fireman's carry. "I should get going."
Levina nodded. "Goodbye, then."
"Goodbye." He turned back for a moment as he walked out the door. "Good luck."
"Goodbye." Fredrich managed to say.
Ben smiled sadly. Rounding a corner, he soon disappeared from Levina's view.
Fredrich shifted slightly, leaning on Levina's shoulder for support.
Levina let him. Perhaps their team was gone, but they were still in this together.
An uncomfortable feeling welled up within her throat. Her eyes grew wet, and soon tears rolled down them.
Throughout it all, she remained transfixed, staring absently at where Ben had left.
"'m sorry…" Fredrich, somehow, noticed.
"It's fine." Levina said, trying to smile. It died moments later.
"Sorry…" Fredrich trailed off, and soon began snoring.
Levina sighed, standing up and picking up Fredrich. Walking over to a nearby mattress, she laid Fredrich upon it, before standing up straight again.
Raising a hand, she wiped the tears from her eyes.
Life went on.
When he woke up, Fredrich was pleasantly surprised to find himself on a soft mattress, Levina sat behind him. He was pleasantly surprised that he woke at all, in fact.
There had been a good chance Levina would kill him in his sleep. Given his betrayal, it was all too likely.
His life was probably forfeit anyway, so he hadn't cared much.
"It's early morning." Levina said. "Ben left yesterday."
"So, I slept through the night." Fredrich noted, a weak headache coming to being. "The hangover isn't particularly bad."
"You fell asleep before we could drink too much." Levina said. "Do we have a plan? If we wait, we will probably be found, captured and killed."
"Who do we have left?" Fredrich said, getting off the bed and standing up. His mind still wasn't at full speed – lingering effects of the alcohol, no doubt.
Looking around the building, he noticed Levina had organized their supplies somewhat. She had also found a clipboard somehow, which she now held in her hands alongside a pen.
"You and me." Levina wrote down two names. "Frostnova and Andrey, too. Petrova. I saw him escape the ambush."
Another three names, making five. "Then…"
She trailed off.
"The First Cell, I suppose, if they have survived. Razor." Fredrich supplied. Levina wrote down another name.
"We know the Fifth Cell haven't survived… The other Yetis besides Petrova also have not." She said.
"Just six, then. Frostnova, Petrova, the Spymaster, Razor, you and me." Fredrich concluded.
"Yes."
Fredrich sighed. "We have lost most of our resources."
"What is our goal?" Levina asked.
"I will join the Spymaster and continue attempting to acquire his body. He does not have much time left, in his current state." Fredrich said.
Levina hesitated, before frowning. "I will go with you, I suppose… I cannot survive alone."
"Then we must find the Spymaster." Fredrich said, ignoring her pessimism. "We do not know where he is at the present."
"They might know where we are." Levina said. "If they come back, then we can rejoin their group."
Fredrich nodded. "Then we wait here?"
"Okay."
By noon, the two of them were still busy fortifying the base, collecting various materials and scrap from their surroundings to build improvised barricades. It would be worthless against any concerted attack, given the lack of any effective anti-armor from their Arts. But it would buy them time.
"How long do you think we will have to wait?" Levina asked, grunting as she lifted another wood beam onto a vaguely wall-shaped pile.
"Perhaps they will arrive soon, or perhaps we will have to wait a few days. More than a week and we may have to reconsider." Fredrich said. "The First Cell would be our next option, though I do not know of their exact location."
"So, we would need to blindly wander around the city until we find the First Cell?" Levina said.
Fredrich tried for a more optimistic explanation, before giving up with a grumble. "Yes."
"We'll probably die, then." Levina said, resigned. "Do you have any family that will mourn you?"
"Corrupt officials in the Leithanien government killed them. It was the reason I joined the Fifth Cell." Fredrich replied. There was no need for lies anymore, not with the two of them so close to death. "You?"
"Poverty. They became Infected and died due to a lack of treatment, or just disease." Levina paused, obviously recalling some less-than-pleasant memories. "I joined… a sort of clandestine organization later. After some disagreements, I left for Rim Billiton."
"Disagreements?"
"Violent ones."
"I see."
A sudden chill washed over them. In unison, they turned to see Frostnova walking towards them, Petrova in tow.
They breathed a collective sigh of relief.
What remained of the Yetis had come at last.
AN: Pretty heavy chapter. The last few chapters are, in general, going to be pretty dramatic, as everything comes to its conclusion. I had some difficulty writing some people in-character in this chapter, mostly because I tend to revert to using formal wording whenever something depressing comes up.
Ben and Anne haven't made many appearances in the past few chapters; as such, I could have considered doing this much earlier, maybe before they leave for Leithania. But then it doesn't really make sense, as nothing much has really happened to make them want to leave.
Something to think about. Feel free to leave a review if you have any thoughts on this, or on anything else.
RN: Revision complete.