Chapter Text
Anya’s mind was flooded with images and memories that weren’t her own and very suddenly she knew exactly what she was standing on and exactly what would happen to her if it went off.
Grand-papa was kneeling next to her, saying hushed things that didn’t reach her trembling mind, and Papa was running right to her. Part of Anya thought that running through a minefield without even looking down was super cool.
Her classmates didn’t know what was wrong yet because they couldn’t read minds. That was probably good because if they had seen the nightmare playing on repeat in her papa’s head they would have pooped their pants.
They were looking over at her, but they weren’t moving. Part of Anya was surprised at just how still they were holding.
The rest of Anya was standing on a bomb.
“-ust hold still. Good girl, you’re doing great. Don’t shift your weight one way or the other.”
Twilight slowed to a brisk walk as he got closer. He couldn’t risk upsetting the ground. The government was still working on a delayed mine, one that would explode when you stepped off of it rather than onto it, but it was still in the early stages of development. The fact that it was being developed at all did not bode well for the peace talks. All this to say that Anya should already be dead.
Green eyes looked up at him and filled with tears and it felt like his heart was in a vice grip, but he had to focus. If it were an anti personnel mine it would have shot up out of the ground before exploding. The aim was to launch shrapnel at the target's stomach rather than just blowing off a leg, but the targets were usually grown men, not six year old girls who were small for their age.
Captain Curtis was reassuring her and carefully moving the tall grass away from her left foot.
It was the right thing to do but Twilight wanted to push him away regardless. One wrong move and his daughter would die and he wasn’t going to trust anyone else with her life.
“Papa.” Anya cried.
Twilight’s heart skipped a beat and he assured,
“Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of here and you’ll see your mama and papa again soon.”
Curtis didn’t even glance his way.
“You radioed for air support?”
Twilight didn’t bother nodding and instead started to gently trim the blades of grass and brush away the loose dirt.
“A helicopter is on its way. A ladder will be lowered down and the students will be collected from the field one by one. Then they’ll come for her.”
He needed a make and model for the mine. WISE had sent him a layout of the former battle field and where the land mines used to be buried, but most would have been collected and the ones that weren’t would be displaced and eroded. Anything could set them off. Even a six year old girl who was small for her age.
He could see the side of the casing now, olive green paint chipped and rusting. If there was a serial number at one point in time, the odds of finding it intact were slim to none.
He reached toward the side and a steely grip caught his wrist like a vice.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Curtis demanded, voice low.
Twilight glared up at him and growled,
“I’m going to diffuse the bomb. I have training from the army. The park will be held responsible if-”
Curtis whispered, voice tight with urgency.
“I’m going to say this once so I want you to listen closely, son. I am an agent with the State Security Service. I’ve disarmed bombs you’ve never heard of for longer than you’ve been alive but this is not a bomb, it’s a land mine. It can’t be defused, only contained and then detonated. You are going to keep your voice calm and you are going to smile for this little girl and you are going to help me keep her still, because if you don’t I will hold you personally responsible and believe me when I say that running through a mine field will be like a day at the beach in comparison.”
Twilight grit his teeth but nodded. You could defuse a landmine, but it took specialized tools that he didn’t have on him. A stupid oversight he would be punishing himself for until the day he died. Removing the cover now might help, but it might also make things worse given the uncertain amount of time it had been buried.
It wasn’t surprising that Chadwick didn’t know. Even the best soldiers didn’t spend their restless nights pouring over the schematics of every explosive ever conceived. How many times had Twilight woken up to the sound of phantom screaming and felt dust fill his nose and his stomach twist at the sight of the ruble that used to be his home?
There had to be something he could do. He had to remove the cover and whether it made things better or worse at least he would know-
Twilight pulled his arm back to his side and said,
“I realize that you’re the expert here, but I’m familiar with these devices. I was a soldier too, Sir. There’s a chance I could-”
“Are those the hands of a soldier?”
Twilight’s brow furrowed in confusion and he looked down at his hands. His eyes widened in shock.
His hands were shaking.
Twilight, master of a thousand and one faces, greatest spy in two countries, nerves of steel and a heart of stone, his hands were trembling.
He closed them into fists and placed them on his knees.
“Alright.” He surrendered. “We’ll wait for air support.” Something must be wrong with him. Had he been poisoned? He’d seen more horrible things than this almost daily- ‘What could be more horrible than this?’- and never so much as flinched.
“Good choice.” Curtis said, voice returning to a normal volume.
‘If he goes for the mine again, I’m breaking his wrist.’
Anya shrieked and both men directed their attention back to her.
Twilight smiled widely and insisted,
“It looks like you’re standing on a rare wild flower, Miss! In fact, there are several wild flowers in this field that shouldn’t be stepped on. So please don’t step down any further, or lift your foot. A Helicopter will be here any minute to fly you and your classmates to the viewing platforms. Won’t that be fun?!”
‘Not bad.’ Chadwick thought.
Anya shook her head and held out her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Curtis gently said,
“I’m sorry, Anya, but you can’t have a hug right this second. You need to stay very still.”
Twilight filed away the feeling he definitely was only having because he was exhausted and overworked and probably poisoned, and focused on calming Anya down. He could hear the chopper in the distance but it would pick up the other kids first in case this mine set off any others when Anya was lifted off of it.
He ran through a quick list of things that Anya loved. Bondman, peanuts, Yor, Franky, and-
“Do you have any pets?”
Anya sniffed, her tears slowing down and she nodded.
“I have a super awesome dog named Bond. He is white and fluffy. He eats dog food, which isn’t good but isn’t bad either. We go on walks and he doesn't play fetch but he does keep me safe. He’s probably really scared right now.” Her chin started to tremble again.
“I met your dog.” Curtis commented. “He seemed to love you very much.”
“Yeah. Grandpapa and Anya did math and made cookies. They were really yummy.”
Chadwick swallowed against the lump in his throat. The ladder was being thrown down to the Blackbell girl. She climbed the first two rungs and then the helicopter slowly inched toward the platform, about fifty meters away. It was so slow.
“You mentioned your father makes cookies too, right?” He prompted.
“Yeah, they’re really good, but grandpapa cookies are the best.”
“I’ll make you some more.” The promise fell out of his mouth before he could convince himself it was a bad idea. “Because you are holding so still to protect that wild flower, I’ll bake a whole batch.”
“And Papa will make Hamberg Stake?” She sniffed.
“Sure!” Twilight agreed. Then he quickly tacked on. “I’m sure that when he hears how well you did today, he’ll cook you whatever you want for a week. I bet he’ll be very proud of you.”
‘I never should have let her come. I should have kept her home or left her with Franky. I knew something was bound to go wrong after what happened last time-’
“I don’t think so.” Anya admitted, head dipping down to look at her feet.
Twilight blinked and a different sort of concern took root in his heart next to the panic.
“Why do you say that?”
“Papa is proud when Anya does good at school. But he gets worried when there’s trouble. Last time we went on a field trip, I almost got ‘sploded.”
Both men flinched.
“I see. That... must have been very scary.”
“I wasn’t scared. Not at all.” She said, eyes still dripping tears. “Not even when the bad guy put the bomb on my neck.”
‘THE WHAT!?’ Twilight thought. ‘That wasn’t in the report! I know the Desmond boy- then there was one on Anya- while I was hours away- I didn’t even know- it must have been another dud- but she didn’t know that and what if it had been real- she would have been dead hours before I ever heard-’
“But I was brave! I thought of sending a secret code to tell people we needed help, and I got everyone food, and I tricked the bad guy into letting everybody go! I helped! But after, everyone was so scared. Papa too, even if he didn’t say so. But I didn’t want him to be scared. I wanted him to do this.”
She took Twilight’s hand and set it on top of her head and said in a deep voice,
“Good job daughter. I’m proud of you.”
Twilight felt his heart twist in his chest. Chadwick spoke softly,
“I bet he was worried, because he cares about you so much. If my child was in danger, I don’t think I’d be able to think of anything but keeping her safe.”
Twilight nodded and said, voice more emotional than he wanted it to be,
“Sometimes parents get so busy trying to keep their kids safe, they forget you can’t just read their minds to understand why. Next time you want to know how your papa feels about you, I want you to put his hand up on your head, just like this. Remind him how small you still are.”
‘So small, smaller than I was the first time I understood what a bomb really was.’
The helicopter had picked up Damian and as the boy was carried across the meadow, he kept his eyes fixed on Anya. It was going toward the remaining two boys.
“I can do that.” She sniffed.
The moment was interrupted by the helicopter passing overhead, on its way to Emile.
The air was blowing so wildly that the tall blades of grass became whips and the sound of the chopper blades was deafening. Loid dropped his hand to cover Anya’s ears. They all heard the sound anyway.
Metal on metal grinding, dropping. Anya’s back foot fell another half an inch toward the ground.
It took all the self control in Twilight’s body not to push Anya off the mine and cover her with his body.
The mine didn’t go off.
He yelled at the sky,
“What are you thinking!? You-!”
“Save it for when they can hear you. And don’t forget who can.” Curtis rebuked.
Right. He couldn’t lose his composure. He never loses his composure. Although looking back, Anya had always been the exception to that rule.
Loid put his hand back on her head and said,
“Sorry about that. The wind from the helicopter could have damaged that wild flower I told you about. Thank you for not moving. You are doing so well.”
Chadwick said low and hushed,
“We can’t risk having them fly so close again. You know what that means.”
‘The helicopter can’t get Anya. She’s stuck.’