Chapter Text
Secrets Within Secrets
Raelle slowly woke up to not wake the brunette laying next to her, noticing the clock on the table next to the bed read a little past 7am. She was use to getting up early from growing up in the Cession where the residents were usually up early to go about their daily lives. Looking down at her girlfriend's naked back she noticed it was littered with small mostly healed scars, that she had never noticed before. Most were so faint indicating that they made years prior, while a few looked newer. With her fingers she softly traced the many lines that crossed the expanse of skin and kissed each one as she found them. She would love to hurt whoever had left these small reminders of past deeds, more than likely most came from having to live always on the run from the authorities. She never realized until now, that even though she had been born in the Cession and had very little things to call her own at least she had always had a place to call home. Seeing the muscles of Scylla's back start to move, she looked to see that her girl had opened her eyes. Raelle always felt her love for the young necro could not get anymore, until she saw that smile that Scylla only used for her. Laying back down so that they were able to look at each other, she smiled and moved her hand to stroke the jawline and chin of her favorite person in the world. Leaning towards her to give the gentlest of kisses and making small circles on her back with feather like touches.
"Hey beautiful," Raelle whispered not wanting to intrude on the silence between them.
"You are up early," Scylla answered, her voice still full of sleep and her eyes trying to focus on the girl that always sent her heart-rate soaring. "Go back to sleep." As she moved her arm and pulling the blonde fixer closer to her while moving her head to place on Raelle's bare chest. Sleep once more overtaking her, truth be told she was exhausted from the battle at the wedding and for the feelings of guilt about her parents the night before. She had not used her combat abilities in so long they had tapped her out.
"Sleep, love, I will be here to watch over you." Raelle answered, tightening her hold on the necro so she knew she was safe and loved. Kissing the top the necro's head and hearing her breath once again even out to fall into slumber. Her thoughts drifted to what the necro had done yesterday and to what she said last night as well. She knew her girlfriend would always feel some guilt for her parents, but she had told the truth when she said they would never blame her for it. No the system was what had led to her parents deaths. And even though she knew that Scylla kept things from her sometimes, she trusted her and knew the girl would open up when she was ready. As she felt her love breathing steadily, she closed her eyes and drifted off once more with her girl in her arms.
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A little time later, both girls had made their way to the mess hall to get breakfast when they ran into Tally and Abigail. Tally quickly waved them over to join them, much to the dismay of Abigail if her looks toward the necro was any indication. Grabbing their trays that moved to sit down together, their sides touching. Scylla had stayed quiet most for most of breakfast, just sitting and listening to her girlfriend talk about the training they had been doing the previous week and what they were going to be doing this week. Scylla noticed that even though Raelle usually sounded disinterested in it, there was an underlying excitement that she had picked up on after that first meeting in her room when she had told her to let them train her and make her more powerful. She knew her girlfriend was powerful and had not even reached her peak, and the Spree wanted her for some reason and that was something she would never happen. She knew that was going to have to answer for wedding and not helping the Spree attackers, she just could not understand why they had not let her know before hand. It would have been the best opportunity to extract the blonde fixer, but instead they had tried to attack her. Was she suddenly a loose end and they had decided to just eliminate the blonde before she could be used against them, but they had told her to continue to watch her. She tried to think of anything that she might have missed in any of her communications with her handler that indicated that killing the blonde was an option, but she could not think of one. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she slightly jumped out of habit from her days of always having to escape, and then realized Raelle was looking at her with worried eyes.
"Babe, you okay? You zoned out there for minute," Raelle asked.
"Oh sorry, just lost in the thought from yesterday. I am sorry I spaced, did I miss something?" Scylla answered.
As Raelle moved her hand off her shoulder and placed it on her back and started rubbing comforting circles on it. "Tally asked how necro training was different than our training, since we never see necros in our groups?"
"Oh sorry, well we study things that are dead or decaying and learn to draw from it. We learn to tend the various plants and use those plants to create different things like Salva for example or healing balms." Scylla answered honestly.
"Really I thought you would learn how to deal with death not growing plants." Tally answered her curiosity getting the best of her.
"Well where do you think all the poisons and elixirs come from, if you don't learn about how to tend to plants in general then you could make the wrong mixtures in your poison and cause it to not work properly. Imagine if you took Salva and it was not made correctly, when you jumped out of the plane you would just plummet to your death." The necro responded, it was where she had gotten her stash of Salva herself from the plants that she had grew. "We also train with scourges, but where you guys use it with wind-strikes, necros use it with death magic to inflict the maximum amount of pain and damage. Were you are the scalpel, we are the hammer. We may or may not also train on how to get around unseen, but I can't tell you that." Smiling at that little bit of knowledge that necros tried to keep secret, but pretty much everyone knew but did not talk about. "Why do you think everyone thinks we are creepy and weird?" Chuckling to herself and the look she was being given by the three girls.
"yeah sexy weird," Raelle called out, leaning over and giving the girl a kiss.
"Keep it in your pants, we got training in like 10 minutes." Abigail replied, giving them a fake gagging noise. She had decided to be less intense when they were not training, hoping to befriend the other two girls in her unit. She still did not like Scylla and her necro ways, especially after her stunt at the wedding and with her mom, but Raelle apparently loved her so she would try to be somewhat friendly to her as long as Raelle was around.
"What you say, beautiful, think 10 minutes is enough time?" the blonde fixer joked, seeing the look on both Tally and Abigail.
"With you? Never would be enough time." As they heard the first bell tolling indicating training was nearing. The Bellweather unit all got up to leave for training, while Scylla had her own training to attend. "I will see you later, dollface." Giving her a kiss good-bye and turning to look at the remaining two. "Bye ladies."
As Scylla turned to head down the path to the necro's training building, she saw General Alder and her Biddys walking up the path in her direction. She quickly moved to the side of the path to let them path since she was still a cadet at the academy. She saluted them as they passed her and was just about to turn to continue, when she felt a hand grab hers and a note was passed from the last Biddy in line and they continued on by her. Scylla hid the note in her fist and moved toward the foliage that lined the path, before uncurling the note to read what was there. She almost dropped the note at its words, before looking at it once more and then quickly looking around.
{You will come to us tomorrow night, the situation with the girl needs to be addressed}
The note was signed with a small balloon at the bottom, Scylla knew she had to attend the meeting with her handler otherwise it would look suspicious if in fact her cover was not blown. She also realized she would need to tell Alder that one of the Biddys was apparently a Spree operative. Goddess she was in over her head she thought, but she would see this through to the end. She would do everything she could to bring justice to her parents, and to make sure that no matter what Raelle was kept safe. She had to come up with a plan, in case things went sideways. She only hoped that Raelle would forgive her if something should happen to her, she knew she would be in able to stay over in her dorm tonight since it was the beginning of the week and would be staying her own. As she continued on towards her training room, she felt a headache start to form. As she thought this was going to get bad, and her luck had finally ran out.
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The next morning, Scylla made her way to the mess hall that her girlfriend's unit used for their breakfast. She had made a talisman last night that was inscribed with a special rune that she had learned from her dad, it basically would give a message to Raelle when the rune wore off. It would last a few days before it was and delivered the message, she figured that if she did had not come back in two days she was either dead or unable to come back and it would explain everything to her girlfriend. Now she just had to come up with a reason to gone for a few days without worrying her girl, that part of the plan was still being worked on. God the Spree were horrible about planning and directions for their own operatives, otherwise they would have been an even bigger threat than what they are already. As her headache continued from yesterday, yeah she was ready for all this to be behind her and done with. She was going to make Alder giver her a month's vacation with her girl on some beach in the middle of nowhere so they could not be disturbed. As she walked into the room, she saw the girls sitting near the window Raelle with her back to her. Skipping the food line she made her way over, and just as her girl was about to turn around Scylla slipped a silver chain with rune inscribed charm over her head and kissed the top of head.
"Whats this, beautiful?" Raelle asked as she turned over the charm in that was now in her hand as she saw the rune. The charm itself had what looked like stars and the moon overlooking a patch of mushrooms on one side of it, and the rune in the middle of the sun on the other.
"Just something I made for you, after the gift you gave me." Scylla answered, placing her hand on the fixer's cheek. "I just wanted you to know I love you."
"Babe," as Raelle stood and engulfed her girlfriend in a tight hug and kissing her with all the love she had for the necro. "It is beautiful, thank you."
Just as she was about to tell her girlfriend she would be gone for a few days, hoping that she could play it off as a training thing. She noticed her Sergeant walk in the door looking around the room and seeing her, they made their way over to her.
"Cadet Ramshorn, you have been asked to participate in a mission for the next few days. I was told you would be leaving within the hour, so pack a bag with your combat gear." Sergeant Isadore stated, giving her the order papers that show she had a pass out of the Fort. "Good luck and make us proud. We will see you in a few days." As she turned to leave the room, not seeing the worried looks on both Raelle and Tally. One because this was her girlfriend and the other because she knew the situation with the Spree and Scylla.
"Why are they sending you and not a fully graduated cadet?" Raelle immediately asked, the worry for her girlfriend clearly seen in her tone and eyes.
Scylla stroked the blondes jawline and glanced down at the papers that held her orders. She saw that she was requested because of her top marks in training pertaining to poison identification. "It looks like they need someone who can figure out an identification for a poison that is affecting some civilians and that I am closest person nearby. Nothing to worry about, love." Scylla really hated to lie to her girlfriend, but it looked like for once the Spree handler had helped come up with a reason for her to leave.
"Well I don't like not having you around, beautiful." Raelle hugged her girlfriend tightly. "Please be careful."
"I will be back before you know, you won't even have enough time to miss me." Kissing her girlfriend once more, to embed into her memory the feel of kissing her and holding her. "I got to go dollface, you don't go blowing up any training dummies or having some girl fall in love you.
"Never," Raelle answered, holding back the tears she felt. This was it felt like when her mama had left on her last tour. "Promise me you will come back to me." She whispered the last part so Scylla was the only one that could hear her.
"Promise," Scylla answered hoping that it was the truth, before turning towards Tally and Abigail. "Watch out for my girl, anything happens and it is your asses." Then she walked out quickly, not able to watch as she left her girlfriend.
"She will be back, Rae. She is tough and you know she can take care of herself," Tally assured her friend hoping it was the truth. She hated that she knew Scylla's secret and could not tell anyone.
"Yeah, she would never give up annoying me this soon to not show back up." Abigail replied trying to comfort her unit mate and hopeful friend. "Besides she is too smart to leave you, you are way out of her league to do better."
Raelle knew this was a possibility in their lives in the military, but she did not think it would be this soon. It pissed her off that once again her life was dictated by someone else, she started to get a headache and knew she had to release some energy. And dammit to hell with saving some training dummies, she would ruin them to make the military have to buy more. Grabbing her scourge and securing the necklace down her shirt so the charm was over her heart. "I need to blow something up."
"This should be fun," Abigail replied with all the sarcasm she could muster rushing out to catch up to the blonde fixer, noticing Tally was right behind her.
As Scylla got into the jeep that waiting for her, she saw the girls heading for the training ground. Keeping her expression neutral, while inwardly smirking at her girl's power walk/run knowing some dummies were about to become ash. She turned to the driver, "I am ready when you are, let's get this over with. I got a mission to take care of." As the driver started out of the Fort, never saying a word. Scylla started to plan what she was going to say about not helping the Spree at the wedding.