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“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” Vi stood up from the bench she was sitting on with impact. Ezreal and Shen almost jumped at it, frightened by the sudden impulse of their co-soldier.
The PsyØps elite team was sitting around as their leader, Master Yi dealt them new information.
While everybody was able to digest everything he said completely calmly (excusing Ezreal’s snorting under his nose) Vi wasn’t going to sit idly.
The last sentences their leader said were simple.
“Viktor is in a secluded cave along with only some of his henchmen, the confidential info says.” Followed by:
“However, we should not attack said area, for there is a really huge chance it’s a trap.”
Said words made Vi blow up in a fit of rage.
“You’re telling me that for once , we have a chance of attacking that maniacal asshole, because he’s secluded from his team, and yet, for some bizzare reason we should NOT attack him?!” She shouted at her leader's face.
“Soldier, I think you’re forgetting your place.” he replied.
“Stop with the goddamn soldier talk Yi! This isn’t a matter of what High Command has told you! Do you not want to bash his skull against a fucking wall? After everything he did to this world?! After everything he did to us?!”
The leader’s eyes wandered over to Sona, who turned away from everybody else. For obvious reasons.
“Soldier. Take a walk. You seem to need it.”
She rolled her eyes and exited the meeting room.
***
Vi walked out of the PsyØps general building for said “walk”.
For her it was pacing back and forth, lost in thought.
How could Yi keep on waiting? Has Black Rose not hurt enough people? Why aren’t they acting?
She hated feeling lost. Hated standing in place. Hated doing absolutely nothing.
That’s when she realised.
Vi might be brash, but she isn’t stupid. And thanks to that, she can remember stuff. Like for example, the location of said cave. It's clear as day she could manage to get there.
And she had to do that as soon as possible.
***
Yi and Shen were sitting in the leaders office-room, figuring out the situation at hand.
“Vi was kind of right and you know it. If you wait, he’s just going to change places and we’ll loose him. Again.” Started the soldier. Yi breathed out.
“I know, but I can’t go against the higher up's plans myself. And honestly I’d rather not send you all alone.” Shen laughed at that.
The other man continued.
“The biggest problem is with how close he set his base. He knows we roam around this area and yet it doesn’t seem like he cares… I’m worried it could actually be a trap.”
Shen nodded.
“Or it could be his obsession with finding the gates. Who knows, maybe there is something around here. I’m giving you time Yi, but some of those kids might not. You know how they are.”
The man sighed.
“Yes, I know.”
***
Trying to get from the PsyØps base, to the hideout Viktor and his crew were rumoured to be in, didn’t take as long as Vi had expected it to.
Gauntlets on her hands, she stealthily made her way to the cave Yi instructed her not to go in, and when the familiar glow of all Black Rose’s bases caught the woman’s eye, she knew exactly that this is the place she needed to strike at.
For all the unpleasant experiences that BRG has gotten her in, they definitely did find themselves useful at moments like this one.
Breathing in and out, the soldier destroyed the backdoors to some form of supply closet. Just, with no supplies at all.
Vi quickly checked out if there were any cameras here, but fortunately for her, the coast was clear. It appears Black Rose didn’t have the time to prepare this base as perfectly as they would have liked.
Vi started calculating a plan in her head. She was mostly the “punch before you think” kind of person, but she couldn’t allow a mistake here.
Not when her team is counting on her, and her alone.
She stepped a bit closer to the metal doors leading to the actual base.
She focused, and listened to the sound of the soldiers on the other side.
Four- No, five of them in the room next to the one she was in. She didn’t feel a presence of another psychic here though, which reassured the Enforcer that indeed this time, Viktor was working alone, with just a few usual soldier units at his disposal.
Vi took a deep breath once again.
Time to start the show.
She opened the metal door of the closet in a slam, this time immediately getting to action, no beating around the bush.
Her instincts were correct. Five soldiers, not a single one with psychic powers.
Thank the stars, because her last run in with Samira left her with a real nasty scar which she wouldn’t like to get again, thank you very much.
Vi knew she had to act quick. Even a moment of stalling could lead to one of the soldiers raising an alarm, leading to her downfall.
(Maybe even death, but Vi definitely didn’t want to think about that possibility.)
The soldiers didn’t wait a while to start firing. Honestly, do they never learn?
Vi prompted her gauntlets and set an energy field with her mind. The bullets fell right before her mind shield.
She would have to wait some time before doing that again, but it didn't matter, because now she was starting the offence.
Preparing herself, Vi took a swing with one of her arms at the soldier standing the closest to her. The punch sent them flying, most likely breaking their jaw, as Vi got ready for the next strike.
Quickly dodging some fired bullets coming her way, she used her leg to take away another soldier’s balance by kicking them in their calf. A punch to their face finished the job. Two down, three left.
She upped her pace, quickly turning around from one to the other, distracting them so that they would be focused on her and not sending new units her way.
This wasn’t even that hard actually. Vi managed to beat up dozens of soldiers in the past.
Next thing she did was turning up the gauntlet's power, leading to a psychic-energy culmination, granting her a speed up. Thanks to that, she managed to brutally swing at two of the three soldiers with maximum power, sending both of them straight to the floor.
One left.
She cracked her knuckles inside the gauntlets and turned her eyes towards the last soldier standing. Vi quickly tackled them to the floor, punching their face (though not as hard as the other soldiers that were laying on the ground unconscious) and staring into their eyes, even as they were protected by goggles.
“You wanna keep your face? Where’s you leader, now.” Vi could feel the soldier tensing, almost shaking as she was asking the question.
Over the blood streaming from their mouth, which Vi only now realised was even there, the soldier coughed and managed to say a few words.
“Very end of the cave… please… leave me alone…” The woman looked at the soldier and then their unconscious colleagues.
“You’re not lying? Cause if you are…” she put one of her arms in the air, showing off that if she punched the soldier again, they probably wouldn’t be alive.
They tensed up even more, blood streaming from their mouth.
“N..no. Please.”
Vi stared at them for a moment. She knew that a simple agreement between her and a BRG soldier wouldn't stop them from alarming the others. Bringing them into a sense of security with a nod, Vi quickly and violently took of their head gear and smashed it into pieces including their earphones and mic. Now they won't be able to inform anyone of Vi's appearance.
Only then did she actually take a look at the person laying on the ground. Blood streaming down from their nose.
They were a young a woman, presumably about Vi's age. Their olive eyes were completly red and watery from crying, a black eye under one of them.
Vi doesn't really care about the soldiers she hurts. They were the ones to choose a path of going against everything this world stands for. How could she ever feel pity for them? She herself was a soldier, she was taught that empathy would never help her cause. How it would only make her weak.
And yet, as she stared at the woman on the floor, something was hurting inside her.
Of course she didn't have time to ponder on it. She had to get this job done as quickly as possible. And now, that she made sure no alarm could be raised, it was time to get to the main attraction.
Watch out Viktor, your reign ends today.
***
Sona walked into the shared bedroom. She quickly realized Vi wasn't here.
Hmm, maybe she took the "take a walk" seriously. She thought to herself.
Sona sat down on her bed. It certinatly wasn't the most comfortable one. The matress was hard, the pillow had little to no stuffing, the blanket being as light as possible, making her cold everytime it got chilly in the room. What else was there to expect of a military bedroom for soldiers? It wasn't a hotel.
But she didn't mind.
Every night Vi would go on one of her ramblings about all the stuff she did in the past, or show off the moves she learned recently (which often resulted in a part of the furniture getting destroyed but that's the higher up's problem).
Vi treated her almost...like a sister. And while Sona could never understand Vi's gestures, she appreaciated them in her own way. Even with how brash the soldier could be sometimes, when it came down to personality, Vi was probably the nicest one to be around, counting both what she spoke about and what she thought about. Even if sometimes Sona would much rather NOT be able to read her colleague's mind.
She'd much rather not read anybody's mind if she could.
All the scars left by Black Rose were still within her, even after she started living here. She wasn't a human back there. Often times she wonders if there is even a bit of a person left in her after everything she went through. A bioweapon was supposed to be her destiny. And only one person was responsible for that.
Viktor.
The man humble enough to be called by his name anywhere and everywhere without any honorifcs, but not humble enough to realize that he has a god complex. Sona could never understand why he does all he does. And she stopped caring. Sooner or later people like him die a horrible death.
She looked at the clock. That's weird. Vi normally comes back by now to talk about all of her accomplishments.
Unless she...
Oh.
Oh no.
***
Vi walked through the corridor at fast pace. Around every corner she checked for any other soldiers. After walking seemingly aimlessly for a while, she found what she was looking for.
A big, metal door at the very end of the cave.
She breathed in, charging all the energy she could into her gauntlets.
Then, she breathed out, hitting the door with all the power she held, and somehow managing to pave herself an entrance.
She stood where the door used to be with a confident smirk on her face. Good thing he hasn't figured out how to read minds.
Vi looked straight through the room she was in, one filled with screens, computers and other science stuff she didn’t know the names of.
and at the very centre of it, right in front of her, there he sat.
Viktor.
He was slowly turning away from the screens in front of his face. If he wasn't wearing that damn mask maybe Vi would see eyes staring right back at her.
She raised her chin. Of course he knew she'd arrive here, he has cameras everywhere. Well, not like that matters now.
It is kind of weird that he didn't send any soldiers to kill her?
Viktor was already holding his staff in hand. Vi prepeared for an attack by crouching and steadying her fists. The man stood up.
"Soldier number six... Vi, was it?" he said, a thick accent heard everytime he opened his mouth. "I must admit. I did not expect you to be the one who'd visit me."
Hah. Visit. A fun way to call it. She thought to herself.
Viktor's voice always reeked of poison. As if every single word he said was a killer gas filling up the room he stood in.
Vi hated him so, oh so much.
”Cut the shit out, I’m not here for a chit-chat.” She said, cracking her knuckles under the gauntlets. Then she attacked.
Vi’s gauntlets definetly are a useful thing. After charging them with her mind powers, she was pretty much unstoppable.
Well, at least when she was fighting a non-psychic.
Viktor, unfortunately, had a similar advantage to her. His powers, although stemming from the experiments he performed on himself, were very much perfected by the man. It was obvious he had more experience than Vi.
Well, at least he wasn’t good at hand-to hand combat.
As Viktor’s laser beam left a smudge on the ground right next to Vi, she jumped out of the way, and managed to strike at him. She landed a hit.
Her victory did not last long however, because as soon as he pulled himself back together (which was a millisecond mind you), Viktor used his staff to try and get rid of Vi.
She managed to dunk from those attacks, but at one point, he also landed a hit. At her left side, a burning pain has quickly risen up. She had only managed to take a look at it for a moment. It didn’t look pretty. A heavy burn mark would probably stay there for a while. And sure, the PsyØps uniform did have some "don’t-get-the-soldier-killed" material in itself, it certainly didn’t ease up Vi’s pain, something she got used to while working for PsyØps.
“That’s all you got?” She smirked at her opponent “Expected more from you, weirdo.” She got back to fighting immediately after that, and the two danced around trying to kill one another every single time they were in each other’s range.
The laser beam did hit her. And one of her gauntlets. She pushed it off her arm as quickly as possible, because at this rate it was pretty much just dead weight.
“You know.” The leader of Black Rose spoke up again “What I meant by not expecting you to be here is, why would High Command send a single soldier here. I was getting a bit anxious that I pretty much set myself up to fail by being this close to the PsyØps base. Where’s the rest of your team?”
Vi just rolled her eyes. She was not about to engage in a conversation with this guy.
Unless… he does seem a bit distracted by it.
Maybe it wouldn’t hurt.
“Not like it’s any of your business,” she began, circling around the man, preparing to strike “But I’m here because I myself have a plan. My own. Carried out on my own .” Vi looked into the two holes in Viktor’s mask that represented the eyes.
The man laughed in amusement.
“Without the High Command’s permission? Do you have a death wish or are you just this stupid?”
Vi had no idea what he meant by that, but it didn’t matter, by his amusement, he let his guard down, which was...
The perfect moment to strike.
Ignoring what he just said, Vi rushed at him like a bull at a red fabric. Fortunately for her, Viktor didn’t expect that.
Either this or he’s just not cut out for fighting. How old was he again?
During her attack, Vi managed to do two things: first, cut out the power source of the death-ray by smashing it and cutting it in half, and second, to finally push of that stupid mask off his face.
Viktor quickly got back on his feet, and looked Vi straight in the eye.
She never had a chance to see him without that thing on. She heard stories from Yi and Sona and even Sergeant Kiramman about what he looked like, but she never quite managed to imagine him.
His hair was very light, similiar to most people with psychic powers, with ounces of grey and blonde mixing in.
For being his age, his face looked quite young, probably result of experimentation once again. He had a few scars on his face, some of them in unnatural colors (but then again, who was Vi to say what’s natural and what isn’t), and his eyes, another interesting thing, one of them, amber gold, while the other, more radiantly yellow, that stood out even further because of the fact that the whites were purple. The entire eye looked inhuman, alien, crafted, and it followed Vi’s every move like some weird camera.
“Well, well Enforcer, nobody ever taught you that it’s rude to not listen to what other people are saying?” said Viktor, a smirk on his face.
“Nah, but PsyØps taught me how to punch people to death. Wanna see for yourself?” The man laughed at that.
“Of course. Are they also the ones that taught you how to be an obeying little soldier? One that doesn’t ask any questions?” Vi was loosing her patience every time he opened his mouth.
“Stop acting as if you’re the world’s saviour. Black Rose is a hundred times worse than your twisted view of PsyØps ever will be!” Vi attacked him again, this time however it was a mishap at her part.
Viktor caught the gauntlet mid air, somehow, some way, and destroyed it with his staff. The last thing Vi was able to do, was throw the man’s staff as far into the corner of the room as she could, as her second gauntlet fell to the ground.
At least she still had her fists.
“I’d say your view of my group is… fogged by the High Command’s lies.”
Vi laughed.
“You serious? Did you completely forget about everything you did to Sona?! She was one victim we managed to save, you’re the person creating bio weapons!” She shouted throwing her hands in the air.
Viktor seemed to become more serious at that.
“Sona was… and still is an important part of the plan. Some sacrifices have to be made.”
Vi was flabbergasted at that statement.
“Sacrifices? It’s peoples’ lives you’re ruining!” “PsyØps isn’t any better!” “Do you even hear yourself?!”
The woman’s blood was boiling, how dare he. How dare he say that.
“You experiment on people. I know Sona better than you ever have. You ruined her. That’s why I came here today to kill you. Kill you and your fucking obsession with that stupid gate!” Vi stood in a fighting stance. Viktor however seemed to be lost in thought.
“The Alien Gate… the day I saw it is the day I realised that High Command was full of lies.” “And you aren’t any better.”
The two stares at each other for a moment. Viktor continued.
“Perhaps they were right about one thing. Perhaps I am insane.” he laughed “But it’s their fault. You have no idea what kind of stuff they did.” Vi rolled her eyes.
“Even if that’s true, which I know it isn’t, you’d just be doing the same thing you hate them for.”
Viktor shook his head.
“I don’t think you understand my reasoning.”
“Enlighten me then.”
“… The Alien Gates… they lead to different universes.”
“That’s just rumours.”
“No. No. I saw it myself. Worlds’ in which there no High Command forcing us all to be what they want. Worlds’ were people are free. Worlds’ were we get to be with the ones we care about.”
He paused.
“ Maybe, worlds’ in which your sister is alive. ”
That was the final straw. In a second, Vi had her hands at Viktor’s throat.
She said she’d kill him didn’t she?
The man just laughed.
“Touched a nerve?”
“How. The fuck. Do you know about my sister.”
„Hah, oh Violet. I know a lot about everyone from your little group. I have eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Shut the hell up! I’ll fucking kill you!”
“You already said that.”
The woman was breathing heavily. Calm down. You can’t make him think you’re weak.
“But tell me…” he kept talking, fighting for his breath “Would it not be lovely? A world where an ounce of happiness… could be given to us. Every single one of us...”
Vi breathed out.
Viktor was lying. High Command told her hundreds of times that The Gate isn’t important. She knows that.
And yet…
If Viktor was trying to mangle her thoughts he was definitely doing it properly.
Not to say she believed that what he was doing was the right thing. Not after all that he did.
But the thought of Powder being alive...
one weakness she thought she had gotten rid off was back. Vi stared at the man in horror. He was still trying to catch his breath, pulling at Vi’s hands to no avail.
And Vi let go.
She wasn’t exactly sure why. But she did. This was too much to take in. She really wished her team was here.
Viktor stumbled and finally started breathing regularly. He smiled.
“Right call Enforcer.”
He walked up to her balancing his body.
“Wouldn’t that be nice…” he repeated those words with a dazed off expression, as if he was dreaming. Then he looked back at Vi, mind you she still had a warrior’s expression.
And the next thing Vi remembered was going unconscious.
Why? Was it some syringe? Some psychic ability he learned? Who knows.
***
Vi finally opened her eyes, laying down at her bed at the PsyØps headquarters. Next to her sat Sona, as Yi was pacing around the room.
“…” she looked at both of them and then covered her face with her arm.
“I’m glad you’re okay Vi.” Yi only muttered.
Vi breathed out, not taking the arm of her face.
“What happened out there?” She asked. It was a rhetorical question, since Vi could make out the picture by herself, but she’d rather hear it from them.
Yi was the one who answered it.
“Viktor he, he just left you there. His team managed to get out of there, although we managed to get rid of some of the soldiers there.” Including that olive eyed woman who begged for mercy?
“Vi. Never. Never EVER, run off on your own again. Please.”
Yi’s voice was calm as ever but Vi could hear a sound of caring there. Sona also looked at him with understanding which meant she read his mind.
Wait. Sona can read minds.
“Is-” Vi asked “is everything alright with me?” Sona stared into the floor.
“The medics took care of your wounds and there doesn’t seem to be much trouble with your mind powers… that is except for the fact that I can no longer read your mind.”
Oh. Right. Black Rose did set some form of blockade on themselves to make sure that doesn’t happen. But why would they do that to Vi? Was it an act of mercy? Or something else?
“I… don’t remember too much.” Vi lied. “But I’m fine. I think so at least.”
Yi nodded. Him and Sona walked out of the room to give Vi a bit of space.
The soldier’s mind wandered off into far places. Back into the cave. She hates BRG. She really does. And everything that happened earlier just solidified that.
But…
Would she really be mad if they somehow found that better universe?