Chapter Text
Anya walked down the streets of Ostania, coffee cup in hand and a quickness in her step. Her skirt brushed against her legs as she walked and her thin long sleeve shirt clung to her, as if begging for her not to spill coffee on it as she walked. She wasn’t late to anything, and she did not have anywhere to be early. In fact, it was one of the few days she had nothing to do at all.
Yet, despite that, her demanding job could call for her at any point in time if they had to. She didn’t know what to do other than sigh and let the day take her where it may with the crowd of people. She hated these types of days, where she was just waiting around with nothing to tell her what to do. It wasn’t like there was anything or anyone she wanted to interact with, or anyone who would really know her.
She walked down the street quicker, yet, not quick enough to draw any type of suspicion. It was the walk of someone in a hurry, the stroll of someone maybe five minutes late to a meeting. It had to be, she calculated each step she took, especially on days like these. As she walked aimlessly, she wondered to herself what she would do today. She couldn’t do anything that would get her noticed, or even have her make friends. Conduct normativity without normativity, that was her motto, she needed an activity that would allow her to blend with the masses, and yet, would not be suspicious if she went alone.
“Aha!”, She thought.
The park, that would be the perfect place. Though, it wasn’t like she didn’t go there often. There was always a fair amount of people there, and if she read or something like that while drinking her coffee, it wouldn’t be suspicious in the slightest to anyone passing by. No one would bother her either, it was the perfect set up.
Off to the park she went, her stroll slowed with the people, and she blended with the crowd once again, filled with people who were trying to get to their workplaces this early morning.
‘Get out of my way-‘,
Their thoughts said.
‘Could these people walk any slower?’
‘Shit, I can’t be late again.’
The thoughts of everyone clamored in her head, her feeling a slight buzz as she received more and more of them. Yet, she put on the most stoic face she could as she powered through the crowd. Her pace picked up, and she stood as tall as she could, well, as tall as she could for a woman who was just below average height. As a psychic, she hated crowded places. It made the voices louder, more obnoxious, and more draining. It was as if someone was yelling directly into your ear with no regard. The thoughts would gather until what seemed like a mob was screaming at Anya in her head. At least, that’s what used to happen.
But, as the years went on, she became better and better at controlling her mind reading and building up resistance to those voices. This crowd would not phase her, thank God. It would have the annoyance level of a fly buzzing into her ear. Though, the buzzing that she felt tingling in her head was the slightest bit irritating, she would admit.
She continued to stroll the streets of Ostania before seeing a clearing across the street. She saw a green area across the street with playgrounds, children playing with their dogs, parents running after their kids, and vice versa. It was the weekend, in the beginning of the summer after all, so the children that were usually at school were left to their parents’ care. What better way to bond with their families than letting mother nature do some of the work? Anya sighed as she looked at the park. It was so peaceful…so…so peaceful.
The traffic light changed to a man walking, and the crowd began to move along, and she along with it. Finally, she broke away from the crowd and went towards the park as she came to the other side of the road. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a bench that wasn’t being used in the shade of a tree, perfect for hiding from the hot sun at this time of year. She claimed it, sat on it, and sipped on her coffee she had gotten in town earlier. She swirled the paper cup in her hand as she continued to watch the families play.
…hm
Even though she was supposed to keep up appearances for the sake of her job, this was the one thing she couldn’t help but do whenever she was out. She stared at families and all that they would do with one another, she would watch their banter, their games, even their bickering. You could call her a bit of a people watcher. She found their dynamics very interesting…and quite nice if she was being honest.
After all, it was human nature to long for what you never had…right?
It was something she could never have.
Both taken and forsaken by her long ago.
She finally tore her eyes away from the civilians and took out her purse that she brought with her. She reached her hand in and grabbed a book out of it. It was an old volume of Bond Man, the story about a special spy who went on secret missions in order to save his one true love, a princess. It was undoubtably childish, but it held value nonetheless, and, although she didn’t particularly like looking into the past, this was one thing she could make an exception for.
She smiled as she looked at the pages lined with outrageous and bold colors, the spy with a mask and his dynamic poses, his missions (which were a bit unrealistic if you asked Anya), even his pistol with a silencer. That was her hero growing up, that was who she wanted to be, and well, it was who she became. She completed her dream; she even had her own pistol with a silencer now. That’s right: little miss Anya is a spy. She is a spy for Ostania, doing missions, infiltrating the ranks of terrorist groups, keeping eyes on corrupt politicians, all of that stuff. Quite frankly, being a spy wasn’t all that she thought that it was going to be. She thought it was going to be way more fun than it actually was, it was actually quite stressful, believe it or not. No doubt she had aged quite a few years from some of the stunts she’s pulled. Yet she did it, it was the only dream she ever truly knew and one of the few where she could put her power to very good use.
She kept on reading, on page fourty-seven, sipping on coffee as she read it. Yet, all of a sudden, she felt a slight change in the air around her and heard the soft crunch of the ground. She took her eyes up from her comic and took a quick scan around the area. That controlled breathing and those soft steps could only belong to one person.
Then, just as she thought, there he was.
A man with short black hair, red eyes, and a casual suit stood in front of her, approaching slowly and calmly.
“Reading children’s books, are we?”, he asked.
Anya looked up at him, crossing her arms.
“I’m being nostalgic.”
“Mhm...I see.”
The dismissive tone from the man coated every word he said.
The man stopped right in front of her, standing tall, alert, and serious. He was someone Anya knew all too well. He was the leader of the State Security Service, Yuri Briar, meaning, today would not be a boring day after all.
“Well, starting over, hello General.”
“Why hello Agent Bond, how are you?”
His voice took a bit of a sarcastic tone. Normally when he was like this, Anya would simply read his mind so she knew what he wanted. But something was different today, no matter how hard she tried to probe his brain, nothing worked, all she came up with was static.
“I’m doing fine, what’s your job for me?”, she asked
‘Quick and snappy, let’s make this quick and snappy,’, Anya thought.
“Job?”
Slight confusion took over the man’s voice.
“Yes, since you’re here, I assume you have a job for me to take. What does the SSS need help with today?”
“Oh, nothing, I’m actually here for something personal.”
Personal?
“And that is?”
Yuri looked at Anya as if analyzing her, wondering if he should tell her what’s on his mind or not.
“I’ll tell you later. First, I want you to walk around with me.”
“What?”
“Walk around with me.”
Anya’s eyes sharpened at that statement; she was sure to show no signs of movement. He may be one of her employers, but she did not trust him enough for something like this. He was and had always been...just the slightest bit off.
“Why, I see you don’t trust me.”, he said.
“I’m contemplating, nothing more.”, she replied.
Yuri’s eyes wandered to the sky, searching, most likely searching for an argument.
“I promise it will be in the public eye for the most part, and-”.
Yuri shuffled his hand into his pocket, pulling out a bag of peanuts and a check for about 60 dalc.
Just to walk around town with him? Really?
She weighed her options quickly. It would not be in her best interest to turn him down due to her line of work, but she didn’t know what he was doing. She hadn’t even received a cipher from anyone summoning her.
She sighed yet again, for the third time in the past hour.
“Fine.”
She figured she would follow him for now, and if he tried anything sketchy, she could escape. There was no way she could best someone like Yuri in a fight, but she had a fair chance at fleeing. She supposed he would know that as well.
Yuri smiled at her, his hands still outstretched with the check and the peanuts. She took it from his hands, stuffing it into her own purse before standing up from the bench.
“Just a warning, in this conversation, I won’t let you cheat.”, he said.
“What do you mean “cheat”?”
“Oh, you know.”
She knew better than to question him when that sentence came out of him. They were both aware of her secret, and she would like to keep that between the two of them.
She went to Yuri’s right side, the two beginning to walk at a slow and steady pace.
“So... Anya… I must say, I’m quite curious about you.”
“Why?’
“Well because you came from nothing, you came from nothing and yet you managed to climb the ladder of Ostania’s spy ranks as somewhat of a freelancer. Now, that’s unheard of.”
Anya looked at him, one eyebrow raised. Oh, so, he wanted to dig up the past.
“I suppose it’s a bit odd, but nothing big, I just got lucky.”
“Lucky? That’s what you call it?”
He looked at her up and down, as if trying to read her, as if she had something to hide.
“Yes, it was plain and simple luck that the SSS decided to take me up on my offers, nothing more.”
At this point the two had exited the park and were walking on the sidewalk, towards a square in town. The crowd that Anya had followed in had disbanded a bit ago, and her and Yuri were walking alone with no one following.
“I wouldn’t say that. You were quite a tenacious one.”, Yuri said, looking around at the families and people on the other side of the street. “You wanted to be able to do your job no matter what, you practically harassed us until we gave in.”
“…”
Anya didn’t quite know how to respond to that. It was true that in her younger years she was a bit… stubborn… but it wasn’t that bad.
“I remember that one time when you sat outside our main office for three days saying you would work for peanuts. You would stop any officer who tried to come into the building, but, no one could remove you because of how strangely agile you were.”
….
Okay maybe it was a bit worse than she remembered.
“Well, you guys let me in in the end, didn’t you?”
“Uh, not really, when we tried to remove you with multiple people, you somehow managed to sneak up behind them and press on all the right pressure points, and then you snuck into the building and into my office and sat in my chair to wait for me…”
Anya felt herself cringe as the General further recounted her first impression.
“Well at least you didn’t charge me as a criminal.”
“Actually, we almost did after you-“
“No, you can stop there.”
How much of her questionable behavior did she block out?
Anya looked away from Yuri, towards the town square. It really did shine in the morning light. They finally entered the bustling hub and were heading towards a fountain.
“A-anyways,”, Anya said, her voice slightly shaky after that…special recounting. “What made you bring all of this up? I’ve been working with you and others like you for ten years, why do you need to ask questions now?”
“Hmmmm…”
Yuri looked up into the sky once again.
“I want to know what spurred that kind of action from a young girl of fifteen. You could’ve been anything, and yet you wanted to be a spy…why?”
This made Anya stop, her mind was shooting blanks. They were finally at the fountain, and she sat on edge of it, Yuri following suit. Yet, Anya did not respond, she just looked down at the water, as if deep in thought. Even though in reality, she had no thoughts. She tried to read Yuri’s mind, to see what answer he would want to hear, but like most times in this conversation, his mind was pulling up blanks. Now that she thought of it, this is probably what he meant by not letting her cheat.
“I fight for the sake of my sister.”, Yuri said. The normally strict look he had on his face was replaced with something more solemn, the look being evident in his eyes. “Or at least I did, that’s what motivated my fight for the SSS. I would do anything to protect the country my dear sister lived in.”
He sighed and shook that solemn look off of him quicker than Anya could process, turning his attention to her once again.
“So, what’s your equivalent of that?”
The different phrasing did not help Anya in the slightest, she still couldn’t think of anything.
“I…”
Anya tried to search the depths of her mind yet could not find an honest answer.
Yuri looked at her with a nod.
“I guess I have my answer.”
“Wait I- “
“No need to force yourself Anya. It’s been a long life.”
Yuri got up from where he sat, his hand digging into his suit pocket.
“I’m sure I can- “
Yuri did not let her finish, he instead he pulled out a small letter from his pocket.
“I do have one mission for you, if you could, drop this at 128 Park Avenue in the evening. It’s rather important this gets to the recipient. I also want you to check out the apartment when you do. Take a look around for anything that may be considered suspicious like tapped wires, bugs, etc.”
“…. you got it boss.”
“Mhm…”
With that, Yuri handed Anya the envelope, and did not look back at her once he handed it over. Their transaction was over.
Anya whispered the name on the letter as she read it.
“To the Forgers”
Interesting, a family.
Yuri left quickly, wasting no time walking away from Anya, leaving her near the by the fountain by herself.
Well, at least she had a job to do now…but…now she had to think of what to do in the meantime. She traced her hand over the frame of the envelope. She always hated days like this. She put the letter in her purse next to the peanuts and walked away.
She hung out in the square, she ate at the bakery, she ate at the fancy restaurants nearby, she went to the museum near the square, she even saw an opera. Yet, nothing could distract her from what Yuri had asked her.
Why was she doing what she was doing?
The answer seemed foreign to her, during the days that had passed by, every mission and everyday had become a blur, a clump of everything put together. It just became a part of her life that she did without question, stop the bad people from doing bad things, that’s what it was and always had been.
‘It was the dream of a child.’, she thought.
But a bit of her conscious whispered words of doubt to her.
But why did that child dream that dream?
Now that was a question that was left unsolved. She was left once again to look at the all the people who crowded the public space, as they went about their day, smiling, laughing, crying. They would pass one another by without a thought, living their own lives and having their own identities. She couldn’t help but wonder what she would do if she was one of them.