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"Hey, Fenrir!"
The call rings across the courtyard, and the large troll turns to see his partner jogging across the empty space. Rose has her hair pushed back with her usual black headband, and he can see his symbol gleaming purple on her wrist. It makes him rub her symbol on his arm with a bit of pride. She's his, and he's hers, and it's still kind of surreal. He grins at her.
"What's up?" he asks. She shades her eyes and looks up at him.
"The Seer and the Grand Highblood have their first mission," she tells him, "straight from the Father and the Signless." She bounces on her heels a bit and leans in. "I'm sort of nervous," she whispers. He leans down and bumps his forehead against hers.
"Don't be," he whispers back. "We'll be fine."
She smiles at him and wraps her arms around his neck, and he picks her up obligingly, nuzzling her hair. He starts moving towards the armoury.
"So what's our mission?" he asks. Rose gets settled in his arms.
"Reconnaissance," she replies. "Simple enough, a normal first-time job. We go in, scout out the area, how many guards the wilds have there, get out again and report whether or not we deem it worth salvaging."
He nods. "So, light weaponry this time around?"
"Yeah, we need more stealth than anything else."
"Awesome." He opens the door to the armoury, which is devoid of people. Rose hops out of his arms and walks over to far wall, pulling down two knives with in forearm sheaths. She straps them on as she picks out a 9mm handgun and hangs it on her belt, filling the other side with extra clips.
Fenrir goes more for armour that could be used for offense, shoulder pads with spikes and gauntlets with hooks on the knuckles and elbows to deal maximum damage with each punch or blow. Rose helps him strap on the chest and back plates. "I think we're good," she says as she finishes adjusting her Kevlar vest. Fenrir nods his agreement and they head out.
At the gate at the edge of the home zone, Bro and Dualscar are waiting for them.
“Your first assignment,” says Bro. “Congratulations.”
“A few things need to be said before you head out,” Dualscar says, eying Fenrir warily. The purpleblood bares his teeth at the seadweller.
“First of all,” Bro says as Rose steps on Fenrir’s foot, “remember you are to avoid conflict. Stealth is the name of the game right now."
“Your training is your best friend,” Dualscar continues. “Remember it, and don’t lose your head. Following procedure that you’ve been drilled in will keep you alive.”
“We understand,” replies Rose, and Bro nods, turning and opening the gate. Dualscar steps aside and Rose and Fenrir slip outside into the war zone. The gate clangs behind them with a sense of finality. Looking at each other, they both reach out to hold the other’s hand. Fingers entwined, they dart off to the nearest cover. No need to ruin the mission so close to safety.
It takes about half an hour for Rose and Fenrir to get to the main camp of the wild trolls, and they hide in the bushes at the top of the hill. They can see the things that were stolen off the last caravan: a Jeep and duffel bags in the back seat that they can assume are filled with food and ammunition from the farms and factories that can’t be contained in the home zone. A tall, elegant jadeblood with a large chainsaw is guarding the vehicle, looking relaxed but Fenrir can see her hand resting on the pull cord. A ceruleanblood comes over and talks to her, leaning casually on the hood of the Jeep in a trusting way that makes it obvious they’re quadranted.
“Just two guards?” Fenrir comments suspiciously. “Seems a bit lax, doesn’t it?”
“It is in the main hub of the wilds’ military endeavors against our home zone,” Rose points out logically. “The fact that it gets its own guard at all means it’s more heavily guarded than usual.”
“What do you know, the little human motherfucker all up and got her knowledge on,” says a deep voice behind them. Rose rolls onto her back, pulling out her gun and pointing it at the speaker as Fenrir launches to his feet and attacks the wild troll.
He’s an adult, and the same blood colour as Fenrir, so there’s not really a contest. The big troll knocks out Fenrir and slings him over his shoulder, grabbing Rose before she has a chance to fire shots and hauling her up by her wrists, making her drop her gun. “No need to get angry, humansis,” the purpleblood says jovially. “Just going to take you down to say hello.”
Rose grits her teeth and is led by her wrists trapped in one giant hand down towards the camp. A short but well built mutantblood that sort of reminds Rose of Kavroc comes out of a building. “Gamzee! There you are! I’ve been looking for you, where the fuck - oh.” He notices Rose and stares. “Why do you have a human with you?”
“Found these two sneaky motherfuckers up on that hill over there,” Gamzee explains, grinning at the smaller troll. “Figured you’d want to talk to them, esteemed leader and all that you’re up and being.”
The mutantblood pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “Yeah, sure, take ‘em in. Separate rooms, though, alright, you rot panned idiot?”
Gamzee just laughs. “Sure thing, palebro.” Rose is dragged into a plain but well kept building and tossed inside a bare room, and Fenrir goes into an identical room beside her. Both doors are locked and waiting for someone to come and interrogate them.
It takes a while, but eventually Fenrir wakes up. He groans and slumps against the wall - motherfucking ow, his head is killing him. “Look who’s awake!” says a voice, and Fenrir looks up to see a troll towering over him, a smile on her face.
She’s one of the shortest adult trolls he’s ever seen, and her oversized green trench coat just adds to that effect. She has a blue tail and blue claws attached to her fingerless gloves, and her eyes are wide and olive, filled in with her blood colour. Her horns look like purrbeast ears. She sort of reminds him of Kerali.
Fenrir looks around, but Rose isn’t there. Rose isn’t there. He snarls and jumps up to attack her, ram into her with the spikes on his shoulder, but she just giggles and turns to the side as he rushes by. He slams into the wall (ow, his headache) and turns around, growling. “Where is she!”
“Who, the human?” the oliveblood asks easily. “In another room.”
“Don’t you motherfucking dare hurt her,” he threatens. “I will kill you all.” She laughs.
“Big words for a tiny boy,” she says, even though he’s about half a head taller than she is. “But no, I just want to talk.”
Fenrir doesn’t move from where he’s poised to attack. “Then talk, motherfucker.”
“What’s your name? I’m Nepeta.” Why is she trying to be civil, what the fuck.
“Fenrir,” he grits out. Nepeta smiles.
“Fenrir, that’s a cute name. Good to see the humans haven’t bastardized you enough to make you drop the six-letter naming system.”
“The humans help us as much as we help them,” he says. Nepeta scoffs.
“How? They’re weak, trimming your claws and domesticating you like you’re house pets because we frighten them. We can destroy them easily, the only reason we haven’t taken over them yet is because they still keep some trolls on leashes. Like you.” She retracts her glove claws and shoves her hands in the pockets of her coat, completely at ease. “Fenrir, can’t you see they want to make sure you never reach your full potential? You could be great, fighting for the glory of trollkind. This is our Empire, here.”
“Dingy Empire,” he says shortly.
“You’re only seeing a piece. There’s trolls everywhere. We outnumber the humans ten to one, we’re all spread out across the world. This is Alternia, the glorious troll nation. Humans can’t control us here. We’re allowed to be ourselves. We can extinguish the humans that want to eradicate us. Don’t you want that?”
“That’s my moirail you’re threatening,” Fenrir points out, still coiled tense.
That makes Nepeta pause. “Your moirail?”
“Rose. The human I was with. She’s my diamond. Lots of trolls end up in quadrants with humans. Usually pale, but I do know a couple who went flush.”
Nepeta raises her eyebrows, clearly surprised. “I see. That’s … new.” She turns and leaves. Fenrir hears the door lock behind her. He slumps down the wall and sighs. He hopes he didn’t tell Nepeta too much.
A few minutes later, Fenrir nearly jumps out of his skin when three sharp raps come through the wall right beside his head where he’s sitting with the tips of his horns scraping at the dried blood on the flimsy gypsum. He stared at the wall for a moment and then the three taps came again.
“Fenrir,” called a soft voice through the thin wall.
“Rose!” he called back excitedly. “Rose, are you hurt?”
Rose starts talking quickly, in a language that sounds familiar but he can’t place. Oh god, she’s not going grimdark again, is she? No, this doesn’t feel like a wrong version of his chucklevoodoos … It takes him a moment to remember the special language the two of them created when they were kids. Well, Rose created it and taught it to Fenrir so the two of them wouldn’t have to be listened in by others.
“-- not sure how long I was out for after that,” Rose is saying, “but I’m chained up fairly heavily and I have a feeling I’m going to be considered expendable very soon. How are you faring?”
Motherfuck, they hurt her? He is going to slaughter all of them. “I’m okay,” he told her in their special friendship language. “I’m not constrained, but locked in here. They tried to recruit me to their cause.”
Rose swore. “We need to get out of here.”
“How far away from the wall can you get?” he asks.
“You are not breaking down the wall.” Her voice is flat in the way it only is when he’s about to be extremely stupid.
“I think it’s thin enough,” he replies, completely serious. “I can do it. Like you said, we need to get out of here. I refuse to let them hurt my moirail. I might have accidentally let it slip that we’re in diamonds.”
A sigh and the faint clinking of chains. “Come on through, then,” she calls, reverting back to English, sounding further away. Fenrir grins and gets up. He walks to the other side of the bare room, rolling his neck and shoulders. He settles his body weight and charges at the wall, angling the spikes on his shoulder armour to crunch into the wall. When he backs up again, there’s a fairly impressive dent in the wall. It takes him two more runs to break through the wall, and when he sees Rose, he nearly breaks through the ceiling. She’s got drying blood on the side of her face and her lip is split, as well as a black eye quickly sprouting. Someone gave her a working over while he was unconscious in the other room.
“Fenrir, shoosh,” Rose says, noticing his anger. “We’ll jam when we get out of here, okay?”
He nods, not trusting his voice, and quickly snaps her chains. They’re thin and meant for humans, not trolls, especially not a purpleblooded troll. He scoops her up and holds her close to his chest. A low, constant growl is vibrating deep under her lungs, and Rose reaches up to pap his face once, twice.
“I said shoosh,” she commands gently, and he looks down at her before nuzzling the top of her head. He starts to leave and then -
“Um … How do we get past the locked door?” Just then, two trolls burst into the room: Nepeta, from earlier, and a maroonblooded female with ram horns and curly hair.
Rose had all her weapons taken from her, but she could hold her own in hand-to-hand training, and wastes no time leaping at the strange maroonblood. Fenrir squarely faces Nepeta, who looks at him for a long moment before nodding once and quietly absconding. Strange. Nevertheless, Fenrir seizes the opportunity and pulls the maroonblood off of Rose, punching her once in the throat. As she bends over, winded, he and Rose dash out of the room. He runs full speed at the door at the end of the hall, throwing his shoulder against it. The doorframe splinters and Fenrir stumbles outside, squinting against the bright sun. Then he realizes Rose isn’t with him.
“Rose!” he yells, turning back to the doorway. She appears, strapping on the last of her weapons to her body.
He goes to pick her up, but she slips under his arm and he almost shouts in alarm before he realizes she’s moving to engage the short mutantblood that seems to be the leader of the camp. Fenrir quickly knocks out the ceruleanblood and snatches Rose right out from under the mutant’s swinging fist, making a run for the exit. They’re almost there when the jadeblood who was guarding the Jeep steps in front of the opening in the wall with an idling chainsaw in her hands. Fenrir abruptly changes direction because, hey, unguarded Jeep. He vaults over the door and lands in the passenger seat, depositing Rose in the driver’s side, and she feels for the keys. They’re still in the ignition, and she grins, firing up the engine.
“Buckle up,” she says grimly, and floors the accelerator, not bother to drive nicely. She zigzags around random wild trolls, and even the jadeblood has to leap out of the way. A violetblood with a gun similar to Dualscar’s fires at them from the top of the wall, but Rose miraculously avoids the bolts and soon they’re out of range and no one seems to be following them. Fenrir sighs in relief and slumps down in his seat. Rose lets out a shaky laugh.
“I can’t believe we fucking survived,” the troll grins, looking over at his human partner. She looks back at him and returns his (slightly wild) smile.
“Takes more than that to keep the miracle moirails down,” she quips. A few more minutes of driving in silence, and they rumble over the crest of a hill, the high walls of the home zone coming into view. Fenrir squints into the setting sun, and although he can’t see anything, he knows there’s humans and trolls lining the wall, guns, bows, harpoons, and other long-range weapons pointed at the oncoming Jeep.
Rose guides the Jeep to in front of the gates and rumbles to a stop. Dave and Phyrus (officially known as the Knight and Darkleer) slip outside and give a customary review of the Jeep, making sure Rose and Fenrir aren’t hiding any wild trolls or explosives.
“We thought you were dead,” Dave says idly, poking through the supplies in the back of the Jeep.
“Not quite,” replies Rose, “but we did have to break out of their camp.”
“You were captured?” Phyrus’s voice rumbles, and it’s a bit of a surprise, the blueblood doesn’t talk very much.
“Yeah, brother, we were,” Fenrir replies, “but we’re all up and safe now.”
Dave gives an ‘all clear’ hand signal and quickly hugs Rose as the gates open for the Jeep before stepping back. “Glad you’re safe, sis,” he says quietly.
“Me too,” she says, and drives through. Jane Crocker and Alesha Maryam are there in full medical uniform when they reach the other side of the gate, and the Mother and the Handmaid usher Rose and Fenrir to the waiting medical team. Alesha immediately starts fussing over Fenrir, who’s blushing a dark purple and stumbling over his words as he answers her questions.
“Are you all right, Rose?” Jane asks as she quickly checks the other girl for injuries.
“Yes, a few cuts and bruises, but nothing major. I’m more worried about Fenrir, he had to do some major destruction to get us out of there,” she says, all business, and Jane gives a small smile.
“You always worry about others before yourself,” she notes. She nods at Alesha gently taking off Fenrir’s armour to inspect the bruises forming underneath, completely oblivious to the bigger troll’s awkward flush feelings. “Besides, I think our lovebirds have it covered.”
The two teenage girls grin at each other and Jane goes to help Alesha usher Fenrir off to the medical building for better treatments than he could get in the middle of the yard, being stared at by humans and trolls alike.
Rose feels a presence behind her and turns around, looking up at Bro. “We’d like a report, Seer. Please come with me.” Without waiting to see if she would follow, he turns around and quickly makes for the tactical building. Rose follows. What else could she do?
When Rose enters the building, John and his troll partner, Spirit (official codenames: the Heir and Mindfang) pouring over various maps, but John still looks up and waves at Rose happily. Rose raises a hand in response before entering Bro and Dualscar’s office. Dualscar is leaning up against the wall, and Bro is sitting down in a fairly impressive chair. He motions at a smaller but still well padded chair on the other side of the table and Rose sinks into it gratefully. Bro pulls out a small recorder and presses the red button.
“Date, the twelfth of August, year 231 After Destruction, 2015 hours,” Bro says professionally, setting the recorder on the desk between him and Rose. “The Brother and Dualscar receiving a debriefing of a mission conducted by the Seer and the Grand Highblood. Dualscar, confirm.”
“Confirm,” intones Dualscar in a bored tone.
“Seer, confirm.”
“Confirm,” Rose says. Bro nods in approval at her.
“The Grand Highblood is not in attendance,” Bro tells the recording. “He is being treated by the Maid and the Dolorosa for wounds sustained during the mission. Seer, confirm.”
“Confirm,” Rose says again.
“The Seer and the Grand Highblood received their mission yesterday, the eleventh of August, year 231 After Destruction, at 1100 hours. They departed an hour later. Seer, confirm and continue.”
“Confirm,” Rose says, and launches into an explanation of what the mission was, how they were attacked and apprehended by a purpleblood named Gamzee, the mutantblood leader, her so-called interrogation. She gave a brief overview of what had happened in Fenrir’s interrogation, before going into exactly how they had escaped and taken back the Jeep filled with supplies that the wilds had stolen from a caravan moving from one safe zone to another. She sits back when she finishes, surprised with how tired she feels.
“Thank you, Seer. Debriefing concluded. Seer, confirm.”
“Confirm,” Rose says tiredly.
“Dualscar, confirm.”
“Confirm,” says the seatroll, and Rose gives a small start, having forgotten he was there. Bro clicks off the recording.
“Go take a nap in the medical building,” the older human tells Rose, his voice going soft from its harsh professional attitude during the debriefing. “You’ve earned it.”
“Yes sir,” Rose says, standing up and giving a salute. Bro stands up and salutes her back.
“Dismissed, Seer,” he says, giving her a rare smile that she returns before leaving the office. John and Spirit are long gone, and no one notices her cross the yard to the medical building.
There’s an empty bed beside Fenrir’s waiting for her, and she gratefully sheds her outer clothing and crawling into the warmed sheets.
She smiles at the sounds of Fenrir protesting to Alesha sealing his more minor lacerations and drifts off to sleep. Unorthodox, sure, but all in all, the first mission had been a success.