*Amelia sat in her apartment, transfixed at the piece of sheet music in front of her, her hair in a ruffle and her eyes looking almost wild at the confusing piece.*"I don't get it... the hell is up with this... 6/8 time signature... 32nd notes tied to 16ths... this is..."*She buries her hands in her hair growling at the inanimate paper, and then looks up towards the clock. sighing deeply*"Annika's bound to be here soon... I wonder just what she brings with her."*Amelia smiles and looks out the nearby window, thinking about just what has happened to her friend over these years, pure happy thoughts coming to the dreadfully unaware girls head.*
Nika shuddered as she closed the door of Noah's Hovercraft behind her. A heartbeat later, the vehicle accelerated away and left her worn attire flying in the wind. Heilige Scheiße, this was cold. Especially up here, far away from every central heating system. The towering skyscrapers of Harburg City hung over the horizon like claws trying to tear long lines in the dark, glooming sky, and for most of them that was even true. Clouds of heating water emanated from the tops of the towers, drawing black lines on the night sky, illuminated by the all-encompassing cityglow that all big settlements have. Only a few hundred meters farther, the clouds froze in Hamburg's icy atmosphere, sending regional hailstorms and snow to the levels far below on the surface.
A city, dormant and waiting. Brooding over her fate, even at that late hour pulsing with life on every level. Hovers flying around, men walking the catwalks between the towers, thickly packed in warm attire. A faceless community, filled with working drones that were unable to stand up for their needs. Most didn't even want it, just living their small lives of a hundred years, dying and making way for the next generation, always hoping that their path wouldn't be obstructed by a changing tide.
And she was here to stir them up.
How much had changed since back then... She left her worker's coat flying in the wind, watched it slowly descend down to the surface at least a kilometer below her. Another shudder, and then she turned to the door in front of her.
After she rang the doorbell, Nika halted for a moment to collect her thoughts. She was just another citizen in a black leather jumpsuit. And once she entered the apartment, nobody would have noticed her arriving here. With a bit of luck, her friends wouldn't even come in trouble for helping her. Two last checks on the left and right, a reassuring move of the right leg to feel the hard plastic of the laspistols' holster, and then the door opened. Nika tried her best to offer her friend a charming smile, hiding her pain behind a mask of joy.
*Amelia remained transfixed on the paper, constantly grumbling to herself again at the frustrating music, then Amelia hears her door rustling and jumps up*"Who's there? Don't come in my house! That doors locked idiot!"*She looks behind her and picks up a novelty plushy she received from the fair as a kid, one of her more prized possessions as a kid, when the door opens and she sees her old childhood friend, Annika Haupt, standing there smiling*"N-...N-Nika?"*Amelia drops her arms, holding the plushy thinly by a single arm, staring at easily her oldest friend*
After seeing her baffled friend almost hugging the old plushy, Nika's smile turned from being a mask to something completely honest, from the deep of her heart. There was something amusing about an adult woman behaving a little childish, something that reminded of a part in her soul that she had to deny for years now. All the uneasiness during the flight with Noah and the worries about being caught were gone for a moment - but just for a moment.
Freezing as she was, after all all that she was wearing was the black jumpsuit, she managed to get her jaw open once again.
"So, you letting me in or..."She made the next comment with a slight grin, mustering the teddybear."... did I interrupt you two in an intimate moment?"
*Amelia remains staring at Annika at her door, then she snaps out of her trance-like state and looks around, and chuckles scratching her already ruffled hair*"Nika! Sorry eh... I knew you were coming I just got a bit..."*Amelia looks at the annoying hell-written piece of music on the table*"Distracted... Nevertheless, I'm eh, glad you're here! Come in come in, you probably need something to drink from being out there in the cold."*Amelia smiles and leads her friend in, closing the door and holding the plushy out in front of her again*"Remember this guy? Got him at a fair on New Berlin, named him Wackeln...."*She hugs the plushy and puts it down, but then drops the smile and looks to her friend*"Those times have changed though, havent they?"
Closing the door behind her, a bit overwhelmed by so many words, it became evident to Nika that she'd have a long time until she'd finally get to sleep. Smiling at her childhood friend, she asked:"Want me to answer every of those questions at once or in a particular order? But yeah, a drink would be nice. Coffee, perhaps?"
Curious, she stepped deeper in the flat, wanting to find out if Lia still hadn't figured out how to tidy up. Placing her suitcase on the nearest table she could find, her gaze shifted from place to place, and if she was honest to herself - this was not only curiosity. Her training had kicked in again, already having marked the three fastest escape routes to the windows and the back door that she suspected behind the bathroom. Trying to mask this particular... Flaw of her behaviour, she started rubbing her chest - only to realize that she didn't even have to emulate being cold, her body already did that on his own.
*Amelia Scratched her head again, chuckling at herself for her bad habit of talking too fast*"Sorry, I was just eh, really happy to see you I guess, but yes, let me get you some Coffee"*She goes about to the kitchen tidying up as swiftly as she moves towards the small room of the flat, she eventually makes her actual way into the kitchen and turns the machine on, grabbing two cups out of a tall cabinet*"Now, how do you take it Nika?"*Amelia smiles at her friend and sees her nervously looking around, rubbing her chest, Amelia sighs and slightly drops her smile*"And I guess while you drink, you can explain just what is going on with this kind of fidgety behavior, I knew something was up, but you've never been this nervous in my presence, are you being actively hunted or something?"*Amelia looks her friend in the eye, glaring sorrowfully at the nervous look on Nika's face.*
Crap. That was a bad slip on her part. Shouldn't have exposed herself that easily. If Lia was able to see through her mask so easily, how would she stand in the future parts of this endeavour?
"Milk, no sugar, but Cinnamon if you have... And that's a really long story. Might want to sit down for that, since I assume you're not letting me rest until I told you all of it."
Her tone was not even remotely offending, more a friendly teasing tone. Despite what she was telling her friend, she would of course not be exposing everything. The less Lia knew, the safer she was from the authorities. God, this sucked. Badly. That woman was what came closest to her best friend, and she wouldn't be able to tell her what actually was making her panic.
That she had been sent her to kill someone. And that she probably would see death in the eye doing that.
*Amelia smiles, turning behind her pouring her friends coffee*"Ah, lets see, you said Milk, no sugar, and cinnamon..."*She whips out the two items from around the kitchen and blends them in with the coffee, then goes and puts the cup in front of her friend after fixing her own cup*"Perhaps the best thing is to go sit down, lets go back out to the living room."*Amelia gets up and smiles at her friend and gestures towards the living room, walking behind Nika as she exits the kitchen, and they both head to the living room to claim a seat*"Nows the time I suppose... Whats been going on? I haven't spoken to you since school, I just... just want to know whats going on right now Nika."*She looks at her friend, taking a sip of the coffee and getting comfortable, waiting for her friend to start*
She had been waiting long for this. Lia came closest to what she could call 'family', especially after the desaster with Dennis. And at the same time, she was scared. Not because of the fact that she was here on a suicide mission, or because she was hunted by half of Rheinland. That was something she was used to. She was afraid what her friend would say. Years of separation, the path of a criminal... It was entirely possible that Lia would not approve. That she would show her the door. The most terrifying part of this was that a part of her hoped that she'd be shunned. That way her task would be far easier, without people that she would have to look out for. With the confirmation that her old life didn't want her anymore.
A few seconds of silence were necessary to shake off these dark thoughts, and it took her another two to actually start speaking. Her voice was soft, calm, and delicate - completely different from the hard, confident voice she usually used when talking to her students or her fellow pilots. It was the voice of a terrified teenager coming home to her mother.
"I hoped we'd have time to relive the old days a bit longer, but I guess that'll be impossible now. You were... Half correct. I don't think that I am actively hunted, hardly anyone knows that I'm on the surface, and only people I trust. At least I think that I can."
Nika paused for a second. Searching for a reaction in Lia's face, but the only move that she noticed was the dance of shadows created by the flickering light.
"I should probably start from the beginning. You remember back then when I finally got my doctor's degree? The night we alone drank more than a bull could take? When the fingermen took us to the 'sobering cell' for the night?"