Three spoke more softly than ever. "Well? Girl, you're the best. Your sisters would be proud."
"No, they wouldn't. They're busy with dance routine. Sucking up to Grandmamma." Sonera frowned.
"Oh, now she gets talkative." Four scoffed. "Here we go."
Two whispered as a retort, trying not to ruin the moment. "And here you thought she'd be a...what did you call it?"
"Carpet muncher."
Three ignored his team's banter. "Listen, Sonera...she let you on the team, Grandmother is proud of you."
Sonera held back her tears. "They hate me. Venra was all I had."
Three sighed, trying his best to avoid that topic. "Well...have you ever considered why those other girls don't like you? You're better than them."
"True enough," Four agreed loudly, supporting Sonera despite her feelings. "We saw you a while back. Made those other ballerinas look like novices."
"Things are stricter for the girl's Sonera. Not all of them can do what you do, and then go do what we do." Three explained calmly. "That's the truth."
Sonera opened her arms for a hug before stopping herself. Years of conditioning had taught her not to show warmth. Ironically, when it came to the Bratva on Mars, they had a tradition of letting the men roam free with their emotions, whereas the girls were caged dolls. Sonera could practically still feel her daily routine, always being watched by her mother as the prized jewel of the family, always receiving the same answer when she asked to change positions.
She didn't hate the pain in her heels or the way she would be treated by men. In fact, Sonera was rather content being a tool, as long as she could be with Three. But in the end, she always struggled to become the honed edge that Three had embodied. She was weaker. She was fragile. And she wanted to go home.
"Three." Sonera looked up at the operative longingly. "Thank you."
Three knew how ironic it was for the men of the Bravta to be given new names and tinted helmets to hide their humanity, all the while receiving more freedom and opportunity than their sisters. And if he were still a young boy, he likely would have found Sonera to be the girl of his dreams. He remembered their most dramatic encounter like it had happened just the other night, when he had been called in to protect the Bratva's church from a supposed assault. But in that brief moment of panic, all he found was a false alarm and a changing room full of blood. Sonera was there, beating her sisters to a pulp after one of them tried to cut her hair.
As always, the young girl only ever grew frustrated after she emerged victorious. Her silent tirades were bloody and excessive, even back then. But the one thing that could calm her, ever since they first met, was Three.
"Remember what you used?" Three laughed.
"A comb." Sonera blushed.
"A fukin comb."
"I shouldn't have killed her. I wanted her to feel that pain forever."
"I still can't beleive that was over hair."
"It wasn't. I just...needed to do that."
"You would have made one hell of an operative, do you know that, Sonera?"
"I'd rather be."
A call began to buzz in Sonera's ear, causing her to flinch and shudder. Three got the same message as he turned to his team. They all suddenly began to ready their weapons, ignoring Sonera as if she had just left the room.
"It's the church." Sonera frowned.
"Stay here." Three ordered, moving away from her. "You know the drill, pretend you're some lost comfort girl who survived our attack, they'll be looking for drop-troopers, not you."
"You know I won't. I can protect myself."
"Everyone knows you can fight Sonera, but you weren't trained for everything."
"I won't stay!" Sonera cried out, showing an unusual amount of emotion.
Three replied by pulling out his sidearm, switching its munitions to stun before firing it into Sonera's chest. Realizing that wouldn't stop her, he fired two more, silently looking down at the girl as she slumped to the ground. The fireteam then departed with great haste, leaving Sonera behind.
"Three.." Sonera whimpered as she crawled across broken glass. "I won't...leave you."
Driven by her love and rage, the young girl managed to rouse herself by clutching the sharp glass on the floor, forcing adrenaline into her system through both pain and loss of blood. Under no circumstances would she let her family fight alone. It was no longer about her pride or her sense of duty. She just wanted to be with him.
The church was merely three clicks away, nestled deep in the slums of old Mars. From what she had heard from the communications device, her home was under attack, the intensity of which had already silenced the report mere moments after it came through. The perpetrator could be another crime family, or the authorities; the possibilities were frankly endless. But Sonera didn't care; all she wanted was to find her family.
"Three," Sonera mumbled desperately.
When she finally hobbled her way across the slums, what she found was worse than she could have possibly imagined. Every glass pane on the Russian church had been shattered, as the staircase leading towards the main chapel was seen littered with the dead. Some unknowable force had plowed through the crime family, slaughtering both men and women without remorse.
Sonera knew there couldn't have been an army, nor could she prescribe such brutal efficiency to another assassin. There were no bullet holes to be seen on the walls, no stab wounds on the bodies of the fallen, only broken bones and disfigured faces.
A monster had found her home.
Her family, loved or hated, were all strewn about the church. All except Three, whose body she could not find. Sonera didn't know whether to feel relieved or terrified.
*Probably both.*
Stumbling inside, Sonera came face to face with a looming figure, its singular eye staring at her with anticipation.
"Sonera," the tall alien whispered into the girl's mind, its sleek orange armor scraping against the wooden pews as it strode towards her. "Isn't that your name?"
The alien was feminine in nature, wearing heels and a two-pronged helmet atop its head. Slung across its waist was a sidearm nearly the size of Sonera's body, its barrel suspiciously cold and unused.
The hands of the creature were thin and spindly, with only three fingers pointed at the girl as it raised its arm. But most noticeable of all was the alien's face, blank and immutable, with only one gleaming eye in its center.
"I am Yrix. A Psion of the Consortium. I have come to-."
Just then, a hail of bullets erupted from behind the alien, stopping dead in their tracks as an invisible barrier smashed them into pieces.
"Three!" Sonera screamed, realizing her family was the one to emerge from the ruins. "Run!"
"How curious," Yrix scoffed, her voice still booming in Sonera's head, causing the girl to fall to her knees. "Humans are braver than I thought."
"I didn't hear a bell," Three coughed, his voice barely escaping through the gash in his visor.
The operative then retrieved a grenade from his front pouch before pulling its pin with his thumb, hurling it at the alien with a surprising amount of force. Predicting its countermeasures, he managed to shoot the explosive midair, changing its payload into a cloud of black dust that disguised his movement.
Yrix seemed visibly amused, relaxing her posture as she watched for the human's next move. A steel beam then levitated beside her, its sharpest edge pointed at Three as he emerged from the shadows.
"The Consortium rewards bravery. I'll make this painless."
But to Yrix's surprise, Three had managed to duck under the metal beam just as it passed over his head. Unholstering his sidearm, he pivoted away from a second barrage, this time coming from under the pews. Such a display of skill had genuinely impressed Yrix, convincing her she had come to the right place.
"That's quite enough." Yrix waved her hand, pulling Three towards her with a visible aura of Psionic energy surrounding him. "Die honorably."
Before Sonera could scream, Yyrix squeezed her hand, turning her beloved into a red mist in an instant. It was indeed a painless death, just as she promised. Enraged, Sonera pulled a knife from a nearby corpse, hurling it at Yrix.
"Such wrath. I know you'll make a good student." Yrix boasted, plucking the knife out of the air before bringing it up close for inspection.
Posing her fingers, Yrix flicked her wrist, sending an entire pew barreling towards Sonera. It crashed into the girl, knocking her down completely. To ensure the job was done, Yrix lifted another pew, casually letting it fall onto Sonera as she stared intently at the knife.
"Sleep now, child," the alien whispered to Sonera, the girl's eyes closing shut as she spoke. "You'll have plenty of chances to prove yourself."