@thesilvermegane // cont.
Rico sat silent with her hands bound tightly in the confinement of the barren room. She was fatigued, but the anger that reflected in her grey eyes did not yield as they followed the form of the unknown figure standing before her.
It was an otherwise ordinary day and would have ended mundanely had it not been for the sudden and swift movements of the woman in Rico’s quarters when the soldier was about to retire for the night. The ambush was quick and agile, and Rico found herself knocked to the ground before she even got a good look at her assailant– and it did not help that the dead of night helped cloak the stranger even more. All she recalled was the white fabric of what she assumed were soldier’s trousers and a leather jacket whose gloss shined in the brief light of the moon before everything went black.
Rico regained her consciousness in what looked like a stockroom, the faint flicker of the nearby candle’s flame could only provide so much. She squinted, three chairs and a table were distinguished a few inches away from her, but everything else was shrouded in blur and darkness.
“Where am I?” Rico shot the question at the woman with fury seething behind a voice that was about to break from its characteristic collectedness. “Who are you?”
There was only so much intel that could be gathered by loitering on street corners, by following in the wake of well-dressed, stern-faced governmental figures. A distinct lack of progress made Annie desperate, though not enough to run any wildly unnecessary risks; her target had been mindfully selected, and the young Warrior had been careful not to allow herself to be seen. The integrity of the Paradis Island Operation - as well as the safety of herself, Reiner and Bertholdt - depended on the ambush being faultless.
Infiltrating the Garrison headquarters hadn’t been particularly difficult, not once light fingers had acquired a suitable jacket, and she had meticiously scoped the barracks. A regiment was only as effective as its soldiers, and while there were certainly exceptional, dedicated and proficient individuals - like the woman she had chosen to seize - the majority of those with roses emblazoned over their hearts could be described as well-meaning but hopelessly mediocre.
Now that they would be spending an extended period of time together, a Garrison cloak, the colour of winter pine, was draped around Annie’s body, the hood drawn over her golden head. Her facial features were further obscured by a kerchief that was pulled up over her mouth and nose. While she mightn’t be a pretty girl, as far as she was concerned, she was one with a fairly notable face. Beneath the shadowy folds of fabric, the occasional, brief glimpse of her stolen jacket could be seen.
After so much planning and effort, and now seeing the fury blaze in Rico’s eyes, Annie had to wonder if marrying into the ranks of nobility might have been easier after all. But there was no going back, not now. All she had to do was stay calm, and concentrate on the slow, steady pull of her breathing behind its pale curtain. “Relax,” Annie grunted, as if anyone, anywhere, had ever been soothed by that instruction. “We’re going to talk, that’s all. Unless you scream, or make things difficult, in which case - ” Wordlessly, a small, pale hand emerged from inside the cloak, to briefly reveal a switchblade. Even in the dim, half-light of the stockroom, it glinted with cold promise. The weapon swiftly disappeared and Annie sniffed faintly, pausing to collect herself. This was too intimate, too personal, too dangerous. Fortunately no trace of her misgivings showed in her glacial eyes, nor surfaced in her low, dispassionate voice. “Do you understand?”