Chapter 7: A Frozen Tundra

Part 1 of 3: Some Time Later

February 12th, 2016

Mount Elbrus was a rather tall mountain in Russia. With its pristine, snowy, white mountain ranges, it was truly a beautiful sight to behold. However, while it was a rather pretty location, it also happened to be formed from an inactive volcano, and as such, sulfuric gas occasionally leaked from the mountainside. While people did not live on the mountain, a small town happened to be located rather near it. The small village was pleasant to live in, aside from the severity of the weather, and the population totaled just over two hundred people. The small buildings might have not been the most safely built, but they accommodated for all of the people's needs, including a small store, school, and, what some would have considered most important, a bar. The citizens of this town passed the time by traveling down the mountainside and hunting, or walking around the town and spending time with friends.

However, during this date in particular, no one would dare be walking around the town. A large blizzard had struck the town, blowing harsh winds and cold snow through the streets. Most people stayed home from work and got drunk.

On the other hand, Andrey Ibirni, the storeowner, felt contractually obliged to stay at the store, and watch over it. The chance of anyone arriving in the weather was very slim, but just in case, he waited behind the counter. The amount of time he spent waiting seemed endless. He found ways to pass the time, such as cleaning the store, reorganizing the food, and then cleaning the store again. He read the newspaper, took a brief nap, and yet, no one seemed to arrive. He paced around the building, but it was only twenty meters wide, so it did not pass much time at all. It was getting rather late, although if anyone was to look out their window, they would not be able to tell, as the storm had already blocked out the sun long ago. It was thirty minutes to five o'clock, the time Andrey decided he would close the store. As the hour approached, Andrey checked to make sure that everything was perfectly in place before he left. There were ten minutes left before the hour, when something unexpected happened.

As Andrey was checking over the canned meats, he heard the sound of a bell ringing, signaling that someone had entered the shop. Andrey peered his head over the shelves, and spotted two figures looking around the store. He was even more surprised to see that it appeared to be two young girls who were in his store, both bundled up in heavy winter gear. From the angle he was at, he could clearly see their faces.

The first girl had a somewhat innocent face, yet she appeared rather confident as well. Her brown, almond shaped eyes searched around the store with a definite sense of purpose, indicating that she did not wish to waste her time in the store. She wore a thick cap on her head, covering her brunette hair, although Andrey could make out her pink bangs falling in her face, which she had to constantly brush out of the way. She hugged herself tightly in her puffy, blue coat, as she slowly walked about by the assortment of breads.

The other girl was acting quite in the opposite manner; quickly waddling around every isle, smiling at every item she saw. However, she appeared to be moving faster than her legs could carry her, as she very awkwardly shuffled about as she walked. Andrey soon realized that this was due to the fact that she didn't seem to bend her legs at all when she walked, and, now that he looked closely, her big pants seemed to be much puffier than he had usually seen. Her face was small and round, like that of a child, and two huge blue eyes darted about the room. Her large, pink coat had a fuzzy hood, which constantly fell over her face. Every few seconds, she would have to take the hood, and throw it back behind her, exposing her short, blonde hair, which was actually only completely blonde on her right side; the left side had been dyed one solid shade of pink.

"Uh, hello?" the calmer girl called out. Based on Andrey's observations, she couldn't have been any more than twenty, at most; certainly too young to be walking about in a blizzard. "Is anyone here?"

At this time, Andrey fully rose above the shelves, revealing himself to the ladies.

"Oh, hi," the girl said. "Uh, Vy gavatire pa anglIyski?"

"Vy gavarite pa angllyski," the other girl corrected.

Andrey shook his head.

"Damn it," said the first girl, grabbing a handful of items from the shelves. "Why do you happened to know so many languages, Pinky?"

"Well," Pinky started, thinking carefully. "I guess it all started back when I was three. See, my Aunt Alberta was-"

"Actually, forget it," said the other girl. She walked up to the counter, and placed down her items. She had chosen a loaf of bread, two boxes of crackers, some Swiss cheese, several bags of candy (although she couldn't be sure, for she couldn't read the labels), a pint of ice cream, a case of donuts, and finally, six packs of beef jerky. At least, that was what she thought she had chosen, until Pinky suddenly hobbled over and plopped twenty more bags of candy onto the counter, quickly receiving angry stares.

"What?" Pinky asked confused. The other girl sighed, and rummaged through her pockets until she found some money. Without giving Andrey a chance to wonder about much, they rapidly paid for the items, not bothering to take the change stuffed whatever they could fit underneath their large winter coats, and very quickly walked out of the warmth of the store, back into the icy cold of the snow and ice. Andrey thought briefly about how strange it was for the girls to suddenly appear in such a desolate location, but he shrugged it off, and decided to leave for the evening. He got on his own coat, and walked out into the blizzard. He tried looking around for the two girls, but they had already vanished into the storm.

In truth, however, the two of them had not ventured fifty yards of Andrey's shop. The tick, white snow had blocked off all view of the surrounding area. If Andrey could see the girls, however, he would no doubt see Pinky receiving a very vicious glare.

"I still don't understand what the problem is," Pinky moaned out.

"We can't bring this much food back with us, Pinky," Tara said. "First of all, we shouldn't even be eating all of this junk food. It's not good for our training. Second, it's heavy carrying all of this at once. Third, you can barely walk as it is; you're not supposed to be lifting heavy things at all."

"C'mon! Those complaints aren't fair!" Pinky said. "This stuff isn't bad for us! And we can totally carry this. Dash holds this kinda stuff all of the time. Plus, I actually am allowed to carry heavy things."

"No you aren't," Tara corrected. "The doctor even told us. He said that you can't strain your knees. By the way, while we are on this, you need to stop running around the base every night."

"Okay, if you want to get picky about it," Pinky said rather grumpily. "I can carry heavy stuff over short distances. Besides, we're only walking to the car, and I've done this walk before. And I need to run around! Lying around these past few months is wearing me out!"

At this time, the two had just walked outside of the small town. They needed to walk another hundred yards up the mountainside in order to reach their vehicle. All the while, they were having to maintain the difficult balancing act of keeping the items underneath their thick coats, as well as keeping the heavy snow out of their eyes. However, these actions became almost involuntary, as they were much more focused on their discussion.

"No, you can't just 'take a jog' any time you feel like," Tara groaned. "You're not even supposed to be moving at all. You just don't even seem to realize that you're technically crippled. One wrong step, and your legs could fall apart right beneath you."

"Well, if you're going to keep complaining about me coming along, then why did you even ask me to help out?" Pinky questioned. Tara groaned in response.

"I didn't," Tara stated. "I said I was leaving to stock up on more food, you jumped up from the couch, put on your clothes, and then sprinted out the door."

"Oh, yeah," Pinky said softly, remembering the incident. It was her first chance to leave the base in three months, and she refused to let it pass her by. In hindsight, it perhaps wasn't the best idea, as in her haste to get out of the house, she had to move rather quickly. Every rapid movement of her feet sent horrible sensations of pain up her legs, and, if she wasn't so eager to leave, she might have collapsed right there on the spot. However, the icy cold had numbed her up rather nicely, and now, she barely noticed how much her legs felt like they were going to erupt in spontaneous burst of flame.

The two girls finally reached their car, and hurriedly opened the trunk to shove as much food inside as humanly possible. The car in particular was an old, beat-up, dark red SUV. The car was not in the best shape, but one thing that it did have was a properly working heating system, which the girls were very thankful for. The car was parked on an abandoned mountain trail, which led directly to the girls destination. No one ever needed to use the trail, so the girls took full advantage of this by parking the car in reverse, so that it would not need to be turned around when returning to the mountaintop.

Tara and Pinky removed the items from underneath their coats, and tossed them into the back. They quickly shut the trunk, and, having enough to do with the frosty weather for one day, they entered the vehicle with great haste.

"Finally," Pinky said relief as she sat down. She grasped onto her legs, and started rubbing them vigorously.

"See, you can't even stand anymore," Tara said with a smirk, knowing that she had been right all along.

Pinky let out a groan of defeat, as Tara started up the car. Tara was quite proud of herself that she had pretty much mastered driving in the Russian frontier. Despite the great challenge of the constant horrible weather, and the steep, narrow roads of the mountain, Tara only needed a couple of trips to the town and back to fully master everything. Now, despite the limited visibility, Tara drove up the root with relative ease, tracing the route perfectly by memory. As she drove through the storm, she continued talking to Pinky about their plan for the rest of the day.

"So, AJ might not be back yet," Tara said. "If she is, then we'll spend the day discussing further investigation strategies."

"But if she's not?"

"Then," Tara sighed. "Do whatever you want, I guess. I mean, we know what Dash will probably be doing, so don't bother her. And more importantly, don't bother Rachel."

"Aw man," Pinky said, disappointed. "Are we still doing this thing where only you get to talk with her?"

"Honestly, it's not much of a conversation when she refuses to answer back nine out of ten times," Tara said with a sigh. "But, yes."

"You know," Pinky said. "It might do her some good to speak to us, too."

"I've asked her if she wants company," Tara said. "Several times in fact. Usually she just wants to be left alone. I only talk to her to see if she would come out anyway. Besides, we need to be sensitive about this whole thing. Pinky, no offense, but sometimes, you say some things without really thinking about what they mean, and we don't need you to accidentally upset her. You remember that one time Dash tried talking to her."

"Oh, right, that was awful," Pinky said. "I still don't even know what half those words mean."

"My point exactly," Tara said. "Hopefully, we can get her to come out of that room today. Aside from that, spend the day as you wish. Although, try not to go on another eating binge."

"I was hungry!" Pinky said in protest.

"You ate half of our food supplies!" Tara said in rebuttal.

"I was really hungry!" Pinky said once more.

"Pinky, do you really want to have to take another trip down the mountain?" Tara asked. Pinky considered this, and then sighed. Although she was almost always hungry, she did suppose that having to trek back down the mountainside, go to the store, carry the food, and then trek back up was not something she felt comfortable with. Her legs were currently giving her enough problems; she didn't need them causing any more. In defeat, Pinky crossed her arms over her chest, and leaned back in her seat, a sad expression on her face.

The rest of the drive continued in silence. Tara expertly continued her voyage to the base, while Pinky quietly, occasionally grasping her legs and gently rubbing them. Soon, Tara knew that she was approaching her destination. On the right, out in the cold, was an old, rusted, red sign, which promptly read,

Warning. No Trespassers.

Tara soon noticed other landmarks. A pair of yellow flags to her left. Another warning sign to her right. A collapsed chain-link fence, which was now only barely jutting out of the was only another minute before Tara saw her destination right before her eyes, and smiled thankfully.

Olympus, as the girls had taken to calling it, was a very poor excuse for a top secret military base hidden in the Russian mountains. Established right at the turn of the Cold War, Olympus was designed as a base of operations for a small group of military operatives, who were instructed to observe and measure the civilian population of the Soviet Union. It was almost certainly believed by most government officials that the citizens of the U.S.S.R. were being subjugated to possible indoctrination for the sole purpose of turning them into sleeper agents, which were to be planted within the United States. However, after several years of study, the results revealed absolutely no hint of brainwashing by any of the citizens, and the soldiers instructed to stay at the base demanded to be returned home. They had grown tired of the cramped living conditions, the constant cold weather, and the abuse of their abilities by those higher up than them. Eventually, they left the base as it was, never wanting to have to go through the extremely tedious process of tearing it down. Since no civilians ever bothered traveling up the icy mountainside, the base was never discovered. Celestia had told the girls this, and they all immediately agreed that it would make a perfect place to work while in Russia.

However, the girls had not been told of the biggest flaw with Olympus. While it featured a functional heating system, refrigeration, radio access, and comfortable beds, all of it was cramped inside of a space no bigger than twelve yards wide. However, it did not take long for the girls to accommodate, and now, they practically saw the place as a second home.

Olympus was essentially a black box built into the side of the mountain. Surrounding the base were several layers of security, all of which were now reduced to minor setbacks. There was the large, chain-link fence, which was covered with barbed wire. There was the thick, black gate, strong enough to deflect a shot from a cannon. Finally, there were the two sentry towers, armed with high powered machine guns. Tara drove through the fence, which was left open. She drove over the thick gate, which had fallen to the ground, and was slowly being covered with wet snow. Finally, Tara drove right past the two sentry guns, which had no one to man them. Tara simply drove right up to the front door of the base, and parked directly next to it.

Looking around, Tara noticed that the blue counterpart to her SUV was missing, meaning that AJ had not yet returned from her investigation. Tara knew full well that her friend was most likely alright, but she never liked it when AJ decided to go out. This was entirely the fault of who AJ was searching for. If she were hunting down anybody else, then Tara would not be worried in the slightest. She knew that AJ could handle herself against almost anyone in the world. Unfortunately, the last time AJ took on these men, one of them proceeded to shatter nearly every bone in her body. Tara wasn't even sure if she should have let AJ continue searching to begin with. AJ's recovery had been completely and utterly rushed, and she still had a tremendous amount of trouble trying to perform the simplest of combat techniques. However, AJ's persistence that she would be alright gave Tara enough reassurance that everything would turn out fine. She still didn't know how, but AJ managed to hold onto that remarkable confidence after everything she had been through.

Tara brushed these thoughts aside, and focused her attention on bringing in the supplies into the base. Tara and Pinky cautiously opened the doors, immediately feeling the harsh cold. Moving as fast as they could, they opened the trunk of the car, and started shoving food beneath their coats. The balancing act resumed, as Tara tried to keep the various candies from falling down into the snow. Eventually, after several moments of rearranging the food underneath their shirts, they had taken all of the food from the car, and shut the vehicle doors. They marched several feet through the snow, and then arrived at the front door. Tara, unable to move her arms without dropping the food, banged her arm on the door, creating a primitive knocking on the door. After what seemed like forever, the door finally creaked open, and the two girls pushed their way inside, nearly knocking over Fiona, who had just allowed them to enter. Fiona let out a small yelp as the girls quickly ran over to the other side of the room, allowing the food to fall from their grasp.

The inside of Olympus was divided into two sections: the north side and the south side. Although still in the same room, the north and south side effectively divided up all of the belongings into either one side of the room or the other. The north side was the part of Olympus which was built beneath the rocky mountain, while the south side was sticking out, into the open air. The interior of Olympus was divided into four rooms: a bedroom, a bathroom, and then another bedroom, all of which had doors to the north side of the base, and then, there was the central living space, where the girls had to fit everything else.

At the southern-left corner, there was the door to the outside, which was also the coldest place in the entire baes, as the door was old, and had several cracks in it, allowing the wind to come through. In the southern-right corner, there was a refrigerator, and next to that were an oven and a microwave. This area officially served as the pantry/kitchen for the team, and although it wasn't necessarily organized (which Tara secretly despised), it at least meant the food would not be scattered throughout the base. On the north-right side, there was a designated training zone, where several weights, a jump rope, and a sandbag were located. Although it was not anywhere close to being as stocked as Camelot was, the girls managed to take full advantage of every use out of the equipment they could get. Located in the center of the room was an old blue couch, just able to sit three people at a time, which faced towards the outside. An old television set was placed in front of the TV. This was a small gift sent from Celestia, in order to make the time spent there seem less dull. Provided with the TV was a collection of DVD's for movies that none of the girls had ever heard of. Occasionally, there would be one film that Pinky would gasp at, before hugging it tightly to her chest. However, anytime they tried the watch the film, they would almost always be confused by the bizarre picture. This central living space took up most of the room in Olympus, and so the girls never left it except to sleep.

Tara, after dumping out all of the food, and putting everything away in a proper location, started to remove her heavy clothing, as did Pinky. The interior of Olympus was heated very efficiently. In fact, sometimes, it actually got too hot inside of the base for any of the girls to deal with it. This led to the bizarre situation in which the girls wore nearly nothing at all inside Olympus, yet wore layers of clothing outside. Pinky went into the left bedroom to change, while Tara stayed in the central area. As she took off her heavy clothing, Tara looked briefly at the other people in the room.

Fiona, who had opened the door, was now hugging herself tightly and shivering. She took quick steps towards the couch, and plopped herself down onto the comfy surface. She brought her knees to her chest, holding them close. Fiona was too wearing very light clothing, which Tara actually took some time adjusting to. Since Tara had known her, Fiona had always worn as much concealing clothing as possible, always covering up her entire body. But now, the heat in Olympus proved to be too much for the angelic girl, who was now wearing a blue tank-top and black shorts.

Fiona had experienced somewhat of a change over the past few months. While physically, the only change was a faint scar across the bridge of her nose, Fiona had greatly increased the amount of social interactions she experienced. She had grown much less shy (although it was still quite noteworthy compared to the others), and seemed to finally be more talkative and open with the others. Even if she had yet to come out to any of them, Tara could still appreciate Fiona's hard work on the subject.

The other person in the room was Dash, who was currently landing punches on the sandbag. Dash's hair, which was once vibrantly filled with colors, was now growing dull and faded, as her natural black hair color was showing more and more each day through the rainbow. Dash received a metal implant in her hip before the girls left for Russia, which Dash promptly referred to as her "transformation into the first bionic woman". However, no one could pay much attention to this because of the long scar which was permanently plastered over Dash's right eye, tracing a nearly two-inch red line from the top of her cheekbone to just beneath her hair line. However, Dash treated all of the stares as compliments, claiming that it was fun to be the center of attention.

Despite Dash's consistency of snide remarks, Tara could not let go of the feeling that Dash had been maturing over the past three months. Although Dash led on no indication of this, there was one particular tie when Tara had witnessed Dash's sudden change in behavior. That incident happened six weeks ago, when the girls were lying around, watching a movie that Pinky had claimed to be a work of art. Dash had completely lost interest less than an hour in, and started making comments towards the actors in the films. One such comment towards the main heroine was an amazing combination of insulting religion, heritage, social class, and medical history, while also managing to mix in comments about incest, rape, and pedophilia. After the words were said, Fiona had politely asked Dash to walk with her into the bedroom. Five minutes later, both girls came out, and remained silent throughout the rest of the film. When Tara had asked Fiona about what she had said, Fiona simply replied that she had politely asked Dash to stop making jokes about certain "topics", at least when Fiona was present. Even six weeks later, Tara was still amazed how Dash seemed to never say anything too offensive, and barely said any insults at all when Fiona was nearby.

By the time Tara had finished thinking of this, she had removed her heavy boots, thick snow pants, cap, and jacket, and taken a seat next to Fiona on the couch. She felt very thankful to be back in a T-shirt and shorts, as the heat of the base was not something to be taken lightly. The movie currently on the television was a French film named, A Little Red Cap, which had been poorly dubbed over in English. This obscure film was made in 1970, and was about a small boy by the name of Marius who had to journey across the country in order to find his father, who had been separated via train. The boy was given a small, red hat for his birthday, and he wears it for the entire film. The only reason Tara really cared about all of this was because over the past few weeks, Fiona had become completely enamored with it, and had started to watch it vigorously throughout her spare time. Tara had no idea what Fiona found so remarkable about the film. To her, it seemed like a poorly developed, badly acted indie film, but Fiona seemed to view it as a masterpiece of cinema. Tara always meant to ask Fiona why she had liked the film so much, but every time Tara tried to talk while the film was on, Fiona seemed to completely ignore the question. She just stared at the screen with big eyes, as if she was in a trance.

Pinky walked out of the bedroom. She also wore light clothing; however, her attire also revealed the presence of two braces attached to her legs. A combination of steel poles and clips kept her legs perfectly straight; the clunky metal squeaking with every step taken. Pinky took a seat on the couch between Tara and Fiona, and grinned when she saw the movie.

"Ooh, it's on again!" Pinky said with delight. "We should make popcorn."

"We didn't buy popcorn," Tara stated.

"C'mon, Spark," Dash suddenly spoke up. "No popcorn? That's like Pinky's… fourth favorite food."

"Sorry, I had trouble carrying it with the twenty bags of candy that Pinky bought," Tara groaned.

"CANDY!" Pinky suddenly sprang out of her seat, and grabbed a bag of chocolates from the pile in the corner of the room.

"Spark, you sound kind of bitchy today," Dash stated, leaning over Tara's shoulder. "Is it that time of the month again?"

"Shut up, Dash," Tara said with a scowl.

"You know, Spark," Dash said as if she were talking to a child. "Just cause your vagina looks like the victim of a serial killer doesn't mean you have to be so mean-spirited."

Tara shoved Dash away from her. Dash laughed as she returned to punching the sandbag.

"Man," Tara thought out loud. "Being stuck in this base is starting to get to me."

"Do you want to step outside for a bit?" Fiona perked up, never taking her eyes off of the screen.

"Nah," Tara said in response. She knew that in order to go outside, she would have to put back on the heavy coat and boots, only to have to take them off a few moments later.

The girls watched the movie until its completion. The film ended with the boy reuniting with his father, followed by a close-up of the red hat, cheesy music, and then the credits. Tara briefly glanced over, and although she wasn't positive, she thought Fiona had tears welling in her eyes. Despite the fact that she had seen the movie well over ten times by this point, Fiona appeared just as enthralled in the ending as ever. With a stretch, Tara rose from her seat on the couch. She briefly checked the time, and was surprised that AJ had yet to return. It was nearly four in the afternoon, and AJ had almost always returned a few hours before dinner. However, Tara soon realized that since it was nearing dinnertime, there was also a more sensitive matter she had to adhere to.

There were supposed to be two bedrooms in Olympus, each containing three beds. The girls agreed that they would constantly alternate between the rooms, so as to allow new roommate combinations every night. However, this plan was completely shattered to pieces when Rachel needed a place to sleep. Without any discussion, the girls all agreed that Rachel would take the right bedroom all to herself, until she was fully ready to deal with the company of others. It certainly seemed like the appropriate thing to do, as to one even could fathom a guess at how any sort of communication would work. In fact, even the most basic of talks continued to be problematic. It was for this reason that Tara decided that she alone should enter the second bedroom. She was the most rational thinker, and she could translate her thoughts very well into words.

Still, whenever this time of the day arrived, Olympus would suddenly become very quiet. The air was still, and the breathing seemed to halt entirely. No matter what was on the television, or who was training, everyone stopped and focused on Tara.

This day was no exception to the rule. As Tara rose from her seat, she instantly received stares. Dash, who was hitting the bag, calmly stepped away from the entrance to the bedroom, which the sandbag was placed in front of. Pinky, who was in the process of replacing the film in the DVD player, was now kneeling on the floor, holding a disc in her hand, and looking at Tara with a worried expression. Fiona shuffled around on the couch uncomfortably, and then asked the question she asked every time that Tara went to see Rachel.

"Do you want some help, Tara?" Fiona asked softly.

As always, Tara gave the same response that she gave every time. Fiona asked.

"I think it's best if just one of us sees her," Tara answered, nearly just as quiet.

The response was not supposed to be taken as offensive. Each of the girls had experience with entering Rachel's room, and it was through trial and error that Tara was chosen to constantly go in. Dash once went into the room and basically treated Rachel like a soldier in the military. Rachel responded to that in a fit of absolute fury, which the girls still fondly remember for demonstrating Rachel's massive, highly offensive, British vocabulary. Pinky had twice attempted to get Rachel to stir, although on both occasions, Rachel didn't respond at all to any of Pinky's actions. It could not be said that Pinky didn't try; she had jumped about happily, and told Rachel fun stories, and tugged on her arms in an attempt to drag her out of the bed in which she lay. But despite Pinky's effort, Rachel sternly remained in bed, moping about, and uninterested in the outside. AJ had once tried to speak to Rachel, despite protests that she wasn't very good at talking about sensitive matters. While it didn't end in violence like Dash, or uncaring like Pinky, it didn't serve any productive purpose. All that occurred was Rachel asking if the Korbalovs had been found, AJ saying that they hadn't, before AJ said a few things about keeping hope strong and having faith in her friends. Aside from that, the evening was uneventful, and AJ told the others that she wouldn't try and do it again, as it seemed to only deliver failure.

Fiona's attempt involved much more subtlety than the others, however. Fiona had sat on Rachel's bed, spoke very softly, and discussed in great detail how everyone missed Rachel's company. She had said that everyone was worried; that their growing concern over Rachel's condition was getting too much to bear, and they simply wanted their friend back in their lives. Fiona's attempt, at the moment, seemed like it had a chance of getting Rachel active. Rachel had actually started a conversation, and the two were getting very close to achieving something. Unfortunately, Fiona made a rather impromptu comment about Rachel losing her eyes being, "not a big deal, really". This particular quote suddenly sent Rachel over the edge in a sudden rage. Rachel proceeded to shove Fiona off of the bed, bombard her with extremely harsh words, and then, using her hearing to guide her, viciously push Fiona to the floor. The pink-haired girl had left the room in tears, and actually needed some comforting of her own afterwards. Fiona eventually gathered the strength to try and talk to Rachel twice more several weeks later. However, both times started and ended with Fiona asking to enter the room, Rachel hissing at her, and then throwing a pillow in Fiona's general direction, followed by the occasional swear or indecent gesture. Despite this, however, Fiona never felt any hard feelings towards the blind girl. Whether it was from understanding or a kind mentality, though, no one was quite sure.

The girls never stopped trying to talk to Rachel, though. After all was said and done, Tara undoubtedly had the most success, although it could hardly be called that. The only reason Tara had succeed was due to the relatively little she and Rachel had talked about. The entire first conversation consisted of Tara asking Rachel if she felt cold, bringing in a glass of water for Rachel to drink, and then wishing her a good night. It was Tara's belief that things needed to move very slowly for everyone to properly accommodate, and on this day, Tara would keep this tradition alive.

Rachel's bedroom could only be described as dark. The room was very cramped; it housed three small mattresses, which could barely contain an entire person, and leading into the room was only about two feet worth of space, which, like the rest of the room, was a mere five feet wide. The room smelled somewhat horribly, and it was almost nightmarish to sleep in. There was a single lamp suspended from the ceiling, yet it had never once been turned on since the girls had arrived. Granted, these cramped conditions applied to both bedrooms, but they seemed to be amplified in Rachel's room far more. This could all be directly linked to the sole occupant herself.

Rachel Germain was blind. She always wondered what it was like not to see anything; what it was like to live every day without witnessing the trees outside the house, or a hand waving right in front of her face, or a beautiful prince, about to marry the stunning princess. She wondered if the blind saw pure white, or they saw pure black, or if it was all just a dull gray. She wondered if they really had enhanced senses, like sharper hearing or a more refined taste. She wondered if they could still feel the relative motion of things moving around her, or everything would just feel still. It wasn't unnatural to think about this, she reasoned. She figured that everyone, at least at some point in their lives, would ask the exact same questions. In some aspects, it was almost pleasant to finally have the answers to such questions.

But mostly, it was absolutely hellish.

Rachel didn't see black, white or gray; all sense of colors was completely lost. Her hearing was just as average as it was before, and she never even felt like eating anything at all. If something had moved twenty feet away or two inches, she couldn't tell. It was if the Earth had completely stopped rotating, and everything had ground to an utter, dull, dreadfully still halt.

Rachel felt nothing except emptiness and misery most of the time. She had long given up on any real reason to live. Her dreams had been shattered many months ago; torn away like her vision. She didn't understand what purpose she had left in the world. How could she be a fashion designer without sight? How could she fight terrorists when she didn't know where they would be? How could she accomplish anything at all? It was these questions that haunted Rachel through every day and every night, endlessly tormenting her with the life that was violently and unfairly ripped from her grasp and thrown away forever into a dark abyss. Every time Rachel had a free thought, her mind would drift back to this recognition of her failure.

However, most of the time, Rachel was in deep pain. The wounds on her body had long ago scarred, and the broken bones had all realigned themselves. Unfortunately, her head had never stopped aching. The doctors had done all they could to limit the chance of further damage to her system. At one point, they considered stitching together her eyelids, so that her wounds would be sealed. However, they eventually decided to implant glass eyes into her skull, so that they would hopefully limit the chances of severe infection. However, the glass objects were terribly uncomfortable, gave Rachel awful pain just by keeping them in her head. It got so bad, in fact, one night, after Rachel was sure that everyone had fallen asleep, she attempted to yank the objects out of her own eye sockets, despite them being surgically attached. The amount of frustration that night led to many tearless sobs.

Rachel's built up despair and desolation quickly started to show through her physical appearance. She had barely showed; only clumsily washing herself when the others were asleep, so she wouldn't have to speak to them. Despite this, she only cleaned the basic essentials, and she never bothered to wash her hair, (as she constantly had a terrible premonition of getting shampoo embedded in her eye sockets), and a thin layer of dust constantly covered her skin. Rachel had long ago given up any prospects of dress, and switched between the same three sets of clothing each day (or whenever she felt like it). She had three different shirts: a white tank top that fit her too tightly, a dark green design-less T-shirt that hung just past her waist, and a blue, very low-cut top that she rarely felt comfortable to put on, even back when she could see. She also carried both a gray and black pair of sweatpants with her. All of her other clothes had practically been discarded, and Rachel didn't want any of the outlandish outfits to be around her. Rachel's hair had also degraded into a clumpy, knotty, tangled mess, which was flopped around without any restrictions. The mess of hair clung to Rachel's face and clothing, yet she never bothered trying to swat it away.

Rachel's activities for the day usually consisted of lying on one of the beds, and staring endlessly into the nothingness. Her mood switched rapidly between extremely depressed to horrid and bitter, all within a matter of seconds. Her feelings were horribly displaced, yet she made no attempt to realign them. Each day only dragged her further down an endless chasm of misery, to which there seemed to be no escape from. Often, she would hear the opening of a door or chatter outside, but despite her deep hope of wanting to get back to a normal life, she constantly pushed the others as far away as possible. It simply was not the right time for her to reenter society.

However, that never seemed to stop Tara from opening the door to her room.

As Tara slowly pushed the door open, her eyes were instantly greeted with black. She blinked several times, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The others had backed far away from her, giving Tara a small sense of isolation. However, she was not at all alone, as she could eventually make out a figure sprawled out across the bed.

Rachel was wearing the white tank-top and black sweatpants, both crumpled and looking quite ugly. Rachel had stopped wearing a bra one month ago, and her shirt, therefore, did not leave much to the imagination, although in the dark, Tara could barely see anything anyway. The rolled up clothing exposed the scars traced all across Rachel's body, leaving the girl looking weakened and pained. Her hair, which was usually in a bun or ponytail, was now left unkempt and resting across Rachel's face. Several strands of hair fell in her mouth, and others kept her face almost concealed in darkness. However, even if the hair was not present, her face would still be mostly impossible to see, as a black, thick headband had been wrapped thoroughly around Rachel's eyes, blocking the view to everything above the bridge of her nose. The headband was not required by any means, but Rachel had hated the glass eyes so much, that she hated it whenever anyone was forced to see them. It was with a somber mood that Rachel had decided that she would rather have her face hidden than force people to view a disfigurement, and this only helped deepen her depression.

After a few painfully uncomfortable moments, Tara finally sighed and spoke up.

"Rachel, are you awake?" Tara asked softly. It was somewhat embarrassing to ask, but she couldn't see Rachel's eyes, and she didn't want to waste her time talking to an unconscious person.

Rachel responded with a slow nod.

"How are you, you know, feeling?" Tara asked.

Rachel answered only in a soft moan.

"We just got back from the store," Tara said. "Pinky got plenty of candy."

"I don't feel like eating," Rachel stated in a loud whisper.

"Come on, Rachel, you said yesterday that you would finally eat something," Tara said.

"Not hungry," Rachel responded.

"Rachel, it's been, like, three days without you eating. You have to eat something," Tara said honestly. Rachel remained silent. Regardless, Tara walked to the kitchen, and in a few moments, reentered the room carrying a glass of water, and three pieces of chocolate. Tara had spent enough time with Rachel to know that whenever she claimed not to be hungry, she was actually quite starving. In fact, Tara was working on a theory that Rachel actually became more irritable as she became hungrier, and Tara believed that Rachel had gone on without eating for far too long. With very quiet footsteps, Tara walked over to Rachel, and placed down the glass of water by her bedside. Then, she placed the chocolates directly next to Rachel on the mattress, and walked away from the bed, satisfied.

"I'll eat when I feel like it," Rachel said, ignoring the gifts before her. She could clearly tell that there was food right next to her, but she didn't have the strength to eat it at the moment. "Has the search come up with anything?"

"AJ hasn't come back yet," Tara said. "I'm sure we're getting close though."

Rachel let out a small groan. The subject of the missing Korbalovs had been distracting her for months, soaking up her attention whenever she managed to get past the pain. Every day, she asked whether or not they found. Every day, the answer came back the same.

"Do you want to come out of here for a little while?" Tara asked, changing the subject.

"No," Rachel responded bluntly.

"Rachel," Tara spoke softly once more. "We really miss your company. We're getting worried. It's been three months. Maybe just for a few minutes…"

"No," Rachel said again, this time slightly more harsh.

"But Rachel--"

"NO!" Rachel yelled at her. Despite her yelling, she had hardly moved. Tara sighed, and slowly closed the door. She knew it was a longshot to hope that Rachel would be social. However, Tara respected the girl's decision, and did not bother with further questioning.

The instant she heard the door shut, Rachel let her arm wander off the bed. She moved her hand around the edge of the bedding as slowly as possible, trying not to hit her hand against anything. Suddenly, she felt something cold bump against her knuckles. She felt the object wobble slightly, before stabilizing itself. She carefully moved her hand around the object, which she determined to be a glass of cold water, and pressed her fingers against the rim. With great caution, she slowly lifted the glass off of the floor, and very carefully brought it to her lips. Using her fingers to guide her, she pressed the cool glass to her lips, and guzzled down the beverage. She clumsily placed the cup back to the ground, water dripping from her chin. The glass clanged against the floor, but Rachel didn't care, as she was too busy fumbling about for the chocolates. She felt her fingertips dig into something soft, and Rachel hastily picked up the candies and pressed them against her face, not caring about the mess she was making. It was true that she was in fact very hungry, but she kept her feelings hidden from her peers regardless, for her own personal reasons of discontent.

Outside, the faint sounds of moans became lost beneath the drone of everyday life, as Tara, with disappointment, walked back to the couch. She rested her chin upon her hands, and sighed. The tension in the room dissipated. Dash went back to punching the sandbag, Fiona readjusted her position on the couch, and Pinky placed another movie into the DVD player. Soon, bright colors and cheerful music filled the room, as joyful cartoons danced around on the screen. Pinky happily bounced onto the couch between the two, and clasped her hands together in anticipation. However, Fiona had stopped focusing on the screen entirely, now shifting her attention to the depressed Tara.

"It's okay, Tara," Fiona said, leaning behind Pinky's head to look at her friend. "She's just getting used to everything."

"Trust me, Fiona, I know," Tara said, disgruntled. "I've really just been a little more stressed out than usual today. Having Rachel acting like she does is just adding to all of the stress."

"Really?" Fiona said, suddenly concerned. Any time that Tara felt unwell in any way, Fiona immediately wanted to know what was wrong. "What are you-"

"QUIET!" Pinky suddenly shouted. "I'M WATCHING SOMETHING HERE!"

The girls halted their conversation, and begrudgingly sat in silence as a cartoon played in front of them. They watched as a large cartoon rabbit was having a less-than humorous conversation with a large cartoon bird.

"That's quite the load of nuts you got there," spoke the rabbit.

"I worked so hard to get them," spoke the bird.

"Why is that?" asked the rabbit.

"Why are y'all watching this again?" a southern voice suddenly spoke up.

"I like to gather them for the winter," the bird said, oblivious to the third person.

Suddenly, Tara quickly turned her head towards the door, and with much relief, saw AJ quizzically looking at the TV screen.

"AJ, you're back!" Tara said gleefully.

"Who gave Pinky responsibility over the movies?" AJ demanded to know. "I really can't leave y'all alone for a day now, can I?"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Pinky asked, offended. However, AJ ignored the question, and instead started taking off her uniform.

Whenever AJ went out for her searches, she never wore heavy coats or boots like the others. AJ hated anything that was large and obstructive to combat, so she never bothered with these things. Instead, every time she left Olympus, AJ took the time to put on a thermodynamic suit that was provided by Celestia. Technically, each of the girls possessed one of these outfits, but only AJ constantly had faith in its abilities. The uniform itself was made of a black, waterproof, elastic fiber, which fit snugly against the body, fully covering the wearer from the toes to the chin. To the average person, it would appear most similar to a wetsuit, but in reality, it was quite more than that. It was designed to maintain a constant temperature, and no matter what weather conditions it was put in, it would always keep the wearer at a consistent heat level. AJ preferred this suit for two reasons: it guaranteed that she would be able to fight if she happened to get caught, and she was able to continue wearing her prized Stetson atop her head, which she very much appreciated.

AJ tossed her hat to the ground, and started fumbling with the clasps and zippers on the outfit. As she did so, she briefly walked into the open bedroom, grabbed some light clothing, and then walked into the bathroom. AJ closed the door just as she started to take off her clothing completely, and then, within a matter of moments, AJ walked back into the central living area, now wearing soft cotton, and holding the suit folded over one arm. She put the suit back into the bedroom, picked up her hat, and leaned over the couch.

"Damn, I could barely see anything out there," AJ moaned, rubbing her eyes.

"So… you didn't find anything, I take it?" Tara said, disappointed. She was fully expecting AJ to give a usual shake of her head, indicating that, once more, the Korbalovs had not been found.

However, AJ didn't shake her head. She grinned.

"Well, I never said that now, did I?" AJ said, proud of herself. Tara practically leapt off the couch in joy.

"You mean you found them!?" Tara said in disbelief. All other distractions in the room became nonexistent. Fiona quickly paused the cartoons on the television. Dash stopped her workout, and stretched out her limbs. Pinky started to complain about the cartoons, until she noticed how serious everyone became.

AJ had opened her mouth to say something, but briefly stopped after she noticed that everyone was staring at her.

"Uh, actually…" AJ said, somewhat sheepishly.

The mood in the room deflated.

"What the fuck do you mean, 'actually'?" Dash said, frustrated. "We've been trapped in this fucking hellhole for months. Don't fucking cock-tease us now! Did you find them or not!?"

"Calm yourself, Dash," AJ said sternly. "Look, I didn't actually find them."

Moans filled the room.

"But," AJ said, smirking once again. The moans stopped. "I think I might have found out where they might be."

AJ reached into her pocket, and pulled out her cellphone. She quickly slid her finger across the screen, and a few seconds later, an image of a graph appeared.

"So… you learned how to make a line graph?" Dash said, half-joking.

"Ha ha," AJ said sarcastically. "Seriously, take a look at this. Now, I've been hiking through these mountains for a long time now. Before we left, I had my phone reconfigured to track high amounts of simultaneous energy releases."

"Yeah, so we could eventually trace Kristov's arms," Tara stated, remembering a conversation she had with Celestia a few nights prior. "But we almost searched the entire mountain range with that thing set to a five mile radius. The snow was too much, and the radar never spiked. We found nothing."

"Exactly," AJ said. "Which is why I've been searching elsewhere. But a few nights ago, I had this idea. See, the Korbalovs are Macers."

"No shit," Dash said under her breath.

"Now, if Kristov just happened not to charge up those big arms of his, then we couldn't find 'em anyhow," AJ said, matter-of-factually. "But, if the Korbalovs got their MACER device illegally, then there's always the chance that they happened to keep it at their home."

"And MACER devices affect their targets through gamma radiation," Tara said, suddenly understanding what AJ was getting at. "That could leave a traceable path for decades."

"Which is why once I reset my phone to track gamma particles," AJ said proudly, tapping the graph on her phone. "A huge signal erupted from just ten miles southwest of here."

"Oh my God," Tara said in disbelief. "We found them. We actually found them."

"Within a two mile radius," AJ said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly. "I managed to track the signal along the base of the mountain ridge. The storm prevented me from getting any closer, though. Still, this should help aplenty."

"Holy shit, AJ," Dash said, not able to hold in a smile. "You actually did shit for once."

"Now we can finally get the General back," Fiona said happily. "Hopefully, he's still alive."

"And hopefully, we can sneak in to get him without too much trouble," Tara agreed.

"Well, before we do that," AJ said. "We need a strategy. Tara?"

"Hmm," Tara scratched her chin. She mulled over the details in her head, and sat on the couch to think. Ten minutes passed by, which were mostly filled with trivial conversations of no particular importance. Luckily, Tara soon rose from her seat, a confident grin on her face.

"Okay," Tara said. "We need to take this stealthily; avoid as much contact with the Korbalovs as possible. We'd need to get an exact location of the Korbalovs base of operations, and then we would need to do reconnaissance, bring gear, get a sense of their schedule, wait for them to leave, etc. Basically, this whole operation could take a few days to perform, at most. And, we would be away from Olympus during the process."

"But we can do it, right, Spark?" Dash asked simply.

Tara nodded. Over the last few hours of the day, the plan was fully worked out. It was decide that at the break of dawn, the girls should leave, fully equipped for combat, for the location AJ had detected. Once there, they would separate into factions, and would divide up the responsibility. They would each search for the Korbalovs' base, but they would also be in charge of surveying the wilderness, setting up camps, observing the other living beings in the area, and so forth.

It was also decided (rather quickly, in fact) that the mission would not in any way involve facing the Korbalovs head on. Each of the girls painfully remembered what happened the last time they fought off against the men, and they had only now fully recovered from all of their injuries. As a matter of fact, none of the girls had ever planned to kill the Korbalovs since they arrived in Russia. While that was, in fact, the original plan, they realized that not only did they not know how to kill the two Russians, but they had no desire to seek out a fight with them either. As such, the current operation was designed with silence and precision in mind.

The sun was already set by the time the girls had finished discussing everything. They all felt a strange combination of drowsiness and adrenaline, weariness and anxiety. The events of the day had become somewhat overwhelming, and they knew that they had to be well-rested for the days ahead. Yet, none of the girls could shake the feeling of excitement that something was finally about to happen. Tara was perhaps the most excited. She had waited far too long at Olympus without anything happening, and now, she could finally get back to work. She had hated the waiting, not because it was simply boring, but because of the interference it had with the rest of her plans. In truth, her stress was caused by the fact that she still knew very little about The Unknown, who was the very reason she had been at P.O.N.Y. in the first place. She craved to get back in the hunt for the masked terrorist, and bring him down, but the Korbalovs had been a terrible roadblock.

But now the waiting was over. It was finally time for the P.O.N.Y's to return to action.

To Be Continued...