Chapter Seventeen: The Truth

March 13th, 2027, 2:28 a.m.
Eastern Tower, Hidden Factory, Altai Mountains, Russia

She stared into his eyes, they were full of sorrow, and guilt, “I’m sorry,” he said. “What-” she started, but she barely noticed his finger twitch toward the trigger. She swatted the gun from his hand, the bullet nearly missing the left side of her head, as she got up from kneeling at the door. He threw a punch, she dodged and swept his legs from under him, reaching for her gun that was no longer there. He got up and grasped the pistol from the cold metal floor, before it slid under the railing, aiming it at her again. She sidestepped as the bullet flew by, grabbing his arm and slamming his wrist on the metal rail next to him. The gun fell down to the snowy mist below as they fought, Joshua drew a knife and punched with his other hand. Katia grasped both his arms and kicked him in the gut, then slammed her head into his, but he came back punching her in the facial part of the helmet. This turned her around, and he put his arms around her throat, threatening to slit it with the knife. She kicked him in the knee, escaping the hold, but his grip took off her helmet. She charged at him and pinned him on the floor, but he kicked her off behind him. As she got up he sliced at her leg, and she stumbled to the ground as pain shot up her left calf, Joshua had gotten up as she turned around to face him. She still tried to fight through the pain, but the cut was deep, and slowed her down. Joshua kept advancing as she backed up and blocked his attacks, but he caught her off guard and stabbed her deep in the side. He pulled his hand away, staring at her sadly as she slumped on the railing, gasping for air through pain filled cries.

She looked down at the knife lodged in her side, only the hilt was visible within one of the chinks in her armour plates. She could see tears in Joshua’s eyes, they both knew what he had to do, but he hesitated. After a while he finally spoke, “I-I never wanted this to happen. I never thought things would go this way.” Katia winced, every breath caused immense pain. “I thought you had been working alone,” She said as he shifted his feet around, glancing at the knife in guilt. “Look, I’ll tell you the truth, I owe you that much for all this.” He stared at the ground, “Like I said, I was working alone. But soon got picked up, and was recognized by what I’d done in the past. I wasn’t completely clueless as to who Abdallah was at the time either, one of his followers actually helped me escape prison. But that was the thing, knowing what Abdallah and his men were able to do scared me, and I gave in to his requests. Since he knew what I had done, he liked the idea of me on his side. I helped him track down Quill, helped him invent some tech, even including some design of the machines back there.” Katia gripped the railing, using what strength she had to not fall to the ground, “How does this connect to me?” He looked into her eyes, “The day you saw Quill die, I was there. I was the one that had bound you up, knocked you out. I had made sure you never saw me. But I was also the one to save you, that was my one request of Abdallah, to spare you. Ever since you joined Unit K47 he made me regret it, he made it personal. He knew about our past, so he made it my mission to kill you. Every single chance I got, I stalled. Once you started training I went undercover, and so did a few others. We took Foles into custody, replacing him, taking control of K47 from the inside out. We had to kill you, at this point you knew too much.” Katia gasped in pain as he stepped closer and gripped the knife again, “Wa-wait,” she said, they both knew if he pulled the knife it would be only a matter of time until she died. “I’m sorry Katia, but Abdallah has friends in high places, and many of them, and he’s threatened people that I know and love. It’s-it’s just so hard to explain, like I’m living in two different realities, one here, and another somewhere else… I can’t let Abdallah destroy that place. I have to finish my job, I can’t stall for both you and them.” Katia knew what she had to do, only one of them would survive in this scenario, and it had to be her. She took another shaky breath, “Can-can I at least say goodbye?” He looked at her, letting go of the knife, moving closer as she put her arm around his neck. She sat there, kissing him, neither of them wanting to leave the others’ embrace. She activated her glove, moving her right arm around his neck as well, staring into his eyes as tears streaked from her own. “I-I don’t want to let go… because I know that if I do, I’ll never see you again. But… I think I’m ready now.” she touched the glove with purple design to his back, watching the realization appear in his eyes. She pressed down hard into his back, and sobbed as he turned into ash, which was absorbed into the glove itself.

At that point she had stopped trying to hold herself up on the railings, and was on all fours on the cold metal floor. All she could feel was pain, emotionally and physically, she had been forced to kill the man she thought she’d loved, and found that everything she’d known had been a lie. Coming all this way to find that it meant nothing, another mistake, another failure. She laid down on the bridge full of instant regret, knowing this would be the place she would die. She could still turn off the power and detonate the charges, but she wasn’t going to get out of here either way. She didn’t really care either, she just wanted to pull the knife, curl up in a ball, and die. Had she made the wrong choice killing Joshua, was it worth all of this, why had she been this attached? Katia shifted her body to face the door, even though she didn’t have a mission, and never had, she could make it her own. Would there be a point, or just another failure awaiting her end, another person knowing her next move? Whatever happened she had to try. Katia looked at the glove on her hand, which had been used to kill Joshua, and used all her strength to stagger up, she had to finish this. What happened in the end didn’t matter, all that mattered was carrying on, never giving up.

She clutched her side as she limped toward the door, every breath another burst of agony. Her foot kicked something, and she looked down to see the helmet that Joshua had worn, another plan started to form in her mind. The helmet had obviously been changing his voice to sound like Shane, who wasn’t even real, which means it would change her voice too. But she had to find a way to patch herself up, otherwise she’d die before she got back to base, or what used to be known as her base. She put on the helmet and walked to the door, thermal vision told her nobody was behind it, but it was locked, and the lock was extremely complex. “When in doubt,” she said to herself, “push buttons,” she started turning the gloves to different settings, seeing what they did. Many of them were elemental, but she finally found one that worked. It was a deep orange color, and didn’t seem to do anything when she forced her hand outward, but she punched the door, and it flew inward at a high speed. The door had completely flown off its hinges, and she hobbled into the small room. There wasn’t much inside but a few computer monitors, a large keyboard, and a med kit on the wall. She went over to take down the med kit, in hope there would be something of use inside. As soon as she touched the red cross on what looked like a bag, it unfolded into a large fabricator, which seemed to be specially made for medical treatment.

She started taking off her armour but came to the obvious problem of the knife being stuck in her side. But she couldn’t just let the fabricator operate on her with the armour on, so she had to act fast, and did exactly what she wasn't supposed to. She pulled the knife from her side slowly, exhaling in pain as the moving knife disrupted the clotting blood, destroying her body’s way of trying to help her. After removing the knife she dropped the blood encrusted blade, watching it clatter on the floor. Then she removed her armour, trying not to look at the wound, and let the fabricator scan her. It immediately pinpointed the problem, and began to work. She couldn’t help but look down as the hole in her body was being healed and stitched together by a beam of plasma, and immediately felt light headed. “Oh gods, that-that’s a lot of blood, that’s a lot of my blood…” The stab wound had slightly pierced and torn her left lung, which was what had been causing difficulty breathing. After about five minutes she looked down to see new fur being fabricated onto her side, before the fabricator closed and shrunk down to its original shape. She had also used some bandages on her leg from where Joshua had cut her. Once this was done she put back on her armour and helmet, then looked at the strange keyboard for a way to turn off power. Everything was in Russian letters, but reading it came naturally, and she found what she needed in seconds. She turned everything off with a few simple commands, and walked with a slight limp out of the room. She stepped back onto the bridge, speaking into her intercom, hoping that nothing went wrong. “H-hello, come in,” she said, her voice being changed, as another voice asked, “What’s your status Hamus? What took so long?” She spoke back as if she were speaking to her fraud commander, Foles, “The target has been terminated. Ready for extraction.” She stood there in the blizzard while the voice responded, “Alright, preparing for extraction. Get back to from where you had entered before, from there we will travel back to base.” It only took those few seconds to realize that she was talking to her fraud commander, explaining how Joshua had been getting his orders without her knowing.

Katia told him she understood, as her mind raced, this could be her way to stop Abdallah. She descended the tower stairs as quickly as her leg would allow, wondering what she’d have to do next. It’d only be a matter of time until they realized the main power was down. But as she ran through bullet hole covered doors and hallways, she started forming the plan in her head. Katia still had the detonator, which was very important to the original and new plan. She had also picked up a soldier's old submachine gun, which was one way she could protect herself. She rushed into the inner part of the factory, noticing a few guards walking back towards the entry point, and among them was Amelia. Katia ran toward the group and got in line, causing a few to look back, but they carried on as if nothing had happened. She tried to steady her breathing, and not think about the detonator in plain sight on her belt. Her heart pounded, her mind racing while walking in a line with the enemy. They were only a few rooms away from the entry point, where all of this had started, but even when she got back she still wouldn’t be safe. Once she initiated her plan, there would be no turning back, and no such thing as safety. They rounded a corner and came to an open garage door, outside was the same helicopter that brought her to this place. There were only six of them, not including those already in the helicopter, all getting in one at a time. She entered the vehicle, and took her spot next to one of the others as it lifted off the ground. It gradually began to become invisible as it rose into the frigid air, never going to turn around, never going to spare her from whatever horrible future may lay ahead. Katia was in their territory now.