𝙎𝘼𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙉 ✮ 𝘯. 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘧𝘧

{𝟎𝟖} - 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

The Triskelion

Washington, D.C., USA

May 2001

SEMNA opened her eyes to nothing.

Pitch black.

Among the many things that bothered her, the dark was one of them. It had always been dark at the Academy. Cold, dark, merciless rooms that awaited her around every corner with no indication of what housed them. And just like then, she now had no idea what lay before her.

She was lying down. The mattress beneath her was soft, unlike any she had ever slept on. Her head throbbed, her shoulders ached. She brought a hand to her forehead, feeling for the wound the concrete had inflicted. It felt different...her hand came back dry. Somebody had stitched up the cut. She tried to reach up with her other hand, sighing in disgust when she remembered what had happened before she passed out in the vehicle. She was handcuffed to the bed.

Natalia.

Semna shot up, tugging on the bed rail and swinging her other fist aimlessly in front of her.

"Hey, hey!" A man shouted from the corner. Semna turned, surprised to see that the room was not in fact completely dark; a small lamp sat by a windowless door, producing just enough light for her to see the shadow of a face. "Calm down, everything's alright." The man took a few steps away from her, and a second later, the room was illuminated in a fluorescent glow.

Semna squinted. She still sat in her torn, bloody pants, but to her surprise, her shirt had been changed for her. She reached down gingerly, caressing the soft cotton material.

"Your other shirt ripped down the side. I had one of the women change you because, well," he paused, waving his hand awkwardly, "you know." He stared at her, as if waiting for some sort of anecdote to change the subject. Semna merely tugged on the handcuffed wrist, glaring at him impassively.

"Yeah, that," he sighed, walking towards her. "Sorry. I didn't want to, but we never know how people will react to this situation. Not that we do this," he gestured around, "often. But obviously it can be off-putting."

Semna looked around the room. It was small. The bed she lie in sat in the farthest corner of the room, obscuring her view of the full doorway that would ultimately be her only ticket out of here. A small cart sat next to the bed, holding nothing but antiseptic solutions and bandages. None of this concerned her at the moment. She was alive by some miracle and would be perfectly fine by the end of the day. There were always bigger things to worry about.

"Where is Natalia? Is she okay?"

"You know what's funny?" The man sighed, pulling the chair closer to her bed and sitting down. "That was the first thing she asked us about you too."

Semna blushed. She couldn't help it; no amount of time would take away the feelings she had for Natalia. As long as she was in this world, that would always be the first thing on her mind.

"Can I see her at all?" Semna asked. She tried to be as polite as possible, pretending that this was still a mission; that she was still a random girl trying to swoon a handsome man.

The man sighed again. "No. I'm sorry, they're my orders until we can learn more about you two." He seemed genuinely disappointed. Semna rolled her eyes. "Can you tell me your name, maybe? Who you work for?" He pulled a small notepad and a pen out of his pocket, leaning forward in anticipation. Semna scoffed.

"You want me to act like you do not already know both of those things?"

"We don't." He shook his head.