Their Guardian

Prologue

Edited. 

*Unknowns POV*

Very few people are ready to die, even less are ready to live. She certainly wasn't. 

The first thing she remembered were faces, four people blurred together to the point of no true recognition, images of places she had never been, and a closeness she had never experienced. It gave her a false sense of comfort before throwing her back into darkness, but to her the light was scarier. 

 More images flashed across her mind, mixing together and rearranging again and again. The clearest thing was the family that stood in the middle of it, a warmth compared to the cold nothingness. Three men, One strong looking woman and the world ahead of them. 

Confusion came next, without even opening her eyes she could tell that was she was moving. The bumps came more frequently than her heartbeats, promoting it to race. She could feel skin touching her from all over, and it was that which jolted her awake. With her lifestyle, she was never a fan of being touched. She was alone, well, as alone as you can be with multiple dead bodies surrounding you. Surprisingly enough she wasn't that surprised, and in her mind it could have been worse. What did surprise her were the cuts that littered her clothes and the blood crusted around the crown of her head, almost as if it came from a bullet, yet no actual injuries. 

Her confusion hit her again full force but she knew better, so she  prioritized and put that in the not-that-important bin of her mind (aka to be dealt with later). 

She could hear boisterous laughter coming from the front, and smell the liquor coming from the large men. She looked around the back carefully, cataloging the faces of her companions and searching for weapons. When she came up empty she moved to the open back of the van. Russian floated to her ears and she stiffened at the crude words. She knew what they would do if they found her back there alone. 

So it spurred her to do the most sensible thing she could think of. She put her legs over the edge and gave herself a big push. 

She groaned at the impact, cursing as her bare skin rolled across the icy road. She didn't give herself time to feel the pain, instead she started moving, only collapsing once she was far past the thick tree line.

Laughter bubbled out of her lips as she finally allowed herself to feel. She was free, and honestly, she didn't care how it came to be, only that it did. 

She couldn't tell you with any accuracy how long she stayed there. Only that by the time she was moving, her small dress had been soaked, and her fingers were just short of frozen. The cold didn't bother her, not when she had the warmth of her joy fueling her steps, and that would be enough for her.

That was the start of her journey, one that would take her two weeks to complete. But that was only her first chapter, insignificant. Eventually, it would blend in with the hundreds more she would write. However, what she didn't know that at the time was that she wasn't really human, not anymore.  

The forest itself was unremarkable, lots of trees and space to herself, which was desperately needed after three years deep cover in soviet Russia. Not to mention the year that led to her escape. 

She smiled as snowflakes began to drift down in little waves, feeling more at home than she ever had in this country. Russia wasn't a choice made by her. It was made by people who saw her as expendable. It's why they didn't hesitate to send a thirteen-year-old girl into the custody of Admiral Korchnoi: The commander of the Russian Armies. Their callousness paid off, as she became one of the most valuable soldiers in the secret war, although their choice word was Spy. 

She had the perfect cover, seeing as the soviets constantly underestimated women, she was the most unexpected source. Something that made her responsible for the coordinations of many military demonstrations and scientific advancements on the American front.

Her fingers traced the scarring that climbed her arms, and she found herself drifting towards darker thoughts. 

When she was captured, it was by no fault of her own. In fact, she should have been gotten out weeks before, but greed had been her downfall, and it wasn't even hers. 

She had expected a public death, TV coverage and press all packaged together to show Russian power. Imagine her surprise when they took her to a prison instead, apparently she was worth much more alive. 

She would bet good money that they probably wished they killed her the expected way. All they had gotten during their time together was a year's worth of bullshit and sweet lies. Not in that order. She was the perfect spy until the very end, and it did end. Officially her life was short, she died in 1985 at the age of eighteen, but that was not the end of her story. 

Her dreams only got more vivid and the people in them got clearer. She had nothing to hold onto, so she choose the sweet fiction her mind cooked up for her. Basking in the honey of their presence, even if it only lasted until the sun rose. It was her solace when she had none, and it only fueled the fires of her curiosity. How can you find what doesn't exist? the answer is simple, it finds you. 

*Third person POV*

Time was a fickle thing, no matter how many years they had lived, they still managed to find each day passing slower than the last. Andy and Booker blamed it on technology, they could no longer operate as themselves, instead they became shadows in this world of endless night. They no longer faced their enemies of vast battlefields or laid siege to impenetrable cities. Instead, they worked silently, and it was really starting to weigh on them. 

They were gathered in a little apartment in East Berlin, each sulking in their own way.  Booker was on the phone talking to various contacts looking for possible jobs. Andy was on lookout, staring at the window with an intensity that could shatter it, and Joe and Nicky were sprawled out on the couch speaking quietly to each other in Italian checking the weapons, comfortable in each others company. All of them were itching for a fight. 

"The CIA is looking for a group to protect a courier during his passage through East Berlin, seems like something we could do?" Booker said after putting down the phone he had been on for the last 3 hours.

This perked up Joe and Nicky. They were never ones to just sit around and wait, always preferring to be actively doing something. Andy was more suspicious than the others. Immortality had taught her to always expect the worst. The CIA was always very secretive, so the fact that they were actively looking for an entire team to protect this mysterious Courier meant they either had something of real value, or they were baiting someone, and with the latter it begs the question of who? 

"Maybe. But why would the CIA be broadcasting this job, even looking in the underground puts their agent at risk, it doesn't feel right. Let's think it over for a few days" Andy said with a finality that would put this matter to rest, yet giving out an undertone of exhaustion. 

Joe was the next to comment "Boss, I think you can calm down for tonight, we all need sleep and we haven't even done anything to warrant any attention." doing his best to get the insomniac to finally rest. 

Tiredly everyone agreed to sleep for the night with minimal protest. This was a different war then they are used too, it was much easier to fight it out on a field where you could clearly see your enemy. This game of secrets was wearing them out, and they could not afford the simple mistakes made when tired. So after a large chorus of goodnights, they all drifted to sleep, hoping for good dreams. Instead, they were left with someone else's nightmares.