Ice and Snow - Sova x Female OC

Chapter Eighteen: A Kingdom Of Lies And Half-Truths

Months Lost: 3
-
***
Everest
**

Everest closed her eyes, staying inside her thoughts.

Not even they were safe from-

Wait.

She was safe, wasn't she?

The voice inside her told her she was.

That voice wasn't hers-

It wasn't hers, but it was a  friend.

Her thoughts roiled and conflicted with one another, one side saying one thing, and the other saying another.

She didn't know which was the real one to listen to.

Three months here. Three months without Sova. Or had it been longer?

Everest didn't know.

Her lover's voice was dimming, starting to fade from her memory, unwillingly. She wanted desperately to cling onto his, but his voice blended into her other thoughts.

It was like what she knew was being twisted upside down. She could sense something was wrong, but not properly what. Everest had to listen to the voices in her head. She couldn't exactly hide from her own mind, could she?

She was confused. Her resolve to hold out and grasp what she knew faded by the day. She was slowly starting to lose her sense of the truth.

Sova, find me before I lose you too.

****
Sova
**
Months Lost: 4
Sova leaned against Cypher's desk, watching the information broker scour his cameras. The hunter had put aside his dislike for his secrecy and Cypher's methods in order to help him find his girl.

The Moroccan's deft hands moved over the keyboard, typing in commands and keywords every so often. Cypher's camera views changed, looking for any sign of Ravinskar or any clues regarding the location of Everest.

The main Kingdom headquarters were still, with no unusual activity presenting itself. There were always the expected amount of guards, and never more than the usual staff, which frustrated the two.

One of the main things Sova was tasked to do was to find an influx of Kingdom staff. That would be a dead giveaway to her location. Especially if they decided to bring in, more guards per se, in order to help contain her. It also included any major shipments of special Radianite suppressors, in order to limit what she could do under captivity.

None of those were found.

Fade had been looking through records she had found, and searching for any suppressor shipments in the last year or two.

Nothing had come up. Yet.

Four months they had been searching. Four months and nothing had come up. The only real lead they would have had is Ravinskar's email to Reyna a few months back. The location of the IP that sent the email would have helped a lot.

It looked like the Norwegian knew how to cover his tracks.

He had used a VPN, and sent the email through a burner phone. Ravinskar had forwarded and moved the email through different platforms, further confusing any hope of tracking the original message before sending it to his once-loved.

It made Cypher not leave his cave for a week, trying to decipher it.

Sova pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Cypher, will we ever find her? We haven't seen any kind of clue regarding her."

"We haven't found a clue, yet. Surely our traitor has slipped up somewhere, failed to clear shipping paperwork, left some kind of clue for us. We just have to look. I'll call in a few favours again and see where that leads me."

Sova sat down in a chair next to Cypher, with a doubtful expression. "I hope you can do that. Four months it's been, Cypher. Four months she's been in Ravinskar's grasp. Four months.''

"Yes. I share your concern. She'll be fine. I know you don't want to, but trust me, hunter. We will get her back."

Cypher focused on the monitor in front of him and started to type faster, with a newfound determination.

***
Months Lost: 5
Everest
**

Everest creased her eyebrows in frustration as she thought.

Maybe Ravinskar was right. She could kind of see now, that what Valorant did was opposite to what Kingdom did.

Kingdom tried to help others. They designed many things.

And Valorant tore them all down.

The spike?

Merely a machine to help collect Radianite. Nothing more.

But it killed people?

A mistake in the build. Killjoy's mistake.

Killjoy was then technically responsible for the deaths it caused, if people hadn't evacuated.

Wasn't she?

Valorant harmed people. They caused unnecessary damage that Kingdom had to repair.

Didn't they?

But were they not also a family? One she herself had been a part of?

No. They were just together in order to further their own plans. They took you in, presented their side of the story, and you agreed. They took you before Ravinskar could find you and bring you to a true home.

Kingdom. Her new home?

Everest was still unsure. But a little more confident then she was a while ago. Ravinskar took time out of his day to visit her often, and talk to her.

With that sweet, lovely voice of his.

It filled her mind, day in, day out.

****
Sova and Cypher
Months Lost: 5.2
***

Sova sat in his quarters, with Hillary, Everest's rabbit, bounced around, playing with a small toy. He consulted his laptop, and pulled his chair up to his desk.

Sova rubbed one of his eyes as he looked through his emails. He hadn't received too many, but there were still a few.

A few messages from Sage checking in on him, like she always did. A message from Brimstone asking him about certain movements of the Protocol, and a couple of emails from Omen offering to have some quiet time together, and requesting if he wanted the shadow to watch over the small little rabbit and teach the two pets to get along. Sova smiled when he read the offer. However, he didn't know if Tibbles and Hillary would get along, seeing as they were different species.

He looked over his newest one, and it was a short and simple message from Cypher, detailing a lead he had found and was following up on. Sova's smile fell when he recalled why.

His eye caught on a new email notification that popped up in the bottom right corner of his screen. He opened it.

It was an email that Cypher had forwarded with his own notes. The sender name was:

Ravinskar.

The former Valorant agent-turned Kingdom operative.

Sova's heart ran a little faster as he read the email.

It had a few warnings about 'stop the search' and things like that, but it was obvious that Cypher would disregard the warnings. It contained some mocking phrases as well which Sova dismissed.

What really caught his attention was the use of Everest's name throughout. That she was with him. In a secluded area, where no surveillance lay.

So to find her.

They had to find Ravinskar.