Chapter Text
“Miss Chambers, would you like to explain the meaning of this?”
Mia Chambers stood inside of the feared Red Leader’s office in front of his desk. The entire room had an eerie vibe to it as red and black were the only colors prominent in this place. It made her extremely nervous. Her brown and red uniform jacket clung to her body in an uncomfortable way. It felt like her red neckerchief she wore was choking her which had her tugging at it. And it didn’t help that Red Leader was staring directly at her, along with his Sergeant Major who stood off to his side.
Mia hated eye contact in general, but it was turned up to unbearable with those two intimidating men staring daggers at her. She wanted to bolt out of the room right there, though she knew that would just end up badly for her. So she kept her eyes forward, locked on the transparent red screens behind the Leader. Just fake you were looking at him, she told herself.
“ Chambers! ”
Mia snapped back to the real world at her name being shouted. Her eyes automatically set on the one who called her and she broke out into a nervous sweat. Red Leader was glaring hard at her now. His black, red, and silver eyes peered deep into her mortal soul. His mouth was upturned into a snarl, bearing teeth like a predator. It had Mia trembling on the spot and Red knew how much fear he struck into her heart.
“Don’t make me repeat myself, Chambers…” Red Leader warned, furrowing his brows. The burnt side of his face seemed to be oozing clear liquid as infection was setting in again. The pain he probably felt from it was certainly not helping his mood, she guessed.
Mia swallowed the lump in her throat. She knew why she was called in here and the reason for his anger. How could she say it without kicking the hornet’s nest. “W-Well sir,” she stuttered out finally. “What you have is the Red Army Annual Financial Report, as per your order.” When she was brought to the base, all paperwork no matter the subject was offloaded to her. The sudden workload without consideration or room to get used to. It was all burning her out.
Red Leader didn’t like her response at all. He pounded his robotic fist against the desk and Mia jumped from the loud noise. “Do you think I’m an idiot, Chambers?” he questioned.
“Uh…” Mia started to answer. What did he want her to say? Any reply would be the wrong one for sure.
Red’s eyes narrowed as he started making his way around the desk towards her. “That was a rhetorical question, girl .” The way he said girl was full of disgust and made Mia feel bad. “What I want to know is why my army is in the negatives with our budgets and barely any profits.”
Mia was face-to-face with Red Leader now. She was the same height as her employer but that fact didn’t matter. Anxiety flooded her system as his whole presence was making her feel nauseous. She turned her head to the right to avoid all eye contact.
“With-With all due respect, Red Leader, sir. But you’re spending much more than we can earn. With the repairs to Project Titan and attempts to salvage Project Cy-berus for the 3rd time now, you’re running your funds dry,” Mia explained. “Plus, your newest endeavor of that robot clone project isn’t helping at all.”
“ Excuse me? ” Mia heard him say through gritted teeth. Flesh fingers and nails dug into her jaw and Red forced her head to look forward again at him. “Look at me when I’m talking to you, girl ,” he growled.
Mia struggled in his grasp, trying to shake her head side to side, but he held firm. The forced eye contact with no way to escape had tears beginning to pool in her eyes. “I-I’m sorry, sir.” Mia immediately apologized. She couldn’t stop her voice from shaking. She felt weak and trapped. “But it’s the truth. You’re causing the army to hemorrhage money. Between losing soldiers, expensive projects, and the extra spending for capturing your old friends along with the destruction they seem to cause, something has to give.” She had to document every single thing the army’s funds were used for. Nothing was hidden from her but she was contracted to keep quiet about it around others. And now the only one who knew other than Red Leader himself was Sergeant Major Vlahd.
“Why do I even keep you around if you can’t even do your job right?” Red Leader said. “You must like making me look like a complete fool.”
Mia couldn’t stop the tears from overflowing out of fear and frustration. What did he want her to do? She couldn’t fudge up the numbers for his ego. This was something that needed his attention now and it was illegal. She hated Red Leader was seeing her tears, and she knew that he hated it too.
“I’m not sir…” Mia managed to choke out through her crying. “I’m trying my best. Honestly…”
“Well your best isn’t good enough and you better try harder, Chambers,” Red pushed her face away and walked back to his desk. “You seem to only ever bring me bad news.”
Through her growing frustration, Mia blurted out, “W-What do you want me to do? I can’t make money appear out of nowhere! This won’t disappear if you just sweep it under the rug! You’re going to burn through all of the army’s funds!”
Mia saw the anger radiated from Red Leader’s form, causing him to shake. A shadow fell over his face and he continued to stare at her with a twisted gaze. “Don’t you dare tell me how to run MY army, girl!” Red barked. “You’re not even a soldier! You’re nothing but a fucking pencil pusher! I could replace you in a second! I could slap a mask on your stupid face so the only words coming out of your mouth is ‘yes sir’!” Red then grinned wickedly. “But that would be wasting resources if I did that, wouldn’t it?”
That comment hit hard and she completely fell apart. She sobbed loudly, hung her head low, and her shoulders heaved. She wanted to leave, but she knew if she left without permission, she would be punished. So Mia stayed in place like the obedient lesser being she was.
“With all that crying, it feels like I hired a sniveling child instead of a secretary. You better learn to stop crying the next time you come to my office or I’ll really give you a reason for those tears. Get out of my face, Chambers.” Red stated with a wave of his hand.
There was no formal farewell that everyone was supposed to give Red Leader for her. Mia couldn’t say it as she briskly walked out of the office a crying mess. She didn’t care if anyone saw her, but she was sure no one would care to stop her either. Not like she had any friends in the first place. The only place, her sanctuary in this oppressive base, was her private room. She stumbled to open the door and slammed the door shut behind her.
Her personal quarters were much smaller compared to the rooms of the higher officers. Pretty much a fancy broom closet. She didn’t have her own bathroom and had to use the communal showers the soldiers used. The other women stared at her like she didn’t belong in their space, like an outcast. No one seemed to really like her.
Mia flopped down on her bed and cried into her pillow. Her intrusive thoughts attacked her when she was at her lowest. All the female soldiers and officers wore skirts, but she was assigned to wear slacks the male soldiers wore by Red himself. Did...did Red not see her as a woman? He tend to have a circle of women, even treated the female higher officers with fondness. But he was always so cruel to her, degrading her in front of everyone, and yelling at her. The thought of Red hating her because she was not like all the other ladies he liked gnawed at Mia’s mind. Though being objectified wasn’t right, she longed to be fawned over also. She never had before in her life.
But Red made it clear what her purpose was. She wasn’t there to look pretty. She wasn’t a soldier; she couldn’t even hold her own in a fight. All she was good for was to deal with the boring paperwork, stuck in an office where no one could see her face. Constantly having papers dumped on her without a hello or just a harsh order from whoever brought them. Mia hated this life, yet she hated her past life too. But she was trapped in the Red Army. She signed her life away upon employment. Regret was finally setting in after a year of this craziness. This was all a mistake. One she couldn’t just drop everything and leave from. Or could she?
The tears soaked her pillow as she turned her head to look at the door a few feet away. She still had to eat and shower to wind down for the day, but she didn’t want anyone to see her like this. They would surely laugh at her like a bunch of secondary school students. She wanted to be completely invisible to everyone around her.
Then there was a knock at her door, almost a pound. Mia jumped at the sound immediately. Surprised and puzzled, she stood back to her feet. Who would be willing to see and talk to her? Her mind raced as she went to open her door. It could be anyone behind it. Cold fear soon consumed Mia when she saw who was at her door. It was the Sergeant Major himself. The top of Mia’s head barely came up to the man’s wide chest like with almost everyone. His sharp, dark eyes peered down at her and his angular face held no emotion, not even displeasure.
Quickly, Mia wiped away the trails her tears made on her cheeks. “Sergeant Major Vlahd! W-What a surprise!” she exclaimed. Her voice could barely keep steady, but she tried to remain professional. Why was he here though? Did Red tell him to go after her? Panic soon set in; she overheard stories of how brutal he could be. Maybe if she apologized now, he would go easy on her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye before I left Red Leader’s office,” Mia groveled. “It’s just—” She immediately cut herself off. If she told him the truth, she would get a harsher punishment. She had to dance around this to keep herself safe. “I’ll...I’ll take any disciplinary action against me and increase my current workload to please Red Leader. I promise not to talk back to him again. I’m sorry.”
Vlahd didn’t say a word to her. He just continued to stare at her even more. His piercing gaze was like a knife and Mia found herself trembling again, moving her sight to look at his chin instead. Why wasn’t he talking? The silence was needles beneath her skin. “Is...Is there something else that you needed?” she asked, worried even this would be considered backtalk.
“ Kak pozhivayet tvoyt listo ?” the man asked, or what Mia believed was a question. Sadly, she didn’t know a lick of Russian. Learning new languages was always difficult for her. The Sergeant Major appeared to see the confusion on her face. “I asked you how your face is faring,” Vlahd reiterated. His deep and heavy accent sent a shiver down her spine. This was the first time he ever opened his mouth to speak to her, or her even hearing his voice.
His question somewhat short circuited her brain. Why was he concerned for her, let alone talking to her or seeking her out? Her overall bewilderment had to be quite apparent because the right corner of his lips twitched with amusement for a split second before returning to his neutral frown. A few seconds passed for his question to register in her mind. “Oh!” Mia said then she raised a hand to her jaw. All her crying made her forget the dulling ache in her face. “It’s a bit sore and I know it’s going to bruise in the morning. But at least I got brown skin so it won’t show up!” She laughed a little awkwardly.
He didn’t seem to find her words as humorous as she did since there was no reaction from him. The awkward silence came back instantly. What was she supposed to do now? Close the door on him? Wouldn’t that be rude? After Mia pulled herself out of her thoughts again, she noticed Vlahd wasn’t looking at her anymore, but into her room now. Embarrassment burned at her cheeks. Her room wasn’t up to army standards of cleanliness. But, then again, she wasn’t subjected to frequent room inspections like everyone else.
“ On zastavlyayet tebya klast’ golovu v shkaf? Pozorno… ” Vlahd mumbled loud enough for Mia to hear. She could only assume he was commenting about her room. It made her feel ashamed. He turned his attention back on her. “Mia Chambers? That is your name, yes?”
“Uh, yes sir!” Mia replied with a quick nod.
“What you told Red Leader, the financial situation of the army, is that true?”
“Yes sir,” Mia answered with trained obedience. “I looked over the papers multiple times and I strive for accuracy in my work. I would never lie about something so important, sir.”
“I want to see those papers with my own eyes,” he demanded.
Worry hit Mia hard. Yes, the Sergeant Major intimidated her, but it was Red Leader who brought true terror to her. “B-But...Red Leader told me not to show those documents to anyone else. That only he is authorized to see them…” She braced herself for the verbal attacks she knew were coming.
Vlahd snorted then glanced to his left side. “ Kakoy on shutnik .” Mia jumped a little when he looked back at her. “I will handle Red Leader if he finds out,” he stated.
Mia stared at him. Why was he doing this? Did he have some kind of hidden motives for her? But she didn’t want to get on the Sergeant Major’s bad side either. “Alright. But would it be fine if I showed you tomorrow while I’m on duty? I’m not feeling—” She began to say but was interrupted by a shout.
“Vlahd!”
Hearing his name being called made Vlahd scowl harder than usual. When Red Leader came into view, stomping in her room’s direction, Mia immediately slammed the door shut on the Sergeant Major’s face. She didn’t mean to be rude but she couldn’t see Red Leader again today. All of Red’s yelling was muffled when she fled to her bed and covered her head with her pillow. She wasn’t sure what was being said but assumed it was about her. Fear eliminated her need to eat and she wasn’t leaving her room for the rest of the evening.
Tomorrow was another day, she guessed.