Chapter Text
Interior - Oranienburg Research and Production Facility - Entry Level - December 1942
Thwip~!!!
The soft sound of clothes rustling as the body wearing said clothes lifelessly slumped to the ground. The expected Thump!! was waylaid by a slightly louder rustle as strong arms caught the body before it could hit the shiny metallic floors. Against the backdrop of machinery humming in the distance, booted footsteps marching in a corridor not far from here and the murmur of harsh, precise conversation floating through the cool air, the sounds of the scientist dying were indistinguishable, which of course, was the point.
The scientist, as identified by the white lab-coat, stained red in one particularly unhealthy place near the neck now, carried an expression of mild, annoyed surprise. If he had still been capable of speech, no doubt he would have complained about how this death was rather inopportune and would put him behind schedule. The clipboard he still cradled in his arms held, among an ID with his name and access level - Friedrich Drehmler, Stufe 4 -, a host of paperwork and research papers, which, to the informed eye, hinted at experiments in nuclear physics and nuclear weapons in particular. There was also a picture of a young woman with a baby cradled in her arms.
The picture was snatched from the clipboard and stuck in the lab-coat of the researcher unceremoniously while the remaining paperwork was carefully slipped into a small backpack. The strong arms that had previously caught the body now went to work dragging it to an even darker corner of the corridor, arranging it behind a few storage crates that would hide the body for a while. Not long, certainly, but long enough.
Satisfied the body was hidden enough for the time being, Kassandra stretched briefly, then slipped the backpack on once more.
"..." she stared at the corner she had hidden the body in for a moment longer. What seemed like an eternity ago, she was sure killing the father of a family would have stirred something in her.
She turned around and jogged down the corridor. With any luck, there wouldn't be any more scientists trying to do extra credit work in her path anymore. She jogged along casually, passing doors and other corridors. Remaining vigilant of the sounds of movement in the facility, she approached the door to the elevator she knew would take her towards her target.
Rounding a corner, she spotted the elevator in question. Two guards were positioned here, as expected. She approached a little further, then sank into the shadows along the wall before the guards could notice her.
"...Thank god it's only half an hour till shift change. This place is mindbogglingly dull." said the one on the right. Well, he said it in German. Kassandra's mind was so used to translating the various languages of the world, it barely registered, only as a mild point of interest.
"Any plans for the weekend? I'm seeing my girl and we're going for a bit of a party, want tlraghrgll..."
The gurgling sounds accompanied the blood spurting from the guards neck as a knife buried itself there. Before the other guard could even realize something was amiss, Kassandra stepped through the shadows to the side of the guard, her right hand gripping the knife and tearing it from the throat, ripping out the vocal cords in the process while the left reached to the throat of the other. Her strong fingers dug in deep and a quick flick of her wrist snapped the neck like a twig.
Both bodies were caught by Kassandra before they could hit the floor and gently lowered without a sound. She dragged them into the shadows to the right, positioning them so they wouldn't be seen at first glance. That wouldn't hold up when shift change came around, but would be enough for now. A quick search of the guards clothes revealed the key she needed to gain access to the elevator.
She pulled out the small radio she had carried with her. Judging by the structure of the building, this would be the last time she had a chance to communicate with her employer. It was good form to keep them up to speed and employers who were happy paid better, Not that she was short on cash right now, but her work ethic remained the same. Hard to stop a habit of centuries.
"I'm in and have access to the lower levels. You were correct, the facility extends further than the Allies thought."
There was a brief crackle of static. The response was a bit cut-off, but legible enough.
"We can start a diversion in 30 minutes, it will give you some more time." a young man said.
"Don't bother. I'll be out in 15 minutes, tops."
"But-..." she switched the radio off, cutting off whatever the young man on the other end had wanted to say. She stepped into the elevator that had just arrived, inserting the key that would allow the elevator to go to the lower levels. A brief, empty gaze was directed at the two dead guards in the shadows. No sympathy bubbled up in her. Of course, dealing with Nazi Soldiers didn't really lend itself to sympathy. Still, killing people had caused -some- emotions in the past.
"How much longer before I can join you Ikaros...?" she murmured under her breath as the elevator carried her into the depths of the facility.
...
Interior - Oranienburg Research and Production Facility - Level 4 - December 1942
The doors slid open with a mild creak to a corridor illuminated in harsh, white light. Thrumming sounds of heavy machinery filled the air, originating somewhere to her left and the electrifying air of wartime activity hung heavy around her as she moved forward. No one was in sight to block her progress, so she started jogging down the corridor, peering into rooms left and right to make sure she was not missing anything of import. Granted there wasn't a lot she would stop for, given that her plan involved burying the entire facility. Still, it was worth keeping a look-out in case there were hints of yet more Nazi research that could prove troublesome.
If her information was correct, there would be a large central facility just ahead. It wasn't clear how far along the testing and research was at this point, but her sources indicated that it was further along than the Allies were aware of. Her employer had a vested interest in the Allies persevering in the war effort. While everything seemed to be pointing in that direction currently, -if- the Nazis were to secure a new kind of weapon of mass destruction, things could drastically shift.
The corridor ahead branched left and right. 'TEST LABOR 1' was written in large germanic letters on the wall, indicating the direction to the right. 'KANTINE' was pointing to the left.
"How considerate..." she murmured, turning to head right. You could fault the Germans for a lot of things. Lack of clarity of direction was not one of them. They sure loved to indicate and document everything.
At the end of the corridor, she saw another guard. This one was leaning against the wall and clearly dozing off. The security down here might appear lax to some, but the main security of this place was that no one knew it existed, save for a few select Officers in the Weapons Development program of the Wehrmacht. She shifted her trajectory a bit, her steps silent as she sprinted the last few steps and reached forward. The hidden blade on her wrist snapped forward and pierced the throat of the guard effortlessly. He died without a sound and once again, she caught the body before it could hit the floor.
A quick look through the round windows in the doors leading to the lab showed that there were a number of scientists working at various stations. Off to the left, she saw a man wearing the black officer uniform, sporting the insignia of a General. He was tall and statuesque, graying black hair slicked back. He was talking with a diminutive woman, who was gesturing towards the large window off the side which undoubtedly was the observation window into the testing location in the center of the facility.
She caught glimpses of the conversation, owing to her ability to read lips, but mostly she caught snippets of words as the woman was moving rapidly while talking. The gist was that she seemed to believe they were close to success. In fact, she believed the group could deliver a first prototype weapon within the next month.
"Guess I arrived just in time..." Kassandra mumbled and shook her head. Nazis with Nuclear weapons, now there's an idea that even in her callous, indifferent mind did not sit well. Sure, each day she spent in eternity she wondered if her mission to keep humanity going was really worth it. Or rather, if humanity was really worth it. She'd let them sort that out once this particular ideology had been stamped out.
Slowly, she unsheathed the Spear from her back, holding it loosely in the left hand while she pushed the doors to the main control room open with another. Her gaze swept the room, identifying the main threat points. Two guards on the opposite side leading into a secondary control room if memory served. One guard near the General and the Head Scientist. Five scientists spread out in the room working, of no consequence. The guard near the general was the highest threat so as she moved in, she flipped the spear in her hand and then threw it towards the guard proper. The by now customary sound of the blade embedding itself in the throat of her target served as her signal to will the power of the blade through her body and she stepped through space and time to arrive next to the stricken guard in a heartbeat, ripping the spear from the other side of the soldiers neck.
She moved towards the two guards at the opposite side of the room as realization began to set in around her. One guard died with a gurgle drowning out the hiss and snap of the hidden blade piercing their neck. The other guard tried to bring up their weapon but Kassandra's right palm came up and drove the point of the guards nose into their brain with a vicious chop. The guard crumbled and as if on cue, panic swept through the room with the General being the lone exception.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked, incredulously. Her brain translated the German words effortlessly as she cleaned and retracted the hidden blade, turning to walk towards him.
She didn't respond. Words were reserved for things that mattered to her, like the dinner she was going to have that night or her Peace Lily at home. This man didn't. The pay for the contract mattered.
"Do you think you make a difference here? We are Legion! We will..."
Whatever other pointless grandstanding had been about to leave the Generals mouth was cut short. In a flash, the spear sliced through the air and decapitated the General in a swift, smooth motion. His head, mouth open, eyes still narrowed in indignation, tumbled through the air and thudded into the chest of the chief scientist who had been hiding behind the General. She screamed and raised her arms.
Everything stood still for a moment as Kassandra realized the woman had, in a moment of willpower or just instinct, drawn a pistol and had tried to point it at Kassandra. The head plonking into her chest threw off the aim, but the shot went off.
The bullet hit one of the other researchers who had tried to scramble towards the door. It hit his chest, causing him to be whirled around and stumble back into the console. The giant letters against the wall above the console spelled "GEFAHR - Bei Reaktorbetrieb, nicht benutzen!" . Concise, clear and understated just the way to warn someone about the potential for imminent nuclear meltdown.
Contrary to the warning asking people not to use the levers of the console while the reactor was running, the man gripped one of the levers as he fell, trying in vain to steady himself. Instead, he pulled the lever down with him, a heavy -KER-chunk- indicating -something- had been deactivated.
Sirens began to blare and a shrill German voice informed the base that reactor containment had been shut down. A part of Kassandra was amused to recognize that an angry german woman was yelling at her yet again. Last time the yelling had sounded a lot more heated and upset, rather than urgent and demanding. It had been because Kassandra had announced yet another mission that sounded like a suicide and she vaguely remembered having half-heartedly promised Elise she would be more careful in the future. She wasn't proud of it, but honestly, Elise had been the kind of girl Kassandra roundly promised anything to to get them into bed. Not that she hadn't appreciated the woman as a partner in the resistance, but at the end of the day, she was just a fleeting speck to Kassandra's immortal eyes.
"Malaka..." Kassandra cursed under her breath, put thoughts of previous sexual conquests aside and pivoted to the exit.
She didn't know if it was her instincts, honed through centuries of throwing herself into danger, or the tingling of the magical spear in her hand but she knew she was in imminent danger. She drew on the power of the artifact in the spear, filled her body with it as she would when using one of the unique capabilities it had bestowed on her, unsure why. She just did, like you would jerk a hand away from a hot stove top or pet a cute dog wagging its tail when it saw you. A faint hum started in her ears, a thrumming that vibrated through her body, originating from the top of her head and focusing on the pendant underneath the layers of protective gear she was wearing. The pendant holding the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus. For a brief moment, panic welled up in Kassandra. This was the artifact that kept her alive. But it was short-lived. Maybe, this was just the end. And the end wasn't so bad, after over 2000 years of fighting.
The world went white and silent.
...
EXTERIOR - ???
Something was pecking at her ear.
This situation was both surprising and frustrating. The last thing she remembered was an imminent reactor meltdown, the vague sensation of energy surging through her, then incredible heat as her field of vision turned white, then nothing. She had firmly believed this was the end.
The staff must have done something to protect her from the forces of the nuclear meltdown. That was the surprising part. Obviously, she hadn't experimented with nuclear reactors and the artifact that kept her alive before, so there was no way she could know how the two would interact. She made a mental note to remember asking Aletheia when she got a chance.
The frustrating part was being pecked at. Repeatedly.
Wearily she opened her eyes, immediately regretting it as she stared at bright sunlight which pierced her skull like a lightning bolt. A groan escaped her lips and the groan then led to a slightly curious chitter coming from somewhere to her right. This struck her as odd, given that she had just survived -apparently, the jury was still out on survival based on the level of headache she was going through- a nuclear explosion. There shouldn't be anything alive around her making that sound. In fact, nothing should be alive.
She tried opening her eyes again, tilting her head sideways to avoid staring into the sun above. She came face to face with a...Cat? No, the shape wasn't right and the nose...Where was the nose? Also, wait, was that six ears she saw? That couldn't be right. She closed her eyes again, blinked a few times to clear her head, then looked again. Unfortunately there were still six ears, now tilted slightly sideways in an expression that showed a remarkable curiosity.
What was clear, was that this creature was what had tried pecking at her, nibbling really. But now that she was somewhat awake, it seemed to be content to just sit on its hind legs, peering intently at her. She decided the identity of the creature was not the most pressing thing on her mind.
She decided to try and stand up.
It worked, albeit with a lot more pain involved than she would like to admit, both because her body felt like it had been shaken in a centrifuge for too long and because the sand around her had almost covered parts of her. Needles pierced through her skull, adding to the splinters already embedded from her earlier attempt at staring at the sun. She blinked again, to clear her blurred vision. What she saw did not make sense.
She should have been standing in a crater of destruction. Maybe flames and fire. All around her, there should be destruction and chaos. Machinery pieces and construction materials should be strewn about. Smoke should be rising to the all too bright heavens and covering both suns hovering over the horizon.
The concept of both suns took a moment, then snapped up her full attention. Her eyes flew open and, ignoring the renewed frustration of her ocular nerves at the invasion of far too bright light, she tried to make sense of the situation. She was sitting on sand, desert sand to be exact and it extended in all directions as far as her eye could see, pockmarked by various areas of tall rock faces. Sand as far as the eye could see. The only spot of a somewhat different color was right next to her, in the form of the, whatever that creature was that had taken a nip at her face earlier and thus, woken her up. It was now staring at her with a tilted head. If the situation hadn't been so weird, she probably would have noted that it was quite cute. Big, round eyes in a somewhat rectangular shaped head with three ears to each side flopping lazily in the hot breeze.
She filed the creature away for a moment to look around again, shielding her eyes as she peered to the horizon once more and taking in the sight of the twin suns setting, glorious purple streaks fading into a deep orange the higher she looked. It was a sight unlike any she had seen before and she was mesmerized, forgetting for a moment that the fact she was seeing two suns had a host of conclusions, none of which were logical or easy to digest.
"Where in Zeus' name..." she muttered quietly. The little creature took the words to mean that Kassandra had adjusted enough to accept nudges against her leg. She peered down and raised an eyebrow quizzically.
"He doesn't usually take to strangers." said a silky smooth voice a moment later.
Kassandra sprang into action, the spear flying into her hand as she pivoted towards the source of the voice to her right. She settled her gaze on a diminutive figure standing a short distance away. It was a woman from what she could tell from the voice. It was hard to tell from the appearance itself, as the cloak covered the body completely except for a shoddy mane of hair the color of dark, dried blood which was hiding parts of the woman's features. Sunken, bloodshot, ruby eyes peered out from beneath pale brows sitting over a small, pointed nose and thin, bloodless, slightly cracked lips. Thin, dark veins criss-crossed over the cheeks of the woman to her temples, giving the woman the image of having walked into a black-tinted spider-web.
"Jumpy, aren't we?" the woman said with a mild smirk.
The woman took a few steps forward, her long robes swishing gently, revealing they were quite torn and tattered in places, as though from a lot of wear and tear. Kassandra couldn't detect any obvious weapons. There was a thin utility belt slung around slender hips atop the robe with a few assorted bits and pieces dangling from it, including what she assumed were two fairly elegant flashlights. She did note a faint gleam of something metallic under the dark cloak, she assumed it was a sort of armor.
Kassandra felt something, a curious tingling in her fingertips, originating from the spear and a mild vibration in the medallion around her neck. The fact that this stranger had been close to her without Kassandra noticing added to the surreal sensation. It had been, quite literally, centuries since Kassandra had been surprised like this. She did not sense any immediate threat, but she did not relax her stance just yet.
"Who are you...And where am I? What country?" she said, slowly.
The stranger reached up to brush a few of the strands of hair from her face. She smiled. It was a smile that Kassandra could tell could be beautiful. The woman was mesmerizing in a way, despite the cracked lips, the clearly malnourished features and the weird spiderweb-patterns on her cheeks. There was a spark of some warmth in those ruby-red eyes even if it was drowned in a deep, oppressive darkness. Kassandra knew a thing or two about darkness, and the darkness she sensed and saw in this woman was nothing like she had seen before. Which made this the second first time experience of the day.
"My name is Janiel Ka and you are, of course, on Tattooine."
...
EXTERIOR - Tattooine - Edge of the Western Dune Sea - 3959 BBY
The stranger who had identified herself as Janiel Ka, as weird a name as any Kassandra had heard in her time, was looking her up and down methodically. She seemed amused by the current situation, if anything and Kassandra did not sense any hostile intent from the woman for the time being. Though there was a sense of unease, a hint of foreboding maybe lingering in the air around them. Truth be told, Kassandra was still reeling from the events leading up to this encounter, what with having firmly believed she was dead up until a moment ago. Now that she had fully woken up from her not-death though, her senses started sharpening again, back to the usual perceptiveness of a warrior having survived centuries of constant fighting. While not sensing any imminent danger, she remained alert, keeping a close eye on even the most subtle of movements of the woman across from her.
"You don't look like a crash survivor, and I haven't seen wreckage anywhere nearby." the woman began to talk, slowly turning a calf circle to the right and beginning to walk, but keeping her distance. "You could be an escaped slave, you certainly have the body for one..." her gaze lingered on Kassandra a moment longer, with what Kassandra firmly believed was a hint of hunger flashing through her eyes. "...But you look to be in too good of a shape to have wandered far in the desert and we're far from settlements. Could have dropped off a barge I suppose, but that would mean you're more pretty than you are smart."
"Excuse me, Tattoo-who?" Kassandra managed to ask, ignoring for a moment the blatant flirt which was very out of character for her. This caused the red-haired woman to pause and look a bit non-plussed.
"You don't know Tattooine?" she asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
"I do not, is it a local dialect? What continent are we on?" Kassandra shifted a bit, her stance relaxing a bit more, but still keeping her guard up.
"Continent? What do you mean? This -is- Tattooine! All of it. The whole planet."
This took a moment to compute in Kassandra's head. Her brain made its way through the genuine confusion at her not knowing about this place, then went on to parse the last few words which described Tattooine as the whole planet. Had she landed somewhere in the world where people had not figured out that they were not the only people on Earth? Some remote part of the world that hadn't been touched by any civilization yet? She had read about such places existing, but the woman's attire and equipment did not exactly scream pre-civilization to her.
"OK, pause, rewind. You think this -planet- is called Tattooine?"
The woman continued her slow circling of Kassandra.
"I don't think so sweetheart. I mean, I -know- I'm not as good a navigator as Min, but even I can manage to punch in the coordinates to Tattoo-fucking-ine."
Kassandra tried to parse all that as well. There were a number of threads that led from the words uttered by the woman, navigation relating to planets, additional light flirting, and a tinge of bitterness when another name was mentioned. She focused her thoughts and arrived at the conclusion that this woman firmly believed they were on a planet other than Earth. Moreover, they had traveled to the planet via some means of navigation. Again, too many tangents. She focused her mind again, recalling the teachings of her old mentors.
"Pardon me, are you implying this is not Earth?"
"I am not sure what Eaarth you are talking of..." Janiel said. Kassandra was, for a moment, distracted by the weird but endearing way in which the woman pronounced Earth, drawling the second syllable heavily as if she had never heard the term before. "But this planet is known as Tattooine across the Galaxy and I have rarely heard of it spoken by any other name, save for "Ass End of Nowhere", "Where Honesty Goes to Die" or just "Hellhole"."
Kassandra made a mental note that, given any other circumstances, she'd likely enjoy having thorough conversations with this woman. The dry humor and sarcasm in Janiel's voice were something Kassandra could relate to, like a memory of her own escapes over the last couple of hundreds of years. However, given that the woman had now basically confirmed that, at least according to her, they were on a planet that was not Earth, and the way she seemed to talk about the Galaxy as a place you could shop around for good Dolmades, she chose to focus on the imminent situation again.
"I'm sorry, just to be perfectly clear, you're not playing some kind of prank on me right? This isn't Aletheia messing with my head through the Artifact...No, I would feel that, I've felt it before..."
Kassandra's mind spun. Still a little disoriented from the explosion and the events leading up to it, as well as how she woke up, even with all the experience of over 2000 years under her belt, she found herself losing focus for a moment.
Luckily, her warriors instincts had not been affected by the sudden shift.
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and her body reacted on instinct alone and it was good that way because she -knew- for a fact that woman had moved way beyond a speed any human she had ever met could achieve.
There was snap-hiss, a faint sizzle, then a clashing sound she couldn't quite describe and her knees buckled under the pressure from catching the attack with her spear. Two burning crimson blades shimmered inches from her face, blades that seemed to be made of pure light, but that could not be the case as they exerted an inhumane amount of pressure on her defenses. She locked eyes with the woman, the red orbs narrowed to slits, but there was a bright grin on the pale features, illuminated in the ghastly red light of those thrumming blades still trying to overpower her. Not only was this woman insanely fast, she was also a near match for Kassandra in pure strength.
Before she could launch a counter, the woman jumped back, an impossibly high jump with a flourish of the blades to both sides and a backwards flip before landing a safe distance away.
A faint hissss-snap and the blades....Simply vanished along with the thrumming sound.
"MALAKA!" Kassandra cursed and readied herself for a follow-up.
"Calm down cutie, I just wanted to test a theory." She seemed a little confused. Her eyes lingered on Kassandra as her hands slowly lifted to show them empty again, though truth be told, considering the speed at which she had moved, that wasn't much of a reassurance. But the woman, Janiel, was definitely confused about something.
"That weapon...Kortosis? And, you move too fast, but...You're not using the Force?"
Kor-what? The Force?
Kassandra now mirrored Janiel's confusion.
"Alright listen, this is obviously getting confusing for both of us and honestly, I would rather not continue to cook in the desert while figuring it out. I didn't mean to pick up strays on my little trip here, but Kibbles likes you and.." she idly waved a hand, her face a weird mixture of genuine conviction and dismissive annoyance. "There are no coincidences, there is only the Force and all that. Heh, wouldn't Omoor be proud? Anyway, you probably wouldn't last a day out here seeing as you're clearly out of your depth. Wanna hand me that weapon so I can bring you along on my bike?"
Kassandra narrowed her eyes at the suggestion though everything the woman said did make sense. Outside of specific names and the referral to this Force-thing, whatever that was. She didn't like the idea of leaving her weapon, but that being said, when she looked around again, there was no end to the vast desert landscape, only the rippling of blistering heat on scorched sand and rocks.
There was a mild chance a settlement might lurk just behind the horizon, but given that she had no clue which direction to turn or even which direction to follow -how do you navigate with the sun when there are two suns?- it was likely a bad idea to rely on simple pathfinding. She did have some rations in her backpack, but those would last a day or two at most, in these temperatures likely less.
"This is more than just a weapon to me. I have a personal connection to this spear." she said slowly.
"Hey, I get it, I really do. But if we're to ride on the same bike, I make myself extremely vulnerable and I have no guarantee you won't try anything."
"You have my word..."
"Which is only as good as mine." Janiel continued. "I have safe passage out of this little pit of despair and I know where we are. I hold the cards, you don't. If you're half as smart as you're cute, you know I am offering you the only reasonable option."
Kassandra blinked, started to reply indignantly. Her mind stumbled over the replies due to the blatant flirtatious tone in the woman's voice. Then she sighed, dejectedly and slowly raised the spear, holding it out to Janiel.
"Fine."
Janiel took the spear with a bright smile on those cracked lips and gestured behind her to the weird, box shaped object Kassandra had previously completely disregarded. She walked towards it and the little critter that Kassandra had almost forgotten joined Janiel as she walked away. Kassandra hesitated a moment longer, then slowly walked towards the strange -bike-. The strangest feeling overcame her then as she peered up and around again, taking in the vast desert and allowing herself to realize and understand that she might indeed be on a different world. Her first thought, of course, was that she would have to find a way back. Her duty was to the Staff and as such, she could ill afford a random adventure. However a second thought followed soon after, crystallizing in her mind from the gentle sensation in her heart, warming her from inside like she hadn't felt in centuries. Something that had used to drive her and keep her going through decades and centuries of history.
It was a sense of wonder and excitement about the unknown road ahead.