Chapter - 9

Otto's expression turned grim for a second, he had made the mistake of keeping Cecilia away from most of the world and as soon as she tasted a bit of freedom she fell in love with that good for nothing of Siegfried. Keeping them into a cage had backfired against him really good but he will not make the same mistake again, if it's the outside world they want to see so be it but he will be the one who will show it to them.

"After your debut, there is no reason to keep you a secret, you will soon get more and more missions and every time you'll complete one I will take you wherever you want, I know a lot of places after all" he replied with a smirk "Anyway, we're not here to talk about work today, this is your reward holiday, after all"

Anastasia looked a bit embarrassed which made Otto raise an eyebrow "speaking of that grandpa..."

"What is it?" he asked as a few red flags started to rise inside his head

"I would like to bring Cecilia with me..." she said sheepishly.

The red flags descended as Otto sighed "This your reward not hers..."

"yeah I know but I would prefer to visit this city in company of my friend..." she replied

Otto remained silent as he drank some of the coffee he had brought with him "Well, I have to visit Edison so you would be alone, I had planned to give you an escort...very well, Cecilia shall escort you and make sure that you'll enjoy yourself"

Anastasia's eyes lit up "Thank you, grandpa!"

"You better go tell her before I change my mind" he said as Anastasia immediately got up and left the room.

The overseer of Schicksal looked at his phone where a diagram of Anastasia's cerebral activities appeared. It was normal, her cerebral activities were perfect...the only problem was that in all these years she never had normal diagram exception made for her firsts months after he put the Nanosuit on her. He was sure she never slept since then and that she did something else during the night, he couldn't remember all the attempts they made to get inside her dream world only to be blocked by SECOND.

But tonight, not only she had slept but her readings were normal. Maybe it was true that she was just feeling like a caged bird since the symptoms disappeared but Otto had the impression that wasn't the case.

He made a call to Amber "I want a squad to keep Anastasia under control" he ordered

"Yes, overseer Otto" Amber replied

Later...

Anastasia felt happy like never before, she and Cecilia had walked around the streets of New York all day and they still needed to see many things, unknown to both of them, there was a squad of Valkyries following them around. The Pink-Haired girl couldn't wait to tell her sister what she saw during her mission and in New York, she was that she will talk with Theresa for days especially since she knew that the small valkyrie was worried-sick for her the last time they saw each other.

She also was a bit worried for Prophet, the Nanosuit was working as usual so he should have appeared but nothing happened.

These thoughts were eclipsed by the joy of being in the outside world...

Unknown to everyone there was someone else watching from the rooftops of the city, their faces hidden by their hoods, but there was something that united them, an insignia. To the people who didn't know what it meant it could be seen as an A but the reality was much different.

The only one who didn't have the insignia was the same man who always had appeared inside the dreams of the girl named Anastasia.

"So it's her" one of the hooded men said calmly as he look down on the pink-haired girl "You know that we will never have another chance to find the heir right?"

"Yes Italian Mentor, I was the one who told you that this was our last chance" the hooded man of the girl's dreams replied nodding "She still have to pass the trial though"

With that said the hooded group remained silent as they saw Anastasia and Cecilia reached the Grand Central Terminal. The two women looked at the majestic building in front of them before walking inside, both of them were dumbstruck by the beauty of the station though Cecilia was wondering why they were there she looked at Anastasia and found her in some sort of trance.

Cecilia was about to say something when Anastasia started walking towards the staff area "Ana?" Cecilia called her once without getting an answer "Where are you going?! Ana?!" she called again as she started following the pink-haired girl

Cecilia was getting more and more concerned with each passing second as Anastasia stumbled upon a dead end.

"There is nothing here, Ana" Cecilia said as she looked at the several cleaning objects in front of them.

Again Anastasia didn't reply and slowly pressed her hand on the wall. After a few seconds, a strange A-looking insignia appeared and the wall slid away revealing some stairs which seemed to lead into the depths of Earth itself.

"What the...?" Cecilia whispered as she quickly grabbed her phone and was about to call the overseer. The white-haired Valkyrie saw Anastasia starting to descend inside that Abyss causing Cecilia to widen her eyes. Unfortunately, there was poor reception inside the corridor...

She looked at her phone with a conflicted expression, she had to go outside in order call Otto and let Anastasia go by herself or follow Anastasia as she adventured in that Abyss...

Cecilia put down her phone and quickly started following Anastasia. The two girls made their way through the tunnel, the descend was long and seemingly infinite, the white-haired woman started feeling more and more tired and weak as the atmospheric pressure started increasing while Anastasia kept on walking as if she couldn't feel the pressure.

Cecilia's vision started to get blurry as she started slowing down and panting before completely stopping and falling down her knees "Ana..." she whispered as she stretched out her hand in Anastasia's direction before collapsing unconscious.

The pink-haired didn't seem to notice Cecilia's actions as she kept descending in that darkness now alone. She reached her destination when she finally stumbled upon the ruins of New York city. Everything was just like in her dream, the coldness, the silence, the feeling of emptiness and despair but now she was alone, there was no hooded man to accompany her nor anyone else this caused her to snap out of her trance and to notice how lonely she was in that moment. The Jäger couldn't even remember how she got there in the first place nor where Cecilia was...but those thoughts couldn't stop the feeling of wanting to get to the bottom of this place and so she headed towards the massive armored door that was shown her in her dream.

She wasn't surprised when she managed to open the door with her hand neither she was when she opened the other door leading to the room where her dream ended. Anastasia finally reached her destination, the room was empty just like in her dream and in the middle of it there was the box she saw.

Like in the dream, she opened it and the blob revealed itself to her eyes. Anastasia slowly stretched out her hand in its direction and in response, it slowly extended some tendrils towards her.

Then it happened.

The nanosuit didn't even try to stop the creature as it quickly entered Anastasia's body through her hand. Anastasia screamed in pain as the images of years of torture flashed before her eyes and the pain of those moments come up all at once. Her screams echoed across the city in ruin before dying down and letting silence take over once again...the giant biological structures disappeared and the giant underground cave started collapsing causing a massive earthquake...

Later...

Otto was looking down at Cecilia with a really angry expression, behind them the emergency services were trying to the get a hold of the situation since an Earthquake hit New york, fortunately without any massive damage. What really angered the Overseer wasn't that but the unconscious body of Anastasia...

Cecilia had been crying since the medics stated that Anastasia was now in a permanent vegetative state. She was found inside outside the Grand Central Terminal by the emergencies services, she didn't show any sign of damage, she was just like that.

"She's here" Otto whispered as Cecilia widened her eyes while an aircraft landed next to them "No punishment will come from me because the consequences of your actions will be enough of a punishment"

The door of the aircraft opened and Theresa immediately come out of it, she sprinted towards Otto and Cecilia and only stopped when she saw Anastasia's body lying on the stretcher. Her worried expression turned into one of shock as she slowly raised her gaze towards Otto.

The man had a grim expression on his face which was more than enough to make Theresa understand what he was about to say, tears started falling down her eyes as she waited for Otto to speak "I'm sorry...Anastasia seemed to have suffered massive brain damage...to put it simply...her mind is gone and her body is simply using its instincts to keep working" he said solemnly

Theresa grabbed his clothes "But we are Schicksal! We can do something about it, can't we?!" she shouted before breaking down and starting crying

"Even if we manage to repair the brain...Anastasia would be no more...she will return to be a complete stranger" He said while stroking Theresa's head "I'm sorry..."

Cecilia wasn't able to look at the small Valkyrie, the guilt kept her from doing so...she held herself responsible for what happened to Anastasia...Theresa will hate her for sure after this...

Theresa left Otto and made her way to Anastasia's body and grabbed her hand, it was warm still alive but at the same time, it felt emotionless. All the good memories with her dear little sister came up all at once causing her mind to wander back into the past...