Chapter Text
In the room, there was darkness. Concealed within the darkness, there were five girls, sitting in a semicircle. If you listened carefully, you could hear each one breathing. The air was full of their silent questions and furtive glances towards the door. Every girl was thinking of one name-- “Vriska.”
The door slid open, and the shadow of a girl passed in.
“Why the hell are you all sitting in the dark? It’s like a funeral in here.” The girl snapped her fingers, and half the lights blinked on.
Vriska Serket was more of a force than a girl. She walked with certainty, setting herself down in the circle with a thump. “Will somebody say something already? God.”
One of the other girls spoke up. “So, are you going to tell us what happened?”
Vriska smirked. “Oh, I don’t know, Terezi, maybe I won’t. But just because I’m so nice…”
She leaned forward, and everyone unconsciously held their breath. “The doc said I should pass along this message: pretty soon we’ll be starting the next stage of our training.” She lowered her voice. “It’s a new batch of upgrades. They’re all unique, according to our aspect.”
Excited murmurs broke out among the group. “What did you get?” “What do you mean?” Most importantly, “Who’s next?”
Vriska flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Mine? I think I got the best. You know what I can do?” She waited for a response, and when none came, continued. “I can steal people’s data now. All their screen files, all their credits, everything.”
There was only one girl who didn’t let out a gasp of envy. Vriska frowned at her. “Rose, what’s your deal? Aren’t you pumped?”
Rose didn’t answer. She let out a puff of air through her nose. “I don’t know. I just… Will it really be unique, considering we have the same aspect and all?”
Vriska’s eyes narrowed. “It’s funny you should say that. I asked the same thing. And do you know what he said?” Rose shrugged. She was perfectly aware of the sudden tension between them, but didn’t acknowledge it.
“There’ve always been the two of us. Two kids born under Light, when everyone else here has a separate aspect. It’s kinda funny, the doc being such a picky collector and all. Why would he want two, I asked?” Vriska’s face was half-illuminated by the still darkened part of the room. It made her angular features sinister when they curved into a smile.
“He told me anyone can be replaced. There doesn’t have to be two.”
***
Two heads shot up. Roxy and Meenah were huddled next to the latter’s pod, frozen at the sight of Rose.
“What?” Roxy blurted out. “No, we weren’t talking about you! We were just, uh…” her voice trailed off, and she sighed. “We were just wondering when you’re going to get your upgrade. I mean, everyone else already has them, so why are they waiting on you? We weren’t saying anything bad about you, we just--”
“It’s okay,” Rose cut her off. “It has to be soon. I can wait as long as they see fit to make me.”
Rose could handle waiting. But she still spent her every moment wondering. What’ll it be? Will it be the same as Vriska’s? Hacking could be very useful.
No, they wouldn’t be the same. Anything with multiple copies had a lesser value, that much was common knowledge. If she were identical to Vriska, she would be dispensable. Having the same aspect was bad enough, and certainly strange…
“He told me there didn’t have to be two.”
Rose pushed the memories out of her mind, making room for a new thought.
Will I get this upgrade at all?
She opened the lid to her pod and climbed inside. “It has to be soon,” she repeated. “Maybe even tomorrow. It’s getting late, we should sleep, don’t you think?”
***
Rose was waiting outside the operating room, accompanied by the only companions she had ever known.
“I’m kind of scared to get this upgrade,” Roxy admitted. “I mean, it’s not like the old ones we got for our aspects, the kind that just pop into the neuroport. I heard this one needs actual surgery to put in.”
“You shouldn’t be scared,” Vriska snapped. “Whatever the doc gives us, I’m sure it’s valuable to our training. You want to be good at your job, right?”
Roxy nodded. “Of course! It was just a stupid thought. Nevermind.”
“Yeah. If I get hired to take down a dictator, I want to be ready,” Porrim said.
Vriska rolled her eyes. “Idiot. Do you think anyone wanting to do good would hire assassins like us? Our entire lives scream ‘black market’.”
“You never know, though...”
There was a quiet ping, and Rose could see the lights of a visual interface being opened in Porrim’s eyes. “Looks like it’s my turn.”
The door slid sleekly open for her to enter. Porrim stepped through without hesitation, and it immediately shut behind her.
None of the girls who went through the door in their faltering procession came out afterwards. This, Rose thought as she waited, could be a bad sign. After an hour or so, she was left on her own.
Rose startled when the door flew open, indicating it was her turn. An operating table was waiting for her inside the room. She sat down and leaned her head back on the headrest.
There was a small table next to her with a tray resting on it. Tiny instruments littered the tray, made for picking apart the wires and hardware that made up the most important part of a human brain. She had seen instruments of the like many times before. What was more unsettling was the sight of a sharp scalpel. Roxy had been right about the upgrade requiring surgery. Rose swallowed hard.
But the scalpel didn’t look that sharp, she thought. In fact, it looked rather dull. Its edges were soft and blurry, along with the rest of her vision. She took this as a comfort as she breathed in and slipped into unconsciousness.
When she woke, she would forget what it meant to feel comfort. She would forget any feeling at all.
***
Rose could tell something important was coming. Her typical training schedule consisted of psychology, combat, weapons, academics, and strategy-- but it had recently expanded to include a handful of subdivisions. The difficulty of each subject seemed to increase daily. By the looks of her fellow trainees, she wasn’t the only one experiencing a spike; Vriska herself had walked out of a combat session covered in bruises.
Normally, the extra strain would bring many tempers to the breaking point. Rose could distinctly remember cat fights breaking out in previous years, but now, petty disagreements seemed to be the last thing anyone was thinking about. Ever since that surgery so many weeks ago, no one had argued at all. There was no sarcasm, no complaining, no admittance to any sort of feeling. Everyone was numb.
This might have scared Rose, if she weren’t as empty as the rest of them. It was rather pleasant to not have a single worry. And it certainly helped her when the new tricks she was learning were put to use.
As with the aspect upgrades, and the ones after it that seemed to affect emotion, Rose was the last to be called in. Her comrades had told her of a test, but refused to divulge any more details. She didn’t mind. She merely went to the testing room when she was called, going over knife technique in her head, imagining possible testing scenarios. It never occured to her to be nervous.
With a small pop, the transport pad deposited Rose in front of the door to the testing room. At the same time, a message appeared on her visual interface. She blinked to open it.
No need to go inside, it read. Your test today will take place in a different part of the facility.
She stepped back onto the pad, waiting for it to take her somewhere new.
The place she arrived in momentarily was new indeed. She had never been inside this hall before, in all her years of instruction. The heavy steel door in front of her was identical to all those she had seen, but she knew it wasn’t the same. The air here was different. It stung her nose as she breathed in, colder and more acidic than she recognized.
The door slid open to reveal a darkened room. Rose paused before going inside.
Attackers, maybe? Or a simulation. We haven’t had a drowning simulation yet, maybe it’s that. I can beat it if I find a way to break the container and let the water out… But maybe that’s too predictable? She couldn’t think of what could be inside, so she threw caution to the wind, and peeked her head in.
No hidden assailants lept out to meet her, nor the telltale hum of a simulation kicking in. Rose’s eyes automatically adjusted to the darkness, pupils dilating mechanically.
There was no game for her to outsmart. No obstacle course designed to test her endurance. Instead of anything she would have expected, a small boy sat before her.
He was slumped on a concrete bench built into the wall, matted hair hiding his eyes from view. Rose could see the outline of each individual rib underneath his thin white shirt.
When he looked up, his eyes were brown, dull, and devoid of life.
Rose didn’t know what she was supposed to do. The boy obviously wasn’t an opponent for her. He was a breathing pile of sticks-- to fight him would be an insult to her ability. He couldn’t be any kind of strategist, either. His eyes betrayed a clear lack of intellectual activity.
She sat down on the bench next to him.
“What am I supposed to do with you?” she asked.
The boy blinked slowly. When he spoke, his voice had the raspy tone of disuse. “I think you can figure it out. If you’re as smart as they say you are.”
“Well, I am plenty smart. They wouldn’t need to test that,” Rose said thoughtfully. “And I’m a good fighter, too. What do I need to prove?”
The boy rested his head back on the cold wall. “You need to prove you can do it.”
“Do what?”
He closed his eyes. “What they’ve been training you for your whole life.”
Something deep inside Rose clicked. With a scraping sound, a shelf slid out of the wall next to her. Resting on it was a knife, curved and polished to wicked perfection.
The boy did not open his eyes. “Do it fast, okay? I just want to get out of this place.”
Rose gently took the knife, holding it up to eye level. The edge looked sharp enough to cut steel. “How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember ever not being here. Don’t stall.”
Rose stood up, tightening her grip on the knife’s handle. “So… I just do it, then?”
“Yes.” The boy breathed in deeply. “Do it now.” His head was still laid back. His eyes were still closed.
Rose held her knife to the boy’s exposed neck. With a quick jerk of her wrist, his throat was sliced open. She withdrew her arm, watching the blood pour from his wound and seep into his clothes. It dripped onto the bench where his body now lay, unmoving. He wouldn’t open his eyes again.
Rose set the knife back on its shelf and left. Her job was done.
***
Rose didn’t know why she was thinking about that boy again. She had come so far in the years that had passed since his death. It was a waste of her thoughts to dwell on what was done. His only purpose had been to advance her training, and he had fulfilled it.
She was better now, everyone was. Some were already going on to their own missions. They never told what they had done, or, more accurately, who they had killed, but they always came back with a satisfied gleam in their eye.
Rose was alone in the barracks. Meenah, Porrim, Roxy, Terezi-- they were all out honing their skills. The boys, she assumed, would be doing the same thing. Vriska…
Vriska was out on a mission. She was the first so far to have received multiple assignments, and before leaving, had made it clear exactly how pleased with herself she was.
”I can’t say I’m surprised,” her voice echoed in Rose’s mind. ”It’s kind of obvious that I’m one of the more capable people here. This shouldn’t take long, I’ll see you all in a few days.”
Rose hadn’t had a mission at all. Yet, she reminded herself. She would get one soon. Doc Scratch didn’t usually send out multiple trainees at once, she she’d probably get one as soon as--
The door to the barracks smacked open. All the doors in the facility were automated, but somehow, Vriska always seemed to slam them open and shut. She smirked at Rose from the hall.
“Hey there. I see someone hasn’t found her purpose yet.”
Rose didn’t mind Vriska’s taunts. After all, if she did, there would be something wrong with her upgrade, and she would have it repaired immediately.
“No, I haven’t received a mission yet. How did yours go?” she said calmly.
“Perfectly, thank you. It’s such a shame you haven’t experienced it yet. It’s such a high, killing. You feel great after. All satisfied and stuff.” Vriska went over to her pod and cracked the lid open, climbing inside. “I’m beat, though. I don’t think anyone will mind if I take a quick rest, do you?”
Rose shook her head. Vriska nodded decisively, and snapped the cover shut over her head. In a few seconds, it popped open again, and she lifted her head out.
“Don’t feel bad about not getting any assignments. They’ll realize you’re useless and put you out of your misery eventually. I would’ve done it myself a long time ago if I could get permission. A very long time ago.”
She closed the lid again, leaving Rose alone once more with her thoughts.