Chapter Text
The evening sun streamed through the window and split apart into blades of light that streaked across the bedroom floorboards, its beauty ignored by the white-furred Felineko that slumped over on her desk.
Hannah leaned against her paw as she pressed it to her cheek, her other paw loosely gripping a pencil as she spaced out. A mountain of medical books cluttered Hannah's working space, the attention on her studies remaining absent and diverted by the anxiety she felt over the recent events in Gasco.
Twelve days ago, in the middle of the Berman invasion, an extremely deadly plague had swept through the country. It didn't spare either Berman or Gasco people, and ravaged through the dotted military camps, villages, hospitals and cities alike. And with doctors already occupied with hundreds of refugees from the war in already terrible conditions, sickness rapidly spread through the war-torn Gasco.
Young and old were the most affected, and entire villages were turned into ghost towns days before a single doctor could manage to appear. Distant radio communication went silent, tanks and military bases were eerily still, and a tense, dreadful hopelessness hung over the hearts of many. The war came to a grinding halt as Berman soldiers too fell ill and were picked off by the plague, and it wasn't long until the Empire ordered a retreat.
But it wasn't just Berman who were pulling out of the country. Many people in Gasco were in a rush to board airships and flee from the plague, afraid their families would be the next victims. Civilian airships filed out of Gasco until many healthy people were left stranded in the country as the last ship abandoned them.
Hannah and the rest of the Taranis crew were close to rescuing their families by the time they heard news of the plague and coming countrywide quarantine. When they realized the Berman Empire was starting to retreat they hurried to save their families from captivity, but were heartbroken to find that many of them were sick or already dead.
Only Hannah's family had survived out of everyone's in the Taranis crew, and she was even more fortune they weren't sick either. But the Berman were urgent to execute any sick civilians, and they left behind a pile of stacked bodies within the camp for the crew to find. The amount of death and cruelty was too much for Hannah to witness, and she broke down by the time they returned to the Taranis.
The only thing left for the crew to do was rush to the capitol city for safety, but to their dismay Hack had fallen ill on the way. The poor little Caninu fought for his life and Hannah did everything she could for him, but in the end the plague took him all the same.
Having to stop and bury one of their friends was something Hannah would never forget. Chick was devastated, mentally losing it as her brother was ripped from her. Jin and Sheena had to convince the poor girl to keep going when she started threatening to kill herself, and Hannah spent most of the remaining travel time preparing medicines to soothe Chick's shock and grief.
The journey to reach Paresia was very tense and quiet, most of the crew mourning their dead families and now their dead friend. Mei was too scared to cry as she worried if the plague would take her life next, and Malt felt pressured as he prayed that the situation didn't worsen.
But when they finally arrived at Paresia and begged to be allowed inside the city's walls, most of the children were denied despite none of them being sick. Only Hannah, her family, and Chick were authorized to enter the city, meanwhile the rest of the Taranis crew were forced to turn around.
Hannah didn't want to leave her friends, but Malt insisted she should go so she and her family would be safe. The rest of the Taranis crew planned to split apart, each member seeking to return somewhere else in Gasco if they were not allowed safety inside Paresia.
And after all the heartbreak and a farewell to her friends that might've been Hannah's last, Paresia itself barely qualified as safe. The Gasco government had a strong grip on the city as to not allow it to slip into anarchy from the recent panic over the plague, and if the government was struggling to hold the capitol together then Hannah could only imagine how the rest of the country must've been fairing.
A few days after Hannah entered the city, Paresia went into total lock down. No one was allowed to enter but anyone could leave if they brought a death wish. Although staying here might've been enough of one, as the city was starting to force heavy rations that resulted in hardly a months worth of food.
Which brought Hannah to now, living with her family and Chick in her father's second house in Paresia as they slowly starved because of the tight rations. Hannah tried to spend her free time studying medicine but found herself increasingly anxious of the plague, and if it would ever reach the city.
Hannah's tail curled in apprehension and her stomach twisted uneasily as she felt more powerless here than she did fighting the Berman Empire or patching her friend's bullet wounds. Approaching ruin felt as though it loomed and teased the back of her fur, waiting to rip Hannah apart the moment she got comfortable.
Hannah set her pencil down and pressed her paws against her face, running them over her muzzle and whiskers as she stifled a distressed moan. Sitting in a confined room didn't help her anxiety, but Hannah wouldn't dare leave the house in the case her family needed her.
She was snapped out of her thoughts as the bedroom door creaked open, and Hannah looked over her shoulder to see who was rude enough to forget knocking and invade her privacy.
"Hannah? Honey?" Her mother's voice echoed into the room.
The door yawned wider until the figure of Hannah's mother stood in the doorway, the older Felineko's tired blue eyes blending with the same beautiful white fur she shared with her daughter. Hannah and her mother also shared the same light pink hair, though her mother's was a lot shorter and had specks of gray in it.
"Yes?" Hannah prompted.
"Could you be so kind and pick up pain medicine for your father?" Her mother requested, "His aches have been bothering him again."
Hannah's poor father suffered injuries by the Berman and had trouble walking due to the stress his body had been put in. He was very weak after the Taranis crew rescued him, so her family was working to nurse him back to health the best they could.
Fortunately, Hannah's sisters and her mother weren't subjected to as much suffering, which meant the Berman at least showed some mercy upon the women and children.
"Of course!" Hannah agreed, standing from her chair and moving away from the desk as she brushed her dress off.
Hannah needed a walk to clear her head anyway, so this was perfect timing.
"There's a sack of money on the kitchen counter, that should be enough for the medicine." Her mother informed, "Please don't stay out too long."
Hannah's mother turned and left once she was finished briefing her daughter on the task, leaving the door wide open like every parent did. Hannah was about to leave her room, but paused at the doorway and whipped around as she remembered to bring something with her.
On the edge of Hannah's desk lied a handle tucked into a sort of small pouch. She picked it up, unbuttoning the brace and sliding the handle out to reveal a shiny dagger that imprinted a small image of herself onto its steel. Hannah had been keeping it on herself anytime she needed to leave the house, the tension in Paresia making her feel unsafe enough to come prepared in the event of being robbed or threatened.
Hannah buttoned the brace back on and slipped it on the side of her dress, tucking it under her apron before exiting her room to collect the money from where her mother said it was located.
***
Paresia, despite being a city, looked like another ghost town. Barely ten people occupied the same street, most being guards on patrol. Yet even with the added law enforcement, Hannah's tail still flicked uneasily behind her. She circled around most people she needed to pass, and periodically checked her back to be sure no one was following.
But her worry diminished and eased away as the pharmacy building came into sight, and Hannah wasted no time approaching the door and bolting inside. The sweet jingle of the bell that alerted the shop owner a customer had entered rang in her ears, something so forgettable oddly soothing to her anxious state of mind.
Hannah gazed around the shop as she closed the door behind her, noticing the pharmacy was empty except for a lone black-furred Felineko that stood on the other side of the counter. As Hannah stepped up she noticed the clerk was sorting through a small stack of paper, her face screwed into a focused glare as she scanned a few lines then moved onto the next page.
"How may I help you?" The Felineko addressed Hannah without looking up.
"Can I get some pain medicine?" Hannah asked, already reaching for the sack of money tied under her apron.
"I can only supply you with half a bottle." The Felineko stated, "We're on rations for most medicine."
"Fudge, I hope that's enough..." Hannah muttered, "I'll take it."
Hannah pulled out the wallet as the Felineko turned around and picked out a clear bottle from the medicine shelf clearly labelled 'aches/pains', then set the product on the counter for purchase.
"That'll be three coins."
Three? The pharmacy was still charging full price for a half-filled bottle? Hannah muttered something under her breath but slid three coins on the counter anyway before retying the money pouch back under her apron and retrieving the bottle of medicine.
"Come again." The Felineko murmured as Hannah turned around.
She didn't bother with a thanks, her boldly lashing tail being enough of a reply on its own. Hannah exited the pharmacy and began the trek home, her eyes downcast as she wondered how to tell her mother about paying full price for only half of what her father needed.
The sun was nearly below the horizon, encroaching dusk settling upon Paresia as the street lamps dimly flickered to life. Hannah hurried her pace as she was shrouded in the darkness and life around her seemed to vanish from the roads.
As she passed an alleyway something tall shuffled out of the darkness and into the dying sunlight. Hannah gasped as she noticed it and backed away several steps, her fur standing on end. What had stepped out was a figure draped in a thick cloak, a hood ominously pulled over their head that protected their identity.
Hannah's free paw went for the dagger, and she clutched the handle as she prepared for the figure to run at her or attack.
"Hannah, over here." The figure spoke in a cool tone.
Hannah stiffened and her ears perked as the hooded entity echoed her name. She watched the figure's paw beckon her forward before blending back into the darkness, leaving her with the option to follow. Hannah's paw squeezed at the dagger handle as she wondered who this was and how they knew her name. Was she being led into a trap? That felt like the case, but she was interested to know what they wanted.
Every instinct told her to run, and Hannah sighed at the weight of her dumb decision. But she chose to inch forward and approach the alley, readying the dagger as her body tensed up—because following a random creep into an alleyway didn't spell good fortune.
Hannah rounded the corner and moved into the alley, seeing the figure waiting for her as they stood motionless. She glanced back to the entrance to be sure nobody had followed from behind to block her exit, still convinced this was some type of lure.
"Hannah, pleased to meet you." The figure spoke once Hannah looked back.
The figure's paws moved to his hood and he pulled it down, revealing himself to be a Doberman Caninu. Hannah's heart sank as she saw the breed, the only purebred Dobermans being from the Berman Empire.
"No need for alarm." The Berman soothed, "I come to you for an offer."
Hannah blinked in suspicion and gave another glance over her shoulder to be extra sure he wasn't stalling to give time for another Berman friend to sneak up and attack. What in the world would the Berman want to offer her?
"Offer?" Hannah echoed the word.
"Yes." The Berman confirmed, "I am apart of a special forces unit of the Berman army, and I was sent here on a mission before the plague hit. My company of soldiers and I have one of the last airships in Gasco, and we are willing to bring you and your family with us."
Hannah's ear twitched as the Berman offered a way to evacuate her family from Gasco, away from the plague and risk of illness. This was too good to be true, there must've been something extensive they wanted from her if they knew she and her family wanted out of Gasco like everyone else.
"...What's the catch?" Hannah narrowed her eyes.
"Well, for one, the reason I was sent here was to eliminate all the crew members on that huge tank you were apart of." The Berman noted.
"So you were sent to kill my friends... and me?" Hannah scoffed.
So this was an assassin. Great, Hannah thought, was she sure she didn't walk into an ambush?
"Exactly." The Berman nodded, "But now that our reinforcements have pulled out of the country, we are struggling to assassinate our targets with the reestablished Gasco army sniffing out any remaining Berman."
"Wait, so then what are you asking for me to do exactly?" Hannah asked, still unsure of what the trade was.
"For you to finish our work." The Berman said simply, "Like I said, it's damn near impossible for us to traverse this country when the next Gasco sniper could be aiming at us. So if someone from Gasco was taking out our targets for us, it'd make this easier."
"Let me get this straight, you want me to kill all my friends in order to get a ride on your stupid blimp out of Gasco?" Hannah hissed at what this Berman actually thought she would attempt.
"That's the gist."
"I..." Hannah was about to decline but found herself hesitating.
Hannah thought it was sick to be uncertain of her answer on something like this, every moral instinct yelling at her to throw the Berman's offer into the fire. Hannah wasn't a murderer, she wanted to be a healer for pete's sake!
And yet who was more important to her? The friends Hannah knew for only a short amount of time or her family that cared a million lifetimes over for her? The reason she originally joined the journey with her friends on the Taranis was to rescue her family, so wouldn't this just be a different version of that journey? It wasn't like Hannah didn't murder Berman on the way last time.
Hell, many of her friends might've been sick or already dead because of the plague, it could count as mercy killing if they were suffering. Hannah wanted to scream at herself for considering any of this but could only utter confused gibberish.
"...But why come to me for this?" Hannah asked, finally breaking her long silence.
"You were simply the first one who showed up." The Berman shrugged, "We could've offered this to the younger Caninu girl you were with."
They would've offered this to Chick? She didn't have anyone to go back to, her family and now her brother were both dead. They were lucky to find Hannah for this offer.
"Hmm..." Hannah hummed in thought, "And how do I know you won't turn around and shoot me the moment I'm on your blimp? I would be the last target for you to take care of."
"You think my company of soldiers decided to extend this offer?" The Berman raised a brow, "No, it was Hax himself that wanted to ask one of the brats if they would slaughter their friends for us in exchange for a ride out of Gasco."
Hax was extending this offer? That was a surprise.
"Then my family and I will be safe?" Hannah verified, "Even in the Berman Empire?"
"You'll be protected and heavily rewarded in Berman if you return successful." The Berman said, almost sweetening the offer, "Hax just wants the other brats dead, then you're free to go."
"I'm surprised Hax didn't just wait for the plague to finish us off..." Hannah crossed her arms, not sure why the general was going through a more difficult route.
"That was an option, but Hax wanted the reassurance that your friends were dead."
"I see..." Hannah mumbled, not sure what else to ask.
"So? You taking the offer?" The Berman urged.
"Uh... I... I don't know..." Hannah cringed, "Can... can I think on it?"
"I am allowed to give you fifteen hours to make your decision." The Berman warned, "Meet me here again tomorrow morning to give me your answer."
Taking Hannah's silence as his leave, the Doberman brushed past her and slipped the hood back over his ears as he trekked to the exit of the alleyway behind her, lingering just a few more seconds to add something else.
"And if you don't show up, we'll assume you refused the offer and you will be a target to us once more."
His job finished, the Berman rounded the corner and left Hannah with his parting words and her storm of thoughts about what to do.