Chapter Text
Anya remembered the day of her adoption clearly- although, there were many among her 16 years of life. When Loid walked in with the odd request of an older child, 16 years of age to be specific, Anya was sceptical and initially assumed it was one of the many that felt the need to "save the less sought after older teens in the horrible system." Although the part about the system was correct, these parents more often than not seemed like they wanted to satisfy some ego of them who needed to be a hero and save children. Not that it worked out most of the time from what Anya could see.
Many parents had adopted her over the years and Anya almost hated the weird attraction they felt towards her, not because of the idea of getting adopted but because of the way they always turned out the same.
We'll be different they said.
We are here to help you they said.
We're permenant they said.
Only for them to turn out the exact same and bring her back to the damned paedo of a house parent who grunted in disgust after she was bought back every. Single. Time. Not to mention how bad the orphanage itself was. The run down small house that was meant to originally house 30 orphans but had far exceeded that number because of the war and because said house parent wanted to rake in more money for himself by leeching off the government. Not to mention the fact he never did anything to help them. Or the abuse and basically slavery allegations against him. The man was truly the filthiest of filth yet the government had bigger plans to deal with- such as a six year old girl who went missing from a certain facility 10 years ago.
Anya thought she had disguised herself quite well, always changing names, on the move from family to family and the orphanage itself that was clearly shunned away from the government and never checked by healthcare workers. She had also worked on giving herself a bit of a name in the underground, the backstage, or whatever people now called the illeagal stuff that went on behind the polices back. Even including them on the instances Anya sold drugs to corrupt officers. The sad thing was that they were almost always higher ups, like power had the ability to take away somebodies sense of justice as soon as they got too much of it. She was no stranger to being a victim of it, given the nightmares she still got from her times of being a lab dog.
Being a post labdog also gave her intruiging powers that applied to her to this day. 8 years after escaping the lab, she developed more in public spaces and put them to good use regarding her encounters with dangerous men in the underground. Having nothing to do with her life, Anya like many others fell into drugs, although she never did them and mainly sold for some spare change and connections. Plenty of connections. She knew all the corrupt officials, all the cops you could get away with pretty much anything with, the right people to go to for whatever favour she called in and Anya was invested in the thrill of danger.Thus, many people came to her for the more dangerous lines of work but didnt need the seriousness or the expenses of The Garden.
The Garden.
They were well known yet mysterious, and many were too scared to approach them because more times than not they were the type of people they targeted. And twice as serious. If you needed someone dead, thy would get it done in an hour. The team was made up of unknown numbers yet always had insane strength. Names hovered about some of the more hostile and those with bountys on their head. Most notably, Thorn Princess. Anya loved hearing about the stories of how Thorn Princess looked like your average innocent pedestrian until she strikes, with a small body multiplied in strength. She dreamed about becoming someone like her in the future- hence always looking up new moves and strengthening every part of her body with precision.
The Garden was at the very top of the structural pyramid in the underground, along with the mysterious Shopkeeper, whom was greatly feared and respected for his grand skill yet calm personality. Underneath that came the heads of the big drug dealers and gangs as well as lone traders who picked up odd contracts and 'jobs' but have not entered the Garden. Anya fell into this category as Starlight who was enthusiastic for a bit of fun and meddling with interesting people or situations. She enjoyed exploring the many scenarios that she could put her mind reading to good use and benefit from it. Of course, up here was also the lab which she escaped known for their failed and continued experiments and their special powers. Underneath came the big names of the drug gangs, those that put out dangerous jobs and the 'physical' parts.
Anya didnt care to memorise the rest but kept the vague details of the average teen who delivered drugs being at the bottom.
So when Loid walked in, she more or less expected the same narcissistic parent that needed to quench their thirst of ego. Until she read his vast amount of thoughts, that is. Operation Strix was interesting. Spies were interesting. Fake families with secrets to hide were interesting. Bringing down not only a corrupt official, but the head of the national unity party and former prime minister? Exciting!!
Her determination to get adopted was reflected by the house parent who was sick of her always coming back and hoped that this time she would be gone once and for all. Loid was skeptical and wanted to decline due to her small and young appearence but was soom convinced with Anyas intelligence and the house parents enthusiasm. Within 15 minutes, Loid had signed the adoption papers and was off again with the addition of Anya Forger.
Anya satisfied herself with reading Loids mind and finding out more of Operation Strix, becoming more and more pleased with her decision to be adopted by him and Loid (a.k.a Twighlight) appreciated the silence to go over the mission in his head again. It was quite simple from a normal standpoint but he questioned his choice of Anya more than she felt comfortable with.
Donovan Desmond was a corrupt official and may have intentions to try and disturb the shaky peace that settled between Westalis and Ostonia. Therefore, Anya had to join Eden Colleger in the same year group as Damian Desmond in order to either become an Imperial Scholar and have Loid meet Donovan at their meetings or befriend Damian and get Loid to meet Donovan at his house so that he could find out what Donovans true intentions were and push away the idea of war again. After a few minutes of walking and a half hour bus ride along with breakfast and a drink bought at Loids friend, Franky, with new info, they stopped outside of their new apartment block.
It was a simple brown building next to a couple of the same design, pretty standard with a small green area outside and stairs lined with pot plants leading to the doors. Loid and Anya made their way up in silence, one of Anyas small tests to determine what kind of parent she'd be with now. Usually her silence provoked the parent to fill it and told more about them than even they realised. A strict, hypocritical parent would use this time to set rules up and begin a useless hour long lecture about them that Anya would never abide by, afer all who were they to come into her life and act like they deserved complete authority over her? Another type would use this as an opportunity to create small talk and find out more about her, the classical 'whats your favorite colour/ food/ hobby?'
Although these were a bit more sincere, Anya hated the blatant ways they tried to gain her trust by all of a sudden owning lots of peanuts or bringing her on a lot of outings- such a classical and repetitive move it disgusted her. She had long vowed she would never trust any parent again- not after the time she was knocked out and abused by a drinker of a father and the pathetic victim of a mother. the naive voice in her head that had grown smaller day by day told her to feel bad for the mother but she couldnt bring herself to, not after she decided it would be a good idea to adopt after the man made his drunken requests.
Now she stared curiously and openly at Loid, wondering how he would turn out. The whole spy thing sounded interesting- like it could put a new thrill in the grey blobs that were her usual adopters or foster parents. And unlike many others, Loid left the silence at that, some time to think and go over his many plans for this new mission while also wondering how he could test Anyas skills and see how capable she was of passing. Even if she did pass, it would be very hard to get in seeing as Eden College almost never allowed new students and rather took in ones that had already been taken in by their primary school. The tests were notorious for how much of a challenge they posed to even the cleverest of minds and so far he had to go off of some random kid he found at the shady adoption centre. Anya huffed at how much he doubted him- from being excited at a new thrill to finding out he might just end up like all the others was a long jump and now she decided to resume her long stance to never trust or let in. If he was already considering returning her now, how long until he decided to go through with it?
Meanwhile, Loid noticed her sudden change in attitude and wondered how best to gain trust of a child who had been in and out of foster for pretty much her entire life.