Chapter - 8

The two sat down in the living room of the attic, Anastasia was a bit curious of what Cecilia wanted to talk her about, Cecilia on the other side was blushing heavily and avoiding eye contact

Anastasia raised an eyebrow as she analyzed Cecilia's conditions, her heartbeat had increased and so was the blood pressure "So?" she asked

"I...I think I fell in love" Cecilia said with an embarrassed smile

"Let me guess...with that Siegfried?" Anastasia asked crossing her arms with a smirk on her face

"You knew his name?" the Valkyrie asked

"I learned it when I looked into our database to look where he lived" The Jäger replied "A messy guy in my opinion but hey as long as you're happy"

"I'll probably never meet him again though" Cecilia said as her expression turned sad

"I have the sensation that this will not the last encounter with the guy, after all, he's a Kaslana" Anastasia replied with a smile

"He's a Kaslana?!" Cecilia replied shocked as the other girl nodded

"Yep, that's why it was so easy to find information about him" she replied calmly as she nodded "Kaslanas are usually dumbasses so we'll see him again especially since he also has a crush on you"

"you really think so...?" Cecilia asked as her eyes got watery again

"Yep, the probabilities of that happening exceed the 90%" she said before noticing Cecilia's eyes, she smiled as pulled the Valk into a hug "There there, no need to be sad, I'm supposed the be the one crying since I'm the youngest" she said calmly as she patted Cecilia's back

"I know but...it hurts" the white-haired girl replied sobbing a bit.

"How about this? Tomorrow we'll go look around together, I'll convince grandpa" Anastasia said as Cecilia nodded

With that said the two women spent the rest of the night enjoying the attic until they both fell asleep on the couch...

As Usual, Anastasia didn't dream but she also didn't train with Prophet, she was standing in the middle of the flower field she occasionally sees in her dreams, her eyes darted around trying to spot the hooded man.

It didn't take a while for her to find him, he was sitting on a bench a few meters away. She just walked up to him and sat down on the opposite side of the bench "I'm in New York, what now?" she asked as she crossed her arms

The man smiled under his hood as they both found themselves in the middle of New York's Grand Central Terminal, the entire place was empty. He got up and started walking towards the staff area.

Anastasia followed him without uttering a word, she saw him make his way through the corridors until he stopped in a dead-end where the staff kept all the cleaning materials and so on. He placed his hand on the wall and a symbol she never saw appeared. The whole wall started moving away revealing a tunnel that went deep down underground. Without hesitation, the hooded man started walking deep down, Anastasia followed him in the darkness.

The woman didn't know how long they spent in that darkness but she could feel the atmospheric pressure getting stronger and stronger, she knew that a normal human would have fainted by now...The hooded man stopped walking and with his staff created a light...Anastasia remained shocked.

There was a city, a city in ruin...no...it wasn't just a city, it was...New York, Anastasia could see the ruins of the collapsed Empire State Building. She also noticed how there were giant biological looking tentacles that connect several buildings. There were destroyed tanks, shot down army helicopters and jets. There were several guns which were covered in rust and with the there were empty protections gears, the bodies that once occupied that gear were already been turned to ashes by time. That New York was silent, and the only thing that could be heard was the steps of the two echoing in the shadows.

The hooded man kept walking until he stopped himself in front of a massive metal door. He grabbed her hand and placed it on the pad next to the door. With a hiss, the door slowly opened, ice-cold air came out of it Anastasia had the feeling that no one had come here in a very long time.

The man simply walked inside and again she followed. On the walls there several logos of organizations like 'Gentek' and 'Blackwatch' none of the two sound familiar to her. The place looked like a bunker but there wasn't any sign of the Hitech she's used to, she felt like she was taking a trip into the past, and as she walked through the corridors she felt like time had stopped or at least it was way slower.

The hooded man gestured her another pad and unlike last time she placed her hand on her own. The light next to the door handle turned green and the door opened revealing an empty room with only a box in the middle of it. The hooded man walked to it and opened it.

Inside of the box, there was some sort of black blob with some red pulsating lines, the hooded man waited for Anastasia to approach the thing which she needs with all the wariness she could muster up.

Anastasia looked at the blob and then to hooded man"What do you want me to do?"

He looked at her without uttering a word. Anastasia sighed as she slowly extended her hand towards the blob which reacted by slowly extending something that looked like tendrils when the two come in contact the world turned black.

The pink-haired girl was back in her attic, she was lying under the sheets of her bed staring at the ceiling. The digital watch on the wall said that it was 7:00 AM, Anastasia looked at the hand which supposedly came in contact with the blob and found out that it was normal as usual. She slowly rose up and started her morning routine, she got up, took a long shower and sat in the dining room for a while before realizing that she wasn't at her base.

She looked outside the window and saw New York city starting to get more and more lively. Anastasia noticed that of Prophet there were no traces but it didn't matter in that moment because she felt calm as she watched the streets from up there. Normally someone would have probably feel weirded out by this unexpected calmness but she wasn't, she felt like she was supposed to be there, she felt at peace.

Someone knocked on the door and with calm light steps, Anastasia went to open the door. It was Otto, he was dressing fancier than the previous night.

"Ow, I wanted to surprise you with breakfast, dear" Otto said with a smile that was returned by her

"Then why did you knock?" she replied calmly as she let him in

"To see if you were awake" he replied as he placed on the table of the dining room two plates along with several delicious-looking dishes "I asked the valkyries deployed here what's the most typical breakfast dishes of New York, we got stuff from Brooklyn, Manhattan and so on"

"That looks like more than I can eat" Anastasia chuckled as Otto took a seat

"Well, looks like I will have to help you" he said with a fake saddened tone

"Oh poor grandpa" she replied with a bit of sarcasm as she also sat down.

"You look serene today" Otto remarked as he started dividing the food between him and her "Theresa told me that she was worried about you but you don't seem to have a problem or any all"

Anastasia just smiled "Theresa worries too much, probably I just got tired of sitting around in the base"