A/N: I think out of all the organizations supporting Rhodes Island, Penguin Logistics and Rhine Labs are my favorite. Which groups do ya'll like the best? And, uh, if the characters are a little OOC here feel free to let me know. It is my first time writing a few of them so I'm still learning. I am going to be researching the lore for most of these, so hopefully that'll help.

*****

Saria felt the ground crunching beneath her feet as she shuffled forward, pain biting each small step. The cold air was bad enough as it was, it didn't help that those black shards were all around her, sinking deep into her skin. FrostNova sure does pack a punch. Well, it probably would've hurt a lot less if a certain someone had helped her out however. The mission had completed and instead of a sense of satisfaction, she felt a terrible soreness all along her back and spine. There was a burning in her skin that wouldn't leave despite her own healing prowess.

"Saria! Are you okay?"

Doctor was running up to her, concern plain in his voice. She had heard tale of this Doctor acting different compared to now. How he had been cruel, a fierce commander of his squads to the bitter end. That image of him had been entirely flipped since amnesia apparently. It wasn't hard to see why.

Saria nodded. "I'll be fine. Just a bit sore, nothing I can't handle."

"Are you sure? Shining would be more than happy to look you over," Doctor said, gesturing over his shoulder. Shining was probably the biggest mystery of all the medics. Her files spoke of a woman who was capable of taking down entire hordes of enemies by herself.

"I'm sure. I just wish the person who was supposed to heal me did their job." She said this pointedly in the direction of the only other medic here.

Silence, who had been in the middle of talking to Mayer, shot up at the mere reference to her. The normally quiet woman looked enraged. "You're a medical defender, you should be more than capable of healing yourself."

Her eyebrow twitched. "Sure I am, but there's only so much I can do against frickin' Frostnova!" She snapped. Saria wanted to raise her arms demonstratively, but frankly they hurt too much and those dark shards embedded in her armor weren't getting any less painful.

"Well then maybe you should just try harder!" Silence shouted back. The other operators who were watching the scene looked away, and Mayer watched the scene nervously. The same expression was mirrored on Doctor's face.

"Uh . . . maybe we should leave you two alone for awhile. Let you settle some things," Mayer said slowly, like she was testing out the words.

"Yes, I think we should. Saria, if you still need healing afterwards please do come to the Medbay." Doctor told her seriously.

And then they were going their separate ways. Silence watched them go with an expression she could only describe as abject horror, the sort of look a clingy kid might shoot their parents as they sent their kid to school for the first time. Saria wanted to be able to relate, but she couldn't. Facing her problems head on was what she did best. It's the reason why I left, and I think it's why we're fighting now. It was hard to tell with Olivia what she was mad at her for, but presumably that would be at the top of the list.

Only once she was sure they were alone did Saria focus her attention on Silence again. They needed to talk ever since they had met up again two months ago. There's no time like the present, her mind entailed.

"We can't keep going on like this Olivia." Saria began.

Silence glared at her. "I prefer to be called Dr. Silence. And I don't know what you're talking about." Her tone was brittle as the icy shards around them. There were plenty of dead bodies scattered on the battlefield. Some of them elicited small moans of pain, dragging themselves away from the scene. No one would follow them, and there was no reason to be concerned either. Once the fighting was done there was some unspoken rule not to continue battle.

"Olivia."

She stressed the name pointedly. There was so much brewing between the two of them. She desperately wanted to make amends. But I can't if you won't let me. How many times do I need to say sorry? What do I have to do to make you forgive me? The other Rhine Labs members had welcomed her back into their small family, especially Ifrit. The young teenager was ecstatic to see her again, despite the behest of Silence. Silence, who had glared at Saria so fiercely she knew if looks could kill she would be long dead.

"Stop it. Just stop it." Silence was backing away from her, eyes still blazing.

"No. I just want to fix things between us. I . . . I just want us to be close again."

Saria tried to bridge the gap between them, ignoring the dark swarms in her vision. They were probably just the black shards in the ground. The two women were engaged in a strange dance of sorts, the kind where it was easy to predict your partner's move but impossibly hard to keep up. Or maybe it was just the shards embedding into her skin. Saria was no novice to pain, but it had been a long, long day. Everything was hurting now, far more than the pain in her heart that worsened with Silence's next words.

"Maybe I don't want us to be close again."

Those words, those cold, cold words. The battlefield may have been an icy tundra at this point, but the chill of those words pierced her more sharply than any of FrostNova's attacks could (and pretty much already did).

"You . . . you can't mean that . . . Please. Tell me you don't mean that." Pain was roaring in her ears in time with the rapid thudding of her heart. Any attempt to keep emotionless and aloof was tossed out the window when it came to Silence. The black spots in her vision danced fiercely. She blinked fiercely to clear them.

"I . . ."

Maybe it was just the blood loss, but something in the owl woman's face changed. Was she just picturing the regret? Was she just picturing the longing? It was in her bones. Could it be in Silence's too? Did she dare to hope. The side of her tied to principles of professionalism and orderly behavior gave a stoic "no." But the other side was a different story.

But she didn't get to hear the other side out.

The pain that had been increasingly invading her senses before was eclipsing now. The wave collapsed on top of her. Legs giving out, shield and needle gun dropping to the ground, Saria sank to her knees. The black spots became one absorbent blob as her vision disappeared entirely. Saria did not see the ground as she met it, but she felt it as her face slammed into the concrete pavement. Voices grew to a clamor around her, one rising above the rest. It was so loud compared to normal, she couldn't recall the last time it had been so voluminous. Maybe she was just imagining the concern permeating from it. But she clung to a desperate hope regardless.

"SARIA!"

*****

Y/N: Will I make a second part of this? I sure as heck want to. Let me know in the comments if you want to see it too. Until next time.