Deus Ex series developed by Ion Storm, Eidos Montreal, N-Fusion Interactive, Square Enix Montreal. Published by Eidos Interactive, Square Enix.

Lebedev woke up to the sound of whimpering against his chest, and found Anna's arms wrapped tightly around his body, her fingers clawed to his back.

"Anna?" He whispered, combing her hair away from her face with his hands. She was asleep. "Anna."

She shifted awake, burying her face on his chest. Her fingers eased on his back but she didn't let go.

"You are here." She spoke through tears. "Don't leave."

Lebedev caressed Anna's hair and placed a kiss atop her head. "I'm not going anywhere."

Anna clung closer to his body. "Tomorrow. Please don't go."

Lebedev let out a deep sight. They had been over this many times now. He had thought it had been settled.

Softly, he pushed her so he could get a better look at her face.

Wherever this was coming from, it wasn't a last ditch attempt to convince him via poor acting. He had seen Anna like this on very few counted occasions.

Her eyes were red and swollen with tears. Trembles run through her body.

"Anna, what's wrong?"

"Please don't go." She repeated. "I will go instead. I can do it. You just stay here."

Lebedev sat up, bringing Anna closer to his chest. "We've been through this. I made the arrangements so I have to be the one to go. Tong won't accept it otherwise. And he won't give us a second chance."

"Then let me go with you."

Lebedev pulled the blankets closer around them. "I need you here. I need you to hold the base while I'm away. I need you to make sure everyone who doesn't take off with us has a secure retreat route."

"Someone else could do that."

"Anyone I could possibly trust with something like that will be with me helping with the take off. You are the only one I can trust with this."

"Then make one of them switch places with me."

"Anna." Lebedev tried to make his voice sound reproaching, but couldn't bring himself to. "You know that's not logistically possible. Almost everyone and everything has already being moved to position."

"Then call the op off. Postpone it." She begged. "I don't care. Just please don't go."

Lebedev helped Anna sit on his lap. "Will you tell me what's wrong?"

"I saw you die. I felt it. I lost you." Anna started crying again.

Lebedev run a hand up and down her spine. "It was a nightmare Anna."

"No, it was real. I felt it."

He brushed some hair off her face, and pulled her chin up so she would look at him. "I'm here. Right now. It was just a nightmare."

"It's too dangerous." She continued. "It's too close to UNATCO's base."

Lebedev knew he couldn't sincerely counter that argument. It had been precisely because of the high risk of the mission that he had arranged things behind Anna's back so she would find herself away from it.

For once, he had wanted to keep her away from the most dangerous part of the job.

Seeing her like this made him wonder if it was worth it. It almost made him want to cave in to her requests.

Almost.

He took in a deep breath, wrapped his arms firmly around her body, resting his forehead against hers. "Our spy will make sure UNATCO doesn't find us. And if they do, he will keep them at bay. He can more than handle any of their agents."

"What if he doesn't want to handle them? What if they send his brother? He won't fight his own brother."

"That's accounted for." He replied, thought he would be lying if he tried to deny how much that potential scenario worried him.

Lebedev placed a kiss to her forehead, then the tip of her nose. His lips trailed down hers, barely brushing her mouth before planting themselves on her neck, then between her breast. Anna let out the softest gasp, curling herself further against him.

"Anna." His voice was a whisper against her ear. "Please, I need to know you have my back."

She looked up and met his gaze with teary eyes. She nodded.

They kissed, strong and deeply.

She had known. Even before the distress signal was emitted, she had known.

None could tell her exactly what had happened. Where things had gone wrong. And none had seen UNATCO taking him first hand. But there was no doubt they had captured him. UNATCO operatives had overrun the airport. Their spy had either been captured or killed. The plane had never taken off.

Still, as the NSF operatives on the East Coast arrived, Anna had tried to hold to hope.

She had been left alone after that.

Anna sat on their bed, clutching to the blankets they had slept in the previous night. They still held his scent.

Pain reaped through her from within. Tearing her apart but refusing to kill her. Her lungs burnt, and she breathed in pained gasps.

Anna didn't know for how long she had been like that, curled up in blankets wet with her tears, when she heard a firm knock on her door. A raspy British voice spoke from the other side. "Anna, are you there?"

It didn't surprise her he had come. Anna didn't even think it was necessary for someone to have called him.

Saxon didn't wait for a reply to enter. He walked straight to the bed and sat by her side. His arms wrapped around her and pulled her close.

Anna let out a raged cry against Saxon's chest. He said nothing. He knew better than to try to console her with words.

After what felt like an eternity of silence, Anna finally spoke. "Why did you come? You should have stayed home. With your family. Fighting for King and Country, isn't that your drill?"

"Yeah." He replied with a faint smile. "And yours is something about eagles, freedom and guns. So why are you here crying instead of killing dictators with the mighty American flag?"

Anna opened her mouth to reply but, before she could say anything, the door to the room opened again.

Miguel stepped in. He had been the last to arrive, the one to bring news their spy was, after all, still alive. And that Ambrosia samples would make it to Hong Kong despite everything.

He was still clad on his NSF uniform, thought he had taken off the helmet. Sweat drops run down his face. "Pardon, madam, I know you said to leave you alone, but this is important."

Anna looked at Saxon, who seemed to be considering dragging Miguel out of the room. She straightened up, cleaning her eyes with her hands. "What is it?"

Not more bad news. She didn't think she could handle it.

"Yes, madam. After switching communication frequencies as the security protocol states, we took to monitoring the old frequency in case we caught some useful intel… or a distress signal from a slacker operative." Miguel made a pause. "There was a message for you, madam."

Miguel handed Anna a data cube, an audio file was loaded.

She pressed play. A familiar voice spoke…

Dearest Anna,

By now, via the sound of uncomfortable radio silence…

"Leave us."

"NO." Saxon hammered his augmented fist against the table to reinforce his words. "It is the most blatant trap that has been ever laid. And it is not worth the risk."

Saxon knew everyone in the room agreed with his assessment of the situation. He also knew that didn't matter.

He also understood the feeling. The desire to recover their leader's body was perfectly natural. Even more under the threat of it being desecrated by the enemy.

But the eagerness of the men around him wasn't what worried Saxon. It was Anna.

He had seen the transformation occurring within her as soon as Walton Simons voice sounded out of the data cube. The way the pain reaping her apart from the inside out drained to be replaced by something else. Cold and sharp fury that filled and would fuel her to the end of the world and back if needed.

Like a blade, it was there inside of her, ready to be brandished.

Everyone in the room thought they understood the way Anna felt, what she might do. But Saxon knew they really didn't. He had seen Annabrandish this kind of fury only once before. It had been back when they had first met, what now felt like an eternity ago.

She wouldn't stop at anything until she burned everything down to ashes. Even if it killed her.

"Fine, it's a trap." Miguel's voice interrupted Saxon's train of thought. "Then let's make it backfire on them."

"How so?" Anna's voice still cracked from all the crying, but there was a note of eagerness under it. Anything that upped her chances of exerting revenge was welcome. Anything that made that revenge tenfold, even more.

"They will ambush us when we show up to pick the body or go there guns blazing mad for revenge. They won't expect a group of us to sneak into M12 HQ. Because they don't know we know M12 HQ is down there."

"Or they do, because both you and the spy escaped alive." Saxon retorted. It wasn't an entirely bad idea, but to make it work they had to move fast. And that didn't give them time to polish the details.

Anna had been giving unusually little input on the matter. Saxon knew that couldn't mean anything good. He had to get her doing something that felt like she was working towards exerting her revenge. Or she would go rogue and do it on her own.

Anna stepped out of the car. The cold of the night sent shivers down her spine.

Her eyes adjusted for low light and she made out several Men and Women in Black guarding the dock.

Saxon stepped out by her side. "Don't get twitchy fingers now, Anna." He warned her.

Lebedev's corpse laid on the floor, placed within a body bag, The zip was slightly open to reveal his face. Cold dead eyes stared at the starless night sky.

The Man in Black standing right beside him gave Anna a cruel smirk. She almost expected him to pull a gun and shoot her right there.

"I was starting to think this would be a waste of my time." He spoke with a cold, mechanical voice.

Anna swallowed hard, containing the urge to kill him right there. She reminded herself that the resulting explosion would most likely cut her revenge plans short. "Where is Simons, he sends such a pretty invitation card and then doesn't show up?'"

"He is otherwise engaged." The man replied with disgust in his voice. "Your dead lover isn't a priority. As you can see he has kept his word. I won't shoot you and I brought this terrorist intact… Well, almost, missing some blood and with a hole across the chest."

She knelt by the body bag, and her hand instinctively felt inside. An irrational corner of her mind hoped she somehow would catch a weak pulse.

Anna felt one of Saxon's hands rest on her shoulder from behind. "We are taking him." He informed the Man in Black.

The other shrugged. "He is of no interest to us. Analysis shows him to be an unremarkable individual. A waste of morgue space."

Soon you won't have a morgue… Anna thought.

Saxon's other hand brushed over Lebedev's face, closing the man's eyes. He bid him a mental farewell, remembering the day they had met, and the other had opted to save his life, give Saxon the chance to avenge his own men.

It was time to return the favour.

They drove in a direction generally away from Liberty Island. Lebedev's body rested on the back seats.

Saxon parked the car. Anna let out a sight.

"Come." Saxon told her, he trailed her gaze to the body bag. "We can't trust them not to have rigged it with something to track us." He squished her shoulder. "Someone will pick him up in a few minutes and take him somewhere safe.

"Miguel reported they were in when we were at the docks. You want to join in, don't you?"

Anna closed her eyes and gave a firm nod.

"Then lets go."

Notes:

Lol, what's sticking to a prompt?

For those new, I ship Anna Kelso x Juan Lebedev. Yes, it's crack. No, I don't care. Come join onboard this angst fuelled canoe.

Walton's full message to Anna.