Avarice

Epilogue: Soldier who sold her world.

Silence, emptiness. White void floating all around... It was like a dream, endless sequence or a slightly curved axis. Seemingly going forward but forever looping.
This felt like ages, but the time itself wasn't apparent at all.
That being said something was happening, the white stain was starting to break. Cracks in the endless sky of nothing, leaks of reality flowing into the perfect world crafted by a wound.
Memories stopped flashing by, and new ones began being created.

Suddenly, a flash. Whiter than the whiteness surrounding Velvet.
She woke up, in a hospital bed.
Barely aware of what's going on due to the blinding lights.
There were several doctors walking around, but one person was apparent in the room more than the others. Towering figure standing in the corner of the room.
It wasn't Big Brother, it was obviously nobody Velvet ever knew but she felt familiar.
When the familiar stranger in the room noticed Velvets awakening, she clapped, not saying anything. Then when she got the attention of the doctors she threw a cassette tape onto Velvet's bed and left.
The doctors swarmed around her examining her condition, quickly driving her to annoyance, but she wasn't able to do anything, both because she was still recovering from her injuries and because she was hooked up to at least three or four different IVs.

The doctors shined lights in her eye and checked almost everything about her, from blood sugar to blood pressure.
She seemed fine to them. Most of her vitals were usual for someone who just woke up from a coma. That being the case she muttered to one of the doctors.
"How long was I out?"
"Two and a half weeks. Being that you recovered much quicker than expected." – One of the doctors said before noting something on a clipboard.
"You should rest now; Miss Overture will let the boss know that you have awoken." – The doctor continued.
"Overture...? Who's that?"
"The woman that just left the room. She's one of boss' most trusted people." – The doctor finished before leaving with the rest of the staff for now.

Velvet was left alone. She looked at her stump that formerly was her forearm in something between amused and disappointed.
The moved what was left of her forearm to see that there was still some function at the spaces that were left.
Finally her attention came to the cassette tape that the woman left on her bed. The first thing was confusion due to the fact that somebody left a cassette tape on her bed. Those things haven't been used in ages. Second thing was how to play the thing.
She picked it up and examined it before looking around to see a device on the night stand near her bed.
She popped the cassette in and clicked play.
The thing crackled a bit before playing audio.
A familiar voice began playing from the tape with little distortion compared to the beginning of it.

"If you're listening to this that means that you've woken up. Congratulations. You've proven yourself to be one of the toughest mercenaries that I have hired up to this point. Now, the money I owed you awaits you in your bank account, waiting to be spent. I also have gotten a gift for you for when we meet in person again.
I surely hope Miss Valentine didn't creep you out too much with her blink-less stare. But again, you're one tough bitch with surviving what that man did to you... And sorry for not being able to provide better support than shooting down that chopper.
Eve with that, if you would've been an official soldier, you would've been ordered with the Medal of Honor or the Victoria Cross... But you're here, a mercenary doing a thankless job while being paid by a contractor that is being paid by the Coalition officials...
Do you want to know a funny thing? I got an order for the whole mission, because my firm were the ones who officially undertook getting rid of Jonathan and Aaron. That's ridiculous.
Partially because of that I have decided to get you your gift. You've earned every bit of valor you have caused to be given upon this firm. Even with the fact that you were here for money, you can consider yourself a hero.
Now rest well, we will meet each other soon enough. End communication."

The tape clicked off and echoed in silence.
"What was the gift?" – Velvet asked herself. Of course, the answer had to wait. It was a good while until Boss was to come around.
She waited, then bored and unentertained with the constant test's doctors had to conduct on her to make sure there wasn't any post damage disorders.
But soon enough, into the room came in a familiar face. She was holding a rather large giftbox.

"Can you walk?" – Big Brother asked Vel.
"I don't know, they didn't let me since I woke up."
"Welp it's the best time to try then. You aren't hooked to anything."
Following that Velvet tried to get out of bed, she was far from her former form right now, but she managed to stand up.
"Want to unwrap your gifts?"
"I waited three days to see what you got me. Of course I want to." – Vel exclaimed, half excited to see what's in there for her.
BB set the giftbox down on the bed and presented it to Velvet.
Velvet got to opening it. Obviously, it was much more difficult due to the fact that she was missing an arm, but she managed to do so.

Inside the gift box was a custom-made bionic arm, suited perfectly for her and a badge of SSA.
Velvet picked up the arm and examined it.
"Do you like it?" – BB asked Vel before she could even correctly examine it.
"How do I even put this thing on?" – Vel responded with a question, greatly confused.
"Oh right."
BB helped Vel put the new arm on and calibrated it for her.
It took a second for it to fully connect to Vel, but it booted up correctly.
"So... what do I do now?"
"Do anything you would do with your hand!"

And so Velvet did something, she closed her hand and the machine obeyed. It worked almost perfectly, but it had to adjust itself to her nerve impulses to work perfectly.
"Wow. That's bio engineering, right?"
"I have no idea, one of the staff members anonymously gave the thing for you... Now for the second most important thing out here."
"The badge, right?"
"Yes, I've brought it here to sort of clarify that you have an official position open for yourself. It will stay open for upmost a year. You obviously may enter and leave the position whenever you like, but I would like it the most if you entered now. No forcing obviously, if you don't want to you will get treated until you get better and then escorted out."
"I'm in." – Velvet exclaimed in sureness.
"Are you sure? You know what working long term means, you've experienced that already."
"Yes. Now you're face to face with someone who will sell their world for this job."
"Very well." – Big Brother finished and put the badge on Velvet's jacket which was hung on a coat hanger.