Union

two _ the sister

{ Olivia Above }

The door opens before he can reply to my sudden outburst. He looks back and slowly I move my gaze from him to whomever he's looking at. Only to be completely floored. The person whom he's staring at, with what looks like some amount of fear, is a woman. She's taller, and the presence of rather tall shoes doesn't do her any harm. She's dressed rather nicely, well, compared to camp that is. "Commander." He stutters. 

It's odd to see him stutter, he was after all the highest ranking person in this building. She regards him for a second then turns her hard gaze to me. "What seems to be the issue, Operator Griff." It isn't a question, not by her tone at least. 

Her gaze still doesn't leave mine as he replies. "She um-"

"I don't want to be claimed!" I snap suddenly. I find that I can't say this well holding eye contact with who ever she is so I aim it more at him. "So you can find my sister, whoever the hell you are, and tell her to go back to wherever the hell she's been for the last I don't know, ten years and to make sure the door doesn't hit her ass on the way out."

She doesn't smirk, eyes becoming grim. "I didn't waste the thirty minute drive, to let the door hit my ass on the way out, much less to go back home empty handed." I freeze. 

"L-livy?" I stutter. She doesn't say anything and I back up. Sure, I don't remember much about my sister. Only the seven year gap between us really. She was fourteen when everything happened. I was seven. I remember fragments of memories, of outings and her rather stern protectiveness over me. She's nothing like I remember though, at least not her appearance. The stern tone, now that's familiar. 

"Scarlett." She looks at Op, whose still shaking slightly. "Has she gotten her tracker removed?" He nods. "And her bracelet?"

"You mean the leash?" I mutter, looking down at the blinking bracelet. She snaps her attention back to me, gaze softening for some reason. "Listen, I don't want to be claimed."

"Leave us." She says to Op, without even looking back at him to say it. He scurries away, a couple of the guards in toe. Theres now only one guard left and I regard him with wariness. Man power perhaps? "I know that you must be feeling overwhelmed to say the least. I promise I have the answers to the questions you must have but I need you to come with me. Not be stubborn."

"No."

"No?" Her voice raises an octave, her brow raising with it. As if she can't believe that I would say such a thing. "I'm afraid that isn't an option. You have been claimed, you are no longer apart of this compound legally. This process isn't very 'undoable'." 

"Find a way." I snap. "Because I swear to god I am not going with you! A stranger, may I add, to somewhere I don't know! Compound is my home. It's always been my home. I have one more year roughly until I get out. I have plans, plans that you won't ruin!"

"Firstly, I am not a stranger! I am your sister. Secondly, it's not all you've ever known. You have seven years in which-"

"Seven out of seventeen. I'm sorry if dwelling in my once dead family wasn't my first choice. God! Why now! Huh?!"

"It's complicated. A lot of this is, so come with me!" Her look breaks from stern and angry to pleading and soft. She steps closer to me, which I don't back away from. I'm not going to look like a coward in front of her. Then she does something that once again is unexpected, she touches my cheek. Running a thumb over my cheek softly. The action is affectionate, something that feels utterly foreign to me. I haven't felt something like this... since I can remember. She smile a little at my calmer reaction. She keeps doing it for a while. "You've grown." She says, voice barely above a whisper. "I've thought for years and years about this day, about what you'd be like."

"You could have come and seen for yourself." I mutter harshly. 

"You have to be twenty one to claim a family member if you are not the biological parents of that person. I think perhaps that way they know that you have a place and a job and aren't just going to mistreat the kid. I applied when I turned, the day of my birthday actually. There was an extreme vetting process. Including one in which I had to locate exactly, out of the hundreds of compounds in this country, where you were. I'm sorry that it's taken some time, I assure you I wish I could have gotten you the moment I turned 21, without all this extra bullshit."

"So you have a job and a home and all of that and you're just going to uproot me from my life and bring me there."

"It's not out of this division Scarlett, thank god. You'll be able to see which ever friends you may have here on the days in which visiting is an option. Other than that, yes, I do plan to take you home with me because that is where you belong. Home. With your family."

I don't dignify her with a response right away. She doesn't seem to be into backing down anytime soon. Finally I sigh. "And if I argue, what are you going to do? Get big and burly over there to toss me over his shoulder and drag me out?"

"Scarlett, I don't need him to do it for me. I can drag you out by myself and I will. So unless you want the sheer embarrassment of your 24 year old sister to brag you out of here kicking and screaming - I would grab your box of things and follow me to the car."

"Fine, but I still hate this." She frowns as I roughly grab my things.

"That's a shame." She mutters as she guides me to a car. It's sleek and fancy, tinted windows and all. The kind you saw from a bedroom window, afar, never up close and surely never the inside of. She opens the door for me, ushering me in. "I was hoping that this reunion could be a little happier. After all, I have missed you."

I frown. "How are you alive?"

She sucks in a huge breath. "It's a very long and-"

"Let me guess, complicated, story."

She nods her head stiffly. "But one I will tell you. Once we get home and you get settled. I wish for you to know the whole truth-"

"I don't need the truth, I know what happened. Union killed mom and dad-"

She scoffs. "That couldn't be farther from the truth." She runs a tense hand up and down the length of her pants. "We will talk when we get there, I swear. Just be patient with me."

The rest of the car ride is silent, after a few attempts at chit chat, she gives up. I just stare out the window at the passing sights. It's actually quite refreshing to see the outside of compound in such detail. To let the cool air touch my skin, sun beating down from behind clouds. 

What must have been at least thirty minutes later, the car slows and we enter through a gate. I gulp when I see the property. It's huge, sprawling even. 

Fuck, is my sister loaded or something?

She sighs as she pushes open her door, getting out and coming around to get me. "Welcome home." She mutters as I exit the car. 

"This sure isn't compound." I whisper to myself, just as the door swings open and five figures come running at us at top speed.