Word Count: 1125
Lost Connection

Anastasia looks at herself in the mirror. She's wearing the basic parts of her costume to school today: a swampy green tank tucked into her usual cuffed jeans and combat boots that definitely aren't from her past uniform. She doesn't put on her belt or her gun holster - or her gun for that matter - but she's starting to feel like she had in the past as she brings her hair into two ponytails, looking like one, simply for the weight distribution it has for her head.

"Nice costume," Dante says.

"I think I suit it," she replies, giving herself one more look.

She glances at Dante who is leaning against the doorway. "I think it's pretty realistic. Even if it's missing your coat and the mindlessness."

"In my defense," she begins, "it's the quickest and easiest costume to get into."

"No, no. I get it." He moves his jacket - he wears the uniform's jacket all of the time now that Nolan's gone - and shows his outfit to her. "Killian's making me go to the party too since so many people wanted me there."

"So," she says, seeing the perfect place for a joke, "both of our best friends are the cause for us coming to this party."

He rolls his eyes. "Yep. Best friends are like that." She can't help but laugh and he smiles. "Just don't allow yourself into that mindset, okay? I won't either but you're more dangerous all-in-all. No matter what Steve does, don't punch him. No matter what people say about Nancy... well, actually, if you act drunk enough, you might get away with it."

"I won't get into the mindset," Anastasia assures him, realizing that he's thinking about this again because of how she had been after Nolan's death. "But," she adds, "if someone shit-talks Nance, they're getting their asses handed to them."

"I'd be weirded out if you just let it happen, to be honest," Dante says with a shrug.

-

Nancy, Anastasia, Dante, and Steve are all studying together. The blonde has kicked the Harrington boy's shins a few times simply out of boredom so Nancy's sitting between them but that doesn't stop Anastasia from flicking pieces of paper at his face which causes him to exclaim a little too loudly and makes Nancy press down hard enough to break her pencil.

"Sorry," Steve mutters while Nancy gets up and Anastasia laughs quietly. He glares at her; neither of them notice Nancy staring at someone until the brunette's pencil is almost completely gone in the sharpener and Dante points it out to them.

Anastasia and Steve both get to their feet quickly, after Dante, to get Nancy's attention. "Nance," the Amarin boy says, snapping her out of her trance while Anastasia figures out what had her so out of it, noticing the redhead and realizing who Nancy had been thinking of.

Nancy takes a moment before she grabs their hands, dragging them into one of the private rooms. "I can't keep doing this," she states quietly when Anastasia closes the door.

"Doing what?" Steve asks.

"Pretending like everything's okay," she continues.

"What are you talking about?"

"Barbra," Nancy states. "It's like... everyone forgot. It's like nobody cares. Except her parents. And now they're selling the house. And they're going to spend the rest of their lives looking for her. It's destroying them."

Anastasia puts her hands on Nancy's shoulders. "I know. Steve might know too."

"There's nothing we can do about it," Steve adds.

"We could tell them the truth," Nancy argues.

Steve stares. "You know that we can't do that."

"We don't have to tell them everything," she says.

"This isn't some game, Nance. If they found out that we told any-" Steve stops to look at the blinds. Anastasia closes them for him. "They could put us in jail, okay? Or worse, they could destroy our families. They could do anything they want. Okay? Just think about what you're saying."

Nancy looks down. Anastasia breathes out and says, "Steve's right. We don't know exactly what they can do."

"No," Dante argues, "but you and me? We can totally take them."

"They killed Nolan without a problem-"

"They caught him off guard and he was protecting Killian. This is different. This would have two ready to fight assassins who aren't trying to protect anyone but themselves," Dante realizes what he had said a little too late, quickly looking at Steve and Nancy who are staring.

"I'm sorry," Steve begins.

"Did you say assassins?" Nancy finishes.

Anastasia gives Dante a look before she faces her friends again. "It's kind of hard to explain but... for the gist of it... shit. How do I even give you guys the bare-minimum?"

"Maybe... uh. We got kidnapped at a young age; we were experimented on and if we made it past those tests, we got trained into becoming assassins. Then Zoe and Nolan and the Hollowguard League came to save us. She was saved first - she was also taken sooner - and then they got me," Dante offers.

"That works, I guess," Anastasia says.

Steve stares for a moment longer than Nancy who nods a little. "Alright, it kind of makes sense. What were the experiments?"

"Well, Ana has superhuman reflexes and I have superhuman healing," Dante states.

Steve finally nods too. "That makes a lot of sense, actually. It would explain why you never get hurt even when you're constantly falling." Dante nods. "And why you always seem to know when something's going to happen right before it does."

"Not everything," she corrects.

"Pretty much," Dante says.

"So," Nancy says, "Dante's with me and Anastasia's with Steve. The fact that they're assassins doesn't change the fact that we can't all be right."

"How are you handling this so easily?" Steve questions.

"If he can't move past this, I vote that his vote doesn't count," Dante says.

"Okay, okay. Moving past it. Let's just... go to Tina's stupid party, wear our stupid costumes that we've been working on for a stupid amount of time, and just pretend like we're stupid teenagers, okay? Can we just do that? Just for tonight?"

"Then," Anastasia adds, "we can go back to being the better Detectives."

Nancy looks at her best friend before she nods a little. "Okay." She pulls Anastasia in for a hug first; then Dante hugs his sister, dragging Steve in. She makes a mental note to give them the watches from the League that she and Dante have gotten back into using after last semester; it's a great way to communicate without phones which can easily be tapped into, tracked, ect - and it's exactly what the Amarin family needs with everything going on. Killian already has one - since he's been trying to get the basic training from them even though he knows they're not going to ever give him the full treatment of a League Agent. Now it's time for at least Nancy to get one.