Almost certainly AU, too... Music Department, Reclamation Division.
“So, ever worked in Music before?”
Althea Gold shook her head. “Assassin all the way,” she said. “I’ve covered songfics, though.”
Tracer smiled slightly. “That won’t do you any good around here,” she said. Something about her tone irritated Althea – she didn’t know why, but it did.
“I
have been doing this a while, you know,” she said irritably. “I mean, not to boast, but I lived through the Reorganisation – I think I can handle the idiosyncrasies of your department.”
“They all do,” Tracer said with a shrug. “So let’s test you and see, eh?” She tapped a few keys on the console, and the familiar portal appeared. Althea stepped through, her new partner close behind her.
The other side was a bleak, white landscape which seemed to shift around her. “Where are we?” Althea shouted over the wind. “Forodwaith? Hoth?”
“I knew you wouldn’t get it,” Tracer replied, insufferably smug. Althea bent her head under the weight of the wind and tried to think. It was as if the whole world was under a subtle pressure, weighing her down.
“Mama!
Mama!”
“… is that a
child?” Althea exclaimed. “Out in this? What kind of author-“
“Not an author,” Tracer corrected, “and it’s not old enough to be a child. Come
on, Agent Gold, this is the
Music Department. Use your thinking muscles.”
Althea scowled. There was nothing
here! Just snow, more snow, a random infant, and that weight. She caught Tracer’s eye, saw the amused look, and then… it clicked. She looked around at the landscape in a different way.
“Ice. Ice. Baby. And we’re under pressure.” Althea lifted her head and glared at Tracer. “Is your whole department just one long bad pun?”
“Seems like it sometimes,” Tracer replied cheerfully. “But there’s work to be done here, too. We’re in the Reclamation Division, which means we have to find stolen bits of songs and send them home. So here in
Ice Ice Baby…”
“We find the bassline from
Under Pressure and send it back to Queen,” Althea deduced with a sigh. “And how do we do
that?”
“You can feel the pressure,” Tracer told her. “Now try and find the centre of it…”
hS