Blood on her hands (warmth in her heart) (killjoy centric)

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Klara Böhringer was 15 years old when she was accepted into Kingdom. she had finished college top of her class and with a engineering degree she could go anywhere. Kingdom saw the prodigy girl and quickly offered her a internship to their engineering department, to help create bots and gadgets for them to 'keep the peace' and make life-changing discoveries. she was extremely quick to agree, as it was a chance of a lifetime. with Kingdoms funding she could do any and all projects alongside building kingdoms projects. though that meant leaving behind Germany, and instead joining Kingdoms branch in the US, though with nothing binding her to germany anymore, she was quick to pack up and leave.

the Kingdom agent who came to collect her from the airport was a younger commander. he looked early 30s (shush i know brimstone was probably older but shush) with a outfit that fit his description. his orange hat was the first thing she saw and actually giggled softly surprised at the brightness of the baret over the outfit. he was extremely kind and told her his name was Liam, and upon driving her to kingdoms facility, was someone she could rely on. he reminded Klara of her father and had the same warm feeling around him. He was the one that she would report to, should something happened, or if kingdom had a project for her. when they arrived, he helped her to he dorm rooms. the dorms were nothing more than a opened area with 30 bunk beds lined up against the wall, a doorway on the left far wall lead to a very small two person bathroom at best. there was cobwebs and dirt everywhere, and smelt like rot. the bathroom was worst with mold lining the ceiling and corners, the tiles were completely grimy, the white walls almost brown with dirt.

she glanced around the room, surprised at the state of the dorm rooms since kingdom was such a big company. now unsure she made the right choice she chose a empty bed and ucked her bags underneath, praying they would be fine while Brimstone showed her to the workshops. the hallways were super clean and well taken care of, cleaners mopping or sweeping at every other hallway which confused her though kept it to herself. the Workshop was small, and had 5 workers crammed together, the only thing separating them was a thin layer of plastic, the mess of each workshop threatened to overspill into the next workspace. when she was shown hers she sighed, already wishing she didn't take this, but she sucked it up, still thinking that she would be able to work on her own things, alongside whatever kingdom wanted, with the budget. Liam took his leave, letting Klara know that she could come to him at any time if she needed him. she waved and quickly got to work seeing some blueprints already on her desk. one was a turrent, simple design but she knew she could add so many things. already she had ideas running through her head on how to improve the design, and make it so much better. the second one was some sort of nano tech, and upon reading the description seemed to be like a bomb, killing the opponent with nanotech. she had a good idea for that, making it a cute but deadly kind of design.

she proved her worth many times to kingdom. after the resounding success of her turret and nanobombs, she was given many more projects. pulling all nighters left and right as she met deadline after deadline, project after project for kingdom. she hardly had time to build her own projects, but would make blueprints in between to give her brain a rest, but she couldn't do the work to make it come to life without Kingdom pushing another project onto her. she had made no friends in her department, the others avoiding her like the plague, or teasing her and stealing either her tools or her materials. Brimstone would check on her often, making sure the young engineer would actually get some sleep and wasn't being overworked, and klara was thankful. she thought of him as a father figure, with his kind personality, and warm feeling around him. she had accidentally called him dad at one point, and his reaction was all she needed. he teared up softly and hugged her gently, luckily they were the only ones in the room, so Klara didn't have to deal with the embarrassment or teasing, but ever since she could tell Liam developed a sort of protective over her.

she was 20 years old when she found out what kingdom was using her machines for. it was by complet accident, she happened to be in Liams office, hiding away from her usually gang of bullies, and was talking with brimstone when a file caught her eye. Liam let her read reports quite often while she was in the office so nether had thought much of it as she swiped the report. but not even a second later she gasped and dropped the paper backing away with wide eyes, tears already forming. She couldn't hear anything over the pounding of her heart, nor see anything through her blurry vision, the only thing she knew was she couldn't breathe and what was written on the paper. she couldn't hear Liam telling her to breathe and the last thing she remembers was seeing the worry clear in his eyes before she passed out.

when she awoke it was itch black and quiet breathing and shuffles were the only things she could hear. she opened her crusty eyes slowly and allowed her eyesight to adjust to the dark to find herself in her bed in the dorm room. as the memories of the report ran through her head after a moment of hesitation she pressed her back against the wall and covered her head trying to stifle her cries. those innocent people didn't deserve that, from the report there was no need for violence yet they chose it anyway. there was a whole towns worth of innocents blood on her hands and it scared her. quietly getting out of bed and out of the dorm room she headed for the one person she trusted. his office light was still on so she quietly knocked. getting confirmation she opened the door to see the familiar sight of Liam at his desk. looking up ad seeing it was Klara he quickly got up and hugged her softly. after the basic questions of 'are you okay' he was quick to deny that it was her fault, that it was only kingdoms fault for using her machines. Klara just hugged back and let his voice calm her down.

it was only 2 years later when Liam suddenly disappeared from Kingdom. there was rumors that He had defected, while others said that he was killed in battle. either way it tore Klara apart, she lost the only source of comfort in Kingdom, and so soon after realizing that her machines were being used for bad reasons. she started going back to her bad habits of just caffeinated coffee and really late nights of work. she would work until she dropped, sleep for a few hours then do it all over again. Kingdom would interrogate her every other day, thinking she had some sort of information on where Liam went but she never did. they had started getting more and more aggressive with their interactions but it didn't change the fact that she didn't know.

it was really late one night when she saw him again. he still had his orange beret, but now was wearing a whole different outfil, looking more like police outfit over the commander one he had. he was quick to embrace the young girl, urmering soft apologies on leaving her alone and leaving so suddenly. when he saw the bruises on her his face clenched but grabbed her arm softly, giving her a choice to come with him and fighting to stop the corruption of Kingdom, or continue to help the corporation . Klara didn't have to think for a second gripping his shirt slightly and telling him she wants to go with him. he smiled and led her to a hidden car, helping her in and driving away quickly, and for once Klara didn't feel like she was losing a big peace of herself, instead she felt gratitude that she was finally leaving the corrupt cooperation and finally getting a good start to her career.

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