Chapter One:

"If you don't start paying attention – you're going to get hurt." A fist whizzes past my face, and I block it, shoving the arm away and then going in to elbow the attacker, stopping millimeters from his chest.

"I'm good at multitasking." I retort, shooting a glare at him.

Tobias Eaton steps back, recovering from my block, and shakes his head. "It doesn't matter how good at multitasking you are – it is imperative that you…"

I interrupt him. "Completely focus, yeah, I know." I cross my arms. "I got it, Tobias. I'm not a child." I shove past him, grabbing a clean towel to dry my sweaty face off with. "I'm one of the best in the business."

Okay, maybe I was being a bit cocky, but hey, it was true.

"It's true – she is." I turned at the sound of another voice, and smirked when I saw a tall woman, with short brown hair. Lauren – the second in command for our headquarters. She occasionally watched me practice fighting – especially if it involved Tobias, because according to her, we butted heads so much, it made for an interesting fight. "But so are you, Tobias."

He smirks at me and I roll my eyes.

You'd expect that as secret agents, we'd have more dignity, but when it came to Tobias – I wanted to always one up him.

"However," Lauren continues and I see Tobias's smirk fall. "Tris, you are becoming a much better fighter – a lot faster than most of the higher ups, even." I smile. "But you are letting that get to your head and it will be your downfall."

Isn't it always?

With that, Lauren leaves and I follow behind her, done practicing for the day. I make my way out of the training rooms and into an elevator, pressing the button for my floor.

I arrived to my room and shut the door behind me, tossing the soiled towel on the floor. "Christina?" Christina was my roommate and my best friend since we started going to middle school together and our dads forced us into this life.

She was under her covers, and I didn't know if she was asleep or just listening to music.

I shook her shoulder, and she looked up at me, her face angry. "What the hell happened to you?" I ask, sitting down on my bed across from her.

She pushes herself up into a sitting position and kicks the covers away. "Will was sent on a mission…" She begins and I already don't see a problem – it's what we're supposed to do. It's our job. "And right before he left, we had a fight." I nodded, understanding. Will was Christina's boyfriend and she really loved him, no matter how much they fought. "And he's going to be gone for six months."

That was the thing about our missions – we could be gone two days or thirteen months. Nobody ever knew how long they would be gone until right before they left for the mission. It was annoying, yeah, but it made our jobs interesting.

Let me clarify that we are secret agents, but not the type that act as bodyguards for the President or for another important person – no, we take on jobs that are too dangerous for the secret agents and anybody else, for that matter. We risk our lives each time we go out for work. But it's worth it – we keep people safe.

I didn't know what to say to her – on one hand, I felt bad because she was my best friend, but on the other, it was our job and she knew that.

But I couldn't blame her. Christina didn't fight or do any of that – she worked in logistics, talking people through their missions, helping them break into secure places, hacking networks. She was basically a computer nerd. But a kick-ass one at that – she was the best and she was mine. She was always the one talking to me through an ear piece when I went out.

"Maybe they'll let you be his guide on this." It was a stupid and hopeless comment – most of the upper hands didn't like couples guiding each other, worried that one might get too distracted and ruin everything.

We are a very loving facility.

There was a soft knock at the door, and then Al poked his head in. I smiled at him and Christina just pulled a pillow to her chest. "Hey, Al." I nodded towards him.

Al was a good friend of mine and he may have some feelings towards me – and I had to admit, he was kind of cute, but I didn't return those feelings.

"Uhm, Lauren wants to speak with you, Tris." I nod and thank him, standing up. He closes the door behind him and I push myself off my bed.

"Do you know why she wants to speak to you?" Christina asked, standing up. I shake my head and shrug.

"Who knows? Maybe she just wants to give me a promotion." I wink and she laughs.

"You wish." She throws a pillow at me as I duck out the door.

I make my way to the main floor, towards Lauren's office.

The entire floor for the leaders was made with glass walls – so Lauren saw me as soon as I stepped off the elevator.

"Tris, I need you in here." Her voice was strained and she gestured quickly. I furrowed my brows and followed her into her office.

"What's wrong?" I stood behind the two chairs that sat in front of her desk and watched as she sat behind her computer and started typing furiously. There were three men surrounding her and they all looked tensed.

"We're sending you out on a last minute mission," she looked up at me for a second, her eyes apologetic. "It's top priority."

I stood up straighter and my face became a mask of seriousness. "What is it?"

"You are aware of who Jeanine Matthews is, correct?" She raised an eyebrow and I nodded once, ignoring the questioning looks I was receiving from the three men.

Jeanine Matthews was trying to create a serum that would allow her to control anyone who she injected it with – we had people "helping" slow the progression rate and so far it had been successful.

"Well, apparently she found out about our…spies and is planning on using them as test monkeys." Lauren glared at the screen. "And we need them out of there."

"What about the injections?" I took a step closer.

She shook her head. "They can be stopped – we need to get our agents out of there, alive. We can't allow Matthews to hurt them."

I nod and then look at the three men. "Are they coming with me?"

Lauren shakes her head, a hint of a smile playing at her lips. "No, they are not." She walks in front of her desk and leans back against it, crossing her arms over her chest. "He is going with you." She nods to someone behind me and I turn around.

Tobias is standing in the doorway.

"No! Absolutely not! He'll just screw it all up!" I glared at Tobias and then glared at Lauren.

Tobias scoffed. "If anyone is going to screw up this mission, it'll be you."

"Oh go fuck yourself."

"Agent Prior!" Lauren exclaimed.

I looked down at the floor, embarrassed. I would apologize to Tobias, but that would mean that I needed to be nice to him.

She cleared her throat and stood up straight. "You two will be taking on this mission and you will do so without killing each other." I rolled my eyes and bit the inside of my cheek. "You both need to be more focused on getting our members out of Jeanine Matthews' hands and back to safety – instead of focusing on your differences. Now go." She ordered.

I couldn't argue with her – she was our boss and we had to listen to her.

Tobias left the room first and I followed behind me, trying to keep my distance.

"Pack your things and we'll meet in the arsenal in twenty minutes." He looked over his shoulder at me, face serious, and then turned left down a hall towards his room.

Once back in my room, I grabbed a duffel bag and threw the first pieces of clothing my hands touched. A majority of my wardrobe consisted of black clothing – necessary for if you were going to break into a mastermind's lair and not be seen by outsiders.

"Tris! I'm on your mission." Christina burst into the room and smiled brightly. I nodded. "Whoa, what's your problem?"

"Well this oh-so-important mission Lauren assigned me to involves Tobias Eaton." I flashed a sarcastic smile. "He's my partner."

"Well don't worry; I'll have your back." She winked at me. "And I can always make it so that he never sees anyone or does anything." We both knew she couldn't do that – it would cost her to lose her job and probably erase a large part of her memory.

"That's not necessary." I shrug and throw my duffel bag over my shoulder. "I have ways to get him to listen to me."

I got to the arsenal before Tobias did, so I started grabbing things and throwing them in another duffel bag.

I grabbed a 9mm pistol, a couple of cartridges and a silencer. I wrapped a thigh holster around my thigh, and slid the pistol into the pocket.

"How the hell are you going to fight in that?" I jumped at the sound of Tobias's voice and turned around to glare at him. "Aren't your pants a little too tight?"

"Staring at my ass again, Eaton?" I turn my attention back to the arsenal and ignore his comment. "It's what I wear on all my missions and they're all successful."

I had on a pair of tight black pants, a tight black long-sleeved shirt with a black fitted zip-up jacket and black boots.

Glancing at Tobias from the corner of my eye, I noticed that he was in all black – black pants, black shoes, and a black fitted shirt.

He started rifling through the pistols, grabbing a glock pistol, three cartridges of ammo and putting the safety on and then hiding it in the waistband of his pants.

"Here." Tobias tosses me an earpiece – the only communication I would have with Christina for awhile. I nod in thanks and then turn my back to him, grabbing the keys to an unmarked black mustang. "I'm driving."

"Why do you get to drive?" I demanded, tossing my bags in the back of the car.

"Because I'm older." He stated matter-of-factly, handing me four knifes. I stared at his hand and then looked back up at him. "What? You're good with handling knifes and if it comes down to it and you're stuck in a situation, it'd be smart to have them on you." He quirks an eyebrow, waiting for me to take the knives.

I take the knifes, watching him carefully. "Did you really just compliment me?" I ask, while sliding the knives into the holsters on my legs.

He shrugs, taking the keys from my hands. "We really are going to need to start being civil with each other if we're going to accomplish this, Tris." He tosses his duffel bag into the back of the car and walks to the driver's side. "We can't argue while trying to save people – it's stupid."

I climbed into the passenger's side, biting my lip, trying to hold back an insult.

The two of us have never really gotten along and I assumed that was why nobody ever assigned us the same mission. So why did Lauren suddenly decide this was a good idea? I mean, it definitely wasn't – one of us would end up hurting the other at one point or another.

"So, Eaton, where are we heading?"

He looked over at me, and then looked straight ahead as he pulled up to the front gate. "Chicago."