Hey readers! This is a multi-chapter romance fic between Marcus and Sitara. Rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and strong language. SPOILER ALERT! This series takes place after the events within the game, you've been warned!

Please enjoy! Sitara and Marcus are adorable together, we need more writers showing this pair some love!

Sitara

We fucking did it. We, DedSec, took down the CTO of Blume corporation! Dušan Nemec— one of the youngest, most successful, egotistical prick billionaires in all of San Francisco, was rotting in prison. It wasn't easy though. He was a powerful guy with seemingly endless resources. He even had his own little personal army of FBI agents. But worst of all, he had ctOS 2.0 wrapped around his fingers.

Despite all that crap, we took him down, exposed Blume, HAUM and many other tech giants for the corrupt frauds they were. And it felt good. Damn good. If it wasn't for us, people would still be living like sheep. It was about time everyone woke the hell up.

And if it wasn't for Marcus… None of it would had been possible.

The Hackerspace was quiet tonight. It reeked of beer and pizza. We've been doing a lot of celebrating since taking down Blume. But tonight was calm and peaceful. I think we've finally got the partying out of our system.

Wrench stood before his infamous wrench bench, fully immersed in tinkering with a new security robot from Haum electronics. The poor guy has been down in the dumps ever since the last robot he reprogrammed and bonded with, Wrench Jr, took one for the team at the Tidis repair facility. It took some time, but he eventually snapped out of it and convinced Marcus to hijack him a new one. Soon, there'll be a new little robot for him to love and cherish. He deserved some happiness, after everything he had been through.

Josh was off by the corner of the space at his computer, rooted within his seat and dead focused on monitor's screen, probably speed reading, considering I couldn't hear him typing away instead.

I hung out at my usual spot, leaning against my heavily tagged, trusty digital printer just across from the staircase. I couldn't take my eyes off the DedSec app. Our followers were growing substantially. DedSec was becoming bigger than I ever imagined. Everything was falling into place. My brand— the art, the logos, the videos, it was finally making a difference. People were opening their eyes.

As happy as I was about our massive amount of followers, and all the soulless tech giants we took down, I couldn't get Marcus off my mind. I was worried about him. He went out to grab us some pizza and a couple of beers hours ago, and still hasn't returned. What was taking him so long? The pizza shop was only a few blocks away. Could he be in trouble? We've come a long way and had a lot of enemies. Maybe something happened, he could had been kidnapped or worse…

I sighed. Calm down, Sitara. It was hard not to be paranoid after losing Horatio. We were all young, and did amazing things, whether it was hacking, stunts or free-running. Sometimes, it was easy to forget we were only human. That is, until we lost Horatio. It changed everything.

We couldn't afford to lose Marcus, not after everything he's done to get us here. He was the reason we were all still fighting the good fight, we'd be lost without him. But with all the risks he took on the daily, bringing the fight straight to ctOS and hacking their closed-circuit terminals, it scared me. They were usually so well defended, either by gang members or police. I knew someone had to do the fieldwork, but his luck was bound to run out one day. He could only hack and charm his way out of so many situations.

Whenever Marcus left the hackerspace for a mission, I waited anxiously for the moment he'd return. No matter what I did to distract myself from the restlessness and the worry, nothing would work. But all those bad vibes would dissipate the moment he stepped through the sliding door and swaggered down the stairs, all the while flashing me that same pearly white, charming smile as he descended. I'll never forget that nice smile of his.

"I'm going to name him Wrench Jr 2.0, in loving memory of his predecessor's sacrifice," Wrench's synthetic voice filled the room. He stroked a hand over the security bot's head gently. "I'm gonna take good care of you buddy, no one's going to hurt you. You're going to be the happiest robot there ever was—"

"He should have been back by now," I stated, cutting off Wrench's rant.

He stared at me, his leather mask displaying its two large, blinking question marks. "He, as in, our wonderful friend Marcus?"

"Think I should call him?"

"Nah. Relax worrywart, I'm sure M is fine."

"It doesn't take hours to get pizza, Wrench."

"True. He probably got distracted or something."

"And if he didn't?" Josh asked from across the space, monotone as usual, eyes still glued to his monitor.

"Then he's currently performing a tactful escape from a horde of pissed off street thugs armed with military grade weapons and explosives. Or he's in the middle of a bad ass high speed chase with the cops." His mask abruptly brightens up with two blinking circles. "Or maybe, the thugs and cops have formed an alliance, and he's being shot at and chased by both! All three scenarios would be equally bad ass."

"Yet improbable," Josh adds. "Muraccinis is fifteen-minute walk from here, and knowing Marcus, he'd most likely drive. It isn't in gang territory either. They wouldn't be so bold. Also, the authorities wouldn't pursue him unless he provoked them somehow. He's not running an op right now, at least I don't think he is."

"Alright, you got me there," Wrench said. "But you gotta admit Josh, my scenarios do sound bad ass. You see, there's only three things as thrilling as blowing shit up. The first, being the most obvious of the three, is motor boating a stripper dressed as a furry—"

"Too much information Wrench." I said.

"Shame on you Sitara, there can never be too much information. Data makes the world go round, am I right?"

"That I can agree with," Josh replied.

"Anyway, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," Wrench continued. "The second and third would be getting shot at, and high speed chases. If Marcus is lucky enough to be engaged in either or right now, I'm one hundred percent positive he has it all under control."

"It'd practically be like a normal day for him, Sitara," Josh said. "I noticed there's been a significant rise in missing person cases. A thirty percent increase since last year, it can't be a coincidence. Perhaps he was kidnapped. Not very probable though, I wouldn't worry about it."

I frowned. "You both aren't helping."

"Well, can't say we didn't try," Wrench muttered, returning his attention to robot laid across his bench, screwdriver in hand.

The sliding door of the hackerspace abruptly opened, and Marcus appeared, a pizza box secured in his grasp and a brown paper bag hanging by his forearm. A wave of relief washed my worries and anxiety away as he descended the stairs. He smiled warmly at me, like he always did whenever he returned from running errands or ops, and time and time again, my heart responded with flips and cartwheels. I just couldn't get over that smile. It never got old.

"What's good, party people?" He exclaimed happily, halting before the brown fold up table in the center of the space. There were files, empty donut boxes, coffee cups and various soda bottles resting on top of it. God, we were so junky. He carefully brushed it all aside and placed the pizza and brown bag down gently. "Y'all miss me?"

"Hell yeah we missed you dude," Wrench pulled away from his bench and hurried to the pizza. "And you got the goods? Well done, my friend. Well done."

"Sitara missed you the most," Josh stated.

"No shit?" He glanced at me, his thick brows furrowed.

"What in the world took you so long?" I asked.

"I was gathering intel on Pharmingtons—"

"The pharmaceutical company?" Josh asked.

"Weren't they the dumb fucks unrightfully canning their employees under the suspicion that they were working with us?" Wrench asked.

I nodded. "Right, and then we hacked into their financial department and transferred moolah to all the employees they kicked to the curb."

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Wrench said. "They deserved it, they were sacking workers for even Nudle searching DedSec. Fuckers."

"They wouldn't be the first corporate giant exploiting people's private data through ctOS," Marcus said. "Yo, one of our followers hit me up about some rumors he's been hearing, figured I might have been down to do some digging. I know it sounds crazy, but I think they might be connected with the sudden rise in missing person cases."

"What are we, fucking pigs?" Wrench asked. "Leave that shit to the police, M. We have other things to worry about, like ctOS for example."

"If there's any truth to these rumors I've been hearing, then we gotta look into this. Uncovering corporate greed and corruption to the people is what we stand for, right? If Pharmingtons is hiding dirty laundry, it's our job to—"

"Expose the dirty sheets," Wrench finished his sentence. "I stand by you on that one, and yes, I do love conspiracy theories, but I dunno dude. A bunch of pharmacists kidnapping people seems a little far-fetched. Unless…" He let out an abrupt gasp, his mask blinking with two large exclamation points. "They're operating on people and selling their organs on the deep web to the highest bidder?"

"Someone's been watching way too many bad sci-fi movies," I grumbled.

"There's hundreds of people in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and Oakland that have suddenly gone missing in a matter of months," Josh stated. "I don't think Pharmingtons would have the resources to pull something off that big, without anyone knowing. There must be more to it. You might not be on the right track Marcus."

"Look, Pharmingtons is the only lead I got," Marcus said. "I know I was supposed to just be going out for pizza, but I saw a window of opportunity to do some snooping and I went for it. I didn't find anything, but I'm gonna keep digging until I know for sure that they have nothing to do with it."

"Told ya' he got distracted Sitara," Wrench said, lifting his mask slightly to take a bite of pizza. "I'm always right."

"Too distracted to send a text, or give us a call that you'd be running late?" I asked.

"My bad, mom. It won't happen again, all right?"

I rolled my eyes and turned away, my gaze lowering to my phone. Why did I even waste the energy worrying about everyone all the time? Rarely was it worth the headache.

Marcus appeared in front of me, his strong, calloused hand brushed over my bare shoulder for my attention. His touch felt surprisingly good against my skin— warm and tender. Behind the lenses of his thick glasses were deep brown eyes laced with concern. "Don't be mad, girl," he spoke soft and quietly so the others wouldn't hear. "I got back here as soon as I could."

"Marcus, I was worried sick about you," I muttered, our gazes locking. "You can't just drop off the radar like that, we've made a lot of people angry taking down Blume."

"I know, but I'm all good. I'm alive and well, ain't no bullet holes in me. Plus, I brought the pizza and the drinks here all in one piece. Quest complete right?"

"I hate when you do that."

"Do what?"

"When you mock me for caring about you. Do I seriously act like your mom?"

"Nah, I was just joking."

"Well it was funny at first, but now it's just douchey. I know I nag you sometimes, but you going out on your own, running ops, gathering intel, and getting distracted for hours on end, doing God knows what… I don't want to take chances anymore, not after what happened to Horatio."

He grimaced and sighed heavily, eyes falling shut for a brief moment. It was as if hearing Horatio's name aloud worked like a switch. It immediately turned his usual happy-go-lucky nature around into complete doom and gloom. My stomach tightened. Damn it, I shouldn't had brought Horatio into this. Marcus was still torn up about it. Truthfully we all were, but clearly he was the most affected. And rightfully so, Horatio died in his arms. We weren't there to witness all the blood, the pain and the suffering. Horatio deserved better.

Marcus was strong for holding it together as long as he has.

I clung to him, and held him there tightly, hoping that that'll be enough to comfort him. To my surprise, he returned the hug. It wasn't until I felt his defined arms secure around my waist, that I realized I needed comfort just as much as he did. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to relax. The scent of fresh, woody extracts rose from the collar of his black sweater. His cologne smelled great, and combined with the subtle hints of espresso due to his hopeless addiction to caffeine, it was hard not to melt in his embrace.

He slowly pulled away, his fingers stroked through the ends of my ponytail playfully. "You know what, I think you're right."

I smiled. "Aren't I always right?"

"Yeah, let's not get ahead of ourselves now." He teased.

I punched his shoulder gently. "Jerk. But wait, what was I right about this time?"

"It's too big of a risk for me to go on ops by myself, right? So, why don't you come with me?"

"Me? Come with you?" I blinked. The thought of getting shot at and constantly trying to dodge the police didn't sound very appealing. Like at all. But on the flip side, he wouldn't have to face it all alone anymore. I'd be spending less time worrying and more time making a difference.

"Yep, you and me running an op together. Sounds fun right? I need to get inside Pharmingtons' HQ and access their servers."

"You're really serious about this whole missing persons thing, huh?"

"Dead serious."

I glimpsed at Wrench, who's still devouring pizza. He's inhaled about four slices so far, and was working on the fifth. He was pretty freaking small despite how much he ate. Where did it all go?

"Wouldn't Wrench be more suited for fieldwork?" I asked.

"Wrench can get shit done, no doubt," Marcus replied. "Although, stealth isn't really his thing, if you get what I mean. The leather straps and spikes look is dope and all, but it doesn't work very well for blending in."

"It's probably just the mask."

"Probably. If I need explosions, massive hysteria and commotion, he's my guy. As of right now, I'm tryna' lay low. So, what do you say?" He flashed his signature, charming smile. "You down to ride?"

"Well, how can I resist that smile? C'mon, let's roll stud."

He grinned and stepped aside, preforming a classy bow. "After you, my lady."

"Why thank you, kind sir."

We voiced our goodbyes to the others, promised to keep in touch and went on our merry way.

"And here we are," Marcus announced as we slipped through the hardwood front door of the Pharmingtons CEO's office.

The office was neat and tidy, with a fancy polished, cherry wood desk and a tall, brown leather executive chair positioned in the center of the space. On the desk was the usual office supplies— sticky notes, business cards, pens, stacks of files and documents, staplers, and of course, a computer. No office would be complete without one.

In the corner of the office was a brown paneled door. It was already opened slightly, with an expensive, beige trench coat visible through the crack. The CEO must be using the storage closet as a wardrobe.

It was easy enough getting here. We arrived at the headquarters just after midnight. Most of the staff had already clocked out for the day. There were only a handful of Umeni security guards patrolling about, and a few janitors working the nightshift. Marcus was able to steal the access key to the back entrance of the building from one of the guards. Once inside, we managed to tap into the building's servers, and bypass the lock on the elevator to the CEO's office. All that was left to do now was hack into the computer and see if we could find anything to confirm Marcus' suspicions about their connection to the various, sudden disappearances around the city.

Honestly, it was a long shot. If Pharmingtons did have a connection with the mysterious disappearances, this could be huge for DedSec. But if not, we were wasting our time.

Marcus hurried across the beige carpeted floor, maneuvering around the large desk, and quickly got to work on accessing the CEO's private data. It wouldn't be long before he hacked in and began transferring intel for Josh to comb through.

I wandered over to the desk, and inspected the pile of business cards. 'Executive Officer Angelica T. Stewart' was etched across it. Below the name was the HQ's address, and the CEO's phone and fax number. I bet she was pissed when we stole funds from her financial department and gave it to the former employees she so carelessly fired. I mean, come on, canning people over DedSec Nudle searches? This was the world we lived in— everything was monitored. Privacy was a thing of the past.

"I'm in," Marcus declared, turning away from the CEO's computer and gazing at his phone. "You getting all this Josh?"

"Yeah, this is a lot of data to sort through," Josh's voice seeped through my earbuds from the DedSec channel. "What exactly am I looking for again?"

"You're looking for anything suspicious Josh," I said. "Check her emails, phone log, search history— If Marcus' hunch is true, this could potentially be huge for DedSec."

"Fine. I'll need some time. You guys should get out of there. I'll contact you if I find anything shady."

Thump. Thump.

The sound of heavy footed steps pounding against the marble hallway floor from outside the office rooted me in place. The footsteps had become more and more audible with every second that passed. Someone was heading straight for the office. Our cover was about to be blown if we didn't think fast.

My eyes darted to Marcus. He pressed a finger to his lips, signaling me to keep silent. Securing his DedSec mask over his face, he reached for his back pocket and grasped his stun gun. I tapped his shoulder and pointed at the closet. He peered at it in quiet contemplation for a brief moment, and then nodded in approval. We carefully navigated toward the closet and huddled inside, closing the door behind us as quietly as possible.

It was dark in here, and it reeked of strawberry air freshener. Marcus and I's knees were practically touching due to the cramped space. I glanced up at him, only to find his soft brown eyes studying me intently. Heat rose to my cheeks. I immediately dropped my gaze to my boots.

Despite how often we were around one another; it wasn't until now that I realized how small I was compared to him. He was strong, powerfully built and tall— a far cry from most of the hacker and starving artist cliques I was well accustomed to. The top of my head just barely reached his shoulders.

It was going to take some getting used to. Marcus and I have never been this intimate before, not since earlier at the hackerspace at least. Sure, we've hugged before, gotten shitfaced together multiple times and had a few good talks, but they were always short-lived because we were both so committed to taking down Blume.

But things were different now. The group was more laid-back and we had time to work on other aspects of our lives. Of course, fighting the good fight always took top priority for us, hence why we're stuck in a closet right now, but with Blume's corrupt CTO out of the way, the world was a significantly better place. We deserved some time to allow our victory to sink in and relax.

Our much needed relaxation would have to wait until we're back at the hackerspace though. I willed my thoughts away and focused on the situation at hand. I didn't hear the loud footsteps anymore, which was a good sign.

"Think he's gone?" Marcus whispered, lowering his mask from concealing his face.

I shifted around and opened the door to a crack. There was a large, husky man standing just outside the office. Armed with a mop, mp3 player, and various cleaning products on his utility belt, he was cleaning the floors leisurely, occasionally stopping to sway from side to side to the beat of his music. Sighing, I shut the door and turned to Marcus.

"I think we're gonna be hanging out here for a while," I mumbled. "There's a janitor right outside."

"I could just knock him out with my stun gun," Marcus replied. "He wouldn't even see it coming—"

"We're not going to resort to violence unless we have to, okay?"

"Fine, it's your call. We'll just hang out in the Pharmingtons CEO's office for a bit. No big deal, ain't got nothing better to do."

"You do know that it was your idea to come here in the first place, right?"

"I was hoping to be in and out, and not going to jail for trespassing, or breaking and entering."

"Calm down, we're not going to get caught. Save the stun gun for the smug assholes that deserve it, not every day people just trying to make a living."

"Alright, alright, if you put it that way…" He secured his weapon beneath his jacket and out of sight.

"There you go," I smiled. "Give the guy a break, he's probably cleaned far too many dirty toilets today."

"Damn girl, I see you. Standing up for the underdog and all that. I respect it."

"Good. Because the way I see it, if I don't stand up for them, who else will?"

"Preach. I could definitely take a few pages from your book, cause' I think I've been getting too in touch with my violent side lately. I had to do a lot of shit I wouldn't normally do to stop Blume. But then again, maybe I've just been hanging out with Wrench too much."

"Maybe. You and Wrench are literally inseparable."

"Well that statement can't be accurate because technically, he's at the hackerspace and I'm here." He squeezed my hand lightly, his fingers intertwining with mine. My heart sped up. I didn't even realize we were still holding hands. "And to be honest, if I could choose anyone in the world to be stuck in a closet with, it'd be you."

A wide, goofy smile spread across my face. "Marcus, you are such a flirt."

His broad, masculine frame gravitated to me, slow and hesitantly, giving me more than enough time to pull away. But I didn't. Although I'd never admit it aloud, his closeness made me feel safe and content. It always has. "Yeah, I guess I am a flirt. I only turn on my charm for you though."

"Really now? What about when you're shitfaced drunk or high, and hitting on everything that moves?"

"In my defense, I'm probably not very charming when I'm shitfaced or having an acid trip."

"No, you're more obnoxious than anything. You are much, much better to be around when you're sober. Pot is fine though. Anything more than that is a no-no."

"Right, I'll keep that in mind. You smoke?"

"I do, here and there."

"Aw, damn. Why am I just finding out about this now? We gotta smoke a joint together one of these days."

"You know, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. Can I pick your brain a little while we're at it? I hear some people get really philosophical on cloud nine. You seem like the type."

"Luckily for you, I'm an open book. My goals, morals and values— I can fill you in on it whenever you have the time. All you gotta do is let me know when you're available. We can get out of the hackerspace and hang out somewhere else for a change."

"Whoa, slow your roll, Prince Charming. Are you asking me out on a date?"

He cleared his throat before speaking, putting on his silly, refined and sophisticated impression again. "In fact, I am, my lady. Would you be so kind to accompany me around the city, say… tomorrow evening at eight? Promise I'll be punctual."

He beamed at me, revealing his even, pearly white teeth. God, that smile. It made my nerve ends tingle.

"Well, I had plans for tomorrow, but maybe I can reschedule a few things. We'll see, since your offer sounds so very tempting."

Marcus leaned in closer, his stubbled cheek brushing over mine. "Yeah? You sure?" He muttered into my ear, his voice deepening.

"Uh-huh," I murmured, almost breathlessly. I could feel his warm breath on my neck. It was getting so hot in here.

"Guys, I found something," Josh's voice blurted through our earbuds. "Get back to the hackerspace now."

"Yeah, you guys are gonna wanna see this," Wrench added.

Marcus reluctantly drew away, and secured his mask back over his face. I let out a sigh, desperate to relieve the tension in my muscles. My knees were so weak, I thought they were going to give out any moment now. The thought of going on a date with him excited me, and scared the living Hell out of me at the same time.

Tomorrow night was going to be interesting.

Thanks for reading. Leave a review if you liked :)