Intro

Part I – The father

He had everything ready. He had prepared a wide, comfy bunk in one of his nests, the highest-placed, his favourite, with fresh sheets and an extra pillow just in case.

The last four days had been very stressful, the Blu kept attacking each day, from dawn to sunset, but the Red managed to block them splendidly, never losing the last Intelligence case arrived in the Base. Both teams were exhausted, and since there were new orders for new attacks, it was a good time to rest.

Sniper let himself fall dead body on the chair nearby the window and looked through the only sniping fissure. There was not a soul on the ground of the canyon, if not for few shy lizard coming out hearing no more explosions. The far Blu base fell as silent as the Red one. He sighed and removed his glasses to rub his eyes with the index and the thumb of his left hand, he hadn't seen him all day, should he be worried?

The feeling of his hat leaving his head made his eyes snap open, but puffed as he saw a red blur instead of the blue one he was so expecting. "Antoine."

The Red spy smoothly wore the hat as he turned visible. "L.J." He chuckled and took out his cigarettes' case from his suit reading for the umpteenth smoke of the day. "You must be quite tired to not have heard me coming." He mocked putting the cigarette between his lips, but without lighting it. He knew the smoke would piss his friend a lot. "Is there anything I can help you with, mon ami?"

"My hat, if you please." Lawrence grinned signing him with the hand.

"In exchange for one of your beers." The Spy's gloved hand nonchalantly pointed the tiny refrigerator in the corner after having withdrawn his cigarette into his chest pocket.

"You snake," the shooter scoffed then sighed, "fine, all yours." He made to sit up, but Antoine stopped him with a hand on the shoulder and giving his hat back.

"Don't bother, I already served myself." He grinned waving a glass bottle in front of him. Too bad Lawrence snatched it from his grip.

"Thanks, mate." He throatily chuckled. Yes, he was very tired indeed.

Antoine had expected such a move, that's why he had stolen two bottles instead of one earlier when he got in the room. He took the other chair nearby and let L.J. open it for him. They cheered and had the first drink since the end of the attack.

Suddenly Antoine groaned and led his cool bottle against his temple. In that moment he realized he was still wearing the balaclava and angrily removed it before leaning against the glass again. He sighed feeling a bit better. "God, I need a shower…I feel like I have dust even in my bones."

"How are the lads?"

The sudden question made Antoine slightly jolt and his eyes quickly met Lawrence's. Sniper could clearly read him, the Canadian spy was exhausted both physically and mentally. He frankly couldn't see how long his dear friend was going to resist. The more he thought about his situation, the more he thought it was absurd. Protecting both the Scouts, the Red and the Blu, in that war was… unbearable. And the more he thought about it, the more he respected Antoine, yet there were few important things he had to fix soon or later.

"…Johnathan is unhurt…"

Johnny, 21, was the youngest son of Lady Isabelle McCoy, Antoine's old friend and current fiancée. The Blu Scout.

Sniper slightly bowed his head raising his eyebrows expecting more.

"And…Ryan just got minor scratches from the last explosion. Medic stitched him up well and he's fine."

Ryan, 20, the Red Scout and Antoine's second son. His older brother, William, 24, was still living with the maternal grandparents and very far from the war.

Lawrence James smiled and nodded. "Both strong lads." And he finished his beer with a last gulp. There was a bin in the corner for the empty bottles, he waited for Antoine to finish his, so to trash both. As he stood up, he sniffed the way too familiar smell of smoke of his friend's cigarettes. The spy was slightly trembling, but after the first drag, he visibly relaxed.

Sniper said nothing, for this time he could ignore the smoke. He walked up to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "You'll have your chance to patch everything up, mate. If things are really going like you and Blu have found out, this stupid war will be over and you'll have your family back."

Spy snorted and rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand, then nodded.

Things had changed a lot in the last three months.

The orders of attack had decreased, there had not been any more substitutions among the members of each teams, no new weapons, no new medicines. The fighters had even started to get out of that place to reach the not-so-far town in the valley over the canyon's walls. It happened rare times, but many things had changed with those trips. Some of the mercenaries had even started friendships with their enemies, willingly kept secret of course.

With time the battles seemed even carefully faked. Unfortunately not all the mercenaries had kept good contacts with the enemies, some were still very willing to kill them as many times as they and the respawn system could. The Red Soldier was the most dangerous among all of them.

Another single thing had changed the situation deeply: the two spies were working together. Both had noticed something very off in the contracts of all the mercenaries of both teams and both thought their Administrators might be the same person, making this whole war sound like a cruel sandbox.

The fact that the Blu Spy and the Red Sniper became lovers helped a lot both spies to start working together.

If their theory was the truth, L.J. knew that his friend was going to have a collapse. Antoine had been freed from prison and recruited into the Red team by the Red Administrator, a gelid woman with only the interest of winning every inch of the canyon from the Blu team for whatever reason. He had saw her and when he joined the team he had just rage and hatred in his heart, he couldn't decline the chance to get justice for his wife's assassination, fact he even got charged for and imprisoned, and to have his two sons back.

He worked for Red for long fifteen years as Director of espionage, but the more he tried to work to understand how to get his family back, the more Red pulled him away from any file he found with incredibly massive work and he had no chance to reunite with his children.

Until one day, he found out his youngest had joined the Red and there he understood Red had no idea who his children were and didn't care to help him out. He was the best of the best and the company wasn't going to let him go for such a futile reason. He took that as a chance, though, he immediately signed for the battlefield convincing his superiors, he got new equipment and got sent to fight the Blu directly.

Knowing the company didn't know the identity of their blood link was the best luck he could ever hope for, but it had a very high price: to protect him he couldn't face him openly, and Ryan had no idea who was his father. It hurt Antoine to know that, but knowing that Ryan hated him for murdering his mother made his soul bleed.

Antoine was innocent.

The young man often told his teammates about his stupid brother kept telling him it was not true, what their grandparents said was not the truth, he had known their father, he knew he was innocent…but Ryan never listened to him, and also thanks to the old couple, his hate for their father grew each year.

For months, since they set foot in the base the same day, Antoine tried to be close to him, to give him advices, but never too close. Ryan was not the kind of guy to be befriend easily, often arrogant and reserved, and a total douche on the battlefield, not so respectful to the rules and ending many times in troubles. Once he even got recalled by the Administrator herself, and there the real disaster happened. Antoine knew what She was able to do and what She liked to do with buggers like Ryan. The lad had reached the limit of her patience and had to be substituted.

That meant eliminated. Definitively.

That situation pushed the Red Spy to make the extreme sacrifice; he called Her before the boy got retreated and asked for an appointment for fixing the problem Scout. Once got his meeting, once in front of Her, he asked Her the permission to teach the Scout properly himself. His reputation at the company was still as when he joined, he was still the ice-cold hearted Red Spy.

That intrigued Her, and when she asked how a man of his kind could find anything interesting in a boy like Ryan, he had to answer he would be more than delighted to straight that brat with his own hands. She had believed him, knowing his style, not to count that it would be less expensive than recruiting a new Scout, so She granted his wish.

His face and his voice gave away authority and pure disgust when that evening he went to face Ryan, he dug his way through the lad's soul, he gave him no escape, no occasion to speak back, no freedom. He made it clear he was his superior from then on and he had the liberty to punish him any way he wished. Yet, his eyes were hiding pure terror, remorse and desperation. Lawrence James saw it clearly that evening and when later he knocked at his friend's door, when he entered the room, he saw a broken man who truly needed a big support. That night he hugged him and let him cry on his shoulder.

Antoine had to maintain his role as cold-hearted punisher to keep his kid safe from the Administrator, but at the same time he had to protect him on the battlefield. He didn't wish for his son to keep tasting death and respawn. If Ryan disliked him for just being a Spy from the beginning, after few days he wished him dead. Despite his hate for Antoine, he tried to behave himself, because he knew what Spy was capable of and that terrorized him, even though there was the respawn system.

The story teacher-student went on for six months, Antoine was trying to keep his cover, but couldn't avoid to be less punishing against the young man. Ryan had changed a lot since then, he was doing his job splendidly, sometimes he was a bit more open to his teammates, especially to Heavy and Sniper, but still he hated Spy and also how the others seemed too friendly with him. He still feared him, too. And never stopped hating his father.

In the meantime, Antoine had found out who the Blu Scout was, his surname was different from his brothers', he had his mother's instead of his father's and that pushed him to investigate in person. If he was right, that meant the boy he saw coming to the world about 21 years before was fighting with the Blu.

When he found the house and found the woman, he couldn't believe his eyes. It was her, it was Isabelle, one of his dearest friends from his past, if not the only one, and her surprise on her face when she found him at her door was one of the most beautiful things he saw in a long time.

Isabelle took few long seconds to stare at him trying to believe at what was seeing in front of her, once he was incredibly sure that the man in front of her was Antoine, her dear Antoine, she couldn't stop herself from jumping at his neck and hold him tight. They haven't seen each other in more than 15 years, since the assassination of Anne Mary, Antoine's wife.

He visited her every time he had a day off the battlefield, undercover, and soon he had to explain her his actual situation as a Red Spy. When he talked, the Blu Scout, Johnathan, was present. He was pretty alarmed that the Red Spy was in his house, but after his mother's reinsurance, he accepted to hear out their story. Even his older seven brothers accepted him in their house.

Johnathan was the total opposite of Ryan, calm, friendly, but was incredibly sensitive about a topic in particular, about his father, and could get very violent when losing his temper. He was a slower runner, but was much more resistant. And nonetheless, he was quite strong for his age. None had still found out how a young man like him had ended up working for Blu. He even tried to befriend Ryan, but the only feedback he received was a bit more of good sportsmanship on the battlefield. Better than nothing.

Antoine knew why Johnny was named after his mother's surname, he remembered the day Isabelle had kicked his father out after a long fight where he couldn't bear the fact she was pregnant again and he refused the baby. That was the last drop for her and she threatened him with her father's big gun. Isabelle had always been a strong woman, but her love for a man who slowly lost his passion for her and their children kept her prisoned for many years. After that episode Antoine and Anne Mary had been very close to her, giving her all their support. When Antoine had been imprisoned she had tried all her power to get him out, she knew he was innocent, but no one believed her.

Since their meeting Antoine and Isabelle got really close, but he still had a lot to do and didn't want her in danger, so she made him promise in front of a piece of his favourite cake that he would visit her whenever he had the time, it didn't matter how often as long as he came back. How to say no to such a sweetie? Especially when there was also a cake in her plate ready for him.

He also promised another thing she didn't dare to ask to not put both of them in danger: he would have protect Johnny too.

"Is he coming tonight?"

Lawrence sharply snapped out from his trance and blinked many times before realizing what he had been asked. "O-Oh, yes, yeah he will." His cheeks got hot.

Antoine grinned seeing the so stone-hearted shooter getting suddenly so soft and stood up. "See me later after dinner in my room, I have many files to give him this time. By the way, I'm starving. Tonight Engie's turn to cook." He wore his mask on and rubbed his tummy. Engie was the best cook in the Red base.

L.J. nodded and followed him out the tower, yes, dinner was a good idea, but a shower first was obligatory, he couldn't meet his lover in such a state, could he?