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Dave was having a hard time paying attention; he had a horrible migraine that was so not ironic. He had been up for the past 27 hours and the last place he wanted to be was in the debriefing room. God, he could just imagine his bed, waiting for him, calling him to slumber. He jerked back from his fantasy as a hand waved in front of his face.

"Dave? Are you even listening?" Rose asked in an annoyed tone, crossing her arms, until Dave looked at her.

"Yeah" She huffed at him and continued her hand waving back to the large projection on one of the walls. John was looking curiously at the wall, but he had seen this before. It showed the pictures of all the known trolls, an X through the ones captured. The only difference was Karkat, who had an X now.

"Good job bringing Karkat in, he was the leader of the terrorist organization so hopefully the rest will fall without him. However, informants speculate this is not true, that he was just the figurehead. If that is correct, it would explain why he suddenly went on a seemingly unplanned killing rampage. Even though he bombed two office buildings, Dave stopped him before he could get any farther. So now-"

"Why weren't those two there? This is their job, not mine." Dave questioned in a sour tone. Rose sighed, knowing that this question would come up.

"Yes, they should have been there but unfortunately we were not able to contact them as well as you. This was a high stakes capture, and people died. We could not afford to waste time." She looked at him menacingly, daring him to argue. Dave merely huffed and crossed his arms.

"Are we done here? I have my own mission to get back to. And I'm dead tired." Rose nodded at her cousin.

"Yes, rest here and then go back to your mission. You do not need to be debriefed on anything else. If something does come up I'll message you." With that, Dave stood up and walked out of the blindingly white room. His shoulders relaxed as he walked down the hall to his room. He hardly used it anymore, as he was constantly out.

He punched in the key code to get into his room and the door slide open. He immediately flopped on his bed, relaxing into it. He was fully prepared to fall asleep, yet somehow, he couldn't. As he closed his eyes all he could see were the bombs going off, the people screaming and running out of the building. And in the middle of it all, was that awful troll, his eyes the bright blood of the people he murdered.

The duel they fought was long and tedious, Dave with his long sword and Karkat branding a sickle. They fought for a long time, until Dave had finally managed to get the sickle out of his hands. He wanted to kill Karkat right there and then for murdering all of those innocent people, but the rules required him to bring Karkat in alive. With many injuries yes, but still alive. And jeez, how the troll could curse. It was not a pleasant ride back to the base with him.

Dave tried to clear his mind of Karkat, hating to even think about him. Unfortunately, his mind found something else to worry about. It was not his job to take down the trolls; it was his brothers and Jakes. They had been unresponsive the past few days, mostly likely due to their beginning relationship. Dave hated how Dirk seemingly abandoned his duties, the safety of the world, just to have a stupid relationship.

Dave punched the pillow in frustration. Dirk and Jake were the recon team. It was their job to bring down the trolls. Dave had his own mission. There was something else going on with the group of terrorists, and it was his job to find out. To find what secrets they were hiding. And trust him, there were plenty. He was so close to a breakthrough when he was messaged to take on Karkat. Ugh! He hated his stupid irresponsible brother so much! He was so selfish!

Dave sighed, his mind going into frustration and worry. This wasn't how he used to be, but hey, responsibility can change a guy. Finally his mind began to settle, and he thankfully fell into a deep, well deserved slumber.

XXXXX

John watched as Dave left the room, worried about him. It seemed like these days that's all John felt towards Dave, worry. He was such a different person. Ever since the project began and they broke up, Dave had completely changed. It was even Dave who broke it off, saying that the responsibility they had was more important than their relationship. It was 8 months into the project, and John had finally gotten over Dave. He was still worried for his friend though. As he sighed once again, he focused on what Rose was saying.

"Karkat is possibly the most dangerous criminal we have in this facility now, for reasons of his character. He will not hesitate to manipulate you, lie to you, and kill you. Are you prepared to take on the task of being his guard with these points in mind?"

John didn't hesitate when he nodded. If he could handle Gamzee, he could handle any troll. And Gamzee had been an eye opener on the difficulty of this project. Besides, John was for some reason unknown to him fascinated by Karkat. He felt like they had a connection the first time they saw each other. What connection it was and why was just another reason to be his guard: to find out.

Rose smiled tightly and continued.

"Good. I know you are up to this task. Because of this I have a favor to ask of you." Rose looked hesitant. John's interest was piqued.

"Well?" He asked, eyebrow rose with a half smile. Rose sighed.

"Will you take food to prisoner six's cell today? I am busy and don't think I will be able to find the time today." Her voice wavered in the last few words, and John was astonished. Rose was the most stone faced person he knew, never letting her emotions show. Something big must have happened to her, something to do with Kanaya, aka prisoner six.

Kanaya was originally assigned as John's responsibility, as every prisoner was his responsibility. After a few weeks succeeding her capture, John had noticed Rose visiting Kanaya. What they talked about he didn't know, and when he asked her once she said it was to find "information on the enemy". Soon after he asked she assigned herself to be Kanayas guard. John figured that they had become like friends, much like him and prisoner two. So he didn't bother them.

"Well, I have work to get back to, and so do you". John watched as Rose hurriedly left the room, avoiding John's eyes. He slowly got up and began to walk out into the hall, thinking as he went.

Kanaya must have said something, or done something. His face scrunched up as he thought of his hurt friend, wondering what Kanaya could have done to earn a reaction like that from Rose.

As much as it hurt to ignore the obvious problem between them, he did have work to get back to. And integrating a new prisoner into the system was no easy task.

He made his way down the hall, stopping at the small kitchen situated in the middle of the long white hallway. This is where the food was made for the prisoners. It was all premade, and John grabbed one of the saran wrapped trays from the fridge. He headed back out into the hall until he stopped at cell four.

As John was punching in the code to the door, his stomach fluttered. Was he… nervous? He couldn't think of any reason to be, and shook off the feeling. He pressed his thumb to the key reader, and slid his card through the slot.

This was a high security facility, so apparently a lot of locks were necessary. It had become annoying the one day he lost his key card though. John shook that memory away as he stepped into the dividing room.

In all of the cells there were two rooms. The room the prisoners were held in, and an observing room, for more security. The idea was that if something happened inside and the prisoner managed to get through the door, another door would stop him. In the small narrow room a one sided mirror lined the wall, looking into the prisoners room. John could see Karkat sitting on his bed, scowling at the wall.

The rooms they kept the prisoners in were comfortable. They had a decent bed, a chair, a table, and a laptop. While the last might seem odd, it was for informational reasons. All the laptops were uploaded with Trollian, Trolls version of Pesterchum. Their conversations were monitored, hoping that they would reveal their plans.

John entered another key code, punched his thumb in the reader, and slid his card through. The door slid open with a hiss.

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A/N This storys setting is still being set up, so I'm sorry if it seems really boring right now! I promise the next chapter will have more action! I just really need to set up the situation. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! It really motivated me to continue! And I have a question for everyone, would you rather I posted often and had short chapters like this or wait to post and have longer chapters? Let me know! Thanks for reading! :D