Root breathed in the dusty air of the desert from atop a hill. It was peaceful at this altitude, away from the hustle and bustle of the military camp below. Sometimes the most beautiful landscapes were also grounds for the most conflict, she thought.

"Missin' all the fun up here," a voice called from behind.

Root turned to confirm the identity of the speaker. "Didn't think I'd see you again, Shaw. Not after today."

"Come on, you didn't think it would be that easy." Shaw sat down nimbly beside her.

"We were this close," Root answered truthfully, stretching her fingers together in a visual representation.

Shaw opened a can of soda and began guzzling it, as if in deliberate disrespect of the desert. "At least now you know I'm alive, right?"

"It's not enough," Root replied, thinking how they had been minutes too late. How the outcome could have been different if she had pushed harder. But then maybe the woman in their custody would have died. She hated that that seemed to matter. All this sentiment was making her ineffective.

"Back when I was in the Marines, leaving people behind was part of the job sometimes," Shaw said, leveling with Root. "The mission came first."

"She taught me to value life." Root shook her head. "So why is the one life I—why are you beyond my reach?"

Shaw finished the soda and burped loudly. "Don't always get what you want." She peeled back a chocolate bar wrapper and began eating.

"That's easy when you don't have things to care about," Root said ruefully. "I don't think I can go back to that anymore."

"Caring doesn't make you special," Shaw said. "Feelings are overrated."

"Not exactly the answer I was hoping for."

"Stuff happens." Shaw finished her candy bar and threw the wrapper over the edge of the cliff. She stood up and nodded her head toward the camp. "War isn't pretty. Mines. Starvation. Sacrifice."

Root stood to join her. "I know, but—"

"You didn't think any of that could happen to you," Shaw interjected. "Until now."

"Well I've never fought in a war before," Root said, her tone slightly defensive. "I'm not…"

"Prepared?" Shaw continued, probing mercilessly. "Trained?"

Root stuffed her hands in her pockets and continued to stare at the dunes in the distance.

"Just because you're in a city using small guns…that doesn't change what it is," Shaw said, turning to face her. "You're afraid that you're soft. That it will cost me my life, if it hasn't already."

"I could have been there today," Root said bitterly. "If I'd driven faster, gotten the information sooner—"

"Someone might have died," Shaw interrupted, her eyes ferrous in their intensity, piercing Root, but not judging her. "You don't have to be flawless," she went on more kindly, seeming to realize these were the very things that kept Root awake at night.

"I just want to find you. Nothing else matters."

"Cute." Shaw shook her head. "But foolish."

Root grabbed her by the shoulders then. "What do you mean?"

"If you had made it in time," Shaw said, cold fire to her blazing heat. "You and Reese would probably be dead."

"That's a risk I was willing to take."

"And leave Samaritan to rule the world?" Shaw inquired disdainfully. "I don't need to tell you what that would be like."

"Maybe I would have succeeded," Root said stubbornly.

"It's better this way," Shaw told her. "Go home, Root." She waved a careless hand at the endless sand marred by explosions below. "You don't belong here."

"I am not letting you go, Shaw." Root grabbed her arm and pulled then, the motion feeling all too familiar.

Shaw shook her off easily. "Continue on this path and you might as well put a bullet in your brain now."

"I don't care," Root said flatly.

"You have no idea where I am," Shaw stated. "Any attempt to find out will blow your cover and John's."

"You can't ask me to give up."

"Make my actions count for something," Shaw said. "Take Samaritan down. Then," she held up a hand to forestall whatever Root was about to say. "Come for me when it's safe."

Root couldn't argue with the logic of that, but she wanted to. Desperately. "Samantha," Shaw continued, knocking Root out of her reverie with syllables that were unfamiliar to them both. "Means 'listener of God'."

Root sighed. "What does it matter? It's not like I use that name anyway."

Undeterred, Shaw went on like a homing missile locked on its target, "You were made for this, Root. Someday you'll see that."

Root kicked at a lump of sand at her feet. "Right now nothing feels right. Taking instructions from Her won't fix it."

"Win the war and you win the battle," Shaw said, unusually serious. "You have a job to do."

"Are you saying you want me back in the city?" Root asked.

But Shaw had already turned and walked down the hill, disappearing as she reached the bottom. Root lay down where she was and stretched her limbs on a whim, unintentionally forming a sand angel in the middle of nowhere, under the blazing sun.

When she opened her eyes, she was lying spreadeagled on some rumpled mattress in a dingy motel, with a naked pull chain light bulb as the only illumination.