Ever wonder about some of the stuff that happened back in the first chapter? And about Sector 6? Want to find out?

Chapter 7: Revelation

Clarice had been at the zoo for almost two months now. True, one of the two months had been spent entirely in the infirmary. But it still counted. Two months since the failed mission. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone had followed up on what had happened. Not that she thought she'd ever find out. Clarice knew she was listed as M.I.A.; that others probably thought she was dead. But it couldn't be helped. All she could do was try and survive. One day at a time.

Hans was still looking a bit ragged after having gotten Lulu's advice. And then angering her to the point where she pulled out some of his feathers. He hadn't gone near the chimpanzee habitat since that day. For some reason the loss of his feathers, but more likely the latest failure in his attempt to woo his lady love, made him restless and made it hard to go to sleep. So he was awake when Clarice got up to make her nightly rounds.

He didn't know where she was going, so he quietly got up and followed her stealthily; making sure to keep to the shadows wherever possible. Hans saw her approach the reptile house, and he stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't want to follow her in there. But he didn't have to.

Before Clarice could enter the building, a shadow swooped down from the sky and landed right in front of her. She took a few steps backward before assuming a fighting stance. Then she relaxed a bit as she recognized the mysterious figure. Hans overheard the entire conversation, though he didn't understand any of it.

"At ease solider," the figure said.

"Commander Murk. What are you doing here," Clarice asked with a mixture of surprise and fear.

The moon rose a little higher shedding some light into the area. The mysterious figure was a very stern looking albatross. Hans couldn't place the accent, mainly because there WAS no accent. Maybe there had been at one time, but it must have been erased through some form of training. That was unusual, and a little intimidating. Hans didn't blame Clarice for sounding scared. But why was she calling him "commander"?

"You've been missing for a while Clarice. The second team that was sent in saw no sign of you in the house. The bodies of the two missing penguins were found though. In the basement; badly mutilated. Not to mention Gerard's body in the attic; also badly mutilated. Care to explain?"

The female puffin gulped nervously before replying. What Hans heard next was truly baffling. Something about someone named Gerard, whoever that was, getting killed by someone else named Michael. Who apparently had been possessed by a demon. Then this Michael guy had turned on her and tried to kill her too. She knocked him out after getting injured then escaped. But instead of making it to wherever it was she meant to go, she crash landed in New Jersey. At least now Hans knew how she had gotten that scar on her wing. But who were the people she had mentioned?

"So. That's what happened. A demon. I feared that something like this would happen," the albatross shook his head sadly.

Clarice fidgeted for a minute before continuing her narrative. And so Hans learned that probably one of the reasons that Clarice was so angry all of the time was because she couldn't fly anymore. But he was shocked to learn that she had decided to be a vigilante and watch over the zoo. At least it explained why the attempt that he and Clemson had made to get transferred to the Central Park Zoo to kill the idiot lemur hadn't worked. She had stopped them. He didn't know how to feel about that.

"An agent that cannot fly is an agent that is of no use to Sector 6. Despite your vast knowledge and how fluent you are in several different languages, you are hereby dismissed from the ranks. You are not one of us any longer."

"I know sir. I figured that out quite a while ago."

Clarice looked so sad, that Hans was willing to forgive her for sabotaging the assassination plot. He didn't understand why she should care if they do bad things or not though. As long as it doesn't hurt her it shouldn't concern her, right? The albatross that she kept calling "commander" was getting ready to fly away, when she stopped him with a question that Hans also found perplexing.

"Commander Murk? Sir? If I may ask, you mentioned the bodies of the two missing penguins and the body of Gerard. But what about Michael's body? You didn't mention him."

There was a moment of silence so thick that you could almost cut it with a knife. Commander Murk gave Clarice a canny look, and seemed at first like he wasn't going to answer. But then, with a shake of his head, he changed his mind.

"I shouldn't be telling you anything as you are no longer an official agent. But I've known you since you were young, so I'll tell you. Though you won't like it."

There was a pause. The albatross stared directly into the puffin's eyes before answering, and spoke slowly and clearly. As if to make sure that she understood what he was saying.

"Michael's body wasn't there. The house was searched from top to bottom. There was no trace of him; not even a stray feather. It's like he vanished."

Clarice stared in shock. She didn't know what to believe. But she did know that Silas Murk, the rule-abiding commander of Sector 6, never joked about ANYTHING. If he said that Michael's body hadn't been there, then it hadn't been there. But what could that mean?

"If I were you, I'd focus less on watching the zoo and more on watching my own back. That gull may still be alive. And if he is, there's no telling what mental state he'll be in. Or if he'll even be rid of the demon."

She didn't reply to this. She had no reply.

"Take care of yourself. And find someone that you can trust in this place. You might need the back up one day."

And having finished that sentence, the albatross took off for parts unknown leaving a bewildered girl standing alone. Hans saw her turn around and start heading back toward the puffin habitat in a daze. As quietly and quickly as he could, he raced a head of her in order to get there before her. He didn't want Clarice to know that he knew some of her secrets now.

He got there just a minute before her. He had barely laid down to pretend to be asleep, when Clarice trudged up and sat down beside him. Hans was just debating on whether or not to say anything the next day about all this to her, when a sound he didn't expect to hear reached him. It was the sound of crying.

He sat up staring. He had never seen Clarice cry before. He had seen her look sad on the rare occasion. And he had seen her angry more times than he'd like to count. But he had never seen her shed a single tear. Seeing her like that broke his heart, and he knew that he couldn't be angry with her for what she had done. Besides, Clemson HAD lied anyway. So it hadn't really matter in the end.

"Clarice? Why are you crying?" he asked quietly. He thought he knew why, but he wanted to hear her say it.

But she didn't say anything. She turned and looked at him, eyes filled with tears, but said nothing. She looked away again and resumed crying into her wings. Hans wanted to comfort her, but was afraid of getting punched in the face. So he merely sat up with her, listening to her sobbing, wishing that he could do something about it.

Eventually the sobbing quieted down. Hans looked over, wondering if she were feeling any better. The distressed bird rubbed her eyes, then glanced at the male sitting nearby. For the first time since she had met him, Clarice didn't want to punch him. She still didn't like him, and certainly would never love him, but punching him wasn't what she wanted to do right now.

"I'm fine," she said tersely looking away.

Hans merely stared at her. He knew she wasn't fine. She probably hadn't been fine in a long time. But he couldn't say that. Not without getting hit. Though a part of him wished that she would hit him. At least that way he'd know that she was back to normal. Or as normal as could be expected. So he decided to actively provoke an attack by slowly inching closer until he was right beside her. Then just as slowly, he reached out and put his wing around her shoulders. And she let him.

He was so surprised that he didn't even feel happy about the fact that he was touching her and not getting punched in return. The two puffins sat that way for a few minutes. Then Clarice sighed loudly.

"Okay. That's enough of that," she said before punching Hans off the outcrop. Then she laid down and went to sleep.

Hans floated in the water, trying to process everything that had happened that night. And failing. He tended to fail a lot. At least Clarice seemed to be feeling better. Which was a good thing.

And now you know. It's not going to be like Manfredi and Johnson; you will find out what happened to Michael. I bet you thought for a minute there that Hans was finally gonna score, huh? Fooled you! Please review.