Recently began grad school so less time to dedicate to writing, but I WILL come to the end. I'm very close. 53 followers is so inspiring! Thank you to all the readers. Reviews, pretty please?

"The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you are right. As one grows older, this is easier still."

-The Bourne Identity

Nicky still hasn't come back so Jason has to swallow that foul distaste and deal with this agent on his own; he isn't an idiot, he knows the longer he draws this out the longer Treadstone has to act against them. It's the first agent he's met in a long long time and while he's impressed with Five's fighting, an enhanced agent isn't anything to be taken lightly.

Programming. He doesn't want to go anywhere near it. All he needs is to slip one wrong word—the trigger word—and watch the agent go psycho.

So when Five does come to him, when there's no battles to be fought and he's standing there just staring until Jason breaks the silence. "I'm supposed to know you weren't with those other agents, why?"

"Outcome Five," said the agent, his own voice taking on an edge. "I'm on your side. Two weeks ago, I start running for my life when they start destroying the program." He folds his arms—probably to keep his frustration contained. "Maybe you don't have enough reason to believe me now but Treadstone's after both of us with a vengeance and with the terminator agents out there, neither of us stand a chance on our own."

"I've been managing."

"Yeah? Popping up in New York whenever it strikes your fancy just to nyah nyah through Byer's window isn't helping anyone. If you think that's going to end all this…"

"All what?" He's got a feeling he doesn't like what's coming. "You know what's going on over there? You would, being the upgraded version."

"You've met what's been "going on" there. Those agents that attacked you are just the first step of what they're planning. Treadstone's training and skill, Outcome's chemically enhanced—that's me, LARX is blind obedience and heaven only knows what'll come after that. And this all started with you, Bourne. You got away and made them scared so this is their retaliation: make better agents to take out the rogue."

"Are you blaming…?"

"I'm not blaming you! I've been trying to find you. Look…" he takes a breath, sits down and then gives Jason a reason to believe him. Being recruited, trained, the missions… it's not exactly Jason's story but he'd rate it close enough even though his recruitment arguable wasn't his fault to begin with since he didn't retain his memories while Five—Aaron Cross—did. When Aaron go into his escape and dragging an Outcome scientist of all this with him, he's heard enough for now. He can tell that Aaron's enemy right now isn't so much Treadstone, but coming to terms with what they made him do and more likely his own guilt for not getting out of his own accord.

"And you think you've made up for everything."

"I didn't say that."

He scoffed. "You want Eric Byer dead and Pamela shows you how but you're not that kind of person who wants to put your past up for the public—no matter how it impacts your future. You're the kind of person who wants to corner Byer and pull the trigger yourself but you do that and he's going to come out the winner when he's branded the martyr and you're the rogue. And then what'll you do? Hide behind that scientist cos you picked her up along the way?"

"You started the war. You're the first agent that gets out and Outcome is their solution to you so why shouldn't I just do what I was trained for and call you in? It'd make things a lot easier, wouldn't it?"

"So righteous."

Aaron stood up, took a few steps closer. "You're not the only one who got tired of it. You remember what they made us do. Those damn objectives. We're just pawns in their game and you manage to rile them up enough to throw off everything else but the objective is still there." He came closer, fixed on Jason. "I could do everything else wrong, but I take you down and suddenly Outcome is successful."

His instincts take over and he stands up, fists raised in defense to lash out when Aaron grabs him by the collar. "What'd you think would happen when you caught up to me?! That I'd have all the answers? You're just as much a product as Treadstone as anything else!"

This is getting them nowhere. He knows he's got to get over that conditioning but when he tries to shut off that part of his mind, it threatens to shut down the rest of his cognitive functions that they'll need at this point. Outcome planned at least one of their agents would encounter the infamous Bourne and deal with him accordingly.

What were you expecting? Idealize Bourne and you'll get exactly what you deserve—what's he going to know that I wouldn't?

"Screw this." Aaron backs off. "One chance before they strike back with a vengeance. They might still think I'll scum to programming and turn you in."

"So all the legal procedures?" Jason raised a brow, but allowed a smirk when Aaron gave him a glare that said to hell with legal procedures.

"Byer would find a way to weasel out of it."

Aaron calculated the scenarios—get there then while he's still around, risking whether Byer's even there at all and playing their chances; if they were smart about it he and Jason might be able to lure the assassin agents out, but they're fast as anything and, in a fight, the assassins' chances are far far better. Worst comes to the worst, he'd end up being the bait since he's engineered as smarter. "We go in there, we get him cornered and if he's not willing, well." In other words, fill-in-the-blank what we'll do to that bastard and don't do it too fast.

Jason gets the idea. "We do this, we have to trust each other if the plan goes wrong."

Like assassins taking us out or the objective being too difficult to handle? He's got to get away for just a little while—Marta, she needs to know they found their asset.

"Give me twenty minutes to get something sorted out." Aaron goes for the door; phone already out as he thumbs through the recent calls. Marta's called him five times, and text after text saying the same thing, "come back now" but there isn't a single voicemail.

Jason doesn't say anything, but the silence speaks disapproval, distrust. He's got nothing to guarantee that Aaron isn't running out to get reinforcements, but there isn't time to gain trust. He shouldn't have left Marta on her own this long; letting her manipulate him.

The words June last said come back when she catches his glance just before he slams the door behind.

You don't know what you're getting yourself into, Kenneth.