Team Fortress 2 and its characters belong to Valve. Most of this stuff remains canon; teams are portrayed in a more realistic manner (or as realistic as you can get with a game like this) while trying to stay true to the personalities of the characters involved. Have fun reading or simply close out of it if you don't.

Cheers.

---

The four Red Spies waited with varying forms of anticipation along the banks of the Red side pond. Some smoked -- all of them smoked, actually -- some leaned, some stood, and one even crouched warily as he stared at the darker areas toward the middle of the waterway.

The Sniper's friend went right up to the water, careful not to soil his shoes in it as he pulled his cigarette from his mouth and emitted a sharp whistle.

At first nothing happened.

He whistled again, adding a few twitters for emphasis on the off chance that he wasn't heard the first time. The other Spies weren't very sure what to make of this bird-calling technique, but the Blu Spy certainly did.. They'd discussed it last evening -- I whistle, you come; I clap my hands, you hide.

A disturbance made itself visible in the water just fifteen feet from the shore and fast approaching as the head and shoulders of what should have been an enemy Spy broke the surface and fixed a pair of haunted blue eyes on the men gathered nearby.

The two sides watched one another, rigid with characteristic suspicion as the Red Spy daringly turned his back on the water-dwelling Blu and addressed his colleagues. "Jhentlemen? Do not be afraid. I assure he is willing to answer all of your questions." Some looked doubtfully at him, others looked curiously at the man behind him.

In the end, no one came any nearer which was fine as the Red turned so that he could view both parties at once.

The Blu tucked his head down a bit, frowning unhappily and attempting to bolster his confidence in order to answer questions like a professional. It had been a while since the last time he'd been an effective Spy. He could only hope he still had some of his old initiative..

And so it began.

"What are you?" the green-eyed Spy asked. His face was a firm mask of interrogation, unmoving save for the occasional smoke that escaped his lips.

"Human," the Blu started, collecting himself a bit higher in the water and clearing his throat as he continued, "And octopus.."

"Why?" asked another Red.

The Blu's mouth became a line which threatened to dip down into a frown though he was able to hold it flat until he found his next words, "I am zhe unfortunate product of a Blu experiment, razher, a series of zhem." The Reds exchanged fleeting glances and stared at him. Their attention slowly rekindled his old ego, forcing his voice to become stronger and allowing him the esteem to lift and gesture with his hands, "What zhey had first hoped to do was create a soldier capable of rejheneration -- an ability to retrieve his lost limbs should he lose them in combat. But zhey wanted more as well.. A natural cloaking ability, one wizhout charge."

"And?"

"..And it did not work zhe way zhey had hoped for."

The Red considered his words before going on, "Are you zhe only one?"

"Non.. Zhe only one like myself, however, yes. Zheir ozher attempts failed in an.. unsalvageable manner.." The Sniper's friend sneered with disgust. Irretrievable? That could only mean their previous victims had died in the labs. It was appalling news! "Zhey have been working to 'perfect' my new body for zhe past few months since I have not died. Eet is my belief zhat if zhey had succeeded, I would not be zhe only hybrid before you."

"Why one of zheir own?" the green-eyed Red asked. Surely it would make more sense to capture one of the enemy men..

The Blu Spy gathered his hands into his lap which rested just below the calmly rippling surface of the pond, "I was.. a traitor to zhem at zhe time." Their looks of interest prodded him to explain with greater detail as he sighed and lifted a hand to gesture broadly toward the Red Spy standing closest to him, "He is not zhe first man I have helped to escape from zhat place. Messieurs.. And he would not have been zhe last if my will to endure zhe torture had been stronger."

The Sniper's friend furrowed his brow gently at these words. Not the first? There was a very short list of people who had switched sides and lived to tell the tale. He immediately knew who else the Tentaspy was referring to..

In the hour after that, the men in Red did not budge an inch from their defensive body language. The Blu didn't think much of it. Spies always hid their true feelings until they'd had time to discuss them behind closed doors. They wanted to be unpredictable, efficient, error-free.. And so long as none of them lunged at him with the intent to kill, he dealt with it admirably until the very last of them had left the area.

Hugging his arms about himself, the Blu sighed and sank back down into the pond as his lungs gave way to his gills.

He tried to sleep after that, but roughly half an hour later something kept glinting and sending light right into his eyes. Growling out of annoyance, he opened them and glowered up at the shore where it was coming from. ..ugh. It was a piece of metal, a knife maybe? Someone was poking it into the water, feeling around as if looking for something..

It wasn't the Red Spy -- they already had a calling system. So this? This must have been someone else. ..possibly a Blu team member out fishing for Tentaspies. His eyes narrowed dangerously, tentacles splaying as he crawled slowly toward the annoying little bit of light..

On the surface, the Red Sniper grumbled to himself as he slashed the water again with his Kukri. God damned Blu.. it probably scarpered during the night. He'd been hoping to question it himself, fully prepared to take it down if he had to though it looked increasingly like the damn thing simply wasn't there.

That is, at least, until a tentacle shot out of the water and grabbed him by the neck.

He barely had time to drop his Kukri and lay both hands on the slippery limb before it jerked him sharply into the pond and sent a froth of bubbles in every direction as a result. His hat hit the sand, rolling a bit before falling to one side. The Sniper held his breath and flailed, trying to land a sharp kick to the nearest bit of flesh he could find though the darkness and debris of the pond prevented any meaningful attacks. More tentacles joined in the fray, lashing themselves around his legs and holding them firmly as the one around his neck tightened and he began to choke.

I'm going to drown, he thought, I can't breathe and if I don't get out of here, I'm going to drown!

The world flipped upside-down and when he finally came to his senses, he found he had broken the surface of the water and that a tentacle wrapped around his waist had replaced the one around his neck.

Coughing horsely, he spewed up a throatful of water and groped for something to stabilize himself against. What he found was the soaking wet sleeve of the Tentaspy who, after noting the bright color of the man's uniform, immediately brought him up for air. The Aussie, still sputtering and breathing raggedly, stared down his foe who held him so dangerously near to his sneering face.

They remained just like that for about fifteen seconds, the duration of which felt like eternity until the Sniper laid a hand on his throat and glared at the placid Blu in front of him. The attack was over and, as the Aussie observed more carefully, he found that the Spy was not sneering but rather inspecting him. Trying to.. read him. Remember him?

Neither of them had been able to get a clear shot of the other last evening, but with the sun creeping higher with every minute that they sat there, their faces were clearly visible.

The tentacle around his waist tightened to the point that it was almost painful, a choking sound coming from the Tentaspy who looked as though he'd seen a ghost, "You."

"Me," the Sniper replied warily. His voice was uncharacteristically rough from the recent crushing of his windpipe.

A smile twitched onto the Blu's face, eyes narrowed with a mixture of joy and sorrow, "Monsieur Sniper.. Don't you remember?"

Now the Aussie really had to think. Remember? Oh good grief. He had to remember something while being throttled by a sea monster? He tried, in any case, sighing subtly and allowing his grey eyes to dance over that masked face. Nose, mouth, eyes.. ..eyes. His gaze returned to them, seeming to see past the sharp teeth and inhuman features that accompanied them.

He'd seen those eyes before.

Now it was his turn to look haunted, brow furrowed as he searched for the right words, "You're dead.."

"Almost," the Blu whispered.

"Mate, I saw you. That rocket--"

The Spy laid a dripping index finger on the Sniper's lips, shaking his head, "I lost my legs, mon Ami. And.. perhaps my mind." The Sniper blinked with disbelief, not even bothering to wipe the pond scum from his mouth as the Spy's hand left it. It was his first friend in battle, the very man who had risked his live to save him from the unspeakable cruelties of the Blu team.

Their initial plan played in his head like an old black and white film.

'Zhey've seen us, go, GO!'

They were running together, dodging bullets as shouting rang out behind them. It was nighttime, they were running side by side and soon they would be welcomed by a Red Engineer who had been plotting with them for weeks. Plotting to help them defect..

That's when the Soldiers came after them, rockets destroying their path as they ran toward salvation.

The Spy had stumbled, falling to his hands and knees as the whine of a warhead penetrated the night air. The Aussie couldn't leave him, starting back only to be repelled by the fire and shrapnel which exploded out from the location of his comrade..

His heart had broken that night, tears and blood staining his wincing face as he limped inside the Red hangar and fell to his knees.

And as the horrific memories faded away in his mind, he found himself staring at the Blu in front of him, deformities forgotten as he simply hugged him and pressed his forehead to his own.