"So, you and my brother?" As the two explored one of the sublevels of Division, Kara tried to start a conversation with Pj. The young agents had woken early that day to investigate the farmland they believed the old bunker was under. They were fortunate that their educated guess had been correct. The area was overgrown and completely deserted, including a desolate barn in the middle of the property. Although they were relying on stories from their parents (and the information Pj weaseled out of Sam) they were certain that was the place. Besides, the barn with an elevator hidden inside it was damning enough evidence. Although they were doing something serious (and either helpful or detrimental), they couldn't help but chuckle at where they were. Apparently, even the absurd stories they were told were true.
It was a strange feeling to be overcome with. The young agents were surrounded by a place filled with devastation, yet all they could think about was that their parents as a team really were as insane as they had thought. At least the humor helped them focus on getting the elevator to operate (Felicity did the most work) and be comfortable enough to split into three groups of two once they entered the dungeon. The deeper they went into the bunker and explored the halls, however, the more they noticed the creepy hum echoing around them. It was beyond unsettling. After several minutes, Kara had to break the silence. Despite not wanting to discuss that particular topic just yet, Pj couldn't stand the silence either, "You and my brother."
They might have separated into groups, yet they were all a radio call away from one another (with walkies they lifted from a store before traveling to New Jersey). The young agents simply wanted to cover as much ground as quickly as possible. It wasn't wise to be hanging around Division, no matter how deserted it was. Oliver and Felicity stayed near the upper levels where most of the abandoned tech was. Max dragged James along with him to explore the middle section, muttering something as an excuse. That left Kara and Pj to search the deepest pits of hell. There wasn't much to it besides some training rooms, but they weren't discouraged. Kara even made a joke about how their team/family was, "Still not that weird for us."
"Well considering this is where we came from," Pj snarked. She waved her arms at the gloom around them for added emphasis. The two might've only been stalking the halls of what was basically a ghost town. However, they still felt the echoes of pain that place brought. So many lives had been ruined by Division- some of which was their family. Amanda's and Percy's greed for the Shop began there as well, leading to where the young agents currently were. It was as though their very essence was tied to that fucking place. Hell, it was how all their parents, "You ever thought about how we wouldn't exist without this place?"
"Pretty sure our parents wouldn't be alive without this place," Although those were somber and creepy thoughts to have, Kara had to agree with Pj. Their parents' war might've started out trying to burn Division to the ground, but they owed their lives to the black ops group. They also found love within the humming walls, leading to a wild and crazy family. Life and death were tightly interwoven together when it came to Division. It was difficult to think that way, yet it was undeniable. No wonder the young agents' parents stuck around to help the other recruits once Percy was dead. They had to fight for the life they were given, even if it dragged them into another war with the Dirty Thirty and the Shop.
The Dirty Thirty was long gone, though. Some had been taken care of, while the rest were absorbed by Amanda's reign on the Shop. They were the last remnants of Division, save for the team's family. No wonder they had fought so hard and for so long; the heroes and villains grew from the same roots. Maybe one of them couldn't survive without the other. Before that thought could take hold of Pj and shake her up for good, she focused on another line of conversation completely. She was great at cracking jokes. Why not return to that. No doubt Kara would appreciate it, "Horrors and blessings go hand in hand I guess. I mean, you're a piece of shit, but you make me laugh sometimes."
"I'm so glad you're still an asshole," Nudging Pj, Kara chuckled. The two decided to leave the sublevel they were at, finding absolutely nothing. Considering they had only stumbled past training equipment and shooting ranges they weren't going to discover much in their section. There was a possibility they could find old records on the bottom floor, like a storage basement or something. But there were a lot of computers and servers on the top floors. Everything could've been digitized. Felicity, Oliver, Max, and James were probably having far better luck than Pj and Kara were. But no stones could be left unturned.
"No matter how fucked up I am, that'll never go away," Besides, if Pj was being honest, walking the halls her parents once had with her friend by her side wasn't that terrible. Obviously she could feel the hair on the back of her neck rise, and she thought she was going to stumble across a monster at some point. But a sense of understanding started to settle around her. Division wasn't the haunted house she had painted in her mind based on the stories she heard. It was a facility almost like a school- there were bathrooms, and bedrooms, and washrooms, and a cafeteria, after all. A strong person could carve out a life and deep friendships in a place like that. They would've bonded together in the niceties to battle the evil around them.
Kara appreciated being able to explore the history of pain and strange wonderment with a friend as well. It meant she wasn't alone. And the jokes they cracked kept them from being eaten alive by the complicated feelings gripping their hearts. However, despite laughing at Pj's comment, their giggles died once they reached the last sublevel. The best word for what the two found was torture. That room probably was someone's torture chamber, or possibly their experimentation place. It was an easy guess that it belonged to Amanda. Who else in Division was as tortuous as her. And where else had they seen those terrifying needles. A question instantly rose in Kara's mind, one she wasn't sure how to ask, "I'm glad. But, um…"
"I don't know. And I don't want to know," Cool anger bit at Pj's voice. It was far better than her previous moments of irritability, yet she was still frustrated. She had become increasingly aware that something was wrong with her. Whether it be mind control or whatever, Amanda did something to her when she held her captive. But that shouldn't be their focus anymore. The young agents should move past it and concentrate on doing what their parents and never been able to do. Even more anger burned through her at the thought of her parents' failings. A small part of her guessed maybe that was what was wrong with her. Except it was a fleeting moment of clarity. She couldn't get many thoughts to stick past the lividity.
"Let's keep digging then," Quickly, Kara resolved. The two could return to the jokes as they attempted to find any clues on the current sublevel. Pj nodded along to the idea, managing to make a quip about why Division would feel the need to hide their torture room. Her friend built off of it, and soon they were laughing again. No ghosts could truly get to them if they had one another's backs. They could survive the onslaught of emotions around them.
"So, you and my sister?" Max immediately drilled into James once they were alone. It wasn't the best time and place for him to be doing so, but how else was he to distract himself from the hell they were surrounded by. The two of them were wandering between bedrooms, bathrooms, and weapon storage rooms. They probably weren't going to find anything that useful. Yet the things they saw continued to bring about memories of stories they had heard. Max wasn't told as many things as the others, but he was aware of the devastation Division recruitment brought. It was the same as Gogol recruitment. Both his parents had been trapped by it.
"You and my sister," James reflected back at Max. It should've been strange that the team was dating one another. It wasn't as though they hadn't met anyone else in their lives- they had gone to school and interacted with the world outside of their safehouses. Just after going through so much together, close bonds flourished. They saw the best and the worst of each other, making them damn near inseparable. No one else understood the young agents like they did. So at the end of the day, it made sense that love bloomed on the team. Everything else about their lives was weird, why not their relationships as well.
"At least Kara's not mind controlled," Examining what used to be a gun rack but had since been raided and cleared, Max snarked. He honestly had no problem with James and Pj dating. In fact, he was kind of glad they had stopped annoyingly ignoring their feelings for one another. He simply wished it had happened at a better time. His sister, as surprisingly bright as she was at coming up with schemes, wasn't in her normal state of mind. There was a chance she could've been taken advantage of, and he could never allow that to happen. She had to remain safe until they figured out what was going on.
"Pj's still there sometimes. You know that. And I never made a move without her initiating it first," While he indicated that they go check the lockers near the showers, James assured Max. He was worried about Pj's conditioning as well, which was why he always made certain it was her he was interacting with, not whatever Amanda had done. Of course he wouldn't do anything to hurt her; he was raised better than that. He also cared for her too much to let any harm befall her, especially if it came from him.
"I know. I know. You're a boy scout," With a sigh, Max smirked. James rolled his eyes, but chuckled nonetheless. It was better that they had managed to move on to a lighter subject. The two could further push aside the horrors creeping in around them. The humming they noticed when they first dropped into hell seemed to echo off the empty halls. If they thought about it too long, the sound amplified the voices of Division's past. Maybe there was some laughter that bounced around the bunker. It had to have if their parents managed to find happiness while trapped there. But the screams of pain that had occurred were far louder.
No secrets had to be uncovered to know that. Yet that didn't stop Max and James from opening old recruit lockers. If they weren't empty, then the two were met with left behind clothes and towels. It was such a normal thing to find inside a place like Division that the young agents were reminded that real people had lived there. They weren't the assassins they heard from insane stories, but individuals like them. Shaking that weight out of his mind, James strived to return to their joking. That was far easier to handle, "And you're way too overprotective for someone who didn't even know his sister existed the majority of his life."
"Oh yeah. Cause that's my fault," Sarcasm didn't completely hide Max's laughter. He had already processed the bombshell his mother dropped on him nearly a decade ago. It took him a while to get over the fact that his mother was a spy and their deaths had been faked to preserve their safety against multiple organizations. But he learned to adjust to his uprooted life. And as ridiculous as it was that his biological father and half-sister were hidden from him as well, he understood it. A lot of stupid things occurred in the name of safety. You could allow it to anger you. Yet he knew if he was in the same situation, he'd make similar choices.
"You didn't know that?" James' ribbing brought Max back to the present. The two laughed some more, deciding to grab the clothes they had found. They'd have to wash the must off of them, but they didn't have any other option. None of them had prepared to be gone so long from the safehouse; they also hadn't thought through a lot of things when they took off. They stole enough equipment already. The young agents might as well settle for items that wouldn't get them in trouble. Shoving the clothes in duffle bags they also found, the two moved to make other discoveries. Hopefully it'd be more substantial than what was slung across their shoulders.
"I'm well aware of my effect on people," Max led the way to the bedrooms he and James had passed. Like most of the doors in Division, they were locked. Key cards had once been used to access the place. But, probably because of the age of the bunker, the young agents were able to bypass the locks with well-equipped burner phones. They managed to break into the closest recruit room, and they were startled to find posters left hanging on the walls. A stereo sat on a desk as well, and the bed held decorative pillows. It was more of a dorm room than something that belonged to an assassin in training. Max wasn't certain if he could walk into the room just yet, "Why is this place creepier than their horror stories, but also kind of normal?"
Silently, James burst open the doors to the nearby bedrooms. Some were bare save for a stark white bed and a clear desk. But others had decorations like that one, including televisions and photography cameras. The sense of normalcy mixed with the terrors they knew the black ops group created left the young agents deeply confused. Their parents' reasoning to fight for the other agents trapped in the hellhole became clearer- as did how they managed not to become the monsters their actions deemed they were. How could they turn to devils when they were able to surround themselves with a life they could fill with simple joys. Either that positive thought was the case, or Amanda's and Percy's manipulation ran deep. An uncomfortable feeling in his gut made James believe the latter was true, "It really is hell."
"We gotta find something," Determination overcame Max, and he stomped into a recruit room. James followed after him. The two tore the rooms apart for anything useful. They did that to every new area and sublevel they stumbled into. Division's influence over things had to end once and for all. Lingering ghosts and demons couldn't have control over the world anymore. They had to all be destroyed, especially Amanda.