The Syndicate's Housekeeper

by Kylie Rae Gonzalez

Lovestruck: A Voltage Visual Romance Game Portal. Series: Villainous Nights. A young woman gets more than she bargained for when she takes a housekeeping job for a group convicted vigilantes who must serve out their sentences by working for the government.

The Syndicate's Housekeeper:

Aftermath

A Lovestruck based fanfiction featuring characters from the series Villainous Nights.

Written by Kylie Rae

*Because the MC (Main Character) of Villainous Nights is a character that is given a personalized name by the reader, I have elected to address her by her Syndicate Codename (Monarch).

*Because this fanfiction is written in a setting that revolves around my personal life, certain characters that I will have little to no direct contact with, such as friends, family and coworkers, are in fact real people that I know. Whereas characters that I do have direct contact with, such as Kenneth and the Syndicate, are completely fictional.

***DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE LOVESTRUCK APP OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS! THIS FANFICTION ALSO DEPICTS CONTENTS OF RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA AND XENOPHOBIA IN THE MISTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED***

Author/Reader's POV

"Don't worry. I have no doubt that you'll excel at this job." Kenneth tells me as he drives us out into the survival side of Fairchild Airforce Base. Not that there's a whole lot to 'excel' at when it comes to a housekeeping job, but I nod and hum in acknowledgement all the same. Kenneth scoffs. "Wow. You're so enthused." He jokes.

"I am not Miss Chatty-lumpkins. You know that." I cry out defensively, earning a throaty snicker from him.

And he does know this about me. When I first started working for the custodial service out here, Route Four would routinely vacuum up hallways and offices in the building nicknamed Bud. Kenneth's office was one that I usually did. When I first knocked on his door, he had looked up from his desk and gave me a curious look, eyes squinted like he was sure he knew me, before eventually asking my name. When I answered, he stood right up and greeted me warmly, saying that I looked so much like my father. Apparently, he and my dad had been deployed together once upon a time, to Turkey I think it was?

Being an older gentleman with four grown kids, and two grandkids, Kenneth has an easygoing, fatherly nature about him that makes him easy for me to get alone with. Easier than having to dodge the guys around my age, who never seem to have anything substantial to talk about but will try to tell you all about it anyway, hoping to make themselves seem more appealing. Which is why when Kenneth offered me this position, I jumped at it. Anything to get me away from the jabberwockies for a while.

… And it helps that I know him, in case something were to… happen.

"Are you nervous at all?" He asks. "About who you will be working around?"

I shrug. "Don't know yet. Too early to tell." Normally, I would give that response in regards to a new hire. My bosses had come to value my opinions in those cases in the four and a half years that I've been here. "Little different when you're gonna be working around convicted vigilantes."

"I would never have offered this position to anyone if I thought they'd be in danger for it." Kenneth states, almost sternly. "I'm pretty sure your father would have my ass on a platter, otherwise."

"I'll believe that." I say flatly. I love my parents, but I am glad that they are respecting my decision. I know that they weren't… thrilled about me taking this job.

"Besides," Kenneth adds. "I really don't believe that these people are as dangerous as the prosecutions would've had you believe."

That's a little bit of a hard sale, but I'm not about to argue with Kenneth on this matter. He already fought tooth and nail for these peoples' rights from what I was told. In his mind, they did society a favor by exposing Optimus for the corrupt corporation that it really was, and at least I can agree with him as far as that goes. But I did get a good look at their records beforehand, as a curtesy to the one civilian employee they are bringing into the building. Mostly counts of corporate espionage and hacking. But one man was charged with one count of manslaughter and another - I shudder involuntarily - charged with multiple counts of assassination.

… I guess my parents do have good reason to be worried. I think the fact that Kenneth was going to be involved in all of it was the only diffuser…There was also some strange reports about these people having abilities, but maybe I read wrong. All the official jargon made it difficult to parse through.

"Here we are." Kenneth says.

We pull into the driveway of a building that I've never been in before, a military housing until that was empty until recently. My new work station. The two of us walk into the foyer, locking our phones and any other Bluetooth devices into little lockers specifically designed to store them. For the time being, the people locked away inside aren't allowed any phone or internet access, which means neither am I. I will admit, I wasn't too thrilled about that. I like to listen to music while I work, and I just bought those headphones.

After we sign our names, dates and times onto a log sheet, we then punch our assigned numbers into a machine that also takes our thumbprints, unlocking the secured door that'll take us inside the building. Before we go in, I notice Kenneth seems to stop short and I turn just in time to see him pluck a paper off the window that sits between the foyer to the inside.

He examines that paper for a moment and nods grimly, seemingly unimpressed. "So that's how we're going to be, is it?" He mutters ominously. I feel my guts go cold for a second, suddenly wondering if listening to my coworkers talk about cars and football all the time is really all that bad.

With Kenneth pocketing that paper, we go inside, traversing through a short walkway that opens up into a – surprisingly comfortable lounge, almost as homey as my own living room. Wow! Yeah, I can see why these vigilantes opted to serve out their sentences by working for the government. The couch work is well worn but sturdy, probably taken from the thrift store on the other side of the base, or else from other buildings that didn't need them. There's even a good-sized TV, though I suspect that it only has the standard cable that the other buildings have.

"Duke, (Monarch)!" Kenneth calls, addressing a couple in the adjacent open kitchen. At least, I'm pretty certain that they're a couple, judging by how the man has his arms around the woman's waist in a loose embrace as she chops up something on a cutting board. They both look up at the sound of his voice.

"Hi Kenneth." The woman chirps, smiling the prettiest smile I think I've ever seen. She's lovely, with a complexion as smooth and creamy as milk chocolate and bright smiling eyes. Her… boyfriend, I guess, couldn't look any more different. Although his face is porcelain-smooth, his hair is the most pristine shade of white that I've ever seen on a human being, his pale blue eyes sharp and his posture almost statuesque.

"Where's your team?" Kenneth asks after a polite nod.

"In their rooms, I guess." The white-haired man, Duke, shrugs. "Everyone's still trying to settle in."

Kenneth nods understandingly. "Call them in. There's someone I want you all to meet." He says, pointing at me.

Duke's sharp eyes shift to me, looking me up and down before nodding and heading over to an intercom hooked up to the wall. "Everyone, come to the living room." His voice crackles through the speakers. "Kenneth's here. He says he wants us to meet someone."

Kenneth wanted to make formal introductions on my first day working here, as a way to ease any lingering apprehensions I might still have. It's a nice gesture, although I hardly find it necessary. According to the job description, they won't even be in the building throughout most of my shift, which was kind of a relief.

Before I know it, a clamor of footsteps comes thundering down the staircase going up to the second and third floors, and another man and woman come racing in.

"Hey! No fair, you asshole!" The petite, purple-haired woman shouts after the man, who is obviously using his long legs to outrun his smaller opponent.

"I can't help my height anymore than you can help yours." He taunts, mischief gleaming in his eyes.

This, apparently, only prompts her to jump on the guy's back while she still has a few steps to go over him, and she brings him down surprisingly easy. I'm totally alarmed but Kenneth only lets out a hardy laugh. The man has two rowdy grandsons. This probably isn't anything new to him.

Duke, on the other hand, straightens his back and marches right over to them. "Alright you two break it up!" For a split second, I think I see what looks like a flash of frost snake across the woman's bare legs and up the guy's back. But that can't be right, can it? Whatever it was, it certainly causes the two of them to jerk apart quickly enough, each with nearly identical yelps.

But before I can process what I think I just saw another woman's voice calls from the top of the staircase. "Hey, Duke! My offer to jury rig some shock 'bots still stands!"

The voice is too gleeful and mischievous to be making that kind of offer, and when I look up there stands an incredibly pretty blonde woman sporting an equally gleeful and mischievous grin. Next to her stands a tall woman with broad shoulders, short-short auburn hair, and the regal bearings of a warrior goddess. She looks… less than amused.

"Shock 'bots?!" The tall guy who looks like he could be model repeats, no less amused than the warrior goddess. "Don't we already have enough of that with these ankle things?" He lifts a foot of the ground with a gesture.

A quick look around reveals that they are all are wearing what looks like shock collars strapped firmly around their ankles. Weather they really are shock collars, or trackers, or both, I can't tell. But just like the secured door up front, and the lack of internet access, it's another reminder that these people are not here of their own volition.

"Alright people, your attention please." Kenneth calls out, gesturing a hand in my direction. "I'd like you all to meet Kylie. She'll be working as your new housekeeper."

And just like that, all eyes from the vigilante group known as the Syndicate land on me… Well. Hi. I try to wave, but yikes! These people are intimidating. I'm not sure what else I was expecting, honestly. But it certainly wasn't that they would all be so… beautiful. It's the same kind of beauty that you don't typically find in a rural area like ours, eclectic and individualized, but tailored and methodical. They almost look like a group of characters from one of my otome series.

"I see Kenneth likes to hire pretty." The purpled-haired woman comments with a playful grin.

"Don't get over excited, Andi." The model man quips. "She's straight. You can tell by the micro expressions. Or lack thereof."

… It probably takes me two seconds too long to realize what that meant. Wait, was she flirting with me?

"Let's not scare her away, shall we." Duke chides.

"Thank you, Duke." Kenneth agrees, before turning to me. "Alright, now you've already met Duke Vale and his fiancé (Monarch)." He gestures to the couple we met in the kitchen and then to the model man and the purple-haired woman. "This is Renzei Feng and Andi Kim." They both nod and then Kenneth moves on to the pretty blonde and the warrior goddess. "And this is Lorelei Linden and Juliette Optima."

"Pleasure to meet you." The warrior goddess, Lorelei, says, although her face remains impassive.

"Uh, you too." I stammer, trying not to get too overwhelmed.

"I would like to thank you for accepting this job." Duke says, nonchalant but…surprisingly genuine. "We try to maintain as much of our own upkeep as we can, but our…parole officers are making sure to keep us quite busy." He smirks rather humorlessly as he says that last part. I guess I can't blame him for it. I don't know what these people were doing before the trials began, but I can just bet that their lives were totally uprooted and turned upside down after the fact.

"On that note." Kenneth says. "Let's reiterate our day-to-day schedules once more so that we are in understanding. Now, Kylie has elected to work the seven-to-three shift over the nine-to-five." I nod affirmatively at that. The better to have as much of my evenings to myself as possible.

Kenneth turns to me. "Throughout much of the mornings, the Syndicate will be training with our troops on base. That'll give you plenty of time to perform the majority of your cleaning duties. Your department has already set up a list of those in the custodial closet we have set up for you in the back." I nod again, humming understandingly. Already aware.

"The Syndicate will be having their lunches and visitations here for the time being. Two employees from the dining hall will come by to deliver groceries, but all preparations are up to you, young lady." He teases, knowing full well that I'm more than capable.

"Got it." I say pointedly. "But I don't understand why you can't just have lunch in the dining hall with the troops if you're going to be working with them."

"Because the troops don't feel particularly welcoming towards us." Duke answers darkly. Oops. I think I touched a nerve there. Duke eyes shift over to Kenneth. "I'm sure you saw the lovely housewarming present we received this morning."

"Yeah, I did actually." Kenneth replies, taking out that paper he had plucked from the window in the foyer. "This will be addressed, I promise you."

Wait, that wasn't left by the Syndicate? I take a peek over Kenneth's shoulder and see that the paper just says GO BACK TO JAIL!

"Mm." I hum sarcastically. "Welcoming."

"Right?" Andi says, obviously just a little forced in its casualness.

Just then, Renzei clears his throat, loudly enough to draw attention. "I don't really want to be that guy, but I gotta ask." His eyes find mine with startling sharpness. "You are… aware of why we are here, right?"

Oh. I guess we're going to discuss that now, are we? "Yeah." I say. "Yeah, I know about your guys' plea deal. You're serving out your sentences by working for the U.S. government. As some kind of… black ops crew, was it?"

"As a specialized task force, yes." Duke replies.

It certainly is an unusual situation. But then again, theirs was hardly a usual case. Krem2 News covered it on their Facebook feed for months.

"I wasn't necessarily referring to the plea deal." Renzei points out.

"Renzei." (Monarch) chides firmly.

"This is a big deal for me, alright." Renzei almost snaps. "I don't want her to be afraid of us if she's going to be working around us."

"Alright, look!" I bark out, effectively quieting the argument before it gets too heated. "Let me just tell you the same thing I told Kenneth earlier: it's too early to tell. I'm just here to get my seven-to-three back without having to go back on the routes. That's it! Whatever you guys do, and whatever you have done, that's your business. Can we agree on that?"

"I think we can." Duke says quickly, shooting Renzei a look that's half stern, half pitying.

"Alright, alright." Kenneth interjects. "If that's been settled, I'm going to go and walk Kylie through the building and her cleaning duties. In the meantime, I want all of you to be ready to leave for the auditorium in half an hour. We have that important meeting to attend this morning. Clear?"

The Syndicate all give an affirmative "clear" before Kenneth leads me further back into the building where my custodial closet is located, in the storeroom just past Kenneth's office, and already fully stocked.

"I really must apologize." Kenneth croons. "The trials were particularly hard on Renzei, and they had a much more profound effect on him."

"I understand." I put in, not really caring to pass judgment.

Those files I read had a lot of fancy jargon to sift through, but I know the general gist of what happened. The Syndicate were committing some hefty crimes, it's true. But that was nothing compared to what Optimus was doing. Mass kidnapping, human trafficking, and even human experimentations. Thanks to the company's glittering reputations in technology and humanitarian projects, nobody was none the wiser for so many years. Everything the Syndicate did was meant to expose this all along, no matter the risks. It was enough at least for me to give them the benefit of the doubt when I was offered this position.

I notice that Kenneth is still looking at me seriously. "I tell you this as a matter of precaution." He begins. "During the trials, Renzei's PTSD had begun to resurface. And later on, we began to realize that the prosecutions were deliberately triggering it in order to portray him as a loose cannon who was unsafe for society. It took the defense a bit too long to prove that those tactics were taking place."

"That's messed up!" I exclaim without thinking. But is there really a need to?

"It is." He agrees. "And he hasn't yet fully recovered from the ordeal. He still gets nightmares and flashbacks and when he gets either of those, he usually has panic attacks."

I hesitate for a moment. "… I've never dealt with anyone with PTSD before. What am I even supposed to do when that happens?"

"Well, fortunately, Renzei is hardly ever alone these days, what with the Syndicate living together now. Duke was quite adamant about that. He wanted to make sure that the team could look after each other after the sheer stress of their trials. For now, best to just stand back and let them handle it."

I nod understandingly, but truthfully, I'm not really any less concerned. I'm just a custodian, for Christ's sake. Not a security guard. And being a size sixteen, I am hardly athletic.

Almost as if reading my thoughts, Kenneth speaks again. "I know that this may seem like a menial housekeeping job, but I must confess, I sought you out for a specific reason." I cock my head and furrow my brow at him, curious as to what he might mean by that.

"I've known you for several years now, young lady, and one thing I know you're good at is thinking with your own mind. Especially when it comes to forming your own opinions of people. You stand back and observe, and you judge based on what you see, unswayed by the opinions of others. And I think in terms of outside perspective that might be what this team needs. My job as their legal warden is far from over, and I am committed to making sure that they are well prepared for when they eventually earn their civilian lives back."

"That sounds like a lot of faith to put into a humble little housekeeper." I point out. "I'm already questioning weather or not I've bitten off more than I can chew. And I haven't really been people friendly lately." Just the littlest amount of mundane small talk has been annoying me so much lately. That's why I was so desperate to get off the routes, because that's all they do.

"I know." Kenneth croons, touching his fingers lightly under my chin. He always acts so fatherly around me, no doubt because he and my own father have known each other for so long. "I think these people might surprise you though. I have no doubt in your capabilities."

Duke's POV

Kenneth leads Kylie off to the back of the building, muttering something about what to expect when we receive visitors, and we're left to ponder about our new housekeeper. For a moment, we just stand there, not sure what to say, until Andi breaks the silence.

"Pretty but prickly." She notes, clearly referring to the little outburst that Kylie just had earlier.

"She probably wouldn't have had to be prickly if she didn't have to break up a pending argument." I point out, giving Renzei a pointed look. But he only blinks at me placidly. I feel wave of annoyance ringing in my ears, just on the edge of anger. Dammit, Feng, at least respond.

Suddenly, (Monarch) slips her hand into mine, and I feel a wave of calm flowing in from the contact. I have to remember that we're all still recovering. The stress from the trails has made me more short-tempered than I usually am. I get myself reigned in, squeezing (Monarch's) hand as I shoot her a grateful look.

"We'll get through this." Her voice echoes in my head, not for the first time these days. I manage a small smile. Ever the empath. "Let's just be patient." She says out loud, addressing all of us. "This isn't really an ideal situation. We're all still adjusting to our new living arrangements. It's only natural that a civilian housekeeper is going to need to make some adjustments of her own."

I hate to think where this team would be right now without (Monarch). With her empathy, her telekinesis, and just her sheer levelheadedness, she was able to keep all of us from falling too deep into despair. And I know she is just as exhausted from the ordeal, mentally and emotionally… I suppose we all are.

"Well, you're the empath here (Monarch)." Juliette points out, focusing my attention back onto Kylie after she nods her head the direction that she just vacated. "What was your take on her?"

(Monarch) purses her lips in this cute way she always does when she's thinking. "Not sure." She finally says. "Obviously, there was some apprehensions emanating off of her. A dull ache of loneliness and… awareness. But mostly, just a lot of… indifference."

I raise my eyebrows at the choice of words. "Indifference." I repeat. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not."

"Indifference isn't necessarily a bad thing." Lorelei interjects. "If nothing else, at least it means that she isn't going to just fear us outright."

"Yet." Renzei mutters, not as quietly as he intended, I'm sure.

"Renzei…" I begin. But I come up short. What can I even say at this point? It's not like he's wrong about not wanting Kylie to be afraid of us.

"Save it, Duke." He groans, looking exhausted all of a sudden. "I'm not in the mood."

I'm not surprised. The trials were perhaps hardest on Renzei, just because of his past affiliations with Optimus and the… track record he accumulated in that time. The prosecutions had people very afraid and hateful towards him, more so than the most of us. Not even Juliette was prosecuted as harshly, and she is essentially of the Optimus bloodline.

I remember that we were all so scared that we would lose him. And so shortly after we had already lost Zeke. People were demanding to have the electric chair brought back for him before the plea bargain was made. Ever since then, Renzei's emotions have understandingly been a little all over the place.

Andi plants her hand on her hips and gives Renzei an impertinent pout. "Are you still thinking about your jerk-ass ex-boyfriend?"

Ah! And of course, Michael bailing on him right after the arrests and never showing his face throughout the whole trials was just the bitter cherry on top of it all.

Renzei shoots Andi a piercing glare at that. "Actually, I was thinking about my new life as one of America's Top Ten Most Wanted Criminals Honorable Mentions, but thanks for the reminder." He plops down on the nearest broken-in couch with a huff.

For as long as we've known Renzei, we've seen him go through break-ups and flings before. But none of them have ever hit him as hard as his split with Michael, and I've got to believe it's because Michael was his first real relationship since he finally escaped from Optimus.

Juliette is the first to approach him, taking a seat on the couch next to him. "You know, Renzei, I know it might not be worth saying that he isn't worth it. I know how serious you were about him."

"Actually, I'd say it's worth saying because of that." (Monarch) claims. "Renzei was serious about Michael and would've gone to the ends of the Earth for him. And yet Michael couldn't come to court for even one day to support Renzei and let the jury know that he was still a man who was loved. It would've helped the defense at least."

"GUYS!" Renzei shouts suddenly. "Just drop it already!"

And then we notice that his hands are shaking. That's usually the first tell-tale sign of a panic attack coming on. Andi moves quickly, raising his arm around her shoulders and tucking herself against his side as she begins reassuring him that it's okay.

As we've come to learn, this is actually fairly minor compared to some of what Renzei's other panic attacks have been, and we know now that the best thing to do right now is to just stand by and let this episode run its course.

(Monarch) and I go to clean up in the kitchen while the other's stay in the living room with Renzei. We get the fresh chopped vegetables into a colander to rise off and put away to be steamed for dinner later. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't bother with bringing in a housekeeper. But with all of us living together now, there's quite a bit more clutter here and there. Tolerable for the most part, except that Lorelei's anxiety doesn't really agree with it anymore than it agreed with the trials.

I keep an eye on everyone as I clean up the counter. Renzei remains curled up with Andi as tears begin streaming down his face. I know he'll pull himself together, he just needs a moment. Despite the twist in my chest, something about the scene brings a little reassurance. Those two act so much like brother and sister sometimes, tussling one minute and then comforting each other the next.

Suffice to say that it's been a tough year for all of us. In addition to the sheer stress, Lorelei ended up losing a good deal of her employees and very nearly lost her architectural firm altogether. Andi saw a significant decrease of followers in her social media platforms. I'm lucky to even have my company still, even though I have to operate it through a middleman now.

And (Monarch) and I have had to postpone our wedding. That was how we all got arrested at once. We were all together again in San Francisco, two weeks from the wedding, getting all our formal wear fitted. We were all in the same building, but split up in different fitting areas, making it amazingly easy for police to take us by surprise.

We still haven't had a chance to reschedule a wedding date, and I still haven't had the chance to see (Monarch) in the white gown that she was so excited about… But we're together now. We can look after each other. At least we have that to be grateful for.

As I get a bag of thawed chicken breasts into the fridge, I realize that (Monarch) hasn't moved from the sink, just standing there staring into the colander while the water keeps running. I walk up behind her, reaching around her to turn the facet off and snapping her out of her trance.

"You okay?" I ask quietly.

She nods her head, though she doesn't meet my eyes. "Yeah, I just..." She sighs. "I didn't mean to start that." She says, clearly referring to Renzei.

I wrap my arms around her and peck her temple. Tapping into the mental bond that she and I share, I use her telepathy to speak to her. "You're thinking about your parents, aren't you?"

She only nods and I can see her throat working to choke back a lump as she leans against me. Her parents were quite appalled when they learned that their daughter had gotten involved in a vigilante group, let alone that I, her fiancé, had quite literally dragged her into it in the first place.

I think back to that first day (Monarch) and I met… What do you do when an innocent civilian woman walks in on you bombing her place of work in the middle of a sabotage mission? Allowing her to become a permanent member of the Syndicate, let alone letting the two of us fall in love, wasn't necessarily a part of the plan. It just happened.

She and her parents had been close before the trials, and they certainly had liked me for a while. Then the arrests happened… They haven't really reached out to either of us in a while. They were there for some of the trials, and I assume they followed the rest on the news, but they've barely giving either of us anything other than strong words of disapproval.

And as for me… well I suppose it's a good thing, in a messed-up irony, that my own parents still have no memory of me. I had hoped to invite them to the wedding, but no memories meant that they were effectively kept out of the trials and left alone.

I hold her tightly. Being estranged from her family has been tough on her, and I want to say something that'll give her some encouragement. But I only come up with the same thing she told me earlier. "We'll get through this."

(Monarch) and I finish up in the kitchen, and by then Renzei has calmed himself down, apologizing for his breakdown before we have to tell him not to. It's only to be expected after all, and we're going to deal with it together.

In the fifteen minutes left, we all disperse briefly to get some shoes on and straighten up before the meeting that Kenneth is taking us to. We're having the finer points of our sentencings finalized, and I really need to stress about being able to run Chatsphere remotely as much as possible, even if I have to tolerate having a supervisor in order to do it.

As we wait in the living room, Andi starts complaining about the hush-hush attitude that this base seems to have on LGBTQ, something she noticed when she took a brief liking to one girl who turned her down a little too quickly and adamantly, as if she was making it clear to anyone who might be listening that she was straight.

I can't say I expected much else. Fairchild is a small base in a rural corner of Spokane County in Washington State. The remote small-town feel is a far cry from San Francisco, but the small-town "hospitality" is proving be everything that my personal physician had warned me about. And our newfound infamy no doubt plays a role in it. I make a point of telling her so, and she gives me a cat-like grin.

"You sure you're not secretly looking forward to not having to be the token straight guy for a change?"

I grin back at her. "Somehow I doubt you'll ever let me forget it."

Right as I say that Kenneth and Kylie walk back into the room, and I see Kylie poke her head up from the metallic clipboard she's examining, her eyebrows shooting up. She's looking at us, we're looking at her, and we can all see the gears in her head turning.

Finally, she nods once and gives a flat, "Right on." Her delivery is utterly deadpan, but it breaks the tension easily. I guess that means she doesn't mind. Thank goodness, too. Trump might be out of office now, but anyone who supported him is still being as outspoken as ever.

Lorelei still raises an eyebrow at her though. "You're not uncomfortable with it, are you?"

Kylie barely bats an eyelash as she goes back to examining her clipboard. "You love whoever you want to love, alright. I don't care." She says nonchalantly. "Just let me have some personal space. I'm not in the mood to have to dodge someone again." She says that last part just a bit vehemently. Sounds like she had to deal with someone who was just a little bit too persistent recently.

"Time to head out." Kenneth says, waving a hand to move us along before turning back to Kylie. "You sure you'll be okay on your own so soon?"

"Yeah, yeah." Kylie responds casually. "Just give me a week or two and I'll have a routine down."

Kenneth gives a pleased grin. "I knew you could handle yourself. We'll see you soon, hon."

And with that, we take our leave, leaving Kylie on her own and hoping that all her near disinterested confidence is reliable. We already have enough to deal with these days.

Author/Reader's POV

It's been about two weeks now since I started working as the Syndicate's housekeeper, and just as I promised, I pretty much have my daily routine down. I always do the bathrooms first. No matter what position I'm working, weather it's one the routes and flying solo, bathrooms always seem to be the most consistent task that my department has. Between the six members living here, there are four bathrooms. Three of them are what I would consider being mid-sized with the three basic amenities: showers, double sinks, and toilets. The fourth has a surprisingly good-sized bathtub though, nice, deep and beautifully vintage. Kenneth had told me that it was there when the building was first built, sometime in the nineteen-fifties.

After I get done with the bathrooms, I get started with vacuuming the bedrooms and the hallways upstairs and down into the living room. From there, I start cleaning the windows and dusting up everything, gathering up stray dishes that were left behind in the team's hast to make their morning schedules to do… well, I actually don't even know what they do beyond training with the troops. I haven't bothered to ask.

Maybe it has something to do with maintaining their assets outside of the base? Andi and Duke were both quite surprised when they realized that I had no idea that they were so renowned in the social media world. Andi Kim apparently is super famous on Snapshot and Duke Vale is the ever-loving multibillionaire CEO of Chatsphere. But I'm not too involved in social media and I've never used either platform, so needless to say that I was pretty clueless.

I've tried getting more involved in things like that, if only for the veined hope of promoting myself as an artist. But, as it turns out, I'm kind of social media challenged. I kept that part to myself though, and I don't even know why.

Maybe I just didn't need to hear Andi questioning what kind of "weird millennial" isn't on social media. This was just last Friday, and I might have had a few choice words to give, but I think the look I gave her alone was enough to shut her up, and good thing too. Like I needed a reminder of just how ill-equipped I am in this digital era. It's amazing that I even know how to navigate Facebook, Pintrest and YouTube.

Other than that, though, the Syndicate has pretty much left me alone. Most of the time I interact with them when they come back to the unit for lunch. Speaking of which, I better finish this up. The two ladies from the dining hall are swinging by today to drop off groceries.

Just as I wrap up dusting the mantle above the fireplace, I take notice of the three picture frames there, picture frames that I've always known were there but never paid much attention to. Maybe I'm only really noticing them now because the man in the first picture has the deepest red eyes I've ever seen! Good grief! Are those contacts or is he a vampire?!

Despite that bizarre detail, there's something… undeniably kind about his face, handsome and refinely aged. If I had to guess, he looks to be about mid to late thirties. But who knows, black skin hardly ever seems to age much, like at all. The engraved plate at the bottom of the frame puts a name to the face. Ezekiel "Zeke" Dorian. Underneath the name appears to be a birthdate and… a death date?

… Right! The Syndicate had seven members, not six. I believe this guy was the founding forefather of the team, the one who called himself Cobra. That one article I read said that he had collapsed one day during the trials, right as he was stepping down from the podium. And he never got up again. The team was beside themselves… It might seem messed up to think this, but I think the obvious grief from the loss was what earned the Syndicate some sympathy from the public.

The second picture looks like flashback of happier times. It looks like the team gathered around a table at a restaurant somewhere, with Zeke at the head. Whatever is going on, the team is laughing, some so hard that they hold their chests. My lips twitch into a lopsided smile. That's a lovely memory.

The third picture frame holds a letter… But what's eerie is that as I skim over it, it almost sounds like a final farewell letter, from Zeke himself. What with the way he's sure to tell the team that he's proud of them and all, it sounds like he knew that something was going to happen to him. The letter finishes off with, We will see each other again in another timeline, but not again in this one… Another timeline? What does that even mean?

Suddenly the intercom crackles to life. "Kylie, dear, you in there?" An elderly women voice asks.

Crap! How long was staring at those pictures? I make a beeline for the back door (also secured) and proceed to punch a complex series of numbers to unlock it. Sure enough, there's the food truck, already opened with two ladies unloading several boxes.

We say our good mornings, get everything into the kitchen and begin unpacking fresh produce in the fridge, canned goods for the pantry and wrapped meats for the freezer. The fridge itself is already fully stocked with Tubberwear full of leftovers, condiments and smaller ingredients in the door, eggs on the bottom shelf and basically looking much like my own fridge… except for the mysterious green shakes. Some of the Syndicate members like to drink those after a workout.

After that's done, I see the two ladies out and begin gathering trash. With six people living here, it accumulates. Fast. Once I roll my trash bin into the front foyer, I grab my phone on the way to the dumpster out front in the driveway. This is the point in time that I usually take my break.

It's sunny out for the first time in weeks, the late February air cool, crisp and smelling just a bit muddy from all the snow and rain we've had a few weeks back. I seat myself in the driver seat of the company vehicle I was issued when I took this position, if only to avoid getting my butt soaking wet. A lot of the snow has melted, but a few dirty mounds still dot the area.

I see that I've got a text from my mom, asking if everything is going well with the new job. She normally doesn't do that. I sigh and text her back, saying that everything is just fine. Honestly, nothing exciting has really happened.

After that, I start browsing through Facebook for a bit, spotting a particularly funny dark humor post that my sister shared. "Women like men who make plans, commit to those plans, and still have a few surprises left for them. This is why your girlfriend is obsessed with serial killers." I snort. Actually, there are a few characters like that on the Lovestruck app. Those guys are a bit too intense for me personally, but the other fangirls in the Facebook group that I am a part of certainly go crazy for them anyway… And for what it's worth, I'm not blind. I do see the appeal.

I open up Pintrest next to help decide if I want to use that fish tank I ordered for a terrarium or a diorama when I feel a particularly sharp chill shiver down my spine. I roll my shoulders and neck to work the ache that had built up there… Who are those guys?

A group of about four or five men in uniform, obviously airmen, are loitering in a field several yards away. This is a military air force base, of course. The survival gym is not a long way away, and neither is the clinic and the fire department, the mess hall and minimart. You could even see parachuters floating down to the ground from here, so it's not unusual at all to see military men hanging around.

I've never seen a group of them look so agitated before, though. And why would they drive their truck out into a field where I know there aren't any driveways? I can't hear what they are saying, but I see one point a whole arm at the Syndicate's housing unit, and several turn to face the same direction. They're too far away to know for certain, but I swear I can almost feel them glaring. Then they suddenly pile into their truck, hurriedly, and drive away.

…Well, add that to the list of bizarre things I've noticed. I don't know if I though a fight was going to break out or what, but that was definitely not what just happened. I roll my eyes and scoff. Who knows what a bunch of testosterone driven men do when there aren't enough women around? I look down at my phone again… You know what, maybe I should start searching for a career change already. I might go crazy if I stay in this rut much longer.

I suddenly hear the sound of tires slowly rolling against concrete and when I look up, I'm surprised to see that the Syndicate van has pulled up. What? It's only 10:08 in the morning. They don't usually come back for lunch until noon. I stand up and walk over to them just in time for Kenneth to step out of the driver's seat.

"You guys are early today." I say. "I haven't even started on lunch yet."

"We had to cut training short today." Kenneth says curtly, and only then do I realize how tense his jaw is, like he's keeping himself in check. Uh-oh, what did the Syndicate do? "There was an incident today, and Renzei ended up having one his more sever panic attacks." …Oh! "I don't believe it was coincidence."

"It wasn't!" Duke shouts form inside the van, his face mere inches away from the metal screen that separates the Syndicate from the driver. "It was provoked!" He barks, his voice tight with anger. I've come to notice how protective Duke Vale is of his team, so for him to be this aggravated clues me in on just how serious this was.

"We will discuss this later." Kenneth says firmly. "Right now, we have more important matters to attend to."

Right as he says that I catch a glimpse of Renzei sitting further in the back of the van with Andi and Juliette on either side of him, his eyes locked on the floor in front of him, his face pale and stained with tears, and his shoulders tense and shaking. The poor guy, what happened?

"Kylie," Kenneth says, turning back to me. "Will you go inside and put the kettle on, hon?"

"Sure." I reply readily.

I hurry inside and punch my numbers in, barely remembering to put my phone away before going in. By the time the Syndicate follows me inside, I've already got the kettle on the stove, chai tea bags set up in mugs for Renzei and the girls and the coffee machine brewing for Lorelei and Duke.

Whatever happened has Renzei really shaken up. He barely seems to register how the team gets him to sit down on the couch. I watch for a moment as he holds his head in his hands, taking deep shaky breathes as (Monarch) rubs a gentle hand against his back. And I realize that Renzei is not the only one shaken up. Both Duke and Lorelei are standing rigidly nearby, like they're trying to keep a reign in on their tempers. Andi and Juliette just look like they are at a total loss.

… Alright, I've got to do something. One nice little perk that came with this job is that I'm allowed to store some of my own goodies in the pantry, so I take down a box of a baker's dozen donuts from the top shelf, still fresh from one of my favorite bakeries.

I quietly pad into the living room and place the box on the coffee table with a light thump. "Here. You guys look like you could use a pick-me-up. Help yourselves."

Andi and Juliette hardly need any encouraging as they eagerly pluck donuts from the box. Duke and Lorelei both offer me quiet thank yous, strained but seemingly thankful for the gesture. Renzei had poked his head up, startled slightly before recovering. But then he does a double take. Much to my surprise, despite how shaken up he is, he still manages a weak laugh.

"I like the sweater." He chuckles.

I immediately move a hand over the Gryffindor patch that sits at my left collar bone, blushing a little. That was another nice little perk that came with this job. I'm not really required to wear those ugly company shirts anymore, so long as I keep a company lanyard on my person. And keep my choice of shirts within "professional" reason.

I don't know if I mutter out an audible thanks, but (Monarch) seems gratified when Renzei reaches for his own donut. "There you are." She coos softly.

The door opens again and Kenneth walks in. "I just got off the phone with the other sergeants. We are going to have some visitors at 13:30 today, so that'll give you time to collect yourselves. I've also called your therapist Renzei, and the team's lawyers. I promise you, what happened today will not go unanswered."

"Can I ask what happened today?" I finally say, curiosity taking over. Whatever it was, it was clearly something big.

Kenneth shrugs. "I'm not entirely sure myself. At the time, Renzei was too panicked to tell me anything. All I saw was Renzei falling from a helicopter that was one hundred feet in the air before his parachute was properly secured."

… I'm totally stunned! Kenneth says that so casually, but I'm standing there wide-eyed while my brain tries to process that. But it barely gets the chance before Renzei gathers himself enough to say his piece.

"No, I was shoved. I was shoved out by one of the airmen who have been harassing me for weeks already."

I finally turn around to face Renzei, no doubt with the most horrified expression I've ever had in my life. "You're telling me that you were shoved out of a hundred-foot helicopter and you somehow managed to walk away physically unscathed? … How? How is that even possible?" It should be a totally logical question, right? Except, they all look at me strangely, like I should already know the answer.

But before I can press further, a shrill whistle breaks the stillness. The kettle! I rush into the kitchen and pull the kettle from the stove, my now-shaking hands pouring the hot water into the mugs.

… "Er… Then what happened?" Kenneth continues.

Oh, you ass! I'll ask again, make no mistake about that… Just as soon as my brain re-circuits itself.

"Some of the airmen who have been harassing us came over to taunt Renzei." Duke answers, his voice going tight again. "We had just gotten to him ourselves. He was already terrified as it was, and they were saying things like 'you're still alive' and laughing. After that, Renzei lost it and he attacked."

"I pulled a knife and I cut one of them." Renzei confesses, the tremor in his voice betraying a sense of guilt.

Jesus! That's all I can think right now. Jesus. I've worked on this base long enough to know that not everybody in the air force is… respectful. Even so, these are brave men and women who selflessly serve and fight for our country and are owed all due respect in doing so. They're not supposed to stoop that low… But then again, after everything that happened in the wake of Vanessa Guillen, among many, many other disturbing cases in recent years. You cannot discount the fact that there are bad people in the military or just about everywhere else too.

"It was a superficial wound." Lorelei pointed out. "The man will live." Then she mutters, "Mores the pity."

Kenneth hums thoughtfully and Renzei stammers out an apology, he words tumbling over each other. "I swear I used to be better at this! I know how to deal with these panic attacks, I do! I just haven't had a chance to catch my breath - "

"Hey, hey, Renzei!" Lorelei quickly positions herself in front of him, seating herself at the edge of the coffee table and griping him firmly by the shoulder. "Listen to me, this is not you fault. We know how hard you're trying to recover. We see you doing things to manage your stress, we see you writing about your experiences to help cope with them, and we're so proud of you for doing it." Wow! I think this is the most words I've ever heard out of Lorelei at once.

"This time, the panic attacks are being provoked out of you, and that does complicate things. But I promise you, we're going to get through this."

Renzei only nods shakily, but it's a good enough response. I get a serving tray put together and bring it to the coffee table. "Here you go, guys. I don't know sweet y'all like it, so I just brought everything over."

I jump slightly when I feel a hand pat my back and turn to see Duke. "Thank you, Kylie. Really."

I nod, and step back while the team gets their drinks done the way they like it. While they're doing that, I turn to Kenneth. "Alright, so clearly there was something in those files that I might have missed. You want to fill me in?"

I'm surprised when Kenneth shushes me, gesturing for me to lower my voice which does, admittedly, have a tenancy to carry. "Listen, sweetheart, normally I would, but right now we might want to leave it be, at least for now. Just so that Renzei can catch his breath."

"I'm not a ticking timebomb, you know." Renzei grumbles quietly. "Not normally, anyway."

"I know." Kenneth says before turning back to me. "Still, we will be sorting this out later this afternoon, so feel free to ask your questions then. We do want you to be comfortable enough to continue working here after all."

"Oh, fine." I huff. I mean, really, it's not unreasonable. Just nagging, now. "But I am going to get some answers out of you guys eventually." And then I see the clock. How did it get to be past 10:30 already?! "Shit! I gotta get started on your guys' lunch anyway." I might need to get a wristwatch eventually.

Before I make it halfway through the living room, Renzei stands up in front of me. "Do you mind if I help out in the kitchen?"

Now, I know this might seem petty, especially given the situation, but I typically don't like it when people try to help me, particularly with household tasks. This is my job after all. "I don't need help." I say before I can stop myself, planting my hands on my hips.

Fortunately, Renzei doesn't seem put off. "I know, I'm not saying that you do." And he takes my hands! The touch startles me at first, until I realize that his hands are still shaking. Just the littlest bit, but it's still there. I look up into his face…

Wow, I hadn't realized how tall he is! And I'm five-eight! And his face… It's not like I've never noticed how attractive he is, I have. But I've never gotten a good look at him from this up-close-and-personal before.

His dark hair is tousled and sideswept up top, yet clean and tightly cut in the back. Beneath the fringe, a pair of dark and clearly shaped eyebrows sit strong and angular. Sharp cheekbones taper down to a sculpted jaw. He's clean shaven, which showcases how soft and full his lips look… He is somehow both masculine yet beautiful.

"I just need to do something to get myself under better control." He tells me, his voice still trembling slightly. "I'm still feeling afterburners from the panic attack I had earlier."

"Oh!" I perk up, realization hitting me. "Alright, look… don't take this the wrong way, but I've never helped anyone with PTSD before. So if you want me to help you, I'm gonna need you to help me too. 'Cause I don't know anything. I looked it up when Kenneth told me about it, but that can only get me so far."

Renzei nods understandingly and pulls his lip between his teeth as he thinks. "… The best way I can describe it is like… almost like going through writer's block. My nerves are still stuck in what happened earlier today, and the only way I'm going to be able to tolerate being in the same room with those guys again is if I take a moment to step away from it all entirely. Just do something normal, simple, that way I can come back to the problem with a clearer head."

"Okay, yeah." I nod. "Yeah, that makes perfect sense." Particularly because I do write. And draw. "Well… come on then." Fingers crossed.

Renzei follows me into the kitchen, and I take a moment to peek at the weekly lunch planner I have magnet-ed to the fridge. "Looks like it's gonna be soup and sandwiches for you guys." I muse aloud, searching my memory for what the ladies from the dining hall brought in earlier today. "Let's see, we've got vegetables, chicken broth, a bag of dry egg noodles in the pantry." But what about meat? "… D'you happen to have any leftover meat in here?" I ask as I open the fridge.

"There should be some leftover turkey meat from a roast we tried to make in there." He answers. "It turned out real dry though."

He points out the container, and when I open it there's juuuust enough there to shred real nicely. "Oh yeah, we can work with this. Alright, can I get you to chop up some vegetables?" When he nods, I step aside to let him in the fridge. "Okay, we will need about half a white onion, four stalks of celery, rinsed, three carrots, peeled, and four cloves of garlic."

"Are we just going to wing it?" Renzei asks, glancing at me over his shoulder.

I shrug. "Normally I don't. But I did learn a few tricks from my dad. Here's a cutting board and a bowl for you." I say as I place both near where the kitchen knives are, on the right side of the island.

Wordlessly, Renzei get started, pulling out the large chef's knife and begins peeling and chopping the onion in that pro chef method that I never could quite get down myself. I blink, then pull out a garlic chopper that I brought over here during my first week.

"Do you want this? It'll make light work for the garlic."

Renzei shakes his head. "No, I'd rather chop the old fashion way right now. It's meditative." The rhythmic chop chop chop from his knife slowly begins to pick up pace and I notice that his hands are already steadying. He really takes a proactive approach in dealing with his PTSD, doesn't he. I grin. I find that admirable, actually.

I get going on the sandwiches at the other end of the island and notice that everyone else is settling in the living room. Duke and (Monarch) seem to have decided that a fire would be nice and… how did she light that so quickly? Lorelei and Kenneth are seated on opposite ends of the coffee table with a chess board between them. And Andi and Juliette seat themselves at the bar side of the island, bringing the donut box with them.

"Kylie, where'd you get these?" Andi asks, still chewing.

I shrug as I begin pulling hoggie buns out and cutting them in half. "Just at Walmart. The one here in Airway Heights has a good bakery."

"Really, Walmart?" Juliette looks incredulous.

"Don't they have Walmarts in San Francisco?" I scoff.

"Well, yeah, they do." Juliette quickly replies. "But San Francisco also has a real good culinary culture. Walmart wouldn't exactly be considered the foodies hub. Matter of fact," She grins. "After Optimus, I went to Europe for a while. I was eating at all kinds of fancy bakeries and restaurants."

I scoff again, almost grimacing. "Good luck finding anything like that around here. The only fine dining we have around this corner of Spokane County are the two casinos off of Sunset Boulevard."

"Two casinos, huh?" Andi perks up. "Could you make recommendations? Eventually, we're going to be allowed to leave the base from time to time."

I start assembling the sandwiches, mayo, mustard, slices of roast beef, cheddar and crisp romaine leaves. "If you're looking to gamble, I'll let you guys decide which one is best. But the Northern Quest host better entertainment and has more dining options. And come this March, I'm getting a good look at that spa for myself." I roll my shoulder and feel a familiar pop. "Cleaning for a living can put a strain on the body." … I might be leaving out the fact that my birthday happens to be in March. Oh, who cares!

"Considering how diligent you are about doing your job, Kylie, I say you've earned it." Duke calls out from the living room. "I'm going to take a shower." He says heading for the staircase and peeling off his shirt in the process.

Oh, whoa! I guess those green shakes really pay off! While I'm standing there staring, Duke stops mid-step and turns back to look at (Monarch), who had begun flipping through a book. But without prompting, as if somehow sensing Duke's gaze, her head pops up. Duke cocks a suggestive finger at her and she duly tosses her book aside and struts over to him.

"Back off, he's mine." (Monarch) quips, throwing a cheeky grin at me.

And only then do I realize that, yep, I was totally staring at someone else's man! I feel a bright flash of heat burn through my face as I quickly throw my hands up. "I'm not a homewrecker!" I cry out. And can totally see Kenneth laughing behind his hand!

"Oh, my God, I was teasing!" She laughs. "I mean, good to know, but still."

Duke merely rolls his eyes as he takes his lovely fiancé by the hand and the two head upstairs.

"Get it, you two!" Andi calls out after them. Leave it to her to be a little bit extra.

I don't know if she's intentionally taking the attention off of me or what, but I quickly get the sandwiches assembled and into the fridge in an effort to hide how flustered I am. My cheeks sear against the cool air and I knock my forehead against the door repeated before I get my composure under control. Smooth, Kylie.

Renzei chuckles from his cutting board. "Don't be embarrassed. Duke IS pretty easy on the eyes."

"This coming from a guy who apparently flirts with just about anything." I remark. Then I grimace. Crap, I don't know if that came off as too snippy.

"Oh, you caught on to that, huh?" He replies sarcastically. I relax. Oh good, he seems like he's getting his own composure under control.

"Well, you hardly hide it." I say as I stand, picking up a stick of butter from the top shelf. Renzei Feng is definitely the 'I'm sexy and I know it' type. He's already flirted with me a couple of times, although it's mostly just harmless teasing. Other times, it seems like he has his mind on something else. I straighten and touch a light hand on the crook of his elbow. "How're you doing over here? Wow. You're quicker than I am."

It's only been about ten minutes, if that, and he already has everything diced and in the bowl. Renzei grins almost cheekily. "Heh, yeah. I'm very efficient with knife." He then tosses the damn thing aloft!

The light reflecting off of an airborne blade startles the heck out of me, and I jump back a step on instinct. Renzei catches the knife again, all too easily by the hilt, but his eyes widen in alarm by my reaction. Something intense begins to build in his eyes, like realization and fear. Like it somehow didn't occur to him that I might find that stunt dangerous.

"Great, cool." I stammer, not wanting to make a fuss over it. "I'm gonna get a pot on the stove."

I head to the oven, but Renzei doesn't follow. He just stands there nearly frozen. I place the butter stick on the countertop next to the stove for the time being and pull out the most versatile pot they have in this kitchen.

Heh, funny. I had to reapply for a food handler's card for this part of the job, but this hardly feels like working at Burger King. I feel like I may as well be cooking in my own kitchen. Just as I go to turn the dial, I suddenly feel a tall presence right behind me, arms on either side of me, hands braced on the countertop so that I'm totally encased.

"…Are you afraid of me?" Renzei's voice is almost right in my ear, sending an involuntary shudder down my spine. But his voice isn't malicious at all. It almost sounds… pained. When I don't answer right away, he continues. "You can tell me, you know. I won't … hold it against you."

He's being so earnest about it that it compels me to turn around and face him head on, to look him right in the eyes and… Oh! Oh, wow. I never realized how striking his eyes are. Most Asian guys have dark brown eyes, just like most Puerto Rican girls. Up this close, Renzei's eyes are like shining sterling silver, sharp and glinting like the stainless steel of his own knives.

"Y-you're being very upfront about this." I say once I'm able to find my voice again. Honestly, Renzei is kind of contradicting everything I read up on about people dealing with PTSD. The most informative article I found said that most won't talk about it willingly, or anything that might lead into it. But I'm starting to get the sense that he's probably dealt with it for a while. "I remember that you tried to ask me about that my first day here. Why is it so important to you?"

Renzei's response takes me by surprise. "Because I didn't choose to become anyone's assassin. Optimus chose that path for me, but I still have to live with everything that I did before I escaped them."

In quick succession, my brain starts to feel like a rubix cube, shifting all the pieces around until at least one side, one glaring fact becomes clear. "… You're the Falcon." I finally say.

Before the arrests and the trials, every member of the Syndicate were only known by the codenames that they used; Cobra, Wolf, Monarch, Cat, Badger, Falcon and Bat. The only thing more Action Movie Style then the codenames were the high-end, hyper stylized suits and masks that they wore. I guess when you are going against a corrupted corporation like Optimus and half of your team is filthy rich you may as well go all the way like Bruce Wayne.

The one called Falcon was the one charged with all the assassinations, the one who was double-agenting it between Optimus and the Syndicate both, before Optimus completely broke his trust and his loyalty went fully to the Syndicate. With the way Renzei seems to be the only one with flashbacks and panic attacks and always carries those knives around on his belt, I guess I should've figured that the two would be one and the same.

Renzei nods shakily, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. "How… How I ended up in that position is a long story, and I think I should save that for later on today anyway so that I can… articulate myself better. But when I finally escaped that tower, all I wanted was to live a better life than I did when I was there. To be the man that my parents had raised me to be… But then the arrests and the trials happened, my boyfriend abandoned me, and it was just like everyone would only ever see the Falcon that Optimus made and not –"

"Hey, hey, hey!"

I go to touch his shoulders, taking care not to grab him outright. He's starting to get agitated from telling me all this and I'm worried that if I grab him too hard, I might trigger him. Andi and Juliette are already halfway out of their seats and Kenneth and Lorelei are poised to run over and intervene if need be.

Renzei seems to come back to himself and he closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep centering breath. "I… I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's okay." I pull the cuff of my sleeve into my palm and use that to wipe at the tears that had streaked down his cheek. "I get it, you've had it rough. Rougher than most, by the sounds of it. But you're still only human, that's what you're trying to tell me right?"

Renzei blinks, looking surprised for an instant before he schools his features again. "Something like that." He breathes. "Aside from Kenneth and few other officials, you're the only other person outside of the Syndicate that we have regular contact with now. A complete and total civilian. And you're usually so standoffish, so I guess I just thought that you must be afraid of us. Me specifically, because why not?"

"Okay, then let me clarify something here, all I was doing was minding my own business. I'm an introvert, that's what we do, we keep to ourselves and we just do our own thing. Matter of fact, that's exactly why I took this job, to get away from my coworkers." Renzei's eyes peer into me now, and I can see him taking in what I'm saying.

"Honestly, I haven't really thought much about what you guys did to end up here." I continue. "I know I should! I mean, I did read the files and all, but I figured that if I just keep to myself then it'll be fine for all of us." I pause as I remember my first day here. "… Yeah, I can see how didn't give off the best first impressions."

Renzei huffs out a small laugh at that. "To be fair, I am still kind of on high alert right now. Otherwise, it wouldn't have bothered me so much. All the harassment and the provocations are just really putting me on edge."

"Yeah, I can tell." I rub my thumb across his shoulder, not sure what else to say. I can't imagine what this guy is going through right now, after whatever else he's already been through. All I know is that I can't really… see him as the cold-hearted assassin the prosecutions depicted. You can't look at a face of guilt and shame like that and think that.

I catch Kenneth's eyes and he nods, urging me on. I remember what he told me my first day here, about being able to form my own opinions of people based off of what I see.

"I'll tell you what." I say, looking Renzei in the eye. "If you don't give me any reason to be afraid of you, then I won't be. Plain and simple. Can we agree on that?"

He smiles then, almost self-consciously, but nods. "Yeah, okay."

"Good. Now…" I pick up the stick of butter that I left on the counter, still just a little cold. "Can I get you to sauté those diced veggies on medium-high? Two tablespoons should do it."

"Yes ma'am." He grins, sounding teasing. But when I pat his arm and go to break apart the turkey meat he quips. "Wow, really? Nothing?"

I look back and realize that he must have been trying to get a rise out of me, trying to salvage his pride with his usual cheekiness no doubt. "Yeah, surprise! 'Ma'am' is actually considered polite around here."

Andi and Juliette giggle behind their hands at my comeback, and Kenneth winks approvingly when I catch his eye again. By the time Duke and (Monarch) come back downstairs, lunch is already good to go. For the next hour and a half, we hang out and talk about decidedly normal things.

With me in a more willing mood to chat, Andi eagerly asks me what skincare regimen I use and is stunned when her that I just simply use stuff from my pantry. (Monarch) suggests that I should write it down for them when I get the chance, just so that they could see for themselves. I guess in San Francisco such a thing would be nearly unheard of. Then Lorelei asks if I happen to know a guy named Brian who works for the same company as me, prompting me to deduce that they must've had a run-in with Brian Babbles. Oh, they got a laugh out of that one.

"Now you guys know why I wanted off the routes." I groan. "You put too many of my coworkers in the same van together and you're stuck listening to five different mundane tings at once." I let out a sigh as I work on a pitcher of my mom's sweet iced tea. "Just once I'd like to hear about – Oh, I don't know – about how you want to take up forensics because of a close encounter that changed your life. Or how you're interested in robotics engineering because that's skillset that you can use into creating some killer cosplays."

All of a sudden Juliette claps a hand over her chest and lets out a dramatic gasp. When I look over to her I see an ecstatic grin pulling at her lips. "Where have you been all my life?!"

"Uh-oh." Renzei chuckles. "Kylie, I think Juliette just fell in love with you."

I don't get much of my dailies done, but I'm actually enjoying the conversation as I busy myself in the kitchen. There's something ironic about that. I came here to get away from all the ceaseless chattering on the routes. But these guys have surprisingly good stories to tell and are actually good at telling them. No ramblings about weather or boring grocery store adventures, more like sitting in to a concert of one my favorite comedians. It makes it pretty easy to forget about… everything else.

More importantly, Renzei's nerves seems to have settled a lot. All the tension that was in his shoulders and back have gone slack and he chats easily among his friends. But then the mood for everyone sobers up fast when there's a crackle over the intercom. The other sergeants are at the door.

Renzei's POV

Nine months. That's how long it's been since the arrests. Six of those months were drawn out by each of us being tried separately. And in that time, each of us were put up for public shaming, our crimes somehow unable to be overshadowed by everything Optimus had done to each of us, and to countless others.

I was driven to panic attacks several times by those prosecutors, which I think actually disturbed the jury more than anything. Losing Zeke came right after my trial was adjourned. At that point, a lot of people who supported the Syndicate – mostly people who were Optimus Survivors themselves – were demanding a plea deal, and I was thankful for that. I didn't know Zeke as well as Duke, Lorelei and Juliette, but losing him was hard for all of us.

And in all that time, Michael didn't come to visit me once… I don't think any of us were necessarily looking forward to being stationed to the conservative – borderline pro-Trump - 'redneck' side of Washington state. Most of us are born and raised city folk, we're an ethnically diverse group, and nearly all of us are LGBTQ. But Kenneth and his family are out here, and he was practically a godsent during the trials. Considering that he volunteered to be our legal warden, we were required to stay closer to him.

If nothing else, I think we were all hoping for a break, that training with airmen troops here would be a constructive way to keep us all from going a little crazy from cabin fever for a while. But apparently not.

Ashley is the first person to come through the door, hopping up onto her tip toes for a split second to kiss her father on the cheek before making a beeline for me. I'm not sure how professional it is for a therapist to hug her patient, but I hardly care right now. I need all the help I can get. I could never really afford to talk to a therapist before, not without a guaranteed ticket to death row. But seeing as how I got arrested anyway, and just managed to escape with a plea deal, I figured I may as well now. It helps that she happened to be Kenneth's oldest daughter, another godsent.

"How are you doing?' She says as she pulls away, her trained eyes checking me over. "Are you ready for this?"

I breath in and nod. "The sooner we get this over with the better." This harassment has to be put to an end.

Two sergeants who I don't know come in first, followed by three airmen. Emmett Mackinnon, Bradley Daniels and Jonathan Lewis Clark. I never got a good look at who it was that shoved me out of that helicopter, but out of the five of us in there, these three were closest to me when it happened.

It's hardly a surprise to anyone that Emmett is a suspect. He's been giving the Syndicate hell practically since day one. The man is not even forty years old, but he already has some kind of Bitter Old Man Syndrome, openly Pro-Trump and mean. As if the Syndicate didn't have enough to deal with, some have felt the need to throw racial slurs and bigotry at us as well, just for good measure, and Emmett has contributed. And right now, he stands there rigid and glaring.

Not sure what to make of Bradly. He just seems to always be around Emmett, like he's some kind of kid brother-in-arms to the guy. But today that's only made him a second likely suspect. And as for Jonathan… not sure how he's a suspect, but something about him looks uneasy but resolute. I know he's not fond of Emmett at all, and vise versa, but he also keeps a distance from us. I almost doubt that Jonathan might've been the culprit… But I've trusted the wrong people before.

All three just got back from a deployment from Iraq just a few weeks ago, shorty after the team had gotten settled here, and all three are duly masked up. But one unforeseen benefit of the team being made as high profile as we are now is that we got vaccinated earlier than we would've otherwise, and thankfully they're proving effective. No masks mean that the full seriousness in our faces can be seen.

I'm pretty sure Kylie was vaccinated too when she started working around us, but she still masks up. Two of the Syndicate's lawyers come in next, one of the lawyers being Ashley's husband, Mark. Small world in a small town, I guess. Mark steps over to greet me as well, but panic rises into my throat when see one of the airmen, Bradly, make a beeline for Kylie. What is he…

"Ah-ha, Kylie!" He says her name with too much elation, arms open like he's going to hug her until she takes a step back.

"You! You're… back." Even with the mask on I can tell that her smile is forced, her voice edging dangerously close to being dismayed. So she knows this guy… Wait, didn't she say something about having to dodge someone the first day she was here?

"Damn, I can't believe you work here now." Bradly condescends, clearly showing some distain towards us. "No wonder I had a hard time finding you. I went straight to the Youth Center to see you and the ladies said you were put elsewhere. I guess you got too busy to tell them where I'd find you, yeah?"

"… Sure." Yeah right, she totally gave him the slip!

Before Bradly can say anything else one of the sergeants claps him firmly by the shoulder. "Daniels, remember your situation, son."

Bradly stiffens and Kylie's eyebrows knit together, going from Bradly to me to Bradly again. "…You didn't." Her voice goes flat out accusatory. I don't think she would've thought of him capable to such a digression, assuming that he did it.

"That's what we're here to find out." The sergeant says before Bradly can defend himself. "Sit down, Daniels." Bradly does so, and the sergeant turns back to Kylie, softening almost immediately. "Good to see you again, Kylie."

Kylie, though still unsettled, relaxes a bit. "You too, Phil." This time there's nothing forced in her tone. Huh, Kylie's kind of popular around here, isn't she?

"You provided these criminals with a housekeeper?" Emmett sneers, eyeing Kylie with far more naked distain than Bradly's tone did earlier. Kylie takes notice and her eyebrows shoot up, obviously unsure how to respond to that.

"You would do well to remember your situation as well, Mackinnon." Kenneth almost growls, his natural southern accent kicking in. I swear, he does that as an intimidation tactic. "Sit down. Your too, Clark."

I have to fight down the urge to step over to Kylie and stare Emmett down. It's nothing overt, but Emmett has just always rubbed me the wrong way. He's got such an angry and proud air about him that just about straddles the line of white supremacy. He certainly treats Duke with a bit more respect than the rest of us, but still managed to piss him off one day when he all too casually suggested to Duke that marriage to a Black woman with hardly any money of her own would prove to be a big mistake in the future. Duke had already been short tempered as it was, and he punched Emmett outright, citation for bad behavior be dammed.

The three airmen seat themselves on a couch at one end of the coffee table and the rest of us find room on either side, some seated, others having to lean against a wall close by. For a while, the crackling fire that (Monarch) had started makes the only sound in the room as we stare them down. Bradly shifts uncomfortable, Jonathan rolls his shoulders in an effort to relax himself, and Emmett remains rigid and unmoved.

Kenneth paces around as he gathers his thoughts, back straight, shoulders square and arms clasped behind his back, looking very much like the sergeant that he is. He audibly breathes in a sigh through his nose as begins.

"'I am an American Airman. Wingman, Leader, Warrior. I will never leave an Airman behind, I will never falter, and I will not fail.' Says that right in the Airman's Creed. Though the Syndicate may not be airmen themselves, they now work and serve alongside us and that vow very much applies to them as well. Why then, may I ask, that one of you felt it was necessary to shove one of them out of a hundred-foot helicopter before his chute was properly secured? For laughs, not less."

Not like I really needed a chute anyhow, but aerokinesis does require a great deal of concentration to get fully airborne. Getting unexpectedly shoved was about the worst thing to happen. I couldn't think clearly though the sheer shock for almost a few seconds too late.

"There is no excuse for such a discretion, sir." Jonathan concedes. Actually, 'concede' might not be the word for it. There's a certain kind of firm certainty to his voice that makes you think that he believes it. I might not be the empath on the team, but I certainly know a thing or two about reading people. I'm having a hard time believing that Jonathan did it.

"Indeed, there isn't." Kenneth continues. "Answer me something, gentleman. Why do you think that I fought so hard to secure the rights of the Syndicate and so grant them a chance at redemption? Do you think I simply did it for funsies?"

"Sergeant Rutherford." Bradly begins, almost timidly before he composes himself. "Sir, with all due respect, we were given very little explanation."

Kenneth smiles then, and I almost follow suit. What a perfect lead into the plan that we devised. "Well in that case, you shall have your explanations. Juliette, care to start us off?"

At his prompting, Juliette straightens and takes a step from her spot next to the fireplace. This was the plan that we devised: tell our personal stories in short and appeal to their humanities. That's what granted us some leniency during the trials. The one perpetrator will either confess out of guilt and shame, or one of his accomplices will rat him out. I seriously doubt the former, but either way.

Juliette clears her throat. "As I'm sure a lot of you know, my full name is Juliette Optima. My own parents were the ones behind all of it. The mass kidnappings, the human trafficking and human experimentations, all of it. And growing up, I never knew what they were doing until I expressed an interest in robotics and engineering, just like Mom and Dad. So of course, they were going to support their dear daughter in that."

She shudders as if some awful memory flashed through her mind. "… I can't even begin to describe how disturbed I was when I finally got a good look at what they were doing. I could've thrown up on the floor right then. All I knew was that it wasn't right, and I told my parents so too, and begged them to stop. But my father told me that if he and my mother went down, I would go down with them, that I was complacent in their crimes as well… I was still just a teenager back then, I couldn't go against them. I was trapped, and I lived like that for a few years. Then Zeke found me one day, then Lorelei and Duke, and suddenly I finally had a way to break free and escape. That's my story."

And so we go on like that, one by one. Duke explaining how he had lost his parents to Optimus twice, first believing them to dead when he was a child, then finding out that they were alive and being held captive and going to rescue them only to discover that they have no memories of him at all. Optimus took those from them.

Then Lorelei explaining how she had to watch a woman she was going to marry turn into a person that she hardly recognized. And Andi, who never stopped searching for a friend that went missing. Lorelei never did get Scarlet back, she was already too far gone. And truthfully, I'm not sure if Lorelei wanted her back anymore after what she had become. But Dahlia did come to see Andi again during the trails. She came to testify, describing all the abuses she endured inside that tower.

As for (Monarch), she merely scoffs and states that she was just simply at the wrong place at the right time, and that on her first day working for Optimus she had walked in on Duke bombing the place. But because he was only aiming for property damage, he went out of his way to protect her from the explosion, brought her to the Lair, and when she got a good look at what Optimus was doing she was on board one-hundred percent.

When it comes to be my turn to tell my story, I happen to notice Kylie. She had hightailed it to the kitchen in the beginning, pretending to busy herself with non-existent dishes and keeping a distance from Bradly. But now, she stands there, eyes fixed on us and listening with rapt attention, like she couldn't lose focus if she tried.

I shake off the thought for a second and take a deep breath to steady myself, four seconds in through the nose and four seconds out through the mouth, just like Ashley taught me. "I was eighteen when I took a job from Optimus. I was the oldest of five, Mom and Dad were immigrants, they could barely make enough to provide for all of us. Just as I'm coming out of high school, Optimus reps come along to offer me a scholarship and a job opportunity that only a stupid kid would've refused. And my parents were thrilled. It was supposed to be an opportunity for all of us. They had no more of a clue than I did."

I choke back a lump in my throat as I remember the last time I ever saw them, my parents, my brother and my three little sisters, climbing into that Optimus van with the movers to their new home and driving away from me while Optimus began training me. "… Optimus' Security training was very much like training for the military. The desensitizations were bad. The smell of my own vomit as it hit the floor was worse. But worse than anything was being able to watch those videos and feeling nothing."

"I was promoted to an agent by the time I was twenty-one. But there was always one thing that I wasn't quite good enough at yet, or one thing that I needed to keep working on, and until I got it right I wasn't allowed any contact with my family. It took years before I even began to… wonder what Optimus was even doing to me. It wasn't until they started assigning me assassination orders that they started threatening me with the lives of my family. I had no choice. I had to see them again."

A flash of movement from the kitchen catches my eye and I see that Kylie has now turned away and is standing over the sink, her hands swiping away at her face… Ah, I guess it's only just now occurring to her how much we went through. I think that's the first time I've seen her that emotional.

"Ten years, that's how long I worked for Optimus." I continue. "I won't deny all of the horrible things that I did, believe me, I have to live with it every day. But everything I did was to see my family again. To hug my mom again. Only to discover that they had already been gone for years before I knew. The only difference between me and you three is that you enter the military voluntarily. I was straight up shanghaied, just like so many others. Other than that though, how does that differ so much from what you guys do every time you go on deployment?"

"We are military men, boy." Emmett growls, seemingly unmoved by anything. "And you're a serial killer who takes bribes."

"BRIBES?! HAVEN'T YOU BEEN LISTENING?! I WAS BEING THREATENED!"

A firm hand grips my shoulder, derailing my focus from Emmett before I can get too heated. I don't have to turn around to know it's Lorelei. By now, I'm pretty sure the team is preparing to step in if they have to stop me. The two sergeants, Phil and the other guy, they're both standing in a way that makes me think they would be ready to charge me. And Emmett just sits there looking smug. Oh, I can't stand this man!

"Alright, let's all settle down." Kenneth says, although he shoots a pointed glare at Emmett. "We'll take a five-minute breather before we continue. Kylie will you bring over some drinks?"

"Yeah." She answers.

Angry and defeated, I turn away and sit back down next to Ashley and resist the urge to hold my head in my hands. God dammit, is there really anything worse than wasting your breath on someone who couldn't give a flying fuck like that?

Ashley takes charge and begins walking me through a breathing exercise to calm my nerves, and I focus on that. In the background, I can make out Kenneth quietly drilling into Emmett and a soft thunk on the coffee table as Kylie places a package of water bottles there. After another moment I can hear her whisper-growl out a "stop it", possibly at Bradly, if he hasn't taken a hint yet.

It's been a little over two years now since I finally escaped Optimus, and yet every internal skill that they taught me hasn't dulled in the slightest. My senses are still sharp and keen as a blade's edge. Most of the time, those skills can be useful, even for just everyday stuff. But… I sometimes can't help but look at it as another reminder of how much Optimus's influence is going to stick with me, quite possibly until the day I die.

A clinking of glasses and the pouring of liquid, then Kylie's voice sounds again, softer and closer. "Hey, Renzei?"

I look up and notice that she's standing in front of me with a glass of that iced tea she made earlier. I smile wryly. "Another treat? You're going to spoil me at this rate."

She only scoffs, her dark eyes closing before I could see them rolling, and hands me the glass. As soon as I close my hand around the glass she places her own hand overtop mine and gives it a gentle squeeze. It's a small gesture but a kind one, and I smile gratefully… Actually, Kylie has been kind and patient with me all day, which is surprising considering that she's mostly kept to herself since she's been here. I guess she's the type to act when it's necessary.

… "What about you, girl?" Emmett's sneers across the room, his voice cutting. He glares at the two of us, like he's seeing something utterly sinful. Bradly watches us too, his face green with envy, or maybe more like dejection. I'm still not sure where he stands in this situation, so it's hard to tell.

"You realize that these are criminals that you are associating with, right?" Emmett continues. "Are you honestly not afraid of them?"

I feel a fresh shot of anger shoot into my skull. You son of a…

"Mackinnon!" Kenneth barks, nearly crushing his own glass of iced tea in his hand. "She has nothing to do with this. You will leave her…"

Before he can finish the sentence though, Kylie, surprisingly, steps forward and claps Kenneth on the arm and faces Emmett squarely, even removing her mask. I don't know what's going to happen, but there's a set in her shoulders that says that this is a woman who has had enough.

"The only thing that scares me anymore, sir, are men and women with ass-backwards mindsets like yours." Her voice is almost unnervingly calm and steady, the kind of calm where you just know that there's a storm brewing beneath it. "The only agenda people like you seem to have is to drag society back to the 'good ol' days' where racism, homophobia and domestic violence was socially acceptable. That one Mandalorian actress actually had the gall to make today's major Republican party out to be the victims by comparing them to Holocaust victims, when in reality the more accurate comparison would be to the Confederate soldiers. Matter of fact, I'm almost afraid that the second civil war is exactly what you're shooting for, just so that you can enforce your outdated beliefs onto the rest of us."

Holy. Shit! Where did this woman come from?! Far from her usual enigmatic quiet, Kylie now stands tall and proud as she sets a steady gaze down on Emmett, who now sits crossed and impassive. Bradly stares in open-mouthed shock and Jonathan looks more impressed than anything.

And Kylie is far from finished. She gestures her hands out, clearly indicating the Syndicate as a whole. "These people just gave you their life stories, stories of loss and pain and suffering. The same kind of stories that a literal thousands of others can personally attest to. Not even counting the hundreds more who didn't walk out of those buildings alive, and your only response is to flippantly discredit anything they say by claiming that you as soldier are just naturally of far better moral standing than that?!"

"What the military does is protect the nation." Emmett growls, looking like he may as well have just had his honors badges ripped off. Not going to lie, I might be taking a little bit of satisfaction in that. I'm not the only one either. The rest of Syndicate has been left staring in open awe since Kylie started.

"That as it may be, you seriously expect me to believe that you don't bloody your hands in the process?" She fires back. "When men and women come home from deployments with PTSD and X-amount of confirmed kills under their belts, they're still regarded as war heroes. And as well they should be. But then Renzei Feng walks away from Optimus tower with PTSD and X-amount of confirmed kills under his belt, and yet he doesn't even get to be regarded as a Survivor like the rest of them?! It doesn't sound to me like he was spared anything when he became Optimus's favorite errand boy."

"Where were you during the trials?" I burst. I mean, Mark and the rest of his firm were great and all, but none of them were as… on point as her. From the number of Optimus Survivors that walked away from it's many branches in many cities, and even to my position as Optimus's favorite errand boy. Or more like their favorite tool than anything else.

"I think she has a salient point." Jonathan interjects, standing up and seeming to be addressing all of us. "I just got back from my third deployment, and I'll tell you this much: there's nothing truly heroic about it. You go to fight for your beliefs, for the safety of your country, your home and your family, of course. But once you're there, it becomes a matter of survival more than anything." … At this point I'm already convinced that Jonathan might have had nothing to do with shoving me out of that helicopter as he turns to Kenneth. "Sergeant Rutherford, if I may, I came here to give my statements."

Kenneth nods. "By all means." He pats Kylie on the shoulder. "Why don't you sit down, hon. Brava."

Kylie takes a seat on the couch next to me, huffing a little like she's finally exhausted some pent-up frustration she's been repressing. I squeeze her hand tight and whisper in her ear, "Thank you." Without really meaning to, I catch a whiff of her. Huh… She smells like coconut oil. Like, real coconut oil, not some overpowering imitation. It's subtle, but sweet and decadent.

Andi zips by and jumps into the seat on the other side of Kylie, derailing that train of thought. "Okay, seriously, I love you."

Kylie snorts at this, her naked-pink lips twitching into a smirk. "Get in line, Andi. I'm already back to having to dodge one guy today."

Although the remark is half-whispered, Bradly starts to look a little like a kicked puppy. I would actually almost feel sorry for the guy if there wasn't still a chance that he had shoved me. If he didn't… I got to wonder why Kylie doesn't like him too much.

"Now Clark." Kenneth says, bringing me back to the situation at hand. "I want you tell everyone here what you told me."

"Well, unfortunately sir, I didn't see much." Jonathan begins, and as he does there's this feeling of anticipation and clarity. Whatever the reason is, Jonathan is here as a witness, not a possible perp. Bradly begins to look antsy as the realization hits and Emmett is now seething.

"I saw Feng standing at the open door and making final adjustments to his chute before his jump. But I had turned away for a moment to focus on my own chute. Next thing I know, there's a shout of alarm and when I look up, Feng is nowhere to be seen, Daniels is looking out that door in shock and Mackinnon is laughing like some movie-style villain."

All eyes turn to Emmett. The look on that man's face… I swear, you can practically feel the rage rolling off of him in waves.

"(Monarch), what's your verdict?" Kenneth asks, turning to (Monarch), who has her eyes narrowed and fixed on Jonathan and then Emmett. Being an empath means that she is basically a human lie detector, better than those stupid machines by a long shot.

(Monarch) nods decisively. "Jonathan is telling the truth. And Emmett is too enraged to be anything but guilty." Got him.

Emmett attempts an indignant scoff, but it comes out as more of a growl than anything. "That's it? All this one niggeress has to do is say the word, and that's it?"

"Oh, do continues on with your lovely racial slurs, Mackinnon, and see how far it gets you." Jonathan grins tightly. You can definitely tell that these two have had some beef before.

Emmett turns to him, steam practically coming out of his ears. "You conniving little –"

"Mackinnon!" Kenneth barks, placing his glass down on the table with a loud clack. "Believe me when I tell you, this is far from it for you. Phil, Brett, please escort Mackinnon and Daniels both to my office. Mark, you and your colleague will join them to take official statements. Ashley you as well. Your professional opinions will be helpful here."

Ashley makes sure that I'll be okay without her before following the group of men out of the room, Emmett practically snarling the whole way out. Kenneth turns towards the rest of us when they're gone, his voice softening as he regains his cool. Emmett's attitude can set just about any man's teeth on edge.

"The rest of you can wait out here. I say that you've all earned a breather for the rest of the day, but best not leave this room until our guests have vacated the building. It'll be a while to get all the statements we need to take whatever legal actions we can take. Though, I warn you, due to the Syndicate's own legal position, the most he's likely to get is a suspension."

That's… not ideal, but Duke nods in understanding. "As long as Emmett is held accountable for his actions, that will suffice for now."

"Sir," Jonathan quickly pipes up before Kenneth goes to follow the others. "If you can get Bradly to go against Emmett, it might help the case against him. I would just rather not see Bradly become an accessory to Emmett's actions."

Kenneth pauses and then nods. "I'll see what I can do."

There's a moment of quiet after he leaves, tension still hanging in the air. Duke goes to sit next to (Monarch) and puts a comforting arm around her. No doubt they start using telepathy to talk to each other in the following silence, Duke probably checking in on her after Emmett threw the always lovely "N" word at her. I chew on the inside of my mouth and shake my head… Pig.

"(Monarch)", Kylie pipes up suddenly. "Are you one of those psychic people or something?"

And just like that, the tension cracks and most of us just start cracking up. Andi and Juliette are more boisterous with their giggles and (Monarch) scoffs. Duke and Lorelei don't laugh, but they both sport nearly identical grins that just say really? I bring a fist to my mouth and bite down on a knuckle to try and smother some of my laugh and squeeze her hand. And only then do I realize that I haven't actually let go of it. Crap!

Poor Kylie seems too concerned with everyone else that she hardly seems to notice when I let go. "What, what?!"

"That's so… arcane!" I finally get out.

"I mean, I don't read tarot cards or nothing, but yeah, it's kind of like that." (Monarch) says. "I can pick up on emotions and stuff like that." She jerks her head to where Emmett had sat. "Let me tell you, the sheer amount of indignant rage coming off that man just screamed 'guilty'. And I can tell that Jonathan was being sincere too."

Jonathan doesn't say anything, just nods and takes a sip of water.

"Wouldn't that still be considered highly circumstantial evidence, though?" Kylie points out. "I seriously doubt that the military would take that stuff seriously."

"Maybe not, but it's still a lead." Jonathan answers. "No doubt they're in there right now working towards an actual confession. Getting one from Emmett himself would be ideal, but even getting Bradly to implicate him would make for a stronger case."

Kylie's spine suddenly goes pin straight. "Oh, my God. Okay, I may be dumb, but do I need to be worried about Bradly now?"

Oh, right. I don't know how long Kylie has had to dodge Bradly, but I'm willing to bet it was too long. Suddenly learning that he's been involved with a creep like Emmett probably doesn't sit well with her.

Jonathan clearly catches on puts his hands out placatingly. "Bradly would never do anything to you, I promise. Honestly, he's not that bad of a guy, he's just… an idiot." His face says it all. He really can't think of a better word than that. "I love the guy, but he's an idiot. He talked about wanting to date you quite a lot during our deployment, but even listening to that made it seem like you weren't all that interested."

"All he talks about is cars and football. It annoying." Kylie complained.

I had to scoff at hearing that. "Ha! Rookie mistake." I groaned, taking a swig of the sweet iced tea Kylie gave me. It's well made. "A women's brain is a complex thing." I continue. "Even if she's into sports, that's not going to be the only thing she wants to talk about."

"Thank you!" She cries, as if I just summed it up perfectly for her.

"Maybe you could teach him a thing or two about flirting, Renzei." Juliette quips

"Of course, I could."

"Please don't." Kylie whines. "He'll just keep bothering me."

"Wow, Kylie." Andi grins. "I didn't know you were so popular around here."

"You should hear the guys over at Bud." Jonathan adds. "Or at Intelligents. It's quite the buzz that pretty Kylie Rae from Skils'kin is now working with the Syndicate."

I just barely hold in a sound in the back of my throat. Kylie Rae? That's adorable!

Kylie shrugs it off. "I've worked on this base for four and a half years. People recognize me."

"While we're on the subject, Kylie." Duke interjects. "I was quite impressed with you earlier."

"We all were." (Monarch) agrees.

Everyone gives their own confirmations, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say Kylie looked a little shy from the praise. But again, she shrugs it off.

"Yeah, I don't know what came over me. I don't know if I overstepped or anything but…"

"To be fair, he did kinda go after you." Andi points out.

"Absolutely." Lorelei agrees. "We've all wanted to tell Emmett off for a while. But we're standing on eggshells as it is, and we couldn't risk it. And he knew that was the case, too." Then she grins almost wickedly. "I don't think he was expecting you to fire back, though."

"What can I say, people like that just disgust me." Kylie explains, her brow furrowed. "It just seems like ever since Trump has been in office, all the racists and homophobes that were previously kicked to the curb are now just coming back with a vengeance to drag human rights back into submission. Even more so now that Trump's been booted out, if that riot at the Capitol wasn't any indication."

"Oh, I know." I groan. "D'you know that the red states are really starting to attack LGBTQ rights now? Transgendered people have a hard enough time finding the right healthcare that they need without the far-rights trying to outlaw it. And it wasn't until recent decades that same-sex couples were able to legally marry and adopt, and the far-rights are threatening that as well."

"And then there's the anti-abortion bills." She adds. "And people bombing abortion clinics, after women had to fight so valiantly just to be able to use birth control. God forbid, a woman is allowed to govern her own life and body! And I get that there's some moral concerns if you're like really far along in the pregnancy, but still. And by the way, anti-abortions, preventing same-sex couples from adopting, and a whole lot of useless men who are free to up and leave their kids, it's kind of no wonder that the orphanages are always full beyond capacity." Then she sits straight up and quickly puts her hands out. "No offense to the men in this room."

"I was going to say." Duke laughs good-naturedly.

"Seriously though." I put in. "If those kids are finally going to get adopted, then let them get adopted. Who cares if it's by two moms or two dads. My ex-boyfriend and I would've all too happy to adopt a few."

I hadn't realized what I had said until (Monarch) perks up. "Whoa, seriously?! You and Michael were talking about that?"

I freeze up when it finally hits me, and I see the Syndicate is looking at me in total surprise… Crap! I seriously contemplate trying to cover it with a convincing lie and say that I was just tossing that out there for argument sake. But knowing (Monarch) she'll probably sniff out that lie, and besides that the Syndicate had made me swear off keeping secrets from them after I had confessed to being a double agent. So I nod.

"Y-Yeah, we had talked about it a couple times." I confess.

"Oh, Renzei." Lorelei croons.

After that, there's silence. I guess they don't know what to say to that. They're all still wondering how the two of us could've gone from being so in love to Michael ghosting me after the arrests happened. A part of me still wonders that too.

I feel Kylie nudge her shoulder against mine. "Sounds like you two were pretty close, huh?"

"We weren't at first." I say without hesitation. After everything else she and I were talking about just now, it feels easy to open up to her. "We were just kind of fooling around at first. I had just settled down in New York City and got a job as a bartender at a casino that he and his team liked to go to. And I could tell that he thought I was cute by the way he was looking at me. I had made the first move to flirt with him and we kept at it for a while. But apparently, he wasn't out to his team about being bi-sexual. With Trump in office, he was having a tough enough time just being Black. His dad was worried that if he came out as being bi, he would never make it to NBA. And I told him what I thought about that. But we weren't serious at the time, so I just put up with it… And then we got serious."

"How'd you know when you two were serious?" She asks.

"The first time I ever woke him up with one of my nightmares." I shrug. "I can never get back to sleep when those happen and…" I feel a lump begin to swell in my throat as I remember. "He had pulled me into the living room where his grandma's old piano was at and played this little melody that he had come up with to go with one of my poems, a lullaby really."

"A basketball player who also plays piano, huh?" Kylie quips.

I huff out a half laugh. "Yeah, can you imagine? I thought I'd hit a jackpot. And when we talked about it the next morning, we basically made it official." I nod a head to where Duke and (Monarch) are sitting. "He was going to be my plus-one at their wedding. He was with us in San Francisco when we were all getting fitted. After that, we were supposed to go back to New York so that he could train for the big sponsorship game that he had coming up, and he was planning to come out to his team and ask for their support… And, dammit, I was happy."

And now that's all gone. I wish I could stop thinking about him, but I do all the time. I wonder if he still thinks about me at all, like when he plays piano. I wonder if he ever came out to his team and made it to NBA like he wanted.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all this, Feng." Jonathan says, taking a step forward. "For what it's worth, I think I can see why Kenneth believes that you're a man worth saving."

"… Uh, thank you?" Was that supposed to come off as a compliment?

Jonathan catches on quick. "I'm being serious. You know, these military bases have support groups for those who suffer from PTSD. Perhaps if you connected with the troops on that level, it'll help get the harassments to stop. I could put in a good word for you."

"That sounds like a great idea." (Monarch) agrees before looking at me. "What do you think?"

I think about it and shrug. "It couldn't hurt, I guess. It's not like I have a whole lot of other options."

"You know Renzei, after hearing all of this I gotta ask: do you ever have good days?" Kylie points out. I look at her in surprise and she flinches, like she thinks she just said something wrong. "I mean, I'm just… concerned. Having to go through all of that can't be good for your mental health."

"No, really? The PTSD and panic attacks did clue you in?"

"Alright." She nearly shouts. "I just realized that none of us had asked you if you were even okay after today and I wanted…" I laugh a little at her expense and she glares at me. But I've been exposed to enough of her glares by now to know when she means it. "Seriously? How do you even joke about something like that?" I probably would have been a little mad… if she wasn't actually kind of cute when she's flustered.

"Well, I guess because the alternative would be to be angry and miserable for the rest of my life. And I don't want to do that." I shrug as I squeeze her hand reassuringly. "Anyway, yeah, I do have good days. Just… not recently… They kind of come and go in cycles, really. Some days, I'll be fine, living everyday of my life knowing that Optimus can't ever take it from me again. And then I'll remember something, think of something that I can't ever take back, and then I'll be down and out for a while."

"…Well hey, I don't know if this counts for anything but…" She shrugs. "Glass half full, at least it means that the good days will come again, right?"

I look at her again and smile. "That is a very optimistic way of looking at it, but yeah. I can agree with that."

The trials (and the breakup) have been rough, and it's hardly the end of it yet. But things at least feel a little bit more secure now that the Syndicate is together again, and Kenneth has secured a more comfortable position for us. During the trials, Zeke had said that I had a will that was next to unbreakable and I'm going to make sure that I live up to that. For his sake, for the Syndicate, and for my family.

"And actually," I stand up as a thought occurs to me. "I'm pretty sure I left a journal somewhere in this room this morning. Hang on."

I go in the general direction that I think I left it. But then, a noise creeps into the edge of my hearing, high-pitched but muffled, and I stop. Is… is that coming from outside? I look around and notice that everyone can hear it too.

"Is that the sirens going off?" Kylie guesses.

Another sound catches my attention, like a knocking in the wall, right above the fireplace, dropping lower and lower, getting louder and louder. Finally, something drops from the chimney, bounces off the dying embers and rolls across the floor. My guts turn cold when I realize what it is.

"GRANADE!" I shout, running back to Kylie and pulling her back as far to the other side of the room as I can drag her, and just in the nick of time.

BOOM! The explosion is deafening, paired with the metallic tang of shrapnel hitting ice and stone instead of hitting us. Dust and debris are still sent flying, but thanks to Duke, (Monarch) and Lorelei the full force of it was contained by a haphazard dome of ice, stone, and telekinetic energy.

"…What?" I can just hear Kylie breathe the word out before a coughing fit seizes her, and me as well.

Smoke is filling the room up, sickly yellow green and toxic. Shit! Whoever tossed that grenade down here must've dropped a tear gas canister right after it. We would've been too preoccupied with the explosion to notice it.

Without hesitation, I make a series of gestures, arms waving around as wind begins circulating around the room, gathering as much of the gas as possible. "Someone, find the canister, quick!" I shout. We've gotta get that thing out of here.

Fortunately, the cannister didn't roll too far off from the fireplace, it's steady stream of gas giving its position away so that (Monarch) can lift it with telekinesis. At her prompting, Duke uses his powers to encase the thing into a block of ice so that it can't let out anymore gas.

"Renzei, get that stuff out of here." Duke orders.

With no other option, I direct all the wind and tear gas back out the chimney where it came from. For added measure, Lorelei stomps her foot, and a pillar of rock rises and fits itself into the fireplace essentially walling it up.

"What the hell was that!" Kenneth comes running in, gun in hand and ready for anything.

"Someone outside threw a grenade down the chimney!" Duke answers. "And a tear gas can came right after that. Is everyone alright?!"

I look around and, thank goodness, everyone is. Everyone had thought quickly enough to get away from the damn thing. Obviously, we're all on high alert now, but everyone is still standing and claiming no injuries.

I turn to Kylie and grab her by the shoulders, getting her to look at me. There's a wide-eyed look to her expression that I haven't seen before and my stomach drops. This isn't what she signed up for. "Are you okay?" I ask her, trying to keep my voice even.

What she says next surprises me. "When did you become a goddamn air bender?!"

I blink. Air bender? As in like, Avatar the Last Air Bender? The show? I shake my head. "That's not what I asked you."

"I'm fine." She argues. "But seriously, what the hell?! When did you people start doing all that?!"

"Kylie." Andi pipes up, looking at Kylie with eyes wide enough that I can practically see the gears turning behind them. "Did you seriously not know that we're super-powered?"

That accusation has me turning back at Kylie, who narrows her eyes with suspicion, her eyebrows knit together like she's trying to work out an impossible riddle. It finally dawns on me… She really didn't know.

Author/Reader's POV

Holy… Shit. Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! This was not at all in the job description! Or maybe it was, and I just didn't catch it. How the hell did I not know that these people were bonified Marvel and DC level super-powered?!

"You really didn't know." Renzei pinpoints, like it only just occurred to him too.

"Obviously, I didn't." I confirm, still shaken up by what just happened. "I would've been geeking out about it if I did. Trust me."

This is the kind of thing that I only get to see in movies, dammit! The kind of stuff that I would secretly daydream about or write fictions about as a past time. And now it's right there in front of me, hidden within plain sight. For more then two weeks, I've been right smack-dab in the center of it, and I had no idea. It would actually be hella exciting if we didn't just have a bomb dropped down our chimney.

Another boom rumbles on in the floor above us. Whatever Lorelei did to the fireplace hasn't stop whoever is attacking to stop dropping bombs down here.

"Kenneth." Duke says, his shoulders going square and his spine straightening. And somehow, without needing any of those ridiculous outfits and masks, Duke Vale suddenly looks every bit of the Syndicate leader that he has claimed to be. "Permission to take action and put a stop to this assault?"

"Permission granted." Kenneth barks, no hesitation. "Get out there and figure out what the hell is going on. If you can bring someone in for information, do so. Something is going on here and I don't like it."

With that, Kenneth punches in the code and his fingerprint into the door, and Duke calls on (Monarch) and Lorelei to back him up as they head outside. I can still hear the sirens blaring. Underneath that is a commotion of… something. Was that a gunshot?!

Somehow, despite the shock to my system, one clear thought strikes me. "My coworkers…" I whisper. Route Four still covers buildings on this side of the base. They could still be out there. "Kenneth." I say. "Kenneth, I need to call Rebecca. Whatever is going on, I don't want my coworkers in the middle of it."

"The only phone in this unit is in my office. Emmett and Bradly are still in there."

"I don't care." I respond. "You and the other sergeants can cover me."

I hurry in there, ignoring the pointed looks a get as I make a beeline for the phone. Thank God, Kenneth has kept my bosses' numbers on a list. I've been going off speed dial for so long that I don't even bother to remember phone numbers anymore.

Kenneth, Phil and the others keep their eyes on Emmett and Bradly, both of whom are giving odd looks. And I'm surprised to find that Renzei is standing outside the door. Is he watching over me?

"… Rebecca, listen I need you to call Route Four back to the shop. Actually, call them all back. Something messed up is happening… I'm fine, just get everyone back. I'll call you as soon as I get an update." I hang up before she can protest.

"You're not going back, too?" Renzei asks.

"I'm too worried to sit on my ass and wait." I probably wouldn't be able to leave this building anyway.

Bradly leans forward. "That's incredibly brave of you babe, but…"

It's the "babe" that does it for me. "Give it a rest, Bradly. I'm not in the mood for you." That… probably had a little more bite to it than it needed to, but my nerves are still rattled.

While Bradly has that sad puppy look on his face, Emmett scoffs with sheer contempt. "Did I not tell you that you were wasting your time on a girl like her?" I stop mid pace and raise my eyebrows repentantly at him. Though Emmett seems to keep talking to Bradly, his eyes pierce right into mine. "No doubt this is the type of girl who's too busy fantasizing about fake men on TV to be bothered by real men who throw themselves at her."

I close my eyes briefly and resist the urge to shout out a 'screw you'. Figures Emmett would be one of those guys. Beer gut, receding hairline, permanent angry scowl and an ugly attitude to go with it. I'm gonna take a guess and say that no girl has dated him in… a while. Can't say I disagree, guys like him make me glad that I stayed single. I've even been bi-curious off and on in recent years for the same reason.

I straighten suddenly as the best comeback crosses my mind, and I grin smugly. "If you think he's so great, why don't you date him?" For a triumphant moment, both men look mortified, and Renzei coughs out a snort.

"Hey!" Suddenly, (Monarch) is standing in the doorway beside Renzei, looking harried. She and the others are already done outside? "Get out here. There's something you guys need to see."

My stomach starts to coil. What is happening? Renzei looks back at me for a second and holds a hand out to me, one finger twitching slightly as if beckoning. For sone reason, I don't even think about it. I just place my hand in his. Like his steady grip can keep me anchored in all this chaos.

"Do you see what I mean?!" Emmett suddenly barks as he stands, gesturing to us with such a look of contempt that it almost alarms me. "This clueless young hussy will reject a perfectly good air force man and yet she will put her trust into the hands of a convicted assassin!"

"Emmett, stop!" Bradly shouts, standing to face him.

Kenneth has no more interest, pointing to Phil and the other sergeant. "Make sure that they don't leave this room." He orders as he ushers us out of the room and back into the living room.

"Things are insane out there." I hear Juliette say as we enter, her fingers tapping furiously at her keyboard. She somehow managed to prop up several nearly transparent computer monitors onto the kitchen island like some makeshift command center… Wait, where's the countertop? … Oh, my God, did those things pop out from underneath?

"We've got several infiltrations taking place. Small ones, but they're spread out to cover a lot of ground. They're taking hostages, civilians and unarmed personnel. Armed forces are trying to do what they can, but they're out numbered. It looks like some of their own are turning on them." Juliette glances at the corner of the room.
"Looks like you were telling us the truth, buddy."

Crouched in the corner, under Lorelei's unmoving guard, is this young man, barely more than a kid with his hands bound behind his back. He couldn't be more than twenty years old! Despite his predicament, his face is set in a defiant snarl, but it's tinged with fear. As I look harder at him, he almost seems to bear a resemblance to Emmett.

"Was he the one that dropped those bombs?" I hiss in (Monarch's) ear, almost unwilling to believe it.

"One of them." She answers. "He was the only one we were able to catch for information. All his buddies left him to take the fall."

"And what information did you gather?" Kenneth prompts. I know Kenneth is a sergeant and all, but this is the first time I've ever seen him in sergeant mode. His eyes hold a sharpness to it that I've never seen before, like his already calculating battle strategies.

Duke takes the cue. "They're all members of hate groups, primarily the Proud Boys. This kid said that they have members within this base to get them in, presumably some of high standing."

I gasp, feeling those coils in my stomach tightening. Oh God. I had learned of those guys just recently. I had looked up hate groups as a possible plot point for the alien hybrid novel I'm working on. Shortly after that, Trump had told the Proud Boys to 'stand down and stand by'. Didn't make me feel better to know that a branch of those guys were in my area.

Renzei squeezes my hand briefly before going to stand with the others. Something about the way they stand at attention makes one thing unavoidably clear. The Syndicate is ready to take action.

Kenneth nods decisively as he addresses Duke. "Wolf, you and your team need to get out there and put a stop to this. How you go about it is up to you, but spare as many lives as you can. You mission objective is to end a riot and to protect innocent lives."

Duke nods. "Understood." Then he turns to put to Juliette. "Bat, you stay here and do overwatch. We are going to need you to be our eyes. Everyone else, suit up."

Before the Syndicate can make their way upstairs… a shout of alarm tears its way from my throat as strong arms curl around my neck in a tight chokehold. I fight back as much as I can, trying to jab my elbows into the torso behind me. But a serrated blade underneath my chin has me freezing with shock.

"No one is going anywhere!" Emmett's growling voice snarls into my ear.

"Dad! Dad, what're you doin'?!" The twenty year old kid yells.

The Syndicate, Kenneth, Ashley, Jonathan, the lawyers, they all freeze… Guys, help me!

Emmett's arm tightens, squeezing my windpipe and forcing a ragged choke from my mouth. "One wrong move and she dies."

I try to focus on tightening my neck muscles, pushing back against his grip and hoping that that'll keep me conscious. But I want to do more. I'm scared out of my mind but I also want to fight back with everything that I am. But the knife at my neck feels too sharp and the lack of oxygen to my brain is making it hard to think.

"What is the meaning of this, Mackinnon?" I can just make out Kenneth's demand.

"Shut up!" Emmett snarls. "We have been too complacent and too tolerant for too long! Boys kissing boys, girls kissing girls, gender confused freaks claiming no identity at all, and dumb bitches like this turning away from good men to fawn over the dropouts of society. Policemen are going to jail for doing their jobs and putting those same criminals out of their misery, and now our government is resorting to entrusting these convicts to protect us all."

Can't… breathe… With every angry proclamation, his grip around my neck only tightens and my vision begins to fade out. I can just barely perceive Kenneth and the Syndicate desperately thinking of something to do. Except for Renzei. He stands eerily calm, his face seeming to be hardened through the haze of my vision.

"I won't stand for it any long. None of us wi – Ugh!"

A strangled cry brushes against my ear. And then, just as quickly as it happened, Emmett's hold on me goes slack and releases me. I collapse to my knees, my head too foggy to stand, and I cough and gasp for breath. What just happened?

I feel gentle hands on my shoulders, and once I've blinked the spots from my vision, I see Kenneth and Juliette hovering over me with worried looks. Wind stirs the ends of Juliette's long blond hair. What? A flash of movement has me turning around just in time to see Renzei slowly approaching Emmett.

Renzei has his hand outstretched as Emmett hangs suspended in a midair current, suffocating on seemingly nothing and snarling with a look of sheer hatred as he glares at Renzei.

"You're out of your league, Mackinnon." Renzei croons.

Though his voice is calm, there's a wickedly sharp edge to it that I've never heard before and it sends a shudder down my spine. Whoa! I know I promised Renzei that I wasn't going to be afraid of him. But seeing him like this – calm, calculating and… dangerous – is making my guts coil with dread.

"I spent ten years as a trained assassin, and do you want to know the most terrifying thing about me is?" Renzei asks, drawing his face toward Emmett's. For the first time, Emmett seems truly scared. "I don't actually need a knife to kill you."

"Renzei, don't!" I plead.

I'm not feeling too great about what Emmett just did to me either, but… I can't. I can't look death in the face right now, I just can't! I don't think the kid can either, Renzei glances back at me briefly, something like remorse flashing through his eyes.

"Don't worry, I won't." He reassures me before he glares back at Emmett, right as Bradly, Phil and the other sergeant stagger into the room, looking banged up. Renzei pays them no mind as he decides on something. "But I am going to put him to sleep."

With that, Renzei closes his fist. Another strangled cry escapes from Emmett's throat as he claws at his neck, his eyes rolling back, until his body finally goes limp. Renzei drops his hand and Emmett drops to the floor with a thud and he doesn't get back up.

"What the hell did you just do?" Bradly demands, his voice wavering.

"He's not dead, he's unconscious. Now tie him up." Renzei replied before kneeling in front of me and - taking my face into his hands. "Are you okay?" He voice is soft again, if a little strained.

I breathe in a sigh to calm myself and nod my head. "… I will be."

I see Renzei breathe in a sigh of relief… And if I thought his eyes were pretty before, they do something breathtaking now. As I watch, their sharp stainless-steel glint melts into rippling pools of crystalline liquid. I can't explain it, but something about them reminds me of camping out on Priest Lake, where the water there is so crystal clear that you could see the bottom for almost a mile from the shore… I could drown in that gaze.

"Guys!" Juliette's voice snaps me out of it. Okay, Kylie, so not the time!

I turn to see that she's right back to her monitor station. "Things are getting pretty intense out there. They're starting to reconvene at Headquarters. Better get a move on."

My heart lurches. "Headquarters? Route Four does that building!"

Before Renzei follows the rest of the Syndicate, he looks me right in the eye. "Stay here, alright? Juliette and the others will keep you safe. Don't go outside until this is over, understand?"

"Yes. Now go, hurry."

Renzei nods and hurries after the rest of the Syndicate up the stairs. They don't come back down the stairs though. The way Juliette is already giving directions over her headset makes me think that they exited the building through the roof.

The next few hours are tense. Most of them I spend pacing and watching the monitors over Juliette's head. Kenneth runs correspondence with the other sergeants in his office. At one point I bring both a bottle of water. Jonathan and even Bradly keeps an eye on Emmett and his apparent son. Emmett eventually regains consciousness and begins ranting again, growling out all his hateful views to everyone in the room.

I, having heard enough from this bastard, finally walk up to him, slap him in the face and shove a rag from my cart into his mouth so that he'll finally shut up. "Welcome to the twenty-first century, dick face!" I say, using duct tape to keep it in there. As I stand, I set a gaze down onto his son, looking a strange – conflicting - mixture of disgust and pity. "Take a good look into your future, buddy. This could be you in thirty years if you're not careful."

Bradly and Jonathan shoot me a couple of pointed looks for that but I'm hardly in the mood to care right now. Instead I turn my attention back to the monitors. The way the Syndicate fights is unreal! In addition to surveillance, every member of the Syndicate wears body cams on their suits, so I can see it all like an action movie.

Duke and (Monarch) have a fire and ice power-couple dynamic in their fighting, their backs pressed together as they cover each other. Andi is evasive and acrobatic, a style that suits her smaller frame and makes her incredibly hard to pin down, and her electricity makes short work of any opponents that comes at her. Lorelei is a one-woman army, and I swear some guys are starting to look a little scared as she takes down one after another with stone covered fists and launches several into the air with pillars that shoot out of the ground with every stomp of her foot.

Renzei's fighting proves to be just as precise as it is deadly, almost fluid in motion, sometimes performing full body rotations as he throws. His blades, whether made by wind or metal, almost seem to make an auditable shink every time they zip back to him for him to throw again, and somehow, the sound only adds to his deadly precision. This is almost my exact imagining of what a modern-day ninja might look like!

Soon enough, reinforcement come to back them up, and slowly but surely, every rioter, every Proud Boy with a gun, is pushed back, detained, cuffed and driven away in police cruisers. Hostages are taken to safety; plenty are injured but no casualties so far. I hear Kenneth say something about a total base lockdown from his office. Things finally begin to quiet down.

"Hey, Bat." I hear Renzei's voice over the speakers. "Is Kylie with you at all?"

"She's right here." Juliette says, beckoning me closer.

She puts the free-standing mic on and I speak into, eyes darting between each monitor. "What's going on? Are you okay?" I finally see his masked face as he holds his body cam out in front of himself.

He smiles exuberantly. "I'm fine. Your coworkers are fine, too." He tilts the camera behind himself so that I can see them, shaken but alive. "They did get caught up in all this, but they're fine. No one got hurt. I know you were worried about them."

I half laugh in relief and mutter. "Thank God!" I can't believe he thought to let me know that. That's… sweet.

"I'll make sure they get back to the shop safely." He offers.

"Thank you." I say. "Just make sure you guys get back home safely too, okay?" Did I say 'home'? Kind of a relative term for it, but I'll definitely feel better when they get back… Holy cow! I just realized that if the base is on lockdown for the evening, I'm probably going to be spending the night here!

"We will." Renzei reassures me. "Things are finally starting to settle down out here. We'll see you soon."

His face disappears as he fastens the body cam back onto his suit, and I straighten up and breathe the biggest sigh of relief that I've ever breathed… They're okay… The Syndicate is okay… We're okay… I head to the door, step out into the foyer and grab my phone. I better call Rebecca. And I should probably call my parents and let them know that I'm okay. I'm tempted to call Veronica about this, too. She will be so jealous!

I stop short as I step outside. There, silhouetted in the fading sunlight, is a tall man standing there with his hand on his hips as if he had been waiting for me. If it had not been for the pictures inside, I would not have recognized him at all.

"…Zeke?" I whisper, hardly believing it. I thought he had died! Is this a ghost? But he looks so solid.

He smiles at the faint sound of his own name, broad and kind and somehow… familiar, like he's known me all along. "… I trust you to look after my family for me, Kylie." He says. And then just like that, he's gone. A flash a movement, a blink of the eye, and it's like he was never even there. All that's left is the weight of his words as they echo in my head.

Duke's POV

It's already nearly dusk by the time we finally head back to the housing unit. The entire base is now on full lockdown until every rioter and inside accomplice is wrangled in. The on-site police station is packed nearly to compacity, and some housing dorms and other official buildings are having to accommodate for the civilians that were on base. And it doesn't help much that some rioters may have started posing as civilians to slip through the radar when the tide started to turn against them.

Eventually Kenneth had Juliette call us back to the housing unit and to leave the stragglers to the armed forces. The Syndicate is certainly exhausted after all that… although, secretly, I think it did the team some good to see some action. Andi and Renzei are in particularly high spirits.

"Man, did you see that one guy's jaw connect with the concrete?!" Renzei exclaims.

Andi practically skips as she replies. "He's gonna be eating out of a sippy cup for a month!"

I keep my gaze forward in order to hide my grin. After such a stressful year of trials and sentencings, having to deal with a riot out of nowhere seems to have helped everyone relieve some pent-up frustrations. There are most certainly worse outlets.

A light rain has begun drizzling down by the time we walk up our driveway, just in time to see Emmett Mackinnon being shoved into a police cruiser. He's still trying to be belligerent despite having… a neon yellow washrag hanging from his mouth with duct tape holding it in place. I suppose Kylie got her revenge for being put in a chokehold earlier.

The housekeeper in question, wearing a cold weather coat with her hood up, is standing outside as well, talking To Bradly, who unfortunately has been handcuffed. Earlier today, (Monarch) had deduced through telepathy and empathy that if Bradly wasn't directly involved with Renzei getting shoved out of that helicopter, then he was probably a complacent accessory to it. Looks like she was right.

For what it's worth, Bradly himself seems to be willingly cooperative as Jonathan and another police officer flank him. The Syndicate hangs back. I'm not sure what he says to her, but we can just make out Kylie's response to it.

"Alright, I'll admit that you playing with the kids was cute, but… I'm just not ready to be someone's wife or mother right now. I'm still trying to figure what to be for myself so that I don't have to scrub toilets for the rest of my life. The last thing I want to deal with right now is someone that I just don't have feeling for trying to change my mind." Oh, the poor guy looks about as dejected as ever. But Kylie makes a good argument, and he's left with nothing to do but nod in understanding.

Kylie gives his arm a comforting squeeze before continuing. "Find someone else. And for your own good, cut your ties with Emmett before he drags you down a pit that can't get out of. I'm sure Jonathan will support you on that."

"Absolutely." Jonathan confirms.

The officer announces that it's time for them to go, and they load Bradly and Jonathan to another cruiser. As the squadron drives away, I take notice of how Kylie tilts her head back so that the rain lightly patters against her face, her shoulders relaxing, as if the sensation can wash her troubled mind clean… Hmm. She's an interesting woman. (Monarch) slips her hand into mine and when I look at her, I can tell that she's thinking the same thing.

Renzei's the first to approach her, grabbing her attention with a touch on her wrist. "Hey."

"Hey!" For a split second it looked as though Kylie was about to hug him, but she seems to think better of it. "Guys, you're back. Are you all okay? Is anyone hurt at all?" Her sudden show of concern surprises a small ripple of laughter through us.

"We're fine, Kylie. Thanks for waiting for us." I say. "You handled that well, by the way."

She's usually so terse. Until today, I don't think any of us would've thought that she can actually be kind when she wants to be. Before I can think too long on that, Kylie places her hands onto her hips and her eyes rove up and down the team as we stand there in our full Syndicate garb.

"Yeah, I know." I say, splaying my hand out as she takes it all in. "Extra."

"I'll say." She quips. I notice that her voice sounds a little different, like she has to put just a little more force behind it to give it it's normal tonality. And then she points. "Why do ya'll still wear the masks? It's not like nobody knows who you guys are or nothing."

I'm surprisingly caught off guard by that, and I daresay that I'm not the only one. I remove my mask, the stylized face of a wolf, feeling a little sheepish as I clear my throat. "Our official statement is that it's for practical purposes. Our earpieces are in these things after all."

When Kylie raises her eyebrows expectantly, (Monarch) gives the other half of that explanation. "Truth be told, I think it's like a last defense mechanism for us." She gazes down at her own mask, shaped like butterfly wings, and I touch the small of her back, letting her know that I understand. All too well. "People may know who we are now, but it… feels like we can still hide our fears and uncertainty behind these things, at least." She continues. "I know how that probably sounds, but we really haven't got much else to protect us right now."

It's true. We all knew the risks when we started fighting against Optimus, eventually defeating and exposing them. For two years we were all content to live out our lives as normally as possible. But now that's been uprooted and having to adjust to our new livelihoods has been difficult.

Kylie must see this, and she nods. "Yeah, I can get that." She still cocks her head curiously. "You know, it's one thing to know that you wear those getups in theory, it's another thing to actually see it – Whoa! Hello, Renzei, hold up. I think you got a tear there."

"Do I?" Renzei had begun heading inside while we were talking. But now he twists around and paws at his rear end, looking for a tear that is absolutely not there.

"No, no, looking good." Kylie admits casually.

I can feel my mouth hanging open as the ladies start cracking up behind me. I can't believe she just did that!

Renzei smirks knowingly as he realizes that he's been had. "Kylie," He grins. "I am not a modest man." And just to prove his point, he continues walking toward our housing unit, adding a little extra swagger to his step.

"Apparently." Kylie quips as she watches him go.

I think I hear her mutter something about a 'butt like a peach emoji', and I shake my head. Good grief. Like Renzei's and Andi's antics really need an enabler.

Kylie coughs once before jerking her head toward the front door. "Let's head inside. Kenneth is waiting. Besides, it's starting to come down heavy out here."

"No kidding." Andi whines. "It was sunny all morning. I thought things were finally starting to warm up."

"Yeah, that's Spokane weather for you." Kylie responds as we tread inside. "We actually have a saying out here: If you want the weather to change, just wait fifteen minutes."

Just as we're standing in the foyer, shaking rain off ourselves, Kenneth comes out to meet us and congratulates us on a mission well done. When I ask him if Emmett had caused anymore trouble while we were gone, Kylie puts in that he's likely to have a handprint in his mugshot as she turns away to hang up her coat.

"Mackinnon is looking at a court marshal. Evidently, he played a bigger role in setting up this terrorist attack. As for Daniels… well, ideally, I'd like to let him off with a slap on the wrist, but his complacency in all this will complicate things for him. But we'll have to worry about that later. Right now, I believe that you all have more than earned an evening of rest… Renzei, what are you doing?"

All of us have had our phones out while we're still in the foyer, I looking out for emails from the new personal assistant that I had to hire, Andi checking on her social media feeds, (Monarch) possibly checking for text messages from her parents. Renzei, on the other hand is staring at his phone, almost despondently, but he snaps out of it now that he's drawn attention to himself.

"You guys won't approve." He says simply.

Uh-oh. We all know that tone.

Andi nudges him with her shoulder. "Tell us."

Renzei hesitates for a second, but then he gets it out. "Googling the ex." He admits. "After what just happen today, I thought that I could try to call him, leave a voicemail to tell him what happened and let him know I'm okay. Then I wondered if he'd care anymore. Then when I searched him, I found this article of him as the NBA's newest rising star… with a lovely new girlfriend on his arm."

I blink and snatch the phone from him. Sure enough, there's Michael, distinctive dreadlocks and all, walking through a crowd of paparazzi with a tall blond woman at his side, some model according to the article.

I breathe in though my teeth, thoroughly unimpressed with the man at this point. "Renzei, I'm so sorry."

Renzei takes his phone back, flipping to his home screen before turning it off and clutching it in his hand. "I know." He says, blinking against tears. "I know it's stupid to still feel like this after he's ghosted all this time, but… it just feels like I may as well have never existed to him at all."

I look back at (Monarch) and the other's, hoping that they'll have something to say. But it looks like that they're just as lost as I am. How many more hits can Renzei possibly take right now?

Suddenly, Kylie pipes up, coughing slightly again. "You know, it might not be any of my business, but I don't think it's stupid at all." She says. "Just remember, he was the one who walked away from everything that you guys had. If anyone is going to regret it later, it's going to be him."

Renzei scoffs ruefully as he turns to face her. "Yeah well, as lovely as that thought is, it doesn't – Jesus, Kylie!"

Renzei immediately drops his phone on the table and he's hands dart out to gently skim the now exposed skin of her neck. Without the hood of her coat there to hide it, dark bruising can be seen plain as day around her neck. Right where Emmett had her in that chokehold.

Kylie huffs out a half laugh. "I hadn't thought to look at it yet." She admits. "Is it bad?"

Renzei grimace's. "Technically, bruises only look worse than they really are, because the blood is spread out, but… those are pretty deep."

I step forward and tap my knuckles against Renzei's shoulder, prompting him to step aside and let me have a look. He wasn't joking. Some of those bruises are nearly black. "I thought your voice was sounding a little horse." I say softly. "Does it hurt to shallow?"

Her throat works as she tries it. "Uh… Sore, but not terrible." She claims.

I nod. "Alright, tilt you chin up."

She gives me a quizzical look but does so. As soon as her neck is fully revealed, I carefully touch my fingertips to the slightly hot skin. Kylie lets out a surprised gasp as a thin sheen of frost and ice coalesces across her throat. For a second, I thought she was going to pull away, but she doesn't. Just stares at me, gears turning behind her eyes.

"There." I say, pulling my hands away. "That should help with the swelling, at least."

"Guys." Kylie bursts, her hands going up. There's a certain commanding tone in her voice that stops all of us. She places her hands on her hips and gives us all an expectant look. "I think you all owe me some explanations."

I recover quickly and nod. None of us had forgotten that Kylie, apparently, was the one person in existence who had no idea that the Syndicate was super-powered. Frankly, I think Kylie may owe us some explanations as well.

"Come on." Kenneth speaks up, gesturing to the door. "Let's head inside. We ought to get you set up for the night anyway, hon. You all go on in, I'll sign you in."

(Monarch) takes hold of my forearm before I can follow the others. "Give us a moment please? We'll catch up."

I'm about to ask why, until I can feel it. Her end of our empathy bond is feeling apprehensive and understanding washes over me. There's something she needs to talk with me about.

The other's go inside, except for Kenneth, still required to watch over us. As soon as they're gone, I turn to (Monarch), seeing the troubled look on her face. I squeeze her hands.

"(Monarch), babe, what is it."

She lifts up her phone for me to see. "… My parents texted." I blink. Oh! We haven't heard from them in a while. "They said they heard about the riot on the news today. They're wondering if I'm okay, and… they want to know if I'd willing to see them again."

"Well, that's good news, right?" I ask, still a little perplexed by her unease.

She swallows. "I don't know. Last time we spoke didn't go over too well." I remember that. I wasn't there when it happened, but it was one of the few times I had ever seen her openly weep. She takes a deep breath. "Duke, they tried to get me to break off our engagement."

My eyes fly wide open now, no doubt shock plain across my face. I hadn't known that.

She squeezes my hands tighter. "I told them no. Absolutely not. There was no way I could possibly turn away from you. You mean too much to me and the fact that they would suggest that made me furious with them. I told them not to talk to me again. But now that they have, I don't know what to think."

"Hey, hey, hey." She's crying heavily now, and I pull her into my arms, putting a kiss to her forehead. She holds onto me, weeping into my chest. Kenneth doesn't say anything, just letting us sort this out. "(Monarch), I love you. More than anything. You and the Syndicate are the only ones I can truly call family anymore, and I'm not giving up on that. You and I have never been the type of couple that gives up. Maybe we can eventually get your parents to see that, but if they can't, then… Then that will be their problem."

She lifts her face to look at me, tears still staining her cheeks, and I touch me forehead to hers, tapping into out bond. "Maybe I'm being selfish, but… I can't lose you."

She kisses me tenderly. "You won't. I promise."

We agree to talk more on the matter later tonight, when we're in our own room, and we head inside with Kenneth, the two of us hand-in-hand. We enter the room just in time to see Renzei flipping liquor bottles around behind the kitchen island, eliciting a very impressed look out of Kylie. "Wow!" She chimes as Renzei begins pouring the finished cocktail into a glass.

"Right?" Lorelei nods. "And who said that he had no other employable talents?"

"I think that was you, Lorelei." Renzei points out. Kylie chuckles a little as Renzei places the glass in front of her, the liquid inside being a deep burgundy color. After she takes a sip and hums happily, he leans in. "So, I guess the only prudent question to ask right now is… How? How did you not know we were super-powered?"

"Alright, look." Kylie begins, holding up her hand. "Little confession to make, I did read your guy's files, but I mostly skimmed over the majority. I only paid attention to the important stuff; my job description, what you guys were convicted of, that sort of thing." She shrugs. "Hindsight, not my brightest idea."

"I know for a fact that our files were a great deal more detailed than that." I speak up as we approach. I fix Kylie with an assessing stare, trying to figure out how an otherwise seemingly bright woman would've missed this. "There had to have been a few things that might've clued you in."

"Uh… Sure. But I guess they were easy enough to explain away." She admits. "When I saw the word telekinesis, I thought it was some kind of technology you guys stole from Optimus to use against them. Or when I saw the word pyrokinesis, I thought it was typo for pyrotechnics. Now that I think about it, there was a lot of kinesises."

(Monarch) and I exchange a knowing look. Okay, so she wasn't… totally oblivious. But it's still strange. We had used our powers in front of her often enough, but perhaps we were too subtle about it? And we have noticed Kylie being a bit of a busybody. Maybe she was just always distracted.

She must see the looks on our faces, and she shrugs. "Keep in mind guys, Spokane County is mostly rural. I grew up in Nine Mile, the base is here in Airway Heights, and I live out in Cheney. A lot of small towns, and a lot of small minds. Maybe even more so since Trump was in office. The Syndicate versus Optimus was going on in San Francisco, I'm not sure anyone up here would've paid it much mind. I think people were more interested in that explosion in Lebonon than in yet another organized human trafficking ring, even if it was by Optimus… Doesn't really say good things about humanity, does it?"

No, it does not. Before I can say so, Kenneth places a hand on Kylie's shoulder and flatly says. "Let's not mention this to your parents."

"Ha! Yeah, no shit!" Kylie quips. "After things quieted down today, I called my parents to let them know what was going on and that I was okay, but I couldn't bring myself to admit that I didn't know about the super-powered stuff."

"Didn't they know?" Andi asks, eyes darting to Kenneth. Oh, that's right! Isn't Kenneth a friend of Kylie's father?

"Yeah, they did." Kylie answers, sounding exasperated. "Another reason why I couldn't tell them. Goodness knows, my dad loves to lecture me. But in my defense, he also loves to remind me that the things that I love to read about are not real." The way she says that makes it sound like those were more than reminders.

"Oh, now Kylie." Kenneth croons. "I know it couldn't have been easy having to suddenly be the middle child."

"Being a middle child was fine, at first." Kylie counters. "At least then the attention was off of me for a while and I was actually allowed to do more on my own. It wasn't until I started wanting more privileges that it became a problem." (Monarch) and I exchange another look, our interests piqued. "What?"

"Starting to learn a little bit about you, Kye." (Monarch) answers, then she frowns. "I just realized that we don't know much about you at all."

"I'm not that interesting." Kylie says a little too quickly. I might not be the empath, but I can practically see her walls going up. Did we just hit a nerve?

"You know, Kylie, she has a point." Renzei pipes up as he begins pouring brinks for the rest of the team, sliding a shot of clean vodka for me. "We more or less told you a lot ourselves."

"Well, that's just the point." Kylie interrupts. "I don't feel right about complaining about my life after all you guys had to say this afternoon. Mine was a very sheltered life."

"Oh, c'mon." Renzei returns easily, rolling his eyes a little. "We all have our cross to bear."

"Oh, sure." Kylie smirks humorlessly. "My problems have always been so much smaller than everyone else's... Always." Her voice suddenly gets quieter. "I didn't always realize that growing up, but reality's a bitch like that. And it was always pretty easy for everyone to roll their eyes and tell me to get over it." We watch her as she continues, her eyes taking on a far-away look as she runs a hand across the length of the pristine French braid that she always wears. Whatever she's thinking about, it clearly troubles her.

"…Even when they did tell me that they would help me out or do as I asked, more often than not I knew that they really wouldn't. They'd just put me on the backburner and then forget about me because something more important always came up… Like when I was sixteen and wanted to earn my driver's license. Up in Nine Mile, if you don't have a driver's license, you don't have a social life. Actually getting me behind the wheel was sparce at best - for several reason, but my parents were also preoccupied with fostering at the time too."

"Or especially when I wanted to try for collage one year. I was the only one of my siblings still living at home, and my parents had stopped fostering by then, so I figured they'd have enough time for me then." She shakes her head at the memory. "Apparently not. They just started going on date nights again, sometimes going out, other times staying in, while I… floundered, and eventually had to call it quits."

"… Not going to lie, that one still really bugs me." She admits. She's still keeping it together, but she sighs deeply. "It just became easier to stop begging for help and start taking care of things myself. At the very least, I knew that I would actually try to do something, even when there wasn't a whole lot I was able to do."

She knocks back the rest of her drink in one go, and a brief silence fall over us. "…Well that explains it." I mutter. Or at least I mean to mutter it, but Kylie has keen ears when she chooses to use them.

She narrows her eyes at me. "Explains what?"

I hold my hands up before she can jump to any conclusions. "I'm not trying to imply anything, don't worry. But you know, Kylie, we've noticed that you can be… stubbornly independent. You snapped at me just last week when I offered you to help unload boxed from your closet."

"I just don't like it when people try to help me when I don't ask for it." She clarifies, sternly. "That, and I can do my own damn job. Honestly, it's not even that hard."

"Still, it's pretty easy to see why you'd rather do it yourself." (Monarch) points out. "It's the best way to avoid getting disappointed all the time."

Kylie then gives us a look that just says stop, clearly indicating that she's done with the topic. "I think we can change the subject now. Like I said, I'm not that interesting." Alright, I think that this is something that's going to take some time.

"I completely disagree, young lady." Kenneth announces with a grin, turning to us as he gestures to her. "You oughta see some of her drawings. She's made at least a dozen of those alien characters by now, I think."

"Kenneth." Kylie pleaded.

But it's too late now. "Oh, she draws?" Andi prodded.

"She draws, she writes, she crafts. Her parents have said that she was pretty decent at theater and choir in high school, and word from some of her coworkers is that she sings pretty well, too."

"KENNETH!" By now, poor Kylie is as red as a tomato. And the look on her face… The whole team bust out into helpless laughter as she points a damning figure at Kenneth. "Just you wait, old man!"

I hold my stomach as the laughter finally dies down. I'd forgotten how it felt to laugh like that. Kylie is still pretty red in the face, but she's smiling despite herself. "Are we done?" She croaks.

"Well, actually." Juliette, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, finally speaks up. And she looks pensive. "If you're a crafter, do you think you can fix these up. They got smashed in the explosion." She pushes three picture frames toward Kylie. Zeke's pictures. My heart sinks, and the room goes quiet for an instance.

"Here, let me have a look." Kylie says, immediately making a grab for them, as if she's already aware of their significance. As she carefully rummages through broken glass she sighs, sliding each picture from their ruined frames. "Well, good news is that the pictures and letter are fine. Just a few nicks, but nothing major. You could just buy new frames. Wait, couldn't you?"

"Not immediately." Juliette answers. "We're not allowed out of this building without supervision yet, unless we're on a mission. And even then we're still on watch, as you just saw today. And besides that, What if there's another attack?"

"Kylie, those pictures are all we have left of him anymore." I say. "Losing Zeke was… a blow." It might have just as well been the one thing none of us have truly recovered from.

"I understand." Kylie says, taking a moment to think… And maybe I'm just imagining it, but something about the way she looks at Zeke's portrait makes it seem like she knows more about them then she is choosing to say.

"The only thing I can come up with is casting them in resin, but that has pros and cons." She says. "On the one hand it would make these virtually indestructible. But it would take time to fine the right sized mold, or else jury-rig one. And also, it be a very permanent solution. Once those pictures are in there, there's no getting them out."

"You've done this before?" Andi asks.

"With pictures, no." Kylie admits. "But I have dabbled in resin recently. I could look up other stuff, though, and…" She paws at her back pockets before snapping her fingers with realization. "Except my phone is out in the foyer, and you guys have no internet in this building. Hey wait a mintute, how…" She points at Juliette then at the countertop, obviously indicating the secret compartment underneath that holds her equipment. "How'd you get this shit to work?"

Juliette grins. "That, I'm afraid, is a secret. And anyway, per the sentencing agreement, I'm only allowed to use my equipment under very strict guidelines."

Not really an answer, but Kylie seems to accept it anyways, in her own way. "Oh, whatever. You guys need a radio and some CD's in here."

"We do have a DVD player hooked up to the TV, you know." Andi quips. "You could just use that if it gets too quiet around here."

"Well, I don't know who pays the bills in this building." Kylie retorts. "Anyway, I'll figure something out for these guys, okay?"

"You know, Kye." Renzei leans on his elbows. "Kenneth just said that you write and draw. You should bring in some of your stuff. I'd like see."

"Careful." Kylie warns. "You might get more than what you ask for with me." Ah-ha! I believe we'll have ask her about that later on.

As if reading my thoughts, which she probably did, (Monarch) chimes in. "Renzei is kind of a bookworm, Kye. If anyone's going to listen to you ramble on about your writing, it'll be him."

"My work is really personal." Kylie whines nervously.

"I can give nice criticism." Renzei claims. "Hey, I'll tell you what: if you show me your art I'll show you my poetry."

Kylie lifts her brows at this. "Poetry huh?" She eyes him curiously before a surprisingly bright smile pulls on her lips. "Alright deal."

Before the back and forth can continue, Lorelei clears her throat and speaks up. "Not to be a buzzkill, but I think now might be a good time to see whether or not Kylie will continue working with us after what happened today."

I straighten upon hearing that. "I hadn't though about that, but she right. And I believe that we do owe you an apology, Kylie." I say. "We all knew the risks involved with bringing a civilian into our midst, and we took all necessary precautions to ensure your safety. But even so, today you lived through an explosion, found out that the people you were working for was super-powered and then you were put into a chokehold and held at knifepoint. None of that should ever have been allowed. Goodness knows how Emmett even had that knife to begin with."

"Well, it wasn't his." Kylie points out. "When we left Emmett in the office with the other sergeants, he was unarmed but he was still pretty damn good with his fists. He had plucked that knife right off of Phil after he had knocked everyone unconscious." We blink at her. It's a little thing, but something that the rest of us had overlooked.

She continues. "Big superpowered bombshell notwithstanding, you'd be surprised what the housekeepers do know about you. Normally, I don't pay attention to what's being said around me, but my senses were kinda put on high alert today."

I nod in understanding. That's right, things are often said around those who are overlooked. An open ear like could be useful if – No, Duke! Don't even entertain that thought. She's already been through enough.

"That being said," I continue, trying to ignore the dejected look on Renzei's face. "There's nothing saying that you have to continue working with us if you'd rather not. We can get by without…"

She cuts me off. "I'm not going anywhere."

She says it with such finality that it takes me off guard, but I recover quickly. "Are you sure about that? I know you're not particularly eager to get back onto the routes, but still." She has mentioned that a couple times.

"I'm not." Kylie confirms. "Trust me, if you were ever stuck in a van with Brian Babbles, Terry Talks-o-Lot, and one of the Barlow Boys at once, you'd understand why."

"No clever nicknames for the Barlow Boys?" Renzei chuckles.

"They don't need them." Kylie says flatly. "They're like the Dukes of Hazzard, they're in a class of half-assed antic all their own." And we're laughing again. She's so… upfront. Kylie goes on, her voice taking on a more serious tone. "And, yeah, I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been totally people-friendly lately. It's like what I was telling Bradly earlier, I eventually have to figure out what to do with myself, and ideally, I would love to make a total career change. I'm tired of listening to the guy in the driver seat commenting on gas prices."

"Mm, so engaging." Renzei quips. Let it be known now that Renzei isn't particularly fond of small talk either.

"Right." Kylie goes on. "People think I'm just difficult, but… ironically, that just makes it more lonely on my end."

… Loneliness. (Monarch) had said that she could sense that emanating off of Kylie that first day she started working for us. And every member of the Syndicate has too much experience with it. And maybe it's just the way she seems to be thinking as she taps her finger, or glances over at Kenneth, but maybe she's starting to realize that, too.

"Moreover, guys if there's anything I've observed today, it's that this is a cause that I can really get behind until then." She says it softly, but the weight of it sinks in deep and heavy as she reaches out to squeeze Renzei's hand but looks over at all of us. "I think the Syndicate really does deserve second chances. Who knows, maybe it's the kind of redemption story that people really need to hear right now, and I want to be apart it."

I feel breath swell into my chest on hearing that, and it surprises me. I didn't think that would hit me so hard. Ever since the trials, it's been hard getting anyone to see my team for the good people that I know them to be. Coming to Spokane County gave us a bit of respite, but it hasn't changed anything. And now one woman, one civilian, is showing us the acceptance that no one else has since. It's a little thing really, and certainly doesn't change our situation… but it certainly does help.

"However." Kylie holds up a finger and points to her bruise blackened neck. "This needs to be avoided in the future."

I huff and shake my head slightly, regaining my composure. "Agreed. The question is how."

"We could try to teach her some self-defense." (Monarch) suggests. "Like you did with me when I first joined the team. That way, she can fight someone off if she has to."

Kylie perks up at this. "Ooh, that sounds like fun. I always wanted to learn some self-defense. Maybe…" She looks shy for a second. "Maybe I could start sticking around after my shifts for that? If you wouldn't mind, that is."

Renzei gives her a sly look. "Kylie Rae, are you asking to hang out with us after work?"

Kylie gives him a dry look in response. "… I would like to spend time with people whose company I might actually enjoy, yes – Oh, jeez!" She startles slightly when Andi embraces her from behind, throwing her arms around her neck.

"We can totally do that right now." Andi grins. "I say we have a sleepover in my room, since the living room's still kinda trashed anyway. Junk food, cocktails, cheesy chick-flicks. Juliette, you in?"

"I'm in."

"Renzei, bring the cocktails?"

Renzei raises his hands in mock surrender, despite to smile pulling on his lips. (There's another little shame about our sentencings: I think Renzei was really enjoying his bartending job in New York.) "Alright. So long as the cheesy chick-flick has a little something steamy to offer, I'm in."

Andi looks out to the rest of us. "How 'bout it guys?"

"I am in for a shower and a long night's rest." Lorelei groans, smiling groggily.

"I say you've earned it." Kenneth quips. "There might not be a whole lot to do tomorrow while all this is sorted out anyway, so rest up while you can."

"Duke and I have other plan for the night anyway." (Monarch) says, loosely wrapping her arms around my waist. I know she's anxious to talk about her parents, and when she leans her head against my shoulder, I take the opportunity to drop a kiss to her hair and to tap into our empathy bond "We'll get through this." I already know that we will, but somehow… it feels just little more within our reach.

Just before we go our separate ways for the evening, Renzei catches Kenneth, (Monarch) and I, an ice bucket of cocktail goods in one hand and that poetry journal he was looking for in the other. "I'm going to talk to Kylie a little more about her Middle Child Syndrome. She seemed a little guarded when she was telling us about it, but I think I might have a family story that'll get her to trust us a little more."

"Okay, sure, but… why?" (Monarch) asks, eyebrows raised curiously.

Renzei shrugs. "I don't want her thinking that just because her life wasn't really all that bad compared to ours that she has to hide it from us and tough it out on her own. If she's choosing to support us then we should be ready to do the same for her when she needs it, don't you think?"

We watch him go upstairs to join the others for a moment before (Monarch) tugs at my sleeve. "Should we be worried? I don't want to get ahead of the plot or anything, but… those two were touching hands an awful lot today, and Renzei is still getting over a breakup."

"No, I noticed it too." But I shrug. "But I think it might too early to tell. Renzei was pretty shaken up earlier today and Kylie was being sympathetic. And besides that, Renzei's always been self-aware of his own mental health."

Though truth be told, I can't really deny the little things we saw earlier today when we brought Renzei home this morning. The way Kylie had gazed at him, as if fully taking him in for the first time. Or when they were in the kitchen together. Renzei confided to her and she comforted him. Lorelei had told us that she was actually quite impressed with her for that. The three of us exchange knowing glances for a moment before Kenneth sighs, coming to an easy conclusion.

"Well, I say that we simply keep an eye them." Kenneth concludes. "If it turns out to be nothing, then it's nothing. But if it does turn into something later on, then we can support them anyway we can."

Heh, it's strange really. I've hardly ever considered myself a hopeless romantic - as eager as I am to marry the love of my own life, of course – but… Renzei and Kylie? I can almost see the potential there.

Author/Reader's POV – Epilogue

You learn things when you hang out with a bunch of super-powered convicts. Today I learned that using my plus-size body weight is really useful in a fight… I also learned that Renzei Feng apparently has a spine made out of rubber. There's just no other way that the human body can bend that way.

A couple of weeks have gone by since the big riot, and the Syndicate has since resumed their training sessions with the troops, periodically bringing me along so that I can learn to defend myself. What's interesting is that the guys are clearly refraining from using their powers against the airmen, but… I could swear that after what happened three weeks ago, the Syndicate is making their point patently clear. And I think the airmen are just a little scared.

Duke, having body slammed his fifth opponent, breaks away with (Monarch) and Kenneth to take up an interview with the handful of reporters who were allowed in the survival gym today. The riot was big news for this town, perhaps the biggest in its most recent history, and the Syndicate is taking the opportunity to gain and maintain public support.

Lorelei, Renzei and even Juliette are engaged in sparring matches of their own while Andi and I take a ten-minute breather off to the side. I have my phone out, and she's giving me critiques on an anti-virgin-shaming meme that I've been working on. Not really into memes myself, but this is something that has been on my mind for a while.

Ever since I finally told Bradly off, some of his oldest friends from his high school football and cheerleading teams decided to find me on Facebook and let me know what a dumb virgin I was and how I wouldn't find anyone better than him, or that I could've at least given the guy a consolation prize, shit like that. How they even found out that I'm a virgin, I have no idea, but Kenneth had a heyday over it. And I think my father is fixing for a lawsuit. Bradly swears that he had nothing to with it.

"Hey, whatcha looking at?" Renzei appears out of nowhere while I'm still distracted and startles the heck out of me.

Hide phone! Hide Phone! "Nothing."

Renzei grins, cocking a shaped eyebrow at me. "Really? You seem pretty eager to hide it from me for it to be nothing." I glare. I should know by now this guy can't resist the urge to tease.

He makes a grab for my phone, but I quickly rise to my feet and clasp both hands behind my back, even though it leaves me pinned against the wall. And Renzei knows it too, as he cages me in with a muscular arm on either side of me. But he doesn't make a move to touch me though, and his mischievous grin turns into something softer and wry, those beautiful silver eyes shining. "You know you don't have to hide things from me. I won't judge."

I try to suppress a rueful smirk and ultimately fail. The thing is… I know I can. That first time I had spent the night over at the Syndicate's place, Renzei had caught me alone and had told me a story about the oldest of his three younger sisters, the middle child of his family.

She had always been the quietest and most responsible of all his siblings, he had told me, and nobody in the family had really noticed anything amiss until the day she had gotten into trouble for beating the shit out of some guy at school. But, of course, the principle had failed to mention that the boy had been repeatedly snapping at her bra strap until it finally came undone, and that the principle and teachers had simply told her to ignore it.

Renzei and his brother were pissed, but their parents were livid. They made it perfectly clear that they would not allow punishments to be directed to her, threatened the boy that they would press sexual harassments charges if he kept at it, and posted about the incident on the school board. Suffice to say that that principle lost his job.

When they finally got his sister to talk about why she hadn't said anything about it earlier, however, it had been… brutal. Apparently, the girl decided that she was done with staying quiet and had laid it out flat for them. It was a wake-up call, Renzei had said, and he and his brother had quit with their rebellious phase and started being a bit more responsible so that more focus would be put toward her.

Renzei had told me that he didn't think that my family was malicious in sidelining me as much as they were merely complacent – something that I have to remind myself a lot of – and that he wanted to let me know that he and the Syndicate would never expect me to keep quiet about my problems, even if they are seemingly smaller than everyone else's. It was a small gesture, sure, but… somehow it made me feel validated.

I open my mouth, about ready to answer, when Kenneth's voice echoes across the gym. "Feng, Kylie, get over here."

Kenneth still stands with the assembled reporters, and Renzei and I duly stride over. With me being the only civilian allowed to work directly with the Syndicate, the guys thought that my perspective may lend for some extra reassurance. I'm not sure how much my word counts for, but I meant what I said. I want to do my part for the team.

Thank goodness, these reporters are not as impatient as the movies always make them out to be, in this instance anyway. As soon as Kenneth gives them the go ahead, they begin to calmly ask their questions.

"Miss Gonzalez, how was it that you came to work for the Syndicate?"

"Technically, I work for the government, if only marginally." I clarify. "Anyway, Kenneth is an old friend of my father's. They were both on deployment for a time and seeing as how I happen to work on the base, I was Kenneth's first choice when looking for a housekeeper."

"Have you ever felt afraid of the Syndicate at all?"

"Not even once, before or after I knew anything about them being super-powered." I say firmly, glad that my voice is as clear and as sure as I need it to be. If this is all I can do right now, I want to make sure I get my point across. "Let me put it to you like this: my department offers job opportunities to people who are mentally or physically disabled, and I would personally trust these guys with some of my most severely handicapped co-workers."

"I actually think some of her co-workers are more afraid of her than of us." Renzei speaks up from behind me, snickering just a little. "Just one death glare from this woman has that one Barlow boy cowering." Some of the reporters actually laugh a little at this, and I shoot a playful glare at Renzei.

"Miss Gonzalez, is there any particular reason that you are training with the Syndicate at all today?"

"Mostly for self defense reasons." I shrug. "When the riot was first getting underway, one of the main co-conspirators, Emmett Mackinnon, happened to be in the Syndicate's housing unit under interrogation for an incident involving Renzei getting shoved out of a helicopter earlier that day. When the housing unit was attacked and everyone was scrambling to figure out what to do, Emmett had gotten out of the office and held me hostage for a short time." I'm almost glad that the bruises on my neck are gone now. "The Syndicate was able to save me, but even so, it was scary. (Monarch) had suggested bringing me here to learn how to defend myself, if I ever had to again."

At this, Duke and (Monarch) step up. "It seemed prudent with Kylie being the only civilian among us." Duke says. "The Syndicate's goal has never been to endanger any civilians, not when we were going against Optimus and certainly not now. The incident with Emmett was a lapse in judgment on our part, and this is our way of rectifying that."

Unexpectedly, Renzei throws an arm over my shoulders and squeezes them with an air of comradery. I nearly blush. There are cameras being pointed at us and he's… touching me. "This girl is proving to be a quick learner, too." He says, before giving me a challenging look. "You know what, what do you say to a little one on one? Show these people what you got."

"That's sounds like a great idea." Kenneth agrees.

I blink at that. "… Really? We're gonna kick that off with the Knife Nut?"

"Gotta problem with me?" Renzei asks, though he doesn't seem to be threatening about it. Not that I think that he would be. I'm just suddenly remembering how deadly this guy can be.

"Dude, you're kinda sketchy!"

And just like that, Duke and the rest of the Syndicate suddenly burst into startled laughter. And I think I spotted Lorelei spitting out the water she had been drinking. Renzei shoots them a narrowed-eyed grin. He's trying to be all offended about it, but it's obviously tinged with amusement despite himself.

"And you guys find that funny?"

Evelyn responds in between laughs. "Renzei, I'm sorry, you know we love you, but I think 'sketchy' is the best of you."

"She has you PEGGED, Renzei!" Andi wheezes.

Kenneth clears his throat. "Shall we proceed? Get into your positions."

Well, I guess it's decided. I walk closer toward the middle of the gym floor and get into what I think is a good preparation stance and wait for Renzei to join me, but he just eyes me curiously. A mischievous smirk suddenly crosses his lips and, much to my surprise, he strips his jacket and T-shirt off and tosses them aside. And I am left unable to do anything but blink and stare. Uh… whoa!

He really could be an underwear model if he wanted to be. He's chiseled, toned and totally hairless… and I don't think that's weird… And I can't stop starring! And Renzei is wearing a rather infuriating smirk that says he knows exactly what I am thinking!

"So you'll call me sketchy, but you'll still gawk at me while I'm shirtless."

"Dude, not fair!" I bark indignantly. "You know I have my weaknesses!" I am only a human woman for Christ's' sake! I am not made of stone. I have to look at that!

Renzei grins smugly as he begins to saunter over to me. "Don't hold back on me, Angel Face."

"WHAT did you just call me!"

"Oh, my God!" Renzei damn near falls over laughing. "Your voice just jumped like two octaves!"

"Carful Renzei." Duke cautions, though an amused smirk still ghosts over his lips. "She slapped the shit out of Emmett, remember."

"And nearly tore a new one into Bradly." Andi adds.

Oh, they both get my signature death glare for that. I was perfectly justified in both of those, you assholes!

"If you two are quite done flirting, I'd like to proceed." Kenneth is trying to be stern, but even he can't keep the amused chuckle out of his tone.

Renzei, apparently having proved his point, puts himself in front of me and I ready myself as Kenneth begins the countdown.

"5… 4… 3… 2… 1… GO!"

As it turns out, Renzei and I are pretty evenly matched. He still has a good deal of experience than me, and I'm pretty sure he goes easy on me at first. But thanks to all that warm-up I had beforehand, my reflexes and quick thinking help to make up for that as he gradually picks up the pace. We go through everything I've already learned in the prior weeks, wrenching my way out of wrist grabs, hair grabs, chokeholds and bearhugs from behind.

Renzei runs me through a few kickboxing techniques that I can manage, sometimes readjusting my form to help me deliver some decent punches. My skills are probably still pretty modest, but it's still more than I knew before and I know I can only keep getting better.

"I told you not to hold back on me, Angel." Renzei taunts as he suddenly throws a gust of wind at my face. "Why don't you come at me?"

"Keep that up and I'll come over there and show you just what an angel I am!"

Things get a lot more interesting as he begins drilling me on how to disarm a superpowered opponent. Only to be used as a last resort, he said, when there's just no getting away from them otherwise. He makes certain that the reporters are getting this on camera as well. It's a quick succession of blocking attacks, hitting sensitive pressure points, and forcing Renzei to his knees and holding his arm in a twisted position that all but renders his powers immobile. This is where I would also be using a shock baton if I had one, but my authorizations to carry one on base are taking longer than I would like.

Renzei flashes me an impressed smirk over his shoulder. "Not bad."

I can't help the bolstered smile that spreads across my face, and I arch a brow at him. "Let that be a lesson in underestimating me, yeah?"

As soon as the words are out of my mouth, Renzei twists out of my hold, kicks my legs out from underneath me, tackles me to the ground within a split second and pins me, triumphant smirk still in place. What the - "Don't ever get too confident in a real fight."

Whoops, spoke too soon. I'd be madder but… his voice… is almost sensually breathy. And I'm realizing that he and I both panting and sweaty. He's on top of me, he's shirtless, and he still has that damn smirk! Aaaand now my mind is going places it DEFINANTLY shouldn't be going!

ARGH! Okay, that's it! I don't know if this is even going to work, but I need to get him off of me to make a point! I muster up the sternest glare I can, and then quickly proceed… to tickle him up and down his bare sides.

"HEY!"

Just as I hoped, Renzei immediately recoils and lifts himself off of me, and I seize the opportunity to flip us over and pin him on his back. Ha! Attention curvy girls: always use your weight to your advantage.

"I'm a fast learner, remember?" I say with a triumphant smirk of my own.

"…" Renzei doesn't say anything, but I think I spy a hint of a blush creeping onto his cheeks.

"Boring! Kiss already!" Andi shouts, earning two simultaneous elbows from Lorelei and Juliette. "Oof!"

I look up and… Oh, my GOD! I totally forgot that everyone was still here! And I do mean everyone: The Syndicate, the airmen, the reporters, and there's Route Four standing there too. Kind of hard to ignore them now, especially with those looks.

Okay, yep, time to get up! I quickly scramble to my feet, my back going very straight. Renzei stays lying on the ground for a moment longer before picking himself up and all-too-calmly goes to retrieve his clothes. Meanwhile, I can hear one of my more rambunctious co-workers making his usual commentaries.

"I know how to fight now, Barlow! Don't make me come over there!" Of course, the only response he has to that is to hide behind Big Rick, who just throws his head back laughing along with the rest of them.

As Renzei bends over to pick up his shirt, I finally catch a glimpse of his full tattoo, the one that peeks out on the side of his neck. With his full back to me, I can see a whole column of geometric rectangles curving around his left shoulder blade and down the length of his spine, almost down to the small of his back… You know, I've got to wonder, is that tattoo just for style? Or is there a deeper meaning behind it? I haven't thought to ask him yet.

Unfortunately for me, the line of that tattoo happens to lead my eyes right down to where Renzei's very toned butt is. Christ woman, when did you become a butt person? Right as I avert my eyes, Renzei glances over his shoulder as he gets his shirt on, his face almost unreadable. After a moment he smiles at me, nods his head, and returns to address the reporters… And I'm left somewhat off centered… Really?! No flirty remark that time?

Nearly an hour later, we're walking through the parking lot to finally head back to the housing unit. Those reporters certainly have a lot of material to work with. Duke and (Monarch) had announced that they were going to start replanning their wedding now that things seemed to have quieted down somewhat, and it's certainly something for the Syndicate is going to look forward to.

Renzei also took the opportunity to call Michael out. Curiously, he didn't say the man's last name, or outted him the NBA's newest rising star athlete, but he did contest to being his ex-boyfriend, describing important details of their relationship in short, and adamantly claiming that he didn't even want to get back together again but still demanded that he come see him. He only owed him that much.

It's still a couple of hours before I have to clock out for the day, and I'm going through my remaining routine as I open the passenger side door. I stop short when I see what's there. It's a bouquet of flowers, a small one, really no bigger than the size of my palm, and carefully wrapped in pale pink tissue paper and twine. One pink rose, two daffodils and… a sprig of lilac?

For a second, I almost think that its Bradly still trying to pursue me, but then Renzei's familiar voice whispers in my ear. "Happy Birthday."

I turn around quickly, noticing at once that the whole team is right there, watching my wide-eyed reaction, and it finally clicks. "Wait, how… how did you guys know?" I barely even keep track of my birthday anymore!

"We're friends on Facebook now, remember?" Andi giggles, smiling broadly. "That plat gives out notifications."

"We wanted to thank you, Kylie." Renzei says, his fingers skimming mine ever so gently. "You don't seem to think that you're doing a whole lot for us, but you are… You're showing us acceptance where a lot of others still aren't, you're helping us a lot with the small-town culture shock, and you're making that housing until feel more like a home. And for the next couple of years, that's what it's going to be… Having you there helps."

I'm… totally speechless. And actually really touched. But of course, being me, I try to deflect. "Guys, you know I'm just doing my job, right?"

"No." Renzei says, equal parts teasing and firm and nearly putting a finger to my lips. "You don't get to be modest this time. You deserve it."

I hold his gaze for a maybe a moment too long before and have to avert my eyes, willing a smile on my face, if only to cover up my blush, and finally getting out a "thank you" to everyone. My heart is beating so hard now, I'm almost worried that Renzei might hear it. He touches my wrist, where the little bouquet is still clutched in my hand.

"Renzei picked those flowers out himself, you know." (Monarch) points out.

There's a certain air to her voice that says that there more to that statement, and I raise my eyebrows to urge it on. Renzei takes the cue. "A pink rose is for friendly affection. Daffodils are for new beginnings and respect. Giving multiples is a wish for your happiness. And my parents always said that they bring good fortune."

Wow, poetry and flower language. Renzei is a very well-rounded individual, I'm realizing. I have yet to grow bored of him… I'm starting to wonder if I ever will. "And what about lilacs?" I asks, knowing that I must have a bright smile on my face as I look at him.

"Well, lilacs can mean several things, depending on the color. White for innocence and purity, or deep magenta for, er, passionate love." Renzei rarely stumbles over his words and the flustered look on his face almost cracks me up. That's cute! "But in this case, the powder blue lilacs represent happiness and tranquility. You also said that they were your favorite, right?"

"They are." I confirm. They are Spokane's county flower, after all. "How'd you even get lilacs this early though? They don't bloom until May."

"That was just lucky." Renzei says. "Someone in Spokane was growing them in a greenhouse, and that's were I ordered them from."

"Alright, people." Juliette steps in. "How about we carry this on back home." And she nudges me with her shoulder. "We've got a cake and a karaoke machine set up just waiting for ya."

My ears perk up. "Karaoke?"

"Yeah!" Juliette beams, mischief sparkling in her eyes. "Cause we want to hear you sing already, dammit!" I throw my head back and laugh. I should've known!

"Oh hey, Kye, hold up." Renzei stops me before I climb into my seat. "I think you sat in some chalk or something."

"What, really?" I chide. And in black cargo pants no less!

"Nope. Looking good." He grins, just barely dodging the swipe that would've landed on his shoulder. I can't stop laughing though. This man! This impossible man.

As the team crowds into the back, Kenneth leans in and whispers in my ear. "Told you you'd be good for this team."

I scoff and roll my eyes, remembering that first day I started working with the Syndicate, how dubious and doubtful I was about the situation and how much things have changed since then… Yeah, I guess he did.

As the van starts rolling, I listen to the team talk about this and that and deciding on what songs their going to sing. Apparently, one remaining reporter has been given clearance to join us and record the event, another way of garnering public support. People have become very interested in the Syndicate's personal lives these days. I decide that I want to sing Unity by Shinedown. The song has a good message that I think is really fitting considering everything that had happened.

I sniff at my pretty little bouquet. Renzei really put a lot of thought into this. And I can't quiet seem to wipe the smile off of my face… I can't remember the last time I got flowers for my birthday… or the last time that a crush made me feel this bright and happy… My smile widens a fraction as I realize what bad timing that realization has come at. And on the assassin, no less. But I can't help it.

"Kylie, are you listening?" Andi speaks. When I turn around and face her, she repeats what she had said. "You and Renzei should do a duet."

Renzei nods. "Remember that Jelsa video you showed me the other day. We should do that song together."

"Sure." I smile.

Oh, well. I'll let it be a problem for future me to deal with.

*Search "Heart Attack" Demi Lovato (Sam Tsui and Chrissy Costanza) OR "Jelsa Heart Attack" by Jordan Hope on YouTube. You can also search for a lyric video of Shinedown's Unity in my Perseverance collection, by Kylie Gonzalez.

Thanks so much for reading!

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