It's a Wonderful Double Life Part Three~ "The Enemies"
I blink. When I open my eyes again we're still at the pier. But it's different.
Much different.
Not in its appearance. It looks the same. But the atmosphere, the air thick with change… nothing is as it seems. I can feel it.
I shiver.
"Welcome to the world without you," Katherine declares from beside me.
"It's the same," I lie, knowing I'm doing so.
"You think so? Let's look around," Katherine suggests.
We walk along the pier and though I still see no difference, I feel that something, somewhere, must be altered in the slightest. Maybe for the better. Probably for the better. But still altered.
"Hmm…" Katherine pensively murmurs. Then, "I don't think we'll find anyone to our interest here. Some of them… don't come out much."
"Okay."
And after another blink we are standing in front of the Credit Dauphine building.
The only thing I notice is how many people are bustling in and out.
There is never this many.
"Come on. We should look inside," Katherine says, and I walk towards the building with her.
As I push past the crowd of employees flooding the halls I see the elevator across the room and someone I don't know opening the doors and climbing in.
I get in with him.
We don't talk, but when we get out we both enter the white scanning room. The red light flashed and the doors to SD-6 open.
I get a strange feeling that the man hadn't acknowledged my presence at all.
Shake it off, Syd.
As I scan the room for a familiar face, I finally spot Dixon and Sloane in the briefing room. I turn my head a little to see if Katherine is following, but she is nowhere to be seen.
This is one weird dream.
I shrug and enter the room. Sloane is droning on. There is nothing unusual about that. I do notice that seated next to Dixon in my usual seat is a man, maybe in his early forties or late thirties.
Thin red wisps of hair are brushed in front of his forehead in attempt to hide still clearly visible pink scars, and his eyes are a stony gray. I find them unnaturally cold and look like they could kill you if you stared too long.
"… Agent Dixon, Agent Crow; you will be going to Kiev to retrieve the device…" Sloane instructs, and I figure the red haired man is Agent Crow. He must be Dixon's partner. Well at least without me around Dixon will have a partner who doesn't constantly lie to him and make him believe he's doing the right thing.
"Marshall?"
I see Marshall stand and notice something. He's not blushing and he's not quivering. He begins to speak. "The security at this place is extremely tight. So you will have these," he holds up two little gold rings. "Wear them as normal rings and when you enter each room, they will send off silent and undetectable waves which will short circuit the security systems in the building."
"Thank you, Marshall," Sloane says to him.
Marshall quickly bows his head, an odd, jerky motion, and sits down.
He hadn't even stuttered while speaking. He is being so.... normal. What's wrong with him? Has his computer died or something?
"You're free to go," Sloane tells the group. They get up and leave. As they exit, Marshall accidentally puts his foot on Dixon's. "I'm sorry, Agent Dixon."
Dixon sneers, almost snarls. "Watch where you're going."
I gasp. What...?
"Frightening, isn't it?" Katherine has returned.
"Why... why is he so... so mean? Dixon would have been a great person whether I knew him or not."
"He was," Katherine says. "But remember when you saved him after he was shot last year? Well even with you not around, he was shot. Crow saved him, but ever since then he's suffered permanent damages and pretty painful memories. Post traumatic stress. Without you to help him through it, just that jerk Crow... let's just say he had a rough time. The downward spiral made him pretty unfriendly."
I sigh and shake my head. "Well, I don't see how I could've helped all that much. And look at Marshall. He seems to have gained some self confidence without me and... the happier Dixon egging on his outlandish behaviors..." my voice trails off suddenly.
"But..." Katherine prompts.
"He's not Marshall," I finish quietly.
Suddenly, Katherine points up at the screen Sloane always uses at briefings "Look. We're about to get a call."
I'm about to ask what she means when I realize she's gone again.
Just then the screen flickers on and I see a familiar pair of evilly glinting blue eyes. Sark.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Sloane."
"Mr. Sark."
"Alright, Sloane, I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I understand that the Alliance has grown to unimaginable lengths. You've got stations at pretty much every corner drug store. You're near invincible. But that doesn't mean I won't find a way to take you down."
My heart skips a beat.
Unimaginable lengths? Stations everywhere? Near invincible?
What the Hell?
And why are Sark and Sloane at each other's throats? It's almost as if they're-
"Competing," Katherine finishes my thought for me. "Without you to slow him down, Sark rose immediately to one of the highest seats in the rogue intelligence world. He's become Sloane's top competition for ultimate power, especially without Iri..." she stops mid word.
"What were you about to say?" I demand.
"Doesn't matter."
"What, Katherine? Without what?" I press again.
"You're too stubborn for your own good, you know that? I promise you all will be explained soon enough. In the meantime, quit it with the Katherine stuff. I never should have told you my real name. Call me Kate."
"Fine, Kate," I say sharply. "Then answer one question. Why is Credit Dauphine still here? I wasn't here to stop Cole from exploding the place."
"As you can tell and just heard, without you as a double SD-6 is incredibly powerful. Do you really think a group as... psychologically disordered as Mckenas Cole's could really just sneak in here with the unbelievable strength SD-6 has going for them?"
I didn't answer, but it didn't make me feel much better knowing that without me, no one would've had to go through that horrible ordeal.
"Anyway," she goes on, "I think you've seen all there is to see here. Time for our next stop. Brace yourself, it's not gonna be pretty."
Before we depart, I very briefly wonder where my father had been. It had suddenly dawned on me that he wasn't here.
Although I see that my presence has made some impact in the world of my enemies, and the friends associated with them, I still can't help but assume that there's only one place my dad could be.
Off enjoying his free and daughterless life.
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A/N: Still enjoying it? Please review! Reviews get the chaps written faster and better :-D