Disclaimer: I do not own Babylon5. If I were the owner Marcus and Neroon would shag like bunnies, Stephen and Garibaldi would get hitched with each other, Lennier would declare his undyeing love for Sinclair a.k.a Valen and G'Kar and Londo would get an happy ending too.
A/N: This is a blatant AU.
Warning: Future Slash/Yaoi/Shounen-ai. Mentions of torture and NCS (not grhaphic). And some OC but do not worry my dear readers there will be no love interests for them from the Babylon5 crew.
Big thanks foe Stephanie for doing beta for this fic. *gives a hug*
Chapter5: The Interview From Hell
The nineteen year old boy sat nervously on the chair and watched the three men who stood across him warily. He felt like he was in an interrigation and that he had commited some vile crime the three men wanted him to admit. He felt like the three could see through him, see his every thought and motivation.'This feeling is ridiculous. This is only a job interview. Get a grip,' the boy thought to himself angrily. He would never get the position if he acted like a crybaby. The boy took a deep breath, raised his chin and made his posture straight and a new mantra: 'Look confident look confident look confident,' ran in his head. It seemed like his new resolve was not doing the trick because the white haired man looked amused over his antics, the redhead sympathetic and the yellow haired man bored. This was not good. Not good at all. The young man had tried hard to get this far and he did not want to fail now when his goal was almost achieved. He had to pass this interview with flying colors.
"So Marcus Cole. May I ask why you wish to join our humble organization?" asked the blond man, whose hair looked like it was made from spun gold. The effect the lamps gave to the three men across him was unnerving. The redhead looked like his hair was made of molten lava, burning everything on its way, a living flame framing the man's face. And the green eyes the man had gave the impression of a demon. Simply said - a scary look.The white haired mans hair looked like liquid silver, the cold grey eyes gave an impression of ice. An arctic wind that would chill you in a moment if you dared to oppose it for even a second.
Marcus felt that his throat was dry and he wished desperately that he had a glass of water to drink. This was completely ridiculous to feel this nervous about the interview. Marcus knew his sheet was spotless, and that he was perfect for the new job. He swallowed once and before he could answer the question the man with the albino hair -whom he had christened Silver Winter or Ice in his thoughts- asked him: "Water?"
'Oh my god this is creepy. Its like they are reading my mind,' thought the young man to himself. Marcus nodded and the second Winter gave him a glass of water, he gulped half of it down hurriedly. Now that he did not feel like his throat was full of sand paper Marcus answered the question: "I want to join you because you are the best on the field. Learning under you would be a great honor and it would give me a far better education than the other possibilities would."
Then it was the redheads turn to ask. The man walked across the room behind Marcus' chair so the boy had to turn his head to see the redhead's face. The redhead who Marcus thought of the Devil Demon or Fire asked him finally: "You are from a colony called Arisia?"
"Yes. It's a mining colony," answered Marcus the query.
The redhead started to walk around Marcus in slow circles and continued his questioning: "So, may I know why a child of a mining colony wants to join a military organisation? Our department of it to be exact? It is an unusual wish from one with your background. You have finished your duty to Earth and have been in the military exactly for one year as is the law. I think that there would be enough work waiting for you back on Arisia. After all, your parents are the owners of the colony and you are free to go home now that your duty is finished."
There was a silence for some time while Marcus thought his answer through. "Yeah well... I am the second child. William is the oldest and he will get the business from mom and dad. He is being trained as the next leader for the family firm. Yes, I can go back but it isn't a bright future that waits for me. And I have no wish to work on Arisia the rest of my life. As for the military...when I came here I discovered something I am good at. I have no wish to abandon it now when I have found it. I also feel like I am doing a difference in here. Helping our people to be safe. And your department is the best there is accounting to the rumors. I will not be a good footsoldier. And I know it. But intelligence and infiltration is a different matter altogether."
"So, are you saying that you want to join us because your future at home looks boring?" Ice asked after joining Devil in circeling Marcus' chair.
"No. I want to join you because I found my calling and you are the best in the field. And I want to learn from the best," the young soldier said forcefully.
"You think you would be a good spy? Why? Because you have some hacking skills? Many have such skills. Because you are a good actor? Even more people can act. Why should we take you as our next student? Why you? What makes you special?" asked the man with golden hair, whom Marcus privately called Apollo, Helios or Sun. Apollo too had joined his companions in circeling Marcus. The three men were like vultures waiting for a mistake from their prey.
Marcus definitely felt like a prey about to be butchered. He felt like every thought of his was open for public viewing. He felt so very small compared to the three men who were not a lot older than he was. Perhaps four or five years maximum. Still he wanted to join and if he had to convince the three men then he would do his best, and if even that was not enough he would think of some way how to join the organisation. It was his dream, it was his calling and nothing would get in his way to reach it.
So again the young man valiantly protected his opinion: "You should not accept me for my hacking nor my acting skills. Though they will come in handy. You should accept me for my my great desire to join you. I am a motivated student, I don't wish for glory nor riches. I just want to have the chance to become good at something I like to do."
"Hmm, interesting. You don't want glory nor riches. But dear child, it wold be kind of hard to be a good spy if you are famous and a billionaire and in everyones mind and sight all the time, so that would not be reason enough. Care to give us another one?" asked the Devil in a silky voice.
´Not reason enough? Not reason enough!?' thought young Marcus angrily, 'What the hell do these three bricks want to hear from me? Okay Marcus, time to calm down and be sensible, these three are the best and they know what they are talking about. They want the best, so they will take only the best. So I have to be the best if I want to join them,' Marcus told himself. The boy took another calming breath and tried again to reason with the three men: "I think I didn't make myself clear at the first try. I want to join you because I feel becoming a spy is my calling. My heart sings for it, my blood yearns for it. I want to become the best I can get so I want to join you. You should accept me because the best students always are the ones who learn their calling not the ones who learn because they don't have another choice." Then there was a long silence. Marcus twitched in his chair uncomfortably. He wanted this to be already over.
"Well... Marcus Cole this sounds better then the last reason you gave us." Apollo said from behind Marcus after the silence had lasted for a couple of minutes.
"Now that you have told us the why, we will tell you a couple of things of our own. If you get accepted into our organisation there are some things you should know and think over. Firstly, if we accept you one of us will be your mentor. Secondly, you can think of one thing you would not do for us and our organisation. We will never ask you to break that rule you give us but when you want to break it yourself you have to get our approval for it or face the consequences. Think about this carefully before answering. That would be all for today. The next time we will see, it will be either to accept you or to decline you. Off you go now. We will be in touch," Apollo said to Marcus.
Young Marcus stood from his chair and bowed to the three creepy men and gave his goodbyes to them. When he had left the room the young man felt very tired, like he had just come out of a battle. Marcus was relieved that the three men had not declined his wish to join them on the spot and hoped with all his heart that they would accept him as their newest student and apprentice.
Back at the room the three companions discussed their latest applicant. "Silver what is your impression of young Marcus Cole and what did he think about?" asked Golden.
The white haired man sighed, put his thoughts in order and answered: "Marcus is strong willed and he really does want to join us. The boy is sure that this is his calling. He found the three of us intimidating but still holds us in high regard. The boy is afraid we will not accept him. He even gave us dubious nicknames in his mind. The ironic thing is that one of them was accurate. Me he thought of as Ice, Snow or Silver. The Silver part is correct. You Bronze he thought of as Devil Demon or Fire which I found highly amusing. And you Golden he dubbed Apollo, Helios or Sun after the ancient gods. Marcus is determined to join us in any way possible. When I peaked into his mind I found it to be very strong. If we decided to build some shields into it they would stand well. Now it is your turn Bronze, what did the boy feel?"
"In the beginning of the interview it was nervousness I got from him. Then there briefly was anger, followed by feelings of strong resolve. Later the resolve started to slowly crumble the stronger we came upon him. Again a lot of nervousness mixed with irritation, frustration, brief anger at us, forced calm, nervousness and again strong feelings of determination to get what he wanted. When I tweaked his emotions a little he shook off my manipulations with effort. I too agree we could build some strong shields into his mind, should we accept him into our fold." Bronze answered the question and then asked one of his own: "And you Golden, what about your thoughts on the boy?"
The golden haired man thought a little and answered: "Since I am the one with the boring powers -neither a telepath nor an empath- there wasn't anything I could to with my telekinesis during the interview. But the boy did look determinated if a little nervous. I am impressed how he withstood all your manipulations and didn't break. So far he seems to be one of the strongest canditates. Out of ten possible choices four of them cried by the end of the interview,another three were not so far behind in that regard."
"I think we all agree that Marcus Cole, Danielle Black and Eiri Barton are the three strongest ones from all the canditates. The question is who will be chosen as the apprentice?Any thoughts?" Silver asked .
"I support Marcus Cole as the winner. He is the one who wishes in his heart to get this job," Bronze stated his opinion on the matter.
"But wouldn't female influence be better in this case? I would support Marcus Cole, he is good enough. But I think we need a female hand in this time so my vote goes to Danielle Black," Golden said his thoughts on it.
"Golden, that is a good point and I would support Danielle but there is one little problem with her. Her character traits are not good enough. When I read her mind she thought that we would be easy to manipulate with her so called womenly charms. She wanted to join us to get more power and influence. Her plan was to sleep with all the three of us and make us bid her every whim. She is not the kind of influence I want Ash to encounter with. And Ash's welfare is the most important thing in this case. So I would have to support Marcus. Eiri Barton is out because he really didn't want to join us. He came to the interview under the pressure of his family. The bunch of idiots thought it would be good for their image to have one of their heirs working in our organisation. And the boy was praying in his mind during the entire interview that we really really really didn't want him to join. Which in itself is sad, he would have been an excellent pupil but his heart lies in another occupation entirely. So Marcus it has to be. He wants to join us and he has no plans to try to use us," Silver explained his choice.
"Okay, you two convinced me that Marcus will be the one. It makes me a little sad. I hoped that the winner would be a female. It would do Ash some good to have female company. Now that we have agreed that Marcus Cole will be Ashes apprentice, I can't wait to see the boy's face when he meets his new master. That will be fun to see," Golden said happily to his two friends and co-workers. The three men who in the future would be known as the Blessed Triad stayed in the room for quite some time and talked about their plans.
TBC
