Title: Trojan

Genre: Action/Adventure

Spoilers: None really.

AU/Cannon: AU

Author: Seadragon

Dedicated to: The story I wrote, and lost in Europe.

Ship: Not telling!

Slash: None.

Summary: After a mission that claimed the lives of all her partners, Holly must face anger and hate at work. Tears fall in secret, where no one will see them. When the enemy from the first mission returns for revenge; no one believes her, to fight it; she'll need a little help.

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Chapter 4: Timely Revenge

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"Captain?" A hesitant voice said from the door. Holly looked up, her eyes red from crying. In her hand she still had the picture gripped tightly. Laton stood in the doorway, looking at her curiously.

"Y-y-yes?" She managed to get out through held back sobs.

She knew she must look a fright, tears running all over her face, her arm in a cast and sling, red eyes and white fingers from gripping the picture so tightly.

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying."

"Yes you are." He said with amusement. He walked over and took the picture from her. "Who are these people?"

"My friends." She bit her cheek so the tears would stop. It worked, sort of.

"Where are they?"

"They're dead. They all died but me." Holly said bitterly. The tears fought her restraint and broke free, sliding all over her face. "Root, Foaly, Mulch, and Grub are still alive, but Grub hates me because he thinks I as good as killed his brother. All the LEP hates me."

"What happened?" He asked gently.

Holly hesitated but realized she had to tell him now.

"We were sent in to investigate a goblin hideout, the whole team went because there was a large number of goblins reported there, and we had already been through a second rebellion, we didn't need or want a third. We were ambushed and they all died but me, I escaped. And now they all blame me for the others' deaths."

She had been doing a fair job at holding back the tears until then, but suddenly they all came flowing out. Nothing to hold them back, no interruptions, not like last time. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed for her dead friends, her lost friendships, and for the life that had once been hers.

Laton put his hand on her shoulder and if she had been watching she would have seen a curious thing, but she was preoccupied, luckily for him.

When at last she had exhausted her supply of tears, Laton quickly moved his hand.

Holly sat up again and dried her eyes with the box of tissues on Trouble Kelp's old desk. She stood up and adopted her old closed and determined look. "Lets go."

She picked up the chair and proceeded to her own office and put the chair down.

One of the reasons Captain Holly Short made such a good Recon officer was her ability to get up and keep going. She could sit and cry for an hour and get back up and finish a fight, or break an arm and keep going. She was determined, and would do anything to finish a mission.

Laton had followed her back and sat in the chair that had taken half an hour, a bucket of tears, and old memories to retrieve. Holly took her place at her desk and picked up a folder.

Assignment: Captain Holly Short

Inside it read;

Goblin Attack: Lower Fifth: Spider Alley

You are needed to go and discover what this is all about. There are reported to be at least twenty goblins. They have killed three civilians already and are holding at least ten others.

Report to the OPs Booth and get any necessary equipment for you and your rookie. Yes, he will be accompanying you.

If this is another Revolution, who knows what could be waiting for you. Just know this, we don't have the forces to repel them again. What we will need is a miracle. As you well know, we lost some of our most prominent officers recently, and could not defeat them, or even hold them back.

We cannot send a team with you.

2nd is in Atlantis

3rd is tracking down a rogue pixie

4th is standing guard at Howlers Peak

5th is on patrol

6th is on patrol

7th is on patrol

8th is tracking down a rogue troll

9th is on traffic duty

10th is guarding 210b

11th is on shuttle duty

12th is on guard duty (the governor of Atlantis is in town briefly)

This leaves the remainder of 1st.

So she was going to get revenge. As she had vowed when she had woken up in the battlefield. She had vowed to get revenge for this, this slaughter. Who ever it was had better watch out.

"Come on Holly!" Trouble whispered. "Time to get revenge!"

Holly followed closely behind him, carrying many tools of deviousness. In her arms she had a carrot tied to the handle of a plunger, a bottle of 'The Glue That Will Out Live Even You!' and a shirt of their own creation (complete with a point and laugh sign, thank you very much), made of several of his shirts cut up and 're-created' by yours truly.

The front of the shirt was neon green with flamboyant pink flamingos that had been added very, very recently. One of the sleeves was red with palm trees with arms and legs, and some very tacky sunglasses dancing across it, the other was hot pink and tastefully decorated with purple and blue hearts. The back was black, with "POINT AND LAUGH" spray painted in white across it, a tasteful touch if she did say so herself.

They had big plans for this stuff.

They knew he was very smart, intellectually, but when it came to street smarts, he was a bit of an idiot. Well, a bit didn't do him justice. Lets put it this way, he was lucky he didn't get hit by a car, fall in a manhole, and get eaten by mutant swear toads everytime he stepped out of the OPs booth.

But even his intellectual abandoned him when carrots were involved. He was carrot-happy, if you will.

But that suited them quite well thanks.

They didn't really need the 'point and laugh' sign, they would be doing that no doubt, but it could prove useful, like when he tried to kill them, say.

They knew for a fact that he took a 'break' at this time of day in the OPs booth, after barricading the doors, and blacking out the windows. And by break, I mean nap. And by nap, I mean dead to the world. Glad to have that cleared up. But back to our, er, heroes. They were crawling up to the OPs booth on their hands and knees, Trouble keeping a sharp lookout.

If Root came along now, they would be on Traffic Duty for the rest of their lives.

And by lives, I mean the rest of their pitiful existence, Traffic Duty wasn't exactly living, per say.

Holly heard someone clear their throat meaningly, winced, and slowly looked up,

"And what are my two best officers doing on their hands and knees right next to the entrance to OPs, carrying a carrot tied to a plunger, a bottle of 'The Glue That Will Out Live Even You!', and a very ugly t-shirt?" He paused. "Actually, don't answer that, incase someone hears, we don't need any witnesses, I can guess why." He grinned quite evilly and Holly mentally resigned herself to life without living, or something more commonly known as Traffic Duty. "Any chance you need a third?"

Holly felt her jaw sink through the floor and through all the way to China. She felt her eyes pop out of her skull. Hell, she even heard her heart stop beating in shock. This was not happening, it couldn't be. It was just a figment of her imagination. It had to be.

I mean, Commander Root couldn't be standing over her asking to join their revenge mission, could he?

Well, quite obviously, he could.

"Uh… Sure. I guess." Trouble said lamely. Holly glared at him. He glared right back. He seemed to be saying, "Would you like to become on of the living dead in Traffic?" Holly sighed. Anything was better than that.

Except being eaten by swear toads. That would just be embarassing.

Holly smiled weakly and stood up to pick the lock on the steel reinforced door. After a few minutes, and some very interesting tricks, the lock clicked open and Holly pushed on the door. It opened without resistance.

"Uh, Holly?" Root asked, very, very quietly. "Where the hell did you get the lock pick? Wait, on second thought, I think I know." He made strangling motions with his hands in the air and Holly grinned at the memories that brought back. Many times had he threatened to do the to Mulch, but they all knew he was quite fond of him, and, although he constantly threatened him, would miss him if he was gone.

Holly indicated for them to follow her in. and dropped to her knees and crawled into the OPs Booth.

"Here." She handed Trouble and Root the shirt and set to work on the plunger. They snuck up behind him and pulled it over his already hideous t-shirt, then sliced the one underneath it, and trashed it.

"There." Trouble whispered, wiping his hands. "One less ugly shirt in the world."

Root snorted. "What about this one?"

"We sacrificed THREE ugly shirts to make that one." He smirked. "All done."

Holly nodded and set down the bottle of 'The Glue That Will Out Live Even You!'. She had put a ring of the glue on the plunger and was holding it out in front of her by the handle.

She walked over to them, and stuck it firmly to his head. "Lets go."

They all walked out, and Holly relocked the door. They got down on their hands and knees and crawled around the corner at top speed. Holly had to bit her lip to keep from collapsing in laughter at the sight of Commander Root crawling around on his hands and knees in the middle of Police Plaza.

"Mission Accomplished!" They gave each other high fives and broke out into uncontrollable laughter. This would be a day to remember, no doubt about that.

But all the happy memories had been stolen now. Holly shook her head frantically. She would not give anyone the advantage over her by being unfocused, she had grieved long enough. It was time to do what she was born to do.