Chapter 2
"You…you didn't see it?"
Ceci-Anne looks at Duncan in shock. Well, she sounds shocked. If she actually looks it, Duncan can't tell because of her customary black bandages covering the top half of her face. They block her milky, unseeing eyes, from view.
"No, I didn't," he admits while he nervously cracks his knuckles together. He avoids looking at her as he sits on the edge of her cot. The shame and guilt are back tenfold as he watches Ceci-Anne struggle to breathe through the pain.
It's good to see her up though. Instead of passed out or in a medically induced coma.
"What did you see?"
"I saw…," Ceci-Anne trails off, unsure as she tries to remember what happened but the images she recalls don't make any sense to her. That and she doesn't see as a normal people see either. It makes putting what she saw into words that much more difficult. "What did Matilda see?"
"She's not saying," Duncan tells her as he runs a frustrated hand through his hair. "She's not signing it or writing it either. No matter how hard Leah's been trying to get her to do it. She's all but threatened to demote her but Tilly isn't talking."
"Why?"
"I…I don't know," Duncan admits quietly. Silence settles over them for a bit. An uncomfortable, tense one that has Ceci-Anne shifting uncomfortably and then grimacing in pain. "I—"
Duncan's communicator ringing—a loud blaring thing that has him on edge instantly—cuts him off. He gives Ceci-Anne an apologetic look as he pulls the communicator from his pocket. The moment he sees the screen on his communicator flashing red and blue, he launches into action. With a curse, he pushes himself off the cot and rushes to pull on his iron helmet and gloves.
The blue and red only means one thing.
The base is being infiltrated.
Ceci-Anne curses along with him and painfully gets to her feet as Duncan hands her weapons to her. Once her bow and quiver are strapped to her back, Duncan crouches down with his back to Ceci-Anne and motions for her to get on.
"We have to hurry," he tells her when she pauses. "The base will detonate in thirty minutes."
She climbs on his back after that and together they make their way down the halls full of scrambling agents. They reach the parking structures without incident, though. They find it full of agents rushing to get everything loaded up as quickly as possible.
It's not an uncommon occurrence in their line of work—leaving behind a base in a hurry. Hell, it's more or less expect and there's an almost organized chaos to it. They take only what they can and leave everything expendable behind.
The trainees go first. They're the easiest to spook and cause utter chaos. Therefore, they're loaded up into buses by the handful. Then, they're ship off to a pre-determined destination through a network of underground tunnels to get them out from under foot.
Lowly agents go next and so on and so on until only the Senior Agents are left. By then there's only ten minutes on the clock to get as far away as they can. Duncan takes a moment to get Ceci-Anne loaded on the last available truck before he searches for heras discreetly as he can.
He finds Ariel sending off last of the buses and trucks and trailers. She stands nude as the day she was born. Obviously, she hadn't gotten the chance to pull on clothes before shifting and Duncan doesn't stop to think as he rushes towards her and drapes his red cape over her nude form.
"Wouldn't want you to catch a cold," he sneers at her, keeping up with their act even though speaking to her like that hurts. He turns back to the truck and climbs in before she can response.
"Didn't know you cared," she sneers after him and waves the last trailer down the tunnels. Once there's only one truck left—the one they'll be riding in—she follows him towards it.
"Oh, I don't," he reassures her as he settles into the back seat. Ariel sits next to him, wrapped in his cape and he sends her a wink. "But if one of us gets sick then we all get sick and I'm sure Dr. Day would want to avoid that."
"Who's sick?" Dr. Day questions as she climbs into the truck. She's instantly in doctor mode as she scans everyone for so much as a sniffle. Ariel tucks the cape around her at the sight of it. She's desperate to avoid another lecture on how 'nudity is dangerous for the bodybecause of the lack of protectionit offers againstthe elements'.
"Ignore him," Eloise says as she peers over her seat at Ariel. "Here, I figured you'd forget to grab something to wear, so I grabbed this on my way past your room," she says as she tosses her a soft, green, baby doll. "I know you think it's too much cloth but it's the best I could do."
"It'll do," Ariel tells her as she parts the cloak without shame and slips the lingerie on. "Thanks Eloise."
"Don't mention it," she tells Ariel and goes back to her seat just as the last of the Senior Agents climb onto the truck and they pull away.
And so they once again leave a base behind.
The eruptions of the explosives are ignored as they pull away.
~o0o~
"I hate moving!" Eloise yells as she lifts yet another heavy box from the back of yet another trailer and carries it to the lift. It's never ending, each and every time. She's about ready to throw her hands up in the air and call it quits.
"It's the last trailer, Eloise," a blonde boy says with a chuckle as he takes the box from her and carries it into their temporary base. It's a simple warehouse really—a large open space where they're all crammed into cots until further notice.
"You said that about the last one," she yells after him and he chuckles as he carries the box to the appropriate section.
Trainees and office personal rush about as they set up the temporary base and he has to dodge more than one as they threaten to crash into him. The organized chaos is still going strong but on a more composed level now that there's no immediate threat.
"Where is it? Where is it?
The panic voice draws the boy's attention. He pauses briefly to watch a black-hair Senior Agent shuffle through boxes frantically. He stands in the section where the box the boy carries belongs so he moves towards him.
"What are you looking for, Takumi?" he asks as he places the box near the rest. He leans on it as he watches the agent continue to search through the boxes.
"Ah, Humbert!" Takumi calls, moving towards him the second his eyes land on the new box. He shoves Humbert off it without another word and paws through it. "I can't find the data pad with all the software upgrades I was working on. Leah will kill me if it got left behind."
"No she won't," Humbert say with a laugh, though it cuts off when Takumi gives him a doubtful look. "There's a few more boxes left to be unloaded, maybe it's in one of those."
"Let me know."
Humbert takes his leave after that and makes his way back to the trailer to find it empty. The others have finished unloading it and now Eloise sits slumped on the floor.
"It's done," she groans as Humbert sits down heavily next to her. "It's finally done. Everything's unloaded."
"For now," he mutters as he scans the crowd of agents still organizing and unpacking the many boxes. There's already a medical section set up in the far corner of the warehouse and Leah's got her control center up and running on the opposite end. "You know we'll be doing this all over again when they find us a new home base, right?"
"I hate moving," Eloise whispers and Humbert can hear the double meaning in her words. He understands that she doesn't just mean switching bases. He's been through it too so he knows exactly what she means.
Knows that she talking about before.
Before The Agency chose them and took them in. Back when moving meant stuffing all your belongings into garbage bag and waiting for the social workers on the doorstep because your 'family'no longer wants you. Because your novelty's worn off and now you're the annoying kid they can't wait to get rid of.
"Me too," he whispers quietly, eyes on his sneakers. They're new, clean—a pair of Jordan's. Back then, he could never imagine owning a pair as new and expensive as these but now he does and it's all because The Agency chose him.
Because Leah had walked into the orphanage and saw him as something other than a loser kid without a home. She'd taken him in that day, along with Eloise. He doesn't know where they'd be without her—probably still moving from home to home but now? Now, they're Senior Agents in The Agency and can have anything they want.
He owns an Aston Martin One-77, for heaven sakes—a red one that goes from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds—and he's only seventeen.
"But it's part of the job," he tells her as he stands. There's still so much to do, picking a cot to sleep among them. So he pulls her to her feet and begins dragging her back into the chaos. "Now come on we still have to set up the lab and grab a place to sleep before all the good cots are taken."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Eloise mutters as she lets herself be drag along. She can already imagine the stack of boxes she'll have to unpack and all the cracked beakers she might have to throw away. "Has Leah said where she wants me set up?"
"As far away from everyone as you can, witch!" someone mocks as they pass by a group of trainee. Eloise doesn't stop to think or even look as she throws a knife their way.
They're trained killers after all. Thus, they don't turn to see how much damage the knife causes as they continue towards the control center.
The trainee's yells of pain follow them and they can't keep the smirks off their faces.
"Names! I want names!"
The scene they come upon in Leah's control center doesn't make them so much as pause. Wet, sticky blood covers the floor and the walls. A bit of it even smears the various computers. A limp body sits on a chair in the middle, tied and bound. Duncan stands over the body, knuckles bloody.
The other Senior Agents stand around the control center, watching the scene with pitying looks. The man's defiant to the end it seems. He's the only one they actually managed to capture—the very one that tripped the alarm—before they'd abandoned the base.
"Just save yourself the pain, man," Duncan whispers as he pauses to wipe his hands on an already blood soaked towel. "Just tell her what she wants to know, 'cause I don't want to keep doing this to you but I will," he tells him and the man lets out a pitiful whine from blood-smeared lips.
"Who sent you?"
Leah's voice rings around the room like a whip, demanding and angry. It promises more pain if she doesn't get an answer soon. Eloise rolls her eyes at the man's refusal to submit to the inevitable while Humbert throws him a kind, pitying smile.
"It'll be easier if you just talk," Humbert tells him when the man turns bloodshot eyes his way. He makes his way towards the man carefully, avoiding the deeper pools of blood so he won't slip or dirty the coattails of his uniform. "Just say it and we'll end it all. No more pain, no fear of retaliation. We'll make it all go away," he promises as he gets down to eye level with the bound man.
"What do you know," the man sneers . Humbert only just manages to dodges the wad of blood spat at his face. "You're just a kid."
Humbert's kind smile doesn't change. Doesn't deepen or lessens even as he stabs a knife straight through the man's thigh. The man's yell echoes around the warehouse as Humbert twists the knife playfully.
No one pauses or stops at sound of it.
"I may be a kid," he says, smile finally shifting into a full-blown smirk. "But I'll be the one to gut you if you don't tell us who sent you soon," he threatens, still twisting the knife and the man's yells turn to pitiful screams. "And make no mistake; you won't die until I let you."
"It was the Central!" the man finally screams as he desperately tries to get away from the baby-faced menace. "They heard rumors that there were Arrancars here so they thought you guys were working with Aizen . I was just checking. It was not an attack. I mean you guys no harm, I swear. If I had you guys wouldn't even have seen me."
"Central?" Eloise mutters, as she looks the man up and down. "I thought for sure he'd be with that nut head that was trying to take over the world a few months ago. What was his name?'
"Valentine?" Takumi questions and Eloise nods even though Takumi doesn't see it as he's too busy fiddling with a data pad. "An agent from the British Agency took care of him. The autopsy video was forwarded to all the Agencies as proof. That man's gone for good."
"So who's he with?" Ceci -Anne asks from her seat. She's still recovering and Dr. Day doesn't miss the way her breath hitches slightly. She'll have to keep an eye on her lest the archer reopen her wounds. "I've never heard of 'The Central' before."
"Because we've never gone up against anyone called 'The Central'," Takumi tells her, still fiddling with the data pad. "In fact, none of the other Agencies have either. I'm getting nothing from the share files, not even the name Aizen comes up."
" Aizen ?"
All gazes turn to where Dr. Day stands. Eyes wide, as she looks at the man like it's the first time she's seen him. Her eyes widen a fraction more as she sees something they don't and curses fall from her lips as she rushes to the guy's side.
"Oh, we're so fucked," she mutters as she unties the bound man and lays him gently onto the floor when the man slumps forward. Once he's spread out, she begins to look over him with a doctor's eyes. Mentally calculating how much damage they've done and it really isn't looking good. "Why the fuck didn't you say you were with The Soul Society to begin with!?"
Her yell catches everyone off guard, expect for Matilda.
Tilly who stands in the very back of the group, disinterestedly watching as everyone's attention is on the man and Dr. Day. So she's the only on that sees Him. A flash of silver and white and suddenly they can't see. It all goes white and Tilly can only think of a stun grenade as a familiar ringing starts up in her ears.
It's once it's effect wear off that they realize they're not where they were and the men—both of them—are nowhere to be seen.
However, they're not alone.
No.
They're surrounded on all sides by different men and women dressed in white.
