"What about Amanda?" Nikita burst into the interrogation room, despite Ryan's orders. Undoubtedly, having only Alex interrogate Owen was for the best. The team needed clear answers without him getting too distracted or overwhelmed, and without him trying to avoid the topic. Someone he didn't know should be leading the investigation, especially since he seemed so scattered already. However, the instant Nikita heard Amanda's name, things changed. She needed answers immediately. The team didn't have time to play games, or figure out where the hell Owen had been- not when the bitch appeared to be back.
The team should've expected her to reappear. Amanda had a decrypted black box, she had contacted Martin and possibly other Dirty Thirties, and she had always had her sight set on the team. Of course she would return to fuck everything up. Owen was more than likely just her first step in her evil schemes. Yet, when questioned about it, he lost his train of thought once again. He noticed Nikita's wedding ring and became shocked. That was the only thing he could wrap his head around- barely, "Whoa. Wait. You're married? To who? Michael?"
"Owen. Amanda. What's up?" Nikita snapped in his face to make him refocus. Owen had been all over the place since Alex walked into the interrogation room. He couldn't understand what was occurring; he hardly seemed to recognize that he was in Division. All he could focus on was his burning need to know the sparse facts Alex would share about her father's murder. His questions didn't make any sense, nor did his franticness. In his rare moments of lucidity, all he could rant about was Amanda. Something was wrong. Nikita felt the urgent prickle in the back of her head. Whatever happened to Owen wasn't right.
"She sent one of her goons after me, a former cleaner named Ann. She claimed Amanda needed me for something. I escaped before discovering what that was," Forcing his wayward mind to refocus, Owen explained what had happened. Spotting the matching wedding ring on Michael's finger as he and Ryan joined the others helped settle some of Owen's thoughts. Yet he was still struggling to get himself under control. A part of him continued to believe Division had sent Ann to kill him. He couldn't adjust to all the changes around him. It was all too much, and he couldn't focus on any of it.
"Where'd Ann grab you from?" Michael demanded. The team could trace Owen's movements from there. After he escaped from the other cleaner, he raced to get a message to the team. They weren't able to leave him a forwarding address after all the craziness, and he hadn't been made aware of the change in their war. So retracing his steps to where he and Nikita first met made sense. She'd know something was up and come get him. That was all logical in its own twisted way. It was everything else that was so puzzling. What was wrong with Owen.
"Gogol threw me into a Russian prison," Owen admitted. Well, that explained it. His lack of responses to the team's persistent calls, his lack of knowledge at Division changing hands, and his lack of reasoning was definitely because of the prison he had been thrown into. The team somewhat relaxed at that fact. At least Owen wasn't completely insane. He had simply been in severe isolation and terrible conditions. That would make anyone easily lose focus and ask weird questions. Hopefully, in time, things would get better.
"At least we know Ari and Amanda are still together," Focusing on the bright and non-convoluted side, Nikita muttered. If Amanda knew to break Owen out of the prison Gogol threw him in, then Ari must've told her about it. Not even Birkhoff and Sonya could hack into a corrupt Russian prison's unofficial prisoners list. The match made in hell was still together and trying to take over the world. Although that wasn't an ideal situation for the team, at least they knew the players involved. They couldn't be completely surprised once shit hit the fan.
Owen was confused once more by Nikita's statement. So he decided to ignore it. He was certain he would receive a crash course of events he had missed later. In the meantime, he had other burning questions he needed answered. His isolated time in prison gave him plenty of opportunity to think. What came up, however, was a giant blank space of memory. He had never questioned why he couldn't remember his time before Division until then. It didn't add up, especially since Alex seemed to be in the same boat, "So you've never been in Division? Then how come you have as much memory about your past as me and Nikita?"
"You mean all of it?" Alex stared at Owen as though he had lost his mind. She was beginning to think he had. She had been held in captivity by the Russians before. The only way she had gotten through it was drugs. She doubted Own had had access to that, which was probably why he was so dissociated from reality. Just because Alex didn't talk about her past didn't mean she didn't know it. The same went for Nikita. Both women glanced at Owen in bewilderment while he gaped in shock. More than Amanda was wrong with that situation.
"You still going through Regimen withdrawal? How badly did that mess you up?" Tapping harshly on Owen's forehead, Michael taunted. He did genuinely want to know what was going on inside his head. Yet the former analyst couldn't stop himself from messing with him. Owen somewhat deserved what had happened. He had gotten involved with Gogol; he didn't lean on the team when he should've. Of course he wound up losing even more brain cells in prison. Terrible decisions led to terrible consequences.
When Owen pushed back against Michael, Nikita stepped between them. Those two had been aggravating each other since they met. It was almost like they were permanently stuck in middle school. They just had to torment each other and vie for attention. It had only become worse when Owen joined Gogol. Nikita did what she could to stop it, fighting over her or whatever was ridiculous. That time, though, it was Ryan that got Michael and Owen to refocus. There were more pressing issues than their ill-conceived rivalry, "Let's just get back on track. Do you have any idea what Amanda would've wanted?"
"Ann said I couldn't die yet, since I knew something no one else did," Attempting to recall everything Ann had said as she dragged him out of the prison cell, Owen informed the others. They instantly launched into theories about what he could've possibly known. Maybe it had something to do with his time as a guardian. Could there have been something Ari and Amanda dug up on the black box. Those questions seemed to jog a distant memory in Owen's mind. Thankfully, it was one he was able to latch onto, "The cryptograph!"
"Like something Birkhoff would rant about?" Seeing if anyone else in the room understood Owen, Michael asked. Alex was just as lost as he was. And so was Nikita and Ryan, despite their time in Division. Alex had brought a tablet into the room when she began her interrogation. She had intended to look through Owen's file as she questioned him. But at that moment he took the tablet away from her. He searched through Division's servers until he found whatever he was thinking of. Once he found it, he flipped the device around to show the others.
"It was a Percy mission years ago. The same guy who built the black boxes, the engineer, made a cryptographic key that could hack into anything. I'm the only one left alive who knows where it's hidden," Excitedly, Owen explained. It wasn't exciting that Amanda was after something so dangerous. He was simply glad he was able to remember something. After the engineer created the crypto-key, Percy made Owen hide it. The technology was too great to use at the time. Percy wanted to save it for a special occasion. If Owen could help the team retrieve it then, it could help them be ahead of their enemies. They could stop a villain in her tracks.
"Then let's go get it before Amanda can," Nikita nodded in fierce determination. Despite Ryan's protests, she brought Owen with her to Ops. They needed him to plan and execute the mission to retrieve the crypto-key. His mental state continued to be a concern. Yet the team didn't have much of a choice. Amanda couldn't have something that would allow her to hack into anything she wanted. That would make her hellish schemes so much worse. She needed to be stopped before whatever she was planning could even make it off the ground.
Birkhoff and Sean had been working on new ways to locate Dirty Thirties while the others were interrogating Owen. The two figured an algorithm that tracked the rogues' known habits could be fed into Shadowbot- sort of like how they found Owen. But once the team came to them with their new game plan, Sean and Birkhoff changed course. A mission to stop Amanda was far more important. It was quickly settled that Sean and Michael would lead an Alpha team to follow Owen to the crypto-key. Nikita would stay and monitor from Ops. Alex and Birkhoff could assist her; they'd need all hands on deck with Amanda around.
"You're not coming?" About as bewildered as he had been since Ann broke him out of prison, Owen gawked at Nikita. That was probably the most shocking revelation to have hit him. The team taking over Division made sense in its own weird way. With Percy dead, someone had to step in to stop the power vacuum; someone had to ensure everyone would truly be free. Who better to do that than the team of rogues who had been fighting so hard for everybody to have the life they deserved. Those forced to do horrific things deserved a chance at peace.
Which was why, after every mission Owen had worked with the team, it was strange that Nikita was sitting that one out. She was always the stubborn leader, forcing the charge towards freedom. She never missed the opportunity to leap into the field, especially if she had the chance to screw over Amanda. If anyone was going to stay behind to command from Ops, it'd be Ryan or Michael. Something had to be wrong if 'run right into danger' Nikita was staying behind instead. Owen believed it. The look shared between Nikita and Michael didn't reassure him, nor did their words, "Someone's gotta make sure your dumbass doesn't get killed."
There wasn't time to explain the decision for a person to lead from Ops in order to help the agents in the field. Owen would be caught up on everything later- he had to be so he could stop being so concerned. The team just needed to roll out before Amanda had a chance to. Soon, they were able to reach the graveyard Owen led them to. He had buried the cryptograph on top of someone's grave. Michael let him dig that up while he and Sean stood guard. Everything seemed quiet. The Alpha team stood alert, but until Owen grabbed the key, nothing had happened. Then, all of a sudden, Nikita shouted into their coms that they had company coming.
SUVs of armed assailants leapt out at the agents. They did their best to fight them off, listening to one another and Nikita's commands. Yet they were so under prepared for the onslaught. Michael and Sean were separated from Owen and the crypto-key. Although he was able to defend himself against Ann, he easily froze up once he saw Amanda. He wasn't entirely sure why, other than a distant memory pulling at him that he couldn't hold onto. While he struggled, he was knocked unconscious and the key was stolen from his grasp. Luckily, Sean and Michael reached his side before he could be taken as well.
The mission was an absolute failure, but that wasn't on Nikita. She had to remind herself that over and over again. She knew that'd be what Owen, Sean, and Michael would tell her. She wasn't at fault, even if it was her idea. She didn't blame her agents in the field for the failure, after all. The situation was out of their control. They all did the best they could. It just wasn't enough. Amanda had caught up to them and brought an army of former Gogol and rogue Division agents with her. They were ambushed, caught off guard, and completely unprepared. It would've been a miracle if they had succeeded. The mission was set up to fail.
So Nikita put it all on herself. She had helped her team survive- she should've been proud of herself for that. She just knew there was something more she could've done. Amanda was their target, Nikita should've tried harder to have her taken out. The bitch didn't get to win. She had tortured Division agents enough. They should've been able to stop her then- they were all on the same team for once. But the bitch continued to be too powerful. She kept crawling out of whatever hole she had been hiding in with even more resources than before. She was like a cockroach; a cockroach that was able to crawl into your mind and fuck with your head.
One of Amanda's soldiers had been left behind. He was unconscious, but maybe he could help Division discover what the bitch was planning. Hours passed without any updates, however. Alex, Sean, and Michael took the time to talk with Owen; they caught him up on what he had missed and tried to figure out what was wrong with his memory. Nikita, on the other hand, roamed the halls in an attempt to get her head on straight. When she stumbled into Medical, she knew that wouldn't be possible. So, she pushed for an update. The doctors only shrugged, "There seems to be a sort of pouch in his abdomen. That could be why he is not waking."
"Do whatever you can to wake him. We need answers," Sighing, Nikita ordered. She hated that it seemed like they were back to grasping at straws in order to gain control. They were supposed to be better- or whatever the hell that was supposed to mean then. She had the sinking suspicion that wouldn't be possible. She also began to suspect that the team didn't have as much control as they believed. Just as Nikita reached the elevator, sirens blared from Medical. Something had gone terribly wrong in their attempt to wake Amanda's goon. It was all so wrong. And despite Nikita's attempts, she couldn't fix it.
Medical was filled with toxic fumes that killed anyone it touched. Nikita couldn't return to help. All she could do was rush back to Ops with the horrifying news. Operations was dealing with their own problems, though. They lost control of their computers and the monitors. They were completely locked out; neither Birkhoff nor Sonya could fix it. A painful feeling in Nikita's gut told her why that was before the problem was revealed. In all her atrocious glory, Amanda's face appeared on the giant monitors, hanging above everyone, "Hello, Division."
"Fuck."