Veronica Versus The Sandworm

A/N: I'm going to be skipping a few episodes of the series, FYI.

Veronica normally dreaded shopping with the Heathers. Today, however, she was grateful.

Why?

Because it got her mind off of JD, and how he broke her heart.

"Ugh, cinnamon bites again, Heather?" Heather Duke asked McNamara at the mall food court.

"What? I think they're really yummy," she replied.

"Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?" Heather Chandler added, before she and Duke started laughing.

Veronica felt a bit bad when she saw McNamara's disappointed face. "Hey, I think they're really good," she said as she took a bite.

"Thanks, Ronnie," McNamara said, before the conversation turned back to regular small talk.

As per usual, Veronica tuned them out and looked around the food court. Her eyes fell on a disheveled young man.

That was when her brain flashed again.

The Intersect revealed that the man is a wanted CIA agent named Laszlo Mahnovski, and he was considered dangerous.

As soon as the flash was over, Laszlo glanced at Veronica, before looking away and leaving quickly.

"Um, I gotta go use the restroom," Veronica said to the Heathers before leaving the food court.

She discreetly followed Laszlo throughout the mall, before she reached the arcade. She went inside and found Jeremy, working his shift at the cash register.

"Hey Jeremy, you got a minute? Like right now?" Veronica asked.

"Yes," Jeremy replied, knowing that the matter was urgent. He put one of those "I'll be back in five minutes" signs on the counter, before quickly walking to a private area of the mall with Veronica.

"What's going on?" Jeremy asked.

"Does the name Laszlo Mahnovski ring a bell to you?"

Jeremy's eyes went wide. "Laszlo Mahnovski? He's one of the top tech wizards in the CIA."

Veronica then realized something. "Wait, does this m-"

"Yes," Jeremy interrupted. "He might be able to remove the Intersect."

"Laszlo will NOT remove the Intersect for you," General Beckham told the team.

Once Jeremy and Veronica made that realization about the Intersect, they searched all around the mall for Laszlo. Jeremy also got the rest of the team on board, just to be safe. After all, Laszlo was considered dangerous for no apparent reason. However, nobody found him.

The team went back to Castle to contact Generals Graham and Beckham, to gain more information that could help them.

That's where General Beckham's comment surprised them.

"B-but why?" Evan asked.

"Laszlo may be a tech wiz, but he is a highly dangerous man who recently murdered his handlers."

"I didn't know that part," Jeremy whispered to Veronica.

"Are you sure about this, General Graham?" Lydia asked, wanting reassurance from her own superior.

"Unfortunately, yes. However, the Intersect did a great job at finding his general area. We want the whole team on lookout for Laszlo Mahnovski."

Two days later, Veronica was at school, keeping an eye out for Laszlo.

Ok, she may have been using that excuse to avoid JD.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him, she just wasn't sure of what to say to him.

Because how can one get into the why without really getting into it?

Veronica was heading to the bathroom when a pair of strong arms gagged her, before pulling the two of them into a janitor's closet.

Once the door was locked, Veronica saw who her captor was.

It was Laszlo.

"Who do you work for?" Laszlo demanded, choking Veronica.

"No one," she wheezed out.

"How did you find me?"

"I don't k-"

"I know you're a spy," Laszlo revealed. "Your watch? I designed it for the CIA."

Oh, so that's why he left the mall. Veronica thought.

"Are there other agents waiting for me?" Laszlo asked.

"No," Veronica said, before Laszlo let go of her throat.

Veronica took several breaths while Laszlo asked his next question. "Where did you get that watch?"

"My friends gave it to me," she replied, just giving him the bare minimum.

"Your friends work for the CIA?"

Welp, there's no point in lying now. "Yeah, my friends work for the CIA," Veronica said smugly. "And we know all about you."

Laszlo's face went white. "I didn't do it! I was framed! You have to believe me!" He said with tears streaming down his face.

"Ok, ok, I believe you," Veronica said. "But what do you want me to?"

"You're on the inside. You have access. They're going to keep chasing me unless you help me clear my name," Laszlo said. "You're my only hope," he said with pleading eyes.

Veronica debated working with him for a moment. She really shouldn't trust a guy that's wanted by the CIA.

Then again, he may have some much needed answers.

"Fine," Veronica said, to Laszlo's relief. "Meet me at Starbucks in three hours."

"So what else did you make for the CIA?" Veronica asked after she and Laszlo got their drinks.

"Whatever the job called for, really."

"Wow, so you must not have gotten a lot of sunlight," Veronica said, noting Laszlo's pale skin.

"For the last ten years, all I did was play video games and work in an underground lab."

"That's just inhumane," Veronica said.

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Laszlo spoke up. "So, uh, what kind of work do you do?"

'Oh, it's…complicated."

"But you've got to be some kind of genius or prodigy, right?"

Veronica wasn't sure about she should respond to that. "I mean, the feds don't recruit minors unless they're really good at something," Laszlo said. "What are you really good at?"

Veronica tried to think of a good answer. She couldn't ask him about the Intersect. Not here, not now. "Let's just say I'm a computer person."

Later on, Laszlo and Veronica were having a fun time at Starbucks.

"This is great," Veronica said. "I mean, just to be able to sit in a coffee shop and talk," she said, putting emphasis on the last word, "With somebody who knows what it's like to work for the CIA."

Laszlo slightly chuckled at that. "You know, if I had to do it all over again, I never would've gone to that mall."

"Are you talking about the mall here?"

Laszlo nodded. "I was eleven years old. An agent saw me playing Tetris at the arcade. He asked me if I could take all these tests. I passed them with flying colors and he offered to pay my way through school. My parents never knew what to do with a kid whose smarter than both of their brains combined, so they signed me over. That's when I became property of the United States government."

Veronica needed a moment to think about all of this. The government wanted him at the age of eleven? His parents signed him over? She knew that some "special" minors could get into government work with their parents' permission, but wow this was messed up.

She didn't know whether or not she should be proud that "special teens" could become agents without their parents' knowledge.

"Sweet story, huh?" Laszlo said, bringing Veronica out of her thoughts.

"I don't know what to say."

"It's ok," Laszlo said quickly. "It's not for everybody."

There was a moment of silence before Veronica received a text from Martha.

"Is that one of your handlers?" Laszlo asked.

"What? No, she's just a friend. Besides, what makes you think I have handlers?"

"All minors in the CIA receive handlers," Laszlo answered. "Look, whoever your handlers are, you can't tell them you saw me."

"What? Why?" Veronica was keeping this meeting a secret from her team, but only for the time being. She needed to know if she could trust Laszlo first. "They can help you. They're good people."

Laszlo laughed a little at that. "There's no such thing as 'good people' in this business," he said. "Don't believe me? Go home and search your room. See what kind of bugs your 'good' handlers planted," he said before leaning towards Veronica's ear. "From now on, you should trust them as much as they trust you."

"Noted," Veronica said, before she thought of a plan. "Do you want to meet here again, tomorrow?"

When Veronica got home, that night she investigated every nook and cranny of her house.

She found a bug in each and every room.

Under her parents bed? Check. The smoke detector? Yep. Her own bathroom?

Unfortunately, yes.

It was a good thing that one of her handlers just happened to live right across the street.

Veronica never rang a doorbell so intensely in her life.

"You rang?" Alex asked sarcastically once he opened the door.

"Care to explain this?!" Veronica yelled, holding up a bug in her hand.

"I think you already know."

"I can't believe this!" Veronica said. "You've been prying into my most private moments! Do you have any idea how violated I feel right now?!"

"You feel violated?!" Alex shot back. "My ears feel violated after listening to you and your boyfriend talk about sandworms for four hours! Seriously, who does that besides Lydia?!"

Veronica tried to hit him, but Alex restrained her. "Easy there, tiger," he said. "If it's any consolation, we don't watch any of your private moments. We're just looking out for you," Alex said, before he realized something. "How'd you find the surveillance, anyway?"

"Laszlo told me," Veronica said with a bit of venom in her mouth.

"What?! You contacted Laszlo and didn't tell me?!"

"I'm sorry, Alex. Did I violate your trust?"

The next day, Evan was refilling the Slurpee machine when a man approached him.

"H-hello s-sir, is there anything I c-can h-help you with?" Evan asked.

"You've got a second to talk, Agent Hansen?"

"You talked to your handlers, didn't you?" Laszlo asked Veronica at Starbucks.

"What makes you say that?"

"You seem quieter compared to yesterday."

"I only talked to one of them," Veronica said, to which Laszlo facepalmed. "I told him you were innocent, okay? And I think it's best if you turn yourself in. My team can help you."

"They framed me for murder. What's going to happen if I return? A slap on the wrist?" Laszlo asked sarcastically.

"So this guy just escaped?" Evan asked Bradley, the agent who walked into the 7/11.

"Look, we tried everything we could to prevent it."

"Why?" Evan asked, wondering if Veronica's assumptions were true.

"Do you really want a mentally unstable weapons designer running around Sherwood while he's off his meds?"

"Fair point," Evan said. "But how do you know all of this?"

Bradley looked slightly disappointed. "Laszlo was my asset. I recruited him at the mall here and he grew up under my wing. Now, I'm taking him back," he said.

Bradley looked Evan straight in the eye. "Look, I'm going to be frank with you. My team and I believe that Laszlo might be making a bomb."

Veronica's phone started to buzz while she was at Starbucks.

"Who is it?" Laszlo asked.

"Uh, it's just one of my handlers," Veronica replied, figuring that there was no point in lying to him.

"You've got to turn it off. Please, Veronica, if you turn me into your handlers, I'll be signing my death warrant," Laszlo pleaded. "Give me your watch."

"What? Why?"

"Give me your watch," Laszlo repeated, to which Veronica obeyed.

"I need to disable the transponder, and you should turn off your phone. We can't have them tracking us," Laszlo said as he went to work on the watch.

"You were right about the bugs," Veronica mentioned a few seconds later. "I don't even know what they did to my car."

"I've got a pretty good idea," Laszlo said. "I broke into it earlier and disabled the GPS."

Veronica was shocked. "How did you-," Veronica started, before realization kicked in. "You designed the GPS."

Laszlo chuckled. "Just think, Veronica, there is no one in the entire world who knows where we are."

Veronica felt her phone buzz in her pocket. "I just remembered that I need to go do some homework," she told Laszlo before leaving.

Once she got a few feet away from Starbucks, Veronica checked her phone. There was an abundance of missed calls and text messages, most of which were from Evan.

"Leave Laszlo now!" Evan said as soon as he picked up the phone.

"Why?" Veronica asked.

"I thought I told you to turn that off," said a familiar voice from behind.

Veronica ended the phone call and turned to look at Laszlo.

"You shouldn't have done that, Veronica," he said as he walked closer to her. He then put a gun to her stomach, hidden enough so that nobody else could see. "Now, leave your phone here, give me your car keys and let's motor."

"What's gonna happen to me?" Veronica asked once she got in the passenger seat of her car, Laszlo still holding his gun in place.

"You will witness my greatest achievement," he replied. "Oh, don't be so down about it. Why don't you open the glove box and look at some of my drawings to help pass the time?"

Veronica did as she was told. At first, she saw a drawing of flaming skulls connected by chains in a straight line. Once she turned it sideways, however, she got a flash.

A flash that showed the design matched that of the mall.

"Are you sure Veronica's not there?" Jeremy asked Lydia via earpiece.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I did find her phone though," she replied.

"Where else could she be?" Alex asked with a bit of frustration.

"The mall," Evan said with realization.

"What?" Jeremy asked.

"Laszlo's recruiter said that they met at the mall. That's got to be where Veronica and Laszlo are heading."

"You're sure about this?" Jeremy asked.

"Nope," Evan replied. "But it's the only option we've got."

Laszlo had Veronica tied up with duct tape while he set the bomb up, several yards away from the mall.

"It's too late now," Laszlo said as he finished up. "Where are your CIA friends going to be within the next thirty seconds?"

"Freeze!" Alex said as he and Lydia entered the scene.

Laszlo put his hands up. "Good luck disabling that," he said sarcastically to the agents.

"You get the bomb and I'll get Laszlo," Alex said quietly to Lydia.

She nodded before they went off to their respective tasks. Alex handcuffed Laszlo while Lydia approached the bomb.

"Which wire do I cut?!"

"Tell her!" Alex demanded to Laszlo.

"The red one," he replied.

"No! I've seen these types of bombs before, and believe me, it's the green one!" Jeremy said via earpiece.

Lydia cut the green piece, disabling the bomb with five seconds to spare.

"Ok, I just gave Laszlo to Bradley. Don't worry, he'll be rotting in prison for a long time," Alex said as he joined the rest of the team at Castle.

Everybody was relieved to hear that.

"And don't worry, Veronica, Jeremy and I can easily fix your watch and GPS," Evan said.

"Thanks," Veronica said. There was a moment of silence before she spoke up again. "Guys, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for not trusting you," Veronica told the team. "It's just that I finally thought I met someone who could relate to me, you know?"

"Oh, we know," Lydia said. "But we were all recruited as minors, so we can all relate" she added before looking at Alex. "Well, most of us can."

"Ha ha ha," Alex said sarcastically. "Laugh at the old man."

Veronica was surprised to hear her door bell ring later that night.

She was even more shocked to see JD on the front porch, flowers and chocolate in hand.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she repeated. "What's all of this?"

"It's my apology gift," JD said. "I've been thinking, and the way I acted around you the other night was unacceptable. You have a right to your own privacy."

"Well, uh, thank you," Veronica said, grabbing his gifts.

"So will you take me back?" JD asked, pleading with his eyes.

Veronica smacked her lips against his.

But in doing so, she noticed a particular item in her living room.

"Hey, you wanna know something that I learned today?" Veronica asked, to which JD nodded. "I learned that my neighbor, Mr. Hamilton, loves sandworms."

"Oh, really?!" JD asked, excited by this revelation. "I just love the way that-"

Needless to say, Alex took off his headset after that.

A/N: Thoughts? Any constructive criticism is welcome!