Chapter 22 - The Debrief

They were separated once they got to the ground floor reception area of the main building. The Saunders twins were whisked away by three agents from the Homeland branch - an older lady and two middle-aged male agents whom they seemed to have met before - while Gray was called away to coordinate the clean-up and to secure evidence.

The ambulance took Frank and Joe to the nearest hospital, the Hope Memorial where they got checked, scanned and treated - Frank with eight stitches on the cut he had on his forehead and Joe with a cast over his broken wrist to keep it immobilised. After three hours spent being poked, prodded and lectured by the doctors, they returned to Lincoln College with agent Halliday who was with them the entire time.

The behavioural analyst dropped them off at their dorm building and left them there, saying that Gray would drop by later to get their report. They both went up to their room and collapsed on their beds, exhausted from the day's events, and didn't wake up until later in the evening when they heard a knock on their door.

Joe woke up from deep slumber with a jerk at the sudden loud sound. Frank groaned and stretched across his bed to switch the small light on his side. Joe winced at the brightness in the darkened room when he heard the voice of the Network Agent.

"It's me, Gray," he announced. "I've got dinner. Open the door."

"Joe, please," Frank muttered from under the blankets where he had buried his head again after switching the light on. Joe let out a sigh and got off the bed with a grimace and a muttered curse. The painkillers hardly numbed the aches and pains he had all over his torso after being thrown like a rag doll. Opening the door, however, caused the mouthwatering smell of pizza to waft inside the room, reminding him how hungry he was. Joe grabbed the offering off of the spy's hands before the agent realised what happened and stepped aside to let him in.

"You boys alright?" Gray inquired politely, eyeing the Frank-shaped lump on the bed next to Joe's. He gestured to the agent to sit by the table and climbed back on his own bed to sit cross-legged. He opened the first box of the three he had liberated from Gray and started to devour the food. The spy stayed quiet, partly surprised and partly amused, letting him eat. Frank finally emerged from under the blankets when he was well on his way to finishing his third slice.

"You better have saved me some," his brother muttered threateningly before grabbing the water bottle on his bedside table to finish it in three long gulps. "Thanks for the dinner, Gray."

"You're welcome," he replied with a smile and took the box Joe generously passed towards him.

Frank glared at Joe pointedly until he got the last unopened box. There was a companionable silence while they all finished their dinners. Once they were done, Gray spoke. "You can start anytime now. I've got all night."

Joe exchanged a glance with his brother who shook his head with a snort. They knew that the Network agent was dying to learn about what happened all those hours ago. But they had spoken to both Temperance and Constance when they had made the calls before meeting Carl Winters. They knew exactly what they could tell the agent and what details they could keep to themselves, citing the classification of the Council.

"You need to find out who was dating Claire Stanford," Joe said, enjoying the way Gray's face twisted in confusion. "She apparently had a thing going with one of your team. There's a good chance that's how she got access to the heroin. We don't know why she overdosed on it, whether it was planned or by accident. You could even talk to her again, and might even get her to open up if you go and confront her about her boyfriend. So you can at least put the dean's concerns about banned substances to rest."

Grey blinked, his confusion turning to anger when he realised that he had to question his own team about gross misconduct. "Thank you," he said, grimacing. "That was an angle I never considered. That would explain how nothing turned up during the searches. I never had a reason to check our own rooms with the canine unit." Then he gave them both a meaningful look. "That's not exactly what I was hoping to learn. I'm more interested in the Phillips twins, Quentin twins, the two Anarchists and how Melvin Winters' body ended up on the rooftop along with you all."

"The Phillips twins, Sierra and Sienna, are at the root of most of the incidents that've been happening," Frank said quietly. "They were directly responsible for what happened to Carl Winters and Brandon Stuart."

"Although you might want to question Harry and Aline Fairweather about the attack on Melvin Winters," Joe added, remembering the hatred on Harry Fairweather's face when he ordered the rest of the group to resume the beating. He had experienced every bit of it with Melvin's spirit when he made contact. "They arranged the attack. Something to do with what Melvin said to Aline at some point. Also, there's a good chance the Homeland branch would want to talk to them as well."

Gray's gaze darted between the two of them, his expression varying from curiosity to frustration. "How did you know though?" he inquired with a frown. "What do you have to back these suspicions and accusations?"

"Nothing," Joe replied with a sideways grin. "But I'm sure Homeland security took the girls with them anyway. They'll probably send you a report too, saying that they've been handled."

"Yeah, but how did they do what you say they did?" the spy insisted, irritated. "You just told me Carl's suicide was murder. Brandon's self-mutilation was assault and Melvin's attack was arranged by two kids we never suspected."

"Sierra and Sienna have mind-controlling powers," Joe informed him calmly. "They have been bargaining with their patron for more power in exchange for sacrifices. We learned about Melvin's attack because Melvin's spirit kind of told us what happened."

The look on Gray's face was priceless. He looked like Joe had just slugged him in the face. He could see a multitude of thoughts and emotions exploding behind his eyes as he processed that. On the one hand, it sounded crazy - a flippant answer only a teenager with an overactive imagination would give him with tongue-in-cheek humour. Then, on the other hand, there was an entirely secretive branch that had successfully taken over the custody of the four twins before disappearing back to wherever they had come from. It also added to the inexplicable bad feeling Gray already had about the Saunders group, even if he didn't know the extent of their affinities. Joe was also pretty sure that he had a few members of his team who had absolutely no idea how they lost their weapons - the weapons that they recovered from the rooftop.

The worst thing for the spy was that he couldn't really confront them about more details than that. And he really couldn't put any of that in any official report. The only thing he could do was to make a note that the case had been handed over to a different branch and close it under a top-secret seal.

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, rubbing a hand roughly across his face, as if trying to physically wipe the jumbled mess in his mind. Joe looked at Frank, only to see his brother shrug at him.

"Why did Kent Rogers and Dave Larson bring the Quentin boys down?" Gray asked after a moment. "Why were they up there in the first place?"

"Because Sienna told them to." Frank shrugged again, making the agent grimace in frustration. "She and her sister were the reason they were up there in the first place. They were just following orders. Orders they couldn't really disobey."

"And Melvin's spirit?"

"That's another wholly convoluted thing, Gray," Joe said quietly, apologetically. "We're not trying to be difficult, but we know for a fact that you were told to leave the investigation to the other branch. All you need to know is that Constance and Temperance didn't do anything wrong. Their group is in the clear now. The troublemakers are in custody. You can tell the dean the same thing too."

"But that still leaves me with an unexplained dead body of one Melvin Winters."

"He was already dying. How he managed to leave the hospital is another story that's going to have to stay out of your official report," Joe continued patiently, feeling bad for the confused Network agent. "But there was no crime there, no one killed him today," at least, not anyone you could charge for homicide with. "He was already long gone."

"The porn-filming thing was not related to anything that's been happening around your group if that's any consolation," Frank added, blinking innocently. Joe had to look away to hide the grin that threatened to break out seeing Gray's extremely dumbfounded expression. "That was done on a wild dare." Frank rolled his eyes dramatically to effect.

Gray let out a loud sigh and slowly rose to his feet. It was finally obvious to him that he wasn't going to get anything more from either of them. Joe had a feeling maybe he didn't want to get into deeper details. He lived and operated in a treacherous enough world as it was.

"I was told to inform you that the Council will make contact with you at some point in the future," the spy said in a quiet tone. The look in his eyes was conflicted, almost worried. Joe turned to Frank and realised that his brother was thinking the same thing he was: they knew it was a possibility after what they did in front of the witnesses who were probably being interrogated right now in an undisclosed location under a lot of specialised protection.

"I don't know what you've got yourselves entangled in," he said before leaving. "But I hope for your sake that you know what you're doing."

Joe continued to stare at the closed door to their room long after the spy's departure. Frank was just as silent, lost in his own thoughts. Their status as Cailleach's agents was now a known fact by certain people. As Gray just warned, the consequences of being known were yet to be discovered.

But we hardly know what we're doing, Gray, Joe thought to himself, and that's the problem.

-oOo-

Supervisory agent Romero Ferguson stared through the one-way mirror at the blonde twenty-one-year-old being questioned by agent Reiner. The kid was frazzled, and his vigorous headshaking, hand waving and hysterical tone seemed genuine to Ferguson. His brother, Dylan Quentin was undergoing the same interrogation in the adjacent room with agent Roland. According to the latest report he had received, the twin's parents, deputy mayor Travis Quentin and his wife had already been approached by the Council regarding the situation at hand. That was a headache he was grateful to have been able to avoid. He had his hands full as it was.

"For the hundredth time, I don't know why Dylan and I were there," Darren Quentin exploded. "And I sure as hell don't know why Larson and Rogers were there. All I remember is seeing a text from Sienna, asking me and Dylan to come and meet them on the rooftop. We went there during lunch hour and then… I don't have a clue."

Reiner hardly even blinked at the youth's outburst. "When and how did you attack Saunders' security detail to acquire the guns you armed yourself with before you went up the rooftop?" she asked calmly.

"Jesus Christ, I don't know, lady, I don't remember holding a gun at all. That entire hour is a goddamn blank in my mind–"

Furguson sighed and turned away from the session. The interrogation that was happening in the other room was almost identical. The duo had no recollection of their involvement in the Soul-Sacrifice the Phillips twins had almost completed.

Soul-Sacrifice - a thrice-cursed ritual that had been banned for centuries, for a damn good reason, he shuddered. He did not want to even think about the consequences had they been able to go through with the entire thing. To imagine a world with Hecate running wild–

Before he could get lost in that particularly horrifying line of thought, the door to his left opened, admitting agent Leonard, who stuck his head in and called, "Silvia's here."

Ferguson left the room and followed the agent to the other side of the complex where the customised interrogation rooms were located. Sierra and Sienna Phillips had earned the residency in the highly warded and sound-proofed chambers due to their extremely dangerous affinities.

When he finally got there, he could see through the viewing window that Silvia Hawkins was already inside the first chamber. She had also arranged for both the girls to be seated together for the session. Pressing the button for the audio to be filtered in, he dragged a chair closer to the window and took a seat, knowing that this was where he was going to hear the most important and accurate version of events that had occurred.

"Sierra, Sienna, I'm Silvia Hawkins," the petite, white-haired and green-eyed consultant introduced herself, causing the twins to jerk as one. Even though she looked like a kind old lady in her late sixties, the power that radiated from her calm, even tone was unmistakable. "I'm here to ask you about what happened at Lincoln College today."

When the twins stayed silent, their gazes downcast, Silvia spoke again. "Before we talk about today's events, however, I would like to know exactly when you two started to bargain with Hecate."

Silvia Hawkins, gifted by Aletheia herself, was cursed. Or at least, that's how she preferred to refer to her special affinity. As a favoured child of the goddess of truth, Silvia was in a unique position to question the Phillips twins. Silvia's power invited the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There was nobody in this entire world who could tell a lie to consultant Hawkins. She was also highly introverted and positively hated interacting with people until it was absolutely necessary. Ferguson was grateful that she deemed this situation dire enough to leave her comfortable and deeply hidden abode to arrive and lend her assistance.

"Last Beltane," The twin to the left muttered quietly.

"What was the bargain you made?"

"Her blessing to reach the height of our power in exchange for preparing grounds for her transference to this world," the other twin mumbled.

"You mean, she was demanding a vessel?" Silvia's tone rose, utterly surprised.

Ferguson could relate to her reaction. The wars between the old gods and goddesses were nothing new. But this blatant attempt to invade this plane was something entirely unexpected, and too ambitious.

"Yes. three vessels," one of them admitted. "For her three aspects; The Maiden, Crone and the Mother."

"In other words, Constance, Temperance and Willow Saunders."

"Yes."

Silvia took a deep breath before asking the next question. "What exactly did Hecate command you to do?"

"She demanded unrest, paranoia, and blood sacrifice," said the twin to the left. "She needed her intended atmosphere riddled with grief, fear and bloodthirst."

It made sense. Ferguson had already talked to the Saunders twins before he had released them back to their dorm. The students were already unsettled after Carl Winter's supposed suicide. Then there had been that attack on his brother, sowing more unrest and paranoia among the kids.

"Tell me, Sienna, what did you do to heed these commands?"

"I offered Carl Winters as the blood sacrifice," Sienna admitted. "I planted suggestions in his subconsciousness, and I convinced him to kill himself."

"What else?"

"Brandon Stuart," she said. "He was bothering Constance and Temperance. I made him stab himself. It was the perfect setting to sow fear and paranoia among the others who witnessed the scene."

"Is that all?"

"I've also been planting suggestions in Constance and Temperance's minds," she closed her eyes, exhausted. But couldn't stop, not under Silvia's demanding influence. "We couldn't risk them finding out what Sierra and I were doing. We had to distract them from our activities, and then we had to keep them focused on the Castellanos twins."

"What about you, Sierra?"

"I convinced Aline and Harry Fairweather to arrange Melvin Winter's attack," Sierra, the other twin, said softly. "I was contributing to the fear factor And the blood thirst because the attack caused unrest and anger among the Anarchists."

"What else?"

"Claire Stanford. She was scared that she was pregnant. She really wasn't. I convinced her boyfriend to bring her drugs and made her think that she was taking abortion pills, not heroin."

"Is there anything else?" There was a sharp edge to Silvia's tone, and even Ferguson felt the hair on the nape of his neck stand up in reaction to her power.

"We've been adding to everyone's fears," Sienna blurted. "Everyone we've been talking to. Whenever somebody came to us about any concern or fear, we always added to their anxieties. That way, everyone was contributing to a very dark and miserable atmosphere."

"What about the Castellanos twins?"

Ferguson now knew that these were the two sons of the famous private detective, Fenton Hardy. He was also sure that the detective was not aware of his sons' abilities as a Shepherd and a Shield. Now, that was a whole other event he had to deal with when this investigation was over.

"They were needed to fix Willow's problem."

"What is Willow's problem?"

"She is incomplete. Her spirit was divided four years ago when she was involved in a car crash. One half of her soul roams while the other is trapped within her body. All three souls had to be whole before the goddess could accept her offerings and step in to fill the void inside their bodies."

"So what happened today, on the rooftop?"

"We gathered on the rooftop for the final ritual," Sierra said. "I convinced two agents from the Saunders' protection detail to give their weapons to Dylan and Darren. Then I invited Kent Rogers and Dave Larson, they were to be the first offering to the goddess after her transfer."

"Melvin Winters said he was also following the commands of the goddess," her sister joined in. "We believed him. He had proof. He took care of Frank and brought Joe up with Constance and Temperance. We got the girls into the soul-binding circle and their souls separated as the goddess said they would–"

"Willow was also trapped. But she wasn't all there. So we demanded Joe fix her. It was part of his duties after all. But then, he said Melvin wasn't Melvin," Sierra's expression turned into one of confusion as she recalled the incident. "And called out for a spirit–"

"Things went crazy then," Sienna said in a wobbly voice. Her face went pale and her eyes widened as if she was reliving a deeply disturbing memory. "Everything went so dark and scary," she said in a hollow voice. "The air became thick and full of despair and misery we could hardly breathe. The spirits started to fight and they were about to drag us all into the nether with them…"

"Then our wards went down and I still don't know how," Sierra started to sob. Her twin clutched her hand in a death grip and started to tremble. "That was when Frank somehow managed to barge into the middle of the chaos. We tried to get Dylan and Darrent to shoot them, but the Castellanos twins overpowered them and made us send them all down."

"Then what happened?" Silvia asked calmly, not even a little fazed by the distress her inquiries were causing.

Sienna looked at her teary-eyed sister before focusing on the consultant. "Not sure." she shook her head. "I was so scared. I've never felt anything like that in my life. My mind was a terrified mess. Everything around us was pitch black, we were trapped inside a hellish vortex with Frank and Joe–"

"The spirits were screaming and wailing," Sierra said when her sister couldn't continue. "I could hear those screams in my ears and in my mind. Those piercing wails hurt, like needles inside your brain. Then the boys were yelling, and I remember seeing the lightning flash, and then it was all gone."

"So the Shepherd sent the spirits back to where they belong?"

"Yes. I didn't see how," Sienna spoke up again. "It didn't even take that long, I don't think…When we looked up, Melvin and Carl were both gone, along with their blackness and their rage and their misery. Only Melvin's body remained. Then the agents showed up–"

Ferguson couldn't believe what he just heard. There were a lot of unexplained things in that account. How did Frank Hardy manage to cross a magical ward? How did Joe Hardy summon a spirit out of thin air? How did they manage to send those spirits back to nether when it wasn't the Samhain night just yet?

When they had shown up on top of the main building, the Saunders girls were a little shaky, but upright, with their souls firmly inside them, not floating around, detached. The spirit of Willow was nowhere to be seen. The binding circle was also completely nullified, all the blood magic that had been used to create it, burnt out of existence. This meant that the boys had somehow managed to banish the spirits and then rescue the girls from their predicaments by successfully dissolving magic taught to the Phillips twins by a goddess.

All Ferguson knew was that those were beyond the capabilities of a usual Shepherd/Shield pair.

But all those questions had to wait until they met the Hardys properly. An introduction was an event that involved proper protocols and traditions. He had to finalise his reports and submit them to the committee with regards to the girls' conduct first so that the next course of action - their punishment - could be determined. After all of that, though, he definitely had to make himself available for the upcoming introduction. Frank and Joe Hardy sounded like a very intriguing couple of boys he had to meet.