Chapter 2

Rachel's Point of View

"Look at you, all grown up, legs up to here, drinking champagne," Chad chuckled as he and I walked out onto the balcony, side by side. We were giving our parents the impression that we were old friends, which in a sense was correct. That noun, now at least, was not the correct way to describe our relationship. "I can still remember when you were still a rookie, so eager, so easy to please - remember that Rachel?"

I growled very quietly and tipped my champagne glass back and consumed all of the contents in one, hate filled, swallow. There were some things that I would have liked to have forgotten from those years in the Kids Next Door, and most, if not all, of those things were because of him. I wanted to forget the fact that he taught me everything I knew, and I wanted to forget the indescribable ways he affected me.

That was not going to be easy when I realized the full scope.

Chad was the reason I wanted to become an operative for the Kids Next Door, he was the reason that I joined KND Intelligence and became a spy, and he was also the reason I took a desk job on the Moon Base. What stung most of all was that he was also the reason that I became the leader of the entire organization. I wasn't ready, I hadn't been trained for it, and when I went up there, I didn't expect it.

"I remember," I answered his rhetorical question as I looked down at the lights of the city below. "I remember how you pretended to betray every single oath that you took. I also remember that you didn't even have the courage to tell me! You left me with the check! Youleft me, on my own, to put out the fires you started!"

I wasn't even going to look him in the eye, because I knew that if he could, he could make me forget about all of that. Chad had that very unique ability to charm the birds out of the trees, and if I looked into his eyes long enough, he would be able to do it to me too. I didn't want to let go of the hurt, anger, betrayal and sadness that he had left me with it. The fact of the matter was that it kept me going when I felt like giving up, all of the years - it had never, ever failed, ever.

"Would you have preferred things to be different? If you could, would go back in time and make sure that I arranged it so Uno could have replaced me?" His voice had quieted down and had changed tone from his mocking one, but I still was not going to look at him. He did not deserve to be looked upon, the damned coward.

"You had nothing to do with me being selected," I answered his question with a heavy sigh, while simultaneously trying to fight back tears. It was, in retrospect, a stupid thing to cry about. I couldn't help it though, this was the very first time that I had been alone with him since those days, and it was the first time I had been able to confront him about it too. Watershed moments typically ended up like this.

"Please," I heard Chad scoff. "You were made Supreme Leader because I made it happen. Not due to any direct action, but because I knew that I was about to have to go undercover, I needed someone that I knew was capable, someone I trusted."

That drew my eyes back onto him, and I sneered derisively at him, "Trust?"

"Yes, I trust you Rachel, I always have," He nodded, and I would be kidding myself if I didn't think that it looked genuine. "Yes, I might have looked at Uno, but if there was one thing that I knew at the time, it was that Nigel Uno was better served in his sector. You were more qualified to lead the organization as a whole."

I felt anger rise within me, and in my anger, I grabbed my champagne glass and threw it off of the balcony. Ignoring his look, I put my hands on my hips in an effort to keep them from slapping him, "If you trusted me, why didn't you tell me?!"

"I couldn't tell anyone," Chad answered - his eyes glistening.

"You could have told me! I knew about the program! I knew that it existed, I didn't know who the operatives were directly, but I knew that it was there," I advanced on him and I derived a great deal of satisfaction when he began to back up. "I trusted you! There were two people in the Kids Next Door that I trusted with my life, one of them isn't here right now, and the other is, or should I say was, you."

Chad's blonde hair shifted slightly in the wind as we approached the south end of the long balcony. That didn't stop me though, that didn't stop my anger from rising with every syllable and it certainly didn't stop me from poking him in the chest as I kept letting it all out. Years, and years, and years of anger was pouring out of me.

"And I could have forgotten all of the other bullshit, all of it – if you had just told me, if you had just demonstrated that I meant more to you than just being a pawn in your game." I stopped when he stopped, evidently blocked by the balcony railing itself – and I made it a point to get into his face. "That's why I find it so ironic that you want to talk about trust, and that is why I despise the ground you walk on!"

I stepped back from him slightly, ignoring his alarmed, and distinctly hurt expression, and forced myself back into the mold. The mold that my parents had been trying to cram me into since I was born, the mold that Chad had crammed me into when he proved that I was nothing him, a very cool, calm and collected leader.

"Now, you obviously didn't come back here to catch up, because even you are not stupid enough to think that I would have been nice to you, after all that you and I have been through," I narrowed my eyes at him and folded my arms over my chest. "Why are you here? Do I have new orders? Or are you here to annoy me?"

"Rach, I…" Chad began and I felt my indignation rise again.

"Don't you dare call me that, you lost that privilege when you decided to try and hurl the Moon Base into the sun upon your retirement, with me in it no less," I held up a finger to him, trying to ignore the fact that I was more annoyed with that last part than the other. The fact that he had tried to kill me was unforgivable, always.

"That was Cree that did that! I tr-…" Chad raised his voice in protest.

"I don't give a damn if it was Santa Claus," I sharply replied, putting my hands back onto my hips. "Now, say what it is you had to say and get the fuck out!"

I had suffered his presence long enough, and the more that I was subjected to his repulsive personality, the more I would lose control. I needed him to get out of here, I was barely hanging on with being back home and being around my overbearing parents. I wasn't going to let him make me loose it in front of them.

"You've been recalled," Chad blinked suddenly and reached down into the interior pocket of his blazer. When his hand came up, he had a flash drive in his hand, and with great reluctance, I took it. "Command is calling all of us back to our home sectors, they've received some intelligence and they want all of us in position."

This program that Chad and I were operatives of, was something that was one of the deepest secrets of the Kids Next Door. They only active member of the Kids Next Door that knew our existence was the Supreme Leader, all other operatives, if the knew who we were, believed that we were decommissioned. Even the operatives of the organization, such as myself and Chad, had very little knowledge of her fellow operatives. I only knew that three other people in the organization.

One of them was Chad, the other was Numbuh 100 –and the third was Numbuh 9.

Taking it, I looked closely and saw the seal of the Supreme Leader imprinted onto the flash drive and scowled. When command wanted to contact us, they usually made a drop in a predesignated drop site, and only than would we have our orders.

"Why am I getting this from you?" I looked back up to Chad's handsome face. "And furthermore, why do you know where my drop-site is and I don't know yours?"

"That would be telling toots, and you know I like my secrets. Why I gave this to you?I was on my way home, so I thought I would do you a little favor," He grinned and placed both of his hands in the pockets of his slacks. "Maurice is on his way back as well, Max is heading home to Dallas – something big is coming Rachel."

I groaned and shook my head in defeat, "They're going to kill me."

"Who?" Chad replied.

"My parents," I answered – I suppose that I was so upset that I was willing to forget that this was Chad I was speaking to. "The only reason I even went to college was because that's where command wanted me there. Daddy will be so disappointed with me, and he'll give me that goddamned look – and Mother, she'll nag me about it until I'm her age. They're both expecting me to go back there."

"Since when did you ever do what adults wanted you to do?" Chad replied wryly.

I shot him a withering glare, "Has it ever occurred to you that we're adults?"

"In age maybe," Chad sighed wearily, but nodded all of the same. "However, age doesn't mean that you have to grow up, it doesn't mean that you have to stop being a kid. I always said I'd give my life for the Kids Next Door, and I meant it."

He was right.

And I was aware of that oath that he took.

I took it as well, in part because of the fact that Chad had done it too.

"Aren't your parents really rich?" His seemingly off-topic question annoyed me.

I nodded in irritation, "Your point?"

"Don't you have a trust fund?" Chad narrowed his eyes – and my own eyes slowly began to wide as what he was alluding to occurred to me. "Tap into your trust fund, buy yourself a nice little house on the outskirts of town, take the phone off of the hook and don't talk to your parents. You gave your loyalty to the Kids Next Door for life when you joined our organization, do not forget your priorities to us, Rach."

Looking away from him, I nodded faintly.

Most KND Operatives gave their oaths up when they were decommissioned, but we didn't have that luxury. We signed up to join a team that would fight under the Kids Next Door banner for life – and all other priorities were put aside for that team.

"Go home, read the briefing on the flash drive, and stand by for your orders," Chad whispered into my ear as he pushed himself off of the railing of the railing and adjusted his suit. "I'll be in touch with you, it'll be so nice to work together again."

I turned and frowned at him, "What if I need to contact you?"

"I'm staying with my parents for the moment," Chad chuckled and flashed me a blinding smile. "And I know that you know where to find them, just go there. Don't worry about them attacking you, they're retired and far too old to give a damn."

I watched, slightly mesmerized, as Chad adjusted his tie, took a deep breath in and strolled back into the ballroom.

It was vague.

I did not like vague.

The Kids Next Door Intergalactic Monitoring Stations had picked up something very strange coming from space. Experts were unsure of what was going on, but they hypothesized that it was weapons fire, and because of that, they had advised the Supreme Leader to put all operatives, in all sectors, on alert. Anything big enough, and close enough, for us to detect on the moon was something that was alarming.

Evidently, when the Supreme Leader had placed all operatives on alert, he had done the same thing with the Teens Next Door and us. His classified brief to all of us indicated that all of the adult operatives were now moving back to their home sectors. I didn't know how it was affecting lives, other than my own, but I could guess – I was only glad that I did not have strong dies that would be hard to cut.

Considering that this organization was put in place before the rise of the phenomenon of the non-decommissioned teenager joining forces with adults, it was safe to assume that much older people were in it too. How old? I couldn't say, but I knew that if this order was going out to all adult operatives, than they would obey.

Our first loyalty was to the Kids Next Door, and when they ordered us to move.

We moved.

It was a simple as that.

There would eventually come a day where I could have a husband and children of my own, and even then, I would obey the orders of command.

Chad's Point of View

Rachel would be every part of the consummate professional that she always was.

That was why I had always placed my faith in her, because she was the best and if there was anyone that I could trust, it would be her. The orders from The Supreme Commander were nothing too drastic, only to move back to our home sectors, hold position and wait. That would be simple enough for the former spymaster to obey.

"Do you trust her?" Numbuh Infinity questioned me.

Standing out on the back porch of my parents house, I nodded slightly, "I do trust her, she'll play her part well, and when the time comes, she'll be there with us."

"Will Numbuh One trust her as well?" Infinity was far too paranoid, but I suppose that he had to be in his line of work and in his position as liaison for the others.

I scoffed at the man and turned back to observe the clear night sky, "If there is anything that I expect from Nigel Uno, it is complete and total loyalty to his beloved Supreme Leader. The problem is he'll have to deal with me, he will not trust me."

Deep down, I knew that Nigel would obey the two of us – he may have trusted Rachel implicitly and hated my guts, but he knew the truth. He knew that both Rachel and I only had the best interests in mind when it came to the Kids Next Door, and if we gave him an order, he would follow it. The only thing that Infinity should have been worried about was the friction that Uno would have with me.

"He will do what is expected of him," Infinity rebuked.

I shrugged slightly, I did not expect much, "Whatever you say."

"Have faith Numbuh 274, we will triumph over the coming danger," Infinity's voice seemed airy, and despite the fact that he had not even bothered to try and tell me what this danger was, I couldn't help but agree with him. "We will if you work well."

When did I never work well?