Two.

They offer her medals and money and missions and everything she once thought she'd ever want. They want her deep cover. Not dead, but very deep.

She accepts. Her first mission is a complicated web of lies. She thinks, I'm used to that.

She gets killed in the line of duty.

Annie tried to get comfortable underneath the thin blanket on the private jet Calder had somehow managed to acquire for her 19 hour flight and flipped through the file Calder had given her. He kindly lined up the background of the new cover as closely as possible to the former Jessica Matthews. He warned her that this was a sensitive mission, one that required the utmost concentration. After all, it was a deep cover operation that needed her to leave immediately.

Hanna Beckett. 34 year old English teacher from Denver, Colorado.

That is who she would be for the next however long it took for her to take down a Tanzanian terrorist who had a love for fine Italian wine, strong Cuban cigars, and pretty American women. Annie fit the bill for the pretty American woman.

Her cover was teaching English in Zanzibar. She tried to forget the news story about the two British teenagers who taught English in Zanzibar too. They had acid thrown in their faces. Her mission was to get close to Jabari Khalfan, a former soldier turned Islamic extremist all for eliminating infidels. He had reportedly joined the cause of Somalia-based Al-Shabaab that managed to secure a post in Zanzibar. She was to extract as much intel as possible from Khalfan that could help predict the next place of attack by Al-Shabaab and to eliminate any leaders she comes in contact with.

Annie took a gulp of bitter coffee directly from the glass carafe. It had long since gone cold, but the caffeine would help her stay awake. She needed to keep her demons at bay somehow. Coffee and throwing herself into a new mission would help her ignore the fact that she didn't bother to say goodbye to anyone. She shrugged. She was honored to even be considered for this mission so soon. It wasn't like the medal that some Director or another had handed her was going to do her any good. Plus, she'd been "dead" for months; a little while longer wouldn't do any harm.

She should have called Auggie while she still had the chance.

Auggie stormed in to Calder's office first thing Monday morning. He'd finally managed to hack the personnel files and read Annie's status.

OPERATIVE: ANNE CATHERINE WALKER.

STATUS: DECEASED. TRAITOR.

Still.

Three weeks ago, Calder and some of the higher ups had called an emergency meeting to brief the entire agency that Annie Walker was indeed alive and not a traitor. They should have updated her status by now. Unless they had an ulterior motive that didn't necessitate something as frivolous as changing a status. Like sending her on a dangerous mission undercover.

"I will ask you one more time: where did you send her, Calder?" Auggie's voice trembled in the attempt to keep control. It made the most sense. No one had seen her around the office, which could have been easily explained with her constantly being down in Polygraph. But after flirting with Sharon from Polygraph, Auggie found out Annie hadn't visited there even once.

"Anderson, stand down. I can't tell you. It's a deep cover mission. Ongoing," Calder sighed and ran his hand over his face. "Technically, she's not even CIA. Paperwork and all that." It sounded like a flimsy excuse even to him. The CIA was blatantly exploiting Annie Walker's deceased status for a deep cover mission, despite her not even being fully employed. It felt like a punch to Auggie's gut when he realized that she had been sent on another mission so soon after coming back from the dead.

"You're using her. After everything she did for this agency, you and all the suits on 7 are using her!" Auggie shouted in accusation. He began to pace the room.

"Yeah. Yeah, we are, because she is qualified for this mission and we need a blank slate operative. That is what Annie is. That is what Helen was. At least we know Annie's alive," Calder reasoned with an edge to his voice.

"Do you? When was the last time she made contact?" Auggie was scrambling now, trying to get any piece of information possible about Annie.

"Anderson, handle your own shit. This mission is largely above my pay grade. The only reason I was even slightly brought in was because I worked with her in Hong Kong. An unnamed Director wanted to make sure she was sane and secure after the Wilcox shit went down. She doesn't make contact with me."

"Who has her six in all this?" It was his last attempt. Auggie knew that Calder wouldn't, couldn't give any more information. If it was ordered by someone higher than Calder, Auggie probably wouldn't even be able to access the necessary files to find out where Annie is, if that was even in writing, no matter how great of a hacker he was.

Calder let out a deep breath again. "No one. She's entirely on her own." Auggie fought the urge to punch the man as he walked out of Calder's office.

"Please, please, please." That single word became Annie's ritualistic chant, sent to all of the gods above and below, that they would just kill her. Her pleas were as effective as usual, which meant they were absolutely useless.

Jabari Khalfan was a terrorist, just not in the way that the CIA intel originally believed. He was a hired torture expert for the highest bidder, which just so happened to be in Al-Shabaab the past few times. Originally from Zanziar but quite the world traveler, Khalfan loved the idea of having his expensive lifestyle funded by someone else. He had a skill set that would entice any terrorist organization.

When Hanna Beckett started asking too many questions, he dug deeper into her background. Khalfan sent out pictures to his network of established intelligence gatherers, so it didn't take too long to discover Hanna Beckett was not who she said she was. One of his trusted sources in the Netherlands heard wind of this American beauty being a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency.

That rumor alone was all it took to collapse the complicated web of lies that Annie had interwoven herself into. Days later, Annie was barely alive, let alone lucid when Khalfan broke out the video camera and the skinny blade, perfectly designed to slice open her pale skin.

There were few times that Auggie was thankful that he was blind. But when the room took in a collective gasp at the picture that was pulled up on the screen, he didn't feel like he was missing out on anything. Auggie heard someone run to the trashcan in the corner of the room and release the contents of his stomach. Rounds of "No fucking way" and "Oh, god" and "Is that real?" circled the room. Auggie had been briefed already, by none other than Calder Michaels, so all he could really do was sit there silently, pondering the cruelty of the universe.

Calder was guilt-ridden about telling the higher-ups that Annie was prepared for this mission. She might have been prepared to return to the CIA, but nothing could have prepared her for the hell that she faced in her last days on earth. Jabari Khalfan sent pictures, videos, proof of death. Calder offered to run the videos in private, but Auggie politely declined. He'd rather not remember Annie's voice as it sounded when she was being tortured to death.

The picture on the screen showed what was left of Operative Anne Catherine Walker, now actually deceased, all of her internal organs out for display. In this picture, Annie's eyes hadn't yet glazed over in death. They pleaded for the mercy and finality that took eternities to end her life.

OPERATIVE: ANNE CATHERINE WALKER.

STATUS: DECEASED. KILLED IN ACTION.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading and reviewing! I love to hear your thoughts.