Capture the Flag
Capture the Flag is about results. Each team member, weak or strong, must be used somehow, even if their only use is as bait. A captain has to work with what he's been given, and he has to win. That's all there is to it.
Team members get lost; it's impossible not to feel responsible.
She's one of the strong ones, the ones he puts on the front lines, even if it means risking a sacrifice. He goes home at night, and he can't sleep for thinking about the flag—the capture—and that's what gives him the strength to get a small girl with blonde hair and eager eyes out of a class she really should be in. The problem is, once there's only a disembodied voice and a cold arm left of her, he doesn't see the flag any more in his waking nightmares. He just sees her face. He tells himself he did what he had to do, but he isn't sure.
That's why he can't bear to do it to the Empath, not at first. He's protective, in his own way. But then he catches the scent of victory in the distance. After all, he's a captain, first and foremost. He does what captains do, and he lets the man with the haunted eyes go much, much further than he ever should have. He doesn't realize until it's far too late.
He tries to fix his mistake—that's what captains do when things go wrong in the middle of a game. He tells himself the tall, cold doctor is on the team, but he's not convinced. He can read people; he's good at it. There's something not quite right, something like an animal in those intelligent eyes. Still, he's good for the disintegrating asset.
Animalistic—that's what the red-haired woman is, too. She's out for herself, nothing more, nothing less. But he didn't become captain for nothing, and he can use anyone to their full potential, even if they don't realize it, even if all they have to offer is a poison pen. All that matters is that he gets his flag; he doesn't care whose hands close around it first.
He also doesn't care who he hurts. That's not quite true. He cares, but caring can't affect the job. If he has to break hearts to keep his team intact, he will. It's hard to convince himself of that when the eyes of his favorite subordinate are filled with angry tears and he senses that he's lost her respect forever. Sometimes the flag—hardly seems worth it.