After Ari revealed that there were numerous parties in South Ossetia that wanted him dead, the back of the truck fell silent. They honestly shouldn't have been that surprised to discover that their mission to rescue Alex was increasingly difficult, yet it was still frustrating. They didn't even have weapons. Flying to Georgia then sneaking into South Ossetia was tricky enough with wanted fugitive Ari Tasarov's 'corpse'. The agents couldn't bring weapons with them as well. With the new threat that Ari's past dealings raised, they were sitting ducks.
At least until they reached a weapons cache Ryan had established for them Birkhoff had told Owen, Sean, and Nikita about it before they had left. Based on their position on the GPS, they were quickly approaching the location. Thank God. Once they were armed, they'd be able to handle the next curveball that came their way. Hopefully. Well, they'd at least be more prepared. Nikita was banking on that as she ordered Sean to follow Owen once they stopped, "That weapons cache Birkhoff mentioned is at a dead drop in the village nearby. Why don't you go with Owen, back him up?"
Sean opened his mouth as if to protest, but Nikita glared him down. She absolutely did not want to hear it. Sean and Owen had to work together when they rescued Alex. They had to start getting along then or else it'd be a disaster. Gathering the weapons they couldn't bring with them but had been hidden for them was a simple enough task for the two. They could learn to finally talk to one another as they walked. In the meantime, Nikita would stay with Ari, ensuring he didn't run/ it was the easier task of the two. At least there was no risk of punching, "Go. I'll be alright with Ari. And if you just talk to Owen, you'd be okay with him too."
"I'm not so sure about the latter," Ari muttered, making Sean snort in laughter. Nikita glared at the two men. Maybe she had to talk to Owen about what kind of effect he was having on the men in Division. She, Alex, and Sonya didn't think of him the same way Sean, Michael, Birkhoff, and Ari (though, there were extenuating circumstances there) did. Was Owen just acting like an entirely different person around them then around the women. Or were the men all idiots. Honestly, Nikita couldn't decide which was more likely.
"There's more to Owen than the two of you think," Nikita huffed. There had been countless times where, if it hadn't been for Owen, Nikita would've spiraled and lost herself in her crusade. She owed him a lot- despite everything he had done. Yet neither Sean nor Ari would listen to her. They were too busy snickering and rolling their eyes. Nikita had no problem kicking her brother out of the truck after that.
As Sean and Owen silently walked to the weapons cache- standing as far apart from one another as they could- Ari and Nikita were left completely alone. Nikita wasn't threatened by that fact. Ari was handcuffed, and if anything were to happen, she could more than take care of herself. Besides, since being captured, the former head of Gogol hadn't been a physical threat. He had simply been a menace in other ways. And one such way was saying things the team did not want to hear, "I cannot believe I am saying this. But Amanda was right. Your compassion will be your downfall."
"You of all people should know that Amanda's never right," Rolling her eyes, Nikita huffed once more. Amanda had been saying that loved ones were dangerous since Nikita had known her. When she had been a recruit, freshly cast aside by her mother, she had believed those lies. But since freeing herself of Division's manipulations, Nikita knew Amanda was only selling bullshit. Friends, family, loved ones, they were the ones who made the war and the crusade worth it. They were the ones worth fighting for- worth living more. Without them, Nikita would've been lost. Her compassion wasn't her downfall; it was the only thing keeping her aloft.
"She has her blind spots, yes. But she excels at ferreting out the weakness of people. With you, she's aiming directly for the heart. That shouldn't be a surprise to you," Ari ignored Nikita's annoyance and continued with his point. Amanda's attempts to kill Sean and the Pierce family name was all because of Nikita. She wanted the rogue to suffer in the most painful way she could imagine. Just because Nikita's brother was safely hidden away in Division didn't mean that the attacks would stop coming. Her loved ones were going to keep suffering, keep being threatened, until Amanda was finally dead.
"Only Amanda could use love and family as a weapon," Although Nikita responded dismissively, her anxiety spiked at the reminder that her loved ones were in constant danger. After Sean had been recruited (and after Nikita almost ran into her sisters) she used Division tech to constantly surveil Jill and Sandy. She knew Birkhoff knew about it, since one day the tech suddenly improved, but he didn't say anything about it. The team would do all they could to keep each other's loved ones safe from Amanda. No one had to ask or plead their case. They'd all fight to stop Amanda from hurting anyone else.
"As I recall, when you needed information on Saalim, you were quick to use my son's safety as leverage," Recalling what had occurred only a week prior, Ari reminded Nikita. She hadn't been explicit about her threat. Yet she had made it clear that if he hadn't helped her, she wouldn't stop Amanda from hunting down his son. She had tortured him for information by using his son as bait. Nikita didn't hurt Stefan; however, she still used him as a weapon.
Immediately shaking her head, Nikita tried to negate Ari. She wouldn't have hurt Stefan. Even if Ari hadn't told her about Saalim, she still would've ensured Amanda couldn't hurt the teenaged boy. No innocents could suffer under Amanda's wrath, no matter who they or their fathers were. That situation had been totally different than what Amanda was doing. Nikita would never act like her- ever, "Wait… That was… I wasn't trying to…"
"I don't need an explanation or an apology. I know the rules of the game," Ari waved off Nikita's attempted explanation. He had done far worse in his attempts to torture- he had once poisoned her (how she had survived that, he still didn't know). Nikita's threat towards Stefan was simply how the life of spies and assassins went. There were no silver linings; there were no good deeds. It was simply all about getting what they wanted in the moment, then dying, "This is the life we've chosen. That's how I know there will be no rescue for me."
"Ari, I'm not playing a game," Nikita argued. She wasn't lying, manipulating, selling some sort of agenda when she claimed that they were going to save Ari. Once Alex was safe and sound, the team was going back for Ari. Amanda wouldn't have the chance to hurt him or decrypt the black box. She was going to fail in more ways than one. Nikita was certain of it. The bitch wasn't going to claim any more victims. Enough people had died and suffered in a way that just seemed to go on for far too long.
"I've run the scenario in my head a hundred times. Tactically, it doesn't make sense. If I was in Ryan Fletcher's shoes, I wouldn't authorize the mission," Ari knew Nikita wasn't playing a game. However, Ryan Fletcher was. As the head of Division, he knew which lives were worth saving and which ones weren't. Alexandra Udinov was absolutely someone to fight for. But Ari, his last moments alive were going to be spent as a disposable pawn, "However you parse this, it all ends with my death."
Larissa's screams seemed to last forever. Alex attempted to break her bonds and reach for her. Except she couldn't even budge. All she could do was watch in horror as Amanda inflicted more and more pain on Larissa by applying harsh pressure to her gunshot wound. For a brief moment, Alex believed Larissa was going to die from the pain. But then the screams finally stopped. Alex refused to breathe a sigh of relief until after she checked on Larissa. Amanda blocked her view, however, and continued the torture with a cruel smirk, "Now, let's see. Are you going to be more compliant this time?"
"Who the fuck cares? I'm not gonna help you. Just let Larissa go," Alex pulled at her restraints and continued to try to catch sight of Larissa. Thankfully, Amanda moved just enough for her to see that her friend was alive. She was able to breathe in and out and get enough air into her lungs. Yet, that wouldn't be enough for long. Larissa was breathing erratically, shaking, sweating, groaning, and losing far too much blood. She wasn't going to last long, not without medical treatment. Alex had to get her out of there. She had to keep her promise and save her.
"Interesting. Here you are, fiercely protecting Division- the place you've hated for so long. How did that happen?" Amanda was making Alex's life extremely difficult, however. She drew her attention away from Larissa with an asinine question about her loyalty. It wasn't about Division; it was about the people inside of it. But, of course, Amanda didn't know anything about loyalty. All she knew was obsessions. And she was constantly obsessed with Nikita, "Oh, right, it was Nikita's idea. Did she even bother to ask you first?"
"No…" Alex knew better than to respond to Amanda, especially if it was about Nikita. But that answer just sort of slipped out. She was going to follow it up with the fact that Nikita didn't need to ask. She had known that Alex was with her until the end of the world. They had talked before about how she couldn't just sit on a beach. Alex had to be involved in the fight; she had to protect people from Division, like she had been doing from the very beginning. But that explanation got caught in her throat. She had proven Amanda correct with her barely state 'no', making the bitch grin in triumph.
"That's because Nikita doesn't know what I know. There's another Alex, one who doesn't take orders, one who gives them. I've seen her: the heir to the Zetrov throne," Amanda stated so proudly. It was as though she was bragging about the fact that not only was her two selves theory correct, but also that she knew more about the heir to Zetrov than anyone else. Both of those things were wrong, though. Alex didn't have a hidden self locked away, and she definitely wasn't an heir to a throne. She was just herself- someone Amanda could never understand.
"That was just a dream. One you created by pumping me full of drugs," Rolling her eyes, Alex reminded Amanda of when that supposed other version of herself had come out. After she had been kidnapped by Vlad and pumped full of drugs, Michael brought her back to Division where she was pumped full of more drugs in a form of detox. Although the detox had worked, she had been dragged through a vivid lucid dream in the process. The woman she had been running from and then encountered was a form of herself that she hadn't wanted to be. She still didn't want to be that woman. It wasn't real. Zetrov wasn't the life for her.
"No. It was your potential, one you could still fulfill," Amanda hadn't been convinced the woman Alex had seen was just a dream when she was in Division, and she refused to believe it was a dream then. Everything that the drug induced dream had conjured up was undoubtedly real to the bitch. Alex's subconscious wasn't just disjointed thoughts and feelings about her life, it was real. No wonder the bitch had pushed so hard for Alex to take over Zetrov; she thought she could make that drug-dream woman a reality.
Alex opened her mouth to refute Amanda, yet she soon found that she didn't have the energy to argue. Fighting with Amanda wasn't going to get her out of that room any sooner. And it definitely wouldn't bring any medical attention to Larissa. Alex should simply let the subject drop and conserve her energy for finding a way to save Larissa and bring her home. Amanda was a secondary concern. She could be brushed aside, "Why do you care, Amanda?"
A part of Alex wished had never asked that question. Hearing Percy's motive for doing his atrocious things had been awful enough when she had been discovered as a mole. Hearing what was going on in Amanda's mind would be so much worse. But her careless question had been asked, and she was going to hear a twisted, obsessive answer in return, "Because one day what you want and what Nikita wants will come into conflict, and I cannot wait to see the look on Nikita's face when it does."
Ari and Nikita fell into silence as Owen and Sean collected the weapons and returned to the truck. Hardly any words were expressed then either. The agents simply loaded up the weapons that had been grabbed, resumed their prior seats in the truck, then took off. There were too many things to think about, and not enough to discuss. Until Ari groaned in discomfort and held a sore spot at the base of his neck. That stole all the attention in the back of the truck- especially as the man who had withheld intensive torture complained, "Ugh, Amanda's bullet would be a welcome relief for this headache."
"Move your hand," Instantly, Nikita pulled Ari's hand off the back of his neck. Yes, the tetrodotoxin caused headaches after the havoc they wrecked on one's electrolytes, but not for as long as Ari suffered. Or as intensely. Or that pained his neck. Examining the base of his neck, however, Nikita quickly realized why he was complaining. There was a mark on his skin that Nikita had seen before. She had seen it on Alex, on Sonya, on countless Division recruits. She wasn't supposed to see it on anyone else. But there the surgical mark was on Ari Tasarov. She was so angry, she could hardly even seethe, "Son of a bitch!"
"What is it? What is it?" Ari asked, unable to hide the panic in his voice. Sean echoed the question as he recognized the pure rage on his sister's face. Nikita wasn't hiding the fact that something was wrong. Obviously, she had seen something terrible on the back of Ari's neck. Except, she didn't explain herself to the others. She just turned on her com and waited for it to connect with Ops.
"Birkhoff, there's a fucking killchip in Ari's head!" Nikita's shout made her brother just as livid as she was. And it froze Ari. The former head of Gogol had heard about Division's killchips from Amanda. He knew exactly what they could do, and the thought of that happening to him drained whatever fight was left in him. He slumped in his seat, knowing there was absolutely no escape for him that time. The Pierce siblings, on the other hand, shot to their feet in their rage and tried to find a solution- any solution- to the newest terror. Ari didn't see the point, however. He was already lost.
Birkhoff spluttered in response to Nikita's curse. Although he had suspected that Nikita would yell in understandable anger once she discovered the killchip, he had thought it'd be after the mission, not during. He was completely ill-prepared for a real response. He knew he had to keep her on mission- she couldn't derail with the killchip fact. Yet the cat was out of the bag. There was no going back. The best Birkhoff could do was try to temper the storm, "No, no, wait a minute. Wait… wait a minute."
"No. Don't bullshit me. You knew," Nikita snapped. Sean turned his com on as well so he could hear the whole conversation, but all the siblings heard was more stammering. Birkhoff was obviously hiding something, yet Nikita and Sean couldn't understand what. The hacker had been out of his mind with rage and worry when Sonya's killchip had been reactivated. So why was he trying to lie when another killchip was in play. Sure, Ari was a bastard. But that didn't equate to rationalizing a killchip. No one deserved to die that way. No one deserved to play God and kill someone that way. Division wasn't supposed to be Amanda and Percy, after all.
"That's crazy," Birkhoff attempted to deflect. Though, he did express what he thought about the situation. Ryan had crossed a line by putting a killchip in Ari Tasarov's head. There were a million different ways Ryan could've solved the black box problem than by inserting a killchip. Although it was impossible to change Nikita's mind, talking to her would've been a far better option than a killchip. But since the deed had been done, there was no going back. Birkhoff wished they could, yet there was no time travel yet. The most they could do was damage control. Or, more specifically, Michael could do damage control, "She knows."
Michael had just wandered over to Birkhoff's station when the hacker warned him about what was occurring. The agent was left baffled about how that could've been. Ari hadn't known about the killchip, so he couldn't have told Nikita. Sean didn't know either. The only one who knew the plan to kill Ari was Owen, and he was under strict orders not to tell Nikita. Since it was for her safety, he wouldn't say a word. So how in the hell had she known. Before either Birkhoff or Michael could find out, Nikita was yelling again, "Birkhoff, answer me!"
Fortunately, Birkhoff had the bright idea to keep Nikita's beratement on a private channel. The entirety of Division couldn't know that Ryan was using killchips on their enemies- especially the ones that had had killchips. That wouldn't go over well with some of them, and Division couldn't afford disagreement or dissent at the moment. The disagreement from Nikita was enough of a problem. Which was why, once Michael had his com in place, Birkhoff passed the problem off to him, "Yeah, Michael wants to talk to you."
"You put a killchip in Ari's head when the doctors put him under?" Nikita immediately yelled at her fiancé. She didn't think that he had actually been the one to put the killchip in Ari Tasarov's head; he had always expressed the same hatred for them as she did. However, as the head of agents, she felt like he had had some involvement. There was no way he hadn't known. And his knowledge made him complicit.
"I didn't. Ryan did," Michael knew better than to pass blame like that. Although it was vital information, it wasn't crucial at the moment. Michael mostly shared the fact then so his fiancée wouldn't be as upset with him. It was a tad cowardly, and it was more or less a moot point. But he wanted to place all the blame on Ryan. He had been the one to make the terrible decision that they all had to live with. He was the one who had gone too far. If Nikita was going to be pissed at anyone, it'd be him. He deserved to be yelled at, not Michael.
"Then get him on the line," Nikita's order left no room for argument. She had to berate Ryan immediately. And if she could figure out how to punch someone through a com, she'd do that too. Although he hadn't been in Division when killchips were used on targets and recruits, Ryan still knew the horrific destruction the devices caused. He had advocated to disable the killchips when he took over Division. He had helped to disable Alex's and Sonya's killchips. So why the hell would he turn around and use one on Ari. Had he really given up on finding another way. Did he not have hope. Was he too absorbed in Division.
Whereas Birkhoff considered calling Ryan into Ops (the absolute last thing he wanted to do was evoke Nikita's ire) Michael put a hold on the order. Nikita couldn't derail and begin berating Ryan. She was still on a mission to rescue Alex from Amanda. She couldn't lose focus or be too enveloped in her anger. No one would make it out alive if that happened. Michael had to calm Nikita down, get her to refocus, "Nikita, listen to me…"
"No, we agreed. The plan was to get Alex and recover Ari," Nikita wasn't in the mood to listen to whatever excuse Michael or Ryan had for the killchip. They had all agreed that after rescuing Alex, rescuing Ari was the next mission. Amanda wouldn't be able to open the black box if she didn't have him. It'd ruin her plans, and take the black box out of play once more. Also, if Ari was alive, he could actually face justice for his crimes and maybe help clear Sean's name for Kendrick's death. The former head of Gogol couldn't be assassinated with a killchip. He was an asshole, but he couldn't die. There were far better options.
"The plan is too risky. We could lose the black box. But more importantly, we could lose you," Michael put the focus on Nikita's life rather than Amanda and the black box. That was why he had agreed with Ryan to go along with the killchip plan despite his hatred for it. He couldn't risk his fiancée's life. If there was even the slightest chance that Nikita could die, then he'd never do it. He needed her alive and well more than anything else in the world. She had to have understood that. The killchip plan wasn't just to kill Ari, it was to knock the black box out of play and to save her. She had to be saved too.
"How are you gonna trigger it? There's no way to know from Ops when the trade for Alex is done. You need someone… Owen…" Ignoring Michael's pleas for her to think about herself, Nikita started to contemplate how the plan to use the killchip to kill Ari would work. Someone in the field would have to be the one to pull the trigger. Since Sean had had the same reaction to the killchip as her, it couldn't have been him. But it could've been the former Cleaner who hated Ari. Finally, Nikita began to see what the others did in Owen. Once she got him to stop the truck, she was going to kick his ass.