Team Fortress 2 and its characters belong to Valve. Most of this stuff remains canon; teams are portrayed in a more realistic manner (or as realistic as you can get with a game like this) while trying to stay true to the personalities of the characters involved. Have fun reading or simply close out of it if you don't.

Cheers.

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"VHAT DO YOU MEAN HE IS MISSING?!?!"

The Sniper arched his shoulders with a grimace, leaning back as though trying to escape the burning gaze of the hot-tempered Medic in front of him while a Pyro and an Engineer eased the body of a dead Soldier onto a sheet behind him and prepared to carry it to the infirmary.

They'd all gathered in the Blu Spy's dorm room a few minutes ago at the Sniper's worried request, waiting on the Aussie's report after seeing him running off down the hallway holding onto his hat.

Apparently he'd been looking for the Blu Spy who had clearly escaped his room, the evidence of such now being covered over with the sheet and carried away. The look of dismay on the hunter's face made it quite clear that he'd found nothing, "Well look.. he can't have gone fah'. ..Oye mate, no one was supposed to come in this room."

"Vhell somebody did, Dummkopf!" snapped the Medic as he stomped forward to invade the Sniper's personal space.

He swallowed with mild nerve, forced to step even closer to the enraged German as the two men behind him requested more space to clear the doorway. Tapping his fingertips against his side, he ground his teeth together and tried to think quickly.

"Oy told a few people to keep their eyes peeled, mate. Oy.. Oy'll go looking again until 'e's found, aw'right?"

The Medic advanced even further, frowning deeply and narrowing those icy eyes at him as he slowly lifted his right hand and poked the Aussie in the chest. Hard.

"You go and find him," he whispered quietly.. "Und dann? YOU VHILL KILL HIM!"

The Sniper flinched under the sudden onslaught of loud noise, watching the physician storm from the room and blaze a trail up the hallway with his rigid footsteps. He inwardly cursed himself as he too cleared the premises.

-It's my fault. Oy should have put out a notice to keep everyone away and Oy didn't. Should have.. Damn it, why was he even in there? They know he's my damn prisoner. I told them not to go in there without my say. Damn it. Should have put up a sign or something..-

His own thoughts tormented him as he sneered and tore the Kukri from his back.

The Red base, though large, was the only one left with provisions. With nothing but desert for miles in either direction, he prayed the Blu Spy wasn't stupid enough to try and leave. No, no.. He'd stay nearby.. He'd stay and cause as much damage as possible with the end goal of moving with them when the trains came in for transport. That's what a Spy would do, right? Always thinking ahead.. just like him.

He passed under a ventilation shaft, unaware that he was being watched.

It went without consequence. The Sniper continued stalking up the hall and his secret observer merely leaned back away from the grate and took a long drag of his pilfered cigar. Damn did it taste good..

Of the provisions he had been given while in custody, smokes had not been among them. He longed for that gentle burn, that heart-warming heat and the taste of smoke on his tongue. But most of all? He longed for a set of calm nerves to overtake the jittery mess that had caused him to attack in such a sloppy, panicked fashion. He had it now in the darkness of that shaft, but he knew that even the best cigars wouldn't be enough to sustain him. What's more, they would not protect him from the bullets of the Reds.

-Ah, Monsieur Sniper..- he thought, eyes sliding shut as he leaned against the chilled metal. -Zuch a fool. You could have been rid of me when you had a chance, non? Zhere are no more prisoners here. I am all zhat is left..- His eyes opened, their honey brown hue subdued in the paltry light filtering in from the grate. Yes.. he was the last of the Blus. He'd been watching the halls since morning, waiting to see or hear of anything that might tell him of the Blu's status. It came in the form of a Scout yakking it up with a Pyro about how 'those Blu bastids were really gonna get it back at HQ'.

He glanced down at the cigar in his hand, smiling with renewed confidence as he tucked it between his lips and began to crawl down the length of the vent with a pace of relaxation. Next stop? The briefing room..

"I tell you, zhis is a sham! A detour!" the short Spy, now bearing a scarred cheek due to the Medic's insistence, shouted. He threw the laminated map down on the table and gestured around with his cigarette, "Look here.. Zhis part, here.." The remaining two Spies leaned forward to look, one being the Sniper's friend. "You see? Zhey have purposefully left zhe necessary bits untouched. Zheese was deliberately left for us in zhe hope zhat we would find and become misguided by it."

"Is eet impossible for zhem to simply have been stupid?" asked the many-cigged Spy -- he never could just smoke one at a time.

"Haw.." the Sniper's friend chimed, gloved hand put forward to snap up the map, "Now now.. Let us see what zhis map eez actually directing of to.. North of here. What eez there, anyway?"

The short Spy decided to humor the request, moving to the wall and pulling down a retractable area map as he puffed at his cigarette and took to inspecting it. "Well.."

"What?"

"Look. North eez a civilian territory," the short Spy concluded, looking back at his colleagues with a frown, "Zhey are dirty, but I do not zhink zhey would dare to base in zuch an area."

The Sniper's friend stood, rubbing his jaw line and joining the shorter man as he inspected the map. "Here," he said, reaching out to tap at the river with his index finger and drag it along its path, "Follow zhis. What do you see?"

"Zhere is nozhing out South."

"Oui," he said, sounding satisfied.

The third Spy could be heard getting up from his chair and adjusting all three of his cigarettes separately as he walked over, "Well?"

The Sniper's friend reached over to steal one of the numerous smoke machines -- it was characteristic of him to be so bold and the other Spies were rather used to it by now. It didn't keep the man of many cigarettes from frowning however..

"Jhentlemen? Zhink, if you will.. who made zhis map for us?"

The short Spy looked thoughtful, "Zhe government, I assume?"

"Which government?"

The multitasking Spy bent down to look at the copyright, "China."

"I highly doubt zhat," the Sniper's friend scoffed as he tapped off a bit of ash.

Brow furrowed with concern, the shorter Spy folded his arms and shrugged, "Well? Are you going somewhere with zhis?"

"Zhis map eez incorrect, Messieurs."

"Based on..?"

"Based on zhe fact zhat we have never been South, zhat it follows zhe river, zhat I know for a fact zhat zhe train tracks point Southwest, and zhat we are not in China by any means."

Silence swept between the other Spies as they exchanged long faces and puffs of smoke as if by Morse code.

"Zhis map is incorrect."

"Most definitely."

The Sniper's friend smiled and headed for the door as he shook his head, "Well.. I will go and see if our envoy has yet returned. Speak with zhe Soldiers.. No doubt zhey will order a scouting party right away to determine where we should go."

All in agreement, the Spies gathered up their papers and filed out of the room. The chairs were pushed in, the doors were locked, and the smoke slowly began to fade from the air. It wasn't until the automatic lighting shut down that the screws on the ventilation grate above the briefing table began to unscrew.

One by one they turned loose and fell to the tabletop below. The lights wouldn't come back on -- he assumed correctly that they operated by a timer system rather than motion to conserve electricity -- The Blus had operated similarly. And so, navigating by the light coming in under the door, he slowly lowered his slim body from the vent and gently pressed the toes of his shoes down on the tabletop. His heels were soon to follow, clicking gently against the floor as he stepped down from the table and ducked low.

From there he got right to work, using his stolen key card and a bit of hacking to gain access to the large safe which sat bolted to the far end of the room.

In utter silence, he sat and read whatever he could find. Supply manifests, building blueprints, shift schedules, body counts.. It looked like the Reds were even planning a rush on the Blu base. He smiled bitterly, knowing now that that plan may have already come to pass. But more importantly, he found something locked among the documents. A small, cherry wood box which he opened rather violently with the heel of his shoe.

It cracked noisily, causing him to hesitate behind a chair for a few moments on the off chance that someone outside had heard him.

That not being the case, his eyes fell back to the box as he opened it gingerly and smirked, 'Haw, haw, haw.."

His gloved fingertips danced over not one, but three Cloak & Daggers. One was obviously damaged and in need of repair -- he immediately recognized it as his own. But the others? He lifted them from the box, testing them after assuring they weren't rigged to explode. Huh.. They must have been collected off the bodies of fallen Spies -- either that or they were simply back-ups.

And so it went that by the time the grate slid precariously unscrewed back over the hole in the vent, the Blu Spy toted a Cloak & Dagger on either wrist and an excited grin on his face. The room was left just as he'd found it, the cherry box back inside the safe (albeit damaged) and the lights still off. The only indication that he'd been there at all was a cigar purposefully snuffed through the forehead of a picture of the Sniper from his Blu days.

Oh yes, he knew all about that now.

He knew about the Sniper, he knew about the Tentaspy -- he knew everything the Reds did and, perhaps, more..