The language mashup will appear in the next chapter so thanx for offering all your help again, guys! (: It's been so nice PMing those of you one-on-one! Check ur inboxes for my last replies! And to everyone else, thanx as always for enjoying the ride. Now good luck – you're gonna need it. *Note: You guys are lucky! I ALMOST went abroad for a development exchange program this month, but it's been bumped to next year!

Jack's breath fogged up his vision as they all crept together slowly toward the computer, wary of the yellow and bright lights that twinkled underneath.

When Aster neared it first he set straight to work looking around it while Jack and Tooth stood idly by. They weren't sure what to do.

"Why would this be here?" Jack murmured as his expression grew dark.

"H-How old is this thing?" Tooth muttered. She swept her finger across the top to catch dirt and grimaced when it coated her glove.

"Maybe a couple years but g–"Aster stopped gripping the motherboard and tilted it back into place. With his hand splayed over the top of it, he looked up.

Jack and Tooth froze at his shocked expression.

"What?" the princess asked nervously but Aster found it hard to look her (and even Jack) in the eye. So he looked down at a spot behind them – but they noticed his green eyes were large and in disbelief.

"This hard drive, it..."

Jack took a step forward.

"What's wrong with it?"

"This system it's...it's at least over ten years old," he finally mustered and looked up at him. Tooth furrowed both her eyebrows.

"Why?" she asked but her question was more of a figurative that everyone was thinking. The boys didn't need (or want) to answer.

"I've seen these models before, heavy build and outdated but they pack a punch. Most crime lords and drug distributors have them on standby. You know that right, Jack?"

And the brunette nodded. He moved around Tooth slightly to lean down and check the external appliance too.

"Can't remember from my days as an agent. But yeah, I've seen them recently," he whispered bitterly – his mind instantly went to Pitch's warehouse, the computer back at the Leprechaun's Den, and the other lowlife criminal rings he poked around in during the past months.

He tightened his glove subconsciously on his LX rod.

"But why would one be down here?"

He didn't notice that when he gritted his teeth, Aster did the same. The two were shooting the PC a dark glower.

"Dunno...but that screen is startin' to freak me the hell out."

"You gonna check the OS?"

"Yeah mate, help me find the processor..."

As they continued to mumble to themselves, Toothiana blew a cold breath from her nose. She shivered painfully when the cold bristled inside her lungs until she decided she needed to move.

'Keep warm...just like Jack said.' And her heart fluttered a bit in her chest. 'Oh god, not now.'

So Tooth stepped aside and gave them room while she waited. She then lifted herself on her toes and dropped down anxiously but after doing it several times, she stopped. It only made her anxiety worse since the heel of her boots echoed around the room.

It was still cold and dark and with every glance it seemed to become more menacing. Why were there still computer screens left...yet no other piece of furniture or object in sight? Everything else that might've been there was gone but to purposely leave this creepy reminder of the scientists and spies' work felt like a huge no-no.

The princess bit her lip and decided to edge closer to the computer. The screen was still bright and blank like a dormant television.

She pursed her lips. Why would someone deliberately leave on just one computer in an abandoned facility, miles underground? Something was wrong, something was–

Tooth blinked.

She noticed the keyboard of the computer sitting under the monitor in semi-darkness. With a quick glance at the two mumbling spies, Tooth pushed her hair behind her ear and peeked closer at it.

"What the..." she whispered to herself.

The red keyboard looked normal from far away, but when she shone her light on it and glared at the keys, she realised...it was in another language.

Tooth tilted her head.

She'd never seen symbols like those before. 'Is it Russian?'

But the more she looked, the more she realised it couldn't be. Sure, some letters looked round and sharp like Cyrillic but the rest were wispy and jagged like clouds and lightning.

Was it the same language in that strange tongue Jack spoke in just minutes earlier? She remembered how rich his tone sounded. It was almost gentle compared to when he spoke in Russian...but was that how you read and said the language? It made her scared – but after two nervous blinks, she swallowed the nausea down again.

Toothiana's weird ability to translate any language kicked in and a second later, a light went off in her head. Tooth smacked her lips and touched the keyboard.

"I wonder..."

She had no clue what she was doing or what would happen. But seeing as one button said 'resume' in that squiggly, Slavic text, she figured she'd give it a shot.

With a twitchy finger, she pressed the red key.

The screen flickered and Jack caught it in the corner of his eye.

His eyes widened.

"What're you doing?" he hissed and a second later, Jack's hand was gently grabbing Tooth's arm. "Did something happen?!"

"No!" Tooth shook her head, "I just...turned it on again."

Aster pulled his head up at that.

"You did?" he mumbled hopefully and a second later, he moved away from the hard drive and sat in the chair in front of the screen. The computer did nothing but blink for a few seconds while they all waited.

Aster thought it would lock down again.

Jack expected it to explode.

Tooth assumed it would send them to a homepage with all the organization's info on it.

But finally, when the monitor lit up again, it proved all of them wrong.

On the screen was a readout that was still active. It showed pictures and a short command next to each of their statuses.

Faces...

A long list with the faces of people, serious and sharp as they stared back.

And it was labelled something.

K.O.S.

Jack blinked several times then crossed his arms.

"What the hell?" Aster mumbled and Tooth's mouth fell open. She couldn't stop herself from leaning down and pressing the down button frantically. Jack and Aster didn't protest even when she started to whisper under her breath. The cold swept into her throat and she coughed a little.

"W-Who are these people? And what's a KOS?" she said, so afraid under her skin. "H. Titanosomos, L. Grimm...P. Piper, M. Hatter, S. White–"

"*panting*...'ite!... gah!"

Jack took a sharp inhale.

"...AGAIN! Punch it! Argh! Speed 19–Come on, FASTER AGENT!"

When the memory stopped, he shook his head.

The voices still echoed with Tooth's and he was ashamed to admit that he was starting to hate them more than he wanted them. Jack blinked several times and looked around the dark for a second.

"...newest missi–JACK!"

'Not now!' he cried in his head. 'Don't come now!'

Tooth kept reading, fleeting desperately through last names and aliases. It was so weird, these people all looked so ordinary. Everything from their styles, their dull expressions, and their dark clothes made her a little disappointed. Where these GAURDIANs agents?

'Then again, if they were spies, it would explain why Jack sucks the fun out of everything!' Then she sighed and went back to scrolling down.

"There must be something we can do to understand this!"

As she floated her finger around, Jack and Aster mumbled under their breaths too. They couldn't wrap their heads around the names or why no other information was given. What kind of sick joke was this? Were they trying to run electric bills just to piss off the government?

Suddenly, Toothiana lifted her hand and brushed another key. She wasn't prepared when it lit up instantly and–

"Crap!" she jolted and Aster nearly fell out of his chair (again!) from her jumping.

"Oy, what's wrong?!"

"I-I think I pressed something but I..."

When Tooth looked down again, a small circle near the top of the red keyboard was glowing turquoise. She paused.

The light was calling out to her gently. Something or whatever that ran its battery...was like a warm fire to her insides.

She cooed softy. Jack eyed her funny.

"What's up wi–"

Without waiting for Jack or Aster's cue, she reached up and held her hand over it.

"Tooth, wait!" Jack cried. "Don't–"

Something pricked her palm from underneath and she cried out.

"Ouch!" she screamed and yanked her hand away. Jack instantly grabbed for it and pulled off her glove. In the center of her palm was a tiny dot where blood started to seep out – it reminded Jack too much of her breakdown in Wales.

Aster's green eyes widened with fear.

"WHAT HAPPENE–"

A second later, the glowing circle died down and a deep ringing was heard.

Center gene identified.

"Wait, what?" Tooth gasped and the screen flickered white for a moment before a program started to show.

The boys eyed her nervously as Tooth cradled her hand to her chest.

"But...B-But I don't have a center!"

"Maybe it was a just a malfunction," Jack responded nervously. His eyes hardened and he glared back at the screen – the princess didn't need to deal with any more shit like this.

"Yeah, sheila," Aster agreed. "This system's a decade old, it's probably fried by now and'll take anythin'."

"Oh yeah," she breathed a sigh of relief. "That's probably it."

But it was still freaky, and Tooth chose not to look at the weird metal needle going back into the keyboard. She gritted her teeth at the vile invention.

Brushing off the weird occurrence, the three then waited until the screen showed the names again.

G. Martin– Recon
S. Qi – Weapons
J. Kjeldsen– Rescue
P. Panner – Aerial Unit

Then suddenly...the names flickered and changed.

MARCH HARE – Recon (PENDING)
YEH-SHEN – Weapons (PENDING)
THUMBELINA – Rescue (PENDING)
PETER PAN – Aerial Unit (PENDING)

They all froze. They watched as suddenly, the people's hair colours and eye colors changed too! With strange streaks of colors here and there and the occasional abnormal eye color, Tooth and Aster couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. After Toothiana put her glove back on, she read out the names.

"O...O. Bric: FATHER TIME, K. Sullivan: SUPERMAN...P-POSEIDON, NUTCRACKER, JAB JAB–"

"Princess, stop! Just stop now!"

She let her cold fingertips stop completely over the button.

"Sorry, I–I..." And Tooth shook her head a little.

"O-Oh my god," she breathed and turned to look at the two boys. "Are these..."

They were just waiting for her to say it.

"...They were GUARDIANs."

And their silence made her lower her head to the floor.

"Th-They're all the previous agents who'd been injected with the Center Gene." Tooth then scrunched her eyebrows in deep worry and looked between them.

Her expression was earnest and desperate, desperate to reach out to them.

"D...Did you know any of them?"

Aster rubbed the side of his hair where the silver streak ran down – it prickled slightly. He frowned deeply as he gestured Tooth to pull up the KOS. He pointed at a Persian with a goatee – his codename was THE GENIE.

"I knew him from the TI-unit...but..."

When he trailed off, Tooth grew worried.

"B-But why are they on this list when you've all been disbanded?! I thought–"

When she stopped and suddenly leaned in close, Jack copied – they both on the same train of thought.

"Scroll up," he muttered starkly. Tooth nodded and pushed the arrow sporadically while something kept assaulting the back of Jack's mind.

'Please...please don't be...'

As she pressed the red key anxiously and muttered their names, Jack's blue eyes danced like a hummingbird. He tried to catch each name, taking in their faces, their eyes, and their serious expressions – but it didn't comfort him, it only made his skin crawl.

"H-H. Haddock: ERAGON...M. DunBroch: ARTEMIS–"

Jack froze and rushed forward. "W–"

"...der arrest!–BAM!"

When he blinked, Toothiana had already jabbed the scroll button and was going too fast – she hadn't even realised what she'd missed, and Jack completely forgot a second later.

"E. Fitzherbert: FLYNN RIDER...R. Corona: RAPUNZEL–"

"Wait," Jack managed to reach out and touch her shoulder. Tooth abruptly paused as they stopped on the girl with the brown hair. "What the hell? ...I know her."

Tooth blinked and looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"You did?" she asked but then she scrunched her eyebrows. "Wait, how?"

Jack hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing at the princess before he looked back to the screen. His face was unreadable for a moment.

"Uh," he mumbled offhandedly before he refocused on the rest of the list. "We had a thing."

Tooth raised a delicate eyebrow.

"You had a...Oh."

And Tooth turned back to the screen slowly with a wide-eyed, almost embarrassed look. She didn't comment in case her throat would make weird sounds, but she frowned anyway.

As if her heart hadn't already jumped through enough emotional hoops.

Aster took over to scroll up instead.

"We need to see how far this list goes, and when it started," he said gruffly but Jack could see his fingers tense and tighten with the several agents he glanced at.

"But why are they even here in the first place?" Jack said angrily and Tooth shook her head of certain negative feelings and glared at the screen too. She breathed out a chilly breath and finally swallowed her tasteless gum.

"Y-Yeah," she agreed. "And why do they all have a PENDING next to their statuses now!?"

Aster kept scrolling but it was the same for a while. And no matter what the stellar Aussie tried with the keyboard, all they could do was scroll. The program itself was locked in with a firewall that even he couldn't decrypt fast enough. Eventually, his fingers were shaking so bad against the keys, Tooth frowned behind him worriedly.

(PENDING)
(PENDING)
(PENDING)
(PENDING)

Until suddenly...

(ACTIVE)

The three froze again.

They watched as the yellow 'pending' statuses suddenly changed to green – and their real names were no longer shown.

SHIPPEITARO – Rescue (ACTIVE),
ANANCY – Negotiations (ACTIVE)
STREGA NONA – Distributor (ACTIVE)
CINDERELLA – Supplier (ACTIVE)

Aster narrowed his eyes.

"Uh oh," he muttered. "Looks like these agents are checked off the list..."

Jack scowled. "But for what? And why're their full names no longer showing?"

Tooth wiped her mouth nervously and blinked. Her heart felt like it was going into overdrive.

"J-Just keep scrolling, Edmund."

–a tire screeched–

Jack bit the inside of his cheek as he heard the hacker and princess murmur in distress.

"W-What the heck?!"

"Crikey, these are all recent! Two months ago, three months ago–"

–he knocked his sparring partner with a butterfly kick–

"Oh my god!"

"You guys–"

"–on the ground!"

"Five months–"

"Bunny–"

"Edmund, stop!"

Aster's fingers froze over the key and Jack's eyes widened.

Tooth gasped.

JACK FROST – Takedown

And there was a picture of a blue-eyed Jack, glaring back at them from the small square. It looked like he'd refused to show his real hair colour since it was dyed brown again.

"Jack, is that...is that you?" she whispered and the three leaned in to read his status.

(ACTIVE)

Jack's mouth fell open and for the time in while, he didn't know what to say, what to do...what to think.

"I...Wh–But th..." His heart was like a timpani, pounding blood in his ears.

The princess covered her mouth with shaky fingers.

'H-He's really...He's really a...'

"Jack?" she whispered when she saw his fist tighten and his eyes grow wider than she'd ever seen. "P-Please tell me–"

"Keep going."

The two stared at him. Tooth looked like she wanted to protest, like she wanted to understand 'Jack the GUARDIAN' in the picture apart from the 'Jack the pain-in-her-ass-friend' standing next to her. But it looked like the other two were ignoring her.

"Y'sure, mate?" Aster asked but Jack glared at him. His facial features were cold, sharp, and severe – but the Australian picked apart his gaze like a puzzle. Jack's outward calm bravado did little to hide the storm brewing in his already cold heart.

"Staring at my picture won't help us figure out what I was checked off for, will it?"

"Righ'," and the Aussie quickly scrolled up higher. Jack took the opportunity to stare at Tooth, hoping she wasn't afraid of what she'd seen. But her face–

Tooth turned ghostly white.

He blinked worriedly.

"Tooth?" he murmured. "What's–"

"Oh, god."

And when he followed her eyes back to the screen, he knew why she'd cut him off.

"How many of there are you?"

"At one time...hundreds."

But of the tens of GUARDIANs who were listed as active and fifty others who were still pending...the rest, the majority higher up the list...

They saw red.

Aster felt his insides shutdown.

"Th...They've been..."

CUPID – Recon (TERMINATED),
TLALOC – Naval unit (TERMINATED)
GRAND ELK – Dispatch (TERMINAT–

"Bang! Bang!"

Jack rubbed his eye and Tooth looked at him with glassy eyes.

"...They're dead...aren't they?"

Jack's skin paled of more than physically possible – but no matter how tight he balled his fist, he couldn't get the red, bold letters of the word out of his head. He paused when the itch went away and looked down at her nervously. Jack wanted to open his mouth but...what could he say? Even if he wanted to, how could he?!

Toothiana frowned as she watched his face turn and a shadow cast under his bangs and against his cheekbones. "Jack..."

Aster scrolled and scrolled higher up the list and when the brunette leaned in again, he realised why Aster's breath started to hitch.

There were literally hundreds already terminated – and it made them sick to their stomachs.

"KOS..." Jack mumbled when it finally dawned on him. "...Kill On Site."

Beep!

"Jack!" Aster heaved. "Look."

And the three watched as Agent DREAMCATCHER (just eighteen spots ahead of Jack)'s status changed from ACTIVE to TERMINATED on its own.

"N-No!" Tooth choked in the back of her throat and covered her mouth again now that she knew.

"All the others..." Aster mumbled. His face swirled with dark energy, like a shape shifting nature spirit. It made Tooth restless. He suddenly reminded her of those menacing pookas Mr. Sandy used to tell stories about all the time – fierce and benevolent warriors. "So that's where they vanished off too...they were...they were–"

"And there're not much left," Aster whispered bitterly as he went back to the green and yellow sections of the KOS. After he and Jack counted absentmindedly, they pulled back slowly – there were only a handful of agents (including Jack), still yet to be killed off by the computer's program, less than a hundred at the most.

"You're telling me this little piece of shit is...is the one responsible for the bounty on my head in six continents?" Jack seethed.

Tooth found it hard to breathe as Jack shifted slightly in her vision. A second later, she saw both his hands push into his hair. He sighed with deep stress and suddenly all she could see was his face back in the alley.

"I knew it–"

"–BUT I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE AT THE TIME!

"I...I knew I had a codename but not who I was, so I just walked around...and then three operatives suddenly cornered me in California and said that I'd been involved in a huge series of crimes that I'd never committed...When they tried to take me down, I...didn't how but my instincts just kicked in and before I knew it...they were all dead."

Suddenly, a light went off in both guy's heads.

"Dammit!" Aster sighed angrily, his lungs desperate for warm air. "It's–"

Jack slammed his fist against his desk.

"It's an algorithm."

"Guys, I'm in the dark here!" Tooth said. She licked her dry lips feeling frustrated and a little left out. "W-What was it doing?"

Jack looked at her.

"Someone's last command to this computer was to periodically upload every agent's name to the international wanted list," he explained. "It's been sending governments the names of past GUARDIANs to other agencies with a KILL ON SITE target."

Tooth's heart dropped into stomach – finally all the pieces were coming together.

"So that's..." she surmised. "That's why you were wanted in Vietnam."

Jack nodded as her lips kept moving.

"And Russia...and here...a-and everywhere!"

"But wait," and Jack spun on Aster. His eyes were dark and heated. "Cottontail, were you wanted?"

Tooth realised the same thing and turned to face him. Her eyebrows knitted together.

"I was," he mumbled and briefly glanced at Jack. "Long before you though."

"When I found North," he explained. "He told me about what happened after the purge, told me to look out for myself. Next thing I knew I had Australian Secret Intelligence Service on my ass for counter-intelligence activity. Apparently I'd 'leaked government information to several crime lords'."

And Jack looked at him with a stony face – he felt the same wave of anger.

"So I did what I do best. I hacked their database and other international wanted sites. Erased my name and files from the unknown source."

"How?"

"Created a Trojan that traveled on the receiving end of the algorithm. I still use a similar program to help the ELFs: an EA egg I called my Source Tracker Echo Razer. I couldn't trace the source, but I was able to send a virus to the invisible and wipe my codes away."

"So you're not on this list?" Jack asked in mild surprise. Aster put on his glasses. He then used his agile fingers and sharp eyes to scroll and search for his codename before he found none.

"Yeah, I'm still not here," and his sincerity made them believe him (since they couldn't read as quick as him). "Just like North. I took him off too."

Tooth realised at the moment just as her mouth fell open how smart the Australian was. To be able to hack a government site and this computer to destroy a piece of its sources that couldn't be traced...she couldn't believe it.

'But that's why he's the best,' she lamented. 'That's why they were chosen.'

"We were the best of the best from all over the world...and did the operations that many agencies would think impossible. We did the impossible..."

"But I was still sloppy," Aster grumbled and he ran a hand through his short brown hair. "I'm still wanted on ASIS's ghost list. So I can't go back...at least, not yet."

'And that's why he lives out here... and has pots filled with tropical plants...he misses home.'

Tooth placed a hand on his shoulder but didn't say a word. Aster immediately understood the gesture and sighed through his nose.

"Had I known..." he continued, his face darkening again. "Had I known just where this command was coming from, I would've come down here the last time! But I was afraid, I-I didn't want to step in here even after I'd remembered everything! And now look!"

He smacked his fist against the desk.

"Most of the GUARDIANs are dead and the rest still have a death sentence," and he snapped his head at Jack, "including you."

Jack eyed him slowly. He didn't like the pained expression in the hacker's eyes. It seemed unfitting for the normally imperturbable, tough guy so the brunette tried to look away.

"But did you know why we shutdown?" Jack spoke and they looked at him. He lifted his head, catching the computer light in his eyes and glaring. "Did anybody?"

And Aster opened his mouth, before he shut it and looked down again.

"Of all the things I remember, Jack...that was never one of them. We were all in the dark until it was too late." The two then fell into silence.

Tooth looked between them, wadding her skirt in one hand and fretting so badly she thought her face would stay permanently sad. Here were two of possibly the few agents left alive. The list had already shown that a majority of the GUARDIANs were uploaded to several wanted sites with red flags and with the Nightmares on Pitch's command – they could've also been taken in under his watch!

GUARDIANs were created to help protect other agents and do the dangerous jobs regular ones couldn't, that's why they had centres, that's why they were so honored to be placed under this program, that's what she wanted to believe! She had to, for the sake of everyone she'd ever met now...so why did they have to suffer and get backstabbed by the very organization that offered them the job?

It was wrong, all wrong!

Aster suddenly sighed and drew their faces back to the screen.

"Come on, guys," he muttered and Jack watched him reach into his pocket. "All we can do now is hope for the best an–"

"...'etter hope for the best, you bastard!"

Jack blinked twice. His head twitched slightly.

"Dammit," he breathed under his breath.

"...t's right, I'm lookin' at you, you fu...his drug circle is–BAM!–WHERE'RE YOU HIDING HIM?!"

Jack tried to focus on the screen again but when he turned his head, his entire body swayed slightly. Jack panicked – he never got dizzy like that unless he was losing blood! What was–

–the troopers broke down the door and five moved in. Jack was last as team leader and searched the dirty boat room. He turned his head, behind the tall stacks of drugs and saw–"

Jack shook his head more violently the second time. He looked down at his gloved hand for something as a point to focus on. Instead, his dexterity started to blur his vision and he had to inhale deeply to stop it. He pushed his hand into his hair.

"What's that?"

Jack's senses stop spinning for a second and looked down at Tooth. He leaned sideways and braced himself on the table as she watched the Aussie pull out a keychain. It was a beautiful, coned shell.

"It's puka shell, sheila," he said with a slight smile before his face fell serious again. "Lot of these beauts around Sydney if you ever go. But mine's not for lookin'."

He quickly pulled a small cap from under it and showed a USB port.

Tooth and Jack's eyebrows scrunched together.

"I'm gonna make a copy of this list," he said determinedly. "North needs to see this and we can't let this sort of information go to no use. Then, I'll try to shutdown the program."

Aster quickly leaned over and Tooth shined her flashlight on the hard drive to give him light. When he stuck it into the port, they all sucked in a breath.

"They keyboard won't let me do shit but this puka can run a keygen to bypass all that crap and copy the HTML codes."

"Good thinking," Jack praised and the other two both appeared shock – that was the first time Jack said anything bordering on respect for the Australian. Aster sighed under his breath.

"Let's hope, mate," he finally grumbled. "Otherwi–"

He stopped talking immediately.

Aster's hack sequence was cut off the second it started and the screen turned black.

"Oh no!" Tooth covered her mouth in fear. Jack leaned down, eyes wild and demanding.

"What happened?!"

"Crikey!" Aster spat. "I–"

"Just pull it out, Edmund!"

And the three frantically roved their flashlights down to the ground to look for the hard drive with the USB in it.

"Do you see it?"

"I don't know which one I'm looking at any–"

A bright, blue light lit up the screen.

They all froze.

Turning back to face it slowly, the three saw that the list on the screen had disappeared and instead there was a video feed showing an empty chair – the same one Aster was sitting in, in a dark room just like theirs.

"Oh s-sweet..." Tooth whispered. She covered her eyes and peeked through her fingers.

She hoped it wouldn't be like one of those prank ghost things, she prayed it wasn't. And as her heart raced painfully under her clothes, the skin on Jack and Aster's toned arms crawled.

They narrowed their eyes defiantly and pulled up instantly, ready to take whatever was coming their way...but the flourish of goosebumps and the hairs prickling on the backs of their necks didn't escape them.

A fight? A horrible monster? Pitch? A...A killing?

They weren't sure, but whatever was coming would soon...

A second later, a red circle and a set of numbers showed up in the corner of the screen. It clocked in a date and set time starting from 0:00 before it started...It was a recording.

Then, out of nowhere, an older gentleman moved in front of the screen and sat down in the chair. An eerie bluish, white light from behind the camera cast over his features and made him glow.

They all held their breaths.

The man wasn't very tall, but by his stark, cream-colored suit, bowtie, and prudent, blue (bloodshot) eyes, they knew he was very important. He had a bald head but one wiping sweep of white and an almost-baby like face.

His expression however was far from it. He looked regal, but worn down and aging, and when he lifted a small hand to rub his tired eyes, they saw that whatever he'd been doing before (or for a majority of his time) had drained him.

The round-faced man then dropped his hand and clasped them on the table under the camera. He looked down for a moment (probably at his hands) and around the room in front of him with a frown. Then finally, he looked into the camera and sent Jack, Tooth, and Aster an uncomfortable gaze.

He spoke.

"The Center Gene...Never before in my or anyone's lifetime have I seen such a creation."

His voice was light with a Russian accent but Jack and Aster frowned. It was croaky...like he hadn't talked (or never talked) up until this point for the video. They also never saw him before but the more he talked, the more his throaty tone scratched the speakers like jagged stone, the more encroached they were, wanting to listen.

"Developed by our best scientists, this...coded, genetic sequence is unique to every individual it bonds with...We tried many attempts to make this DNA compound universal...But they all failed."

He paused yet no one said a word...Then he continued, with a gentle posture. The end of his arms were moving slightly.

"Our theory concludes that...these centers cannot be replicated. They can only be fostered in the biological write-ups of each person. Ask any regular doctor in the hospital, they cannot find it. Ask any scientist not of our work, they will not see it. This gene is so miniscule, it hides itself like a matryoshka doll, nesting inside one DNA strand, just one...nearly impossible to discover...and that includes in death. And while on the forefront this...curiosity does well to ease our minds of possible theft and duplication, it was also a matter of, what to do with it...Who to give it to...and for what purpose?"

A smile twitched at the corner of the mysterious man's lips.

"At first, the objective was just for science...only as tests observed by us on small creatures and cells. Have you ever seen a bird fly straight through 5-inch thick concrete, or a mouse chew through a steel pipe? My colleagues call it 'remarkable' – and set, I agree. Naturally, the...the subjects were put down after each test...but what good is that, to inflict harm on something so defenceless and innocent? So we suggested, real subjects... with intention."

"What real subjects?" Aster murmured. He really didn't want to be only one sitting in the chair.

Tooth's eyes were still covered by her fingers but she couldn't look away, and neither could Aster or Jack. The brunette swallowed the gum in his throat and, as his Adam's apple moved up and down, Jack felt this creeping chill fall into his stomach too.

That didn't stop the old man from talking.

"Twenty five years ago to this day...our first recipients, the first of many...And our tests, they were...they were a success...yes, set."

And he nodded into the camera – to reassure the viewers or himself, Jack and the two weren't sure.

"So they worked for us, they...protected our executives as bodyguards...but only for a short while, until we realised they were destined for...for greater things. And from then on, the company has devoted many of those to protective services–"

"Move the ambassador out NOW!"

Jack inhaled sharply. He saw a flicker of an Italian woman's face, scared but hopeful and it almost tore at his insides.

"–vices...Protection, defense...these two, and many more, have always been my founding principles of the GUARDIAN program."

Tooth gasped.

"W-What?!" Aster gawked and Jack's eyes widened, his eyebrows flying up into his bangs.

"He's–"

"My years as lead coordinator and benefactor had seen great success from this program, from The Center Gene. We gave agents more purpose, more destiny, and the dream of a lifetime. Superheroes in their own right...protecting this world and its citizens in rescue, assistance, reconnaissance, takedown...the GUARDIANs have done it all. And so proud I was of each one I have selectively chosen and given codenames for."

"H-He chose..." Tooth murmured and she looked at the boys again. She slowly lowered her fingers – maybe the worst of the video was over and this was all they'd get to see: the "dark (and if not somewhat creepy) creation of Project: GUARDIAN" documentary.

But then he paused and rubbed his hands over his face. When he dropped them, he looked professional all over again.

"But as history has taught us...golden ages do not last...And I...we...were faced with complications."

At that, Aster's ears perked up.

"Complications?" he mumbled and looked at Jack. "What complications?"

But all Jack did was shake his head slowly and they both looked back. The man in the screen looked away for a moment like he was looking at something behind the camera they couldn't see. Not that he really could – the dark surrounding his illuminated face was so thick a ghost could swoop in at any moment.

Suddenly, the small, Russian man raised one finger.

"It takes just one...one agent," he sighed almost sadly. "And for that...I am sorry because I..."

The three leaned in closer with hard eyes and nervous heartbeats.

"...I..."

"..."

"...I did not consider the possibility of future and...prolonged mutation."

They froze.

"...And when one shows signs of failure...in this profession, the rest are deemed so. You cannot take further risks."

Jack and Aster looked at each other, going into near-cardiac arrests under their unmoving chests. He was talking about the GUARDIAN program from twenty years ago! So if there was a problem...why the hell were they still agents for it today?!

But he kept talking.

"So it was...under my hand, that the...the program be deemed a failure... my failure...We had to be ready to go through shutdown protocols and agent redistribution...And while the rest of the company did not know, for all those still infected with a center...their deaths, we covered up. Except...our first agent mutated...THE FAIRYQUEEN..."

The three paused.

That codename sent a shiver down all their spines – she was probably one of the most powerful GUARDIANs by the way the man's face lit up slightly in the video. Tooth clasped her hands together to stay warm. She looked up at Jack and down at Aster for confirmation.

"FAIRYQ–H-Have you ever heard of someone like this?" she whispered.

"Not since I've work here, sheila."

"Same," Jack agreed.

But the guy started talking again.

"She was the first...She was our first indication that the gene was damaged – her mutations...our scientists, they...they had not seen anything like her change in physiology. And in her pain, we spent months preparing for termination, seeing where we went wrong. Until we soon realised...It was not us..."

And he looked down.

"...It was pregnancy."

Silence fell across the three until Aster shook his head.

"I..." he tried to start. "I've never heard of a GUARDIAN having a kid. Have you, Frost?"

But Jack shook his head again and crossed his arms. He glared at the screen, still trying to understand what was so important about all this. Meanwhile, Tooth looked on nervously. She was really starting to hate this man's creepy story, and the way he was telling it.

"And so we waited...We waited for both to succumb...but she was always resilient...She lasted nine months and in her passing, she left us a child...but we did not think it would survive. And so we waited again, for the child to die as well and...and when she did not, she became an interesting 'anomaly' to me, to the scientists...and to everyone on the board."

"It was a girl..." Jack mumbled and everyone's eyebrows knitted together more tightly. "But where is she now?"

And Aster and Tooth wondered the same thing, their energies crackling. Did she survive? Did she have a mutation like her mother, did...did she run the program now and that's why it still continued even after all these years? They were too frazzled to even stay on it as he continued again. The man was draining what little clarity they each had left.

"In all our tests, our research, and our analyses, this child...is the only person ever with a Center gene to survive early, by injection or by birth. Now, this must be understood...the Center gene was created only for fully matured adults...it could never adapt to the rapid growth of anyone under the age of 21...it showed higher levels of risks, of complications–"

'What the heck is the meaning of all this?' Tooth sighed in her head. 'We should be learning more about the gene not some–'

"–so imagine our surprise when this child...of dark skin, magenta eyes and one blonde hair...did not mutate."

And something cracked.

Something cracked inside Jack, inside Aster, and most importantly...

Tooth didn't even feel her hands move as they flew up over her mouth and nose.

"W...H..."

But the man in the video did not stop.

"Our hypothesis is that...is that the center's mutations affect the skin, such was the terrible case of her mother. Purpling skin along the neck and soft tendrils sprouting at her crown...we did not know what to expect of her child...But for four cycles, the baby was stable and her skin was impermeable to all DNA countering. You must forgive my relief...this is one of the biggest accidents we have stumbled open in our time."

Jack and Aster immediately turned to look at Tooth.

Toothiana wasn't seeing them though. With her hands over her mouth like a paper bag, she gasped in silent, short breaths to hide her fear.

One of the biggest accidents.

Jack went to move to her but–

"It has now been twenty years since I have reassigned the SANDMAN to watch her. Twenty, and so far..." he paused to exhale steadily, "all his progress reports have continued to prove my theory. The gene can mature but in the right physical conditions. And I hypothesize that being born with the center, as opposed to being injected with it, does not corrode the biology of a child. Her...Her first clone has shown us that. And her second...and her third...set, all eight have so far appeared healthy and unaltered. I doubt she will ever experience irritation or infection – her lack of chicken pox history is proof of that."

And the worst of it was that the last part was true.

"...Tooth?"

Tooth shook her head. Throat dry and eyes burning, she felt like her heart was on fire.

"I-I...No, I..." she could barely open her mouth that it came out as a choked murmur. "No...no, I c...I can't believe what I'm hearing."

Suddenly the man's voice cut off and they all focused their attention on his face again. After he rubbed his eyes for the umpteenth time, he ran one small hand over his head, massaging the bald scalp. He sent his one wisp of white hair into a disheveled mess.

"But my theory...this gene, and..." he sighed. "That poor child...she will and must never know what horrors she brought on...like the INNOCENCE Program, a board decision I was highly against...even after reviewing the death our FAIRYQUEEN and the succession of her daughter, this was the worst mistake they could do."

"W-What program?!" Aster mumbled in horror–

"...tional compromise...I CAN'T!"

Jack clutched his head and stared wide-eyed at the floor.

"'CENCE...You so–ME!...S'ME!"

"Y...Wh–I–" Tooth choked and shut her eyes. "S-Stop it, please!"

She didn't want to hear anymore and even Aster wildly pressed the keys, hoping they could somehow pause the video or something to take a moment.

"Stop, y'bloody crack!" he shouted desperately – but nothing worked! The strange, Russian man still kept talking, drilling their heads with knowledge they didn't want to hear.

"In all my years, I have never..." he breathed. "This is a war we were fighting and you DO NOT bring the last balls of light you have in this world to fight them for you. The INNOCENCE Program was an operation doomed from the start...and I grieve over what has happened because of it...because of her."

Tooth's entire body began to tremble. She had a sinking feeling, so poignant and destructive it felt like quicksand was swallowing her heart up. She gasped under her breath and clamped her mouth tighter over her lips.

"Mmm...hufmph..." she heaved through her nostrils. When a tear leaked out, she wiped it away before anyone could see.

And the man stopped to look around the room before his gaze fell hard on the camera again.

"But the truth leaked out. Somehow, I do not know. Someone found out, leaked one file, and used the info to create a backlash before it took off completely."

Aster narrowed his eyes.

"A pre-emptive strike."

"This company is at risk of full exposure. We cannot stop this secret from spreading beyond our walls...for unlike the board, the GUARDIANs are not bound by our level of secrecy...So as I sit before you now...they have already taken precautionary matters."

"Pre..." Tooth mumbled. She was almost afraid of the sound of her voice. "Pre-cautionary?"

And suddenly, the man in the camera's face turned hard.

"We have called it defragmentation. All agents with a Center Gene will be brought in nonchalantly and have their memories assaulted – replaced and rearranged...but we know. Memories can never be erased. Even with our cognitive knowledge and what we have been able to accomplish with the Center gene...that feat is impossible."

"All we can do is break the chains and realign them...but this entire process is messy, very messy. In rare cases, our...our scientists have successfully defragmented an agent's mind...only a handful have already been sent back home with no indication that they ever remembered being operatives and have moved on with their lives... But the mind is tricky, the mind fabricates, and it is intricate...For most, we have not been able to...to properly defrag them...and for most GUARDIANs...well, they are broken now."

They couldn't believe it – this is what happened to the GUARDIANs?! And still, the man was eerily calm about the explanation.

"This prognosis and procedure depends on the severity of amnesia and mental condition. Should you merely forget, you are sent home, making it look like you suffer from permanent PTSD...But to remember even a fraction of this life, your skills, your missions, your name, execution it...it avoids collateral damage. 'It is', as one colleague upstairs said, 'easier for a family to handle the grief of a dead, loved one than the pain and suffering of those with mental breakdowns'...T-That is the only kind of humility we can give."

"I f-feel sick..." Tooth nearly wept behind her hands and stepped closer to Aster's chair to lean on.

"But memories always come back at some time or another. So we have activated the CHOSEN protocol –
Carrying Humility On the Successful, Enigmatic, and Noble."

And he paused to look up again.

"This protocol is a precaution...We...We will blacklist every agent to multiple government wanted lists as a KOS. This has ensured that even if surviving GUARDIANs do not start to remember who they were as our agents, it allows operatives from other international agencies to kill them without reason. They will then be left in the care of hospital morgues and forensics to ID them. And without our team, without the right concentration of the gene's stimulant, their centers will remain hidden...we cannot risk anything more, or anything less."

"B-Bloody hell..." Aster whispered. His tone was so upsetting that Tooth was sure that if he had long ears, they would lie flat against his skull or fear. "So that's why...that's why we've all been thrown topside. T-They treated us like animals..."

"No, they're the animals!" Tooth breathed angrily but she couldn't deny it – her heart felt like it broke in two. "They made you like this, a-and...but what's the INNOCENCE program?! And h-how could they create a CHOS–"

Suddenly, a weird, loud boom! echoed from the speaker of the computer. The man then looked one more time nervously over the camera before he clasped his hands together again. He took a moment to stare into the lens – as if he was trying to see beyond a video that would never be replayed again.

With a wild (but easy) guess though, he frowned deeply. Then he spoke in a low voice with struggling speed.

"If someone is watching this video, then.." and he sighed, "Then it means I have failed in my last attempt to rectify this purge. It means that the GUARDIAN program has been shut down for good, the company has disbanded, and all the agents and I myself have been compromised."

Tooth gulped behind her hands and tried to blink back stinging tear ducts.

"You are probably one of the last of us since I imagine many will be dead by the time this list is found."

Then they saw him grip his hands together tightly at the bottom of the screen.

"But failures as we were, as...as I am for creating you... Believe that for all we stood for, and what the gene gave each and every one of you, it was once for good...for a better world, of dreams, and hope. I had faith in the GUARDIANs and even after my time has passed, I will still have faith that you are the ones who can make things right...You were my greatest joy, and now the greatest burden I must carry..."

When he took (what they guessed) was his final breath, he reached up towards the camera and tilted the lens down slightly. And on the table near his shaky hands, was a red, deflated balloon he'd been rubbing to calm his nerves and a gold plaque with just one thing written on it...

TSAR LUNAR

"I am the Man in the Moon and to you my GUARDIANs," he mumbled up to the camera, his breath shaky. "I say this: I-I am so very sorry...and good luck."

Then the video ended and the list came back.

But so did three set of numbers blocked out in red over top of it.

00:13:00

00:12:59

Tooth shrieked and jumped away as far as she could from the screen. And when she twisted her head, she realised all the other computers (even the broken ones) had the same timers too.

"It...I-It's a–"

Suddenly, the lights high around the facility glowed red.

"BLOODY CHRIST, IT'S A TICKER!"

"A wh–"

"A bomb, sheila!"

"N...NO!" And Tooth panicked. "THEN WE GOTTA GO! W-WE NEED T–"

He jumped up immediately.

"OY!"

And when she turned around, wondering what was wrong, her blood ran cold.

"Oh no, wh...Oh no, please!"

But they were already too late.

Jack was gone.

Chapter's soundtrack: "The Chairman's Waltz" – John Williams Man in the Moon's song, if he was a real and creepy person lol. And it's fun to read MiM's part in a Russian accent.