(A/N) Normally, I'd spout off in my normal way, but we've got a change this week, as Tuneless does the intro for me. For those Texas enthusiasts out there, however, the day we'll be beginning to accept apps is Monday the 17th of February, so keep an eye out on our forums. Now, time for Tuneless.
Hey guys, Tuneless here. Just before we launch into this chapter, I want to take some time to recognize a few people. First off, thanks, Nick. For anyone who doesn't know, our Director balances college, work, real life and all of the Collab'a fics. He comes up with the main plotlines and updates a fic almost every day. And then he puts up with all of our questions, chases us down for late chapters and grants us extensions for writing. Thanks for having me here.
Next, I'd like to send a shout out to Jerem(6401), Warg(ishBoromirFan), Lili(-Hunter) and Mina(ethiel). You guys are who I keep in mind while writing. I aim to be as good as you are. Thanks for motivating me.
This chapter would never have been possible without the exceedingly patient Spoony(Azul), I appreciate you setting me straight with Jersey. Same goes for Bramble(Star14). You two are great sounding boards and never fail to make me think twice about character portrayals. Thanks for answering my multitude of dumb questions.
I want to thank all the lovely collaborators both in Genesis and now in Betrayal. I truly am living the dream working alongside you all, even if you don't get your names here this time.
Finally, a thank you goes to everyone who has ever left a review on any of our fics. I assure you they are all treasured. Thanks for reading, following and favouriting.
Anyways, I hope Nick leaves this in, sorry about the length and hijacking your job.
Chapter Thirty-One – Not Good Enough
Agent Nevada
Written by TunelessLyric
"It's crazy what you could have had." – Country Feedback by R. E. M.
First elimination. Worst Freelancer.
Those words swirled in Nevada's head as she stomped out of the locker room. She felt her hands shaking with anger as she walked. She couldn't stop herself from replaying the fight in the Danger Room over and over in her mind. In spite of the fact that she knew how to fight, that she could defend herself, Colorado had overpowered her effortlessly.
She had come out to the session ready to roll, and sure that she would perform well. Apparently the Danger Room, and her fellow agents, were better prepared than she had been for the ensuing free-for-all. On top of it all, she had looked bad in front of her peers and more experienced agents.
Nev halted in her tracks, realizing she was on her way to the rec room. There was no way she could go in there and face whatever humiliation would be waiting. She was in no mood to be laughed at or made the butt of her teammates' jokes. With a frustrated growl, she turned on her heels and headed down another hallway, not walking towards anywhere in particular.
As she went, she tried to calm herself down. This had happened to others. She couldn't have been the first Freelancer to totally make a fool of themselves in their wave-wide sessions. From what she had heard, Georgia had done awfully in the last all-agent training battle royale.
She punched her code into the lock on the door to the shooting range, determined to make up for the disastrous showing she had just put in. As she stepped in, she noticed with a rush of relief that it was empty. Nev picked up a pistol and walked to the first alley, grabbing a set of ear plugs and screwing them into her ears as she did so.
"Welcome back, Agent Nevada," chimed F.I.L.S.S., ecstatic as ever. "Would you like me to track your progress this session?"
"Yeah," she ground out, her voice low. "Please do."
Nev raised her gun and slid a magazine into the receptor. She sighted down the barrel and let out an even breath, squeezing the trigger slowly, making sure to keep her aim steady. The gun barely recoiled with the discharge. She peered down the lane at her target.
That couldn't be right. The mark from her shot had missed the target, pocking the upper right-hand corner instead. But her aim had been dead on.
She bit her cheek and chambered another round. Even more cautiously than before, Nev lined up the shot. Her magnum gave the same short kick. It sounded the exact same. This time, her bullet drifted left.
With a furious intake of breath, Nev adjusted her stance and got ready to shoot yet again. If she had shot like this on the bridge of the UNSC Take That years ago, she would be dead today. How had her ability to aim and pull a trigger completely deserted her since then?
Nev took several steadying breaths this time, making certain to slow her thoughts and focus. She pictured the bullet impacting dead centre of the target, as she had been able to do thousands of times before. As she pulled the trigger, she heard the muffled noise of the door sliding open. She jumped in surprise and the shot went wide. It totally missed her target, pinging off the far right wall instead.
"Wow, with shooting like that, I'm not surprised you did so badly earlier."
She whipped around, face superheating, glowering at the speaker. "I'm sorry, but not all of us are perfect like you are, Jersey."
New Jersey, wearing a t-shirt and trackpants, leaned against the weapons locker near the door. "Oh my god, are you still all bent out of shape over that? Give it up. Hand to hand isn't your strong suit."
Nev opened her mouth to retort but found she had nothing to say. Jersey was right, but Nev felt like there was more to it than that. She sucked. She wished Jersey would stop beating around the bush. She yanked her earplugs out, slammed the magazine release and shoved the other woman out of the way. As quickly as she possibly could, she threw everything back into the weapons locker and closed it again.
"What's with you today?" Jersey asked, indignant. "That was really fucking rude, Nevada."
"You know what? Go to hell, New Jersey. Take Kent with you, he might enjoy the time spent at your house," Nev snapped back. She swallowed the surge of guilt at the comment. Now wasn't the time.
Jersey rocked back on her feet, hand to her chest. "That was low, even for you. Leave Kent the fuck out of this."
"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Nev demanded, brushing short black hair out of her eyes angrily.
The other agent smirked, seeing that her words had hit home. "It means exactly what I said, smarts."
Nev's hands balled into fists. She started to form an angry response, but thought better of it. Instead, she brushed roughly past Jersey and fled the room. As soon as the door closed behind her, she took off at a run. She didn't care where she was going, all she knew was that it had to be away from anyone else. Her eyes blurred with tears as she went.
Eventually, her rage burned itself out. She slowed to a stop, uncertain where she was at first. She shook her head and muttered under her uneven breathing dark words about her teammates in general. Before she could begin thinking clearly, Nev slammed her fist into the wall, leaving a slight dent in the metal surface. The sudden prickle of pain in her knuckles cleared her head a little. There was no call for what she said to Jersey. Her teammate had been right. She had been totally out of order.
Nev stared back down the way she had come. There was no way she could face Jersey now. It was still too soon. She turned back around and peered down the corridor before her. That was the way to the Mastery Cube room. Maybe she would go work for a bit on that blasted piece of shit. She laughed harshly, shaking her head. Yeah, that would make her feel better.
After hovering for several minutes, she decided to go anyway. There was tons of work to be done there. It would take her mind off of her otherwise miserable day, that was a given.
She stalked in and sat at her usual terminal. She booted it up and paged through the as-of-yet-unfinished eternity code. Georgia had been chipping away at the programming like a pro, but it still needed a lot of attention.
Nev soon lost track of time. She had no idea how long she had been working, but she didn't seem to be getting anywhere. It didn't matter what she tried, she kept snagging on a part of the program. Connie and Georgia had also tried their hand, but they honestly had a hard time following the technicalities of the whole deal.
She risked a glare at the gently glowing black and green cube on the centre table. "What are you hiding?" she murmured. Yeah, talking to the thing had a slightly Alaska-type ring to it, but what else was she going to do?
The Mastery Cube just sat there, motionless and silent, like always.
Acting on impulse, Nev stood and crossed over to where it sat. She picked it up and lifted it to eye-level. She had to hand it to Ark, he had built one pretty fantastic piece of coding with this. The more she thought of it, the more obvious it became that he was one smart cookie. He had succeeded where she could not. The whole tech team had fallen brutally short of writing their code together. Ark had created one from scratch alone.
She smirked and imagined what life would be like if he had stayed with the project. They'd probably be at each other's throats. She set the Cube back down and leaned on the table, mind wandering wistfully. If only she still had Mhairi. That little A.I. had been such a trooper. If anyone could help with the code, it would be her.
Nev stiffened as her last memory of Mhairi washed over her. It was just before she had been deleted. Nev perched on a rooftop, the A.I. whispering in her ear to jump.
There was a knock on the door. For the second time in the same situation, she nearly leaped onto the table in shock, bumping the Cube over the edge. She threw herself at it, not pausing to think what could happen should it break on hitting the floor. She managed to get a grip on it and hugged it close to her chest.
"Oh, I am really sorry, I didn't know you were here, Nevada," Utah said in embarrassment. "I thought you were in your room. But, I am glad you are here after all. You see, I think I might be a little…lost."
For the most part, she ignored his rambling explanation. "Uh huh?"
"Oh yeah, really really really lost. But you are here, so that is okay." He walked over and peered over Nev's shoulder. "So that's the Mastery Cube?"
"Yeah, it i – hey!"
Utah plucked it from her arms and stared thoughtfully at it, as though trying to divine from its glow how to crack it. Nev reached for it. In retaliation, Utah lifted it out of her reach.
"I need that!" she squeaked. "Give it back."
"Gimme-gimmie never gets," recited Utah. He edged away from her, Cube behind his back. "Don't you know your manners yet?"
Nev growled in annoyance. "Utah, come on, I don't have time for this!"
"That isn't very nice, you know," he said, face stern, though this was betrayed by the hint of a smile on his lips. He kept backing away, which infuriated her.
She lunged for him, not thinking straight. She had to get the Cube back from him. Utah and electronics didn't seem to mix. The big guy wasn't exactly known for his appreciation of delicate things. If he crushed it…
Utah turned tail and fled, weaving between the terminals with the Cube tucked under an arm. "Noooooo!" he whined, grinning at her. "You have to ask nicely!"
"Come on, I need Ark's Cube back! I can't work on it if you have it. Get back here now, you jackass!"
He hopped over a computer bank and faced her. "That wasn't nicely, so you can't have it."
She faked right and dove left around the bank after him. Utah spun away and crawled under the neighbouring desk. Nev chased after him. She reached for his foot, but the smooth armour slid out from under her fingers. He popped up on the other side a moment before her and was off in a flash. He scooted through the still-open door and into the hall.
"I'm gonna kill you," she muttered darkly and sprinted after him.
He was waiting for her just around a corner, arms folded with a bemused look on his face. Guy was like a big kid, really.
"Utah…" A sudden thought struck Nev. "I'm sorry about all that. May I please have the Cube back?"
His face became a conflicted mess, half filled with hope and the other half with surprise. He slowly offered the Cube to her. "Since you asked me nicely, I will give it back to you," he intoned solemnly.
She gently took it from him and, cradling it to her chest again, she turned back in the direction of the hacking room. As she went, she looked back at him, over her shoulder. "Come on, I'll show you what I'm working on."
Against her better judgment, she led the other Freelancer back into the computer lab. She sat Utah down in Georgia's chair and began opening up the coding sequence they were stalled on.
"What's all of this?" he asked, leaning over so far to inspect the screen that his nose almost brushed against it.
"This is how we plan on tracking down Ark, Penn and Harper," she explained. "This right here is the part that is going to attack the Mastery Cube directly. We just can't make it fit."
"Fit with what?" His brow furrowed in concentration.
Nev sighed. "Ark built a code like this into the Cube. Connie, Georgia and I are making this one up to counter it. So far, we're stuck like… Hang on." While she was talking, Nev was reading through a portion of the program. "Why didn't I realize this earlier?"
"Realize what?" Utah asked in excitement. "Does this mean you can fix it?"
She held up a finger to silence him while she typed in commands. When she finishes, she sits back in her chair and runs a preliminary test. "It means I did fix it."
While she waits for the results, Nev pondered on the day as a whole. Maybe… maybe she didn't necessarily have to prove herself in the Danger Room this morning. How many other agents here would have thought of writing an eternity code to combat the Cube? Who would have come up with the exact patch she just did to fix the code? So what if her fighting skills were hit and miss? This was what she was in the project to do.
Nevada allowed herself a satisfied smile. "Thanks, Utah."
"For what?" he asked in puzzlement. "All I've done is sat here and stared at a monitor!"
She looked at him, head tilted slightly. "For teaching me manners." Jersey's face floats in front of Nev's eyes for a moment. She stood and patted Utah on the shoulder. "Hey, I have to go do something. I'll be back later, but until then, I don't think you should hang out here."
"Oh, okay," he chirped, nodding in understanding, and getting up out of Georgia's chair. The two agents filed out the door. Nevada turned in the opposite direction that Utah took, having to go to the rec room to tell Connie and Georgia the good news about the code. She sighed and decided she really had to apologize to Jersey while she was wandering the Invention.
As she rounded another corner, she saw Agent California coming towards her, clearly frustrated by something. His lips moved, as though he was talking, but Nevada couldn't see anyone else in the corridor with them. She frowned and watched him more closely. After a few strides, his faced twisted into a snarl, and he hissed something and curled his hands into fists. Just as abruptly, the tension and intense anger seemed to drain from California's body. His expression resumed its normal, pinched form.
"Are you okay?" Nev asked, stopping short in the hall.
His head snapped up, a stare equal parts shock and pain roaming over her face, never stopping anywhere. "Agent Nevada, right?"
She nodded, suddenly having to repress the instinct to run. "You're California, aren't you?"
He shrugged. "I guess so. Right now."
Nev brushed the strange answer away and opened her mouth to ask another question. To ask if he was feeling all right.
"You're working to trace the Crimson Sun." A manic glint lit in his eyes.
She nodded again. "Yeah, I am. With Connie and –"
"Have you found them?" he asked, striding closer. He didn't stop until he was nearly nose to nose with her.
"Not yet, we're working on it. I think we're pretty close, actually," she replied, a little discomfited by his proximity.
Before Nevada realized it, California had a grip on her shoulders and her back was against the wall. "Hey," she complained, indignant.
"Work harder. Find them. I'm begging you," he whispered, his eyes focusing on something a little bit above her left shoulder.
"We're doing our best," Nev retorted stubbornly, resisting the urge to be intimidated by the more experienced Freelancer. How dare he think his word should carry weight with her. "There's nothing to do that can possibly find them any faster."
"That isn't good enough." The words come out as more of a growl than a sentence. California, holding her against the wall, met her eyes at last.
She swallowed back a gasp at the deeply interested gaze she tangled with. "It's the best we can do," she said firmly, determined not to show how scared she actually was.
"The best you can do?" he laughed in her face. "That's funny."
Nev had to disagree on that point. There was nothing funny about being pinned to a wall by a manic depressive. "Let me go," she demanded.
In response, he leaned more weight onto Nevada. "You work hard, pushing you pencils or whatever it is that you eggheads do. You come find me the second you know where they're hiding. You let the real Freelancers do their job. Understand me?"
She hesitated.
"Understand me?" California repeated, shaking her.
She mentally summoned everything she had read about California. She shivered, despite her attempts to maintain a brave face. If this was what happened when someone he had loved died, what would happen if he actually found out where Ian Harper, Arkansas and Pennsylvania were? He'd completely come unglued.
With as much courage as she could muster, Nevada pushed against her tormentor. "Get off me," she hissed, twisting in his grip.
"Ah, ah, ah, little Nevada," he cooed, applying more weight to keep her pinned. "Not until you promise."
Nev bit into her cheek to keep from crying out. She nodded once, not trusting her voice to not tremble.
"Promise me," he repeated quietly, sneering at her.
"I – I promise," she murmured, pretending his hands were somewhere else.
"Good girl. I'll be around." With some reluctance, California released her. His eyes swiftly flicked away and his shoulders dropped. "That's not what I said to do," he muttered nearly inaudibly as he swept by her. He was soon out of sight.
Nev wanted to ask what he was talking about, to ask him what the fuck that had been. Instead, she just stood there, rooted in place, and shivered. She brushed herself off and tried to forget the way he had leered at her, the way his fingers had imprisoned her, the way she had stood there. How she had let him shove her to the wall and bully her. She realized she was crying.
With shaking hands, she wiped away the tears. She told herself that he had his reasons for doing that to her. That he hadn't known what he was doing. There was no fucking way. From what she had heard from the others, California was sweet, he was funny and he had been devastated when Massachusetts and Michigan had been killed.
So who the fuck had that been?
Nevada set her jaw and took a few calming breaths. She pushed herself into a brisk walk. She had to find Connie and Georgia. That was where she had been going before… Well, she just needed to find them. Not too far down this particular corridor was the rec room. Nev ducked in and immediately felt better. In the corner, Wyoming was reading, a freshly lit cigarette in hand. At the coffee table, Kent and Jersey were playing a card game, talking quietly to one another. Connie had her head bent over a data-pad.
"Hey," Nev said, her voice strangled and hoarse. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Connie?"
The other Freelancer's head swivelled over, curiosity brightening her eyes. "Nev? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Trying to shove away how uncomfortably close that had been to the mark, Nev crossed the room and sat next to Connie. "I'm fine," she said, desperately trying to convince both her teammate and herself. "Listen, I figured it out."
The other woman gave her a blank stare. "Figured what out?"
Nev let out a frustrated growl, her heart not really in it, but for the sake of feeling normal. "Our eternity code. I fixed it."
Connie's eyes widened. "Really? That's great. I'll tell Georgia." She stood up, smiling, and left the room.
Nev felt the other hacker's absence acutely. She closed her eyes to berate herself for being stupid. Bad idea. As soon as they shut, she was seeing California looming over her. She shuddered and got up. She pushed away her fear and marched up to Jersey. "Um, I just wanted to apologize."
Jersey glanced up from her game. "Oh?"
She shuffled her feet. "What I said was way out of line. Something just happened that made me realize I shouldn't fight with you. I… Look, let's just forget about it, okay?"
The other agent nodded. "Yeah, okay. Great. Hey?"
Nev froze, half-turned away from Jersey. "Yeah?"
"If you wanted some help, I have time to give you a couple pointers on the firing range," she offered.
"Oh." Nevada was taken aback. "I really appreciate it, Jersey. It's just that... I'm not sure what was wrong today. I'm actually pretty good with a magnum. And I'm, uh, tired right now. Thanks, though."
Before her teammate could add anything, she hurried to the corner of the room. She sat on the floor, back against the wall. She resolved to avoid California in the future and simply forget what had happened between them. He needed time to grieve. That was all.
But if he tried to pull that shit again with her…he wouldn't walk away so easily, next time. Whatever her reservations, she wasn't a Freelancer for nothing.