(A/N) So guys, this is the final chapter of Round Three of Phase Two: Betrayal, meaning that the arc we've been dealing with culminates slightly in this one, so you should know, just before you start, that this may be one of my favourite chapters yet. Written by the always-fantastic TunelessLyric, let's see what Agent Nevada is going to get up to in this one…
OxesBox: Yep, that was indeed the first time we saw their names! Want to try going through the names that have been revealed to date? :D
PeoplexLikexGrapes: Well, no promises here! We like to pretend we're as cruel and unpredictable as George R. R. Martin, but really we're a lot more emotional about losing our characters. But, at the same time, no one is safe!
Enjoy!
Chapter Seventy-Five – Good Luck, Ladies and Gents
Agent Nevada
Written by TunelessLyric
"Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago." – Horace Mann
At last, Nevada reached a door and she heard the grunt's footsteps stop. He let her inside. "Welcome to your cell," he sneered next to her, and removed her blindfold.
Nev walked into the small room despondently, blinking in the light. Visions of ratty cots and backed up metal toilets were wiped clean from her mind at the sight of her so-called 'cell'. The bed, while narrow, was outfitted with a thick comforter and soft pillow. The floor was that tacky non-slip surface all prefabs were decked out in. A window near the ceiling let sunlight play across the bare walls between heavy bars. A jink in the wall provided the illusion of privacy for a clean toilet and sink. The annoying blinking of a red light caught her attention; it was obviously there only to throw her off since the camera was mounted where the door met the adjacent wall.
Plastering a sickeningly fake grin on her face, Nev wiggled her fingers at the camera in a parody of a friendly wave. She strode purposefully to the bed and began pulling the sheets off, baring it to the mattress. She ran her fingers over the surface of it and shook the sheets out, driven by paranoia. Then she flipped the mattress over and remade the bed. She knelt down and ran her hands over the bed frame searching for a loose screw or anything she could MacGyver into a weapon. There wasn't a part of the room she trusted. As soon as her inspection of the bed was over, Nev treated the other furnishings to the same search. She even double-checked the toilet tank. It was welded shut, to her great disappointment.
Nevada sat on the floor heavily. The entire exercise had taken maybe twenty minutes, the search hampered by her cuffed hands. Now all she could do was wait. She leaned her head back against the wall and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
A considerable amount of time later, long after her legs had cramped, her back had stiffened and her stomach began to growl from the passage of time and awkward position, she heard footsteps. Another grunt delivered a tray of food through the door. Nev, hands still cuffed, crawled over to it and began to eat the macaroni and cheese. The way she saw it, the Crimson Sun could do as they pleased with the captured Freelancers now. Why waste time and energy with poisoning or drugging her?
With a pang, she realized the Director would be searching for them by now. It had to be at least half a day since their "extraction" from Snowbound. What would the agents back on the Invention be doing?
The light streaming in her window had gradually died. Nev sighed and climbed into her bed. At least she could catch up on her sleep while imprisoned by the enemy. That night, it took her a long time to fall asleep, unused to the silence pressing in around her, wishing Connie was there to snore for hours. Wishing she had one of her projects around to mess with until she was too tired to think straight.
Early the next morning, Nev was woken by food and water being delivered again. Cozy beds, working plumbing and decent food? This was not how it was supposed to be. She sighed and began chewing her toast thoughtfully. She hadn't seen anyone in over twelve hours. Shouldn't someone be coming in to threaten her with death?
But no. Long after she had finished eating, still no visitors had appeared. The day dragged by as slowly as Nev expected it to. She had nothing to do but play with her handcuffs and think. What did the Crimson Sun want with the team? Why hadn't anyone begun interrogating her yet? Were they too busy with the others?
Her thoughts continued to spiral in on themselves. While she worried, she spun the cuffs around and rubbed them against her wrists.
The sun crawled across the floor of her room slowly, hesitantly, as though it was afraid of what it might find. A second meal was delivered. She was jolted form her thoughts at the sudden noises. She became aware of dull, aching pain under the cold metal of her cuffs. Glancing down, she saw she had rubbed the skin raw and bloody.
Instead of a normal grunt coming by to pick up her dirty dishes, Ian Harper himself appeared. Instinctively, Nev got to her feet before he swiped a hand over the pad by the door. He walked in, eyes sweeping over her.
"Had ourselves a nice night?" he asked. His eager gaze flicked towards her wrists.
The Freelancer stared coldly at him. This was the asshole responsible for so much of the galaxy's problems. The Innie who had caused so much suffering, not just out there, but also inside the project. He was the reason for the empty lockers and the way Cal had pressed her into the wall. Nev was disgusted to see his face.
What scared her was that she couldn't summon the burning hatred she should have found just below the surface. All she felt was annoyance.
Harper strutted slowly, purposefully, deeper into the room. He moved past her and tilted his head back to peer up at the light coming in the window. Where the sun touched his head, it lit his hair to a golden halo. Nev shuffled around to keep him in front of her. Just because she wasn't angry didn't mean she trusted the slippery Innie.
"I thought you were the chatty one," he said after the pause had grown between them. He looked over his shoulder at Nev.
She shrugged. "What do you want me to say? Should I tell you about a certain part of the project, or do you want to drag every last word from me?"
In an eerily familiar fashion, Harper stalked closer to Nevada. She forced herself not to back away when he invaded her space, but she couldn't hide a flinch. He loomed over her. Very quietly, he said, "It isn't fun when you volunteer."
Nev ducked away from him, deeply disturbed by the manic gleam in his eyes.
Harper laughed, pivoting to watch her in a parody of her own previous motions. "I wouldn't worry too much about your team."
She froze. What had he done to them? Had he and Penn been allowed to… play with the others? The thought made her feel sick.
"Oh, Jersey was spirited. She tried to escape," he went on.
The past tense worried Nev. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep her face as blank as she could. That didn't stop her eyes from widening.
A smirk tugged at Harper's lips. "Yeah, she was fun. Popped off her arm and managed to get halfway down the hall before – "
Nevada never got to find out what Jersey had done because at that precise moment, Ark's voice cut in. "Ian," he said tersely. "Funny that I should find you here, after our last conversation. Don't you have somewhere else to be?"
Nev spun and saw the other man standing near the door. Harper reluctantly backed down. Throwing a poisonous glare at the former Freelancer, he swept out of the cell.
As soon as the Innie was gone, Ark's shoulders dropped fractionally. He shook his head slightly and took a few steps past the door, just enough for it to silently slide shut. "I'm sorry about that. He wasn't supposed to come down here." Ark stared down the way Harper had disappeared down the hall for a moment before returning his attention to Nevada.
She sat on her bed and leaned against the wall. Ark was the one to make Penn leave the project. He had shot Agent Michigan for no reason other than that the woman had been there, trying to stop him from leaving. Now Ark… he, Nevada could hate.
At the same time, she had to admit there was a grudging admiration. The Mastery Cube was an excellent piece of technology and, despite her best wishes, still resisted every attempt to foil it. If there was an equal for Nev, it would be Ark. Maybe they would find something to talk about.
"Tell me about yourself," he prompts, voice emotionless. "How far have you gotten into the Eternity Code I built into the Cube?"
Or maybe he'd just be self-centred and make it all about Ark. Nev stared at the wall behind his head and did her best to ignore him.
"Were you the only one working on my Cube?"
Ignoring him. Staring at the wall. She couldn't help herself and glanced to his feet.
Ark hummed as though that meant something to him. What, though, Nev couldn't figure out. "Do you have friends in Freelancer?"
She closed her eyes. There was a smaller chance of her answering his, admittedly, mild and irrelevant questions.
"Do you know what the Director has done?"
Of course she knew what he had done. It was all there for her to find one night while she was feeling bored. She had read the reports. Ark didn't have to tell her anything. He didn't have anything new to tell.
He gave a small sigh before turning on his heel and leaving Nevada alone once again.
"Right, on your feet." A rough hand shook her shoulder.
Blinking blearily, Nev realized she must have fallen asleep after her two very strange visitations. A Crimson Sun grunt stood over her, one hand resting lightly on the butt of his magnum. "Time for a walk. S'posed to bring you outside."
She climbed off her bed and winced as the motion sent a fresh lance of pain through her raw wrists. The grunt stared blankly at her for a moment before grabbing her by the upper arm and dragging her through the door.
For some reason, Nev was abruptly reminded of the vids she used to watch. This was the part where – had this been an action vid – she would run. And then either she would make it somewhere important and free the team, or get a bullet in the back for her trouble. It depended if she was the hero or just some nobody cannon-fodder. Right now, she didn't know which she was.
Nevada was directed through a multitude of intersections. She tried to keep track of the directions, but it was too complicated. In no time at all, she was without the faintest idea which way was out. She asked her escort several times where they were going, only to be whacked with the flat of the grunt's sizeable gun across the back for her trouble.
She was half-led, half-dragged down a long corridor. Was she really being brought outside? Or was this just another test designed to break her down? Was the nice cell just a trick, meant to placate her?
Shouldering the door open, the grunt squinted into the sun. A fresh breeze played across Nev's face, smelling of newly-turned earth. She stepped out of the building and into a fenced-off area. Her bare feet were treated to the feeling of an immaculately manicured lawn. Off to the left there was a large leafy tree spreading its shade over some boulders.
Then she began to take in the rest of the details. The fence hummed with electricity and was topped with, cliché as it seemed, curls of barbed wire. The tree, though adorned with low-hanging branches to climb up into, was well away from both the complex and fence.
Nev watched the grunt take up position beside the door, rifle now in both of his hands and aimed at her. She took a cautious step away from him. He didn't move. She walked backward until she was only several feet away from the fenceline. He still hadn't moved. She began a slow jog around the perimeter of the lawn.
She ran until she was short of breath and her muscles ached. All the while, her mind was whirling. If she could lull her escort into a false sense of security, maybe she could overpower him. Then what, Nevada? Take his uniform? Play Hero? Her feet slowed to a halt. Why bother?
Before she could come to a conclusion, the grunt strode over to her and took her by the arm again. "Back inside now."
Nev stubbornly refused to move. After having the chance to stretch her cramped muscles she was going to be forced back into her cell? No matter how nice it was, she didn't want to leave the farce of freedom she was being offered out in on the lawn. She dug her heels in and shook her head. "No."
The grunt put more pressure on her arm. "Now," he growled.
"No," she repeated, shaking her head again. But she was tired and didn't have the strength to resist him.
With a hard tug, he yanked her forward, pressing the barrel of his gun to her thin undersuit. "Open the door."
Grabbing the handle, Nev did as she was bidden. It swung wide after she gave it a solid shove. The long hallway opened like a greedy mouth, ready to chew her up and swallow her like a beast. After the natural light of outside, the complex seemed to be starkly lit by cold bulbs. The walls seemed to press in on every side and close her in.
A prod in the back served as a reminder that she really had no other choice but to step back inside. With no small measure of loathing, Nev moved her feet from the cool comfort of the grass and back onto the solid metal.
"How many Freelancers are there?"
"Are you telling me you don't know?" Nevada fired back at Ark.
A crease formed between his eyebrows. A slight spark shone through his eyes. "Of course I know," he said evenly, after a slight pause. "But why can't you just tell me?"
She put a finger to her chin, in a mocking action of thought. After two days of the painful monotony, of kicking up a small fuss over being ordered back to her cell after her time in the real world, Nev's sarcasm had grown dry and caustic. She ignored the stab of pain as the cuffs rubbed back over the scabs trying to form on her wrists. "Why don't we trade information?"
That was enough to force the crease into a full scowl. "I don't think you understand how an interrogation works," he said tartly.
She shrugged. "Or maybe you just aren't good at them." From her place on the floor opposite her bed, Nev had Ark in an uncomfortable situation in the room. He couldn't get down to her level without imposing on her personal space and he couldn't sit on the bed without losing some sense of authority.
"Trust me, I hope you'll never find out exactly how good I am," Ark murmured, eyes finding the camera on the wall.
Nev did what she always did when she grew tired of twisting all of his questions back at him. She closed her eyes. The thought that they had both admitted defeat for the day crawled through her mind and niggled barely out of reach.
The ex-Freelancer crossed back to the door. He stopped and half turned his head back to her. "You know, for a woman smart enough to hack ONI, you didn't do that well at not getting caught."
Without opening her eyes – and against her better judgment – Nev replied, "No one would look at you and suspect you lost your parents at such a young age."
She heard Ark shift his weight as though he was going to move back toward her. Instead he stayed in place. "Did your brother go to all your court hearings?"
"How angry were you really when you found out everything you had ever been told was a lie?" she countered. "Enough to turn on your teammates and shoot a friend?"
"You wouldn't understand," he said, quiet and controlled, as always. "Michigan wasn't supposed to be there. No one was. She just got between me and my way out of all those lies. "
Nev jumped to her feet, eyes snapping open. "So she died for no reason? Why didn't you let her go?"
"She would have stopped me." Ark turned around slowly and leaned toward the agent. "And then I would have been stuck there."
She bit her lip, picturing the small woman. Even though they had never – would never – meet, Nevada couldn't help but hold her in high esteem. For some reason, she knew how Mich had probably felt. The bottom of the Leaderboard had some kind of magnetic quality. Once you were in, there was no escaping its pull.
Nev also had seen first-hand what Ark's way out had cost Cal. That was inexcusable. It didn't matter how much she threw that into the former Freelancer's face, though. He would probably congratulate himself on one-upping the other man.
"Stuck there like I'm stuck here?" she asked at last.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Nev felt a weight lift from her shoulders. In a way, coming to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to be rescued – whether by the older agents finding them or her teammates busting out – made her feel better.
"Oh, no, Nevada," Ark murmured, looking her in the eyes. "I would have been dead before long, of that I have no doubt. You, on the other hand, will be here for quite sometime."
Ark let himself out. He stalked away and was gone in heartbeats.
Nev was left standing in her cell alone. Again.
How many days had she been locked in her cell? After the day Ark had stormed off, she hadn't seen anyone other than at her three meal deliveries per day. She also hadn't been let out for her hour of physical activity.
She was laying on her back on the floor, having run out of things to worry over, ponder over, methods of escape that wouldn't work for one reason or another or ways to piss off the next person who wanted answers to questions they didn't even have to ask. Instead, she wondered idly how long she could stay up without sleep. Of the things she didn't have, a good night's sleep wasn't one of them. In fact, it was nearing the point where Nevada couldn't possibly sleep any longer. That was the one way to escape the mind-bogglingly dull days. Even if the trade-off was feeling lethargic and bone-weary.
Nev had thought she could safely say she never wanted to see Harper, Ark or Penn again. But right now she would likely beg for any human contact.
"Get up."
Startled by the silent entrance of former-Agent Arkansas himself, Nev did as he ordered. She heaved herself to her feet and stared at him.
"Come on," he said.
She stood there and continued to stare at him. She didn't think she could summon the energy to go anywhere after so long doing nothing more strenuous than making her bed – which she had abandoned about three days ago.
Ark's lips pressed into a thin line and he waved a hand in front of her face. "Let's go. Now!"
She snapped into action and followed him, stumbling slightly, in the general direction of the exit. Surprisingly, it turned out he actually was bringing her outside. It seemed like some kind of humourless joke he would make. Force her to do nothing for however long it had been and then suddenly offer her the temporary freedom she craved.
By the time they reached the lawn, Nev's legs had woken up. She sat in the long grass – it had visibly grown since her last jaunt into the real world – and gently stretched. Ark watched her silently.
"Why…?" she croaked, voice rough from disuse. She cleared her throat painfully and flicked her handcuffs, a kind of nervous tic she wasn't aware she had developed. "Why did you leave me?"
He frowned. "That's what people do when they don't have any other ways to be angry at others," he replied evenly.
"You were mad at me? For talking about Mich and the Director and your childhood?" She threw her head back and laughed.
The shifting of Ark's feet drew Nevada back to the situation. It hadn't been funny. It had been insensitive.
Holy shit, was she feeling bad for him?
"That's petty," she said, getting a grip on herself.
Ark didn't meet her gaze, that was enough of an answer.
Nev stood up and wandered over to Ark. She held out her hands. "Off."
He looked down at her wrists. For a long moment, indecision seemed to war inside him. Then he reached for a key. With one deft movement, the metal fell away from her skin.
Nev let out a sigh of relief before walking to the tree. She reached up and hoisted herself into the lowest branches. It was the best feeling in the world to be able to stretch her arms out to her sides.
"You don't understand," he murmured.
Pulling herself to her feet, balancing by leaning into another branch, Nev stared down at Ark. "You're right. I don't! I don't understand what happened. What went through your head when you found out? Why did you lash out at the Director?"
"The Director has done… bad things." Ark sounded tentative, as though unsure what to say. It was like he hadn't explained the way he felt to anyone. Maybe he hadn't.
Nev rolled her eyes. "Show me a man in this day and age who hasn't. You – and everyone else on this base – can stake a claim on that."
"You know about Triestina," he said. It wasn't a question. Of course Nevada knew about the MAC treatment the city had received, courtesy of Project Freelancer.
"It made you think about your home," Nev said, countering the comment-question with a nod to herself. She couldn't help but feel as though this was some kind of contest, a test to see how much they knew that they shouldn't. "That was the beginning of the rift between you and the Director."
She climbed higher in the tree, not sure if it was to gain the proverbial high ground of the conversation by making him crane his neck to keep her in view, or if it was to run away in the only way available.
"Do you keep in contact with your brother?"
"You know the answer to that, Ark."
"So you haven't seen him since the last court hearing."
Nev smiled a little, her lips twisting wistfully. "ONI dropped the charges when the Director stepped in. I guess he didn't have to, since I'm practically being jailed anyhow."
The only outward reaction to her jibe was a slow blink.
With a sigh, Nevada realized she had climbed as far as she could already. The only remaining branches were spindly and too weak to hold her weight. Disappointment rolled through her at the lack of view. As far as she could tell, the complex was in the middle of nowhere. There were no obvious features to the land that stood out to her.
"The Director didn't have to do anything…" Ark trailed off, unhappy with the way he had begun the sentence. "He is a monster. But he's only the monster he has made himself."
Nev couldn't help but agree with that statement. She began the climb back down. When she was about a meter off the ground, she leaped down, landing in a crouch to absorb the shock. Straightening, she said, "Everyone is the monster they turn themselves into. It's the living with yourself afterwards that's the hard part."
He inclined his head fractionally. He headed back to the door. "I've been busy the last few days."
That had to be the first time Ark – or anyone else in this insane base – had volunteered information to Nevada. She gaped at him before following. "Too busy to visit?" she asked, covering her shock up with the sarcasm.
"Rewriting an Eternity Code isn't easy work, you know." Ark set a brisk pace back along the path to her cell.
"Yeah, I know. I've been trying to keep up with it for a while now," Nev answered.
They arrived back at her door. Nev did a double take as Ark continued down the hall. She hurried to catch up again. "Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but aren't you forgetting someone is loose around the base?"
He grabbed arm and began pulling her gently along. "Better?"
She stared at his hand in confusion. "Let me rephrase that. Where the hell are we going?"
Ark opened a side door and led her into a control room of sorts. There were screens on every available surface, each one displaying a cell identical to her own, in addition to pretty well every other part of the complex. What caught her attention was Harper leaving Rado's room. Nev's breath caught in her chest at the sight of the strong woman.
She understood very readily what Harper found 'fun'. The bruising and shaking were ample proof. Most of the others are in slightly better condition, but not much. Even Utah had curled into a ball and hid his head under his arms.
"Why did you keep Harper away from me?" Nevada asked, feeling guilty. Why spare her? She was the one trying to hack into his life's work, after all. It seemed… off.
"Because I knew you would see things my way," replied Ark. "And because I knew you were different from them."
Was she different? Nev didn't really know how to react to that. Was it because she would never be anything other than the hacker of the team? Because her fighting skills were actually horrible and he didn't think her capable of becoming the same monster as the others? Did she see things his way?
She sure didn't understand the Leaderboard. It never appealed to her. Why waste their energy fighting each other? Why not just pull together and be the team they needed to be? It made no sense.
"So," the ex-Freelancer went on, "I'm offering you a way out, a way to choose your level of monster.
"I'm offering you a place with the Crimson Sun."
Nevada crossed her arms. What had the UNSC done lately to help those in need? They had sunk mega dollars on the SPARTAN program in tandem with ONI but hadn't actually managed to keep humanity safe. ONI had gone after her and nearly took her freedom from her. And for what? Being entitled to the truth but the only one brave enough to go looking for it?
But she had grown up on a very military-focused planet. From a young age she had yearned to become a big, brave soldier. She had given most of her life to the UNSC. What had it given back to her? A cell.
In the end, it came down to one thing. Where did her future lie? And if it was such a huge problem to instantly say 'the UNSC', did that mean it wasn't true?
"Do you want it?" Ark pressed, expression open for once. He wanted her to say yes. He wanted someone else like him. Was Nevada like him?
Nevada dropped her arms and squared her shoulders. She met Arkansas's gaze and, in a clear voice, she gave him her answer.
"I want it."