A/N: I was halfway through a scene with Tucker and Star before realizing this should come up first, so….


Paulina was used to weighing risks, assessing the situation at hand, and trying to spin it in her favour long before joining the GiW—but the best laid plans, as they say, often go awry.


Paulina hadn't needed extensive training to be able to read people well; she'd been quite good at it in high school, back before everything had changed.

She was pretty sure she'd know something was off about this gaggle of kids even without all that, though.

The whispered bits of conversation as they picked their way past her surveillance post wasn't anything that raised her suspicions, but moving seamlessly out of the way of seemingly nothing did.

The Five Children and It. Not that she couldn't guess what it was. It was a ghost. It wouldn't be anything else.

Except—a ghost they could still see even though it was invisible to her?

Paulina inhaled sharply, remembering a fight on board a pirate ship led by the thing that had pretended to be Fenton against a ghost with mind control and one which none of the adults had apparently been able to see.

This was that all over again, minus the pirate ship.

The tallest of the little group, a boy, glanced in her direction, but his eyes roamed right over her hiding spot. Still, he reached out and stopped the redheaded girl with a touch, leaning down to whisper in her ear, and Paulina found herself pulling back as much as she could.

She could deal with a bunch of kids, but she really didn't want to.

Besides, the presence of the ghost worried her. Even knowing it was there, she couldn't seem to find it. There was a tracker built into her wristband, and she was more than equipped to deal with it in a proper fight, but relying on tech to find ghosts only got you so far. Technology could be compromised, so a combined approach was best.

It would also mean fewer headaches for her like the one Star was currently dealing with, which meant that if Paulina could head this off, all the better. She knew Star intended to talk to Foley about it, but Paulina wasn't sure if she trusted Foley.

She didn't distrust him, exactly. He'd proven himself useful with surprising frequency, and for the most part, his intel was good—even now when it should have been painfully outdated. He did his job and he did it well, but honestly, that was even more reason for her to distrust him than to trust him.

Paulina didn't quite trust Fenton either, though, and Fenton was nearly a top-level agent.

Frankly, Paulina suspected that Fenton wasn't a top-level agent because some of the higher-ups didn't have complete trust in her, either. To Paulina's knowledge, Fenton had never been washed, though Paulina had no idea why. If anything, that would improve her. It wouldn't negate everything—Manson was on thin ice, as far as Paulina was concerned—but it would offer a bit of assurance that wasn't otherwise there.

Still.

All things being equal, Foley was the best person for Star to ask.

Paulina just hoped she wasn't looking at the proof that things weren't all equal, especially since the redhead's suddenly narrowed eyes meant she'd been made.

Well, Paulina wouldn't gain anything by hiding now.

She was dressed for undercover work as always, in casual clothes dingy enough for this part of town, and it wasn't hard for her to slip on a figurative mask when she had so many to choose from. She bared her teeth at the ragtag little group in something none of them should mistake as a smile. "You planning on moving on or do I need to make you?"

How people reacted to threats could tell you a lot about them.

They all shifted, the tallest boy taking point, a boy with cornrows on his right, and the redheaded girl on his left. Paulina couldn't see a gap left for the ghost, though if they were thinking on their feet, there wouldn't have been one to see anyway. She wondered if this ghost was the same one that she had fought what seemed like a lifetime ago.

She wondered if it had recognized her if it was.

Even if it wasn't the same ghost, though, if it had a similar power, she should be able to make herself see it. She wasn't a legal adult, so if that left her a loophole to exploit, she was going to see this threat for herself even if it was only by sheer force of will.

"In the process of moving," the tallest boy said, but Paulina was already shaking her head.

"Scouting out a place to settle, maybe. You'd be moving faster if you were moving on."

"We're just meeting up with friends," the redhead snapped. "Or is that against the law now, too?"

Paulina's eyebrows shot up. "Depends what the meetup is for, doesn't it?" The girl scowled in response, but Paulina's attention was fixed on the dark-skinned boy. He looked like he was listening to something. The ghost, likely as not.

"We're going early for the bread line," the tall boy said after a few seconds of silence. "It's better to wait with friends."

"I'll come with you," she said, and none of the children hid their grimaces at the prospect. She doubted they even tried, but she ignored that, shifting her expression to something more pleasant and sticking out her hand before saying, "I'm Maria."

None of them took her hand.

None of them offered up their own name.

Paulina let her hand drop back to her side. "You all have your vouchers?"

"Would we be going to the bread line if we didn't?" the shortest child groused.

The girl nearest to him, the one without red hair, slugged him and said, "You forgot lost time. Check your pockets, and I'll go with you if you forgot again."

Practice meant Paulina didn't frown, even when the boy made an exaggerated show of checking his pockets and didn't pull out any vouchers. "Sorry," he mumbled. "You really don't mind coming with? We'll be behind the others."

"Worth it," the girl said with a pointed glance at Paulina. She looked to the boy on Paulina's left—actually at the boy, not beside him, though that may be because he no longer appeared to be listening to someone she couldn't see or hear—and raised her eyebrows. He smirked and bumped her shoulder, and if Paulina weren't practiced, she might have missed the way the girl's hand closed around something the boy had handed her. "We'll catch up with you guys in a bit."

The two kids in the middle turned and trudged back the way they'd come, but Paulina suspected it was for show. She suspected all of it was for show. What were they really up to? Those two could be going to get vouchers—for the lot of them, likely as not—but if there were really a ghost—

Paulina closed her eyes, let out a breath, and tried to let go of some of her training with it. If she could pretend this was like high school had been—before she'd been recruited; before the Merge—then maybe, just maybe, she could convince her brain to see what she knew was there. It wasn't like she'd never acted in high school, and reading people was still second nature. Heading up the A-listers in Casper High hadn't been something just anyone could have done.

When she looked again, there was a faint shimmer in the air by the vent behind the kids that might—might—have been the ghost.

It might also have been from the hot air pouring out of the vent and her willfully ignoring it before because it hadn't seemed important.

She'd know for sure once they moved.

"Well," she said, giving the kids another smile, "shouldn't we get going?"


They made it to the square, but they didn't make it to the bread line. It was clearly there, but the children dithered instead of joining it.

Paulina wasn't surprised. She hadn't expected them to take spots in the queue, or at least not to stay there if they did. She let the kids take their detours and have their faked arguments without interceding, even though she didn't learn anything of value. They were killing time, but the shimmer hadn't travelled with them, so she was content to let them.

What did surprise her was the shortest child returning to the square with two other kids, twins by the looks of them, which prompted a distressed look from the tallest boy. If the shorter (presumably younger) boy had been smart, those two would've hidden away and he'd have produced some vouchers to corroborate their story. Before she could think of a way to call him on that without breaking her cover, though, she spotted the girl return with someone that could be Paulina's age in a uniform that didn't quite fit him.

He had the shades. He even had the shoes. But though there wasn't a speck marring his white uniform, he wasn't carrying a standard issue ectogun, the sleeves were a hair too short, and she could see more than one loose thread when she looked for it, even from this distance.

He had the sense not to approach them. He didn't even give more than a glance in their direction, and he didn't seem to notice when the girl broke away from him to rejoin their little group, but he wasn't good enough at faking the inattention for her to fall for it.

Besides, his hair was in twists, and they weren't even contained. Anyone who was remotely familiar with their protocols would know that wouldn't fly.

If that weren't damning enough evidence, there was a shimmer by his side, and it was larger than it had been before.

Paulina had a choice.

The obvious option was to follow protocol and stop this immediately. She'd need to call for backup before she showed her hand—even if they didn't have the advantage of numbers, she could hardly follow them all if they chose to run for it—but she was wearing an anti-possession anklet, so the ghost wouldn't be able to stop her even if it noticed what she was doing in time to try to intercede that way. The ghost might still get away if she couldn't act quickly enough, but she was good enough with faces that she'd be able to find the others even if they did run.

If she let this play out, on the other hand? She could learn what they were up to. What the ghost was up to—or what it had promised them, if they were up to the same thing. She might be able to figure out if this was the real plan or the distraction. With a ghost around, she wouldn't be surprised either way.

Letting it play out risked letting them win, though, and they couldn't afford to lose Phantom so soon after securing him. Not that Paulina thought they'd make it if this were the main team and not the distraction, because a gaggle of kids could not be qualified to infiltrate the base even if they'd had enough street smarts to spot her—and straight up refuse to trust her, for the most part. Anything she had seen from them were mistakes.

Then again, being quick to judge was what had let the thing that had been Fenton get away with its scheme for so long.

What if she was looking at calculated mistakes instead of rookie ones? What if they were assuming she'd look at them and dismiss them? That would make them the distraction, wouldn't it? Or were they the bluff that would come from behind once a secondary team—the real distraction—took action and pulled away precious resources?

There had to be another team in town, someone else they were working with, and she wouldn't be shocked if it turned out to be Jack and Maddie Fenton. Phantom's capture had been leaked long enough ago that they'd surely heard it wherever they'd holed up. She might not make the same bet with something else, but Phantom? They'd defected for Phantom. Quick as if a switch had been flipped, from the sounds of it, but the anti-possession tech had been their creation. They hadn't been overshadowed by a ghost when they'd decided to throw in their lot with the losing side.

No.

She couldn't afford to risk Phantom. Acting now would alert the kids and lose her valuable information, but inaction would be worse.

Paulina turned on the transmitter on her watch and raised it to her mouth, but a firm grip wrapped around her wrist and pulled it down before she could get a word out edgewise.

She turned to face what looked very much like Star, but the pained expression on Star's face—not to mention the crackling of sparking electricity from where she gripped Paulina's wrist, or more accurately, her watch—gave away the game.

Either Star had done something very stupid, going out in plainclothes and losing a fight badly enough to the point that she'd gotten overshadowed, or Paulina was looking at a shapeshifter.

"No need for that," Star said, and her voice wasn't quite right, but voices weren't always quite right when a person was simply possessed, either. Few ghosts seemed able to mimic them well enough to truly pass when faced with someone well-acquainted with the person they were wearing like a puppet. "We've got bigger fish to fry, and you don't want to be caught up in that, do you?"

Paulina wrenched her wrist free of Star's grip and saw the smashed remains of her watch.

A shapeshifting ghost, then.

One strong enough—or stubborn enough—to be able to touch her despite the Spectre Deflector technology she wore.

Not without consequences, anyway, unless the pain on its face had all been for show.

Not-Star bared its teeth at Paulina. "Come on, Sanchez. I'm fine with making a scene, but are you?"

It knew her name, and it knew Star well enough to know that she was also familiar with Paulina's name.

The kids were all staring with wide eyes, either not trying to hide their astonishment at this turn of events or doing too poor a job of it to fool anyone.

There was a ghost in front of her, at least one ghost she couldn't quite see hanging around nearby, and at least one other human involved in their scheme besides all the children the ghosts had tricked.

"She's definitely an agent?" the shortest boy breathed, and Not-Star gave a sharp nod without taking its eyes off Paulina.

"One of the ones from Amity Park," it said. "Knows ghosts better than the rest of them. Knows Bi— Knows Phantom, too."

Paulina could hear more than one sudden intake of breath at that, and she wondered how much the children had been told before this.

"And the captain?" the redheaded girl asked.

Not-Star pursed its lips. "I wouldn't count on her not knowing him."

Either the training regime on the other side was a lot more extensive than Paulina had realized or chances were very good she'd crossed paths with this ghost in the past, too. "We can make a scene," she said, wanting to call its bluff. "I can always blend in elsewhere. You'll get taken apart and reconditioned."

Not-Star frowned at her before glancing over its shoulder. The kids all looked in the same direction, and Paulina didn't bother following their gazes. She was pretty sure it would lead to the same shimmer as before, and securing that ghost didn't matter when the main priority had become alerting the others at the facility of the threat.

Instead, Paulina ran, bolting for a break in the bread line that would surely close behind her—

Something tripped her, and then Not-Star was on her back, and the teenager dressed as an official member of the organization was looming over her. "Scene it is," Not-Star hissed before loudly proclaiming to the onlookers that they were going to take Paulina in.

The ghost was stronger than it had any right to be, but at least Paulina could take comfort in the fact that it handed her off to the teenager as soon as it could. It hadn't managed to completely circumvent their technology, and Paulina liked her chances against an untrained human.

The kids didn't follow them—hanging back with the first ghost, maybe—so Paulina pretended she was going to come quietly while there were witnesses. She could produce her identification and try to turn the tables on them, but there was no guarantee of that working as well as she'd like. Besides, she needed her hands free to do that, and if she wanted to have a hope of blending in here again, even as a recently-washed citizen, showing credentials now would hardly help her.

If there were sympathizers in the crowd, it would only make things worse.

"You need to escort us to the gate," Not-Star murmured to the teenager. "I can only do so much with their eyes on me."

The teen cleared his throat. "But Aaron will be okay?"

The baritone of his voice was threaded with worry, but his grip didn't falter. A shame, but not a dealbreaker. There was time yet for Paulina to try to drop and twist her way free. If she could learn something useful first, this might not go on her record as a mistake.

She had a name now, after all. Aaron. It wasn't enough on its own, but it was a good start when she had not one but two faces to go with it. If these two weren't family—brothers or cousins—then she'd march back to the facility and free Phantom herself.

Not-Star eyed Paulina. "Better chance of that if we can test out our reconditioning program, but this one used to fight with us. If it's something that can be picked apart, we'll see it more clearly with ones like her."

Reconditioning program.

Paulina's words hadn't been an empty threat. What if Not-Star's threats had just as many teeth?

"You—you think it'll work? That anyone who's been washed—?"

Not-Star rolled its shoulders in a shrug. "The one who's running it is good at what she does, and she feels she's ready to start her attempts at deprogramming. Best we leave it at that for now."

If that was all Not-Star was going to say, Paulina had no reason to stick around and see whether or not whatever they'd concocted would work.

She was free of the teen's grip in under ten seconds, but even if the boy hadn't been trained to fight, Not-Star had.

More to the point, Not-Star had no qualms about fighting like the ghost it was.

Paulina had a split second to process that her anklet—her protection—was broken before Not-Star's features had melted into something nondescript and the ghost had lunged towards her.