"Shit," Birkhoff instantly cursed. He didn't want to believe that Alex was behind the rebellion that was causing so much harm. He didn't want to think that she would betray the team and hurt her boyfriend. However, he knew that Michael was right. Birkhoff had known something was off with Alex when she had dragged him with her to stalk Danforth. He had chalked it up as her dealing with recent and constant trauma. Yet he shouldn't have gone with the easy explanation. He should've trusted his instincts and pressed the issue. There was no telling if things would've been different if he had. But they might've been better.
The rest of the team was in varying degrees of agreement with Michael. Ryan needed more proof before he could jump to conclusions. Owen wasn't entirely sure what was going on, so he was on the fence. Sonya was inclined to believe that Alex was working with the rebels, but she didn't think she had attacked Sean. And Nikita believed anything Michael did. If he was certain, then she would be as well. There had to be evidence to support his and Sean's claims. The sooner they found it, the sooner they could stop whatever the fuck was going on, "Is there any security footage from the interrogation room?"
"It's been completely wiped. We think the rebels did it to protect Jaden," Ryan sighed in defeat. The first thing he had done after having Sean rushed to Medical was check the security footage. Unfortunately, by the time he had gotten to it, all the footage was gone- absolutely nothing was left. The speed at which the rebels had wiped it concerned Ryan. It confirmed that there were more than just a few rebels. They weren't just scattered and desperate. They were well organized, and they had a strong leader.
That leader could've been Alex. Based on what Michael had said and Sean had observed, Alex could've been driven to the point to rebel. She could've easily convinced others to join her, especially after all the hell Division had been through lately, and she was smart enough to create an escape plan that could possibly save everyone from cancellation. Yet, even if Alex was willing to put a charge in the server room, Ryan couldn't picture her doing anything that'd put her boyfriend at risk. Hurting him would've been counterproductive to her supposed plans, "Or they could've been working off of Alex's orders. But I can't imagine her doing this to Sean."
"Unless Amanda truly did fuck with her mind," Owen countered gravely. Amanda had scrambled his brain so much that he didn't even know who he was. Everything about his past was gone. He had just barely learned what his real name was and that he had been in the Army. There were still so many unanswered questions that he feared he would never get the answers to. Namely, he wondered what kind of person he had used to be. Did he still act the same way, or had he changed entirely. If he had changed drastically, then Alex could've too. Amanda's claws could sink so deep, you weren't even your own person anymore.
While the others contemplated how Alex could've hurt Sean, Sonya took the Division laptop Michael and Nikita had left on their coffee table and began to look into the missing security footage hack. She thought that if she looked at the coding that had been used, then maybe she could find clues to the person who had left it. It would help if they could identify more rebels; then, they'd have more people to interrogate. However, when Sonya began poking around, she found something she didn't want to see. It only confirmed the worst, "It was Alex. This is her signature on the hack."
"How do you know?" Although Ryan didn't doubt Sonya's assessment- she and Birkhoff knew way more about computers than anyone else in Division- he needed irrefutable proof before doing anything about Alex. Accusing her of being behind the events that led to her boyfriend getting shot would have damaging effects if the team was not one hundred percent right. Also, if Amanda had done something to condition Alex to think of rebelling against Division, then who knew what else she could've made her think. Alex could've been extremely volatile and dangerous. The team had to be cautious on their approach.
"I taught it to her," Pushing the laptop away from herself, Sonya responded shakily. Back when Alex had been working with Oversight and Amanda to kill Semak- and as a way to act as a mole for the rogues- Sonya had been tasked with showing her some hacking techniques. She remembered that Alex had already seemed to know a lot (in hindsight, that had to have been because of Nikita and Birkhoff), but there were a few specific things that Sonya had taught her. A way to completely erase security footage was one of them.
"Shit," Once again, Birkhoff instantly cursed. There wasn't just something wrong with Alex like everyone on the team had speculated at least once since she had returned from South Ossetia. She had been turned into an entirely different person. She wasn't their friend or ally anymore. She was somebody so determined to get what she wanted, she didn't care who got hurt in the process. Even when she had been on a warpath in the past, Alex had never wanted to hurt an innocent or someone who didn't deserve it. But now, not even her boyfriend was off limits. Anyone in her way would be taken out; it was just like something Amanda would've done.
Frustrated, Nikita pulled her hair and resisted the urge to yank it all out. Alex fighting against her had been one thing. Nikita could've dealt with the situation if Amanda had only turned Alex against her. After all, she deserved the resentment. But fucking with Alex so much that she turned against the person she loved most was a whole new level of evil. If Amanda had wanted to destroy the team, she could've done so in any other way. The kind of blow the bitch had delivered was beyond fucked up and cruel. She had killed Alex in South Ossetia, then gave her back so she could kill the others, "What the fuck did Amanda do to Alex?"
"Well, she didn't scramble her brain or erase her memory," Birkhoff limited what the problem could've been by eliminating what it wasn't. Medical had checked for everything from evidence that her brain had been poked and prodded to hidden weapons inside of her abdomen when Alex had returned from South Ossetia. Besides the fact that she had zonked out during the exam, there had been nothing physically wrong with her. There had been no evidence that Amanda had fucked with Alex in her usual ways. Which, of course, then meant that the team was facing something new and possibly something they could never figure out.
"She messed with her memory a little bit. Sean said that Alex couldn't recall exact details of her time in South Ossetia," Michael shared. When Sean had first told him about Alex being unable to remember specifics, Michael had assumed that was because of the trauma she had experienced. She had been held captive in a warzone by Amanda, and she had seen somebody she had promised to help die. That was bound to give anyone post-traumatic stress. Alex's memory issues could've easily been attributed to that. But not in combination with the other things wrong with her. Her memory had been messed with. It was simply unclear how much.
"But we did a brain scan. There was no scarring like in Owen's fucked up head," Birkhoff replied, ignoring the glare Owen shot at him. The hacker wasn't doubting Michael's statement or Sean's observations. He was simply stating the fact that nothing was adding up as it should've. The team was missing the mark on what Amanda could've done to Alex. They were thinking too narrowly, about the things they had witnessed in the past. They had to start considering that they were facing a brand-new threat.
"Maybe Amanda refined her technique," Michael shrugged. It had been well over a decade since Owen had been recruited into Division. In that time, Amanda could've tested her needle trick on others- maybe even on those she had tortured, thus earning herself the nickname 'the Inquisitor'- and had found a way to perfect her fucked up skill. There was a possibility that she could poke around in someone's brain without leaving a mark, especially if it was minimal and not at all like she had done to Owen.
"Or maybe Amanda gave Alex something. Alex said she had been put under a lot. Could a drug have healed any wounds or have hidden anything Amanda could've done?" Recalling the one thing Alex had been willing to share about her time held in captivity, Sonya speculated. Drugs could've explained the lack of scarring and the difference between what had happened to Alex and what had happened to Owen. Sonya didn't know of any drugs that could've led to that situation. Yet Amanda had always managed to get her hands on new and improved fucked up things. Who was to say that a new type of drug wasn't the latest.
An idea struck Nikita like a bolt of lightning. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. But what Sonya had said sparked a memory in her mind of what Amanda had used to have been able to do with a cocktail of drugs in Division. And, suddenly, everything made sense, "Hey, Fletch, remember when Amanda would help agents that had relapsed? She'd pump them full of drugs that counteracted whatever they had taken and made them highly suggestible. Then, she'd lead them through those walking dreams and twist their thoughts a bit."
"Do you think she did something like that?" Ryan distinctly remembered witnessing what Amanda had done to recruits and agents who had relapsed; he also distinctly remembered Nikita being one of those recruits (though, he doubted Michael knew, so he wouldn't say anything about that then). Playing around in people's minds and guiding how they thought had been a favorite pastime of Amanda's. It was very possible that she had discovered a way to make her suggestions permanent. If so, then she hadn't just fucked with Alex, she had brainwashed her.
"It's possible," Birkhoff mused. Between drugs, a needle, and her supervillain power of manipulation, it was very possible that Amanda could've brainwashed Alex without leaving a mark. The bitch could've made Alex think and believe anything in the days that she had held her captive. She could've made her into an entirely new person with different goals, different dreams, and different enemies, "Yeah. Yeah. She could've pumped Alex with drugs, poked around with that needle, and made her believe things that weren't true. That's why she treats us like the enemy and not- you know- our actual enemies."
"And that wouldn't have shown up on the brain scan?" Although Michael was fairly certain that he already knew the answer, he asked for clarification anyway. He hadn't heard of the way Amanda had helped Division agents and recruits get clean before (there was probably a very specific reason his wife hadn't told him about it). However, it didn't sound too different from the other manipulation tactics that the bitch liked to utilize. She could've easily combined her techniques into one terrifying weapon- a weapon that didn't leave its mark until well after it had caused the most destruction possible.
"No. And we didn't do a tox screen. So who knows what kind of drugs Amanda had actually used to knock her out," Birkhoff quickly confirmed Michael's suspicion. The detoxing program the bitch had forced struggling agents and recruits through would not have been discoverable by a brain scan. The only evidence of its existence would be a tox screen. But even then, Medical would have to test for specific drugs. If Alex had gone through that, it would've slipped under Division's radar. It was Amanda's perfect crime.
"What do you think Amanda made Alex see?" Softly, Sonya wondered. She couldn't even begin to imagine what Alex could've been forced to believe in order for her to turn against the team. It must've been something truly terrifying. Fear was an excellent motivator to get a person to do what they normally wouldn't have. The deactivated killchip in Sonya's brain was a permanent reminder of the betrayal and atrocities a person could be convinced to make when the threat of death was on the line. It was possible that that was what was motivating Alex; she was made to believe that she or others would die, and she had to stop that from happening.
Sonya's question was an important one to consider. If the team could understand Alex's motivations, then maybe they could discover how exactly Amanda had brainwashed her. Though, even if they could figure out what had happened, it wouldn't help them then. The damage had already been done. Alex had been brainwashed, and her perverse thoughts were destroying Division. The team had to stop her from making the already terrible situation worse. Ryan urged them to focus on that instead of the past, "I don't think that actually matters. The only question we should be concerned with now is what we do with Alex."
Nikita fought the urge to say the first thing that came to her mind. She forced herself to think about how Alex had stared at Sean's unconscious body and not about what Amanda had done to her. The young woman had seemed so defeated- so broken- as she watched over her critically injured boyfriend. Whatever had led to him getting shot had not been a part of her plans. She hadn't wanted him to get hurt- she could never, ever, lose him- despite the thoughts Amanda had put into her head.
A part of Alex was still there deep down; she hadn't been completely erased by the brainwashing. Otherwise, the team wouldn't have excused her behavior so easily, and Sean would've raised a lot more hell about the fact that his girlfriend had not returned from South Ossetia the same. That part of Alex that was still herself could not be washed away. The team had to fight to ensure that she wasn't completely lost to the brainwashing. No one else could die because of Amanda. The bitch's schemes ended then, "We break Amanda's conditioning, and try not to break Alex in the process."