"Wait. What? Do you mind telling me what's going on?" Ryan just gaped at Nikita and the man next to her. It wasn't his proudest moment. He was a CIA analyst; he should've at least picked up on a few things that were going on. Though, in his defense, he had been almost asphyxiated. All he knew was that his ghost unit had rescued him. For what purpose, and why he was kidnapped in the first place, however, he had no idea. He hadn't done anything, least of all what the rebels claimed he did. He was framed. He was kidnapped. He was rescued. And he had no clue why. Ryan really hated that day.
"Yeah. As we run away," Taking hold of the poor analyst's hand, Nikita yanked him after her. She didn't have time to explain. More rebels could rush into the camp (or, worse, Division) and they'd be screwed. Ryan would just have to understand everything once they were in the getaway car. Thankfully, he didn't argue with her. He willingly followed her and Owen out of the tent- and right back into danger. As soon as the three stepped into the sun, bullets rained down on them. They managed to duck behind a car before any of them got hurt. Nikita cursed, "Or later."
It shouldn't have been that surprising that Division arrived on the scene. Who else could the gunshot have come from; the rebels weren't that quiet, organized, or sudden. Division had arrived, ready to kill the rogues and the CIA analyst on sight. Either they were there as assurance that the rebels would kill Ryan, or they were following the source of their black box leak. Nikita bet it was both. Just as the rogues knew the black ops group would eventually crash the party, Division knew they'd catch their former agents with Ryan.
That worked out perfectly for the Alpha team. They could kill two birds with one stone. The analyst that had found too much information on the black ops group, which led to far too many questions, would be silenced. And two of their four rogues would be gone forever- maybe that might deter the others. Leading the Alpha team on the assault, Kelly was absolutely excited about the idea of killing the rogues. She could finally be one step ahead, "Come on, Nikita. You know you don't stand a chance. Just come on out."
"Funny. I was just going to say the same thing to you. Difference is, I'm not being too cocky," Nikita knew she was poking the bear. She shouldn't have goaded Kelly. She should've focused her attention on finding a way out of that terrible situation. She, Ryan, and Owen were dead unless they could escape. There was no doubt about it. Division's Alpha team was a well armed and trained army. Owen and Nikita just had pistols. As fun as taunting Kelly was, that moment wasn't the time. Unless Nikita's death wish was worse than even she thought.
A volley of bullets embedded into the side of the car. None made their way completely through- thank God. Yet, things began to look even worse for Nikita, Ryan, and Owen. Kelly was pissed. And as Michael always liked to annoyingly say, an emotionally compromised agent was more dangerous than a jammed gun. Kelly would do anything she could to get back at Nikita- for everything she had done, not just her recent taunt. The two rogues and the poor analyst were baked into a corner with nowhere to go.
Literally, there was nowhere for them to go. Division blocked their path to their vehicle, and there was nothing but dense wilderness around them. They couldn't risk being lost in the forest for days. Well, Nikita and Owen could; Ryan, not so much. The three needed to find a way past the Alpha team and an enraged Kelly. After studying her surroundings, Nikita soon thought she had an idea. There was a gas tank that the rebels had used for fuel nearby. If they played off Kelly's distracting fury, they could blow the tank, cause a huge distraction, and slip away. It was dangerous. But it'd work, "She's pissed. And distracted. Owen, help me with the diversion."
"You're not seriously thinking…" Ryan didn't have the chance to finish his thought. As soon as he realized what Nikita and Owen quietly discussed, it was too late to stop them. Owen crept from behind the car towards the gas tank. He was so close to firing off a shot, causing a fiery explosion that would cover their tracks as they ran away. Yet Kelly beat him to it. She launched a grenade at him. It missed wide and struck the gas tank instead. Both the rogues and Division agents were stunned by the intense explosion. It took a moment for the group to remember themselves. Once Nikita managed to, she ordered her team to run.
Sprinting through the woods was the worst plan Owen, Nikita, and Ryan could resort to. But it wasn't as though they had any other option. They had to run through the wilderness with no real destination, and there was a chance they wouldn't make it back to their car for days. However, at least they weren't fighting Division. They had an even lower chance of survival if they did that. The three just had to avoid them, then circle back. It was awful, but manageable. After all, with all the tree cover, they were able to avoid the flying bullets.
Unfortunately, after a while, sprinting through the forest was even worse than they had thought, and that included the Alpha team still behind them. Ryan was a very popular man. Rebels and Division weren't the only two groups after him. The CIA wanted him back as well. So, they had crashed through the forest hoping to locate him with the rebels. Instead, they found Ryan with the two people that had broken into the field office. Nikita and Owen stumbled right into the CIA operatives and their weapons. Although Ryan attempted to vouch for them, it was pointless. They were dropped to the ground and arrested. Owen glared at Nikita, "Nice plan."
Stopping dead in their tracks, Division slunk back into the shadows. As soon as Kelly saw the CIA, she did one of the smartest things in her life, and silently ordered her agents away. Attacking Nikita and Owen with the CIA present would've only created an incident. They could deal with their rogues once they were held at a blacksite. Actually, they could handle the two once they landed at Langley. Division had that connection, after all. The rogues weren't going to have their chance to talk or plead their case to the CIA. It was all over for them.
Nikita sighed deeply. She let the CIA haul her away, and she warned Owen to do the same. Putting up a fight would only get them killed. Though, not fighting their current situation would get them killed as well. The two were absolutely and completely screwed. It was as though each step of their mission landed them in deeper shit. Of course releasing black box secrets would lead to innocents getting hurt and Division on their ass. But the CIA getting involved, that was the worst. Escaping them was a whole other problem. And if the rogues were to tell them the full truth, who would believe there was that much corruption in their government.
Ryan believed it. He knew something dark was happening behind the scenes. And although that almost got him killed, he didn't stop fighting for the truth. The entire journey from the forest to the airfield, Ryan fought for the rogues. He tried to make his commanding officer understand what exactly was happening. Nikita and Owen stayed silent. Which probably helped their cause. It allowed Ryan to share his side of the story uninterrupted- the side the CIA would take more credence in. However, between rebels and a shadowy unit of the government, it remained incredibly hard to believe.
The two rogues were still trying to wrap their heads around everything; though, more out of a desperate way to escape than to understand it all. They didn't care about all the intricacies. Division had managed to track them, how that came to be didn't matter. Nikita and Owen just had to be aware that the Alpha team was still trying to kill them. Once the CIA brought them back to the States, they were dead. They needed to slip away. But could they actually do that with the CIA agents around them. If they told them the truth, would they be on their side.
Or were there Division moles working for the agency. Nikita believed it. She and Owen couldn't rely on the agents around them- only Ryan. If they were going to make it out of there alive, they had to involve the man they had saved. Maybe they could call it a quid pro quo. Though, Nikita didn't think it would actually come to it. Ryan seemed really interested in Division and uncovering whatever secrets were occurring. If she gave him answers, he'd help her in return. She could trust him.
Her partner (or whatever he was), on the other hand, wasn't so sure. Owen had his reservations about gaining any sort of trust from the CIA. He wasn't convinced that Ryan could actually fight for them. If the rogues wanted out of there, they had to strongarm their way out. They might get injured, but that would just be the price they paid. The two couldn't allow the CIA to fly them back to the states. They'd have to parachute out of the plane they were forced into, and simply figure it out from there. The rest of their mission had been a complete disaster. Why shouldn't their escape be any less of a mess.
Neither rogue shared what they were thinking until they were zip-tied to seats in the CIA carrier plane. The roar of the engine covered their quiet conversation. Owen and Nikita could plan their escape while Ryan kept pleading their case; he certainly was persistent. But given that it wouldn't be enough, the rogues had to focus on themselves. Owen remained too worried about the Division agent Nikita had fought with to fully concentrate- could she have been a problem. Sighing, Nikita told him about Kelly. No, she wouldn't be a problem. Owen couldn't help but chuckle at the fact, "The agent who launched a grenade at us was your partner? Damn."
"You should've seen what I did to mine and Michael's partnership," Nikita mumbled. She really could've used Michael's and Birkhoff's help to get out of that predicament. Maybe Michael would've been stuck just like she was, but Birkhoff could've used his super hacking abilities to help them out. She should've kept him in the loop about what she and Owen were doing instead of just commandeering his jet. There was no need for her to try to fix the mistakes herself. The weight of the world didn't rest on her shoulders.
"Birkhoff said he wasn't at the safehouse," Barely managing to hear Nikita's response, Owen commented. When he had called the nerd about the jet, Birkhoff had mentioned that Michael wasn't at the safehouse. He wouldn't even attempt to join the two on their unspoken mission. Owen couldn't exactly figure out what that meant. The last time he was around the other rogues, they had been incredibly close. Why would they start to pull away from one another at the moment. It couldn't all be because of the black box, "What happened?"
"You want answers, Fletch?" Noticing that Ryan was finally done talking to his boss- or, his commander was tired of listening- Nikita called him over. Although Owen deserved to know what was happening with the rest of the team, then wasn't the time to get into it. They still had to escape. Birkhoff and Michael didn't matter unless they could find a way back to them. As Ryan quickly crossed over to the rogues, Nikita believed a mixture of hers and Owen's plans would return them to the others and to safety. They just needed trust first.
"Are you finally going to tell me what's going on?" Ryan didn't care if he seemed desperate. Attempting to understand why he was kidnapped and why people wanted to kill him without all of the information was only driving him insane. He didn't care that the two individuals that held his answers were prisoners of the CIA. He would gather intel from anywhere he could. If it all came down to a conspiracy, like he suspected, then he'd deal with it. Yet for the moment, he just wanted to understand. He at least deserved that.
Owen cast Nikita a disparaging glance. Was she actually about to tell a stranger everything. Considering the hell he had just gone through, and the fact that he continued to fight for the rogues, it was only fair that he knew everything. Besides, the team eventually needed more allies, "There's a black ops unit of the government called Division. They started out doing jobs the CIA couldn't, but now they're just guns for hire. They're the people behind the political assassination you were framed for. You got too close to them with your digging, so they had to take you out. They're also the ones who tried to kill us in the woods."
"The ghost unit's real, and you're a part of them," It wasn't a question. Ryan was able to put the pieces together then. The CIA director laughed him out of the room when he mentioned the chatter he had picked up about the ghost unit- Division-, yet it was completely true. And because he had shown light into the shadows, he was going to be silenced. Blaming him for a mission that got leaked to the public was the easiest way to get rid of him. Yet, why would two Division agents then try to save him. There was more to the story that he was missing.
"We were. We're rogue now," Nikita stated simply. The straightforward fact seemed to appease Ryan the most. He finally had his answers, and they actually made sense. It was in a twisted sort of way. But he knew they would be complicated. Nikita was glad he felt that way. She needed him to see the strange rationality of it as she kept talking. She still needed his trust if she and Owen were to survive the night. Judging by the look in the analyst's bright eyes, there was a good chance of that happening. She just had to keep explaining, "We also have a team waiting for us. We're trying to take down Division once and for all."
"So what's your next play?" Ryan asked, determination crossing his gaze. Nikita and Owen weren't expecting that. They thought he'd be more hesitant. However, they weren't going to question his tenacity. They just dived right into more hell.
Although it was absolute chaos, Nikita and Owen were finally in control of their situation. Ryan was willing to help them, as long as they kept giving him information about Division; he was interested in dismantling the hellhole as well. Owen and Nikita were grateful for the help, but they'd go over it later. They really had to escape. With an overdramatic ruse and a violent grab for parachutes, the two were ready to jump and struggle their way home. Except, before they did so, Nikita whispered a parting line to Ryan- just something for him to know that they were a team from that moment on, "Keep in touch if you want to join the revolution."
"Hopefully our next encounter isn't as eventful," Ryan smirked. It took everything in Nikita not to laugh. She was a thousand percent certain that wouldn't be true. Wherever she went, chaos was bound to follow. Ryan would just be sucked along for the ride. At least he was willing to dive into the adventure. As was Owen as he tugged at Nikita to follow him out of the plane. The rogues' team wasn't made up of lone wolves, even if some of them believed it to be at the moment. They were stuck together whether they liked it or not.
All they had to do was leap into the fray, hand in trusting hand.