"No. No. No. This can't be happening. This isn't supposed to go fucking wrong," Alex couldn't breathe. The mission shouldn't have fallen apart. She had planned so well. She worked everything out with Amanda. She bounced ideas off of Nikita. It should've been the perfect kill mission. The target should've been killed quietly. The Division team should've slipped away without problem. The operation should've been proof that Alex could run a successful mission. She could kill a man. However, none of that occurred. Everything fell apart, and Alex was trapped in a shed with Nikita. They were going to die without ever getting what they wanted.
Nothing was that pessimistic or drastic days before the operation. In fact, Alex had been so incredibly hopeful. Succeeding on her first kill mission meant she could begin to plan her kill mission against Semak. Nikita advised her not to get too far ahead of herself. She should simply focus on the mission in front of her. She wouldn't have the future she wanted if she screwed up the present. Although Nikita offered words to listen to, Alex couldn't stop the excitement buzzing through her. Finally, she'd be done with trainings, done with Division, done with everything. She couldn't wait until that came to be.
At least, she thought she couldn't. Once more details of her kill mission unfolded, Alex began to second guess herself. It was easy to distance herself from what she had to do when she was just planning the op. But when the weapon was placed in her hands, realization struck hard. She actually had to kill a man. Yes, he was a very bad man. Yet she had to be the one to kill him. She had to separate the man from his daughter and plunge a needle full of toxins into his veins. Alex had to take a person's life.
She had rationalized that terrible fact when it came to Semak. He took everything from her, so she was going to take everything from him- it was fair and square. The mob boss, on the other hand- despite being a mobster- gave Alex pause. She was going to kill him at his daughter's wedding. It was supposed to be a happy moment for the family, yet Alex was going to mar it with tragedy. She was going to gain the family's trust as a wedding photographer, then she was going to kill a father. Was she really any better than Semak if that was the case.
Yes. Undoubtedly, yes. She wasn't killing the whole family, only a horrific mobster. She also wasn't gaining any corrupt power from the operation, just enough to enact revenge. Ruining the wedding wasn't great, yet it was the best way to attack the mobster while he was surrounded by guards. So what if Division destroyed his daughter's perfect day and took her father away from her. He was a terrible man. Killing him would save so many lives. And his family would remain untouched, by Division and by his enemies.
Despite how much she rationalized the mission with herself, Alex continued to have moments where she'd spiral. Mostly, those occurred whenever she practiced how she'd kill the mob boss. She had to get him alone under the pretense that he was taking pictures with his daughter, then she had to inject him with the toxin. If she hit him in the trachea, then he couldn't shout for his guards. It had to be fast. It had to be simple. And Alex had to remain calm the entire time she killed the man.
That was what had Alex the most freaked out. She couldn't be calm. She knew she didn't have the control over her emotions she needed to kill the mobster and not alert danger. She couldn't stop her rage and fear from overcoming her. The op was going to be a disaster because she couldn't handle herself. Although Alex knew if she talked to Amanda she'd console her, she didn't want the woman believing she was too weak for a kill mission. So, Alex hurried to the computer lab to vent her fears to Nikita. She had to be able to help, "What if I can't inject the toxin? What if something goes wrong, and I can't do it? What if I'm never able to kill Semak?"
"Hey. You got this. I'm gonna watch from above, have your back if anything goes wrong. But you can do this. I know it," Nikita replied immediately. She had offered to help Alex prepare for the upcoming operation, investigate the grounds of the mobster's estate and go over security measures. But the young recruit had assured that she had it. Planning wasn't that difficult. It was the execution that had her overwhelmed. Nikita understood that. The operation was a lot for the recruit's first. But Alex was right. If her stubbornness and determination was any proof, she had it. The rogue would only be there to provide support if needed.
Taking a steady breath, Alex did everything she could to believe Nikita's words. She could complete the op. She could pass Division's final test. Not only would the rogue be there to help her, so would Kelly and a team of agents. Thom was among them, and he made the same promise as Nikita. Alex wasn't alone. She had many people in her corner, including Amanda; though she wouldn't actually be on the op. Whatever help she needed, she'd receive. The fact that she had so much support- rogue and otherwise- calmed the last of Alex's frayed nerves. Nothing would go wrong. She and everyone else would make sure of it.
In an effort to keep everyone in the loop, (despite not telling Alex what she was doing) Nikita told Birkhoff about the mission. She assured the nerd that he didn't have to do anything. He should just know in case something happened. Birkhoff didn't listen to her, however. Of course he'd help on the op, even if he still had no clue who her mole was. Any opportunity to hack into and fuck with Division's systems he'd take. He could watch for surveillance and provide communications with Nikita. They'd make certain the operation went smoothly. Then, hopefully, more things in their war would turn in their favor.
With Nikita observing from the roof, Kelly watching from a nearby van, and backup agents posing as staff, Alex was ready to kill her target. Thom gave her an encouraging nod from his position at the bar. As soon as he triggered the distraction, she would be free to take her target upstairs and in the secluded room. No one would follow her. Alex smiled at Thom and nodded back. She hadn't turned to him much for help, but he had still been a great support and friend. Maybe she could have him help her with the Semak mission as well. It all depended on that op, though. Alex needed to take another breath and complete it.
"Nikita, where are you? I need you," The message came through on Nikita's portable computer urgently. At first, she believed Alex had gotten into a terrible situation and needed her help. She had patched into the security cameras, able to view the whole scene with a careful eye. And Birkhoff had piggybacked off her intrusion, and was poking around in Division's servers to see what they were up to. The rogues had security and maintenance covered. All eyes could be on Alex. If she needed help, she could rely on the two to pull her out of the fire.
Except, there was no panicked chatter from Division. That wouldn't be right if something had gone wrong. As Nikita continued to stare at the sudden message, something felt off about it. Alex wouldn't risk communicating on the shell program mid-mission. Even if she was in trouble, she wouldn't risk exposing herself as the mole. Her mission meant too much to her. So, Nikita looked through her camera feed to see what was wrong. She didn't see anything amiss, besides the fact that Alex was walking with her target, nowhere near a computer. She didn't send the message, "Shit, Nerd. I gotta go. Alex's been compromised. Get out of their system, now!"
"Nikita! Fuck…" Birkhoff tried to reach Nikita, but she had already taken out her com. That was the smart move if her mole had been discovered (he guessed that was who Alex was). Yet that didn't do anything for his anxiety. Once he dumped the system, he was completely blind to what was happening on the mission. Nikita and Alex could be in deep shit, and he'd have no way of helping. He believed they could make it out- at least he believed Nikita could, and she'd help Alex. There was just a sinking feeling in his gut that he needed to do something to help. However, even if he couldn't, maybe he should call someone that could.
Leaving her equipment on the roof (thank God it was untraceable) Nikita raced after Alex. If Division knew about the shell program, then they could know Alex was her mole. The kill mission was about to explode into a gigantic shitstorm unless the rogue did something about it. What exactly she had to do to fix the mess, she had no idea. However, she did know Division couldn't be around. Not only would they hurt her and Alex, they'd hurt all the people at the wedding. The guests were already going to experience a death, they shouldn't face more trauma or hell. Someone had to interfere with the horrors Division brought.
Alex experienced enough of it as it was, after all. Everything had gone according to plan. The wedding guests and family were preoccupied. The guards were distracted with another problem. She had the mob boss all to herself. She could attack him, kill him, and slip away successfully. No one would know what had happened until it was too late. At least, that was what should've happened. Instead, Alex hesitated. She had her target right where she wanted him, yet she couldn't plunge the toxin into his neck. She couldn't not look into his eyes and think about his daughter downstairs waiting for him. Alex couldn't kill her target.
Once he realized that, he tried to kill her instead. The needle was broken in the process, yet fortunately Alex's training kicked in. She grabbed the mobster's gun and got him to his knees. That was her second chance to kill him. It'd be loud and messy. Yet it was her only chance. Kelly told her as much when she reported the issue. Division would deal with the fallout. Alex just had to complete the op. Except, she couldn't do it. Her finger only played with the trigger of the gun. While it did, the mob boss smirked, and his guards burst into the room.
If Alex hadn't already been so tense, the guards might've been able to subdue her easily. Luckily, she managed to put up a fight. Unluckily, her target escaped. She wasn't able to chase after. All her focus was on surviving the guards' attack. Before things became too out of hand, another agent burst into the room and immediately helped Alex take out the guards. At first, she thought it was Thom or maybe even Kelly. She was shocked that Nikita had been the one to come to her rescue. However, she quickly got over her surprise. The two women worked together to defeat their assailants, proving they were an indomitable team in the field.
There was no time to dwell on that, however. Gripping Alex's hand tightly, Nikita raced with her out of the house. They took the back exit, as Division was handling the mobsters in front. At least that threat was taken care of; Alex's target was finally down. But that couldn't be their concern. Division would be after them next if they didn't figure out what to do. The farthest Nikita could take them was a shed on the property. The two could lock themselves inside for a bit, yet it wouldn't last. They needed something big to get them out of that mess, save their lives, and keep fighting Division. Only one idea came to Nikita's mind, "Take me in."
"What?" Alex didn't think she had heard Nikita correctly. There was a good chance she didn't. She was panicking too much to truly focus on anything. She was screwed. She was so fucked. Not only had she failed her kill mission, but she ran off with Nikita. She was dead. They were both dead. And everyone they had set out to kill would live past them. All life- all vengeance- stopped there. So how could Alex make sense of anything weird Nikita said. It wasn't as though they had any real options out of that situation.
"If you bring me in, Percy and Amanda will forget all about the kill mission. I'm the bigger prize," Grabbing Alex by her biceps, Nikita forced her to focus. It would all work out for her. She promised. Percy and Amanda wouldn't care about the botched mission if their rogue was shown at fault. They wouldn't suspect Alex was the mole if she brought them Nikita. The young recruit could prove that she could handle more complex missions- such as killing Semak- then. Alex could still have what she wanted. Nikita just had to work a bit harder, "The silo is still open, right? I can escape through there again."
Silo- that must've been the open space connected to all the air vents Alex had found. She was glad she finally had a name for it. However, that shouldn't grab her attention at the moment. Nikita was proposing suicide just to help her. That didn't seem fair. Alex had to help her in return. It was the least she could do. Besides, if she could break Nikita out of Division, then she'd prove to herself that she could handle dangerous and intense missions. What she thought of herself was more important than what others thought- wasn't that what Amanda claimed. If she believed she was ready, then it was true, "The door's sealed shut. But I can blow through it."
"Make it look good," Holding her pistol out to Alex, Nikita tried to make light of the situation. Neither she nor her mole truly laughed- simply smiled uncomfortably and anxiously. The rogue honestly had no idea how she was going to break out of Division again. The silo was a way out of the bunker, but how was she to get there and then back to her loft. Maybe Alex's idea to blow the damn place would work. That'd definitely give Nikita enough cover to make a break for it. She just had to go through hell first.
Knowing that hesitating had put her in enough shit already, Alex tried not to pause. She pistol whipped Nikita as hard as she could. The rogue slumped to the ground, barely holding onto consciousness. It was good timing too. Division was right outside the shed, ready to storm inside. Alex couldn't sit back once they did. She had to make the act look good- just as Nikita had said. So when backup finally arrived, the young recruit kicked the rogue in the side over and over again. Until Thom pulled her off and Kelly stoically approached her former partner.
Kelly regarded Nikita blankly. The other Division agents around her stared at the barely conscious rogue in shock, surprise rippling through them at the fact that Alex managed to take her down. Kelly, however, didn't appear to care about that. She didn't seem overly emotional about anything. She just stared at Nikita. Though, when the rogue flickered open her heavy eyes, the agent finally reacted. Without blinking, she shot her captive in the thigh. Alex attempted not to flinch at the sounds of Nikita's painful screams. Thankfully, the attention had shifted from her. All eyes were on Kelly as she hollowly stated into her com, "Ops, we have Nikita."