Scout and him had the same mission: going ahead, inspect the surroundings and informing the team of whatever they found, each of them in their own way. He did it under a disguise, invisible. Scout went ahead without a cover, only his fast legs and his shotgun to protect him.

Something beeped when he crossed the gate. Had he stayed in there for just one more second, he would have been mowed down by a sentry. But he managed to get out of the way, the bullets impacting against the ground, and shouted to his teammates through the earpiece: 'Sentry ahead!'.

That was really remarkable. I don't think any of us could do such thing. He's as light as a feather and fast as a lightning.

That was where he intervened. Spy dropped his invisibility, cut the enemy Engineer's neck and assumed his appearance, so he could be free to sap the machine without the BLU team bothering. Now that there was green light, Scout dashed inside, and Spy followed him, careful to take a different direction so the enemy didn't suspect, seeing them together. The briefcase would be protected, and the plan was simple: he eliminated all obstacles in the way and Scout dashed away with it.

Said obstacles had been ready to annihilate them since the very second they saw the sentry move. The Demoman made the sticky bombs planted at the entrance of the intel room explode. Spy's heart bounced, thinking he had lost Scout. The confusion was such that he couldn't see a thing.

And then Scout appeared like a ghostly apparition, to break the Demoman's head with his bat. Thinking that he was dead, he kept on going. However, the Demoman was only very, very hurt. Once he was able to, he stumbled up and tried to shoot him a bomb. It would have hit him squarely in the back if it wasn't for Spy breaking out of character to stab him in the back.

They kept on going, now Spy making himself invisible again. He heard the echo of the battle outside, and, as he descended the stairs, he started to hear shots down there, too. Of course, they knew they were coming and had protected the briefcase with everything they had. Scout tried to get away from the two level 3 sentries's reach, but the Engineers didn't need them to fill his body with bullets. One of them got him in his dominant arm, making him drop the weapon. They would have killed him on the spot if he hadn't intervened.

"Spy's sapping my sentry!"

They just turned their eyes at the malfunctioning contraption for a fraction of second, enough for Spy to appear and stabbed them, on in the yugular and the other in the heart.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Scout assured, trying to grab his shotgun with the other hand, gritting his teeth in pain.

That was close.

His heart was still racing.

"Let's get outta here." Scout said, after seeing that he wouldn't be able to defend himself and take the briefcase at the same time. "Urgh, can't use this arm! You're gonna have to cover me. Can I trust that you won't dump me? Just this once?"

A remark which wasn't the playful teasing he almost always dedicated to his teammates. Casual, but filled with a tranquil, long-cooked resentment. One just had to look at his eyes when he said that. Hate disguised as sassiness.

Spy never missed the chance to respond to these caustic comments with something wittier and nastier. But to these kind of comments, he never replied anything.

He didn't have the right to.

Jeremy...I wish I could explain it all to you, why I did what I did...

"Just try not to die." Spy replied, grabbing his pistol.

"It ain't that bad. I've had it much worse." Scout replied, though his face kept showing signs of intense pain.

Oh, yes, acting like he was invincible and nothing could hurt him. He was exactly that way when he was his age. He wondered if that kind of traits could be transmitted through the genes, even if he hadn't been there to teach him his way of acting or anything at all.

But I really have no excuse. There is nothing to explain. It was all a series of mistakes I made, and it was you who paid the price.

We all do things in life, when we are young, and inexperienced, and selfish, and cruel, that we regret later on. I...well, I understand. Really. I would hate me, too, if I were you.

So Spy and Scout ran towards the exit together, Scout running so fast Spy had trouble keeping up with him. Ah, youth, what a divine treasure! Though he didn't consider himself old, he thought that he could have ran as fast as Scout did back when he was his age, perhaps. Or not. Was he fast! And that was something nobody had taught him to do.

He should have been running in competitions. The only gun being the one they marked the start of the race with. Not here, not doing this. This was something he chose to do—wasn't it his fault that he was here? Had he stayed, had he cared, he wouldn't have come to this...Unless being a criminal was also in his genes.

I don't know, maybe I doomed him from the very first moment I conceived him. A bad tree can only bear bad fruit—that's what they said in church, and the reason why my mother never told me about her real profession, or where or who my father was, or even dreamed about getting out of the Madame's house and getting a respectable job..

I know I didn't do things right, but it is not that apologizing will change anything. I don't have a time machine. I can't change what happened. So why wasting time with pretty but useless words?

They were seeing the exit. They had to be attentive, for BLU wouldn't let them out. He turned his head towards Scout for a second and, instead of him, found Betty glancing at him.

A constant reminder of her.

I wish I could tell you many things I've had to be silent about.

Like, I am very proud of you.

...And that I am sorry about it all.

THE END