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glass-dahlia · 2 years

Text

Sierra

Pairing: Lloyd Hansen x gn!Reader

Word Count: 17.8k

Warnings: Swearing, cannon typical violence, concussion, use of y/n, mention of eating, (let me know if I missed anything)

Summary: Lloyd Hansen could and would kill anyone for enough money. Well- maybe not anyone. Seems someone sparked his interest back in the day. What a coincidence that they happen to be meeting again.

A/N: I posted this fic already on Wattpad (under a different username, SpideyPeterTingle), I just decided to start writing on Tumblr because why not. Requests are open, I just don’t write desciptive smut

Masterlist

Your breathing refuses to calm as screams pierce through the air. You can practically feel his pain just by hearing it. You shut your eyes tight, not that it does anything in the lightless room you woke up in.

“See, I really don’t know what to say. I mean, you go against your mission? Snoop where you shouldn’t? This is what you can expect, bud,” you hear a smooth, unbothered voice speak up. More exclamations of pain follow. Quite honestly, you’d rather not know what’s happening. Instead, you place your focus on escaping your restraints like you had been taught.

Soon enough, but after what seems like an eternity, the screams have subsided and the silence is blaring in your head. Footsteps approach the room you’re in. You let out a quiet, shaky breath. Pressing yourself against the wall at the side where the door will open, you hear a slight click as the door is unlocked. The second you see the shadowed figure of the creep that brought you here, you throw a punch, only for him to catch your fist and immediately grab your other wrist. His strong grip keeps you from freeing yourself, despite your struggles against him.

“Not so fast, sunshine,” he hums flirtatiously, almost making you gag, “play your cards right, and I might just let you walk out of here. Can’t say the same for your friend there though,” he chuckles darkly.

“Fuck you,” you seethe and knee him directly in the groin, causing him to double over in pain and lose his grip on you.

“Charming offer, but that’s not quite how you do it,” he musters out through the pain.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“Look, Five, you know Sierras work solo, you have no grounds to ask for a partner,” Fitz sighs as he looks at you.

“I don’t give a shit, just please try, I need to know he’s ok. And honestly, he’d kick ass at this,” you insist, starting to get desperate. You know if anyone has your back, it’s Fitz.

“The things I do for you,” he concedes with a sigh as he turns to his computer to begin his search as he types in the name.

‘Courtland Gentry’. The older brother you thought you’d never see again.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Leaning against the wall, shadows hide your face from his view. The only sounds that fill the room are the jangle of his chains and the snap as you pop the gum in your mouth.

He breaks the silence first, “If this is about Winky’s Cantina, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

You smile to yourself slightly as Fitz assures him, “It’s not about Winky’s Cantina.”

“I like honey buns as much as the next guy. I’m not gonna gouge your eye out for one. You gonna write that down?” Court nods to a notepad on the table, keeping his eyes on Fitz.

“I’m not gonna write anything down.”

Court looks over at you slightly, trying to see who you are, but getting nowhere thanks to the lighting.

“You want some gum?” Fitz offers him, regaining his attention.

Court leans in, “What kind you got?”

Fitz takes the gum out of his pocket to read the label. “‘Bubblicious Watermelon Wave’. What do you say?”

“There is no other kind,” Court says with a slight shrug, reaching his hand out as much as the cuffs allow. Fitz slides the pack across the table to him. Court starts to unwrap a piece before placing it back on the table with more force than necessary. “If you think I’m gonna rat somebody out for Bubblicious, you got another thing coming to you. Watermelon or not.”

“It is pretty good though,” you offer with a smile evident in your voice. Court looks over at you and smiles, slightly amused.

“‘Courtland Gentry’,” Fitz begins to read his file, “‘Born 1980. Incarcerated 1995. Eligible for parole in 2031,’” he closes the file as Court looks back at him. “You got quite a long way to go, son.”

“There’s an upside to sleeping so close to your toilet,” he shrugs nonchalantly, popping the piece of gum in his mouth.

“I get it. You’re glib. So were they,” Fitz nods back to you.

You walk over and sit in an extra chair next to him, feeling eyes on you. You look across the table at Court who squints slightly at you, trying to figure out what that means and who you are. In his defense, it has been years and you’ve both grown up.

“Well, I’m just gonna cut to the chase,” Fitz continues, “My name is Donald Fitzroy, and I’m here to commute your sentence.”

“You’re gonna commute my sentence?”

“Yes.”

“Just like that?”

“When I get out of this chair and we walk out of this prison,” he looks at you briefly, “you’ll walk with us.”

“Who are you, my fairy godmother?” Court laughs, not quite believing Fitz. “No offense, I thought you’d look different.”

“I may be. We’ll see.”

“What’s the catch?”

“There’s always a catch,” you add and Court’s eyes shoot back to you, this time with a glint of realization and recognition. You smile slightly.

“You work for us. With Y/n,” Fitz informs him.

“Y/n?” Court’s voice is quiet and you nod in confirmation.

“I missed you, a lot has happened without you.”

“Yeah,” he chuckles in relief at finally seeing you again, “I guess it has. So who- who’s ‘us’?” he looks between you and Fitz.

“The CIA,” you state.

“We’re gonna train you to kill bad guys,” Fitz adds, “and since you’ve already killed one, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

You notice Court’s light hearted and joking persona drops slightly, “What makes you think I wanna do it again?”

“Because I personally requested you as a partner. You fit the type anyways, Court.”

“You’d be part of an elite unit with Y/n, the Sierra program,” Fitz says, “you would exist in the gray.”

“Disposable?” Court all but scoffs at that idea, worrying you that he won’t agree.

“I’ve worked with Y/n for a few years now. I know why you pulled that trigger,” Court’s eyes go back to you protectively as Fitz speaks, “I would’ve done the same thing myself. Now, I’m here to help you become a value-add instead of value lost. So why don’t you take all the pain or whatever the hell got you here, turn it around, and make it useful?”

Court hesitates for a few moments, looking down slightly to contemplate the decision before looking over at you again, seemingly making his choice, and looking back to Fitz.

“How long do I gotta work for you?” he asks.

“Let’s just say you’d be indefinitely useful.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Bangkok, eighteen years later…

You look around from your seat with Court beside you. All you have to do is wait for the signal that your target has arrived, take him out, and mission accomplished. They didn’t like to tell you much about your missions anyways. It helps keep your morals out of it, you don’t get the luxury of making your own judgements you figured.

You look over at Court and he just gives you a slight shrug and smile, knowing you’re not a big fan of the waiting period. It makes you feel useless and vulnerable. You smile back at him and chuckle lightly. With all the bright colors and lights surrounding you, the bright red suit he adorns provides an oddly fitting source of camouflage. You opted for the blue suit, they didn’t exactly offer any more muted color choices.

You’re snapped out of your thoughts as you see Dani Miranda come into your line of view with a floral suit. Very spiffy.

“Do you need anything?” she asks nonchalantly.

Court shakes his head, tossing a piece of gum in his mouth, “No, we’re good.”

“Nice suits,” Dani states.

“Back at you,” you smirk slightly, “though we just wear what they tell us to.”

“Subtle,” she smiles slightly at you. You two had always gotten along well.

“You’re no fly on the wall yourself,” Court adds as Dani places what appears to be a plastic water gun on the table. She slides it forward to him. “I don’t have a permit,” he jokes.

“It’s not that kind of party,” Dani responds before walking away.

“You look really hot!” you call after her as Court picks up the water gun. You swear you could see her laugh slightly as she disappeared into the crowd.

“Well, if you’re done flirting,” Court trails off as he tosses his napkin onto the table, having finished whatever horderve he grabbed earlier.

“You’re just jealous that I’m the hot sibling,” you tease as you both get up and start walking to where you were told to go.

“Oh, and how has that worked out exactly? You’ve dated how many people?” he prys playfulls, spinning the water gun on his finger as you walk down a dimly lit hall. You both know the answer is zero.

“Shut up,” you mumble as you halt once you reach the door. He glances down the hall briefly as he holds the water gun to a sensor. It beeps as the door unlocks and you follow him inside.

As the door shuts behind you, Court sheds his jacket and removes a sheet from a box containing the scoped rifle. You look above the room, through the mostly opaque glass to see the outlines of footsteps and shadows above you. You can hear the dull murmur of the party guests talking and the vague bass of the music above.

“Five, Six, you copy?” a voice rings through your earpieces. Court doesn’t respond and just gives you an exasperated look at their constant need to babysit the both of you. It gets old fast.

‘Five, Six, you copy?’ you mouth mockingly, rolling your eyes and earning a light chuckle from your brother.

“Five. Six,” the agent repeats, more serious.

“Five and Six, copy,” you reply, watching Court fine tune the rifle.

“Five, Six, this is Denny Carmichael, your center chief,” a new voice says, “Our target, code name ‘Dining Car’, is selling information that could severely compromise national security. We need him eliminated before that transaction is complete. Am I understood?”

“Understood,” Court replies and you nod slightly.

“‘Could severely compromise national security’,” you whisper to Court before mouthing a silent ‘woooow’. He rolls his eyes slightly, but you catch the smile before he turns away.

“I have eyes on Dining Car. Target imminent,” Denny speaks once more.

Court moves the curtains back slightly to get a glimpse outside as you remain focused on watching the feet and shadows above.

“Dining Car has security,” Denny informs you both, “Stay the plan.”

“When do they not have security?” you mutter mostly to yourself.

Court readies the scope rifle, turning on an infrared camera and walking over to your side.

“He’s coming up on you now. He’s almost to you,” Denny states.

You move forward slightly, Court following you. You point up when you spot your target and Court aims the rifle, readying to fire. You keep an eye on the floors between as Court lines up his shot, hearing chatter through your earpieces from the floors above. You pick up some of your target’s conversation to confirm it’s him.

“Target acquired,” Court mutters slightly, a toothpick between his lips muffling his voice just slightly.

“Execute,” Denny confirms.

A crash above draws your attention and you quickly grab Court’s arm once you hear a voice. He glances at you and moves his finger off the trigger. You point to your earpiece with your free hand, telling him to listen as you both hear a child’s voice speaking in thai. He looks back up but doesn’t shoot as you continue to hold onto his arm.

“Five, Six, why am I not hearing anything?” Denny asks, beginning to get impatient.

“We’re picking up collateral. There’s a kid near the mark,” you respond.

“You’re cleared for collateral,” Denny snips shortly, “Go loud.”

You grip Court’s arm slightly tighter, starting to worry about what will happen. You may have done some things other people would call you a monster for, but you liked to think you had your morals straight. That you were on the right side.

“We have a very small window to take out a very bad dude. Go loud,” Denny pushes.

You let go of Court as you hear the crowd begin to count down. He moves around the room, trying to find an angle that will avoid collateral. Especially a child. When the countdown hits one and cheers erupt, Court looks at you and puts the rifle down.

“Standby,” he says to the agents on the other end of your earpieces. You smile slightly and nod, proud that he too kept his morals in check.

“Do not stand by,” Denny objects.

“Gun jammed,” Court says nonchalantly as he smacks the infrared sensor on the rifle down and walks to put it away, clearly pissed that anyone would approve moving forward despite avoidable collateral.

You follow Court out of the room quickly, pulling the fire alarm on your way. The lights go out as the alarm blares once you reenter the main room.

“Five, was that you?” Dani asks through the earpiece, knowing your style when something goes wrong. You don’t respond. “Five? Six?”

You walk past a crowd exiting and you seamlessly pull a pin from a woman’s hair. Without even bothering to turn towards him, you jab one of Dining Car’s security personnel in the neck and continue walking as he instantly collapses. Court takes another out with a knife off a nearby plate. You smash a glass bottle over another’s head.

“You know, I learned that one from dad!” you say loud enough for Court to hear. He shakes his head, getting another with the knife.

Screams have erupted all around you. You hear gunshots somewhere behind you and quickly assume it’s Dani. Court takes on two more guys, shooting at them and taking them hand to hand when needed. You shoot a third that Dining Car uses as a human shield. He throws his human shield out the window, shattering the glass, and jumps out after him. You run after him and jump, Court following a moment after.

You smack Dining Car with a metal pipe you landed near. He reciprocates with a punch to your jaw. He attempts to bring out a gun, but you grab his hands in yours to keep the gun pointed away from you. You quickly unclip the magazine, letting it slide to the ground and away from you both. Court, having just landed and gotten to you, places a foot on the magazine so Dining Car can’t grab it back.

Your target smiles slightly, impressed by your skills and preferring to not jump to hand to hand combat. He throws the gun into the distance as Court kicks the magazine farther, glancing at you to check that you're ok. You shift your lower jaw slightly, trying to get rid of the tension from the punch. It was solid, you’d give him that. Sparks fall around you as fireworks go off.

“You know, I know who you two are,” your target says. “You’re Sierra Five,” he nods to you, “and Sierra Six,” he nods to Court. You both remain silent, slightly shocked at this, not that you’d show it. “They didn’t tell you who I am, did they?”

“They never do,” Court admits.

“I’m Sierra Four. They sent you out to kill one of your own. That’s probably not gonna make you walk away, is it?”

You glance at Court slightly as your target, Sierra Four, takes off his suit coat and tosses it aside.

“Probably not,” Court shakes his head.

Sierra Four clenches his fist before suddenly lunging forward at the two of you. He swings for Court first, but Court dodges, hitting Four in the side. Four grabs Court’s arm, elbowing him in the side and tossing him back. You jump in, throwing a punch towards his throat, but he manages to catch your hand. You use his focus on your missed punch to your advantage and knee him right in the crotch, a favorite move of yours. Court gets up, tackling him towards a firework about to go off, holding his head over it as it does. They struggle and Four begins to get the upper hand, so you jump in, tackling him to the side and freeing Court. You tussle as he backs you against some pipes, landing a few punches that you try to dodge but don’t quite manage to. Before he lands a more damaging punch, Court rams him off of you, knocking him off balance and getting the upper hand. He stabs Four with a sharp piece of debris he found, ending the fight.

You walk over to Court’s side and give him a slight nod to let him know you’ll be ok, if a little bruised. Or a lot of bruises. What else is new?

“If you’re Sierra, who recruited you?” Court asks.

“Fitzroy,” Four breathes out, “same as both of you.”

“Where’d you train?” you cut in.

“Dark site. Tel Aviv. Same as you two. I got all the answers ‘cause I’m telling the truth. They’re not.”

Court doesn’t react, instead cleaning the blood from the debris he used to stab Four. You just look down slightly. You hadn’t exactly liked Carmichael all that much. Or at all.

“Denny Carmichael is a piece of shit. That’s why I’m sitting here in my own blood. You two are probably next.”

You look at Court as he chucks the debris as far off as he can, still refusing to respond with any form of reaction to Four’s words. You look back at Four as he reaches to take off his necklace with a shaky hand.

“Take this,” his voice becomes very breathy, you can tell he doesn’t have long. “And bring the bastard down.” He holds out the necklace, hand shaking.

“I don’t want it,” Court insists.

“You trust Carmichael? Just take it. Please.”

“No, I don’t,” you grab the necklace before Court can interject, “There, I took it, happy, everyone?”

“You give ‘em hell,” Four smiles slightly before his ragged breathing stops and an eerie stillness engulfs him.

You take in a deep breath and hold it, looking over at Court, not knowing what to do next. He has the same unsure look in his eyes and glances at the necklace in your hands. You look down at it as well, noticing it seems to have two halves. You hear footsteps and close your hand into a fist around the necklace to hide it.

Dani slowly approaches with her gun at the ready, “Very discreet.”

“I thought this’d be cleaner,” Court retorts slightly.

Dani approaches Four’s body, still with her gun at the ready just in case, to check his vitals. “It wasn’t,” she states simply. She reaches up to her ear piece to inform the agents on the other end of the status of the mission, “We’re Romeo.”

“He said he was Sierra,” you speak up, clutching the necklace tighter in your fist.

“That wasn’t in the mission folder,” Dani glances at you.

“He knew who we were,” you add on.

Dani grabs her phone from her pocket, sending a picture of your target to confirm you’ve succeeded in your mission. “Maybe he had access to stolen intel,” she offers halfheartedly.

Court looks down slightly, “We’re Sierra. There is no intel.”

Dani just looks over at you two and Court promptly turns and begins to walk away. You glance at Dani briefly before following Court.

You follow Court through a crowd of pedestrians as police cars slowly part the crowd, heading towards the building. Fireworks pop in the distance and you feel your heart racing as you try to wrap your head around what just happened. Your thoughts are suddenly interrupted by Court’s phone buzzing in his pocket. He answers and you turn up the volume of your earpiece to hear what he’s hearing.

“Six,” Court answers, continuing to walk.

“Wanna explain whatever that was?” you hear Denny Carmichael’s stern tone.

“Gun jammed,” Court sticks to the excuse he used earlier. He looks over his shoulder and nods to you to let you know the coast is currently clear and you aren’t being followed.

“That doesn’t qualify as an explanation.”

“Maybe on a secure line.”

“I need a status report. Insecure line. Did the target say anything to you or Five?”

“Well, he was dead, so, you know, no.”

You look at the necklace still clutched in your hand and gently pop the top off, revealing some type of drive. You look at Court and show him what you found.

“What about pocket litter? Did you get anything off his body?” Carmichael prys further, getting no response. “Six, did he have anything on his person that you or Five now have that you’d like to give to me?”

“Who was he?” Court asks, avoiding the question as you close the necklace, slipping it into your pocket.

“A bad guy.”

“Carrying?”

“Bad shit.”

Court looks back at you, trying to decide what you can do, what your options are. You shake your head slightly, not wanting to play along in whatever game Carmichael is leading.

“Last chance, Six. Same goes for Five.” “Understood,” Court hangs up the call.

You look across the street and spot a store. Figuring you’re both forced to go on the run now, you head over to get some new clothes with the spare cash you have on you. A blue suit isn’t going to continue to keep you hidden.

“Hey,” you hear Court call to someone near him, “You a 42 regular?”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Surrounded by indistinct chatter in a mix of Thai and English as those around you focus on their video games, you sit down at a computer. You slip the drive in the port and open it as Court walks over to stand behind your chair, watching over your shoulder and keeping an eye out for the both of you.

Files pop up on your screen along with pictures of Carmichael. When you click on anything, it asks you to enter an authentication key. With only three attempts available, you decide to not press your luck. You feel your phone buzz in your pocket.

“Yeah,” you answer, leaning back in the chair. Court leans forward so he can hear enough without you putting the call on speaker.

“Wheels up in five. Carmichael’s been calling,” Dani speaks on the other end.

“We spoke. You should go without us.”

“You sure you wanna do that? Both of you? What happened with the target, Five? Tell me what I don’t know,” she pressed gently. “Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it?” you mutter slightly before hanging up.

Court takes the drive out of the port of the computer and you hand him the necklace. He places the drive safely back inside and puts it in the pocket of his newly acquired track suit. He places his phone on the table next to the computer and you follow suit, ditching yours as well.

“No way in Hell we get it right in three tries. We do know someone who will though,” he starts walking off with you following at his side.

“You got a plan?” you ask.

“Enough of one at least. Any idea where we can get a couple of masks?”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

You and Court pause in an alleyway, far enough from anyone else to keep a conversation private as he places a call on a burner phone you just got with your remaining cash. He places the call on speaker, only loud enough for you to both hear.

“Max’s Fireplace and Barbecue,” the familiar voice answers.

“You Max?” Court asks.

“There is no Max,” Fitz responds.

“So it's like ‘to the max’?” you ask, smiling slightly.

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” you question.

“Because if something went wrong, I couldn’t blame Max.”

“How you doing, Fitz?” Court jumps back into the conversation.

“It’s good to hear from you two.”

“How’s life in retirement?” Court begins with some small talk.

“I’m headed to a funeral. Putting a friend in the ground. I’m getting to that age, you know? You two working?”

“We were,” you respond.

“Got loud?”

“It got loud. Got real weird too. You know that guy that handed you your walking papers?”

“Yeah, Carmichael.”

“Well, brace yourself, but, uh, he might be sideways,” Court states.

“Might be?” you tease, earning a slight eye roll from Court.

“I’m shocked,” Fitz responds in monotone, “What’s your gut?”

“My gut? It’s gonna be our funerals you’re going to next,” you state quite bluntly.

“Give me an hour to find a local extraction team. Get mobile. You may have to hustle.”

You look around, spotting an unmanned taxi. You walk over and Court follows, taking the phone off speaker as you hotwire the taxi effortlessly.

“Let me ask you a question,” Court says to Fitz, “Four have a scar on his right chin?”

You move to the passenger seat and look at Court once you’ve gotten the taxi started.

“They just had me stick a fork in him,” Court informs Fitz, getting into the drivers’ seat. “Some foreign op bullshit,” he continues on the phone, “You know they don’t tell us much. He gave us something they really want.”

You lean back against your seat, feeling tired.

“No. Somewhere safe.”

You nod to the phone and Court puts it back on speaker for you to hear.

“Well, I’ll do some checking. I still have friends up the food chain. Where are ya?”

“Bangkok,” you reply tiredly.

“There’s an airfield near Chiang Mai. Get to it. Watch your backs. Take care of each other.”

“Always,” you smile slightly.

“You too,” Court adds, knowing Fitz could be putting himself in danger with this. “Hey, Fitz. I know there wasn’t some palm trees 401k plan for either of us here,” he looks at you, “but, uh, I mean, at least tell me you guys had some kind of exit strategy.” “We never got that far, kid,” Fitz replies, sounding defeated. You sigh lightly and just nod your head slightly. “And now, probably not.”

“Got it.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll be in touch.”

“Beats being on the wrong side of the bars,” Court admits before hanging up the call.

You stifle a yawn as Court begins to drive.

“I’ll wake you if I’m too tired to drive anymore. Get some rest, we’ve got a rough road ahead,” Court states gently, keeping his eyes on the road.

“No shit,” you mutter, leaning your head back and closing your eyes.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

You’re woken up as you feel the taxi come to a stop. You squint against the bright light of the sun that’s now up. Court gets out of the taxi and you follow his lead as armed men cautiously surround you with guns at the ready. Court stuffs his hands in his pockets and walks forward to one of the men.

“You our ride?” he asks.

“Identity challenge. Heathen,” the man responds.

“Response, hermit,” Court replies without hesitation.

After a glance at the armed man that just checked out your taxi, the man holds his hand out to Court. Court reaches forward for a handshake, but the man pulls back his hand with a laugh as Court looks disappointed in himself for falling for that. You chuckle as he stuffs his hand back in his pocket.

“Need anything?” the man asks, looking at both of you.

“Just a nap,” Court shrugs as he walks towards the plane.

“A massage and cocktail would be nice, but I’m guessing we aren’t flying first class,” you smile as you earn a hearty laugh from the man before following Court onto the plane.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Court is asleep next to you with his head rested against a metal divider, slightly separating sections of the plane. Your head is rested against his arm and you have your eyes shut, not wanting to fully fall back asleep, but wanting rest. You hear a phone ring, but decide to remain still with your eyes closed.

“Yeah” the man that joked with you earlier answers the phone. You obviously can’t hear the other end of the conversation, so you put all your focus on the man’s responses.

“Mhmm,” a pause, “Come again?” you squeeze Court’s arm slightly to wake him up and you feel him stir slightly. “Roger that.”

An uncomfortable silence falls over the plane apart from the music playing over the speakers which increases in volume. You feel Court move briefly before stilling again as you faintly hear footsteps approaching you. They stop just to the side of you and you open your eyes as you feel Court’s sudden movement. He sprays both men that had approached you with a fire extinguisher before jumping up and hitting one in the gut with the extinguisher. You get up, delivering a swift kick to the same location on the other man. Court spins around, continuing to take men out with the fire extinguisher. You grab a parachute pack, swinging it to smack guys’ heads to knock them out.

Grabbing a flare, Court lights it and uses it to draw some men away from you, taking them on himself. With their lowered visibility from the flare, Court takes them out easily with a few skillful punches.

You kick the gun out of another guy’s hand, leading to you both diving for it and grabbing it at the same time. You use your grip on the gun to angle it away from yourself, but the man fires. It hits a gas tank that quickly catches fire and explodes, creating a gaping hole in the side of the plane.

As air is whipped out of the plane, an announcement can be heard overhead warning of a sudden pressure drop and advising you to put on oxygen masks. You manage to make your way to Court and he grabs your arm, pulling you towards the side of the plane where he’s holding onto a bar with his other arm, using that hand to hold on an oxygen mask. You grip onto the bar next to him, shoving an oxygen mask quickly over your nose and mouth and taking a few deep breaths.

You look over at Court, but suddenly a man tackles you from behind, causing you to lose your grip and begin falling towards the hole. You regain your stance much better than he does as he falls to the hole, gripping the remaining bar at the top of the hole. Finding a broken pipe near your feet, you swing it at his hands, forcing him to lose his grip and let go, being dragged out the hole.

Court slides down to you with your parachute pack from earlier. You both grab onto the bar as you feel yourselves begin to be lifted off the floor as the plane drops. You both grab oxygen masks and you catch your breath again. When the plane manages to pull up to a horizontal position again, Court gets into a scuffle with another man which ends with that man being whisked out of the hole and straight into one of the jets.

The hole suddenly begins to widen as more of the side of the plane is ripped away. You glance at Court and he quickly nods to you. With the slight footing you have left, you jump from the plane, managing to slip the parachute pack on as you fall and opening it just in time. You try to look up at the increasingly more destroyed plane that’s plummeting to the earth to try to spot Court, but your parachute blocks most of your view.

The moment your feet touch the sandy ground beneath you, you unstrap yourself from the parachute. You move under a large and stable rock to avoid being hit with any falling debris as you hold your breath slightly, waiting for Court.

You suddenly see a pair of feet above you and to the left as a parachute gets caught on the large rock. Court hops down from the dead man dangling off the rock like it was nothing.

“I guess you didn’t choose to drop by in style,” you tease as he walks over to where you’re sitting.

“What more style can you ask for?” he sits next to you.

“Ok, seriously though, what the fuck was that?”

“That’s what I want to find out,” he pulls out his phone, quickly hitting redial.

“Hello,” Fitz answers.

“It’s us.” “Where are you?”

“Emotionally? I think we’ve both been better,” Court replies sarcastically.

“The extraction team?”

You glance up at the dead man hanging from his parachute on the rock above you and Court. “They’ve been better too,” Court sighs.

“Are you okay? Either of you hurt?” Fitz sounds slightly concerned as he hasn’t heard from you yet.

Court looks at you, but you stay quiet and let him speak. “You know what, Fitz? I’m trying to figure out what answer it is that you want.”

“They leveraged me, kid. They have my niece. You hear me?”

“Hold on. You’re breaking up,” Court holds the phone at arms length and mutters so only you would hear, “shit.”

You run a hand down your face and huff lightly. You glance at the phone as Fitz repeats ‘hello’ trying to see if he lost your connection. You purse your lips slightly as you begin to get an idea of who would use extreme tactics to find the two of you like this.

“Okay, there you are,” Court brings the phone back in front of the two of you, “Sounds like you’re in a real pickle, Fitz.”

“Put him on,” you suddenly state firmly. Court gives you a confused look, but you hear Fitz’s phone being handed off.

“Hey, sunshine. Good to hear your voice again,” Lloyd’s familiar voice responds on the line.

“Lloyd Hansen. To what do we owe the displeasure?” you sneer, taking the phone from Court’s hand as he gets more confused.

“So feisty,” Lloyd retorts with more than a hint of flirtation in his tone, “I’m the one running this op.”

“What op?”

“The one where I get exactly what I want,” he pauses slightly and you can practically hear the smirk in his tone as he adds, “and maybe a little more, Five.”

You choose to ignore his flirting, not that it isn’t at least mildly entertaining to you, “I’m a little unclear as to what that is.”

“Okay, that’s fair. Well, Five, why don’t you come on in, and we can chat? My assistant will get lunch. You like sushi?”

“No, I’m good. I just had some Skittles,” you reply sarcastically.

“Tell you what. Why don’t we skip lunch, you can give me the asset you and Six stole, I won’t chop your heads off, and uh we can have that chat afterwards?”

“When you say things like ‘chop your heads off’, it makes you sound untrustworthy. That’s a big turn off, Lloyd. So, even if we had this thing, I’m not sure I would give it to you.”

“Oh I think you would. See, your old COS here has drawn way outside the lines, Headquarters needs a scapegoat, and his neck is just about the right size.”

“Fitz is a big boy. He knows what business he’s in.”

Lloyd just hums in response, clearly not happy that you’re making this more difficult for him. “And what about having that chat, hm? I’m told I’m a great conversationalist,” he not so subtly continues the innuendo.

“Hey, Lloyd,” Court cuts in, not wanting to hear more of the flirting.

“Yeah?”

“I immediately don’t like you.” You laugh lightly at Court’s bluntness.

“Well, I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Lloyd responds before Court hangs up the call.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“Looks like you overplayed your hand,” Fitz chides Lloyd in the van after the call ends.

Lloyd wordlessly turns, opening the door to his left and tossing the phone out of the moving vehicle. He slams the door shut and turns back to Fitz. “Looks like you need a new phone,” he states.

“Let me give you a word of advice, Lloyd,” Fitz leans forward as Lloyd hums for him to continue, “They say that life in its most unadorned expression is a battle of wills. Five and Six? Their wills, each one their own, are preternatural compared to yours. You’re taking them on teamed up.”

Lloyd delivers a swift, sudden kick to Fitz’s face. Fitz grunts in pain, leaning back into his seat.

“Don’t say ‘preternatural’ to me. It’s an asshole word.”

“You’re a child.”

“A child that’s about to put a hit so big on your kiddos' heads that even their most loyal allies won’t hesitate to drop a dime. Every grade-A wet team from here to Reykjavik will be vying to the prestige of killing the infamous Sierra Five and Six. I’ll dig up every safe house they’ve ever stayed in. I’ll unearth every man or woman either of them have ever slept with. They won’t be able to walk ten feet without getting their heads blown off. And that, Don, is exactly what bad ethics and zero impulse control will get you. I can kill anybody.”

“Maybe not anybody.”

“Well, we’ll see.”

“Five has seen. They’re still around, so-” before Fitz can finish, Lloyd clenches his jaw and swiftly kicks him in the face again.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Court and you sit side by side on the floor of a train compartment to avoid notice. Court eats his share of the food you two scrounged up before getting on the train as you just stare blankly at the door. He glances at you.

“So you know that Lloyd Hansen guy?” he asks.

“Yeah, he’s not someone you want to be up against.”

Court stays silent, waiting for you to explain further.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

It was your early days in the field with the Sierra program. You were new and Sierra Four had recently gone MIA. Headquarters needed some foreign intelligence. Sierra Three was sent to retrieve it as you were told you weren’t ready for such a high profile mission.

You ignored them and followed after Three unnoticed. He was the only other Sierra agent you had contact with as he had helped you in training.

“You’re an idiot to want to sneak onto a mission like this, you know they’d lose their shit if they found out you followed me,” he had said when you followed him to his hotel.

“Then you’d better not let them know I’m here,” you shrugged, earning a slight smile from Three.

“Fine,” he finally conceded after plenty of convincing. You had always thought you’d work best with a partner anyways. Knowing someone would have your back and you doing the same for them.

Neither of you could have known the mission was a set up. Three had stepped out of line one too many times in the eyes of the CIA, and he needed to be disposed of. Before you could even begin what Three had been told the mission was, you were both knocked out by mercenaries Lloyd had hired.

You woke up in a lightless room alone, ankles and wrists bound securely.

“Morning, Sunshine,” Lloyd chimed as he walked in the room, “I have to admit, I wasn’t told Three here had a sidekick. Though I can see why he’d keep you around, you are pretty tough, they said you put up a good fight before they knocked you out. Not to mention attractive,” he smirked at the last part, slowly scanning you up and down.

You did your best not to react, though you felt your face involuntarily heat up. You watched Lloyd as he stopped in front of you. You began to look away, but he quickly grabbed your jaw between his thumb and forefinger, forcing you to look up at him. Not a bad sight, you’d have to admit to yourself.

“So what’s your deal?” he raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not his sidekick, that’s the deal.”

“Then you’d better start talking, Sunshine, because your clock is ticking.”

You huffed lightly, trying to pull against your restraints, but realizing you wouldn’t get anywhere with him in the room. “I wasn’t supposed to be on the mission. No one else knows I came. They call me Sierra Five.”

“Well, Five, how sure are you that no one knows you’re here?” he pried, letting go of your jaw and starting to pace as you swore you saw him soften just slightly.

“Absolutely certain,” you watch him, feeling an odd sense of disappointment at the sudden lack of contact.

He shook his head slightly and let out a sigh before looking back at you. You could practically hear your heart racing as you both held eye contact. You were broken out of your trace when he cursed under his breath and abruptly left the room, locking the door behind him.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“He killed Three?” Court asks. You just nod, still feeling like you can hear his screams echoing in the space around you. “But why leave you? If he wanted to kill you, he had the perfect opportunity. I mean, if he’s this ruthless mercenary for hire, why would it make a difference to him?”

“No clue,” you yawn, leaning into Court’s side.

“I guess he just likes you.” “I wasn’t his target, though I guess if he really wanted to keep me from escaping, he would have. But he didn’t.”

“Exactly.”

You just shrug it off slightly as you drift off to sleep, not wanting to admit you might have feelings for the man paid to kill you.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Two years earlier

Court and you sat side by side in a CIA station in London. Across from you was Fitz and Margaret, a woman from the CIA that worked closely with Fitz.

“Fitz, tell them why they’re here,” the woman instructed, gesturing to the both of you with a cigarette between two fingers.

With a slight sigh, he began, “Okay. I have a niece that I’m raising. I know what line of work I’m in. I want the kid to have a normal life, and Margaret’s helped me give her one,” he nodded to the woman across from you.

“Any number of nefarious assholes would like to see him and his family dead.”

“Is there a point to this story?” Court glanced between Margaret and Fitz.

“Someone in the DC office has accidentally leaked Fitz’s address in Hong Kong.”“‘Accidentally’?” you repeated skeptically.

“Bunch of idiots,” Fitz shook his head.

“Indeed,” Margaret agreed, “We’ve asked for agency security, but for some curious reason, Denny Carmichael won’t supply it.”

You rolled your eyes at the name. The whole situation didn’t sit right for obvious reasons.

“Fitz is starting a mission in Brazil tomorrow,” Margaret continued, “which means you two are going to babysit.”

“Your niece?” you looked at Fitz.

He nodded and began to explain, “My brother and his wife died about three years ago, and to top it off, Claire was born with a heart condition. Last month we put in a pacemaker, and since then, she’s been in and out of Mount St. Mary’s.”

“Poor thing got dealt a brutal hand,” Margaret added.

Court looked between Fitz and Margaret, still a bit confused, “You guys taught us how to kill people, not care for them.”

“You don’t have to care. Just keep her alive.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Claire’s nanny showed you and Court through Fitz’s house in Hong Kong and brought you both to Claire’s room.

“Claire, dear,” she spoke, “this is Five and Six. They’ll be looking after the house while Donald is away.”

Court hardly paid attention to the introduction, scanning around to have an idea of the layout of the house and possible weak spots. You did the same, noticing that Claire wasn’t looking anyways.

“Just the two exits?” you looked at the nanny.

“Yes. That’s right.”

You walked over to look out the window next to Claire’s bed as she was looking through her Polaroid camera. “Five and Six are odd names,” she spoke up without looking directly at either of you.

“Yeah,” Court sighed with a nod, “yeah. Just, uh, 007 was taken, so.”

You chuckled and Claire looked over at Court, “Are you chewing gum?”

Court looked slightly taken aback and just looked at her for a moment before replying, “Yep.”

“We don’t chew gum in this house.”

Court didn’t really know how to respond and looked at you for help, so you stepped in and smiled slightly at Claire, “He wasn’t briefed. I’ll keep him in line.”

“I’m older than you,” Court tried to argue, but went quiet at the shutter of Claire’s camera as she took a picture of the two of you.

Claire smiled as the picture printed from the camera.

“Um, ok,” Court trailed off, not sure what to do or say, “Well, we will try to stay out of your way.”

“Do you mind?” you looked at Claire and gestured to the Polaroid picture, asking to take it, “May I?”

She shrugged slightly, “Sure.”

You took the picture, placing it in the back pocket of your pants, “Thanks. Nice to meet you.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“You have a nice house,” you said, sitting on a poolside chair near Claire to keep an eye on her while Court patrolled around the house.

“Thanks,” she shrugged slightly and looked over at you, away from her phone.

You nodded as the awkward silence fell over you, neither of you sure how to continue the conversation.

“There’s not a lot of stability in the line of work Six and I are in. Never in one place too long, definitely never settling anywhere,” you said, looking over at the pool water dancing gently in the wind.

“Do you get to visit your family? Or friends? Between your missions?” she sat up more, interested in hearing more about your job.

“Don’t have any. Just Six at this point,” you trailed off slightly.

“I don’t really have other friends either,” she admitted, “too risky to be going out on my own. For multiple reasons.”

You nodded understandingly as you heard footsteps approaching. You didn’t bother looking away from the water, knowing Court’s gait. Claire went back to her game on her phone.

Court rounded the corner, stopping when he saw you and Claire. She looked up from her phone and you glanced over, earning an awkward, quick wave from Court.

“Excuse me,” he turned and started to walk off, not wanting to invade your space.

“Looking for your jacket?” Claire called after him. He turned back to the both of you and she continued, “Looks like I sat on it,” she raised her leg to show it under her and chuckled lightly.

You smiled slightly as Court walked over, “Is that a secure phone?” he asked and pointed to the phone in her hands.

“Just got the high score,” she showed him the screen briefly, “I had a lot of time to practice after the operation. They made me stay in bed.”

Court didn’t give much of a response, years of training to kill after being in prison most of your early life really didn’t help your social skills.

“‘How long they make you stay in bed for?’” she asked aloud for him, “Quite a long time. Several weeks, actually. ‘Oh, hope you’re okay.’ Better now, Six. Thanks for asking. How’s your time been here? Enjoying the grounds? ‘Oh, they’re lovely. I like to walk in circles and stare at my shoes.’”

“Can I get that jacket?”

Claire sighed at her inability to break through with him and handed over the jacket. “You know, Five is more fun to talk to.”

“I know,” he took the jacket from her.

“Like your tattoo,” she complimented, noticing it as he reached for the jacket because his sleeves were slightly rolled up. “Where’d you get it? Prison?”

“Yeah, actually,” he sighed as he slipped the jacket back on.

“I’m shocked,” she mused sarcastically. He shrugged slightly, beginning to walk away. “What’s it mean, the writing?”

“Oh it’s, you know” he turned back around, “it’s a guy’s name in Greek.”

“What guy?”

“Just a guy. You know, trying to get a rock up a hill.”

“Why?”

“They made him.”

“Who made him?”

“The gods.”

“Did they need a rock?”

“They were just trying to punish him, I think.”

“Did he deserve it?”

“Probably.”

“Did he like it?”

“Probably not.”

“So why’d he do it?”

“You ask a lot of questions,” Court smiled slightly at her.

“You’re quite the conversationalist,” she replied with her signature sarcasm.

“I’m gonna get back to work,” Court turned to leave once more, but again was stopped by a ‘hey’ from Claire and turned back to her.

“Does he ever get to the top of the hill?”

Court let out a humorless chuckle, “I’ll let you know.”

Before Court could walk off again, you grabbed his arm, “He will make it because he isn’t in it alone.”

Court smiled slightly, “You know, I think you’re right.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

You shined the hazy beam of your flashlight down the hall that was in front of you as you walked. You peaked into each room on either side of you to scan for any threats. You got to the front door to see the nanny getting in her car to go out. From your location, the house was almost silent apart from the air conditioning running.

“Five!” a sudden shout from Court broke the silence as you heard his running footsteps, sounding heavier than usual. As you turned to see what was wrong, you saw him turn the corner and run towards you and the front door with a barely breathing Claire in arm. Without hesitation, you ran out the front door ahead of them, quickly getting in the driver’s seat of the nearest car.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“She’s stabilized. Tell Donald there was a programming glitch. We were able to repair it, non-invasive,” the doctor informed Claire’s nanny, “The remote system flagged it ten minutes before they pulled up. We can keep track of her pacemaker from just about anywhere.”

“Thank you, I’ll let him know,” the nanny left the room quickly to call Fitz.

Court stood against the door frame as you sat in a chair nearby. Both of you kept an eye on Claire as the machines around her produced a steady beeping. She looked over, exhausted, and gave a sign of the horns gesture and a nod to reassure you both that she’d be okay.

You smiled slightly while Court gave her a nod back.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Back at the house, Court monitored the security cameras around the property on a secure laptop. Claire sat with the both of you at a dining table, eating a bowl of ice cream.

“You feeling better?” Court asked without taking his eyes off the computer screen.

Claire gave a small shrug. “Just another Thursday,” she said with a sigh, “Donald says this is the best medicine, ice cream. Tend to agree.”

“He’s a very smart man,” you nod in agreement.

“Only family I got.”

“Closest thing to family we’ve got too, apart from each other.”

“Maybe that kind of makes us family.”

You and Claire both noticed the slight smile spread across Court’s face, but you could tell something was wrong when his eyes snapped back to the camera footage and the smile fell.

“I think it kind of does,” you mused, “but I think you should get to bed.”

Claire’s nanny walked over, “All right, little one. You heard the number. Let’s go.”

“Night, robot,” Claire teased Court as she waved a goodnight to you as well. You waved back, getting up as they left.

“Goodnight, Claire,” he replied in a slightly robotic voice to amuse her.

You walked behind Court’s chair to see all the cameras were offline suddenly. Claire put one of her records on and ‘Silver Bird’ by Mark Lindsay started to play. You looked out the window to your left as you heard the hinge to a gate squeak and a dog begin to bark.

Court and you split up to catch the intruder without raising any alarm. You heard the song throughout the house and indistinct chatter from Claire and her nanny.

After walking a quick circle of some empty areas and finding nothing, you spotted the beam of Court’s flashlight as you heard a gun click. You lost the light of Court’s flashlight, and clicking yours off as well, you jogged down a hallway to come around from the other side of the intruder.

You rounded the corner quickly as Court was already in a tussle with the intruder, gun laying on the floor a few feet away. You jumped on the intruder’s back from behind, throwing him off balance, and causing him to stumble into a wall. You quickly let go, landing steadily on your feet and trapping him between you and the wall. With a hefty punch to the right location of his head, he dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Claire peeked out of her room and looked at the both of you, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, broke a bowl,” Court held up a shard of a broken glass bowl. You stepped to the side slightly to try to block the intruder’s feet from her view.

“You sure you’re alright?” she glanced at the feet behind you and looked at both of you.

“Yeah,” you sighed with a shrug, “just another Thursday.”

Claire glanced back down at the intruder’s feet, clearly startled at what she could guess had just happened.

“You should go to bed,” Court suggested gently but firmly, “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Present Day

After leaving the train station and finding your bag with various supplies, you and Court were headed to a dry cleaners listed in a notebook in the bag.

Court knocks on the door and you both stand to the side when you get to the address. Court counts through some of the cash in his hands. You hear movement inside the door and the man inside speaks in German.

“We got dry cleaning,” Court states without looking at the door. You hear the man reply with ‘nein’ and he begins to say something else, but Court cuts him off, “We want the works. Starched, cleaned, pressed, and we want it same-day service. Can you do it or what?”

The man finally responds in English, “That’s a very expensive laundry list.”

Court slams a wad of cash through the open peep hole in the door. He holds up another wad of cash in front of it.

“You seem like a man who wants his shirts done right.”

After all the locks are unlatched from inside, the man opens the door for the two of you and moves his sweater aside to show a gun in his waistband as a warning.

You roll your eyes impatiently, “We’re in a hurry.”

With that, the man leads you down a flight of stairs slowly, grasping the railing for support.

“We’re also gonna have to get into a secure system,” Court adds as you look around as you slowly descend the stairs.

“Sure,” the man chuckles, “You really are the, uh, full buffet, aren’t you?”

The man stops at the bottom of the stairs and looks at you two. Court shrugs and shakes his head slightly, not knowing how to respond to that.

“I do passports over there,” the man points to the far side of the room, “And, uh, well, let’s do your- let’s do this thing first. You can sit. You can sit here.”

You walk past where the man gestured. “Where are you going? It’s… What’s… What’s the secure system?” you glance around a corner to look for something, anything to confirm why a knot is growing in the pit of your stomach, but find nothing. Court looks at you and you shake your head and keep looking around.

“Cormeum Electronics,” Court states as the man repeats it to himself and begins typing.

“It’s medical supplies,” the man states before pointing over at you, “Don’t- Don’t touch that door.”

“Yeah, we’re looking for a pacemaker,” Court informs him.

“I can get you a serial number.”

“That’s all we need.”

“Name?”

“Fitzroy. Claire Fitzroy.”

“This will be a minute.”

“I’m getting that.”

“I think you should go get yourselves cleaned up before we take your pictures,” the man gestures to a small area with a sink and curtains surrounding it, “Unless bloody and beaten is the look you’re going for.”

Court looks unamused at the man’s attempt at a joke. You grab the bag of supplies and walk over, closing the curtain behind you and seeing Court’s shadow just outside to stand guard just in case. You don’t tend to feel so uneasy at nothing, so you’d have to prepare for the worst.

You slip your shirt off and wash off the dried blood from yourself with a wet towel, ignoring various old scars and a burn for your father’s cigarette lighter and quickly changing into a set of fresh clothes from the bag. You sigh lightly and look at yourself in the mirror as an anxious lump forms in your throat. You do your best to shake the feeling and open the curtain, letting Court head in and you hear it close behind him.

You walk over to where the man is setting up his camera and look around for threats.

“A little to your left, please,” he looks through the view in his camera as you hear water running behind the curtain. You oblige and feel your heart racing, blood pounding in your ears.

“Wait-”

Before you can get another word out, you feel the floor drop beneath you and you roll to your side as you hit a cement floor of some kind of pit to avoid injury. You look up just in time to see the man quickly moving a rug over the glass trap doors you fell through. In a dazed state, you suck a big gulp of air back into your lungs and lazily glance around, seeing no route of escape. You hear muffled talking above you and you curse under your breath. Any attempts you make to call out to Court go unheard.

Resigning to your inability to escape, you just press yourself against the wall and sit, hoping to avoid being squashed by a falling Court. A moment later, the doors open and Court lands on the ground next to you with a thud. He coughs, sucking air back into his lungs as you had.

He stays on his back and looks up at you sitting next to him with your head rested against the wall.

“All right. Trapdoor. Unexpected,” Court clears his throat.

Above you, the man shows you both a wanted poster of the two of you through the once again closed glass trap doors. “Someone is very upset with you two."

Court groans in pain slightly as he starts to get up, “Well, now I’m upset with them.”

“A ten and seven zeros’ worth for the both of you.”

Court grabs his gun and shoots at the man, ducking when the bullets ricochet, but luckily don’t hit either of you.

The man shakes his head, tutting at Court. He grabs his camera and looks down at you both, “Hey. Smile,” he taunts as he takes a picture.

Once the man walks away, Court offers you a hand and helps pull you up.

“You okay?”

“Probably got a concussion from that landing, but otherwise, yeah. I should’ve trusted my gut, I knew something was off with that guy.”

“It was the mustache, right?” Court jokes lightly, causing you to chuckle. “What’s the plan now?”

You sit and dig through your supplies bag that Court had on when he fell and you quickly get an idea, “Boom.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“What do you know about the Sierra program?” Denny Carmichael asks Dani back at CIA headquarters.

“Reckless mysteries you guys send in when you can’t officially send anyone else,” she replies.

“The grey men. Your predecessor’s idea. He founded a program to recruit hardened criminals, commuting their sentences in exchange for a lifelong commitment to the agency. Assets were chosen for their skill set, lack of family, and plausible deniability. Identities permanently destroyed. Nameless assassins with limited morality. I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right? Every single Sierra flamed out. All dead or back in prison. Five and Six are the last of the dirty half dozen, and they are 100% conforming to pattern. They hurt people because that’s who they are. Both of them. Your predecessor thought it would be a good idea to take both of them on, let them work together, two heads are better than one deal. They’re siblings, they’ll stick together no matter what it costs anyone else. That’s who you’re protecting.”

“Remove yourself from my personal space. Please,” Dani fixes him in a passive aggressive stare.

Turning back on the voice recorder he had previously paused, Denny takes a seat facing Dani, “Officer, I have reason to believe you’re not being truthful in this debrief. And as such, I must recommend you be suspended from field duty.”

“I want to talk to my COS.”

“I already did, she’s lost confidence in you,” he clicks off the recorder, “Am I jarring your memory yet?”

A buzzing sounds from Carmichael’s pocket. He pulls out his phone, finding a text from an unknown number with the picture of Court and you trapped below the trap door, noting your location, all reflecting in his glasses in the darkened room.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Treading water, you place your makeshift bomb near the trapdoor. Court had managed to burst a water pipe while you assembled the explosive from miscellaneous things you had in the supplies bag. The pit had filled with water and was nearly at the top. You nod to Court and both dive to the bottom of the pit, you with a string in hand that will trigger the bomb. You spot lights being shone through the trap doors. Fucking hell Lloyd’s men got here fast. You tug the string, triggering an explosion that sends the men and the trap doors flying off. Water sloshes across the floor as you and Court hoist yourselves out of the pit. You offer him your hand and help pull him up after getting up quicker. Smoke swirls through the air, limiting your vision as you run forward. Court and you each take on a few armed men, you using their weapons against them and Court using a broken pair of scissors from your supply bag.

A leg reaches out and trips you suddenly leading to a harsher landing than you were prepared for. You feel your head throbbing with a dull pain as your sense of hearing is overtaken by ringing in your ears. With a sigh, you just relax and let your head lay against the floor, shutting your eyes tightly as the room spins around you. Definitely a concussion.

You hear Court getting into a scuffle next to you and hear some kind of spray, likely pepper spray, you’d guess, and the scuffle comes to a halt.

“Come on, man,” Court groans in annoyance.

“Hey, sunshine,” Lloyd’s far too peppy voice chimes.

“Fuck,” you huff, trying to get up, but quickly failing as the spinning room knocks you back down.

“You must be Lloyd.”

“What gave it away?”

“The white pants, the trash ‘stache. It just… it leans Lloyd,” he sighs.

You smile slightly and Lloyd chuckles before getting serious again almost immediately.

“Where’s the drive?”

“I got it here somewhere. It’s just hard to see,” you hear some movement and know Court is about to pull some trick and you’d best run for it. You slowly get up, taking a wide stance to keep your balance, but swaying slightly nonetheless. Your eyes dart between Lloyd and Court as you see Court fiddle with a grenade. No, two grenades. No, two Courts? Or just seeing double from a concussion steadily setting it. “Is that it?” Court holds the ring of the grenade up to Lloyd as he drops the grenade beside them.

Lloyd looks down quickly, “Ballsy.”

They quickly split, Court running one way and Lloyd running the other way and directly at you. Before you can process the situation, Lloyd’s arm collides with your waist and wraps around you as he tackles you out a window, the grenade exploding behind you.

“Alright, we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?” Lloyd quickly gets up as you sit up, still on the ground.

“Fuck you,” you mutter and glare at him.

“Is that a promise?” he teases flirtatiously as he grabs your arm and pulls you up. He keeps a strong hold on your arm, making you walk with him as he practically holds you up himself. He leaves you next to a car with a group of men who quickly get you in the car, standing guard so you can’t run off.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

An armed guard forcefully holds your arm as you’re led into some fancy ass mansion in who cares. Lloyd stays at your other side, walking with an odd limp. You don’t know what happened to him and hardly remember any of the car ride as you kept losing consciousness. Fitz is led in and upstairs by two other guards.

“Is that Donald Fitzroy?” Suzanne whispers aggressively, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Suzanne!” Lloyd speaks with a passive aggressive enthusiasm, “Long time. If I’m honest, I liked your old haircut. The one where you didn’t look like a bitch.”

“We did not give you permission to kidnap former CIA personnel and their family members. You’ve been hired by the agency to recover-”

“To do your job,” he cuts her off, “because you couldn’t. Could someone get me a Vicodin, please?” he calls out over his shoulder before looking back at Suzanne, “Besides. It’s working, isn’t it?” he gestures to you, “Get them a Vicodin too, actually.”

“But where is Six?” Suzanne demands.

“Where I want him,” he retorts, pouring a cup of coffee.

“In the wind?”

“On the run, scared shitless.”

“Evading you,” you mumble.

“This is ten years of my work on the line here, Lloyd-”

He cuts her off by forcefully sweeping nearly everything off the coffee table in front of him. You cringe at the loud noise.

“I am your only prayer of getting that drive back,” Lloyd snaps, “because I can do everything the agency can’t. You know all those rules you guys are always trying to work your way around? They don't mean dick to me. So unless you want our names spilled across every news alert on every phone in every pocket on earth, shut up and go sit in the corner.”

Suzanne just clenches her jaw unhappily and doesn’t respond.

“Oh,” Lloyd grabs a bottle of pills and rattles it calmly, “How about that? Forget about the Vicodin.”

Lloyd grabs his coffee and holds the bottle of pills out to you to grab. You just stare at it in confusion and he sighs, placing it in your hand until you grab it.

“I’ll take them from here, thanks,” the guard lets go of you and Lloyd takes your arm instead, walking you out of the room.

“Why are you walking like that?”

“‘Cause I got shot in the ass, Suzanne!” he yells, causing you to shrink at the loud noise, he glances at you slightly as you walk, “Sorry.”

Lloyd brings you upstairs to a large room. The curtains are wide open, letting in all the light possible. He leads you to a chair and sits you down, turning back to close the door behind you both. You raise an arm and cover your eyes to block out the bright light.

“Concussion?” Lloyd guesses as he walks over to the windows, drawing the curtains closed to block out most of the light.

“Because you’re so concerned,” you drop your arm as the room darkens, wishing he saw your eye roll.

“So what if I am? Do I have to be a heartless monster all the time?”

You look around the room half heartedly and look at the messy bed. “Can’t even make a bed for your hostages?”

“This isn’t a hostage room,” he hums, walking back over to you and gently pulling you up from the seat and taking the pill bottle from your hands.

“What then? Death row?”

“My room,” he sits you down on the bed, giving you some of the pills and a glass of water as he takes a few pills himself, chasing them with coffee.

You just watch him silently for a moment before taking the pills yourself, desperate for relief from your throbbing migraine.

“Need anything? Food? Change of clothes?” Lloyd offers, sitting next to you on the bed.

“Why?”

He sighs, looking over to the door that has remained closed. “‘Cause maybe I do care, just sometimes, would that be so bad?”

“What other times do you care?” you look at him in a mix of skeptical and dazed.

He hums in thought and looks back at you with a playful smirk, “When we met and I let you ‘escape’, other than that, can’t say any come to mind.”

You feel heat rising to take over your face as you realize how close you both are. In his bedroom, alone. You let your eyes trail down his facial features from his eyes, ending at his lips.

He chuckles lightly, “Something you wanna say, Five?”

You hum and nod slightly, looking back up to his eyes, “It really is a trash ‘stache, Lloyd.”

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head in disbelief, but you catch a smile spread across those lips you had a stare down with moments ago.

“Such a smooth talker,” he compliments sarcastically as you try to hide a smile, “So, Five-”

“Y/n.”

“Hm?”

“Y/n Gentry is my name. Well, it was. To anyone besides my brother, I’m just Five. Really gotta strip you of everything in my program, even your name.”

“Y/n,” he smirks slightly as the name rolls off his tongue, “want to tell me how someone like you ended up in a shitty ass program like the Sierra program?”

“Lack of hope, it was that or spend a hell of a lot more time in prison.”

“What wound you up there?”

“It’s a long story,” you lay back on the bed and Lloyd watches.

“We got all the time you want, sunshine.”

“My father was an abusive piece of shit, one day was exceptionally bad, and Court knew it was my life or our father’s so he uh, he killed the piece of shit to save me and went to prison for it. No one seemed to care if it was self defense, they thought it was still just a murder. Our mother passed soon afterwards and I was on my own. Floating around the foster care system doesn’t really do you wonders, I can tell you that. It does, however, introduce you to plenty of assholes when you live in the shit end of town. Traffickers, abusers, kidnappers, all those fun sorts. I eventually just figured I didn’t have much of a life to live at that point, so I wanted to do something I could be proud of myself for. I started going after them. I took out a good handful of them too, before they got me.”

“So you really have been righteous your whole life?” Lloyd smiles slightly and lays back next to you, both of you just looking at the ceiling. Your eyes travel over the ornate crystalline light fixture that remains off.

“I guess so, why haven’t you?”

“Because I have no moral compass.”

“Don’t give me that shit, you would’ve killed me a long time ago if that were true, Lloyd.”

“Yeah,” he sighs and glances over you without your notice, “I guess because it’s not what I get paid to do. And I do what I have to to finish my jobs.”

You kick your feet slightly as they hang off the side of the bed still, “Then you’re working for the wrong people. You’re a skilled man, maybe one day, if we’re lucky, you’ll be a good one.”

He smiles slightly, not taking his eyes off you as they graze along the profile of your face as you focus on the ceiling, “Maybe. Get some rest, best thing you can do for that concussion.”

You hum lightly and feel the mattress decompress as he gets up and limps slightly out of the room. You shift your position, pulling your legs onto the bed and resting your head in the pillows that surround you with the scent of whiskey, gunpowder, and musk.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

The embellished chair squeals against the floor as Lloyd drags it from the table, nodding for you to sit. You reluctantly oblige, knowing you have no chance at running now.

“Where are we? What do we got?” he asks as he places his hands on the back of your chair, leaning forward to see the various screens in the front of the room.

“Wet teams en route,” someone replies from in front of you.

“Everybody be advised, he has help,” Lloyd glances down at you slightly, “Well, more help.”

“We sure?” Suzanne questions, looking back at the two of you, but you remain silent, refusing to give anything away.

“Well, I didn’t tranq myself in the ass and neither did they, so yes.”

“Got something,” someone else on tech speaks up, “CCTV in Bangkok. Night of the op.”

He walks over, holding the laptop in front of you and Lloyd. Footage of you and Court in masks rolls as you deposit an envelope with the necklace and drive you found in a mailbox.

“They ditched the asset,” Suzanne realizes aloud to which you just sarcastically hum in mock intrigue.

“Where’s the package now?” Lloyd asks the tech, knowing he’ll get nothing out of you anyways.

“Well, it’s already in the system. Resolution’s too shitty to read the address. Clerk said it was to a PO box in Prague? He doesn’t keep any records, so that’s the best we got.”

“That’ll do, pig. That’ll do,” Lloyd smiles.

Suzanne looks at him, “You have Five right here, isn’t your thing to get information out of people with your ‘methods’?”

Lloyd shoots her a glare that you don’t notice while you roll your eyes, just looking straight ahead. “They won’t talk, not worth the time,” he states bluntly, “Better try elsewhere.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“Goldilocks, would you be a lamb and excuse us?” Lloyd walks over to Claire as you walk into the room.

“Go to hell.”

He grabs her shirt with two hands, pulling her up and tossing her aside.

“Hey! Woah! Stop!” she protests.

“Don’t touch her!” you yell, protectively wrapping your arms around her and bringing her close to steady her.

“She has a pacemaker, jackass!” Fitz argues at the same time, trying to lunge at Lloyd, but being held back by his men.

Two more men begin to approach you and Claire, ready to drag her out of the room, but you move her behind you, glaring at them and ready to fight them off despite your concussed state.

“Well then, she definitely shouldn’t stick around for this next part. If you keep her out of the way, they won’t have to touch her,” Lloyd addresses you.

With an indignant huff, you take Claire’s hand and lead her out of the room without a glance in Lloyd’s direction. The door shuts behind you and you bring Claire to a room down the hall, knowing neither of you wants to hear what’s about to happen.

Claire takes a few deep breaths to calm down as you sit side by side on a clearly overpriced couch. You just look down at your feet on the floor.

“What’s he going to do?” she asks quietly.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think we want to.”

“Is he going to kill him?” her voice is barely above a whisper out of pure fear.

“No, Lloyd wouldn’t kill him, not now. He wouldn’t get anything out of that and would be losing a potential source of information.” Claire nods slightly and leans into your side for comfort. You hesitate slightly, but wrap your arm around her shoulders and rub her arm gently. “It’ll be okay.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“Do not underestimate this target,” Lloyd announces to the wet teams that are after Court as you watch the various computer screens from your chair, “Hit this meatball like a freight train. And turn on cams. I want this pay-per-view.”

You don’t know what went down in the room between Fitz and Lloyd, but you figure Lloyd must’ve threatened Claire and/or you to get Fitz to talk. You know Court is in Prague with Margaret to find out what she found on the drive, though you’re unsure who his ‘help’ is that Lloyd mentioned. Regardless, Court and Margaret are smart. They’ll get out of the corner they’ve been unknowingly trapped in.

You look at each of the cameras displayed on the televisions in the room, watching as the wet teams begin to swarm the area. Lloyd paces behind you, watching the screens as well. You hardly flinch as bullets rain down on the building, mostly annoyed by the loud volume of it that fills the room. Smoke begins billowing out windows after an explosion. The cameras don’t show much as the smoke filled building is swarmed.

“In here,” you hear Margaret’s voice call out in the video feed.

“Where is he?”

“Where is who?”

“Do not play with me.”

“What the hell is she doing?” Lloyd leans forward, bracing his arms on the table in front of him. You can’t help but watch the muscles in his arms tense as he does so.

“Outplaying you,” you point out.

“Oh, doll, whatever they are paying you,” Margaret calmly holds a cigarette in her hand with a lighter in the other, “it is not enough.”

You bite the edge of your lip until you taste iron, knowing what’s about to happen.

“Oh shi-” the cams on screen go offline, leaving only maps.

“Jesus,” Suzanne mutters with a shake of her head.

You can see Lloyd’s back tense through his tight fit shirt, though his voice remains steady and unbothered, “Well, that was unexpected.”

“Did we just kill Margaret Cahill?”

“Makes you question if you’re on the right side, huh, Suzanne?” you look over at her, “Because he’s doing exactly what your boss is paying him to do.”

She looks over at you, uncertainty strewn across her features, before turning back to the televisions to mask it.

“We have Alpha and Bravo teams circling,” the tech from earlier announces, “Delta’s en route. Cameras aren’t live yet.”

“Send everyone,” Lloyd instructs as he walks back to your chair, “Get ‘em in there, every team. Light it up.”

“Cops have him near the square at the opera. They’ve called in a SWAT team,” someone informs Lloyd as he stands behind you, observing all the screens ahead of him.

“Alpha team arriving now,” the tech verbalized.

“This clown’s a sitting duck,” he shrugs, pouring two glasses of whiskey and placing one on the table next to you. You ignore it. “You have my permission to shoot anyone standing in his way.”

“Confirmation on target,” a mercenary speaks through his earpiece.

“Make him dead,” Lloyd confirms, bringing the whiskey glass to his lips.

You just stare ahead at the maps and various screens, refusing to show any sort of reaction. You see chaos erupt in the city square where Court is handcuffed to a concrete bench. Bullets fire from every direction, forcing the pedestrians to make a frantic attempt at escape.

“We’re going to prison for this,” Suzanne mutters.

“Keep any more cops out of that square.”

“We’re killing cops now? Margaret Cahill wasn’t enough?”

“SWAT team approaching from the bridge. Multiple vehicles. Six is in the southwest corner.”

“Get Bravo team in there. We need more guns.”

You clench your jaw and quickly down your glass of whiskey, ready for the worst.

“Bravo engaging now.” The screen displays the rosters of Alpha and Bravo, some individuals crossed off, likely dead by now. “Bravo, SWAT on your flank. Watch the fire from that heavy gun.”

“Would someone mind shooting the man handcuffed to the bench?” Lloyd raises his voice in annoyance at the apparent simplicity of the task that is still incomplete.

“We can’t get to him. There’s too many cops.”

“My God, how hard is it to shoot somebody?” Lloyd sighs.

“Not hard at all when you work with the right people,” you raise an eyebrow and shoot him a condescending look. He chuckles darkly, shaking his head.

“Take out that assault vehicle,” he turns his attention back to his job at hand.

“This is insane,” Suzanne moans, looking almost as if she’s about to be sick, “Lloyd, please, pull everyone out now.”

He doesn’t respond, deep in his own thoughts.

“Lloyd!” she raises her voice.

“Extra ten million to the first guy to put a bullet in this Ken Doll’s brain,” he doesn’t even spare her a glance as she lets out a panicked gasp.

The camera footage from a vehicle suddenly goes offline. “What happened?” Lloyd demands.

“The relay antenna must have snapped off,” the tech replies as Lloyd walks over and threateningly leans over him with a hand on the back of his chair.

“Well, get it back on before I beat you to death with that keyboard,” he lowers his voice menacingly but in that undeniably hot way. After letting the threat hang in the air for a moment, Lloyd straightens back up, looking at the screens, “Anybody got eyes on him?”

“Negative, negative. We lost him.”

Lloyd sighs, but before he makes any remark, you hear shots, “He’s on the tram!”

More individuals on both Alpha and Bravo have become crossed off in all the commotion.

“Delta team’s in pursuit.”

Lloyd turns, walking back over to you and placing an arm on the table beside you, entrapping you between him and your chair. “You two are impossible, you know that? The infamous Sierras Five and Six,” he states, almost amused.

“We’re good at what we do, Sunshine,” you smirk, looking up at him with unwavering indignance.

He hums, letting his line of sight trail slowly down from your eyes to your lips, “We could make a very good team one day.”

“Yeah, it’ll be a cold day in Hell before that ever happens,” Suzanne shoots down the suggestion immediately.

Lloyd rolls his eyes at her, walking behind your chair and bracing his hands on the back, “All teams, report status.” The screens iterate a beeping as the icons of individuals on the teams flash with X’s through them. He gets no response. “All teams, report status.” Still nothing.

“This is quite possibly the most spectacular failure in the history of covert ops,” Suzanne turns to Lloyd and raises her voice, “This will be taught in schools as the primary example of exactly what not to do in asset retrieval.”

Radio static hisses from a computer before a voice breaks through, “This is Lone Wolf. Over.”

Lloyd looks up with a slight smirk, “Hello, my sexy Tamil friend. Sit rep?”

“Tracking the target.”

“No change, Lone Wolf. Get me that asset.”

Suzanne nervously looks from the screen showing Lone Wolf to Lloyd as he speaks, “What I do can’t be taught.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“Vehicle on approach,” a voice speaks through a radio.

“Let him in,” Suzanne replies.

The gates open, allowing Lone Wolf’s car to enter as security guards confirm it’s whereabouts to make sure nothing will get past them that shouldn’t. You follow Lloyd towards the entrance, not having much of a choice as the armed men around the place all keep a close eye on you.

“You know what I love about you?” Lloyd walks over to meet him, “You look like you’ve been hit by a bus, but it only adds to your mystique.”

Lone Wolf doesn’t reply, but holds up the necklace containing the asset to Lloyd. You sigh and look away from it and out the glass windows around the front door.

Lloyd exhales in relief as Lone Wolf places the asset in his outstretched hand, “Yahtzee.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

One of the people on the computers places the asset in a port on their computer as Lloyd and you both watch the televisions, waiting to see the contents so Lloyd can confirm that it’s what he was after. “It’s loading.”

“Tell me, Suzanne,” Lloyd turns to her condescendingly, “is there any other part of your job that I can do for you?”

“Failing upwards does not qualify as success,” she retorts as he leans on the back of your chair once more, a fresh glass of whiskey in hand.

“No, success qualifies as success.”

“Do you consider putting a bullet in the girl upstairs a success? ‘Cause I’m struggling to see how you’re gonna get out of all this.”

“You wanna make an omelet, you gotta kill some people,” he quips.

“You’re killing a girl?” Lone Wolf speaks up, sounding apprehensive now.

You roll your eyes, knowing Lloyd is all talk right now. If he was going to kill Claire, she’d be dead by now. You just look at the live security camera feeds on a computer ahead of you. Lloyd just looks over at him and takes a sip of his whiskey before placing the glass on the table beside you.

“You know, in English, we call this a happy ending. However, if you say one more word, you may not see it that way,” Lloyd threatens firmly, “Suzanne, please pay my Tamil friend and send him on his way.”

You notice something on one of the feeds and smirk just as Suzanne notices, calling attention to it, “Who’s on the east perimeter?”

“Unit five,” someone responds.

“Where are they?”

“They were there two minutes ago.”

The power suddenly shuts off and you glance back at Lloyd as he begins to get nervous, though he hides it well.

“Get the genny up,” he orders.

Explosions erupt outside, shaking the mansion slightly. Everyone jumps, startled, and they turn to look out the windows behind you. A flaming helicopter crashes into the water beside the building.

“Lock everything down. Get all units to the courtyard,” he grabs a gun in his right hand, grabbing your arm with his left and bringing you with him. You just feel a light sense of amusement at how pissed off he is. “And do not pay this asshole,” he lunges aggressively at Lone Wolf who stands his ground.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

“You wanna tell me what the fucking plan is, Y/n?” Lloyd quickly jogs down a hall, leaving you to follow along, “Make this easy for me and I won’t kill the girl.”

“Bullshit, if you were gonna kill her, she’d be dead. Besides, I have no idea what their plan is, haven’t talked to Six in a while. We’ve both been too busy to call,” you sass.

He doesn’t respond, instead leading you down another hall and speaking through his earpiece, “Get me eyes on the bridge.”

You hear the high pitched whiz of a rocket and quickly move behind a cement wall to avoid the explosion. Lloyd just laughs, appreciating the struggle as if it were a game. He moves out from behind the wall, shooting at the figure that shot the rocket, but not landing a hit. More explosions ensue, pushing both of you forward to avoid them.

“I seriously don’t get a gun or anything?” you huff.

“So you can turn around and shoot me?” he scoffs.

“Aww, you know me so well,” you mock.

“No chance, sweetheart.”

He slowly walks out from behind another wall, stalking along a fence line. He watches the shadowed figure run off.

“He’s trying to draw us away. Shit!” he takes off running.

You follow along, laughing as you go, “You really didn’t realize that sooner?”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

You both run up a staircase inside, straight to the room Fitz and Claire were in, only to find it empty. You just hum triumphantly as he speaks through his earpiece, “He’s in the house.”

You jog over to look out the window as Lloyd walks back to the hallway, productively using his time and resources by yelling at the corpses outside and firing a few bullets in them.

Quickly, Lloyd leads you out to one of the bridges connecting parts of the building over water. You spot Fitz, Claire and Court across from you on another bridge. Lloyd and his men fire at them before you can shout to them, but it looks like they miss, hitting the concrete of the building instead.

“You’re making me destroy a historic building here!” Lloyd yells to Court before they open fire again.

You glance over the edge of the bridge behind you, seeing what’s beneath you, hoping to come up with an exit strategy. You’re snapped out of your thoughts as Lloyd grabs your arm, dragging you with him as he takes off running again. You’re dragged along as Lloyd and his men circle around to the bridge Court is on.

You stay back to avoid being collateral killed by a stray bullet intended for someone else. You hear Claire screaming in panic and you feel your throat tighten. Everything quiets down and you hear a splash down below. Lloyd gestures with his gun, as a vague threat, for you to follow. You walk over to see Fitz laying still.

“Roll him,” Lloyd commands to one of his men who obliges and rolls Fitz over.

Fitz scoffs, “Boring.” He flicks the safety pin off a grenade in his hand.

“You douche,” Lloyd shoves one of his men out of the way, going for you.

You, however, take the opportunity to escape. When Lloyd is close enough, you rip his gun away from him since he won’t be focused on keeping ahold of it. You immediately hoist yourself up and over the side of the bridge, diving into the water below as the blast goes off and before Lloyd can get a hold of you.

You resurface to hear Claire sobbing as Court pulls her to the shore. You quickly follow after them and meet them at the shore.

Court helps pull you out of the water, handing you an earpiece in the process, “You good?”

“Been better,” you shrug as you hop in a boat nearby. You hear a vehicle approaching and Court walks over to check it out. “Stay down,” you nod to Claire and follow him.

Court fires some shots through the windshield to try to take them out. You drop to the ground as the car stops and shoot the mens’ legs as they get out. One runs around the car quickly and kicks at your hand holding the gun. You keep a grip on it and fight with him for the upper hand.

Lloyd runs over, tackling Court to the ground. The two of them struggle for control over Court’s gun. You hear the sizzle of a rocket and a pained yell from Lloyd. The man you’re fighting gets a hold of your gun, attempting to aim it at yourself or Court. Court uses Lloyd’s distraction as his chance to roll to the side, splashing in the water to avoid getting shot.

You use your favorite move, kneeing the man in the crotch to make him lose his grip on the gun. When he doubles over in pain, you fire a bullet through his head and he drops to the ground.

“Wait. Please don’t shoot!” Lloyd begs. You turn around and see him approaching Claire. You try to fire near him as a distraction, but you only hear a click when you pull the trigger, informing you that you have no bullets left. “Look what you did to my hand,” Lloyd whines.

He gets closer to Claire and grabs her before you can react, “Give me that, you little shit.” He yanks the flare gun out of Claire’s hand, causing her to scream as he drags her with him into the hedge maze.

“Lloyd, you jackass!” you yell, running after him.

Court quickly catches up to you and you both hesitate outside the maze, not knowing which direction Lloyd went. You nod to Court and quickly head down the left path, Court quickly moving down the right.

“Six!” you hear Claire yell further from you. You jog ahead, knowing she must’ve seen Court and that you’ll need to find the right way.

“Now, I’m gonna stop you right there, cupcake. What do you say we wrap this up? I mean, I’m having a blast, but it’s way past the kid’s bedtime, don’t you think?”

“Keep him talking. I have a line of sight,” Dani speaks through your earpiece.

You rush around a corner, skidding to a halt as you come to the center, standing behind Lloyd.

“You’re gonna throw me that gun, or the little one gets a new face,” Lloyd threatens Court, not having noticed you yet. “If your strategy relies on whether or not I’ll kill a child, you need a new strategy.”

“Bullshit. Let her go Lloyd,” you walk up behind him, placing the muzzle of your gun against his back. Despite it being out of bullets, it’s a good bluff.

Lloyd chuckles darkly and glances over his shoulder at you. Court sighs and unclips the magazine from his gun, tossing the magazine to the ground and the gun into the side of the fountain in front of Lloyd. Lloyd lifts his arm that was around Claire and she runs to you, both of you backing away from the scene in front of you.

Lloyd aims the flare gun at Court, backing his way around the fountain as Court walks towards him to keep him at a distance. “You know, I think we would have been friends, you and I. Aside from your childish sense of morality and eight-dollar haircut, we have a lot in common. It’s really a shame this isn’t gonna work out between us. Now normally at this point in the night, I wouldn’t be sticking around. With the house lights about to come on, not really my scene to hang out, but you have been a pebble in my shoe since the very beginning. And now I just don’t think I can walk away.”

Court looks over at you and Claire to see if you’re both ok, now closer to you than Lloyd is. Claire clings to you in fear, and you do your best to not sway on the spot as the dizziness creeps back in. You haven’t felt right since the water landing, definitely not a good concussion treatment. Adrenaline has just been mostly keeping it at bay.

“Guess what I’m thinking right now?”

“That you’ve overshared,” Court responds.

“I think I’m better than you. What do you say, Six, you wanna dance?”

“Push him right, and I’ll have the shot,” Dani vocalizes through the earpiece.

Court looks at you again, noticing your uneasiness, “Forget the shot. Come get Five and the kid.”

Court looks back at Lloyd who tosses his flare gun aside, holding up his hands to show that he won’t do anything yet. “You two get to the edge of the maze, okay? Agent Miranda will meet you there.”

“No, no, wait,” Claire sobs, “Wait, we’re not just gonna leave you here with him. He’s crazy.”

“I got this,” he reassures the both of you, “You’re gonna have to help Five walk. Don’t turn back.”

“No, you gotta come with us, just come with us please,” Claire sobs, trying to tug at Court’s arm.

“Claire,” he tries to cut her off, but she hardly hears.

“Please, you two are all I have,” she sobs.

“Claire,” she finally quiets and looks at him, “this is just another Thursday.”

You glance over to Lloyd and couldn’t find that usual cocky confidence. In fact, you could swear you saw uncertainty. Even a sense of sadness. Not that it lingered once he noticed you looking at him, he masks it quickly.

Claire hugs Court tightly and looks up at him, taking a deep breath to calm herself, “kick his ass.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

With your arm around Claire’s shoulders, she helps steady you as you walk through the maze to find an exit. You take a shaky breath and stop walking for a second, looking around you.

“What?” Claire looks up at you.

“I don’t feel so good,” you mutter.

“Are you gonna be sick or something?”

“No, not like that, bad gut feeling. I’m not usually wrong with that,” you sigh and turn back the direction you came from, “Go find my friend, she’ll keep you safe.”

“Five, you can’t go back, you can barely walk. And Six said-”

“Lucky for us I’m a fighter and smarter than him most of the time. I’ll be fine, so will Six.”

Claire hesitantly nods and continues walking towards the exit while you turn and retrace your steps slowly.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Coming to the opening to the center of the maze, you hear the safety of a gun click. Looking ahead, you see Suzanne lining up a shot at Lloyd.

Without a second thought, you charge forward, tackling her to the ground and knocking the gun out of her grasp just after it goes off. Court immediately abandons his fight with Lloyd as he sees you, running over to help you. Suzanne gets the gun back and shoots him to incapacitate him.

“What the hell?” Suzanne yells at you, shoving you off her and pointing the gun at you and Court. You stay seated on the ground and Court raises an arm in surrender, sitting on the edge of the fountain and keeping pressure on his wound with the other. Lloyd stays where he is, kneeling in the fountain and raises his hands as Suzanne turns the gun to him as well as a threat.

“Don’t shoot him.”

She scoffs, cocking the gun once more to retake the shot you forced her to miss.

“Kill him and he gets the easy out,” you rattle out quickly to keep her attention, “Why not leave him to rot in prison for the rest of his days?”

She glances at you, raising an eyebrow in intrigue, “You really want to let that toxic piece of shit live?”

You glance over at Lloyd who just looks back at you, not sure what your goal is here.

“We have history,” Suzanne continues, “Me, Denny, Lloyd, we all went to Harvard together. Those two had this absurd bromance which made it impossible for me to prove to Denny how much of a liability Lloyd was. Then I see these two troglodytes bashing each other. The whole thing just crystalized. Lloyd Hansen is going to take the fall, dead or alive, for everything that has happened. Now, I know how to do that. What I need are a few witnesses to corroborate my story. So, if you two want that girl to live to a ripe old age, you’re gonna do exactly as I say. Bad news is you’ll probably get your old cells back, but the good news is, if you two behave, I’ll let you out to play sometimes. ‘Cause frankly, you are both freakishly good at why you do.”

Court raises his hand slightly.

“What? Do you have a question? What is that?”

“Does this plan involve us all living?”

Suzanne looks down at you, “If Lloyd acts as a witness to corroborate the story, yes. Yeah, you’re gonna live.”

“Then we should go,” Court mutters, “Lotta blood… lotta blood.”

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Court is carried out on a spinal board. Claire looks over as a paramedic checks her over. He smiles slightly at her and holds up a sign of the horns to show he’s ok and she smiles back at him.

Lloyd is examined by another paramedic, but surrounded by CIA agents and cops, ready to jump at any hasty move he could make.

Dani is led by two agents and hardly spares a glance towards Suzanne when they pass one another.

Court quickly gets loaded into a helicopter to airlift him to a hospital for more in depth medical treatment than they can’t do on the scene.

The light of the morning sun continues to bleed over the land, reclaiming the scene of last night’s events.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Two weeks later, Washington D.C.

“Where are they keeping Six and Lloyd?” Denny Carmichael inquires as Suzanne shuts the car door behind them.

“Basement. Most secure floor.”

“And Five?”

“Still MIA.”

“Should’ve put a couple of bullets in their heads.”

“Five and Six tore through thirty of the best operatives in the world. Why would I waste an asset like that?”

“They’re Fitz’s gray men. They’re not gonna do anything you say. You don’t even know where Five is.”

“We’ll find them and they will. As long as I have the girl, they will.”

Carmichael reaches out a hand to stop her, slowly turning to face her, “It is very dangerous for you to start thinking for yourself.”

“You threatened, Denny? How pleasantly out of character. Would you rather I be floating in the Potomac?”

“You’re just lucky Five and Six didn’t try to overpower you in that maze. Guess they didn’t perceive you as a threat.”

“That would be their mistake,” she states simply, walking away and letting the threat hang in the air.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

Police line the halls of the hospital, heavily guarding two rooms. A nurse walks past, giving them a short nod as they walk into one of the rooms, swiping an ID card to do so. The card reader beeps as a green light displays. The steady beep of machines sounds from inside the room of Courtland Gentry until it is muffled by the closing door. Just next door, Lloyd Hansen is stuck in a similar position to the former, laying cuffed to the bed as machines beep steadily around him. A beard has begun to grow around his strong jawline due to the lack of shaving opportunities. The nurse walks over to the door connecting the two rooms.

Court looks over, noticing the break in the very rigid routine the nurses have seemed to follow daily. Lloyd simply rolls his eyes, sitting up more and looking over, ready to make a witty remark.

“Hello boys, long time no see,” you smirk at the confused and astonished looks on their faces as you pull down the medical mask that had obscured anyone’s view of your face.

“How?” Court begins to ask, but is quickly cut off by you.

“Let’s table that discussion for later. We’re on a schedule now, gentlemen, please do hurry. We’ve got to pick up Claire on time,” you quickly pick the locks of Court’s cuffs and set him free, walking over to Lloyd to do the same.

Court practically jumps out of the bed, grabbing a scalpel he noticed in the room for a weapon. Lloyd grabs your hand once you undo his second cuff, before you pull away. He sits on the edge of the bed and smiles slightly.

“You know, I think you were right,” he holds you close, bringing your hand up to his lips as he places a kiss against your knuckles. Your face heats up against your will.

“I’m right about a lot, I’ll need some clarification.”

“You said I’ve worked for the wrong people.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“So, are you hiring?” he smirks and you smile brightly.

≣≛▸✭◂≛≣

A draft blows through the open window to Claire’s room in the practical prison she’s being held in. She peeks out in confusion. Upon seeing nothing out of the ordinary besides the open door, she turns to her record player to see her favorite record propped up. Silver Bird by Mark Lindsay. A piece of paper sticks out the side, just enough for her to notice. She walks over and carefully picks up the record, delicately sliding the note out to read it.

PLAY ME LOUD

She glances around as her suspicions grow, but nonetheless, she places the record on the turntable. The song begins to play once she lowers the arm onto the spinning vinyl. She turns the volume knob as high as it will go as she begins to hear yelling and gunshots below her and outside.

Your sign is Capricorn and every corner of your mind

Says you’ll remain my friend, my friend until you’re mine

Silver Bird

Fly my lady away

Silver Bird

Take her over the bay

Silver Bird

Give my lady a ride

Sensing a presence, Claire slowly turns to look at the door as you and Court walk over, stopping in the doorway.

“Am I allowed to chew gum in here?” Court asks.

Claire runs over to both of you in tears, engulfing you both in a hug. You smile, hugging back just as Court does.

You quickly get her downstairs to your waiting Jeep, hearing a few more gunshots as you go. You keep Claire low, opening the back door for her to get in behind the passenger seat as Court hops in the back with her behind the driver’s seat. You quickly hop into the passenger seat.

Claire looks at you and Court in confusion, “Who’s driving us?”

“My guard dog,” you smirk.

The driver’s door flies open and you catch the gun tossed to you. Lloyd shuts the door behind him, quickly starting the car and shifting into drive, taking off and speeding away from the house.

“Good guard dog,” you tease, earning a smile and an eye roll from Lloyd.

“How do you know we can trust him? He’s crazy,” Claire states.

“Oh, I’m counting on it, he works for me now. His job is to help keep us, and especially you, safe.”

Claire nods reluctantly, looking between the two of you as Lloyd drives. “Ok, but no kissing when I’m around, I’m still at an impressionable age.”

Court laughs hysterically at that, leaning back in his seat as you chuckle too.

Lloyd pouts dramatically, “How am I gonna get paid now?”

“Oh, we can discuss more ideas later,” you send a wink his way.

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