Renegade

I remember always being afraid to come to The Tunnel. Training was difficult for me. When you're new, no one goes easy on you. Everyone is trained to give their all and to never back down. I enjoyed hacking and surveillance, but when the time came to enter the training room I was always scared. Everyone took turns wailing on me for the first few weeks until I started to build up some muscle to at least defend myself a little better.

One day after a rough training session, Fierce pulled me aside and asked how I was adjusting. I lied to him and said everything was fine which he knew immediately because he's a fucking human lie detector. He made me drop my stuff and head back onto the mat where he wanted to spar with me. I figured he would beat me up like everyone else did, but instead he told me to attack him with full force.

He took the first few hits without even protecting himself which made me hesitate with every punch. He smirked at me and told me to stop holding back. He allowed me to get in a few good hits before he stopped me. He gave me some pointers on where to hit and how to strike properly. He then told me to give it try while he blocked them.

"Do you see how I'm blocking?" He asked as he deflected another one of my punches. "This is what you need to do when someone is coming at you. Focus on their movement and anticipate their next move." He grabbed onto my fists to stop me. "You're smart, Detope. You can easily read anyone here." He said as he walked away from me.

"Except you." I mumbled out. His head turned slightly and I could see a hint of a smirk on his face as he left the room.

I think that was the moment when I knew I liked him. When I met him, he was cold and distant to everyone, and that was the first time I had seen him be a real person. Although, the days that followed he was back to his old self until I won my first fight. He didn't say anything and he didn't have to. The look on his face said it all. I continued to get better and win more fights until I was accepted into elite training where I was partnered up with Lia who took it easy on me for awhile. Fierce didn't ease up on me though, he continued to push me and knocked me on my ass a few times over my hair being in a ponytail. You know what they say though, if a guy picks on you it probably means he likes you.

"Detope?" I hear a faint voice. "Detope?" I slowly open my eyes and shield them from the harsh lights above me. "You good?" I move my gaze in the direction the voice is coming from. It's Gabe. I take a couple seconds to remember where I am. "I guess you must have passed out here." He says offering me his hand from the floor. I accept it and jump onto my feet. I look over my shoulder and see I'm stationed outside Quela's room.

Getting her back into The Tunnel proved to be harder than I thought it would be. She punched, bit, and clawed away at me until I had to stop tangling with her. She refused to enter without Hunter. We've been searching for a couple weeks now and nothing has turned up on his whereabouts and everyone can tell that Quela is starting to spiral out of control. She disappears at nighttime and when she returns, she's destroyed, like she started a fight with a gang or something. It took almost a half hour before I finally got her to agree to go inside and rest. She's falling apart without her best friend and there is not much more we can do about it.

Gabe mentions he wants to talk to me about something, so I follow him into Logan and Hunter's office which used to be his. He makes himself comfortable in Hunter's seat and I stumble into the one across from him. He twiddles his fingers for a few seconds before he clears his throat.

"I'm sending you out." Gabe says folding his hands and gently placing them on the desk.

"On another retrieval?" I ask rolling my eyes.

"No," I move my gaze quickly up to meet his eyes, "I'm having you and Omelee check in on that Milly Jones girl."

"The one who was missing for a month?" I ask leaning forward suddenly intrigued.

"Something doesn't feel right about her appearing out of no where and then Hunter suddenly disappearing."

"You think they're connected?" I tilt my head to the side giving it a real thought.

"It's worth checking out. I've already briefed Omelee on it. Just ask Jones a couple questions on what happened, stick to yes or no questions. She doesn't have a tongue anymore." I nod understanding. "Detope," Gabe brings his voice down, "don't tell anyone what you're doing today. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up in case this is a bust and I think Fierce would kill me if he knew you were going without him." He sighs. "I need to keep you two apart for awhile. I'm telling you first because I know you'll understand more than he will."

"To be honest, I don't understand." My voice sounds more defensive than I anticipated.

"Look, his father just died and his mind is elsewhere right now. If he were to go out on an assignment, he wouldn't be able to fully focus. He could slip up and if he's partnered with you and something happens, he would never forgive himself. I'm just thinking ahead. When he's back to his old self again, maybe I'll pair you two up, but as for right now I think it's best to separate you guys."

I leave behind a breathy whatever and excuse myself from the office. I head to my locker to grab my stuff and meet up with Omelee. We discreetly leave The Tunnel hoping no one is paying attention to us. She offers to drive which I'm absolutely okay with. I've worked up enough courage to drive again, but I still don't like to do it. Maybe one day it won't scare me as much as it does now.

I haven't been out on an assignment with Omelee in awhile. I think the last time we were paired together was when Logan and I went to plant cameras in his father's office. She was our operator at the time which is one of her best skills. She's a tech wizard, has a medical background, and one of the best hackers, next to Hunter of course. She really saved our asses back then. Logan got his leg dislocated on that assignment and she talked me through how to put it back in place. Not something I was really thrilled to be doing that, but she helped a lot.

I'm not entirely sure if she's ever been out in the field though. Gabe always assigns her as the operator, and I rarely see her in the training room. I guess they know her strengths and weakness so they keep her out of the action.

We pull up to a brick ranch house with a gorgeous stone path leading to the front door. Omelee sighs looking slightly nervous, but I reassure her everything will be fine. We walk along the path and knock on the maroon door. We hear the door unlock and an older woman answers with a pain stricken face. She glares at the two of us with tired eyes before asking us what we want.

"Is Milly Jones here?" Omelee asks politely. "We're grief and trauma counselors from the hospital and we would just like to see how she is holding up. That is if it is okay with you." The woman sighs and allows us to enter her home.

The place smells of vanilla and cinnamon and it hits my nose as soon as I take my first step inside. There are pictures of a beautiful strawberry blonde girl along the walls and on the mantle of the fireplace. The woman directs us to the staircase and says Milly is in her room. We thank her and climb the stairs to the second floor.

There is only one open door on the second floor and that's were we head. Omelee softly knocks on the door asking if we may enter. The strawberry blonde girl from the pictures sits up on her bed and looks terrified when she sees us. She curls up into a ball in the corner of her bed, wrapping her bandaged hands around her legs.

"It's okay," Omelee reassures her, "we're just here to talk, sweetie. My name is Omelee and this is Phoenix. We're the good guys." She sits down on the bed. "We're not here to hurt you."

"You're Milly, right?" I ask already knowing the answer. The blonde nods slowly. "Milly is such a pretty name." I comment hoping to ease her worries. "Pretty and normal. My parents named me after a mythical bird."

"Mine named me after an omelette." Omelee deadpans which gets Milly to crack a smile. "Milly, I know it's difficult to talk about, but we want to talk to you about what happened. About you being kidnapped. Did you know the person who did this?" Her smile fades as she shakes her head. "Did you ever see their face?" She nods. "Blink once for male, twice for female." She squeezes her eyes shut twice.

"Did she hurt you a lot?" I ask getting the gnawing feeling in my gut. Milly hesitates before nodding her head slowly.

"Did she tell you her name by any chance?" Omelee asks as I feel my heart drop to the pit of my stomach. She looks in my direction and nods slowly. "Is there a way you can tell us it?"

She pauses for a few seconds before she gets up from her bed and walks over to her dresser. She motions me to open the dresser drawer. Inside is a small dry erase board with a marker attached on top of it. I pick it up and watch her motion to Omelee so I hand her the board. She gives Omelee the marker and takes a hold of her hand which wields it. She guides Omelee's hand to write out the letters of the kidnapper's name. When she's all finished, Omelee stares at the name confused. She flips the board around to show me.

"Does this name mean anything to you?" She asks me as I glance down at the name.

C.A.S.A.N.D.R.A.

My stomach twists into a million knots thinking it's impossible, but there it is. If it really was Casandra, the same Casandra who did all those terrible things to the four, it would make a lot of sense. Milly is damaged in more ways than one and I've seen the result of what Casandra leaves behind. I snap back to reality and notice both of them are waiting for me to answer. I swallow hard denying that I know the name.

"We're almost done, Milly." I say taking a deep breath. "Were there other people there, too?" She glances up at me looking scared, but she slowly nods her head. "Were they injured, too?" She nods starting to get worked up again. "Are they still there?" Another nod.

"Do you know where they are?" Omelee asks looking worried, but Milly shakes her head. She sighs before rising from the bed. "Thank you so much for all your help." Omelee leaves the room, but I hang back for a second.

"You didn't deserve this." I whisper to her as I follow Omelee out of the room.

Milly is just a teenager and now she has to carry this weight with her for the rest of her life. Something like this shouldn't be tolerated regardless if the society is fucked up or not. And if it really is the same Casandra as before, she's still up to her same old bullshit but now she's taken it to a whole new level. I swear if I ever see her, I will stop at nothing to make sure she pays for all that she has done to Milly, Hunter, Quela, Logan, Gabe, and anyone else she's hurt.