Taylor shifted back into his office, and was immediately met with the unwelcome sight of Emma in his chair. His barely-contained urges to kill rose again, and automated calculations began to determine exactly how quickly he could retrieve one of his fae weapons, return, and cut the other agent’s heart out.
Emma simply smirked. ‘Well, if you don’t want people sitting in your chair, you should have more furniture in here.’
He turned to look at Magnolia, who had retreated from her unauthorised chair, to the corner near the door. Paperwork was spread all around her, and she was hurriedly highlighting sections.
‘I informed her that you were unavailable, sir,’ his recruit said as she put another highlighted piece of paper onto a growing stack, ‘she insisted on staying.’
‘You-’ he started.
‘I tried to evict her sir,’ she said as he looked up, the new bruise on her cheek darkening her pale skin, ‘she didn’t take kindly to it.’ After a moment, she looked away, and went back to the paperwork.
He stared at the bruise, curled his fist, and shifted across the office to give Emma a matching one. The force knocked her from his chair, but she shifted herself away before she hit the ground.
‘No-one,’ he growled, ‘hurts my recruit.’
He heard Magnolia drop her pen, then hurriedly pick it back up, and went back to annotating the paperwork.
‘She was giving me lip,’ Emma hissed.
He punched the agent again. ‘Get. Out.’
‘How could you do this? How could you of all people approve this?’
‘I was manipulated.’
‘You should have read the fucking paperwork!’
‘Out of this Agency, now.’
‘If you value your life so little as to let such a mistake be repeated, I’ll gladly end your life, you don’t need to wait to be torn apart again.’
He heard Magnolia stand to leave, but a thought locked the door, trapping her in the office.
‘This one,’ Emma continued, ‘is going to be a thousand times worse, because there’s mirror involved. I don’t know how Jones managed to convince them that she’s worth the risk, but we could all be in serious trouble.’
‘I realise that,’ he said, holding himself back from hitting her again.
Emma’s face contorted into one of anger. ‘That’s all you’ve got to say for yourself?’
‘No. Protocol ninety-six-dash-d.”
He almost smiled as the agent was forced-shifted from his Agency.
‘Sir?’
One thought cleared his desk, a second shifted all of Magnolia’s paperwork onto the large surface – still in their neat little piles, a third had her back in her unauthorised chair, a fourth had him in his upright-again chair, a fifth refreshed his rumpled clothes and a sixth placed an icepack in front of his recruit.
He watched her stare at the icepack for a moment, before lifting it to her face without comment and going back to the piles of paper.
‘Report,’ he ordered.
Slender fingers dug several tagged pieces of paper from their piles. ‘The extent of this experiment is that ex-Recruit Mimosa will be upgraded to an agent using a combination of Agent software and a piece of the Dajulveed mirror. Power levels are severely lower than that of a real agent, something akin to, and I quote “a recruit with advantages”.’
‘Reasons stated?’
‘A myriad of research purposes, only of interest to the techs; ethical reasoning including that it would contravene the directive not to kill the innocent; personal reasoning stating loyalty to-’
‘I’d assume O’Connor’s loyalty to the Agency is more than that.’
‘It’s not listing Agency loyalty,’ she said reproachfully, ‘it’s listing loyalty to Agent Ryan, as if that somehow means anything.’
‘It doesn’t,’ he said, ‘but it’s worth noting.’
She was silent for a moment. ‘There are also references to several locked files, and names that I don’t recognise sir. Some of the context for this information is dependent on those files, so I apologise, but I can’t provide you with all the information if I can’t-’
‘Twenty years ago,’ he said, ‘Recruit Carol Whitman became an agent.’
‘And she was from this Agency?’
He nodded, but she said nothing further. ‘Ask, recruit,’ he growled.
‘What happened?’
‘Jones screwed it up,’ he said, fighting back the patchy memories, ‘and a lot of a people died.’ He stared at her, watching a dozen emotions fighting across her face, a dozen unasked questions demanding to be asked and a dozen Eyes Only file requests forming. She, thankfully, and like he’d trained her, acted on none of these impulses and went back to being his calm, collected recruit.
‘Now,’ he said, ‘the limit testing.’
‘I haven’t viewed this in detail, sir,’ she said, ‘as a lot of is the discussion of particular methods to be used and individual limits to be tested. The basics, however, include physical – up to fourteen hours a day, including testing all ways in which the mirror interacts with injury and system shocks. Also, amongst the psychological, induced glitches up to level six have been approved.’
‘Time frame?’
‘The tech estimate is that she’ll be ready for testing in four days.’
‘Read the rest of the file, prepare a full report for me and report back at nineteen hundred.’
‘Yes sir,’ she said, and immediately stood and began to gather up all of the paperwork.
He silently watched her leave, then retreated to his gym and began a training program, hoping that routine would drown out the memories, his remembered screams, the image of the blonde woman covered in blood, and the sensation of dying.

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23 comments

  • Bufi says:
    December 5, 2009 at 10:42 am

    What’s protocol ninety-six-dash-d?
    ‘No-one,’ he growled, ‘hurts my recruit.’
    Hehehe
    a sixth placed an icepack in front of his recruit
    Awww, that was so nice of him :p
    The basics, however, include physical – up to fourteen hours a day, including testing all ways in which the mirror interacts with injury and system shocks. Also, amongst the psychological, induced glitches up to level six have been approved.’
    Ooooh boy, Stef’s in for one hell of a ride >_>

    • Stormy says:
      December 5, 2009 at 10:46 am

      What’s protocol ninety-six-dash-d?
      Force-shift of an agent (back to their own Agency) if their prescene is being detrimental to the Agency they are currently visiting (only useable by directors, and he’s got those privledges for a few hours) – also institutes a 48hr ban.
      Hehehe
      He can’t hurt her himself if she’s already busted. 😛
      Awww, that was so nice of him :p
      Yea…he’s displaying (sort of) emotions, it’s scary…
      Ooooh boy, Stef’s in for one hell of a ride >_>
      Oooh yeah, it ain’t gonna be fun.

      • Bufi says:
        December 5, 2009 at 11:07 am

        and he’s got those privledges for a few hours
        Do we get to see him abusing of those privileges? 😀
        He can’t hurt her himself if she’s already busted. 😛
        T: Aw, man, look what you’ve done! You broke my punching bag! >_> My punching bag, mine! *whines*
        Oooh yeah, it ain’t gonna be fun.
        Hehe, not for her… AL13N, let’s get the popcorn 😀

        • Stormy says:
          December 5, 2009 at 11:13 am

          Do we get to see him abusing of those privileges? 😀
          He honestly is going to get much of a chance, Ryan’s going to be back up and around. I have one scene I want to do though, so I hope I get a chance to slot it in.
          T: Aw, man, look what you’ve done! You broke my punching bag! >_> My punching bag, mine! *whines*
          *drops old, broken Magnolia*
          Taylor: Require: new punching bag!
          *second Magnolia appears*
          Mags 2: *looks at Mags 1*
          Taylor: o_o
          Mags 1 & Mags 2: *jump Taylor and have happyfunsexytiem*

          • Bufi says:
            December 5, 2009 at 11:30 am

            I hope I get a chance to slot it in.
            >_> do it. >_>
            Mags 1 & Mags 2: *jump Taylor and have happyfunsexytiem*
            With knives, so they can play Sketch on their nekkid bodies ^_^

      • Flexer says:
        December 5, 2009 at 11:10 am

        Force-shift of an agent (back to their own Agency) if their prescene is being detrimental to the Agency they are currently visiting (only useable by directors, and he’s got those privledges for a few hours) – also institutes a 48hr ban.
        Oh sweet!!! 😀
        Well, at least Emma’s out of the picture for some time >_<

  • AL13N says:
    December 5, 2009 at 2:17 pm

    ‘Ask, recruit,’ he growled.
    It’s like he wanted her to know some background info, but didn’t want to give it himself and wanted her to ask for it, but she didn’t… this is one instance in which she fails to interprete Taylor’s wants. (though, this is a bit of an unusual situation.) He indeed is a bit out of it, probably stacking emotions getting the better of him.
    Anyways, i do not want to know how Emma ‘ll find her way to become annoying, which she will; but let’s get the popcorn.
    /me hands some popcorn over to Bufi

    • Flexer says:
      December 5, 2009 at 3:09 pm

      I think he wants to get more bad blood between Mag and Ryan and Stef.. Once she knows about Carol, she’ll have another reason to hate the situation with Stef, and to despise Ryan’s actions.. >_>

      • Stormy says:
        December 5, 2009 at 7:31 pm

        This was definitely a big part of it. She already hated them on principle (principle being, “he does, so I will too” :P) but by giving her this information, she can actually see the whole situation and hate it on her own accord.

    • Stormy says:
      December 5, 2009 at 7:28 pm

      She does ask, but asks in the very general “what happened” rather than bombarding him for specifics that she’s worried he won’t give her. He’s already gone this far, she doesn’t want to try and push her luck.
      Emma…won’t be so much annoying anymore. She’s gonna have to learn to live with the fact that Stef is alive, and legal, and that’s that. 😛

      • silentdeth says:
        December 5, 2009 at 9:04 pm

        Emma…won’t be so much annoying anymore. She’s gonna have to learn to live with the fact that Stef is alive, and legal, and that’s that. 😛
        Does this involve a 12 step program?
        ‘No-one,’ he growled, ‘hurts my recruit.’
        It must of taken all of Mags self control to not jump up and down and squee! right then.
        I bet she will as soon as she gets back to her room… then of course most of the male recruits will be thoroughly used this night.
        Protocol ninety-six-dash-d.
        Oh, Emma cockblocked by Taylor haha.
        He must really hate her if he hates her more then Stef right now.

        • Stormy says:
          December 5, 2009 at 9:24 pm

          Does this involve a 12 step program?
          Perhaps. She’s angry, but her issue was more the fact that Ryan was…doing something bad, circumventing the rules and tossing his priorities out the window more than Taylor’s personal grudge.
          It’s gonna be fun though, because this doesn’t get to become one of those “we had a bad meeting but now we’re over it” kind of deals, Stef is going to remain terrified of Emma for the forseeable future, in a way, even more scared than she will be of Taylor. There’s a world of difference between something hurting you cause they’re angry, and someone sitting there coaxing you into killing yourself. -_-
          It must of taken all of Mags self control to not jump up and down and squee! right then.
          Yeah, something happy snapped inside her. ^_^
          I bet she will as soon as she gets back to her room… then of course most of the male recruits will be thoroughly used this night.
          hehehehe
          He must really hate her if he hates her more then Stef right now.
          I wouldn’t say he hates her more than Stef, but he can deal with Emma right now, whereas Stef is kind of disembodied. >_<

  • Zanaku says:
    December 5, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    …glad I finally read this. (been playing mabinogi~ *giggles*)
    awesome stuff! Taylor sure is kickin’ ass! 😀

  • Miranda Sparks says:
    December 6, 2009 at 3:36 am

    He’s just scared of a real rematch. 😛

  • daymon says:
    December 7, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    Well now, he was actually a thinking person there for a bit. And with feelings, or at least looked like feelings on the outside. Yeah remembering getting all cut up and dieing wouldn’t be fun, not to mention knowing how much you lost when it happened would hurt as well.
    I think you ment “she” here: ‘I tried to evict her sir,’ she said as “she” looked up

    • Stormy says:
      December 7, 2009 at 8:08 pm

      …does think, he just doesn’t like to. >_>
      And feels, he has those…kinda. Kinda. He just doesn’t know how to get them out from under all the kevlar and shielding. 😛
      Yeah remembering getting all cut up and dieing wouldn’t be fun, not to mention knowing how much you lost when it happened would hurt as well.
      His problem is that these are a lot of his strongest memories, he has a lot less good memories about the “before” period of his life. They couldn’t retrieve everything, and unforuntatley, his latest memories were his strongest, so those are the ones driving him.
      *fixes typo*

  • Anonymous says:
    April 28, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    “‘It’s not listing Agency loyalty,’ she said reproachfully, ‘it’s listing loyalty to Agent Ryan, as if that somehow means anything.’”
    Yeah, loyalty to a person doesn’t doesn’t mean anything, and you’d better take the word of the fanatically loyal girl! [/sarcasm]
    Random thought I had while working my way through the stories: is there a place to see the full versions of those images that get cycled at the thought of the page? Well, I can find the cover of Mirrorfall, but the other ones.

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