Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy Innit (Agent red) watched as the download bar slowly inched towards completion. Just 10% more, come on, come on when his partner’s voice suddenly echoed in his earpiece, “Have you got it yet agent Red?”   

“Just a moment longer Ender, then we can get out of here,” Tommy replied. He had always liked Ender, which was lucky because the organization they worked for always seemed to pair them together for the more important missions they were sent on. Just as Tommy was considering this fact the alarm started to blare in his ears.  Tommy looked up almost in a panic, only to be met with a ‘data transfer complete’ screen. The relived agent wasted no time in unplugging the hard drive and placing it in a secure pouch in his black and dark red suit.

 The lights in the room flickered before shutting off entirely, as well as the power to the rest of the building. The computed also flickered off with a click leaving only a single emergency light above him still active.

“I got it, not a moment too late!” Tommy called into his ear piece, footsteps pounded quickly up the corridor to the door at the other side of the room. “But I think I’ll need you to cover my escape.” Three men burst through the door, “Heeeey guuys, you think we can talk this out?” He neatly side stepped as a bullet lodged itself in the door behind him.

 “I’m nearly there.” Agent Ender said through his ear piece, the only thing he was looking for.

“Well, pleasure to meet you all, but I’ve got a nice guy waiting for me to finish up.” Tommy promptly bolted through the other door in the room, foot steps echoing behind him as he ran.

 As he was about to round a corner another man that Tommy could only think of as goon number four walked around that very corner. He tried to skid to a stop a moment too late and he got a fist planted firmly in his gut for his mistake, causing him to stumble backwards. I’m definitely going to feel that tomorrow. He winced as the thought crossed his mind.

The other three goons swiftly caught up. He quickly regained his footing but realized  immediately that he was surrounded. “Don’t touch my partner,” Ender said from behind the goon, the sound oddly inhuman from behind his voice changer.

 It was soon followed by the sound of a gun shot and a body hitting the ground, goon four now dead. Tommy swiftly pulled his gun, rounding on the other three now that Agent Ender had gotten rid of the one that would have flanked him. He fired two shots, both fatal.

Both shots hit their mark, one between the eyes of the one on the very left and one though the chest of the middle one. Ender took a second shot, hitting the forehead of the guy on the very right, all three bodies hitting the floor one after another. The agents didn’t stop to survey their, in Tommy’s opinion, fabulous team work. Both turned on their heel and darted around the corner and out the exit. They went separate ways and ran through various alleyways before meeting again at a predetermined location.

 “You did manage to get it I take it?” Ender asked without preamble as they both walked into the alley. Tommy smirked under his mask.

“Yup, thanks for the help back there by the way, wouldn’t have made it out without you,” Tommy said, genuinely thankful. Though he winced again as a small jolt of pain radiated from his ribs. “Think I might’ve broke something though.” Agent Ender tossed him a small pink vial, Tommy snatched it out of the air and wasted no time in turning away from his current partner.

Tommy lifted his mask and downed the small potion, his rib making an audible snap as it slotted itself back into place. Tommy pulled his mask back into place before turning back round. “Thanks Ender,” he said simply, glancing at the mouth of the alley to make sure that their ride back to base hadn’t arrived yet. He turned back to his partner.

Ender shrugged as he smiled beneath his mask, “No worries Red, besides,” he leaned in slightly, “wouldn’t do for one of my favorite partners to be out of the field for too long.” Even through the voice changer Tommy could tell from his tone that he was only half joking.

 Tommy grinned back at his annoyingly tall colleague, “We do work well together, now that I think about it, we haven’t failed a single mission we’ve done when paired up with each other.” The agent took a moment to think about  his statement before adding to it, “maybe one day they’ll make us permanent partners instead of pairing us just occasionally.” Ender tilted his head slightly as if considering the possibility for a moment.

Before Ender could respond, the soft crunching of wheels on pavement caught the boys attention. Ender turned around and they both walked up to the car. They stood in front of the front driver side window,  Tommy looked over the car and silently noted it was the same kind they were told would pick them up.

 The window rolled down and the man at the front seat handed them a organization ID and Ender check it against the ID that was the reference to their driver before handing it back to him and giving Tommy a small nod. Both looked at the driver one more time. The driver pocketed the ID and turned back to them before stating, “Code 4 3 6 2 7 1 0,” he paused for a moment before continuing, “Agent Red and Agent Ender I am here to take you back to base.”

 The agents looked at each other and nodded, climbing into the back of the vehicle. As the car started moving Tommy looked at Ender for a moment, as if studying him. “What?” Ender asked.

 “You know what I think?” Tommy said. He didn’t give his partner a chance to reply as he continued, “If we were to ever meet without the masks we would be great friends.”

 Ender snorted, “Maybe, just maybe,” he replied simply.

After a short meeting roughly an hour later, Ranboo walked out of the building and into the crisp night air. He silently considered what Agent Red had said. “Maybe one day they’ll make us permanent partners instead of just occasionally pairing us up.” Even through the other man’s voice changer, Ranboo didn’t think he sounded all that opposed to the idea. He smiled slightly, he honestly did rather like working with the agent. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of cool air, he exhaled slowly as he slowly activated his power, his black and white hair whipping back and forth before settling as he teleported back into his home. A small flurry of purple particles were the only thing left in his wake.

 Tommy groaned as he slipped in through his window, eyebrows scrunching in annoyance at the time. Five in the fucking morning!? Curse stupid power suppressors, if not for those Ender could’ve just teleported us to the meeting spot instead of us having to run around half the city! He cursed under his breath as he walked into the bathroom. Removing the oddly flexible suit he had been wearing revealed the ugly bruise on his abdomen. He grimaced at the mark.

 That potion must have only been for broken bones. That was alright, Ender had helped him take his time being out of the field from a few weeks, down to just a couple days at most. There was a possibility that they wouldn’t need him in that time, but there was usually always something he could do. The rosters of most missions completed successfully had him in the top twenty in the country, and he had noticed they had been asking more of him since.

 He smirked at the memory as he got ready for bed, he wouldn’t get much sleep but even a little would help.

Chapter Text

Tommy groaned as his alarm went off two hours later. He slapped at his phone on the night stand beside him until the annoying sound stopped. He snuggled back into his bed, his face in the soft white pillow.

“TOMMY, GET UP!” Tubbo called from the other side of his door before entering into the room, “I don’t care how long you stayed up on your phone last night, we’ve still got school.” He just provided me with an excuse to why I was up so late last night. He hated lying to his best friends, but he knew he had no other choice, being a spy and assassin came with downsides.

Tommy huffed, slowly sitting up and climbing out of bed. You’d think being a secret agent would get you out of high school, apparently not.  After taking a shower, he winced at his haggard reflection. The bags under his bright blue eyes only served to highlight the large scar across his face. He brought his hand up and slowly traced with his finger from where it originated just beside his left brow, across his nose, and to where it stopped at his right ear. His first scar from a job, he always thought of it as a trophy, being the hardest mission he had ever pulled off successfully. His expression sobered slightly as he went about covering it with concealer.

After covering his scar, he put on a simple t-shirt before pulling on his red hoodie. Soon the boys were walking side by side onto school grounds. They found Ranboo waiting on the bench in the small courtyard. “Boo- boy!” Tommy called to his friend excitedly, a small smirk curling the edge of his lips.

Ranboo smiled and gave Tommy and Tubbo a short wave as he stood up. “Ready to head inside-” Ranboo paused as he got a closer look at Tommy. “You alright Tommy? You don’t look so good.” Ranboo questioned, concern evident in his tone.

“I’m fine boss-man.” Tommy grumbled, the dark bags under his eyes contradicting his statement. “Besides you don’t seem too hot yourself. What were you doing last night that had you up so late?”

A hesitant silence fell over the group for a moment, neither Tommy nor Ranboo answering the question for a moment.  “I was studying.” Ranboo finally muttered.

“Ha, nerrrrd” Tommy said jokingly, punching Ranboo lightly in the shoulder. Tubbo narrowed his eyes and his eyebrows scrunched together as he lightly whacked Tommy on the back of the teens head, further messing up his hair.

“Don’t touch my ‘husband’ Tom,” Tubbo said. Ranboo sighed on the other side of Tommy.

“Still going with the husband bit? Really?” Ranboo asked, his face buried in his hands. Tubbo turned and beamed at Ranboo. To people outside their small group, the smile would seem rather cute for the short teen, his brown fluffy hair only aiding the illusion.

To Ranboo and Tommy however, the grin wasn’t quite so innocent, as it was usually the one he gave them before something inevitably went wrong. The last time he managed to set a toaster on fire, much to everyone’s horror. Ranboo leaned away silently as Tommy took his revenge, slapping the back of Tubbo’s head lightly, sending his hair into the shorter teens eyes.

Ranboo buried his face in his hands again as a small slap fight ensued, this time to smother his quiet laughter. This continued until they reached a split section in the building where they ended up having to split up. “Don’t murder each other in second period,” Ranboo told his two best friends who were giving each other mock death glares. Tommy grinned at Ranboo before walking swiftly away.

Tommy arrived in class, and made his way to his desk not a moment too late. The bell chimed three times into the PA system before falling silent right as he sat down. He quickly tuned the teacher out, already understanding the information he was droning on about. Tommy instead chose to pull out his small notebook and evaluate his performance on his last mission.

The first unused page turned out to be three-quarters of the way into the book, Tommy sighed inwardly at the fact he’d have to get a new one. He started to fill out notes on how to improve his performance when he was suddenly called on by the teacher, “Glad to see you’re paying attention Mr. Innit,” the man said, crossing his arms.

Barely suppressed snickers went through the room and Tommy fought to not roll his eyes.  His teacher continued a moment after the snickers died down, “What is oh so important in that notebook of yours that is more important than the skills you learn from my class?”

“Just notes, Sir,” Tommy replied evenly as he slipped his book in to his bag. The teacher raised an eyebrow at Tommy’s statement, showing his disapproval silently before turning around to continue teaching. Tommy grumbled inwardly at the unfair treatment, if him or one of his friends were the ones laughing they would immediately get detention.

Almost an hour later, the bell rang again. Tommy slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the room. He made a beeline to where he knew Ranboo would be waiting for him. The scene he came across when he turned the corner made his blood boil in his veins. Three guys stood laughing as Ranboo picked up his books, the boy slowly shrinking in on himself. Tommy marched up to the boys.

“Oi assholes,” he paused as they turned to him, Ranboo also did, only giving him a small panicked shake of the head no. He promptly ignored his friend’s silent pleading, “Leave him alone.”

 One of the boys, obviously the leader of the trio, sneered at him before turning to each of his buddies. “What do you guys think? Should we listen to this useless kid?” The other two were smirking at him as well now.

“Nah. What’s a kid with no power going to do, cry to his mommy?” The bullies laughed, the leader turning back to Ranboo.

“His little friend is more useless.” He sneered. Tommy walked up and put himself between the bullies and his best friend. “Huh, guess you don’t get it,” the leader continued as he looked Tommy up and down. “Guess we’ll have to teach him a lesson boys,” the bully said, cracking his knuckles.

 Tommy rolled his eyes, subconsciously shifting to minimize possible damage to his face as soon as he saw the boy gearing up. “Didn’t any one ever tell you you’ll get arthritis doing that, bitch boy?”

Tommy saw the punch swing towards his nose as if in slow motion. Every muscle in his body screamed for him to use the years of training and sparring drilled into him.  He instead forced himself to freeze, knowing that it would cause more problems than fixing them if he pulled on his training and experience.

He let himself fall to the floor, taking a few more kicks before Ranboo pulled the leader off Tommy. Luckily, before the kid could take a swing at Ranboo, a teacher showed up and started yelling. The fight swiftly broke up.

To most people, Tommy was a normal teenager, well that wasn’t entirely true. More people knew him as agent Red, number 11 on the best agents always kept in the country. However, the people who only knew him as Tommy were the people around him at the moment, so he acted like he was hurt anyway.

After a couple dozen undercover missions he found he became an excellent actor. Ranboo helped Tommy to the nurses office without being tipped off that the teen didn’t actually need help. Tommy knew he had a couple bruises but that was the extent of the damage.

They quickly made it to the nurse and Ranboo was told to go back to class. The sweet façade the nurse put on disappeared the moment Ranboo walked out, replaced by one of professionalism. Moments like this were the reason the government replaced the school nurses. “Agent Red,” she greeted curtly

Chapter Text

The nurse laughed silently to herself. She honestly found these two agents hilarious. Most people weren’t willing to laugh at them, and for good reason. They were absolutely terrifying. She couldn’t care less; she had treated too often for injuries they had gotten doing dumb shit to care. Besides, no one hurt the medical personnel, it was one of the first things the agents learn.

He was laying down in front of her as light green mist swirled around her fingers, small tendrils spreading over the boy to each bruise. She could tell which were from the bully, small and light.

The large bruise on his abdomen however, was evidently from his mission the night before. She had been made aware by the higher ups that he would be called to the clinic for that. If she had to guess, that would mean they had something else for him to do.

Ranboo smiled. He knew that his friend was in good hands. One of the perks of being a government agent was that when you got hurt, you didn’t have to explain injuries you got on the job. He knew that the woman taking care of his friend was specially picked for her skill and discretion. He knew that Tommy didn’t know who was caring for him, but Ranboo still felt better.

Now that had been taken care of, Ranboo let his mind wander to what he had been thinking about before the three boys bothered him. He first met Agent Red when the man was looking for someone to spar with. All he knew was that Red had been an agent for a while, but nobody could agree on exactly how long. At that point he was already considered one of the best in the business.

 Fresh out of the training program, Ranboo had wanted to see how he would do against someone who had been out in the field, so he took Red up on the offer.

A couple of Ranboo’s former classmates who had also graduated stood over to the side, watching the two circle each other slowly.  They wore similar clothing, tank-top and shorts as well as a simple mask to hide their identities, even from each other. That’s where the similarities ended however, one of the men was shorter than the other, mid length blond hair tied into a short ponytail. A large scar ran across his face, eyes looking over his opponent.

The other man was taller, but obviously more nervous. Ranboo thought he looked a lot less friendly than when he had been a few moments ago when he was just happy to find a sparring partner. Ranboo’s hair had been disguised to look a light brown.

“Sooo, how long have you been out of the program?” the man he knew as Agent Red asked. Ranboo faltered slightly, confused.

“Wha-“ Ranboo started, he didn’t get much chance to respond however, as Red shot across the mats towards him, going on the offensive as soon as his opponent faltered.  Ranboo was driven back quickly.

It took him a moment before he managed to start to keep up with the other agent, blocking a fist with his forearm. He pivoted, trying to get a hit in. He found that to be a mistake as Red ducked low, sweeping his leg out under Ranboo.

Ranboo hit the floor with a slight thump, the mats keeping him from being actually hurt. He rubbed his tail bone for a moment before he heard a soft laugh, he looked up to see agent Red offering him a hand, which he took gratefully, Agent Red helping him to his feet.

“Rule number one, don’t let your enemy distract you.” Red chuckled slightly. “But I am actually curious, are you fresh out of the program?”

Ranboo huffed slightly, “Is it that easy to tell?” By now, anyone who had been watching dispersed, going off to do their own thing. Very few were interested in their conversation after the spar.

Red shrugged, “You still have the obvious clean-cut style they give you; you’ll be much better when you develop your own style. There’s nothing wrong with how they teach, hell,” he laughed as he paused, “they taught me, but that doesn’t work for everyone. Use it as a base and build off it, once you find what works, use it to your advantage.”

Ranboo nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks for letting me spar with you.”

Red shook his head slightly, “Don’t worry about it. Besides, I needed a good spar. I never mind giving someone advice anyway.

If not for Red giving him pointers after that first spar, Ranboo believed that he never would have made it to fifteenth on the leaderboard.

Tubbo scowled at the scene on his computer. He watched as the bully took a swing at Tommy. His friend’s head hit the locker behind him hard before he fell to the ground. Tubbo’s hands curled into fists at his sides and he swiftly shut his computer in order to calm himself down.

 Ranboo came around the corner and Tubbo put his computer down carefully before rushing up to his friend. “I heard what happened.” I saw it, the school really should improve their firewall. “Is Tommy alright?”

The only room in the building that he never spied on was the nurse’s office. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe that they replaced the nurse for one teen agent who worked with tech and never went into the field. He had personally set up an extra firewall around that camara system in order to keep anyone from seeing something they weren’t supposed to.

Ranboo glanced down for a moment, as if guilty, but that didn’t make sense because there was nothing he could have done about it but get hurt himself. “He’s fine, I took him to the nurse, and she said that she’d take care of him.” Tubbo let out a small sigh of relief, the nurse was trained for taking care of much worse than a simple bully could do.

Tubbo would have reassured his friend with the fact, but he knew that he couldn’t. A normal teenager, even if he was one of Tubbo’s best friends, couldn’t know about the government agencies working behind the scenes.

So instead, he nodded, “I’m glad Tommy’s alright,” he paused before continuing with a small smile, “It’s too bad for him that she has healing powers, he has to go back to class with the rest of us. It’s bittersweet in the end though, at least he won’t have to deal with any bruising.”

Chapter Text

“It’s bittersweet in the end though, at least he won’t have to deal with any bruising.” Tubbo said, Ranboo snorted lightly, he knew his friend would complain, but from experience he also knew Tommy would be relived to have the annoying things gone.

Ranboo’s thoughts flashed back to agent Red for a moment, he had seen how hard the man had gotten hit, as well as hearing the bones snap back into place after he drank the potion. He began to wonder how the man was doing, that bruise could not have been pleasant.

He let the thought dissipate as he walked back into the building with Tubbo at his side. The loud voices of students filled the halls and he subconsciously shrunk in on himself. He could deal with just about anything as Agent Ender but as just Ranboo? Not so much.

Tommy sat up slowly, the bruising he had was gone but the memory of getting up that morning with an aching abdomen still made him wince. He prodded and inspected the skin carefully even though he knew it was no longer there. When he was satisfied with the fact that he didn’t have a negative reaction, he stood up.

The nurse sat typing at her computer before looking up at him as he said, “Thank you ma’am.” He bent his head down at her for a moment, a sign of respect. He saw the edge of the woman’s lips curl into a small smile.

“You’re welcome Red, just try not to see me again so soon.” He nodded before walking up to the door, before he could twist the handle the nurse called out to him, “One moment actually.”

He turned back around to face her. She lowered her voice again as she spoke, just loud enough for him to hear her say, “I was supposed to call you into my office to get rid of the big bruise, I believe you should be expecting an assignment tonight.”

His eyes widened slightly, mostly in barely veiled excitement. That, and the fact that the agency almost never gave out missions two days in a row. He let out a small breath to calm himself down. He loved his job, but that was no reason to lose his composure. He gave her a small smile, devoid of his usual smirk as he said, “Thank you for letting me know.” Before walking out of the room.

The first thing he saw was a wave of students, the next was a short teen walking quickly towards him. “Tommy.” Tommy looked at Tubbo sheepishly, “Why did you think it was a good idea to get hurt?” Tubbo continued after he had his friend’s full attention.

Tommy reached up and rubbed his neck looking away, “I was helping Ranboo?”

Tubbo huffed at him as he said, “I told you Toms, you need to take some self-defense classes.” Tommy winced, but not for the reason Tubbo believed. He could defend himself fine, but doing so would cause more problems than it would solve.

“To be fair big man, you would’ve done the same thing,” Tommy mentioned, Tubbo didn’t deny it, only shaking his head.

“You’re right, just… try to be more careful,” Tubbo replied.

“I’ll try Tubs, I’ll try.” Tommy responded. The hallway was now beginning to clear and Ranboo nodded his head in the direction of their class.

“We should get going.” Ranboo said, the rest of their small group silently agreed, and they walked to class. It would be more accurate to say that Tommy trudged. As they walked Ranboo spoke up again, “Thanks for helping me earlier Tommy, are you sure you’re alright?”

Tommy was about to reply as they walked into the class when the teacher suddenly called his name. “Thomas, you’re needed in the front office.”

He sighed inwardly at the woman who was looking at him with thinly veiled contempt before replying, “Yes ma’am.” He turned and began to walk out the door before he paused for a moment, replying to Ranboo, “Also Ranboo, don’t worry about it.” He continued out the door.

 He arrived at the front office quickly, a wide grin split his lips as soon as he saw who was waiting for him.

Agent Luck. Who was one of the few agents to choose his own name. He was also one of the few whose codename wasn’t based on his power. Tommy knew exactly what to do as he walked in. “Uncle!” he called, excitedly. “What are you doing here, I didn’t know you were supposed to be in town?”

Agent Luck was the agent who was usually tasked with getting him out of his teenage duties if the agency had to have him out. This wasn’t something that happened often, usually they would do all of the planning the day or week before his missions. It seemed the nurse was right, they had a mission for him.

A conflicted expression flickered over the man’s face, only years of careful training allowed Tommy to tell that it was fake, “We’ve got a family emergency, I’ll tell you about it in the car.” A few more words were exchanged with the receptionist before they walked outside.

He recognized well the car that pulled up in front of him and his assumption was proved correct as the other agent climbed in the back. Tommy quickly followed.

 Agent Luck wasted no time in telling him what he needed to know before they got there, “The information you got us last night plus my own information network gave us a target. You’ll be properly filled in at base but the target is for tonight so we need to get things done fast.”

That was another thing about the agent, he had different networks spread out over most of the important cites. He specialized in underground information, rooting out drug or trafficking rings, finding facility locations, or even just information on priority targets.

Quackity watch the agent in front of him as Red considered what he had said. The fact that he was able to go from normal, smiling teen, to Agent Red was impressive. It didn’t come as a surprise to him however for two reasons, one, was that he had seen the change enough times to not be surprised. And two, Agent Red’s skill was not unrecognized within the agency.

His mind wandered to Agent Ender, he knew the man would be retrieved by someone from where ever he was. It was rather obvious that the agency was considering making them partners fully, more than two missions in a row was a frequent precursor.  

Chapter Text

Their trip to the base didn’t take long and Tommy was soon sitting in a meeting room. He was wearing all his gear, as per protocol. Agent Ender sat across from him, fully masked as usual. This meeting was unusual for two reasons. The first was the fact it was the middle of the day.

Second was the fact that Crow, the leader of the agency, was also there. The head of the tech department sat quietly and fiddled with something in his hands as they had walked in. But now his attention was entirely on them.

“I’m glad everyone could make it without any complications,” Crow’s tone was friendly as he began. Every instinct Tommy had screamed he was watching a predator. He didn’t let it bother him; he had met the man enough times to ignore it.

Crow received nods from around the table, seemingly pleased with the acknowledgement, he continued, “The mission you two took last night plus some sources provided by Agent Luck,” he paused as he gestured at the agent in question.

“Has revealed to us an opportunity. We’ve got what is most likely a drug ring connected to something much bigger. What we need you to do is take out the second in command and bring in the leader.” Two identical folders were passed to both him and Ender. “These contain some basic information you will need to look over before the next meeting.”

“Alright,” Tommy muttered in confirmation, but his thoughts were already elsewhere.

He was brought back to the present as Crow spoke up once more, “Before this meeting is dismissed, TNT has some stuff he thinks you two will find helpful.” At the mention of his codename, the tech department head in question perked up before rummaging in a bag that was sitting behind him.

He placed two items on the table in front of him. He looked to Crow, who then shook his head. With a small huff, he started to explain, “These,” he paused as he put his hand on the objects, they were a pair of gloves, one black and one white. “Will allow a full body disguise.”  

Ender reached forward and hummed under his breath slightly as he examined them. Before, they had only managed to cloak up to one or two small features. For example, he knew that Ender was an Enderman hybrid, the man was less obvious than some, only sporting clawed fingers. He knew that Ender used a simple device to hide them while in his civilian disguise.

Crow spoke again, “Those, as you may have guessed, are meant for Agent Ender. You all are dismissed. Remember to read the info.”  

Next to him, Red was straight up cackling. “You- I have to WHAT!” Ranboo sputtered in disbelief, which only seemed to make the man next to him laugh harder.  At this point, it had been several hours since he arrived, and they were now in another meeting with the person giving them their plan.

He vaguely remembered the agent’s name being Warden, but he shoved that thought away in favor of gaping at what he had just been told. “The best disguise, and best course of action, is to have you disguised as a woman to infiltrate the meeting.” The man repeated, as if Ranboo hadn’t heard him the first time.

Red’s laughter had now gone down to a wheeze. “Oh, this will be absolutely priceless.” he said, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye in an exaggerated manner. Ranboo scowled slightly, there wasn’t any actual heat behind it, just resignation. Something told him that if Tommy knew anything about it, he would never let him live this down. That was a similarity between the two, the fact that doing something stupid or ridiculous, in this case, would have you being reminded of it at any time later.  

“Wait!” Agent Red exclaimed, turning to Ranboo then Warden. “Will he have to disguise himself to look shorter?” Ranboo could hear the grin in the man’s voice, and he let out a sigh, burying his face in his hands.

“In order to make it more believable, yes.” The man replied. Even through his mask of professionalism, he could almost hear Warden snort in amusement, but he couldn’t tell.

In the end, he agreed to the disguise, this was one downside of his job. Having to do some stuff he’d rather not do, for the sake of the mission. As they walked out Ranboo tapped Agent Red on the shoulder. He could feel the questioning look even if he couldn’t see it as the man turned to look at him. “Need something?” Red asked, his tone was questioning, but not un-friendly.

“I was wondering, since we’ve got a little while before the final preparations and mission, if you’d be up for a short spar?” Ranboo asked, and the man cocked his head to the side as if considering it.

After a short moment of silence, Red nodded. “Sounds good, I’ll see you in the gym in a few, I’m going to change into something else. I don’t want to wear it for a spar with the mission being a few hours.” Ranboo nodded at that, idly thinking he should do the same.

Soon after, they were circling each other on a mat in the middle of the gym. Similar mats littered on the floor nearby. There was the occasional pair sparring, but Ranboo paid them no mind in favor of studying his opponent.

He was reminded of the first time they had done this. It had been a long time ago, and he had improved in leaps and bounds since then. Gone were the days when he would let the agent confuse or distract him. Agent Red opened his mouth to speak but didn’t get a chance.

Even though he knew it wouldn’t do anything, Tommy prepared to go off on a tangent about something completely random. Before he could however, Ender went on the offensive, surprising him.  Tommy got his bearings quickly.

A few of the newer recruits stood off to the side. It was something he had gotten used to over time, and he didn’t blame them. When you haven’t been in the field much it’s always fascinating to watch people who knew what they were doing.

 He and Ender danced around each other on the mat, weaving under and delivering blows. After a couple of minutes, he saw his opportunity, the man’s footing was slightly off. With a duck down, he swept his foot out under Ender.

 Ender jumped over it, which in turn knocked him slightly off balance and Ender took full advantage of his mistake. Next thing he knew, he was face first on the mat with Ender lightly holding him down. He smiled with a huff as he tapped the mat twice lightly with his hand.

 The weight immediately disappeared, and he shoved himself into a sitting position. Ender had his back to him, and Tommy was about to question what he was doing, the man grabbed something from the table and turned back around.

Tommy smiled as the man walked back over and tossed him a water bottle. He let out a small huff as he was also handed a straw, but he took it without much fanfare. At least he didn’t have to leave just so he could have some water. He paid no mind to the very light pink tinge as he gulped it down. It tingled pleasantly as it hit his tongue.

The light bruises along his skin faded immediately and he hummed contently as he closed his eyes. The water bottles the agency supplied had diluted health potions in them. It wasn’t much, but it was more than enough for sparring. It was preferred if they didn’t use them too often, but no one minded as long as you didn’t try to hog them all. 

While Tommy was preoccupied, Ender had at some point sat down across from him. “Needed to blow off some steam?” Tommy asked.

Ender tilted his head to the side, “Hmmm?”       

“Your fighting style was a bit more aggressive than usual, which isn’t a bad thing, but it does make me slightly curious,” Tommy elaborated.

“Ohhh, that makes slightly more sense.” Ender chuckled slightly before continuing in a bit of a more serious tone. “Yeah, something happened earlier, in casual clothes, that was bothering me. Have to have a clear head for the mission later. Besides,” he paused, and Tommy could tell he was grinning from the way his eyes crinkled, “Some extra practice never hurt anyone right?”

“I mean if you ignore the bruises, I guess,” Tommy quipped, letting out a small laugh of his own. Ender shrugged as he sipped his water.

Chapter Text

Soon, they were back in one of the meeting rooms for the last time before the mission. It was around 7pm and the sun was setting outside. Not that they could see the darkening sky, they were several stories underground.

The tech lead was once again sitting in on the meeting, for obvious reasons. He would be guiding and helping coordinate where they needed to be. Ender would be stuck with not talking about what was happening to stay in character, so Agent TNT would be bridging that gap. Agent Luck was absent, even though he had been to most of the meetings. He would be playing an important role, even if they weren’t told exactly what he would be doing.

Final preparations were declared finished not long after the meeting ended.

Tubbo tinkered with a new prototype for his night vision goggles, not that it was going well. He was too distracted to truly focus. There was always this short time before a mission starts where you’re thinking about everything that could go wrong, which didn’t help his focus. That along with him patiently waiting for his cue. He very rarely got to participate in missions, so this was a rare treat for him.

The quiet buzz in his earpiece suddenly went off, and a grin split his face as he shoved the goggles to the side. His hands blurred across his keyboard as he put in the necessary commands. After a few moments, several camara angles filled his screen.

“I’m in, no alarms yet.” he said into his earpiece. “Agent Red, Agent Ender, do you copy?” Two “Copy’s” echoed across the line. He split his screen to include the map of the facility. “Las Nevadas Casino” showed at the top of the screen. “We’re good to go.”

 One of the camaras flickered slightly as Ender activated his gloves. The glitch wore off as soon as he was fully cloaked. The car they were in stopped behind the building and Red got out before Ender was deposited in front of the building.

 The knowledge that it was Agent Ender stepping out of the car was what made him do a double take. He looked every bit the part with red hair, a pearl necklace, and a long black dress. The only odd thing was the mask over the bottom half of his face and the gloves, but even those didn’t look terribly out of place.

He watched as Ender, whose cover was named “Miss Beloved” sauntered up to the door and presented the cover ID. He let a grin slide over his face as the agent was eventually let inside.

Ranboo handed the fake ID he was given to the guard out front. After a quick look over both him and the ID, the guard opened the door for him. As soon as he stepped in, blinding lights assaulted his eyes. After a couple moments of blinking the spots in his vision away, he could finally examine his surroundings properly.

 Several large tables were scattered around the entrance. Most were surrounded by people playing Poker, Pool, or other games. He could hear the faint sound of slot machines, accompanied by sounds of excitement or disappointment. Stairs leading to a second floor were in the center of the room with armed guards that barred access. He thought for a second that he could see a figure standing at the top of the stairs.

He pushed that thought to the side however, as the hairs on the back of his neck started to stand on end. He panned his gaze around the room, but couldn’t spot whoever was watching him. He had never been wrong when someone was watching him. He wasn’t about to doubt himself now. His eyes didn’t show it, but his lips pursed under his mask. The feeling soon disappeared. He turned back to the stairs, only to see the vague figure no longer there.

Quackity sat in his office, a small chip resting in his hand. He flipped it over in his palm, showing the side of a smiling mask. He launched it into the air with his thumb and watched as it flipped in the air. A jarring knock broke him out of his thoughts as he caught the coin. A man dressed in a green suit walked in the door and Quackity smiled warmly.

 Charlie was usually an oddly happy individual, so the expression on his friend’s subordinates face gave him pause. In spite of this, his tone was the exact same, “Quackity of Las Navadas. I found something.”

“What is it, Charlie?” Quackity’s mind was running through all the scenarios of what could be going wrong at the moment. While it was technically the agency’s problem, telling them of the meeting happening in his casino could cause all sorts of problems. He knew Ender and Red could be in his casino at any time.

With him preferring to know exactly what was happening at all times in his property, it made him rather uncomfortable. Charlie’s next words made him let out a breath of relief, even if he was still tense. “There’s a suspicious lady with red hair. Do I need to get somebody?” Agent Ender had made it inside; he wasn’t sure if knowing made him feel better or worse.

 “It’s alright Charlie, I know who that is,” Quackity said with a sigh. He briefly debated getting a drink, but he knew he’d regret it if he did. Getting tipsy when there was a mission going on inside his casino could turn into a disaster for everyone involved.

“Ok, Quackity of Las Navadas!” Charlie was smiling again like usual as he said this. The mood swing would’ve made most people uncomfortable, but Charlie had been one of his most trusted personnel for several years at this point. He was more than used to the man’s strange behaviors. Charlie walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

 Ranboo let the map of the casino he had studied (that helped less than it should because of his terrible memory) plus TNT’s directions (which honestly helped a lot more) lead him to the table hosting the meeting he was supposed to infiltrate. He knew he found it when he saw several guys sitting around the table talking in hushed voices.

 It was in a slightly more secluded part of the casino, which made it a good spot for a secret meeting if not for him knowing exactly what he was looking for. It was open enough to not be suspicious but secluded enough that you had to actually approach to hear what was being talked about.

A few drinks were set on the table, none of them were untouched. Others were in the men’s hands, occasionally taken a drink from. Despite the obvious drinking that had been done, none of the men looked intoxicated.

He could feel the moment that their eyes landed on him, and he fought back a shiver of disgust. Much to both his relief and dismay, TNT’s voice echoed in his earpiece. “That’s it. Good luck Ender.”           

Chapter Text

He didn’t let his disgust show as he walked up to the table, TNT spoke again. “The glass on the far end belongs to the second in command.” Ranboo couldn’t reply because of his proximity to the targets. From here on out, they had to trust each other to do what they needed to do.

He quietly exhaled as he mentally prepared himself to deal with these people. “I thought you boys seemed like you could use some company.” Due to his voice changer, his voice fit perfectly with his female disguise.

He could hear Red gag from the other side of his earpiece, and he couldn’t help but agree. This was miserable. He sat on the edge of the table, just in arms reach of one of the targets drinks. One of the men trailed their gaze up and down him again and he had to fight from punching the dude in the face.

“I won’t complain.” One of the men said. Ranboo leaned back, it looked like he was just trying to get more comfortable. While that wasn’t technically untrue, he also wanted to be as far away from the man as possible. Despite this, he made sure his movements seemed smooth and relaxed, even if he felt the exact opposite.

“That’s the main guy. Remember, poison the drink, get the leader away so we can take him in.” TNT spoke into his ear. Ranboo let out a small hum, it seemed completely innocent, but it was really a signal that he heard TNT. The men didn’t seem to really care about the harmless gesture.

Red spoke up as well. “I’m also where I need to be. Ready when you are Ender. I’m so glad I don’t have your job right now.” Ranboo almost wished that they could switch spots. Almost. Ranboo had to remind himself several times that he agreed to this, knowing full well what it would involve. That didn’t make it much better.

Tommy listened patiently to the comm. He had to be ready for when Ender finally arrived with the target. “The drink has been poisoned!” TNT reported happily into his ear. “Now he just has to lead the guy away and then we’re home free.”

“I hear you loud and clear TNT, I’m ready for when I’m needed.” Tommy replied, his eyes scanning the hall. It was almost unnerving how empty the hall was compared to the casino. It was perfect for the agency’s purpose.

A single keypad next to an elevator sat at the end of the hallway, likely leading to the second floor. Tommy didn’t really know what you would need a second floor in a casino for if you never let anyone up to it, but then again, he didn’t usually come into casinos. Other than that, the hall didn’t have much in it other than a few doors he already made sure were locked. The hall was probably meant to be an easier way to get to other rooms in the casino without having to deal with the complicated floor plan.

The quiet was suddenly interrupted as a door opened and closed nearby. Tommy swiftly ducked into his hiding spot before carefully glancing back. A man and what looked like a red-haired woman had walked into the hall. “That’s Ender and the second target. You know what to do Red.” TNT’s words just confirmed his suspicions.

As soon as he saw Ender pushed against the wall, he darted out of his hiding spot and jabbed a syringe into the target’s neck. Ender shoved the guy off him immediately. “I hated that, let’s never do it again.”

 Tommy nodded, “Honestly, that had to be horrible. Come on, we’ve to get back to base… oh shit.” One of the goons had walked in and Tommy couldn’t drag Ender and their target over into cover fast enough.

 “Boss we have a problem- what’s going on here?” the man snarled. Tommy and Ender watched him snatch a device from his formal vest and press a button.

 “Shit- that just emitted a distress signal! Get out of there now!” TNT sounded panicked, and the pair could hear the clicking of keyboard keys.

 Several more people filtered into the hall. “I don’t think that’s an option.” Red said into his earpiece. How the man sounded so calm was a mystery to Tubbo. Crow had been watching what was going on and just now spoke.

 “Get out of there in any way possible. We need the target but have them prioritize their safety, there’s always another day.” Crow’s voice was calm but commanding. Tubbo didn’t hesitate to relay his instructions to the agents.

“We’ll see what we can do.” Ender said, his voice tense. Crow disconnected from his earpiece for a moment, the fight already starting. Ender and Red worked together smoothly. There was total trust in their partner to do what needed to be done, that was something that kept agents alive over the years.

A light hum echoed in his earpiece, signaling Crow coming back online. “Agent Luck has turned off power suppressors in that part of the building. They should have access to their abilities in a minute if they can last that long.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened slightly, so that was Agent Luck’s part in the mission. He relayed what Crow said to both Ender and Red. He watched as Ender let his disguise drop, revealing the agent’s true appearance, as well as uncloaking his claws.  He used his claws plus his various weapons effectively.

 The battle ended when Ender finally teleported to the side of the room, right next to the unconscious target. The room seemed to freeze even though Red and all the goons were still in motion.  There were too many minions pouring out of the casino for this to be a simple drug bust, the thought made Tubbo’s brow furrow.   

He didn’t have time to dwell on that however, as Ender teleported twice in quick succession. After he grabbed the arm of the target, he teleported to Red, grabbed him as well, and transported all three out of the building.

Tubbo scanned the cameras until he found where the agents were located. The two stopped to let Ender rest for a moment. He couldn’t teleport too many times in quick succession without serious repercussions. 

“Sir. We… have a problem.” The man had his head bowed as he walked into his superior’s office. The hesitation in his voice only seemed to piss the man off more.

“What?” he snapped, his patience running thin. He still had his back to the man who had walked into his office.

“One of the leaders of our rings was taken earlier this evening, we can’t find him anywhere. The second in command of the same ring was also poisoned, sir.” The man flinched as his superior spun in his chair.

“Useless, all of you. Who took him?” he asked, his tone impatient.

The subordinate flinched again, “We… don’t know sir. All we know was there were likely two agents.”

His superior growled, standing up and slamming a hand on his desk. “Do I look like a joke to you?” The flunky jerkily shook his head. “Good. Find one, take them in. We will find out who has decided to stand against us.”

Two agents sat in their chairs, after the evening they had, they were too tired to care about proper posture. Nobody could really blame them, the mission almost turned into a disaster, but they had saved it anyway.

 Tommy had sat his head down on the table in front of him. Only lifting his head up with a grumble when Crow and TNT walked in. The two wasted no time in sitting down and Crow began to speak, “First off, you both did fantastically on the mission.”

 “What?” Ender asked. Tommy agreed with him, they had almost gotten caught.

“Through no fault of your own, the poison was stronger than it was meant to be, so the second target’s death wasn’t delayed enough for you to get out of there without alerting them. Despite this, you still managed to complete the mission.” Ender nodded in understanding as Crow explained.

“You said first off, what’s the second thing?” Tommy asked, a bit bluntly.

“Second of all,” TNT dug into a bag behind him and handed Crow two objects, Crow slid the two almost identical boxes to both him and Ender. The only way to tell the two boxes apart was that one was purple while the other was a deep red. “These are now yours, be sure not to lose them.” Tommy could hear a smile in the man’s tone.

 He quickly opened the box, only for his jaw to drop open in surprise. A new agent ID sat in the box. The difference to his previous was the small allium symbol taking up half the space. Underneath, it read. “Partner of Agent Ender.” Tommy looked over at Ender, only to see a similar sight but his said, “Partner of Agent Red.”

“No fucking way.” Tommy muttered, glancing quickly up to Crow then to Ender, who had a similar expression to Tommy’s own. (He had gotten rather good at telling the man’s expression even with the mask.) “Seriously?”

 Crow nodded. Tommy turned to Ender. “I’m happy to be permanently working with you.” Tommy didn’t try to keep his sincerity from his tone as he offered a hand for Ender to shake.

 “Same to you Red.” Ender shook his offered hand. “I don’t think anyone is too upset about this development.”

Chapter Text

Tommy was not having a great morning. Sure it was finally the weekend, but he wasn’t enjoying it much. Tubbo with his ridiculous sleep schedule wouldn’t be up for another few hours, so he had no one to distract him from his terrible morning.

The first thing bothering him, was that he hadn’t heard much from the agency since his mission two days earlier. At the same time however, he knew they were trying to clean up after said mission almost fell into disaster. Ender ending up having to use his powers had been unfortunate for a number of reasons.

In order to distract himself, he had decided to head to his favorite bakery in the city. Tubbo might just try to say that it was because the owner, Niki, sometimes gave him free stuff. Even with his friendship with the owner however, he could confidently say that they had the best muffins in the country. Considering he traveled often because of his job, he thought that he had a good idea of good places to get food.

That’s when he arrived at the bakery, finding some random dude scowling at the door made his face sink slightly in disappointment. Just to check, he trudged up to the door, only to huff as his suspicions were confirmed.

‘Owner out for the day!

Sorry for any inconvenience!’

“Damn it Niki.” The man he was now sharing an expression with muttered. The man had curly brown hair, topped of with a maroon beanie.

Now that he actually was looking at the man, he seemed oddly familiar. Large glasses set perched atop his nose and he had a large music case of some kind slung across his back. “You know Niki?” Tommy asked, trying to figure out if he’d met this guy before.

The man turned to him with a furrowed brow, he sounded slightly hesitant, which Tommy found weird as he answered. “Yeah, I’ve been friends with her for a couple of years. What about you?”

He didn’t know about the random guy's own hesitation, but Tommy had a good reason for his. Anything about himself was dangerous to share because of his job. Then again, his friendship with her was a normal civilian, and it wasn’t like he could ignore the guy had asked. So instead, he settled on, “She is the best baker in the,” he only paused for a second, trying to decide if saying ‘country’ was really a good idea. “city, I come here often enough I’d say I know her.”

The man’s brow furrowed over the pause, and just as Tommy thought he was about to comment on it, the sound of footsteps caught both of their attention. Tommy’s head snapped to the side, only for his muscles to relax from where he had reflexively been tensing to protect himself. Only to be greeted by the sight of a smiling Niki running up to them.

Niki stretched with a sigh, she would rather have worked in her bakery today instead of what she had been. Luckily, she was done early. She pulled her pink hair out of the tight ponytail it had been stuck in for most of the morning and set about her way to the bakery. They couldn’t really complain at her if she was already done, so she was going to go do the work she had honestly started to prefer during her time in l’manburg.

She still wouldn’t neglect the entire reason she came here from the Esmp however. So instead of spending her time watching the sunrise as she did her first baking of the morning, she had gone out. Her mind was soon filled with new recipes for her to try, and she smiled.

Niki’s grin only widened as she approached the bakery. She started into a run, both people standing there turned their heads, at the same time and she almost laughed. “Tommy, Wilbur!” She said waving, slowing down as she got closer to the two.

A warmth spread over her as she saw Tommy relax as he saw it was her. The kid always seemed so high strung, so she was happy that she at least was not one of his unspoken stressors.

“I- am a bit of a paranoid person.” Tommy had told her one day after a long night of watching movies and laughing until they were crying. Tommy looked up as though he could see the stars through the roof. “I sometimes look at the world as if waiting for the next thing to go wrong.” He looked a bit sad, and she felt her heart shatter into millions of pieces. Jack was sleeping peacefully on a blow up mattress, unaware of the confessions of a kid that always seemed to think he didn’t do enough even if he always seemed to be dealing with too much.

She saw the moment he second guessed his words and started to doubt himself. His face turned a deep shade of pink. It would have been almost comical if not for the sad words it had come from. “I’m totally uhh… kidding! Yeah, I’m definitely not saying that because I feel sentimental-”

He looked like he was going to continue his rant of self-sabotage, but Niki cut him off. “Tommy-“ His mouth clicked shut, and he averted his gaze from her probably sad expression. “Tommy. It’s alright, I do something similar. On that note, I also like to self-sabotage.” Her joke fell mostly flat, but it still drained some of the tension out of the kids shoulders. She looked up, much like he had a few moments prior. “I always…” She trailed off, her tone completely different from her half joking tone of her previous statement. “feel like my work and family are stuck in a balance that I personally have to keep in check. Not just like a normal ‘work/life’ balance either more like..”

She couldn’t seem to find the words, but Tommy knew and finished for her. “if either one is neglected in the slightest the other will be lost and won’t be able to be recovered?” She nodded. He slumped into her, laying his head on her shoulder. “What are we going to do Niki?” She knew he had secrets, and she knew she had her own. Despite this, she knew the only answer she could give was the right one.

“We’re going to kick life in the face and keep going on. You’re like my little brother Tommy, if you ever need me..” ‘just ask’ went unsaid, but Tommy heard it anyway.

“Thanks Niki… maybe one day I’ll be able to tell you everything.”

“I wish I could tell you everything I have to hide as well.” She whispered, he couldn’t hear her, he was already asleep. The room was dark, nothing had truly changed, but she felt a small weight lift off her shoulders. Maybe, she had been needing to tell someone about her fears, even if it wasn’t a full explanation.

Chapter Text

Niki shook her head to clear it, her grin shifting to something sad for a moment. “You alright Niki?” Wilbur asked, he had always been oddly observant, much like Tommy if she actually thought about it.

“Yeah just…. thinking about something that happened a while back.” She gave Tommy a meaningful look. His concerned gaze shifted into something softer. She thought about it often, and she knew he did as well. They didn’t have to say it to talk about it. “Well,” she suddenly said, shifting the topic. “What are you both doing here? I enjoy your guys’ company, don‘t get me wrong, but you usually need something if you come randomly.”

Tommy shrugged. “Shitty morning, and I don’t have anything to do. Besides, can't I come see my favorite bakery owner?”

Niki chuckled in response. “Yeah, fair enough. What about Tubbo though?” Tommy raised an eyebrow, simply pointing at the clock inside the bakery, since the clock was in view of the window. “What are you- right.” She ran a tired hand down her face. “That kid wouldn’t get a normal sleep schedule if he was paid to do it.”

Tommy snorted in amusement, “no, he definitely wouldn’t.”

 Wilbur glanced between the two, a confused expression on his face. “Am I missing something here?”

Niki clapped once with an enthusiastic grin, “Right! Wilbur this is Tommy. Tommy, Wilbur.” She gestured to each of her friends in turn as she introduced them to each other.

While Wilbur was smiling, his thoughts were slightly less friendly. He already didn’t like the kid. There was too much off. Rigidly controlled body language. “As Niki said, I’m Wilbur.” He offered out his hand for Tommy to shake. Eyes constantly scanning his surroundings, something wasn’t right.

“Tommy, as she said.” Tommy shook his hand, and Wilbur could feel scar lines, feint, but they were there. “It’s nice to meet you Wilbur.”

Wilbur saw Niki’s grin falter at the now tense atmosphere. The uncomfortable air was shattered however as an enthusiastic Jack walked up to them. “Hey Niki! I thought that you were… going to be out today. Ayup Tommy.”

“Ayup Jack aka the only bald person I tolerate.” Tommy said, grinning. Wilbur snorted, maybe he wasn’t as bad as Wilbur had thought.

Jack rolled his eyes in response to the teen’s jab before turning to Niki. “Ignoring the child-” Jack suddenly cut himself off with a yelp as Tommy took a running leap towards the man. Jack almost toppled over as Tommy landed on Jack’s back, wrapping his arms around the man’s neck. Tommy was grinning from ear to ear, and Wilbur couldn’t help but match his expression. Niki was trying and failing to hide her snickering. “God damnit Tommy.” Jack muttered, just barely loud enough for them to hear.

Instead of letting the kid drop to the ground, Jack grabbed him. Tommy got himself situated, and for the next few minutes at lest, it seemed like Tommy was content to stay on his new perch.

Eventually, they had gone inside the bakery, instead of acting like idiots outside. Jack unceremoniously dumped Tommy on one of the couches before sitting down himself. The indignant squawk the action earned from Tommy was rather amusing in Jack’s opinion.

Niki had made some kind of blackberry pastry for them to enjoy, and Jack thanked his friend with a happy grin, something copied by the rest of the group. Some time later, Tommy looked up at the clock and let out a slightly disappointed sigh. “I’ve got to go, I’m meeting with Ranboo later. Tubbo is coming as well which means I have to drag him out of bed.”

Wilbur looked at the clock in confusion before asking, “It’s one in the afternoon? Is he not up  by now?”

Jack snorted and answered for the teen, who was busy trying to get up from the couch that he had sunk into. “Tubbo goes to bed and gets up at… weird hours. As in, he usually gets up around 3 in the afternoon.”

After Tommy had successfully gotten up from the couch aptly nicknamed ‘the man eater’, he said his goodbyes, and walked out of the bakery. He had been tense since the mission a few days before, and was grateful for the chance to fully relax.

Well, not fully. He was always aware of what was happening around him. Which is why when the hair on the back of his neck began to stand on end, and a dark shadow flitted quickly through a nearby alley, he was immediately on high alert.

He kept his walking pattern smooth and unbothered looking, even while he swept his gaze through the streets and the dark corners of alleys. He reminded himself of all the various knives he kept hidden on his person at all times. He didn’t really need to, he put them in the same selection of places every time, but it did calm his heart down from where it had started to race. Hybrids often had enhanced senses of one kind or another, if whoever was watching him was a hybrid, tipping them off he knew they were there was not something he wanted. The element of surprise had saved his life more times than he could really be bothered to count.

He knew the moment something changed. Before a fight, there was always the worry, the hesitation. In the middle of it however…….. a deadly calm washed over him. Every sense sharpened, and he didn’t hesitate to act. The alley he had been walking past came alive with activity. A power of some kind or another yanked him into it, and that started a struggle to get away from whatever was going on.

It wasn’t a normal mugging, several factors told him that. Too well trained, nice equipment, literally uniforms. He didn’t freeze for one moment as he danced around the people evidently sent to capture him.

Lights suddenly exploded in his vision, electricity forcefully weaving through his body. He gasped in pain, freezing for a single precious moment. A sharp sting greeted his neck. He struggled against the weight trying to pull his mind down.

His stomach filled with dread, and he did the last thing he could before unconsciousness overtook him. He crushed the small device hidden in his pocket. A distress signal was sent to the base. “We got him sir.” That was the last thing he heard before the world went black.

Ranboo grinned in both excitement and surprise. “Tubbo, how are you on time?”

His friend shrugged, “Tommy bet me that I would be late to our meetup today so I showed up on time purely out of spite.” He was snickering slightly as he spoke, but he seemed to realize what was wrong the same moment Ranboo did. “Speaking of, where is Tommy? He’s never late.”

“I don’t kn-” Ranboo was cut off as his phone began to ring. He sighed fishing it out of his pocket, only to freeze as he saw the word at the very top of the screen. “Sorry Bee, I’ve got to take this.”

He walked a short distance away, keeping his voice as low as possible as he finally answered the call from ‘work’. With another glance around to make sure no one was listening, plus activating a transparent voice muffler, he said into the phone. “Ender speaking.”

“Hello Ender, we have a problem. It’s Red.”

The next words out of Crow’s mouth made him freeze. His ears started to ring slightly. He felt the sound muffling effect shatter as Tubbo approached. “Ranboo?” His friend asked hesitantly. Ranboo didn’t really hear him, the sound of a phone shattering on the ground was the next thing that broke the silence. Tubbo flinched back slightly as he saw the expression on Ranboo’s face. Pure, unadulterated horror mixed with anger.

‘He sent out a distress signal randomly, and now we can’t find him anywhere. We sent agents to where it came from but found nothing.’ Crows words repeated over and over in his head.

Chapter Text

“Ran-” Tubbo reached out hesitantly. He was heavily concerned about his friend. Ranboo was trembling, and he didn’t even react as his phone screen shattered against the ground.

“Tubbo-” He cut himself off. “I- I have to go. Now.” Ranboo took off running, pulling off a speed Tubbo didn’t even know he possessed.

Tubbo started running as well, trying to catch up to his friend. He wasn’t a field agent, but he had been trained for worst case scenarios.  He skidded to a stop, cursing as his phone rang. ‘Math tutoring’ sat at the top of the screen. He glanced desperately from where his friend had ran around the corner and the call waiting to be answered. He pressed it to his ear as he pressed accept. “Hey, I’m a bit busy right now.” Code for both ‘I can’t speak freely’ and not a code at all, just that he’s busy.

“Which is it?” The voice on the other end asked. Tubbo had learned to know how people were feeling based of their tone. She sounded oddly stressed, and like all her nerves were fried. She sounded like an agent that had just gotten out of a battle, which didn’t make sense since he knew for a fact none of the contactors went into the field.

“Both.” He snapped. He did feel a bit bad about snarling at the poor woman, but he was too worried to reign in his tone.

“Alright well, you’re needed back at base. Now. Agent Red is missing.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened, his concerns about Ranboo having to be pushed to the side for the moment. “Shit, I’m on my way.”

Tubbo borderline ran into base. He barely took the time to get into full gear before getting there as soon as possible. The ride through the elevator was excruciating slow. When he stepped out, he was greeted with the sight of a pacing Ender. This didn’t help Tubbo’s nerves. Ender was almost always calm and collected, never giving anything away.

The elevator ding must have alerted Ender of his arrival, his head whipping up from where he had been staring at the floor. His pacing slowed as he said, “TNT. You got the call to?” Tubbo nodded, Ender immediately resumed his pacing.

“This isn’t good.” Tubbo muttered.

“You fucking think!?” Ender snarled, throwing his hands up as he stopped in place. Tubbo flinched, once again feeling a bit bad that he had used a similar tone on the woman earlier. He hoped whatever had gotten Ranboo worked up wasn’t too bad, with an agent missing, it would be all hands-on deck and he wouldn't be able to have time to check on his best friend. “Sorry, you didn’t deserve that.” Ender muttered, he ran a hand down his face, careful not to let his mask move.

Tubbo was about to reply, only for the door to open. Crow was lacking his usual professional air. He seemed more stressed than anything else.  “Ender, TNT. Come on.” They both followed him with only a moment of hesitation.

He expected them to go to the usual meeting room, and both him and Ender almost stopping as they reached the door. Only for Crow to keep walking. They continued to walk down the hallway, arriving in front of another elevator. Tubbo realized what was happening before Ender. He froze in place.

Ender followed Crow into the elevator. Ender tilted his head in confusion when he saw Tubbo still standing in place a few feet from the elevator. “TNT?” He asked.

Tubbo ignored him in favor of staring at Crow. “Is this what I think it is?”

Crow nodded. “It’s still your choice. I am not going to force you.” Tubbo smiled, and walked in.

As the door closed behind him, Ender asked, “am I missing something here? I thought that was the last floor, why is there another elevator?”

“I promise to give the full explanation when we’re there mate. To answer your second question, there’s another floor that is only visited in specific circumstances.” Crow said, not really dodging the question, but choosing specifically not to answer it. This seemed to satisfy Ender for now, even if he still seemed antsy about not having an answer.

As they reached a certain level, several of Tubbo’s devices started beeping before shutting off entirely. All devices entering the floor were rendered completely unusable while they were there. Tubbo’s heart pounded in his ears as they finally reached their destination and stepped out.

They entered the closest room and sat down. “As-” Crow started as they were all seated before stopping to collect his thoughts. “You both have been made aware, Agent Red has gone missing.”

Ender was clearly wanting to jump out of his seat and go find his missing partner, and Tubbo didn’t blame him. Red and Ender were always oddly close with each other for agent standards. Even if no one said anything, everyone noticed the agents’ borderline friendship. Now Red was missing, and Ender was not happy about it. “That doesn’t answer why we’re all the way down here.” Ender said, his patience was apparently snapping with the reminder.

“We are going to do everything in our power to find him. That, is going to include you two working together quite closely. We were planning to do this with Agent Red as well, but circumstances don’t allow us to at the moment.”

Ender just looked more confused, “What are you ta-”he cut himself off as his eyes widened in understanding. He glanced quickly between Crow and Tubbo. “Are you saying what I think you are?”

“Once an agent reaches a certain point, they learn the identity of some parts of the important personnel. Since you two will have to work closely together for this, we are going to do it now instead of waiting.” Crow paused, taking a deep breath. “However, this is not required. Neither of you are going to be forced to reveal your identities to each other. What are your decisions?”

Tubbo looked at Ender, and smiled. “I trust you.” Before turning to Crow. “I’ll do it.”

Ender hesitated, apparently weighing his options in his mind. His shoulders tensed, then untensed. Ender looked to Crow with a determined expression. “I’ll do it, sir.”

Crow nodded, “Whenever you two are ready.” He said, “I already know your identities obviously, but in order for you both to be more comfortable, would you like me to leave?” His tone was patient, and he was actually giving them the option.

Ender nodded. Crow pushed himself to his feet. He opened and closed the door behind him as he walked out. Tubbo let out a shaky breath, he had done this before with other high-ranking agents, but that didn’t make the process any less nerve racking. “You ready?” He knew for a fact Ender hadn’t revealed his identity before, and the first time was always the worst.

“Yeah, I think so. Same time?” Ender’s voice shook. It was almost shocking. Ender was always calm and collected. Tubbo didn’t let his thought distract him, he nodded in response to the agent’s question. He grabbed the mask covering the bottom half of his face, Ender copying the action. “Three, two-“ He paused letting out one more shaky breath.

“One.” They both pulled their masks down along with their voice changers as Ender finished the count down.

Only for both of them to freeze.

Chapter Text

“Ranboo!?”

“Tubbo!?”

They both spoke at the same time. “Why does it all make sense now? The weird excuses, the terrible sleep schedule…. wait, aren’t you failing most of your classes?” Ranboo said, glancing up at him from where he had looked at the floor, likely trying to comprehend what he was seeing. Tubbo had a similar reaction to his friend, but instead he was just staring at Ranboo in shock.

Then they both started laughing, it was slightly hysterical, more of a ‘oh fuck, we’re screwed aren’t we’ than anything else, but a laugh nonetheless. Once he finally caught his breath, Tubbo said, “you just found out your best friend was a secret agent and the first thing you ask is about my grades?”

So they sat and talked, until the air was clear. Eventually, Crow knocked before walking in. “Are both of you situated?” He received two nods in response, Tubbo and Ranboo sharing a look. “Alright. Now, we have to figure out how to find Agent Red."

Tommy didn’t know how long he had been out for, only that he woke up in a pitch-black room, with a pounding headache. “Oh prime, damn it” He groaned. He pulled his hand to hold his aching head, only for his arm to move a few inches with the sound of a rattling chain before stopping. “What the hell-”

A door swung open on the opposite side of the room swung open. Light flooded the large room. After Tommy’s eyes had begun adjusting to the previous darkness, the light was harsh. He squeezed his eyes shut with a hiss, once again trying to use his arms only to find them bound.

“Finally awake, are we?” A voice said as they entered the room. Tommy forced his eyes open to look at the figure. He had to blink spots away from his vision, but eventually his vision was clear enough to make out his surroundings.

The door had shut behind the man, but apparently lights had been turned on. The room was large and rather plain. The concrete walls almost reminded him of a prison cell. The thought awoke his brain completely. His eyes darted about the room, trying to find anything that would help him as he thrashed in his restraints.

The only thing in the room other than him and the strange man was a table tucked into the far corner. Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK- was repeated in his head. He couldn’t see what was on the table, but he could gather from context.

“I see you realize your situation.” The man said, sounding almost vaguely amused at Tommy’s struggling. A simple white mask with a simple black painted smiley face covered the man’s identity. The Esmp was not what it seemed, that much Tommy knew. While the country was publicly governed by king Eret, it was suspected he wasn’t the one really pulling the strings.

“All we need to know, is who your accomplices are. Then you’re free to go! You little bugs have prevented L’manburg’s destruction too long. It is rightfully mine, it split from us, thinking it could stand alone, that is your all's mistake. I don’t want to resort to… less savory methods, but I’ll do anything for the good of my country.” He approached the table as he spoke.

Niki had the unmistakable feeling that something was wrong. Jack watched her with concern as she paced. She had very little to base her bad feeling on, other than Ranboo and Tubbo acting off since the evening before.

All of her nerves were begging her to go but she didn’t know where. Her phone started to ring, and she forced her emotions down as she saw who was calling. Jack saw the signs and tensed as he stood up. She nodded, confirming his unspoken thought.

She pressed accept, and the call connected. “Huntress? Orders from the top.” She wasn’t surprised, there was only one person she answered to professionally. “You are being called to base. Your partner will have to stay wherever you both are staying for the moment.”

“I’ll be there.”

“You have two hours to arrive.”

Eventually, the man stopped talking. “So, will you give me the answers I need?” He didn’t look at Tommy, examining something he had picked up from the table. Tommy glared, staying silent. “This would be much easier if you cooperated you know.” The man sounded bored. Tommy’s decision didn’t change.

The man sighed, and it began. The chains around Tommy’s abruptly pulled up, raising him a foot off the ground by his arms alone. He held back a grunt of pain. The restraints on his ankles lifting with him. He was left almost completely immobile.

The man approached first with something simple. A small blade rested comfortably in the man’s hand. The dagger was pressed into his throat, just enough to draw a small line of blood. “The name’s Dream. What’s yours?”

“Y-” he spoke through gritted teeth, a smirk playing over his lips. “Your mom, asshole.” It turned out Dream didn’t like his response very much, the dagger flashed down, and a blood red line dug down from his left collar bone to right over his heart. He refused to let out any noise and give Dream the satisfaction, but he still let out a small hiss of pain. The wound wasn’t fatal in any way, but it hurt.

“You’ll break eventually. Trust me, this hurts me more than it does you.” Dream hissed, like a parent punishing a misbehaving child and not torturing someone. He walked back to the table and picked up a cloth. The sound of sloshing water hit his ears, water boarding. His mind supplied helpfully.

Then he repeated that thought, his struggling increased tenfold, but it was useless. He was chained to the wall, and there was no escape in sight.

Chapter Text

When Niki arrived at base two hours later, she didn’t arrive as the sweet bakery owner. She arrived as the Huntress, the single best agent from the Esmp. If you ever got close enough to see the elaborate purple masquerade mask that covered her identity, you were either an ally, friend, or about to die.

She affixed the mask over her face right before she walked in. The people at the base knew who she was, anyone in the business on the side of the Esmp did. They bowed their heads at her approach and respectfully got out of the way. Her long pink hair was shoved into a tight ponytail, swaying behind her as she strode towards Dream’s office.

She knocked lightly on the door. “Huntress?” His voice called out.

“Yes sir. Do I have permission to enter, sir?” She asked. She rolled her shoulders as she received confirmation and walked into the office, closing the door behind her. Dream didn’t stand as she walked in, the owner of a country didn’t stand for anyone but an equal, and he definitely didn’t see her as one. Even if she could kill someone faster than they could blink. He did gesture for her to sit across from him. She took his invitation, shifting in the seat until she was comfortable.

“As our best agent, and the fact of your infiltration on L’manburg, I have an update that could be key to the success of your mission.” He slid a folder over to her. It wasn’t yet open, and she didn’t touch it for the moment. “As you already know, one of our information gathering rings was busted last week. We managed to capture one of the Agents responsible.”

Hey eyes widened in surprise. From what she had managed to gather, the L’manburg government was always discreet and careful in how they handled business. They wouldn’t have sent just anyone after the ‘drug ring’. Dream continued after letting her process the new information, “That folder has everything we were able to gather about the agent. We have already started the… interrogation process. The list of people that know his identity is included in his file in case there is a leak.”

Niki fought back the urge to wrinkle her nose. Interrogation was a nice word for they had already started torturing him for information. Her gaze flickered to the man in front of her. The two-hour delay made sense now, Dream would’ve wanted to do that kind of thing for something this big personally. That explained his oddly good mood at the moment.

“Of course, sir.” She said, instead of voicing her disgust at the preferred method. He nodded at the file she had laid her hands on. She took that as her cue to open it. The first words on the page made her blood run colder than ice.

Civilian name: Tommy Underscore Innit

Agent Name: ???

Her eyes scanned through the file. She was barely actually reading it, not that Dream seemed to notice. She hated how the pieces were lining up in her head. The random bruises, weird excuses, suddenly unavailable at random times, his weird sleep schedule. It all added up, and the thought caused dread to fill her stomach.

She found what she was looking for. All the information they had gathered that pointed to Tommy her little brother Tommy, was a secret agent for the Esmp’s worst enemy. All the list did was confirm her fears more. Her emotions were a mess. So she locked them down. “Anything else sir?” She asked, her tone gave away nothing that was brewing under the lock of her emotions.

“No, you are dismissed Huntress, you will be called when he breaks and gives what we need to know.” Niki nodded, standing up, turning on her heel, and walking out the door. Even though she had locked down all feeling, she felt nauseous.

As soon as she got a good way away from the underground base, she started running. She didn’t stop until she slammed through the door of what was temporarily her house. Jack ran into the living room, alerted by the commotion of a slightly hysterical staggering Niki.

“Woah woah woah woah. What happened!?” He asked concern lacing his tone as he walked and supported from where she was standing in the middle of the room. She looked at him, her eyes haunted.

The first thing Niki felt when she stopped suppressing her emotions, was a wave of betrayal. That was a bit of an important thing to hide! Following that was understanding. She had the same thing from him, even if it was from the other side.

They had finally moved to the couch instead of standing in the middle of their living room. Jack seemed just as horrified as she explained the situation. Her head fell into her hands in defeat. “I don’t know what to fucking do Jack.”

Jack sighed with a shaky breath. “Do you love him as a brother? I sure do.”

Her still broken expression softened slightly as she grew more confused, she picked up her head and stared at her friend, answering without hesitation once she comprehended how stupid of a question that was. “Of course, but-”

He cut her off as he raised one finger into the air. He looked at her sadly. “Do we ever leave family behind?”

Her expression hardened as she realized what her friend was saying, “that- would be treason Jack.” Her expression hadn’t hardened because it was treason however, it had hardened because she had made her decision.

Jack knew this as well. “It would, but we don’t leave those we love.”

She nodded, “We’re getting him out of there, no matter what.”

Chapter Text

Day after day, they were no closer to finding a good way to get him out. It had now been a month, and Niki was getting increasingly agitated. Jack wasn’t doing much better, desperate planning, trying to keep up their civilian identities, he was being stretched to his limits just as badly as Niki was. By the 3^rd day, she had stopped going to the bakery, leaving it for either Jack to handle, or just be closed.

On the 4^th day, Ranboo and Tubbo called her, trying to find out if she’d seen Tommy.

Niki desperately paced the length of the room, sometimes stopping to look at the map of the facility before beginning again. Not for the first time, Jack was leaning against the door frame from the kitchen. He had been having to remind her to eat. Not that Niki was making it easy for him, the only way he convinced her to was because she had to keep up her strength for when they had a working plan.

She nearly chucked her phone across the room as it started to ring. She snatched it up from the table, intending to do just that, only to pause as she saw the name displayed on the screen. She almost cried when she saw the word ‘Ranboo’. “Niki?” Jack said, coming towards her. Probably concerned because she looked damn close to tears, stopping in place.

She didn’t trust herself to speak at the moment, so she shoved her phone into his hands. His expression morphed into one of dread. She felt him tremble from where he was now leaning against her. His hands were shaking as he pressed the accept button, immediately putting the phone on speaker.

Ranboo sounded tired, and almost just as stressed as she felt. “Hey Niki. Have you seen Tommy?”

Niki had to stop a sob from leaving her throat. Jack answered for her, “Hey Ranboo, I’ve got Niki’s phone at the moment. We… haven’t heard from him either.” He looked like he wanted to tell the teen everything, but both of them knew they couldn’t. Telling Ranboo would just drag one more person into this mess, and an innocent teen didn’t deserve that.

“Nobody we’ve asked has either,” Ranboo muttered, “thanks anyway” As he hung up, Niki burst into tears.

That hadn’t been a good day, not that any since the news had been. Now, the day she had learned her brother was a secret agent was a month past, and her entire life had gone off the rails since then. Despite Jack’s constant reminders to take care of her health, she had begun to get thinner, and the bags under her eyes were another testament to her negligence to herself. 

At 2:57 in the morning, she suddenly slammed her hands against the table with the facility’s map. “I found it!” She screamed. Jack came stumbling in.

Tommy had given up the prospect of escape eventually. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he stopped bothering to pull at his chains. Every little while, they would shove some kind of food in his mouth, leaving him to either swallow or die. He had no appetite despite the fact they only fed him what he estimated to be every few days, the blood that had begun to paint the nearby areas of the room was effective at doing that.

Dream didn’t seem amused by his lack of reaction. “Well agent, you ready to tell me what I need to know? You’ve obviously given up.” Tommy just picked his head up and glared at the man. He didn’t say anything, refusing to give the man any satisfaction.

Dream grabbed another dagger, smaller than any of the others he had used so far. He pressed a button that was on the table, and Tommy felt more cold metal coming out of the wall to now hold his shoulders firmly to the wall, taking away the last bit of mobility he had. He struggled against them, but not much. He had almost no strength left after he didn’t even know how long.

Dream approached with a small knife. It was smaller than all the others the man had used so far. The next words the man spoke caused Tommy to feel nauseous, and he once again started thrashing, not that it was much use, the metal bands around his shoulders kept him firmly in place.

“Once you own something, you should put your name on it right?”

The woman strode up to the unassuming building. A simple white smiling mask covered her face. She was not all that concerned that she was walking into a government building. As she walked in and approached the elevator, a short brown haired teen approached her, gun in hand. If not for her specific.. privileges, she wouldn’t know it was a teen, he was wearing a gas mask like covering that hid the bottom half of his face. “What are you doing?” He snarled.

She smoothed her dress, an ornate green necklace hung around her neck. “I’m entering the building, what else?”

“What building is that?”

“Well, agents have their bases do they not?”

He leveled his gun at her, “we have no agents that look like you, what are you doing here and how do you know about this?”

He didn’t see it, but she smiled under the mask obscuring her features. “I’m well aware. The reason I’m here, however, is I know where your missing person is.” The man pointing a gun at her froze.

She sat in an interrogation room, deep underground. She had her hands folded neatly in front of her, right beside where she had laid down her mask. She kept her posture straight, giving off a aura of confidence.

She refrained from letting her wings spread out behind her. She had hid them to avoid drawing attention on the streets and showing them now meant showing these people she had more abilities than she let on, would be counter-productive, since their suspicion would increase ten-fold.

A man walked into the room, sitting on the other side of the table. Two more people walked in after him, one being the brown haired teen she had met earlier and the other being a tall teen with black and white hair. They were all wearing masks of one kind or another, but her mind supplied their names helpfully anyway.

Crow : Philza

Ranboo: Ender

Tubbo: TNT

She refrained from addressing them however, no normal person would know who these agents were, much less their real names. Crow got right to the point, “Who are you, and what do you mean you know where our missing agent is?”

“My name is Drista. To answer your second question, I mean I know where he is, and how to get him out.”

Chapter Text

The agents in front of her seemed like they were about to reply, only for time to start to slow. She sighed as the three stopped moving altogether. “What are you doing Artia?”

“You’re not the only one who interacts with mortals XD.” Her wings fanned out behind her as she stood up, turning to face the god she once considered her brother. Three pairs of brilliant white wings were spread out threateningly behind him, she had always found one to be more elegant than three. “Besides, you know I’m fond of that one.” She kept her tone as a borderline snarl instead of a full one.

“I own this world Artia, find one of your own to watch.” He didn’t keep his disdain out of his voice like she had.

“You may own this world XD, but I have my own interests to pursue, much like you do with your ‘entertainment’.” She hadn’t bothered to put her mask back on before turning to face him, meaning he saw her sneer.

He scoffed in response. “That’s different and you know it Drista.”

“Don’t you fucking dare call me that XD, you lost the privilege to call me by my actual name long ago. Leave, go play with another mortal, but leave me to my own work.” She snarled, the ends of her blond hair turning a bright green as her magic swirled dangerously around her.

She saw something that looked suspiciously like regret wash over XD’s face, but it was gone in seconds. “Fine.” He spat, disappearing. Luckily, she had grabbed hold of the timeline, so time didn’t resume as he disappeared.

She let out her anger in a shaky breath. Gods and goddesses didn’t need to breath, but it was a habit that had always calmed her down, even though her mortality was long behind her. She lowered herself back to the floor, her hair turning back to a normal blond.

Drista folded her wings back in before having them disappear from sight. She let go of the timeline, the world lurching back into motion.

Ranboo felt slightly dizzy suddenly, but the effect disappeared after a moment, and he turned his attention back to the woman sitting in front of him. “How do you know where he is? Or if your even correct?” He said. While he was grasping for any straws of hope he could find, a dead end would be worse.

“I’m afraid I can’t answer your first question, but I am 100% sure of where he is.” She looked to the side as she spoke, like the wall was the most interesting thing she had seen all day. Ranboo looked about ready to snap, but Phil held up a hand to forestall him.

“Drista?” She nodded. “Oh fucking hell- how did I not recognize you beforehand?”

She shrugged, “You haven’t visited Kristen in a while, and I usually look less fancy than I do now.” Ranboo glanced in confusion between his boss and the strange woman.

“Fair enough.” Crow said with a shrug, before turning to him and Tubbo. Even a month later Ranboo was still trying to comprehend the fact that his best friend was TNT. “She’s trustworthy. I knew her a while back.”

Ranboo wasn’t entirely happy with this, but accepted it nonetheless. “No tricks?” Crow said.

“Not this time no,” She then said something that he didn’t understand. Crow seemed to however, as he raised any eyebrow in response.

While Phil couldn’t speak the language of the gods, he could understand it. A rough translation of what Drista said was ‘I am fond of that mortal, I don’t make jokes about the health of the ones I watch’. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged.

“Well then, let’s get this over with Drista. What do you have for us?” She didn’t answer his question however, she answered what he was actually asking. ‘What are you willing to give us?’

“All of it.” She replied, grabbing an envelope from out of the table. It was actually out of this air but no one was really looking where she got it from if she grabbed it from under the table. She handed it to him. “A facility map and coordinates. Use them well. I will tell Kristen you said hello.”

Phil’s face turned red enough she could see it despite his mask. “Please do.” He paused for a second, regaining his composure. “I trust you can make your own way out Drista?”

She gasped in mock offence, “You are a terrible host, Crow!” He didn’t fail to notice how she paused before saying his professional name, and he gave her a small look of gratitude.

“And you know the way out.” He said. She smiled in return and walked swiftly out of the room. He noticed the two agents beside him giving him a weird look. He wasn’t all that surprised, all they had seen was him professional or recently, stressed. “I have known her for several years.”

The agents shared a look, one that Phil couldn’t decipher, before Ranboo shook his head at Tubbo. Phil opened the envelope carefully, both Ranboo and Tubbo got up to look over his shoulder, getting a better look at it than if they stayed in their seats beside him.

It included what Drista said it would. A complete map of where they were holding Agent Red AKA Tommy, and the exact coordinates of the entrance.

Several agents were sent on the mission, Ranboo included. His only job however, was to get Agent Red out, and get back to base alive with both him and his partner. Tubbo was working over time behind the scenes, keeping everyone organized.

They knew that the Esmp had spies hidden in L’manburg, but an entire government base was more than they thought. The alarm triggered, a loud sound ringing out into the night. “Uhhh.” Tubbo said, Ranboo’s nerves immediately shot through the roof. “That wasn’t us.”

Crow’s voice sounded next, “We were going to trigger the alarms anyway, plan hasn’t changed, just be more careful everyone.”

Chapter Text

Niki let out a shaky breath. This was it, either they got Tommy out now, or be sentenced to death for treason. Her and Jack were crouched just outside the facility. Jack laid a hand on her shoulder, and she nodded. The plan was for her to break in and get him out while Jack made sure no alarms were triggered. And if they were, well… they had both killed before.

She hopped from her perch and snuck into the building. She stuck to the shadows, guard routes and schedules long since memorized. She knew the building like the back of her hand. Her guns sat at her waist. She tapped her ear piece as she reached one of the ‘safe locations’ basically, an area that no one ever came into and they could communicate, if quietly.

“I’m in safe location number one on my end. Is everything going smoothly on your end Alpine?” She asked, wary of how loud her voice could get. Alpine was Jack’s ‘professional’ name, aptly for his snow powers.

“Good so far- SHIT!” That was the last thing she heard before the alarms started. “They saw me! GO!”

Abandoning all stealth, she burst into the security office. She wasted no time shooting the man still in the process of standing up. She rushed up to the desk, looking though the papers as fast as she could. “Found it!” He was located in ‘interrogation’ room 13. The thought still made bile rise in her throat.

She had long since memorized the layout of the facility, and the torture rooms weren’t too far from her current position. That had been done on purpose, if the security rooms were closeby, they could prevent anyone from breaking the prisoners out, but now it worked in her favor. “13, sector 4.” She informed Alpine.

“Go ahead, I’ll be there as soon as possible.” He replied. The sound of gunfire from his end reached her ears, but she had to trust her friend to be alright, he wasn’t number two and her partner for no reason. They had both been picked for skill and loyalty, and she was loyal, but to her family first. She rushed out of the room, and into sector 4. The entire facility was a maze, luckily one she was familiar with. When Dream found out, and she knew he would, maybe he would regret that he made her memorize the facility.

Ranboo teleported around. They had been told exactly where Agent Red was, and all he had to do was find the actual room. Eventually, he came to the door, the number 13 displayed proudly above it. His chest was heaving, and he felt a bit lightheaded after the near constant teleporting, the pure adrenaline was doing him more favors than he could count, but he knew he’d pay the price for that later. “I found it!” He shouted into his earpiece. He wasted no time in breaking down the door.

The first thing he saw was the blood. It was everywhere. On the floor near the man chained to the wall, on the wall around Agent Red. Everything near the agent was coated in a sheet of red. Then was the actual agent. Flakes of dried crimson mixed with still wet blood. He was literally hanging on the wall, like some kind of sick decoration.

He crossed the room swiftly, only for bile to rise in his throat as he saw what was now carved into the man’s shoulder. A simple smiley face, still crying bloody tears. “What the hell.” At the sound of his face, agent Red’s head snapped up. The action sent another wave of… something through Ranboo. Dread? Greif? Betrayal? Relief? He didn’t know. All he could see was that someone who was both his friend and partner was chained to the wall. Tommy… was Agent Red, and he been being tortured for weeks.

The blond teen didn’t seem to recognize Ranboo. Tommy thrashed in his restraints. “No! Not again! Leave me alone!” He screamed. His eyes were open, but they were glazed over.

Ranboo didn’t see a way to undo the restraints still attached to his friend, until his eyes landed on the table near the door. A small control panel sat right above it on the wall. He teleported, not wanting to waste any time at all.

A big red ‘RELEASE’ button sat in the middle, and Ranboo slammed his hand down on it. The sound of metal scraping against metal filled the air, and a thump came right after. Ranboo teleported back over, supporting his friend.

Tommy struggled against his hold. Ranboo made the abrupt decision to rip his mask, and subsequently his voice changer, off. “Tommy!” He said loudly.

The struggling stopped immediately. A spark of recognition gleamed in Tommy’s eyes. “R-” He coughed, the action causing blood to splatter onto Ranboo’s shoulder. “Ranboob?” He asked, as if afraid of the answer.

“I’m here Tommy. Don’t worry. Now let’s get you out of here.” Ranboo said gently, letting go of his friend.

“What’s going on? How-” Tommy asked, but Ranboo cut him off.

“Tommy. Not right now. Everything will be explained at base, can you get on my back?”

Tommy nodded in response. “I- think I can do that.” Ranboo let his friend out of the hug and turned around. Tommy wasted no time in grabbing on, and Ranboo stood back up.

Ranboo tapped his earpiece. “I got him!” Sighs of relief could be heard from all the agents connected to him at that moment. “I don’t think he’ll be able to handle a teleport he’s-” Ranboo’s gaze unwilling ran across the blood coating everything, including the bloody footprints leading to the door. “Pretty roughed up.” Ranboo finished his statement with a shaky breath.

“Alright, we’ll cover you, just get both of you out of there.” Crow said, then started barking orders. Ranboo shoved his mask back up. All his nerves felt like they were on fire, even while ice ran through his veins.

He began to walk to the door, only for someone to step into view. With the well-lit room, he could see exactly who it was. The Esmp’s deadliest agent. Feared across the world. No one could find anything on her, but she was feared by everyone that knew anything of the behind work of governments.

“Put. Him. Down.” The Huntress growled. An elaborate masquerade mask covered the top half of her face. Her gun was steady as she aimed it at his head.

Chapter Text

“I’m not going to do that.” Ranboo growled in response. He knew he was in a dangerous situation. This was not someone he could dance around and be out, and with Tommy on his back he couldn’t teleport without hurting his friend. He knew any movement would likely get him, or worse, Tommy, shot. Meaning he couldn’t use his earpiece to call for backup.

It seemed he didn’t need to, however. TNT’s voice asked, “What’s going on? Do you need help?” There was not a moment that Ranboo could thank years of experience more. He couldn’t reply so he went for the next best choice.

“Put him down or lose your life. Your choice.” She said. Her gun was still steady as she aimed it at his head. No body in that room was innocent, and it showed.

His hand inched for his gun still at his waist. “The only one going to die here is you, Huntress.” He aimed his now free gun at her, his hand just as steady as hers. If he could stall long enough, someone would come looking for him.

TNT sounded panicked as he spoke again. “Oh shit- Ender needs help now! Huntress found him and Red. Someone needs to go help him immediately!” He addressed Ranboo again. “Just hold on a bit longer. Help is on the way.”

Her gaze darted from him to Tommy, and she visibly grit her teeth. Her hand flew to the side, and she fired a shot into the wall. “I’m not kidding, my gun still has ammo asshole.” She said as she trained it back on him.

That was… interesting. Was she ordered not to hurt Tommy? He could use that. “I didn’t know the Esmp doesn’t let it’s people shoot the person it was already torturing.” Huntress froze. Ranboo used the chance to try to get passed her, only for someone else appearing in the doorway, a wall of ice pushing him back.

As the figure stepped forward into view they looked like they were going to attack Ranboo again, but Huntress held up a hand. “You aren’t with Dream?” She asked, her tone slightly less hostile and more confused.

“Who the fuck is Dream?” Ranboo spat. “Your boss? We knew king Eret wasn’t all there was.” Huntress’s eyes widened, and she shared a look with Alpine.

“There’s L’manburg agents crawling all over the facility Huntress.” Alpine said before turning to Ranboo. “Are you one of them?”

“I am, whats the difference to you?” Ranboo replied. Something wasn’t right there.

That was also supported by the fact that as soon as he said that, Huntress sagged in relief. “Oh thank god. I’m too tired for this.” She let out a breath. Now that she wasn’t aiming a gun at him, Ranboo thought he could see signs of fatigue.

Now it was Ranboo’s turn to be confused. “What?”

Alpine answered as he gestured at Tommy. “We’re here to get him out.” Ranboo opened his mouth to speak but Alpine cut him off. “Yes, we’re committing treason. We don’t care. Can we please get out of here without shooting each other?”

“You first.” Ranboo said, gesturing at the door. To his surprise, Alpine turned on his heel and walked away. Huntress stepped out of the doorway as well. As he approached the doorway, she started walking before going into a run. Her gun flashed every few seconds and another body hit the floor. Huntress and Alpine worked perfectly together. Ranboo updated TNT on the situation, and he in return updated everyone else.

Crow had a couple more agents join him just to keep an eye on the duo. Soon, they were out of the facility. Huntress and Alpine didn’t put up a fight as they were put unconscious to be taken to base. Right before the syringes were plunged into their necks, Huntress turned to Alpine. “At least he’s alright.” Alpine nodded in response.

Ranboo paced in the hospital wing. Tubbo sat in a chair nearby, staring blankly at the floor. Tommy still hadn’t woken up. He had fallen unconscious on the way to base and even two days later he wasn’t up.

Tubbo hadn’t taken the news their friend was secretly Agent Red well, neither of them were. There was still so much to talk about there. They didn’t know what was going to happen. Their small trio had been holding important secrets from each other but now all those secrets had been violently revealed.

Right after that, the two best agents in the Esmp had committed straight up treason. They were waiting until Tommy woke up to interrogate the two agents. They still hadn’t de-masked the two. His pacing increased in speed as the last month’s events ran through his head. His pacing finally came to an end as Tubbo spoke for the first time since he found out Tommy’s identity. “What are we going to do Boo?”

His voice shook as he replied. “I don’t know bee.” He looked at Tommy. “I don’t know.” He whispered, his voice breaking.

It was another day until Tommy woke up. Ranboo and Tubbo had refused to leave the room until he was awake, so they witnessed immediately what happened when he did.

Tommy’s head hurt. Everything hurt. His body felt like it had been dropped into a pit of spikes. The memories from the past…. he didn’t know, suddenly came rushing back. He shot up from where he had been lying moments before.

He yanked at whatever was attached from his arm. His ears were ringing, he could hear people shouting at him, but he couldn’t tell who. For a few moments, he felt like he was still there. Dark concrete walls covered in his blood. Something warm dripped down his arm from where whatever was attached to his arm had been.

He shoved himself to his feet, only for his legs to crumple underneath him. His heat beat in his chest and he heaved to get air in his lungs. Warm arms caught him before he hit the floor. They offered comfort, something he was desperate for, but his vision blurred. He couldn’t tell who or what was holding him. He struggled desperately against the hold.

He felt like he couldn’t breath. He couldn’t see straight, he felt like his vision was painted a blurry blood red. Finally, something broke through his haze. “Tommy! Stop!” He could recognize the voice, if only barely. He couldn’t place who it belonged to.

His body was trembling, and he finally lost the energy to fight against the hold. He sunk into it. “Boss man?” He recognized that voice as well. Then he remembered… someone, getting him out. He didn’t remember who, it was probably his partner if he had to guess.

The haze finally cleared from his mind. His vision cleared. His body still throbbed, and he was still trembling, but his mind was his own and not like an animal fighting for its life. He looked back at who was holding him.

His heart shattered. Ranboo was holding him, now covered in scratches from his nails. Tubbo was backed against the wall behind his friend. They were both looking at him with matching expressions of horror.  His friends were terrified, because he couldn’t control himself.

Chapter Text

** Important Announcement**

I have unfortunate news for the readers of this fic. Halls and Falls is going to be on hiatus for a little while. I promise I will come back to this as soon as my motivation for the project comes back but for the moment, I'm having to put it down. I am usually able to keep multiple fics updating at the same time, but I've been having a really hard time with just life in general lately and will be putting this down for the moment.

I still love this idea, and I still have ideas for it, but as I've already stated, they'll have to wait.

Oppositional Forces will still be updating so go check it out! :)

Once again, I'm really sorry but I just can't do it right now. 

See you next time I post for this or go check out Oppositional Forces! It's turning out really well!

Thank you for reading, good luck with life in the meantime! 

Chapter Text

 His seed of fear bloomed into full on panic. He didn’t know how long he’d been gone. All he knew was that he had been rescued by likely Ender and was now staring at Ranboo and Tubbo, who now had several scratches courtesy of him. For once, Tommy was at a loss for words.

“T- Tommy?” Tubbo asked, his voice still shaking. Tommy’s heart wrenched in his chest again. “Are you… alright?”

Tommy blinked. “Why are you worried about me!? I literally just…” He yelled out before trailing off, once again looking at the scratches decorating both of his friends. Ranboo simply hugged him, not saying a word for a long few moments.

“We were so worried about you Tommy. We’re glad you’re safe.” Ranboo muttered into Tommy’s shoulder. “Don’t do that to us again.” Tommy didn’t trust himself to speak, and simply leaned against his best friend, squeezing his eyes shut.

Tommy didn’t open his eyes as he heard Tubbo move. Another pair of arms joined the hug, and the trio didn’t separate for a couple minutes, content to finally be together again. A knock came from the door and Tommy hesitantly let go of his friends. Ranboo scooted back to give him a bit of space, Tubbo doing something similar. Tommy smiled gratefully.

The door opened a second later. Admitting, much to Tommy’s shock, Crow. Tommy’s mouth opened and closed, not unlike a fish as he tried to figure out both what was happening and what to say. He glanced at his friends right before Crow spoke up with a chuckle. “Don’t worry Agent Red.” Crow’s words did the exact opposite of help him relax and his eyes widened. The knowing smile on Crow’s face however, gave him pause. “I see you have already met Ender and TNT.”

It took a moment for Tommy to comprehend what his boss had said, but when he did his mouth dropped open once more. His head snapped to look behind him and he was greeted by the sight of a snickering Tubbo and Ranboo who was grinning sheepishly. “Oh bloody hell.” Tommy said, his head falling into his hands. Tommy’s words only made Tubbo laugh harder. “Did you two know about this beforehand?” he asked still hiding his face in his hands.

Ranboo chuckled. “We had no clue until Crow had us reveal identities to each other. We were just as surprised, trust me.”

Tommy sighed, shaking his head. “What the actual fuck happened during my…” he trailed off, images of his torture popping up in his head. “…captivity.” He didn’t miss the grimace that everyone else in the room made at the reminder.

“There is a whole lot of stuff we need to go over, but it should probably wait. With what happened to you during your absence you need time to recover. You won’t be allowed back in the field for months at least.” Crow said.

Tommy immediately objected. “No! Respectfully Crow, I don’t want to stay out that long.”

Ranboo was actually the first one to speak next. “Tommy, you were tortured in a concrete hole for over a month, you need time to recover. Mentally and physically.” Tommy was about to object once again, only to glance at the scratches on his friends’ arms.

He nodded hesitantly, “Fine. I would like to be updated on everything that happened though. Last I checked, the Esmp kidnapping an agent and keeping a government base in the country does a bit more than would be tolerated.” Crow nodded.

A few minutes later

L’manburg and the Esmp had been on the verge of war for a long time. The public knew there were tensions, but it was worse than it seemed. Both governments had been getting ready and expecting the other to make a move. Tommy grit his teeth, their worse fears looked to be coming to fruition.

A formal war issue was likely going to be challenged. While the armies would be going away at it in the open, all the true efforts that were going to make a difference would be hidden. L’manburg had always worked under ground, while Schlatt was technically president, all decisions were actually made by Crow.

Both of his friends already knew everything he was being shown, meaning they didn’t really say anything as he was given and looked through the information. “The biggest thing that happened,” Crow said after a few more minutes. “Was that when we were breaking you out of that facility we found Huntress and Alpine there with the same goal.”

Tommys eyes widened in surprise. “As in, committing treason same goal?” Crow nodded. “What connection do they have to me? Why would they go against their own country if that was their goal?”

Crow sighed. “We don’t know. Currently, we have the two in custody. The plan was to wait for you to wake up before we did anything, because of the exact circumstances. We won’t be doing that immediately however, as said before you need recovery time.”

Tommy shook his head. “No.” Crow raised an inquisitive eyebrow and Tommy continued, putting down the folder he had been looking through. “With formal war about to happen, we need to know everything we can. We don’t have the time to wait for one agent to recover from a little trauma.”

Crow looked a bit hesitant but nodded. “You’re right, but you’re also one of our best. Giving you time to recover now will just make you be able to be at full capacity faster later. We’ll only go ahead with it if you’re sure.” Tommy nodded. “Alright, let’s go.”

Chapter Text

With Niki

It had been a rough couple of days for her to say the least. Tommy had been saved from Dream’s hands, but they had committed treason, killed people they used to be friends with, and gotten caught in the process. The only agent to show any kind of mercy towards them was Ender, who was apparently one of the best l’manburg had according to Crow.

She knew she was scared. They had already told them that Tommy was being brought in for their de-masking and continued interrogation. There were so many ways their little brother could react, none of which were going to be pleasant. She wouldn’t blame him if he saw them as traitors, they had spied on l’manburg for years. Even if she had gained a genuine liking for the country, she had still sold the information she had gathered to the Esmp.

Never anything about their friends however. They had always played their new friendships close to their chest. It wasn’t like Dream could really use the fact they were friends with a few random people to his advantage. That had kind of fallen down around her, however.

 Not that she was telling any of that to the woman in front of her. She had been introduced as Coriander, after the flower. Coriander had been the one attempting to interrogate them aside from Crow. Niki had told her that unless she was talking to Tommy, her lips were sealed. She and Jack only cared about one person here, everyone else could die if she cared.

A knock sounded at the door, and Niki squared her shoulders. Tommy, Crow, Ender, and TNT all walked in. Tommy, as tired as he looked, grinned. “Hey traitor.” For a second her heart sped up, was he talking to her and Jack? Then she fooled his gaze to Coriander. It was odd that Tommy wasn’t wearing his mask, maybe he knew the woman personally?

Her mask covered the lower half of her face, but her eyes smiled. “Oh shut up Red. It’s called switching sides. At least I didn’t get myself captured.” Her mind had been trained to pick up any connections between people that any bits of conversation could show. Possibly a friendly rivalry. 

Corianders’s expression turned serious as she looked towards Crow, standing up. “I’m sorry sir, they refused to answer any question I asked.” She glanced back at them. “They also told me that the only person they’d talk to was Red. Supposedly they ‘owe an explanation.’”

Niki kept her gaze straight ahead. Even with all her years as a spy and secret agent, it was a terrifying thing to be there. Crow sat down first, Tommy sitting beside him a second later. TNT sat in a chair in the corner instead of the table. Ender leaned back against the door, unlike everyone else in the room, he wasn’t scowling.

Tommy was though. His outfit covered most of his skin, but the scars above his neckline were on full display. The biggest was a scar running straight across his face, but that had been there and fully healed when they had found him, meaning it was from much before his recent captivity. Crow turned his attention towards Tommy. “Is there anything you’d like to ask or say before we de-mask them, Red?”

Tommy leaned forward. “Why?” It was such a simple question, but it had so many answers. “I was told you went against your own country, for me. Why?”

“You’ll understand.” Alpine answered for both of them. She looked to the side, nodding.

Crow looked at Tommy, but he just sat back without another word. “Very well then.” Crow turned his attention back to them. “You can either remove your masks yourself, or we can do it for you. Your choice.” She hadn’t expected to given the chance, but she nodded.

The chains connected to the cuffs she was wearing relaxed, allowing for a small amount of movement. She and Alpine shared a look. There was no telling how he would actually react. He had lied about his identity for a long time, it was possible they never actually knew him.

She didn’t think that was the case though. Even if he had secrets, he was still Tommy. Her hands were shaking and she squeezed her eyes closed. Finally, she pulled off her mask. The sound of a chair grinding against the floor and falling hit her ears, shocking her into opening her eyes. She almost wished she hadn’t.

Tommy had recoiled, his eyes wide. His hands were over his mouth, and he had backed up against the door, as if to escape the sight. “No…. no no no no, this has got to be a prank.” TNT’s voice to her right caused her to look at him. He locked eyes with her. “Crow, this is a bit too cruel of a joke.” Crow didn’t speak, seemingly shocked into silence.

Ender slammed clenched fists on the table, glaring straight at Crow. “Say it’s a joke!” His voice was angry, but most of all it was pleading. Did TNT and Ender know them as well? They obviously knew Tommy’s identity, so maybe…. Niki desperately hoped she was wrong.

Crow shook his head. “I- this is Huntress and Alpine. Do you… know them? Ender? TNT? Red?”

“I’m going to throw up.” TNT said, shoving Tommy to the side and running out of the room.

Tommy laughed, it was concerningly manic. “This… no. There has to be a reasonable explanation! Maybe they wanted to frame you two for it! Yeah that would make sense!”

“Tommy…” Jack trailed off, likely unable to find the right words.

Tommy was rapidly pacing the floor. Crow had sat back, it was unlikely he had seen something like this happen before. “They switched Huntress and Alpine with our friends in order to fuck with our heads! That way we would be in disarray and so we’d think we have the real ones-” He was cut off by Ender hugging him.

It was then that she realized the Ender was crying. His voice broke as he spoke. “Don’t do that to us, or yourself for that matter. Please.” Her heart shattered as Tommy started crying.  

Chapter Text

With Tommy

He was shaking, tears ran down his face. Betrayal. He knew he should’ve expected something like this. No one ever got away without some kind of trauma when it came to serving their country. For some reason, it hurt worse than it likely should’ve. They had been warned against making civilian connections when they had started their training, it never ended well. Now, they had come to see the consequences. Crow had them step out, so luckily he hadn’t been in front of Niki and Jack when he fell against the wall.

Tubbo ended up having to go throw up. Ranboo was curled into a ball, and Tommy… he felt sick. Why did it have to be them? It could’ve been almost anyone else in the entire country, but it had to be the two people who they had become close with.

It hadn’t helped that he had known the exact moment Niki had realized exactly who Tubbo and Ranboo were as well. Her already guilt racked features had dropped even more. Tommy felt like he’d gone through the stages of grief twice by the time Tubbo came back. “I think the world fucking hates us.” Tubbo laughed, anyone could hear the grief in his voice though.

Tommy snorted, wiping his face. “Of course it does. We knew that a long time ago.” They had. They’d met in the foster system years back. The same system tore them apart however, not allowing them to meet again until years later. Tommy slipped his mask on, not wanting them to see quite how betrayed he really felt. “You guys ready to go back in?”

It ended up being another few minutes. None of them were truly ready to face the harsh reality. Truthfully, Tommy just wanted to go home so he could curl up into a ball and cry. It wasn’t spoken out loud, but they all knew that Ranboo would be staying with them for the night. Tommy walked into the room first, his emotions going through the five stages of grief within moments before starting all over again.

The interrogation… was fruitful. Jack and Niki were forthcoming about everything. How they had come from the ESMP as spies, the fact that Dream was really the one pulling the strings and not Eret who was technically president, everything. Finally, he asked the question that he wasn’t sure anyone wanted the answer to.

“Did you know my identity before this and try to use me for information?”

“Of course not!”

Her tone was horrified, as if she couldn’t even stand the thought. She had hopped up only to be pulled back down by the chains attached to her. Crow stepped forward, as if ready to get between the trio and the captives. Hurt flashed across the duo’s face, almost like they weren’t a danger to the trio and the entire country.

For the first time since the interrogation started, Niki met his eyes. She searched his gaze for the forgiveness he wasn’t sure he could ever give and flinched away when she couldn’t find it. “We could never.” She muttered. 

Tommy’s brows raised. “What was that?” He asked, he hadn’t quite heard her words. She refused to look at them, her head remained turned even as she spoke again. He could feel his emotions settle, this time to anger. His fists clenched.

Jack stood against the chains trying to drag him down, his hands slamming into the table. “She said that we could never. Come on Tommy, you know us. We aren’t like that!” The ai seemed to grow colder in the room. TNT stalked up to the table from his spot against the door. “Have something to say, agent?” Niki looked over at Jack, seeming to realize he hadn’t come to the same conclusion she had about the identities of his friends.

She opened her mouth to stop him, but the damage was already done. Tubbo pulled down his mask. “Yeah, I fucking do Jack.” The man recoiled, Tubbo didn’t give him a chance to reply. “What? Didn’t your boss tell you about us as well?” He spat. The teen was upset, and Tommy didn’t, couldn’t blame him.

“Tub-” Jack started, but was cut off.

“Save it.” Tubbo snapped. He turned around and stormed out of the room after pulling his mask back up. The door slammed shut, and the room was silent for several moments. Jack sat back down in his chair, a mix of shame, guilt, and regret playing across his face. His confidence from only moments before had completely disappeared. 

Ender walked towards the door, only turning around briefly to lift his masquerade mask up and off his face. “I expected better from you both. I do have to thank you, I needed the reminder not to trust anyone.” He then turned to Tommy. “I’m going after him, feel free to join us Toms.” With that, he turned around and walked out of the room. 

“Thank you for answering our questions. Don’t expect us back anytime soon. I hope you two know that you fucked up.” His voice was a borderline snarl, it was a tone that he rarely ever used. Guilt was written over the duo’s faces. Tommy stalked out of the room, not bothering to look back behind him.

Crow followed him out. “I don’t know who they are to you three, but it was obviously someone important. Don’t worry about coming in for the next few days, I understand.” Tommy gave a singular nod in response before going off to follow his friends.

“We know, and I’m so sorry.” Niki murmured, staring after the closed door. “We know.”

Chapter Text

With Tommy – 2 days later

“Tommy I’m still not sure it would be a good idea. Even Crow seemed unsure and he’s our boss, not just another one of our friends.” Tubbo said, concern marring his tone. Tommy sighed as he pulled his white shirt with red sleeves over his head. He didn’t respond otherwise however, instead packing his bag like any normal day. Memories flashed through his head, and he fought not to shudder.

They were right, as much as Tommy hated to admit it. He was traumatized. He’d gone through torture, and sure he’d held up, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever recover mentally. Then there was the shock of Niki and Jack right after, if Tommy was being honest, he could’ve curled into a ball right then and just cried for hours. If he gave in to that though, he wasn’t sure it was a hole he could come out of. He couldn’t let it consume him.

Tommy shouldered his school bag. Tubbo opened his mouth to object once more, but tommy spoke before he could. “I know Tubbo. I know.” He turned around, putting his hands on Tubbo’s shoulders. “But I need to do this. I need a dose of normal.”

His voice bordered on a beg, and Tubbo lowered his head with a defeated expression. Tommy pulled him forward into a hug, Tubbo finally accepting it after a moment. “I’m just worried for you, you know?” His friend whispered after a moment. “You were put under torture. And I-” Tubbo seemed to choke on his words, “I was powerless to help you.”

Tommy squeezed Tubbo around the shoulders, laying his chin on the teen’s head. “I’ll be fine Tubs. I’m home now.” He’d survive. He knew he would. If not for himself, then at least for the people he cared about.

Tubbo released him after a moment, wiping a stay tear off his own face. “Let’s-” He paused, letting out a breath. “Let’s just go.” With that, he walked out the door, grabbing his book bag off the ground as he did so. Tommy adjusted his shirt slightly, his hand hesitating over his left shoulder. He’d had a hard time hiding the smiley face carved there. Ranboo wasn’t sure whether to mention it to anyone else, a fact which Tommy had been grateful for. He didn’t want anyone to know about it. Know about the fact that Dream had craved what was essentially his signature into Tommy’s skin.

Tommy shook his head. Lingering on it wouldn’t do him any good either. The walk to school was consumed by a quiet that wasn’t usually there. It was their first time doing anything remotely normal since… well everything. They’d eventually go back to normal, but the new shared secret between them was a heavy weight. He pretended that was the reason for the sinking feeling in his stomach and not the day ahead. The tall school walls came into sight quickly enough, and Tommy was almost glad when the usual high school atmosphere washed over him. “If anyone puts their hands on you, I’ll fucking shoot them.” Tubbo muttered from beside him, and honestly? Tommy didn’t really doubt him.

Ranboo was sitting waiting on the bench as usual. His face was contorted into a look of concern as they approached slowly. “Hey guys. How you holding up Tommy?” Tommy shrugged in response, honestly not in the mood to talk more than necessary.  It was worrying, but more than understandable.

“Oh look! It’s the snowflake and his equally pathetic little friends.” A snide voice called out. Tommy rolled his eyes. If he ignored them, they might go away, right? Even if the idea of hitting something sounded really good right then, he couldn’t give into the urge. “What? Ignoring me now?” Yes, yes he was in fact ignoring the little bastard.

Ranboo stood up and stepped between Tommy and the bully. “Back off. No one here is in the mood to deal with your shit today, Terry.” He hissed. It was a bit odd to see Ranboo’s face with the mannerisms and tone of Ender, he was usually much more reserved and timider as a civilian.

The bully sneered at Ranboo, as if he wasn’t at least a full foot shorter than the teen. “Oh is the little bitch tired. Besides, I was just wondering where you were for an entire month. Am I not allowed to be worried about my fellow classmates?”

Ranboo stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. Tommy grabbed his arm before he could do anything drastic. “Stand down Ender.” Tommy hissed, just low enough that Terry couldn’t hear his words. Ranboo’s lips were curled into a snarl, but he stepped back when Tommy told him to. Not for the first time, he was grateful that his fellow agent would listen when he said to do things. Back when Ran was new to the job, he did a lot of stupid things. Usually that’d be dangerous, but the thing about the agent was that he listened when someone else told him he was doing something stupid.

Tommy’s direction in this particular moment turned out to be unnecessary however. A figure approached Terry from behind, kicking his knee out from under him. The bully went down like a stack of bricks, leaving an annoyed looking Purpled standing behind the annoyance. Tommy, for the first time in at least a month, smiled brightly. “Purpled!”

The teen looked up with a surprised but joyful expression. “Tommy!” Purpled rushed forward as the bully scurried off. Purpled was the only one in the group who their classmates actually respected. Not that it really helped, he was usually abroad in Kinko, his home country. Purpled was an exchange student, one who very really spent any time actually ‘exchanged’. On that note, he wasn’t supposed to be there for another few months at least. Purpled pulled back, but still held Tommy by his shoulders. His eyes were a piercing purple, his dirty blond hair was all messed up as well where it’d usually be well maintained. “Are you alive?”

Tommy let out a surprised laugh. “Wha- of course I’m alive! I’m standing right here!” Purpled nodded, as if he was satisfied by the extra assurance that Tommy was not, in fact, dead. He let go of Tommy’s shoulders, turning and giving both of their other two friends a hug each. “But what are you doing here? I’m not complaining but it was supposed to-”

“Be another few months, I know.” Purpled cut him off, finishing his sentence for him. “I was told that you had gone missing by these two and what was I supposed to do? NOT book the next flight over to see what was going on? Though they refused to tell me anything else about the situation.” Tubbo and Ranboo shared a nervous smile. “I still don’t know much, cause they were out looking for you all that time and wouldn’t tell me about anything going on.”

It made sense. Not like they could just say, ‘oh yeah and by the way we’re secret agents and Tommy was kidnapped by what was likely an enemy government asshole.’ But they also couldn’t just not let Purpled know that he was missing, they often hung out over a group call and saying he was sick for a month would’ve probably been almost as bad. “On that topic.” Purpled addressed, turning back to him with a much more serious expression than before. “Are you okay? What happened? Who kidnapped you and are they in jail? If not, where are they so I can beat the shit out of them and then bury them alive?”

…Why were all his friends so violent? “Uh- yes, long story, some asshole, no but people are trying to find him, and I don’t know.” He answered Purpled’s questions one by one. None of Tommy’s answers seemed to please his friend though, except for the one about him being okay, Purpled did smile about that one.

Purpled huffed. “Fine. But I’m not letting you out of my sight until they find whoever the guy was.”

“I’ve got to go home you know-”

“I’m canceling my hotel room as soon as we get to class so you have to let me sleep over.”

“Purpled no-”