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Lots of POVs ahead, just sayin'

"I'm scared, Mama," Ash's small voice barely raised above a whisper against the amount of noise I created from banging the door repeatedly. I glanced at her and tried to smile, but I was sure my eyes reflected so much pain that she looked down and buried her head in her tiny hands, seeming used to the stress.

Chestin and Rosella had tried to call up some people that would be coming in no time. In the meantime, I tried to break us free. However when I shot the window and gave us a way to leave, they aimed a gun at Ash, and I was forced to retreat back in the room, blocking up the window with sheets.

I placed my hands on my hips and my eyes furrowed in concentration, thinking up of any ways to get myself and the child out safely, all the while occasionally losing my mind and having headaches on worrying over whether or not Axel was spared. Eventually, my eyes landed on the suit jacket laying in the corner next to my bag and I made sure no one was watching from the door before I went over to it and snatched it up.

Searching the pockets for anything, I stumbled upon a little device placed inside. Angling it so that only I could see, I realized it was a tracking device. Who am I keeping an eye on, I wondered, eyes scrutinizing the screen. The dot moved closer and closer to a building I knew all too well. In that instant I knew I was watching over Liam, and my throat tightened remembering our last talk. He was going back to the R.U. What I couldn't figure out was why he would allow me to keep a tracking on him?

Unless, it was a way of telling me I could still trust him. I let out a scoff and tossed the device back in the pocket, suddenly realizing something. The night we talked, Liam had a strange look flash across his eyes before he started telling me off. Backtracking my steps, I stood back in the same spot we had been last night and re-envisioned where he stood.

"Jamie," Liam came back sternly, but then his eyes averted somewhere before he said, "Yes. I was planning to leave. I was planning to do it before you woke up."

I was having a headache trying to replay events of last night. But I stood there recalling scenes where I took note of his changing expressions.

"Sorry?" He asked skeptically, laughing, "Sorry? Is that the best you could do? You were the one that said let's never meet again, or did you forget, Lennon?" He eyed me silently with a frown, eyes seeming to be aware of something.

I stepped forward and stood in the spot Liam had occupied, turning around so that I faced the same way the man did. I tilted my head upwards slightly like I remembered he had done, and squinted for something on the walls.

And there it was. Before at night, the walls were covered with glow-in-the-dark stars and a dozen or so darker sparkles around them. Now that it was day, I could see that one of the black spots, the smallest and furthest away from the group, was a mini security camera installed to spy on Liam's room.

He saw the camera for the first time last night, I thought to myself, and began coming up with a way to leave. To... get help?

However, a part of me understood that even if it was an act for the camera, the man did vent out his honest thoughts. He must have had so many things on his mind, must have resented me in that moment, must've used that opportunity to tell me how he really felt.

Gritting my teeth while eyeing the device, my fingers tensed into a fist and I turned around to Ash, eyes immediately softening upon seeing her unstable, frightened state.

"Oh.. no," I found myself using my mouth hours after the incident with Chestin, quietly stepping over to the bedside. I sat myself down on the mattress gently and got the child's attention. Ash glanced up at me and whimpered, choking back on larger clots of noise stuck in her throat that she was trained to compress. "Ash, I am.. so sorry sweetie, come here." I held my arms out and while the young one hesitated a moment whether or not she wanted to go into my arms, she eventually gave in and snuggled close. I felt her disheveled breathing and beating heart against my chest. Or, was that mine as well..?

We sat there in silence for an elongated time before I pulled away and cupped the child's face in my warm palms. "You feeling better? Or should we keep staying like this for a little while, hm?"

"Mama," Ash started quietly, rubbing her hair out of her face as she looked up at me, "Where's Ja- .. Lia- .. Papa?"

A warning signal shock through my body and I immediately became aware once again of the camera on the wall from behind me. Now I understood why I had to be careful of what I say in this room. "Papa's... not coming back," I uttered, giving her a faint smile, "We're on our own. What do you say I give you a ride in the air for a while?"

I picked her up by her nimble arms and she choked out a small laugh, air rushing through her hair. We spun and twirled and became a team for her take-off into space. I held onto the child and tried enjoying the moment the best I could, before my interior motive sprung out and I inched closer and closer towards the camera. Every toss and movement disrupted the camera. After a few gentle tosses in the air, I raised Ash up high, covering the camera for a moment, before clawing the device off and flipping it on its other side so that the lenses didn't pick up anything from then on but a black screen.

We stopped our little parade and I gradually settled the girl back on her feet, straightening up and sighing. A few moments later there was a knock at the door, to which I slowly turned around before an amused scoff escaped my lips.

"Ready to talk, Agent W?" Chestin's voice emerged from the other side. It took no time to realize that the man was not going to wait for an invitation, it was just a little courtesy action in honor of our history together.

Facing away, I pressed the red button on the screen and covered the thing with Liam's suit.

"When I'm done with you, you'll realize what a shit idea it was to step into the same room as me again."

-

| Liam's POV |

"Contact the Renai."

"On your command, sir," the voice-command initiated his car into a role she hadn't touched in years. He fell back into the driver's seat and ran a hand through his hair, exhausted. Glancing over to another camera self-installed in his car, Liam checked the progress of the tracking device he placed on the woman last night.

His eyes narrowed, "We never should have. It's all been an act. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to pay attention and keep eye contact with him, "Have you noticed that every time we talked comfortably around each other, it's because we're both not ourselves? Three years ago we met as classmates, three years later we meet as allies. Now tell me if any of that was the actual situation, Jamie."

While the woman was looking into his eyes, and only his eyes, he dropped a tracking device into her pockets.

Liam glanced down at another camera below the one tracking Jamie's position placed in a different car, more specifically the car that he and the woman had been driving last night to the restaurant and to the couple's house. That car was headed back to the R.U. on his auto-drive command. Liam frowned at the thing as the thought of Jamie's corporation gave him a headache. He was doing this so that her people could find her. There was still a part of him that wanted nothing to do with that shit-hole headquarter anymore for deceiving him.

❝One person has been contacted.❞

"—Liam? Liam is that you? This is your old car isn't it? Lia—"

"Turn it off," he growled in a low tone.

❝The call has been canceled,❞ his car replied, followed by a harsh cut-off silence from the call. ❝Was this the wrong person?❞ it continued.

"Lynx," He snapped, "I didn't program you to do unnecessary things. Put Bennett on the phone."

❝But sir, Miss had always been your go-to contact. I always contacted her first because she's your most talked to contact. Before, you had no opposition. Should I take note of this?❞

"I will tear your engines out and let you rust alone."

❝Contacting, Kai Bennett.❞

"That's what I thought." He was heading back to his corporation to take care of some things. It was long overdue, his original life had been messed up. Liam groaned and ripped his eyes back to the front, speeding up. "I should have never gone on that mission three years ago," he mumbled under his breath.

❝But sir,❞ Lynx's technical voice chimed again, ❝you chose it specifically back then because of her. When are you going to tell her—❞

His eyes twitched, "You're taking an awfully long time with Bennet, Lynx. Should I inform him to place a bomb somewhere underneath you? I've always wanted to experience dying with one's own car. It's like the captain of the ship goes down with his ship kind of thing, you know?"

❝Sir, you're scaring me...❞

"Stop messing around then, who do you take after anyways?"

❝Miss Lennon... by the way, Kai Bennet has been contacted and put on speaker for a while now.❞

-

| Jamie's POV |

I cried out for air as my arms drooped onto my hips and my head swung violently to the side and back, cracking my neck into position again from the hit Chestin landed on me. Earlier on, I had told Ash, "Stay underneath the suit and hold this. Keep quiet and don't come out until I say so, alright?"

Rosella had come charging in with a knife moments earlier, bluntly oblivious to Chestin and I ripping at each other's throats, and was knocked out sometime in the process. Ben hadn't woken up from last night, something I was mildly proud of.

"Why'd you do it, Chestin," I spat, pushing him against the wall, "I treated you like family. He treated you like a friend."

The man chuckled back at me and ripped my arms off, swatting for my head. When he missed and stumbled in a different position, he decided to speak. "That's the point. I was never a part of your family, Jamie." He grinned in my face. I pointed the nuzzle at his forehead, getting him to back up with his hands up, a smirk still on his face. We went off the wall and I advanced towards him, kicking the man in his groin so that he fell to his knees, one knee propped up while the other was down, letting escape a low grunt.

I squatted down with him and grabbed his chin, jerking it up so that our eyes met. "That night I was on the building and you were offline, and Kora was missing. You played us, didn't you? There was no way anything was wrong with your connection, if anything my earpiece should've been disrupted, not yours."

Chestin's eyes lit up at me mentioning something off-topic. "I love how we can chat about anything, Jamie." I punched his face without hesitation and knocked out a sufficient amount of blood from his mouth.

"You're still trying to sweet-talk me?" I laughed when his face tilted back, distorted and bruised, "What? Is your life flashing before your eyes right now so you're giving up?"

He used his elbows to jab me in the chest and I stumbled to the side, losing a grip on my gun. Chestin pulled out a dagger and forced me to shut up as we came to a halt on the ground, him positioning himself before me.

"You're right," he whispered close to my ears, pulling back with raised brows, "I lied. I faked and played around. It's about time you realized who I am, Lennon—"

"My brother?" I choked out all of a sudden, clearing my throat, "Or something like that? 'Cause I'm done with that shit. Go tell a tree it's my cousin then and I won't even be surprised anymor—"

".. You don't have a brother," Chestin countered, a hint of irritation in his tone, "What the fuck."

"Oh, then continue."

"... I'm a Tracker. I also work with Raelyn, your step-mother—"

"I'm pretty sure I know by now that she's my step-mama without you having to tell me, Hall. Carry on, will you?" The grown man glared daggers into my eyes and I dismissed them with raised eyebrows and a few pants as I tried to regain my breath, sitting up closer so that the dagger's blade actually cut some flesh, blood now gradually dripping down my neck.

"Who do you think supplied Charles with the poison? I di—"

"Ah, that was you? You freaking asshole," I grinned up at him, enjoying the scene of me making my old partner flustered, "Continue." My hands came up and ran themselves through my hair while I waited.

Chestin frowned and loosened his grip on the blade, continuing. "Three years ago, I was the assassin assigned to I.O."

It took a little longer than usual for me to process his words, but when I did my smile wiped away.

"What.. did you just say?"

-

| Liam's POV |

The moment he realized he'd been talking about Jamie in the presence of his friend, he cursed silently to himself, much to the amusement of Kai.

"You decide to crawl back now?" The man's voice crackled through the connection before a dark mood spread over his car, even though he was the only one in the car. "Lynx," he cursed quietly into the car as he glanced up at the front-rear mirror and glared into it. The car transitioned back into its normal state inside.

"Kai, long story," Liam started again, pulling up the car into a hidden lot before the building. "Actually," he started again, "Not that long of a story. We'll talk inside."

"I'll shoot you if you come in."

"Then you come out."

"Did I say 'I'? I meant your girl's going to shoot you when you come in."

"Then I'll come in."

Liam got out of the car and shut it off, heading into his own corporation. There was a lot of talking and straightening-things-out to do, and then there was his personal life he had to confront. It was going to be a hell of a welcome back.

He entered and immediately a system voice blared, "INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT." Liam took out his gun and reloaded it, aiming at the alarm before anyone else could react and shot it, silencing the false alarm before the whole headquarters became a mess. New assassins stared his way but he ignored them, heading to the office that he knew Kai was sitting in, waiting for him.

He reached the hall and walked towards the door, knocking. When there was no sound, he allowed himself in. Kai sat on the seat before a wide desk, one arm propped up to support his head while he raised his eyebrows at the man that had just entered.

"Look," Liam started, shutting the door behind him and taking a seat across from the man, "Three years ago, I was going to head back."

"But you didn't," Kai came back at him with a frown, "You followed her. And you didn't come back."

"Long story short, her step mother captured me and we went through a long whiles talking back and forth on who's where, all the while I was receiving their wrath on my flesh and bones. Her real mother found me, took me back to her old corporation, and I've been trained there since. Recently Lennon and I went on a mission and I regained my memories and came back here because I need your help on something.

"You regained your memories somehow with Lennon when your past had nothing to do with her, interesting," Liam heard his old friend comment, seeing him straighten up, "Elaborate on what happened?" Somehow this escalated quick and his temper got the best of him, "I'm telling you I need your help with something and you know I haven't betrayed the Riskits. We're fighting the wrong people. If you let me I'll explain about the mission—"

"What happened between you and Lennon?" Kai emphasized, fist slamming on the desk. Liam frowned and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms across his chest, eventually scoffing.

"I should have figured," he quirked, raising his eyebrows at the man with a slight frown after a few seconds of silence. "Where's Bennet." His voice dropped an octave, gritting his jaw at the woman who thought she could trick him.

"So you've figured," the woman responded after another moment of silence, slowly ripping the face mask off of her face. "Welcome back, Liam," Isla gave him a smug smile, tossing the mask to the side before leaning forward and opening up the suit jacket she used to hide her figure. Before he could say anything against her, the woman spoke up with,

"Sorry for playing you dirty on our reunion, babe. But I wanted to see whether or not you recognized me after all this time. Miss me?"

-

| Axel's POV |

Everything was dark.

3...

2..

.. Jamie.

❝ 1. ❞

How... was he supposed to tell her now?

_

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