"Paper Star," Maelstrom said quietly, his voice more frozen than a Swedish winter, "Would you tell me the two rules of VILE?" His figure was ominous without his fellows.

The operative looked up at him. She had been expecting this since she had screwed up in France a couple weeks ago. They had received the report that the agent had lived, in addition to Sandiego getting away. Her normally insolent tone was subdued as she muttered, "Failure is forgivable, capture is not."

"And the other?"

Paper Star had known the answer he was looking for.

"Leave no witnesses."

"Correct. And you.."

"Left witnesses." She growled.

"Indeed." He paused. "I need you to clean up those little spills."

The origamist realized he was using the plural and she cocked her head, the gleam back in her eye. "The entire point of my using that agent was to bring Black Sheep to you alive, Professor. Leverage."

He sighed with a little shake of his head. "I have been foolish, thinking we could get back our prize pupil. She does more damage than it is worth." The faculty member looked at her, eyes narrowed. "I did not tell my fellows of this. Keep it that way, if you please." His request held more venom than a snake. "Do not fail me again."

Paper Star smiled.

--

Audric Fournier had not seen Carmen since her flight from the fourth floor. He had, however, seen Julia, who had returned when she ripped out a few stitches.

"[When I said you could be fully healed in a couple weeks, I meant if you rested!]" He scolded her, scowling, before signing her in.

"[I rested for a few days!]" She shot back. Their arguing was not serious; they both knew it wasn't her fault.

"[You're supposed to go to the hospital first, Julia! Did you have anyone to take care of you, at least?"]

At that she had gone red and simply changed the subject.

Now at home, he frowned at his phone and typed the mysterious red woman's name into his phone's search engine on a whim.

International Thief Appears from the Blue- or, More Fittingly, the Red.

Young Thief Steals Millions From Locations Around the World

Carmen Sandiego Still at Large After Over a Year

Why you don't need to be afraid "Carmen Sandiego" will steal your shit!

What is the Government Doing?? An Investigation on the Woman in Red.

Audric raised an eyebrow. He had figured she was someone, but with all the secrecy on the agency Julia belonged to he hadn't expected quite so much on her.

He clicked on the first link and started reading. Article after article, fact and theorizing and conspiracy..

He copied the links, opened the thief's number, and sent them with a sentence: [Forbidden romance?]

For a second her end was quiet, then: [You sure you aren't an undercover cop, Fournier?]

He chuckled and typed, [No. Just that I can read the signs. And I don't think you just let Julia borrow your shade of lipstick in that room.]

The wanted superthief did not respond to that.

He smiled slightly. [If I read between the lines well enough, thanks for taking care of Julia after she hurt herself. I promise I won't say a word.]

It was a bit before she replied. [You better not...I will touch base later. Tell you a little more. But just know that I'm not exactly what I look like.]

[You mean red? Around Julia, I bet that's not true.]

A pause. [Oh buzz off, Audric. Or I'll come steal your shit and prove the article wrong. Lol.]

Audric turned off his phone with a small smile. Figures he'd somehow befriend an international superthief.

--

Julia was a spy.

ACME had no clue why Carmen's escapes had suddenly become much less narrow, or why sometimes she just wasn't where CrimeNET told them she would be.

Every time Julia sent Carmen a message on whatever ACME was doing next (translated into code once it sent, courtesy to the thief's mystery "tech guy") she felt so fulfilled and cool and really nervous, but in a good way. Julia had never so much as missed a homework assignment in school so this was a little scary.

You don't have to do this, Jules, Carmen reminded her often over text. They hadn't met in person since their little mac-n-cheese date.

But ACME didn't seem suspicious, so Julia kept relaying information. It felt good to be finally doing something she really believed in. And she knew she still could be an asset to ACME without going after Carmen.

Julia worked her butt off on everything else. VILE patterns, suspects in recent thefts that weren't her secret illegal girlfriend, security detailing. Weeks were flying by and soon she was fully healed, the scar on her chest the only physical reminder of the experience.

As soon as she could manage it, she had sent a team in to breach the fake museum she'd been in. She didn't remember where it was, but soon a helpful little map appeared in her text messages.

They were more prepared than ever to raid it, with Carmen secretly informing her on every detail, but when they got there it was cleared out and the vault was little more than a smoky ruin. That wasn't much of a surprise; Carmen had warned her this would probably be the case and, to be frank, the worse thing was seeing her own blood splattered around the outside.

The inside of ACME was not as collected as their operations. Some believed what Julia had told them, but some stayed obstinate that she was confused, that Carmen had clearly attacked her, and a passerby had driven her to the hospital. Apparently they thought Carmen, realizing she wasn't dead, had followed her to cover up the mistake.

It took Julia every ounce of willpower not to roll her eyes (or start yelling at her coworkers) every time this happened. It was really only the need to help Carmen keeping her in the workplace; the collective gaslighting was getting stressful.

Every day at the end of the day, though, Carmen was there, no matter what time zone she was in. They would tell each other about their days, and Julia could vent to her.

Devineaux, too, was proving to be a very good friend and ally. Somehow he always knew when it was getting to be too much, when it was too stressful or she was worried, or, when she was still healing, when she needed some painkillers. Then he'd be there to defend her or get her something from a local bakery.

Chief was not unaware about the split with Julia in the center, but the hologram could not be as involved; her agents somehow reached a collective agreement not to speak about it with her. Chief believed what she believed and though the agents who did not believe Julia often cited her, the workplace stayed professional.

--

A ping lit up on the dashboard of ACME, highlighted by CrimeNET, at the same time that Player caught wind.

VILE meeting in Paris. Abandoned warehouse in location below. Important.

The trail sent out, Paper Star smiled and waited.

Bonus material:

--------------

Thank you all for waiting! The story is officially off hold.

Thank you @tetrisyagorbachev for the chapter name idea!!