Chapter Text
Ok ok, let's start from the beginning!
My name is Sage, I am the seventh agent of the called "Valorant Protocol", a team whose purpose is to prevent Kingdom, a massive company, from taking control of all of the radianite found in the world. Sounds crazy, I know, but the radianite is a vital source of energy that could cause serious consequences if it falls in the wrong hands.
Our mission is to stop any action which may cause some risk to humanity or to the people who lives around the factories. At the beginning we were only 4 agents: Brimstone, ex-soldier and the founder of the protocol; Viper, a scientist specialized in chemicals and the co-founder; Sova, a Russian archer that experimented a problem with the called 'rifts' and me, a Chinese monk who will protect all their teammates no matter what. It was quite an adventure to find other people who were willing to help us with this, but fortunately we did...
We recruit six agents, four of them were radiants like me:
The Mexican Reyna, a 30 y/o assassin, she can take her victim’s vital essence after killing them. It seems that she had a sister, but we don’t know what happened to her and why is Reyna so angry with the ‘mortals’;
The Aussie Skye, a 19 y/o girl that only had her ‘pack’ until she joined the protocol, it is for this reason very quiet and does not interact much with us. She can bring a Tasmanian tiger and a hawk to life and control them with her powers and talismans;
The British Grant Galloway, known as Phoenix, a 20 y/o ‘celebrity’ (if we can call him like that) who can control fire. His powers manifested in the worst place, while he was at the London Business School of Economics and Political Science, his old school, burning the whole building. Since that day, he has been escaping from the law until Brimstone found him, offering him a place to hide if he joins the protocol. He accepted but he was presented with the others because he was continuing his studies via internet this whole time;
And there is Omen, the unknown one. His age and story are a mystery, even for Viper, who used to work with him in Kingdom. It seems that things didn’t end good for him and that's why he’s like this now…
The other is a one-man surveillance network called Aamir, aka Cypher. he knows everything about us but we don't know anything about him at all, only that he’s Moroccan and he had a wife named Nora but he will not tell us what happened to her.
And the last one is a bionic Swedish called Breach, who has two robotic arms instead of the real ones. (We didn’t ask what happened because we wouldn't receive an answer) He doesn’t have the best past but we focus on the present.
With this, I present the Valorant Protocol and its members, all willing to do everything in our power to stop Kingdom and his abuse of radianite. We swore to protect all people and make peace prevail again.
Everything was doing fine, work in here, in the other side of the world, travelling to protect some places, like Haven in Bhutan, devastated due to the amount of radianite found in there. We had to evacuate the people immediately to prevent a chaos. Since Kingdom is trying to collect all the radianite, they’re putting in danger a lot of lives, but they don’t care.
Apart from that, one night, something happened that changed my life. I was in my home at the Valorant HQ when I heard something outside, I went out and saw a... child. A little girl with white hair in a box only with a blanket and a note with the word ‘JETT’. A child? On my doorstep? Who was she?
When she saw me, the little girl stretched her arms and, confused, I lifted her. I looked both sides, trying to see if it was something out of the quotidian. But I didn’t see anything. I entered and sit Jett in the sofa, looking at her. She seems like seven or nine months old; she has a strange white hair and a tired face. Poor thing, outside was cold for her so I took another blanket and clothes that may be fit her -Who am I kidding? I don’t have anything for a child! - I tried to find something for her to eat, but I only had porridge.
“I think this will do” I thought and I started feeding her. Fortunately, she liked it. After dinner, she begins to yawn and I decide to take her to sleep when I realized that I didn’t have a pyjama as small as she was, I thought and I ended up calling Reyna, it was the best idea that I had.
“Sage, hello dear” Answered Reyna surprised for the call, usually Sage will not call that late but this was urgent. “What is the motive of this beautiful call?”
“Hello Reyna, I’m sorry to call you this late but I need a favour,” The healer said looking at Jett, who was playing with one of her orbs. “Could you buy a few things and come over?”
“Of course, honey, what do my favourite healer need?”
“I need some baby clothes for a child about seven to nine months old, and…” The list gets longer and Reyna's surprise was getting bigger and bigger. Why would Sage ask her for clothes for a child? She just said “On my way” and went to the Supermarket that was around the corner. The HQ wasn’t only for the agents, some buildings were full of scientists leaded by Viper, soldiers and a lot of security, and fortunately there are some shops and places to spend the day. Obviously, it wasn’t a prison.
Reyna bought everything and started her way to Sage’s house. She didn’t live far from hers but she went by car anyway, taking the stuff with her and a lot of questions.
Meanwhile, at Sage's house
“Ok, Reyna is coming with things for you...-” I stopped. I found Jett asleep on the couch, with her little arms around one of my orbs. So adorable. I looked at her for a while when someone called at the door. “That must be her, how fast.” I opened the door and found the purple haired radiant staring at me.
“Hello dear. What a -” She looked at Jett. “…surprise.” She smiled and I invited her to enter.
“Hi Reyna, thanks for coming, I’ll pay you back. Tea?”
“You know me” I went to the kitchen to prepare two cups of tea. “You see, Sage. When you called me, I thought you want me to find and kill a clone but this is other level,” She stopped in the doorway. “Why do you have a child with you?” She looked at both sides, with a wicked smile. “Does Sova have anything to do with this?”
“What?” I saw her perplexed. My cheeks were burning. “Sova? N-no, I found Jett in my door two hours ago!”
“In your door?” She stopped laughing. “Was she abandoned?” She asked with a little pain in that last word. Reyna wasn’t the type of person who would feel bad for the others. For a reason, that tone made me understand that something happened to her before, but I nod and stayed in silence. “Poor child. What are you going to do with her?”
“I don’t know yet, you know our work is not the safest, I think the best choice is give her to other hands. We are in constant danger here and I cannot guarantee that I will always be there for her. I think is the best for both of us.” We went to the couch when I saw that Jett woke up, maybe we were talking too loudly.
“Sorry little one, did we wake you up?” She saw me and laughed. I picked her up and opened the things that Reyna brought. “Aww Reyna, you’re such a sweetie!” Inside the bag I saw a puppy pyjama and other things like food and toys. I changed her and left on the ground; were she began to crawl side to side.
“Are you going to take her to work with you? You know that Brimstone planned an ‘important meeting’ for tomorrow morning,” She rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure it’s just one of those were he talks about his younger days.” She looked at me and asked the question of the night.
“You know this isn’t as simple as it looks like, don’t you? I remember when I was younger, I barely managed to take care of my little sister because of my parents …They abandoned us when I was 14”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I sighed “And I know, I just need time to find her parents. Tomorrow I’ll explain everything to the team so I don’t get in trouble, I hope.” I lifted Jett. “Thank you, Reyna, for everything.”
“Don’t worry honey, anything for you. I must go now, see you in a few hours?”
“Of course, see you there!” I said goodbye and I went to prepare the bed, thinking ways to prevent Jett from falling during the night. I managed and we slept like babies, hehe.
The other day in the Valorant Protocol HQ
When I arrived, I saw that they were all waiting outside. I feel more nervous now, what am I supposed to say? ‘Hi everyone! Oh, you mean this baby? I just adopted her because I found her in my doorstep last night.’ Definitely NOT. I started walking backwards when I bumped into someone. -Please tell me is not Brimstone-, I thought. Unfortunately, it was him…
I tried to smile but couldn't, and to make it worse, Jett made a noise. A little "Hoo!" sound in the air and he lowered his gaze to the little white-haired girl in my arms.
“Sage…,” he said. Here we go. “Can you explain this?” He pointed at Jett and everyone turned around and stared at me. The little one made an angry face when Brimstone pointed at her.
“Hello Brimstone. I…” I didn’t know where to start.
“Her name is Jett” Reyna approached me. “She was abandoned in Sage’s door last night and she took care of her for the last hours. She will keep her until we found her biological parents.” I whispered a little ‘thanks’ and she winked me.
“Well, that’s an unexpected situation.” Omen said, the others followed him where we were talking.
“How old is she?” Asked Cypher.
“I think she’s seven to nine months old…The only thing that she has when I found her was this blanket and a note with her name, Jett.”
“She’s such a cute little thing!” Reyna said and everyone followed her, surrounding us, but Jett didn’t like it, who immediately and out of nowhere, angered by the amount of attention, casted a huge wind cloud that covered both of us. I closed my eyes. “What was that!?” “Did she cause it?” I heard the others talking. I blinked twice and saw that the cloud was keeping us away from them. It wasn’t big but I didn’t get out of it because I didn’t know what would happen. Then I realized, it came from her. She was a radiant.
That would explain the white hair and the big cloud around us. I looked at her arms and I found little tattoos with a strange light blue glow. They started in her tiny hands and ended in her elbows. -What’s this? She didn’t have those yesterday- I tried to process the whole situation when suddenly I felt two hands pulling us out of the wind cloud, it was Sova.
“Are you okay?” We were too close to each other. He took a step back. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry, we’re okay. Jett?” The baby looked at me and started crying. What happened scared her. I didn’t know what to do.
“Can I try?” The aussie grabbed her and summoned a beautiful hawk, who catches Jett’s attention immediately. She looked at the animal fascinated and stopped crying. “I think she likes it.”
“Thank you, Skye. I think I owe an explanation to all of you, right?” We went to the building. Phoenix, Viper and Breach were there.
“Yo, Sage, did you have a child!? She’s so cute!” Phoenix screamed and lifted Jett, spinning with the girl in his arms. She laughed. “Who is the father?”
“Looking at the girl’s hair, I assume is Sova” Breach said.
“Idiots, do you really think that she can have a child without us notice her pregnancy progress? It’s obvious the child is not hers.” Viper stopped those two, telling the obvious and taking me out of an awkward conversation.
“She’s right guys, Jett is not my daughter. I found her, well…She found me.”
They looked at me confused. We all sat down and I began to explain everything, even my theories of her real parents. We concluded that they left her for being different. I looked at her, lying in Reyna’s legs and playing with a little cloud and felt bad for her. I assumed that she was born with that powers, unlike me.
I received this power when I was training in my hometown, in a temple. I was meditating when suddenly the ground started shaking, an earthquake I thought. I remember it very well, because something peculiar happened, I supposed that the temple would collapse, but nothing happened. It was still there, in that mountain, intact…The thing that made me know about my powers was my intention to save one of my partners. A big pillar was about to fall onto her when, not being able to reach her to push her away, out of nowhere I summoned a big ice wall, stopping the pillar. She screamed and ran away from there. I didn’t know if she was afraid of the situation or…me. The same day, the city had to be evacuated, big black-red columns were rising from the ground, destroying buildings and houses, scaring the elders and the children. I lost contact with everyone and I exiled myself because of this ‘strange thing’ that happened to me. That was the last time I saw my home and my family…
“Sage,” Viper touched my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, sorry. I was thinking about something.”
“The situation is complicated,” Brimstone finally talked. “If there is a radiant child here that means that there are more around there. If Kingdom finds them, they can make them our enemies.”
“Don’t you think…” Skye started but was interrupted by me.
“No, I’ll not let Jett fall into Kingdom’s hands. They will not use her as a guinea pig for their dirty experiments. I promise I will take care of her and protect her.” I stood up and everyone stared at me, surprised. I was so determinate that I didn’t heard what I said.
“Well, I don’t see a problem, as long as she doesn’t break anything here, she can stay. Cypher, can you help Sage to locate the child’s parents?”
“Of course, follow me” We both went to another room, with a lot of computers and maps. The HQ was quite big, with lot of different rooms, a shooting range where everyone can practice their aim with the robots. A kitchen, a meeting room and a training room too.
“Oh, Sage! Hello,” We saw Killjoy working in there. She is Brimstone daughter, approximately she has 16 y/o but she’s super intelligent for her age. She has a German accent because her mother is from there, and Brim is from USA. He lived 4 years with her in Germany but due to his work on Kingdom, he couldn’t spend more time with her, until he discovered their plans and he left the company. Apparently, she was working in a defense system, a kind of turret... with a duck drawn on it. “What brings you…Who is she?” She saw Jett. “Oh, she’s the radiant child, isn’t she? Hello dear!”
“We want to locate her parents, but we don’t know how they look or anything referred to them.”
“Hmm, that’s not difficult! We can use a hair sample to find similarities between the people in the database and her,” She took Jett and sit her in one of the chairs. “Ok, this will not hurt.” She took one little hair from Jett’s head and started analysing it. “One thing that I need to tell you guys,” she turned to see us. “This can take some days, there is a lot of information here.”
“How long?”
“Two or three weeks or… a month.” She said cleaning her glasses. “Sorry”
“Don’t worry kid, thanks,” Said Cypher and we leave the room. “So, what are you going to do with her?”
“She can stay during Killjoy’s research.” Brimstone surprised us.
“We’ll not let you alone with this, Sage,” Reyna and the others came. “We’re a team, right? We can help you”
I smiled; it's comforting to see the team so attached.
From here things get a little funnier, Breach wanted to start training Jett but Reyna and Viper said she was too young, Skye was thinking of caving something for her, Phoenix plays with Jett all the time, he’s like a big brother. Also, Jett was so curious about Sova’s scar so he let her touch it, that scene melted my heart. We all agreed that Brimstone was the grandpa, he denies this, but he fell for the cuteness of the little one. And me…well, I’m the mother here, sometimes Jett prefers to be with me and, when I need to go to a mission, she cries until I return. That makes me think that she had never had a maternal figure before. We take turns to look after her, because we still have a lot of work but, she will never be alone again.
Months have passed and unfortunately, Killjoy couldn't find anything, it looks like Jett doesn't have parents. Apparently, she came ‘out of nowhere’ and there isn't any register of her either. We didn’t know what to do, of course we’re managing it fine but, this place is dangerous and she’s only a 1 y/o child. Oh, I forgot, we made her a beautiful birthday party, even if we didn’t know her real birthday. I think she was the happiest child that day. It was amazing.
The other day, we got the news that Kingdom kidnapped at least, 10 radiant children and killed their families. I was scared for Jett. I didn’t want her to end like that, like a machine that only follows rules, so we decide to take Breach’s advice. We will train her and make sure she can control her powers. We started with the basic, because, she’s still too young to do dangerous things.
First, we need to learn how that “cloudbursts” worked -we call it like that because it was the most accurate name we had- It can block the vision, and it seems that you can get inside of it. Omen propose, to see if she has another power, throwing her from a second floor to see if she can fly....
“Yeah, about that…No” Said Viper, holding Jett’s hand, who doesn’t understand anything.
“Why not? Sage can heal her if she gets hurt” The spectre said.
“No, and it’s my last word. I’ll not let you throw my daughter from the second floor!” Was he out of his mind?
“Your…daughter? Sage, you took it very personal.” Said Brimstone and I thought what I said. -My daughter- He was right, I was so fond of the little girl and, for a moment, I thought I was her mother.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” I didn’t know what to do so I couldn’t finish the sentence and I ran away, feeling all their eyes on me. Stupid, I know, but I had to get away from there.
“Sage wait!” I heard Reyna but I didn’t stop. I ran to the meeting room, which was empty, falling on my knees and thinking to the point my head started aching. “What did I just say? Why I was acting like that? She is not even my daughter, just a girl who had the fortune, or misfortune, to fall in our hands.” I tried to retain the tears but I couldn’t. I started crying, not knowing why. Why this situation affected me that much? I developed a lot of feelings, that child made my days bright again. When I lost my home, I thought I wouldn’t be able to feel again, I was in an emotional limbo, I only cared for others but never for myself, I was sinking into my own thoughts keeping everyone out of them.
When I heard that someone entered the room, I tried to wipe my tears but it was useless, my nose and eyes were already red.
“…Sage?” I upper my head to see Sova, he was standing in the door. “Are you okay?”
I tried to smile but I couldn’t. “No, I’m not,” I burst into tears again, he reached me to hug me. “I’m so stupid! I shouldn't have got attached.”
“Is not your fault, we all love her, but specifically you. You two created a bond with each other,” I saw him. “When you ran away, she called you ‘Mommy’”
“What? That’s impossible! She calls me ‘Sage’” I was confused. She learned to talk a little and she can call us for our names, except of Brim, Reyna and Breach, because she can’t pronounce the ‘r’. She recognizes Killjoy as ‘Adalia’, her real name, but we don’t call her like that. She always called me Sage. But with this… Does she see me like I see her? Could it be?
Sova lend me his hand and I stood up, looking at him. He is the only one with whom I can be myself, because I’m not used to talk about my feelings. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have, but when I entered in the protocol, I tried to maintain professionalism, but he taught me how to laugh again, be happy, and he gave me the most important thing, a family. The team became my family when all of us started to share our pasts and lives. We understand each other but Sova, he knows me better than anyone, he knows why I was so serious and concentrated in what I do when we started this. And some times, he doesn’t care and he helps me doing the ‘house things’ like cooking when the team eat together and clean when everyone leaves. He has always been my friend, but I think I’m starting to see him as another thing...
Without thinking, I hug him again, wishing he never let me go. He returned the hug and we stayed like that for a while, time that I use to think about my feelings for him. Do I love him? Or it’s just a confusion?
“Sage,” He broke the silence. “Maybe this sounds a little hasty but, would you like to have a date...with me?” he blushed. “I see that you need some time for your own but, a little company will not hurt.”
“Oh, I think it’s a good idea, I need to set up my ideas and rest” I smiled. “But who will look after Jett?”
“The auntie Reyna?” He laughed.
“Auntie Reyna? Is that her new nickname?” It is funny and confusing at the same time, I couldn’t image Reyna as a sweet aunt that fulfils all the whims of her niece. I laughed so hard.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know about it yet”
“If you say so...” I smiled. “Thanks, Sova.” We returned to the training room, just to see the strangest scene of the day:
Jett was on top of the tallest training wall, Reyna and Skye were trying to reach her, Breach was laughing of the situation and Viper was looking with no emotions on her face.
“What is she doing up there!?” I approached them.
“She was here a moment ago!” Reyna yelled, stretching her arms to catch the toddler, without success.
“It was amazing! In a blink of an eye, she was up there,” Skye looked at us. “How do you feel Sage?”
“I’m better, thanks,” Sova climbed the wall and ‘rescue’ Jett.
“How did you get in there, you naughty girl?” He tickled her tummy, and Jett was laughing so hard that she can barely breath.
“Sage,” Brimstone entered the room. “Please forgive Omen’s behaviour, his idea was crazy and dangerous. And accept my apologies for my comments, I shouldn't have criticized your feelings.
“Apologies accepted, don’t worry.”
“So, what are we going to do now?” Breach yawned. It was getting late.
“Everyone can go home, you’ll have a free day to rest and think ideas to stop Kingdom,” We all look at him with serious faces. “Okay, only the free day.”
“Yeah, who wants to celebrate? First shots on me!” Said Skye, and Breach stood up so fast that he almost fell. Reyna and Phoenix followed them.
"I have some experiments to do." Viper left the room.
“I think I’ll pass; Jett looks tired, have a good night!” I left the room too and Jett fell asleep in my arms. I was about to go out of the building when someone called me.
“Wait, can I go with you? It’s dark outside and I don’t want anything happen to you girls.” It was Sova, putting his jacket on.
“It is safe out there but ok, a little company will not hurt,” It was cold outside so I took a blanket to cover her. “Let’s go.”
We talked about the future missions, it seems that something happened in Tokyo, so we have to go in two days, we must prepare ourselves for everything. And he told me about a new recruit, called Raze, she's an expert with explosives. I smiled; it would be nice to have new people around here. When we arrived, I thanked him and asked if he wanted to drink something, he accepted.
“Here, take a seat. I'm gonna put Jett to bed.” I covered her with the blanket and went to the kitchen.
“Do you really think she doesn’t have parents? Isn’t it strange?” He took a sip of tea.
“I don’t know, but her name is not common, you know we have code names due to our work but, the note said Jett and we don’t even know where did she comes from. The whole situation is not normal, the night that she appeared in my door, the guards said that they didn’t saw anything unusual...”
We were like that for a while, but we didn’t notice that someone was hearing the whole conversation and using this information for its advantage...