Chapter Text
Even with half her face covered by a mask, Sage recognized her. It was a face that Sage never thought she would see again. No, that was a lie. She knew she would see Sabine again -- she just desperately hoped she didn’t have to.
Sage held her gun tightly and said, in a calm voice that didn’t betray the whirlwind of feelings underneath:
“Sabine. I didn't think I’d see you here. Did you get tired of your experiments?”
Sabine laughed, a sharp laugh that didn't have a trace of the woman she had been before. "Quite the opposite. If the field agents can't bring in good samples, I have to do the dirty work myself. But I didn't expect to see you here, Mirai, ” she replied. “I never thought I’d see you holding a gun. Did all that ethics talk finally fall through?”
"Kingdom is threatening every life on this planet, and you think I would not fight it?"
"So you are willing to fight, he just wasn't a good enough cause for you." Sage could only see Sabine's eyes over the mask, and they carried a deep rage. Sage couldn't remember if they were different before everything happened. Their green hue now looked as deep and dangerous as the poison that surrounded them.
"You know that’s not true." Sage had spent too much time thinking what she could have done differently, if Thomas could have been saved. Anything she could have done would only have postponed the inevitable, as Sabine had done, and inflicted a lot of pain in the process. And since then, Sabine had done nothing but inflict pain. Sage had read the reports. There were only a few of them, but not for lack of Sabine's victims -- it was hard for rescue to get there before Sabine had killed them all.
"You could have done something for him, and you know it," Sabine said, the mask of civility starting to fall as her anger raged. Sage's instincts took over when Sabine started to lift her gun, and she raised a wall between them. The metaphor didn’t go unnoticed by Sage.
Sabine fired at the wall, and Sage barely had time to run through the double doors in Haven before shots flew by her, too close to her head. She went out into the open area just before a big Tasmanian tiger ran through the doors, jumping on top of Sabine with force. She took advantage of Skye's distraction and cover to run to safety, and soon she was with her team on the plane, returning to the Valorant Protocol base and leaving a furious Sabine behind.
“So that’s the infamous Viper. I didn't know Kingdom was sending her on field missions,” Sova said.
"Yeah, I thought she was just playing Frankenstein on some secret base," Raze said.
“Sage, you alright? You didn’t answer your comms, and you spent a lot of time in there with her. I was worried,” Skye said, holding her hand. Sage smiled to reassure her.
"I'm fine. I just didn't expect to see her again after so many months,” Sage said, squeezing Skye's hand.
“Hold on, you know her? Viper, the crazy radiant-dissecting scientist who works for the enemy?” Raze asked, incredulous.
“I think I did, at some point. I don't know who she is now,” Sage said. Raze started to ask something more, but gave up under Skye's pointed look. Sage didn’t encourage her question.
She wondered, yet again, if she would ever be able to think of Sabine with acceptance and not with remorse.