Chapter Text
"This is a suicide mission." Fontaine Nekton sat silently with her arms folded, waiting for her older brother to start yelling. Ant's face was impassive, but the deadly calm tone in his voice was a sign that he was about to lose it.
Across the table from them, Fontaine's mother and Father both shook their heads at their son's words.
"Ant, this is essential to gaining back the data from the Shadow council." Will sighed. "We're out of options. That hard drive contains so much data from the agency that we could literally lose 700 people."
"An international mission with hacking is less dangerous than this. Everyone knows who she is here." Ant gestured to his sister, who frowned uncomfortably. "They don't know she's an agent. You throw her into this and anything could happen."
Fontaine bit her lip. This wasn't a conversation that she was unused to. In fact, her brother made this particular argument so often that she was getting a little hurt over his constant dismissal of his talents. Still, she knew that he wanted to keep her safe.
Her parents didn't seem to share his concerns.
"Ant. You can't protect her forever. It's a fight that she was born into. A fight she's trained for her entire life." Kaiko said gently. "It's not your choice. In all honesty, it isn't even ours. It should be hers."
Everyone turned to look at the youngest Nekton, who's face lit up with surprise that she barely masked. Her brother's glare deepened. "What do you think, darling?" Kaiko asked.
Fontaine's response was immediate. "I want to do this. I can do this."
Ant shoved his chair back and glared murderously at both of his parents. "Whether or not she says she's ready, I hope you both know that I do not agree with this plan. And if she's going, I'm going too."
"Alright, seems like we have a deal." Will replied with finality. "Ant, you'll complete her debrief, then be ready to leave at 04:00 hours."
Ant nodded once, before turning on his heel and storming out of the room. In his absence, the air seemed to still even more. Fontaine looked at her mother awkwardly. "He's.....he's going to debrief me, right?"
"Of course." Kaiko assured. "Just go suit up, and follow his instructions. The sooner he sees that you can handle yourself, the sooner he's going to let you look after your own assignments."
"I'm 21." Fontaine said quietly. "I don't think he's ever going to let me."
Will laughed. "It'll be fine, sweetheart. We both know that you can do this. Now off you go."
Fontaine nodded, standing and walking out of the war room silently. The darkened corridors echoed the sound of angry stomping, and Fontaine followed it.
She'd gone into that room knowing that the discussion would go exactly as it had. Fontaine took a shallow breath and continued her walking through the halls, silently climbing the stairs and slipping down the 20 & 21 year old's dorms before she finally managed to locate her older brother.
It wasn't unlike him to get so upset. Ant hated it when their parents brought up the issue of her first mission. Ant hated it when anyone told him that his baby sister might not be such a little girl anymore. It hurt more than she liked to dwell on, though she saw it for what it was. Her brother had seen too many people lose this fight, and she wasn't unaware of the dangers.
But she'd completed other missions before. Ant's argument, as always, was with her first solo mission. Which she was starting to think would never happen. Because her brother was always trying to protect her from things, even if she didn't need protecting. Even if she'd been hacking through the highest levels of encryption since she was 5.
Even though she'd spent her whole life training to get there.
"Ant?" Fontaine called, her voice echoing through the quiet corridor. "Are you here?"
"Yes." Ant responded, stepping into view from the kitchen. Each section of the dormitory building had a kitchen. It was divided into groups; married couples roomed together, under 18's were grouped by age, as were 20-30 year olds.
Ant tended to spend the most time within his sister's quarters. Mostly because she was one of the few her age that was still in Lemuria. Many of the young adults her age were sent on to other squads in larger cities.
Her family ran the Lemuria section, meaning that along with her cousin and his girlfriend, Alex, Fontaine was the only other 21 year old in the building. It never became any less daunting to know that her family legacy was not something that she'd be capable of carrying on if her brother had his way.
"You said you'd let me do this." Fontaine said, slowly. "You promised that you'd at least let me try."
"Fontaine," Ant said quietly, "There's no one who wants to see you succeed more than me. And I promise, I wanted to let you, I did. But this isn't your case. It's not your fight. It's not....it's not the right mission for you."
Missions were assigned both on expertise and skill, to those who would be most likely to pass the test. Lemuria was an extremely dangerous city. The fact was that in Lemuria, regardless of the beauty and the kind civillians who lived there, more than 50 percent of people were caught up in organised crime groups.
It was in Lemuria that SHIELD, the agency her parents ran, (at least, this section of it) had been formed. From there, it had branched out across the world in collaboration with governments to target crime which the police and local law enforcement couldn't handle.
Going on your first mission was like being introduced into the adult world for the first time. It was a coming of age that Fontaine had yet to experience. And she was so excited. She wanted to try, she wanted to prove that force, even with the best of intentions, wasn't the way to help people.
But her brother still had yet to allow her that honour. And her parents rarely disagreed with him.
"Why isn't it for me?" Fontaine demanded. "It's not fair, Ant! I'm not a baby anymore. I'm a big girl. You.....you can't keep me here forever. I want to help. What's wrong with this one?"
"Let me walk you through it." Ant sighed, defeated. "Just.....listen first. Questions after."
"Ok." Fontaine hummed eagerly.
Ant took a deep breath and waved his hand. The lights dimmed and a screen lit up across the wall. Fontaine waited for him to continue. "A week ago, somebody hacked into an encrypted server within the SHIELD compound and pulled out the personal data of over 700 agents."
"Why didn't anyone tell me when it happened?" Fontaine spluttered. "I could've helped!"
"Because," Ant said, shooting her a look, "The people who took it weren't some shitty crime syndicate in the middle of nowhere. It was Shadow Counsel."
"Oh." Fontaine said.
"Yeah, fucking 'oh'." Ant snapped. He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry. I'm just stressed. Look, they've pulled something like this before. The data was taken to a physical hard drive and inputted with fail safes, including Biometrics needed to unlock the room where it's stored. It can't be hacked from offsite unless someone is in there when we try."
"Again, why does it matter if I help with this?" Fontaine asked.
"Because of two things. One, you're my sister, and I don't want you around the most deadly criminals in the city for your first mission. And second, intel indicated that Jess is going to be there." Ant responded.
"So?" Fontaine said. "That doesn't matter! I can help and you want to stop me because Jess might be there?"
"Are you serious? Fontaine, at the very least, before I tell you anything else, you have to promise me that there will be no flirting." Ant ordered.
"I....what?" Fontaine gaped. "I do not flirt! How could you?"
"Yes you do! Every time you're near her. Every party, every single time. I mean, last time you were near her you got so drunk that I had to carry your ass out because she was that close to murdering you."
"She flirted back." Fontaine grumbled. "And that is not what happened."
"So we're talking about the bathroom incident then-"
"No! I'm just saying that she did it, not me." Fontaine pouted. "And that does not disqualify me from being a useful member of this mission team. She's not going to hurt us just because she happens to be the daughter of the Shadow Counsel's leader."
"This is exactly why I don't want you to come. You're too naïve." Ant groaned. "Listen to me, Taine. I get that you want to see the good in everyone. I get it. I get that you hope she's not a bad person just because she's nice to look at and she's never actively tried to kill you-"
"Again, not because she's hot." Fontaine cut him off.
"Either way." Ant waved a hand. "You don't know her like we do."
"Why do you hate her so much?" Fontaine demanded. "We're the good guys, Ant! We're supposed to believe that anyone can change, we're supposed to forgive. Not assign blame and hatred."
"I don't hate her." Ant argued. "But there's a darkness in her, Taine, a darkness that I've never seen before. And it scares me. Do you know how many missions I've been on? She's brutal. She doesn't hesitate. And I don't think that if I take you on this mission, I'll be able to say the same."
"You don't want me to hesitate after saying that a person you're terrified of never does?" Fontaine asked. "That makes no sense."
"One day, little sister, whether you like it or not, you will have to take a life. But the fact is that she's going to be there tomorrow. And if she takes a shot at you, I need to know that you will take one back and you won't miss. If you hesitate, she won't. She'll kill you and we can't have that."
"You don't know that she'd kill us just because of some useless data." Fontaine argued.
"Really?" Ant frowned. "If she kills you, that's our chance of getting into the system gone. Then that means she'll know that the data she took is real, so she'll use it against 700 innocent people. To finish it off, they'll use the same malware to try and attack thousands of innocent agents around the world for no other reason than the fact that she can. So yes, forgive me for believing that this is a very big deal and something you need to take seriously."
"I can do this, Ant." Fontaine said seriously. "You have to trust me for once, that I can actually help."
"I know you can help." Ant said gently. "I don't doubt it. But there's a limit to the good that you can see in everyone, and she's the limit. She's darkness itself, wrapped up in a soulless blanket. She doesn't flinch when she stabs someone in the throat or shoots them in the eye. And she rarely misses. I need to know that you'll be up to it, really, if it's you or her. Because she won't pause to think about it."
"I can do this." Fontaine insisted. "I promise."
"You promise that you'll put yourself first?" Ant asked.
Fontaine tried not to flinch as she nodded. "Yes. But you have to promise me that if she ever wanted to switch, you'd give her a chance, Ant."
"Fine. I promise. Let's go over your mission role."
An hour later, Ant had slipped back into his compound to get dressed. Alex and Harry had asked Fontaine if she wished to watch some movies with them, but she'd been to nervous/excited to stay still and watch tv. So she'd declined, yet now found herself equally as jittery but twice as bored as she tried to sleep for a few hours before the mission was set to commence.
Ant had been right about this being a huge task. Fontaine hadn't expected it to be quite as bad as it was. But 700 people's lives now hung in her hands. To retrieve the hard drive, she needed to input DNA data of Ant's into their system, allow him access to remove it, and then destroy it offsite.
If they played their cards right, she might've even been able to gather information about future plans from the Shadow Counsel to aid them in other missions. It was a huge responsibility, and one she needed to ensure was handled carefully.
Fontaine couldn't let herself wonder if she was up to the case because she had to do this. She had no choice. And she knew there was so many damn ways this could wrong, but it didn't matter because she was going to help.
Fontaine flopped back into her bed as her thoughts spiralled.
Everyone she knew thought that she was way too optimistic. That she saw the world with way more sunshine and rainbows than anyone else did. But she also knew that there was potential in everyone. And that if people stopped looking at the 'bad guys' as the enemy, they might not be losing the battle so badly.
Her mind drifts to Jess without even trying. Fontaine tried to put the thoughts in order. She'd known Jess for a very, very long time. They'd first met when they were barely old enough to remember. Playing in a sand pit with each other innocently, having no idea of who their parents were and what they were doing.
Just kids. As they'd gotten older, Fontaine had been perhaps the only person who didn't see Jess as a complete monster. Everyone, even, her parents, maybe even Jess herself, saw the girl as a dangerous villain who should be at the very least avoided. And if you couldn't avoid her, you should try and kill her. Before she tried to kill you.
Fontaine had never gone on assignment when Jess might've been near by. Mostly because of Ant. Nobody else knew that she might've preferred girls to boys. Nobody else knew that if left alone with Jess, she wasn't going to try and kill her like anyone else would.
Most importantly though, was the issue that Ant had brought up earlier. Jess wasn't nice to Fontaine. She kept a permanent scowl etched into her features, a permanent look of anger, and a personality to match. And Fontaine did not trust Jess (unless you counted that she trusted Jess would do something dangerous) at all.
But it didn't stop Jess's constant flirting whenever she saw her with more than one drink in her system. It didn't stop the way they clocked each other whenever they were in the same room. It definitely didn't stop the way that Fontaine would hope for the best in the girl, no matter what, because she'd always believe that Jess could change.
To everyone else, that made Fontaine weak.
And if that was the case, she guessed that this mission was as good a time as any to prove that being positive and hopeful did not mean she was powerless.
~~~~~~
"She's going to get herself killed, Harry." Ant grumbled under his breath.
"You really think that little of your ability to protect her?" Harry rolled his eyes. "She'll be fine. She's got you there, and we both know that she's infinitely better than you at almost everything."
"That's a lie." Ant argued.
"The qualification re-mark last week says otherwise. You hit the mark 89 percent. She hit hers with 100 percent accuracy. Every single time." Harry pointed out. "If anyone has the skill, it's her."
"But she doesn't have the heart." Ant sighed. "She doesn't. She won't kill somebody, and that's the problem. When you have as much blood on your hands as I do there comes a point that you realise you can't save everybody. If it's you or them, chose yourself."
"You're the one who kept her inside so long that this type of thinking is deeply ingrained." Harry argued. "That's on you. Now we have to fix it."
"She thinks that Jess fucking Matthews might be able to be fixed." Ant rolled his eyes. "We're past that."
"Look," Harry sighed. "Don't get me wrong, she's naive. But she's also so....pure, Ant. That type of hope, it's contaigous. And it's what will help her to be an incredible agent if she can harness it right. That hope that people can change is what moves her and we need that. No one else here really believes that we can make a difference but she does. Don't you want to support that?"
"Of course I do." Ant responded. "I also don't want to find her brains blown to bits because Jess pulls the trigger when she can't."
"She thinks that a violent murderer could change because she's never seen her in action. This is the perfect opportunity for her. She'll get to see Jess taking lives without remorse and she'll realise that she can't save her. She'll be more focused now on helping others not to become like Jess. And what do you know, we've got our next best agent on our hands."
"And if that plan fails?" Ant asked.
"You'd just better make sure it doesn't, but I highly doubt that'll be the case. It'd take an act of God to prevent Jess from killing somebody." Harry laughed.
"And what do we do about the......" Ant trailed off, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively before halting with a grimace. "You know."
"Fontaine say anything to you?" Harry asked.
"No."
"Then drop it. Look if she says she didn't flirt, then.....she didn't. Jess did. And we're going to keep it that way, if only to protect her." Harry said resolutely. "I'm coming with you by the way."
"Excellent. Suit up. Taine? You ready?" Ant called.
Fontaine poked her head into the room. "Was I supposed to wear the vest under my clothes? Is that ok?"
"Yes." Ant nodded. "It's a good idea to keep it under so that people don't immediately aim for your head. It's misleading."
Fontaine nodded. "Okay. Then yes. I'm ready."
"Great." Ant smiled. "Let's do this."
~~~~~~