Chapter Text
Stupid. So stupid. I told myself, as I struggled inside of the thick rope that tied me to the chair, whose metal stung my arms like bitter ice. Whoever did this must be very stupid to think that one of my agents would not come and get me.
I sighed, the pitch black around me enhancing the scratching of the rope against my arms.
The damp smell of the room pounded against my nose, until I could almost taste it. Urh, Eww.
Just then, the door before me swung open, pouring light into the room as if someone had spilt a bucket of it at my feet. I winced, and when I opened my eyes again, a silhouette appeared in the doorway.
“Whoever you are,” I called to the silhouette, “you are being very silly by capturing the Head of MI7 and expecting not to be immediately terminated by MI7 agents in a few hours! If you do not let me go, you will be killed no matter how many other people you have with you!”
“Oh, relax, Pamela,” said the silhouette, “it’s only me.”
“Who the hell are you?!” I demanded, my voice slicing through the air like a knife.
The silhouette flipped on the switch and I gasped.
“Agent One!” I exclaimed, my heart jumping.
“Surprise, Pamela,” he said with a laugh, and I rolled my eyes.
“What exactly do you have to say for yourself, traitor?!”
“Oh, calm down,” he said, with a smile, “I’m not the one who put you here.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice lowering as I stared at him, confusion eating up inside of me.
“I mean I didn’t put you here, Pamela,” he said.
“Then who did?!”
“I don’t know.”
“Well,” I said, attempting to fold my arms, but the rope scratched them until I just dropped them, “that is not very helpful, then.”
“Not very helpful? I came here to save you, Pamela!”
“What?!” I said, with a gasp. “Why would you want to save me? And how did you even know that I was here? Also, it’s Pegasus, not Pamela, thank you very much. Only my friends and relatives call me Pamela. Now explain yourself.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Alright, alright, Pegasus,” he said holding his hands up, “I found out that you where here because I went to MI7 to see if I could lie to everyone that Johnny was the third man in Vortex and make up some clever story to everyone, but then I saw that they were all panicking about you not being in yet, so I left without them even knowing I was there, did a little investigating and found a suspicious chap hanging around the building, so I interrogated him and he told me where his superiors had put you. Then I drove here, and well, you know the rest.”
My expression remained stern and fixed as he told his story.
“But why did you want to save me in the first place?” I asked, the confusion eating more and more at me. “You’re a traitor, you betrayed the whole of MI7, and tried to kill me!”
As I said these words, my heart sank with memories of what I had said.
I sighed.
“I cannot believe you, Agent One. Or rather, ex-Agent One.”
I looked up at him, and the shine in his hazel eyes seemed to fade.
“Look, Pegasus,” he said, pausing a little, “I never wanted to kill you or hurt you specifically, it just worked with my plan.”
“I don’t care!” I yelled, leaning forward, my heart sinking even more. “I will never forgive someone who betrayed my service! AND you did still try to kill me! I put my trust in you and I NEVER will again!”
I clenched my teeth, as neither of us said anything. He sighed and looked at the damp, mouldy floor.
My heart began to throb with the memories and unsaid words. Looking at Agent One again almost brought tears to my eyes, but I blinked them back and bit my lip.
“Come on,” he said, looking up at me again after a few minutes, “just let me untie you and then you never have to see me again, Pegasus.”
“Alright,” I said, gritting my teeth.
He began to walk towards me, and began to cut through the hard, scratchy rope with a pocket knife.
However, just as he cut the first knot, a bang echoed through the dark room so loudly that my eardrums almost burst. I scrunched up my eyes as I felt a cold liquid splat on my face and opened them wide with horror, the stench of blood filling my nose.
“Agent One!” I exclaimed, my eyes darting down to see him laying on the ground with a bit of blood next to him.
I began to shake, causing the lose rope around one of my arms to fall to the floor and drown in the small puddle of blood as if it were being dyed red.
With my lose arm, I untied the knot on the other arm and pulled off the rope.
Standing up, my body still shaking, I stared down at Agent One. I wiped the blood off of my face. The stench of it; I could almost taste it on my tongue.
My heart sank like a rock to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and I continued to stare, breathing heavily, my eyes glued to Agent One.
“Th-they shot you,” was all I could muster, “but how did they know you were here?”
“They always knew,” said Agent One, sitting up, “I suspected that they wouldn’t just leave you here without guarding you, especially since you have all those agents who might come and rescue you. I suppose they put something automatic in the ceiling to shoot anyone who came near you. Maybe they weren’t as stupid as you thought, Pegasus.”
I paused for a moment, still breathing heavily before I spoke again.
“But, Agent One,” I said, “why did you come to untie me if you suspected that? You are one of the most selfish people I know.”
“Because the person I interrogated earlier said the people here were going to kill you.”
“What?!” I half gasped-half chocked, my heart throbbing. “Why would you care about me?! You tried to kill me, yourself! Why would it matter if I died?!”
As I said these last words, they pricked the back of my throat as if I had swallowed a clump of thorns.
Anger began to boil inside of me. Was he joking?!
“And that whole fake death thing stung me even worse than your selfish betrayal, which you only did for the sake of money! And now you get yourself hurt to save my life even though you tried to kill me a few months ago! What do actually want from me?! I don’t understand you!”
As I yelled each word, my heart sank lower and lower with the memory, and I watched as the life began to fade from Agent One’s bright hazel eyes.
“I don’t want anything from you,” he whispered, “all I wanted was to save you.”
“Why?!” I demanded.
“Because I felt bad about betraying you,” he said “because I missed the way you were always so proud of me after every mission but all you would say out loud was “not bad, Agent One”. Because I realised as soon as you began to berate me in Switzerland that I never wanted you to die and I had actually cared about you all along. Because it hurt me that I hurt you and that you hated me so much. Because I missed your beautiful smile and your beautiful glossy lips. Because I missed the way your voice sounded and the way you used to yell at all of Agents—especially Johnny. I missed the way you walked into a room, listed a bunch of orders, and left. I missed the way you were so serious, so strict, so sensible, so single-minded, so controlling, so elegant, and so beautiful. The only one beautiful enough for me.”
As he said all of those words, my anger began to fizzle out like cooling lava. My heart began to ache again, but it also seemed to glow a little, light up a little, like a fire that burnt bright but stung hard.
“Really?” I said, my voice much softer.
“Yes,” he said, “I’m sorry, Pegasus.”
And as he said those last words, his eyes slowly began to close.
“W-what?” I gasped, heat rushed to my face, as tears pricked the corners of my eyes.
I knelt down onto the floor and placed my hand on his face, blinking back the tears.
I stayed there like that until his face turned cold underneath my hand and the tears that I had been blinking back finally came pouring down, like a waterfall. My hand rushed to my eyes, wiping them away, though more just poured out, their salty taste dripping onto my lips.
“Agent One,” I whispered, my heart pounding like a drum, “please come back.”