Guts Over Fear ◇ NIKITA

Reassigned

It had been two weeks since Alys's departure from Division, Percy declared Nikita dead and the blonde hadn't heard from or of her since. She missed Nikita more than she normally allowed herself to, but her only company was her charm bracelet. Birkhoff and Michael were working in Ops and Amanda put her on leave from medical for a while.

A hand fell over her green eyes, the fingers slowly peeling back to reveal Noah's commonly curious gaze. "You're upset." Alys sighed and pushed his hand off her face, fighting not to roll her eyes.

"I'm a dog on a leash," she muttered moodily. "I have been for nine years and I'm sick of it."

"Have patience, mon amour," he whispered as he leaned down closer to her face. Before their skin could meet a blaring alarm tore at her ears, breaking her visage of Noah and setting her nerves on edge. Alys quickly left her room, somehow managing to make it to Ops unscathed, almost furious that Birkhoff hadn't left like everyone else.

"What the hell are you still doing in here?" she asked as she walked over to his portion of the desk.

"Michael's in the field with Nikita, I can't leave him out there." With a sigh, Alys reached under the desk and grabbed the pistol stashed there and took aim at the door. "And what exactly is it you think you're doing?" Birkhoff questioned incredilously.

"Michael can't be left on his own," Alys agreed, "and I'm the better shot. You just make sure he gets out of there." Birkhoff nodded and went back to work, but she couldn't decipher his spoken words over the alarms that were still blaring around them. After a few moments, his hand closed around her arm and he nodded towards the door.

"Michael's clear, let's go." With a stiff nod, Alys stepped forward and led Birkhoff to a safer floor of Division.

◇

Things went back to normal fairly quickly, Alys turned over the gun and returned to the confinement of her room, alone once again. She hadn't been there for long when a guard, Martin, informed her that Amanda was summoning her. He didn't let her go alone, either, making sure to escort her down the halls all the way to Amanda's door. Once inside, Alys was unsettled to find herself alone in the room.

Getting a sense of deja vu from her Graduation mission, she studied the rack of clothes lined up for her inspection warily. Unlike the first time, she heard the soft click of the door when Amanda entered. "I won't apologize for recomending your cancelation, but I will say that it is beneficial Percy didn't go through with it." Alys turned her head and tried not to glare as Amada walked around her. "Do you know why you were put in medical?"

"So I couldn't snoop through Ops anymore," the blonde shrugged. "Or at least that's what everyone tells me."

"You took Ritalin as a cruch for your short attention span," Amanda informed, as if Alys hadn't already known this. "When performing surgical operations, every acute detail is important, honing your focus and training it. In a sense, your work became the Ritalin." Alys wasn't hoping to be praised or anything. Her only goal was to survive, and even then, Amanda wouldn't have trusted her. Alys was pretty sure she still didn't. "After three years of fine tuning what we could, you're ready for your next mission."

Alys took a quick, silent breath, her eyes widening a fraction. She hadn't been on a mission in years, the place she did have was just to maintain a cover while giving her a sense of fresh air. "I thought I was unfit for field work?"

"Percy dismissed that, as well," Amanda lightly sighed, clearly unhappy with this course of events. "Consider it a continuation of your last mission." Alys's hand shot to the star tattooed over her left chest, the brand she was forced to gain for Division's sake, her expression confused.

His betrayal was clear on his face as he met her green eyes, just as shocked as he was. "That was it then?" His voice was raspy, but still angry. "All for money?"

"I don't get paid for what I do," Alys whispered, her hand trembling as she gripped the blade still protruding from his chest. "My payment is my life. Unfortunately, I must earn it with yours." Twisting the blade and pulling it out, she stepped back as Kelevra struggled to hold his own weight up.

"The ghost known as Kelevra is dead. You should know, Roan came to clean him," Alys stated, a bitter taste growing in the back of her throat.

"I know," Amanda agreed. "However, as of now we only have use for his name." She stood before her vanity patiently, a silent coaxing for Alys to sit before her. So, stiffly and cautiously, she sat before the mirror and kept her eyes off her relfection. "As you know, you may be the only person to see his face and walk away alive. Not many knew Kelevra more than a legendary assassin, let alone that he was a man." Alys finally looked up to her reflection as Amanda rearranged her long blonde hair behind her shoulders. "Because of this, he will be particularly easy to impersonate."

"So, I get to look like a man." She wanted to chuckle at that, but she refrained from doing so. "Finally, something I've been dying to do." Amanda narrowed her eyes at the mirror and let her hair be.

"Kelevra is a faceless, genderless assassin with the ranking of captain in the Bratva," she corrected. "You have the markings and makings of that assassin. He taught you how he fought." Alys looked up and met Amanda's eyes through the glass, that bitter feeling in the back of her throat rising into her mouth.

"I killed him, now you want me to be him?" she guessed, her tone holding a controlled anger.

"No one outside of the operation knows that Kelevra is dead. We have a way to cover his inactivity over the past three years." Alys raised her eyebrow in a look that said 'In what way?' and Amanda gained her notorious almost smile. "A child." The blonde swallowed hard, hoping to clear the taste from her mouth but only succeeding in making herself feel sick.

"If I were willing to get out of the life for this child, why would I get back in?" she asked hesitantly, afraid of the answer. She never liked missions, and she could tell she'd like this one the least.

"Because your child was attacked, killed in cold blood. It's time you get revenge."

Alys looked up at Roan in confusion, wondering how her mission could possibly start in this dank alleyway. "What is it I have to do, again?" she asked cautiously.

Roan put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye, a light curl to his lips. "Call for help." Hot pain stemmed in her abdomen as she looked down and saw that Roan had stabbed her. "It's not fatal, but it will catch the target's attention." Quickly retracting the knife from her flesh, he pulled away and watched her lean against the wall with a pained expression. "Good luck."

"You were badly injured fighting off the attacker as they came for you next. By the time you reached your todler, she was gone." Alys looked away from the mirror, trying to hide her distaste of the mission as best she could, which wasn't so easy to do with Amanda. "Don't worry, Alys. You won't be sent out for a few weeks. Until then, you can resume your normal shifts in medical."

"That's it?" Alys asked carefully.

"For now," Amanda nodded. "Take some time to slip back into your routine, balance yourself out again. There's no need to rush."