To Be Like the Guardians

Part 1: The Plan, Chapter 12: The Shouting

Beth couldn't believe what Agent M. Bennett had told her, that he wanted her to kill Pitch. The thought horrified her; she didn't want to face such a powerful being. It made her quake inside. And anyway, Agents M. and H. Sloan, not to mention her old high school friends who had been obsessed with the RotG/GoC fandom up until their senior year, had told her that Pitch was innocent, possessed. However, hadn't Pitch been given numerous opportunities to change? And wouldn't he be better off dead?

As Beth wondered why Bennett had run off so suddenly- maybe he'd really had to go to the bathroom, she reasoned- a noise sent an electric pulse of adrenaline through her. A blood-curdling feminine scream echoed through the tall building. Beth immediately took off her Power-Inducer, unlocked the door, and ran out of the training room, looking for the sound's source. Who was it, and why was she screaming? While Beth's immediate reaction was to run out of the headquarters and away from the danger, she knew that there were only three people in the building right now, so she needed to help.

She sprinted down the hall, pausing at each door to see where the scream was loudest. Not that door. Not that one. She crossed into the front, North Hall through the intersection. It was louder here. She checked the nearest door. It wasn't that one, but it was closer. The next.

The scream was now so loud and clear that it almost made her ears ring. This had to be the right door, the one with the "First-in-Command" sign above it. Agents M. and H. Sloan's office.

She tried the knob, but it was locked, so she put her finger on the fingerprint scanner next to it.

"Agent B. Howard," the barely-audible mechanical voice said. "Access denied."

The door had no window. Beth couldn't see what was inside.

"I've got it!" came a shout down the hallway. Agent M. Bennett was sprinting toward her. In an instant, he had crossed the halls and was standing right at her side. He put his finger on the scanner.

"Agent M. Bennett. Access granted." He reached forward and turned the knob, pushing open the door. He began yanking open drawers in the desk and glancing inside them. For a second, Beth wasn't sure if she was allowed to help or not, but she soon decided that it would be best. She tugged the nearest drawer open, but it only contained some pencils and pens. She doubted that they were screaming. She opened the next drawer. Only some papers.

Bennett opened another, and the scream became nearly deafening. Beth pressed her clammy hands over her ears. Bennett pulled out what looked like a brass compass, its non-brass surface half blue-gray and half yellow-orange, and the white needle was pointing in the middle of the two sections.

The screaming suddenly stopped, and the silence felt loud all on its own. Beth released her ears.

"If both times exist at once, then both will fall!" the compass said, quieter than the screams it had been emitting. The white needle began to split down its center, and a glowing black line appeared at the opposite end, almost looking like a second needle. "If both times exist at once, then both will fall!" And then it became silent once more.

Beth and Bennett just stared at the compass, neither speaking a word for a moment.

"What is this, sir?" Beth asked.

"We call it the Indicator. We don't know what it does or means, but we think it tells us that a certain group of people will die, disappear, or exist, or something like that. Agents M. and H. Sloan found it in a cave with all the L.E.R. agents' and Guardians' names in it, though we still don't know where it all came from. We've thought we've known what the Indicator specifically meant before, but we were wrong. And it can't be destroyed."

"Oh." Beth tried to take in all this information and ignore the way her stomach squeezed itself. Why did the people in charge keep it from her and the others? It involved them, after all. Did they not want them to be scared?

"I would tell Agents M. and H. Sloan about this, but I don't want to worry them on their honeymoon. I'll tell the others that know about it: Agents A. Seymour, D. Feltner, and F. Garcia."

Beth heard someone running down the hall and turned to find the last person on Bennett's list sprinting in.

"What was that? I was in the bathroom," she said.

"The Indicator," Bennett replied.

Garcia looked at the bump on his shoulder. "You stole that, didn't you?"

"No, I had an extra one."

"Please hand it over."

Bennett took it off and gave it to her.

"And what's she doing here this late?" she asked, glaring at Beth.

"She needs extra training on how to use her Power-Inducer."

"Did she steal it?"

"No. It was another one of my extras."

"How many extras do you have?"

"No more now."

Garcia looked between Beth and Bennett, her light green eyes narrowed. "You better behave with that, Howard." She turned around and walked out the door, probably going back to her lab.

"I'll get a new one later," Bennett said once she was out of earshot. "You should be careful of her, or she might catch on to us."

"Why do we have to keep it a secret, sir?" Beth asked.

"That's classified. But don't worry, I know what I'm doing." A pause. "You should go home, Howard. You've done a good job today."

"Okay. Thank you, sir."

*}{/*}{/*}{/*

At home, Mallory got ready for bed, brushing his teeth in front of the bathroom mirror. As he did so, he thought about what had happened earlier. He hadn't been able to think up a lie right then as to why he and Howard had to hide from Fiona, and he had no idea what the Indicator had been talking about when it had referenced "times." The only thing he could come up with as an explanation was some sort of messed up time travel, and the L.E.R.- and Guardians, as far as he knew- had no plans of doing anything like that.

And what about his shapeshifting? What had caused that? He had started to change soon after he had lied to Howard. Was his Power-Inducer ability changing? Could that happen? The powers were based on the people themselves after all, so what if he was changing? But how was he changing? Sure he was lying to keep his children safe, but was that such a big thing?

"You're doing well, Bennett. You're fighting the danger. You're going to keep your children safe." Mallory spat out his toothpaste, smiled, and walked back into his bedroom. Why had he thought the voices were evil, again? Because they supposedly came from Pitch?

"Call me Mallory," he said to them. People at work didn't call him that because it was a professional environment, but this was different.

"If that is what you prefer."

Even if Mallory was beginning to shapeshift, however, he was still going to have Howard kill Pitch. Electricity was a deadly power.

It was rather unfortunate that he had to hide his plan from his coworkers since they didn't trust him or would likely approve of it, though. If they pitched in, it would be even easier.