To Be Like the Guardians

Part 2: The Protecting, Chapter 2: The Special Mission

At a knock on the door, Mallory took off his Power-Inducer and shoved it into one of his back pockets, pausing his work. He had recognized the knock as Fiona's.

She opened the door, not waiting for him to respond apparently, and shut it behind her.

"You've been stealing."

"No I haven't."

"Yes, you have." Fiona looked around his office and opened the nearest drawer. "You've been getting into my lab after hours." Oh no. How did she know? Mallory's stomach balled itself into a knot.

"What makes you think so?"

"I know so. My fingerprint scanner told me. It holds a record of everyone who's used it or tried to, and yours has popped up twice at night now. So, where is it? You gave one to Howard; I'll be sure to take it from her. I took one of yours away, and now where's the third one you've stolen?" She looked at his shoulder, searching for a Power-Inducer.

Mallory maintained steady eye contact. "I haven't stolen anything, Fiona. I was just checking your progress on your sentinel, that's all."

"I don't believe you. I'm sorry, but I can't trust you with the voices in your head from the darkness. You're not alright."

"They've been getting better." It was true. Now that he was on his way to kill Pitch, they had been leaving him alone a lot more often.

Fiona scrunched up her face, bottom lip out. "I'm sorry, but I just can't trust you right now. I can't risk it with Matt and Haven gone. Maybe once they come back. Will you please let me search your desk?"

"Go ahead." He got up from his chair, pushed it in, and pressed his back against the far wall, making sure his hands were open and in front of him so she could see they were empty. He watched as Fiona scoured his desk, looking under his laptop and rummaging through all the desk drawers. She hmed and frowned when she had finished, clearly confused, especially because her haze- wait a second, she had no haze. Where was her haze?

"Well, I guess you haven't stolen anything. Sorry, Mallory. Why did you give Howard one of your extra Power-Inducers, though? Remember when she trashed my place looking for one when she was protesting not letting everyone have them?"

"It was a mistake. You can take it, if you see her." It would be best if she no longer had it.

Fiona nodded. "I'll do that." And then she turned around and left his office, closing the door behind her.

Mallory went to work setting everything back to where it had been, and he put his Power-Inducer back in his shoulder. Seriously, where had her haze gone? Was he in the process of switching abilities? It had never happened to anyone before, and he couldn't think of anything in him that had changed between a few days ago and now aside from viewing the voices differently.

Not even a few seconds had passed after finishing cleaning up than the four people he had told to meet him in his office arrived, filing into the small room once he let them in. The four stood around awkwardly, there being only one chair on the opposite side of the desk. The office hadn't been made for group meetings, but at least Mallory had a little time to squeeze one in.

"What did you want to tell us, sir?" Agent L. Graham asked.

Mallory shut his laptop and placed his hands flat on top of it. "I have selected all of you for a special mission because of your loyalty, and some of your Power-Inducer abilities."

"A special mission!" Agent R. Lyle looked particularly excited, his hazel eyes wide and his longish curly brown hair almost bouncing when he moved. He was the tallest of the group. "What does it entail?"

Agent C. Vaughn practically glared at him, breaking his calm expression. But the haze that was as red as his hair gave his irritation away more. Maybe Mallory should have thought about group dynamics before picking everyone.

"You and the others are going to work with me to kill Pitch," Mallory said. At this, the group faltered. Agent K. Donnelly's jaw dropped to almost the length of her shortish auburn hair that was bound in a ponytail. "You must not tell anyone about it."

"Why?" she asked. "Why are we the only ones helping?"

"If I told everyone, Pitch would find out." It was a great excuse. He should've thought of it earlier.

"Why haven't we done it before now?" Graham asked. "He's getting stronger, isn't he?"

"The Fearlings and Nightmares have been attacking more often, but that just means he's been getting more desperate. Last time I saw him, he was weak, although his minions would come at us in large groups before." Mallory almost shivered at the memory, but he had to keep a brave face. "Graham, due to your loyalty to me, you're going to be leading the group." A smile spread across Graham's face.

"Me?"

"Yes. But there are some things I need you to do to help prepare. First of all, we need a map of Pitch's lair so that we can plan accordingly." Mallory couldn't have this attempt fail. He had been planning on having Howard do this before she went, but she hadn't even gotten her Power-Inducer ability up to standards. "It's in Agent F. Garcia's lab."

"Why can't you get it yourself?" Vaughn asked.

"She doesn't want me in there right now for personal reasons." Mallory didn't know if it was a lie or not. He didn't really care.

"So, when are we gonna do it?" Graham asked.

"As soon as you can, before Agents M. and H. Sloan get back. I want to surprise them." And surprised they would be. They might be upset with him, but everyone would be safer with Pitch gone, so they would be glad later.

"Okay. We'll get to it later today, sir."

"Good. Now off you go."

*/*/*/*

Beth was jogging outside when her phone buzzed with a text from Irene. It felt odd to Beth to not do something active during the day, so she had gone back to her high school habit of running.

"You won't believe this," Irene said. "I was eavesdropping outside Bennett's office, and he recruited four people to replace you. Graham's their leader! And they're gonna steal a map of Pitch's lair from Garcia's lab tonight! I tried warning her but she just shut her door in my face before I could say anything. And I couldn't shout it to her, or someone might've heard!"

"No," Beth breathed, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk with buildings on either side of her. "I'll have to go there tonight, then, and try to stop them," she texted. She knew that Irene would want nothing to do with it, so she left her friend out of the plan.

"We need to stop them from killing Pitch..." Beth mumbled to herself, digging her nails into her palms. Wind whirled around her, making her black hair smack her in the face. She grunted and tried to hit the wind back, but it didn't work, obviously. "Did you record it?" Beth texted.

"I was, but then my phone was out of battery after the very beginning, and that part won't help us. I had to borrow someone's charger just to text you this."

Beth's throat threatened to clench shut. She hoped she would be able to convince Graham and the others to not kill Pitch and record something that would prohibit Bennett from firing her. If she hadn't been so afraid of getting seen by Bennett, she would've just gone now, but she needed to preserve her life as much as possible. If she failed and he saw her, it might all be over too soon.