A flash of silence

Question time

Alex's POV
When the games were over, it was time for dinner and I was starving from running around and taking hits and rounds for an hour. Taina was as well so we left a couple minutes early to get our food and sit down in peace, we moved to our table and sat down, the two loners just enjoying each other's company. Taina looked at me "hey Alex" I looked over "Yeah T?" She looked at the operators coming in as she asked "What do you think of rainbow?" I put down my burger and looked at the operators before turning my attention to her "It's not bad; it's different but it's not bad. There's a lot of people I couldn't care less about but I've made some friends, so I guess I like it, why?" She glanced over at me "When I got here, I hated it. There were too many people, they were too loud or too nosy but they've grown on me. I've gotten used to having them around, I just wanted to know if someone like me felt the same when they first got here" I nodded in understanding as I tapped her shoulder "Finish eating, we'll head to my room and you can ask me anything you want" she nodded as I stood and took my tray throwing away the trash and placing it in assigned spot. When I sat down I looked over the cafeteria and thought I wonder if Huntsman is gonna watch the tournament. I don't know how much time had passed before she bumped my shoulder with her own and spoke "Let's go" I nodded as I stood and followed her out of the mess hall. We walked quietly for a minute before we arrived at my door and I took out my keys, unlocking my door, and opening the door holding it for Taina before closing it. I moved to my gun locker, placing my ACR and USP in it before I sat at my desk, spinning to look at Taina as she sat on my bed and looked around the room. I chuckled "you can touch things you know, they won't break" she stood and walked over to a shelf seeing my collection of deployment medals and commendations, "Where'd you get these?" I sighed "Everywhere you could name, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, The US, Greece most other countries" her head snapped to me "The US?" I nodded "We caught some Masks in New York trying time bomb the UN building" she spoke "I never heard about that" I nodded "because we stopped it before it happened" she sighed "the unsung heroes then?" I nodded as she moved over to my nightstand and saw some pictures "who're these?" I stood and walked over "these are my friends in the CIA that aren't breathing anymore" she looked at me "I'm sorry" I waved her off "Don't be, I'm the one who put them down" she cocked an eyebrow "What happened? Why?" I chuckled "2 of them sympathized with the enemies and eventually tried to defect and the last one was a mercy kill" she nodded slowly "the struggle of our job" I sighed "When you do the dirty work of a nation, you only see the dark side. Sometimes it's hard to remember why you're fighting" she nodded "So onto my questions" I laughed "I was wondering when that would happen" she smiled "Alright, why does Huntsman call you Erebus?" I looked down "it's my old name, I've worked with the CIA since I was 7, Huntsman has been my Handler the entire time" she nodded "So your birth name is Erebus?" I nodded "I don't use it often" she smiled "Can I call you by it?" I shrugged "sure go ahead" she nodded "What's your favorite memory from being in the CIA?" I sighed before thinking "oh I got it, okay so it was 2005 I was in Afghanistan and we were watching this suspected terrorist compound and we saw some guys in a court yard and we watched them start teaching how to plant IEDs but apparently one of the guys had made a mistake cause placed his down and was about to start digging to "Hide" it when it detonated and the compound blew up" I chuckled thinking about the memory as taina laughed as well "so the enemy destroyed their compound for you?" I nodded "it was glorious, we laughed about it for months" she asked another question "why'd you want to get out of Greece?" I sighed "Greece, in ancient times, was a super power, it built the foundations of the west but today our military isn't nearly as strong and we had soviet influence in every nation around us, I watched so many people suffer or die because of communism and I wanted to fight it, America was my answer" she nodded as I asked "What about you? Why come to rainbow?" She looked at me before turning back to my shelf "When I was younger, I got in trouble a lot... mostly with the law. I ran away from home and got arrested for robbery. The judge offered me to work with BOPE, turns out I've got a knack for breaking people" I chuckled "who would've guessed? The Brazilian in skull face paint is good at breaking people" she laughed "yeah, I guess that is a pretty good hint, isn't it?" I nodded as she went to grab my art book as I hopped up "not this, anything but this" she gave me a look before nodding "You never told me you drew?" I snorted "Noone got told" she nodded as I walked over to my locker and opened the lower safe pulling out a lock box and handing it to Taina "Here, check these out" she gave me a look as she placed it on my bed and sat down. I sat on my desk as she opened it and I saw her face light up "Wow" I nodded "How do you like them?" She looked at me for a second before her eyes focused on the knives "They're beautiful" I nodded "I've got SEAL knives, KaBars, M9 bayonets, Karambits and an Elk antler Bowie" she looked up and spoke "you collect knives?" I nodded "As well as guns, Harry's getting me a bigger Locker so it can hold more guns" she looked at me "Why do you collect so many weapons?" I shrugged "I like them" she laughed softly "why am I not surprised?" I walked to the locker and grabbed my cleaning kit and sat down disassembling my M16 while talking to Taina "So The rich girls dad huh?" I paused "So it was on me?" She nodded as I sighed "Son of a bitch" she leaned forward "So what'd you mean?" I kept cleaning my rifle as I spoke "I lived in Virginia working at the Headquarters while I was going through school and this rich girl was into me because I was fit, I played sports and my accent so we hit it off and we're horny teens and her dad caught us and I dove out the window and ran for my truck while he came out waving his 12 gauge" she laughed, full on doubled over laughing as I sighed before she spoke "So in the middle of a clutch, you dove through a window and had a flashback to being a teenager?" I nodded slowly "Well... yeah, I guess I did" she laughed again as I took the upper receiver apart and cleaned it. When she settled down,  she looked at me and smiled as I noticed her looking at me "what? Is grease on my face?" She shook her head no "I'm just thinking about you hauling ass from this rich guys house as he waves a shotgun" I shook my head as a small smile grew on my face "Hey T?" She cocked an eyebrow "Yeah?" I glanced at the picture of my mother "Do you ever think about going back to Brazil?" She sighed "Yeah, but then I remember why I left it." I leaned forward "Why did you leave it?" She looked out the window "there's nothing there for me, here? Atleast here I have some friends and a future" I nodded "I see" she looked at me as I went back to cleaning the lower receiver. I heard her speak "hey Erebus?" I glanced at her before returning to looking at the receiver "Hmm?" She asked "Why do you isolate yourself? You could be really popular if you talked to the others?" I sighed as I placed the rifle on my desk and leaned in "Because I hate people, I despise them. I've grown to distrust everyone, in my line of work you trust anyone too much and you could die. I like being alone because I know I can trust myself" she nodded slowly as my words sunk in "Then why are you friends with John and I?" I leaned back "You have to trust someone, why not trust two people who are like me? We're all loners, we're all outcasts." She nodded "I see, so you became my friend because we're both outcasts?" I shook my head "that's one of the reasons, yeah" she looked up "What's the other reasons?" I continued clean the receiver "You weren't nervous around me after I destroyed lion, it intrigued me. Lastly, you were alone, I wanted to know why" she nodded "so it's a friendship of circumstance?" I shrugged "I guess at first yes, but now it's a friendship of choice" she smiled as I spoke "hey you wanna go to the movie night?" She looked at me weirdly "Why would we do that?" I shrugged "Something to do before we have to pack for the flight tomorrow" she sighed "Yeah, sure." I stood after reassembling the rifle and placed it in the locker before I took the lock box and placed it in the lower part and activated the lock on the locker and followed Taina out of the door. Taina spoke "Why don't we invite John? He never leaves the office anyway" I nodded "To the armory then" as we redirected and started walking. Along the way buck joined us "So you two are going to the movie night?" I nodded as Seb's eyes landed on Taina "Why? You've never come to one before" she glanced at me as she replied "Spartan, he proposed it and I was just bored enough to agree" he laughed "I see, Well we're happy to have you two but the rooms in the opposite direction" I looked at him "I know, I'm not stupid" he quickly back tracked "I didn't- I wasn't... I'm sorry it sounded that way" I rolled my eyes "we're going to talk to John about getting him to come" buck looked thoughtful "The quarter master?" I nodded as he spoke "But he doesn't speak to anyone, why would he come?" I asked "Do Cav and I talk to that many people?" He looked thoughtful "Outside of mission, no not really. I only see you two together and sometimes you, John and Tai- oh I see, you three are like an anti-social trio" Cav and I glared at him as raised his hands in a surrender gesture "Alright, alright.. I'll stop joking about how you two hate everyone" I sighed as we entered the armory and searched for John before we headed to the Movie Room.