F.E.A.R

Chapter IX

Song- Irene & Seulgi Naughty

<Present>

When I began as an agent, I was confident in my skills. Back then, I liked doing this job, it wasn't a job for revenge or because I had to do it, I did it because I liked it. Even though I had to continue my family's legacy in being an agent myself, I didn't really care about that. Why? Because I am the type of person that does what she likes and not what others want me to do.

But, what had changed since then?

Times were different, we weren't the only beings on this planet anymore, we didn't have to worry about fighting with our past enemy Cosmos. It wasn't like my first mission where we were supposed to infiltrate them but found ourselves in a total different outcome. They were our allies, even though we had differences in opinions, we had to work together for the sake of humanity.

I gazed at my sister, Chance, her fiery hair blowing in the wind, she reminded me of when I started the agency at age eighteen. Apollo stood next to her, his physique releasing an aura of what a leader is: Passionate, courageous, and focused. My eyes drifted to Tempest who was yelling at two agents who slept on their time to guard. 

"Eleven," I was knocked out of my thoughts, Apollo stood in front of me, his eyes cold. 

He was probably still mad at me.

I let out a sigh, "What is it Apollo" I asked tiredly. I felt over with this entire situation, Tempest being here drained my energy two times more than when I was alone with Five. 

"Are you serious? That's all you have to say?", I heard him scoff and I turned my gaze back at him, "Well what do you want me to say Apollo?", I was careful to not raise my voice, I didn't want to be one of those agents that Tempest was yelling at, "Do you want me to apologize?"

"No, I want you to understand that its the job of the leader to take everyone's mistake. If you talk back to Tempest, it reflects back on me because I am the leader," I threw him a glare "If you're telling me that you have to take every mistake from the team and put it on your shoulders, then I'll leave", my body trembled with anger "It's not fair that just because you're the leader, that you have to take everything in by yourself. A team requires teamwork, not just the job of one person. So I'm sorry if I can't bring myself to understand what you're saying. With all honesty, we should have kicked Five out from the team a long time ago, she's weak, stubborn, and works only for herself and not others. So I apologize for trying to be a respectful team member rather than someone who think only about herself", I put my gun away and started leaving the corridor. 

I couldn't stand being there any longer, if I stayed, my emotions would explode and I wouldn't be able to control myself. "Eleven!", I heard him yell, my footsteps echoed in the corridor as I headed back inside hoping to find the Cave of Stars but before I could even enter a hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back. 

I turned around and found myself staring back at his electric blue eyes. "I'm sorry..." he said in a whisper, my heart broke a little and somehow I found myself tearing up. 

How is it that I always manage to hurt someone I love?

"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have spoken to you that way", the lid that closed the jar of my well-kept emotions cracked open and I didn't know why I was feeling this way. He pulled me close, his heart beating gave me some sort of comfort. "I know, we both made mistakes, but you didn't hurt me, you could never hurt me Piper", I pulled him closer and wrapped my arms around his waist. His hand rubbed circles on my back, comforting me.

"Hey..." Apollo pushed me away softly, "It's okay" he gave me a smile and brought his lips to my forehead. I closed my eyes, why was he so gentle with me after all I had done? His thumbs wiped my tears as he gazed at me. 

"It's okay," I repeated his words to reassure myself, he smiled put his hands back down to his sides. "Let's go back to your sister, she was covering for us after we left" I nodded, he reached down and placed his hand into mine, taking me back with him.

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Once back we saw Tempest waiting for our arrival, she had a paper in hand and looked at Apollo directly. "We have a new mission coming from Gemini", she pulls Apollo towards her side and shoves the paper at him. 

His eyes scanned the paper, "They want us to break into headquarters..."

I looked at him with a frown, "Whose headquarters?..." he folded the paper in half and looked at me. "Cosmos", my breath hitched and somehow I couldn't register his words.

"But- Are we not allies with them?" Chance asked Tempest, she shook her head "No, we are not, they broke our contract a long time ago and the Oracles (type of class in Equinox) are currently in battle with them"

"So then why don't the rest of the members of Equinox know about this?" I managed to ask

"This is confidential, Equinox didn't want them the rest to know because of the risk of starting another war with them"

"We are already at war" I raised my voice "What difference would it make if the others found out? What, are you scared that something would happen like what happened with Nine?" Tempest's almost dared me to say more, she glared at me with her lighting eyes and went up to me, "Nine died an honorable death, if you want to say he didn't, you're going to answer to me"

"Alright, so what is the plan? We can't just enter Cosmos without a plan", Tempest automatically spoke "Who do you think I am? Of course I have a plan".

We gathered around her and she started discussing the plan with us, I let out a sigh,

This was going to be a long day