3 y e a r s a g o   c o n t.

I FELL ON MY ELBOWS and heard it cracking. Wincing, I braced the fall by rolling across the ground to cover area and I quickly got to my feet. My fists raised before me again as I crouched over and positioned my center of balance closer to the ground.

His smirk was evident even through the sweat dripping down his face. He beckoned a finger towards me and I clenched my jaw, closing in on his body. He swat my leg from underneath me. I slid out the way just enough to pack a hit to his back.

We skidded back like two identical poles of a magnet and braced ourselves on our knees for a moment. My ears popped and then became dead silent of all sound, but I still heard my own chest rising and falling steadily to cool down.

Still resting my hands on my knees and crouching over, I spotted the man before me moving to the side like he was ready for another round. I groaned, straightening up with difficulty.

To my surprise, I instead saw Pierce holding out two towels in his hands, already draping one over his neck. He tossed me the spare one and my arms shot up in the air to try and catch it.

But then I realized that my arms felt like deadweight and frankly, I had no motivation to catch the towel with my hands.

So I moved my body lazily to the left and caught the sheet with my face. The cold material cooled down my heating skin. I breathed out in satisfaction before I slid the towel off with my right hand.

I peered back at Pierce, and in a split second, I laughed. He was examining me like I was some kind of zoo animal, slowly wiping the nape of his neck with his towel.

"Alright, ninja turtles," came a voice from the side of the room where the towels came from. "X won this round."

I draped my towel over my shoulders and brushed back my hair before looking at Osias. "Well, I won last round."

Kenya cracked an amused smile as she glanced back and forth at Pierce and I. "X, did you use Risa's technique at the 12 minute mark?"

I met with Pierce's eyes curiously. "What technique?"

He faked ignorance and lifted his shoulders absentmindedly. At that, Cody commented with a sigh of relief, "At least we know he can still be taught. What a relief."

I made a face. "What technique?" I pressed, earning the other's attention. "What did I teach him?"

Pierce coughed unnecessarily loud by my ear as he shot me an innocent look and then passed by me to gather up his uniform.

A groan erupted from my mouth. Asao happily tucked away the notepad he had been using to keep track of points for fun, ready to do something else. Osias and Cody went to fold the chairs back in the storage room, and Kenya strode towards me.

She leaned in my ear and whispered tactically, "You could have knocked him out at that last minute with a swing kick." The woman leaned away just enough to stare me in the face. "Why didn't you?"

I thinned my lips as I nodded silently to myself, as if I was accepting my situation. I opened my eyes and smiled calmly at her. "Niagara Falls came early this month, sweetie."

Kenya snorted so loud that all the boys turned to look at her. I kicked her shin and she quickly dismissed their attention away. She turned back to me and patted my back before leaving my side.

Just as I was about to join the others in chatting about today's practice session, the door to the training room suddenly opened.

"Have any of you even heard me calling this whol—"

My eyes flickered seeing our Commander burst through the door. He had just woken up, and this was his first round of getting the team together.

I saw his eyes scrunch up in confusion as he observed all of us gathered in the training room for no reason. And then he saw Pierce. Then, it looked like he found the universal answer to everything.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" The man croaked as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

Pierce glanced at the water bottle in his hand, then at the rest of the team who shared a glance with him before he shifted his body and shrugged. "I don't know, practicing?"

"And what makes you think my team has the time to entertain you?" The leader asked rhetorically, coming into the room. Cody, Osias, Kenya, and Asao all frowned and looked someplace else besides the Commander.

I watched Pierce closely from behind. I thought the man was going to defend himself. I thought, he was going to say the truth and get himself out of trouble, but he didn't.

He stared at the Commander and stated, "Whatever, I'm done with them anyway."

The Commander looked towards me and saw the sweat glistening on the side of my face. Then he saw Pierce take a chug from his water bottle. His jaws clenched. "Did you hurt Risa?"

The others stared at him incredulously. Even I didn't expect that. What more do you do in a training room other then... train?

We could see Pierce really choosing his words carefully. He was holding back all these weeks, yet it's only been making the Commander angrier.

"Yeah, you have weak teammates." Pierce dared to pat the agitated man on the shoulders before clasping his hand on the doorknob. The Commander grabbed his shoulders firmly and the Agent paused, shutting his eyes.

"Didn't I warn you, psycho? Never go near my teammates. Especially Risa."

Pierce raised his brows next to him out of our sight. He broke his default character for a moment and leaned in to whisper, "I didn't know Commanders played favoritism, Alston. Are you worried that I cracked a few bones? Will that affect anything in bed?"

The violent man gripped the Agent's collar upright so tightly that the team began to notice. He leaned in, his breath flaring hot. "I don't know where you're making your assumptions from X, but you better watch your mouth."

Pierce scoffed hysterically. "I do, and I have." His eyes returned back to its original cold look. "But what can I do when a fucker keeps wanting to talk to me? I've talked about this to the others guards and we've all agreed that you're a little obsessed with me. Are you perhaps playing hard-to-get?"

"I sent you out there to guard, not to run your fucking mout—"

"What are you guys talking about over there? It's making me uncomfortable," Osias stated cautiously.

The Agent cleared his throat and backed away. "Y'all hear that?" He raised his voice towards us. "I said y'all suck at training."

Pierce flashed us all a silent look and was about to leave when I responded, "Then you're really doing it? We're going to have another session tonight?"

Asao grinned and chimed in, "Can I bring my stick? I want to show you what we learned in school."

"Damn, that means three showers today for all of us. I'm not paying for that bill," Cody yawned, fanning his shirt.

"Let's also try with knives this time," Kenya suggested, folding her arms over her chest. "Fists and kicks aren't everything."

Osias nodded. "I need my rematch as well. I'm going first."

The Commander was stunned. Pierce whipped his head back inside with a side smile that he was failing to hold in as he commented, "Y'all really going to say it flat-out and make him malfunction like that? Are you really on my side?"

The man suddenly threw Pierce back into the room, to which the Agent complied without much resistance. He stumbled a few feet back and kept his head angled down to hide his expression. When he straightened up, he stood before the rest of the team. Meanwhile, the Commander stood before the door, facing the opposing direction towards us.

The strange formation that we all recognized was evident through the leader's eyes as it darkened. He ran a hand through his hair frustratedly. "Now you're even forcing them to keep a schedule with you? That's it, I'm teaching you a lesson toda—"

After observing everything, I frowned. If there's one thing I absolutely despised, it was dealing with an agitated person bright and early in the morning. And he was no exception.

"I advise you to hear the whole story before jumping down his throat," my brows raised. "We voluntarily came to the training room to watch him practice."

"I need you all out, now."

"We've been doing it for weeks every morning before you woke up."

"Excuse me?"

"There shouldn't even be a problem," I continued. "I want you to leave him alone."

"Leave him alone? Do you even hear yourself?" The Commander directed towards me.

"Oh, believe me, I do. I'm not deaf unlike a certain someone."

"Risa!" He shouted.

His voice echoed throughout the penthouse and the team immediately froze. I, for one, expected this to happen. I've been watching him ever since that one night. It's been a couple months now, so I guess today the wheels were finally turning in this story.

I lifted my chin and looked him straight in the eyes. "Change of plans. I'm coming to your room tonight."

Kenya's eyes scrunched up in slight confusion. Cody and Osias shared an uncertain side glance. Asao sighed out, barely audible. Pierce narrowed his eyes from the side and placed the towel he'd been cooling himself down with over his shoulders.

The Commander frowned a bit. "That's fine, but why—"

"Pierce, come downstairs with me." I turned to the man and he gazed at me with caution in his eyes. What are you doing, his expression warned me.

"Pierce?" The Commander shot me a look of disbelief. "Did you just call him Pierce?"

I walked towards the door with my fists clenched by my side. Just as I passed the blonde man, I said, "I'm about to do a lot today Commander, so get used to it."

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Our relationship became rocky. We didn't speak to each other for the rest of the day. Everyone went to their rooms to work for today and only came out for a drink every now and then.

It was currently night time. Pierce and I were sitting at the bar in the back of the main room. K2 accompanied us standing behind the counter while polishing some shot glasses to put in the glass cabinet for display.

I stared off into the distance, holding the glass of water in one hand, and the container in the other hand. Pierce frowned and snatched the case out of my palms. "That's enough. Two works just fine. Are you actually trying to make me clean up your corpse after you intake all of this, you butt-crack?"

"Don't act like you've never brought dead bodies in and out of here before, bumblefuck. Are you sure you're not just the grim reaper in disguise?"

"Please. You suck more years out of my life than any black-cloaked, scythe-wielding skeleton ever could."

"You're the reason why the Black Plague avoided Russia."

"And you're the Silk Road that helped spread it throughout Europe and Asia."

"And I'm the granddaddy historian that's going to cover your caskets and call it a new generation," K2 cut in with a booming voice, getting our attention. "That was the 14th century. Get over yourselves, nerds."

I sighed and gave up trying to snatch the medication back from Pierce. K2 then looked at me in concern, although he tried to hide it. "Where did you get this from?" He asked as he got the container out of Pierce's hand and examined it.

Pierce answered grudgingly instead. "I bought it."

"X, you can't just go around buying pills for her."

"For your information, I went undercover as a medical student before, so I had to get certified for that. I'm trained and legal," Pierce put it out there like anyone could just say that.

I waved the issue away. "Just put it away. I don't want him finding that laying around here."

Pierce rested his head on his knuckles as he watched me. "You're really going to his room?"

I turned to look at him. "You have our team to train tonight. Me missing won't affect anything, and certainly not you."

He scoffed and looked away. "Glad we established that."

I smirked and looked at the side of his face. K2 watched the two of us silently as he continued polishing.

"But I don't let people who bail out on me slide. You all signed up. If you miss it, I'm coming to his room and dragging your ass out."

My brows raised. "Really?"

"Are you doubting me? K2," he smacked the older man on the forearm. "Tell her whether or not I'm lying."

"He's lying." The director said without hesitation.

I laughed and Pierce snatched up the shot glass the man was cleaning, threatening to throw it against the cabinet and break all the supply they had. While they bickered, I glanced at Pierce's watch around his wrist and I turned quiet.

I got down from the stool and both men turned their heads my way. K2's face turned dark. He bent his head down as he poured himself a glass. "Risa, are you sure you don't want something to drink before..?"

The air became tense. I shook my head without turning around. "I can't digest even water right now. Don't let anyone come into the Commander's room, K2."

"You make it sound so grave," he tried to chuckle, but it soon shifted into silence. "What exactly goes on in..." When his voice trailed off in realization, Pierce spun in his seat and kept his eyes trained on me as I walked up the stairs. The penthouse was darker, quieter, and colder than usual.

I shut my eyes and breathed out slowly when I got to the Commander's room. Picking up the slight shuffling on the other side, I knew he was inside. My fingers rested on the cold metallic knob, and I turned it.

The lights flicked off in his room as soon as I closed the door behind me.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

I wrapped the cream white cardigan closer against my body, hiding my black tank top and tan cargo pants underneath. It was dark in his spacious room, save a small opening in the window to let the moonlight in.

I noticed the incense on his study table on the opposite side of the room. Before, Asao was the only one that used it coming into this team, but gradually, the man had also found a use for it.

He was rummaging through his closet, shirt off. He'd just come out of the shower and was dressed half-way, still deciding on night wear. When he saw me come in, he turned his head and beckoned me over.

My steps grazed against the carpet as I strode towards him. I opened my mouth when I came close enough. "Put on a shirt. You do this every time."

He gazed at me silently before a small smirk emerged. "Can't keep your eyes off?"

"I can't see, Casey. It's darker than hell here."

"Well, it's nighttime sweetheart. It doesn't make sense to turn on the lights."

He'd be saying differently if it was any of the others.

"This is different," he suddenly began with a smile. "I'd never thought in a million years you'd just walk in here. And you even announced it in front of the team."

"Are you proud of that?"

"Frankly, yes," he chuckled, closing the distance between us. "Did you see the look on his face?"

I felt his hand stroke my cheek tenderly. I leaned into his touch as I held my breath and began.

"You mean Osias?"

"No."

"Cody?"

"No, Risa."

"Asao?"

"No.

"Then you're taking about Pierce."

At the sound of the man's name, I felt his hands leave my skin for a moment as the air became tense. I tilted my head back up to look at him straight in the eyes, unfazed.

He frowned. "When did you start saying his name?"

"Since I found out what it was," I chose my words carefully, turning away from him. "I just didn't say it whenever you were there."

The man clenched his jaw and pulled me back around, wrapping his arms around my body so that I was locked in place. "Do the others call him that?"

"No, just me."

"Just you?" He raised his voice. "Risa, are you trying to make me angry?"

I abruptly grabbed his chin and angled it down to meet my eyes. When his face was close, and he misinterpreted it to tilt his head just perfectly for that something he was waiting for, I whispered something that made his blood run cold.

"So you can make me angry, but I can't?"

He narrowed his eyes as he leaned back and took me in. "What did you just say? How did I make you angry?" I saw his eyes flickering to his study table, and then his expression darkened.

"Stop touching me."

"Risa."

"Stop. Touching. Me." I planted a punch to his midsection, eyes still fixed on his, and saw him recoil onto the bed with a low grunt. The hands that had traveled down my sides just a moment before braced his fall onto the mattress.

I strode to his desk and picked up the incense, showed him clearly what I was about to do, and I flung the thing out the window. Glass shards spilled onto his bed from the pieces that hit the windowsill, and the rest scattered the ground where the guards were outside. They couldn't see us, but I knew they heard it.

"What the hell, Risa??" The man snapped his head back up at me, alarmed and confused.

I turned to him with my eyes cold. I walked closer and sat at the edge of the bed. "Were you surprised that your drug wasn't working?" I raised my eyebrows.

His breathing became unsteadily as frustration took over his body. "What are you even talking about? That's from Asao. If you're making that assumption, you're basically saying that child's plotting to kill us all."

"Are you kidding me?" I let out a dry laugh. "You think I'm dumb enough to the point where I can't distinguish between Japanese incense and drugging powder that's in the air?"

His face showed signs of caution. He didn't understand why I wasn't already dazed and in his arms, but he figured it just took more time today.

"Why was that in your room?" I brought him back to reality as my tone dropped an octave.

"It's nothing. You're really something today." The man even had the audacity to raise his voice at me. He held my shoulders and pinned me down to the bed. "I'm tired of talking with you." I heard him mumble through his gritted teeth. "If you don't go to sleep, I'll make you—"

"You'll make me?" I repeated, raising my head off the bed. He leaned back a bit, aware of my tense body.

Seeing his silent stance, I began laughing. A really cold, blood-chilling laugh. "No no, let's review what just happened." I sat all the way up and leaned on one leg that propped up on his bed, with an arm draping over it. He slid off of me and stood by the bed, biting the insides of his mouth in anger.

I pointed to him with my free hand with a tilt of my head. "Did you just... climb over me?"

He kept silent while he ran a hand through his hair, as if he didn't hear me.

"Did you just pin me down on your bed and threaten me?"

The still-shirtless man shifted his weight from one leg to the other, crossing his arm.

"PAY ATTENTION WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU, MOTHERFUCKER." The language-heavy yell caught him off-guard and he snapped his head to me immediately, alarmed.

"Let's play a game of true or false. If you don't, I'm about to do bad things," I chuckled darkly, getting my hand ready.

"One," I count, my eyes dead. "In the past, you watched me while I slept."

"This is so dumb," he gritted his teeth with a loud sigh. "... True."

"Two, you called me to your room when it could have been anyone else."

"True."

"Three, you touched my body beyond my clothes when I was unconscious."

The silence that wrapped around our bodies in his room was all I needed. Like the last straw that broke the camel's back, I broke as well. His silence, his choice to still keep the truth hidden despite me spelling out all his wrongdoings, made me never see myself in the same light again.

At the moment, I couldn't even find the speck of penitence to be disgusted at him. At that moment, I only saw myself as the most hideous thing that ever existed in this universe. My walls came crashing down, deafening my ears. I was expose and molded to become vulnerable. I wanted to plead to drown, and I wanted to hurt. This pathetic body... didn't belong to me anymore.

He tried advancing towards me. In a swift second, I made a decision. While there was still a part of me that hadn't been tarnished and infected— that still hadn't accepted the situation yet— I decided to use that last bit of myself to ruin everything that he worked for.

My seal came out from underneath the cardigan. I smacked it right into his face and pushed it in deep into his skin until he backed away cursing colorful words. I held that metal emblem firmly before me like my life depended on it.

"Step down." My throat clogged. I tried my best to keep air continuously flowing into my body. I felt the tears coming, but it was replaced by heat as my body burned up in a way I've never felt before.

"Excuse me?" The man barely uttered, skeptical.

"Is that what you want?" I tilted my head with my eyes wide. "Then I'll excuse you. Get out of my team's penthouse."

"What right do you have—"

"It seems you've forgotten the role of a co-Commander, Alston. I have every right in my veins and bones to dismiss you."

"... What makes you think I'm going to listen to you?" He laughed all of a sudden, now realizing that there was no point in keeping up his chivalrous act.

"It's sad, really, that I have to have proof for the likes of you."

"I did nothing wrong."

"Keep up with that mindset and you'll never survive. Even that Agent that you despise so much," I pointed with my arms outstretched to the door, "Knows when he's in the wrong. The only person here that doesn't is you."

Now it was his turn to laugh coldly. He crouched down before me and looked up in my eyes, as if trying he was trying his last attempts at intimidating me. "You're talking like he can make a fine leader. Like you think it's that easy to replace me."

I lifted my chin and stared him straight in the eyes. "That woman you're seeing through me, she's not here, Casey. She's not coming out for you. I've been taking my share of medication to make sure that won't happen tonight, so back the fuck off."

He frowned at hearing that I took pills. At least there was still a part of him that remembered he was T6's leader.

"I'm Risa," I raised my voice. "In case you've been fantasizing some other bitch lately. Watch what you do to me."

"You're saying such scary words," he provoked.

"And you're saying none at all, your point is?"

Our conversation ended short when the door broke open. Pierce's figure was revealed by the door as he flicked the lights on and located us on the bed. K2 stood just behind him, his thick gloves on.

"Wow, this fucker has an automatic lock on his door," the Agent whistled as he threw down the hammer at the threshold before he entered.

The Commander snapped his head to him and stood up, fists tightening. "What the hell—"

"Help me bring him outside." I stated with dead eyes at Pierce, rising from the bed.

K2 nodded at Pierce and he walked over to the Commander, forcing his arm behind his back. They struggled for a moment since the other man didn't comply without a fight.

"Get your hands off of me, you son of a bitch." He snarled at Pierce, "I'm not someone you can just touch. You're out of my league."

"Good," Pierce gritted by his ear, getting the upper hand in the situation as he blocked all ways for the Commander to get out of his restraining hold. He looked over the man's shoulders to me and I nodded silently at him, walking past the two to join K2 down the stairs.

Pierce turned back around and sent the Commander to his knees with the words he never wanted to hear.

"No one else was in there with you anyway."

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Black Death — Worst plague in European history. Killed off 1/3 of Europe's population. It spread across Asia, North Africa, and Europe via the interlinked Silk Road.

Minna: Tbh, I was debating whether or not to write this chapter because it was something I wanted you guys to just imagine for yourselves regarding what happened with Casey, but I decided to write it anyway because it'll be crucial for their reunion in the present time.

Minna: Also, time to close the curtain to T6's backstory! Who's ready to see our now beautiful and all grown-up team again?