0101

The train ride went by surprisingly fast, at least in my opinion. I could tell not everyone shared it, because when I looked over to Zeke I found him half asleep in his seat. Although the train was decidedly comfortable, I didn't understand how he managed to start drifting off like that. He must have been bored from being cooped up for so long.

But when it was all over, we exited the compartment and made our way out to the train station. We had our luggage trailing behind us on noisy wheels. I did a quick head check - sure enough, there were eight people. Ianto and Ronnie were certainly there, and in all honesty they were the only two I cared about at the moment.

"We're here," Nell said, her voice filled with excitement. "We made it, everyone!"

"Which means we're finally going to find out what's going on," Deric replied, shaking his head. "Took them long enough."

"I don't know, there's probably a lot to be done before we begin..." Ianto said, heaving a sigh.

"Enough talking," Zeke said. I was surprised that it wasn't Ronnie making a complaint about it, so I couldn't help but smile at this little fact. "We've got an Intel Initiative to initiate."

"Hm," Ronnie said, sounding almost impressed. I was pleased to see that Zeke had captured her attention so quickly - we had a good group of people surrounding us, I was sure of it. Together they began leading the way for our group of eight, the sound of all our luggage and feet rattling against the ground.

We stayed in a similar formation as we walked into the formidable building attached to the train station. It was clear that this was no typical station - we were the only ones there. I couldn't help but mark this down as odd, but the explanation seemed to be fairly straightforward. The government train had brought us to a specific government building, where we would be receiving government instruction.

"The anticipation is killing me here," said Zeke, looking over to Ronnie.

"Well, right now all we're doing is walking," she laughed in response. "It won't be that much more waiting, I can guarantee you that much."

As always, Ronnie turned out to be correct. We entered the building to find eight chairs set out, ready for us to sit down. Despite having just sat down for several hours on end, we were fairly relieved to see seats. I went ahead and sat down between Ronnie and Ianto, waiting to see what would happen next.

"I'm pleased to see that you have all arrived here safely," a rich feminine voice said.

I looked up to see a woman standing there, her nose raised slightly into the air. But despite the way she carried herself in this way, I didn't feel like she was trying to give off the air that she was better than the rest of us. It was clear that she was meant to lead us, but to treat us as equals nevertheless. Now, this was what I wanted to see out of the Intel Initiative.

Her dark curls were swept up into an elegant bun that contrasted with her somewhat casual attire of dark jeans and a shirt. It was clear that she was force to be reckoned with, and I was going to respect that.

Everyone remained quiet as she continued onwards with her words. I was hanging to each and every syllable - I certainly wasn't going to miss any of this simply because I was being lazy.

"Welcome to the base for the Intel Initiative," the woman said. "You'll learn to see this as a home of sorts, I'm sure of it."

All the others in the Intel Initiative were just as intrigued about the matter as I was - it only took a brief look over to my sides in order to see that much. We wanted to know so much. We wanted to know who she was, what was going on, everything. After the long train ride, we were all ready to learn just about any bit of information.

No one was going to ask, though. It was clear that the answers would soon be given to us, and no one dared to try to speak up with this woman in front of us. Besides, we were all sure that after all this waiting we were going to find out precisely what was going on. There wouldn't be any more waiting for any of us.

"My name is Cecily Algernon, and I will be the leader of the Intel Initiative," she said, giving each of us a slight smile. While I was somewhat intimidated by the woman standing in front of me, I automatically felt that I could trust her. Just by her stance you could see that she was a strong woman.

I glanced over to see if Ianto was anywhere near as impressed I was - but instead of seeing any sort of awe or respect, I found him squinting at her as if she had done something wrong. Even though I wanted to avoid getting on her bad side, I gently elbowed him to gain his attention.

"Ianto," I whispered.

"What?" he replied, whipping around to face me. His voice was just a touch too loud, causing several of the other members of the Intel Initiative to turn around and stare at us. Whether or not Cecily had heard it was beyond me. She made no response to it. But those few moments of wondering were enough to make me feel terrified.

Once all of the prying eyes were removed from me, I continued speaking to Ianto but more cautiously this time. I softened my voice to a volume just a bit louder than a whisper.

"Aren't you excited to find out what this is? All of that waiting that we've done, it's all about to be over!"

"I'm not so sure," Ianto said, sighing slightly. "We don't know anything."

"Yet," I replied. "We know nothing yet."

"Her name isn't real, either," he continued. "It's too strange to be real. It sounds really familiar, for some reason..."

Although I was sure there was some method buried within Ianto's thoughts, I didn't really care to find it. Instead I just turned away, deciding not worry about whatever he had to say. I wanted to make sure I could listen to Cecily's words - after all, she might be explaining what this was all about.

"You have all come from different schools, but all within the same area. This was not a coincidence - we know that the southeastern part of America has been the most successful with the data eating so far."

The eight of us all nodded simultaneously, willing to listen to every word that she said. It sounded like she was coming closer and closer to actually explaining to us about what this whole Intel Initiative was about.

"The eight of you are the best and brightest data eaters between the ages of twelve and nineteen that we could find. This means throughout the entire country. Don't doubt your abilities - we have chosen you for various talents, but you are doubtlessly the best."

She was feeding our pride - not that I minded, of course. It was like she was speaking straight to me. I was the one who was always worried about whether I could live up to these other data eaters, and here Cecily was trying to reassure us.

Her eyes flicked over each one of us, resting on our faces each for an equal amount of time. She was very precise in an effort to make everything fair.

"Now, you must be wondering precisely what you are doing. Unfortunately, now is not the time to be explaining this - it is late at night already, and there are other more pressing matters to take care of for the moment. For instance, you need to get settled in."

I realized that she was right - it was already around nine o'clock at night. But at the same time, I felt my heart sinking. We knew nothing, absolutely nothing.

"We already have your lodging arranged. You'll have roommates - the rooms have already been assigned, so there's not going to be any fighting over that."

Now my eyes flitted over to Ronnie almost frantically. I liked Britta and Nell, but I didn't know them. Neither of them were my close friend. Neither of them were Ronnie Truitt, and I wasn't sure that I could deal with knowing that she was just a few doors being down and not being with me.

She produced a paper from her pocket and began reading out the names and numbers on there. About halfway through the list, Ronnie and I found out we were going to be staying together in room 377. I was somewhat relieved at this point, too relieved to feel upset over the lack of information.

"Go get yourselves a good night's sleep," Cecily said. "I will see you tomorrow. You are dismissed."

Everyone was still completely silent as she walked away. But as soon as she was out of our sight, everyone burst out into chatter.

"What was that?" Ronnie squawked. "We learned nothing, absolutely nothing! Wasn't that supposed to be the answer to all of our burning questions?"

"Maybe we should just let it go," I sighed. "I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

"Haven't we said that over and over again?" Ronnie asked. "We're going to find out soon. We're going to find out soon."

"You're right," I replied, giving in. "I just don't know...but I'm sure we'll find out. they can't keep us in the dark for much longer."

"I'm so sick of waiting," Ronnie hissed.

"Come on, let's just go to our room." I had been ecstatic that I was going to be sharing a room with my best friend, but now that she was acting all irritated and such I wasn't so sure that had been a good idea of mine. "Maybe that'll be nice."

"Of course it'll be nice," Ronnie said. "The government's paying for it."

"Then it will be great," I decided. "Just like the train all over again."

It only took a little bit of walking and nearly getting lost in the hallways in order to find the room we were looking for.

"Here we are," Ronnie announced. "Room 337, just like Cecily said. Parr, do you want the honor of unlocking the door?" she asked, holding up the keys in her hands.

"You're free to do it yourself," I replied. "I thought you would go ahead and do it anyways."

Ronnie sighed, saying, "This is why I shouldn't try to be nice." She then placed the key into the door and twisted it. There was a faint click, and then she was able to open the door. I peered in to see two queen sized beds all made up and ready for us as if we had checked into a hotel.

Together we made our way in, but Ronnie immediately made a beeline towards the bed that was sitting next to the windows. I wasn't going to fight with her over which bed we got. It didn't matter to me at the end of the day.

I sat down on the bed closest to the door, running my fingers across the silken comforter. It was a lovely emerald green color. I could tell just by sitting on it that this was bound to be the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in. Ronnie, on the other hand, didn't seem to be all that impressed. She just seemed to be tired, or at least that's what I assumed when she threw herself on the bed.

"Feeling okay, Truitt?" I asked, letting out a laugh.

"Leave me alone, Parr," she replied. "I need a rest." Her voice was muffled by the pillows, making her somewhat difficult to understand.

"Why?" I asked, scoffing. "I don't remember you doing anything that requires much of any physical movement."

"I can be tired without having run ten miles, Parr!" she yelled out. Next thing I knew, a pillow was being launched out at my face. I let out a short shriek and pulled up my arms in defense. Unfortunately I still felt the full force of the pillow, just on my arms instead of my head.

I was tempted to take the same pillow and throw it right back at her, but I didn't want to start a full out pillow war. We were both too tired for that, but if we were provoked we would go ahead and do it anyways.

"Should we go find Ianto before we head to bed?" I asked, deciding it would be better off to change the subject. "I don't know, I'm kind of worried about him."

"He's thirteen years old!" Ronnie replied, heaving a sigh. "I think he can care for himself pretty well by now."

"But..." I began to protest. I found that there was nothing I could think of to protest with, so my mouth ended up hanging open. I knew how stupid I looked, but I continued grappling around in my mind for some way to justify my behavior.

"You see to think he's old enough to be in love," Ronnie replied. "I mean, you know how he is with Nell. And you got all upset with me after I said it was just puppy love."

"I did not," I replied, my mind already beginning to slip away from me to other topics. I started to think if Ianto was just sitting around, reading that book of his about the nervous system. Maybe Everett was trying to communicate with him, and he was just ignoring him. I wouldn't put it past my little brother.

"What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't have to worry about Ianto."

"That means a lot coming from you, Truitt - knowing that you're an only child who's never had to deal with having a younger sibling," I replied.

"There are plenty of only children in the world," she said. "I'm just one of them. Don't make me feel bad for something I can't choose."

I started to protest that I wasn't making her feel bad for anything, but I decided against it mid-sentence. Of course, Ronnie looked at me strangely when I just stopped speaking halfway through a word, but I refused to go any further.

Then I began to consider just going ahead without Ronnie and trying to find Ianto on my own. I wanted to find him and just check up on him before doing anything else. Apparently Ronnie saw my inner turmoil as she sat there, because she said, "If you really want to get to Ianto, you can just message him on your phone."

I realized with a start that she was completely correct about this. At first I wasn't sure how I could have been so stupid about forgetting about it, but then I pushed those thoughts out of my head so that I could just go ahead and message him. I pulled my glass phone out of my pocket and started fiddling around with it.

**Hey! If you get this, just message me back. I want to know what's going on with you.**

Looking over the words I had just sent, I felt about sighing and turning away from it. It looked very strange and like something Ianto might just ignore. At the same time, I couldn't do anything about it - I had sent it.

**It's pretty late to be sending a message, isn't it?**

Somehow when I received Ianto's reply, I wasn't surprised. It was only about ten o'clock, but that was late in Ianto's mind. There were a lot of things I didn't understand about my little brother, and this was one of them.

**No, not really. I just wanted to check up on you.**

I might as well have been some sort of generic sister robot - what I was saying didn't sound like me. I guessed that it was just that inner older sister part of me kicking in and taking over as I typed. I'm sure that Ianto was picking up on it - it was just a matter of him commenting on it.

**Well, I'm just a few rooms down. There's nothing really going on...I was just brushing my teeth. Is that what you want to know?**

**Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what I wanted to know.**

Even I couldn't tell whether I was being sarcastic or not, which was not a common occurrence. With so much time being spent around Ronnie, I was very used to being extremely sarcastic. We had both absorbed many of the other's habits. But since we knew other people, we ended up absorbing habits from them as well.

That's what kept us from gradually merging into the same person - that, and the fact that inwardly we were rather different people. In the Parr family, we were naturally quieter and shyer than others. While I was certainly more outgoing than Ianto, if I were to compare myself to Ronnie it would be clear I was the quieter of the two.

But as I sat there quietly waiting for Ianto to message me back with anything, I realized that he wasn't going to send me a message in response. No - I knew my brother. He had gotten bored of me and distracted by his books. It was either that or he had fallen asleep. I wouldn't put either one past him.

I decided it would be better to turn to my own head - there was quite a bit I needed to think about.

No matter how excited I was, I couldn't overlook the important fact that I still had no idea what I was here for. As far as I was aware, none of us knew anything. Maybe in the other rooms Cecily was coming along and explaining everything. But that could just be my mind being paranoid and silly.

It didn't matter in the end, really. I was just being impatient about what was going on. I had been waiting for what I considered to be "too long" and it was making my mind freak out a bit.

But soon, soon I would know.

A/N I'm already to the part of the story where things really start to get intense - but that's not for many more chapters, I assure you! Anyways, I'd absolutely love it if we could get some more loving for this story. Tell me what you think down below, as any and all responses are appreciated!