Special Agent 2: The Dark Soldier

Chapter 14

"Sniper," Sivil said, looking up as Kate walked into the lab. He drew his dark brows together in concern as she leaned for a moment against the doorpost, blinking furiously for a moment before shaking her head violently. "What happened?"

Kate looked up at him, his face blurring before her and then becoming clear again. What it just her, or did a red tendril snake across his face? Pressing her hand to her forehead, she staggered into the room, vaguely seeing the lab technicians moving toward her, most likely to direct her to the reconditioning chair and assess her problem.

Kate did not want to sit in that chair.

As soon as the first lab technician touched her, a red power exploded out from her, flinging him back into a wall. The others were caught in the blast and thrown away from her, striking walls and equipment. Even Sivil was hurled backward, slamming into a counter and flipping over it.

Moans issued up from the crumpled bodies as Kate surveyed them. She had somehow ended up in a crouch and she didn't know how or why, just that when crouching, her balance was easier to maintain. That ruby red power that had possessed her was real, not a daydream. Otherwise, everything since the alleyway had been a nightmare.

If Tony was here, he'd make a reference to some horror movie about me being possessed.

Kate's head snapped up. Tony. She hadn't thought about him, not in anything more than a clinical way, since she'd been recruited into the super-agent program. Which is a nice way of saying it, she thought sarcastically. Since said recruitment meant sinking a bullet into my skull and then reviving me after my own funeral.

But she had run into Tony yesterday, hadn't she? He had recognized her too, had said her name. Her name. Her real name. Kate. Kate. Not Sniper. But Kate.

Kate Todd, that was her name.

"Sniper?"

As if in retaliation to her reclaiming her identity, Kate looked up to see Sivil poking his head up over the counter cautiously, his eyes flicking over the room. She knew him enough to know his gun was drawn, just hidden out of her sight. When he saw her looking at him warily, he sighed. "What the hell, Sniper?"

"Shut up, Sivil," she retorted as she rose into a standing position, testing out her balance. The energy coiled up inside her seemed to be sitting easier now and Kate could keep on her feet without weaving or her vision going fuzzy. "I'm not sitting in that chair."

Sivil hesitated for a moment before coming out from behind the counter, his gun back in his holster. If she hadn't known better, it would look like he hadn't just drawn it. "Okay, okay, Sniper. They were just trying to do their job."

"And I was just trying to do mine." I was protecting Gibbs when Ari 'recruited' me! I didn't want this! Any of it!

Kate hadn't thought like that in a long time.

After the Battle of D.C., she had had some unease concerning Special Agent Gibbs. Once, she had thought highly enough of him to give her life for his. And then she had been ordered to eliminate him. But then her loyalty had wavered, after he had torn off her mask and questioned her identity. A reconditioning had been needed to cleanse her mind of the unease, to repair the slowly unraveling loyalty, to instill unwavering focus. Several missions working closely with Sergeant Barnes, her Winter Soldier, had been needed to show her once more that her work was important, was essential.

But now, Kate had seen Tony DiNozzo and everything was uneasy again.

Perhaps I can undo all this. Go back, be an NCIS agent again. Have my real life again, what I would have had if Ari hadn't shot me.