Chapter Text
“Tell me again why we should go after this woman,” said Sage, pinching the bridge of her nose. “We have plenty of better options than the psychopath.”
Viper sighed and placed the documents she was holding back on the table. She opened her mouth to speak, but Brimstone raised a hand and she stayed quiet.
“We can’t have her do whatever she wants. She has killed 15 people that we know of,” answered Brimstone.
“So what is this?” asked Sage, her eyes going from Brimstone to Viper constantly. “Are we recruiting her or are we arresting her?”
“I also think this is a bad idea,” said Killjoy. None of the others looked at her. “She threatened to kill me more than once.”
“We’re doing both,” Viper said. “It’s better to have her around. We need to keep an eye on her, and maybe even have her change her ways.”
“And if we can’t change her?” Sage said. “She’s a murderer. She kills for fun. She takes pride in doing so.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Viper insisted. “We’ve got our hands on some new information about Reyna.”
Killjoy took this as her lead to present said information. She waved her hand around the techy bracelet around her wrist and seemed to pull something from the visor and throw it at the projector. The big screen now showed a classified document with a small photo of a dark haired woman and a few illustrations. The photo had a date from nearly ten years ago below it, so Sage imagined she looked fairly different from that nowadays.
“It seems like Reyna’s power derives from a full tissue and organ mutation caused by radianite,” said Killjoy, pointing at a picture of a heart that seemed petrified, with details enhanced and an illustration of the lack of cells, now replaced by crystals. “Reyna’s heart is now a battery that needs recharging. It is made entirely of solid radianite, and the power wears off with time. One of the only ways to recharge is absorbing life energy. Otherwise, she dies.”
Sage knew this information should make her understand that Reyna wasn’t all that evil and there was a chance that she was killing to survive, not for fun. But it just made things worse. She usually agrees with the decisions Brimstone makes and more often than not agrees with Viper. But this just sounded insanity.
“You wanna bring to the headquarters a woman who needs to kill to survive. How is this a good idea? Who is she going to kill to survive when she’s here? Are we going to allow her to kill one of us just to feed?” questioned Sage.
“She’ll have plenty of ways to feed in our missions,” said Viper. “We’ll give her a…” she started, thinking of the best way to describe it, “...productive way of feeding.”
“So she’ll be an animal we let loose to feed on our enemies?”
The corner of Viper’s lips curved up in a tiny, barely noticeable smile.
“You don’t know Reyna,” she said. “I do. I know her personally. She’s not what you’re imagining. She can be quite the monster, yes. But she’s not an irrational monster, Sage.”
“I tend to disagree,” said Killjoy, lowering her shoulders when all of the others looked at her. “But that’s just… you know, grudges.”
“So why don’t you go?” asked Sage. “If you know her, why don’t you go? Why me? You know how I feel about her skills. We’re exact opposites.”
Brimstone was the one to answer that.
“Reyna despises non-radiants. She might not hate Viper but she won’t feel compelled to listen to her. It’s exactly because your power is so opposite to hers that we think she’ll be deeply interested in you.”
“Also, you have a much higher tolerance to bullshit than me,” Viper added. “Me and Reyna would just kill each other.”
“I thought I was going to talk to that girl from Brazil,” Sage remembered, as a last, weak attempt to get out of the situation. “The one that hates Kingdom.”
“Killjoy will do that for us,” Brimstone said, “since this one is not a radiant and seems very interested in robots.”
“Every day that passes we seem more and more like a pyramid scheme,” said Killjoy, closing the laptop and turning off the projector.
Sage and Brimstone chuckled. Viper pretended she didn’t find it funny.
“So how am I going to do this? Where is she now?”
Brimstone, sat across the table, shifted on the chair, straightening his back.
“She’s in Italy. We have reasons to believe she’s going to attempt to kill a Kingdom employee that works in the Florence base.”
“Why did he become her target?” asked Sage.
“He was the lead scientist working on radianite studies back when they were attempting to induce mutations on children,” Viper answered. “Can’t say I’m a fan. But Reyna has personal reasons to hate him. We firmly believe he’s the target because he’s the only employee currently in Florence that she would know. He moved from Mexico to Italy two months ago and now Reyna is also in Italy. And 5 of the people she murdered all worked with him in the past.”
“I imagine this man knows Reyna is coming for him.”
“He’s aware,” confirmed Brimstone. “He’ll have enough men around him to protect a president.”
“Reyna won’t feel hungry for a year after this,” Killjoy whispered, under her breath. Sage heard it, but didn’t comment on it. It sent chills down her spine.
“So what am I supposed to do? Stop her or help her?”
The three remained quiet. Sage looked at each of them, but none had anything to say about this. As far as she understood, this was up to her to decide.
“Did this man, this Kingdom employee, hurt those children?” Sage asked.
Viper tapped the desk and looked down. Brimstone sighed.
“Some children did not react well to the procedure, which is why the tests were canceled,” he said.
“It was believed that given the yet plastic neuron connections of children, they would more easily adapt and gain radiant powers when put under the radianite effects,” Viper explained, “but we now know that this is not how you become a radiant and the radianite can cause unpredictable side effects.”
Sage frowned and clenched her fists.
“Just say it, Viper.”
“The children had all sorts of medical complications…” Viper continued.
“Stop with the scientific terms,” Sage requested, her voice stern and her eyes cold.
“Most of them died during the tests,” Brimstone stepped in, “some remained alive long enough to develop cancer or go into a coma. The rare ones that would become radiants had their powers forcefully expressed before they understood what they were and thus there was this kid that burned herself alive and one that… blew her own brains off.”
Sage’s mouth was open in shock. The room went silent for at least 20 seconds. No one dared to speak. It was like Brimstone’s words had made the molecules of oxygen heavier and harder to breathe.
“So basically Reyna is the good guy in this situation,” Sage finally said.
“Well, 5 of the people she killed were part of this project. The other 10 were just there. Wrong place, wrong time,” Brimstone explained. “Two were just because she was hungry.”
Sage nodded, taking a deep breath. She understood that her mission was to bring Reyna to the Valorant protocol and the rest was all about improvising and taking sides. But she really didn’t feel like taking sides on a war where one side was a psychopath and the other was a mad murderer scientist.
“What if she doesn’t come with me in the end?” Sage asked. “What if I simply can’t convince her?’
Viper and Brimstone eyed each other before Brimstone spoke.
“We would prefer you’d find a definitive solution for Reyna. Dealing with her later will be too late for many people. The nature of her powers mean that she will never stop killing. It’s a certainty. How long before killing loses all meaning to her and becomes routine like the act of feeding? We need her here or nowhere else,” Brimstone said.
Sage nodded again, looking at the desk in front of her, thinking about everything she heard in that meeting. This mission was not difficult on the tactical level, but on the moral level. This alone made her convinced that she was the best option to deal with this. Brimstone was too soft. The good old sarge wouldn’t know how to deal with a person like Reyna. Viper was too hard. She was right to think that it was more likely that Reyna and her would end up killing each other for no reason other than a dispute of power and stubbornness. Killjoy would be killed by Reyna on sight. The other agents just weren’t ready for such a commitment and they were needed for defense missions.
“Fine. Give me the full schedule and I’ll pack my things,” Sage said.
“I’ll get the jet ready for you and I’ll send your hotel info to your inbox,” Killjoy said, chewing gum. “It should arrive later today.”
Brimstone officially ended the meeting and went to Sage to thank her for her help before leaving the room. Killjoy gave her a thumbs up and left as well. Viper seemed to be doing the same, but when she was about to leave, the woman stopped and turned on her heels to face Sage.
“When you deal with Reyna,” she started, careful, her eyes wandering around, as if she was looking for the best words, “be warned that she might seem… better than you are expecting.”
“What does that mean?”
Viper closed the door before coming closer to Sage. Not a good sign.
“You’re not going to find an arrogant annoying woman. You’ll find the most charming, seductive woman you’ve ever met. You’ll find a person who can seduce anyone she wants to do whatever she needs. I wouldn’t doubt Reyna is capable of making this man, who’s terrified of her, fall to his knees and adore her.”
Sage frowned and eyed Viper in silence, unsure of what to do with this information or why Viper was telling her all that. Or even how Viper knew this.
“You sound like you admire her,” Sage said.
“I’m just saying…” Viper continued, ignoring the comment, “Reyna is more dangerous when she looks harmless. Keep that in mind.”
Sage nodded quietly. Viper pursed her lips and gave her a gentle tap on her shoulder before walking to the door again.
“You’ll need party dresses,” she said, opening the door. “Don’t forget to pack at least one.” And left quickly, before Sage could protest.