Chapter Text
Deadlock shot up out of her bed, the bright, melancholy lights around her seeming to flash in her brain as she looked around frantically. Her fingers gripped the sheets, holding her body in place. As she observed her surroundings, the woman managed to calm herself. It was a blank white room with a large computer and several generic pictures. She was sitting in a hospital bed, where it seems she had been for several days. Where am I?
As Deadlock gazed around, her eyes managed to meet a mirror hung across the room. She saw herself, slightly startled by her disgruntled appearance. Her short-length blond hair was ruffled and messy, and her blue eyes seemed sunken in and ill. Her lip was yellow and discolored as if a bruise had recently occurred and faded into a new color as it healed. She had deep, small cuts along her cheek that were sewed up. As Deadlock fell down her left arm, she flinched in surprise as the length of it suddenly stopped.
As she felt along her arm, she was met with a bandage at the end of her elbow, and the rest of it… gone. A short gasp left her breath as she felt it, unaware of the limb being gone before. Deadlock didn’t understand. She felt it. It was there a second ago, she could swear by it. As she clenched her fingers together, she was in awe of how she could still feel the sensation of her fingers moving, though they were incapable of doing so.
As Deadlock examined her arm longer, she found herself bored, expecting a doctor to come in sooner or later. I guess I should go get one. She thought. Deadlock grabbed the pole of her IV stand as a grip, lifting her out of her bed on the right side. As she did, she tried reaching out to grab the shelf to catch herself with her left arm, though was met with the reality of her mistakes. As she remembered that her arm was missing, Deadlock slammed against the shelf harshly, nearly causing the IV to topple on her as well. She pushed herself up, wincing from the pain from her back from what it felt like large wounds.
Deadlock turned around, holding onto her IV stand as she limped around. Her legs were weak and frail from her recess in the hospital room, and she found herself troubled to walk. As she approached the door, the door handle happened to shake on its own, opening quickly to meet Deadlock with an unfamiliar woman.
The woman was rather short, wearing a white and blue robe. She had perplexing brown eyes and a pale, asian complexion. She had a clipboard in her hand, and her jet black hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her eyes told Deadlock she was surprised while her smile told her she was happy at her awakening. “You’re awake!” she exclaimed, letting herself into the desolate room past Deadlock.
The woman aided her arm in helping Deadlock limp back to her bed, letting the recovering patient sit down as she loaded up one of the consoles in the room. “Where am I?” Deadlock asked firmly, rubbing her arm somewhat subconsciously as she did so.
The woman blinked, a bit unsure on how to answer. “Ah, yes. You hadn’t seen Brimstone yet. Well-though it will need explaining-you’re with Valorant.”
Deadlock tensed up as she heard the final word of the woman‘s sentence. She rested her head into her hand, sighing as she relaxed, calming herself. “And what-what am I doing here? I already declined your offer.”
The woman chuckled slightly, pausing from typing on the keyboard of the computer she was using as she looked at Deadlock. “You were hurt.”
Deadlock frowned. The woman had been very unhelpful with questions in the last ten minutes, and it left a thick layer of annoyance in the air towards the doctor. The only thing she had managed to gather is that the woman is named Sage-a name she was somewhat familiar with, and with that, her real name being Wei Ling Ying-and that Brimstone-someone she was familiar with- is coming soon. Deadlock looked at the shelf again, recalling her earlier incident. Chills ran down her spine. How could one of the most famous hired guns in the world be so stupid? How could she let that thing hurt her?
“I plan to heal your arm in a few minutes, if you don’t mind. I have the ability to turn anyone to their original state, even to the extent of limbs missing,” Sage boasted, writing in her notebook she had brought with a blue, faded pen.
Deadlock frowned. Sage had refused to answer any of her questions, and the first thing she informs her is of her immense radiant skill. “I can’t let you do that,” Deadlock quickly stated.
She noticed the short woman stop her sudden movement, a bit shocked by her coldness. Ling Ying turned around, a look of ignorant confusion across her face. “Please inform me?”
Deadlock shivered, feeling her cold breath leave her mouth and press against her arm. As she held herself close, her eyes darted back and forth across the individual seams of her sheets. They had long vertical indents from being folded and ironed, and laid across her to cover her lower body. Why wouldn’t she let Sage heal her? The words were too frustrating to leave her mouth. To accept reality beyond her mind, and put it into the real world. Deadlock gaped her mouth, her shaky breathing steadying mildly. “Take this away, and everything they gave would have been for nothing. They would die in vain.”
She rolled over on her side, observing Sage again as she tried to distract herself from reliving the memories, who froze in place upon the woman’s eyes being set on her.
Deadlock glanced up from her sideways position, watching the door as a large, broad figure entered. She sat up quickly, aware of who it was this time. Brimstone. “Nice to see you awake, Deadlock.”
She stared at him, eager to finally observe his arrival. “Yes, I could say the same to you.”
Ah, yes. Not to mention that Deadlock and Brimstone’s last encounter was her knocking him out and leaving him to wake up in an alley in the outskirts of Stavanger. What could she say? It’s better to not trust people.
Brimstone picked up one of the foldable chairs along the wall, unfolding it. He sat down in the chair, turning it around so that the back was facing his chest. As he did so, Sage left the room to let them talk momentarily, whispering to him momentarily beforehand. Brimstone glanced up at the blonde-haired woman, a bit of remorse shining in his eyes. “Well, you’re probably wondering what’s going on. You’ve been asleep for four days.”
“Yeah, and I’m awake now. Just drop me off at the closest city, I can make my way back home,” Deadlock reasoned coldly.
A large sigh left Brimstone’s chest as he shuffled his hands. “I’m afraid I can’t do that in your state. What’s an assassin like you when you can’t even shoot?”
“I can make do. I have to get back to my…crew,” Deadlock’s sentence trailed off as she glanced at her hands on her crossed lap.
As moments flashes in her head, she could see it so clearly. It got them. She shuddered, her eyes darting back and forth as she did so. “Hey, hey,” Brimstone stood up rashly, putting his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. “You're a soldier, Deadlock. So am I.”
Deadlock was drinking a newly retrieved glass of water as she sat up, laying against the wall in her bed. “So, my friends are dead. I can’t shoot anymore, what do you want from me? My soul?” she teased stalely.
Brimstone chuckled softly, scratching his beard. “Deadlock, I feel like it’s a shame to let you go to waste. I have a way for you to get your arm back-without healing your wound, to your request-with the help of one of my agents,” he spoke his proposition. “Or, hopefully your future colleague.”
Deadlock gripped her glass tightly. “Ah, that’s the catch. I work better alone, Byrne. You know that.”
“What I know is that you’re highly adaptable.”
Deadlock scoffed, taking another sip as she looked to the side to avoid his gaze. “Yeah? Well show me this piece of junk, so I know you’re not shitting me first.”
He glanced at her hopefully, standing up. “Tell you what. Her name is Killjoy. I’ll have her bring up the product tomorrow, and hey, if you like it, you can stay here as our agent. Deal?”
Deadlock glared at him, lowering her chin aversely. “Deal. I know you're a man of your word.”
Brimstone nodded, standing up. He opened the door to the room, where Sage was standing outside. Deadlock watched intently as he whispered something to Sage, causing her to walk in. “Do you want to meet any of the other residents here?”
Deadlock stared coldly at her, her hand on her side. “No.”
Sage laughed politely. “Uh, okay. Would you like to walk around any?”
She pondered the question carefully, thinking about it. On one hand, it was one of Brimstone’s ignorant plans to get her to get attached to the place. On the other hand, she was indeed curious to what the famous VALORANT base looked like. “Yes, let’s do that.”
Sage nodded as the patient stood up and hobbled past her, a bit startled by Deadlock's forwardness.
Deadlock scanned the scenery. It was awfully green, and was clearly landscaped very recently. Individual knobs of grass lingered around walkways, with small, sprouting trees growing in as the Summer progressed. It was a gentle heat outside, about eighty degrees, filtered unevenly by the scattered groups of clouds. It was something different and odd compared to Deadlock’s usual hangouts-noted for their cold, bare surroundings that reflected a part of herself entirely.
There were few people walking around, seemingly with a task in mind. One woman-tall in nature, with a short black bob and enchanting green eyes-walked swiftly with a folder in her hand. She wore a white button-up and seemed to have a very respected atmosphere around herself. On another edge of the campus, a girl with blue, green and yellow spunky hair was sitting, laughing with a Japanese man, his hair blue as well. Each person having their own vibe and aesthetic, unfamiliar to Deadlock’s world. Back at her company, everyone was the same. Same uniforms, same colors. The rest of the world is basic compared to these powerful minds.
Deadlock seemed to muffle out Sage, who was clearly asking her questions, though the injured woman was not willing to hear. It was hard to focus as she examined her surroundings, especially with how each inch of her body seemed to curl and compress as she took each step. Though, something unique caught her eye. Looking up, Deadlock set her gaze on a woman. She was about average height, with long, vibrant ginger hair down her back. She wore a green tank-top, and had a friendly, inviting aura around her. She was walking with another woman, with white hair up in a ponytail. Though, what enchanted her the most was the ginger-haired woman. “Who is that?” She murmured to Sage without thinking.
Sage glanced at Deadlock, forwarding her gaze to where the Norwegian was looking. “The woman with white hair?”
“No, the ginger.”
“Ah, yes, that’s Skye. She’s one of the agents we have here.”
As Deadlock continued to stare, her cane remained dug into the concrete in an effort to keep her afloat as she watched the woman. Skye seemed happy in her own world, alongside the other woman. Something about the way she talked and how she acted was so friendly. As Deadlock felt her muscles relaxing, she quickly tensed up again, averting her gaze to look back at her guide who was next to her. “She looks nauseating and tiring.”
“Would you like to check out the general facility?” Sage asked Deadlock kindly, awaiting her response eagerly.
Deadlock stared at her feet and her newly obtained cane in her sole hand. She felt so helpless in this state, like an old woman who’s days were past her, enjoying her daily dose of her remaining air by her caregiver. Fitting, isn’t it? Someone reminiscent of such greatness brought down to nothing. “Yes, let’s see it,” she murmured solemnly, starting her way towards a large central building.
As she walked, Sage stopped her with her hand in front of Deadlock’s chest softly. “I feel your pain, Deadlock. Trust me, it will get better. I highly advise you to take Brimstone’s offer.”
“It’s not my place. I have no interest in ‘saving the world’, or whatever it is you do. I work for money,” Deadlock replied dully, not meeting the second-in-command’s eyes.
“If we wanted to sign your contract, we could. VALORANT has enough money to do so, but it’s better if you’re working from your soul than out of obligation.”
“What a bunch of shit,” Deadlock replied under her breath, continuing her walk.
“Deadlock, do you even understand what we do here? We could very well be the reason the whole world is still alive.”
Deadlock stopped, looking back at Sage who remained stagnant. She looked at her, a bit of adamant curiosity in her eyes.
Sage led Deadlock into a dark room. As she approached a white desk, she tapped on a touch-screen console to load up a large projection in the air. “Take a seat, Deadlock.”
Deadlock held onto the marble table ahead of her. It had a futuristic, slick design that was followed through with many other architectural choices here. She pushed on the table as she managed to sit down in the chair softly. As she looked up, she noticed Sage had walked to the other side of the room, behind the newly projected image of a map in a digital blue color. “I’m not supposed to explain our mission too much to people outside the Valorant agency, but I’ll make an exception for you,” Sage informed, dragging individual boxes to several locations on the world map.
"Åh, herlig,” Deadlock whispered. ["Ah, lovely."]
“You know Valorant as a powerful, private company. We hire the best of the best in our world, and we tip the fates of the future war in our favor. What war, you might ask?” Sage proposed, tapping on one of the boxes to open a large cinematic. “The Radiant War.”
Deadlock looked intently as she watched the clip. It looked like a head camera of someone, attacking humans with immense powers. As she did, Sage continued talking. “We know much about it, but not when it will occur. KAY/O, an agent of ours is an artificial intelligence from a different timeline. In an attempt to stop it, he went back in time and managed to reach us, in an alternate reality to his that has a chance to stop the Radiants.”
“Ms. Ying, how dangerous are Radiants? They function in our society just fine.” Deadlock interrupted momentarily to query.
“Powers affected by radianite, it creates an imbalance in the hierarchy of human society. Though integrated in our world, in others, such as a mirror world, radianite has different properties. As you know, I am a radiant myself, it is where I get my healing powers from. Though, these radiants in this mirror dimension cannot control their strength, and have set ambitions to hurt us. These types of radiants, well, they are incredibly dangerous. Brimstone preemptively created the Valorant taskforce to stop them. Agents-like Skye or myself-have been summoned to duty for these battles, and we are expected to keep it under wraps from the rest of the world.”
Deadlock looked at her hand resting against the table. The information was a lot to take in, and she herself wasn’t even sure if it was real. Though the idea seemed plausible, the theory of a twin dimension seems far-fetched. She scratched her shoulder, sighing deeply. “What makes you think that I will join Valorant?”
Sage looked down, her brown eyes glimmering in the blue light given off from the projection. “What?”
“You are telling me this supposed classified info. What makes you think I will join you?”
The solemn woman turned her head slightly, glancing at the wall past Deadlock intently. “I think you’re considering it.”
“How do I even know what you’re telling me is real?”
Sage laughed, taking a seat across the long table from Deadlock. She folded her hands, resting her head on them as she faced the blonde woman. “During your time with Ståljeger, your last mission,” she started.
Deadlock’s eyes widened and she quickly averted her gaze to stare at the floor. It still stuck clearly in her mind, her colleagues dead before her. “Radivores. That was what that bear was that came in contact with your team and Dr. Dorsey. Radiant animals capable of terror and destruction. The radianite given to them was from the mirror dimension.”
That’s why it looked like that, Deadlock thought, her head seemingly frozen in place. Those fucking lazy assholes, they just said it was a bear!
“If something like that existed, Deadlock, would it be so much to fathom the idea of a person being like that too?”
Deadlock looked up at Sage, her lungs empty with air. She seemed to need to gasp for breath, unaware of how much the mission affected her. “Sage, I-”
“Deadlock. You asked my real name when you first got here. What’s yours?”
“My name? Iselin.”
“Make the right choice then, Iselin.”