The Rogue Agent

by Shiloh White

  Then all of a sudden, I saw something behind Damian’s shoulder and gasped silently. But I couldn’t let Damian see it in my eyes.

  If his friend fed on Depression, I couldn’t let him know or see the little hope I had inside. So as the knife inched closer and closer to my chest, I closed my eyes and waited.

  46. Group Decisions Are Great! Knives? Not So Much.

  I heard a loud THUNK and opened my eyes. I realized then that Damian was right. A single moment was all it took—for Scott to swing his nightstick into the side of Damian’s head.

  But it only took another moment for me to see that Damian blocked the blow with his arm.

  How he managed that? Beyond me. I hoped I didn't give him away.

  Scott pulled back and swung again. This time, though, Damian was ready. (Well, more ready than the first time.) He turned his arm to black smoke, waiting to catch Scott’s weapon. Scott stopped mid-swing and jumped back, pulling his weapon away. Damian growled and turned around, facing Scott now.

  “Oh, it’s you,” he glowered. “The good-for-nothing Depression Force Officer from before. I suppose the poison didn’t do its job. Not a problem. I’ll take care of you myself.”

  I wanted to ask Scott how he got in here, but the grayness kept pushing the knife harder against her chest. I was holding my breath now, so the knife wouldn’t impale me. I took my free hand and shoved the knife back with all I had, pushing it back little by little. I let out the breath I’d been holding onto. It was working! Or, it was for a second.

  The grayness spread to my free hand and took control, pulling the knife even faster now. Great, now it’s twice as hard, I thought. I pushed my arms back and tried to keep them in place, stopping the knife from coming any closer. But I could feel myself slowly losing ground. The tip of the knife was almost at my chest again. It made me angry that somehow, Damian was fighting Scott and still able to kill me at the same time. I kept pushing, but the grayness was overpowering my hands. I wasn’t going to last another minute.

  Then Halsey appeared next to me and looked me up and down.

  “Halsey? How did you—Why did you guys—” I stammered, until I felt the cold tip of the knife against my skin. It had cut through my t-shirt. I started to panic a little. This couldn’t be happening. I was doing all I could to push back. Halsey brought up one of her hands and helped me push until the knife retreated from me.

  “How about I do the talking?” Halsey suggested. “You look a little tied up.” I nodded quickly. She knelt down, following the grayness back to my ankle and started trying to pull it apart from down there. The knife started to move forward again without the extra help, and I closed my eyes. All of my efforts went to breathing and pushing the knife back.

  “It was a group decision to come,” Halsey answered quickly, glancing over at the fight between Scott and Damian.

  “When Dart saw other signatures here besides you and Lucas, Scott persuaded the Lieutenant to come and help.” Halsey explained.

  “The Lieutenant...” I said, struggling to keep up my strength, “...she’s here?”

  “She’s trying to figure out how to break through that box over there, to free your sister.” Halsey said. It cost a bit of concentration, but I couldn’t help opening my eyes to look. A ways in front of me stood the Lieutenant by the box of smoke and grayness. And inside, I saw Chloe on the hospital bed. Only, she wasn’t moving now. The smoke around her was getting thicker and darker. My heart skipped a beat and a dark thought filled my mind. I wondered if saving Chloe would even stop her transformation at this point.

  I forced that thought down. I couldn’t worry about that now; I needed to get myself free. I continued to push against the knife. Then suddenly, it got a little easier. I pushed it back away from my chest. Instead of something I’d eventually lose, it felt like an arm wrestle that I could tip in my favor. But I didn’t want it to tip against me, so I kept pushing. Away from my chest wasn’t good enough. I needed to pry this thing out of my own fingers and get it far away.

  AGH! Someone yelled over where Scott was fighting. I looked up to see what was happening and saw Damian on his hands and knees, rubbing the back of his head. Scott must have got a good hit in. He ran at Damian to get in another one before he could stand up. Damian moved quickly, though. He jumped up and tried to sucker punch Scott. But Scott was just as quick. Mr. Reggie's cure must have worked its magic fast.

  Scott brought down his nightstick to block Damian's hit. Just before they connected dark smoke came out of Damian’s hand and flew up into Scott’s face. He staggered back, clutching his nose.

  Damian stood up, cracking his neck. “I assume we’re both loosened up now, so the fight can really begin.” he said.

  I had to be honest: I did not envy Scott right now. Damian scared me enough as it was without having to fight him directly.

  As if to prove my point, the knife started to overpower me again.

  “The smoke’s no use,” Halsey said.

  “Uhh, that's fine. Maybe stopping the knife will work out better,” I suggested, the knife inching closer and closer...

  “It’s worth a shot,” Halsey agreed. “Just, uhh...let me get my hands free again first.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “The more I pulled against it, the more the smoke kept wrapping around my hands and tried to pull them in.” Halsey said, looking down. I followed her gaze down to her hands, which were covered in the smoke. She tried to pull her hand free, but the smoke stuck like glue.

  “Oh great, it got you too.” I said, trying my hardest not to lose hope.

  “I can get out,” Halsey said convincingly, “I know it. But I’ll need a few seconds.” Before I knew it, the cold tip of the knife had reached my bare skin once again. Not good, I thought. “Please hurry,” I told Halsey, sucking in my chest to buy us those precious few seconds. I looked up at Scott, and it seemed like he could use a few too.

  He was picking himself up off the ground, wiping blood off his chin. Once on his feet, he chucked his nightstick at Damian. Damian raised his arm up, and a wall of grayness rose up from the ground. The nightstick ricocheted off the wall and flew back towards Scott, who, of all things, decided to run at it. He jumped and caught the nightstick in midair, and kept running straight at Damian. Damian shoved both of his arms out and his gray wall shot out at Scott.

  It gained speed and got wider the closer it got. There was no way he could go around it. If he turned and ran to either side, he might have been able to escape an impact. But instead of getting out of its way, Scott took his nightstick and pulled off the front of it. The part still in his hand shrunk in his hand until it was small, about the size of a...was it a pen? His Handle was a pen, and he was going to run at a wall as wide as a house wall with it? What was he thinking? I wanted to yell at him to get out of the way, but it was no use now; moving wouldn’t get him anywhere in time. Scott stopped running and braced himself as the wall flew into him and disintegrated, making a thick blanket of fog around him in the process.

  “Almost...got it!” Halsey exclaimed next to me as she pulled her hands free. Then she reached for my arm and said, “Now let’s get you out of there-WOOOAH!” As soon as her hands wrapped around my arm, my hand let go of the knife and flailed around with impossible strength. It swung this way and that until Halsey let go and hit the ground after flying back a considerable amount. I looked down at my arm, which quickly returned to assisting my other hand in my slow demise, and then over at Halsey, dumbfounded. I didn’t have that much energy to spare, let alone fling a person.

  “Are you okay?” I called out to her.

  “A little banged up, but I’ll survive!” Scott yelled back from over where the fog was clearing up, which put me a little more at ease. Halsey rolled over and rose to her feet. “She was talking to me!” she yelled over to Scott.

  “Sorry, I’m a little busy at the moment. I didn’t have time to notice who was talking to who!” Scott yelled back.

  “Just shut up an
d don’t die!” Halsey yelled, looking at my hands for a new way to help me out. The fog was almost clear, and I could see a silhouette of Scott standing. Whatever his pen did, it definitely did it well. “That’s an interesting Handle you have there,” Damian pointed out. “You don’t know the half of it,” Scott retorted. He threw the pen at Damian, who began to laugh. “Oh, this is rich,” Damian said, trying to contain himself. “Going for broke, huh? Did my last attack scare you that—”

  He never finished his sentence.

  Scott’s pen changed back into the nightstick in mid-air and crashed into Damian’s face, sending him straight to the ground. I couldn’t help but smile at Damian finally shutting up.

  “That was a disaster,” Halsey said as she ran back over to me. “Wait, since when did you have time to smile?” she pointed out, and she was definitely right. I shouldn’t have been smiling at all. Somehow, I'd completely forgotten all about the knife trying to drive its way into my chest.

  When I looked down at it, I realized I'd forgotten about it because I was—slowly but surely—succeeding in pushing the knife away from me. I looked over at Damian on the floor, struggling to rise to one foot and something in my mind clicked. “That disaster,” I said, looking up at Halsey, “we need to do it again.”

  Halsey looked at me like I was...well, crazy. (As we were sitting in my Depression Zone. I know, right? How dare her.)

  “I dunno,” she responded, “I was the one who got sent flying.”

  “I’m sorry about that, but I have an idea.” I said. “I think Damian’s hold on me and this grayness is linked to his own ability to stand and fight.”

  “Meaning?” Halsey asked.

  “Damian is using grayness to fight Scott,” I explained, “So I don’t think he can concentrate on controlling this grayness in the Zone when he’s getting knocked around.”

  “Like he’s splitting himself too thin,” Halsey suggested.

  “Exactly,” I said. “Now I can push back, but this stuff’s got me in some kind of death grip, so I need you to try to pull the knife out of my hands. And we need to do it now, while Damian’s down.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Halsey shrugged. She grabbed at the pile of grayness coiled around the knife and winced, but my arms didn’t flail and they didn’t launch her away. I pushed and she tugged until the grayness came off of me. Halsey threw it all to the ground, and it got sucked back up into the rest of the grayness, leaving nothing but the black knife resting above ground.

  “We did it!” Halsey exclaimed.

  “Well, it’s about time!” Lieutenant Hollister yelled from next to Chloe’s box. “Get over here; Lucy’s sister needs help!”

  ✽✽✽

  Halsey picked up the knife and ran over to the Lieutenant while I half-ran, half-limped as best as I could to the cage that the grayness built around my sister. Halsey went to grab at it, but I stopped her. “Wait! There’s no time for that to work again,” I yelled, pointing over to where Damian and Scott were. Damian had already gotten up, and the two of them were exchanging blows again. Halsey skittishly took a step back from the cage.

  “What are you talking about, Lucy?” the Lieutenant asked. “Damian is controlling this smoke, but he loses control when he’s getting beaten.”

  “Why don’t we just wait for Scott to land another lucky blow?” Halsey offered. The Lieutenant shook her head.

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “What?” Halsey asked, “Why?”

  “Dr. Yabata said the antidote would need a day to burn up all the poison in his system,” the Lieutenant explained. “That idiot’s lucky he’s even standing—”

  Just then, Scott howled in pain and we all realized the Lieutenant spoke too soon. I looked over at where Scott was battling and I saw smoke holding down his legs so he stood in place. He was struggling to get free as Damian walked over to him.

  “I’m gonna leave it to you guys to figure this out,” Halsey said, handing me the small black knife. “I’m going to go help Scott.” she added. Then she ran over to join the fray. As she left, she seemed to take the rest of my hope from me. If Scott didn't have a chance against Damian, what could she do?

  I looked down at the ground, averting my eyes from the problems around me. None of this was going the right way. How in the world did I expect to do this on my own, when four of us couldn’t even manage it?

  “Lucy,” the Lieutenant said, putting her hand on my shoulder, “I know it doesn’t look good, but listen to me. All they need to do is hold Damian off long enough to free your sister. Then we can escape.” I was about to interject, but she cut me off. “Where’d you get that thing?” she asked, pointing to the knife in my hand. “Damian,” I answered.

  “Try it against the cage,” the Lieutenant said hopefully. “Maybe his abilities will contradict one another.” I shrugged. It was worth a shot. I grabbed the knife tight in my hand and thrust it at the cage of grayness. Sparks flashed off the knife as it connected and the knife bounced out of my hand, skittering away in the grayness.

  “Or it was just a regular knife,” I muttered. Then all of a sudden, the cage shrunk around Chloe and the grayness started to meld with Chloe’s Depression Agent smoke. It turned the color of the cage to a nasty dark black. Perfect, I thought.

  “We’re gonna get you out of there, Chloe! Just hang on!” I shouted, running up close to the cage. Then I turned around and faced the Lieutenant. “What the heck is happening in there?” I asked her. “I don’t know, but it’s not good.” she answered. I bit my lip, thinking of what to do next. The Lieutenant pressed into her ear, probably activating some communicator to reach Dart.

  “You have to start the timer,” she told him. “If we can’t succeed, we need to be pulled out of the Zone before—”

  “Before what, Ally?” Damian asked behind us.

  (Ally?)

  I whipped around to see him, and the first thing I noticed were Halsey and Scott both on the ground, not moving.

  “This has to stop, Damian!” The Lieutenant shouted at him. Damian answered with a laugh and fixed his eyes on me. As he did, his expression slowly morphed into a grimace, which sent a shiver up my spine. I also saw that he wasn’t standing anymore. Black smoke swirled around his arms and legs at a speed that propelled him to hover off the ground.

  “I hope you had a little fun with all of this, because it’s quickly getting annoying for me to deal with.” he said. Then he swatted his hand in the air and a pile of dark smoke rose out of the gray ground beneath us. It covered Hollister, completely overtaking her before she could fight back. The same thing happened to Halsey and Scott on the ground.

  “What did you do to them?” I demanded.

  “You know, after everything that’s happened to you,” Damian said, hovering closer to me, “I’d expect you to be a little more worried about yourself.”

  I backed up as he came closer, bumping into Chloe’s cage. I spread my arms out to block Damian from reaching my sister. Damian snapped his fingers, and dark smoke shot up from beneath me. It wrapped around the lower half of my body, holding me in place.

  “Don’t you get it?” Damian shouted in anger. As he came closer, I noticed just how insane he looked. His green eyes showed nothing but anger and craziness. His hair was flying in different directions like an anime character, a thin layer of smoke surrounding his body. “I don’t care about your sister anymore,” he said. “At this speed, suicide will be easy.” Damian said. At first, I had no clue what he meant. Then I felt my hands start to move on their own. I looked down, and saw the grayness spreading up my body. Damian was going to make me catch the knife and do it myself.

  “Disorder will get enough energy from you!” he flicked his finger at me, and I watched as a lump of black smoke shot out from the ground, loaded with the black knife. I tried to pull my hands back down to my sides, but it was no use. I felt so much anger at this moment. I was angry that I couldn’t move and that Chloe lay behind me about to end up exactl
y like my dead brother and at whatever this evil thing Damian wanted to bring back—and the fact that it was going to come back because of me—and because I didn't trust Lucas when it mattered.

  Most of all, I was angry because I only had seconds left to be angry, as I watched the smoke close the distance between my hands and the black knife. My arms fully extended, I felt my fingers open up to catch the knife. But it never reached them. It was floating inches from my body, barely out of my arms’ reach.

  “Argh!” something in front of me cried out. Then my entire view was blocked out as grayness and the air in front of me swirled around, changing to a human shape. I gasped but it was no good; the air left my lungs all at once. Lucas appeared in front of me, the same grin on his face as in the past.

  “Looks like I was able to protect you after all, huh?” he said.

  Then he closed his eyes and his body slowly fell against me.

  47. I Lose It (My Patience, My Family, My Consciousness; You Name It)

  “Oh...” Damian sucked air through his teeth. “That wasn’t the plan at all.”

  I ignored him, trying to let my brother down slowly onto the grayness. I was baffled. I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. Lucas didn’t disappear at all. He was waiting...ready for this to happen. That single moment.

  “Luc—Lucy...” he coughed, trying to say something. “Lucas, don’t talk, please.” I told him. He grabbed my shirt with one of his hands, and held something out to me in the other. “I caught it when Damian shoved it out of your hand earlier.” A tear fell down my cheek. In his hand was my yellow paintbrush, along with the canister I’d dropped. I took it, and before I knew it, another tear fell right into his hand.

  “Lucas, I’m so sorry. I thought you were…”

  “Lucy,” Lucas said, looking me straight in the eye, “don’t worry about me.” His eyes looked so peaceful, I wanted to believe him. Then his eyes slowly shut and he let go of my shirt, falling to the ground.