Coming Clean

I stare at Mary, dumbfounded. She knew this whole time? All this time, I thought that I cruised through all of those missions, that I had earned my keep, that my record was spotless.

But it turns out I was wrong. I was careless and stupid and Mary had known from the very beginning. And she could have destroyed my career at any moment. Heck, she could have had me killed at any moment. But she didn’t. She’s saved me several times over and yet here I was, prepared to eliminate her as part of a mission that I’m now starting to question the morality of.

“Altair, you okay there?” Mary asks.

“Of course not!” I exclaim, “I just…I have so many questions!” For some reason, I still feel defensive. I owe Mary a lot, but…I dunno. I guess it’s my defense mechanism? Or my stubbornness, as Aquino so eloquently put it.

“Yeah, same,” Penn says, raising his hand like he’s inside a classroom and not in the middle of a war zone. “How come you narrated all that in the second person?”

Of all the stupid questions a guy could ask, he ask— Wait, no, that’s actually a reasonable question.

“I thought it would give off a more dramatic vibe if I did,” Mary says matter of factly.

Penn nods in agreement. “Okay, I get that. Second question, how did you get through that flashback so fast?”

Another fair question.

“Plot convenience,” is all Mary says. She doesn’t offer any further explanation. Then another explosion echoes through the halls and I’m brought back to the present. Right, this isn’t the time for idle chatter. I turn to Penn, exasperated.

“Penn, shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, checking if the others are still alive or something?”

“Oh, they’re fine,” he says, showing me a photo on his phone. It’s our group from earlier. One of the guys, Trent, I think his name was, took a selfie with the other two girls. They’re all injured but more or less okay. They’re even making peace signs. Huh.

“Oh…okay,” is all I can say.I should try to contact Cobalt in a few minutes to see if he’s okay too. I don’t see him or the breakfast trio anywhere on Trent’s photo, but I don’t see their dead bodies either, so….

Penn puts his phone away. “Buuuut I can see you two have some stuff you need to work out so I’ll just go somewhere else and see if anyone else needs back-up.”

Finally, blessedly, he leaves. I turn to Mary— Vega— whatever her name is. She looks back at me nervously.

“Um, am I in trouble?”

“First off, I want to thank you.”

“What? Why?”

Is she seriously asking why? After everything’s she’s done for me? Whatever, I guess I’m just going to have to say it all plainly.

“You could have ratted me out at any time…but you didn’t. For that, I’m grateful.” And I am. I really am. I give her a smile. Not one of those forced, Prince Charming ones I’ve been putting on as part of an act. A real, genuine one.

Mary turns a bit red and shyly turns her head away as she forms a response. “Oh, um it’s no problem.”

“But why?” I ask, smile slowly fading away as I furrow my brows in questioning.

“Huh? Why?”

“Why did you do it? Like you said, you could have risen in the ranks if you had just revealed my identity, so why didn’t you?”

“Oh, I guess it’s because…” Mary looks down and rubs her right arm. “I was rooting for you.”

“Rooting for me?” I’m a spy, her natural enemy. Why would she want to root for me? Is it because of our history together? Mary answers my question before I can theorize any further.

“Yeah. Like the way that you took your work so seriously or how you would come up with all those silly catchphrases on the fly--“

I cringe at that memory, I never did find a good catchphrase in the end.

“—the way that you always seemed to try so hard. It was all so endearing and…before I knew, it I guess I may have fallen for you.” Mary is full on blushing now, but she isn’t turning her head away from me anymore. She’s looking at me straight in the eye and wearing the sweetest smile I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Wait, sw-sweetest smile?! Am I — When did I—?

“O-oh,” I feel my face heat up, at a total loss for words. I had already known that Mary had feelings for me, but hearing her say outright like that, in such an open and honest way, just hits different somehow.

“So when we finally met for the second time in our civilian identities,” she continues, “I guess I kind of jumped the gun by suddenly asking you out. I dunno…it’s just, with the kind of work that we do, I just didn’t know when we’d get an opportunity like that again.”

“Oh, I see…”

“So, now you that know that I’m a villain. What do you want to do now?”

“Well, I guess it’s my turn to come clean. I’ve known that you’re a villain for a while now. You were actually a target assigned to me for a recent mission.” I look her in the eyes as I say this. She’s already done so much for me behind closed doors, this is the least I can do in return.

I can consider the consequences later.

“Target? Aw, like in matchmaking? For like, a dating service or something?” She asks, putting her hands on her cheeks and blushing like a smitten schoolgirl.

“No, for eliminating.”

Her face immediately falls. “Eliminating as in…?”

I make a gun shape with my right hand and mime a shooting motion against my head complete with a “boom!” sound effect to mimic a head shot.

“Oh….”

“Yeah…Sorry about that.”

“No, no, I get it. I’ve been doing a lot of illegal stuff.” How can she say that so nonchalantly? In front of someone that works for the government? Well, I mean, I guess she is helping other villains break into this base right now, so….

“Right. I still feel like eliminating you is going a bit far though, to be completely honest. And um…” I feel my face heat up as I consider what words to say next.

“What is it?” Mary asks, tilting her head to the side quizzically.

“Do you…want to give it a try? The whole…erm…Like um…Batman dating Catwoman? Ugh, what I mean is—“

“Yes, I’d love to!”

“O-oh…Even though you know I tried to target you?”

“Eh, it’s fine. My parents went through something similar in the past and they’re still happily married to this day!”