Just a quick note to say that I will put the translation for any words/sentences I write in French at the end of the chapter! You'll be able to check out what it means if you're interested!

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The German agent was walking down the corridor to join her colleagues in the cafeteria. Before entering, she glanced left and right as she had a strange impression. She kept looking behind her as the door of the cafeteria opened and she walked inside. Pheonix and Raze greeted her while they were eating their breakfast.

"Good morning," she said back and went to make herself a cup of coffee. She crossed her arms and glanced once more towards the corridor. Pheonix and Raze both stared at her and nodded as if understanding her puzzled look. "Are they not around lately? I haven't heard a single yelling for four entire days."

"Well, [A/n] came back from her mission two days ago and as far as I know they should be around," Phoenix said, his eyes glued to his phone. 

Raze rested her cup on the kitchen counter and spoke up. "Maybe one killed the other."

"He better not have killed my singing partner," Pheonix stepped in, annoyed at the thought, looking up for a brief moment. 

Killjoy leaned on the wall next to the coffee machine, pondering. "I'm pretty sure I saw lights on very late last night at her workshop."

"Nothing surprising," Breach said as he walked in. "The girl practically never sleeps."

They all nodded in agreement. However, something was still bothering the engineer. She thought she heard two people talking at the workshop. "I'm pretty sure she wasn't alone."

"Are they finally getting along?" Pheonix wondered and laughed soon after. "Nevermind. Seems impossible to me."

"Well, I did bump into Chamber earlier," Breach went on the subject, "he seemed to have been carrying food for two while heading towards [A/n]'s workshop."

All eyes turned to him in disbelief. Was it a miracle? they wondered. "Jeez. I know someone would be happy to hear that," Phoenix said, chuckling as he imagined Brimstone's grin seeing these two being friends.

They continued to talk among themselves as more people came in and came out. Suddenly, a loud bang echoed through the base. They all jumped, the sudden loud noise, if they were still sleepy until now, fully awoke them,  as Killjoy almost dropped her mug. Everyone's eyes turned to one agent that was usually the cause of this type of noise around here. Raze shrugged, laughing awkwardly, not even sure if she was the culprit. Then, a familiar loud voice could be heard where the explosion had resonated before. And another, unusually loud. They almost missed their heated conversation. Killjoy sighed and decided to check on them, her mug in hand. 

When she reached her destination, Brimstone and Sage were already there. Smokes were pouring out of the door from the armory, letting escape a horrible smell. Killjoy pinched her nose and came closer to the two agents to see [F/n] covered in soot and Chamber, surprisingly clean. All of them were glaring down at the small agent who was crossing her arms, her cheeks red from embarrassment.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Surprisingly, it was Chamber who rose his voice. The man who was all about keeping up appearances seemed to himself have lost his patience. And for a good reason.

"I'm sorry, okay? I wanted to try out something," the culprit admitted, looking at the ground. Chamber clicked his tongue and tried to compose himself again. "I thought I could make a mini grenade launcher."

Brimstone sighed at her explantation. "They are big for one reason."

"I know!" she exclaimed. "But that's so inconvenient! Might as well search for another-"

"That's enough, agent," the commander cur her short. He glanced at her appearances. Her clothes were the same as when she changed after the mission. Her hair was a real mess and the accident did not help fix it. Now, soot was covering her from head to toes. His eyes wandered back to her face and he noticed the heavy eye bags under her eyes. He frowned, angrier than before. "When was the last time you slept?" he demanded in a harsh voice.

The girl gulped. She knew this question would come up and her answer would not ease the commander's mind. "I dunno... When I took a nap in the ship back then?" she said, almost in a whisper as if she were a child that behaved badly.

Brimstone brought a hand to his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, tired of her already. "That was two days ago. Go to sleep now."

"But I can't," she said, still not looking up.

"I don't need an agent that is sleep-deprived and will make mistakes such as this on the battlefield." His tone was severe. He was not going to be soft on her because of her insomnia. There were too few agents to lose one. "Now, I don't want to see you around here until tomorrow morning."

Disappointed, the woman bit the inside of her mouth to keep herself from speaking more and she walked away without looking at anyone. Killjoy watched her walk past and hesitated to talk to her but, when she saw the look in Sage's eyes, she knew it was not the best moment. Brimstone sighed again and left to go on on his duties. Chamber was pissed, but he had been able to compose himself in the meantime Brimstone was giving [A/n] a ticking off. He looked down at himself to see if he got any dirt on him and saw a bit of soot on his pants. He frowned, unhappy as he had to go to the dry cleaner because of her. Killjoy walked closer to him, to press him into giving more details about what happened.

Chamber did not look at her and kept looking everywhere for any imperfection. "She had not come out of this place for two entire days because she was making God knows what which turned out to be a mini grenade launcher. I told her it was a bad idea but she was so sure it would work. Look at where we are now. She even dared to aim at me," he added this last comment, still sour at her.

Killjoy chuckled, amused by the situation unlike the others around her. "Despite what she says, even her can't think totally straight without any sleep."

"I tried to force her to get out of here," he admitted. "Mais cette femme... She just wouldn't listen. 'I don't need sleep, I need an answer,' she would say. Incroyable celle-là!" he sounded very angry, his accent as he spoke got thicker and he was mumbling more and more French words that the two women next to him could not understand.

Killjoy nodded, agreeing as it sounded just like her. Sage rested a hand on both of their shoulders with a smile. "I will check on her. She might need me to help her sleep."

"Sure, go ahead," Killjoy gave her a grin and waved at her as she left. Chamber seemed to be intrigued by this. "You might wonder why she can't sleep?" The German engineer spotted his curious eyes as he looked at Sage leaving and decided to share the story that she knew. "I don't know the whole story but I think she has nightmares all the time. She told me once that it was ghosts from the past haunting her each time she would rest. That's why she keeps herself busy all the time. Sage would often give her pills to help her but, it's not as effective as it used to be."

The French designer listened to her without interrupting. Her explanation did answer a few questions he had in mind concerning the strange woman that he had to work with. Now that they almost are able to talk without getting at each other's neck, he would notice how busy she would always keep herself. He never saw her take a break despite her obvious fatigue. She almost collapsed earlier if he had not caught her in time, but she had always refused a break. She drank coffee on coffee, eating what he brought to her or the snacks that she had around to give her enough energy. She truly was a strange woman and it bothered him to not be able to read through her as easily as others. It was harder for him to... ask for things he needed from the agent, to not say manipulate her into doing certain things.

[A/n] was in her quarters, undressing to put on her pajamas. But, as she took off her top, she got extremely dizzy and fell on the floor, her body becoming numb. She grumbled in pain but was unable to move. Her eyes threatened to close as her headache intensified. All her body was hurting, it hurt so much that her eyes watered from the intense pain. She tried to move even just a finger but her body refused to respond. Her voice was hoarse, refusing to be louder than a whisper. In the end, she decided to just sleep on the floor as she could not do anything else anyway and closed her eyes hoping to get some rest.

"[F/n]." She heard someone call. She recognized this voice. "I miss you." Tears ran down her cheeks as she made out a figure from afar. A boy, too fragile for this world, was standing still in front of her. "Why did you leave me behind?"

"I'm so sorry," she answered. She repeated it again and again to this silhouette of a boy as she felt to her knees to embrace him.

"Why did leave us all?"

"[A/n]!"

All of a sudden, the woman woke up, sweating and panting, her eyes wide open. Her vision was still blurry but she could make out a new silhouette in front of her. She reached out to it and a hand extended to her. The warmth calmed her down and she frowned to prevent any tears from falling. She mumbled apologize again but she no longer knew to whom and for what. She could no longer remember what pained her this much, what haunted her. The hand that was enveloping her turned to a body. She could not move, not feel anything, she was just numb within this pair of arms.

"Let's get you to bed," this pair of arms said. Their voice was soothing and it sounded like the nicest voice she ever heard. Her vision was still blurry, unable to open her eyes entirely.

The silhouette carried her to bed and helped her undress. She was similar to a child that fell asleep in the back of the car and whose parents had to carry home. Did she have parents? She could not remember their faces for a moment. Only, Brimstone's face came to her mind. It eased her, brought her the temporary happiness she needed to be brought to sleep. Her new family was all these agents here, no one else mattered.

She finally fell asleep, peaceful for now. Sage carried her dirty clothes out of her room and to the washing machine. It smelled disgusting and was sure to get hers dirty in the process, but she felt like she needed to help her, she always had. When she turned around the corner, she saw the old man at the head of the organization, his face displaying his worries towards the agent. Sage smiled sadly at him and nodded, easing his heart for a bit.

"She looks peaceful for now," she said. "But I found her on the ground when I arrived."

Chamber was walking to his quarters, even though he would usually leave the headquarters as soon as his business around was done, when he overheard their conversation. Curious about what was being said and to know more about all the agents around here, he listened closely while hiding. "She's pushing herself too much."

The Chinese agent let a sigh escape from her lips. "You know it's not her fault."

"Have you found some medicine to help her?"

She shook her head. "The sleeping pills barely work now, no matter the dose." They paused for a minute, trying to come up with a solution. "If this keeps on..." Sage was not able to bring herself to finish her sentence.

"I know. But we don't need someone who cannot fight."

"But we're short-handed."

"We can't risk any more lives," he simply said in a deep voice.

Chamber took quite the interest in their conversation. Obviously, he knew all about the regulations around the protocol: Agents were expected to be professional and battle-ready at all times and were supposed to keep a professional relationship with each other. But how interesting, even the leaders have a hard time not getting attached to other agents. He smirked and went about his day, keeping this piece of information in his mind. 

His quarters were close to [A/n]'s as they were the last two recruits. He did not like these quarters, too small and uncomfortable for his liking. So he took the liberty to rent a penthouse nearby but would stay for a night in this room, smaller than his bathroom, before a mission. He turned on the light and sat at his desk. Despite how difficult of a start this day had been, he still managed to get more information about the agents, especially [A/n]. She was an important piece for him, after all, she was a direct collaborator to his business. Moreover, he felt like he would be able to use her when needed. He just needed to soften her heart to get access to it. She could prove herself useful, especially her abilities. But for that, he had to make sure she did not get fired because of her insomnia, which would be quite troublesome.

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"Mais cette femme..." = But this woman...

"Incroyable celle-là!" = here would mean "She's unbelievable"