Agents Of Brie...

As I said, I was a new agent. I couldn't have had my bracelet for a year and yet, Brie's ghost still loomed over everything I did. No matter where I travelled, she was already there, slathering every surface with reminders. She didn't want me to forget why I put on the bracelet, is what I told myself. 

If you haven't noticed, all agents have a shoot on sight air about them. Guilty until proven innocent, so to speak. Back then, I wasn't like that at all. I was the know it all who knew absolutely nothing. When an agent of Noir approached me, I was on my ninth, maybe tenth, assignment. I had never dealt with Noir up until that day, I need you to understand that. Teaching somebody about something gives them knowledge. It doesn't grant them instant understanding. Back then, in my eyes, Noir had some good points. Especially when it came to their agency. Noir brought people back all the time. Why not me? Is what I swaddled myself with after that first encounter. 

Dax knew exactly which buttons to press and exactly how much pressure to apply in order for me to consider defecting. "All you have to do is give me some information on Luminous." 

Again, I was fresh off the boat. Aim directly between his eyes, shoot, then step over his old, feeble body as he writhed in pain is what I should have done. Instead, my inexperienced mind was already sifting through my memories, determined to unearth something of use. When I couldn't produce anything useful, he shrugged it off. "No big deal." He'd said. In that very second, I should have known it was time to move forward from the conversation as if it had never happened but I just wanted her back so bad. Instead, I absorbed all the flowery promises he weaved around me. He would go ahead and bring Brie back, no problem. "Easy", so he said. In return, one day he would arrive to collect the information I had gathered about Luminous over time. 

I remember bursting into tears. Take that, Luminous! I'd thought. I was so happy! I'd finally figured it out. I remember throwing myself into his arms and sobbing uncontrollably. He'd allowed the onslaught as if people were throwing themselves at him daily.

"I'll be back." He'd murmured against my scalp. Faster than I could blink, he vanished. When he reappeared, Brie was pressed against his chest.

"Is she… She…" I couldn't bring myself to utter the word.

"Dead?" He'd finished casually, as if he said it all the time. As if the word was that simple. "No. Just unconscious." He laid her head down on the pillow before turning his attention back to me. "Okay, so ends my part of the bargain. I'll be back for yours." And with that weighted promise, he was gone. 

I grabbed the nearest chair so that I would be the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. This was important, is what I'd told myself. Without my steady hand to guide her, she wouldn't know what to do. Or where she was for that matter. Again, Dax had arrived while I was on assignment so again, I was neglecting my duties. This was more important, I'd reasoned with myself. 

In real time, it was 2020. She'd been gone for nearly a decade. In some way or another, everyone's life had ambled forward without her. Except mine. Mentally, I remained frozen in a moment in time where she was by my side. The world had changed in many ways and yet, I was the one clinging to the remaining fragments of my broken memories. 

For almost an hour, I sat in that chair, watching her chest rise and fall. I fought with myself to leave her be, to not shake her from her slumber. 

When she finally stirred, again, I fought with myself. The idea of having her in my arms once more… Just the thought…

Unaware of my presence, she sat upward on the bed. A coil of brown hair slinked across a bare, slightly tanned shoulder. Her eyelashes swept the curve of her cheeks several times in a blink, finally revealing a pair of inquisitive brown eyes. Little flakes of green sparked beneath the flicker of the naked lightbulb above her head, the same as they had all those years ago. I watched as she studied her hands. First the left, then the right.

Every paragraph… 

Every sentence…

Every word…

What was I to say?

Slowly, ever so slowly, time caught up with our situation and she realized I was in the room. She rubbed her eyes.

We had three rules. THREE. And there I was, eye level with the one that mattered most.

"Who are you?"

No. "W-Who am I?" I stammered.

Due to my own ignorance, I thought removing someone from their timeline and bringing them back was the same. I mean, on paper, both concepts appeared so similar. Three words was all it took for me to learn how wrong I truly was.

She nodded. "Where are we?" She studied the hotel room. Her gaze combed all four walls and slowed to a confused halt on a mirror positioned by the bathroom door. She watched as her reflection traced the lining of her cheek. She did this to each side. She tugged at the last t-shirt I remembered ever being pulled over her head. It was one of mine. She rubbed the glittered four leaf clovers. Specks of glitter flaked off, forming a shimmery pattern on her lap. Her eyes never left the mirror. "Who am I?" 

In an instant, my entire world shattered. No, no, no! What had I done?

"Y-You don't know me?" I tried. Maybe she needed her mind to catch up with her memories. 

Before she opened her mouth, I already knew the answer but watching her eyes swing from the mirror only to form one word was like a sword being sliced through my soul: "No."

What is this?! I rushed to her side. "Look closer at me." We were so close now that if I chanced it, our lips would touch. "Are you sure?"

She held my gaze.

For every blink I offered, each a symbol of my desperation, I knew it was no use. She didn't know me. 

She pointed at herself. "I'm?"

I couldn't face her anymore. I nearly tripped over the chair in my attempt to get away from her. "You're Brie!" I shouted, clapping my hands over my ears. This wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want this. 

Were it not for the obligation binding me to that room, I would have grabbed my goggles and abandoned her. She didn't deserve that though and as much as I wanted to deny it, I understood that fact. She didn't ask to be there. I did.

Slowly, almost breath by breath, I removed my hands from my ears. As soon as they were down, without missing a beat, she was there: "Who are you?" 

"I'm…" There was no need to tell her my real name. She wouldn't have recognized it anyway. "I'm Z." 

"Do we know each other?" She was standing now. Instinctively, I took a few steps back. 

"We did." I replied. "Once." 

"What do you mean by once?" She crossed her arms in the same way that the Brie I'd once known used to. 

What was I supposed to say? "In a former life." I tried.

Her expression folded into a look of horror. "A former life?" She repeated. A hint of fear weaved it's way to the surface. It shimmered across the tears she was now desperately attempting to fight. "Am I-" She couldn't say the word. Instead, she lowered her voice to barely a whisper: "Is this Hell?" 

Get it together, Z. "You're not dead and this definitely isn't Hell." Why did people always assume Hell? No one ever said: "Is this Heaven?" or "Is this purgatory?" Always Hell. Truth be told, it said ALOT about the human condition that everyone assumed Hell, even without the fire and or brimstone. 

Now her hands were on her hips. "If I'm not dead, where am I and how did I get here?" 

Might as well approach this with an honest mind. "I asked for you to be here." 

"Why? Where did you get me from?"

"I'm an agent of time." I braced myself. "Basically, I'm a time cop. It's our job to keep the timeline intact." I released a long, drawn out sigh. "I took the job to get you back only to learn that I couldn't so I tasked someone else with the job." 

"Wait… To get me back?" 

I nodded.

"Back from where? "Where was I?"

Might as well rip the band-aid off. "Dead."

She slapped her hands over her mouth. I went to move towards her but her eyes had rolled to the back of her head. She collapsed back on the bed, motionless.

Well, that didn't go as planned at all.