Chaos Returns

1

Stiles

"Focus on the target, Val." I say. "Breathe in, calm yourself; when you exhale, fire." I step back, folding my arms across my chest. She inhales, raising the gun out in front of her, taking aim. Her hand stays steady as she grips the hilt of the firearm. She begins to breathe out, her finger tightening over the trigger, sending the bullet tearing from the barrel of the gun with a deafening blast. It shoots through the air, hitting the target square in the bright red bullseye.

"Dad!" She spins around, ripping her protective headphones from off her head and staring at me with wide eyes. "Did you see that? Please tell me you saw that." I grin, nodding. She looks back at the target, as if making sure she didn't imagine it. "I did it!"

"Yes, yes you did." My heart swells with pride. "Think you can do it again?"

"I'll try." She starts to turn back around when she catches my glare, and corrects herself. "I know, I know, Dad. Do or do not, there is no try." I smile to myself, I taught her well.

We taught her well, Stiles.

You had to wreak my proud father moment, didn't you?

Yes.

I roll my eyes, returning my focus to my daughter. She has the gun raised once more, focusing on the target before her. She inhales, then exhales, a second later the bang of the gun echoes throughout the shooting range.

"Dammit." She curses, lowering the gun and staring at the bullet hole punctured not two centimetres from the former.

I'm taken back as she pulls off the headphones off angrily. "What are you mad about? That's still amazing Valerie. No one your age would have be able to score anywhere relatively close to that."

"But it's not good enough." She places her gun down, not as gently as I would have liked.

"Val." I catch her arm as she goes to walk out. "You're 16, you should be out with your friends, not getting mad about your score at the shooting range. It doesn't matter, go have fun while you can."

She looks up at me. "But I want to be like you." She says quietly. That single sentence throws me into silence. "I want to be able to hit the the middle of a target from the top of a building, I want to be able to take down a man twice my size. I want to be a secret agent, just like you Dad."

I take a risky look towards the exit. "Val... you can't talk about my work here." I tell her. "it isn't safe." That isn't a lie. Her mentioning my job in this range could bring us unwanted trouble. I have made many enemies since leaving Beacon Hills, now that I've built a family, I don't want anyone taking advantage of that vulnerability. I train my hearing on the hallway leading into the gun range, finding a pair of footsteps approaching. " Hey Val, How about you go wait for me in the car."

"I hear it too, Dad. I'm not human." She scoffs, as if it's a bad thing to be a human being.

I smile. "Then you know my boss coming, and you should run before I get in trouble for having my underage daughter shooting more accurately that he can." I shove her towards the back exit. "When I'm done we can go and get your brother from school."

"Fine." She says, walking towards the door and opening it, letting sunlight stream through the wide crack. "But I get shotgun there and back." And with that she's gone, the lock clicking behind her. 

"Agent Ashford." I turn at the sound of my fake name, seeing a young, blond man enter, his thin-rimmed glasses sitting low on his nose. "I have a proposition for you."

"A proposition?" I repeat, leaning casually against the wall, hoping he doesn't see the used gun laying on the counter.

He closes the door behind him, stuffing one hand into his pant pocket, the other holding a thick file. "Percy," he uses the name he thinks belongs to me," you're by far my most successful agent, you've closed more cases than the whole department in just the time you've been working for the CSIS." He pushes his glasses back towards his face. "I want to offer you a spot in The Yellow Sector." He holds the file out for me, I take it, slowly, flipping to the first page. "Only my superiors and I know about this department, Percy; and now you do as well. So, I hope, for your sake, that it stays that way."

The silence is filled with nothing but the sound of his heartbeat and the ticking of the clock on the wall. "What is this?" I ask, my brows narrowing as I read through the first document. I look back up at him, confused. 

"Will you take the position?"

I try to read his expression, but his face is blank. "What happened to the last guy?"

He lips almost twitch. "I have no time to sugar coat this for you, Agent Ashford. Not that you would need it." He pauses, breathing in. "He came back to us in pieces." He says carefully, quietly. "His limbs had been torn off, but not consumed in any way. There were claw marks, deep claw marks, along his torso and chest, presumably done by an animal... of a sort."

Supernatural? I ask Void.

Maybe. 

"He went undercover to a town in the U.S. for an assignment, when we didn't hear from him, we sent a team to check on him." His eyes flicker over my face, deciphering my emotions. "What we didn't expect, was to find him in pieces."

"Why are you telling me this? I haven't agreed to the job yet."

"Oh, come on Percy. Of course you're going to say yes. You can't walk away from a challenge, especially one that involves danger and death."

Damn. This guy is good.

I ignore Void, returning my gaze to the folder. "Where was this Agent stationed?"

"A small town in California." He says, his face scrunching in mild disgust. "Beacon Hills."

Oh Shit. Void stumbles back in my mind, hard enough to make me choke on my own air. 

I regain focus, not nearly as quickly as I would have liked. "Why can't the FBI handle this? Why me?"

"Because the U.S. Secret Service has been on this case for years, and all their agents that go in, never come back alive."

It's a dead. Void's excitement is giving me a headache. Let's go kill some murderers, Stiles. 

Wait.

"What's so special about these murders?"

A pause. "These things that attack our men, they are not animals."

"Then what are they?"

You know exactly what they are, don't play dumb.

My superior barely smiles. "I don't think I'm qualified to tell you that part."

I stare at him. "Then who is."

"Come to this address in two hours, and you will get to meet him for yourself." He extends his arm, a slip of paper between two of his fingers. "Think on it. But if you miss this deadline, I'm afraid the position will be revoked." 

"If I say yes, when would I be leaving?"

"Tomorrow."

"And my family? What do I tell them?"

"Bring them along. It's California, say you're taking them on vacation. Kids love that."

I speak to Void in my head. This could be a good training mission for Valerie. 

Ah, yes. The murder town, such a great first mission. He laughs. I say we give her a gun and tell her to go into the streets calling for little Scotty McCall, maybe she can finally put that overgrown mutt down for good. 

No one will be killing anyone, Void. Relax. And Scott has probably moved away by now.

I bet my life that he took over that stupid animal hospital. 

I don't say anything else as my boss opens the door, walking back out of the shooting range as if he was just here for a little friend to friend chat. I wait until I hear the front door close, then I stare at the case file in my hands, the name of my childhood town staring deadly daggers back at me. 

"You don't have a choice Dad." I turn to find Val poking her head through the back door. "We're going to Beacon Hills whether you like it or not."

I feel Void smirk. Impulsive and arrogant. She's definitely your daughter, Stiles.