Chapter Text
Several months had passed since the events at Istanbul, and adjusting to the VALORANT protocol posed to be a harder feat than Fade had initially thought. She spent the vast majority of her free time alone, hiding in her dark, mostly empty room in an attempt to distance herself from the other agents in the protocol. She was used to being alone, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t attempted to be civil with the others anyway.
Most of the agents kept their distance from her and only spoke to her when they absolutely had to, opting to either ignore her or chase her away with whispers and glares. One of the few exceptions of this is Cypher. The Moroccan always seemed to search Fade out to share a game of chess or any intel he had gotten that he thought she might like to know.
Fade didn’t mind these little chats they had, in fact, she started to look forward to them. They were, after all, the only times the Turkish woman didn’t have to worry about being side-eyed or glared at with hatred and distrust for simply existing. It was nice, to have someone she could talk to often and share her thoughts with. Even if their conversations tended to be brief.
“Fade,” Cypher began, gently sliding his chess piece on the board. He had asked her to join him for a few games of chess, just a friendly competition between the two on one of their down days. She agreed, thankful to get out of her room and out of her head for a while. “How are you getting along with the other agents?”
“Mm,” Fade merely hummed, earning a chuckle from the man across the table. “Why even bother asking? You can see for yourself how I’m ‘getting along’ with the others. Most of them don’t want to be near me, never mind talk to me.”
“Yes well, Brim has asked me how you are doing. He is worried. You spend too much time in your room.”
Fade reached over to move her piece next, taking one of his pawns and swiftly setting it aside to join the growing pile of discarded wooden pieces. Their chess games often went like this; with it being even up until the last moment when Cypher would win. A routine they had fallen into quickly after the first few matches when Fade first joined up with VALORANT.
“I don’t need to get along with them,” she replied flatly.
“Ah, but wouldn’t it be nice to have more friends, hm? I cannot imagine being glared at all day is enjoyable,” the Moroccan moved his next piece, leaning back in his chair to admire the board.
“I don’t need friends,” Fade sneered, quickly capturing one of his knights and adding it to the pile before she peered down at the board again. Annoyance built up in her chest, released with a defeated sigh. She had put herself into checkmate.
“That was unexpected,” Cypher laughed. Fade opened her mouth to speak, protesting that actually she had done it purposely, only for the words to hang on her tongue as the door to the rec room opened behind her and someone entered.
“Cypher,” the new participant spoke, standing a distance from them. “Brimstone told me to come find you. He said it was important.”
“Ah, Neon,” Cypher stood up, looking at the young agent over Fade's shoulder. “Thank you, I’ll be there in a moment. Good game, until next time.”
The dream seer stayed completely still, her back facing Neon as Cypher gently patted her shoulder and left to exit the room. She could feel the burning on her back from Neon's glare, which she refused to meet. Instead, she opted to pick up the chess pieces and set the board back up for the next time they would be used.
Once she heard the door shut a second time, signaling that both parties had left, Fade let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Of all the agents, Neon's hatred for the Turkish woman seemed to be the most intense. Second, only to Jett, whose hatred seemed to be mostly in the protection of her friends rather than of anything she had done to the Korean personally.
Being in the same room as either of them left her with an intense feeling of guilt. She didn’t fully understand why - it wasn’t like she was innocent and their hate was more than justified. Either way, she tried her best to avoid them when she could.
With a heavy sigh, the blackmailer stood finally to take her own leave. Her original destination was her quarters down the hall, but her stomach growling threw a rather annoying wrench into that plan. The cafeteria wasn’t far and most agents at this time were training or enjoying leisure activities.
The walk there was quiet, the only noise she could hear is the hum of the way-to-bright lights and the occasional rustling of the vents as the air turned on. Fade turned the corner to the cafeteria and quickly located the coffee machine settled on a small table against the wall.
While she didn’t particularly enjoy the bitter drink, it was the easiest source of caffeine she could acquire daily without the risk of running into the two agents she did not want to run into. Luckily, the protocol always had lots of sugar and cream to add to it, cutting the bitterness and making the hot drink edible.
Unfortunately, it seemed fate felt like pulling a prank on her in the form of a sign over top of the machine informing any potential addict that they were in fact out of coffee. Fade frowned.
Well, it seemed like she would be having Spike Rush instead today. The vending machine, located on the far side of the large room, released her three cans of the energy drink after she inputted her credits, dropping them into the collection bin for her to take.
As Fade turned around, pocketing two of the cans, the familiar numbness in her arm caused her to look around the room. She could feel her radiance pull at her skin, wanting to break out and wreak havoc on whomever the fear was wafting off of.
Her eyes landed on the perpetrator, snapping her line of sight away the second her brain managed to catch up. I guess whatever Brimstone wanted with Cypher was only for him, she inwardly scowled. Neon, Jett, and Phoenix sat at one of the tables, the former of the three being the only one whose back wasn’t turned to her. Not that that lasted long as the two turned to look at her, holding their gazes on her.
It took much of her strength to pull back her radiance, the living nightmare retreating back to dormancy as feeling returned to her arm again. Fade could feel their eyes on her, which she tried her hardest to ignore in favour of opening the can in her hands and taking a large gulp of the fizzy drink.
While she stood there, watching the three in the corner of her eye and sucking back as much of the can as she could in an attempt to mask the uncomfortable feelings in her chest, she didn’t realize someone called her name from in front of her.
“Fade?” The gentle voice of Sage finally registered in her ears. “You’ll choke if you drink that too fast. Spike Rush this late in the evening?”
Her inquiry was met with Fade finally returning her gaze to the healer after another moment of side staring at the agents at the table. “Out of coffee,” came her mumbled reply.
“And you needed three cans? You know the staff keeps them overstocked, so you can come get them when you need them. Rather than store them,” Sage informed her, following the blackmailers wandering eyes toward the table again, the agents sitting there going back to whatever it was they were talking about previously.
“What do you want?” Fade steeled her face, locking her eyes on Sage with a frown and her best attempt at a glare. “Surely mocking my choice of drink isn’t why you approached me.”
The healer looked at her with understanding, but Fade could feel the apprehension behind the slight smile she held. It was impossible to hide those emotions from her - it was her radiant power after all.
“I came to remind you that you had a check-in with me an hour ago,” Fade lowered her head. She had forgotten all about that. Part of the protocol's health care was monthly check-ins from all the agents to assess their health and resolve any issues that may arise. “Don’t worry about it. I know you were with Cypher. You can come tomorrow around the same time.”
“Thanks,” Fade replied, dismissing herself from the conversation as quickly as she possibly could, speed-walking toward her room where she would retreat for the night. It was easier to control her radiance when she was alone, especially at night when everyone was asleep and their fear was replaced with calmness.
She glanced at the small clock on the desk beside her bed after disposing of her jacket and replacing it with a T-shirt and more comfortable pants. It had gotten pretty late in the evening, she realized. Not that the time really mattered to her. She didn’t sleep more than a few hours - if she was lucky - anyway.
Instead, Fade decided on going over the recent updates on her tablet of VALORANTS recent missions while she finished off the other two cans, her hunger long forgotten as the hours ticked by and she eventually allowed herself to lay down in the dark, staring up at the ceiling.