While I am not the biggest DC fan, I did actually enjoy Suicide Squad even with all of its problems. The team was so interesting, so this is my way of exploring team dynamics with metahuman criminals and a little bit of romance sprinkled throughout. There will be changes to the movie, and I'll be writing past that as well. This is mostly just me having fun. The OC is based off the MCU's Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, because I love Wanda in the MCU but didn't want to write a crossover. Her abilities aren't the same, but her appearance is.

CHAPTER ONE: THERE'S A HOLE IN MY CHEST

15 JUNE 2016

WALLER

"Ten minutes away," Flag reported without prompting. Amanda Waller hummed in place of an answer and smiled internally when she saw the clench of the Colonel's jaw without showing any outward amusement. She was sitting in the back of the SUV while Flag drove, and she knew how much he hated having to act the part of her chauffer. He was an elite soldier that had been reduced to her assistant, for the time being.

If things went as planned, Flag would soon be too busy to drive her around. For now though, she was going to enjoy his anger. She knew what she was doing was petty, knew and didn't care, because Flag hadn't followed her expectations. After finding Doctor June Moone and taking her in, along with the metahuman that resided inside of the mild-mannered doctor, she had assigned the woman's care to Flag. Flag's hero complex never kicked in and the soldier instead regarded the doctor with contempt, which only served to make the already anxious woman even more skittish. She'd had to distance them and put herself into the situation, which was something that she had wanted to avoid. She didn't have the time to coddle the possessed woman, and yet she spent too much of her precious time acting as a surrogate mother for Moone. Flag had went against her expectations, and this was his petty punishment.

The SUV turned a corner, and the bag at her feet pushed against her leg. Amanda pulled her bag onto her lap and thought about the files inside. Doctor Moone's file was there, along with Colonel Flag's and several more. While the SUV continued towards her destination, she went over the list of names. Floyd Lawton, Deadshot, expert marksman and contract killer. Harleen Quinzel, Harley Quinn, brilliant psychiatrist turned crazed villain. Digger Harkness, Captain Boomerang, master thief. Chato Santana, El Diablo, with an unknown limit of his fiery abilities. Waylon Jones, Killer Croc, a man who became the monster that everyone believed he was. Those were the files that she would be presenting, and she would save the big two for last. June Moone, Enchantress, a witch with an external heart in Waller's hand. Rick Flag, Colonel, probably the only person capable of keeping the metahuman criminals in line.

Then, of course, there were the two files that she was going to be holding back. Rick's second-in-command was a woman with near metahuman abilities, but she wasn't a criminal and locked up like the rest of them. Tatsu Yamashiro, Katana, was already on their side and didn't need to be brought up tonight. The other was being omitted because of her colorful history with the military. Eleanora Belikov, Red Phoenix, entered the military at eighteen as Elinor Bell and was an exemplary soldier for six years. After her honorable discharge from the military, she went after the ex-military mercenaries that killed her parents and then continued on killing corrupt military officials until she was captured by Flag. She would make a great asset, but she wasn't going to tell any government officials about Sergeant Bell's forced participation.

"We're here."

02 JULY 2016

FLAG

"You'll be safe here until we get back," Flag overheard as he waited outside of the hotel room. Waller was inside with Moone, talking in a soothing tone that she didn't use with anyone else, and the fake sound made his skin itch. Waller wasn't the type of person to soothe, to comfort, but he knew that she did it as a way to control the young doctor. At least he wasn't the one in there, like Waller had wanted. He felt sorry for the young woman, but the thing inside of her put him on edge. The woman herself was afraid of her own shadow and showed no confidence at being able to control the metahuman possessing her, which was why he had kept his distance from Doctor Moone and why Waller had pulled him from looking after her.

"Will you be safe?" Moone's voice was a whisper, but he was posted right outside the door and could hear clearly. The doctor was obviously worried about Waller's safety, and that worry showed that the doctor didn't really know who Waller was.

The two women talked quietly for a few more minutes, and he saw the tight expression on Waller's face as she walked out into the hallway. The hotel door closed behind her, and he waited for Waller to start walking before falling into step just behind her. She was already looking down at her phone, so he kept his eyes straight ahead and then he was the one who pushed the button for the elevator. Waller barked commands into her phone during the ride down and was cursing under her breath as they crossed the hotel lobby, and he slipped his sunglasses on as they stepped out into the summer Louisiana heat. He hated the humidity down here, could already feel his shirt starting to cling to his back, and his teeth ground together as he held open the back door of the SUV for Waller. She slid inside, he closed the door, and he moved to sit behind the wheel.

It was quiet as they drove away from civilization and towards the prison, and he watched his knuckles pop white as his hands tightened around the wheel. This was a bad idea. Recruiting criminals for some kind of task force was guaranteed to fail, but Waller was determined to see her idea through. Since he was tasked with keeping them in line, he had access to their files and had carefully went over every little detail. None of them were the type to follow orders, to work with a team, and none of them were trustworthy. Especially not the last name that he had checked over. Not that he had needed to read the last file, because he was the one who had brought her in. Eleanora Belikov had proved that she could follow orders and work with a team, but she'd done it all with a false name and a hidden agenda that made her the most untrustworthy of them all.

By the time he pulled up to the prison and made it through the front gates, he was already waiting for it to be over. As he and Waller moved through the prison, his anger rose notch by notch. The guards got on his nerves, because the only thing stronger than their disdain for the prisoners was their fear of them. He watched on a monitor as Waller talked to Harley Quinn, and he wasn't fooled by the woman's wide-eyed stare or quiet riddles. He went down to talk to Croc on his own, wanted to look at the monster that Waller had told him about, but he was just a man who chose to live in a sewer. Santana refused them outright and was nothing like the man they had video footage of, and he didn't realize that he wasn't going to have a choice. Watching Lawton had been right on the edge of entertaining but had mostly been annoying, and he had watched Lawton get dragged back towards his cell with a faint smile.

"That's all of them. Harkness and Weiss are still waiting to be transferred," Waller said once Lawton was out of sight. Griggs was the only guard left behind, and Rick noticed the slight easing of the man's shoulders. Griggs was relieved, because he thought they were leaving.

"I want to see her." He said the words slowly and carefully as he turned to look at Waller, and he caught the quick look on her face. Curiosity.

"Can I trust you not to kill her?" Waller asked him.

"I won't harm her," he promised. Waller held his eyes, like she was testing his words, before turning her sharp eyes on Griggs.

"Take Colonel Flag to Belikov," Waller commanded.

"She's in lockdown." When Waller and he both just continued to look at him, Griggs shifted nervously and crossed his arms over his chest. "She killed one of my guys last month. Been strapped down ever since."

"Can she talk?" Rick asked.

"Well, yeah," Griggs answered with obvious confusion.

"Then take me to her," he commanded this time. Griggs still looked confused and possibly even more nervous, but he nodded jerkily and then started leading the way back inside the prison. Waller walked next to Griggs while Rick stayed a few steps behind, and he listened to them talk like he wasn't within hearing range.

"Why does he want to see her so bad?" Griggs whispered. When Waller answered, she didn't bother with lowering her voice.

"Colonel Flag and his team are the ones who brought her in." Waller paused to look over her shoulder, and he kept his face passive as she slowly looked him over. "Well, I guess I should say that it took Colonel Flag's team to bring her in since he was the only survivor."

He'd been told that a six man team was all that was needed to bring her in, but she'd clearly been underestimated. Eleanora was the daughter of a retired mafia boss, and her name had been changed when the family's maid escaped the slaughter of the Belikov family with the five year old. As Elinor Bell, she joined the Army and learned everything that she needed to know to take out mercenaries with military training. She killed the men who had killed her family, but she hadn't stopped there. When she went after higher-ranking military officials, corrupt or not, he'd been sent after her. His team hadn't been prepared for her, because no one knew that she was a metahuman. He'd watched as she burned through his men and had barely managed not to be burned alive by her, and he hated the thought of her ever being able to leave this miserable hole that she'd been tossed into.

"She's right inside. Whatever you do, don't remove any of her restraints," Griggs said as he started unlocking a door. The metal creaked as it was pulled open, and Griggs and Waller stayed outside as he stepped into the small windowless room.

The light inside was dull, the air was stale, and the cell was practically empty. There was a cot to his left, where her small form was strapped down. There was a sink and a toilet on the right side of the room, which meant they had to let her up sometimes. As for Belikov herself, she looked smaller than he remembered. Made sense, if she'd been strapped down like this for the past month. The orange clothes on her were baggy and loose, and he could see pale strips of skin along her sides and above her ankles. Thick cuffs were locked around her ankles and wrists with another band wrapped around her middle, but his eyes were drawn to her face. Her hair was longer, the brown color he remembered looked darker due to grease from going unwashed, and a metal band was wrapped around her head to hide her eyes.

"You're not Griggs, he never shuts up. You're not Adamson, because he shoots a dart first." Her voice was flat, the slight accent he'd first heard was missing, but he still knew that voice.

"Sergeant," he greeted. The single word was all she needed to recognize him, and he watched as her face slowly shifted into a wide smile. As she tried to stretch against her bindings, her head tipped back and showed off the thick metal collar around her throat.

"I've missed you, solnyshko. What took you so long to visit?" she asked in the voice that he remembered. The accent was back, curling around her words, and he slowly knelt down until he was nearly kneeling next to the cot.

"Wanted to wait to see you just like this," he said quietly. He knew that Waller and Griggs could still hear him, but he wanted the illusion of a private conversation.

"All tied up?" she asked with a smile.

"Beaten down," he clarified. Because now that he was closer, he could see it. Dark bruises ringed her wrists, probably her ankles too, and the skin under the band around her eyes was bruised as well. Her lips were cracked and raw, she'd lost some muscle tone, and he could tell that she was slowly wasting away. It was what she deserved, for all of the people that she had killed.

"You think I'm beaten? You think this is all that it takes to break me? You think that little of me?" With every question, she pulled at the cuffs restraining her. He could hear the cot creaking as she struggled, and he remembered the sound of her laugh as she laid bleeding on the floor. He wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating her again.

"If I had it my way, you'd be buried under this prison," he told her. She relaxed against the cot and stopped straining, and her smile looked almost soft as her head turned in his direction. He knew that she couldn't see him, not through the metal over her eyes, but he remembered the red glow of her eyes.

"I do not fear death. Your words are a comfort, not a threat," she said quietly. Then she hummed and lifted her head, like she was searching for his gaze. "Go ahead, solnyshko, set me free."

"I hope I'm the one that gets to put you down, I really do," he whispered and leaned closer. She was still smiling, and he still couldn't shake the feeling that she could see him. "You don't get to die yet, sergeant. Your country needs you."

"Is that why you are here, colonel? Want me to be a good little soldier again?" she asked sweetly. She was on active duty for six years, was an excellent soldier with accommodations, but all of that had been a mean to an end. She couldn't be trusted, but he knew that Waller didn't care.

"I want you to stay right here, strapped in until there's nothing left of you, but there's someone that wants to use what you learned from your undercover years." He let his distaste color his words, and he listened as she hummed quietly in thought.

"This someone? Are they listening?" she asked him. He looked to the side, and Waller was standing in the doorway and watching them with a carefully blank expression.

"They're listening," he said and turned to look at her again.

"I'll do whatever you want, if you take this off my eyes and let me walk around a little. I can't be an effective soldier with my muscles atrophied," she said louder. He could hear Griggs scoffing and the sound of the man's boots shuffling against the concrete floor, probably from nerves, and he already knew that Waller was going to agree because Belikov had a point.

"That can be arranged," Waller said and confirmed his thoughts. Belikov's smile widened as Waller asked Griggs how to remove the band from her eyes, and he was aware of Griggs sputtering and trying to protest.

"Colonel Flag is the only person I'll take orders from. Apart from you, of course," Belikov said to Waller. She said the right thing, because Waller told Griggs to hand over the keys to all of Belikov's restraints.

"Welcome to the team," Waller said as Griggs shuffled into the cell. Rick didn't move from his kneeled position as he watched Griggs approach, and his eyes narrowed on the syringe in the guard's hand. Griggs noticed and looked down at his hand before meeting Rick's eyes, and he could easily read the fear in the man's eyes.

"We always dose her before unlocking her," he explained.

"Not today. Unlock her, Flag," Waller decided. Griggs pocketed the syringe and passed over a ring of keys, and Rick looked at Belikov as the guard quickly vacated the cell.

He shifted and stretched to unlock the cuffs around her ankles first; he felt the overheated blood pulsing under her skin and listened as her toes popped, and she sighed quietly as she stretched her legs out. He went for the wrist cuff farthest from him next, ignored the sharp press of bone against his fingers, and watched as old blood fell from her other wrist in dry flakes as the cuff was removed. She raised her arms to lightly massage her bruised wrists as he unlocked the restraint around her middle, and he grit his teeth once she was completely unrestrained. His hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her into a sitting position, and the cot was so low to the ground that they were still on eye level with him kneeling. He gripped the shoulder of her orange shirt and pulled her forwards so that he could see the back of her head, and he held in a breath as he quickly unlocked the metal band around her eyes.

The metal band fell into her lap and then slipped off onto the concrete floor, and he let go of her shoulder as he leaned back and looked at her face. There were lined bruises under her eyes and above her brows, and she still had her eyes closed. Her hand raised so that her fingers could brush across the dark lines, and he was close enough to hear her quick intake of air. The restrains were only about a month old, but she had probably had her eyes covered the entire time that she had been in captivity. He called out and told Griggs to kill the lights, and Waller must have backed him up because the cell lights were cut off a moment later. Light from outside the cell helped him to vaguely see, but he knew that her eyes would be able to see everything in the cell with perfect clarity. Ocular abilities. It was written so simply in her file but didn't come close to fully explaining everything that she was capable of.

Her eyes slowly opened, and a red glow spilled out. He felt the heat against his face and neck before the glow dimmed, until the red color was reduced to two small pinpricks of light in the darkness. He knew that her eyes didn't always have a red glow to them, sometimes not even a red tint, but the bright color meant that she was using her abilities. He held still as her eyes raised, and he knew that she could see him in the darkness. He could see enough of her, the pale shape of her face, but her enhanced eyesight allowed her to see more. Knew that she could see the color of his eyes and the darker skin under his eyes from too many sleepless nights, and he heard her hum again as she studied him.

"You look tired, solnyshko." Her hand raised towards his face, and he caught her wrist before she could touch him. The glow of her eyes intensified, so that he could see her faint smile. "You should take better care of yourself."

"One day, I'm going to watch you die," he told her. He tightened his grip on her wrist as he spoke and watched as her smile widened.

"Until then, let's have some fun," she whispered and leaned forward. He dropped her wrist and stood up, and he immediately took a step back. He could still see her smiling as she turned to look at the opened doorway, and he followed her line of sight to see that only Waller was still standing in the doorway. "What's the job?"

"You'll know when you need to know," Waller informed her.

"Fair enough. Don't worry, ma'am, I'll behave," Belikov promised. Dull light flooded the cell again, and Belikov had her eyes tightly shut when he looked down at her. After months of being basically blind, even the small amount of light was enough to hurt her overly sensitive eyes. He moved to walk out of the cell and had taken one step outside when she called out, "See you soon, solnyshko!"

The cell door closed with a loud bang, metal scraped across metal, and Griggs quickly locked the cell again. He could hear Griggs explaining the remaining collar to Waller, but he was staring at the closed door and listening as the woman inside laughed. It was the same sound that had echoed in his mind after she'd been taken in, and the back of his left shoulder started to itch the longer that he listened to her. He turned away from the door, put his back to that sound, and looked at Waller and Griggs. The guard was standing in a defensive position, arms crossed with his shoulders hunched down, while Waller looked up at him with sharp eyes that demanded answers. It was a look that he was familiar with, and he started to pick up their conversation. The collar still around Belikov's neck was put there to deliver electric shocks whenever her body temperature raised, because her temp only went up when she was using her abilities.

"We wanted to put in an explosive, but we have orders to keep 'em alive," Griggs was saying. Those orders came from Waller, and Griggs seemed to realize that as he hurriedly looked away from her gaze.

"The shocks must not work too well if she killed a guard," Waller pointed out.

"She didn't use her abilities to kill Helm. She, uh, broke his neck before we could activate the collar," Griggs admitted. Belikov was well-trained, he'd seen that firsthand, and he didn't like the contemplative look on Waller's face as she turned to look at him.

"What should our next move be?" she asked him. He knew he wasn't an equal in this, that he didn't have a final say, but he thought she might listen to him. Possibly.

"If you want to use them as a task force, they need to at least start to know one another," he suggested.

"You want to put them all in one room and see what happens?" Waller asked with a faint smile.

"I was thinking outside, to avoid any internal damage," he clarified. Belikov and Santana both had fire-based abilities, and it'd be easier to see them all interact in an open space that could be controlled. Like in the courtyard. The guards could post up around the walls.

"I really don't think-" Griggs stopped speaking when Waller glanced at him, and he swore under his breath as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Call in an extra team. When they get here, you can set up some team exercises," Waller said with far too much amusement. Then she turned to look at Griggs again and added, "Officer Griggs will assist you with everything."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you need," Griggs said quickly. Rick grinned at him, wide enough to show his teeth, and then followed after Waller.

They were quiet as they left the prison, again with him driving while she sat in the backseat, and he let out a slow breath once they'd driven past the front gates. The sun was sitting lower in the sky, not quite dark yet but not far off, and he thought about the empty hotel room waiting for him. He'd order some food as soon as they got back and then start making calls. He knew what teams that he could use, but he wasn't sure which ones would be available. GQ was his first choice, SEALs could handle anything, but he hadn't talked to the younger man in a few months. If he was on an assignment, there were others that he could try. Maybe he'd pull in a team of Rangers just to see how Belikov reacted. He was still making a list of possible teams that would be able to handle a bunch of metahumans when Waller cleared her throat, and he knew a question was coming that he wasn't going to like.

"You and Belikov seemed…close," Waller settled on.

"She killed six of my soldiers, and I took her down," Rick repeated. He'd said the same thing when he first showed up with the metahuman, and his report hadn't elaborated much past that.

"Why didn't she kill you?" Waller asked. He thought about the mansion where they'd found her, the puddles of blood on the marble floors and the retired major laid across his desk in pieces, and the back of his left shoulder started to itch again.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. He knew why she believed she hadn't killed him, but it still wasn't something that he understood. When he'd walked out of that mansion with Belikov's bleeding body tossed over his shoulder, he'd left behind nineteen bodies that she had personally put down.

"Maybe you should ask her." Waller's tone was light, conversational, and he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

The rest of the drive was spent in silence, and Rick walked Waller to her hotel room. Her room was adjoined to Moone's, and his own room was at the end of the hall. Just like he'd decided, he called and ordered room service first. His next call was to Lieutenant Grant Edwards, and GQ and his team were thankfully free and ready to report immediately. He sent the information to Waller, who had approved the team before his food was delivered. After he got his food, he called Katana to check in. She was still off on her own mission, but he told her about their newest assignment and told her to be prepared to be called in at any time. Their call was short, Katana wasn't the talkative type, and he stretched out across the too soft bed once he was full. It was too early for him to fall asleep, he was still on edge, and he tried not to think about her. Tried and failed, like many times before.

20 JANUARY 2016

"Jesus! What the fuck did they send us after?" was whispered through the comms. Rick stepped over another body, another mercenary he guessed, and wondered what the count was up to now. Before stepping into Major Scott's home, she'd had twenty-six bodies on her name. He'd counted at least five dead mercenaries and could tell by the light chatter over the comms that there were others throughout the retired major's mansion.

He had just cleared the kitchen, with only one dead body inside of it, when the screams started. He could hear Sam screaming that they were on the second floor, office, before Sam abruptly cut off. Liam reached the office at the same as him, and they both spilled into the office and straight into chaos. Marcus was screaming as fire crawled up his legs and covered his torso, and Rick dropped to a knee and immediately took a shot at the woman standing in the center of the room. He could see the red glow of her eyes as she locked her hands around Liam's neck, and he fired off a few more rounds. A bullet tore through her shoulder while another hit her in the side, and she dropped to the floor. Liam was blocking his sight to her body, and he hurried forward to check on Liam. His neck was ringed with red but he was still breathing, and Rick started to turn to check on the target.

Heat blazed across the back of his shoulder, past the surface of his skin and into the muscle, and his body reacted on instinct. He dropped down and felt immediate relief, and the arc of fire moved past him to Liam. A foot pressed down against the center of his spine as fire coated Liam's face, and Liam was still screaming as hands pushed against his pulse points. Just enough to immobilize him on the floor, and his gun was kicked away from his numb fingers. From where he was lying, he could see the large wooden desk and the carnage spread out across it. Major Scott had been ripped apart with the pieces left across the desk, and there were bodies spread out across the office. It was quiet now, Liam and Marcus were both dead, and he could see Sam lying in front of the desk with a hole burned through his chest. Tommy and Kyle were slumped back-to-back, with some kind of cord wrapped around their necks.

"I wasn't expecting you." The voice came from above him, and he cut his eyes upwards to see the woman responsible for so much death. She slowly knelt down, and he couldn't look away from the red glow of her eyes as she gripped his shoulders and pulled him upright. She propped him up against a tipped over couch, and the blood on her hands was slick as she gripped his face and forced their eyes to meet. "Where is your darkness?"

"Give me a few minutes and I'll show you," he told her. What she had done to him wouldn't last for long, and he couldn't understand why she hadn't killed him yet. She clearly hadn't hesitated with anyone else.

"That's cute," she whispered and let him go. He was able to keep his head up, and the red glow of her eyes intensified as she continued to look at him.

"What are you looking for?" he asked. As far as he could tell, Peter wasn't in the room. Maybe he'd escaped the room or had stayed back to call in for backup. There was still a chance that she could be taken down.

"I'm looking for your darkness, but there's so much light." Her head tilted as she spoke, like she was really looking at different parts of him, and he started to feel a deep ache in his legs. It wouldn't be long before he could move fully again; he needed to keep her talking, and then maybe he'd be able to catch her off-guard.

"Why did you do all of this, Sergeant Bell?" The question snapped her out of the trance that she was in, and he was surprised to see that red glow fade completely. Since she was still kneeling in front of him, he was able to see the actual color of her eyes. Green, dark. Ordinary.

"Because I am not Elinor Bell. My name is Eleanora Belikov." Some kind of recognition must have shown on his face, because she smiled and then reached out to press two bloody fingers against his temple. "You know the name?"

"The Belikov family was massacred twenty years ago. There were no survivors," he said slowly. His old man had been a cop in Gotham when the Belikov family was taken out, and he'd been one of the first ones on the scene. Sometimes, after too many drinks, he'd talk about the way that the entire mafia family had been butchered. Father, mother, two sons, and a daughter. "Eleanora Belikov was killed."

"Irina Ranskahov, our maid's daughter, was killed that night. We were the same age, so everyone just assumed. Our maid escaped with me, and we changed our names. Started over." Her fingers traced down the side of his face, leaving a trail of blood, and he looked at the way blood pulsed out of the hole he'd put in her right shoulder.

"It was rumored that mercenaries had been hired to kill the Belikov family, but the case is still open," he said as she hummed quietly.

"The first eight men I killed? They killed my family, so I believe the case is finally closed now," she said and smiled again.

"What about the next eighteen men? What did they do?" he asked. The more she talked, the more he could hear the accent coloring her words. Everyone who had been questioned about Sergeant Bell hadn't mentioned an accent, but he couldn't believe that she was really Eleanora Belikov. Why would she wait so long to reveal herself? Why join the Army?

"They were all so dark, and they deserved what they got," she whispered. She leaned closer to him, and he watched as a red tint colored her eyes. No one had known that she was a metahuman, but it explained how she'd been able to kill so many people in such a short amount of time. "You're humoring me, trying to buy time until you can move again. I don't fault you for that, it's the rational thing to do in your situation, but I want to know. Do you believe me?"

"I believe that you've killed a lot of people. A lot of soldiers," he emphasized. Her hand reached out and pressed over his chest, and the slight bit of pressure pushed his burned shoulder against the couch. He wanted to recoil from the pain but held her eyes instead.

"You don't understand because you can't see, but that's a conversation for another day when you're more accepting. Do you believe that I am who I say I am?" Her fingers slowly curled so that the front of his uniform was clenched in her fist, but she never blinked as she slowly pulled him up and closer to her face. As the red glow grew brighter, he started to feel heat against his face. Not enough to burn, but it felt like a warning.

"If you are Belikov, why wait so long? Why join the military at all?" he asked instead of answering. Her head tilted to the side as she studied him, but she didn't release her hold on him as those eyes seemed to stare straight through him.

"Sometimes to kill an enemy, you need to understand them first. So I studied and I learned, and then I used what I had learned to go after the people who killed my family." Her other hand raised, and she winced for the first time as her right shoulder pulsed with more blood. "I understand who my parents were, and I know they were lost to the darkness. What happened to them was always going to happen eventually, but my brothers? They were still young and innocent, and Irina was my friend."

"You telling me that you joined the military to learn how to kill the men who killed your brothers and friend?" He could hear the confusion in his voice, but he believed her. Under that inhuman glow, he could see the grief she felt. Eleanora Belikov was kneeling in front of him, holding him up while his limbs slowly started to regain feeling, and her other hand was now tracing over his tags.

"Seems a bit dramatic, I know. I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it, being Sergeant Bell. I would have done anything for the people I served with, which is why I knew I had to get out. Nothing could sway me. They had to pay for what they did. Can you really blame me for that?" She held his eyes for a moment longer and then glanced down, and he wasn't sure how she was able to read his tags in the brief second that she looked down before looking into his eyes again. "Do you think I was in the wrong for getting my revenge, Rick Flag?"

"No." He watched as she smiled, wide enough to show her teeth and put small lines next to her eyes, and then kept talking. "You didn't stop at getting revenge. You kept going."

"I've never killed an innocent. Everyone that I've killed, they deserved it," she said quietly. He could see in her eyes that she believed what she was saying, which meant that she had to be crazy.

"You killed five of my men, and they didn't deserve to die," he said from between clenched teeth. Frustration showed clearly on her face as she pushed him back and swiftly got to her feet, and her left hand raised to push through her hair as she paced away from him. Where was Peter with the backup?

"You don't understand because you can't see!" She easily moved around the bodies on the floor as she paced across the office, and he could see blood from her right side dripping down her jeans and onto the floor. After a few turns around the room, she smoothly slid back onto the floor until she was kneeling directly in front of him again. "It's not about the fringes, or the patches, or the streaks. It's all about what's at the center, at the core, that's where the truth is. All of them, they were dark in their core."

"Am I?" he asked. He already knew that her eyes were enhanced, he had a burn on his back that proved that, but what she was claiming was something more. Something much more.

"No, Rick Flag, you do not have darkness in your core," she whispered. Her left hand pressed against the center of his chest again without pushing him back this time, and then her hand slid to the side until her hand was resting over his heart.

"Is that why I'm alive?" She had killed everyone else, without hesitation, but she was talking to him because she believed he was different. Now he just needed to see if that was going to be enough to save him.

"Yes. I can't kill you. Not when you're still this bright," she said and smiled. There was a sudden sound in the room, a harsh wet cough, and her smile widened as the red glow returned to her eyes. "Looks like someone is still with us."

Belikov stood up and continued to smile at him as she took a few steps backward, and he could hear quiet groaning coming from somewhere behind the large office desk. It was possible that it was another one of Scott's mercenaries, but there was a sinking feeling in his gut. She was still faced towards him as she stepped around the desk, and she kept her eyes on him as she bent down and reached for whoever was on the floor. She managed to get the man up onto his knees next to the desk, and half of Peter's face had been burned off. One eye was rolling uselessly, and Peter was making quiet gasping sounds as his body tried to fall. He couldn't hold himself up, and Belikov was keeping him up by holding onto the collar of his uniform.

"Don't," he heard himself say.

"You wouldn't say that if you could see what I see." The bright glow from her eyes caused Peter to be washed in red, but it didn't seem like she was trying to burn him. "Think of it this way. He's in pain. Even if he somehow survived his injuries, he'd be in pain for the rest of his life. I'm going to be merciful."

"If you kill him-"

"You'll what? Will you shoot me?" she asked him. Her head tilted again as she studied him, and he wanted to know what she was seeing when she did that. Whatever it was, it made his skin feel too tight. "I've already told you that I can't kill you. Would you shoot someone that's not a threat to you?"

"Yes. If you kill him," he promised. She kept Peter up on his knees as she reached down and pulled his sidearm, and she slid the gun across the floor. The gun stopped against his boot, and his fingers curled into fists. He couldn't lift his arms, not yet, but he was close to having full motor control.

"Because he's one of yours? A member of your team?" she asked and shook Peter a little. Rick couldn't tell if Peter was fully conscious, wasn't even sure how the man was still alive, and he thought about the five other members of his team lying dead in the room. He didn't know them well, didn't consider them friends, but they were his team. His responsibility.

"Yes."

"Loyalty, I can respect that. I do respect that. Maybe, one day, you'll understand that this is something that I have to do," she said quietly as her hands shifted.

Those glowing red eyes never left his as her hands gripped Peter's face, and he wouldn't let himself look away as her arms twisted. He could hear the quiet snap of Peter's neck and felt a surge of adrenaline, and his training kicked in. He scooped up the gun lying at his feet and took immediate aim, and he never hesitated to pull the trigger. Belikov hit the floor only moments after Peter, and he slumped back against the couch as he pulled in quick breaths. He could hear Belikov still breathing and then she started to laugh, and he didn't realize that he'd closed his eyes until he opened them to seek her out. She was lying flat on her back, her body shaking as her laughing grew louder, and that shouldn't be possible. He'd shot her in the heart. He kept a hold on the gun as he managed to crawl across the floor, and she turned her head to watch him approach. While still laughing.

"Why aren't you dead?" he asked as he knelt next to her. Her right shoulder and right side were still bleeding sluggishly, and there was blood soaking through the left side of her shirt. Despite seeing the blood, he dropped the gun and reached out to rip the top of her tee shirt. There was a hole on the left side of her chest, right over her heart, but she was still alive and laughing.

"You shot me, knowing that I wouldn't kill you, but you're still so bright." He could hear his own frustration building in the base of his throat, and he reached out to grip her chin and forced her eyes to meet his again. The red glow dimmed, back into an ordinary green color, and her wide manic grin faded into a soft smile. Her left hand shook as she reached up and circled her bloody fingers around his wrist as she told him, "You can kill me, solnyshko. You just aimed for the wrong side."

"You want me to kill you?" Wrong side. Her heart was on the right? He knew it was possible, just rare, and he thought about the gun on the floor next to him. Thought about how easy it would be to pick it up and pull the trigger one more time.

"I don't want to die, no, but I can't kill you. Which means that I can't save myself. It's up to you. Do what you think is right," she said and then closed her eyes. Her body went lax, but she was still conscious because she was tapping her finger against the pulse point in his wrist. Killing her would be easy. No one would blame him. It'd be what she deserved.

"I'm taking you in," he decided. He wasn't like her, wasn't some kind of criminal, and he was going to do what he was told to do. Someone wanted her brought in, and that was what he was going to do.

"So bright, solnyshko," she whispered. He reached for his comm to call in backup, but she was still gripping his wrist. He looked down to see that her eyes were open again, without any hint of red in them, and she was still smiling softly up at him. "You don't need backup. I surrender, fully, to you."

03 JULY 2016

BELIKOV

Elya woke up and was actually able to see as she opened her eyes, and she smiled as she looked at the dull lights in the ceiling. The cot she was lying on was just as uncomfortable as ever, her stomach felt like an empty pit, but she still couldn't stop smiling. Being strapped down to the cot for twenty hours a day had been miserable; darts had been shot through the door to knock her unconscious whenever someone entered her cell, which meant that she was unconscious when she was strapped down and when she was let free. They'd let her eat, use the bathroom, and walk around for a couple of hours before strapping her down again. Once in the morning and once at night. Her eyes though…the metal casing had been on since her first transfer. Rick Flag hadn't bothered to cover her eyes, because she had promised not to kill him. Had surrendered herself to him. The guards at the first black site she was taken to hadn't been as trustworthy. For five months, she'd been essentially blind. Until yesterday. She could finally see.

"Belikov! If I open this door, are you going to behave?!" The voice belonged to Griggs, and she felt a familiar heat taking over her eyes as she looked at the door. She knew that some of the people who had studied her believed that she could see through solid objects, but she didn't have X-Ray vision. Just night vision, enhanced vision, what the experts called ocular blasts, and the ability to see the truth of a person. X-Ray vision would be fun though.

"Scout's honor!" she called back. She sat up and crossed her legs under her as the cell door creaked open, and Griggs walked in with a tray of food held out in front of him. She could see toast, what might have been scrambled eggs, and a little paper carton of milk. It was definitely better than the usual mashed lump of food that they gave her.

"Well, don't you look all bright-eyed," Griggs said after he stopped right inside of the cell. She could see armed guards behind him, both holding dart guns at the ready, and she didn't blame them for being cautious. Her eyes flared a brighter red as she studied Griggs, for the first time, and she was surprised by what she saw. In simplest terms, she was able to see his aura clinging to him like a second skin. A putrid yellow that showed his fear, with thin streaks of dirt brown that proved his determination. At his core though, at his heart, she could see a pulsing gray mass. She'd been expecting black, expecting the darkness, but Griggs wasn't quite there. Not an innocent, but not dark either.

"Apologies," she said as the heat retreated from her eyes. She knew that now her eyes would look normal, average and dark green, and her head tipped to the side as she smiled. "I'm still adjusting to being able to see. Don't worry, Officer Griggs, you're safe with me."

"I very much doubt that, sweetheart. I remember what you did to Helm," Griggs said as he laughed nervously. In all honesty, she probably shouldn't have killed the guard. She hadn't been able to see him, hadn't been able to see the darkness, but her temper had gotten the better of her.

"If he had kept his hand out of my pants, he would have been just fine. You would never do something like that, would you?" she asked and resisted the urge to look at his aura. Would he be even more afraid? Would his aura shiver and shake?

"Absolutely not," Griggs said and took a cautious step forward. "Your colonel buddy called and said to feed you protein, so I brought you some eggs. Now, I've got a busy day, taking in a new prisoner, but I've got a reward for you if you behave today."

"What kind of reward?" she asked and kept her eyes on the tray. She hadn't been fed the previous day, probably because of all the excitement, and her stomach was tight with hunger.

"Chicken lunch, steak dinner, and a real shower tonight." Chicken? Steak? Shower? Rick must have called and put the fear of God into Griggs if she was getting all of this, but why? She knew that he hated her, that he hadn't forgiven her for killing his team, and she understood that. She didn't understand the special treatment. Unless he was doing it out of loyalty. Rick Flag was a loyal soldier, and she was needed for something. So he was going to make sure that she was in fighting shape.

"I'll behave," she promised. She didn't think any of the guards would try to put their hands on her again, so she should be able to keep that promise. Griggs placed the tray on the end of the cot, and it was her years of self-discipline that stopped her from falling on the tray of scrambled eggs like a rabid dog.

"We'll see about that," Griggs said and backed out of the cell. She waited until he had stepped outside and started to close the door before calling out, and she saw him jump a little before moving his head to look through the crack still left.

"Have a nice day," she said with a wide smile. Griggs cursed under his breath as the cell door closed, and she counted to thirty before snatching the tray up. There weren't any utensils, which made sense, so she scooped up the cold eggs with her fingers and shoveled them into her mouth.

"Things are changing," she thought as she chewed on the rubbery eggs. For the first time in months, she was looking forward to what came next.

This is a Rick Flag/OC story, but it's going to take a while. Also, you can see some of the changes already. Rick and June didn't fall for each other. Instead, Waller is acting like a maternal figure and manipulating June that way. I'm not sure if it's obvious, but I'm going to have the team meet before things get critical so that they can get to know each other before being sent out as a unit. I'm really looking forward to writing the next chapter, because everyone is going to meet and it's going to be interesting. I hope. Thanks for reading.