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adroitsolidity · 6 years ago

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"Chains Won't Hold Me Down"

❇

It seemed like taboo to even think about the fact that things had seemed to settle back down after Damian left the CIA, and Zach had simply just /thought/ about the fact that things seemed calmer and then they started to fall apart again a bit a week or so after Damian left. Zach didn't feel much better, and still couldn't for the life of him figure out why, and it didn't seem to matter how much he racked his brain trying to figure it out. Things were changing, they seemed so different, and Zach struggled to figure out why. He continued to try and keep Conner and Braxton happy and free from concern, while he carried a lot on his shoulders. Something about being around Conner was different, but Zach didn't know if it was just all of the stress or if he was simply overthinking, and he did the best he could to shrug it off and simply work through it, being his quirky self and making lame jokes and movie references like he always did. What was it that was making Zach feel so much conflict? He was carrying a lot on his own, and he continued to struggle to figure out exactly what it was. He didn't know, he had no idea, and it had started to fester to a point where he was being left speechless.

It didn't escape Braxton's notice, and it especially didn't escape Conner's, but Zach kept doing what he could to just laugh it off and reassure them that he was okay. When he was alone, though, his mind absolutely reeled, and Conner was the most difficult one to hide it from because he was very observant, and Zach knew that he wasn't fooling anyone, especially not Conner. His heart and mind seemed to be doing a lot of different things, and it was all really confusing to Zach so he ended up spending most of his time in the training room, trying to keep his distance from most people while he tried to un-jumble everything in his head. He felt something...something he'd never felt and couldn't put a label on. But what? It was frustrating him, and he went at a punching bag more aggressively than what was normal for him until he heard a female voice he was more than tired of hearing over the intercom saying his name. Zach stopped going at the bag and stood in front of it, snapping his eyes shut and heaving an irritated sigh as he listened.

"Zachariah Morone, report to the Executives' office for yearly evaluation."

He growled under his breath and groaned in frustration before hitting the bag /hard/ and then moving before it swung back and hit him, then he took the gloves he was wearing off and unwrapped his hands as he made his way over to the door, setting those things on a bench before exiting the training room and making his way to the elevator. His brown eyes were dark and stony, and his jaw was clenched as he watched the number go up before the doors finally slid open. Zach walked out of the elevator and turned down the hallway that led to the Executive office, on edge just like he was every time he had to go in there as soon as the door finally came into view, and he heaved another sigh and clenched his jaw a little bit tighter before stopping in front of the closed door. He raised a hand to knock on the door but hesitated, holding his hand up for a moment and taking a breath before finally making himself knock on the door, then he took a step back and waited for them to either open the door or simply tell him to enter.

Footsteps approached the door from the other side, and Zach looked down at the crack on the bottom of the door to see a shadow from under the door, and he took another step back and looked back up as soon as he heard the door being opened. The woman that he'd had to deal with more times than he cared to think about gave him a once over before she motioned for him to enter the room, and he shook his head a little and walked past her and into the room, looking around at everyone before focusing on the woman who was standing in front of him again. Without even thinking about it, he had been standing at attention but was also taking in everything that was going on around him, just like he had always been told.

"Agent Morone. Born Zachariah Emmanuel Morone. Date of Birth, August 8th, 1993. He's been an agent for 7 years, and has worked very closely with Director McAlister."

Zach's gut seemed to jolt ever so slightly as he listened to the woman speak, like she did every time she did an evaluation of his progress, but it seemed to trigger something different in Zach that time around. It made some of the frustration he'd been feeling before come back, but he bit it back and stayed quiet. Conner always told Zach to never give them any kind of reaction because it was what they wanted, it was what they were looking for. They used people as weapons, so if Zach did anything to spark their interest, they would have gone after him, too. So as much as Zach wanted to beat the living daylights out of every single person in that room, he didn't only because Conner had told him not to. His gut seemed to jolt a bit every time he thought about anything Conner said or did, or when he just heard his name, and that had never happened to him before. It made him furrow his brow ever so slightly, but his attention was pulled away when one of the men in the room started to speak, and his gaze moved from the woman in front of him to a man standing off to his right. The knife that Conner had bought Zach was on his belt in its sheath, right where it always was, but he felt the weight of it a bit as he listened to what the man had to say, using every ounce of willpower he had to not pull it out and use it on them.

"There was an incident recently that seemed to render the Director...distracted. And I believe that, if I gathered the right information, /you/ were involved."

An indication that he was involved, taking in what they were saying, or was even the least bit interested was expected of him, but he got very stubborn and simply didn't give them one, staying completely quiet and still as the man began to speak again. Conner's words were echoing in Zach's head, and he continued to give them absolutely nothing; no reaction, just nothing. His eyes were dangerous and his expression was neutral, but he didn't give them anything else to go off of.

"The Director is our most important asset. We can't afford for him to be distracted for any reason, so we need you to keep your distance for a short while. We'll have one of our specialized trainers come in and work with you. But we can't have our best asset distracted in any way. His power and influence are far too valuable to us."

Zach couldn't do it anymore. It was going to go against everything Conner had told him, but they were talking about him like he was some weapon, again, and that finally made Zach just crack and lose what little composure he'd managed to keep up to that point. He knew he was going to be sorry for speaking out, but on the other hand he couldn't find it in himself to care and was in full-blown "retaliation mode".

"No. Y'know what...that's a bunch of bullshit. Fuck you and your specialized trainer. He's not a god damn weapon...he's a human being. I'm not gonna work with another trainer, I work for Conner and that's it."

He paused for a moment and looked around the room, cutting off the woman when she went to speak and turning his attention back to the man that had been responsible for setting Zach off, his tone getting lower and more dangerous as he locked his eyes onto the guy and continued.

"His name's Conner. He isn't just some damn weapon, he isn't just your fucking 'asset'. That's a person, you demented fucks. Not some war machine you can just sick on people! Not just some killer you can send wherever the fuck you want! And no..."

He turned his attention from the man back over to the woman that he had cut off before, his tone very dangerous at that point.

"He isn't my brother. Not anymore. He's more important than that. It's /you/ that have been hurting him! Not me! And I'll face off against all of you if I have to, and I'll do it for him! I don't give a damn if you hurt me, or talk down to me! But you're not gonna get to treat him like some fucking prize anymore! Ya wanna come at me like I'm nothing? Then fucking do it!"

Movement from the corner of Zach's eye suddenly caught his attention, and one of the men off to his right moved in to grab him and pull him away from the woman. He immediately turned on the guy and harshly grabbed his arm, keeping his footing steady and his grip firm as he shifted and moved to throw the guy through the table that was in the middle of the room before he turned on one of the others that came at him. He dodged a punch and grabbed another man's wrist, twisting hard and then wrenching it until he heard a loud snap and the guy yelled in pain as Zach threw him to the ground harshly.

Another fist came flying toward Zach's face, and he didn't move in time to dodge that one, getting knocked sideways a bit and groaning as knuckles made contact with his cheekbone. He didn't feel a crack, but he knew he was definitely going to have yet another bruise on his face, that one a fresh one, and he dodged a kick coming at him and pulled out his knife, twirling it between his fingers before lodging it into the woman's leg as she kicked at him again, drowning out her screams and twisting the knife before he pulled it out and kicked her so hard she flew back against the wall. The last one left in the room didn't make a move to go at Zach, and he kept his eyes on him and his knife in his hand, ready to act in the event that the man might change his mind. He didn't, which surprised Zach, but he didn't give it any more of his attention. Zach lashed out at the man and punched him in the face a couple of times before throwing him to the ground, then spit the blood he tasted in his mouth from the one really hard hit he'd taken onto the man's face and threw his badge at him.

"I fucking quit. You all can go to Hell."

With that, Zach turned and walked out of the room, rolling his eyes as he heard hobbled footsteps going to the door and then stopping.

"If you walk out of here, you'll be categorized as a rogue, Zachariah!"

That was enough to make Zach stop in his tracks, and he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw as he thought about that. A rogue. Zach was about to go rogue, even though he was never going back there once he left. The decision was made, though, and even though Zach couldn't get his mind around what he had just done, and the word 'rogue' kept bouncing around in his skull, he couldn't stay there any longer than he had. The feelings he'd been feeling suddenly made sense, and the thing he had wanted to do to them for so long had finally been done, but Zach's mind was so rattled that he didn't have any words, so he just started walking again. He was a rogue, and suddenly, the words he'd said to them about Conner /not/ being his brother were bouncing around in his head too. It made more sense at that moment. Zach loved Conner, he was /in love/ with him, and had fought the highest ranking people in the CIA for him because of how they treated him. He'd done what he had wanted to do, something he thought he wouldn't have ever done, and he was getting ready to walk away from the last seven years of his life.

He was going to pack and get out. That was all there was to it.

#ArchonValiant #CyberDexterity #ObscureAerial #Agent Verse RP #Chains Won't Hold Me Down #SL Starter

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adroitsolidity · 6 years ago

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"I Am Brave, I Am Bruised, I Am Who I'm Meant to Be, This is Me"

❇

Walking through the doors to the CIA for the very first time was overwhelming, and that fact was written all over Zach's face as he went though the doors and into the first level of the building. He looked down as his boots clunked on the polished floor, the circular emblem with the words "Central Intelligence Agency" catching his mystified brown eyes and holding there gaze until a sharp voice snapped them away and back up toward the source. The sound of heels clicking toward him echoed through the vast room, and a woman, much shorter than Zach but that still looked like she could have knocked him off his feet, stopped in front of him and addressed him again, not as sharp the second time but still rather brusque.

"Zachariah Morone. You need to report to the main office with the other recruits. They're waiting for you. Follow me."

A timid nod was the only response he had time to give before she was marching away from him, and he tightened his grip on the backpack straps on his shoulders, beyond nervous and unsure of what to expect. Upon walking into the main office, he saw people in suits standing on one side of a long table, while the ones he assumed were recuits stood on the other side of the table in a straight line, backs facing the wall and their focus strictly on, who Zach guessed, were the Executives and the Director. A shorter man with dark brown hair and, hazel, maybe, eyes caught Zach's eye for a minute, and he looked at the guy only for a moment before he quickly pulled his gaze away and went to stand with the others, not looking at the guy again until the lady that had walked him in there went around to the side the other Executives were on.

"Recruits. Welcome. We have gone through your files and background checks, and think that you're all good fits to start training to be agents."

While she spoke, the guy that had been looking at Zach before walked more toward the middle of the table, looking disinterested in the other Executives and focusing more on the recruits across the table from him, especially Zach, and that made Zach glance over at the guy again, clenching his jaw slightly before he looked back at the one that was speaking. He didn't know who that was, or why he kept looking through the whole line and then stopping at Zach and keeping his gaze there, but it was bothering him. He, of course, didn't say anything because he couldn't, but he stopped looking at him again and avoided his gaze until he heard the next thing that came out of the woman's mouth.

"You'll be trained by none other than our own Director McAlister. It won't be easy, and he has special permission to get rid of whoever he deems unfit to be here."

Zach furrowed his brow and abruptly shifted his gaze from her back to the guy that kept looking at him, and saw that he was standing near the woman but not right by her and had his arms crossed, his eyes once again skimming over each and every recruit and then stopping when they found Zach again. Zach clenched his jaw again and narrowed his eyes slightly, keeping his eyes on Director McAlister for a moment and immediately getting the impression that maybe the Director already thought that Zach was going to be a weak link. The look that crossed the Director's face momentarily was one that Zach couldn't read, but he didn't take the time to before he looked away again after the Director had said his piece and then the recruits were sent out to go to their rooms and "rest up" for the next morning. They were going to be woken up at an ungodly hour, so they needed to settle in, get at least a little sleep, and then be up and ready to go in the morning.

❇

The next morning seemed like it came much too fast, but that may have been due in part to the fact that Zach didn't get much sleep and that most of the night was a blur because Zach had been all nerves. He groggily pulled himself out of bed and got his training uniform on, then sat down on the bed to push his feet into his boots before he laced them up and then left his room to go to the training room like he had been instructed to, keeping his eyes away from the Director when he caught sight of him in the hall heading into the training room. Zach had no idea what the guy's deal was, or why he kept looking at Zach with an expression that Zach had no idea how to read. It was very irritating, quite frankly, but it was also very intimidating, which was the part that Zach used irritation to cover up. He was scared out of his mind, and was trying to hide that from the Director so that he didn't just immediately give him the boot and tell him to leave.

The training ended up being the most brutal and grueling thing that Zach had ever done up to that point in his life, and it was just "the basics", Director McAlister had said. Zach got thrown around, hit in the face more times than he could count, and hurt so bad by the end that if he even just moved one finger, every single muscle in his tall, gangly body /screamed/ at him. He'd managed to get in some hits and a few kicks, especially kicks because his legs were so long and he used that to his advantage, but he ended up leaving more beat up than anyone. The others had at least some prior experience, but Zach didn't have any, and left with a bloody nose and a gash right along the bridge of his nose as a result of that, as well as him being determined to spite the Director and show him that he wasn't going to leave without a fight, even if he got the hell kicked out of him.

Dark brown eyes caught sight of intense hazel eyes watching him with yet another expression that Zach had no idea how to read, and he turned away and left when they were told to go get breakfast and Zach was sent to the infirmary to make sure that he hadn't broken his nose. He felt that the Director was watching as he left the training room, but he didn't give it any more of his attention because it suddenly occurred to him just how bad his face hurt, and he just wanted to get out of there. So that was what he did, and he didn't look back.

❇

Training didn't get any easier over the next several weeks that had passed, and Zach hadn't gotten any time to recuperate after the injuries he'd gotten on his face. The good news was that he hadn't broken his nose, but he'd taken some pretty hard hits, for sure. As he went through training, he added more injuries to his list, but he didn't let it stop him from trying, especially because he had Director McAlister constantly in his face telling him to keep going.

"Keep going!" "Do it again!" "Tighten your stance!" "Lock onto your opponent!"

Those commands rang through his ears and bounced around in his skull while he trained, and they were constant so they irritated him to no end, but he fought through everything and gave it all he had, even in those times when it wasn't quite enough. In those instances, Zach didn't bounce right back up right away, and he got yelled at, taunted by his opponent, and told to just get back up like it was simple. The Director was unrelenting, and it made Zach even more spiteful.

"Morone! Get back up!"

Director McAlister's thick New York accent would fill the room and yell out in the instances where Zach couldn't get back up right away. He'd managed to get himself off of his back and flipped over so that he was laying on his stomach and could use his arms to push himself up, even though just getting to that point was excruciating, and then refused help when he felt someone grab him to try and help him up. For one thing, it would have increased his chances of getting kicked out and the Director having gotten his way and won, and it would have made him seem weak. A handful of the other recruits already thought he was weak, and taunted him, which then made it so that an all too familiar and infuriating New York accent filled air in the room again. The point was, Zach had a weak moment, but he wasn't going to accept help or stay down because he didn't want to let Director McAlister win and he didn't want to be kicked out.

"Don't! I'll get up on my own!"

The strain that was in his tone because of the amount of pain he was in was palpable, but he couldn't stay down any longer than he already had so he pushed himself off of the ground and hauled himself back up to his feet, using nothing but his willpower to get back up and stand straight despite how badly he wanted to double over and not move ever again because it hurt too much. Zach pushed through and finished training for the day like that, then stayed behind for a little bit after everyone else had left, letting how he felt sink in for the first time in a couple of months. He felt like he was alone, and like he had to have double the amount of faith in himself because no one else did. So he had to carry himself and do it on his own, and that was what he was going to do. The Director didn't seem to like him, but that wasn't going to stop Zach from proving him wrong, rubbing it in his face that he could do it.

❇❇

"Zachariah Morone, will you come to the Executive office, please?"

An all too familiar female voice rang out over the intercom during lunch, and Zach heaved a frustrated sigh and got up from the chair he'd been sitting in while he let his food digest. The new Information Officer, the "I.T. guy" had noticed Zach and was there talking to him, which had kind of baffled Zach at first, but he seemed nice enough and was very happy and cheerful, which was something Zach desperately needed because he had started to feel like that side of him was starting to get kicked out of him, buy talking to Lennon was refreshing and reminded Zach of what it felt like to be that way and showed him that it was still there.

Zach gave Lennon a small smile, or tried to, and he got a small and sympathetic smile in return before he turned and made his way up to the Executive office, scared and not knowing what to expect but doing the best he could not to show it. As soon as he entered the office and stood at attention like he had been taught to, one of the Executives didn't waste any time and walked over to Zach and stopped in front of him, looking him over and even walking around him to get a 360 view. It made Zach feel even more nervous, and it was getting a bit more difficult for him to hide his discomfort, especially when he realized that Director McAlister was on the other side of the room, away from the other Executives, and wasn't talking to any of them, but rather, he seemed to be gauging Zach and his reaction.

Already dark brown eyes darkened even more and grew annoyed as they looked at the Director, and then he looked away and focused on the Executives in front of him, talking amongst themselves like he wasn't there. He simply stayed quiet and didn't say anything, though, and waited until they looked at him again and actually spoke to him to acknowledge what they were saying.

"Morone, Zachariah Emmanuel. Born August 8th, 1993 in Victoria, Canada."

They did one more "look around" at him, then stopped in front of him again and really focused on his face and the expressions that crossed it as they continued.

"He's been here for five months, and has gone through some obvious changes. He /is/ impressive, but has definitely struggled up to this point."

A male voice off to Zach's left caught his attention, and his shifted his gaze over to the man that had spoken, and he narrowed his eyes slightly as he regarded the man before turning his eyes back to the woman in front of him again.

"I think I can understand why the Director favors this one. He's got potential."

That did it. Zach moved out of attention and moved away from the people looking him over, and normally he wouldn't have, but he was being looked at like he was a science experiment and talked about like they had doubts before but were rethinking that. And the Director /didn't/ like Zach, he was so convinced that he didn't that he wasn't going to stand there and listen to that. He looked around at all of them, his eyes dark and dangerous, filled with disdain and a hint of fear and hurt, and he shook his head at all of them before he stormed out of the room. He'd left without being told he could go, and that was something he'd never done before, but he was so mad that he didn't want to be in there anymore, so he went past the dining hall and went to the training room.

A frustrated yell fell past Zach's lips, and long fingers ran through dark curls as he kicked a bench over. He heaved a heavy sigh and picked the bench back up, then went to go practice with the knives because that was one of his favorite weapons to use once he'd perfected it and wasn't cutting up his fingers anymore. He was alone, he was scared, and he didn't have anyone, but he was doing the best he could with what he was given, and those thoughts went through his mind as he worked on the knives for a while and then moved onto other things, staying there all night to perfect everything he had learned up to that point. He was going to show them what he could do, and he wasn't going to stop until they saw it.

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