#〖 FILE: ETISHA KLEIN 〗

[klarsynt-arc]

emil/tantalus + episode tropes (  mutuals may reblog  )

[klarsynt-arc]

“  zero zero six.  ”  

sometimes he can still smell the blood in the air. 

“  six.  ” 

he can feel the way the warmth left her body. 

“  agent kindell.  ”  

emil’s head snaps up, gaze zeroing in on doctor leeland. he’s met with that inquisitive, piercing look she often gives him when he gets lost during their sessions. he loathes that expression. because he can never resist the need to open up. she knows all the right buttons to push and he lets her. even when he knows she only presses them for his superiors, for the people giving her copious amounts of money to keep him in line. 

“  i lost you there didn’t i?  ”  it’s a statement as she tilts her head, adjusting her position in her chair.  “  anything you care to share?  ”   again, it’s less of a question. he knows they’ll sit here until she’s satisfied. calling this therapy is a cruel joke. and he doesn’t know what it says about him that it still works. it still makes him feel better. for a time, at least. 

his gaze shifts over the doctor for a moment before he looks down at his hands.  “  i’m remembering again,  ”  he finally confesses. he can’t hold off under the weight his memories and leeland’s pressing stare. it’s too much. every time he starts seeing daisy’s delaney’s face in his dreams again, it brings back his sister too. one was a failure and the other was a completed mission. but they both leave him feeling the same emptiness. 

“  it’s getting bad again, isn’t it?  ”  

 a pause.  “  yes.  ”

“  according to your monitor,  you’ve been waking up frequently when you should be sleeping...you’ve been drinking again too.  ”

he’s quiet. he doesn’t need to confirm or deny any of it. not when she has a tablet in her lap filled with the truth. reggie lets him lie. he likes dealing with his handler better because at least that man doesn’t pretend to give a shit. with doctor leeland, it’s so much harder. she doesn’t look at him as clinically as the other medical staff. sometimes there’s warmth there. and it’s manipulative. it’s calculated. and he doesn’t care because it’s the only kindness he’ll ever get, even if it’s fabricated. 

“  is it time to make it go away again?  we can make you forget about her too,  agent klein?  it doesn’t have to hurt, emil. we do this for the others too.  do you want me to make it better? ”  

he’s quiet before he nods his head. brows tug together and he shakes it instead  “  i don’t know.  ”  he doesn’t want to forget etisha. he lost her, yes. but she was family. he needs her even if it’s just a memory now. and it would be too easy. he failed her and it would be a betrayal, a cruelty to forget her as well. she deserves more than that. emil swallows and looks back down at his hands, half expecting them to be red. delaney, though...it’s confusing and it hurts every time he starts to see things that are familiar yet so foreign at the same time. they never told him it would have to happen more than once, that they'd keep having to scramble his mind just to keep him from remembering what he did. 

“  agent?  ”

“  just her. make me forget again.  ”  

[klarsynt-arc]

after etisha’s death, emil is very averse to working with other recruits. he still has jobs at times where another agent is present and it always makes him anxious. a lot of times he’ll be uncharacteristically cold to them because of it. 

[klarsynt-arc]

emil had a handful of recruits he grew close with during his time at the tantalus compound. having met in their late teens it was easy to become bonded like siblings. etisha klein was one of these. she was a few years younger than the rest, but she kept up with them well enough. klein was like the little sister of the group, particularly to himself  &  fellow recruit aspen monroe  (  @deathfelt​  ). they studied together, and after graduation, they trained together as well. with the ability to absorb muscle memory it made her quite the fast learner. 

due to the rapidity of her progress, they allowed her to go forward through the program more quickly than some of the others. she was placed in missions before emil and was only matched by monroe, who had begun assignments several years prior while still in her teens. after completion of their training many of them were sent separate ways, and while not encouraged to do so, the three kept in close contact. 

he was 26 when klein reached out and asked him to join her on an assignment. emil readily agreed and flew out to meet her. the mission: data extraction  &  rescue op. sometimes they are sent to kill, and other times they are sent to save. that day, he found relief in the fact his hands would be saving life. a team made up of a mix of operatives and political figures had been taken hostage. klein was supposed to find them, emil was there to gather what information the enemy now had. 

it went smoothly at first. it was easy to for him to extract what he needed. they worked well as a team, she could knock out their targets, he could pull their memories and then dispose of them. quick, quiet, efficient. maybe they got too comfortable. it only takes one mistake. while escorting the hostages out they were ambushed by a unit of soldiers. two of the hostages died in the firefight, the rest escaped with minor injuries. in the middle of the chaos, klein suffer several fatal gunshot wounds. there was no way to save her and she died in emil’s arms. 

monroe had sensed the death, though she had stuck to her rule to not interfere. she showed up at the last minute, perhaps changing her mind, but if she had it was too late. it caused a rift between herself and emil, leaving them at odds for years.