Lix. LOVE & SOGGY BANANA BREAD

The soft percussion of raindrops hits the windows. Somber grey light casts through Ace's windows, greeting my heavy waking eyelids. I nuzzle deeper into the blankets, pulling them over my head. They wouldn't budge.

Moments later, the warm blanket envelops me. A hand trails through my hair. I look up to see Ace, gazing down at me in his arms, pulling the blanket over me. His hand tightens around my waist after he kisses the top of my head.

Dark rings encircle his eyes, bringing out the golden light that was nearly completely quashed a week prior. Ace had finally done it—he beat his brother. All of us, together, had finally apprehended Ian. Though now I learned the truth: his name was never Ian Lochland, but rather, Ian Blackwell.

Spots of color enter my vision. The clock on Ace's desk blinks 4:00 PM. I look at the Star Trek poster worn with age by his bedside, examining the rainbow spectrum sprawling, like traces of hope, behind the characters.

I'd been sleeping by Ace for the last couple of days. He often woke up with terrors, shaking until he finally found me, until he finally held me.

He gently touches my hand. "How long have I been sleeping?" I ask, toying with the cotton on my tank top.

"Two hours," he grins. "Although since that's your third nap of the day, it's been a total of twelve hours. Almost impressive, you sedated polar bear."

At least he's making jokes now. "And how long have you been sleeping, you giraffe working a twenty-two hour shift on crack?"

"Creative. But about an hour."

I sit up to look at him. "The truth, Banana Bread. Just because you can tell when people are lying by pulling that weird wrist shit, doesn't mean I can't as well."

Ace's gaze flickers away. "I haven't slept."

"You need to sleep, before tomorrow, okay?" He nods. I run a hand through my hair and get up to stretch. "I'm going to check on everyone else."

Except, when I get up, my legs forget how to maintain homeostasis, and I fall. Ace begins to chuckle at my fall. My middle finger rises immediately as his middle finger simultaneously rises as well.

"Well, I guess you do take fat naps. We did finally sleep together," Banana Bread chides.

I deadpan him. The cool floor causes me to shiver. He gestures to his drawer, "Grab one of my jackets. Emma is in your room, and you shouldn't disturb her."

My fingertips run through the various bomber jackets, sweaters, and leather jackets before landing on a dark-green hoodie. I raise an eyebrow in his direction. "Why do you have enough leather jackets to make all the movies Tom Cruise has ever been in?"

He shrugs. "Leather is the most protective material." My face sprouts red at the thought of him wearing the jackets, and I turn around without giving his smug face the satisfaction of knowing.

The Director, Skye, Daniel, and Xavier are in the living room surrounding the kitchen. They're looking at the security footage monitoring a room with four blank white walls. Ian sits in the bed by the corner and stares at the wall in front of him. Daniel offers me a McDonald's fry—I take the entire pack.

"He's been still for hours," Xavier states. "Fucking psychopath."

"He's too calm, too still," Skye prods while picking at her salad.

The Director brushes his stubble. "We've got international security on him at a secure location. When we interrogate him and bring him in tomorrow, we'll get him to speak."

Daniel scoffs. "Right, of course he'll speak."

"He knows that Emma is with us," The Director says. "He's doing to do whatever it takes to get closer to her, even if that means risking it all."

"And Katrina. Have they found her?" Xavier asks. "That girl unnerves me."

"She unnerves all of us," Skye says. "Both her and Thirteen are undoubtedly talented fighters."

I shake my head. "They haven't found her yet."

"—I'd be the first one to tell you if they did," Chase walks into the kitchen. His once-broken arm is broken once again after another encounter with Katrina.

"How is Emma?" Daniel says. "Does she know what happened?"

Chase shakes his bruised head. "She's just happy we brought him in."

"And the interrogation tomorrow—who's leading it?" Xavier asks. "I'm sure we're all eager to get our punches in."

The Director turns to me. "You should do it, Octavia. You seem to understand him the most."

His words, albeit encouraging, made me flinch. I wrap Ace's warm hoodie tighter around myself. Thirteen's words kept repeating themselves in my brain: we are similar because we are both good. What could he have possibly alluded to by that?

And Ace. His brother? What exactly did Ian have to endure? All of these questions didn't have any answers that made sense. Then again, he could have just been manipulating me, making me doubt myself just like before. If I could just get him alone for three minutes, I could get these answers of why he hates the CIA.

The Director raises an eyebrow at me in the brief silence. "I'll do it," I nod.

The Director heads out for the elevator, where two SWAT agents are positioned on both sides. "It'll be in room Beta 06 at 9AM. Get some rest tonight recruits."

Just three minutes.

"After we get the answers, could I be the first one to pull the trigger?" Xavier lets out a breath while crossing his arms.

But he's Ace's brother, I wanted to say. Everyone else started to make jokes and plans about how to kill him. He deserved to die, yes, but Ace needed to be okay with it.

~

Blue light fills the room. My fingers fly across the screen, scanning the white code against a dark background. I open up my private server on my computer to pull up code I'd previously written for hacking into other government software under their breach detection services. A smirk tugs on my face.

Hacking into the Pentagon was quite easy when they believed you're ethically helping them. Tipping a "grey hat" to them was fun while it lasted.

I'm able to tap into the New York office's NVR cameras. Easy. I swing my legs as I sit on the elevated boxing ring. All the other rooms were taken, and this was the only one where I could have some privacy.

Room Beta 06. For the time of 9:17AM tomorrow, the cameras and microphones tracking the interrogation would conveniently blackout for three minutes. That's all I needed to get my answers. My finger hovers over the enter key. Should I be doing this?

Ace then enters the gym, completely shirtless. A pair of boxing clubs are swung over his back. When his tired eyes meet mine, he doesn't keep moving forward, opting instead to freeze in his tracks.

"You need to sleep," I state while closing my laptop. "Just because you don't need as much sleep as most people doesn't mean you don't need any."

"I can't," Ace says. I walk up to him, brushing his stubble with one hand. He sighs. "I've been thinking about the moment that Ian finally dies for years now. But I don't know... When I close my eyes, I see him taunting me by hurting other people."

Ace didn't have to say anything, but I understood that he saw his brother hurting me.

"He murders, he lies, and he steals. Yet, when we were younger, he was so good. He was so good, Octavia. I know that I, deep down, want him to cease to exist. But I don't want him to die," the spy continues.

"He's not the same person as he was ten years ago."

"I wish I understood why he became the way he is."

Ace's chest is rising rapidly at the overwhelming emotion and confusion. I stand on my tip toes and wrap my arms around his neck. His brown hair is tattered, and my usually confident Banana Bread has been reduced to a sad and soggy loaf.

Ace's arms are slightly shaking as they wrap around me tightly. He buries his face into my hair and neck. When he releases me, I hold out my hand for the boxing gloves.

"Go to sleep," I demand.

"How are you going to force me?" He smirks. He stretches, making his body stretch out to two times my size.

"Alright, now you're just showing off."

After I shoo him away, I open up my laptop again. If I sent out this code, I could get the answers that Ace wanted from his brother. The hesitation within my finger hand vanishes.

I press enter.

Daniel: "Vote, and I'll give you french fries."

Xavier: "Click the link in the bio for the interactive app version on Galatea ;)"