CIA Academy of Espionage

Washington, DC

Hammond Quadrangle

December 17th, 2015

1625 hours

Ben POV

I turned towards Catherine. "How do you know Professor Hudson?" I asked, curious.

She grinned and shrugged. "Past missions. That's all I can say," she responded.

"That reminds me: we don't have another mission, do we?" I asked, a little fearfully.

She shook her head, and I let out a sigh of relief. "So, what's going on?"

The smile dropped from her face. "Let's go somewhere quieter," she said, turning and beckoning me to follow.

Utterly confused, I obeyed. We walked in silence until we reached the Nathan Hale Administration Building. Surprisingly, we went to Alexander Hale's office.

She knocked on the door, to which he responded, "Come in!"

We opened the door to see Alexander disassembling and cleaning his Glock 19 sidearm while reading a manual on how to do so.

Let's talk about Alexander for a second.

When he first came into my life, he was everything I believed a spy would be: dashing, debonair, and all that. In other words, he was an American James Bond. At least on paper. In real life, he was so incompetent you couldn't trust him with a water gun, let alone a real one. He had no skills apart from deception, and even that was limited to stealing credit from others and putting on a fake appearance. The Hale talent had skipped him. After our mission to save the President, UK Prime Minister, and some other VIPs from getting blown up by a missile, Alexander was exposed by Erica and I in our debriefings.

After that, he got a black mark on his record and his high-level security clearances were revoked, reducing him to a mere desk jockey. However, he ended up helping on a black operation in New Jersey (the takedown of SPYDER's academy) and on the operation in Colorado (stopping Leo Shang from nuking a molybdenum mine). In a later operation, we found out that Alexander is actually a skilled helicopter pilot, something even Cyrus, Catherine, and Erica didn't know, and he ended up saving all of our lives.

Since then, he has been allowed to return to the field as an Operations Officer, but with Cyrus as his handler. Not that Alexander minds. He's become far more humble, and actually tries to succeed. He's even managed to refocus his talent for lying, and turn it into deception that an undercover operative needs. He's trained himself up to be a relatively competent agent over the years. While he is still outclassed by the rest of his family, he's actually around the same skill level as me.

He's still a bit weak in hand-to-hand combat, close-quarters weapons (e.g., knives, swords), and firearms, but he has shown incredible aptitude in helicopter piloting, languages, communication, interrogation, counter-interrogation, and disguises. At this point, he's become better at deception than everyone in our friend/family circle except for his own father, and even that is by a ridiculously small margin. Even Cyrus was slightly impressed by his son's vigor.

Throughout this saga, I've had mixed feelings about Alexander. On one hand, he was a cheat and a liar, and even got Erica a black mark. On the other, even in his days of incompetence, he still cared about his family, and would do whatever it took to keep them safe. Similarly to Catherine, he took on somewhat of a second father role in my life in recent years. These days, he was a mix of brightness and seriousness, sort of a halfway between Catherine and Cyrus in personality, but definitely leaning more towards Catherine.

He looked up from his manual to see Catherine and I standing there. Immediately, his look of concentration broke into a huge smile. He set his gun down and walked around the desk to hug both of us.

"Cath! Ben! It's great to see you!" he exclaimed. He gathered us both in a group hug, pecking Catherine on the cheek and ruffling my hair.

Oh, yeah, forgot about something: Catherine and Alexander used to be married, the former having fallen easily for the latter's charms (Alexander is also an excellent charmer, and has successfully seduced targets for information during his incompetence days; that skill hasn't faded, and it has proven to be useful on the one occasion it was needed recently). Eventually, they divorced, but recently, some time after Catherine revealed herself to everyone after going dark on everybody but Erica and MI6 for years, they started rekindling their relationship. Alexander even made up for being a terrible dad by being there for Erica in recent times, and that along with his increased competence helped him regain his position as Erica's father.

Catherine hugged him back and kissed him on his cheek. "It's good to see you too, Alex," she said softly.

He released us from the hug, still grinning. "Please, have a seat! Do you want anything to drink? I've got water and coffee. Maybe you'd like some tea, Lady Catherine of Aragon?" he teased.

She rolled her eyes at the playful jab. "I don't know, Alex. Will you have a Coca-Cola? Or is it a Pepsi?" she fired back.

He mock-gasped. "You dare think a Pepsi can replace a Coke? How about I throw a barrel of limes at you for spouting such balderdash?"

I chuckled and sighed at the same time. 'Here we go again...' I thought as I sat down.  'The Second Revolutionary War, AKA Alexander and Catherine's repartee of the US versus the UK.'

"Limes? At least I'm not obsessed with bacon!" she retorted.

"Bacon is amazing, you crazy Redcoat!"

"Why you stuck-up... half-witted... scruffy-looking... NERF HERDER!" she growls.

The room is silent. I break the silence by laughing hard. I held my sides as I tried not to fall off the chair. Alexander quickly joined me, realizing the reference. Catherine joined soon after, unable to help herself, and we laughed together for another minute.

'I haven't laughed like this for a while,' I thought sadly.

While I was catching my breath, the adults had recovered, and were quietly discussing something.

When I finally recovered, Catherine and Alexander were sitting in front of me.

"So Ben, how have you been?" asked Alexander.

I shrugged. "I've been OK. Training . Keeping up with studies. Hanging out with the gang. Business as usual I guess, minus actual missions."

Catherine shot a nervous glance towards Alexander, which I didn't miss.

"Guys... what's going on? Is something wrong?" I asked worriedly.

Alexander briefly looked at Catherine, giving her a small, almost imperceptible nod. Then he turned towards me.

"Ben... we know that's not true," he said, softly.

My body stiffened.

'They can't know,' thought one part of me.

'You must tell them!' screamed my other inner half.

'This isn't their fight. You have to do it yourself!'

'That's true in several situations, but not this one! You need help!'

'You've been keeping this a secret for so long!  Just keep doing it!'

'That's just it!  You've been keeping it a secret for over one-and-a-half years!  You're tearing yourself up from the inside!'

I cleared my head of my two warring personalities and returned my focus to the adults in front of me.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked. I silently cursed, failing to catch my stammer.

Alexander gave me a look full of regret. "Ben, take it from a man who has lied for all his life: I know a liar when I see one most of the time," he said quietly.

"But we're not here to criticize. We're here to help," said Catherine in an equally soft tone.

"Guys, I'm fine! There's nothing wro—" I tried to protest.

Catherine shook her head. "We've been getting reports from your friends. Zoe and Mike noticed how you've become a more brutal fighter and leader in your Conducting Warfare class. Chip and Jawa noticed how you would always have a look of rage on your face at the gym, especially when you sparred with others or worked on a punching bag. That look of rage stayed at the shooting range. Combined with how accurately, quickly, and how long you kept firing, there's a reason nobody tried to approach you. Even Chip and Jawa were scared of you. Jawa described you as 'turning into a killing machine.'"

Alexander continued. "Even Erica found it unnerving. She noticed how you became more focused on your studies. You still socialized, but she thought it looked fake: your laughter, your smiles, your jokes. In her words: 'He's turning into me. This isn't natural. This isn't Ben.' And I have to agree with her on that. This isn't the Ben we know and love. We want to help, but we need you to identify the problem. Please, Ben. We want to bring the real you back."

As the two adults revealed the changes they had heard about, I was stunned. I didn't know some of that stuff happened. I just tried to act as normal as possible, not wanting people to worry.

One-and-a-half years was enough to cope... right?

I felt something crack within me when I heard Zoe and Mike refer to me as brutal. That fracture expanded when I heard that Chip and Jawa, two of the toughest guys I know, feared me. I was barely holding back my emotions when Erica finally put a name to the situation: I was becoming something of an Ice King, like Erica post-Josh's betrayal. Only the cause was different.

Far different.

I finally broke at Alexander's last words and the dam inside me burst as the images started going through my mind.

My heart rate sped up and it became harder to breath.  I felt my eyes moisten as I saw what had been plaguing me for over one-and-a-half years.

'No... NO, NO!  NOT THIS!  NOT THIS!' I thought desperately.

'Not this...'

The story is getting serious now.  The next few chapters are going to be centered around some dark themes.  Plus, the writing will likely suck.  You have been warned.

I tried my best to make it emotional towards the end.  How'd I do?

Also, in regards to Alexander and Catherine... to be fair, this is several years in the future of where Spy School is at in canon.  Despite his ineptitude as an agent, Alexander does have a good heart and a sliver of competence.  I think he has a shot at redemption, both as an agent and a father, so I gave it to him.

As always, feel free to ask me questions.  I'll respond as soon as I can.

Until next time!  Stay safe!

- ADF-2