When the helicopter finally arrived, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We were finally getting off this island. A place that for a moment, I didn't know if I would ever leave. 

We were greeted by two other RUA agents who told us we would be heading back the US, but not home. We'd be heading to Washington to meet with the FBI at their headquarters. There were a lot of questions we had to answer. 

The news had been disheartening for me since I'd wanted nothing more than to return home but Eric had reassured me it would only be for a few days and I'd be able to get in contact with my friends and family when we touched down. 

Throughout the entire ride, I'd tried to get some sleep. But it hadn't been possible due to the loud noise of the helicopter and its choppy movements. We'd been wearing headsets in order to communicate with each other and were all sitting together packed tightly in the back. Mackenzie was still passed out, lying on the ground.

I'd been watching her the entire trip, looking for any sign of her stirring awake. She remained unconscious for the full ride but I'd at least had the reassurance of her breathing with the rise and fall of her chest. She was going to be okay. 

When we finally arrived on land, I was filled with relief. To be back in our country and safe again was more than I could have ever wanted. Eric had handed over the files we'd taken from the RFI base to the RUA agents who had picked us up and we'd been quickly whisked over to a hospital to treat our injuries. 

It had only taken about half an hour to treat us all, aside from Mackenzie who would need to be kept for longer to be properly cared for. I heard that she'd woken up but I still hadn't been allowed the chance to visit her. The news would have to be enough for now. 

Turner's gun wound had been easier to tend to thanks to how quickly Cassie had acted on it once it had happened and the rest of us only required a few stitches and other small treatments. 

I was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed having a drink of water when Eric walked into the room. My feet had been dangling toward the floor and I'd been swinging them back and forth to help me cope with my nerves. I stopped the second I saw him. 

"Hey," he greeted with a smile. "Are you ready to go? We're going to FBI headquarters. A few people from the Russian Embassy will be there too." 

I noticed how much better he was looking with the dried blood and dirt cleaned off him. He had a few stitches on his forehead and arms and was looking like a lot of his strength was back.

I hopped off the bed putting the lid back on my water bottle. "Yeah, I'm ready," I replied. 

"It's going to be pretty intense in there," he warned. "Don't worry, I'll walk you through it all."

I gave him an appreciative smile. "Thanks."

I walked with him out of the room and into the hallway. There were nurses and doctors all over the place as the hospital continued its daily life. It felt weird being back in the hospital. The last time I'd been to one had been a few years prior when I'd broken my leg during a gymnast practice that had gone wrong. 

Kevin and Debby had been by my bedside for those few hours I'd spent being treated and the memory only made me miss them more. I reminded myself that I just needed to get through this and then I would see them again. 

Eric, Cassie, Turner and I were picked up by another RUA agent and driven to the building straight away. There was a solemn mood in the car as we rode in silence. Eric had been on a table device, going over files and collecting himself for the meeting while I had just sat there, impatiently tapping my fingers on my thighs. I just wanted this all to be over. 

The dreaded meeting approached a lot sooner than I'd anticipated and by the time the car had pulled up in front of the tall building, my stomach had tightened into a large knot. 

Inside the building, it was chaotic. We were greeted in an instant by FBI agents and lead down a long hallway to a meeting room. The only relief had been the cool air conditioning inside which was helping me cope with my nervous sweating. 

"Remember, just answer any questions they ask to the best of your ability," Eric told me as we walked at a quick pace to the meeting room. "You won't be reprimanded for anything. They just want to know exactly what happened."

I acted like that made perfect sense to me and I would be fine with this, but I was freaking out inside my head. A meeting with important people to discuss our RFI killing spree definitely didn't sound like a stress-free experience. 

I couldn't help but feel awkward about my appearance as we walked into a large room filled with professionally dressed people. We were all still wearing the same clothing we'd been in during the confrontation with the RFI and god knows we all needed a long shower. In comparison to the people dressed in business suits, I looked like absolute trash. I couldn't wait for the meeting to be over so I could finally take a long deserved pamper session to deal with the dirt I never thought would leave my skin and my rats nest of hair. 

I shook hands with a few people as they introduced themselves to me but most of their names and titles slipped my head the instant I was told them. I noticed Captain toward the back of the room and Eric go over to greet him. They both had a brief hug which probably wouldn't have been professional so they made sure to be discreet about it. I noticed though and couldn't help but smile. I was happy that Eric was being reunited with him. 

But any casualness would have to be done any time because before I knew it, we were all seated at a long table in front of a projector. Captain sat up the front of the room with two other men who I assumed must have also been important people. Then again, everyone in this room was. There was at least a dozen of us and I was growing anxious at how quiet it was getting. 

"We need to get straight to it," Captain began. The lights in the room went out, causing me to jump slightly. The projector screen behind him lit up and we were all staring at an image of an island from an aerial view. "The RFI made you land on a private island called 'Hangter' just north of Ireland." 

I raised an eyebrow, sliding down in my seat. Ireland? We'd really gone off track.

"The plane made it back safely to Russia. But I'm sure without its captors on it, that didn't go down well. They were able to track where you would be by using the plane's black box to pinpoint your exact location." 

That made sense. They'd managed to locate us and invade the island pretty quickly. By this point I was fully attentive, wanting to know what I'd missed but the conversation started to turn towards us.

"What we already know isn't that important," another man spoke up, standing near the projector screen. "I'm sure you can fill yourselves in on it in your own time. What we need from you now is clarification."

I scanned the man's appearance. Clean cut, in a suit with an FBI identification card pinned to his tie. I instantly grew nervous. This guy was the real deal and I felt like an interrogation was on the rise.

When I glanced over at Cassie, she was simply glaring in his direction and even Turner appeared to roll his eyes. Their petty feud with the FBI was certainly something they weren't forgetting in that moment and judging by the way the FBI agent was looking at us, he wasn't thinking of anything much fonder either. But we all had a job to do, which was bigger than the constant battle our two organizations shared when it came to securing cases. 

"How many RFI agents were on that island?" he asked. 

"It would be hard to pinpoint an exact number," Turner spoke. "But I'm guessing about two dozen." 

The agent looked at Turner and then raised an eyebrow at Eric. "Would you agree?"

"Yes, that sound about right," he replied. 

That move hadn't made Turner look any happier towards the guy. He'd turned to a higher rank RUA agent for confirmation. The condescending move made me also peer towards the guy, unimpressed. 

Every part of me felt like it was aching and the fatigue was really starting to hit me. 

However, the questions kept coming and we had to answer them as well as we could. 

We were hounded about every single choice and decision we'd made on that island. Turner was asked a lot about the explosive devices he'd helped assemble and Cassie contested to where they'd been placed. Eric was the one who answered the most questions about the mission.

He explained our crash landing, the plan to move to higher ground and our abduction. That's when things shifted my way.

"You were the first to escape?" The FBI agent asked me. 

I nodded the instant I was acknowledged. "Yes," I confirmed. "And that was when I ran into Agent Cassie and Agent Turner." 

"When you retrieved Agent Eric the second time you went back, did you see Agent Mackenzie anywhere?" 

I pursed my lips. "No," I answered. "I tried to look for her but we needed to get out quickly." 

He kept his eyes on me, making me want to squirm under his gaze. My face was heating up and I hated all the attention that was on me. 

"Did it occur to you that she might have been killed?"

"It did," I admitted. "But it wasn't something I was ready to confirm without seeing for myself." 

"So that's why you went back to their base?" He asked. "To save one of your agents even though it risked the lives of your other agents?" 

There was muttering in the room. I opened my mouth to respond but then closed it. What the hell was the correct answer for that supposed to be?

"We went back to their base to take down their unit," Eric answered for me. "We got approval from our Captain." 

"Yes, I understand that," the man dismissed him. "What I'm questioning was the motives behind that. As I'm sure you're all aware, you were only required to take down their operation, not perform a rescue mission."

"There's no rule against saving a life," Cassie squinted towards the guy, folding her arms defensively. 

His eyes pierced into hers for a moment. "Of course not," he replied. "I'm just questioning your method and ability to follow clear instructions."

Eric immediately spoke up. "We did what was instructed of us and more. I'm sure you'll agree that we made the correct choice considering the main component of our jobs is saving innocent lives." The irritation was clear in his voice and he was looking as tired of this meeting as I was. 

The man didn't respond, simply looking back at Eric. I could sense the annoyance in his stance from what Eric had just said. 

This meeting was intense. 

"I think that's enough for now," Captain thankfully interjected.

I let out a deep breath I'd been suppressing. 

The FBI agent eyed Captain and finally gave a nod. "Are there any questions you have?" He asked us. 

I pursed my lips, definitely not looking for any attention on me. Cassie and Turner stayed silent too, looking like they just wanted to leave the room. 

"The traitor-" Eric spoke up before quickly being interrupted.

"Already dealt with," Captain answered. The screen behind him flickered to an ID image of a man with glasses and short black hair. I recognized him instantly. He was the man that had taken Eric, Mackenzie, and I up to the roof to board that plane.

"Agent Derreby," Captian explained. "He's been reporting to RFI with information on us for the past few months, which explains why they've always seemed to be one step ahead of us."

"That also explains how the RFI were able to get on our flight," Eric added with the realization. "He let them on." 

"It would appear so," Captain confirmed. "He's in custody now." 

"We'll be questioning him later," another man spoke to Captain. I noticed his thick accent and realized he must have been with the Russain Embassy. 

Captain gave him a nod of approval. "Maybe you can get more out of him than we did. So far, he is really being forward with his answers on his betrayal. I'm assuming they have something on him."

"I wouldn't put it past the RFI," Cassie added, wriggling back in her chair in an attempt to be more comfortable. "The sneaky bastards seem to have shit on everyone,"  

Turner smirked at her informality and even I cracked a grin. We were all getting tired of this and starting to not take it as seriously. I just wanted to have a shower and get some sleep on an actual bed. The meeting had been going on for at least an hour by now and it was getting hard to keep my eyes open. 

"This...organization," the Russian man spoke, trying to find the right word to describe them. "They've been plaguing our country for a very long time. We've had APB out on several men who were suspected to be largely involved. Albert Vasiliev, Mikhail Sokolov, Andrei Bulgakov-"

"Andrei Bulgakov is dead," Eric stated flatly. "He was among the deceased agents we took down."

The man looked at him with a raised eyebrow. If I didn't know any better, I would have said he looked impressed. But at the least, he was taken back.

"As for the other members we killed, I'm not sure who they were." Eric continued. "All I know is that they ambushed us and attempted to torture us for information. They were looking for a way to take us down."

"Their identities will be released soon, I'm sure." another FBI agent spoke up. He was seated at the long table with his hands clasped together. "With all the information you brought in, there's enough to put a name and face to a lot of people we were already suspecting."

"That's right," Captain confirmed. "We'll have enough to commence a proper shut down once we decode some of the secret language they used in their reports." His eyes drifted towards where we were sitting. "Nice work agents. We'll allow you to take some time to recover now. Meeting dismissed."

Movement suddenly broke out all around me. Things had ended so suddenly that I was still sitting there in surprise. Eric immediately got up from his chair and I went to do the same. 

"Wait, what does that mean?" I asked Eric as the group disbanded. Agents stood up from the table and dispersed quickly. Everything had happened in such a blur that I still wasn't understanding it all. 

"It means...we did good," he replied briefly, looking slightly dazed from the meeting himself. His eyes wandered off for a moment and looked kind of stunned. I'd never seen him look so speechless before.

"How good?" I asked. "Eric, what does that mean?" I repeated in disarray . 

Eric looked at me with wide eyes and an awed expression. "Becca, that information you took is enough for us to identify a majority of their agents. The RFI are about to be taken down and destroyed. Our main enemy for decades." His face broke out into a wide smile. "You just took down an entire operation." 

----

A/N: THIS COMMENT MADE ME FUCKING DIE

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