Chapter Text
Everyone has a secret self they don’t show to other people. Not to friends, not to lovers, not even to family. They hide who they are and what they want behind lies and painted smiles. And thus the world maintains its thin veneer of peace.
Loud noises of tires scratching the pavement and of metal bending can be heard from the screen of the conference room alongside the distant screams of the two passengers. The men gathered in the dark and spacious room are looking at the screen with neutral expressions. One of them, the head of this meeting, addresses his colleagues. “One of our diplomats in Ostania was killed in a car accident.” He presents the current situation.” We suspect it was an assassination carried out by the east’s far-right-wing political party.” It was a logical assumption, the nationalists from the east have been a thorn in their side for a long time, looking for war in the search for glory.” They want a war with our nation of Westalis. We need to know exactly what they are planning in the east.”
“Then we should put her on it. The best agent we have…” Suggests one of the other men” Twilight.”
Over the border in Ostania a deal is taking place in a secluded alleyway on the outskirts of Frankfurd. A man wearing a trench coat and concealing his face with a hat, hands an envelope to an elderly woman dressed in an expensive suit. She opens it with a frown on her face, immediately lighting up when she sees the photos inside.
“Just as I promised. Photographic proof that the foreign minister…” The man pauses, still bewildered by how such information values so much.”… wears a hairpiece. Negatives and all.” he also hands her the negatives, happy to finally end this ridiculous situation. “Nice job.” Says the woman with a satisfied smile.” This should be enough to secure her resignation.” The elderly woman gets in the driver’s seat of a very nice but inconspicuous looking car, she looks at him one more time before leaving.” Keep up the good work.”
Of course he will, this political circus is making him a lot of money. As long as he keeps following officials from Westalis, ostanian patriots will pay for such ridiculous stuff. He leaves satisfied, another good day of profiting off idiots.
“Hey.” He hears a voice from behind, he turns around only to find the exact same woman, this time followed by two men.” Where are you going?” She asks while holding her hand out expectantly.” Aren’t you going to hand over what you promised me?” The man looks back and forth confused, switching his gaze from the woman before him to the black car that could still be seen in the distance.” What?!” He asks, confused.” But… I just…” He stutters, trying to look for an explanation, suddenly, it strikes him.” Oh no… That was a setup…!!”
In the car, a much younger woman rips the mask off her face and throws it on the back seat. Another successful mission. Her codename is Twilight, the woman is a spy. In this ruthless cold war era, the two rival nations, Ostania and Westalis, are waging a ruthless informational war against one another, right under the gazes of ordinary citizens. Under those circumstances, she was a true veteran, making use of a hundred different faces to survive.
In a fancy and exclusive restaurant somewhere in the center of Frankfurd two people are eating dinner, but, despite the setting, the mood is hardly romantic. A tall man dressed in expensive clothing is talking relentlessly about his mother and the stolen pictures of a wig, and of course, of the promises of painful retribution towards the shameless thieves. His partner, a shorter woman with blond hair is eating her meal quietly, obviously bored with her date’s conversation choice, barely paying attention while shoving the expensive stake in her mouth as elegantly as she could muster.
“Roberta? Are you even listening to me?” He asks after a while, realizing that her plate, unlike his, is already completely empty. “Hm? Oh, indeed. How unfortunate for her.” Roberta responds in a neutral and disinterested tone.
He huffs in disapproval. ”Anyway, Roberta, I’d like to ask you something.” He reaches for something in his pocket. “Let’s break up.” She says suddenly. Kyle’s hand froze on the small box he had prepared. ”What?” He asks, dumbfounded. “You’re boring and kind of an idiot.” Roberta gets up from her seat and grabs her coat, heading for the exit.” Best of luck in your future affairs.” She wishes while leaving. “Roberta, wait!” Yells the man, but she is long gone.
She feels a little bit bad for him, but this is how it should be, she doesn’t need him anymore, or rather, she doesn’t need his mother anymore. Twilight throws the photos and negatives in a random fire on the street, probably started by homeless people, she has nothing else to do here.
Anyway, what was that dumbass Kyle even thinking? They’ve only known each other for two months and he was already proposing to her. Ostanian men are a completely different breed and Twilight decides that she will never get used to them. But, even if she had any attachment to the minister’s son, that was not a life for her. Hopes of marriage? The pleasures of an ordinary life? Those dreams ended up in the garbage can next to her I.D. papers when she decided to become a spy.
The next morning Twilight finds herself at a train station, ready to receive further instructions. She wears discreet clothing, attracting too much attention is a death sentence for a spy, and when you’re a woman that risk just doubles. Her interaction with what seemed like a random man was swift and almost devoid of words. They switched newspapers and each of them left on their own way, the man leaving just a simple “meow” behind him. So it’s Cypher C? There were so many, sometimes she mixed them up by accident. Nobody knew, of course, Twilight can’t make mistakes openly.
After receiving all she needed, Twilight gets on the train for Berlint, sitting down and leisurely reading the newspaper while drinking her coffee. Now that the wig fiasco was over she needed all the caffeine in the world.
The code on the newspaper was written in a special ink that could be read only if light fell on it the right way, plus, the regular writing was also coded. Sometimes she asked herself if they didn’t go a bit too far with this thing. There were too many codes, and they were far too complicated, it took her forever to memorize all of them.
“Good day. Or rather, good evening, Twilight.” The newspaper greeted her.” Excellent work on your last assignment. Thanks to you, the minister has survived another day, to the great benefit of Westalis.” Of course she did a good job, who else is a better spy than her? That’s right, no one.” I’m afraid we have another assignment for you already. Your target is the leader of the National Unity Party, Vladimir Briar. He is a grave threat to the truce between East and West.” Are they ever gonna let her catch a break? Probably not, unfortunately. And why does she have to deal with those nutjobs, why can’t Becky do it?” Your mission is to get close to him and probe into any seditious activities.” Good, pretty basic stuff, this can’t be too hard.” In order to do so you will marry and have a child.” At this Twilight almost spilled her coffee in shock.” Excuse me?” She thought, this is not possible, maybe she read wrong, yeah, maybe this is the wrong cypher. But it is not, and she knows it.” Briar is a recluse and is extremely suspicious of others. At this point, he operates almost entirely behind the scenes. His only public appearances are at the events held at this private school his daughter attends. These events are informal get-togethers for the upper crust of industrial and political leaders.” This at least makes sense, if he is such an isolated hermit they must do anything to get near him. She can be a mother, of course she can, there is nothing that the best spy in the world can’t do.” You are to enroll your child at this school and gain entry to these events. However, the deadline for admissions is approaching fast. Only one week remains.”
“I have seven days to make a child?” She rips the newspaper in frustration but immediately recollects herself, quickly shooting an excuse to the other passengers for the commotion. That was so sloppy. But what can she do, those people are becoming more and more unreasonable with every mission.” We’re calling it ‘Operation Strix’. This operation is the key to maintaining peace between East and West, and perhaps the world.” Yes, yes, of course it is. They say this about every mission. It’s not that they’re lying, only that Twilight needs a vacation.” You and your fellow agents do great deeds that never see the light of day. You are heroes without shadows. You’ll earn no medals. Your name will never make it into the papers. But despite that, never forget that everyone else’s day-to-day lives are possible because of your blood and sweat.” They are right. She abandoned her identity when she became Twilight. What is motherhood if not just another role to play, and she will play it to perfection. Everything, for the sake of a better world.
A few hours later a real estate agent is showing a spacious apartment from a good area of Berlint to a nicely dressed young woman. He can’t deny that he was a little bit taken by her when she came to his office in the morning looking for a nice living place suited for a small family. She looks so young, hard to think that she would have a child, and she is so charming. That quality about her carrying even while she walks all around the apartment, checking carefully any nook and cranny, her pink hair, stylized with two ornaments that look approximately like black cones, fluttering behind her pleasantly.” Excuse me, ma’am…?” He asked after a while, seeing that she keeps checking for something.” I’ll take it.” Announces Anya Forger, being satisfied by the apartment, no hidden microphones and easy escape routes, perfect.
Yes, Anya Forger, psychiatrist. That’s her new life. She’s had better, but she’s also had much, much worse.
“Then I’ll need you to sign right here, Mrs. Forger.” He quickly hands Anya the papers, happy to be done so soon.” What a wonderful new start this will be for your family! Do you have a son or a daughter? I have two boys myself. They’re eight and ten!” Mentions the agent, wanting to start polite conversation.” Ah, well…” There’s a problem with that.”...that’s what I’ve got to figure out next.” She responds truthfully. Twilight wants to put off the child as much as possible, after all, a happy home life, and a family to cherish, are nothing but liabilities to a spy.
After the issue of housing is taken care of, Twilight makes her way to a sketchier part of the town, stopping in front of an old building. The thing looks more like an abandoned ruin than an institution that houses children and if you wouldn’t know what to look for you would probably miss it. It’s sad, and exactly the kind of place that Twilight needs.
She rings the doorbell, a few moments later the old wooden door opens with a loud creak and a middle-aged balding, obviously drunk, man peeks outside, opening the door wider when he sees her.” Yeah? You wanna foster a kid?” He asks in a slurred voice, his eyes barely keeping themselves open.” I do. And I understand I can adopt through your orphanage as well?” Says Twilight in a meek and sweet voice, smiling pathetically.” My husband and I have been trying for many years, but…” She starts telling the sob story that she has half cooked on the way, but the man turns around and gestures for her to follow him inside.” Yeah, whatever. Just take whichever one you want.” The man says, not even bothering to pretend that he gives a damn about the fate of the children in his care.
The inside somehow looks worse than the outside, which says a lot. The walls are cracked, the floorboards are coming undone; the windows are broken and the whole place is littered with dirty children, dressed in unwashed, poorly patched together rags and playing with old toys and garbage. Disgust creeps in her mind but she pushes it down, she can’t do anything for these children and, sadly enough, their situation is useful to her. ”What a dump”, Twilight thinks to herself, but an orphanage this shoddy is unlikely to have good records concerning the provenance of its children, that should make it all the easier to fabricate a new family history. This mission requires the establishment of a family, but for now just the child would be enough. Of course, she’d prefer to do this entire mission on her own, but even for Westalis’ greatest spy, impersonating a child is impossible. ”Damn you Briar, you antisocial freak.” she mentally curses her target.
“Oh, ideally I’d like a child who can already read and write.” She tells the man, there’s only a week left, she is not gonna teach this kid the alphabet.” Yeah? In that case…” His eyes wander to one corner of the room.” Loid, get over here!” He calls to one child, who sits alone, separated from the others.
The boy is small, kinda cute if you ask her, with ashy blond, badly trimmed hair and large blue eyes, looking at her with confusion and scrutiny. Well, he looks smart, but he seems a little too small.
“This is the smartest one we got. He doesn’t say much but..” He pauses, seemingly thinking what would be most helpful to say next.” He’s a good kid.” He finally decides. Loid steps closer to them and the man doesn’t hide his disdain when he looks at him. This kid creeps him out and he wants it as far away from his business as possible, this dumb woman is the perfect opportunity to finally remove this little freak, this time for good.” Greet the lady, Loid!” Commands the man.” Ahh… Perhaps not.” Twilight says. You have to be at least six to enroll at Eden Academy, this boy looks four, five at the oldest.” Six!” Loid suddenly blurts out.” Hmm?” Twilight approaches him.” I’m six.” He says more clearly this time.” Huh, you’re already six?” The man doesn’t remember Loid being six, he doesn’t even remember him being five, but it’s not like he cares enough to check. As for Twilight, she thinks that his reaction was a little weird but tosses it aside and believes him, despite his small size.
Loid runs to a table and brings back a newspaper, staying on his toes to make it easier for her to see what he is showing her without bending down.” The crossword puzzle? That might be a little tough for you.” She says when she understands what the child is showing her, but he doesn’t listen. Loid sits down and grabs a crayon, starting to fill in the words. Twilight looks over his shoulder, this thing is easy for her of course, she starts looking at the ones he hasn’t completed yet: ”One down is ’homeostasis’, one across is’ causal closure’, and below that is’ symplectomorphism’” this thing is too simple. A few minutes later Loid proudly shows her the completed puzzle.” You finished it?! Seriously?!” She asks bewildered. This is a stunning level of intellect, this boy will surely ace the entrance exam.” I’ll take this one.” She turns towards the drunken man.” Now, about the paperwork…” The man waves his hand, dismissing her.” Don’t worry about it. Just take him and get outta here.”
Child acquired. Mission accomplished. Twilight is actually worried that this is going too well, but she decides to not jinx it.” Is this ok with you?” She asks Loid, after all, it’s important for them to have a good relationship.
“Spy? Mission?” Loid thinks to himself. He nods his head at the woman. This is crazy, he has to find out more.
Twilight might have made a great error, the boy is a telepath. Formerly known as Test Subject “007”, he possesses the ability to read minds. He was made thus by accident, an unintended consequence of research experiments conducted by a certain organization. He later escaped from the facility and moved from institution to institution, seeking someone to take care of him.
“Listen up, little boy.” She starts when they arrive in front of the building.” It’s Loid!” He corrects her, but Twilight ignores it.” You’ll be my child from now on. But as far as everyone else is concerned, you have always been my child. Is that clear?” She asks and Loid nods his head.” Clear.”.” You should address me as ‘mother’.” That sounds uselessly fancy and upperclass-like.” Understood, Mother.”
They enter the building, heading towards their apartment, when they unexpectedly meet one of their neighbors, an elderly woman.” What an adorable young man.” She says cheerfully.” Hello, dear.” The woman greets them smiling.” We’re the Forgers, we just moved in today.” Twilight greets the woman back, it’s important to have a good relationship with your neighbors.” My name is Loid, it’s nice to meet you.” Loid presents himself to their neighbor which earns him a delighted chuckle from the elderly woman.” Such a polite boy.”
After the brief exchange the two of them retreat to their new temporary home. Twilight holds the door open for Loid, showing him inside the apartment. He starts looking around with a certain caution, letting his eyes slide over the clean surfaces, well taken care of plants and mostly untouched furniture. The fact that the apartment was brand new didn’t escape him, but he chose to not say anything, he was still trying to understand what this whole spy business was about.” You can turn on the TV if you want.” His new adoptive(but biological in the eyes of everyone but themselves) mother tells him as she sits tiredly on the couch. Loid listens, it’s not like there is much more to do in such a deeply impersonal space. Plus, he hasn’t seen a television in a while and he was curious to see what they put on air these days.
Twilight watches Loid as he settles on some bad horror movie and distinctly asks herself if she should let him watch something like that at such a young age, but ultimately decides to drop the issue for now. Now that she has a child she should secure all the things that they’ll need, including forged I.D. papers for the boy, that would legally prove that she is his biological mother. Eden Academy doesn’t publicly denounce adoption but they are the kind of people that don’t see with good eyes anything that strays from the traditional definition of family. Also they would think that it’s weird that she registered her son for Eden Academy not even a week after she adopted him, that would be suspicious.
Of course, the traditional views of Eden Academy demand that she should find a husband soon, but Twilight chooses to not dwell on the thought too much. She would much rather exclude the husband from the mission and plans to use the excuse of a dead husband to get herself out of it. A sob story about how her late husband, the father of her child, was her one and only and she could never replace him should do the trick, conservatives are really into monogamy and super not into women building their own lives.
“I’m stepping out for a bit.” Twilight heads for the door, heading towards the meeting point with the other Westalis agent.” Oh…?” Loid fumbles with his words a little bit.” Ok, I’ll just stay here, watching TV. Have a good trip.” Suddenly he sounds sad and hesitant. Anya almost wants to take him with her, but she pushes the thought back, he can’t go with her.” Alright. I’ll be back immediately, I’m just going to grab some groceries.”
The WISE agents deployed in Ostania are dwindling by day, all because of those SSS bastards, that damn political police is way too efficient. All this is creating her a lot of troubles, and it’s not only about the huge workload but also about this whole ridiculous mission. Just the fact that she has to find a civilian child and husband to get access into a private academy is ridiculous. If the SSS was not cracking down on them so hard then the Agency would have at least given her a husband. Twilight can’t complain too much, this is a war, it’s obvious that the circumstances are going to be unfair, her only consolation is that this one is not nearly as bad as the one that she had to deal with when she still had her first name. Yes, at least now she has the ability to do something, to influence the people that are raging these wars and to stop civilians from being caught in the middle of a conflict they don’t even understand.
The last few remaining agents in Ostania are veritable life saviors, even if they are not doing such big missions, like Operation Strix, they are still hiding resources, smuggling agents from Westalis, gathering information, making sure that the orders are given to the right people and, of course, getting documents for the new brat that Twilight has to somehow make into the striking image of ostanian perfectionism.
Suddenly Anya starts to panic. How can she raise this child? Not only raise him, but raise him to be good enough for her to get in contact with Briar? Loid doesn’t only need to be smart, but also to act in a way that would impress the staff at Eden Academy. So she has to model him in any way she can and obviously have a good relationship with him. If he ends up hating her and running away then everything will be in vain.
“You look like shit.” The familiar cheerful voice says. Twilight takes a moment to look around her and realizes that she has already arrived at her destination. In this dingy library, waiting for her behind the counter, is exactly the informational agent she was looking for.” Becky.” She says in a deadpan voice.” That’s kinda cold, what’s the deal with you?” She asks, completely amused by the situation. ”What’s…?” Twilight starts but stops herself when she realizes that she was almost screaming and approaches Becky, speaking in a lower tone.” What’s with me? Haven’t you heard what kind of mission I have?” She asks her exasperated.” I did, I did. I assume that you’re here because you’ve already found a kid?”
Twilight gives her all the details, from the sketchy orphanage and it’s location to a basic description of Loid so that Becky knows who to fake papers for.” How could I raise a child, Becky?” She whines, lamenting her situation.” That was not in the training.” Becky looks at her curiously while putting the documents in a brown envelope and handing them to her.” I have no idea, why don’t you try researching the issue.” Twilight stares at her quietly for a moment before taking out her wallet.” Give me everything you have on child raising.” Becky sighs and goes to grab the books. This is so like her.
When she arrives back home Loid is already passed out on the couch, the TV now showing a news channel. Anya turns it off and lifts the boy in her arms, hoping to not disturb him, and puts him to bed in the second bedroom. While Loid is sleeping peacefully she is closely reading the large number of parenting books that she got from Becky. After scouring a few of them she starts wondering if every parent in the world is really taking on such a difficult mission.” Try to stop behavior, rather than scold.”, “See things from the child’s perspective.”, “Try to keep in mind that children can find it difficult to verbalize their own feelings.”, “For the sake of their future, try to raise them with confidence.”. This is way too complicated. He’ll be returning to the orphanage when the mission is over anyway, that’s the full extent of their relationship.
The next day Anya bought a few notebooks and basic textbooks for first graders and placed them on the small table in the living room. Loid is watching another movie, from what Anya could see this one was about a puppet, well this is not so bad. Wait, did the puppet push that woman out the window? Ok, nevermind that. When he saw what she was doing he turned around, looking curiously at the objects splayed on the table.” It’s study time.” Says Anya, trying to sound excited, hoping that she would make him excited too, but his mood dropped abruptly.” Oh, come one, it’s not gonna be that bad. I just need to judge your academic abilities for the test.” She tries to rationalize.” I hate study time.” This is not just childish behavior, but Anya has no way of knowing that. Unlike other children, Loid was not associating study time with textbooks, ink-stained fingers or endless hours of staring at paper, but with unfriendly people dressed in white coats, looking at him from above and taking him in strange cold rooms with tall tables. He knows that what happened in those rooms was not studying, this is just what they were calling it, of course he knows that, but that’s not helping much.
“Just for a few minutes, ok? It’s not gonna be that bad.” Anya says sweetly and sits down beside him, trying to not put pressure on him. Loid sighs and accepts. He managed to pick up more information by listening to the woman’s thoughts. Apparently she is a spy from Westalis, and he has to get into this school or world peace will be in danger. Bad people will take power in the country, wars will start, people will die. He can’t let that happen. Someone has to stop it and at the moment Mother, or Anya, or Twilight, or whoever she is, is the only one that can, but for her to even get a chance to do it he has to study a lot. He still doesn’t know all the details, but he knows enough to know that he can’t run from this.
A couple hours later, Twilight is pleased to see that Loid has a pretty good grasp on basic calculations and spelling, he should be able to take Eden’s entrance exam with little effort. When that damn Handler will inevitably come and pester her, Twilight will proudly tell him that everything is going according to plan. Now that she thinks about it, she should see if Becky registered Loid for the entrance exam, she said that she would do it in her place in case Twilight needed more time to catch Loid up to speed academically.
“I’m heading out for a bit. Watch the house for an hour.” Anya tells him while grabbing her coat.” Alright, be careful.” Loid responds while turning back to the TV to catch the rest of his marathon, “My bloody Valentine” was next and he really wanted to see it.
Back at the library Becky looked just as amused with her situation as she was a day before.” So, how's the kid?” She asks while looking under the desk for something.” Pretty good? I think. Maybe?” Twilight stutters.” Well, it’s not terrible.” She settles on an answer.” That’s a start, let’s just hope that everything will go upwards from now on.” She drops a small envelope on the table.” I took care of the registration. Those are the questions. This should settle everything.” Twilight grabs the envelope and stuffs it into her coat excitedly.” What would I do without you Becky?” With this it will be impossible for Loid to fail the exam.” It was hard to get my hands on that, so use it well.” Becky reminds her, as if Twilight didn’t know that already.” Yeah, yeah. See ya later, I have some things to buy before I return” Twilight prepares to leave but Becky stops her.” Wait a moment. I found all the other records that the orphanage didn’t have. We have no birth certificate, also no records of his age or parents, it’s almost like this kid appeared out of nowhere.” It was easier for them to fake records for a kid that basically didn’t exist, but that didn’t make the situation less weird. Maybe he is the child of refugees from the war, a lot of records were destroyed during that time.” Loid Williams, Loid Levski, Loid Roche.” Twilight reads a series of names in Loid’s record.” Oh yeah, the only thing we know is that in the past year he went through four foster homes and two institutions.” That’s kinda sad. Both Twilight and Becky were familiar with this kind of situation, the war left a lot of kids alone in the world.” With all those different names, don’t you think that you make a good match? Like mother, like son.” Becky jokes, but this just earns her a scowl from Twilight.” I was joking.” She whines but the spy was already out the door.” She forgot her change.” Becky mumbles and pockets the bills.
Back at home Loid couldn’t concentrate on the movie. The curiosity was eating him alive. You see, Mother has a room where she locked up all her spy tools so that he can’t get his hands on them. But because he was a telepath of course he already knew the combination of the lock and now that door is the only thing he can think about. He needs to know what real spy tools look like. But there might be dangerous things there. Well, he will just not touch the dangerous stuff. Yeah, and afterwards he will put everything back exactly as it was, she surely won’t observe anything.
That being decided he jumps off the couch and opens the door. The small storage room is filled with boxes of all sizes and a few other objects. He picks up a suitcase and opens it, but quickly observes that it’s not a suitcase at all, it has a lot of buttons and even a set of headphones. A secret communicator maybe? He touches a button and a small beep could be heard. Loid quickly retracted his hand but pressed the button again and again, that was kind of fun.
In another part of the city a group of men were listening to radio frequencies when they heard a small signal.” Boss, we’re picking up a strange signal!” One of them announces their leader.” A western code?” Asks a well dressed older woman.” No, it’s plain text.” The man listens closely.” This… is… Twi… light…” He translates.” Twilight?!” Rages the woman, thinking of that bitch that foiled her plans only a few days earlier.” This frequency is used by the western organization! It might be real!” The man explains.” Hold on, there’s more: ‘Tag… you’re… it…” The man explains.” Trace the signal! Hurry!” Screams the woman.
Now that he had fun Loid realizes what he has just done. He just meddled with precious spy equipment. If Mother catches him, she will know that he can read minds, and he can’t, possibly, let her know that. Who knows what she might do to him. He might be locked up in a lab once more, or she might just leave him on the streets to fend for himself once again.” You can never talk about this power with anyone.”, this is what the researchers always told him. They were wrong about a lot of stuff, but he didn’t think that they were wrong about that.
The first thing that Anya observes when she opens the door is just how dark and quiet it is. The TV is not on and she can’t hear Loid’s voice. That was suspicious right off the bat, as it was way too early for the boy to sleep.
She had just a fraction of a second to avoid the pipe that was quickly heading for her face and to knock out the man that was hiding behind the door. Another one made his presence known, trying to kick her, but Twilight throws the bag of groceries at his face and quickly takes cover behind the dining table, right as he was taking out his gun. Before he could shoot it Twilight takes one of the chairs and hits him in the head with it, knocking him unconscious.” Who are these guys?” She asks herself before she remembers that she has a child in the house. She runs to his room but finds it empty. Did those people kidnap him? But why? She needs to find him.
Twilight stops for a moment, thinking closely at the situation. The enemy either already knows that she is a spy or discovered it somehow. Either way, she needs to go into hiding immediately or she’s in danger. As for Loid, there are plenty of other kids.
In an abandoned building a group of people were watching curiously a small boy that was tied up and put in an old shopping cart.” What’s with the brat?” Asks the older woman.” Don’t tell me he’s Twilight’s.” She asks her subordinates.” We don’t know, but he was in the apartment the transmission came from, so we grabbed him just in case.” Responds one of the men.” This is because of the transmission?!” Loid thinks horrified. How was that saying,” curiosity killed the cat?”, why didn’t he think about that before he opened the door?.” He might prove to be a valuable hostage. We’ll force Twilight to take the photos of the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ wig herself.” Decides the woman while giving him a bored look.” Boss…” Begins a younger man” Isn’t it about time we gave up on the wig?”. Without a word the older woman takes out a gun and shoots the man right in the face.” Honesty’s important in politics. Wigs are no good.” She declares.” Plus, the Minister’s secretly backing the west. That’s treason. And anyone who covers up for treason is committing treason too”. Loid watches with horror how the woman lights up a cigarette and then he truly understands, this is no joke, he’s going to die.
“Boss! Nguyen and the rest of the boys we left at the house are back.” Announces one of the men. A few moments later two men are coming up the stairs, carrying what looks to be a woman, tied up and with a bag over her head.” Good work.” The older woman tells them while watching the struggling body.” No amateur has moves like that! This guy’s the real deal!” Says one of the men, holding his hand over a wound on his neck. Loid turns towards him, his eyes shining with happiness and recognition.
“Now then, Twilight. How about you return those photos you stole?” Taunts the woman while removing the bag. But when they could see the face of the woman, the only thing they found was Nguyen himself, gagged, confused and angry.” What’s going on?! You were just…” One man turns around to face the one he thought to be Nguyen until a few moments ago, but he found no one.” The boy’s gone too!” Says another one, looking at the empty shopping cart.
In the distance the disguised Twilight was running with Loid in her arms. He was still scared and confused, but ultimately relieved to hear her familiar thoughts. Twilight is chastising herself for the risk that she has taken, strolling into enemy territory like that, how could she make such a rookie move? She is a disgrace of a spy. Hearing her distressed thoughts made Loid even more agitated, bringing him to tears as he clung to her neck.” Whoa?! It’s okay, I won’t hurt you!! No need to be scared!” She tries to reassure him. That’s why she hates kids.
In that moment she realized why she hates the sound of crying children so much, because it reminds her of herself, a long time ago. The powerlessness that she felt from crying and asking for help between the ruined buildings and the corpses that were lining the streets, the isolation and despair that she felt when no one reached out to her. She thought that everything was thrown away a long time ago, but it looks like the past has been tagging along this entire time.
No, that’s not important right now, she reminds herself.” Now look here, little boy.” She bends down beside him, writing a note.” Loid!” He corrects her.” Now look here, Loid.” This time she doesn’t ignore him.” We’re actually a team of pro tag players, and when we find someone with talent, we like to challenge ‘em to a surprise match.” Says Twilight, under the disguise of Nguyen. Loid knows that she is lying, but he is not showing it.” Now listen up. If you head straight down this road, turn right, and keep on walking, you’ll find a police station. If you can find a police officer there and hand them this, you win.” She explains and hands him the paper. When they see it, they should be able to find a better place for him. She’ll rework the plan and come up with a method that doesn’t involve a kid. Hearing this, Loid panics and tries to talk to her, but Twilight sends him away.
She scolds herself again.” Disgrace of a spy”? That’s rich, she’s a disgrace of a human being. Her first mistake was getting a kid involved in all this danger. How could she forget the reason she was doing all of this in the first place? To create a world where kids wouldn’t have to cry.
While she was thinking this, she ripped the mask off her face and, without her knowledge, Loid turned around. Seeing this, his eyes filled with admiration, so this was a spy.
Back at the criminals’ hideout they were still looking for Twilight. Luckily for them they wouldn’t have to search for long. One of them triggers a trap set up by Twilight beforehand, making flour fly all over the place. All of them are confused, trying to breath through the thick cloud of flour while attempting to understand what is happening. Before they could one of the men flew unconscious across the room, startling the rest of them.” Twilight?” Yells one man, raising the gun.” Put the gun away! You’ll cause an explosion!” Another one warns him, but before he could take the advice into consideration, he feels a presence behind him.” Did you think that I’d let small fries like you catch even a glimpse of my shadow?” Asks the strange woman before knocking him.
After the flour settles down, leaving the entire room in clear view once again, the only thing that the elderly woman could see were her men, fallen on the floor unconscious. Maybe she got in over her head, those westalian spies are more dangerous than she had initially thought. Before she could recollect her thoughts she feels the barrel of the gun on the back of her head.” Turn around and I’ll kill you.” Warns Twilight.” Twilight!” Growls the woman.” Hello Edna. Or should I say, good evening? How’s Kyle?” Asks Twilight, taking on the tone suited for polite conversation.” How do you know my son’s name?” Asks Edna, angrier this time, but obviously scared.” Of course I know it. I’m a spy. That’s my job.” She responds matter-of-factly.” I know everything about him. From his height, weight, shoe size, and favorite food, to how many moles he has on his body. And while compared to you he’s almost cute, he’s almost committed a number of crimes.” The woman interrupts her, offended.” Don’t be stupid! He wouldn’t…” This time Twilight interrupts her.” Edna, I also know just how much you care about him, so listen closely. If you want him to have anything close to a normal life, then don’t mess with me ever again.” Twilight threatens her.” If you understand, then get outta here.” She lets Edna go.
Twilight is walking to her apartment, she has to sell it. Now that Loid is gone, and she doesn’t have any intention to get any other kids implicated in this, she will have to get in touch with her Handler and convince him to talk to their superiors and change the plan. This is gonna be such a pain.
This is what she was planning to do, until she saw Loid, at the corner of the street next to the abandoned building, waiting for her.” Loid?” She asks, surprised.” Mother!” He runs at her and hugs her leg.” Why are you still…” She stops abruptly, remembering her cover.” I mean, what are you doing outside the house?” Twilight suddenly realizes how this situation looks.” Wow, I just happened to come down here for shopping, but it looks like it’s been boarded up, huh?” Loid laughs, Mother is such a liar.” I was playing tag with some old men.” He explains.” I see, did you have fun?” Anya asks, trying to act like she doesn’t know what happened. Loid fiddles with his hands a little bit before responding, “ It was kinda scary.” He hugs her again.” I wanna go home. Our home.” He tells her.
“ Is that… alright?” She asks, more to herself than anything else.” If you leave me I’m gonna cry.” He tells her and Anya remembers what Becky told her earlier that day. This child must have been so lonely for so long.” I see. Then let’s go home.” She pats his head.” But not to that home, it’s dangerous, so we’re moving. I found a venomous snake yesterday.”, “I hate snakes”, responds Loid in agreement. Mother is such a liar, he thinks, but she’s a cool liar, so he’s gonna forgive her for that.” Can we live in a big mansion?” he asks.” We’ll see what we find for sale.” Anya responds, almost convinced to get him a horror movie mansion against her better judgement.
A few days later, at Eden Academy, Anya is waiting outside, her nerves almost failing her. Inside the exam room Loid finds it harder than he thought. He believed that if there was something he didn’t know he could just read the thoughts of the other kids, but all he could hear was how terrified everyone was. It almost made him cry because of stress, but he thinks about all the work that Mother has done to help him prepare. He can do it, world peace depends on this after all.
On the day when the results are shown the two are searching anxiously for Loid’s code on the panel.” There it is! You passed!” Says Anya when she finds the number.” You did it!” She congratulates Loid, hugging him.” I did it!” Says Loid proudly. In that moment Twilight almost fell over, as soon as she relaxed all the fatigue caught up to her at once.” Mother?” Loid as worriedly. Wait, relaxed? Twilight thinks that something must be wrong with her.
When they arrive back home Anya collapses on the couch almost instantly, finally falling asleep after a hellish week and two missions back to back. Seeing her like that almost made Loid check for pulse, she must be really exhausted.
The doorbell rang, the sound of a man’s voice announcing” Delivery!” being heard immediately after. He opens the door, seeing the mailman” Is this the Forger residence?” He asks. ”Yes, I’m Loid Forger.” He responds. “ Could you give this to your mom or dad then?” The mailman hands him a letter. Loid takes the letter and thanks him before closing the door and running towards his mother. Seeing she is not waking up he slowly puts the letter on the table and stares at her for a few moments, fiddling with his fingers before deciding that he is thinking too much. Loid slides on the couch beside her, tucking himself gently under her arm, determined to take a nap.
He didn’t manage to get more than a few minutes because Twilight woke up scared” Are you after my life?” She yells before she realizes what is happening, chastising herself again for not being vigilant enough.” There’s a letter.” He tells her, grabbing the small envelope from where he left it earlier.” Mail? From Eden Academy?” She grabs the envelope and opens it to get to the letter. Anya starts reading expecting a basic congratulation on passing the written exam, but instead of that she feels the need to rip the letter.” What’s wrong, Mother?” Loid asks, seeing that she is distressed. Anya reads to him the contents of the letter,” Information on the secondary exam. The three person interview. The child must attend with both parents. No exceptions will be made.”
This mission has already hit a wall.