Chapter Text
You lived a simple life. Office job. Come home to your husband- who knew you better than anyone else, Caleb. You’d met him during childhood and the two of you had been inseparable ever since.
Atleast that’s what it looked like on the surface.
You see, your office job.. wasn’t truly an office job. Sure it had the front and if anyone came into the facility it’d look like it, but in all honesty you worked for the hunters association. A heroine group working to end the monopolies that surrounded the protocore market. The ones that were in favor of human experimentation. Your double life, was only known by you and your employers. Caleb had no idea that everyday your boring “office work” was fighting on a battlefield, taking down wanderer after wanderer and chasing any leads you could grab onto, the most recent involving a group called EVER.
EVER was at the heart of illegal experiments on anyone and anything. Sure, you had no way to prove it, but that’s what your current mission was. Take them down. Keep it away from the public eye. Because to the public, EVER was just a scientific group. But to the classified works of the Hunters association, they were at the top of that watch list.
However, this mission was personal to you. You knew for a fact that EVER experimented on humans, because you yourself were a test subject. Your heart had an Aether core inside of it. Thanks to the hunters association, EVER could not find you, and just thought that their test subject died. So, you, more than any of your colleagues, wanted to see EVER fall.
Your identity remained concealed for your double life, thanks to small fragments of a protocore inside the masks you and your colleagues wore. However, they acted as a circuit. If one failed, all of your masks would - the illusion would fall and the human brain would be able to recognize you.
At first the investigation went smoothly. Follow leads. Catch EVER off guard. But when they realized the association was onto them, they started deploying soldiers to stop you and your colleagues when you got too close to stopping them.
You were hot on the groups heels. You had them practically cornered on a rooftop, they were smuggling multiple protocores inside of a vault, and you had been tailing them for about 20 minutes when the soldiers appeared - 3 of them.. really? That’s all EVER sent? Sure, 3 on 1 seemed like a guaranteed victory - but you were no ordinary hunter. You couldn’t make out the soldiers faces, most likely due to a trick of EVERS, possibly the same one the association used to hide your identity. When the soldiers appeared in front of you, weapons drawn, you pinged your location to your colleagues, letting them know where the vault went whilst you dealt with the soldiers.
You dodged their attacks with trained efficiency, ducking into an alleyway below, successfully tricking them and getting them off your heels whilst avoiding getting yourself hurt.
“It might not be long until they turn back this way.” you thought to yourself as you opened the notifications on your hunters watch to see.. your colleagues successfully managed to flank EVER and successfully secure the vault of protocores. You were ordered to head back to the association, and a small countdown began before your mask and armored attire fell, seeing that the mission was over, now you and your colleagues just looked like your civilian selves. The hunters watch now appeared as if were an everyday run of the mill watch rather than being a device used for communication on a battlefield.
You checked the time on your “watch” as you walked out of the alleyway and began to walk back to the “office”. 3:15 PM. Caleb would be home in twenty minutes, so you needed to give your statement on exactly what happened today and get home successfully without being suspicious. You wanted to tell him the truth so bad. You hated keeping secrets from him, but until at the very least the hunters association managed to take down EVER, you had to keep going.
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You arrived home and creaked the door open gently, it giving a loud creak as you stepped inside your living room. It’s was 3:50, your report back to Captain Jenna taking longer than you intended it to due to the sudden appearance of the soldiers, and the discussion of new safety precautions due to them.
“Caleb..? You home love?” You called gently, stepping further into the living room as you closed the front door behind you.
You were about to start looking for him, when you felt a pair of arms around your waist, accompanied with a “BOO!”
You turned, thankful it was your husband ambushing you and not an enemy. Your paranoia with EVER tracking you down grew day by day, but you tried your best to ignore it.
“Caaalebbbb! You can’t just spook me like that!!” You taunted, turning around to face him directly.
“Hmmm…who’s gonna stop me?” He joked back, giving him that look he always gave you when he knew he’d won. dark hair lightly disheveled as his deep purple eyes bore into yours playfully. “You’re usually home before I am-“ he poked your nose “work hold you up?”
“Yea..” you sighed. “Tony got caught slacking off on the job again and boss forced us all to stay back for a group lecture.” The lie fell off of your lips with rehearsed ease. You truly hated lying to him. He knew you better than anyone else did, so you had to lie awake at night rehearsing your excuses in case he got suspicious. The act grew easier and easier to put on day by day but the guilt from lying to him multiplied. What if one day you went off on a mission and didn’t come back? He’d think you’d abandoned him..he didn’t deserve that pain, he deserved honesty. He deserved the right to worry, but you weren’t able to give it to him.
“Yikes. That sounds stressful.. you’re stronger than me. I would’ve chewed out Tony for being the reason you guys were kept behind.” He sighed, looking at you adoringly as he gently placed a hand on your back.
“Caleb.. you fly planes for a living and your calling office work stressful?” You chuckled
“Uh yea!” He blurted “You actually have to deal with people! I don’t. Planes can’t exactly cause workplace drama.. planes can’t speak..last I checked at least.” He added, rubbing his chin in mock thoughtfulness.
You laughed and broke away from him, stepping back slightly to look at him.. truly look at him. Worried you’ll forget the details of his face if you focus on anything else too hard. No matter how bad missions were, Caleb always managed to lighten the stress on you with his presence alone. You could relax around him, and he could relax around you. You wouldn’t let anything take him from you.. even if it meant keeping secrets in your vain attempts to protect him from having to worry about you.
“You’re such a smartass.” You said playfully as you reached up and cupped his face with both your hands.
“I’m your smartass.” He added , placing his hand over one of yours where it cupped his cheek, gently pressing a kiss to your palm.
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The next day, you walked into the association and you could feel the tension. As if everyone was walking on tightropes that threatened to snap at any second. You tried to ignore the irrational panic in your gut. Today felt off. Felt wrong. You try your best to push down the feeling, focusing on your work reports when Captain Jenna walks out of her office and calls you and your team to the center of the room.
Captain Jenna placed both her hands on the table on front of her as projection of today’s mission outline appeared behind her. You, Tara, Xavier, and a few other colleagues were going on an undercover mission to investigate an alleged protocore deal. EVER was allegedly trading information about their experiments for protocores, having been in a lack of them due to you and your team intercepting the ones they were smuggling yesterday. If you could get your hands on those documents.. you could prove the experiments were happening. Finally get the clearance to just burn every single one of those EVER motherfuckers to the ground like they deserved.
Your mission outline was to watch the EVER associates as close as you could, get your hands on the briefcase containing the documents, and report back to base. Avoid detection as EVER was upgrading its security. Now, the official who was transporting the briefcase was being guarded by multiple soldiers, probably more than just what Captain Jenna saw. So you and your team were to stay on high alert, because even though Jenna didn’t doubt you or anyone else in your team, she also didn’t want to put the lives of her workers- and friends in danger because of potentially being outnumbered. If you were spotted she ordered you to retreat immediately, avoiding combat unless you absolutely had to.
You and your team geared up using your hunters watches, loaded your guns just in case and began to mentally prepare yourself for whatever hell EVER had in store for you.
You and your team had been following them for a bit, through a wooded seculded area where the deal would appearently be taking place. You were partially thankful for the thick trees surrounding you- it made it easier to sneak around without getting caught, as long as you were careful and didn’t step on any twigs that is.
You and the rest of your team snapped your heads up when you heard the soft click of a briefcase being opened. You braced your back against a tree as you slowly counted down with you fingers… ambush on 1…2….3..!
You turned and aimed at the two figures exchanging the briefcase, but you found that all of a sudden .. you couldn’t move at all. Like gravity itself was weighing down on you. You glance at your teammates. They were in the same boat.
“Colonel? What’s going on?” One of the businessmen asked.
“Nothing important.” A deep voice spoke from the shadows
“It seems a few hunters slipped past our security.” The man stepped out of the shadows, he was larger than the other soldiers, and by the looks of his uniform more important. He moved with slow measured steps towards you and your teammates, more specifically Tara, and reached for her mask.
“It’s over. Once her mask goes down the rest of ours will.” You thought to yourself - but the images flashing in your mind stopped you from giving up. The images of your teammates dead. The images of those damned experiments that killed and revived you over and over. You couldn’t let anyone else experience that pain. No one deserves that.
You forced your evol to activate despite your hearts complaints, voiced by the sharp chest pain you felt as you resonated with the Aether core in your heart in order to boost your strength - over powering the grip that the gravity evol had on you.
You lifted your gun, shooting two bullets into the colonels shoulder, catching him off guard. He stumbled back, placing his hand over the wound on instinct.
By now, the evidence was gone and the business men for EVER had run off with the fear of being caught. However to you right now, that didn’t matter. You had to protect your teammates, your friends, your colleagues, because sure it was a good opportunity, but more opportunities would appear. You couldn’t bring back the dead.
Due to the colonel stumbling back, his evol diverted into catching him rather than holding your teammates in place. All of you immediately took the opportunity and began to run as fast as you could. You heard the sound of multiple footsteps picking up behind you and the colonel shouting at his soldiers to not let the hunters get away. You pushed as much as you could, ignored the persistent pain in your chest- all that mattered was getting to safety. Getting them to safety.
With a few more turns, you and your team successfully lost the fleet of soldiers that had been chasing you. Finally, you allowed yourself to collapse. The air in your lungs labored and metallic, the pain in your chest unbearable… and then your vision blurred and went black. The last thing you saw being the face of your best friend Tara, who had immediately ran to your side.
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When you woke up, you found yourself in the hunter’s association’s infirmary. You forced yourself to sit up, ignoring the persistent migraine that suddenly plagued you. You brought your hand to your chest, surprised that the vast majority of the pain had subsided…just how long had you been resting? You looked down, to see yourself in your civilian form. The mission must be long over..
You quietly exited the infirmary, grabbed your belongings, and exited the empty “office”. When you stepped outside, greeted by the cold night air- you found that hours had passed. Caleb must be worried sick! You tried your best to at least attempt at running home. You felt terrible. And the worst spouse of the year award goes to….
When you approached your house, you were surprised to find no lights were on at all. You could picture it now. You walk in, Caleb slow turns toward you dramatically in an over the top swivel chair with a “Where the hell have you been pipsqueak?” Using that same fuckass nickname from childhood despite the serious situation. There was no plausible excuse for this one! You’d just have to look your darling husband dead in the eye and go: “Oh yea Yknow how I work at an office? Sike! I’ve been lying for years and am secretly putting my life on the line everyday - went too far to protect my colleagues and passed out!” The thought of his hurt face after you confessed to lying to him made you want to crawl out of your own skin.
You took a deep breath, turned the front door handle with a squeak and…
Nothing.
No ambush.
No over the top swivel chair.
You hesitantly step in the living room, switching on the overhead light as you do..
Nothing. Is Caleb even home? His shoes weren’t by the door. His keys weren’t on the rack.
“Caleb? Caleb baby are you home?” You called to no avail. You set down your belongings on the couch and took off your shoes as you went to go explore the house further. He wasn’t home. You lucked out. You wouldn’t need to confess your double life to him because he was nowhere to be seen. Everything was exactly as you left it when you left for work this morning.
You looked up at the time on the clock. 7 PM. Where is he? Is he hurt? Did something happen with his plane? You started pacing back and forth around the living room. The thought of him hurt or even dead was enough to send you spiraling. Your breathing became labored as you desperately tried to cling to reality. The reality that he’s just late coming home. “He’s probably fine..” You kept repeating to yourself as you walked from the living room to the kitchen, hovering near the sink as you splashed your face with cold water.
Breathing as deep as you could manage as you tried your best to distract yourself, to tell yourself you were overreacting, if anything him coming home late was a good thing! He wouldn’t find out about your double life now! And now.. feeling the way you do? Worried sick he’s dead just because he’s home late? You couldn’t torture Caleb like that. You needed to protect him from feeling the way you do now. He loves you just as much as you do him. He’d spiral like you are if you were even 30 minutes home late. Hell, he’d check the news and drive to the battlefield himself if he thought you needed help. He’d do anything to protect you.. so you couldn’t tell him. You would never be able to. And it’s better this way.
You dried your face off, made your way to you and Caleb’s shared bedroom, and changed into one of his oversized shirts and a pair of shorts. His scent still clung to it, and even the illusion of him being here was better than nothing.
You sank into bed, though you knew you probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight. You reloaded the messages between you and Caleb frantically on your phone. No new texts. You placed your phone on ring, full volume, laying it on your dresser directly next to your side of the bed - that way if he called or texted you’d hear it immediately. You tossed and turned restlessly under the covers, reaching up and grabbing Caleb’s pillow for more sense of comfort.. if you closed your eyes and imagined hard enough- you could let yourself believe it was him. Was it delusional? Absolutely. But it was the only way you’d get any form of shut eye tonight.
It was one in the morning when Caleb finally made it home. You felt the bed shift and the familiar sound of his dog tags clinking as he lay down next to you, wrapping his arms around your waist and burying his face in the crook of your neck, breathing you in shakily.
“Mmm.. Caleb..?” You muttered, half asleep begging the universe itself that you weren’t dreaming this.
“Hey pipsqueak.” He replied back with a sigh.
“Long day?” You knew work stressed him, but you most definitely didn’t wanna pry about it if he didn’t feel like opening up.
“Yea..” he breathed, finally letting himself relax. “But all that matters… is that I got back to you.”
Silence stretched between the two of you for a minute, the house finally feeling right now that he was back in it.
“Pips..” he muttered
“Yes honey?”
“Would you still love me.. even if I did something… unforgivable?” He breathed, body going rigid again.
“Caleb, baby, I know you.. even if you did something terrible, you’d have a damn good reason for it. You can tell me anything as long as you’re comfortable to share it with me..you know that right?
“Yea. I do.” You heard him mutter as you finally slipped into comfortable, warm, cozy sleep.