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Sage’s index finger trembles a little on the trigger of her Phantom. She can’t pinpoint the source of her ball of nerves. She’s always the calm one of the team, orbs out at the ready to slow enemies down or heal her teammates. Yet she feels a heavy chill settle on her shoulders as she rounds the bend to B Site, peeking a corner cautiously.
There’s nobody, but the relief that usually goes through her is conspicuously absent. Sage runs across the area, with Phoenix hot on her heels - literally, as he curves a fire wall behind them to stop the enemy from catching a lucky glimpse.
Halting momentarily to catch a breath, Phoenix gasps, winded, “Viper down. I saw her get sniped by someone from behind. It’s gonna get real hard without her smokes. God, I hate it here. Why can’t the enemy be dumber than us?”
“Concentrate, Phoenix,” Sage whispers irritably. She’s caught by surprise at her own snappiness. It’s not like her. Something about this one mission feels off.
She pulls out a slowing orb as she and Phoenix head down the stairs, thinking to catch the enemy in her trap. In a shoot-out, she’s hopeful that she’ll have the better aim.
A bullet whizzes past them.
Phoenix yelps so loudly the whole of Fracture should have crumbled beneath his voice. He darts behind Sage, whipping out his fireball and launching it front of them before Sage can react. It almost hits Sage instead of the ground, and she winces.
“Careful. Go slow, it’ll be fine. I’ll lead. You stay close to me and watch my back.”
Just as the words leave her lips, she hears the most minuscule sound ever, a clean whistling in the air instead of clunky bullets leaving their gun barrel. She’s confused for a second. Then Phoenix topples onto her, all six feet of him still clutching the Vandal in his arms, and she dodges the unconscious body just in time.
What hit him? Where did it come from, and why didn’t it sound like a normal round of bullets?
Sprinting inside the tunnels to her left, Sage heals herself - whatever it is had grazed her arm too - and tries to steady her erratic heart rate. She knew Operation Canyon was always going to be a hard one, but she didn’t expect this. They hadn’t seen a single enemy agent in the flesh. All of her teammates were shot from afar, the enemies disappearing into the shadows straight after.
Sage just knows, deep in her bones, that they have something to hide. Otherwise they wouldn’t be so covert about it. A certain voyeuristic desire to kill them off quickly and secretly, one by one, maybe.
She checks her teammates’ locations on the mini-map built into the side of her gun. A clever trick, designed by Cypher to let every agent carry intel at all times. A moment later she almost wishes she hadn’t checked. All of her teammates are incapacitated. She’s the sole survivor.
I’ll have to take this home for Valorant.
She grits her teeth and readies her gun as she ascends, and hears footsteps from the surface.
“Ah, Deadeye, let me take this last one too. C’mon, it’ll be more fun if I do it!”
It’s a girl’s voice, bubbly and energetic, slicing through Sage’s reverie. In theory, Sage should have reacted faster at the enemy’s slip-up. She should have thrown a slowing orb, or fired straight at the source of the voice. She should not have done what she did, which was, regrettably, gasp and freeze completely in her tracks.
To be fair, it isn’t completely on her.
Sage recognises this voice.
She would recognise this voice even in her dreams. She stays still, stunned, as she recalls this very voice cheering her on while she headshot target bot after target bot in the practice range, this voice pleading her to take a break after hours of Valorant paperwork, this voice murmuring sweet nothings in her ear while they drifted to sleep.
This voice -
Sage comes to her senses, falling over her feet as she pounds through the tunnel. Too late, she remembers. If the enemy is who she seems to be, then Sage’s exit is in vain.
True to form, a gust of strong wind envelops Sage’s form. A shadow dashes right in front of her, blocking her way.
“Found you!”
Jett - or a very convincing doppelganger of Jett - giggles in triumph as she stares straight into Sage’s eyes, a giddy smile on her face and five knives out at the ready.
—
Sage is dumbfounded.
She’s fighting Jett.
Jett, one of her fellow agents in Valorant. Jett the fearless duelist, the wind-wielder. Jett, also, the adorable airhead that constantly brings energy into their missions.
Jett, her girlfriend.
“What?” is the only thing that Sage manages to say, as she finds herself still alive and Jett giving her a cheeky once-over while admiring the blades floating in her hands. The rest of her pent-up thoughts and emotions spill out after a slight pause.
“What are you doing here? I thought we left you at headquarters because you wanted a rest! Why are you fighting for them? Did you get held hostage or something? Are you alright?”
Sage steps forward in concern, bringing out a healing orb as she notices a wound on Jett’s shoulder. To her astonishment, Jett scoffs and steps back gracefully, rolling her eyes.
“Wouldn’t work on me, idiot. It’s dumb how soft you are for my counterpart. That’s to my advantage, though.”
Jett flips out a small microphone on her sleeve - Sage can’t believe her eyes, she hasn’t seen this technology before - and speaks into it.
“Deadeye, tell the others to plant the spike and retreat. They’re all dead, and this one’s mine to play with. I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”
“Huh? What’s happening, Jett? Please talk to me,” Sage pleads, not following any of the conversation that’s taking place.
“My name isn’t Jett, for fuck’s sake stop calling me that. It’s Hawk. H-A-W-K, if you can’t even spell. You guys are the worst, I don’t know why I’m wasting my time on you.”
The whiny voice is Jett. The petulant tone is Jett. Everything about the girl in front of Sage screams Jett. Sage’s mind is a blur of confusion. Jett - Hawk, apparently - shakes her head in mock disappointment as she paces around Sage while twisting her blades in the air.
“So. I’ve got one minute of clearance, and one minute to decide how best to kill you slowly.”
The suddenly harsh line snaps Sage back into reality. This person who looks so much like the girl she loves is not who she seems to be. She is someone else.
“Aw, you scared?”
Jett-Hawk taunts, selecting one knife and inching closer to Sage. She inches closer, then drives the knife with full force into the wall behind Sage, a hair’s breadth away from Sage’s exposed neck.
Sage gulps in fear, trying not to let the terror and betrayal seep into her gaze. A Jett lookalike attacking her with cruel words and a literal knife is not ideal. Not ideal because it’s hurting her body while she attempts to dodge the direct stab, and hurting her heart as she meets Hawk’s steely eyes, black on blue.
Hawk leans into Sage, her hair brushing Sage’s cheek, and chuckles as she sees Sage flinch.
“Not so confident now are you? I’ll have you know you single-handedly killed three of our agents. Headshot one, too, and he’s out of commission for a while. You’re a menace to our missions, Thorne. Someone has to take you down before we run out of radianite. They said I was the best one to deal with you, and now I see why. Psychological weak spot much?”
“Thorne?”
Sage questions, conflicting feelings warring inside her with Hawk’s close proximity. She can smell a crisp scent not unlike Jett’s own, something airy like a sea breeze. Sage has to resort to chanting inside her head, she isn’t Jett she isn’t Jett she isn’t Jett -
“Oh, yeah, right, my bad, you guys have hella annoying alternate names. Sage, was it?”
“Look, Hawk,” Sage shakes her head derisively at the name, “I have no idea what you’ve done to my Jett, but if you’ve got her, and if your so called agents keep planting spikes, you’ll have hell to deal with sooner or later.”
Hawk doubles over in laughter.
“You’re so naive! So cute,” and Sage’s treacherous heart actually skips a beat at the compliment, “Your Jett, hmm, let’s see. Don’t know what we’ll do to her. Or maybe I’m her. Or maybe you’re hallucinating. See, you’ll never know! Probably going to hurt her one way or another though!”
Sage’s vision goes red at the thought of this Hawk hurting Jett, or anyone hurting any of her teammates for that matter. Fuelled with sudden inspiration, Sage adopts a facade of defiance and angles her chin at Hawk.
“You’re too immature for any sort of battlefield, agent. Just give up already.”
Hawk’s expression flares in anger, and she draws back, cocking her gun. Sage takes her chance as Hawk’s busy reloading, and flees to the end of the tunnel, immediately raising a wall behind her to trap Hawk in.
As Hawk’s bullets demolish the wall, Sage prepares to shoot.
But the Hawk that emerges from behind the wall is one with hands up, and no gun in her grasp. Sage pauses, hesitating, as Hawk scratches the back of her neck in a sheepish gesture - how Jett of her - and shrugs in seeming surrender.
“Hey, hang on, I’m sorry. Please don’t shoot, y’know I was just kidding. Come here and let’s just go home, alright Sage my love?”
The 180 switch leaves Sage perplexed, the pet name coming out of Hawk’s mouth so familiar yet so foreign. Sage blinks, affection for Jett rising in her chest. The nanosecond of uncertainty is just the right amount of time for Hawk to flash a wide, easy grin, and yell,
“Watch this!”
Sage knows this call.
It is her death sentence, as she sees the knives spin towards her and strike her in the chest.
—
Brimstone is the first, and only, one Sage confides in when she’s back. And even then, she falters in her words, tripping over them so much that Brimstone has to lay a steadying hand on her shoulder as she talks.
“This could be very compromising,” Brimstone muses as he enters the data into his computer, frowning. “Agents that are basically our alter egos - we’d have to do a lot of introspection to destroy their tactics. Not to mention you said they have the exact same abilities, yes?”
Sage nods mutely, biting her lip as she recalls the last strike Hawk had used on her. Jett’s ultimate ability, the Blade Storm. She breathes in, her chest aching as she thinks back on Jett’s - no, Hawk’s - warm invitation before it morphed into a smirking, I-know-I’ve-won stare. And even then it’s ostensibly Jett, Jett’s confidence when she goes in for the kill, Jett’s precision with bending the air to her will.
Brimstone must have seen the dejection on her face, because he pats her shoulder reassuringly, concern evident in his gentle tone as he speaks.
“Sage, don’t be hard on yourself. We never saw this coming. Now that we’ve fought one of them, at least, we’re going to be more well-equipped for future missions. I won’t let the others know until I’ve also discussed counter-traps with Cypher, so you can rest assured you won’t be bombarded with questions for a while.”
Little does Brimstone know what’s truly on her mind. It’s exhausting and humbling to fight a version of yourself. It’s devastating to fight a version of your teammates, more so a significant other.
“Who was it, anyway?” Brimstone squints at his notes, scrolling through them. “Tell me more about their attack style and how they used their abilities. Was it you against yourself?”
Right on cue, the one question Sage was dreading the most.
She tries to lift her gaze evenly to match Brimstone, feeling a hotness pricking at her eyes.
“No,” Sage begins, her voice cracking slightly. Pull it together. “It wasn’t myself.”
Brimstone is quick to catch on. Realisation dawns on him, and his features soften as he comprehends what Sage has had to go through, and is still grappling with in her mind.
“I’m very sorry, Sage.”
It is uncharacteristic of her, so uncharacteristic, but Sage is tired and pained and her body just collapses for her, folding into Brimstone’s startled arms as he catches her just in time.
—
“I can’t believe I just died on you like that!” Phoenix clutches his head in his hands and mock-screams. “I’ll get them next time. I swear. I’ll light them up like a firecracker.”
“Sure you will,” Sage returns, and snickers as Phoenix pretends to pout. “Fine, fine, you will. You’ll dominate Fracture. You’ll burn it up.”
“That’s the spirit!” Phoenix punches the air excitedly.
Shaking her head fondly at Phoenix’s antics, Sage shifts into a more comfortable position in her reclining chair. The medward is empty save for the two of them, as Brimstone’s taken everyone else to the offices for a debrief. He’s also expressly forbidden anyone from questioning Sage too much, to Sage’s immense relief. Brimstone knows her so well.
“Phoenix thank God you’re here what the hell happened on Fracture I need to know, like, now! Why isn’t Brim telling us anything? Where in the name of Valorant is Sage and is she okay?”
The barrage of anxious yelling from the door causes Sage’s relief to meet an untimely end. With Phoenix’s tall frame blocking the medward doorway, she thanks her lucky stars she can’t see Jett’s face. She doesn’t know how she’ll react, or whether she’ll break down. A well of pain opens up inside her. In her mind’s eye she replays the mission, Hawk’s pretense of Jett’s love for her.
Sage finds it very difficult to breathe. Phoenix throws a backward glance at her, and Sage mouths an emphatic No while crossing her arms in a covert X sign. Phoenix looks bewildered - he’s never known Sage to turn down any conversation with Jett before - but gives a confused nod and turns to Jett once again.
“Brim’s going to update us all soon, I think. I’m not sure about the details myself, honestly! I was busy getting attacked from everywhere, they were so aggressive.”
There’s a low thump, and then Phoenix doubles over in pain, clutching his midriff.
“Ow! Jett! I didn’t deserve that!” Phoenix wails.
“You’re avoiding the topic.” Jett’s voice states, a thread of impatience running through it. “Where’s Sage? I need to talk to her.”
“She’s - uh - in her room - or maybe in Brim’s office, or the range, I dunno -”
“Nice try. I checked all those places. Would you be a smart cookie and step aside, please? Otherwise I’ll have to enter my way.”
Despite her warning, Jett doesn’t really give Phoenix that much of a choice. Using her Tailwind (Sage would chastise her for misusing her abilities later), she skilfully dashes past Phoenix, skidding to a hasty stop in the middle of the medward.
Her eyes light up as Sage’s dim.
“Found you!” Jett singsongs.
—
Sage is jolted, thunderstruck, by the phrase. Found you, Hawk had also said. Not so confident now are you? Then after Sage had made a recovery, Let’s just go home, my love. Please don’t shoot, y’know I was just kidding.
Please don’t shoot. Please don’t shoot.
Sage can’t deal with the memory. It boxes her in, makes panic flow through her in waves. Barely managing to inhale ragged gasps of air, Sage gestures vaguely towards Jett’s direction, and the wind assassin immediately sees the severity of the situation. She rushes quickly to Sage’s bedside, immediately clasping one of Sage’s hands in her own.
“What happened? Where does it hurt? Shit, do you need anything? I’m not sure if you’re strong enough to use your healing orb right now but you should repair any damage, okay?”
Jett’s worry descends upon her, insistent.
Normally it would feel soothing to grasp Jett’s hand in hers, to haltingly relate the details of the mission to an attentive Jett, and listen to Jett praise her for a job well done.
Now, Sage realizes in dismay, the questions are suffocating. She just wants to lie down and forget every single second of her interaction with Hawk. She just wants to curl up someplace safe and erase everything she did wrong.
“Sage. Sage, love, did you hear me?”
Jett loosens her hand from Sage’s clutches and brings it up to cup Sage’s chin gently, turning Sage around to face her. Something inside Sage melts a little at Jett’s persistence, and her refusal to let the matter go, though she still darts away evasively from Jett’s probing gaze.
Vowing to protect Jett from the truth, then, is a decision that comes extremely easily to Sage. She knows that relating a blow-by-blow of how emotionally taxing it was to fight Hawk will not help with Jett’s distress towards her.
“I’m…alright, don’t worry,” Sage starts carefully, lowering her voice into a measured tone so that it won’t appear suspicious to Jett. She needs to come off as strong, able to bear the burdens of the team, able to conquer any obstacles that come her path. For that, she needs to drain herself of emotion. “I’m just exhausted from the mission. It’s been a while, and my training frankly wasn’t up to standard for this one. Fracture is so foreign, so unexplored that all of us were caught by surprise. We didn’t have time to rest and recuperate yet, so we’re on edge.”
Sage is almost proud of how easy it is to pass this off as post-mission weariness. Phoenix, propped up by the door, nods fervently, somehow agreeing with Sage’s lie. Granted, Sage has no idea how much he knows about her last face-off. He could very well just have no clue about what happened post-Hawk knife.
“See, Jett! She just needs a bit of breathing room. I told you she was fine. We’ll all be up on our feet in no time, I promise!”
Phoenix’s interjection helps. For once Sage is grateful for his obliviousness.
She glances up at Jett, forcing a smile and praying for a similar reaction so that she can avoid the object of her pain. Temporarily, at least.
“Cut the crap,” Jett sighs wearily, and Sage’s heart drops. “Sage, you really think that after two years of dating I still don’t know your facial cues? Phoenix, give us some privacy, will you? My girlfriend’s not telling me shit and I’m frustrated.”
“Jett-”
Sage objects in alarm - Jett has always been so direct with things, to the point where it might come off as hurtful - but Phoenix just casts Jett an amused look, the corners of his lips twitching, and waves goodbye to the pair as he leaves the medward.
“That’s cool with me, just remember to lower your voices during makeup sex, yeah? Killjoy and Brim are next door drawing up prototypes, and you wouldn’t wanna be caught by them of all people.”
“Fuck off now, Phoenix!” Jett hollers, her face taking on a bright red tinge, and Phoenix laughs as he disappears into the hallway.
—
“Now, as for you-”
Jett whips around, shrewd gaze scanning Sage from head to toe. She pauses in her tracks as she sees a glimmer of… something… in the corners of Sage’s eyes. A subtle shimmering as Sage’s expression dulls.
Shit, it can’t be.
“Hey. Hey, my love, please forgive me. I’m sorry for being too harsh on you. I’m just really worried,” Jett confesses, impulsively leaning forward and enfolding Sage into a hug. When she feels Sage tremble in her arms, she draws back, giving the healer some space.
“Is this okay? Or would you prefer just… this?” Jett offers Sage a hand to hold instead, and to her relief, Sage takes it.
The two sit in silence, hands entwined, for a while before Sage finds the courage to speak.
“I’m also sorry for earlier. I just didn’t want you to get even more agitated if I told you what happened at Fracture. It’s not exactly easy to begin recounting that particular mission, and I hope you understand that I’ll need a while to gather my thoughts.”
“Of course!”
The furrow in Jett’s brows vanishes as her thumb draws gentle circles in Sage’s outstretched palm. A frisson of warmth surges into Sage’s chest as she traces the movement of Jett’s fingers.
“I’m happy for you to take all the time you need. Just don’t lie to me, y’know I’m too smart to fall for it.”
Refusing to take the bait, Sage smirks instead.
“Yes, you are. My smart little wind baby.”
“I- stop it!” Jett’s cheeks are inflamed with her embarrassment, until she notices Sage’s smile. “Aw, is that a smile I see? That’s more like it! I’m glad I’m able to cheer you up at least a little.”
Sage tries to stop her smile from growing and fails miserably. It’s interesting how Jett makes her feel protected, which is saying something since she’s supposed to be the healer out of the two. Coming home to Jett is like a ship anchoring to shore, knowing exactly where it will arrive.
So Sage motions for Jett to take her other hand, and as they face each other, Sage spills the truth bit by bit. It doesn’t come out smoothly at all. It leaks out in fragments. Recounting her and Phoenix’s valiant fight isn’t too hard, but when it gets to Sage meeting Hawk and halting in her tracks, she pauses, frantically fishing for the right words.
“Look,” Jett starts slowly, giving Sage a searching gaze, “I can tell that there’s something wrong about this mission, and I can almost hear your internal struggle. It’s the whole, like, Can Jett take this or will she explode into pieces when she hears it? thought process that you used to go through when we first started dating. Or it’s something along the lines of, Let’s not hurt Jett because I can take the burden alone, I’ll protect her dumb ass. Newsflash, babe, none of these are legit. I won’t be angry, or annoyed, and I definitely won’t feel like you’re unloading your shit onto me. What’s a girlfriend for if not to trauma dump on, anyway?”
“That… is not the right attitude, Jett, that’s a toxic mindset,” Sage replies in consternation, but trails off when Jett dissolves into a fit of laughter.
“I’m just kidding! God, you should have seen the look on your face. It’s so cute when you get all serious on me! I meant that you don’t have to shield me or face your demons on your own. I’m here for you.”
I’m here for you.
It’s a simple phrase. It shouldn’t have affected Sage so much.
Yet it does.
Sage feels the tears well up in the corners of her eyes, gratitude and love for Jett rising inside her. Blinking, she tries to force them down.
“I have shoulders for a reason, Sage. Come cry here instead of trying to bottle it up.”
For once, Sage takes Jett’s offer and curls up in Jett’s embrace.
In a broken voice, Sage confides in Jett about the Hawk encounter. How astonished she was initially, how she thought it was actually Jett getting coerced to fight for the enemy. How she was weak, so weak in front of Hawk, unable to even pull a simple trigger because she looked and sounded exactly like Jett. How Hawk had the exact abilities that Jett has, and how Sage got mercilessly knifed by her ultimate.
How Hawk tried to condition her to see Jett as hostile, and how she fooled Sage by playing the part of the innocent girlfriend begging for mercy.
“Fuuuuuuck,” Jett exhales after Sage is finally done, eyes wide and horrified. “Fucking hell.”
“I love you but is swearing all you know how to do? Some sympathy would be kind of nice right now.”
“Okay, okay!” Holding up her hands in surrender, Jett takes in a deep breath. “This is just huge to me, so I’m taking a while to process it. What you’re saying is that there’s a me out there who’s cruel and manipulative and stole my sexy knife abilities from me? Jeez.”
“I mean, I’m not sure what their motives are,” Sage muses, “but it’s undeniable that Hawk is a copy of you. I heard her call her fellow agent Deadeye. He might mirror another one of us.”
“Ugh, they’re trying to make their names sound edgy. Uncool. Yeah, I can see how that must have been stressful for you. I don’t want you to go through that again, but I’d say it’s inevitable we fight against them on future missions.”
“I’m not sure how I’ll tackle that. I’m mad at myself for not being able to beat Hawk.”
“I don’t think anyone knows how to deal with mirror agents at this stage. Besides, nobody can blame you for being such a simp that you can’t shoot anything that looks remotely like me.”
“Shut up!” Sage punches Jett in the arm for the unsolicited comment.
“C’mon, you know it’s the truth! You like me too much. But as I was saying, until then, we can work on getting to know ourselves and each other better, so that we can topple their evil plans, okay? And I’ll be with you on at least the next few missions. I know you’re beating yourself up right now but I think you’ve got nothing to be guilty over. You did your best. You gave it your all, and nobody can blame you for not trying. I’m proud of you.”
“Thank you so much, my love,” Sage’s voice is choked up with emotion.
Jett drops a butterfly kiss on Sage’s temple, making Sage absolutely fuzzy with happiness, then moves to capture Sage’s lips. Reaching up, Jett's hand tenderly brushes away a few strands of hair on Sage's cheeks. Sage sighs into the kiss, idly nibbling on Jett’s bottom lip, and Jett gives her entrance. Sage tastes of mint and berries, and Jett knows she could get drunk on her scent all day, so she breathes out in between hungry kisses,
“In case this wasn’t obvious enough, this is me saying you’re very welcome, and I love you too.”
“Mmm, I don’t think it’s clear to me. You’ll have to keep showing me what you mean, my Jett.”
“Are we on track to prove Phoenix right, then?”
“Huh?” Sage is too dazed to think, her attention focused on the way Jett’s heated kisses have moved to the nape of her neck, trailing down to her collarbone.
“His comment about makeup sex, you forgot already?”
The smirk is audible in Jett’s voice, but Sage still yelps and pushes Jett away, grabbing her wrist and tugging her through the doors.
“Not in the medward we’re not, you pervert!”
“Oh, I’m a pervert now? I thought I was my love, my Jett, my little wind baby-”
As their bickering voices trail off into the distance, Phoenix and Yoru peek into the medward, Phoenix clenching his fist in pretend annoyance.
“Pay up, chump,” Yoru announces smugly, hand extended.
“I thought I was gonna win with the way they were going at it! At this rate I’m losing my life savings to you, I swear.” Phoenix complains glumly as he tosses some chips into Yoru’s palm.
—
Valorant’s compound is quiet at night, save for the low murmurs coming from two lovers snuggled up into each other.
“Sage, promise me one thing.”
“Hmm, what?”
Sage’s answer is bleary, muted, teetering on the precipice between sleep and waking.
“Promise me you’ll be proud of yourself no matter how you do in your missions.”
“Eh, I can’t say I’ll always be.”
There’s the sound of a scuffle, and a screech which is muffled shortly after.
“Promise me or I’ll tickle you until you say yes.”
“N-Yes! Yes, I’m going to give myself some credit! Please stop it or I’m going to- ah! You just kneed me in the stomach! You’ll pay for this one, I swear!”
Their laughter travels up through the rafters, rousing someone in the adjacent room.
“Dumb kids. Can’t even get a sound night’s sleep,” Cypher grouses, and burrows deeper into the covers.