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And there she went.
After just 339 days with Valorant Protocol, Fade disappeared. She helped where she could, and once she had gathered enough information from Cypher and Killjoy to aide her personal endeavors, she took off.
Viper sat in her office as she stared at the mission schedule. More specifically, she stared at where Fade’s name just stopped reappearing. She then scrolled back through the missions in the past eleven months. Some missions more notable than others.
Like the undercover mission her and Fade executed in the busy streets of Istanbul. Fade had mentioned in passing an old bakery she used to frequent as a child. Said they had the best almond croissants. Viper had tried to squeeze it into their route- “we should get some coffee and breakfast at that bakery. It’ll help us fit in.” That was her excuse, but their target had different plans.
Or that mission where her and Fade had gotten separated from the others, and they only had each other. With their communication signal jammed and enemies oncoming from every angle, all they could do was trust one another and push through until they made it back to exfil or help arrived.
And all the other missions where her gaze would linger on Fade for just a moment longer than it should. The way how she held her gun, controlled her radiance- the raw confidence that rolled off the dream seer with ease just did something to Viper.
Viper had completed hundreds of missions, shot thousands of rounds, but the most notable ones were always with Fade.
The woman was still fresh in her mind from the way her lips would upturn slightly whenever her plan worked out to her laugh and smile she saw so rarely.
And she started to wonder… when would Fade, fade?
Sabine had lost those close to her when she was young, but this was a first. A loss where she could fully grasp forever and never. This one was also… predictable. She could count down to the exact minute when the air changed from maybe to never.
Valorant Protocol would return back to how it was before the initiator, as if nothing ever changed. Yet all Sabine could think about was her last “good morning”, her last smile, her last words.
It hadn’t fully hit her just yet. The goodbye was relatively painless. Viper kept busy and didn’t break until she was in the confines of her own room. But even then, she rushed back into her busy schedule not even five minutes later. It was only a matter of time before reality dug deep into her bones to shake her, screaming “she’s never coming back.”
And when that moment comes, the memories will come crashing in before they start to fall one by one.
Sabine wonders, which will fall first?
Will it be her eyes? The way how Hazal’s gaze would catch hers for a brief moment and just momentarily, Viper thought that just maybe there was something there? Or would it be her voice? Her laugh? Viper wanted to commit it to heart. The rare sound of pure joy from Fade- so few and far between. Or maybe her henna? She had always wanted to compliment the designs, but she never found the words.
Or… would be something more factual? Like her birthday or her hometown? Or maybe even the way she likes her pizza or her favorite drink? Hazal probably didn’t know it, but Sabine stored these small pieces of the initiator in the back of her mind in hopes that maybe one day, she could use them to show her appreciation.
Would she forget their memories together? All of the early mornings when all the other agents hadn’t woken up. All of the trainings and stolen glances as they crossed paths in their busy schedules.
How about her first words to her? Or her last?
How long would it take for Sabine to pass by locker 20 in the range without thinking twice? How long until she could hear her name again without hundreds of memories flooding through her mind? How long until until she saw an almond croissant as just that? A flaky, buttery pastry with no name or memory attached to it.
Sabine knew. Time blurred memories. Time erased facts. And the lack of contact or updates created a bittersweet catalyst that cannot be reversed.
And now Sabine sat in her office, staring at the mission schedule with the push and pull of time. She wanted to stop it in its tracks, and she wanted to fast forward until the memories became dust.
But all she could do was sit in the present and listen to the consistent tick, tick, tick, of the wall clock seal her fate.