title: teamwork word count: ~1600 ships/characters: white, six, holiday, scarecrow summary: Being in a cage won't stop Scarecrow from messing with the team. ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51867424
It was impossible for him to be anything other than pissed off.
Rex was an emotional mess, Holiday didn't want to talk to anyone, and Six was pacing the halls of the base like he didn’t know what to do with himself. As if the three of them were confused by what had happened, they chose to isolate instead of take their struggles as an opportunity to come together as a team.
Knight took their reactions as another reminder that they weren't really soldiers, not like him. Six and Rex didn't know how to be on a team and Holiday held her grudges too closely. None of them knew how to truly push their own feelings aside and focus on the mission at-hand. At least this gave the three of them a nice reminder of why Knight was leading them.
The most surprising thing to happen in the days after capturing their invader was hearing Holiday suggest they kill him. White would never get sappy with her, but it was the first time he really felt like he understood her.
Six had been suggesting they kill him since day one. But Knight knew they needed to keep Scarecrow alive as a potential bargaining chip - or at the very least, he was someone they might be able to extract information from. Rex would've probably understood had he come back to base - he'd gone zero contact after leaving.
The entire team was as embarrassed as they should've been - the ease of which they were infiltrated all because of Rex’s stupid hormones was downright humiliating. White Knight prided himself on running a tight ship, but having a lovestruck teenager as part of the team made things a lot more difficult.
Dealing with their prisoner had proven to be a challenge. He was immensely satisfied with the work he'd done on Black Knight’s orders and didn't hold back on bragging about it.
He also loved to brag about the details of what he'd done, in an obvious attempt to make everyone uncomfortable with one another. Mostly it was just furthering the gap between Six and Holiday. In the past, Knight would've enjoyed seeing the two of them fall apart. But he needed his team to be a team.
One attempt at teamwork was alternating who had to bring their prisoner food. Six went first and ended up leaving the food on the floor right in front of Scarecrow’s prison - in plain view, out of reach.
It was very annoying to have to send the monkey in to make sure Scarecrow didn't starve.
“You can't let him get to you, Six. This is kid stuff,” White complained after watching what happened on their security feed.
“You saw what he did. I'm not rewarding him after a stunt like that,” Six answered coldly. “We should just take him out.”
Six’s hands stayed in his pockets and his facial expression showed complete calm, but Knight knew him well enough to know the man was irrationally angry.
It was somewhat understandable. He did see (and hear) what happened. Scarecrow turned into Holiday and started teasing Six - touching himself and moaning and being altogether inappropriate. It was unpleasant for Knight and no doubt uncomfortable for Six.
But Six and Holiday had let too much slip about their relationship situation (or lack thereof) and the consequences were hitting them like a freight train.
Holiday went down the next day, and Knight was pleasantly surprised that Scarecrow technically got his food. She threw it directly at his face and watched it drip down his weird, mutant skin - but it was still edible.
When she returned, he decided not to say anything to her. The fact that Scarecrow had done something to her while pretending to be Six was clear to everyone. Exactly what he'd done was still a bit of a mystery.
Listening to Scarecrow make comments to her about how he'd love to continue what they did before, how he’d be fine if she wanted to moan Six’s name, how he already knew what she looked like naked since he could turn into her…it only made Knight more concerned. Holiday’s emotional well-being would never be a priority for him, but if this thing really did assault her then maybe Knight could just let him starve after all.
He already didn't like Scarecrow. He already thought the freak deserved an electric chair. Listening to him talk to Dr. Holiday like that just encouraged him to let Six have his way.
On the third day, since Rex had yet to return, Knight decided to feed the prisoner himself. He'd been excluded from the emotional torment and didn't anticipate any issues coming up. He didn't want to be the person to have to feed this cretin for who-knows-how-long, but if Six and Holiday were incapable then it'd be between him and the monkey.
Scarecrow was smirking wide when he came into view, and Knight was sure the EVO had been trying his best to come up with some way to make their interaction uncomfortable.
“Hoo boy, the big man himself. To what do I owe this honor?” Scarecrow said sarcastically, bowing as much as his cage would allow.
White held up a tray. “Lunch.”
“You should have the Doc come bring me food again,” he said with the smirk still plastered on his face. “She's feisty. I love that in a woman.”
In less than a second, he'd transformed into Dr. Holiday once again. As with Six, the expression on the doctor’s face was sultry and radically out-of-character.
“I'll bet you'd love to get those big beefy arms around me,” Scarecrow said in Holiday’s voice. “Too bad you're stuck in that ugly, putrid suit!”
White simply rolled his eyes.
Scarecrow pouted at that reaction and then, after another moment, transformed into Six.
“Maybe I read you wrong…” Six’s voice said, once again in a deeply sultry and out-of-character tone. “Watching me follow around the sexy doc like a sick puppy…it must make you sick!” He laughed in a way that was distinctly not Six.
Again, White rolled his eyes. He took a step forward and placed the tray right into Scarecrow’s hands, not reacting as the EVO transformed back into himself.
The disappointment in his face made the asinine experience of talking to him almost worth it.
“Y'know what you've given me, Scarecrow?” White said as the EVO popped a french fry in his mouth.
“What's that?”
“Proof that Black Knight has absolutely nothing on me.” Knight smirked at the glare he received as a response. “If those were your only attempts to get under my skin, then you're working off crumbs. It's pathetic.”
Scarecrow stuffed a few more fries in his mouth and scoffed. “Whatever, old man. The only person I really wanted to torture was Rex, so who cares?” He shrugged as if the entire conversation meant nothing to him. “Where is he, anyway? You haven't sent him down to feed me yet.”
“That's none of your concern,” Knight answered quickly. turning to leave.
Scarecrow took note of the man's reaction and moved fast to continue his work. “Last I heard, you're an expert on torturing Rex. Got any tips for me when he gets back?”
White paused, standing in front of the door, hands at his sides. As much as he hated to admit it…that comment got to him a little.
He didn't regret how he treated Rex over the years. He was under immense pressure, with millions of lives at stake every single day. When Rex acted up or goofed off, people died, and Knight would do anything to protect human life.
But he did like Rex a lot more now than he used to. White still had pressures on him, but without a Consortium watching his every move, he was able to live a bit more freely. Which gave him a bit of perspective on what Rex was missing at Providence and why he was always defying orders.
Plus, well. He was a teenager.
It'd been a long time since White Knight was a teenager, and despite the respect for authority that his Air Force father imbued in him, he’d had his reckless years, too. So in the months of isolation from one very annoying teenager, he'd had plenty of time to remember what it was like to be young and restricted.
It sucked.
And if he'd had an authority figure treat him the way he'd treated Rex, he would've hated them, too. So White understood why Rex couldn't stand him most of the time. It didn’t matter, so long as they could work together.
As previously stated, he didn't regret anything. Not even the Noah situation.
But that didn't mean he liked to be reminded of how his actions looked from the outside.
Knight turned his head, giving Scarecrow a blurry view of his profile. “Your intel's a bit off there. Rex is the expert in torturing me.”
He left the room as Scarecrow started to say something else - deciding that he didn't really care anymore what the EVO had to say. Initially, they'd decided to keep him alive because they could get something out of him. But it was becoming more and more clear that Scarecrow wasn't worth jack to Providence.
The decision not to kill him wasn't easy. But it was the one moral grace they could have over Black Knight, and no one wanted to disappoint Rex further.
White Knight closed the door behind him and turned the security camera feed back on, wanting to be sure they were monitoring Scarecrow at all times. There was always a chance he'd try to contact Black Knight and White didn't plan on missing it.
With a sigh, he looked off in the direction of Rex’s room. The kid still wasn’t back, and the only person he was talking to was Bobo.
Scarecrow was good at his job, Knight had to give him that much. Their team had a lot of repairing to do.
