AN: Ok. I lied. I was going to shoot off some fireworks, but it suddenly started raining harder than it’s rained in the past several months, so…
— — —
I dropped an energy cell, and snapped a new one back in with bloodied hands. I didn’t wait a moment before firing into the remnants of the horde. Between the explosive Awoken and continuous fire, the swarm was breaking against us. It was a good thing, because I completely ran out of AR ammo not too long ago.
My finger twitched on the trigger, and a burst slammed into a calamity's head. It collapsed, and for the first time in a long time, the battlefield finally went still. Amanda dropped her pistol, and weakly leaned against the only remaining hummer. “That everything?”
My ears twitched forward. Outside of the creaking forest and crackling fire from the several husks of vehicles, the clearing was silent. I dropped my rifle, and plucked a quill out of my lower arm. “Sir?”
Heron’s head tilted to the side slightly, though the man didn’t turn from the absolute slaughter laid out before us for even a moment. “Stay wary.”
”Roger.” My eyes snapped across the brightly lit space. Everywhere I looked was a corpse—either one of the calamities or human. The stench of the place was overwhelming, and heat radiated up off the blood-soaked ground.
We stayed on guard for the next half hour, and executed stragglers that tried to pull off ambushes by blending in with the dead. For the time being, the swarm seemed to be well and truly done. There was no telling how many more lurked in the dark, though. Not without sending a scout forward.
Voices came from behind us, and a few minutes later, the group that went into the downed ship returned. Bartmoss led the group, and looked particularly pissed off. His eyes held pure malice. Haman also looked annoyed, and Steelheart was nowhere to be seen.
“Did you find the communicator, commander?” Heron asked. His voice was partially stilted. The hesitation was the most emotion I’d heard from any of the three.
“Negative. He destroyed it.” Bartmoss looked past him toward the fields of slaughter, and silently arched a brow.
“What the hell happened out here?” Haman sighed, and rubbed his hand in his head. “What a disaster.”
Amanda shifted her grip on the stump of her arm. ”Sir! We were attacked—“
“I can see that.” Haman cut her off. His eyes slowly settled on the lone remaining hummer. “Barghest.”
”Sir?” My ears perked up as far as they could go under the helmet, and my tail stilled from where it’d been whipping in irritation.
“Handicaps will be more trouble than they’re worth.” He nodded toward Amanda. “Take care of her.”
”S-sir?” Amanda’s eyes widened like a doe caught in headlights. “A-after everything I’ve done for the syndicate?”
”I don’t even know who you are.” Haman crossed his arms in front of his chest. He squinted as if that might help, but otherwise remained completely impassive. The way he spoke almost had a bureaucratic note to it.
“I—!” Amanda took a step back, and stumped over a discarded power cell. She slammed into the ground hard, and landed on her one good arm. The bloody stump started to leak once more. “I trained you! Y-you can’t just kill me!”
I stayed still, and dropped my hand onto my axe. Instead of making my move, I looked back toward the Overseer. “…?”
He waved a hand, and turned away from me back toward Lord Bartmoss. He called over his shoulder, “even if we kept her alive, she’d bleed out long before she could get medical treatment.”
”…” My boots stayed rooted in the mud. The substance felt particularly thick.
“Barghest.” Overseer Haman’s voice had a touch of admonishment in it, like a man chiding a disobedient puppy.
“Yes, sir.” I pulled out my axe, and approached the desperately crawling away woman. My heart felt oddly heavy in my chest for some reason.
For a moment, I was tempted to inflict every lick of pain she’d traced into my body back in the kennel. I wanted her to suffer. I could start with her remaining limbs. After that, I could slowly peel everything away until I ripped her still beating heart out of her chest.
The apathetic eyes watching me move killed any desire I had to give out that kind of torment. It wouldn’t change anything. What’s done was done. Amanda was just a lone individual in an organization full of individuals. ‘Sides, he was right. It was a mercy killing, and one far better than she deserved.
“B-Barghest!” She flipped over to face me, and pushed away with her legs like it’d delay me. “Think of all the good times we had! Those were the happiest moments of my life.”
Oh? For the first time since I’d seen her, I felt a hint of pure pity well up. It was an untarnished, and pure emotion that made my tail lower in bitterness. To have the happiest moments of your life built upon the suffering of others…
”R-right! I’ll give it back. I’ll give it all back! J-just let me go! Let me go, and I’ll make it back—“ Her words abruptly cut off as I stepped on her leg and pinned her down beneath me. Bone cracked, and a scream erupted.
I bent forward before she could even register what was happening, and slammed my axe through her neck. The golden glowing axe-head hissed with burning blood, and her voice cut out entirely. Her head hit the ground a moment before the rest of her body.
I pulled back, and slowly wiped the head off on her pant leg. My eyes couldn't leave her face forever caught in terror, though. Begging for their lives… it really did always make it harder than it had to be.
Silence settled down across the area, and I stared down at her still wide eyes. The jacket she’d been so proud of lay in tatters. The frayed strands of silver were covered in gore and burn marks. I slowly stood back to full height, and slid the glowing tomahawk back onto my hip.
“Wicked.” The flaming-haired lady smirked, and shook her head.
With the injured gone, that left seven of us. I wasn’t stupid. I’d already picked up on how the Overseer operated. Haman may not care about anyone, but he did care about wasting resources. If we had more than one five seat vehicle, he likely wouldn’t have given the order to execute one of his own. She might’ve bled out, but if nothing else I knew how to stitch wounds back up.
As things stood, there were five seats. Bartmoss and his goons would inevitably take three, and no way Haman would let himself be abandoned out in the Mire. Unless I was horribly wrong about everything, two more of us needed to be taken care of.
All three of us seemed to realize it at the same time. The flame-haired lady frowned, and her hair swayed with fire. “Boss, I don’t—“
Bang!
Agent Haman quickdrawed his revolver and put a shot between her eyes. The back of her head exploded outward, and the fire abruptly went out for the first and last time. She collapsed into a lump likely without even registering how she died. The sound of her body hitting the ground sounded like a thunderclap in my lowered ears.
”It seems we’re at an impasse, huh?” His voice was entirely calm as he pointed the revolver at me. It seemed his choice was made.
“Are you not going to shoot?” I bitterly asked. I recognized the model of the revolver. My armor wouldn’t matter in the face of its penetrative power. A single shot to the skull, and I’d be dead before I knew it just like the flame lady.
“And waste a bullet?” So I’m not even worth the cost of a single shot? He shook the revolver toward me. “Dogs always make it back home, right, Barghest? Or does that not apply to Silver Wolves, too.”
“I…” My hands clenched at my sides. The implication in his voice—was he planning on leaving me here? That was almost crueler than what happened to Pyra. “Yes, sir.”
”Good girl. Load up, Lena.” Haman kept his revolver pointed squarely at me, though pulled his finger off the trigger.
“…” Lena mutely shook her head, and left to go get into the hummer. She had the gall to look apologetic to me.
What was it I said back then? Even if the entire expedition team wipes, I’ll make it back home? My head dropped, and my tail soothingly rubbed at my leg. How long are you going to wait for me on the couch this time?
I could try to fight, but I could see the way Bartmoss and his people watched the Overseer. They wouldn’t let the man go down. Not out of petty allegiance or anything like that, but purely because he was still useful. I, on the other hand, had finally outlived my usefulness.
“I thought you’d pick him.” Bartmoss nodded to me. The man didn’t have a single emotion on his face. It was like he was totally unrelated to the betrayal unfolding before his eyes.
”Should I change my decision, milord?” Agent Haman glanced back toward the hummer, and genuinely looked like he was considering it.
“It matters not to me.” The man waved his hand. Silver flowed underneath his skin, and he crushed his hand into a fist.
++ Templar Pharmaceuticals Biomonitor - Restrictions Partially Lifted ++
| Subject: Alive
Subject Species: Unknown
Subject Profile: Restricted
NLC - 180/181
=Child-locked Templar Biomonitor - (50)
=KA Myo-series 1.12 - STR 0.5 - (30)
=Templar Nanite Extractor - Fatal - (100)
Access: Restricted
18 Warnings! |
++ Running Templar Pharmaceuticals Extraction Protocol… ++
What the hell was—
I collapsed to my knees as every fiber of my being exploded with agony. The jolt was so abrupt that it put me into shock as my entire world narrowed onto my burning body. The sensation of ants crawling through my muscles and along my bones spread throughout my entire body. Then they started bursting.
“AGH!” The familiar sensation of every single one of my organs failing hit all at once. Silver-tinged blood freely flowed from my ripping skin, and out through the gaps of my armor. The silver coalesced into a ball protruding just above my chest as I screamed.
Heavy footsteps approached, and I brokenly flinched away from them. My tail, invisible to everyone thanks to the enchantments of my armor, was crushed underfoot. It was another trace of misery that was lost alongside everything else.
Bartmoss ruthlessly grabbed the ball, and ripped it away from me. The last of my strength went with it like my very soul had been sucked out. I silently collapsed into a pool of my own blood. Every breath felt like it was through bullet ridden lungs, and my head wasn’t in much better of a state.
In between bleary blinks, Agent Haman looked genuinely uncomfortable. The overseer slid his revolver back into its place at his side. ”What’d you do to her?”
“Her?” Bartmoss asked back, and did a double take. It was the first time I’d seen the man genuinely look confused. I didn’t have the presence of mind to enjoy it. “I simply reclaimed what was mine.”
“Right…”
“It’s okay to sleep, Reyna.” Everything faded into darkness, and exhaustion weighed at me. Sleep… sleep sounded nice. My eyes closed.
“Still with me?” Haman pulled me back from the settling darkness, and pressed a bunch of buttons on the side of my neck. The armor I’d been given retracted back into its band state. The comforting warmth faded alongside it, and I was fully exposed to the frigid rain.
“UuGh…” I groaned weakly toward the man.
“Hush now.” The man tapped another code into the bands, and with a click, they detached for the first time in over a year.
Overseer Haman was almost gentle as he untangled my hair and ears from the black bands. He rubbed at my bleeding ears and patted me on the head, sending even more jolts of pain through me. His hand came back covered in shed fur and gore.
The bands—were they really gone? I coughed out a glob of blood. For the first time in far too long, I felt free. Free to exist in the absolutely miserable state that was my body. I could barely muster the energy to breathe, let alone feel anything but agony.
Haman rolled me onto my side so I could cough out the last of my life easier. Heh… was this the freedom of a Canary? Let out of my cage just long enough to feel my own demise burning like the sun. No, freezing. Freezing like the void. My already rough breathing turned even more ragged.
“You did good, Barghest—ah, should I call you Reyna now that you don’t have these?” He lifted the black bands. Despite everything, the tip of my mangled tail gave a nauseating wag.
”Don’… weave meh.” I weakly stretched out a hand to grab his ankle. He shook his leg lightly, and my arm collapsed to the side. No matter how hard I tried to get the ruined limb to move, it just brokenly twitched.
I blinked, and he teleported to my other side. No—not teleportation. I was fading, and rapidly at that. The man leaned down, and patted my cheek gently. The whole world was dyed with red. “Still with me, Reyna?”
I blinked a few more times, and the bloody tear was washed out of my eyes just enough to see by. “Ugh.”
“Don’t look at me like that. I genuinely did want to keep you.” The man pulled a radiant glowstick from the box, and cracked it. He tossed it down beside me. Even the warm golden glow couldn’t diffuse the misery of my body. “Should buy you a couple hours. Pyre, you look like hell. What’d he do to you?”
“Jussthea.” Just kill me. My body was broken beyond repair. I could feel it. All the promises I made to be back meant nothing. Only the cold, hard truth remained. More blood mixed tears flowed down my cheeks. Would the hall light still be on for me?
“Let’s think about this logically, yeah? Lena has next to zero probability of making it back compared to you. You can at least figure out where you’re going.” He frowned, and looked over me. He genuinely looked saddened by my condition. For a moment, the face of Director Roose overlapped his. “I hadn’t planned on crippling you, but the choice was clear, wasn’t it?”
I coughed up another bloody chunk, and my entire body curled with the effort. Why?! Why even try to rationalize yourself like this?! No matter how much I screamed and raged in my head, only low whimpers and cries could break out of my bloodied throat.
“If you make it back to Silverport, I’ll see about promoting you, yeah? Make you a proper lieutenant like Cerberus should've done ages ago.” He withdrew an inhibitor, and gently curled my blood-soaked hand around it. “Here, don’t ever say I didn’t do anything for you.”
”Youggga.” My bleeding tongue wiggled in my mouth brokenly. You’re abandoning me to die, and you expect me to thank you?
”Director Roose is going to be pissed if you don’t make it back. Well, good luck.” A trace of something flashed in his eyes, and he stood up. The man fixed his jacket and looked down on me. “I really do hope you get out of this. Hades lacks competent field agents.”
I brokenly crawled after him. A whisper, almost silent around bloody coughs, flowed with my own soft voice for the first time since I entered the Mire. He left me behind, and my broken body slowly curled around the inhibitor. “Sorry… sis…”
I coughed, and lost my last surge of strength. The last thing I saw was the hummer driving away to abandon me in the wretched depths of the Mire. Darkness settled at my vision, and slowly encroached toward me. Even the holy light of radiance couldn’t keep it away.
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My nails scraped uselessly in the dirt. No… I refuse. I promised… didn’t I?